The Al Gore - Keith Olbermann soap opera continues

More on the Keith Olbermann Al Gore connection from the Hollywood Reporter:

Less than 24 hours after Keith Olbermann (above left) anchored his last edition of Countdown on Jan. 21, Al Gore (above right) placed a call to his friend inviting him to join Current TV.

A contract was quickly hammered out. But it was Gore who convinced Olbermann to join the network, say sources. The former vice president and co-founder of Current was a fan of Countdown where he had also been a guest in the past.

Current averaged 18,000 homes in primetime for fourth quarter 2010, lower than any other network measured by Nielsen.

From one commenter:

18,000?

That would be 11,000 people that fell asleep and rolled over on the remote control, 6,000 small children that were looking for Sponge Bob and just dropped the remote, 560 people in homes where they just turned on the TV and accidentally got this channel, 424 people with a really bad home work assignment, 15 people that work for Al Gore, and then there is Al himself.

Link

Labor Unions may be losing strength in economic hard times

A report at the link below asks:

Is big labor losing muscle amid economic hard times?

Labor unions staged just 11 major work stoppages throughout the country in 2010, the second mildest spate of such strikes or lockouts in more than 60 years amid one of the toughest job markets in American history.

At a time when large amounts of unemployed Americans are searching for jobs, is not good time for organized labor to demand better compensation or working conditions.

Link

Need to cancel your AOL account? Good luck!

We used AOL for a short time in the middle 1990's. Didn't like the inflexibility and the very long wait to get online as shown in the editorial cartoon below.

The AOL "walled garden" concept didn't allow for third-party apps. If you hated AOL e-mail, and many people did, you were out of luck.

When AOL said "you've got mail" - they meant AOL mail because nothing else would work.

Underemployed hits 19.2%

Gallup Daily: U.S. employment shows:

Unemployed - 9.9%

Underemploued - 19.2%

Gallup's U.S. employment measures report the percentage of U.S. adults in the workforce, ages 18 and older, who are underemployed and unemployed, without seasonal adjustment.

"Underemployed" respondents are employed part time, but want to work full time, or they are unemployed.

"Unemployed" respondents are those within the underemployed group who are not employed, even for one hour a week, but are available and looking for work.

Link

Bernie Madoff's secret revealed…

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Credit card rates at record highs

According to a CNN Money report credit card interest rates are now hovering near record highs, at an average rate of 14.72%. And if your credit is bad enough, you could even end up with a rate as high as 59.9% APR.

That's because while the CARD Act helped crack down on certain fees and requires more disclosures, it didn't cap every credit card holder's worst enemy: interest rates.

Sure, the new rules prevent banks from raising most interest rates retroactively, but there's no limit on the rates they can charge new customers.

Rates are going up because card issuers know that once you get a card they can't raise the rates, so they're raising rates at the start to ensure they get the revenue from that interest.

First Premier Bank offers a Gold MasterCard with a whopping 59.9% rate for those people with "less than perfect credit", according to its website. And that rate is actually down from the 79.9% rate it originally charged!

Some of the interest rates above are unconscionable. Breathtaking, actually.

Besides a couple of debit cards, we have two credit cards -- one Visa and one MasterCard. However we pay almost no interest on either of them.

There was a time several years ago when we had credit card balances but that was when interest was much lower. Now our Visa and MasterCard get paid off every month just as soon as the statement arrives.

Link

Trump: Mideast Explosion Could Destroy OPEC, Lower Oil Prices

At the link below is a video interview with billionaire real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump (pictured) who lashes out at China, OPEC, Obama’s Middle East dealings, the president’s State of the Union address and more.

Trump claims that a complete Mideast explosion could destroy OPEC and lower oil prices.

Love him or hate him otherwise - Trump really does make a lot of sense in his interview.

Link

Estes Park Colorado motel lands on 'dirty' list

Germophobes and clean freaks may want to check out the latest list from TripAdvisor.com before booking their next vacation.

This is the sixth year the company has complied the list. TripAdvisor.com says New York City's repeat offender, the Hotel Carter, has made the dirty hotel list for five of the last six years.

TripAdvisor.com's 2011 Top 10 Dirtiest Hotels in the US:

1. Grand Resort Hotel & Convention Center - Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

2. Jack London Inn - Oakland, California

3. Desert Inn Resort - Daytona Beach, Florida

4. Hotel Carter - New York City, New York

5. Polynesian Beach & Golf Resort - Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

6. Atlantic Beach Hotel - Miami Beach, Florida

7. Rodeway Inn - Williamsville, New York

8. Super 8 - Estes Park, Colorado

9. Palm Grove Hotel and Suites - Virginia Beach, Virginia

10. Econo Lodge Newark International Airport - Elizabeth, New Jersey

Link

Report Unions see sharp membership declines again

From an Associated Press report last Friday:

The nation's labor unions saw another steep decline in membership last year, even as the economy showed signs of recovery and job losses slowed.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that unions lost 612,000 members in 2010, dropping the unionized share of the work force to 11.9 percent from 12.3 percent in 2009.

That follows a loss of 771,000 workers in 2008, continuing a steady decline from the 1950s when more than a third of workers belonged to unions.

Union membership in the private sector fell from 7.2 percent to 6.9 percent, a low point not seen since the infancy of the labor movement in the 1930s.

Link

More on the abrupt Keith Olbermann firing

The firing of liberal firebrand Keith Olbermann (pictured) came so quickly after the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast that it sure seems as though Comcast insisted on the Olbermann ouster.

Why else would MSNBC fire the host of their most popular show? The chart below shows that Olbermann had the most viewers of any cable news program that wasn't on Fox - the King of Cable News.

By the way, the cheering you hear in the background is probably Olbermann's associates at MSNBC applauding his departure. Olbermann has been known as a difficult man to get along with and may not be missed by those at the MSNBC offices.



Cable News viewers on Thursday January 20, 2011 showing Keith Olbermann as the MSNBC leader just below the FOX News programs.

FOX News - Bill O’Reilly - 2,918,000
FOX News - Sean Hannity - 2,079,000
FOX News - Bret Baier - 1,940,000
FOX News - Shepard Smith - 1,786,000
FOX News - Glenn Beck - 1,780,000
FOX News - Greta Van Susteren - 1,460,000
MSNBC - Keith Olbermann - 1,106,000
CNN - Piers Morgan - 1,025,000
MSNBC - Rachel Maddow - 976,000
MSNBC - Lawrence O'Donnell - 855,000
MSNBC - Ed Shultz - 760,000
CNN - Anderson Cooper - 740,000
MSNBC - Chris Matthews - 700,000

Link here and here.

Facing $1.6 Billion shortfall San Francisco pays out 170 Million in bonuses

As San Francisco struggles under ballooning pension and health care costs, the city’s retirees will receive unexpected cost-of-living bonuses totaling $170 million!

A political battle has raged over the city’s growing retirement obligations. In November, Proposition B, which would have required city workers to contribute more toward their pensions and benefits, was soundly defeated. The measure’s opponents — every major elected official and energetic public-employee unions — said fears about the pension fund were overblown.

Meanwhile, the fund’s fundamentals deteriorated as it gradually accounted for its huge losses in the stock market crash.

It took in $414 million in contributions in 2010 but paid out $819 million!

The leftist city on the left coast may be in dire need of Economics 101.

Link

Google CEO Schmidt steps down search giant shake-up

Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page is taking over as CEO in an unexpected shake-up.

Page, 37, is reclaiming the top job from Eric Schmidt (pictured), who had been brought in as CEO a decade ago because Google’s investors believed the company needed a more mature leader.

Schmidt, 55, will remain an adviser to Page and Google’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, as Google’s executive chairman.

Link

Elderly NJ woman charged 5800 after missing final mortgage payment

This appears to be an egregious attempt to fleece an elderly woman.

A New Jersey woman was billed $5,800 after missing the final payment on her 30-year mortgage.

Lawyers for 85-year-old Dorothy Rhue Allen say the fees charged by two banks and a law firm violate consumer-protection laws.

The suit says LaSalle Bank and Cenlar Federal Savings Bank started foreclosure proceedings in 2007 after the hospitalized Allen missed the last $432 payment on her Deptford, N.J., home.

The banks advised her lawyers she could pay $5,800 to avoid foreclosure. But her lawyers instead sued over the fees, and the foreclosure action was dropped.

Link

NY union workers selfishly slowed down snow removal

From a New York Post report:

Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles.

Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.



Center photo shows a snowplow operator taking a 'plower nap.'

"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.

Link

No income tax States lure New Yorkers

A New York Post report is titled, Taxes trigger a texodus in New York:

The Lone Star State is scooping up more than just our congressional seats -- some $846 million in personal income shifted from New York to Texas in an eight-year period during the last decade, according to an analysis of IRS tax returns.

Texas, which has no state or local income taxes and an enviably low cost of living, has been steadily poaching New Yorkers since the '90s, according to data from the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research organization based in Washington.
From 2000 to 2008, more than $846 million in personal income moved from New York to Texas -- with more than $212 million leaving in 2006 and '07.

New Jersey and California are also states that have been rapidly raising taxes on their productive citizens in order to spread the wealth to those who choose not to work.

Right-to-work states with no income taxes are becoming more attractive all the time for both businesses and wage earners.

Link

Home for Christmas as millions cram roads

Over the river and through the woods

to grandmother's house we go...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Millions are traveling by car this Holiday Season despite the Grinch at the gas pump.

It's estimated 93 percent of 2010's holiday travelers are driving. That's nearly 86 million people on the road.

Nationwide the average price for regular is $3.01 a gallon, a $0.43 jump from 2009 and the first time gas has ever topped $3.00 at Christmas.

Everything is more costly for travelers this year including airline ticket and hotel rooms.

Median spending for holiday travel is up 3.5 percent to $694.

Link

Facebook creator is Time Magazine Person of the Year

Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old creator of Facebook, is Time Magazine Person of the Year for 2010.

In 2007 Mark Zuckerberg became the world's youngest billionaire at age 23. Facebook, the social networking site created by Zuckerberg, has more than 500 million users.

The photos show the Facebook Headquarters in Silicon Valley.

Interesting "umbrella" cubicle.

How many offices have a giant fish sitting on top of a rubber chicken?

Love the huge minifig. Would a five foot Lego minifig be called a maxifig?

Bad customer service puts you on Hold at eBay

Time Magazine has a report titled, On Hold at eBay: What happened to Customer Service.

Computer giant Dell suffered heavy criticism when it outsourced much of its customer support phone service overseas a number of years ago.

But what happens when companies go a step further — when customer phone service is not just offshore, but off the horizon? In other words, a customer rep will be with you ... um ... maybe never.

eBay recently disconnected some of its toll-free customer service lines.

Reminds us of the TV commercials where a Russian man in a tiny cluttered shack answers the phone saying, "hello, my name Peggy" as shown in the photo aat right.

Even though eBay says the service is getting better, callers often hear a recorded message informing them, "The number you have reached is no longer available," and directs customers to visit its website for help.

Some callers to eBay don't even get the "hello, my name Peggy" response.

Did PacBell repossess half their phone lines?

Link

Christmas shopping in Seattle

They may not be 'sleepless in Seattle' as in the movie but they certainly are intent on Christmas shopping in this north westernmost major American city.

Shoppers beware: more stores are charging restocking fees on returns

A report at the link below has a warning for Christmas gift shoppers: more stores are charging restocking fees on returns.

No one wants to be slapped with a restocking fee, but they're becoming more common.

Retailers incur quite a cost for opened electronics returns, so they pass those costs on to the consumer.

Restocking fees at Best Buy range from 10% to 15% of the cost of certain products: Camera, camcorders, laptops, phones.

It adds up. For example, if you bought a computer for $1,000, opened it, and returned it, you or the person you bought it for will pay a restocking fee of $100 to $150.

"The biggest reason is that it needs to be checked out," explains Best Buy manager Paul Fermin. "It has to be first checked out by a certified technician, either at the Geek Squad or at the manufacturer, sent back to us, certify that, yes, this is a sellable product and it's in good working condition. We have to then resell it as an open box item."

Best Buy is not alone. Many retailers charge restocking fees on opened electronics for different reasons. Target, Amazon, Sears, and Dell all may charge 15% to restock.

Apple charges 10% to restock. H.H. Gregg charges 20% or more to restock if you don't have your receipt or all the packing materials, or if it's later than 14 days since you bought it.

Retailers who don't charge a restocking fee, at least for now, are: Costco, Lowes, Radio Shack, Wal-Mart and Staples.

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