In Defense of American Express

So Ben McConnell over at  Church of the Customer Blog  is complaining about American Express jacking his interest rate ever so often to an offensive 29.9%. Just for grins lets call it 30%.

Personally I'm a HUGE fan of American Express and a loyal customer. Then again - I pay off my credit card every month; I don't think Amex has ever gained any money from me through interest payments, but they certainly get a lot of revenue from the 3% they charge to merchants that I buy from.

One of the biggest reasons I'm a fan of Amex is their easy customer service. Questionable charge on my account? Immediately they will credit it back to my account while they investigate. Best of all however is their Purchase Protection Policy. Lose or damage what you bought within 90 days of the purchase date and american express will give you back your money!* I recently had call to use this after buying (and then immediately losing at the beach) prescription sunglasses. The knowledge that purchase protection policy was there, prevented me from getting too upset/frustrated while on vacation.

So charge away exorbitant interest rates Amex. Ben might not be subsidizing people like myself, but I'm sure others will.

*Up to 10k per year.

Freedom is on the march.....away from the USA

So while we're assiduously investigating illegal tribunal cases in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the military is also "investigating" whether US soldiers raped a woman and killed her entire family in Iraq.


Happy 4th of July, 2006. With news like this I'm sure the insurgency is in its last throes.

Incompetent or Liars?

An Afghan man is held as an unlawful combatant in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for 2 years. When brought before (a now declared illegal) military tribunal, he calls four witnesses from Afghanistan.

The tribunal reports back (months later) that it cannot find them sending the man back to his cell.

The guardian investigates and finds the witnesses in..wait for it....3 days.

So here's the question - do you think the government even looked or was it just incompetent at looking?

Parker or Webb for VA Senate?

Having decided to not for Sen. George Allen, I decided to take a look at the other candidates.

The libertarian party does not seem to be fielding anyone in the Senate race (normally libertarian candidates will get my nod), but Jim Webb's (the democratic candidate) campaign website and commentary seem to skew towards libertarian values.

Unfortunately the website for Gail Parker the independent candidate is a bit sparse and beyond her favoring rail in VA (something I approve of) and better pentagon accounting (ditto), there is no mention of the "big" issues that I think Senate candidates should address -- the Iraq War being the most notable.

Unless her platform is fleshed out further, Jim Webb has my vote.

Tracking Reason #1 to vote against George Allen in the next VA election

 Sen. George Allen (R, VA) voted for amending the U.S.  constitution to prohibit the "desecration of the U.S. flag".

Enforcing patriotic fervor, Clockwork Orange style, not only harms the constitution but is generally an asshat attitude towards running a free country. Its the "Terry Schiavo" approach to government which Republicans used to disdain.

Virginia can do better. Heck the country can do better. Every senator who voted for this amendment ought to be subject to serious scrutiny the next time they come up for election.

Got a warrant? No need to knock

The new Robert's supreme court has tossed out the requirement that police must knock before serving a warrant.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even if they don't knock, a huge government victory that was decided by President Bush's new justices

Whats the big deal? Well aside from scaring people to death, its a significant assault on people's privacy. This Slate article illustrates the problem quite vividly.

These raids are often launched on tips from notoriously unreliable confidential informants. Rubber-stamp judges, dicey informants, and aggressive policing have thus given rise to the countless examples of "wrong door" raids we read about in the news. In fact, there's a disturbingly long list of completely innocent people who've been killed in "wrong door" raids, including New York City worker Alberta Spruill, Boston minister Accelyne Williams, and a Mexican immigrant in Denver named Ismael Mena.

Oh well..if you are not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide right?

Immigrants as Seccessionists

David Flores is making the argument that the USA has betrayed the principles of the nations founders by allowing the government wide leeway in its treatment of non-citizens. Said leeway including indefinite detention based on religion, race, national origin, and probably even a musical affinity for Tatu.

... [Judge Gleeson] continued,
the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that Congress and the executive
branch, in exercising their broad power over naturalization and
immigration, can make rules that would be unacceptable if applied to
American citizens.In the judge's view, the government has the right to
detain people indefinitely as long as their eventual removal is
"reasonably foreseeable."

I suspect that the Judge is right on the interpretation of the law. Which just goes to show that the law is flawed. The whole ruling falls apart on the "reasonably forseeable" clause since its not exactly compatible with indefinite detention -- unless one "reasonably forsees" that the prisoner will eventually die.

Still appealing to the authority of the founders is a weak argument in my mind. These are the same people who came up with the 3/5 human human ideology. Better to lay the moral framework for opposing this philosophy separate from the supposed hallowed inspiration of the founding fathers.

Its worth keeping in mind that had the revolution failed, they would have been labelled acccurately as traitors and executed.

Dutch Muslims support 1st Amendment far more than US citizens

So one of my favorite "right-wing" sites LGF is running a story about how "40% of Young Dutch Muslims Reject Democracy" with the key hook being the results of a study that says

 "The majority are opposed to freedom of speech for offensive statements, particularly criticism of Islam."

Sounds pretty bad eh? Then again I remembered this study from back in 2002 where 49% of American citizens thought the First Amendment went too far.

"Many Americans view these fundamental freedoms as possible obstacles in the war on terrorism."

Shh..don't tell LGF.