I hate banks. They don't give a rat's ass about their customers all they care about is money, money and more money. Our government has given banks the right to steal. If they make a few bad loans, the government gives them money and "bails" them out! Their deposits are federally insured and it is almost impossible for a bank to lose money.
I love it when banks advertise ... "We Have Money To Loan" ... and they do if you have great credit! Try to get a second mortage or HEAVEN FORBID try to get a loan on a piece of rental property or commercial property. IT WON'T HAPPEN! I have a building that was appraised for over $600,000 two years ago. I owe approximately $320,000 on it and I want to refinance. Hell, I might as well be asking to date the bank President's daughter. I have went to five area banks and can't get a loan.
I have a tenant in the building (a well known national business) with a two year lease and a one year option and we have NEVER ... not one time ... NEVER been late on a monthly payment. The banks say, "If your renter would leave you would have a difficult time making payments on the property". What, they think I would let a building with over $300,000 in equity just go away? They don't think I would work my ass off to find another tenant? Plus I have a lease that is good until 2012 with an option for 2013. Banks don't give a shit about anybody and will not take a chance of any kind. Even on people like me who have been in business for over twenty years, have decent credit and equity. This is one of the major reasons we have serious economic problem in America today.
When the banks received "bail out" money, they didn't get it to the middle class where it needed to go. Have you checked out your credit card statements lately? Why should ANYBODY be allowed to charge interest rates of 20% ... 23% ... 26% ... IT's BULLSHIT. Those type of interest rates make it imposible for anybody to get out of debt. Try making the minimum payments on your card - it will take ten years to pay it off and cost you more that twice the original loan amount.
Why do banks have to make that much interest money????? If our government really wanted to help, set interest rate maximums at 10% or even 12%. That's a fair number that people can live with. Why-oh-why should banks make twice that much in interest? They also have the right to change your interest rate and credit limit at any time .... and your choice is to cancle the card or live with their changes.
How about bank fees for a NSF check???? Come on ... if we could afford to pay those $25 and $35 bad check fees, we wouldn't have written those bad checks in the first place! I understand a small fee and if a customer writes more than 3-5 NSF checks in a year, discountinue his/her account.
I am not a bad person, I am not going broke, I am struggling just like every other American. I just want a bank like I used to have ten years ago. They cared about me, my family and my business. Today I am just account number #1234-567-890 and that sucks!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Census crazy costs
About a month ago I received a postcard in the mail telling me the 2010 census was going to be shiped to me within the next 30 days. I thought to myself, "I guess the government wants to make sure I know this important document is coming and I waited for the census to be delivered. Oddly enough, a few days later I received another notice that the census was on its way. Ok, ok ... I understand it's important but two warning postcards???
Then it happened .... I received my census form. It took about five minutes to fill it out (quite simple really) and I mailed it back the very next day. Guess what happened next? Two days later I received another postcard reminding me to fill out the census form that I received a few days earlier.
Mix the cost of all that postage in with the thousands of radio and television commercials that the government purchased - making sure us "stupid people" fill out the census forms and I started wondering just how much the 2010 census is costing America.
Mr. Robert Goldenkoff of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that the 2010 census is estimated to cost over $14-Billion .... far more than any in USA history. I understand that census figures are very important as they help distribute more than $400-Billion in annual Federal Aid but does it really have to cost $14-Billion???? Do we really need all those reminders and all those commercials?
Goldenkoff says it costs about $75 to tally each unresponsive household. He also siad there is extra costs involved counting over 12-million undocumented immigrants. The GAO says the Census Bureau needs to re-examine its approach and he asks, "Does it really make sense to go back to a household six times?"
Here we are in a very difficult economic time and the government is spending $14-Billion to count us. It just doesn't make sense to me. I understand the need for the census but I just cannot justify $14-Billion to do it. What do you think ?????
Then it happened .... I received my census form. It took about five minutes to fill it out (quite simple really) and I mailed it back the very next day. Guess what happened next? Two days later I received another postcard reminding me to fill out the census form that I received a few days earlier.
Mix the cost of all that postage in with the thousands of radio and television commercials that the government purchased - making sure us "stupid people" fill out the census forms and I started wondering just how much the 2010 census is costing America.
Mr. Robert Goldenkoff of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that the 2010 census is estimated to cost over $14-Billion .... far more than any in USA history. I understand that census figures are very important as they help distribute more than $400-Billion in annual Federal Aid but does it really have to cost $14-Billion???? Do we really need all those reminders and all those commercials?
Goldenkoff says it costs about $75 to tally each unresponsive household. He also siad there is extra costs involved counting over 12-million undocumented immigrants. The GAO says the Census Bureau needs to re-examine its approach and he asks, "Does it really make sense to go back to a household six times?"
Here we are in a very difficult economic time and the government is spending $14-Billion to count us. It just doesn't make sense to me. I understand the need for the census but I just cannot justify $14-Billion to do it. What do you think ?????
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Oscars
Yes, I'll admit it ... I watched the Oscars last night from 8:00pm till midnite. I have a few opionions I would like to share with everybody. Here are my ten goodies:
1) I thought Steve Martin & Alec Baldwin did a great job of co-hosting the event. They were funny and quick witted ....
2) I loved the way they had people talk about the best actress and best actor nominees before the Oscar was handed out. They gave insight to each person and made each one interesting. It was new this year and gave the show "personality" ....
3) I thought Ryan Seacrest did a great job on the red carpet before the show started for the E! Network. He was upfront with people and asked all the right questions ....
4) Ok, Ok I get it. People love George Clooney but damn it, he had more face time on camera than the Sprint Blackberry commercial that ran a hundred-million times. I know he's a star but damn .....
5) It was stupid (but cool as hell) that the Academy sat Kathyrn Bigelow and ex-husband James Cameron one row apart from each other. Bigelow won the Oscar for best Director beating out Cameron. Watching his face when her name was announced was priceless. She became the first female in history to win the Best Director category (you go girl) ....
6) Talking about James Cameron, how could "Avatar" not win Best Picture??? It's only the highest grossing, money making, motion picture of all time! It was beat out by Bigelow's "Hurt Locker" ... are you fucking kidding me???? Hurt Locker is a very good, insightful movie but best picture over the biggest money maker ever? Avatar will change the way movies and 3D shooting is done for years to come. I was shocked!
7) I hated Sarah Jessica Parker's dress. It looked like it was made out of banana peels and tin foil ... Zoe Saldava's Givenchy dress was stupidly fluffy at the bottom and crazy purple ... Charlize Theron's dress looked like looked like two cinnabuns on each boob (nice idea but she's too beautiful too need that) ....
8) Hillary Swank's black dress had a V-neck that plunged all the way to her belly button (nice cleavage Hilly baby) ... I loved Sandra Bullock's overall look (she's smoking hot) ... Penelope Cruz's burgundy dress was beautiful .... Cameron Diaz also looked great ....
9) Miley Cyrus needs to stop hunching over and slouching her shoulders ... she looked terrible!
10) It was cool seeing Jeff Bridges show super emotion when he won Best Actor. He was happy, funny and deserving of the award!
There you have it ... my top ten Oscar thoughts - I can't wait to watch most of the nominated films on DVD! You didn't actually think I saw all of them at the movie theatre did you????
1) I thought Steve Martin & Alec Baldwin did a great job of co-hosting the event. They were funny and quick witted ....
2) I loved the way they had people talk about the best actress and best actor nominees before the Oscar was handed out. They gave insight to each person and made each one interesting. It was new this year and gave the show "personality" ....
3) I thought Ryan Seacrest did a great job on the red carpet before the show started for the E! Network. He was upfront with people and asked all the right questions ....
4) Ok, Ok I get it. People love George Clooney but damn it, he had more face time on camera than the Sprint Blackberry commercial that ran a hundred-million times. I know he's a star but damn .....
5) It was stupid (but cool as hell) that the Academy sat Kathyrn Bigelow and ex-husband James Cameron one row apart from each other. Bigelow won the Oscar for best Director beating out Cameron. Watching his face when her name was announced was priceless. She became the first female in history to win the Best Director category (you go girl) ....
6) Talking about James Cameron, how could "Avatar" not win Best Picture??? It's only the highest grossing, money making, motion picture of all time! It was beat out by Bigelow's "Hurt Locker" ... are you fucking kidding me???? Hurt Locker is a very good, insightful movie but best picture over the biggest money maker ever? Avatar will change the way movies and 3D shooting is done for years to come. I was shocked!
7) I hated Sarah Jessica Parker's dress. It looked like it was made out of banana peels and tin foil ... Zoe Saldava's Givenchy dress was stupidly fluffy at the bottom and crazy purple ... Charlize Theron's dress looked like looked like two cinnabuns on each boob (nice idea but she's too beautiful too need that) ....
8) Hillary Swank's black dress had a V-neck that plunged all the way to her belly button (nice cleavage Hilly baby) ... I loved Sandra Bullock's overall look (she's smoking hot) ... Penelope Cruz's burgundy dress was beautiful .... Cameron Diaz also looked great ....
9) Miley Cyrus needs to stop hunching over and slouching her shoulders ... she looked terrible!
10) It was cool seeing Jeff Bridges show super emotion when he won Best Actor. He was happy, funny and deserving of the award!
There you have it ... my top ten Oscar thoughts - I can't wait to watch most of the nominated films on DVD! You didn't actually think I saw all of them at the movie theatre did you????
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Felix Camacho is an idiot!
Stupid people piss me off. Now I'm not saying I'm smarter than the average person, but I try not to be stupid in my day-to-day life. Yesterday I stayed in a Best Western Hotel and the air conditioner didn't work all night long. Now it was only 50 degrees outside, but it was very hot inside my room. When I checked out I walked up to the counter. When the lady asked me how was my stay, I said I had a problem with the air conditioner and my room was hot. I was polite and nice.
A gentleman standing next to her looked up at me and said "It was cold outside, you didn't need the air conditioner last night". I looked at him and replied, "Yeah you're right, I should have slept with my door opened to cool things off". He looked at me and walked into a back office. At that time I also told the clerk that the refridgerator was leaking and the carpet was wet. She didn't blink an eye and I started to get pissed. At that time I realized the man who gave me the smart ass "you don't need the A/C remark" was actually the hotel general manager. I asked the clerk to get him and she said he was busy.
Now, I'm getting hot! I demanded that she get him and only when another person opened the door did I scream loud enough to get his attention. I asked him to explain his "smart ass" remark and asked him how he got to be the GM handling customer problems that way. I also told him about the leaking refrigerator. He looked at me and insisted he did nothing wrong. He then started to walk back into his office, raised his arm and made a fist at me. I exploded and really started screaming then! How dare this little piss-ant of a manager raise his fist at me and talk to me that way.
After all was said and done, and after he insisted he didn't raise his fist, he semi-apologized. He talked down to me and said, "you can always complain about me on our website." You can bet your ass I am in the process of writing to Best Western and reporting this bozo.
I go out of my way to stay at Best Western Hotels as they advertise with my magazine Full Throttle. I have never had a bad experience until this idiot manager. I still love Best Western Hotels and I will stay in one every opportunity I have. If you are reading this blog, please do not get mad at the chain, but if you are ever in Homestead, Florida stay away from Felix Camacho and the Best Western Hotel located at 411 South Krome Avenue. This guy doesn't care about his customers and he doesn't belong in charge.
A gentleman standing next to her looked up at me and said "It was cold outside, you didn't need the air conditioner last night". I looked at him and replied, "Yeah you're right, I should have slept with my door opened to cool things off". He looked at me and walked into a back office. At that time I also told the clerk that the refridgerator was leaking and the carpet was wet. She didn't blink an eye and I started to get pissed. At that time I realized the man who gave me the smart ass "you don't need the A/C remark" was actually the hotel general manager. I asked the clerk to get him and she said he was busy.
Now, I'm getting hot! I demanded that she get him and only when another person opened the door did I scream loud enough to get his attention. I asked him to explain his "smart ass" remark and asked him how he got to be the GM handling customer problems that way. I also told him about the leaking refrigerator. He looked at me and insisted he did nothing wrong. He then started to walk back into his office, raised his arm and made a fist at me. I exploded and really started screaming then! How dare this little piss-ant of a manager raise his fist at me and talk to me that way.
After all was said and done, and after he insisted he didn't raise his fist, he semi-apologized. He talked down to me and said, "you can always complain about me on our website." You can bet your ass I am in the process of writing to Best Western and reporting this bozo.
I go out of my way to stay at Best Western Hotels as they advertise with my magazine Full Throttle. I have never had a bad experience until this idiot manager. I still love Best Western Hotels and I will stay in one every opportunity I have. If you are reading this blog, please do not get mad at the chain, but if you are ever in Homestead, Florida stay away from Felix Camacho and the Best Western Hotel located at 411 South Krome Avenue. This guy doesn't care about his customers and he doesn't belong in charge.
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