blackbeard's journal

from the Mother Jones blog:

In 2000, Illinois resident Marvin Weatherspoon (right) got a Bank of America credit card that he used to consolidate $12,000 in home repair bills, thinking the 4.5 percent introductory interest rate would help him get out of debt faster. Instead, though, eight years later, he has paid the bank more than $15,000, yet has reduced his principal balance by only $800. The reason? Even though he's paid his bills on time, Bank of America inexplicably raised his interest rate, first to 19.99 percent and then to 25 percent, where it is today.

from the Washington Post:

A few months earlier in the same airport, a tech engineer returning from a business trip to London objected when a federal agent asked him to type his password into his laptop computer. "This laptop doesn't belong to me," he remembers protesting. "It belongs to my company." Eventually, he agreed to log on and stood by as the officer copied the Web sites he had visited, said the engineer, a U.S. citizen who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of calling attention to himself.

from the NYT editorial:

By virtually every indicator, 2007 was a dismal year for American workers. Job growth slowed, unemployment jumped and wages lost what little ground they had gained against inflation since 2003. There is one sliver of good news: the percentage of American workers who belong to a union rose for the first time in three decades.

Scenes from a Cop Riot Don't Come to Ann Arbor

By Catherine Wilkerson, M.D.

If the specter of another US foray into regime change disturbs you, google the word "Tanter." If the prospect of another country's being bombarded with US weapons outrages you, and if inserting the adjective "nuclear" into the narrative sends a chill up your spine, go to the "Guardian" website and search "Tanter."

the New Scientist Last Word blog has an interesting question this week:

Purely in the interests of research, what could be done by an individual to lessen the effect of being tased?

In a move that smacks of political intimidation, the Rocky Mountain News, a right wing daily newspaper in Denver, Colorado, printed the addresses of activists who are accused of blocking the Columbus Day Parade.

I found this chilling story of political intimidation via boingboing

Proving once again that they truly don't care about democracy in Iraq, the US resumed using blackwater as mercenaries today. read the Associated Press story.

THEY WILL NEVER HAVE CUBA
By Fidel Casto, June 19th. Published on ZNet

This student was threatened by a police officer for asking for the officer's badge number.
Here's his account of the story

also here's the UCLA newspaper's editorial