You Just Cannot Get Good Orcs and Trolls Nowadays

The NYTimes' Stanley Fish nominates AT&T for worst company in the world based on his annoying experience at having to reset his own telecom mechanism. Apparently, AT&T failed to keep all of his preferences on file or they just refused to use them to reestablish his home phone connection. To add insult to injury, a few days later he found that the changes he re-requested didn't take on the Mordor side, and he ended up getting shunted to a totally irrelevant department.

Ah, this brings back memories. It would be one thing if AT&T merely eavesdropped on people's phone calls, but they cannot even provide efficient customer service as an excuse to excuse their violations of privacy.

NBC Repeats Dubious Suggestion that Sludged Kingston Neighborhoods Should Boil Water for Home Use

Again, if water is contaminated with mercury, lead, and arsenic, then simply boiling it will do nothing to protect consumer safety, and NBC is responsible for spreading instead of questioning flawed information:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The TVA official expressed relief that no one was injured as a result of the disaster. Immediate injuries may not have been sustained, but long-term health problems like viral infections and cancer resulted from exposure to coal fly ash toxins should not be ruled out by TVA.

Tin Men

The area scrap metal tycoons blame the state law designed to prevent thieves from ripping out your HVAC unit and stripping the copper from it for the downturn in their sales. So, I guess we'll be seeing concerted efforts by the "Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc." to lobby against consumer protection in the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

George W. Bush Seizing His Last Chance to Make Us More Vulnerable Again before He Leaves

The Bush Administration has 90 deregulation measures ready to be in place by November 22, which would render them practically impossible for the next administration to overturn:

The new Bush rules would allow employers to bar employees from claiming leave and being paid when they're sick or a family member is sick. They would make unsightly and polluting mountaintop removal in Appalachia easier and more convenient to meet unregulated demands for coal in foreign markets. They would loosen the anti-terrorism regulations on shipping making us more vulnerable to a future terrorist conspiracy.

Bush has planned a total fire sale of what little regulatory shielding we have left. He'll see to it that everything must go before he does.

Forced Philanthropy: It's Electric!

NES's 2009 plans to compel donations from customer payments AND to choose the charities to which they will send those mandatory donations hits the Consumerist blog.

Here's One for the New Metro Council Sign Task Force to Chew On

One huge reason that Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors recently appointed a sign task force was because of the controversy stirred up by Charlie Tygard's attempt to allow various non-profits in neighborhood areas to have distracting business-type LED signs.

One of the things the task force should look into--beyond the visually disruptive and potentially collision-causing hazards of large LED billboards anywhere in Nashville--is the possible carcinogenic effects of the main element of light-emitting diodes, gallium arsenide.

Angry Bank Runs Have Begun as Federal Regulators Take Over

With this week's seizing of a California bank, it looks like the banking situation is becoming critical as people wait in line overnight for their money. There are also other banks around the country teetering toward take over by FDIC.

But in this footage of a bank run in California, the most absurd part is the news that President Bush, whose approval numbers lend his opinion little credence, is trying to reassure depositors.  The response of one depositor, who had been waiting in line 16 hours to withdraw his funds, to the question of what he thought of the President's advice is priceless.  He didn't seem too reassured.

FDIC is preparing for the worst by trying to lure retired employees back to deal with the growing crisis.

The "Democratic" Congress Joined the President to Sell Us Down the River

Democrats abdicate and compromise Americans' right to redress grievances and violations through the court system to George W. Bush and Big Telecom. As always, AT&T wins, and I have to assume that our own Blue Dog Congressman Jim Cooper (a "Joe Lieberman" by any other name?) has been promoting this "compromise" for his big-ticket constituents in the Batman Building:

The proposal allows a district judge to examine what are believed to be dozens of written directives given by the Bush administration to the phone companies after the Sept. 11 attacks authorizing them to engage in wiretapping without warrants. If the court finds that such directives were in fact provided to the companies that are being sued, any lawsuits “shall be promptly dismissed,” the proposal says.

Even Democratic officials, who had initially opposed giving legal immunity to the phone companies, conceded there was a high likelihood that the lawsuits would have to be dismissed under the standards set out in the proposal. That possibility infuriated civil liberties groups, which said the cursory review by a district judge would amount to the de facto death of the lawsuits.

Unencumbered Oil Profits: Nothing to See Here, Just Move Along

Oil companies are engaged in an orgy of money in which they claim to need their profits (from now $5 a gallon gas) for more exploration, yet their biggest expense increases went to buying back their own stocks. It's the height of circular self-investment. And the Republicans in Washington today not only terminated any chance of making them pay their fair share for everything from the Iraq War to the streets and roads that bolster their profits; they also killed Democratic initiatives that would have given Big Oil tax breaks to use their oil crisis windfall for alternative energy programs.

And yet, some would still bar anyone but the oil companies themselves from questioning the fairness of the obscene profits that they make without any proportional tax burden. And they would still raise red herrings in the naive faith that Big Oil needs no checks and balances to their supersized power and subsidized bank accounts.

Beth Harwell, Ever the Consumer Advocate

With her toy company's recall history and toxic toy connections to China, State Representative Beth Harwell has decided that she has no interest in protecting Tennessee families from dangerous toys:

Harwell, who cleverly filed her own toy disclosure bill to try to fend off [a defeated opponent's bill directed at her company] now says she won’t try to pass her legislation. Turns out, she says, it’s unnecessary.

“It’s very difficult for the state to regulate international commerce, as you might imagine,” she says with a straight face. “We also run into the problem of usurping federal authority. We can’t do it.”

Rest assured, Tennessee parents, that Rep. Harwell will keep those toxic Chinese toys flowing into the state; that increases the bottom line of her family toy business, even if it may put your kids at higher risk.

65%: Reason Sufficient in Itself to Require Green Skylines

From yesterday's Chicago Tribune:

Structures that are at least four stories high gobble 65 percent of the nation's electricity .... Instead of relying on piecemeal approaches such as installing a rooftop garden or solar panels here or there, California and many other states now require that all new government buildings be certified as "green," or eco-friendly. Officials also are stepping up efforts to set an example for the private sector. California is considering granting preferences to private owners of more eco-friendly buildings when renewing leases for government offices.

Mandating that organizations that accept federal funds desegregate and guarantee gender nondiscrimination has created more equitable organizations. Following suit with green building regulation is better than waiting on the "free" market to reform its generally low environmental standards.

The Lack of Consumer Protection Sunk Them

Substandard rivets and financial ambition are said to be the causes of the sinking of the unsinkable.