mistake

This story has to be one of the most disturbing things I have read in a long time:

Ikenna, a 28-year old construction worker, went to deposit a $8,463.21 Chase cashier's check at his local Chase branch, only for the teller to decide that neither he nor his check looked right and he got tossed in jail for forgery, KING5 reports. The next day, a Friday the bank realized its mistake and left a message with the detective. But it was her day off, so he spent the entire weekend in jail.

By the time he got out, he had been fired from his job for not showing up to work. His car had been towed as well. It ended up getting sold off at auction because he couldn't afford to get it out of the pound. He had been relying on that cashier's check for his money but it was taken as evidence and by the time he got it back it was auctioned off.

All this while the cashier's check had been issued by the very bank he was trying to cash it at.

Only after this story went public and an attorney wrote a scathing letter to Chase, did they decide it was time to apologize. This is another example of the corporations ruling the over citizens and it goes against everything that America was founded on. Hopefully this victim can file a lawsuit against Chase and recover some of what he loss.

Last night Keith Olbermann issued the following statement:

A STATEMENT TO THE VIEWERS OF COUNTDOWN

by Keith Olbermann

I want to sincerely thank you for the honor of your extraordinary and ground-rattling support. Your efforts have been integral to the remedying of these recent events, and the results should remind us of the power of individuals spontaneously acting together to correct injustices great or small. I would also like to acknowledge with respect the many commentators and reporters, including those with whom my politics do not overlap, for their support.

I also wish to apologize to you viewers for having precipitated such anxiety and unnecessary drama. You should know that I mistakenly violated an inconsistently applied rule – which I previously knew nothing about – that pertains to the process by which such political contributions are approved by NBC. Certainly this mistake merited a form of public acknowledgment and/or internal warning, and an on-air discussion about the merits of limitations on such campaign contributions by all employees of news organizations. Instead, after my representative was assured that no suspension was contemplated, I was suspended without a hearing, and learned of that suspension through the media.

Make no mistake about it. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the GOP slowly implode since the 2008 elections. Sure they have had what appears to be little upticks, but overall they have been suffering a very slow and painful death. But there is a danger in all that and we are now seeing it.

Today Eric Cantor took to the television cameras to proclaim that the violence aimed at Democrats is the same thing he has been undergoing the past few days. In this instance he highlighted that someone shot out the windows of one of his campaign offices. As more details come out from the local police, we quickly learn that Cantor wasn’t telling the actual story. If this was deliberate or not is something to be debated at a later date, but what we do know is that the bullet that broke through Cantor’s window was a stray, randomly fired in the air and with just enough force to penetrate the window, but not the blinds behind the window.

Then you have John Boehner out there trying to weasel his way out of his “dead man” comment about Rep. Steve Driehaus (and to add a little more interest to that, I literally live on the boundary between Boehner’s district and Driehaus’).

This is the problem with today’s GOP – they have no leadership. Everyone is vying to be the defacto leader of the Republican Party, so they all go out and make their own absurd statements. Imagine if the GOP had a true leader that exhibited common sense. This would be a person that would say “let’s stand beside the Democratic leadership and jointly denounce this activity”. That would have a real impact, but instead we have various high level Republicans making statements that is only worsening the situation.

This tweet from Luke Russert seems to indicate so:

GOP aides telling me it was a mistake to allow cameras into Obama's QA with GOP members. Allowed BO to refute GOP for 1.5 hours on TV

It might have been a mistake politically for the GOP, but it was a big win for America. It’s time to stop hiding behind factually wrong talking points and start hearing some truth come out. The GOP got owned today and they know it.

Adding…Maybe the GOP thought Obama would fail without a teleprompter. They believe their own bullshit so much that I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s exactly what happened.

It looks like Nicolas Sarkozy’s party has taken lessons from John McCain:

U.S. indie band MGMT has threatened to sue French President Nicolas Sarkozy's party for repeatedly using one if its hit songs without permission, unless the band is fully compensated for its use.

The Union pour un Mouvement Populaire party paid a standard €53 fee ($75.54 Cdn.) to France's music licensing body, but MGMT's lawyer Isabelle Wekstein says that this was not enough to cover subsequent uses of the song, particularly on the Web.

The party has admitted to using the popular track, Kids, at its national congress in January, in two online videos and in political advertisements. But it claims this was an unintentional mistake and offered the band a symbolic €1 ($1.43 Cdn.) for copyright infringement.

Wekstein has rejected the offer, calling it insulting.

"This offer is disrespectful of the rights of artists and authors. It is insulting," she told Agence France-Presse. "We are dealing with acts of counterfeiting, an infringement of intellectual property."

Ironically, the UMP has been pushing for tougher laws against those who infringe musicians' copyright.

That sounds so much like here it is scary, right down to the point of which party is pushing for tougher laws.

FACT - John McCain has revitalized much of the Bush administration in his campaign.

FACT - McCain is the same as Bush.

FACT - Palin is not the same as Cheney. At least Cheney has some knowledge of Washington. Palin has none and a lack of knowledge coupled with her ideology is a recipe for disaster.

FACT - John McCain is a 72 year old cancer survivor trying for the most stressful job in the world. His ability to carry out the office of the President is a serious question. It doesn't take death for him to loose his office. Something as common as a stroke could push Palin into the top job. Do we want a dumb-down version of Dick Cheney running this country?

Make no mistake - McCain/Palin will be the same, if not worse than the Bush administration.

I haven't watched CNN in months. Tonight I turned it on for shits and giggles. 45 minutes of nothing but talking about Obama/Wright. Then they finally talk about McCain making his "Iran/al Qaeda" statement and Bay Buchanan said "it's a simple mistake anyone would make". Sure it is - if they only made it once, but when they make the same mistake 4 times then it is either senility or a deliberate attempt to enrage the Middle East even more.

Bay Buchanan is an enormous moron and John King, who is hosting, is a fool that has already proven his wild man crush for John McCain.

Watch this video, but before that click the CC icon up at the top. That will enable the closed captioning. Watch as you see this appear:

While Anderson says that Hillary Clinton called Obama to congratulate him, someone running the closed captioning thought it would be cute to put al Qaeda there. There is no way this was a simple mistake. It also isn't something from Red Lasso. Here on Democratic Underground you can see pictures someone took from their actual television showing it.

So will CNN take action against this employee? MSNBC recently had a similar problem occur and they did the proper thing.

Perhaps we should all call CNN and tell them what we think. Here is the contact info:
 One CNN Center, Box 105366, Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1906
E-mail: cnn.feedback@cnn.com