Rally to Restore Sanity An Orderly Success

Colbert & Stewart kicking off the Rally
courtesy Huffington Post

I watched the "Rally to Restore Sanity" today on Comedy Central. What?  You don't know what it is, you say?  Where have you been?  Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have been touting it since September but even if you don't watch them, the concept made the  national news media sit up and take notice without anyone really knowing the agenda. 

How was it?  I missed the first hour so I'll have to refer to Huff Post for details like approximate number of attendees, etc. but all it sounds as though they were able to accomplish their goals of proving large numbers of people can assemble, whether they agree politically, religiously or in any other way, without inciting a riot or a stomping of heads or any other extreme reaction to those with whom they disagree.  Point of fact, Stewart's main issue is the American people are not as extreme or crazy or reactionary or ridiculous as we are portrayed by main stream media of any political persuasion.

Some of it was draggy for a television viewer, rather like watching a telethon without the money raising. They had excellent entertainment from singers Sheryl Crow, Tony Bennett, John Legend, Yusuf Islam better known to Americans as Cat Stevens, Ozzie Osbourne, Mavis Staples, Kid Rock, the O'Jays.  They did comedy and the correspondents did bits. 

The highlight came at the end when Jon Stewart thanked everyone for coming and explained his goal for the rally.  It was heartfelt and serious and I liked it alot.  Please take a few minutes to watch.  If you want the transposed speech, go here.




Kudos to Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Comedy Central for organizing and broadcasting the event.
Kudos to Arianna Huffington for bussing over 10,000 people from New York to to the rally in D.C. and back again.  That is some serious cooperation.

ABC News Profiles Move Your Money

Last year, my husband and I moved our savings account to a local credit union and our checking  to USAA, a fantastic banking/investment/insurance group in San Antonio for military members. Neither of these institutions charges ATM fees.  In fact, I now use the ATM @ the regional bank we fled, Citizen's Bank, and USAA reimburses the fee for usage. That's $2.75 per use! The credit union has great loan rates and they still call if there's a problem. The bank is now charging $39 for ISF and an annual credit card fee and their interest rate on the ATM (which we've cut up) went to 20%.  My son had an overdraft for a $5 purchase last month and his ongoing, steadily rising ISF fees are now @ $221!  I kid you not. 

Meanwhile, we sold our home of 12 yrs last month, paid off the Countrywide/BofA mortgage which the bank refused to re-negotiate the mortgage. My husband had lost his job but I work and we'd never missed a pymt. We couldn't continue with an interest only mortgage and knew we could handle a standard 30 yr fixed but they wouldn't consider it. We sold it, paid them off and may not buy again for a long time.

Over the past 18 mos, my husband, an experienced businessman with a solid retail background and successful history of owning his own businesses, made & was accepted on two solid ongoing businesses.  But, even with credit ratings in the low 800s, no bank would lend to us without a 30% down.  Now, these are the same banks that received bail out money from the taxpayers.

Enough is enough.  Stand up, move your money into a local institution and repeat that great line from the movie, "Network":

"I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!"

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost