Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
For Independent Minded People!
ISSN 2161-5543
In
This Issue:
1. Citizen Ownership Rights
2. Best deals in October, for Halloween
3. Tips for removing credit judgements
4. Free software programs
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. –Edmund Burke
Citizens for Ownership Rights Collecting Petition
Signatures to Protect Rights to Resell
An upcoming Supreme Court case, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley
& Sons, involves an eBay seller who was sued by a textbook publisher for
reselling books. The seller, a graduate student and entrepreneurial seller,
sold the books to help cover tuition expenses. These
were legitimate books that the book
publisher manufactured overseas — they were not
counterfeit, pirated, or stolen. Yet, the publisher is trying
to use U.S. copyright law to stop the book sales and make the seller pay
$600,000 in damages – more than 15 times what he made from selling the books.
It is possible that an extreme application of U.S.
copyright law might enable manufacturers to force retailers and
consumers to first have to obtain permission from the manufacturer before reselling
or even donating goods manufactured overseas. This rule could affect most of
the goods we use every day, from books to cell phones. Manufacturers would
retain ownership of an item no matter how many times it changes owner. This
rule could threaten
the laws of ownership and resale that we all enjoy.
When you purchase an item on eBay, you should be
able to resell it, give it away, or use it as you see fit. Likewise, when you
sell an item on eBay, ownership of the item should transfer to the buyer.
Citizens
for Ownership Rights (CFOR) is a coalition of public interest organizations
asking individuals to stand up for their rights as buyers and sellers. CFOR is
currently gathering signatures for a petition that will be sent directly to the
President and Attorney General urging them to support the rights of Americans
to purchase legitimate goods, resell those goods, give them away, or use them
in any legal manner as they see fit. Visit ownershiprights.org
and sign the petition to protect your ownership rights.
Tips for Removing Credit Judgements
1. The Statute of Limitations. If the SOL for the judgment has expired (and the judgment can't be renewed), this could provide an opportunity for easier negotiations and/or removal (since the judgment holder can't take further legal action.) The length a judgment remains enforceable varies by state and can be tricky, so it is best to check with an attorney in your state to avoid trouble.
2. Disputing issues related to the judgment listing itself, as it appears on the credit report. Sometimes information is missing or wrong, and these are things that you have a right to dispute. If the disputes come back verified you can follow up using the well known "method of verification" (MOV) technique.
3. Negotiation/Settlement - You can attempt to settle with the judgment holder, offering to pay a certain amount in exchange for (at best) removal or (at worst) "paid in full" status. A satisfied judgment will remain on your credit report until you either dispute it or it falls off on its own. It's possible that a judgment that has been paid will not be updated as such on your credit report. Correcting this could take going through the court that rendered the judgment in the first place. At that point you could proceed with disputing based on problems with the credit report listing as described in number two above.
4. Vacating a judgment - If there was a problem with the process in which the judgment was obtained (such as you were not properly served, or the legal process was not otherwise followed completely), then it may be grounds for getting the judgment dismissed in court.
The best way to deal with judgments in the long run is of course to avoid them altogether. Don't ignore debt collectors, especially when the debt is large (and they are more likely to sue you.) Don't ignore your creditors either. If you take steps such as negotiation or debt validation earlier in the game, you may be able to avoid the judgment.
Free Checking No More: Thanks,
Dodd-Frank!
Free checking accounts, once considered common, are becoming increasingly rare as the enormous costs of new regulations hit banks' bottom lines.
According to the just released 2012 Checking Survey by Bankrate, Inc., a publisher of financial information, only 39 percent of banks continue to offer free checking accounts, a sharp decline from the 76 percent of banks that offered free checking in 2009--before enactment of the massive Dodd-Frank financial regulation statute.
Free checking accounts, once considered common, are becoming increasingly rare as the enormous costs of new regulations hit banks' bottom lines.
According to the just released 2012 Checking Survey by Bankrate, Inc., a publisher of financial information, only 39 percent of banks continue to offer free checking accounts, a sharp decline from the 76 percent of banks that offered free checking in 2009--before enactment of the massive Dodd-Frank financial regulation statute.
www.fatwallet.com
Save with Halloween
deals, coupons and FatWallet
cash back. Shop the best Halloween sale for cheap costumes,
free shipping, candy deals and
decorations.
Best and Worst Buys of October
It's a good time to start setting aside cash for
holiday purchases so that you don't go into debt
buying gifts (as I wrote in Save -- or
Earn -- $1,000 by Black Friday). But now is not the time
to start your holiday shopping if you're looking for deals. That's because only
a few items traditionally go on sale in October. Here are the best and worst
things to buy now, according to dealnews.com, which analyzes deals from past
years to predict what will be discounted this year.
http://kiplinger.com/columns/kiptips/archives/best-and-worst-buys-of-october-2012.html
http://kiplinger.com/columns/kiptips/archives/best-and-worst-buys-of-october-2012.html
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A new audit of IRS practices found the group may have
overlooked some taxpayers' legal representatives in collection
investigations.
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Free-Three software programs
including:
Christmas
Greens: I just lost my job, our
staff replaced by technology. I went to the Rescue Squad's Christmas Tree lot
and was told to help myself to the mountain of tree litter, with huge branches
of fragrant pine loaded into my car, I made wreaths and garlands for the deck
and arbors.
The Nanny State Updates…
A Few ‘Firsts’ for Obama…
• First President to Violate the War Powers Act (Unilaterally Executing American Military Operations in Libya Without Informing Congress In the Required Time Period - Source: Huffington Post)
• First President to Sign into Law a Bill That Permits the
Government to “Hold Anyone Suspected of Being Associated With Terrorism
Indefinitely, Without Any Form of Due Process. No Indictment. No Judge or Jury.
No Evidence. No Trial. Just an Indefinite Jail Sentence” (NDAA
Bill - Source:
Business Insider)
In August, two activists groups, The Raw Milk Freedom Riders and Lemonade
Freedom Day, joined forces to protest in D.C. and tell government to
"butt out" of their food choices, according to a Washington Times
report.
The Lemonade Freedom Day's main
contention is the disturbing trend with local authorities shutting down
children's lemonade stands for supposed public health reasons.
And The Raw Milk Freedom Riders'
gripe is the FDA forbidding them to buy and sell fresh unpasteurized milk
across state lines and using militarized agents to close down local dairy farms.
A 2-year bipartisan investigation by the U. S. Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found that DHS efforts to engage
state and local intelligence “fusion centers” has not yielded significant
useful information to support federal counterterrorism intelligence efforts;
the report says that senior DHS officials were aware of the problems hampering
effective counterterrorism work with the fusion centers, but did not always
inform Congress of the issues, nor ensure the problems were fixed in a timely
manner; DHS estimates that it has spent somewhere between $289 million and $1.4
billion in public funds to support state and local fusion centers since 2003
The Parting Thought-
The costly intelligence effort
since 9/11 has largely failed, according to a scathing analysis.
After the report I wrote a week ago about the failure of the
TSA to catch a single terrorist and the $8.1 billion budget DHS has – Despite a
bankrupt national budget, I’m glad to see the mainstream press finally
awakening to the facts…
Intelligence
effort named citizens, not terrorists
WASHINGTON (AP) — A multibillion-dollar information-sharing
program created in the aftermath of 9/11 has improperly collected information
about innocent Americans and produced little valuable intelligence
on terrorism, a Senate report concludes. It portrays an effort that ballooned
far beyond anyone's ability to control.
The lengthy, bipartisan report is a scathing evaluation
of what the Department of Homeland Security has
held up as a crown jewel of its security efforts. The report underscores a
reality of post-9/11 Washington: National security programs tend to grow, never
shrink, even when their money and manpower far surpass the actual subject of
terrorism.
Despite that,
Congress is unlikely to pull the plug. That's because, whether or not it stops
terrorists, the program means politically important money for state and local
governments.
LEAKED!
Here's The White House's Draft Cybersecurity Executive Order
The White House was working on an executive order to
act as a "stand in" for cybersecurity legislation that has so far
failed to pass Congress (CISPA passed in the House, but a different effort, the
Cybersecurity Act, failed in the Senate, and it would have been difficult to
get the two houses aligned anyway). Last weekend Jason Miller from Federal News
Radio wrote about a draft he saw... but failed to share the actual draft. We
got our hands on a draft (and confirmed what it was with multiple sources) and
wanted to share it, as these kinds of things deserve public scrutiny and
discussion. It's embedded below. As expected, it does have elements of the
Lieberman/Collins bill (to the extent that the White House actually can do
things without legislation). It's also incredibly vague. The specific
requirements for government agencies are left wide open to interpretation. For
example, the State Dept. should engage other governments about protecting
infrastructure. Well, duh. As expected, most stuff focuses on Homeland Security
and its responsibilities to investigate a variety of different cybersecurity
issues -- but, again, it's left pretty vague.
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