Hallomeme revisited: je suis le president de Burundi

Still growing. Still taking suggestions. Adding options, fixing randomizers. Changed the nonsensical "color" pull-down into a "what's your costume?" textbox for greater randomness.... But I had to share this, just for the Izzardness of it all, using the new 30-guest option.... ( Roll the bones.... )

cha-ching

This article came up in passing when talking to beeform today, thought it merited a second look: Plastic not fantastic: US card industry in revolt

Nobody seems happy with the U.S. credit-card industry these days -- not the consumers who use the cards, the retailers and merchants who accept them, or the lawmakers who oversee the industry.

The merchants accuse the industry of illegally fixing the processing fees its charges them and they are not taking it any more. A growing number have filed suit against the industry's two biggest associations, alleging violations of U.S. antitrust law.

Consumers, meanwhile, accuse the industry of larding its contracts with fine-print "gotcha clauses" that trigger rate increases and penalties -- and they're not taking it anymore either. A growing number are complaining to the Better Business Bureau, where credit-card gripes are now the third-largest source of complaints, and to representatives in Congress.

And those lawmakers are beginning to stir. A flurry of bills have been introduced this year in the U.S. Congress to protect consumers from what critics characterise as industry abuses, including one called The Loan Shark Prevention Act.

Another, the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility Disclosure Act of 2005, sounds less threatening to the industry, but its author, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), has called credit cards "nothing less than wallet-sized predatory loans."

...This month, the industry's PR problems deepened when Consumer Reports, a monthly magazine published by Consumers Union -- an independent, nonprofit product testing and information service -- blasted the industry's policies in a story headlined: "Credit Cards: They really are out to get you."

...The credit-card industry is taking note. At a card industry conference in Memphis last month, Duncan MacDonald, the former general counsel at Citibank Cards who is now a consultant, sounded the tocsin, warning the industry heavyweights assembled there that they were headed into a "perfect storm."