This man’s compensation is disgusting, but not uncommon. Think of all of the professional athletes who get paid millions to play games. There are people all over our society that are overpaid. The difference with this guy at WaMu, though, is that his job is to protect the investments of his investors (i.e. those who have a financial relationship with his bank). This man failed. I don’t care if he only had the job for 17 days. He failed.

And he’s getting $20 million for failing? Where can I sign up for that job?!?

Until I get that lucky, check out Jersey City Locksmith for the best locksmith service in the Garden State!

Personally, I’m a fan of Biden, but for the wrong reasons. I like the fact that he speaks his mind and seems like a regular guy in terms of telling people to go F themselves. I also like the fact that he isn’t afraid to say, “Person A is a complete moron. Don’t listen to them because they don’t know what they’re talking about!” That’s candor for you!

But as much as I enjoy watching the political conventions (there will be more insanity when the Republican National Convention takes place), I always hate what comes with these events. For example, as I was flipping from CNN to FOX yesterday I caught a bunch of protesters on FOX News chanting, “Fuck FOX News! Fuck FOX News!” This was their response to a FOX reporter who was asking them what they were protesting about and if they could justify their stance. That type of childish, grade school activity is unnecessary and strongly detracts from any “cause” these people are trying to push. I’d rather that these protesters come on and give their best shot at answering the question (which one older man tried to do to no avail – he made no sense).

Anyway, the big story of the week will be how the Clintons interact with the delegates at the convention. Will Senator Hillary Clinton use her speech to focus on her personal accomplishments and the amazing gains that she’s made for women in national politics? It’s likely, but it’s also well-deserved. Will President Bill Clinton continue his lackluster support for Barack Obama or will he come out of the gate swinging for Obama/Biden? I think we’ll see Hillary continue her support for Obama and for Bill to talk about the message of hope and change. Nothing ground-breaking from either of them, though.

But be on the lookout for people going over the edge during the conventions (and I’ll repeat this warning when the Republicans begin their show). You’ll hear more lies, half-truths, and spin during a political convention than almost any other time of the year (the day before Election Day being the exception). So sit back, relax, and enjoy political theater at its best!

The plane landed at Newark right on time at 12 midnight. From that point, I had to catch a train at 1:00am back to the Long Branch area where I live. My buddy and I grab out baggage from the carousel at about 12:30am I notice that the entire left wheel of my bag is missing PLUS the casing for the wheel is cracked and missing, too. Welcome back to New Jersey!

I dragged my bag over to the Continental Baggage Assistance area and told the woman behind the counter that my wheel was broken and it needed to be replaced or repaired. She said, “I don’t think we cover wheels.” To which I responded, “You’re covering something because I’m exhausted, tired, and I don’t want to get loud because you guys broke my bag.” The woman then waited for the manager to come out and after the manager affirmed that I was correct and Continental would repair the wheel, the woman began filling out my voucher.

Seeing that she was taking her time, I told the woman that we had a plane to catch in 15 minutes and she suggested that this process was going to take more than 15 minutes. Not too big of a problem – another train was supposedly coming at 2am. Of course this woman didn’t realize the complexity (or lack thereof) involved in her job because she was finished in 10 minutes. So my buddy and I go through the airport (me dragging my 50 pound bag) and we get to the place where you have to buy tickets for the train. After dropping $14.25 each for train tickets, we had to wait an unGodly amount of time for the AirTran system to take us from the airport to the RailLink where we could catch the 2:00am train.

At around 1:30am we finally make it to the RailLink station and before we can use our tickets to go through the little turnstyles, the woman asked us which train we were going on. I responded that we were headed for Long Branch to which she said the train already left. I told her that I knew, but we were hoping to catch the 2:00am train. At this point, the woman showed us on the train schedule that the 2:00am train only runs on Fridays and that the next train was coming at 4:45am.

For those of you that know me, you know that something clicked in my head after the woman told me this…

My buddy and I went back to the Continental counter (near 2:00am at this point) and a different woman behind the counter was complaining to no one about how tired she was. Really? She was tired? REALLY? Because I just got off a fucking plane from California where I was wedged in a seat next to some pompous prick who decided that about 15% of my seat belonged to him, found out that my bag was broken (and now it falls on ME to get it fixed), and that I missed my fucking train home because Continental broke my bag. YOU’RE FUCKING TIRED? You know what? Blow me, asshole. I’m fucking tired, not you.

The woman then says to me, “You’re still here complaining?” Being exhausted, I said to her that I now missed my train and Continental needs to find a way to get me home. She said that she didn’t have the authority to do anything about that so she told me to wait for the Manager to get back. Which I did… When the Manager came back I tried to wave him down and he walked by me. He came back a few minutes later and I tried to suggest to him that we need to talk and he didn’t even regard my presence. After about 10 minutes of him being the back room, he came out a third time at which point I said, “Hey! I was told to talk with you!” His response was nonexistent as he walked right by me without even flinching an eye.

Not wanting to act like a lunatic in the airport (those fuckers are lucky that there are extra security regulations now or I would have tackled that son of a bitch and screamed in his fucking face), my buddy and I went outside and caught a cab. After a $120 trip, we arrived at our cars at 3:00am. Fucking fantabulous.

I am in the midst of drafting a really biting e-mail to Continental asking why I should ever fly their airline again. They didn’t do a fucking thing for me and they even cost us an extra $120 to get home. How dare they!? Folks, for what it’s worth I advise you to stay away from Continental. Rude service, poor customer support representatives, and Manager who don’t give a crap about their clients.