The Federal Reserve stopped banks from charging you $40 or $50 in overdraft fees when you get a twenty from the ATM, not knowing there's only $19 in your account…

The Federal Reserve will begin banning banks from charging many overdraft fees unless customers sign up for the service, an unprecedented move that comes as a wave of consumer reform sweeps Washington.

The new regulations, announced Thursday, cover overdrafts from ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases, which account for roughly half of overdrawn transactions, and help to address widespread complaints that consumers who were unaware they had insufficient funds were being charged exorbitant fees for purchasing a cup of coffee, for example.

Q: If you love Ben Bernanke so much, why don't you marry him?

A: Because his wife Anna would never allow such a thing, sorry.

One thing I do know for sure is that Michael Steele has a blog on the new GOP.com. Why yes, this blog is called "What Up"! So, Chairman Steele, what up?

Today, I want to begin to better connect with Republicans everywhere. My first blog entry, therefore, is really a couple of questions for you; use the comment button to send me replies. We will run as many questions as we can, which I will answer.

Why are you are Republican? Think about that for a minute.

Yes, everyone, please do think about that. But only for a minute, because blogs are ravenous monsters that must be fed all day long, day after day, week after week, and the comment button waits for no man. Welcome to the trenches, Chairman! (Friendly tip, re: pajamas — flannel is much softer than a cotton-poly blend.)

UPDATE: In the time it took me to type this, the GOP.com web-squirrels fixed their "Future Leaders" page and added the menu item — way to be on the ball, people! However, on the critical issue of cute puppies, the Republican Party remains silent. Maybe mention this in Michael Steele's comments section?

I think that Obama is the puppy. Or maybe the proposed bill is the puppy. Or is the puppy maybe the average American without health care?

All I know is that this was not just some sad excuse to throw a cute video of a puppy who can't roll over up on the site. Do you think I'm that clueless? I mean, What am I to you, just some bunch of adorable ducklings who can't figure out how to climb out of a pool? Jeeze.

(via Neatorama)

This is sad and all, but that doesn't change the fact that Liberty was not my DoD Mascot.

I voted for Private First Class Jeffrey Bison, and I still think he was robbed.

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle… repeatedly said they wanted it to be a rescued dog such as one from a shelter… Enter Bo, a 6-month-old puppy given up by his first owner and matched with the Obamas through his breeders.

Because he was given up by his first owner as a poor fit and is now with his second owners, the Obamas, but never spent time in a shelter or with a rescue group, Bo is a "quasi-rescue dog," says Wayne Pacelle, chief executive of The Humane Society of the United States…

Conspiracy buffs might speculate that Bo was meant for the Obamas all along. Was his adoption by the Obamas engineered to look like a rescue — or at least blur the line to head off criticism that the Obamas had picked a purebred from a breeder?

"I would have to refer that one to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, referring to the Washington Post reporters of Watergate fame. "It's possible, but there's no way to prove it unless one of the principals talks, and I don't think anyone would care anyway."

Thanks Fox News!

I just knew that somebody would care!

The good people of the United States finally have a First Dog again!

That Bo's a handsome dog, huh? And from the Kennedy lineage? That's oddly fitting. Although, it's somewhat disconcerting to know that even our pets have to come from the proper political dynasty. (I'm sure that, in 2013, President Palin's family will be given a Great Dane that was second cousins to a Reagan or something.)

Of course, in a situation like this, there's only one person whose opinion really matters. And, obviously, I'm talking about Newt Gingrich. Obviously…

"I hope that the girls love the dog," Gingrich said on ABC's This Week. "I hope the family — and all the pressure they're going to be in — finds it useful. And I think that this whole thing is fairly stupid."

The Obama girls better keep that confarned dog off Ol' Man Gingrich's lawn if they know what's good for 'em.

[Yesterday] afternoon at a planting event at the White House vegetable garden, CBS News’ Mark Knoller asked First Lady Michelle Obama when the newest member of the family would arrive at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"Soon!" Mrs. Obama said.

The always-tenacious Knoller followed up: "How soon?"

"Sooon!" the first lady said.

I'm sorry, but "sooon" isn't sooon enough for me. I — personally, as an American — need for Sasha and Malia Obama to get their new little dog sooooooooooon. (I was gonna say, "soooooooooooooooooooooooon," but I didn't want to seem unreasonable.)

This country has been asked to endure a lot these past couple months. Record unemployment rates. Money taken out of our paychecks and slipped into the bonus envelopes of Wall Street bankers. Fucking pirates attacking us at sea! Come on! Is it to much to ask for the President to just make good on his promise to us to make good on his promise to his daughters?!

You know what? I don't even need it to be a First Dog anymore. I'll take a First Cat. Or a First Ferret. Hell, I'll take a First Turtle. Anything!

Anything that'll make us forget — for a few minutes — how pooooooor we are.

And what kind of dog will soon be frolicking on the South Lawn? Mrs. Obama says she thinks she is going to look for a rescue Portuguese Water dog who is "old enough" and a "match" for the family dynamic.

"Temperamentally they're supposed to be pretty good," she says of the breed that Sen. Ted Kennedy has also lobbied for (he has two Water dogs of his own). "From the size perspective, they're sort of middle of the road – it's not small, but it's not a huge dog. And the folks that we know who own them have raved about them. So that's where we're leaning."

Figures. I suppose it was out of the question for the Obamas to get an American Water dog. But, all things considered, I guess we should just be happy that it won't be an Indonesian Water dog or an Islamic Jihadist Water dog.

"Oh, the names are really bad. I don't even want to mention it, because there are names floating around and they're bad," Mrs. Obama says with a laugh. "You listen and you go – like, I think, Frank was one of them. Frank! Moose was another one of them. Moose. I said, well, what if the dog isn't a moose? Moose. I'm like, no, come on, let's work with the names a little bit."

Yeah, whatever you do, don't go with anything vaguely American-sounding like Frank. That would just be ridiculous. Better to go with something a more exotic name. Like Mohammed.

Would Senators give the incoming administration the $350 billion that remains in the troubled asset relief program, so those funds could be handed out to greedy/fail-prone banks and/or the homeowners upon whom the greedy, fail-prone banks have foreclosed?

Or would Senators perpetrate their first rebellion against the president-elect by voting to block the funds' release and/or dumping crates of tea in the Potomac?

Well, what do you think?

The Senate on Thursday approved the release of the second half of the $700 billion bailout package to the incoming Obama administration.

The Senate voted 42-52 against a resolution disapproving the release of the funds sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).

Ah yes, David Vitter.

You remember David Vitter and his somewhat strained history with the Senate, don't you?

Of course you do.

(image via The Dollar Arist)

It is not exactly like taking heat for his position on the Gaza conflict, but Mr. Obama is sparking criticism from those who spend time thinking about these things for his family’s drawn-out search, their “naivete” and their “conflicting public statements” on exactly what kind of pooch the family is looking for.

“I’m frustrated with the Obamas, just get a dog already,” said Daisy Okas, a spokesperson for the American Kennel Club, who said she has heard from many angry dog owners in recent days over how the Obama’s have been handling what has become, to them at least, a politically charged issue.

Yeah! Just get the fucking dog, why don't you?! Just get it! Get it! Get the dog! Get the dog!

I need to know what kind of dog the Obama girls will be snuggling. I've had this empty spot on my cubicle wall for, like, three motherfucking months, and I just can't wait to fill it with a picture of the Obamas and their new adorable bundle of fuzz!

You know I actually almost photoshopped Benji into photo of the new First Family the other day, because I couldn't take the suspense anymore. Luckily, I came to my senses in time. But it was really close there for a minute.