This is the part I find most interesting:

The judge raised concerns as to the constitutionality of the Durbin Amendment’s exemption for banks with assets less than $10 billion under the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. He also commented that the government’s position that a two-tier pricing system for banks above and below $10 billion in assets will eventually result in a single rate to all banks is speculation on the government’s part.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11071698/1/judge-makes-rulings-in-debit-card-interchange-lawsuit.html#

He put off his final decision until the Federal Reserve comes up with it’s final rules for the debit card interchange fees.  The Fed delayed implementation recently, but has said it comitted to having the rules finalized by 7/21/11.  I guess we’ll see what happens this summer.  I’ll be following it.

Since I first wrote about Ruth McClung who is our candidate for AZ 07 I’m so happy to see all the local and national exposure she’s getting from Michelle Malkin to Sean Hannity and of course posts by our own Moe Lane here at RS.  Ruth has a money bomb today and is trying to reach $100k.  She really needs our help to beat back the Co Chair of the American Socialist Party (Congressional Progressive Caucus) Raul Grijalva.  I can give you anecdotal evidence from Republican voters in my precinct is that they are all voting and they are all voting for Ruth McClung.  Out of the Independent voters who were willing (they really are a different animal) to give me their opinion she has their support also.  She will need our help to make the final push to get the Independents on board as it will be crucial that she has a large percentage of Independents voting for her due to the make up of this district.  While Grijalva has Union thugs knocking doors down in Tucson all Ruth has is us-we the people.  Thank you to everyone who has already supported her, I’ve sent what I can so far and will chip in on the Money Bomb today.  Please go here  http://www.mcclungmiracle.com/ and give what you can.

It was announced this morning that TCF Bank would challenge the constitutionality of the Durbin amendment in the Dodd-Frank Act (Financial Deform Bill).  The amendment gives the Federal Reserve the power to set debit card interchange fees.  These fees are collected every time someone swipes their debit card.  Currently the merchant pays these fees for the service banks provide to them on these transactions. The Amendment directs the Federal Reserve Board to measure the processing costs of authorizing, clearing and settling debit card transactions and then to adopt regulations setting debit card interchange rates based on those costs alone.  The law only applies to banks with $10B or more in assets making the playing field unfair since thousands of banks are not subject to this amendment.  

From TCF Bank on this law:

“It is unprecedented for Congress, or any regulatory agency, to mandate a fee charged in the free market that not only denies a reasonable rate of return on investment, but actually requires the rate to be lower than the incremental cost of providing the service,” said William A. Cooper, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TCF Financial Corporation. “Furthermore, the Amendment affects only one percent of the nation’s banks, giving thousands of unaffected banks an unfair competitive advantage.”

“We believe these provisions violate our Constitutional rights on three separate grounds: the regulations take our property without just compensation and without Due Process of Law; and they also deny us Equal Protection under the law,” Cooper said. “The statute makes no more sense than regulating the price of a Burger King^®hamburger solely to the costs of the meat and the bun. To stay in business, Burger King has to sell burgers at prices that cover more than those costs; it also has to cover costs such as paying an employee to make the hamburger and another employee to serve it, the cost of the building and maintenance, as well as the costs incurred to advertise and promote the product. Under the Durbin Amendment, TCF only gets to recover the cost of the bun!”

“The Durbin Amendment blatantly confiscates TCF’s assets by denying the bank an opportunity to earn a fair rate of return on its assets. The Amendment also engages in invidious discrimination against the bank by making it impossible for it to compete on even ground with the thousands of banks that are exempted from the Amendment,” said Richard A. Epstein, a constitutional law scholar who, along with Timothy D. Kelly of Kelly & Berens P.A., has served as counsel to TCF on this case. “Well-established Supreme Court case law prohibits Congressional rate regulation that does not allow the bank to attract and retain the capital necessary to run its debit card business,” Epstein added.

Congress has never enacted any regulatory statute like the Durbin Amendment before: one that requires an administrative agency to order sellers of a product or service to cut their rates to a rate far below their actual cost of delivering the product or service, and then exempts ninety-nine percent of the sellers from the new confiscatory rate. Moreover, the Durbin Amendment was a last minute addition to the Dodd-Frank Act’s comprehensive overhaul of the financial services industry. Neither the Senate nor the House held any hearings on the provision, which would have allowed for public analysis of its most questionable provisions. Few people in Congress, therefore, grasped its revolutionary implications and its punitive impact on the few banks subject to its restrictions.

When asked if TCF was unsuccessful in this lawsuit what would they do to make up for the lost revenue?  They responded of course it would have to be made up from additional fees to their customers as it would I’m sure with the 90 other banks subject to this law.  Let’s hope they are successful or we will see free checking accounts disappear forever. 

If anyones interested you can listen to this morning’s teleconference via the web:  http://ir.tcfexpress.com

I’ll be following this one as it should be interesting.  Chairman and CEO Bill Cooper also just happens to be a past Minnesota State GOP Chairman.

said one of my neighbors as she escorted me in to talk to her husband.   She a registered Republican and he a registered Independent.  She asked me to come in to go out to the back and talk to her husband who was manning the grill.  He gladly accepted my flyers on 2 of my local candidates.  He also let me know for the first time he is really paying attention to politics and what’s going on in our country.  We had a nice talk for a few minutes.  He also shared that he would be voting Republican this election.  I was glad to hear that because we are going to need every Independent vote we can get to defeat the radical Socialist Raul Grijalva in AZ CD07.  In short he is Co Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (aka the American Socialist Party), called for a boycott of his own state over SB1070, thinks the Feds suing his own state is good thing, believes we stole AZ from Mexico and should give it back (I guess he wants to be a Mexican Congressman).  Need I say more?

Who do we have to unseat this radical you ask?  Well, it’s a conservative life long Republican Ruth McClung.  She’s a newbie to politics and she’s young-both a plus in my book.  Some here would and have advised me to put my resources somewhere else.  Maybe I should give money to another candidate where it wouldn’t be wasted or you know maybe I could even get the phone for another candidate in a district where we actually have a chance.  I didn’t listen to this advice and I’m certainly glad I didn’t.  I have and will continue to beat the street for Ruth McClung.  Polling has been sparse on this race but Magellan has now polled it and RUTH MCCLUNG IS WITHIN STRIKING DISTANCE!  Grijalva 40% McClung 38% with a MOE of 3.74%.  Results of the poll   http://www.politico.com/static/PPM136_101010_grijalva_poll.html

A few stats from this poll I thought worth mentioning.

• 50% of voters think we need a new person in this seat.
• 47% few Grijalva as unfavorable, 39% favorable, 7% no opinion.
• 56% believe country is on wrong track.

One thing that concerns me is this poll is made up of 62% Whites and only 35% Hispanic/Latino in a district where about 53% of the population is Hispanic/Latino.  What’s positive though is 51% indentified as Dem, 29% identified as Republican and 20% Indentified as Independent and these numbers pretty much equal the registered voter makeup of this district.  If we can win here we can win anywhere!

For the first time since taking this seat Grijalva will be running TV ads and more than ever Ruth McClung needs our help to get her message out.

Please help defeat a radical Socialist intent on destroying the country we love and hold so dear.   Visit her site http://www.ruth4az.com/

At least that’s what I’ve been told as a resident of District AZ07.  People tell me ”Look buddy this district is Dem +6 and the radical Socialist Raul Grijalva will have this seat until he dies if he wants it.”  Sorry I’m just not buying it and I continue to beat the streets for Ruth McClung.  You can no longer convince me that we can’t beat an open borders, boycott you’re own state, we stole AZ from Mexico seditionist radical.  Grijalva won with 63% of the vote in 2008 and 61% of the vote in 2006.  I know it’s long odds and some of you may question my sanity but I’m not not buying what you’re selling if it’s “We can’t win”.  Erick posted on the front page about races that aren’t on the radar so here is mine.

For the first time I was actually able to dig up one poll on this race.  I’m not familiar with American Political Consultants, but that is who conducted this poll.  Raul Grijalva D 42%  Ruth McClung R 35% and a whopping 23% undecided. Margin of error 4.3%.  Current registered voter makeup 44% D, 23% R and 32% Ind. 

I’ve been knocking Repubs doors in my precinct and every single person I’ve talked is motivated and ready to vote. This week I’m including Independents in my precinct walk. I can’t find a direct link to the poll itself.  Here is a link to the Tucson Weekly on this poll: 

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2010/09/29/mcclung-poll-grijalva-ahead-by-just-7-points-in-cd7

Michelle Malkin weighs in on Ruth McClung:

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/09/27/az-07-ruth-mcclung-for-congress-standing-up-to-open-borders-extremism/

Ruth has been a life long conservative and I believe she will represent AZ07 well.

Contribute to Ruth here.  http://www.ruth4az.com/

I learned some eye opening statistics at our most recent Republican committee meeting.  Our County Chairman made a great point, he said the stats here in Arizona show that early voting and mail in ballots accounted for 60% of the total vote.  Here mail in ballots are sent out roughly 26 days prior to election day.  Early voting begins 33 days prior to election day.  I don’t know the election laws in the other states but PC and GOTV volunteers need to make sure what your states laws are regarding early voting and mail in ballots.  If we miss talking to potential voters until October it may be too late for many as they may have already voted.  The next 30 days here will be crucial to GOTV for your candidate or candidates.