The other day I posted about how federal banking regulations have made it possible for Bank of America to purloin $45,000 of Daily News grant money.

What happened afterward is a testament to the power of social media and the Internet.

Monday night, I tweeted the blog post to Bank of America's official Twitter help representative, and I e-mailed a copy of it to B of A's corporate social responsibility office -- the folks that burnish the bank's reputation by helping nonprofits. 

Tuesday a.m., the bank's designated twitterer, David Knapp, requested some more info from us. Tuesday afternoon, I received a call from a fine fellow in the chairman's office at B of A. 30 minutes later, our account was $45,000 richer.

Of course, this is great news. We can now use that money to buy ball-point pens  and all the other luxuries we've become accustomed to.

And it's cool. Twitter and blogging are great tools for holding corporations (Bank of America) and countries (Iran) publicly accountable.

But I'm still gobsmacked by what happened with our money at Bank of America. This should be illegal. Flat out. Just like stealing someone's car is illegal. Just like strong-arming someone's wallet is illegal.

We've filed a complaint with the Federal Reserve, and will be writing our proverbial congressman to explain how the dreaded Regulation CC is impacting small nonprofits.