Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
A job for you
I often check the jobs sections online for a variety of reasons and this morning I came across this one:
NEED FREE WORK BUT DONT WANT TO PAY FOR IT!!!
COME JOIN OUR TEAM!
YOUR NOT WORTH ANYTHING!
WORK FOR FREE!!!!
NEED FREE WORK BUT DONT WANT TO PAY FOR IT!!!
COME JOIN OUR TEAM!
YOUR NOT WORTH ANYTHING!
WORK FOR FREE!!!!
Selling out
The New York Times has a story this morning on what sort of crap has been selling during this never ending recession. You can read all about it here, but in short, some things are selling, some are not. Hope I did not ruin it for you.
Here is something I have learned. Well, first a moment of history. I once took some art classes in Los Angeles, but more importantly, which I was a student, I also shared a large old house in Pasadena with other artists, all studying different aspects of art and production, from film to auto design and everything in between. One friend became a designer of scuba gear, another a courtroom artist and yet another has become a world regarded auto designer.
I think of these professionals when I find outrageous design flaws, like the design idiot who puts cup holders in cars right where the gear shift has been located. Recently, in the last year, I purchased a new coffee maker. My addiction to good coffee is well know, check this piece of love out. So it was a bit shocking when I began using the new coffee maker and found that whenever I poured a cup of coffee into a cup, it dribbled coffee onto the counter. That's right, a brand new, overly designed coffee maker, actually was designed to drip coffee on the counter top.
That is just terrible and hurtful, but the reality is, I have tried to get over it. No lawsuit, no throwing the offending coffee pot into a wall, but I just wipe up the dribbles of coffee. This past winter, my long term lover (yikes) bought us a new coffee grinder. Now, anyone who is addicted to anything understands the ritual necessary to keep your addiction interesting. I hear heroin addicts sometimes do not care so much about the high as they do about the cooking, injecting and all the other fun aspects of their particular addiction. Pot smokers, oh how they love to roll joints. On it goes. For me, grinding coffee beans in the early morning hours and making fresh coffee is vital.
So imagine my shock and dismay to a grinder of coffee beans that, no matter how it is handled, spreads freshly ground coffee all over the counter top. Imagine. Again, I have tried everything, but when you remove the freshly filled container of ground coffee, flakes begin to spill out, and as you pour it into the coffee maker, you get coffee over everything. Again, who designs this crap and why do I keep finding it in my kitchen?
So, thank you New York Times for pointing out that even in a deep recession, people continue to buy things, like coffee makers and coffee grinders. What the Times reporter failed to mention is how many people are, during a deep recession, forced to buy a new product because the recently purchased product is badly designed and in many cases, spilling contents all over a decently cleaned kitchen.
Here is something I have learned. Well, first a moment of history. I once took some art classes in Los Angeles, but more importantly, which I was a student, I also shared a large old house in Pasadena with other artists, all studying different aspects of art and production, from film to auto design and everything in between. One friend became a designer of scuba gear, another a courtroom artist and yet another has become a world regarded auto designer.
I think of these professionals when I find outrageous design flaws, like the design idiot who puts cup holders in cars right where the gear shift has been located. Recently, in the last year, I purchased a new coffee maker. My addiction to good coffee is well know, check this piece of love out. So it was a bit shocking when I began using the new coffee maker and found that whenever I poured a cup of coffee into a cup, it dribbled coffee onto the counter. That's right, a brand new, overly designed coffee maker, actually was designed to drip coffee on the counter top.
That is just terrible and hurtful, but the reality is, I have tried to get over it. No lawsuit, no throwing the offending coffee pot into a wall, but I just wipe up the dribbles of coffee. This past winter, my long term lover (yikes) bought us a new coffee grinder. Now, anyone who is addicted to anything understands the ritual necessary to keep your addiction interesting. I hear heroin addicts sometimes do not care so much about the high as they do about the cooking, injecting and all the other fun aspects of their particular addiction. Pot smokers, oh how they love to roll joints. On it goes. For me, grinding coffee beans in the early morning hours and making fresh coffee is vital.
So imagine my shock and dismay to a grinder of coffee beans that, no matter how it is handled, spreads freshly ground coffee all over the counter top. Imagine. Again, I have tried everything, but when you remove the freshly filled container of ground coffee, flakes begin to spill out, and as you pour it into the coffee maker, you get coffee over everything. Again, who designs this crap and why do I keep finding it in my kitchen?
So, thank you New York Times for pointing out that even in a deep recession, people continue to buy things, like coffee makers and coffee grinders. What the Times reporter failed to mention is how many people are, during a deep recession, forced to buy a new product because the recently purchased product is badly designed and in many cases, spilling contents all over a decently cleaned kitchen.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
God hates fags and Lady Gaga
The above video is from those crazy Westboro idiots who protest against gays, soldiers and now Lady Gaga. I am not sure how this "church" makes money, or why they all look like white trash meth-heads, but I do have to admire their attempt to remain relevant, even when failing miserably.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Rush Limbaugh is not really sorry
Here is how the Onion prints what should be the truth, in the form of an editorial by Rush Limbaugh.
I know there are a lot of people out there who are upset about some of the things I've been saying on my radio program lately. My comments about the situation in Haiti have hurt and angered many Americans who genuinely care about the plight of the Haitian people, and that hurt and anger will likely never go away. Many of you are probably wondering, "What would compel a human being to say things like that?" Well, here's your answer: I am a very bad person. And, to tell you the truth, I don't really want to be alive anymore.
Try to look at it from my point of view. I have no reason to live. In my 59 years, I've made millions of dollars, built a veritable media empire, and accomplished virtually everything that a man of my limited imagination and worldview could possibly accomplish. And yet, at this point, in no way could you refer to what I'm doing as "living," exactly. I just sort of exist. I derive no real pleasure from life. Oh, sure, I talk a big game about what a golf nut I am and how much I enjoy the taste of a fine cigar, but it's all horseshit. Complete and utter horseshit.
I don't enjoy that stuff. I don't enjoy anything. I don't even want to be here. The sadness and regret I feel every waking hour of my life is absolutely unbearable. I am a miserable pig and I do not want to exist.
The irony is that, even if I did die, the hell I would surely be sent to could not possibly be any worse than the bottomless pool of excrement I already paddle around in like some demented, shit-covered walrus. In fact, every time I hear my voice coming through the headphones I nearly gag, and I think, "What the fuck am I doing?" Why would I say that Michael J. Fox is faking his Parkinson's symptoms? Why would I find it funny to play a song called "Barack the Magic Negro"? Why would I tell people not to give aid to Haiti?
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I live in constant terror and that terror informs my every word, thought, and action.
See, the thing is, I honestly cannot control the bilious hatred and filth that oozes out of my mouth. I want to—believe me, I want to—but I can't. And every time I speak, a tiny voice inside my head is screaming, "Stop talking, you stupid, insensitive prick. JUST STOP FUCKING TALKING. All you do is spread hate and fear, and the world would be a better place without you, you worthless, amoral, cocksucking fuckface."
What I should really do is just commit suicide. I have this little Sunday ritual I started around the time I publicly compared the torture at Abu Ghraib to a fraternity prank, where I climb into my Jacuzzi and put a gun in my mouth. But I can never work up the guts to pull the trigger. A few times I came close to overdosing on prescription pain pills, but my goddamn doctors were always there to save me. If I had any sense, I would just hole myself up in a Red Roof Inn with a case of Jack Daniel's and slowly drink myself into the gaping maw of death itself.
But what can I say? I guess I'm just too much of a fat fucking pussy to follow through.
You know what? I wish someone would just kill me. I'm serious. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking: "Oh my God, how can you say such a thing? You can't print that in a newspaper!" But see, I don't care anymore. I've cried my tears. I've battled my demons, and I've lost. It's over. It's all over. The only thing left for me to do now is just go away. Have I even once contributed a single ounce of good to humanity? Put me out of my misery. I wouldn't make a fuss. I wouldn't even humiliate myself by saying goodbye. For the first time in my odious, pitiful life, I'd accept my fate with quiet dignity.
Then I wouldn't have to live with my wretched, wretched self. Oh, the release.
I've imagined my death a thousand times over, and it's always the same. In my mind's eye, a serene setting comes into view. I see a funeral procession driving down some small-town Main Street in Nowheresville, U.S.A. On one side of the street, a collection of sycophants and morons are paying their respects in subliterate, sanctimonious tones. Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, I can just make out the faint image of a young boy, his brow furrowed in confusion, clutching the hand of his father. "Who is that man, Daddy?" he asks as the hearse containing my bloated, lifeless body rolls by. "Who is that person they speak of?" The father will then lower his head and say, "There, my son, go the remains of Rush Hudson Limbaugh, the most abominable lump of festering dog shit in the history of American broadcasting. May the likes of him never again soil or tarnish the greatness of our fair country."
Please forgive me, everyone. I am so sorry.
I know there are a lot of people out there who are upset about some of the things I've been saying on my radio program lately. My comments about the situation in Haiti have hurt and angered many Americans who genuinely care about the plight of the Haitian people, and that hurt and anger will likely never go away. Many of you are probably wondering, "What would compel a human being to say things like that?" Well, here's your answer: I am a very bad person. And, to tell you the truth, I don't really want to be alive anymore.
Try to look at it from my point of view. I have no reason to live. In my 59 years, I've made millions of dollars, built a veritable media empire, and accomplished virtually everything that a man of my limited imagination and worldview could possibly accomplish. And yet, at this point, in no way could you refer to what I'm doing as "living," exactly. I just sort of exist. I derive no real pleasure from life. Oh, sure, I talk a big game about what a golf nut I am and how much I enjoy the taste of a fine cigar, but it's all horseshit. Complete and utter horseshit.
I don't enjoy that stuff. I don't enjoy anything. I don't even want to be here. The sadness and regret I feel every waking hour of my life is absolutely unbearable. I am a miserable pig and I do not want to exist.
The irony is that, even if I did die, the hell I would surely be sent to could not possibly be any worse than the bottomless pool of excrement I already paddle around in like some demented, shit-covered walrus. In fact, every time I hear my voice coming through the headphones I nearly gag, and I think, "What the fuck am I doing?" Why would I say that Michael J. Fox is faking his Parkinson's symptoms? Why would I find it funny to play a song called "Barack the Magic Negro"? Why would I tell people not to give aid to Haiti?
What the fuck is wrong with me?
I live in constant terror and that terror informs my every word, thought, and action.
See, the thing is, I honestly cannot control the bilious hatred and filth that oozes out of my mouth. I want to—believe me, I want to—but I can't. And every time I speak, a tiny voice inside my head is screaming, "Stop talking, you stupid, insensitive prick. JUST STOP FUCKING TALKING. All you do is spread hate and fear, and the world would be a better place without you, you worthless, amoral, cocksucking fuckface."
What I should really do is just commit suicide. I have this little Sunday ritual I started around the time I publicly compared the torture at Abu Ghraib to a fraternity prank, where I climb into my Jacuzzi and put a gun in my mouth. But I can never work up the guts to pull the trigger. A few times I came close to overdosing on prescription pain pills, but my goddamn doctors were always there to save me. If I had any sense, I would just hole myself up in a Red Roof Inn with a case of Jack Daniel's and slowly drink myself into the gaping maw of death itself.
But what can I say? I guess I'm just too much of a fat fucking pussy to follow through.
You know what? I wish someone would just kill me. I'm serious. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking: "Oh my God, how can you say such a thing? You can't print that in a newspaper!" But see, I don't care anymore. I've cried my tears. I've battled my demons, and I've lost. It's over. It's all over. The only thing left for me to do now is just go away. Have I even once contributed a single ounce of good to humanity? Put me out of my misery. I wouldn't make a fuss. I wouldn't even humiliate myself by saying goodbye. For the first time in my odious, pitiful life, I'd accept my fate with quiet dignity.
Then I wouldn't have to live with my wretched, wretched self. Oh, the release.
I've imagined my death a thousand times over, and it's always the same. In my mind's eye, a serene setting comes into view. I see a funeral procession driving down some small-town Main Street in Nowheresville, U.S.A. On one side of the street, a collection of sycophants and morons are paying their respects in subliterate, sanctimonious tones. Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, I can just make out the faint image of a young boy, his brow furrowed in confusion, clutching the hand of his father. "Who is that man, Daddy?" he asks as the hearse containing my bloated, lifeless body rolls by. "Who is that person they speak of?" The father will then lower his head and say, "There, my son, go the remains of Rush Hudson Limbaugh, the most abominable lump of festering dog shit in the history of American broadcasting. May the likes of him never again soil or tarnish the greatness of our fair country."
Please forgive me, everyone. I am so sorry.
Walk away from that house.
That's what the mainstream media has been repeatedly telling people over the last month, in an amazing—and very populist—spree of American myth unmaking.
In terms of my taking notice, it all began with an article in the New York Times Magazine titled, "Walk Away From Your Mortgage!" The piece put the situation plainly:
Time was, Americans would do anything to pay their mortgage — forgo a new car or a vacation, even put a younger family member to work. But the housing collapse left 10.7 million families owing more than their homes are worth. So some of them are making a calculated decision to hang onto their money and let their homes go. Is this irresponsible?
Businesses — in particular Wall Street banks — make such calculations routinely. Morgan Stanley recently decided to stop making payments on five San Francisco office buildings. A Morgan Stanley fund purchased the buildings at the height of the boom, and their value has plunged. Nobody has said Morgan Stanley is immoral — perhaps because no one assumed it was moral to begin with. But the average American, as if sprung from some Franklinesque mythology, is supposed to honor his debts, or so says the mortgage industry as well as government officials.
Then there was this a few days ago:
A provocative paper by Brent White, a law professor at the University of Arizona, makes the case that borrowers are actually suffering from a “norm asymmetry.” In other words, they think they are obligated to repay their loans even if it is not in their financial interest to do so, while their lenders are free to do whatever maximizes profits. It’s as if borrowers are playing in a poker game in which they are the only ones who think bluffing is unethical.
And then this morning, on NPR's Morning Edition, the first question a reporter asked about the news that purchasers of New York's Stuyvesant Town have given the property—bought for $5.4 billion four years ago, and now worth far less than that—back to their creditors?
It was something like:
Is this another instance of the financially powerful doing exactly what Americans are told is irresponsible and immoral?
Pay attention, people who owe more than your homes are worth. The mainstream media—that supposedly elitist peddler of corporate lies—is teaching you how to shed a fishy morality, outsmart shady lenders and their Wall Street backers, and come out better financially in the process.
In terms of my taking notice, it all began with an article in the New York Times Magazine titled, "Walk Away From Your Mortgage!" The piece put the situation plainly:
Time was, Americans would do anything to pay their mortgage — forgo a new car or a vacation, even put a younger family member to work. But the housing collapse left 10.7 million families owing more than their homes are worth. So some of them are making a calculated decision to hang onto their money and let their homes go. Is this irresponsible?
Businesses — in particular Wall Street banks — make such calculations routinely. Morgan Stanley recently decided to stop making payments on five San Francisco office buildings. A Morgan Stanley fund purchased the buildings at the height of the boom, and their value has plunged. Nobody has said Morgan Stanley is immoral — perhaps because no one assumed it was moral to begin with. But the average American, as if sprung from some Franklinesque mythology, is supposed to honor his debts, or so says the mortgage industry as well as government officials.
Then there was this a few days ago:
A provocative paper by Brent White, a law professor at the University of Arizona, makes the case that borrowers are actually suffering from a “norm asymmetry.” In other words, they think they are obligated to repay their loans even if it is not in their financial interest to do so, while their lenders are free to do whatever maximizes profits. It’s as if borrowers are playing in a poker game in which they are the only ones who think bluffing is unethical.
And then this morning, on NPR's Morning Edition, the first question a reporter asked about the news that purchasers of New York's Stuyvesant Town have given the property—bought for $5.4 billion four years ago, and now worth far less than that—back to their creditors?
It was something like:
Is this another instance of the financially powerful doing exactly what Americans are told is irresponsible and immoral?
Pay attention, people who owe more than your homes are worth. The mainstream media—that supposedly elitist peddler of corporate lies—is teaching you how to shed a fishy morality, outsmart shady lenders and their Wall Street backers, and come out better financially in the process.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
A little night music
It is impossible not to dwell on Haiti this past week, or I hope people have been dwelling. How can you not? A photographer I met during the G-20 in September is there, on the ground, providing amazing images for the New York Times and when I check his work it is both scary and inspiring.
Why do we help others in need? Especially after natural disasters? I think it has something to do with, there for the grace of god, go I.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Senator
I don't have a pony in the Massachusetts senate race, won tonight by a republican, take that Ted Kennedy.
I do think the democrats are failing on a variety of levels and that makes all elections in the next few years interesting, if nothing else. First things first, republicans are brilliant are red meat to angry dog electioneering. It is almost classical the way they work, operatic.
Half of the American adult populace can not read. Imagine that, 50 percent of the people can not read election materials. So, you have to find a way to motivate illiterates to go to the polls. Democrats think you need to educate these non-readers. They talk and talk as if everyone reads bills and understands complex issues. We don't, most can't read and they like to vote. They get angry at something, congressional spending or something, and they rally in their polyester and faded baseball caps with the names of public golf courses emblazoned on them.
The angry white person who votes is scary. The tea bagging neanderthals are scary, only because they are the dreaded single issue believer. The tea baggers spent the past few months frothing over taxes, new taxes, old taxes, wasteful spending (silent for the billions spent on iraq) and hating health care in any form.
Angry white people rallied. Badly dressed, almost surely illiterate - angry white people. They carry flags, they don't believe in debate, they love the unborn, but not in Muslim nations. The stupid, rabid fellow Americans do not like the debates in the senate. They do not like pussy wonk talk focused on taking away more freedoms. They want less government, and they want it now.
Voting in a republican in Massachusetts probably kills any meaningful healthcare reform. So what? The senate bill was a mess and would probably have had little real impact in the majority of Americans lives. That is who the voters are. The majority of Americans. Sure, these angry white people with the impulsive and self serving message get a lot of press, but in the end, the vast majority of Americans still want leadership. Democrats have control over everything and yet, nothing of substance seems to have emerged in the last year. Obama talks a good game and looks great in front of cameras, but he has not been able to rally his troops.
The democrats are killing themselves by not believing in their mandate. People wanted change and the democrats allowed idiotic maneuvering by the likes of Joe Leiberman to damage all hopes of real, progressive movement. No special funding for green energy, instead bailouts for old industry like cars and new financial instruments that are at best untested (derivatives) and at worst, run by the same corrupt and stupid bankers who almost brought down this nation. No, the democrats have spent a trillion dollars with little to show the average American, again the ones who actually vote.
Republicans could roll over this next election with wins all over the map. Why won't they? Because they have done nothing but be unpatriotic henchmen, trying to ruin all legislation that comes before them. There are not well meaning patriots. They are exactly what is wrong in our government, if you do not get your way (I'm talking to you Leiberman, Hatch, Bennett) you gum up the system so nothing gets done. These are the same brown suits who, if you questioned any policy or plan by the Bushies, you were called a communist or worse.
We have incompetents trying to lead the manipulative twits. Nothing can be done by slow witted greed pigs.
I do think the democrats are failing on a variety of levels and that makes all elections in the next few years interesting, if nothing else. First things first, republicans are brilliant are red meat to angry dog electioneering. It is almost classical the way they work, operatic.
Half of the American adult populace can not read. Imagine that, 50 percent of the people can not read election materials. So, you have to find a way to motivate illiterates to go to the polls. Democrats think you need to educate these non-readers. They talk and talk as if everyone reads bills and understands complex issues. We don't, most can't read and they like to vote. They get angry at something, congressional spending or something, and they rally in their polyester and faded baseball caps with the names of public golf courses emblazoned on them.
The angry white person who votes is scary. The tea bagging neanderthals are scary, only because they are the dreaded single issue believer. The tea baggers spent the past few months frothing over taxes, new taxes, old taxes, wasteful spending (silent for the billions spent on iraq) and hating health care in any form.
Angry white people rallied. Badly dressed, almost surely illiterate - angry white people. They carry flags, they don't believe in debate, they love the unborn, but not in Muslim nations. The stupid, rabid fellow Americans do not like the debates in the senate. They do not like pussy wonk talk focused on taking away more freedoms. They want less government, and they want it now.
Voting in a republican in Massachusetts probably kills any meaningful healthcare reform. So what? The senate bill was a mess and would probably have had little real impact in the majority of Americans lives. That is who the voters are. The majority of Americans. Sure, these angry white people with the impulsive and self serving message get a lot of press, but in the end, the vast majority of Americans still want leadership. Democrats have control over everything and yet, nothing of substance seems to have emerged in the last year. Obama talks a good game and looks great in front of cameras, but he has not been able to rally his troops.
The democrats are killing themselves by not believing in their mandate. People wanted change and the democrats allowed idiotic maneuvering by the likes of Joe Leiberman to damage all hopes of real, progressive movement. No special funding for green energy, instead bailouts for old industry like cars and new financial instruments that are at best untested (derivatives) and at worst, run by the same corrupt and stupid bankers who almost brought down this nation. No, the democrats have spent a trillion dollars with little to show the average American, again the ones who actually vote.
Republicans could roll over this next election with wins all over the map. Why won't they? Because they have done nothing but be unpatriotic henchmen, trying to ruin all legislation that comes before them. There are not well meaning patriots. They are exactly what is wrong in our government, if you do not get your way (I'm talking to you Leiberman, Hatch, Bennett) you gum up the system so nothing gets done. These are the same brown suits who, if you questioned any policy or plan by the Bushies, you were called a communist or worse.
We have incompetents trying to lead the manipulative twits. Nothing can be done by slow witted greed pigs.
Dead writer
Mystery novelist Robert B. Parker has died.
Parker has been one of my favorite mystery writers forever. I started reading him in college and when I find the latest novel in the cheap books section of my local book store, I always buy it. I did just that last week and have been slowly working my way through it like a good meal, savoring each word.
Parker has been one of my favorite mystery writers forever. I started reading him in college and when I find the latest novel in the cheap books section of my local book store, I always buy it. I did just that last week and have been slowly working my way through it like a good meal, savoring each word.
Poll tax
LONDON (Reuters) – British singer Billy Bragg has threatened to stop paying taxes, and called on others to follow suit, unless the government acts to limit bonuses paid by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
The 52-year-old singer, well known for his left-wing views and political activism, aims to tap public anger over "fat cat" bonuses at U.S. and British banks rescued with taxpayers' money during the financial crisis.
The huge bailouts have left the British government holding 84 percent of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and 43 percent of Lloyds Banking Group.
"I understand that the Treasury had little choice but to use taxpayers' money to safeguard savings and stabilize and restore confidence in the financial system," Bragg wrote on his page on the Facebook social networking site.
"What I don't understand is why, now that we taxpayers are the majority shareholders of these banks, we seem totally powerless to curb their excessive bonus culture?"
He quoted reports estimating RBS will pay its investment bankers around 1.5 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) in bonuses next month.
At the same time, he added, Britain's main political parties are warning voters that national debt will mean tough cuts in public spending after the next general election.
"I believe that the government have their priorities wrong.
"I have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister), Alistair Darling, to inform him that I am no longer prepared to fund the excessive bonuses of RBS investment bankers. Unless he acts to limit them to 25,000 pounds, I shall be withholding my tax payment on 31st January." In his Facebook campaign titled "NoBonus4RBS" he invited other British tax payers to do the same to exert pressure on the government to curb bonuses.
RBS has been forced to agree to slash payouts and hand the state a veto on its 2009 bonus pool, but the government has also said that going too far to restrict pay could dent the bank's ability to compete.
When asked about Bragg's initiative, a Treasury spokesman said: "We can reassure people there will not be a significant amount of taxpayers' cash going to bonuses at RBS."LONDON (Reuters) – British singer Billy Bragg has threatened to stop paying taxes, and called on others to follow suit, unless the government acts to limit bonuses paid by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
The 52-year-old singer, well known for his left-wing views and political activism, aims to tap public anger over "fat cat" bonuses at U.S. and British banks rescued with taxpayers' money during the financial crisis.
The huge bailouts have left the British government holding 84 percent of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and 43 percent of Lloyds Banking Group.
"I understand that the Treasury had little choice but to use taxpayers' money to safeguard savings and stabilize and restore confidence in the financial system," Bragg wrote on his page on the Facebook social networking site.
"What I don't understand is why, now that we taxpayers are the majority shareholders of these banks, we seem totally powerless to curb their excessive bonus culture?"
He quoted reports estimating RBS will pay its investment bankers around 1.5 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) in bonuses next month.
At the same time, he added, Britain's main political parties are warning voters that national debt will mean tough cuts in public spending after the next general election.
"I believe that the government have their priorities wrong.
"I have written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister), Alistair Darling, to inform him that I am no longer prepared to fund the excessive bonuses of RBS investment bankers. Unless he acts to limit them to 25,000 pounds, I shall be withholding my tax payment on 31st January." In his Facebook campaign titled "NoBonus4RBS" he invited other British tax payers to do the same to exert pressure on the government to curb bonuses.
RBS has been forced to agree to slash payouts and hand the state a veto on its 2009 bonus pool, but the government has also said that going too far to restrict pay could dent the bank's ability to compete.
When asked about Bragg's initiative, a Treasury spokesman said: "We can reassure people there will not be a significant amount of taxpayers' cash going to bonuses at RBS."
Saturday, January 16, 2010
More hate for Al Gore
Like most people I have been hating Al Gore for many years and this winter, I have a new level of hatred brewing.
First things first, I started hating Gore a long time ago. He was vice president, he was smart and sometimes funny. He seemed like a nice guy who honestly liked his life. He was raised in Washington DC, private schools, drivers, special social occasions and on and on. A nice life, he served in the Army, which is impossible to find from the same sort of upbringing in a Republican household. All in all, a perfect person to run for president.
Then he ran in 2000 after spending 8 years serving with an impossibly successful Southern Democrat and well known womanizer. Gore seemed like a shoe in, he was running against a semi-retarded imbecile and no one expected the election to be close. It was this assumption that allowed the stoner hippies to ruin everything. See, Gore took the stoner hippie vote for granted.
One night, pre-election, I was at an artist friends house in Seattle. The wine and marijuana was flowing freely and at some point I was trying to escape by sneaking out the front door and making my way to my bike, but instead I got caught up in a political debate with a stoned hippy. He was arguing that the only logical vote was for Ralph Nader, himself something of a stoned hippy.
I argued that any vote not for Gore would be wasted and could possibly throw the election for the idiot from Texas. A month or so later, after a haphazardly recounted election in Florida, Gore was out and my new hatred for his incompetent electioneering and his sense of entitlement was just begin to fester. It grew over the years, but this winter, do you hear me Al? This winter, I am pissed.
See, last year we purchased an older house in a sketchy neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Everyone warned us, it gets cold and we should be prepared. So, instead of doing a lot of updating and fancy rehab stuff, we invested in a great new furnace. See, when we moved in, there was an ancient furnace and when the gas man came to inspect the house he warned me that the furnace would cost me thousands of dollars a month to heat this old house. I was worried, thousands for hear it a lot of money. So, we purchased a new furnace and had it installed by an angry alcoholic with thick fingers and the smell of cigarettes and rejection all over him.
Then winter came. Light snow, some cold days, but mostly days like today, sunny, spring like and comfortable. I am not sure the furnace even was used today. This is mid-January for gods sake.
Al Gore, I blame you.
Like so many other dimwits, I believed you. Global warming this, the end of times that, rapture next Tuesday. You said it, I bought it, lock, stock and furnace. I could be gliding around on expensive imported tile floors and cooking exotic meals in a kitchen designed by a gay Italian homosexual. Instead, I am pleasantly warm, and pissed.
Al Gore, you screwed me up in 2000, and like the vast majority of the worlds inhabitants, I suffered through 8 years of cartoon politics and still, part of me believed you and even more, most of me believed the drunken, chain smoking heating installer. Now, to heat this leaky old house costs me about seven dollars a month and my pride, since the tile and gay kitchen are nothing but a badly written article in Rehab Monthly.
Thanks again Al.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Gay cash
So, Time Magazine has this great story about money lost by not allowing the gays to marry in San Francisco. It's kind of funny how stupid prejudice is on a variety of levels.
Let them marry. Let everyone get married.
Haiti help
I learned something about 15 years ago and that is, anyone at any time can step up and help people in need.
I know, it sounds simplistic and it is, but until it happened to me, I had no clue that complete strangers can offer help in a variety of forms and actually just comfort you in a time of need and it will not matter that they never knew you before and will never see you again.
On Valentines Day 1995 our house burned. Everyone got out, the house was complete loss and for weeks I was a bumbling idiot in some sort of emotional shock. The day after the first my friend came to watch the children so we could shop for toothbrushes and clothes, I was still wearing the bloody pants I wore when we scurried from the house.
We stayed in a local hotel for a few days while insurance sharks circled. Since we had nothing, we needed everything. Imagine what it is like to lose everything you have, everything you use on a daily basis from clothes, to towels. In a matter of minutes they all disappear. We spent a lot of time buying stuff. But right after the fire, we were out looking for something, probably clothes for the kids and when we came back to the hotel there was a message for us to come to the lobby. When we got there we found bags of donated items, kids toys, games, toasters, pots and pans, sheets, towels, an awful lot of everything. I think I cried. It was shocking, not just how generous and caring complete strangers were in our time of need, but at that point I realized that anyone can help anyone. It was life changing.
You do not need permission to offer help. I have delivered blankets and food to people in need. Certainly I have donated money in national and international tragedies. This is what we can all do now. While I am sure the good people of Haiti could use blankets and pots and pans, what the aid workers could use right now is money. At this point in my life I just do not have a lot of money, but I am donating some, and so should you.
We are all citizens of the world and when tragedy strikes we can stand up and help those who need it. You can also help neighbors and people who live in your community, people who find themselves in tragic situations, but today, the people of Haiti need help. So click HERE and give something to a group that has already hit the ground running. Do something for someone else, do something for people who are suffering and dying because of a natural disaster that no one was expecting.
I know, it sounds simplistic and it is, but until it happened to me, I had no clue that complete strangers can offer help in a variety of forms and actually just comfort you in a time of need and it will not matter that they never knew you before and will never see you again.
On Valentines Day 1995 our house burned. Everyone got out, the house was complete loss and for weeks I was a bumbling idiot in some sort of emotional shock. The day after the first my friend came to watch the children so we could shop for toothbrushes and clothes, I was still wearing the bloody pants I wore when we scurried from the house.
We stayed in a local hotel for a few days while insurance sharks circled. Since we had nothing, we needed everything. Imagine what it is like to lose everything you have, everything you use on a daily basis from clothes, to towels. In a matter of minutes they all disappear. We spent a lot of time buying stuff. But right after the fire, we were out looking for something, probably clothes for the kids and when we came back to the hotel there was a message for us to come to the lobby. When we got there we found bags of donated items, kids toys, games, toasters, pots and pans, sheets, towels, an awful lot of everything. I think I cried. It was shocking, not just how generous and caring complete strangers were in our time of need, but at that point I realized that anyone can help anyone. It was life changing.
You do not need permission to offer help. I have delivered blankets and food to people in need. Certainly I have donated money in national and international tragedies. This is what we can all do now. While I am sure the good people of Haiti could use blankets and pots and pans, what the aid workers could use right now is money. At this point in my life I just do not have a lot of money, but I am donating some, and so should you.
We are all citizens of the world and when tragedy strikes we can stand up and help those who need it. You can also help neighbors and people who live in your community, people who find themselves in tragic situations, but today, the people of Haiti need help. So click HERE and give something to a group that has already hit the ground running. Do something for someone else, do something for people who are suffering and dying because of a natural disaster that no one was expecting.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Silent night
It has been an ex-wife sort of day, cold and bitter.
I was talking to a lawyer yesterday about a case I watched him argue. I told him how shocked I was that his client, who was on attacked by opposing counsel while on the stand, did not have any other way to defend himself. The case itself was based on the mistreatment of a woman who was suffering from Alzheimers, which is a disease that I watched destroy my own mother. What I saw in the courtroom was disturbing to me because basically what the attack was based on was that the attorney wanted to paint the witness as a son who did not really care about his ailing mother.
Yesterday I told the witnesses lawyer that what I would have like to have seen was someone testify as to what happens when you watch your parent slowly fading in front of your eyes. The mother or father who raised you, scolded you, fed you, paid you bills and often loved you, forgets your name. It is heart breaking. When my own mother was losing her mind, I tried to visit her everyday. At that time in my life I was writing in the evenings and I had plenty of day time to ride my bike to the elder facility where my mother lived. I visited a lot. There were plenty of older people who did not have visitors, or had few visits. I never viewed that as something that was wrong with the families, some lived in other states, some worked and had families and some probably could not watch as their parents slowly died.
You ever watch someone mourn the loss of a loved one? I have, a few times. Some people cry and fall into depression and I had one friend who got drunk a lot, some people don't seem bothered at all, they may internalize it, they may not be bothered, who knows? The point is that there is no right or wrong in mourning, it is an individual thing. Some people just do not get emotional, and there is nothing wrong with that.
That same sense of understanding is what I have adopted in viewing the way people care, or don't care, about their elderly family members. It is very hard for some people to watch their own parents dying. Again, I do not think there is a right way. One of my brothers never came to visit my mother in the 8 years she was slowly dying. Another member of my family visited once. I did not think that was right or wrong, it just was. To this day I think it was the way they dealt with the way the Alzheimers was affecting our mother and they did what the could.
What I told the attorney was there needs to be a spokesman for families who are painted as some sort of uncaring and cold ingrates. The son I watched being torn apart on the witness stand needed a defense. He needed someone who understood that he did what he could and it is painful to watch your own mother shit on herself. It hurts when your own mother does not know your name. It is remarkable to watch a strong and vital woman try and figure out how she knows you.
The attorney lost his case.
Five years ago I whispered in my mothers ear, as she lay in a hospital after suffering a near fatal stroke. I told her, as he most irresponsible child, that I was ready to carry on and she could go now, she could leave us, her pain and suffering could end. Five years ago today she found some sort of peace, as did the rest of us. It was time for her to go. We mourned in our own weird ways. We cried, we laughed, we told stories. It was wonderful, as was she.
I was talking to a lawyer yesterday about a case I watched him argue. I told him how shocked I was that his client, who was on attacked by opposing counsel while on the stand, did not have any other way to defend himself. The case itself was based on the mistreatment of a woman who was suffering from Alzheimers, which is a disease that I watched destroy my own mother. What I saw in the courtroom was disturbing to me because basically what the attack was based on was that the attorney wanted to paint the witness as a son who did not really care about his ailing mother.
Yesterday I told the witnesses lawyer that what I would have like to have seen was someone testify as to what happens when you watch your parent slowly fading in front of your eyes. The mother or father who raised you, scolded you, fed you, paid you bills and often loved you, forgets your name. It is heart breaking. When my own mother was losing her mind, I tried to visit her everyday. At that time in my life I was writing in the evenings and I had plenty of day time to ride my bike to the elder facility where my mother lived. I visited a lot. There were plenty of older people who did not have visitors, or had few visits. I never viewed that as something that was wrong with the families, some lived in other states, some worked and had families and some probably could not watch as their parents slowly died.
You ever watch someone mourn the loss of a loved one? I have, a few times. Some people cry and fall into depression and I had one friend who got drunk a lot, some people don't seem bothered at all, they may internalize it, they may not be bothered, who knows? The point is that there is no right or wrong in mourning, it is an individual thing. Some people just do not get emotional, and there is nothing wrong with that.
That same sense of understanding is what I have adopted in viewing the way people care, or don't care, about their elderly family members. It is very hard for some people to watch their own parents dying. Again, I do not think there is a right way. One of my brothers never came to visit my mother in the 8 years she was slowly dying. Another member of my family visited once. I did not think that was right or wrong, it just was. To this day I think it was the way they dealt with the way the Alzheimers was affecting our mother and they did what the could.
What I told the attorney was there needs to be a spokesman for families who are painted as some sort of uncaring and cold ingrates. The son I watched being torn apart on the witness stand needed a defense. He needed someone who understood that he did what he could and it is painful to watch your own mother shit on herself. It hurts when your own mother does not know your name. It is remarkable to watch a strong and vital woman try and figure out how she knows you.
The attorney lost his case.
Five years ago I whispered in my mothers ear, as she lay in a hospital after suffering a near fatal stroke. I told her, as he most irresponsible child, that I was ready to carry on and she could go now, she could leave us, her pain and suffering could end. Five years ago today she found some sort of peace, as did the rest of us. It was time for her to go. We mourned in our own weird ways. We cried, we laughed, we told stories. It was wonderful, as was she.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Smoke more pot
Hey, look here, New Jersey lawmakers, like some 14 states before them, want to legalize "medical marijuana". To that I say, dude.
First, let's be honest, there is no such thing as medical marijuana. It is the loophole that logic gets to jump through. Why? Because illegal pot is stupid. The people who oppose it are stupid.
Oh, wait, a childhood story, which is todays leit motif.
When I was much younger my father lectured me about the dangers of drug use. He was a smart and wise man and I paid attention. He was sitting in his favorite recliner, resting after a long days work. As he often did at times like these, he was enjoying a nice cold beer and smoking a menthol cigarette. It was his routine. So, there he sat, telling me how one thing led to another, that a puff here and a snort there would lead to an injection over there and some sort of lifeless repose in the near future. Another swig of beer and a deep inhaling of smoke and he continued.
Right about that time I realized something. One persons drug addiction is another persons good times. My father loved him some cigarettes and beer. As was the moral standing of his generation, if it was illegal, it was bad. He believed all the propaganda without ever thinking that maybe a little bit of something different from his daily addiction would be fun, a walk on the wild side.
As far as I know, he never took that walk. Years later, as my mother was ever so slowly dying of Alzheimers, I wanted more than anything to end some of her suffering with a well smoked joint. It made sense, her appetite was waning, she loved to smoke and I thought the pot might cut some of the anxiety that she was feeling. She never did get around to smoking that joint.
I have never felt the illegality of something necessarily made it bad. At one time or another some illegal drugs were legal and some of todays legal drugs were not. So it goes. Is pot worse than booze? Or smokes? Who cares? I believe that people should make these sorts of decisions for themselves. Smoke em if you got em.
So, this namby pamby legalization thing, making is "medically" legal is stupid. Why? Because I have a couple of friends in Los Angeles, pot smokers from way back, who are no legally smoking on a daily basis, because of some symptom they were able to perform in front of a doctor. Silly. They know it was silly, the doctor understands this, the pot dealers all understand it.
Marijuana is a major cash crop, but it is not regulated or taxed. Many things do not make sense to me, and this is one of them. In a smart country, we would admit that many people like to smoke pot, just like many people like to have a drink now and then. The drinkers have to pay taxes on their choice and so should the smokers. All the rules should be the same, you have to be of a certain age to buy your pot, if you are caught selling it to kids you should go to jail, if you smoke in a public place you should have to share, on and on.
Makes sense, yes? Of course it does, or it should, hard for me to say, because I am completely wasted on some of the finest medical marijuana money can buy.
Writing should be easy
Much like Tucker Carlson I believe that anything and everything should be simple. Which reminds me, at some certain age, we all long for those simpler times.
When I was a child I rode a donkey around our neighborhood. This was Southern California, but we were lucky enough to live on the outskirts of some sort of upwardly mobile artists community, so a lot of eccentricity was allowed. Donkey owning? Sure. People who goats? Of course. Now, one thing I learned as a child is donkeys are incredibly slow. Horse riders would use spurs or whips and their animals would take off for a nice long trot. Donkeys do not care what you do to them, they meander for everything, or so I thought.
I was once riding our donkey, whom I believe was named Taco, and this donkey was meandering ad donkeys often do. Then Taco, dear sweet slow moving Taco spotted my eccentric neighbors goat, which was just kind of standing still, eating weeds, which is what goats tend to do. Taco had a thing for goats, which was something I was about to realize. Once donkey saw goat, the race was on. I held on for dear life as Taco sprinted around the neighborhood, under low hanging branches, into dry river beds, up into a rednecks useless and discarded car collection and back again. It was the best ride ever. Taco never caught the goat, and after a time, the race was over.
When I hear news commentators talk about simpler times I think of Taco, because for the most part, our lives were on the same sense of necessity. I was a young kid with little homework and even less ambition to do it. Taco was a donkey who cared only about food, water and interestingly enough, goats. It was a simpler time, because now I have to worry about drugs and crime and dangerous schools and stalkers and climate change and unwanted pregnancies and conservative talk show hosts and our first black president and our former stupid presidents and on and on. When I was riding Taco I am not sure I worried about anything, until I became aware of Taco's lust for goats. Until that time, a ride was slow, plodding and uneventful. Life was a lot like that.
Simpler times, sure. But also, childhood times. I did not think to worry about our neighbor, who it turns out, was indeed a pedophile. I never bothered to worry about our school safety, because everyone who attended was the same bland color, with pretty much the same bland background. Money was never an issue for me, but it certainly was for my parents, but they never talked to me about it. The world was never about to end, although I heard at some point about nuclear weapons and other wars, but I never paid it much attention. My focus was riding my bike to the lake for fruitless fishing, riding Taco in search of a goat chase high and swings. I was a swing junky.
So, when I hear people talk about simpler times, I guess I know what they are talking about, but I also understand the self imposed safe-box most children live in. Other than a wild running donkey, my childhood was simple and boring. No stray bullets, no neighborhood rapes, no drunken older women asking me to taste some cake.
What happened? We grow up. Those lecherous older women, the neighborhood pedophile, the wars and pollution, the real world, makes itself known and we no longer have blinders on. Simpler times never really exist, except for dump people and selective memories.
When I was a child I rode a donkey around our neighborhood. This was Southern California, but we were lucky enough to live on the outskirts of some sort of upwardly mobile artists community, so a lot of eccentricity was allowed. Donkey owning? Sure. People who goats? Of course. Now, one thing I learned as a child is donkeys are incredibly slow. Horse riders would use spurs or whips and their animals would take off for a nice long trot. Donkeys do not care what you do to them, they meander for everything, or so I thought.
I was once riding our donkey, whom I believe was named Taco, and this donkey was meandering ad donkeys often do. Then Taco, dear sweet slow moving Taco spotted my eccentric neighbors goat, which was just kind of standing still, eating weeds, which is what goats tend to do. Taco had a thing for goats, which was something I was about to realize. Once donkey saw goat, the race was on. I held on for dear life as Taco sprinted around the neighborhood, under low hanging branches, into dry river beds, up into a rednecks useless and discarded car collection and back again. It was the best ride ever. Taco never caught the goat, and after a time, the race was over.
When I hear news commentators talk about simpler times I think of Taco, because for the most part, our lives were on the same sense of necessity. I was a young kid with little homework and even less ambition to do it. Taco was a donkey who cared only about food, water and interestingly enough, goats. It was a simpler time, because now I have to worry about drugs and crime and dangerous schools and stalkers and climate change and unwanted pregnancies and conservative talk show hosts and our first black president and our former stupid presidents and on and on. When I was riding Taco I am not sure I worried about anything, until I became aware of Taco's lust for goats. Until that time, a ride was slow, plodding and uneventful. Life was a lot like that.
Simpler times, sure. But also, childhood times. I did not think to worry about our neighbor, who it turns out, was indeed a pedophile. I never bothered to worry about our school safety, because everyone who attended was the same bland color, with pretty much the same bland background. Money was never an issue for me, but it certainly was for my parents, but they never talked to me about it. The world was never about to end, although I heard at some point about nuclear weapons and other wars, but I never paid it much attention. My focus was riding my bike to the lake for fruitless fishing, riding Taco in search of a goat chase high and swings. I was a swing junky.
So, when I hear people talk about simpler times, I guess I know what they are talking about, but I also understand the self imposed safe-box most children live in. Other than a wild running donkey, my childhood was simple and boring. No stray bullets, no neighborhood rapes, no drunken older women asking me to taste some cake.
What happened? We grow up. Those lecherous older women, the neighborhood pedophile, the wars and pollution, the real world, makes itself known and we no longer have blinders on. Simpler times never really exist, except for dump people and selective memories.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Obama - complete fuck up
Look here, a headline on the Huffington Post proclaims President Obamas home load program is a bust.
What I find fascinating about all the articles and commentaries on the failure of this presidency is that these same organizations were silent during most of the Bush administration. Where were the writers and journalists when we marched into Baghdad? I know, I know, it was a different time. The main difference is that way back then, if you were critical of anything the president did, you were labeled as unpatriotic. Now, if you go along with anything the president does, you are a socialist. Amazing how the tables turn.
I am far from an Obama diehard. What I like about Obama is that he radiates intelligence, which is exactly the opposite of the Bush camp. What I do not understand is how easily the press is manipulated, but I have a theory about that too. First, the press was as cowed and impacted as the rest of the country after 9-11, so there was a tendency to want to protect the homeland and the president during such a scary time. That part I get. But the aggressive, dog eat dog, aspect of journalism was lost for much of the 8 years of the Bush administration.
The dogs are back now and they seem willing to attack anything and everything. My theory continues with this too. First, one thing you have to understand about journalists in general, and reporters covering the corners of power in particular, it is this, they are people too, with egos and bank accounts and everything else that makes them human. It is their bank accounts that I think influences much of they partisan coverage. Some reporters, especially the blow dried TV types are flat our greedhead idiots. Their main job is too keep the checks coming and if that means trashing a new president and supporting a stupid one, they will happily read the scripts handed to them.
In general, TV reporters have to be stupid, it is a job requirement. Imagine telling your friends some earth shattering, hugely important detail of your life, and limiting every aspect of that story to about 90 seconds. TV reporters have to do that with anything and everything. Healthcare debates? They have 90 seconds, and for some reason, they always feel obligated to give some backwoods inbred senator who opposed every progressive move ever made, as much face time as someone who in knowledgeable about the issue and speaks with intelligence.
One of the problems with stupid people pretending to be journalists is that they think that "telling boths sides of the story" is enough. So, if you have a senator who strongly favors healthcare for everyone and can explain every aspect of how a government program could save the country billions and allow everyone to have a first class health insurance system, the idiot reporters find it necessary to give the semi-retarded gas bag from, say Mississippi, exactly as much time as they gave the bills sponsor, to speak out on why no one except the rich deserve anything. In the end, the sponsor, who understands the issue and the complexity, gets about 15 seconds to explain everything and the idiot who just hates everything, gets the exact amount of time to attack. For a bonehead journalist, this is fair and balanced. For the people watching at home, they find the arguments complex and almost impossible to understand, so they stick with the passionate idiot.
So goes almost all public debate, which saw its low point this summer, when the white trash and the racists among us went to every public forum to scream about socialism and Hitler and healthcare. These know-nothings brought a much needed debate on the nations priorities to a complete halt. Nothing can get accomplished in situation where the people who scream the loudest shuts down a debate. It is no way for adults to conduct any sort of business.
Of course, the press gave the windbags a forum because it was lively and colorful, no matter that is was empty and damaging. The press, always mindful of ratings before anything else, allowed the dangerous and stupid to control a debate that most people wanted to hear and understand. These out of control hooligans probably ruined any real opportunity for vast changes to a failing healthcare system.
The republican party has taken the Obama presidency as an opportunity to just say no to anything. Imagine if you worked with someone who, no matter what the task, would refuse. "Hey Joe, can you hand me that wrench while I am under this care changing the muffler?" "No."
Nothing would get done, and in about half an hour, you would either hit Joe with a wrench, or make sure he was fired. In politics, the republicans will run on a platform that for two years of the Obama presidency they were able to thwart all real reform, good or bad. And guess what? They will get elected.
So, Obama is failing all over the place, or at least he is if you listen to the talking headcases and the illiterate reporters. We remain at war, under attack as of Christmas Day when some loser lit his junk on fire on a jet bound of Detroit. What is most frustrating is to have witnessed how brilliant the Bush administration used moments like this as a way to shut up critics and jam through their terrible, anti-American policies, and watching now as the Obama administration continues to talk and glide and shuffle along, getting nothing of substance accomplished all the while allowing the right wing to attack daily with not a single counter punch.
Maybe democrats, as many of my friends have often said, are really just a bunch of spineless pussies. My sense is this, if they do not grow a backbone very quickly, most will be out of work either this year or in 2012, and that goes for the president.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Fire Geithner
As I have been saying for a long time now, the President has made some mistakes in his first year and now it seems obvious he made some serious mistakes before his first year.
An arm of the Federal Reserve, then led by now-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, told bailed-out insurance giant AIG to withhold key details from the public about overpayments that put billions of extra tax dollars in the coffers of major Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs.
The sordid tale unfolds in a series of e-mails between the company and the New York Fed obtained by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and first publicly disclosed by Bloomberg News.Taxpayers have committed about $182 billion to AIG. The under-regulated firm developed and sold complicated derivatives products without having adequate capital in place if those bets went bad, which they eventually did. The firm nearly single-handedly wrecked the entire financial system.
After the firm was given a taxpayer-funded backstop, one of its most controversial acts was to repay banks at 100 cents on the dollar for what was by that point nearly worthless insurance the banks had bought from AIG, known as credit-default swaps.
A brutal report issued in November by a government watchdog disclosed that AIG had actually been trying to negotiate better terms with the banks until - guess what? -- the New York Fed stepped in. The report held Geithner personally responsible, and led to renewed questions about his fitness for the job.
Now it turns out Geithner's people told AIG to delete references on draft regulatory filings to the sweetheart deals. And AIG then excluded any mention of them in its December 2008 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, keeping the information hidden from investors and the public.
"It appears that the New York Fed deliberately pressured AIG to restrict and delay the disclosure of important information to the SEC," Issa said in a statement. "The American taxpayers, who own approximately 80% of AIG, deserve full and complete disclosure under our nation's securities laws, not the withholding of politically inconvenient information.
"This news ought to serve as a cautionary tale to those who advocate giving the Federal Reserve even more power over the U.S. economy. The lack of transparency and accountability is disturbing enough, but the outstanding question that remains is why the [New York Fed] didn't fight for a better deal for the American taxpayer. Clearly, the New York Fed wanted to suppress details and limit disclosure of the counterparty deal from the American people -- the only question is why?"In a March 12, 2009, e-mail, Kathleen Shannon, an AIG in-house lawyer and senior vice president, told AIG executives that the firm needed to come up with a reason, per the New York Fed, for why it wasn't going to publicly disclose details regarding payments to counterparties."In order to make only the disclosure that the Fed wants us to make...we need to have a reasonable basis for believing and arguing to the SEC that the information we are seeking to protect is not already publicly available," Shannon wrote in an e-mail sent at 10:55 p.m. on March 12.
Around noon the next day, a New York Fed official, Alex Latorre, e-mailed a colleague, Sarah Dahlgren, writing: "...I understand that the company is still deliberating on the proposal surrounding the disclosure. It is important that they reach consensus quickly."
The power of the Fed in forcing AIG to keep these details secret cannot be understated. As detailed in journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin's recent book on the bailout, "Too Big To Fail", AIG officials had been pleading with the New York Fed for assistance throughout the crucial first weeks of September 2008 before the firm was finally given a taxpayer-funded bailout. The firm's pleadings were largely ignored by Geithner, who was preoccupied with Lehman Brothers and other Wall Street broker-dealers like Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The firm owes the Fed its survival.
Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia got full value for their derivatives contracts with AIG, and taxpayers got stuck with the bill. In total, $27.1 billion of public money was transferred to companies that did business with AIG. It was largely seen as a "backdoor bailout" for firms like Goldman.
Instead of bargaining with AIG's numerous counterparties to resolve its billions of dollars in souring derivatives contracts, Geithner's team ended up having AIG pay top dollar for toxic assets -- "an amount far above their market value at the time," the November report noted. It described how the team led by Geithner failed nearly every step of the way.
And consider the timing of the newly discovered action. Reports first emerged that Geithner was being tapped for the Treasury secretary post on Nov. 21, 2008; the Senate confirmed his nomination on Jan. 26. Details of AIG's 100-cents-on-the-dollar payments to various banks with taxpayer-supported funds totaling in the billions, which would otherwise have become public no later than December, weren't disclosed to the public until March, when Geithner was already in office.
The Treasury's response this morning is, essentially, no harm no foul. Meg Reilly, a Treasury spokeswoman, released a statement: "In the transaction at the heart of this dispute... the FRBNY made a loan of $25 billion which is on track to be paid back in full with interest so that taxpayers will be made whole. Somehow that fact that the government's loan is 'above water' gets lost in all the consternation despite its mention on page 2 of the SIG-TARP report (and weekly updates on the FRBNY's web site."
An arm of the Federal Reserve, then led by now-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, told bailed-out insurance giant AIG to withhold key details from the public about overpayments that put billions of extra tax dollars in the coffers of major Wall Street firms, most notably Goldman Sachs.
The sordid tale unfolds in a series of e-mails between the company and the New York Fed obtained by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and first publicly disclosed by Bloomberg News.Taxpayers have committed about $182 billion to AIG. The under-regulated firm developed and sold complicated derivatives products without having adequate capital in place if those bets went bad, which they eventually did. The firm nearly single-handedly wrecked the entire financial system.
After the firm was given a taxpayer-funded backstop, one of its most controversial acts was to repay banks at 100 cents on the dollar for what was by that point nearly worthless insurance the banks had bought from AIG, known as credit-default swaps.
A brutal report issued in November by a government watchdog disclosed that AIG had actually been trying to negotiate better terms with the banks until - guess what? -- the New York Fed stepped in. The report held Geithner personally responsible, and led to renewed questions about his fitness for the job.
Now it turns out Geithner's people told AIG to delete references on draft regulatory filings to the sweetheart deals. And AIG then excluded any mention of them in its December 2008 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, keeping the information hidden from investors and the public.
"It appears that the New York Fed deliberately pressured AIG to restrict and delay the disclosure of important information to the SEC," Issa said in a statement. "The American taxpayers, who own approximately 80% of AIG, deserve full and complete disclosure under our nation's securities laws, not the withholding of politically inconvenient information.
"This news ought to serve as a cautionary tale to those who advocate giving the Federal Reserve even more power over the U.S. economy. The lack of transparency and accountability is disturbing enough, but the outstanding question that remains is why the [New York Fed] didn't fight for a better deal for the American taxpayer. Clearly, the New York Fed wanted to suppress details and limit disclosure of the counterparty deal from the American people -- the only question is why?"In a March 12, 2009, e-mail, Kathleen Shannon, an AIG in-house lawyer and senior vice president, told AIG executives that the firm needed to come up with a reason, per the New York Fed, for why it wasn't going to publicly disclose details regarding payments to counterparties."In order to make only the disclosure that the Fed wants us to make...we need to have a reasonable basis for believing and arguing to the SEC that the information we are seeking to protect is not already publicly available," Shannon wrote in an e-mail sent at 10:55 p.m. on March 12.
Around noon the next day, a New York Fed official, Alex Latorre, e-mailed a colleague, Sarah Dahlgren, writing: "...I understand that the company is still deliberating on the proposal surrounding the disclosure. It is important that they reach consensus quickly."
The power of the Fed in forcing AIG to keep these details secret cannot be understated. As detailed in journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin's recent book on the bailout, "Too Big To Fail", AIG officials had been pleading with the New York Fed for assistance throughout the crucial first weeks of September 2008 before the firm was finally given a taxpayer-funded bailout. The firm's pleadings were largely ignored by Geithner, who was preoccupied with Lehman Brothers and other Wall Street broker-dealers like Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The firm owes the Fed its survival.
Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia got full value for their derivatives contracts with AIG, and taxpayers got stuck with the bill. In total, $27.1 billion of public money was transferred to companies that did business with AIG. It was largely seen as a "backdoor bailout" for firms like Goldman.
Instead of bargaining with AIG's numerous counterparties to resolve its billions of dollars in souring derivatives contracts, Geithner's team ended up having AIG pay top dollar for toxic assets -- "an amount far above their market value at the time," the November report noted. It described how the team led by Geithner failed nearly every step of the way.
And consider the timing of the newly discovered action. Reports first emerged that Geithner was being tapped for the Treasury secretary post on Nov. 21, 2008; the Senate confirmed his nomination on Jan. 26. Details of AIG's 100-cents-on-the-dollar payments to various banks with taxpayer-supported funds totaling in the billions, which would otherwise have become public no later than December, weren't disclosed to the public until March, when Geithner was already in office.
The Treasury's response this morning is, essentially, no harm no foul. Meg Reilly, a Treasury spokeswoman, released a statement: "In the transaction at the heart of this dispute... the FRBNY made a loan of $25 billion which is on track to be paid back in full with interest so that taxpayers will be made whole. Somehow that fact that the government's loan is 'above water' gets lost in all the consternation despite its mention on page 2 of the SIG-TARP report (and weekly updates on the FRBNY's web site."
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
You, like me.
Everyone is seeking the same thing in life, right? I mean, well, I guess I mean Americans are all after the same thing in life.
Well, now that I think about it, even among friends, that is just not true. I have a brother who is only focused on money, everything in his life is judged by dollar figures, you are as happy as you are rich, your job is worthwhile as long as it pays a minimum of six figures and on and on. A simple way of viewing things, and possibly the most American way of viewing things.
I had a lover once who worked for the peace corp and shared a story about antibiotics in a foreign country. The supply was limited and very few ill people could get the pills that would save lives. The explanation was simple, their lives were of less value that Americans. I know, I was shocked too, but then and probably more so, now it was true. That is a very American way of judging, that idea that if you were lucky enough to be born here somehow your very existence has a higher value than any other birth in this world.
Of course, if you watch any sort of reality TV here in America you will be hard pressed to understand how, say someone from Jersey Shore's life is more valuable than an automobile tire. That said, we are fed a constant stream of propaganda from almost day one about how special we as Americans are, how god loves us and our freedom. In fact, remember 9-11? Was it not moments after the planes crashed into our buildings that we were told people hate us for our freedom? Politicians said that with a straight face. It's almost like a person who is mugged telling police the mugger hated him for his education. No, the mugger wanted your money dumb ass. The same is true of the terrorists, I would imagine, they don't give a shit about our freedom, they just want us to leave their countries, quit stealing their natural resources and stop sending unmanned bombers to their weddings.
My children, without my prodding, refused to say the pledge of allegiance from kindergarten on. They felt they should not have to say those words because they did not always agree with them. They were right of course and because we generally were in schools where the teachers were drugged or coming off a weekend binge, no one ever cared.
Is America really the center of freedom and greatness? If so, it sure makes me wonder why so many of us are using mind altering drugs to make life even passable. Alcohol, illegal drugs and especially pharmaceuticals are everywhere, in all walks of life, and the question remains, why? If any one needs an antidepressant is seems like a starving African might want one, or a raped Bosnian. But they seem to go on, they seem to keep moving, keep trying to survive. But the pampered and spoiled suburbanite? Loaded with everything you can think of that takes their mind off their very existence. Makes me wonder.
Well, now that I think about it, even among friends, that is just not true. I have a brother who is only focused on money, everything in his life is judged by dollar figures, you are as happy as you are rich, your job is worthwhile as long as it pays a minimum of six figures and on and on. A simple way of viewing things, and possibly the most American way of viewing things.
I had a lover once who worked for the peace corp and shared a story about antibiotics in a foreign country. The supply was limited and very few ill people could get the pills that would save lives. The explanation was simple, their lives were of less value that Americans. I know, I was shocked too, but then and probably more so, now it was true. That is a very American way of judging, that idea that if you were lucky enough to be born here somehow your very existence has a higher value than any other birth in this world.
Of course, if you watch any sort of reality TV here in America you will be hard pressed to understand how, say someone from Jersey Shore's life is more valuable than an automobile tire. That said, we are fed a constant stream of propaganda from almost day one about how special we as Americans are, how god loves us and our freedom. In fact, remember 9-11? Was it not moments after the planes crashed into our buildings that we were told people hate us for our freedom? Politicians said that with a straight face. It's almost like a person who is mugged telling police the mugger hated him for his education. No, the mugger wanted your money dumb ass. The same is true of the terrorists, I would imagine, they don't give a shit about our freedom, they just want us to leave their countries, quit stealing their natural resources and stop sending unmanned bombers to their weddings.
My children, without my prodding, refused to say the pledge of allegiance from kindergarten on. They felt they should not have to say those words because they did not always agree with them. They were right of course and because we generally were in schools where the teachers were drugged or coming off a weekend binge, no one ever cared.
Is America really the center of freedom and greatness? If so, it sure makes me wonder why so many of us are using mind altering drugs to make life even passable. Alcohol, illegal drugs and especially pharmaceuticals are everywhere, in all walks of life, and the question remains, why? If any one needs an antidepressant is seems like a starving African might want one, or a raped Bosnian. But they seem to go on, they seem to keep moving, keep trying to survive. But the pampered and spoiled suburbanite? Loaded with everything you can think of that takes their mind off their very existence. Makes me wonder.
In agreement
Rarely do I find someone on the NY Times opinion page agreeable, or even coherent. Then, while looking for something to read while I made doody, I found this.
Got to agree and sadly feel the same way.
Got to agree and sadly feel the same way.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Plains justice
Here is a story that is both strange and disturbing and the fact that this sort of racist idiocy continues today and ironically in the home town of a former president who has come out firmly against racism, well, it's beyond me. Here is the story.
There is never a doubt that this country has a number of racial issues, most of which continue today, but it is this sort of insanity that always makes me wonder what it will take for this country to move forward. I know, my liberal friends will scream education and my conservative friends will scream what racism, but the fact remains, it's here and it's not pretty.
One thing I always preach is for individuals to call out their friends when secret little racist words and jokes are tossed around. I am a white guy, and sometimes, when hanging around white guys, things get said, jokes get told. That is the time to pounce, not to make the joke teller repent or cry, but just to point out that if a joke is funny and told in good fun, tell it when a black guy, or a Chinese guy, or whatever the butt of the joke it, tell it when they are around. If it's funny, they will laugh, if it's racist, expect some other reaction. Either way, I always make the point that just because you may be hanging with like colored friends that does not mean it is time to revert to idiotic and imbecilic behavior.
There is never a doubt that this country has a number of racial issues, most of which continue today, but it is this sort of insanity that always makes me wonder what it will take for this country to move forward. I know, my liberal friends will scream education and my conservative friends will scream what racism, but the fact remains, it's here and it's not pretty.
One thing I always preach is for individuals to call out their friends when secret little racist words and jokes are tossed around. I am a white guy, and sometimes, when hanging around white guys, things get said, jokes get told. That is the time to pounce, not to make the joke teller repent or cry, but just to point out that if a joke is funny and told in good fun, tell it when a black guy, or a Chinese guy, or whatever the butt of the joke it, tell it when they are around. If it's funny, they will laugh, if it's racist, expect some other reaction. Either way, I always make the point that just because you may be hanging with like colored friends that does not mean it is time to revert to idiotic and imbecilic behavior.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
LA Artist
Here is a film I did a few years ago. I really liked this woman, but in the end, a longer film was cut down and it began to have too many chefs in the kitchen when the final edit came about. Her message kind of remains, but so much of her character ended up removed. Still, a good little film.
A treasure
This is one of my favorite films. I interviewed Mark diSuvero in Chicago as he was installing some of his work. He is brilliant and he speaks like a poet. If you want until the very end, after the credits, you will get a treat. A back story. He had been interviewed by a number of the Chicago press while there and each had promised him that they would allow him to speak his mind about politics and his view on the Iraq War. When the stories were published all had been whitewashed and his words were cut. I made the same promise. At the end of the film, you will see what he had to say.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Working on Saturday
When I was a child my father never worked on Saturday, or better, if he did is was considered overtime and it was sweet.
I am working today and for the past year if there was work to be had on a saturday or sunday, I took it. Part of this is because over the past few years I have somehow been ripped off by fat men and addicts more than I care to admit, but the other part is, I like to work and the traffic on weekends always seems easier to handle.
In some ways I think this sort of take work where it is anthem is becoming an everyday philosophy. More and more people are doing what they can to hold things together and if that means a part time job, accepting accounts that might not have seems so glamorous a few years ago or working on weekends, so be it.
What has changed? Cash machine houses as far as I can tell. For may years I was aware that neighbors, family and friends were using their home equity lines of credit to do what they want. Some went to Europe for an extended holiday, some rebuilt bathrooms or some other part of their homes (increasing the equity, ka-ching) and some just continued to spend more than they could afford. One neighbor I became aware of did this, he purchased new suits, carpeting and a lot of other "stuff" on quite a few credit cards, then he had his house re-appraised, used the new and higher value to get a new loan and take out home equity that not only paid off the high interest credit cards, but also allowed him to cash out tens of thousands of dollars so he could purchase a new car, invest in the runaway stock market and turn his garage into a playroom, with a huge screen TV.
He did this three times. Each time the pattern was the same, over-spend on credit cards, use home equity lines of credit to pay them off, then use the cards again when he squandered the cash out money on some worthless speculation. This was a guy who made a good living, but he constantly spent more money that he brought in. In the end, he sold his house for even more than his latest cash out had allowed, so not only did he walk away debt free, but he lived to fight again.
The problem is many many people were living this lifestyle. While he was in a position to bail at just the right time, luck really, he is no financial genius, many people were not so lucky. That means there are families way over the heads in debt for purchases and spending they can never pay back, living in homes that are way overvalued and mortgaged to the hilt. There will be no easy way out for people holding a half million dollar mortgage on a home worth half as much.
For anyone who has ever speculated on stocks, and I know many people who have, what we often saw was us know-nothings purchasing stocks at almost their high, we made money on paper those first few months, but when the stocks prices started to float downward, even past our buy-in point, we all held on, thinking this is one of those stocks that will always regain its past glory. The sad lesson is that most of this sort of investment led to great loses, because even professional stock traders are generally boobs, but they play with other peoples money. When those of us with little knowledge got into the game, we were the fresh bait suckers who the pros used to build massive portfolios on.
The same happened to home owners. My dad never took a penny from our house. He died owning it. Not owing a cent. If there is a lesson to be learned over the past few bubble bursting moments in our financial history, it is that there never was and never will be a pain free investment that is for everyone, including greedy idiots, like myself and my neighbor, family, friends and just about everyone.
I am working today and for the past year if there was work to be had on a saturday or sunday, I took it. Part of this is because over the past few years I have somehow been ripped off by fat men and addicts more than I care to admit, but the other part is, I like to work and the traffic on weekends always seems easier to handle.
In some ways I think this sort of take work where it is anthem is becoming an everyday philosophy. More and more people are doing what they can to hold things together and if that means a part time job, accepting accounts that might not have seems so glamorous a few years ago or working on weekends, so be it.
What has changed? Cash machine houses as far as I can tell. For may years I was aware that neighbors, family and friends were using their home equity lines of credit to do what they want. Some went to Europe for an extended holiday, some rebuilt bathrooms or some other part of their homes (increasing the equity, ka-ching) and some just continued to spend more than they could afford. One neighbor I became aware of did this, he purchased new suits, carpeting and a lot of other "stuff" on quite a few credit cards, then he had his house re-appraised, used the new and higher value to get a new loan and take out home equity that not only paid off the high interest credit cards, but also allowed him to cash out tens of thousands of dollars so he could purchase a new car, invest in the runaway stock market and turn his garage into a playroom, with a huge screen TV.
He did this three times. Each time the pattern was the same, over-spend on credit cards, use home equity lines of credit to pay them off, then use the cards again when he squandered the cash out money on some worthless speculation. This was a guy who made a good living, but he constantly spent more money that he brought in. In the end, he sold his house for even more than his latest cash out had allowed, so not only did he walk away debt free, but he lived to fight again.
The problem is many many people were living this lifestyle. While he was in a position to bail at just the right time, luck really, he is no financial genius, many people were not so lucky. That means there are families way over the heads in debt for purchases and spending they can never pay back, living in homes that are way overvalued and mortgaged to the hilt. There will be no easy way out for people holding a half million dollar mortgage on a home worth half as much.
For anyone who has ever speculated on stocks, and I know many people who have, what we often saw was us know-nothings purchasing stocks at almost their high, we made money on paper those first few months, but when the stocks prices started to float downward, even past our buy-in point, we all held on, thinking this is one of those stocks that will always regain its past glory. The sad lesson is that most of this sort of investment led to great loses, because even professional stock traders are generally boobs, but they play with other peoples money. When those of us with little knowledge got into the game, we were the fresh bait suckers who the pros used to build massive portfolios on.
The same happened to home owners. My dad never took a penny from our house. He died owning it. Not owing a cent. If there is a lesson to be learned over the past few bubble bursting moments in our financial history, it is that there never was and never will be a pain free investment that is for everyone, including greedy idiots, like myself and my neighbor, family, friends and just about everyone.
Friday, January 1, 2010
New
Well, let's take a look at what the experts are saying about the new years.
Typical Krugman, obvious and worried.
In other Times reportage, a worry in Spain that the kids are not exactly alright.
Bloomberg has something more on China, bored yet?
AT&T, by far the worst phone company ever, says adios to Tiger.
Karl Rove has New Years Resolutions for the DC crowd, probably something about integrity and trust, because he knows so much about that, right?
Unlike Karl, I spent part of my New Years listening to a drunken neighbor hit pots and pans together at midnight. Party on 2010.
Typical Krugman, obvious and worried.
In other Times reportage, a worry in Spain that the kids are not exactly alright.
Bloomberg has something more on China, bored yet?
AT&T, by far the worst phone company ever, says adios to Tiger.
Karl Rove has New Years Resolutions for the DC crowd, probably something about integrity and trust, because he knows so much about that, right?
Unlike Karl, I spent part of my New Years listening to a drunken neighbor hit pots and pans together at midnight. Party on 2010.
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