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The anti Davos… 29 January 2009

Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, Brazil - Lula, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Switzerland.
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Brazil World Social Forum

Indians gather during a meeting to discuss rights of indigenous peoples at the World Social Forum, in Belem, Brazil, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009. The World Social Forum, the annual countercultural gathering to protest the simultaneous World Economic Forum in Switzerland, is taking place until Feb. 1. [AP/ Andre Penner] link to larger version

As for Davos… it’s from Wonkette… but! any port in a PR storm!

Upon arriving here on Wednesday afternoon, he conducted a series of quiet meetings with foreign leaders that culminated in an intense late-night discussion with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The two former presidents met at a Sheraton hotel where Putin held a private party, following an early evening reception at a local museum hosted by Clinton.

Putin greeted Clinton cordially as “our good friend” as they raised glasses of vodka and then listened to a pianist pound out “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” When the musical entertainment concluded, they moved to a table in a separate room with access strictly controlled by Secret Service and Russian security agents. Flanked by aides and an interpreter, the two men talked for nearly 90 minutes before they rose and walked out together for a few pictures with partygoers and members of Clinton’s entourage.

“In the Hall of the Mountain King” ??? Okaaay. Whatever props up the great men.  I can see how, in some idealistic Great Man drivel, they see a scenario of Peer Gynt escaping from the trolls and the king, the great hall tumbling down as they escape.  When in truth rather than fiction it is thieves escaping in the night intent on both their bags of cash and their histories of perfidy.

Onward!

Intermittent Bystander linked to the Reuters report on Erdogan and Putin in Davos… and someone just sent me the NYT version…

Panel discussions at Davos are strictly restricted to one hour, but Mr. Erdogan insisted on responding to Mr. Peres. Red faced, and with one hand grasping the arm of the moderator, David Ignatius of the Washington Post, Mr. Erdogan turned to the Israeli president.

“Mr. Peres, you are older than me,” he said. “Your voice comes out in a very high tone. And the high tone of your voice has to do with a guilty conscience. My voice, however, will not come out in the same tone.”

Resisting efforts by Mr. Ignatius to end the session, Mr. Erdogan continued, saying to Mr. Peres, “When it comes to killing, you know well how to kill.”

Eventually, the prime minister gathered up his papers and departed from the stage, saying, “And so Davos is over for me from now on.”

Mais Oui!

Closer to home but so evocative… this scene, or set of scenes, at the WH yesterday.

Of those who braved the weather to meet with President Obama today were just over a dozen CEOs from around the nation, who sat down with Obama to discuss the impact of the weakening economy on business and workers.

“They make things, they hire people,” Obama said of the meeting participants. “They are on the front lines in seeing the enormous problems in the economy right now.  Their ideas and their concerns have helped to shape our recovery package in order to get this economy back on track.”

When I read they were served orange juice, well… I just KNEW those great men had donated blood. Surely.  Donated, as they stood, poorly dressed for the weather, in the snow.  Having walked miles to get to the WH and will have to manage the miles again, in reverse.  You just know it!

Afterwards, the dulcet tones of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day” filled the East Room as President Obama shook the hands of the business leaders who had come to Washington, DC, to express their support for his plan.

No lyrics could be heard — just the melody to the song that would otherwise proceed “Night and day, you are the one/Only you beneath the moon or under the sun/Whether near to me, or far/Its no matter darling where you are” — while in the next room, Staff Sgt. Russell Wilson of the U.S. Marine Corps Band tickled the ivories at a tax-payer-financed orange-juice-and-coffee reception awaiting the CEO crowd and their appetites.

There is such a mincing quality to it all… but, who cares.  As long as it is not too chilly in that draughty old Southern Manse.  If it were I would be so worried.  Very very worried.

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Comments»

1. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

That’s a serious sign of how much too far the Israelis have gone, when the head Turk is publically calling them monsters. They’ve been fairly forgiving of Israel, for years.

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

Americans receiving jobless benefits hits record

WASHINGTON – The number of people receiving unemployment benefits has reached the highest level on records that go back more than 40 years, the government said Thursday, and more layoffs are spreading throughout the economy.

The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans continuing to claim unemployment insurance for the week ending Jan. 17 was a seasonally adjusted 4.78 million, the highest since records started in 1967. That’s an increase of 159,000 from the previous week and worse than economists’ expectations of 4.65 million.

As a proportion of the work force, the tally of unemployment benefit recipients is the highest since August 1983, a department analyst said.

The total released by the department doesn’t include about 1.7 million people receiving benefits under an extended unemployment compensation program authorized by Congress last summer. That means the total number of recipients is actually closer to 6.5 million people.

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3. marisacat - 29 January 2009

Any little slap back… they are going to go on killing however. No one to stop us… no one to stop them. A global pull back might do it. If the Europeans/UK could get off the Be Nice To Israel teat.

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4. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

NPR had this jaw-droppingly biased piece on Keynes today.

Many would argue that Keynes’ 73-year-old theory is being tested, right now, for the very first time. One Keynes biographer, Lord Robert Skidelsky, portrays Keynes as a fascinating figure, equal parts genius and jerk. Keynes ran with the Bloomsbury Group, which included painters and writers such as Virginia Woolf. The Bloomsbury crowd was known for free love and raunchy language, but even they complained in letters to each other that Keynes was too dirty for them.

Keynes could be just as shocking when it came to academic theory, sounding like a socialist one moment and fanatically defending free markets the next.

The one constant was Keynes’ faith in the elite. He generally believed that almost any problem could be solved by getting together young men who had been schooled at Cambridge and asking them to take over. He even wanted Cambridge men to run America, because he didn’t think anyone in the U.S. was smart enough. He also didn’t like Jews, the French or the working class.

And that’s at the BEGINNING of the piece.

Check THIS out, for example:

One way the economy is not like a watch is that you can repair a watch without politicians. Politicians took the Keynesian message that government spending can be good and ran with it. They paid for the war on poverty and the war in Vietnam. They sent a man to the moon. All the while, they piled up the federal budget deficit, convinced that Keynes gave them a free pass.

Prescribing Keynesianism to some politicians is like prescribing crack to a coke addict. In the 1970s, the patient hit rock bottom. The U.S. had high unemployment, and the Keynesian solution stopped working. The national government spent and spent, but unemployment only got worse. Then came inflation, something Keynesians had no answer for.

On the other hand:

“When I took macroeconomics in the 1980s and early 1990s, the textbooks explained the basic system, but then spent a few chapters showing why the Keynesian system did not work,” remembers economist Chris Edwards, now of the avowedly anti-Keynesian Cato Institute. The think tank was founded in 1977, near Keynesianism’s lowest point. Edwards says he thought the debate of Keynesianism was settled in the 1980s.

Now, with the new stimulus package before Congress, the Keynesians are back — and economists across the spectrum are calling for government spending. Where are the theorists who oppose it? “I thought this sort of kindergarten Keynesianism, as I call it, the simple idea that the government can spend more money to grow the economy, had died in the 1970s,” he says. “But I was wrong.”

Edwards is part of a school of thought that replaced Keynesianism. The discipline of economics includes many different groups — the monetarists, the Chicago school and supply-side economics. The Keynesians used taxes and government deficits as their main tools for steering the economy. The anti-Keynesians thought you could have the same effect just by using the central bank — the Federal Reserve — to carefully control interest rates. If the economy overheats, raise rates. If it starts to sputter, lower them.

Just … wow.

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5. marisacat - 29 January 2009

Keynes. Not to worry! Ob will save us from long dead men who were raunchy.

Good lord.

Time to excavate some of the very inflammatory stuff Mohatmas said. And some of those photos of very young girls attending to him. (As if I cared.)

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6. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009
7. catnip - 29 January 2009

Life is a musical.

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8. marisacat - 29 January 2009

FWIW via Plumline at Wapo:

[N]ew polling from Rasmussen suggests that among the broader public, the ongoing argument isn’t really moving the needle much, with 42% supporting it, down a bit from from 45% last week.

However, in a bit of ominous news for proponents of the package, the swing against it among independents has been dramatic…

However, support among unaffiliated voters has fallen. A week ago, unaffiliateds were evenly divided on the plan, with 37% in favor and 36% opposed. Now, 50% of unaffiliated voters oppose the plan while only 27% favor it.

That’s pretty big indy movement against the package …snapslap…

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9. marisacat - 29 January 2009

And here is a very on point comment from the Plumline thread. As always the Dems are shits at getting the message out. BECAUSE THEY DON’T CARE. After years of hand wringing it is the only possible answer.

#

The opposition could be explained by the fact that the only side we see on TV is the Republican version. Most people don’t know what is in the bill or how it will work, they only know that republicans are saying it doesn’t work, it’s too big and it’s filled with pork. Democrats need a better way to get the message out.

Posted by: Atlliberal | January 29th, 2009 at 01:40 pm

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10. catnip - 29 January 2009

I’ll miss Blago. Maybe he’ll get a talk show.

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11. marisacat - 29 January 2009

#

Democrats need a better way to get the message out

Same as it ever was. Last night, Matthews had Darryl Issa sitting in the studio of Hardball while the Democratic representative was standing in the noisy Capitol building–it was difficult to hear her at all, while Issa (dinosaur farts caused global warming) had the megaphone. Hilarious.

Democrats need to get out there and start responding to this. Why they still seem to be always behind when it comes to messaging is infuriating to me. The National mall renovation might have been a great idea, as would removing bureacratic barriers to the funding of contraceptives, but they should have understood that these were two things that were going to grab attention like John Thain’s bazillion dollar “commode”.

Why are they so inept in this department??

Posted by: CT Voter | January 29th, 2009 at 01:47 pm

YES BUT… Dems or Obster or whomever, took in the R tax cuts, too many of them I suspect… and hit poor women and poor families. They also hit/removed, less mentioned but I posted a link two days ago, “cram down” that would assist in modifying mortgages in teh bankrutcy courts. Of course it would require modigying the horrible Bankruptcy Bill of a few years ago. AND I have read the monies alloted to foreclosure remedies (under 3 billion) is woefully too small.

AND, this is just a guess, as I have not seen the Mall in years… but have read funding refurbishing tt likely would have benefitted small businesses in DC.

A bad bill to sell.. far too partisan.

But what the hell.

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12. marisacat - 29 January 2009

May they all beat each other up. Beat each other to a pulp.

By removing the family-planning aid from the stimulus at Obama’s request, Democrats “were giving a nod to the Republicans, believing they would act in good faith,” the source added. And given how many GOPers voted for the stimulus bill, sounds like the family-planning aid is back on track.

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13. catnip - 29 January 2009

I found the press briefings.

Check out the pic on the main WH page. Apparently, it was Wear a red blazer to the WH Day.

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14. catnip - 29 January 2009

Ted “I am SO in denial” Haggard is on Larry King. Well, not literally. Although it could happen.

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15. marisacat - 29 January 2009

Not a fan of Amy Sullivan but she has good back ground on the Stimulus/Medicaid Waivers/Family Planning issues.

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16. catnip - 29 January 2009

Haggard’s current therapist says he’s a “heterosexual with complications”.

OMG. YOU’RE BI! Admit it already.

“complications”, my ass.

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17. marisacat - 29 January 2009

13

thanks for the press briefings…

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18. marisacat - 29 January 2009

wow it really is the transcripts… interesting as doing a search for “Gibbs+press+briefings” turned up highlights.

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19. catnip - 29 January 2009

18. That wasn’t there last week when I checked. Took them a while to figure that out.

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20. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

Meltdown Madness

At least 33 people chose to commit suicide in national parks in 2008. And there seemed to be an economic component to at least some of the cases. For example, an Associated Press report noted that a “49-year-old builder blamed the economy in a note he left for his ex-wife and attorney before killing himself at the edge of the woods at Georgia’s Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.” Similarly, in October, Bruce J. Colburn, a “[f]reshly unemployed, former business executive” from Reading, Pennsylvania, traveled to Montana’s scenic Glacier National Park where “he shot himself in the chest with a handgun, according to park officials.”

Others stayed closer to home.

On October 14, 2008, a woman in Bogart, Georgia, was “supposed to go to court for an eviction hearing.” Instead, she called the police and informed them that she was thinking of killing herself. Not long afterward, she shot herself in the head. On October 29th, a 47-year-old man from Blount County, Tennessee, “killed himself when sheriff’s deputies tried to evict him from his rented home.” The next month, according to Mike Witzky, the executive director of the Mental Health and Recovery Board in Union County, Ohio, two local men committed suicide due to financial problems, while another failed in his attempt.

On December 5, 2008, Ricky Guseman of West Palm Beach, Florida, was to be evicted. Instead, local officials told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, he “barricaded himself in a mobile home… set the place on fire and then shot himself in the head with a shotgun.”

In December, coroner’s investigators in Kern County, California, revealed that they were “seeing a wave of people committing suicide because of financial stress,” a 5-10% increase over 2007.

An analysis of 2008 “death reports” in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, by local ABC television affiliate WISN-TV found “[f]inancial pressure in a difficult economy has led to desperate measures.” Of 108 suicides — a 20% jump over any of the last three years — at least 25% of the victims “were struggling financially.” For example, Wauwatosa resident Tom Brisch, a married father of two, fell on hard times after his wife of 20 years, Sherry, lost her job. At the same time, his job as a commission-only Ford car salesman fell victim to the sluggish auto market. As Sherry summed the situation up after his suicide, “[T]he economic picture with a kid going to college, another one starting high school… was pretty grim and we were struggling.” She returned home one day to find that her husband had hanged himself. In his shirt pocket was a suicide note in which “he asked for forgiveness and wrote that he could not get it together to provide for them.”

WISN-TV uncovered a host of similar tragedies including:

* A 21-year-old Milwaukee man who shot himself in the face after “he ran out of unemployment [insurance].”

* A 43-year-old West Allis man who hanged himself in his basement with a belt. “[T]he mortgage payments are behind,” his girlfriend told the police. “There are astronomical medical bills.”

* A 40-year-old Milwaukee woman who overdosed after having “financial problems.”

* A 24-year-old Milwaukee man, “fired from his job three weeks before,” who suffocated himself with Saran Wrap.

* And a 38-year-old Milwaukee man who shot himself in the head. He’d lost his job six weeks earlier.

In January, less than an hour’s drive south of Milwaukee, 37-year-old Staci Paul’s car was pulled from Lake Michigan, but they couldn’t find the body of the Kenosha, Wisconsin, woman. As an article in the Kenosha News noted, however, friends “said they knew things hadn’t been easy for Paul. A single mother, she worked hard to find jobs and as the economy worsened, friends speculated, Paul might have run into some financial trouble. Court records also show Paul had been evicted from her home in October.”

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21. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

Why California’s Discriminatory Proposition 8 Might Not Stand

A slew of straight allies and organizations, from labor to religious groups (including the California Council of Churches) to business and civil rights organizations, filed or signed on to legal briefs filed with the high court Thursday.

During a conference call with reporters before filing their lawsuit, SEIU-UHW’s Sal Roselli, and Art Pulaski, the executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, explained why their organizations and more than 50 other labor organizations representing more than 2 million California workers filed their amicus brief.

“When you look at health-and-welfare benefits provided by legislation,” Pulaski said, “those are available in traditional marriages — but not domestic partners. Unions can negotiate with employers to be sure that domestic partners get included, but that’s only a negotiating point — it’s not guaranteed. We’re saying that’s not fair. Benefits should be available.”

Additionally, Roselli noted, if Prop. 8 is allowed to stand, no group — including labor — is safe from a “popular” vote.

Renown constitutional scholar Tobias Wolff, an openly gay professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, filed an amicus brief on behalf of civil rights organizations.

“This lawsuit is about the rights of all minority communities in California,” Wolff said. “If a ballot initiative and simple majority vote could be used to take away the rights of one unpopular group, then the rights of any group could be subjected to a popular vote. That is why some of the nation’s leading civil rights organizations have joined together to support the challenge to Proposition 8.”

“Proposition 8 will be bad for California businesses in a variety of ways,” said Dean Hansell. “It will be much more difficult to recruit and retain employees who might prefer to go to a state with a better legal environment” as well as confusing how to pay equal benefits. Hansell, an openly gay partner at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, filed an amicus brief on behalf of Google, Levi-Strauss and other businesses.

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22. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

via a link to a piece at Wired via Grace Nearing’s blog:

Robert Proctor doesn’t think so. A historian of science at Stanford, Proctor points out that when it comes to many contentious subjects, our usual relationship to information is reversed: Ignorance increases.

He has developed a word inspired by this trend: agnotology. Derived from the Greek root agnosis, it is “the study of culturally constructed ignorance.”

As Proctor argues, when society doesn’t know something, it’s often because special interests work hard to create confusion. Anti-Obama groups likely spent millions insisting he’s a Muslim; church groups have shelled out even more pushing creationism. The oil and auto industries carefully seed doubt about the causes of global warming. And when the dust settles, society knows less than it did before.

“People always assume that if someone doesn’t know something, it’s because they haven’t paid attention or haven’t yet figured it out,” Proctor says. “But ignorance also comes from people literally suppressing truth—or drowning it out—or trying to make it so confusing that people stop caring about what’s true and what’s not.”

After years of celebrating the information revolution, we need to focus on the countervailing force: The disinformation revolution. The ur-example of what Proctor calls an agnotological campaign is the funding of bogus studies by cigarette companies trying to link lung cancer to baldness, viruses—anything but their product.

Think of the world of software today: Tech firms regularly sue geeks who reverse-engineer their code to look for flaws. They want their customers to be ignorant of how their apps work.

Even the financial meltdown was driven by ignorance. Credit-default swaps were designed not merely to dilute risk but to dilute knowledge; after they’d changed hands and been serially securitized, no one knew what they were worth.

Maybe the Internet itself has inherently agnotological side effects. People graze all day on information tailored to their existing worldview. And when bloggers or talking heads actually engage in debate, it often consists of pelting one another with mutually contradictory studies they’ve Googled: “Greenland’s ice shield is melting 10 years ahead of schedule!” vs. “The sun is cooling down and Earth is getting colder!”

As Farhad Manjoo notes in True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, if we argue about what a fact means, we’re having a debate. If we argue about what the facts are, it’s agnotological Armageddon, where reality dies screaming.

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23. marisacat - 29 January 2009

Post-Fact Society

welllllllll… the problem is very widespread. On too many of the “sides”.

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24. marisacat - 29 January 2009

Prop 8

“If a ballot initiative and simple majority vote could be used to take away the rights of one unpopular group, then the rights of any group could be subjected to a popular vote.

Very true… and few who might be targetted want to face it. PLUS this mess facilitated the Mormons’ to a HUGE entry into division and denial politics at the ballot. Very dicey.

BUT on the brighter side, I heard that ,notwithstanding Starr’s entry to the mess, there are in fact law profs at Pepperdine (conservative) who have filed amicus briefs against Prop 8. I mean, that place has one of those Ave Maria, or whatever the name the damned pizza guy picked, Law Schools.

So, here is hoping.

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25. catnip - 29 January 2009

22. I don’t know if you’ve read Is Google Making Us Stupid? but I think it adds to the phenomenon mentioned in that article.

As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.

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26. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

thanks, good link catnip. I think it’s more complicated than just making it harder to follow long form writing, though. I still read plenty of books, but a certain kind of pendantic thing doesn’t do it for me anymore. Books with lots of connections and references, sometimes with their own websites that serve as dynamic foot AND endnotes … the ability to make connections and mix together pictures and music and so many other things can be very powerful.

I liked the story about Nietzsche. I don’t remember coming across it before.

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27. catnip - 29 January 2009

26. I think pondering how the mind matures and tastes develop would be a worthwhile pursuit (for me, at least!). I saw a doc about the neuroplasticity that article also mentions a few weeks ago. It was fascinating. You can watch the show at that link.

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28. marisacat - 29 January 2009

Dropped in at the LAT to read about Mahoney and accused priests and teh multiple births… and saw thsi:

School can expel lesbian students, court rules

An appeals panel finds California Lutheran High School in Riverside County is not a business and therefore doesn’t have to comply with a state law barring discrimination based on sexual orientation.

By Maura Dolan January 28, 2009

Reporting from San Francisco — After a Lutheran school expelled two 16-year-old girls for having “a bond of intimacy” that was “characteristic of a lesbian relationship,” the girls sued, contending the school had violated a state anti-discrimination law.

In response to that suit, an appeals court decided this week that the private religious school was not a business and therefore did not have to comply with a state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating. A lawyer for the girls said Tuesday that he would ask the California Supreme Court to overturn the unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal. ….

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29. NYCO - 29 January 2009

22. Madman, I think I recommended that book, Agnotology, to you recently.

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30. NYCO - 29 January 2009

(which you probably remember – but that’s the guy behind the book)

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31. NYCO - 29 January 2009

Google Street View car kills Bambi’s mother, catches it on film in 360 degree view.

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32. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

29 – thanks NYCO … I didn’t make the connection. I have such a long list of books I want to read … I need to order it, since it doesn’t seem to be something the local Borders or Barnes & Noble is going to carry.

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33. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009
34. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

Check out the photo at the top of this interview.

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35. marisacat - 29 January 2009

so…. everybody is cell phone photographing/videographing/whatever the Obsters, who are on a screen?

Do I have that right?

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36. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 January 2009

yes, it just seemed kinda surreal to me. Nobody watching him directly or interacting w/ the people around them, just everybody watching him through their little digital screen.

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37. marisacat - 29 January 2009

Image is all.

And the whole whole whole thing is very Hollywood. Beyond the single capture of imaging that EE got.

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38. marisacat - 29 January 2009

hmm think catnip mentioned trade wars… just dropped in at the UK papers.. FWIW

The EU trade commissioner vowed to fight back after the bill passed in the House of Representatives late on Wednesday included a ban on most purchases of foreign steel and iron used in infrastructure projects.

The Senate’s version of the legislation, which will be debated early next week, goes even further, requiring that any projects related to the stimulus use only American-made equipment and goods. [the "equipment" part seems excessive! -- Mcat]

The inclusion of protectionist measures has quickly raised hackles in Europe.

Catherine Ashton, the EU trade commissioner, said: “We are looking at the situation. The one thing we can be absolutely certain about, is if a bill is passed which prohibits the sale or purchase of European goods on American territory, that is something we will not stand idly by and ignore.” …snip…

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39. BooHooHooMan - 29 January 2009

Similarly, in October, Bruce J. Colburn, a “[f]reshly unemployed, former business executive” from Reading, Pennsylvania, traveled to Montana’s scenic Glacier National Park where “he shot himself in the chest with a handgun, according to park officials.”

Others stayed closer to home…

Yeh, Well, the dead dick on the glacier….
just a few swimming-in-bullshit months ago, last Spring…

From the Reading (PA) Eagle
5/9/2008

2. Kadent Corp.
From our news staff

Founded 35 years ago as the Landau Group, Kadent Corp. has seen perhaps its most substantive growth in the last two, following its 2006 acquisition by a trio of private-equity firms and management.

“We brought capital resources to the company so we could do acquisitions,” said Bruce Colburn, president and chief executive. “We brought management expertise that was health care-based and was broad. We had all been with much larger companies so we knew how to grow the business.”

Colburn said the firm has two principal lines of business: collection-agency services and the outsourcing of health care business-office operations, including billing and collection services.

The company has national as well as local clients: Reading Hospital, Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Pottsville, University of Pennsylvania and Vanguard Health Systems, to name a few.

And its most recent acquisitions, both last year — of Mutual Hospital Services, Indianapolis, and of CBSJ Financial Corp.’s San Jose, Calif., collection-agency operation — have expanded its geographic reach significantly in the Midwest and in northern California.

The firm, which has a call center in its Wyomissing office, also added a downtown Reading call center in 2007, employing about 100 there. The firm is proud of contributing to the renaissance in center city.

Expansion, along with growing industry demand, helped boost its revenues to about $18 million in 2007, compared with about $11 million in 2006. It ranked 48th on the Top 50 last year.

Colburn said he is confident that the firm will continue to grow and compete aggressively.

“There’s a barrier to entry in terms of the knowledge base required to do this,” he explained.

He said 2008 likely will bring further organic growth, and it may be eyeing more acquisitions next year provided that debt and equity markets begin to recover.

{Whoops!}

In the meantime it continues to build internally, having hired industry veteran Joseph Knudson as senior vice president and chief information officer this year and John M. Kunysz Jr. as senior vice president of business development and chief financial officer in April 2007.

“We’re continuing to build our senior management team, bringing management expertise that is health care-based and broad,” Colburn said.

Tho in death, he did benefit some fortunately employed souls who had the “oppurtunity” to humped his dead dick cadaver out of Glacier National Park for shipment and burial back East,
In Life, he was just another asshole dunning the sick for money.
See Ya Bruce….

Bruce J. Colburn
Bruce J. Colburn, of Reading, formerly of Fort Washington, passed away on Oct. 10, 2008, in Montana. He was 53.
Mr. Colbern was a 1978 graduate of Villanova and went on to become the chief executive officer of Kadent in Reading and was a certified public accountant. Prior to working for Kadent, he held senior positions with BJC LLC, Scirex Corp., Novacare and Home Health Corp. of America, and Ernst and Young for the past 30 years.
He was a member of the American Institute of CPAs, the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs along with Healthcare Financial Management Association and the American College of Health Care Executives. Mr. Colburn was a swimmer and played water polo in college. He was an avid reader and enjoyed history and politics….

{….not comprehending much, evidently…}

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40. BooHooHooMan - 29 January 2009

Yeh, fuck dead Bruce ….

He and the other Bruce, Bruce Feldman, were big time shysters at Home Health Corporation of America Inc. Named as Co-defendents with HHCA for beating their shareholders, they also beat medicare fraud claims for “cost-of-doing-biz” fines.

Prolly mixed up in other fraud, too, upon his – LOL- “passing away”…Fuck him and his cohorts. They’ve killed more people more methodically than your most calculating serial killer…They’re like revolving doors around here in the Tristate area, about 150-200 of these guys going through the Acct. Firm/ Healthcare Provider/ CFO shell game

From Stanford on the case resolution:

The class action complaint alleges the defendants engaged in a fraudulent scheme and deceptive course of conduct that injured purchasers of HHCA common stock. Throughout the Class Period, defendants falsely represented that HHCA, a provider of home health services, had successfully formulated and implemented a sound and effective strategy to minimize non-payments and delayed payments and disputed charges from its managed care organization clients. Moreover, HHCA represented that it was providing efficient and cost-effective service to its entire client base. These representations completely belied the truth which was that HHCA had been forced to terminate relationships with such managed care organizations clients because HHCA was unable to contain its clients continuing practices of disputing charges, making slow payments, or not paying at all.

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41. marisacat - 29 January 2009

Mr Managed Care managed himself. Finally…

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42. BooHooHooMan - 29 January 2009

How fucked up is that? LOL.
Here I don’t post for a week,
and come back online with as an Obituary Reviewer

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43. BooHooHooMan - 29 January 2009

With -as- an -uh- LOL

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44. BooHooHooMan - 29 January 2009

Kind of like the folks who dragged his ass out of the Park…
Somebody has to do it…

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45. diane - 29 January 2009

So who [pdf]are some of those selfless Mountain Kings, at this very moment planning our futures, because we’re all too lazy incompetant and emotional to do so.

shhhhhhhhhhhh!…..please note the message at the end of the above linked pdf:
It is the policy of the World Economic Forum to safeguard the privacy of its Members and participants by preventing any misuse of personal information provided to us for the purpose of facilitating contact and dialogue in furtherance of the Forum’s mission. • All participants in any World Economic Forum activity agree to treat any information related to the list of participants and participant contact information as strictly confidential and to use it solely to facilitate personal communication among participants of World Economic Forum activities. • They agree that this information shall not be used for any other purpose, including solicitation for commercial endeavours. In case of violation of this rule, the World Economic Forum reserves the right to take any action it deems appropriate and necessary to protect the nature and the confidentiality of its activities.

Of course it’s reasonable that they should have complete and total privacy while they plan our future.

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46. diane - 29 January 2009

I mean, look at this photo …..seriously,…Niederauer is the vision of humility, I couldn’t imagine what I would do if , in this lifetime, I was blessed with a sighting in person.

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47. diane - 30 January 2009

….and just look at AL (or not…) at the top of the Us list

(By the way Al, how’s your son doin?…..we for um!)

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48. catnip - 30 January 2009

45. The same type of secrecy surrounds the participants of the so-called SPP. It’s all for our own good, you know.

pffft

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49. marisacat - 30 January 2009

They agree that this information shall not be used for any other purpose, including solicitation for commercial endeavours. In case of violation of this rule, the World Economic Forum reserves the right to take any action it deems appropriate and necessary to protect the nature and the confidentiality of its activities.

oh that is so silly. More and more and more they let in (aside from the jerks pricks and creeps there due to governmental or corp position) the hoi. And the polloi.

There was a good subtitle to a columnist’s report in one of the UK papers.. that the mood at Davos is post air crash, of a vehicle that insists it will continue to fly. And apparently the Chinese are saying that they are fine. I just saw an extended report on the utter collapse of much of the coastal businesses, export and production. People with no safety net, the farms they fled all too often gobbled up for [gasp] GROWTH.

Rose colored glasses a foot thick.. and little brain above teh glasses.
No matter the skin color on display at Davos. Same deal.

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50. diane - 30 January 2009

same deal/ilk indeed

(used the wrong link for comment 47 should have been …. http://www.weforum.org/pdf/AM_2009/public.pdf )
….sorry.

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51. diane - 30 January 2009

catnip (48)

cheesecake and boysenberries…………..

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52. diane - 30 January 2009

well…have to say …I’m probably just a cynical asshole….my apologies to the beneficent, forever “optimists” who truly believe in those who sweat and toil on our behalves….….Without further whining, I’d like to share what I’ve discovered to be the beneficent program….ooooops, sorry, Programme (I’m white trash…what color trash are you?) : Programme.

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53. diane - 30 January 2009

…..well…back to the whiney…can I please ask..sirs….of the mountain…..why it’s called a world forum….when in fact……99.9999999 percent of the world, never had/don’t have, a clue it is happening?

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54. diane - 30 January 2009

….sorry sirs…just call it a momentery doubt…after perusing your programme….I ‘m embaressingly humbled…..how profound:

Sport: An Untapped Asset
Date: 31.01.2009
Time: 09:00-10:00
Sport can inspire and bring out the best in humanity; it is one of the largest industries in the world and accounts in the US for around 3% of GDP.

In the current economic and social crisis, how can sport drive much-needed economic growth as well as act as a catalyst for social improvement and change?

Ohhhhhhh my (truly embarressed now!) :

31.01.2009 The Girl Effect on Development

28.01.2009 Update 2009: Threats to Society

………
I’m fucking speechless!….

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55. marisacat - 30 January 2009

hmmm

[A]ccording to sources familiar with the Mahony investigation, O’Brien is now involved in a grand jury probe aimed at determining whether the cardinal and other church officials committed fraud by failing to inform parishioners of sexually predatory priests in Los Angeles and surrounding areas.

Mahony declined to be interviewed by The Times on Thursday, but told KNX Radio that church officials were cooperating with the investigation and had turned over documents concerning 22 priests.

He said he has acknowledged making mistakes in the handling of abusive priests decades ago and that the church has made significant reforms as a result.

“We admitted . . . all of our failures along the way and so we don’t know where this is coming from,” he said. …snip…

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56. diane - 30 January 2009

…….ahh fuck…….forgot the quotes….say is that mike on? (asshole)……..

We are fighting against terrorism but also to make Afghanistan more confident. That’s why our soldiers are there working to keep their people safe and confident.

Bernard Kouchner – Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of France

What can anyone with any respect for life say,…at the mockery made of life at Davos?

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57. marisacat - 30 January 2009

hmm saw this in the LAT Mahoney article… linked at 55

Twenty years ago, Congress expanded the anti-fraud statute to combat public corruption and to punish officials who enriched themselves at taxpayers’ expense. But it was written so broadly it can be used against private persons, such as a corporate executive who violates his duty of trust.

Still, lawyers who have tracked the law said they were not aware of it ever being used against a church official….

Hell if I know why we pass useful legislation and statutes and then don’t USE the useful stuff.

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58. diane - 30 January 2009

…ohhh my and how can one forget the profound life saving (will grow grain in polluted fields….save Pakistani families from bot droning (wiki note: droning used to be inappropriately termed: MURDER)) relevance of :

30.01.2009 Cloud Computing: The Next Big Thing?

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59. diane - 30 January 2009

say Obama..a real simple question…..I read the gospels….just curious as to your take…and what you tell your girls at night when you pray they will wake up tommorrow….why are starving people being bombed indiscriminately under the auspices of bad folks among them…..when bad folks reside, and in fact call the shots..right in your neighborhood?…if your soul…spirit whatever is truly decent……why not just quit tommorrow…and say….I never had a clue how venal…..this all was…..seriously……what really ..have you got to lose if you believe in what you say you do?

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60. marisacat - 30 January 2009

Best thing is just pretend it is not happening.

[I’]m not sure if family planning expansion would stimulate the economy any more or less than the rest of $87 billion for Medicaid in the plan. I’m not sure if it would jump-start the recovery more or less than, say, arts funding. But I am sure why it was targeted. The right wing was back at the game.

The disheartening thing is how swiftly Obama caved. [yes. well. big. fat. bingo. on. that. one.! --- Mcat] This is the president who promised to “reach out to those on all sides of this issue to achieve the goal of reducing unintended pregnancies.” One shot from the right and he told Congress to drop family planning from the package.

Women’s health was reframed as pork and dumped as if it were no more fundamental to family life than the proposal to refurbish the National Mall. All this in an elusive [and fucking fake -- Mcat] quest for bipartisan support. As Kissling sighed, “This tired and stale debate got a tired and stale reaction. Is it the old story, that women are expendable?”

These are hard times. When jobs go, so does health insurance and with it coverage for contraception. In a tough economy, people face hard decisions about childbearing and child rearing. Unplanned pregnancies rise and with them, yes, abortions. …

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61. diane - 30 January 2009

..well marisa, the tuaca was a bit tasty……and I thank you once again …

I haven’t forgotten that I broke the butterfly gathering engagement……the timing …just didn’t pan out….I did mean well……

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62. marisacat - 30 January 2009

Oh I just feel so sanguine about this move (Eleanor Clift on Sunday said the “bad bank” routine was a “done deal”):

THE CRISIS — Huffington Post banners with a Reuters analysis, ‘Cost of shoring up U.S. banks may be in trillions’: ‘The cost of restoring confidence in U.S. financial firms may reach $4 trillion if President Barack Obama moves ahead with a ‘bad bank’ that buys up souring assets. Goldman Sachs economists … [estimated] in a note to clients … that it would take on the order of $4 trillion to buy troubled mortgage and consumer debt. That number could shrink if the program were limited to only certain loans or banks, but it could also grow if other asset classes such as commercial real estate loans were included.’

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63. marisacat - 30 January 2009

Right on schedule… the Director of Faith Outreach in the campaign… and a former associate pastor at an Assemblies of God church in Mass, which they prefer not to mention is now:

TRANSITIONS – JOSH DuBOIS TO FAITH-BASED — AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven:

‘President Barack Obama has chosen Joshua DuBois to lead his White House-based effort to steer federal social service dollars to religious charities and get them more involved in government anti-poverty efforts. DuBois, a political strategist who was religious affairs director in the Obama campaign, will head the President’s Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.’

(oh but did he preach in TONGUES? When he was a pulpiteer? I want to know! But! strangely, that church has removed its website, just lately!)

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64. marisacat - 30 January 2009

Oh Gawd. Don’t tell me… Is Tweety below even Grace on CNN Headline News? Not even named. (From the Politico Email)

FROM DRUDGE — OBAMA BOOM AT FOXNEWS… RATINGS SOAR… NIGHT OF 1/28/09… VIEWERS…

FOXNEWS OREILLY 3,891,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,034,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,306,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,299,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,155,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,581,000
CNN COOPER 1,559,000
CNN KING 1,420,000
CNN BLITZER 1,490,000
CNNHN GRACE 1,435,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,398,000

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65. BooHooHooMan - 30 January 2009

For all the shenanigans in Switzerland…??

Bold moves, this-
Swiss Authorities move against
the bold,
the cold,
the nudists

Naked ramblers face Swiss fines

The canton is keen to stamp out nude hiking before the summer

A local Swiss government plans to take action against a sudden and apparently unwelcome phenomenon – naked hikers.

Authorities in the canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden plan to introduce fines for anyone found walking in the picturesque mountain region without any clothes.

Whud-?
Fearing a sudden influx from
the recently chicken skinned American “Ownership” Society?
Unable to cover their drafts if you will?
Democrats compromised by Genital Default Swaps who bought in?
Defrocked, refrocked and defrocked again Priests, maybe? Hmmm?

Oh those Swiss… luv the cocoa with mini marshmellows.

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66. BooHooHooMan - 30 January 2009

Of course Israel is proposing a different approach to
naked foot travelers along “their” byways::::Skinning.

And for those with clothes? Stripping.
THEN Skinning.

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67. catnip - 30 January 2009
68. marisacat - 30 January 2009

:lol:

January 30, 2009
Categories: White House

The Geithner industry

A reader notes that Geithner has already done his bit for one segment of the economy: The online nanny tax prep industry.

The online tax site 4NannyTaxes.com has added a prominent new banner to its site:

By Ben Smith 09:46 AM

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69. bayprairie - 30 January 2009

the big sticks are being brought out: The Obama Email List, after the fold.

TomP’s diary :: ::

To the Obama e-mail list, now Organizing for America, house parties about the stimulus plan:

You can learn more about how the plan will help your community
by organizing an Economic Recovery House Meeting:

http://my.barackobama.com/…

Join thousands of people across the country who are coming
together to watch a special video about the recovery plan.
Invite your friends and neighbors to watch the video with you
and have a conversation about your community’s economic situation.

Join thousands of people across the country who are coming
together to watch a special video…

what an amazing mighty big stick. or silly string.

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70. bayprairie - 30 January 2009

oopsie. fined for littering, hard returns all over the place.

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71. marisacat - 30 January 2009

LOL they went wtih Steel. As if it matters… 8)

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Republican Party Elects First African-American Leader [4:16 p.m. ET]

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72. marisacat - 30 January 2009

hmm no one has McCaskill on..? With her bill to limit CEO compensation.

This Week: Rep. Frank, Sen. DeMint, Google CEO Schmidt, FedEx CEO Smith; Roundtable with NY Times’ Sanger WashPost’s Woodward, ABC’s Raddatz, Will.

Meet the Press: Sens. Hutchison, Kerry; Roundtable with CNBC’s Burnett, CEO Steve Forbes, Moody’s Zandi.

Face the Nation: Sens. McConnell, Schumer; NY Times’ Brooks

Fox News Sunday: Sens. Durbin, Kyl
State of the Union: Govs. Pawlenty, Granholm; Sens. Feinstein, Ensign; former labor secretary Reich; Grover Norquist.

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73. marisacat - 30 January 2009

They granted bail in the Oakland BART shooting case. Just now. 3 million bail for Mehserle…

Friday night, Oakland. Rumble.

The tape from outside the sourt house was angry and loud. I don’t blame them.

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74. marisacat - 30 January 2009

Merry go round

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

HHS Nominee Daschle Faces Tax Questions-

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75. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 January 2009

What a 1988 college thesis by the former vice president’s daughter tells us about the Bush presidency.

When I worked at the library at Colorado College, I quickly discovered the job had few perks. The free book loans on demand were little better than subprime mortgages when you realized anyone could get them. The only “exclusive” benefit was the chance to keep manuscripts the library threw out. Usually, I had a limited selection of titles, like Proceedings From the Third Workshop on Genetics of Bark Beetles and Associated Micro-Organisms. But occasionally I stumbled across a gem. Rummaging through a bin of discarded books one day, I saw an unusual spine: “CHENEY The Evolution of Presidential War Powers 1988.”

In 1988, while Dick Cheney was Wyoming’s sole representative in the House of Representatives, his daughter’s senior thesis was quietly published in Colorado Springs. The 125-page treatise argued that, constitutionally and historically, presidents have virtually unchecked powers in war. Thirteen years before her father became vice president, she had symbolically authored the first legal memorandum of the Bush administration, laying out the same arguments that would eventually justify Guantanamo and extraordinary rendition, wiretapping of American citizens, and, broadly, the unitary theory of the executive that shaped the Bush presidency.

The Eisenhower Executive Office Building may be bereft of Dick Cheney, but his steadfast efforts to consolidate power around the president have left the scales of power tipped toward the executive. Then there is the force of Cheney’s grim, blunt personality, felt even as he attended the inauguration in a wheelchair: His name will stand for the ideas he promoted well into the future, and his daughter’s thesis offers an eerily prescient image of the presidency as Cheney believed it should be.

Though less known to the public than her sister, Mary, arguably the most prominent gay Republican, Elizabeth is the elder daughter of Dick and Lynne Cheney. After graduating from Colorado College, she took a job in the State Department before going to law school, and was eventually appointed as one of the chief diplomats for the Middle East in 2002.

Elizabeth Cheney begins her survey at the Constitutional Convention. Contrary to today’s middle-school mythology, she tells us, fear of enabling a tyrannical monarch was not foremost in the Founding Fathers’ minds. Rather, they did not want to repeat the failure of the Continental Congress’ attempts to manage the war for independence. Our constitutional architects, she argues, believed they could not “foresee every possible future use of American armed forces” and, as a result, wanted a commander in chief endowed with great latitude in wartime.

For Cheney, Thomas Jefferson established the path presidents would and should take when dealing with Congress. In engaging American warships against Barbary pirates, Jefferson “chose to inform Congress of his actions at his own convenience.” When he did, he fabricated an attack on an American ship to secure their support.

Cheney sides with the president whenever he clashes with Congress over war powers. Following an escalation in the Vietnam War ordered by Lyndon Johnson, she notes, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, based on questionable information, to provide cover for the president. Nevertheless, both he and Richard Nixon after him believed that the resolution provided no “legal basis for their action because they presumed all the authorization they needed was in the Commander and Chief [sic] clause.”

Time and again, Cheney contends that in times of war, presidents since Washington have justifiably redefined their authority to preserve the country, and she is scornful of any who challenge that authority. As Congress challenged presidential authority toward the end of Vietnam, she casts them as scapegoating the executive. “As public support dwindled so did congressional willingness to accept responsibility,” she writes, “Congress set about to blame the only two men who couldn’t escape responsibility.” For someone who has vested so much faith in executive wisdom, she is surprisingly unwilling to hold it accountable.

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76. marisacat - 30 January 2009

gut churning imperialists. The lost of them…. What a thing to stumble across.

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77. marisacat - 30 January 2009

sigh. “lot” of them.

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78. Intermittent Bystander - 30 January 2009

Somebody really really should put together the game show: So, You Want to be a Politician?

Maybe then, at least tomorrow’s leaders (coughshouldwebesoluckycoughcough) would pick up a few preparedness tips!

Would we really be any worse off with televised cabinet appointment contests, run-offs, and text voting?

It seems to me the Mountain King systems really have declined in popularity in the consumer markets, as of late.

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79. Intermittent Bystander - 30 January 2009

75 – Thirteen years before her father became vice president, she had symbolically authored the first legal memorandum of the Bush administration, laying out the same arguments that would eventually justify Guantanamo and extraordinary rendition, wiretapping of American citizens, and, broadly, the unitary theory of the executive that shaped the Bush presidency.

He must be very proud.

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80. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 January 2009

57 – why isn’t it used for that more often?

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81. marisacat - 30 January 2009

well..they should use it…loads of opportunity…

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82. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 January 2009

some young ambitious attorneys could make some serious bank going after all kinds of corps, non-profits, churches.

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83. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 January 2009

2009 Will Be a Year of Panic

I’m always impressed by people’s behavior during massive panics. They rarely believe or admit that they are panicked. Instead they assure one another that at last the wool has been lifted from their eyes. They are seeing the clear daylight of rationality after years of delusion.

But a delusion that lasts for decades is not a delusion. It’s an institution. And these, our institutions, are what now fail us. People no longer know what they value. They don’t know what to believe. And unfortunately, it’s part of the human condition to believe and invest in things that are demonstrably not true.

As 2009 opens, our financial institutions are deep in massive, irrational panic. That’s bad, but it gets worse: Many other respected institutions have rational underpinnings at least as frail as derivatives or bundled real-estate loans. Like finance, these institutions are social constructions. They are games of confidence, underpinned by people’s solemn willingness to believe, to conform, to contribute. So why not panic over them, too?

Several reasons to panic are listed, like:

4. Insurance and building codes. Every year, insurance rates soar from mounting “natural” catastrophes, obscuring the fact that the planet’s coasts are increasingly uninsurable.

Insurance underlies the building and construction trades. If those rates skyrocket, that system must keel over. Once people lose faith in the institution of insurance — because insurance can’t be made to pay in climate-crisis conditions — we’ll find ourselves living in a Planet of Slums.

Most people in this world have no insurance and ignore building codes. They live in “informal architecture,” i.e., slum structures. Barrios. Favelas. Squats. Overcrowded districts of this world that look like a post-Katrina situation all the time. When people are thrown out of their too-expensive, too-coded homes, this is where they will go.

Unless they’re American, in which case they’ll live in their cars.

But how can dispossessed Americans pay for their car insurance when they have no fixed address? Besides, car companies are coming apart with the sudden savage ease of Enron’s collapse. Indeed, the year 2009 is shaping up as a planetary Enron. Enron was always the Banquo’s ghost at the banquet of Bushonomics. The moguls of Enron really were the princes of contemporary business innovation, and the harbingers of the present day.

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84. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 January 2009

Moyers tonight: Pierre Sprey and Marilyn Young

Operating under this paradigm, historians and defense experts portray U.S. Presidents as having to make the tough decision to allow civilian casualties in pursuit of peace — from the fire bombing of Dresden and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Barack Obama’s recent decision to launch Predator drone strikes in Pakistan. But the problem, as Pierre Sprey and Marilyn Young tell Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL, is that the paradigm is fundamentally flawed. Sprey, a long-time defense industry consultant, recently co-wrote a paper arguing that strategic bombing is an unsound airpower tactic. Sprey argues on the JOURNAL that not only has strategic bombing never hastened the end of a war, it often costs more in lives and money. And, in the case of Afghanistan, Sprey believes bombing helps Taliban interests. Noting that missiles fired by Predator drones are accurate to within thirty feet, Sprey says:

Does it kill the person it’s intended to kill? Not often. And when it does, it usually kills a bunch of other people around. And that, of course, raises the problem that the Predator and the missiles become a recruiting tool for the opposition and — beyond a shadow of a doubt — recruit more opposition than we get rid of by killing the one person at the table that we wanted to kill.

Historian Marilyn Young concurs, and argues that bombing, even when successful, does not win hearts and minds, “I will not be grateful to you for harming someone I don’t like in the course of which you kill my kid.”

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85. marisacat - 30 January 2009

82

LOL law n order should do an episode… really!

Once we see a bit more of what O’Brien the LA prosecutor might do in thsi case or “investigation” of Mahony.. amybe things will pop. O’B seems unconventional.. a wild card.. let’s see where ti goes.

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86. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 January 2009

85 – fingers crossed!

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87. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 January 2009

Pierre is a lot more clear-minded than Marilyn, on Moyers.

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88. Intermittent Bystander - 30 January 2009

Not even watching Moyers, but all the same, props for this bit of thesis toward (that ever-popular degree) Mastery of the Obvious.

Historian Marilyn Young concurs, and argues that bombing, even when successful, does not win hearts and minds, “I will not be grateful to you for harming someone I don’t like in the course of which you kill my kid.”

That ain’t rocket surgery, and yet. . . .

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89. Intermittent Bystander - 30 January 2009

Apparently I’m speaking pidgin HTML, tonight. Itals should properly quit at “kid.”

Where’s that green smiley, I aks meself, I do?!
:mrgreen:

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90. Madman in the Marketplace - 30 January 2009

That ain’t rocket surgery, and yet. . . .

and yet people keep arguing that bombing does work, and it keeps winning votes.

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91. catnip - 30 January 2009

74. HHS Nominee Daschle Faces Tax Questions-

Hilarious. I was just going through the list of O nominees with problems: Richardson, Geithner, Clinton, that education guy…etc.

Apparently, this administration’s vetting process is no better than Bush’s.

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92. marisacat - 30 January 2009

an awful lot of Americans are unclear on invasion war and occupation. I think they think it is sort of ‘rough Disneyland’.

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93. catnip - 30 January 2009

Whatever happened to free speech and fair use?

White House Lawyers Look to Limit Commercial Use of President

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94. catnip - 30 January 2009

This possible trade war issue over the protectionism included in the stimulus bill is being compared by some pundits up here to the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. And, as they’ve said, Obama isn’t about to veto his own bill. This could get ugly.

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95. catnip - 30 January 2009

Bad Daschle

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s pick for secretary of health and human services, Tom Daschle, failed to pay more than $140,000 in taxes, mostly for free use of a car and driver that had been provided to him by a prominent businessman and Democratic fund-raiser, administration officials said on Friday.

Mr. Daschle, concluding that he owed the taxes, filed amended returns and paid more than $100,000 in back taxes and interest on Jan. 2, the officials said.

The car and driver were provided by Leo Hindery Jr., a media and telecommunications executive who had been chairman of YES, the New York Yankees regional sports network. In 2005, Mr. Hindery founded a private equity firm known as InterMedia Advisors. Mr. Daschle was chairman of InterMedia’s advisory board.

In a financial disclosure statement filed this month with the Office of Government Ethics, Mr. Daschle reported that he had received large amounts of income from InterMedia, including more than $2 million in consulting fees and $182,520 in the form of “company-provided transportation.”

The belated tax payments help explain delays in the confirmation of Mr. Daschle, a former Senate Democratic leader who had been expected to win swift approval.

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96. marisacat - 30 January 2009

Leo Hindery is a big time Democrat, biz wing (what a shock)… he tried for the DNC chair in 2005.

Congealing moments.. deep thoughts… :roll:

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97. catnip - 30 January 2009

Let’s play Spot The Irony:

What Stimulates Saxby?
by BarbinMD
Fri Jan 30, 2009 at 07:45:41 PM PST

Saxby Chambliss:

“If we truly want to stimulate the economy, there’s no better place to do that than defense spending.”

And if the past eight years have shown us anything, it’s what pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into defense spending has done for our economy.

* Permalink ::
* Discuss (116 comments)

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98. catnip - 30 January 2009

George Mitchell has cancelled his trip to Turkey. Gee. I wonder why. lol

So much for the much touted “diplomacy” and talking to people who don’t agree with you.

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99. catnip - 30 January 2009

Some CAP mouthpiece was in a CBC national news piece (the lead story) defending protectionism. Canada’s going to be stuck if Obama doesn’t do anything about this because we know from experience (i.e. the years long softwood lumber dispute that even when we finally won we lost $1 billion to the US) that taking disputes to the WTO is absolutely pointless.

So, how much do you guys really need oil & gas down there?

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100. marisacat - 30 January 2009

Apparently the strange white heathen to the north needs to ask for their very own special super dooooper envoy from US to THEM.

LOL………. I am pretty sure we screw our “friends” just as pre-emptively as we invade and bomb our former friends and full on enemies. hmm. Will I live long enough for us to invade Israel? Guess it could happen.

What a screwball mess it all is.

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101. catnip - 30 January 2009
102. catnip - 30 January 2009

100. I wonder who we’re going to get this time. We’ve had what’s his name and what’s his name…ummm…Wilkins (useless) and Celucci (asshole). Who’s next?

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103. marisacat - 30 January 2009

Celucci I remember.. Wilkins is blank.

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104. marisacat - 30 January 2009

gnu thred…………….

LINK

…………….. 8) ………………

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