September 2008

This Election is About 12M Illegal Immigrants

This election is about the 12 million people living in the shadows, the communities taking immigration enforcement into their own hand. They are counting on us to stop the hateful rhetoric filling our airwaves, and rise above the fear, and rise above the demagoguery, and finally enact comprehensive immigration reform.

That's a quote from Barack Obama. Bet you didn't know that. I bet a lot of Americans don't know that.

Tankergate UPDATE: It's dead, John McCain must be happy

Today the Pentagon announced that is terminating the competition for a new airborne refueling tanker.

The tanker deal that tanked.

Bottom line, the politics of the whole thing got too hot for them. As many know, European Aerospace Defense System (EADS) subsidiary Airbus beat out Boeing for the contract; a bid that also included US-based Northrop Grumman. Everyone expected the Chicago/Seattle-based aerospace maker to land the contract, but the EDS product proved more appealing to the Pentagon. You see, the plane that Airbus had submitted was much larger than the one Boeing had proposed.

Economic Meltdown..Do you really give a DAMN ?

David Walker is not a politician. He was hired by Bill Clinton to head the GAO. His official title was: Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO. He was the nation's chief accountant. He was not an elected official and was hired for 15 years regardless of which president or political party was in office, which means he was in office during both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Walker has been preaching of impending fiscal doom for some time now. It is his premise that there is not enough money to pay future retirees their full Social Security and Medicare benefits and unless something is done immediately, our country may not survive.

Justice Delayed is ...Some Justice - Enron Stock Holders Win Settlement

It appears Enron investors won their case.

Here are some who must pay up for their duplicity:

  • CIBC
  • JPMorgan Chase
  • Citigroup
  • Arthur Andersen
  • Lehman Brothers
  • Bank of America

Each stock will be valued at $6.79 and preferred at $168.50 and about 1.5 million people are eligible.

Frontline did an incredible documentary Bigger Than Enron, which is available for online streaming and the focus is on accounting.

Enron is so infamous, How Stuff Works has the how to on cookin' the books with Enron as the model.

Sign of the times: $.99 says they can't sell for under a buck!

While Larry Kudlow and the rest of the neo-con Kudlowites are telling you the economy is Goldilocks, reality is trying to remind us that things aren't so golden.

Sure oil is now almost at under $100, and that gas in some places now cost less than a discounted haircut. The grain complex has come off its seasonal highs, with the talk of a "crash." Hell, even the price of homes has come down to the point where folks are beginning to say the end of this deflation could end soon!

Yet, in light of all this, the general consensus is that prices in general are still on the upside. Costs across the board are still going up. And today, one of the hallmarks of cheap goods is now saying they can't even live up to their name's sake!

Ouch - Mark Penn Speaks

This is pretty wild. I was looking over Google news and this popped up in the Financial Times:

Mark Penn:

It’s 3am and your children are asleep, and the markets are collapsing in Shanghai, and in the White House a phone is ringing. Who do you want to answer it? With the collapse of the credit markets, the gyrations in energy prices and the surge in unemployment, this is becoming the central test facing America’s presidential contenders.

Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama began as an obvious candidate to answer the phone the way Bill Clinton was in America and Tony Blair was in the UK. Neither vice-presidential nominee, Joe Biden or Sarah Palin, is an obvious back-up to answer it either.

Ouch!

Who will get bailed out next?

Take a load off, Fanny
And you put the load right on me

- "The Weight" by The Band

Now that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been bailed out by the taxpayer at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars that we simply don't have, we can now start the next round of the most popular game on Wall Street today -- which group of thieves will get bailed out next?

The Great Taxpayer Bailout is a wonderful game. For instance, Richard F. Syron, the departing chief executive of Freddie Mac who ran that company into the ground, will be getting a severance package of $14.1 million taxpayer dollars. Syron has taken home about $17 million since 2004.
Daniel H. Mudd, the departing CEO of Fannie Mae will be collecting $9.3 million taxpayer dollars on his way out, after destroying a 70 year old institution. Mudd collected about $12 million in pay since 2004.

Manufacturing Monday: Strike at Boeing, Dell to sell plants, and Solar Arabia,

Greetings everyone, I hope your weekend was fantastic. Welcome to another edition of Manufacturing Monday! Some exciting and interesting stuff to cover this week. First the big time strike happening at Boeing. Then theres computer maker Dell looking to sell of ALL of it's factories, and finally could Saudi Arabia claim to be Mecca of solar energy beside crude oil??

Dreamliner turning out to be a nightmare for Boeing and it's workers

Honestly, Boeing should have seen this coming. Well, in case you weren't aware, the machinists at Boeing went on strike over the weekend. The raison d'etre for calling the move? Outsourcing of work, or basically job security was the main issue.

We Don't Need no Stinkin' Single Payer Health Care?

59% of all Companies Planning on Dumping Health Costs onto Workers in 2009

Only in America. Literally!    A new survey says:

Fifty-nine percent of companies intend to keep down rising health-care costs in 2009 by raising workers' deductibles, copays or out-of-pocket spending limits, according to a survey by the Mercer consulting firm

More alarming statistics. A 5.7% increase in costs, last year was 6% and the deductibles have doubled.  Think it has to be this way?  Just look outside the United States.   OECD compares health care costs of nations as percentage of GDP.

OECD Health Exp GDP 2006

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