I'm Not Religious, But A-Fucking-Men

Merit pay, performance based pay? All pretty much bullshit. BULLSHIT! Sorry for using the frightful all caps & the incendiary exclamation point, but this whole topic sets me off. We're going to fix an ailing educational system so we pay people more to fix it, the same people who apparently created the problems in education? They same goes for these brilliant Wall St. morons, they pretty much destroy our economy, so, we give them bonuses, bonuses, for crying out loud. & the worst thing is, what's the point? Greed is obvious, but what else drives this line of thinking? All the notions that capitalism is self-regulating, self-healing have clearly been proven (Again!) to be smoke screens, the cancer causing smoke screens. As usual, I'll need to put off my vacation while the poor bastards who engineered this economic meltdown will have to ski the Rockies, rather than the Alps.

We cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest talent to lead and staff the A.I.G. businesses — which are now being operated principally on behalf of American taxpayers — if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury.

— Edward Liddy, chief executive, American International Group

****

Now comes Mr. Liddy, the government-appointed chief of A.I.G., defending multimillion-dollar bonus payments for the people who run the small division that brought down the company. If the government doesn’t let them have their money, they will walk away, Mr. Liddy says, and nobody else will know how to clean up their mess.

We’ll get to the merits of his argument in a moment, but it’s first worth considering the damage that the current system of corporate pay has wrought. The potential windfalls were so large that executives and bankers had an incentive to create rules that would reward them no matter what. The country is now living with the consequences.

****

Most amazingly, the A.I.G. bonuses haven’t even accomplished their stated goal. Andrew Cuomo, New York’s attorney general, said Tuesday that 52 employees who received bonuses had since left A.I.G.

My emphases.

More Fossil Evidence To Drive The Fundies Crazy

Norway's island, Spitsbergen, holds big fossils of a giant pliosaur.

This extinct marine reptile was at least 50 feet long and weighed 45 tons, the largest known of its kind. Its massive skull was 10 feet long, and the flippers, more like outsize paddles, were also 10 feet. The creature — not yet given a scientific name but simply called the Monster or Predator X — hunted the seas 150 million years ago, in the Jurassic Period.

Here's an artist's rendition of what the creature may have looked like:

Wellstone Action Sent Me An Email

The email directed me to this page. I believe it is worth some of my loyal four reader's time & attention. If you aren't one of my loyal four readers & just happened upon my blog, well, you ought to go & learn some thing as well. For your general information, Wellstone Action is the other organization I support with my money, or Mrs. coldH2Owi's hard earned money, whatever. The other completely worthy institution I support, & I urge you to do the same is WWOZ.

It's Probably Too Little Too Late

But go sign the petition. We are still searching for accountability, aren't we? This inside economic game, & sadly the people who brought us to this point think of it as a game, must stop. The incestuous relationships between certain media types, the (non)regulators (this will hopefully change soon), the government, & the political parties, yes, the Dems also need to take ownership of this disaster, has nearly destroyed our economy, in fact, the jury is still out on the ultimate outcome. Jon Stewart's wonderful vaporizing of CNBC & the loony Jim Cramer is exactly what the Justice Dept. ought to be doing - take the thieves, those who don't care about America, down & provided them a ride to prison. It's time for some justice, please. No more extolling business as some sort of savior. No more bonuses for people who fuck-up. (This will be another embarrassing part of Bu$hCo's legacy - no accountability, no transparency, & then rewarding the incompetent.) Y'all can see the complete phaser on maximum interview with Cramer here.

Cool

In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called 'Eskimo' because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star.  Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.

Thanks to RK for this link. Beautiful, just beautiful. Go see them all.

Better Late

I'm a few days late on this. I've mentioned outrage fatigue before, & I guess my initial inattention to Dick "Dick" Cheney as the vice-chief assassin is a result of just too many atrocities committed by Bu$hCo. In fact, it appears that the the vice-chief was the chief-vice when it came to murder. No surprise, but I wish Pres. Obama would do the right thing & either send a great attorney after the bastards or appoint a truth commission that can at least publicly report on the multitude of criminal acts committed in our name.

...Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an “executive assassination ring.”

My emphasis.

Jesus Christ With Tits On A Boar

The arrogance is just stunning. These bastards ought to be in jail, not enjoying a bonus, especially a bonus on my dime.

Despite being bailed out with more than $170 billion from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, the American International Group is preparing to pay about $100 million in bonuses to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year.

& President Obama gave this criminal travesty the green light? WFT?

Asshat Chronicles, Continued

Just quit Norm, just quit. It appears Norm Coleman's quest to become a second term corrupt U.S. senator took another hit today. Looks like Coleman just wants to keep wasting taxpayer's money. No surprise from a ReThug like Coleman.

But the campaign may have broken a state law that requires prompt disclosure of a security breach, a law professor said.

Heartless, Stupid, Clueless = Rick Perry, e.g.

& hypocritical. Reject help for the working people of your state, make a big, blustering speech, then accept most of the money the evil Pres. Obama & the Democratic Party voted to sent you. These bastards are all pieces of work since none of their representatives in the House voted for the stimulus bill & only three ReThug senators, actually four (LIEberman, of course). Rick Perry is just a dick.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced Thursday he turned down $555 million of federal stimulus funding that would expand the state's unemployment benefits, saying the money would have required the state to keep paying for the expanded benefits after the stimulus money ran out.

Perry, an outspoken critic of President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus bill, did accept most of the roughly $17 billion slated for Texas in the plan. But he turned down the unemployment benefits because he said it would require the state to increase the tax burden on Texas businesses.

****

Moments after Perry said he would reject the money, the House Senate Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding voted 5-1 in favor of a motion encouraging the Legislature to make the necessary changes to enable the state to receive $555 million. Republican Rep. Jim Pitts, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, was among those voting in favor the motion.

*****

The governor's decision comes despite warnings from Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken that the state's unemployment compensation trust fund could be operating at a deficit by October. Pauken told lawmakers recently that insolvency might not be not far behind.

My emphases.

Time For A Diaper Change I Suppose

Another example of why the ReThuglican Party is becoming a small, regional (the South), anti-American political rump organization, made up of backward thinkers, whoops, there is no thinking going on in ReThug circles, just just the attitude that they are entitled to not be bothered by the law. After all, the law is just a quaint collection of rules meant only for the riff-raff, i.e., everyone except ReThugs. It was just another airport accident that has unfairly befallen a sitting U.S. senator from the stupid part of the room.

Bu$hCo's Legacy Part 1,396

Babies with cancer.

More than half the baby shampoo, lotion and other infant care products analyzed by a health advocacy group were found to contain trace amounts of two chemicals that are believed to cause cancer, the organization said yesterday.

I know it's only March, but this may be the understatement of the year:

"Our intention is not to alarm parents, but to inform parents that products that claim to be gentle and pure are contaminated with carcinogens, which is completely unnecessary," said Stacy Malkan, a spokeswoman for the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which is calling for the government to more strictly regulate personal care products such as shampoo, lotion and makeup.

My emphasis.

Woo Woo

John Stewart is just destroying Jim Cramer. This is just about the best interview I have seen on the Daily Show.  Cramer is such a tool.

Good, But Now It's Time For The Big Boys & Girls To Get Some Quality Behind Bars Tims

Rethuglican Sen. Thad Cochran, from that wonderfully progressive state of Mississippi, number one in fat, is shocked, shocked I tells ya, that his employee of 29 years is guilty of corruption. She's also guilty, IMHO, of knocking a few more slivers from the bedrock of the nation.  Cochran, of course, is not under investigation.  It pays to be a cracker from Mississippi.

Use The PayPal

The Kid is doing a walk this spring for the March of Dimes. Go here to donate. Remember, I may be under the influence of someone else's blood right now, but I am getting grumpier by the day so, loyal four readers, whip of the credit card or use the PayPal, you will be so glad you did. Let's be forward thinking & donate when & where we can, but in this case how can a sane person resist this?

The cutest twins in the history of the world, Lucy & Marigny, bookend the kids in the stroller.  Now if that isn't a reason to be supportive, I don't know what is?  BTW, L & M spent their first six weeks in the NICU, getting big & ready to come home. 

Another Mea Culpa & A Grotesque Explanation

As my loyal four readers have noticed, I haven't blogged much the last few days. Well, I was in the hospital, so there, for those of you who thought I was off lolling in the po'boy drenched dives in New Orleans. Unknown to me & to the world at large, I had an ulcer in my stomach. Said ulcer decided to, oh, start bleeding sometime last Tuesday or Wednesday. I spent the better part of Thursday (3/5/2009) early a.m. on the bathroom floor, unable to get up. About 4:00 I managed to crawl into the living room, locate my cell phone, & call Mrs. coldH2Owi, who was sleeping upstairs. I wasn't about to tackle the stairway. Well, she came down & we decided I needed to get the the ER. We drove on up & after a few tests, a lucky canceling of a dose of heparin, a male physician's index finger up my ass, & a small sip of water, it was decided that I needed a helicopter ride to Duluth. The ER did begin a blood transfusion since my hemoglobin was down around 7.5, (A normal level for me would be 13.5 to 16.5 g/dl) believe me when I say that is not a good number & I was whiter than the ReThuglican Party, including its nominally black chairman.

Structure Hemoglobin

I got the Life Flight & wound up in Intensive Care after a bowel movement red as a tiger's tongue & the subsequent inability to get back to the bed on my own. That is about as close as I've ever come to passing out, I didn't like it. I wound up with about 9 pints of blood being transfused, which is a lot given the total amount of blood in a human body is 10-12 pints. The ulcer was the culprit, it began to bleed & to decorate everything in red. An extremely tall doc came in, pushed a tube down my throat & burnt the end of the artery that was bleeding. All was to be well, but, alas four readers, she did not end the bleeding with the flame less heat. My, yes, I will take ownership of my ulcer, although Bu$hCo & that bastard Dick "Dick" Cheney need to accept some of that property as well, continued to bleed through the night & the next morning. She, the tall doc, brought her team back in, gave me something to forget it all, pushed the tube down my throat, re-cauterized the damn bleeding ulcer, & put five stainless steel clips on the thing to keep it from bleeding. The clips, while apparently guaranteeing a non-bleeding ulcer, also condemned me to another day of eating sumptuous plastic glasses of ice chips. So, I'm home now, feeling a little weak but at least I'm not dead. That's a good thing, I guess. Since stress seems to be a major culprit, I tested clean for Heliobacter Pylori, I implore my loyal four readers to be nice to me, at least fake it, OK? You may also send me money for my boat, so that I may spend many a stress-free day on the water, encouraging smallmouth bass to hammer the chartreuse flies I'd be throwing at them. Ahhh, I feel the stress sloughing away already &since the weather is about to do a major winter number on us ­

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

Night Night

Heavy Chance Slight Chc

Snow Snow Snow

Lo 6 °F Hi 11 °F Lo -6 °F

- I beseech you, my loyal four readers, to have a little sympathy.

Rolling Stones - Sympathy for the Devil (live: 06/10/2007)

Oh, my.