I have an opinion and I know how to use it!
More proof that AIG should have been allowed to fail!
http://wonkette.com/404602/aig-using-taxpayers-150-billion-to-annoy-comedy-blog
The Big 3 execs showed the nation over the past couple of days their arrogance and disregard for the American people, specifically those employed in the auto industry. They show up with their hands out after arriving in private jets and are dismayed at the lack of congressional support. As one lawmaker put it, it is like showing up at a soup kitchen in top hat and tails. I’ll add to that and say they also arrived in a chauffer-driven limousine. That is a slap in the face to the American people.
I say No, No, NO to bailing them out. By them I mean the CEOs and other top executives. Unfortunately, any failure of GM, Ford or Chrysler will NOT have much effect on the company execs making millions of dollars a year, but will devastate the men and women who actually do the work. I think I would be OK if I ost my job went this year If I brought in 28 million dollars last year.
In fact, they will probably lay off thousands of workers and garner a bonus for themselves. Even if they get ‘fired’, they still leave with huge severence packages. That’s the gig to have. Be a CEO for a major company and screw up. You still walk away with more than most people make in a lifetime.
So, in order for about 3 million people to remain employed, my bailout plan would stipulate the companies adhere to strict policies before getting any help:
1. Reducing the salaries of the CEO and Executives to no more than twice the highest salary of any non-executive employee. Including stock options and any other benefits.
2. Require the liquidation of any assets not directly used in the manufacturing and shipping of the product. This means selling off the fleet of airplanes and any other extra perk. Even flying first class would have saved about $19,000 on the round trip to Washington.
3. Require a top-level restructuring plan be approved by Congress. Cut redundant executive positions first.
4. Require a detailed accounting of how any bailout money would be spent.
5. Require a payback term of no more than 10 years.
There are a lot of sanctions we could and should put upon any company requesting public funds to save their ass. It was mis-management that got them into this in the first place. I don’t hear American-based foreign automakers whining.
Post your ideas to comments.
With AIG already swimming in billions of taxpayer dollars, the big 3 American automakers showed up with their hands out to Congress wanting a mere $25B. When I say showed up, I really mean that they flew in in private jets from a fleet of several. According to Good Morning America, the cost for them to fly in from Detroit to DC in $36 million planes was an estimated $20,000 roundtrip as opposed to Northwest Airlines $288 for coach and $837 first-class.
Middle-class Americans are having financial problems, too, but there is no bailout for us. We are being told to tighten our purse strings, eliminate extras, review our budgets, etc. If a family has 4 cars, well sell two. If we have satellite or cable TV, well maybe we should cancel those for a while. Cut back on cell phone plans. If you want government assistance, you must first liquidate any extras you have.
We need to hold the corporations who are coming to Congress with their hands out to the same standards. Companies should be forced to liquidate all non-essential perks, like a fleet of jet airplanes, cut administrative salaries and do all they can to trim up the top fat before coming with their hands out. Start cutting at the top. Ford CEO’s salary of $28 million can be cut drastically and he would still live better than most of us. Sell off the fleet of airplanes. That will recoup a couple hundred million dollars, as well as losing the insurance, maintenance, etc. that goes along with owning airplanes.
The foreign automakers in America are not asking for money. If they can do it, then why can’t we Americans do it better?
The time for corporate greed and waste is over. If your corporation is going to come begging for money, you better damn well have used up what you have and trimmed where you can.
Big oil seems surprised that oil prices have fallen so fast after such a huge surge. But they shouldn’t be. I was only a young pup during the energy crisis of the 70s, but I understood enough to know that the crisis was a sham. It was a big put-on by big oil for their own interests. And the American people and government bought it. Then, people started buying smaller, foreign cars that used less gas. Foreign cars were popular because American automakers thought that Americans were stupid enough to keep buying the crap they were building.
But, Americans aren’t so dumb after all. We started buying foreign fuel-efficient jobs because they lasted longer and cost less to run. THEN, the automakers decided they had better put some good old American quality back into their cars. Americans started buying more American cars again. Oil companies, aghast that people weren’t buying as much gasoline as before, brought the ‘crisis’ to an end.
Enter the 2000’s, and again another energy crisis. No gasoline rationing this time by the government, but at over $4.00/gallon after a meteoric rise caused the consumer to ration their own fuel. Oil companies were reaping record profits from these artificially inflated prices. Higher fuel means higher goods, higher goods mean less disposable income, hell, it meant families were having to choose to drive or eat. Eating won.
People started looking, again, for more fuel-efficient alternatives and they found them. Now, oil prices are hitting the basement again and oil companies just can’t seem to understand why. They don’t understand why people still aren’t driving like they used to, whey they are not buying as much fuel as they used to, why prices are dropping like a rock. It is because they raped us and we are fighting back.
Americans aren’t stupid. We are strong and we will find a way to survive. If we can’t burn petroleum products, we will burn something – even water.
I do think some good comes out of all this, we are finding greener fuels and using them more efficiently, but the way it happened ruined a lot of good people. It did need to happen, but not as fast as it did. And it was all done artificially. The cost of obtaining the oil did not go up, the cost of refining did not go up, the paychecks of the blue-collar workers did not go up. Only the obscene profits of big oil went up like a gusher.
So, I don’t cry for big oil. They should have saved their sunshine for a rainy day.
Want more info on green energy, check it out at Earth4Energy.
For way too long, RIAA and the MPAA have been bullying universities into revealing student identities without due process. Universities are starting to tell RIAA to prove it. In an article from p2p.net, Duke University is telling RIAA to “put up or shut up” by requiring RIAA to prove that there has been a violation before the university will take action.
There can be many reasons a “false positive” can be generated when monitoring P2P networks and cause an innocent person to be charged. There are many unsecure wireless access points to be found anywhere allowing P2P applications to use an unsuspecting person’s network connection. Of course, the IP address will point to the subscriber and not the downloader. RIAA doesn’t seem to care if they litigate the right person or not, just as long as they get someone.
All I’m saying is that RIAA needs to go through the same legal process as anyone else and bear the burden of proof that is on the accuser.
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It was all over the news about the pregnant “man”. But, after all the hype, it was revealed that the man was not a man at all, but a very confused woman. Of course, the media refer to her as a him, but in my way of thinking, if you were female until you were 20, then decided to be male, but keep your female reproductive organs, you are female.
Now, (s)he is pregnant again. It seems to me that if one wants is born with the ability to birth children, and wants to be able to birth children, you wouldn’t want to change to a man. It makes me think that this was all done for publicity. I wonder how confusing it will be if their children try to explain that ‘daddy’ gave birth to them.
Since 9-11, the number of air marshals has grown from 33 to over 3000 and with good reason. However, a USA Today article casts some doubts as to the hiring practices of this agency.
According to the article, more than three dozen federal air marshals have been charged with crimes. This, believe it or not, is not the part that really concerns me. Any agency is going to have problems with a small percentage of their officers and the air marshals are no exception. The important thing is that they deal with the problems quickly and decisively.
The serious problem is not that a small few are stupid, but that the Federal Air Marshal Service does not seem to do enough to weed problems out before they are hired. They also have lessened their hiring standards to the point where it can create a dangerous situation.
According to USA Today, they dropped the requirement that required new recruits to prove speed and accuracy with firearms in close quarters such as an airplane. They still train, but do not need to prove proficiency
Also, they are hiring those with no law enforcement experience at all. This is a dangerous practice because new officers make more mistakes than their seasoned counterparts. That is dangerous enough on the streets, but it can be deadly at 30,000 feet where a marshall must make a split-second decision whether the person he or she is about to shoot is a passenger or a hijacker.
They have suspended requirements that air marshals pass a written psychological test and an interview with a psychologist or psychiatrist. These practices are standard for the hiring of a patrol officer, so they should much more be demanded by those in charge of our safety in the air. There is no backup at 30,000 feet.
Federal air marshals should be the best of the best, an elite force with more law enforcement experience than anyone else. They need to be decisive, fast and accurate with their weapons, and confident. They need to be of impeccable character and professional. They need to be as close to perfect as humanly possible. I don’t think that is asking too much.
The TSA has answered this article in their blog at www.tsa.gov.
Other TSA blog links:
Trollkiller’s World
Official TSA Blog
AIG execs once again appear to be flipping America off as they take our money. Now, to the tune of $343,000, the top execs went to a secret meeting at a luxury resort in Phoenix last week while at the same time begging for another $40 billion in loans. The hotel staff was forbidden to use or say anything that would identify AIG as being there – no logos, no signs, and according to one report, couldn’t even say the name AIG. So, apparently, they were hiding out because they knew they were doing something that the American taxpayers would not approve of.
I, for one, am tired of them taking my hard-earned money and then telling me that they will do what they damn well please with it. Company officials say that they will recoup much of the cost from product sponsors, so they apparently have a solid revenue stream. If they can afford to waste $343,000 on a conference, they can afford to pick themselves up out of debt without any help from the taxpayers. Wanton spending is one way they got themselves into this mess, they need to do what other Americans are doing and cutting back on everything.
The execs say that things like this are necessary for their business, maybe so. But in hard economic times, we have to change some things around. A meeting can be held anywhere there is a room large enough, and I’m thinking there are plenty of conference rooms at AIG’s headquarters. And, they should require that all the attendees actually attend the meeting, not work out at the spa while others attend meetings, as Art Tambaro, president of AIG’s Royal Alliance Associates allegedly did.
There are plenty of Americans who have over-extended themselves that would love a bailout of their own. I wouldn’t mind an extra $100k to pay off all of my debt. American families are having to do without new cars, new clothes, vacations, electronics, etc. We are having to cut our budgets, change our lifestyles, and do without. We are watching our retirement accounts driven into the ground. We should ask no less of the companies coming to us with their hands out, begging.
It is time for the feds to cut AIG off – now. No more bailout for AIG, or any other entity who is behaving as irresponsibly. Cut them off and demand immediate restitution. Cut them off and demand the resignation of their CEO and other top managers, without golden parachutes and bonus packages. Bailing out this company is offensive to me and to Americans. They are spitting in the faces of those they are begging from.
Cut them off, break them up, and sell them off.
Today is the day we celebrate those who have picked up their country’s call to not only defend our borders, but defend the defenseless here and abroad. Whether or not we support this war or that, we should support our military men and women are removed from their homes and families to serve their country.
So, today, go out of your way to thank a veteran, shake his or her hand, and maybe even hug them.
My thanks to all who serve in our armed forces. Happy Veteran’s Day.
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