The End Of Days

The end of days, brought about by the worldwide financial crisis, is truly upon us. There is another drought in Ethiopia and it is one of biblical proportion.

More Change You Can Believe In

I think that I have discovered where Barama got his campaign platform from! He stole it from Dogbert!

Dogbert for President

Let's Play AIG Bonus Bonanza

The current chief executive of AIG, Edward M. Liddy, will be testifying in a congressional hearing today to defend the retention bonuses paid out to current and former employees. Mr. Liddy will not be receiving a bonus himself. The bonuses were negotiated prior to his taking over the reins of the troubled organization and he finds them to be "distasteful". All told, there are or were $220 million paid out in bonus - that sure sounds like a LOT of money to me. But, when that amount is compared to the entire value of the bailout funds, a truly staggering sum of $170 billion so far, the bonuses are just a nit - approximately .13% - that's point one three percent - not even a drop in the bucket! This is starting to look like a whole lot of political bluster and posturing that obscures the more important issues of where is the money going and when will it be repaid?

Bailout Fakeout

Don't let the indignation that President Obama has recently expressed about the enormous bonuses that AIG doled out to executives using bailout funds get you all riled up. It is just another example that illustrates that His Highness Barama and his Court of Fools do not have a clue about the forces that drive our economy and now (thankfully) others from the Democrat leadership are beginning to see the light.
AIG ought to have known better to distribute bonuses of such a magnitude as they have, but the bailout funds were provided to them (and other financial institutions that were deemed to be in jeopardy of collapse) with little or no strings attached. Now, the Barama administration is learning damage control on a scale they may never have imagined necessary considering the president's presumed popularity.
The poorly considered bonuses are not the only problem regarding AIG and their allotment of bailout funds. AIG used much more of those funds to fulfill their contractual obligations to other banks and financial institutions. Recognizing that the U.S. Government now has a majority ownership stake in AIG, the administration is now in the position of trying to determine how much, if any, of the bailout funds they may hope to recoup in the future. Considering what has happened to this point, I do not have much faith that any appreciable amounts will be repaid soon (if ever).

Another Episode Of Political Correctness Run Amok

Apparently, the European Union has more important issues than the global financial crisis to tackle. As a recent article in the Daily Mail discusses, the EU has tackled the critical issue of honorifics that perpetuate nasty sexist views. Therefore, it is henceforth illegal to address someone of the fairer gender as either Miss. or Mrs. (or any of the appropriate terms in the representative languages of Europe) and a bunch of other historically familiar honorific terms. Before long, the only EU authorized term they will permit will be "Citizen" - scary!

Online Recovery Monitoring Resources

A news article I read today mentioned a couple of web sites for monitoring the impact of the variety and array of federal stimulus programs (read: Socialism in the name of Bailout) that we should all consult to keep an eye on its value, good or bad.

• Recovery.gov
• Stimulus Watch
  

Let us all check them out frequently and see where our money is going!

Louis CK

The comedian, Louis CK, is amazing! I have not heard of him before, but the insight that he shared with Conan O'Brien is brilliant. Perhaps we should all reflect that the world we live in now is far better and we are more comfortable than any previous generation and it is only going to get better and easier for future generations.

Broken Obligations

Along his way back and forth across America on his path to the White House, President Barack Obama made several key promises to the voters. He promised to bring change to Washington - no more business as usual. However, as Karl Rove points out in a recent Wall Street Journal article, it is a long way from promises made to plans executed, particularly for a politician with no appreciable resume who has been successful in hoodwinking the American masses. From my upbringing and experience as a role model for young people in youth sports and scouting, a promise is an obligation. The initials for Barack Obama are "BO" - the initials for Broken Obligations are "BO" - coincidence? I think not!