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Republicans See Gyro Meat in Obama's Healthcare Plan

2009-07-15T19:37:00.002-07:00

Some of my loves--and we are talking food here--are Jamaican beef patties, Chinese food, pizza, and gyros. In fact growing up in my part of Queens, we called them "gyros" as in gyroscope. Even today, and knowing that the "g" should be dropped and the y should screech like an "eee", I still fill uncomfortable getting so phonetically correct. It's a JIRO in my head, and ever more shall be.

The New York Times has a story today about the evolution of the mass production of that gyro mystery meat, and it's an entertaining read, thy type of reading that takes your mind off the pressures of the day, the worries of the mind, the reality of deeper things. You turn on some Michael Buble, whom a woman on my job loves, or my Mark Knopfler, and you sit back and read about people with a dream. The dream being to supply you and your hungry tummy with a cheap and satisfying meal of beef and lamb trimmings (and added seasonings, bread crumbs).

But no, don't tell me the details, lest I stand there in the Asian owned burger joint near me, staring too intently at the vertically resting meat, thinking thoughts my belly doesn't want to process. Such is life, that reality intercedes in the middle of dream and desire.

David Segal's gyro piece gives us this:

Feeling somewhat burned but eager to move on, the couple eventually opened that restaurant with the dolphins, and two others, none of which sold gyros.

The Garlics moved to Orlando, Fla., in the early 1980s, where John sold subdivisions for a developer. He did well, but when he became sick, the family’s savings were drained to pay for treatments not covered by insurance. After her husband died, Ms. Garlic waited tables to support her children.

As gyros went nationwide and earned millions for a handful of entrepreneurs, the sight of rotisseries broke Ms. Garlic’s heart a little. “That was our idea,” she would think. She’s rarely discussed her and her husband’s role in Greek-American food history, but only because the subject rarely comes up. When it does, people think she’s kidding.

(N.Y.Times)

Every time you hear someone who is not in favor of any kind of healthcare reform, or who resorts to straw arguments about socialism, ask them how they would resolve the issue of people being financially drained down to zero due to health concerns.

Today the U.S. Senate began the process of moving forward, with some on board, and others growing more critical, but not necessarily constructively critical.

President Barack Obama achieved a milestone Wednesday when a Senate committee approved a plan to revamp the U.S. health care system. The Senate panel's action, which attracted no Republican votes, came as the president's campaign organization rolled out television ads to build support for his top domestic priority.

Obama met with Republicans at the White House in search of an elusive bipartisan compromise on his call to expand coverage to the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans as well as restrain spending increases in health care.

But the 13-10 party-line vote in the Senate health committee signaled a deepening rift in Congress. While Democrats respond to Obama's call for action with renewed determination, Republicans are using harsher words to voice their misgivings.

(A.P.)

The question is not so much as whether Obama or Democrats are mostly right. I have my doubts too. But the other side in the debate refuses to budge on significant change, cloaking their concerns in rhetorical fantasies based more in fear than in substance. They cannot conceive of how an economy filled with workers unburdened by health concerns might be significantly more productive.

It's amazing how reality pushes in, when all you want is a nice bite of gyro, maybe a side of fries, and some coke.

Iran Targets Dissenters, Links Them to the United States

2009-07-05T07:48:00.000-07:00

Thankfully John McCain is not president. In observing the internal collision in Iran between "reformists" and hardliners, McCain argued that President Obama was not vocal enough in showing his support for those Iranians out in the streets protesting a possibly corrupted electoral process.

Obama has taken a lesson from past overly verbose American policy statements, deciding to low key it, albeit succumbing to some pressure as time has passed. But his intent was about maintaining the purity of those in Iran who were most inclined to embrace the United States should they ever get into power. He knew that the minute we started making strong statements in support of the reformers and dissenters and their candidate Mousavi, that it would empower the other side. It would allow Ahmadinejad, the disputed winner of the election, and his powerful backers, to paint the opposition as tools of America.

McCain is ever blind to these types of nuances, and now we have the result of our slightly more vocal criticism of the regime:

"Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of the influential Kayhan newspaper, said Mousavi had committed "terrible crimes", including "murdering innocent people, holding riots, co-operating with foreigners and acting as America's fifth column", in pursuing his claims that last month's re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged.

The accusations - in a newspaper editorial - were the most ferocious yet from regime insiders and may serve notice that preparations are under way to arrest Mousavi and his main allies. Several hundred known reformists and pro-Mousavi supporters have already been detained since the election. The editorial also singled out the reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami, who last week compared Ahmadinejad's re-election to a coup."

(UK Guardian)

This artificial tethering of Iranian protest to American and western manipulation is what Obama hoped to avoid. So long as he kept his language neutral while at the same time encouraging respectful treatment of protesters, we were good. Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei were not likely to let the "evil America" card go un-played, and yet, it would be much harder for that card to have any domestic actionability to the extent we kept closed mouthed.

Sometimes we have to recognize the limits of verbalization and keep silent. Silence can be a powerful weapon. That is not something Senator McCain would fully comprehend.

Sarah Palin Resigns for No Real Reason...Hmmm

2009-07-03T14:42:00.002-07:00

The speculation is on about why Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has decided to resign midterm. The leading theory seems to be that she wants to prepare for a run at the presidency in 2012. While that theory fits nicely as the "most normal explanation", we can pretty much discard it. Others have suggested that you cannot quit one job, and then turn around and reach for a bigger, better job, so that she is effectively dead as a presidential possibility (lack of intellect aside, which, if taken into account, makes for double death).

The fact that she is "quitting" her job, and just two years or so into the job and one in which she needs in order to bolster her political weight, and releasing the news on a pre-holiday Friday, let's you know that some major something (scandal ?) is on its way. Or was on its way.

This was not a selfless act of Palin seeking to step away and explore other ways to make change happen, but rather, a selfish attempt to get in front of something, or away from something (the complexity of governing in difficult economic times). Or, she is simply clearing the path to the yellow brick road of speaking fees and unfocused fame.

We speculate. We wait. The most fascinating truth surely it will come, but likely buried in a bed of Palinesque hubris and verbal figmentation.

Purdum's Rundown and Update on Sarah Palin's Vanity Fair

2009-06-30T22:12:00.001-07:00

"As Palin has piled misstep on top of misstep, the senior members of McCain’s campaign team have undergone a painful odyssey of their own. In recent rounds of long conversations, most made it clear that they suffer a kind of survivor’s guilt: they can’t quite believe that for two frantic months last fall, caught in a Bermuda Triangle of a campaign, they worked their tails off to try to elect as vice president of the United States someone who, by mid-October, they believed for certain was nowhere near ready for the job, and might never be. They quietly ponder the nightmare they lived through."

and

"None of McCain’s still-loyal soldiers will say negative things about Palin on the record. Even thinking such thoughts privately is painful for them, because there is ultimately no way to read McCain’s selection of Palin as reflecting anything other than an appalling egotism, heedlessness, and lack of judgment in a man whose courage, tenacity, and character they have extravagantly admired—and as reflecting, too, an unsettling willingness on their own part to aid and abet him."

In an unfriendly portrait by Todd Purdum in Vanity Fair, we get a rundown of Sarah Palin. The article does not attempt to be balanced, nor does Palin agree to set the record to reflect what would invariably be her imagination.

Let's just think back, and look back, at the actions said and done, and during a time that the United States was headed into serious economic trouble. Thank you McCain for your cynicism and unmatched hunger for power.

No serious voter, or serious Republican, should be able to tolerate the complete lack of attention to policy that has continued from the 2008 presidential election forward. There is a contingent of voters who bring strong moral sensibilities to their choices for office, and that should not be abandoned. However in the ever present realness of the financial difficulties in which we live-- where even now, the Arizona state government is on the edge of not closing a budget in time, Republicans fighting Republicans over a $3 billion deficit--we must ask: if you are on a plane and the pilot is drunken and sloshed, do you seek a replacement that carries the greatest morals, or the person with the best aptitude at landing the plane so normal life can go on.

While that example presents only two choices, it is highly reflective of recent events.

End of the World Strikes Michael Jackson... How Long Us?...How Long Me?

2009-06-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

A busy news day, ending with the deaths of the beautiful Farrah Fawcett and the talented Michael Jackson. All good things come to their end, and one hopes the end is but a temporary change in physiology leading to new life somewhere, somehow.

Mr. Jackson managed to squander quite a bit, but some of the music he left us with is sure compensation, and he will be missed, in part because we felt there was much more for him to give musically. Sadness now. He was mocked, and will be dismissed by some, unable to find anything good at all. "I never liked his music or him," will go the refrain from less talented people with harder, possibly darker hearts, and as though that personal injunction carries any weight at all when so many more have been blessed.

In these parts, Mark Knopfler is our musician we respect the most and consistently turn to when contemplating who we might listen to if limited to but one person. But Michael Jackson was the person we often identified with, for he, like us, always seemed strangely out of place and off sync with the people around him. We wish there was more of him in the music, and not just glimpses and illusions and masks of something deeper. Now he is gone.

Our favorites written by him: "Give In to Me", "Who Is It", "Will You Be There" on his Dangerous album, "Dirty Diana", "Smooth Criminal" and "Leave Me Alone" off of Bad, and "Billy Jean" from Thriller.

We also like "Human Nature" from Thriller and "Man in the Mirror" from Bad, but those were not his own words. For us, it's his voice combined with the mystery of his own ramblings and writings that intrigue and keep us listening in the dark.

Tonight when we lay down our head, we will wonder where he has gone, and if the spirit truly lives on beyond sentimental remembrance. When we listen we see another lonely soul that matches our own.

That matches my own.

Sanford and the Republicans, Screwing U.S. Toward Prosperity

2009-06-24T21:54:00.000-07:00

Here we go again. The Republicans have decided the most appropriate strategy to getting America back on it's feet is via getting assorted women off of theirs. Obama works for you, the voter, via the big head, while the Republicans use the little head on the down low.

First it was Senator John Ensign, head of the Republican Policy Committee coming forward with a confession about his affair with a married staffer, and now, but a week or three later, it's Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, all teary eyed and chatty over his affair with a South American theoretical beauty.

Dana Milbank, Washington Post columnist, reports:

As he rambled his way through his confession of adultery, he stumbled upon incoherence: "The biggest self of self is indeed self." He meandered into the trivial: "We called it Jurassic Park because of the kids' dinosaur sheets." And, just off the plane from his last tango in Buenos Aires, he confessed the dark details: "I have seen her three times since then, during that whole sparking thing, and it was discovered."

(W.P.)

Now as a man I can fully understand that temptation lurks, and lurks rather aggressively for those blessed with power, money or extreme good looks. Women can be delightful, with the one you don't have, or can't have, ever more fetching than the one back home raising the kids and washing your dirty, dirty laundry. I understand that. That said, there is probably a more honorable way to have that woman you find oh so lovely.

The problem in too many of these situations is that the politician (or any other soul creeping and seeking) want to have it all. The illicit relationship issue itself is simple enough to solve by giving up the one person--the spouse--for the new person, and taking the hits to your career and wallet. Unfortunately honesty all around is never the initial instinct after the affair starts, honesty increasing exponentially as discovery looms and novelty wares off.

This should be a trivial event, to the extent that we all have "sins" or issues that we carry with us and hide. The reason it is not, is that it shines the light on continued Republican goofery, where real issues get swamped by the ridiculous, in action or rhetoric.

You cannot screw your way to economic prosperity unless you are a prostitute...an even then it's a long row to hoe.

North Korea Calls in Middle of Night, Clinton Can't Pick Up Phone, Elbow Shattered

2009-06-18T20:31:00.001-07:00

Right about now you are sitting down to some Spam musubi and a loco moko plate, and thinking, "Awesome, Hawaii is making the news on the mainland!" And since all attention is good attention, potential nuclear destruction included, one might as well make the most and value this moment in the blazing sun while it can still be seen.

Kim Jong-Il of North Korea has the missiles pointed east, and on lock, and is not swayed by the current budget difficulties engulfing Hawaii, re-targeting being such a bitch and all.

"I recognize the impact the furloughs will have on many employees and their families. This is not something we want to do, but something we have to do to balance the state budget," Lingle said.

Lingle announced at the beginning of the month that she will begin the furloughs on July 1. She said payroll is prepared to begin the paycheck adjustments.

In a letter to employees, the governor informed workers that anyone hired before July 1, 1998, will see their adjustments starting on July 20; anyone hired after July 1, 1998, will see the adjustments in the Aug. 5 paycheck.

Barring an injunction by the courts, workers will see a 14 percent drop in their paychecks."

(KITV ABC)

Certainly this is a run for your lives or visit the family on the mainland kind of moment, and the extra three days off a month should provide that extra time for disaster preparedness. Last place you really want to be, actually, is at work during a nuclear moment. You want to be home with the loved ones, eating a delicious meal of barbecued meat and macaroni salad, and catching up on missed episodes of The Office while you still have the chance. Why worry anyway?

The mainland stands ready to come to the physical (if not financial) aid of Hawaii, so things are not all that bad:

"Speaking at a Pentagon news conference, Mr. Gates said he had directed the military to deploy mobile, ground-based interceptors to Hawaii. Mr. Gates also ordered seaborne radar into the waters off Hawaii to provide detailed information to track and attack any North Korean missile."

(N.Y. Times)

I'm pretty sure this is that "phone call in the middle of the night" moment Hillary Clinton and Republicans warned us about. Certain Republicans are probably a bit anxious, hoping events prove them right, and are willing to sacrifice a few Hawaiians on the alter of predictive accuracy.

What's really ironic is that during this moment of crisis, Hillary probably cannot pick up the phone with the strong arm, given her shattered elbow:

Hillary Clinton will undergo surgery after shattering her right elbow in a fall on the way to a meeting at the White House.

The US Secretary of State has cancelled all public engagements, including a scheduled appearance alongside the Hollywood star Angelina Jolie to mark World Refugee Day.

President Obama is understood to have phoned Mrs Clinton to express his sympathy after the accident last night.

(U.K. Times)

Sit back Hawaii. You have Spam. And when times get tough, Spam is all you need.

Palin, Ensign, the Socialists, the Banks, the Wind, and the Willows

2009-06-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

Part of last night was spent watching NOVA on PBS in an episode that explored the Federal bailout of several banks and Wall Street investment firms. What the program was able to portray was the gravity of the financial situation in the fall of 2008 as regulators struggled to get a fix on the situation and figure out which firms to help, and how.

There comes a point when the heads of several major firms are called in for a meeting with Treasury Secretary Paulson, and are told, forced even, to accept government funds. Some of the firms did not want the assistance, putting personal freedom above broader financial stability and forward thinking. Critics of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) would probably suggest that the firms that resisted were justified, and that that resistance showed the lack of necessity for the program. Mind you, these were (and are) the same firms with assets on the books that have not been fully valued even today.

One of the truths of the process, and the politics around the process, is that this minor nationalization of the banks--and we say minor because the government was not taking majority stakes, nor dictating who could sit on the board or what business could be engaged in--was the result of the Bush Administration. They took these actions to prevent worldwide economic collapse. These actions were justified and necessary to preserve the foundation of American capitalism.

Six months or so later, when we hear certain politicians and public personalities continuing to call the current administration "socialist", let us remember what actually happened, who made it happen, and why it was done. Careful observers know that the Republicans have been gaming the issue, lacking any substantive policy initiatives. We are reminded of Alaska Governor Palin's recent and extended battle with a talk show host; she made the rounds on television, expressing her outrage over the idea of one her daughters being the target of a joke. She was able to expound upon and spin the issue at great length, and with an energy and enthusiasm unmatched by any of her previous attempts to weigh in on more important national concerns.

It was truly amusing to observe, given that it was Palin's mouth that was one of the chief sources of nasty insinuations against Obama during the campaign. Those barbs and insinuations, unchecked by her brain and spilling out into the public debate, helped take the Republicans deeper down a road with no exit. The biggest news the Republicans have going, aside from Palin's outrage at talk show host David Letterman, is that some senator has been having an affair.

When the head of the Republican Policy Committee (Senator Ensign) is too busy with other non-governmental affairs, it's not surprising that Republicans are struggling to come up with policy alternatives.

As a critic, Palin was at the center of the "Obama as socialist" mantra, so she must turn to other news, to whipped up drama, to avoid commenting on the fact that banks right and left are becoming, in effect, "denationalized" under the Obama administration. Why focus when you can divert national attention to issues of modest import. Palin has yet to speak deeply on issues like North Korea or how to improve the financial structure of the banking system. She hasn't because she can't. Better to talk about the wind and the willows.

The news today is that several more banks are repaying TARP funds:

"J.P. Morgan repaid $25 billion, Morgan Stanley gave back $10 billion, Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp refunded $6.6 billion and Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based BB&T Corp. paid $3.1 billion, the companies said today in separate statements.

The banks are among 10 companies that last week said they would repay a total of $68 billion to the Troubled Asset Relief Program after Treasury approved the payments. Banks have unveiled plans to raise more than $100 billion in capital, and financial stocks have climbed in the past three months on signs the global credit contraction is easing."

(Bloomberg)

And, while Ensign and Palin are busy with family drama that impacts nobody, the Administration has come out with new, somewhat imperfect, financial regulations that are an attempt to avoid repeating the type of mistakes that brought capitalism to near collapse.

Verizon, Sprint, A.T.&T., T-Mobile Share Underwear

2009-06-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

Why do Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and A.T.&T all have wireless plans that offer 5 gigs for $59.99 or $60, with only Verizon's Alltel unit offering a $59.99 plan that does not immediately specify a usage cap. Is this some form of corporate collusion?

And why are certain websites really badly designed from an information organization standpoint? T-mobile in particular does little to clarify which data plans are for which device, or the differences in data plans, until you have selected the phone. How about spelling out the exact differences when listing all the data plans?

Sprint's current website is also not fun. On my limited system, it seems quite sluggish, and one has to pay attention for a few moments and weed through the oxymoron of titling plans with the word "Everything" followed by their particular focus, like "Everything Data". Clearer language with less visual manipulation is in order. Once you get used to the voice plan page, it does have a logical order, moving from high price to low. But one imagines it could be a lot simpler and brighter visually.

The companies need to really be clear on what the various data plans offer, and if they offer more than one, explain, for example, how one data plan at $39.99 offering unlimited is different from the other data plan offering capped service for $59.99. (I think it's T-Mobile that leaves this contradiction a mystery until you pick a given phone and discover what data options are actually required).

Ideally someone needs to offer a 500 anytime minute, 10 favorite, 2000 text, unlimited nights and weekend, unlimited data with tethering (hooking up to your laptop or pc) plan in the range of $50 to $75. The permissability and cost of using the phone as modem (tethering), accessing data over the phone, and what kind of data (the internet or company sponsored data) needs to be made much clearer. And the companies need to stop branding their house products in ways that don't clearly specify what they are offering, or the usual limitations of the offerings.

Finally, why is T-Mobile not allowing some people to access updates of their Favorites via Google's Chrome browser after their recent website update? It's about time most company website updates circa 2009 are compliant with not just IE, but Opera, Chrome and Safari, not to mention Firefox. When you are using Chrome and the website is not allowing a function, telling you that you are on Safari, that's a problem.

It's annoying having to keep multiple browsers on hand, or having to default to the worst (in terms of features and speed), IE, in order to take care of business.

(Not my usual post but had to get that off my chest)

N.Y. Politics: Identity Style

2009-06-10T20:40:00.006-07:00

Identity politics.

The big accusation against blacks was that they supported Obama because he too was black. While this may be somewhat true, for some people, it ignores the rubric of black voting, where they support first, and always, the Democrats, followed by those people they feel are most open to "their" issues. Hence, you might be black, and Republican, but will not get a bit of support if you are merely black, but not with them on certain issues.

One hopes that we never get to the point where identity is the great motivator of voting behavior or legislative action. One would hope that whites will continue to vote for blacks, that blacks will vote for Asians, and Hispanics for blacks, and so on in the virtuous circle.

The chief problem for Republicans in the last election was a lack of solutions that addressed the real problems of the nation or the needs of individuals. They still are not hopping on the idea bandwagon. When things are bad, or headed downward, the guy you don't want in charge is the one who is still professing the merits of sailing into the iceburg, or glorying in how the last captain held great shipboard parties. Dismissing the black candidate as an empty suit, while simultaneously lacking any ideas is not the quick path to support.

Which makes events in the New York State legislature quite interesting. In an identity inspired Puerto Rican show of strength and power, and with the support of Republicans who normally are not supposed to be in favor of these things, two Hispanic legislators,Pedro Espada Jr. and Hiram Monserrate "joined Republicans on the Senate floor Monday to kick off their surprise takover of the chamber." (N.Y. Times)

"...almost every other Democratic senator in the room walked out in anger, shock or disgustBut as Mr. Espada stood to be sworn in as the new president of the Senate, several other Latino lawmakers, all members of the Assembly, filed into the room and stood behind him, beaming like proud parents."

(N.Y. Times)

Putting ethnicity above principle is always the long road to disaster, and on can see this particular action as just the beginning of many such possibilities, especially as it relates to our open borders.

Having marginalized their Latino partners for so long, the call of power became too great for some, no matter the method to that power. Because blacks see themselves as the longer suffering and more authentic population, lacking alternative homes (like Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic), but with the history inside the country, it bothers them that they should in fact take second place to Hispanics, which amounts to taking third, fourth or last place when all ethnicities are factored into the power totem pole.

Our current immigration policies will likely increase this trend.

Wells Fargo Almost Loves Blacks More Than Subprime Loans, But Not

2009-06-08T10:04:00.000-07:00

Much of the great housing fiasco has been sourced to minorities, or so most conservatives would have you think. Presumably if you could have manufactured some sort of benign holocaust and killed all the ethnics, primarily, blacks, no bank would have failed, and all would be well. Kill the ethnics, make the government take their hands off free enterprise, and abolish Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and things would have been that level of peachy approaching keen.

Ridiculous. We know Fannie and Freddie were not responsible for the bulk of the loans going sour. We know that all the bad "minority" loans, stacked up against all the non-minority loans, would still lead to more defaults on the part of the less colorful (meaning, non-minorities). We also know that you cannot look at the collapse of the economy due to housing problems as merely being about mortgages going unpaid. What stalled out the economy was leveraged bets by large financial firms that assumed that mortgage payments and prices would remain stable, if not escalate. Thus hindered by the miscalculation, those responsible for providing credit have been unable to funnel cash to those needing credit, resulting in one factor that is slowing the economy down, and jacking unemployment up (and furthering the crisis).

We can't help but come back to mortgage practices, and today's New York Times piece on Wells Fargo, (also read Dealbreaker's take here) and how certain employees there manipulated the home buying process when dealing with minorities. This has resulted in law suits against Wells, though we tend to suspect that like most directives from above, the intent was pure, but greed and pressure warped the process.

This theoretical fact, mentioned in the article, is particularly disturbing:

"Both loan officers said the bank had given bonuses to loan officers who referred borrowers who should have qualified for a prime loan to the subprime division. Ms. Jacobson said that she made $700,000 one year and that the company flew her and other subprime officers to resorts across the country."

and

"Both loan officers said the bank had given bonuses to loan officers who referred borrowers who should have qualified for a prime loan to the subprime division. Ms. Jacobson said that she made $700,000 one year and that the company flew her and other subprime officers to resorts across the country."

So here, customers deserving of a standard loan are funneled into subprime, with the result being much higher overall interest payments. Now whether these higher payments led to default or not (and that may be debatable), it surely underscores the delicate status of blacks in society, who remain sufficiently grateful for any sort of consideration. Or perhaps insufficiently educated. It's the psychological feeling of inferiority when you are grateful for the substandard when you actually qualify for something better. And it's something else when others play on that, seeing blacks as an easy mark.

Electric Car Company, Says Yoda to G.M.

2009-05-31T00:08:00.000-07:00

I was sitting around thinking about what I would do if I ran General Motors and faced bankruptcy and had to come up with a plan. (Actually, I was sitting around alternately watching tv, playing poker, eating cake, texting, walking out to the soda machine, eating chicken on white rice, and wishing I hadn't given a bag of cookies away to a visitor earlier... and G.M. kind of slipped into the thought stream).

Ultimately getting the financials sorted out with bondholders is the difficulty, while also obtaining the right sort of concessions on healthcare obligations and benefits (from the unions)

G.M. won't be bold since they have had several eons to do something different and opted otherwise. Their announcement on Monday should be interesting, if somewhat "been there, heard something like that before."

What I would do? I would devote probably 70% of production to electric cars. The remainder would be targeted toward hybrids and high mileage vehicles. Maybe five to seven models spread over three or four brands.

We would use the existing (or remaining) dealerships to become our "charging stations" where drivers could get their fillups. I would cut deals with Costco, Walmart and maybe McDonalds to offer some sort of electric gas depot on their properties.

And I would price a few of the cars cheap enough to attract new drivers.

Moving completely toward the new technologies would be the type of niche that could make G.M. the Apple Ipod of car companies. They really have to do something unique and create branding that will turn the cars into must have items (while offering true value in cost or construction or features).

Archway Cookies and Target: Contrasts in Repelling Unwanted Advances

2009-05-30T22:31:00.006-07:00

We were never huge fans of Archway cookies, though they were often in the household growing up. If recollection is accurate, they did make a tasty lemon flavored soft cookie that the male parental authority unitoften brought home and munched on between reading the Wall Street Journal and determining the exact moment to spank us for misdeeds earlier in the day. (Thanks moms everywhere for keeping fathers in the discipline loop).

This is no cookie ode being written; rather, another small contribution to our ever continuing disappointment in how a fundamentally good concept--in this case, the private equity firm--can be used for complete evil and thus erode the stability of capitalism. Archway was sold to one such firm, who, through lack of oversight, managed to break the company into crumbs, sans apology or recognition of misdeeds. They are in court now.

Thus, the New York Times tells us:

ALMOST as soon as he arrived at Archway in October 2007 as its director of finance, Mr. Roberts was putting out fires. Having spent the last decade working for various troubled manufacturers that private-equity firms had lassoed, he was used to the day-to-day struggle needed to keep weak companies afloat.

“I had plenty of experience with private-equity firms that highly leverage the companies they buy. The financial person is expected to keep a million balls up in the air,” he said. “There are days when you wonder if you can keep the doors open another week and then something happens and, suddenly, you’re making a profit.”

(N.Y. Times)

It is this sort of thing that makes the initiatives by people like Bill Ackman toward Target, with his desire for them to do his bidding, rather suspect. Thankfully, he failed in his efforts to take control of that company.
In the proxy fight, which cost the two sides an estimated $21 million, none of Ackman's five director candidates were elected, despite getting some support from RiskMetrics, the largest proxy research firm. Preliminary results showed that the percentage of votes in favor of Ackman's candidates ranged from the high single digits to the low 20s.

"I just look forward to refocusing," said a relieved Gregg Steinhafel, Target's CEO. Ackman, for his part, decided to declare victory, proclaiming the results "a great day for shareholders," whom, he said, would find more receptive corporate governance in other companies as a result of his campaign.

In any event, Ackman's actions mean he will not have the influence he had hoped for at Target, where he is a holder of stock and options totaling 7.8% of shares outstanding, an investment originally worth over $2 billion that has plummeted by 80% since he bought the shares in 2007. How do Ackman's investors feel about his battle? "I've been too busy to ask them," he joked after the meeting.

(C.N.N./Money)

I guess the question is whether Ackman is some sort of benign anomaly, who would buck the habits of so many firms and not attempt to suck value out of Target via financial engineering. Given his massive losses, we highly doubt it. Fortunately shareholders showed consumate wisdom. Not so much for CNN, who end their reporting with a brief ode to the "important issues" raised by the outvoted Ackman, while not being as critical as they should be.

Bottom line is Ackman got caught on the wrong side of the economy in a massive bet on Target, and having been turned down at the bank (meaning his investment in Target), he attempted to rob the banker (meaning, force Target to help him recoup his losses).

Green Day Suffering in the American Desert Three Feet from the Well (and McDonald's)

2009-05-24T05:20:00.004-07:00

Green Day has a new album, and in servitude to the whims of others who are great enthusiasts of the band, I've been forced to take a listen. I am not a fan at all philosophically or politically, though every now and then one of their slower tunes catches my attention; I think specifically of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and more recently, "21 Guns" and "Restless Heart Syndrome" off the newly released 21 Century Breakdown.

Unfortunately enjoying Green Day for the slow tunes is like enjoying McDonald's for the salads. Further, when I look at the huge stack of music in my media player I am annoyed, not wanting music I am holding for the use of others to taint the esthetic sensibilities of my wider collection. I am not a radical, or particularly concerned that America is headed for (or exiting) some great abyss. As long as I can find the newest Green Day album at my local Target, I hardly think we are in any sort of totalitarian, chaotic "end of all things." Further, if you are going to go there, you had better at least be specific enough and consistent enough to have a clear target for your rants, along with an inkling of a solution. Generally speaking, musicians don't know their ass from their economics, so it's shaky ground all the way around.

But that's where Green Day wants to take you, getting you ready for some ill defined revolution without answers.

Rather than tie my brain down on the tracks trying to pinpoint the pointless, I refer you to Sputnik.com, which has a nice review, including this:

"...Seventy minutes of material gives plenty of opportunity for Billie Joe Armstrong to make a strong statement of any kind, but seventy minutes of material also provides plenty of evidence that in all probability, Billie Joe doesn’t know what he’s talking about. There are a lot of lines about the government and religion in here, along with plenty of references to a vaguely defined “you” that Armstrong perpetually finds problems with, but trying to follow along with what Armstrong’s idea is will soon leave one without enough breadcrumbs to get home."

(Adam Downer, Sputnickmusic.com)

Yes, it's probably wrong of me to seek out the review that best supports my sensibilities, especially when the bulk of the reviewers have their critical lips firmly attached to Green Day derriere, but so be it. You won't ever find me a huge fan of armchair complainers and revolutionaries. If you are in Cambodia, or Sudan or someplace truly lacking loveliness, opportunity, and comfort, then I will hearken to your powerful three chord protest.

Otherwise, pretty much shush and keep me comfy with the slow tunes.

Killing Vulcan, Reviving Star Trek

2009-05-15T03:21:00.003-07:00

I, we, are stunned. Star Trek, the new movie released last week, is not a bombastic, cinematic scribble. Rather, it obliterates the known conventions of the series and movies, while maintaining a tether to the nature and soul of the original characters.

The story itself was not the most pleasing, but rather just a foundation upon which to expand the series. Time travel usually never works for any movie viewer with an ounce of skepticism. Often it creates more questions than it answers. You osit wondering, "If time travel thus created an alternate reality or world, why am I not watching THAT movie, because this one rots."

But here it was a handy tool to allow the director (and particularly future directors) the freedom to create. We got re-introduced to all our favorite characters, but with new young faces. And, as we all suspected during many a late night watch of the original Star Trek, someone had tapped Lieutenant Niota Uhura's. That it was Spock here fleshed out what the first series merely implied.

I don't know that I would see the movie again, as I've read some have done, but I was pleasantly surprised at how closely the characters matched the originals while still managing a fresh take.

So many films hue to formula, and this one is no different. But it works and thus the Star Trek franchise has new life that should carry it to the next film; I actually have a desire to see "what happens next" to the characters.

Frankly I am stunned someone could obliterate Vulcan and that I would be okay with that.

Q2: What geographical places feel like home?

2009-05-10T13:38:00.006-07:00

If you had to relocate or retire, what geographical locations draw your interest? Where do you really want to be?

Presumably if you are in love, the loveliness of the person you are "in love" with should trump the temptations of that greener grass where they would rather not live. Right? I mean, love should bind the two of you together in such a way that if her preferred place to live is the exact opposite of where you want to be, you are totally content to not be at that home where your heart is.

In theory love should be so strong. But in corrollary theory, her love should be so strong that she should be willing to follow you to the ends of your imagination, assuming you are not a cad and out to leave her stranded on the backside of some desert. In other words, love ought to cancel out each person's will to geographical power, but that being said, stating a preference anyway is helpful to that potential spouse. See how difficult it will be to put your Norway inside her Georgia.

If pinned down, my ultimate homeland lies somewhere on the East Coast, with perhaps Minnesota as an exception. I see myself in someplace green, with mountains or ocean nearby, and quaint towns, and real seasons. That may be Tennessee or Virginia, Massachusetts or Maine. But it's certainly hard to visualize Phoenix as fitting that picture I have in my head. Flagstaff maybe, if I decide on the desert state if I am seeking some compromise with an Arizona spouse who refuses to see the state for the bad location it is.

Arby's Pulls Down Wendy's Pants

2009-05-10T12:36:00.004-07:00

We moaned and groaned about the buyout of Wendy's by Triarc's Arby's in the past. It was a self-serving deal to begin with, assuming the average shareholder is not part of Nelson Peltz's Id*. Shareholders have suffered. The next time some billionaire or high powered private equity firm comes your way talking about synergies and enhancing value, take it with the seriousness it deserves... very little. There will be more destruction than creative destruction.

You cannot meld a struggling firm (Arby's) to a misguided but better franchise (Wendy's) and hope to create some magic mountain of junk food delight, with a combined stock hitting grand heights.

Thus, with earnings released, we see Arbys a drag on Wendy's, as we knew it would be:

In North America, system wide same-store sales were up 1% while Arby's fell 8.7%, although that key metric was down only 2.5% in March following the launch of its new "Roastburger" sandwiches.

Meanwhile, margins at company-operated Wendy's restaurants for the quarter tweaked up to 11.1% from 10.1% a year ago, reflecting reduced labor and other costs. Arby's margins, though, fell to 14.2% from 17.1% in the year-ago period, "due primarily to sales deleverage," the company said.

(Marketwatch)

Peltz will no doubt blame the times we are in, while ignoring the basic fact that Arby's had nothing to offer Wendy's, except a spare apostrophe. Cost synergies are no stand in for good management.

*Wiki: The id is responsible for our basic drives such as food, water, sex, and basic impulses. It is amoral and egocentric, ruled by the pleasure–pain principle; it is without a sense of time, completely illogical, primarily sexual, infantile in its emotional development, and will not take "no" for an answer. It is regarded as the reservoir of the libido or "instinctive drive to create".

N.Y. Times and Others See Bright Money At the End of the Dark Vault

2009-05-07T00:02:00.001-07:00

Here the New York Times reports what we have known, that we are entering a period when the banking sector will no longer be a major recipient of government bailouts and that things are turning. They don't say bottom exactly, but it's basically what they are saying, and it's a conclusion that they should have reached a while back. Or they should have at least pinned the "bottom" to a period further in the past. Maybe a month or five ago. Maybe last October?

All of this assumes that the economy does not take another turn for the worse, which would result in even more losses at the banks — and the need for even more money to prop them up. But hopes that the tests will be a turning point in this financial crisis electrified Wall Street on Wednesday. Financial shares soared, lifting the broader stock market to its highest level in four months. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 101.63, or 1.2 percent, to close at 8,512.28.

(N.Y. Times)

More importantly, and in the same paper, we see smart money (like private equity types), trying to pick up assets--financial assets-- on the cheap:

For all the talk of the banking crisis, Mr. Flowers and other giant private equity players are circling distressed banks around the country, competing to buy into the industry. Bidding wars are now breaking out among private equity firms, including the Carlyle Group, which is going up against Mr. Flowers’s firm for a stake in BankUnited of Florida.

They and other investors see banks as the recession’s biggest prize: potential money machines that could one day generate fabulous returns, particularly after the federal government eats the losses of failed banks, then heavily subsidizes their sale. But like Mr. Flowers, some of them would prefer to take over the banks completely, replace their managements and take all the profit.

(N.Y. Times )

Daily Update: Superfriends Edition

2009-05-05T03:48:00.001-07:00

Our credit markets seem much improved--meaning, that no entity is on the verge of collapse or suffering to get access to capital. The results of the Obama Administration's stress tests for banks with over $100 billion in assets will be released Thursday night after the stock market's close.

This is probably the last real chance to see certain bank stocks dip down, and we doubt any dips will be large. If you are still waiting for the bottom in banking, then you missed it.

Remember the quality 1970's Saturday morning television that was the Superfriends?

You watched and wished that you too had friends so loyal, so capable, so nearly naked (Wonder Woman). Well now you can get a reprise and can see the Friends rise again... in Asia.

Yes a bunch of Asian economies are deciding that they must band together and support one another in ways the Western world never could, or would.

According to Reuters, "Japan, China and South Korea have finalized details of an emergency $120 billion liquidity fund for 13 Asian nations." In the event of a financial crisis in one of the counties, this fund would be available to provide assistance.

There is a temptation to compare this new facility to the IMF, but that analysis would miss the move toward a financial alliance that will help serve to bring Asia together as a single, loosely formed economic entity lead by China and Japan, two of the four largest countries in the world as measured by GDP. The program makes the region financially stable, probably more stable than Europe is now with its rising unemployment, stagnant economies, and sovereign debt which faces downgrades in many cases.

(via Time Magazine)

Alas they are only fighting villians in that part of the world, so we are on our own with our cartoon friends.

Why Obama's tax loop-hole closing efforts should bother anyone who is not a tax cheat or major corporation is somewhat baffling. Corporations manipulate the tax collectors in the regions where they do business, so some harmony in matching expenses booked to profits reported (in the U.S.) would be worthwhile. But don't expect this to go down without a big brusing battle, and spun as some sort of semi-socialist IRS money grab. Obama wants your money now, and your daughters later.

And finally, does Fiat seem a little ... I dunno, economically horny? It wants parts of Chrysler. It wants parts of G.M. (the European Unit). And it does not want to pay for it:

As in the Chrysler deal, Marchionne (Fiat Big Head) wants to accomplish all this without Fiat having to put down any cash or assume any of GM Europe's debt. Moreover, he wants European governments to kick-start the new company with billions in loans and loan guarantees.

(Business Week)

And all I want is someone to love.

Q1: How Many Times Per Week (Sex)

2009-05-03T10:57:00.006-07:00

Once married, how many times per week do you want your spouse to have sex with you?

It seems almost ridiculous to begin a 500 question marital exploration with a question about sex, but it matters to some people. Since I view it as a trivial issue (and assuming that most people's basic sexual compatibility perhaps has already been established or tested), I will answer it and get it out of the way.

I have no idea how I might feel when I actually have a spouse, but I can go long periods never thinking of sex now. There seems to be too much in the world that I've not experienced as to make a focus on frequent sex actually seem limiting. But I speak now when I am relatively free and not under the straightened path that marriage and family impose. In theory I can get it to my hearts content, so I am like the baker contemplating how many buns he wishes to eat.

Once married, moments of pleasure are probably more dear. That thing you can give or take now, might be a necessary salve once burdened with wife, kids, mortgages, feeding the puppy, and making all ends meet properly.

I figure three times is an adequate place to start. I would not be surprised if down the road, that answer is less or more. But since I am merely getting the scope of my desire on record here, and attempting to inform a future theoretical spouse, the number three works best. Not too much, not too little, but just right.

Souter and Kemp: True to Self, True Vision

2009-05-03T07:09:00.005-07:00

May has rolled in fast. Soon the kids will be out of school, the Phoenix heat will turn blistering, and some of us will tuck indoors, with little money for vacations. The end of days for some.

It is also the end of a career for Supreme Court Justice David Souter, that lonely, lean, shy legal mind from New Hampshire who never totally adjusted to the life Washington has to offer. A friend of his in the Washington Post says that Souter "never unpacked" his things for the 19 years he was there, leaving them in boxes.

It reminds me of my time here in Phoenix after arriving from the East Coast. While happy to get out of New Jersey, coming to the Arizona desert was not my ideal choice. I loved places like Minneapolis (with its clear lakes and friendly folks) , Tennessee and Virginia or perhaps New England. You go to the desert to die, or because you like the sun, but have enough money to maintain a more comfortable residence in another cooler (and cooler) state when the Arizona sun turns blazing and falls into kill mode.

I can see Souter wanting to return to some ideal place that made him feel comfortable. At the time he was appointed by George Bush senior, I thought he was sufficiently conservative and most of all, he reminded me of a version of myself. Souter was the man with a small group of friends, and with a solitary life filled with books in beautiful New Hampshire. As it turned out, he was not consistently conservative at all, and more his own man, and while I am probably disappointed in some of his judicial opinions, there is something about him that I admire in his quiet loyalty to his own way.

We learn that he keeps a diary, that he is the wealthiest justice via good investments and frugal living, and that he eats an apple and yogurt each day.

When he departs this summer in his Volkswagen sedan -- he dislikes flying and always drives himself to and from Washington, leaving at odd hours to game the traffic -- Souter will cross the Piscataquog River, drive past country stands selling maple syrup and fresh eggs, and turn down a narrow, unmarked dirt road.

(The Wasington Post)

Souter was picked for the high court out of an attempt by Republicans to place a conservative strict constructionist on the bench, but one without a paper trail that could be sabotaged by liberals, as happened with Judge Bork. Two sides of the political spectrum getting tricky with each other. Turns out even the people who thought they knew Souter's judicial heart had it wrong, and he was not the guy Republicans had hoped he would be.

Which brings me to another thought. The Republicans are scrambling hard to recast themselves, and debating whether to become more hardcore and singular in their vision, or more open and fuzzy. The hardcores--those who view the current president as a socialist seducer of the stupid--are also the loudest voices, so one cannot be certain that the Republicans will get this right any time soon.

But if they need a reminder of the direction to go, they need only look at former congressman Jack Kemp, whose death from cancer this weekend added a note of sadness to a fast fading spring season. He was George HW Bush's housing secretary, among other things, and an advocate for tax reform, growth, and urban outreach.

Through his political life, Kemp's positions spanned the social spectrum: He opposed abortion and supported school prayer, yet appealed to liberals with his outreach toward minorities and compassion for the poor. He pushed for immigration reform to include a guest-worker program and status for the illegal immigrants already here.

(AP)

If Republicans and conservatives are looking for how to regroup, taking a look at the life and ideas of Kemp would be a good start. They also need to examine how they ended up with Souter in an attempt to game the appointment process (in response to liberal shenanigans).

Conservatives have to stick with a consistent vision of what they are about, and not hope to be all things to everyone or replicate the Democratic Party. But, they also need to jetison any preconceived notions and ideology that do not fit with reality of the world we live in. The language and tactics have to be changed.

Here then with Souter and Kemp we have men who have been true to themselves and have offered singular vision.

Obama Turns 100 (Days) Old Today, Gets Spector Doll

2009-04-29T19:39:00.003-07:00

During this artificial moment we pause to reflect on the results of all that Obama has done and discover...NOTHING. Which is exactly as it should be because the most difficult issues are the hardest to fix. There should be no major results, but rather, a variety of policies that will take hold as time progresses.

Obama has proved a man of action, which is all that you can ask. He has moved on the policies he said he would, and attempted (and is attempting) to fix what is broken.

For this celebratory day we give him an Arlen Spector action figure to play with . And if you click over to that L.A. Times link, you will see Obama looking just a bit too happy at his new toy.

The returning Democrat said he looked forward to working with the White House on issues such as healthcare, immigration and climate change but warned that he will not be "an automatic 60th vote" for the president in the Senate.

If Democrat Al Franken is seated as Minnesota's new senator, as many expect, the president's party will have a 60-vote majority in the chamber -- a number that makes it filibuster-proof for measures supported by the caucus.

(L.A. Times)

Germans Step on Flowers, and Rightfully So

2009-04-28T05:06:00.017-07:00

This puts a smile on the face today. It's the German government sticking it to private equity firm J.C. Flowers. For the most part we applaud American finance and ingenuity and take a special pride in our ability to get deals done.

What we don't like is when these firms attempt to steamroll corporations (or governments) into action for self serving purposes or to cover their own bad judgment. If you don't like a company, then pull your money out. If you don't like their fundamental business, pull your money out. If you want them to pay a special dividend for no reason at all except for you to soak up their surplus cash, then pull you money out. And if you made an investment, and it goes sour, take your lumps and don't try to rook the taxpayer, even if German and not the home team.

Here we have J.C. Flowers attempting to have the German government lend them a helping hand with their 1.5 billion investment in failing German firm Hypo Real Estate. While other investors are willing to take a stub of money as compensation for shares, Mr. Flowers himself is holding tight, and threatening lawsuits.

Yes I am sure the Germans will get right on that, bending down to smell the dandelion flowers before pulling them from the lawn.

"We Really Don't Want to Give In," Say People Who Make Cars

2009-04-28T03:29:00.002-07:00

Let's just cut to the chase and say that General Motor's bondholders are probably not stupid enough to take a haircut on a deal that is greater than the haircut they would take if G.M. tumbles into bankruptcy. Time Magazine tells us as much:

Many Wall Streeters believe the prospects for such a major swap of GM stock for debt are dubious since bondholders expect to fare better in bankruptcy. Some bondholders are said to have positioned themselves for a bankruptcy filing by buying credit default swaps, which would pay off if GM filed for Chapter 11.

(Time Magazine)

G.M. seems to be counting on a lot of people (bondholders, taxpayers via government loans) being in Santa mode, hoping that the potential future value of near worthless equity will be enough of a carrot to avoid the bankruptcy applied spanking that it needs.

We get the impression that G.M. is still not taking the situation seriously. And what's with so much scheduled to happen in 2010? If you want me to take your equity, your stock, in place of my bonds or loans, I want stuff to happen yesterday. I want Pontiac dead in two months, or six months max.

*

In related matters, who is wiser? Daimler selling the last 19.9% stake in Chrysler, or Fiat buying into (apparently without cash , if we recall correctly) the vision and world of Chrysler? We reflexively side with the Germans who have the better handle on things financial, but then again, how could the Italians mess up a deal with no cash outlay?

The question in our mind is do you want to hang your future on a workforce that even now is dragging its feet on saving their own life?

While the United Auto Workers union has accepted a deal in principle, its 26,800 members at Chrysler still have to formally vote on the proposal, the exact details of which have not been released.

(BBC-UK )

Wethinks the time for principals, or "in principal" is long gone and autoworkers should be offering up nubile daughters to the masses for each car purchase (for those with rock solid credit only though).

Every Time An American Goofs, Iceland Loses a Krona

2009-04-27T04:37:00.001-07:00

See what you caused, Mr. Joe American mortgage holder? Who would have imagined that any number of Americans not paying their mortgages would ultimately lead to Iceland having a female and gay prime minister, the abandonment of the krona currency, and the desire to forsake Icelandic independence and join the European Union?

Buoyed by an election victory that gave a strong popular mandate to her three-month-old caretaker government, Iceland’s prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, told cheering supporters early Sunday that she would move to protect the country’s battered economy by applying soon for membership in the European Union.

(N.Y. Times )

Is this not more evidence that not cleaning your plate has a direct causal relationship with starving Africans? Yes moms and dads, have your kids make their beds or Russia can implode.