Headlines - Monday

You think the bonuses were bad? Take a look at executive retirement plans

The rich, they are different from you and me:

The furor over bonuses for some employees at AIG International Group has focused public attention on the sizable checks employees received at firms that were bailed out by the federal government or received some taxpayer support. Less noticed, though, are the rich retirement benefits. That's partly because firms only recently began to disclose the value of executive retirement benefits in their annual proxy statements, which are filed this time of year ahead of yearly shareholder meetings.

Equilar, a California compensation consulting company, said the average additional value in 2008 to a chief executive's retirement plan was $1.23 million, based on its review of those firms that have filed proxy statements. In 2007, the average was $1.38 million.

These executives continue to accumulate enormous benefits while fewer rank-and-file workers have guaranteed retirement benefits. Just one-third of workers in mid- to large-size companies were in so-called defined benefit plans in 2007, down from 52 percent in 1995, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Some compensation specialists say the executives' sums are far more than what any individual needs for retirement.

"Retirement packages are supposed to help you if you're unable to save for retirement. I don't believe any of these guys could have spent all the cash they've earned in their careers as CEOs," said Paul Hodgson, senior researcher at the Corporate Library in Portland, Maine, which researches executive compensation and corporate governance issues for shareholders and insurers.

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Soldiers' accounts of Gaza killings raise furor in Israel

 

In the two months since Israel ended its military assault on Gaza, Palestinians and international rights groups have accused it of excessive force and wanton killing in that operation, but the Israeli military has said it followed high ethical standards and took great care to avoid civilian casualties.

Now testimony is emerging from within the ranks of soldiers and officers alleging a permissive attitude toward the killing of civilians and wanton destruction of property that is sure to inflame the domestic and international debate about the army's conduct in Gaza. On Thursday, the military's chief advocate general ordered an investigation into a soldier's account of a sniper killing a woman and her two children who walked too close to a designated no-go area by mistake, and another account of a sharpshooter who killed an elderly woman who came within 100 yards of a commandeered house.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/19/africa/20gaza.php?WT.mc_id=newsalert

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Let's discuss the George W. Bush presidential library.

Why does the Bush center need donations anyway? His administration believed the profit motive makes everything efficient — derivatives markets, health care, invasions. If he wants a monument, let him build an amusement park. Kids could compete in brush-clearing contests or slam-dunk at the George Tenet Basketball Court.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/opinion/21collins.html?_r=1

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Faux News Trace Gallagher falsely claims the Dow dropped 56 points during a speech by President Obama. According to Gallagher, when the President began, the Dow was up 28 points; by the time the President finished, Gallagher said the Dow was down 28 points.

The reality: when President Obama started, the Dow was down 34; it was down 28 when he finished. So it actually gained 6 meaningless points.

Fun fact: Fox Business News had its first broadcast on October 15, 2007. That day, the DOW closed at 14,093.08.

Today it is 7,241.98.

In other words, since Fox Business came into existence, the DOW has dropped nearly 50%.

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h/t Dick - insightful as always:

I'm afraid the negative fallout from the AIG bonus fiasco and the general mishandling of untold hundreds of billions of taxpayers' dollars collectively characterized as "bailout funds" will severely impact President Obama's economic, political, and legislative agenda for both the near and the longer term.  He has lost vast amounts of credibility with the American people, with Congress and with his own political party; credibility that will be difficult, if not impossible, to regain.  He, or more correctly his appointees, a number of financial-system bureaucrats and a few over-reaching members of Congress, have, in a frenzy of overly hasty and ill thought out political and economic "schemes" and "deals", have irresponsibly squandered his once extensive political capital and sullied his reputation beyond comprehension.  So much so that, despite his obvious charisma, intelligence and oratorical skills, and his once-overwhelming popularity, his reelection in 2012 may now be in doubt.  Not yet in office 60 days and already seemingly a Lame Duck President.

 

And that isn't nearly the worst of it.  His fiscal 2010 budget, along with many, if not all, of his sorely needed progressive social programs now appear to be seriously jeopardized, unlikely to pass muster in an increasingly agitated and uncooperative Congress.

 

We (and they) may indeed have squandered our one chance at a quick fix for our severely devastated economy and doomed ourselves and our progeny to an extraordinarily long and agonizingly difficult struggle to repair the damage wrought by so few of those among us with both bad and good intentions.

 

May I soon prove to be dead wrong.

 

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CNBC's Mark Haines says that people who make less than $250,000 a year - that's 98% of Americans - aren't smart enough to run a Wall Street company well. Judging by the mess we're in right now, those who make more than $250,000 a year wouldn't seem smart enough either.

 

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Learn about the fantastic floating islands of Titicaca.

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Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has just written an article that strongly condemns Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho, the man who excommunicated the mother and doctors of the 9-year-old girl in Brazil whose stepfather raped her and who was carrying twins in her young womb.  Archbishop Fisichella is described in the article as "the Vatican's top bioethics officer."

Archbishop Fisichella said that since excommunication for those who perform abortions is already established canon law, there was no reason for Sobrinho to act so quickly and so publicly, especially when a young member of his flock - remember, a bishop is to be pastor of everyone in his diocese - was suffering so greatly.  Sorinho had a pastoral duty, and he neglected it in order to grandstand his self-righteousness.

This article, appearing in the Vatican's "semi-official" newspaper, also contradicted - not implicitly, as the WaPo suggests, but clearly and intentionally - Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, who had already defended the decision to excommunicate the mother and doctors who saved this little girl's life. 

As if the foregoing were not enough of a shock to the casual observer of the Roman Catholic Church, this type of public debate over such issues is, according to Sandro Magister, "yet another sign of the disorder that reigns in the Curia.  It shows that Benedict XVI is paying the price for refusing to reform the Curia."  That type of statement bears further watching and researching, as such disarray, if it truly exists, may be a source of hope for the RCC.

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You know how Obama made a dumb joke about the Special Olympics and had to apologize for it?  At no point did he say, "I'm sorry you're offended."  At no point did he dismiss what he said because it was a joke.  At no point did Obama lament the loss of humor in American society.  At no point, and this is the kicker, did President Obama attempt to put responsibility on everyone else.

Have you ever been walking along, minding your own business as it were, only to suddenly find yourself in a cloud of honeysuckle scent?  You know how amazing that is?

That's what it's like, for me at least, to have a public official make a real apology.

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Just look at these ugly freaking morons: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcJn5XlbSFk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecogitamusblog%2Ecom%2F&feature=player_embedded

I'm sure Canadians think they're hilarious, especially since four Canadian soldiers died today.

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Walter Hixson: Finding a Way Out in Afghanistan

After receiving his welcoming gifts from the departing Bush administration—a depression and two failed wars—President Barack Obama faces a perhaps unprecedented combination of challenges. While it is not clear whether he or anyone possesses the wherewithal to resurrect the debt ridden American economy, Obama does possess the power as commander-in-chief to take charge of U.S. foreign policy:

http://www.juancole.com/2009/03/hixson-finding-way-out-in-afghanistan.html

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SLTrib:

Every year, the nation's 104 nuclear plants create about 2,200 tons of nuclear waste and stow it in storage containers beside cooling towers across America.

In Idaho. In Massachusetts. In Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Louisiana, California, New Mexico - at 120 locations in 39 states a total of 66,000 tons of used but still dangerously radioactive fuel are stored in concrete containers under the open sky.

And now it has nowhere else to go.

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According to the San Jose Mercury News, there's a possibility that John - 'yes, it's alright to crush children's testicles' - Yoo, may be disciplined or fired by the University of California at Berkeley.

 

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Real unemployment figures: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm

Note that last month the unemployment rate was actually 16.0. 

 

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This ought to be a bit dicey:

Over objections from the U.S. intelligence community, the White House is moving to declassify—and publicly release—three internal memos that will lay out, for the first time, details of the "enhanced" interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration for use against "high value" Qaeda detainees. The memos, written by Justice Department lawyers in May 2005, provide the legal rationale for waterboarding, head slapping and other rough tactics used by the CIA. One senior Obama official, who like others interviewed for this story requested anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said the memos were "ugly" and could embarrass the CIA. Other officials predicted they would fuel demands for a "truth commission" on torture.

Because of an executive order signed by President Obama on Jan. 22 banning such aggressive tactics, deputies to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. concluded there was no longer any reason to keep the interrogation memos classified. But current and former intel officials pushed back, arguing that any public release might still compromise "sources and methods." According to the administration official, ex-CIA director Michael Hayden was "furious" about the prospect of disclosure and tried to intervene directly with Obama officials. But the White House has sided with Holder.

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Larry Silverstein, the developer of the World Trade Center site, who in 2004 was declared eligible by a court to collect about $2.2 billion in compensation from the nine insurers of the destroyed buildings, has government bailout envy.

 

Memory Hole:

 

John O'Neill had been with the FBI for 20 years, and was involved in investigating a number of terrorist cases, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was considered the FBI's top man on terrorism. In the late 1990's, he became very attuned to Israel's involvement in many terror operations.

 

Following the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, he had become the foremost expert on the global threat from terrorism
 

Abu Nidal was the leader of the infamous Black September terror organization, and spent 30 years hijacking jets and planting bombs for Israel intelligence. O'Neill suspected Abu Nidal was a Mossad operative and talked openly about it with other field agents.
 

He took a team of FBI agents to Yemen, where his investigation pointed to Israeli involvement.

 

Jewish Barbara Bodine was the Ambassador to Yemen During USS Cole Attack. When the USS Cole was attacked, the FBI sent a team led by John O'Neill who immediately suspected Israeli involvement. Bodine started an intense political battle to oust O'Neill. Bodine wanted to control the investigation, and resented the fact that suddenly there were hundreds of FBI personnel in the country. Albright provided a handful of State Department personnel to watch the investigation.  

Albright complained to upper echelons of the FBI about O'Neill. Bodine wanted O'Neill to drop his bodyguards and he became suspicious of Mossad assassination. Bodine and Madeleine Albright finally went to the Zionist Jewish FBI Director, Louis Freeh, to remove John O'Neill from Yemen.

Then January 2001 came, and O'Neill wanted to go back to Yemen. But, Ambassador Bodine wouldn't give him clearance. In July 2001, O'Neill resigned from the FBI.

In September of 2001, mere days before 9/11, he got a job offer from Larry Silverstein (owner of WTC). Oddly, O'Neill was missing for two days before 9/11 –miraculously his body was discovered in the WTC ruins. 
 

And who could forget the amazing coincidence that Marvin Bush was on the board of directors of Securacom, the company that was in charge of security for Dulles and the WTC? 

 

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And they didn't even work for ACORN

 

Circuit court judge, county clerk, and election officials among eight indicted for gaming elections in 2002, 2004, 2006: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7001

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Just like with the stimulus, GOP lawmakers slam Omnibus while touting its funding for local projects: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/22/gop-stimulus-hypocrisy/

 

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As you recall, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh claimed that the Bush administration had employed "an executive assassination ring" that "reported directly to the Cheney office." Loofah Man says 'if Cheney really had such a crew, reporters like Hersh would have already been killed:' 

The other day, left-wing muckraker Seymour Hersh went on MSNBC and said he had information, provided by the usual anonymous sources, that Dick Cheney was running an assassination squad out of the White House.

I have but one simple observation: If Cheney really had such a crew, Hersh would have been dead a long time ago, and so would most everybody at MSNBC.

At Newsbusters, Noel Sheppard calls O'Reilly's column "fabulous" and "delicious," writing that he expects "O'Reilly to take a great deal of heat for his opening quip concerning Hersh and MSNBC, and for me to similarly be defamed by all manner of left-wing shill for having the nerve to repeat it."

 

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Our bailout money just bought JP Morgan $138 million dollars worth of jets and a luxury airport hangar!                                                                                                               http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=7146474&page=1 

And, banks are also using our money to contributed to the campaign coffers of some politicians who approved the bailouts, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission! http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Donating_for_dollars_Bailedout_banks_donate_0322.html