Capitalist Piggies

1-Never trust a boss. Ever.

2-When all the big cheeses call a meeting and tell you "We're not liquidating the company", you have about a week of employment left before they - [beat] - liquidate the company.

3-When the big cheese hisself sez "_____, we need to talk with you" and there's only three in the room including a stranger, your time is done.

Stupid me, forgot rule #1 in the corporate life, "Never trust a boss, ever". Even if you give them 8 years of your life, if - stupid you - you're still "low man on the totem pole", when the hard times come, even if self-inflicted by said big cheese(s), you, my friend, are el-toast-ola. As in gone, outta here, sayronara. Well, that was my week. And your humble narrator doesn't have a fucking clue where to go from here. The US electronics industry is dead, all the big guys shipped it overseas.

I won't badmouth my ex-employer, there are some good people there, maybe not those holding the reigns but some good folks there nonetheless.

I reserve my scorn for the HR/payroll bunch brought in circa 2005 or thereabouts, Administaff. HR folks are usually pretty cold and impersonal especially at RIF/layoff/firing time, but you guys take the fucking cake - your hatchet folks are goddamn reptiles, what flows through their & your veins is not blood but icewater - they demanded I put a notary seal on the release of liability document that authorized my severance pay. Fire me, make me release you from any liability in order to get what's due me and charge me up to $25 for the 'privilege'? Fuck you, Administaff, you are now a flag and where you are, I will not again be. Dammit. Wish I could show you what those reptiles made me sign and notarize but I did make them notarize it for free.

BTW, Mike Judge's movie Office Space is the real thing. If your boss ever announces Hawaiian shirt day is Friday be afraid. Very afraid.

update 05 May - SOS, the folks at the top make the big mistakes, the folks on the bottom pay the price. I've had my fill of this. Anyone else?

The "Compassionate Conservative"

1) This is the most powerful person in the world. Wouldn't he look more appropriate stuffing firecrackers into frogs, lighting the fuses and watching them suffer, instead of being, again, the most powerful person in the world? One word - "pathetic".

2) This is a "Christian", a follower of Jesus, allegedly the "savior of mankind" . Can you offer me a better proof that there is no god whatsoever, let alone a "savior"? Friday we learned this man authorized authorized "interrogation techniques the UN considers to be (and has prosecuted as) war crimes. The United States has previously prosecuted these techniques as Federal Crimes. Yet this guy is an emissary for christ. An atheist does not believe in religion. An indifferenest does not care enough to discuss it.

John "Keating Five" McCain should never be president. Although pissed on by George W. Bush in 2000, McCain thought enough of George in 2008 to release campaign photos with the frog snuffer, aka the most powerful person in the world.



mega thanx for the image from Blue Texan at FireDogLake

Hosed!

Major "Open Office" crash two weeks ago took out my C drive and toasted my XP computer... $600 & two weeks later finally got something back (first & last time somebody else does my computer work, dammit, been using PCs since 1988 or so). The big surprise is that my C drive was trashed so I lost a lot of stuff... Good news (if any) is that the new box is dual-boot linux. Oh and I'm also not soliciting (from my non-readers) any $ for the new PC.

New Graphic!



from fubar at Needlenose, thanks guys!



"He Tried To Kill My Dad!!"

Uh George, after a review of over 600,000 captured Iraqi documents, no one seems to be able to find any mention of that particular plot (looks like you lied to us yet again). But there is a great quote from you in that CNN article linked above, namely

Houston is the adopted hometown of the president's father, former President Bush, and in discussing the threat posed by Saddam, the current president offered his staple list of complaints about Iraq's defiance of the United Nations and his contention that Iraq is working aggressively on chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs. "This is a man who continually lies," Bush said.

Takes one to know one, eh?

Here's ABC News' link to the executive summary of the military study that the Bushies have now decided not to release after all...

update 26 March - the entire report (big *.pdf) has finally been released and is available here. The FAS also has an overview.

Tin-Foil Hat Alert!

Via Digby, we learned tonight that Bushco may be on the verge of firing CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon, replacing him with someone more 'attuned' to the Bushco world view. This is important as Adm. Fallon last year personally blocked the deployment of a third aircraft carrier group tp the Persian Gulf last summer, vowing

privately there would be no war against Iran as long as he was chief of CENTCOM, according to sources with access to his thinking.

& just in time for a new war w/Iran late September/early October, too. Hmmmmm...

update 26 March - Admiral Fallon is gone! Worse, Cheney was just in Saudi Arabia and now (22 March) we read:

RIYADH - The Saudi Shura council will secretly discuss national plans to deal with any sudden nuclear and radioactive hazards that may affect the kingdom following experts’ warnings of possible attacks on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactors, media reports said Saturday.

The Saudi-based King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology has prepared a proposal that encapsulates the probabilities of leaking nuclear and radiation hazards in case of any unexpected nuclear attacks in Iran, the Okaz Saudi newspaper said.

The Saudi Shura or consultative council plans to debate the proposal on Sunday.

The power plants in the south-western Iranian port of Bushehr were built with German assistance in 1974 and resumed with Russian aid in 1992, after it had been stopped by the Islamic revolution.

Let The Markets Decide!

Or so 'they' say, as they warn you of the "evils" of socialism or of governmental regulation. So what if there's lead in the finishes on your children's toys, melamine in your cat's food, ethylene glycol in your cough medicine instead of propylene glycol or major explosions because of unsafe practices at your place of work. It's the "free market" and only the "free market" that will keep you safe. Funny thing about that socialism, however, certain types like single-payer healthcare or public highways, that sort of socialism is anathema to the ruling class but government-bailouts of for greedy, foolish investors? No problem at all - the motto of the capitalists these last twenty years or so? Privatize the profits, socialize the risk. Once upon a time the whole reason for the corporation/investor making profits was justified by the corporation/investor taking on the risks of a particular investment, but not anymore. Just look at the current housing bubble crisis: not only was Bank Of America looking for a $740,000,000,000 bailout last week, today I read Treasury Secretary Ben Bernanke asking for the same thing only bigger.
What got me to thinking about this was a post at Corrente called "Mailing in the keys to my citizenship" which in turn was inspired by a post at Scriptoids. Normally I won't quote so much of another's, but this was too good to pass up. From Scriptoids a reminder of some of the recent "free market" bailouts -

* US Federal Reserve and Treasury relief package to Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil during their debt crises (1982-1992)
* $4 billion Federal Reserve, Treasury, and FDIC rescue package for the Continental Illinois Bank (1984)
* $250 billion bailout of hundreds of mismanaged/insolvent Savings and Loans (1989-1992)
* $4 billion bailout of the Bank of New England plus government help in infusing Saudi money into Citibank (1990-1992)
* US Treasury-arranged rescue of the Mexican peso in support of US investors in high-yield Mexican debt (1994-1995)
* Asian currency bailout, in which the US government pressured the International Monetary Fund to rescue East Asian currencies to save American and other lenders (1997)
* Greenspan-arranged bailout of the shaky Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund (1998)
* Y2K Federal Reserve liquidity extravaganza, which helps to inflate the final Nasdaq bubble (1999)
* Federal Reserve interest rates cuts, reaching nearly 50-year lows, to reflate US financial and real estate assets (2001-2005)

The bailouts and rescues are bad enough, but it’s the unabashed and unhinged free market/deregulation boosterism that sends me into a rage. Like nobody knows the game is rigged, and who’s always on the losing side. There are days when I really do feel like mailing in the keys of my citizenship.

Just how dependent is the moneyed class on keeping "we, the sheeple" ignorant and uninformed on recent history? Isn't it about goddamned time to start coupling the rhetoric of the moneyed class to the actual deeds of the moneyed class? Remember, much of the current housing bubble would not exist if Glass-Steagall Act has not been repealed thereby allowing commercial banks into the retail banking sector and thus enabling the perils of structured-finance to enter the housing markets? And "we, the people" are going to bail the financial sector out, the same sector that for years has been paying millions to their executives and their buddies? Reprehensible.

Deja Vu, All Over Again

Where were we last time? A temporary blocking of the PAA Extension w/retroactive immunity for the telcos in the Senate. Since then, the Senate once again caved to the Bushies' demands for unchecked surveillance authority and passed the permanent extension w/the retroactive immunity 12 February and it was expected the House would soon follow suit. Yet 14 February the House blocked a 21-day extension (w/o the retroactive immunity) which GW had already promised to veto (because of the missing retroactive immunity) and did not work on the Senate version (w/) before they adjourned. All of a sudden we're greeted with shouts of "OMG, We're all gonna dieee" and such because GW's authorization to spy illegally would expire at 12 midnight 16 February. Glenn Greenwald had a good report on this fear-mongering including a discussion of the Heritage Foundation's 'countdown to doomsday' clock.
Let's recap - back in 1978 a law was passed & signed called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that for the first time spelled out the precise requirements for intelligence wiretap procedures. This was needed as all sorts of abuses had previously been instituted in the name of 'national security', including the COINTELPRO program and Hoover's surveillance of MLK. Warrantless spying on foreign->foreign communications was made legal. Warrants would be required, however, for foreign->domestic, domestic->foreign and of course domestic->domestic eavesdropping yet the warrants themselves could be retroactive and would come through a series of secret FISA courts who, out of thousands of warrant requests since 1979, have only denied 5. The Protect America Act was a bill legalizing GW's abuse of the FISA act. it was rammed through the House and Senate last August with claims (later retracted) of an 'impending terrorist attack' that only be 'thwarted' by retroactive immunity for the Bushies' warrantless wiretapping program that had been in place since February 2001 but only revealed summer 2008. The law did not include retroactive immunity for the telcos and was set to expire in 180 days (since extended to 17 February 2008). If these extralegal powers were all that important why did GW promise to veto a permanent extension w/o retroactive telco immunity and why did the House Rethugs block any temporary extension? It's not exactly as if GW is being honest on who is being spied on, indeed, any inquiry by the congress or the courts is immediately blocked with claims of state secrets or by plaintiffs lack of standing due to an inability on the plaintiffs part to prove they are actually being spied on. Indeed, the only possibility we, the people, will find out who the Bushies have been spying on is discovery in several lawsuits filed against various telecommunications companies who illegally spied for the Bushies, lawsuits that will be thrown out when/if the retroactive telco immunity becomes law. GW claims these lawsuits will bankrupt the multi-billion dollar telco industry yet the lead lawyers in these lawsuits are with the EFF & the ACLU. organizations not usually in the top ten list of moneygrubbers. GW claims this retroactive immunity is essential for the continued cooperation of the telcos, yet we have seen what happens when the FBI doesn't pay their bills. What is it Mr. Bush - protection for the American people or protection for you & your cronies from the American people?

Update 29 February - Acording to Glenn Greenwald, looks like Lil' Boots screwed up and told the truth during his press conference yesterday:

Allowing the lawsuits to proceed could aid our enemies, because the litigation process could lead to the disclosure of information about how we conduct surveillance.

(Is it respomsible to speculate? Methinks 'tis irresposible not too so, my thoughts-) i.e. that we've been spying on domestic political opponents, industrial espionage on behalf of our supporters against their less-generous competitors.
Please read the rest (after the short ad), he writes better than I

No Immunity For Telcos (Nor For Bushco) Yet

The Bushies have been wiretapping every single packet on the internet, not to mention all other forms of electronic communication, since on or thereabouts 27 February 2001, over 8 months before the WTC 9/11 attacks, and they've been doing this spying w/o warrants as well, contrary to FISA at the time and contrary to the 4^th amendment as well. That's not an opinion, that is a fact and if you disagree, you simply haven't been paying attention. Last August just prior to the traditional August congressional recess the Democratic majority was railroaded into passing the Protect America Act of 2007 (don'cha just love those Bush euphemisms?) which legalized what the Bushies had been doing all along & progressives like myself were once again disgusted that the new Democratic majority would cave once again so easily to fear mongering and other garbage. (Ohh, those scary Moooooslims are gonna kill us all!). Fortunately the bill that was passed and signed was 1) only for a 6-month extension and 2) did not include retroactive immunity for the telcos meaning civil lawsuits against the telcos could proceed. The reason these civil suits are important has nothing to do with financial damages per se, their importance is that in light of all the presidential stonewalling (executive privilege, state secrets), these lawsuits are the only way any information about these illegal & unconstitutional spying programs will come to light.

Bush has been demanding a permanent extension to these wiretapping/spying rules and retroactive amnesty for the telcos as well. This of course would throw out any and all lawsuits against these the telcos meaning the plaintiffs would automatically lose any and all rights of discovery as well, meaning Bush, Cheney & all their minions would escape any liability as well for their illegal spying as all information would be hidden. The Democrats were expected to cave again on another extension + retroactive amnesty for the telcos but apparently Mitch McConnell pushed a little too hard and today, the Democrats in the Senate stood up to the Republican's filibuster tactics and refused to vote for cloture which in effect scuttled the retroactive amnesty for the telcos along with the PAA extension. Furthermore McConnell managed to scuttle any PAA extension at all, at least for now, meaning Bush's warrantless spying will once again be illegal as of 01 February 2008. 44 Dems and 1 Rethug, Spector, voted against cloture. TPM has a brief summary of what happened plus lots of other articles (please search their site) about FISA. No, the issue is not over, but dollars to doughnuts, tonight in GW's SOTU address, we'll hear a line about how Democrats are freedom-hating terrorist-lovers who want a new terrorist attack against America. Also, McConnell blocked any short-term extension at this time to the PAA law, meaning FISA reverts to the existing rules as of 01 February 2008.

Wow, 44 Democrats (& 1 Republican, Spector) stood up for the Constitution. Please note the 4 "Democrats" who did not:

Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

these sorry-ass folks need another job!

Why Financial Crises Will Keep Happening

Ian Welsh made a point back on 6 January 2008, one that I seem to agree with - Once upon a time, the United States had a tax code that would whack one with an income level above a certain amount at a rate of 90%; there were scandals and ripoffs to be sure (Billie Sol Estes or Robert Vesco anyone?), yet for the most part major financial scandals after 1940 in my opinion were local and contained, restricted to either individuals or small groups, not on a national scale like today. While this upper bracket tax rate had been fiddled with in the the intervening years, it wasn't until Saint Ronald that this upper tax rate declined from (then) 70% to 28% (Reaganomics. scroll down a little) - all of a sudden we get the S&L scandal, BCCI, the dot.com bubble, and now, the mortgage bubble. Funny. do you think these "bubbles" are a coincidence that the folks that took home the money (loot) were taxed on it from 10% (dividends) to 28% max, do ya think that maybe that's why these 'bubbles' occurred in the first place? Well? I quote Ian -

What would you do, or rather, what wouldn't you do, if you knew that by working hard for five years you'd have enough money that you need never, ever, work again for the rest of your life? Not just that, but for most executives, you would be rich. Want a house on the Riviera? Want to spend the rest of your life traveling? Have a hobby? Whatever it is, you'll be able to indulge it, because you'll be rich and money is freedom.

So even if, in the end, Merrill Lynch was going to be stuck with a bunch of bad debt, or Citigroup was going to have problems, why should you give a damn? Making record profits for a few years allows you pay yourself, or to be awarded commissions and bonuses, that add up to more money than a normal person earns in 45 years.

From the perspective of self-interest you'd have to be a fool not to do it. And for most people, even some CEOs, even if you don't like it you'd still be a fool not to do it, because if you opt out, someone else will just take your place, run the scams and reap the windfall of ill-gotten gains.