Rick Wagoner will be OK

His ego is bruised and the Republicans are screaming about overreach (as opposed to the public who are embracing the forced change) but Wagoner will be just fine. If one had to compare the safety and stability of his retirement plan to a line worker who was there for an equal period of time, Wagoner's plan looks attractive. Of course he made more money as CEO so his retirement will be higher but still, he will be able to sleep much easier at night while in retirement when compared to others. The GOP likes to talk about the high costs associated with union benefits but this retirement package looks quite regal to everyone else.

Former General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner won’t get a severance payment from the automaker, but he’ll still get a pension and other benefits worth an estimated $23 million.

In nearly 32 years with the company, Wagoner accrued pension benefits that the company valued at $22.1 million at the end of last year. The actual amount Wagoner will receive could vary because it will be paid in installments over the rest of his life.

Wagoner, 56, also is entitled to $366,602 in unvested stock awards and $534,627 in deferred compensation as of Dec. 31, according to GM’s annual report.

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Dem. leads in NY-20 by 65 votes. 5,900 absentees will determine the winner

With all 610 precincts counted in New York's 20th Congressional District, Democrat Scott Murphy is ahead by 65 votes. It's not over. According to The Albany Project:

One thing is clear, there will be no winner tonight given that there are about 5,900 absentee ballots out there.

FireDogLake reported earlier today that the Republican, Jim Tedisco, has already gone to court:

While campaign lawyers often pre-file papers for simple vote protection, Tedisco’s motion goes much, much further. Inside this document (PDF) are several humdingers, including:

On page 6: An order that whenever a poll-watcher challenges a voter that the elections clerks have to make a written record. (Unless or until that order is served at every polling place—and unless or until somebody notices that paragraph—it will be impossible to enforce.)

On Page 9: Plaintiffs seek a restraining order to prevent the certification of Murphy no matter how huge a win. (This paragraph was struck out by the court on the spot.)

The Republican will probably get Norm Coleman's lawyers.

So, no clear winner tonight.

I'll add one other thought that's been annoying me. Picking Kirsten Gillibrand to be the U.S. Senator was a dumb move by NY Governor David Paterson. It put a Democrat seat (in a Republican area) at risk. For what? A Senator who keeps flipping and flopping on core Democratic issues. A lot of time and money went into trying to save this seat for the Democrats and it never should have happened. Can't Democratic Governors think through the political implications of their moves? This election really never had to happen in the first place (and, yes, I know this is Monday morning quarterbacking, but it bugs me.) And, now, thanks to David Paterson's poor judgment, it's going to go on and on for weeks.

I'm hoping Scott Murphy pulls it out. And, looks like he will. Then, he'll join the Blue Dogs just like his predecessor, Kirsten Gillibrand. Read More......

SC GOP Gov. Sanford: It would be ‘fiscal child abuse’ to accept millions of stimulus dollars for education

Yes, Republicans think it would be child abuse to educate the children of South Carolina. Then again, if Sanford were to actually educate the children of South Carolina, they'd likely no longer vote Republican. Read More......

Coffee can do everything

Besides waking me up in the morning, it can now lessen my pain from exercise. Of course, I don't have that issue - pain or exercise - but if I did, coffee would be my friend.

That cup of coffee that many gym rats, bikers and runners swill before a workout does more than energize them. It kills some of the pain of athletic exertion, a new study suggests. And it works regardless of whether a person already had a coffee habit or not.

Caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord (the adenosine neuromodulatory system) that is heavily involved in pain processing, says University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl. And since caffeine blocks adenosine, the biochemical that plays an important role in energy transfer and thus exercise, he speculated that it could reduce pain.

Sounds good to me. Read More......

When faux populism meets Eric Cantor's brain

I was just watching Cantor on TV the other day. Not exactly the brightest bulb in the GOP (though he'd give Sarah Palin a run for her money). Anyway, it seems that Cantor has a big problem with the stimulus package and all of its "wasteful" spending on things that don't "stimulate." Case in point: Bike paths and bike racks.

Hmmm...

First off, the folks who specialize in such things say that a dollar spent on bicycle infrastructure actually produces more jobs than a buck spent on highways. Could be the relative wages, could be how much money goes into materials versus manpower. Could be a lot of things. But what we do know is that Eric Cantor is continuing the GOP brand of faux populism that, at its core, is based on worshipping idiots.

For example, remember when the Republicans made fun of Obama for saying that additional offshore drilling would bring in about as much energy as simply inflating all of our car tires to the correct amount? The GOP ripped Obama for that "silly" suggestion - except, of course, we later learned that Obama was right.

But for the Republican fake outrage machine, facts don't really matter. Back to the case at hand. What, pray tell, does Mr. Cantor think really "stimulates"? (Perhaps he should ask Lindsey Graham, or maybe Aaron "Abs of Steel" Schock.) Projects that stimulate the economy are projects that create jobs. And that can happen in a number of ways. By direct hires, or by buying goods that help companies increase their revenues and thus be able to hang on to more employees during an economic downturn. What the impact of the stimulus does not have any correlation to is how serious or not the project sounds, which seems to be what Cantor is arguing.

At some point, the Republican party needs to wake up and realize that we're dealing with a serious economic crisis here. We can't have them proposing crap (like tax cuts) and criticizing ideas that actually stimulate the economy (like bike projects) just to gain political points. They're not coming up with ideas in order to help us. They're proposing garbage in order to help themselves politically. And that's rather scary, should their ideas ever get adopted into law.

Well, actually, we've already seen what happens when GOP populist talking points are enacted into law. We have a battered economy and two stalemated wars to show for it. Read More......

Dow finishes with best month in 6 years

Not to get ahead of the game here, and I would be the last to suggest a real rebound is upon us, but this is still positive news. More declines are ahead and more banking problems remain and more unemployment troubles are around the corner, but it's still okay to step back and recognize a decent month.

For the first time in 17 months, the bulls have credible ammunition for stocks: There are tentative signs of stabilization in the U.S. economy and banking system. The bulls face their own stress test in April, however, as results of the Treasury Department's banking review or corporate first- quarter profit reports could wipe out recent gains.

The Dow was recently up 84 points, or 1.1%, at 7606. The Dow is up about 8% for the month to date, its best gain since October 2002, which turned out to be the bottom of the last bear market.

Helping the Dow, which was down 254 points Monday, was a gain for all of the blue-chip measure's financial companies. Also, shares of Microsoft were up 5.4% to $18.43 after an analyst upgrade citing improving personal computer demand in the U.S. and China. Shares of PC maker Hewlett-Packard Co., another Dow component, rose 0.5% to $32.28.

Again, it may require nerves of steel and deep pockets to invest in this market, but this is still good news. Read More......

Why Wagoner and not Wall Street?

It's a fair question to ask and many have been asking since GM's CEO Rick Wagoner was sacked. As much as he deserved to be sent packing, it still remains unclear why Wall Street has not been treated the same. Many of the worst offenders on Wall Street have already left (with bags of gold) but the problems remain. AIG continues to be treated mildly and even though the Wall Street bailout is $9 trillion and counting. Somehow those at the center of the current crisis are being treated better. This approach will only float with the public for so long. The Michigan line workers are right:

"It's the age-old Wall Street vs. Main Street smackdown again," said Brian Fredline, president of UAW Local 602 at a plant near Lansing. "You have all kinds of funding available to banks that are apparently too big to fail, but they're also too big to be responsible."

"But when it comes to auto manufacturing and middle-class jobs and people that don't matter on Wall Street, there are certainly different standards that we have to meet -- higher standards -- than the financials. That is a double standard that exists and it's unfair," Fredline said.

Many workers -- not generally known for their affection toward executives -- even sympathized with Rick Wagoner, who was forced to step down as chief executive of General Motors. He was by turns called a "sacrificial lamb," "scapegoat" and "fall guy."

Read More......

Abandon hope all ye who enter here

It's from Dante. Paul Krugman might want to add it to the banner of his blog.

I’m detecting a trend in commentary that I find slightly ominous. Some of the economic news lately has been slightly better than expected, which was bound to happen at some point (on average, after all, half the news should be better than expected). Mostly this is in the form of things getting worse more slowly, but it wouldn’t be surprising if we see, say, an uptick in industrial production in a few months, as the inventory cycle runs its course.

If so, that doesn’t mean the worst is over. There was a pause in the plunge in early 1931, and many people started to breathe easier. They were wrong.

So far, there’s nothing pointing to a fundamental turnaround this year, or next, or for that matter as far as the eye can see.

I don't think Krugman's necessarily wrong. In fact, I fear he's right. I also fear that not enough people are listening. Not to make too many literary allusions in one post, but Krugman can take heart (or not) from a character in Greek mythology named Cassandra:

In Greek mythology, Cassandra (Greek: Κασσάνδρα "she who entangles men"[1]) (also known as Alexandra[2]) was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy. However, when she did not return his love, Apollo placed a curse on her so that no one would ever believe her predictions....

While Cassandra foresaw the destruction of Troy (she warned the Trojans about the Trojan Horse, the death of Agamemnon, and her own demise), she was unable to do anything to forestall these tragedies since they did not believe her.

The recent Newsweek cover story on Krugman contained the following that, I think, describes the Krugman phenomenon perfectly:

If you are of the establishment persuasion (and I am), reading Krugman makes you uneasy. You hope he's wrong, and you sense he's being a little harsh (especially about Geithner), but you have a creeping feeling that he knows something that others cannot, or will not, see.

Read More......

House Democrats begin push for comprehensive energy legislation

Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) held a conference call this morning to discuss comprehensive energy legislation. This debate is starting because Markey, who chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Climate Change, joined with House Energy, and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman released a draft of their legislation titled, “The American Clean Energy and Security Act”

Pelosi stated that this legislation would put us on "a new path." She offered praise for President Obama, who put an emphasis in his budget on energy. She also said passing the budget this week is the first step in this process. Pelosi maintains the new energy bill addresses a national security issue, economic issue, environmental health issue and a “moral issue to preserve god’s creation.” The Speaker's statement and links to the draft documents can be found on her blog, The Gavel.

Pelosi also dismissed the criticism of those who say that while we're in an economic crisis, it's not the right time to move forward on energy. She said that is a "False choice" maintaining the way to fix the economy is to grow the new economy and our reduce dependence on fossil fuel.

Pelosi also laid out an aggressive schedule. She hopes to pass the final bill in the House no later than July.

Pelosi also said its passage will require outside mobilization. Congressman Markey echoed the need for activist support because there will be many who try to put up roadblocks to its passage. He predicted an incredibly intense political debate and avowed that U.S leadership needed on energy issues.

A synopisis of the proposed draft was posted on the Energy Committee's website:

The American Clean Energy and Security Act will create millions of new clean energy jobs, save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, enhance America’s energy independence, and cut global warming pollution. To meet these goals, the legislation has four titles:

* A clean energy title that promotes renewable sources of energy, carbon capture and sequestration technologies, low-carbon fuels, clean electric vehicles, and the smart grid and electricity transmission;
* An energy efficiency title that increases energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy, including buildings, appliances, transportation, and industry;
* A global warming title that places limits on emissions of heat-trapping pollutants; and
* A transitioning title that protects U.S. consumers and industry and promotes green jobs during the transition to a clean energy economy.

Pelosi said putting this policy into statute, not through regulation, is important so the world knows that this is the law of the land. It is going to be an intense and often complicated debate. But, Pelosi and Markey sure seem fired up and ready to go. Read More......

The Word of the Day: Budgetish

1. Budget-ish

Adjective
1. Of or resembling a budget. Lacks specificity such as numbers and/or ideas.
Usually encased in blue glossy folder and 19-pages, including cover pages and table of contents.

Noun
2. State requisite for GOP press conference.

Origin; 21st century English. From GOP budget proposal, March 2009
It was not a budget in the sense that it had numbers. It was more budget-ish.

Read More......

Huge computer virus may hit tomorrow, April 1

This is not a joke. Update your anti-virus now. And even then, it may be too late. This is a Windows virus.

NYT:

Given the sophisticated nature of the worm, the question remains: What is the purpose of Conficker, which could possibly become the world’s most powerful parallel computer on April 1? That is when the worm will generate 50,000 domain names and systematically try to communicate with each one. The authors then only need to register one of the domain names in order to take control of the millions of zombie computers that have been created.

Okay that sounds a bit too much like Terminator.

Here's the 60 Minutes report from the other night:


What do you do? Reader Bradford suggests the following (I confirmed his links, they're genuine):

Also, please make sure every Windows machine is patched. Follow the instructions of your Operating system here.

Also, there is a free removal tool being provided by Mcaffee and it can be found here.

Make sure you click on the link on the upper right for the STINGER application.

If they are already infected, the WORM prevents the anti-virus software from updating automatically and it prevents people from getting to security websites. What is worse, if they did not update their OS with the Microsoft patch I sent you before they got infected, the WORM makes the system THINK that it already has that update! What this means is that the end-users Windows OS will not update itself to fix the hole that the Worm is using. The end-user will see a dialog box that tells them their system is already up to date and does not need the patch. It is the WORM that is making the system tell the end user that!

At this point, the only way I can determine that a person can be 100% sure to be un-infected is to run the STINGER application I sent you earlier. I ran it on all of my personal systems. If they cannot get to that site, I would be concerned as that may mean they are infected.

More from the Washington Post. Read More......

O'Reilly doesn't like people who are on their "Blueberries" all day

He also says the "far left blogs" are his "number one enemy." Keep elevating us, Bill. ThinkProgress grabbed the video:

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Obama's approval stays high, most know he's not to blame for the economic mess and the country is slowly getting into a better mood

The latest poll from the Washington Post and ABC News shows a changing mood in the country. The number of people thinking we're heading in the right direction is on the move in a positive direction -- hitting levels that haven't been seen in five years. Obama's approval rating is holding strong, too. Seems that talking to the American people has been the right move. They know their president is on the job trying to fix the mess caused by others (people get that he's not to blame, too, which is good considering he's only been president for just over two months):

The number of Americans who believe that the nation is headed in the right direction has roughly tripled since Barack Obama's election, and the public overwhelmingly blames the excesses of the financial industry, rather than the new president, for turmoil in the economy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

At this early stage in his presidency, Obama continues to benefit from a broadly held perception that others should bear the bulk of responsibility for the severe economic problems that confront his administration. Americans see plenty of offenders, but only about a quarter blame the president and his team for an economy that's in the ditch.

Despite the increasing optimism about the future, the nation's overall mood remains gloomy, and doubts are rising about some of the administration's prescriptions for the economic woes. Independents are less solidly behind Obama than they have been, fewer Americans now express confidence that his economic programs will work, barely half of the country approves of how the president is dealing with the federal budget deficit, and the political climate is once again highly polarized.

The percentage of Americans in the new poll who said the country is on the right track still stands at just 42 percent, but that is the highest percentage saying so in five years and marks a sharp turnabout from last fall, when as many as nine in 10 said the country was heading in the wrong direction. Fifty-seven percent now consider the nation as moving on the wrong track.

Yes, there is good news in the poll. But, Obama and the nation still have a long way to go. And, as noted, partisanship is shaping opinions. It's probably the very same people who stuck with George Bush don't like what Obama is doing. The Republicans let Bush destroy the economy. Obama is going to be judged on how he fixes it. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's Election Day in New York's 20th Congressional District. This race has gotten enormous attention and we're told by the pundits the results hold enormous significance. The Democrat, Scott Murphy, has gotten help from Obama and Biden. The Republican, Jim Tedicsco, has been helped by a slew of GOP leaders, including Pat Boone. If you have some free time today, the DCCC has an online GOTV phone bank set up.

The Obamas leave for Europe today. First stop London. It's just refreshing to know the world doesn't loathe our leader. Been awhile.

Thread the news, please. Read More......

Don't eat the pistachios

How about we come up with a list of foods that are OK to eat? I'm guessing that list will be a lot shorter than the list of tainted foods that are floating around. Industry self regulation that the Republicans had to have was a failure so let's stop acting as though the entire system can be saved with a few small changes. How about the US has a food safety system worthy of the US?

Federal food safety officials warned Monday that consumers should stop eating all foods containing pistachios while they figure out the source of a possible salmonella contamination.

Still reeling from the national salmonella outbreak in peanuts, the Food and Drug Administration said central California-based Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc., the nation's second-largest pistachio processor, was voluntarily recalling a portion of the roasted nuts it has been shipping since last fall. A Setton spokeswoman said that amounts to more than 2 million pounds of nuts.

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World Bank forecasts 4.5% contraction in Russian economy

Oil is still expensive enough but hardly at the bubble rates of last year. The latest Russian efforts to revive the glories of the past (also known as ego) were funded on high oil prices but this will have to be put back on the shelf for a few more years until the next oil bubble arrives. MarketWatch:

"With a much worse global financial outlook and oil prices in the $45 a barrel range, Russia's economy is likely to contract by 4.5% in 2009, with further downside risks," the World Bank said in a report released Monday.

The new forecast is a major downward adjustment from the World Bank's previous estimate of 3% growth. Russia, which has vast resources of oil, gas and metals, has been hit hard by the global economic crisis.

As a result of the expected macroeconomic contraction, Russia's fiscal surplus from last year will turn to a sizeable deficit, according to the bank.

Read More......

Karzai signs law that legalizes rape

Karzai is worse by the day. The opium trade has prospered, cronyism is rampant, women's rights are disappearing and those who support them are going to prison. The days of the Bush administration making excuses for Karzai are over. The Independent:

Afghanistan's President, Hamid Karzai, has signed a law which "legalises" rape, women's groups and the United Nations warn. Critics claim the president helped rush the bill through parliament in a bid to appease Islamic fundamentalists ahead of elections in August.

In a massive blow for women's rights, the new Shia Family Law negates the need for sexual consent between married couples, tacitly approves child marriage and restricts a woman's right to leave the home, according to UN papers seen by The Independent.

"It is one of the worst bills passed by the parliament this century," fumed Shinkai Karokhail, a woman MP who campaigned against the legislation. "It is totally against women's rights. This law makes women more vulnerable."

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More write downs and job cuts at UBS?

Phil Gramm's pricey advice to UBS sounds about as bad as his advice to Congress. Why does anyone listen to what he has to say? It's scary to think that he was McCain's economic brain. What's going to be left of this once strong bank when the write downs are finally over?

The bank, one of Europe's hardest-hit in the crisis, has already written down more than $49 billion since mid-2007 and cut over 7,000 jobs, mostly in investment banking.

Sonntag, which cited people familiar with the issue, had said UBS would write down at least another $2 billion on illiquid assets, including asset categories so far out of the spotlight such as collateralized loan obligations (CLOs).

And of course, this means thousands more jobs are likely to be cut. Read More......

$2.8 billion per year down the drain

That's a lot of money and energy being wasted only to keep your PC running. Besides the environmental impact, who really likes to waste money?

Admittedly I don't think much about it at all. I leave my laptop running overnight because I know it'll take five minutes or more to get things going in the morning -- not just booting up, but launching the various apps I start the day with, downloading my overnight email, filtering out the spam, and otherwise "getting settled."

But all the power wasted while computers are sitting idle overnight adds up, and one study has finally tried to measure it. The tally: An estimated $2.8 billion wasted on excess energy costs each year in the U.S. alone.

On a CO2 basis, that's 20 million tons of carbon dioxide, about the amount produced by 4 million cars on the road.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Ever since I bought my own place I've gotten way more conscious about energy use (amazing what paying your own electric bill does to inspire virtue). One thing I noticed - with my Mac laptop, at least, I can set the laptop to "better energy savings," which basically shuts the thing down to a minimum of energy use when I'm away for more than a few minutes. And to start it back up, I hit any key, and the computer is back within seconds. Are there any PC experts out there who can share energy-saving tips for a PC? Another energy-saving tip I learned - lots of appliances, when they're "off," if they're still plugged in, they might be hogging a lot of electricity. Read More......

George Bush's of the world, 2009 is your year

Of course this won't have any impact on students who will need financial assistance. No, not any chance at all. The fact that schools such as Harvard have lost billions won't matter at all. As they always do but even more so in 2009 (and 2010 and probably 2011), the Ivy League schools and other criminally expensive universities in America will be looking for duds to pay full fare to balance the books. What a spectacular system of education for the elite that is usually only matched in the Third World.

Facing fallen endowments and needier students, many colleges are looking more favorably on wealthier applicants as they make their admissions decisions this year.

Institutions that have pledged to admit students regardless of need are finding ways to increase the number of those who pay full fare in ways that allow the colleges to maintain the claim of being need-blind — taking more students from the transfer or waiting lists, for instance, or admitting more foreign students who pay full freight.

Colleges that acknowledge taking financial status into account say they are even more aware of that factor this year.

“If you are a student of means or ability, or both, there has never been a better year,” said Robert A. Sevier, an enrollment consultant to colleges.

Of course this will be the case. Just like all of the US universities who were steering students in the direction of lenders who kicked back money, this one sounds like another example of how the university system is moving in the wrong direction, favoring the elite as opposed to the stupid wealthy.

Then again, if you look at current crisis and the high rate of Harvard MBA's out there - Bush, Stanley O'Neal, John Thain, Fred "the shred" Goodwin, Henry Paulson, Christopher Cox - maybe clogging the supposed elite schools with even more duds will help bring an end to the system. Wishful thinking, but this is supposed to be the year of hope and change. Read More......

Robert Scoble is right

Robert Scoble, who's well-known in tech circles as a former Microsoft employee/guru (he was outspoken in his support of gay Microsoft employees when the company's management went momentarily anti-gay a few years back), and blogger, happened to complain recently about the never-ending stream of bad PR pitches he gets by email. Well, didn't that tick off a number of folks in the PR industry, including this person, who apparently thinks a reasonable counter-argument is to post a shirtless picture of Scoble on their Web site. Ah yes, now there's someone who's an expert at communication.

(As an side, listen to the rather short comments that Scoble made on this issue. He's absolutely right, and the effort to paint his comments as the illiterate words of a madman are just bizarre if you actually bother listening to what he said.)

The brouhaha struck me as interesting, since I've been writing lately, and for a while, about the terrible PR pitches I get by email. It's not just the quality of the pitches, it's the thought behind them (or lack thereof), and the number of them, that's so annoying. Sure, you can argue that we should be flattered that so many PR experts on the Hill and in the public relations industry think we're so important that they spam us all day with really bad pitches on topics none of you would ever in a million years care about. But I prefer to take a less egocentric view, and worry about whether this is happening to a lot of people. About whether this is a sign of the larger corporatization of email - something that is making the entire medium of email increasingly unusable for a growing number of people.

I really believe that people need to exercise more judgment when using email. The same kind of judgment they'd use when picking up a telephone and calling a friend or a business associate. I think it's far too easy to click-and-send an email, so people do it with far too little thought. At the beginning of email, back in the 90s, people would send embarrassingly angry emails, writing things they'd never dare say in person or write by letter, only to quickly regret them once the email was already sent. Nowadays, the thoughtless emailer has gone from angry to insipid. We get jokes. Lots of jokes. Lots of really dumb stupid jokes. And usually ones we've seen before. We get powerpoint files of very beautiful pictures put to very cheesy music. And, those of us with big blogs, and probably a lot of mainstream reporter out there too, get lots of really bad PR pitches that the PR expert in question would probably never in a million years think of pitching us in person.

For example, I complained last week about getting garbage press releases from the staffs of members of Congress. Press releases about how the congressman got some award or something. (Yes, I know, you all really wanted me to report on Congressman Whoever's award - sorry.) Could you imagine the same congressional staff sitting around and having this conversation:

Staffer 1: Hey, the boss just got an award from an organization most people have never heard of.

Staffer 2: Cool. Who do you think we can get to write about it?

Staffer 1: Hey, let's send it to AMERICAblog. They've been focusing a lot lately on the economy, on how the conservatives have taken over the GOP, and about the ongoing struggle for gay rights. I'm sure they'd love to write about some congressman getting an award from an organization no one's ever heard of.

Yeah. I don't think so. The reason we get these irrelevant press releases, the reason I have companies offering dating services ask if I might want to write about them on my blog, is because email has given them the luxury to stop thinking. Once up on a time, they'd actually send the release to someone who cared - perhaps the local press back home in the congressman's district. But now with email, they can blast it to hundreds, or even thousands, of reporters and bloggers in the hopes that maybe one of them will pick it up and run with it. It's the same logic spammers use - if you blast garbage to enough people, one of them may fall for it. But of course, the problem is that the rest of us suffer when the one idiotic email becomes a never-ending torrent of idiotic emails that clog our in-box, and make us start missing emails we actually want (like from our readers who send us tips).

It was suggested by one public relations '"expert," the one who posted the shirtless picture of Scoble, that Scoble deserved the spam he got because he's a successful blogger:

Mr. Scoble needs to realize that he is complaining about the very celebrity that he himself created. You cannot have it both ways.

If you become an A-Lister and make a good living (while many of very good public relations people in this country are being laid off, by the way) it is beyond self-absorption to complain about “stupid-ass pitches” that you receive because of the very notoriety that you sought, built and benefit from.

Now there's a fascinating argument I'd love to see a PR expert make to their client:

PR Expert: I emailed Scoble and Aravosis the latest pitch about the new floor wax our client is selling.

Client: You asked a tech blogger and a political blogger to write about our floor wax? How does it help us get the message out there about our new product by sending it to people who we know, in advance, don't even write about products like ours?

PR Expert: They're A-listers and they wanted the notoriety - they deserve whatever they get!

That'll be $50,000 up front, and $20,000 a month in retainer.

Regardless of whether Scoble, I, or anyone else wanted "the notoriety," I'm not sure how that excuses a PR expert, who is presumably paid a good deal of money to promote their boss or client, from sending a bad pitch to the wrong guy.

Scoble is right, and it would do PR experts well to listen. If the people you're pitching are bitching about your pitches, then you are per se not doing your job. (More on this here.) Read More......

Palin is becoming the next Rush Limbaugh

Oh, Palin became the next Limbaugh the second she stepped up to the national stage and, with the help of the blogs, we discovered and exposed what a nutjob she was. So, before anyone goes ascribing this to the grand Democratic plan (as if we ever had one), Palin was red meat the minute she opened her mouth. And like Limbaugh, she just can't help herself - talk talk talk talk talk. From the Plum Line:

Multiple Democratic strategists say the party plans to increasingly elevate Palin in the same manner it has employed Rush for weeks, using her high-visibility, her social conservatism, and memories of her harsh attacks on Obama during the campaign to tar the GOP as partisan, obstructionist, and backward-looking.

James Carville, a key architect of the Limbaugh strategy, says Dems will be seeking to elevate Palin more and more, because she’s “an identifiable person who has a hook,” unlike GOP leaders like Eric Cantor an

d Mitch McConnell. Read More......

Peugeot CEO also out

Being an auto executive these days is suddenly a tough place to be. It all seemed so dreamy a few years ago when you could easily sack workers or move production to cheap labor locations and watch your salary and stock go up. Peugot's new hire looks like a classic chop-costs-and-sell kind of CEO though selling or merging won't be easy in this climate.

France's biggest carmaker, PSA Peugeot-Citroen, ousted CEO Christian Streiff on Sunday, saying "exceptional difficulties" confronting the auto industry require new management at the top.

Philippe Varin is being brought in from outside the company June 1 to replace Streiff, the company said in a statement. Roland Vardanega, a member of the three-man board of directors at the car company, will preside over the company until then.

Read More......

Palin's Scientologist adviser doesn't talk to her much, unless he does, and he doesn't have much influence, except sometimes he does

Got that? Seems there's trouble in Palin-land, per the Washington Post. And even more trouble reported, from Politico:

The state of confusion is compounded by two separate Palin spheres that don’t communicate with each other, one based in the governor’s office and another based in the D.C.-area, where Palin’s political action committee is located—and the incongruous presence of a high-profile Democratic trial lawyer among her political advisers.

The lawyer, John Coale, is a former supporter of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign who became a Palin confidante as his wife, Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, interviewed the former GOP vice presidential nominee and her family numerous times during and after the election.

Their presence around Palin has become Topic A among many of her allies as well as other Republican insiders who are mystified as to why an anti-abortion rights conservative who ran against Washington elites is now turning to a pair of capital insiders for counsel.

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Obamas to use own cash to redecorate White House

CNN:

The Obamas are using their own money to redecorate the White House residence and Oval Office, the White House confirms, forgoing the $100,000 in federal funds that is traditionally allotted to new presidents for such renovation projects.

The first couple — who made well over $2 million in 2008, largely from book revenues — is also turning down money from the White House Historical Association, the organization that financed a $74,000 set of china for the Bushes.

He's also going to keep Bush's rug. Classy. Read More......

Breaking: Chrysler and Fiat in global alliance

This probably means Chrysler will receive the $6 billion loan from the government (as opposed to the deep pockets of Cerberus Capital Management) but beyond that, details are limited for now. The US auto industry is being forced to change radically or desist. It's unfortunate that so many previous administrations and members of Congress have allowed Big Auto to avoid making tough decisions in the past, but those days are now over. Obama is doing the right thing with Detroit, and hopefully soon with Wall Street as well.

Chrysler LLC and owner Cerberus Capital Management said Monday they entered into a global alliance with Italian auto maker Fiat SPA with the help of the U.S. Treasury. Chrysler said the Fiat alliance will not only help it pay back government loans sooner but strengthens its ability to create and preserve U.S. jobs. The alliance raises the possibility that the U.S. government may invest another $6 billion in Chrysler.

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GOP Senator from Texas: It's 'World War III' if the winner of the Minnesota Senate race, Al Franken, is seated

Republicans are desperate to keep Al Franken out of the Senate. How desperate? Threatening "World War III" desperate:

Texas Sen. John Cornyn is threatening “World War III” if Democrats try to seat Al Franken in the Senate before Norm Coleman can pursue his case through the federal courts.

Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, acknowledges that a federal challenge to November’s elections could take “years” to resolve. But he’s adamant that Coleman deserves that chance — even if it means Minnesota is short a senator for the duration.

A three-judge panel is expected to rule any day now on legal challenges to the November election.

This is beyond appalling. The Senator from Texas wants to keep the people of Minnesota from being fully represented. The GOP leaders want to delay this as long as possible. They're using every legal trick in the book, which is almost funny since the Republicans are always bashing what they deem to be frivolous lawsuits. The GOP's reason has nothing to do with fairness or counting the votes. It's about political power:

Without Franken in the Senate, the Democrats hold a 58-41 vote advantage over the GOP; getting to 59-41 sooner rather than later would make it easier to move President Barack Obama’s agenda through Congress.

That's it in a nutshell. Someone needs to ask Senator Cornyn just what "World War III" means? Read More......

Obama FIRED the head of GM

UPDATE: I've just added a snap poll on this in the column to the right. You can select multiple answer. Poll closes tonight at 8pm Eastern. Just curious what folks think, since the comments tend to be quite active and mixed.

I don't think Chris' earlier story has quite sunk in. Obama basically just fired the head of GM.

And good for him.

This is the kind of leadership on the economy that people have been demanding. And considering the public's ire over the AIG bonuses, I think Obama will get big props for this one from the American people.

Of course, the Dow just dropped 200 points as a result of Obama's actions. Why? Because Wall Street is now scared to death that President Barack Obama will actually hold them responsible for their actions. I doubt the public will lose a wink of sleep over that one.

But the Republicans? Just wait for the cries of "socialism!" to come screaming from GOP leaders Limbaugh and Palin and Bachmann and Beck. How dare a US president fire the head of a PRIVATE company?! Of course, Obama didn't really "fire" the GM exec - he simply told him that in order to get more bailout money, he needs to go. Same diff.

But do watch the Republicans closely on this one. They dusted off their faux populism during the AIG bonus debate, when only months before their leaders (e.g., McConnell and Cantor) were irate over the notion that the government might try to rein in executive compensation. So get ready for the GOP to attack the notion that the federal government is telling a private business what to do, when just two weeks ago the GOP argued that the federal government should tell a private business what to do.

Obama 1
America 1
GOP 0 Read More......

Gallup: Catholics "are actually more liberal than the non-Catholic population on a number of moral issues"

Catholics share the same views as non-Catholics on the choice and stem cell issues. This isn't a surprise to most mainstream Catholics.

The leaders of the Catholic Church are hypocrites. They always welcomed the war-mongering, death penalty supporting George Bush with open arms. But, some are giving Notre Dame a hard time for inviting Obama. But, Obama shares the views of mainstream Catholics, not the same leaders who protected pedophiles for decades.

From Gallup:

The argument of those who protest the extension of the invitation to Obama is that Catholics have a distinctly conservative position on these moral issues. That is certainly the case as far as official church doctrine is concerned, but not when it comes to average American Catholics. The new Gallup analysis, based on aggregated data from Gallup's 2006-2008 Values and Beliefs surveys, indicates that Catholics in the United States today are actually more liberal than the non-Catholic population on a number of moral issues, and on others, Catholics have generally the same attitudes.

The accompanying chart shows the percentage of Catholics and non-Catholics who find each of nine moral issues morally acceptable. Catholics are at least slightly more liberal than non-Catholics on the issues of gambling (an issue to which the Catholic church is not totally opposed), sex between an unmarried man and woman, homosexual relations, and having a baby out of wedlock. Catholics are essentially tied with non-Catholics on the moral acceptability of abortion, divorce, and stem-cell research using human embryos. Only on the death penalty are Catholics slightly less likely than non-Catholics to find the issue morally acceptable.

This also means the traditional media should never book that bloviating imbecile Bill Donohue, also a homophobe and racist, to speak for Catholics. He doesn't. He's the one out of the mainstream. Read More......

GOP Senate Leader whines that Obama isn't being bipartisan enough

Mitch McConnell is as insincere and duplicitous as they come. When Obama reached out to the Republicans, the Republicans shut him down. So, Obama is moving ahead to pass the agenda of change, which is what the American people want. McConnell doesn't like that:

A leading congressional Republican did not pull any punches Sunday when asked whether President Obama had kept one of his most prominent campaign promises.

“I must say I'm disappointed,” Senate Minority Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “After two months, the president has not governed in the middle as I had hoped he would. But it's not too late. He's only been in office a couple of months. Still before him are the opportunities to deal with us on a truly bipartisan basis,” the Republican told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King.

Seems like Obama is governing from where the American people want him to be. His approval rating is a lot higher than the Republicans in Congress.

Keep in mind, in 2006, there were 55 Republicans Senators. Now, there are 41. The Republicans have lost 25% of their membership. That's because they're out-of-touch and have had nothing to offer the American people. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Looks like we'll be hearing a lot of car talk for the next couple days. And, this isn't going to be fun like NPR's "Car Talk." This is going to be intense and will determine the future of the U.S. auto industry. As Chris noted below, it started yesterday with the forced resignation of GM's CEO. That's hard ball. But, the industry needs new thinking -- and it has needed new thinking for decades. (This also shows the Obama administration isn't cowering before the often described "D.C. power couple" of Congressman John Dingell, who has been GM's great protector, and his wife, Debbie, who works for GM.)

Let's get this week rolling... Read More......

GM CEO sacked as part of bailout

Business as usual can only last for so long. It was annoying to see the same (mis)management running the company through the first bailout despite being the failed leader who drove them into the ground but at least this round required change. What is most surprising is that Wall Street has somehow managed to stay the course after the initial changes. Heck, Goldman Sachs is preparing to return their TARP money and pretend as though the AIG gambles have nothing to do with them. And then there's AIG who has implemented some change but their problems never end. CNN:

General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner announced his resignation early Monday -- the latest change for the troubled automaker.

White House and GM sources had told CNN Sunday that Wagoner would resign as part of the federal government's bailout strategy for the troubled automaker.

"On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with Administration officials. In the course of that meeting, they requested that I 'step aside' as CEO of GM, and so I have," Wagoner said in a statement posted to the GM Web site.

Obama knows how to grade failures and he knows how to fire them. This provides some hope for changes at Treasury. Read More......

Murdoch's MySpace falling behind

Poor Rupert. News Corp has seen falling revenues and his previously brilliant decisions are now being questioned. Now his social networking tool for teenagers is being left behind by the new annoying fad in social networking, Facebook.

Latest figures show that Murdoch is being beaten in the fight for social networks. MySpace suffered a drop in visitor traffic last month and is now less than half the size of its younger rival, Facebook. Three executives recently quit the one-time darling of the internet and there is speculation its co-founders will follow.

MySpace's loss of status as the cool place to be is an object lesson in the notoriously fickle internet, where today's cultural icon is tomorrow's passing fad. From humble origins in 2003, the site led the so-called "Web 2.0" revolution in which users could create their own profile pages and share content with friends. Murdoch's purchase of MySpace for $580m was seen as a masterstroke as membership continued to soar, with celebrities and politicians joining the craze.

But then came Facebook, founded by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg, which soon snowballed with an older and apparently more affluent demographic to steal MySpace's crown. Gradually newspaper coverage of social networks switched from references to "MySpace and Facebook" to "Facebook and MySpace". The rise of Bebo also undermined MySpace's dominance, while Twitter is among the latest novelties eating into users' attention spans.

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Biodegradeable gum arrives in UK stores

Sidewalks of the world celebrate. The Guardian:

Chicza Rainforest Gum is manufactured in Mexico by Consorcio Chiclero - a consortium of 56 co-operatives employing some 2,000 chicleros (gum farmers) and their families. The workers extract natural gum from the sap of the chicle tree, which is then used to make the product.

Unlike conventional chewing gum, which contains petrochemicals, the organic chewing gum does not stick to clothing or pavements. And once disposed of, it will crumble to dust in about six weeks, dissolving harmlessly in water or being absorbed into the soil.

Chicza comes in lime, mint and spearmint flavours, and is going on sale at Waitrose for £1.39 a packet.

It is costly and difficult to remove conventional chewing gum from public places because of its chemical content, with cleaning typically costing between 10p and 30p per piece. It takes 17 weeks for chewing gum to be removed from the entire length of Oxford Street in London, for example, but only 10 days for it to be littered with gum again.

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Facebook Users to Flood Vatican with Condoms

Der Spiegel calls it a "prophylactic measure." Apparently they did this on Friday:

Now that anger is being expressed in an unusual way: An Italian group on the social networking Web site Facebook is urging people to post condoms to the pope in protest over his remarks. It expects 60,000 subscribers will send a condom to the Vatican on Friday.

The postal protest is "a peaceful provocation ... a reaction to the pope's absurd words on condoms," wrote the Italian organizers of the Facebook group, which now has more than 26,000 members. It said it represented young people "who are the closest and most interested in this kind of question."

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Lula and Berlusconi need therapy

Fantastic generalization by the Brazilian President and besides sounding like an ignorant racist, he's factually wrong. The last time I checked, disgraced but wealthy Merrill Lynch CEO Stanley O'Neal is African-American. The economic crisis has little to do with race and everything to do with excessive greed and mismanagement. Brazil or any other country in the world is no stranger to greed and mismanagement. Criticism of the failed policies is fine and well deserved but let's stick to the facts and address the issues.

Brazil's president blamed "white people with blue eyes" for the world economic crisis and said it was wrong that developing countries should pay for mistakes made in richer countries, sparking accusations of racism.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has criticized the European Union and the US for tariffs on products from developing countries and has advocated a bigger say for developing countries in decisions on the world economy, pointed a finger to Western bankers.

"This crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who thought they knew everything and now show they know nothing," Lula da Silva said after a meeting with the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the country's capital of Brasilia.

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Chrysler backs away from advertising on O'Reilly after ThinkProgress protests

Chrysler now joins UPS in distancing itself from O'Reilly after he reportedly had his cameramen stalk a woman, ThinkProgress writer Amanda Terkel. Read More......

GOP leader Rush Limbaugh wants to change the word "dike" because it makes him uncomfortable when talking about the flooding in N. Dakota

From Towleroad:

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So the Catholic church is fine coddling Nazi-sympathizers and enabling pedophiles, but not okay with Obama

At some point, the leadership of the Catholic church needs to decide what it wants to be when it grows up. The church leadership has enabled pedophiles, and they're currently embracing a Holocaust revisionist, but the LA Times reports today that they draw the line at inviting the President of the United States to a graduation ceremony. They look ridiculous. Why don't they just admit that they're Republicans. They serve conservative politics, not the Lord. Well, they also serve themselves (and possibly someone a lot lower), otherwise they wouldn't be enabling pedophiles and Holocaust deniers. Oh for the days when a man of the cloth actually cared about doing good. Read More......

Redoubt keeps erupting

For the past week or so, Redoubt, the volcano in Alaska, just keeps blowing its stack. Ash drifted into Anchorage yesterday.

The Anchorage Daily News has an amazing photo display including some great night time shots from Friday's eruption.

The volcano's continued eruptions have resulted in a whole new round of criticism of Governor Bobby Jindal:

Thanks to "something called volcano monitoring," to use the denigrating language of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, passenger jets did not fly into ash clouds when Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupted earlier this week.

Volcanic ash creates conditions akin to flying into a sand blaster. A KLM flight lost power in all four engines after it flew into the cloud created by a 1989 eruption of Redoubt.

The plane dropped by more than two vertical miles before its crew could restart the engines and land in Anchorage. No wonder Alaska Airlines canceled 19 in-state flights.... after Redoubt sent an ash plume 60,000 feet into the sky.

The eruptions of Redoubt carry a lesson that Jindal did not learn back when he was a Rhodes Scholar: Don't sneer at science.

It's been a long-standing GOP talking point to sneer at science. That's deadly. Every time the volcano blows, it's a reminder of how dangerous Jindal and his GOP colleagues are. Read More......

The global leadership crisis

If anyone can step up to this challenge, it's Obama, but it's obvious that changes need to be made. Is this a matter of Americans embracing Obama and his plan or will Obama need to make changes? More from David Rothkopf of the Carnegie Endowment:

Here in the United States, there is Barack Obama. At a time of great crisis, there are invested in him -- as they were in Roosevelt -- the hopes of a nation and of the world. He has embraced the example of Lincoln, surrounding himself with powerful, independent-minded advisers. But as we watched his news conference last week, and as we listen to Geithner's testimonies and see the administration's economic team in action, we have to wonder: Will they emerge as the leaders we need, with new ideas, courageous enough to shape new institutions? The record so far is mixed.

Obama has made missteps in his first two months, and we can only guess whether they are due to his learning curve or his predisposition. The president's economic team is so uniformly drawn from one time and place -- Bob Rubin's farm team -- that they look like a poster child for the early warning symptoms of groupthink. Geithner & Co. have floundered in breaking free of the ideas that dominated in the 1990s, but they have also been bold about reintroducing government's role where it must be greater. Thus far, there is as much to worry us as there is to comfort us. Soon, we will have to judge this crew and, if they fall short, demand change yet again.

But to paraphrase Roosevelt, Obama can only be as great a president as the people let him be. If citizens had turned on Roosevelt early, he would have faltered, along with the nation's recovery. Because what is often lost in such discussions is the idea that leadership implies collaboration. We get the leaders we demand and thus deserve. (As the United States and England were making Roosevelt and Churchill, Germany and Italy were making Hitler and Mussolini.)

I might take exception with Churchill in this context. It was only after every other "standard" approach and political team had tried and failed that the Brits ushered in Churchill. Churchill was considered a political outsider and considered a last resort when we became PM in 1940. Read More......

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Basically, there's one show to watch tomorrow. Obama is on "Face the Nation."

Okay, Geithner is on two shows, but seriously, who is going to make news? I don't think the Secretary of the Treasury will upstage his boss. Now, John McCain may try to outdo Obama, but he'd have to do or say something really crazy -- not that McCain isn't capable of doing just that.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
___
CBS' "Face the Nation" — President Barack Obama.
___
NBC's "Meet the Press" — Geithner; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
___
CNN's "State of the Union" — Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command; Richard Holbrooke, U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan; Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper; Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation.

"Meet the Press" is a real dud these days. I don't know anyone, maybe outside of the execs at NBC, who thought David Gregory was a good choice to replace Russert. Those NBC execs were wrong. Read More......

Earth Day dinner

Joelle packed some candles for dinner with friends visiting from Toronto and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner over candlelight. It was a bit of a struggle initially because nobody had a lighter or matches (they were staying at a rented apartment) but eventually our hosts came through after trying different pieces of paper on the electric burner.

A fantastic meal - which is never easy in a strange kitchen - with a tasty dessert that took advantage of fresh rhubarb and raspberries and of course, cream.

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IOC with another profile in courage

What better way to solve the embarrassing problem of asking the Olympics to uphold the values that it claims to encourage? Little remains of what limited credibility the International Olympic Committee had following their bribery scandals and then the choice of Beijing. For all of the big talk from the IOC and western leaders, the reality is that the Olympics did nothing to further the cause of opening China. A bubble trade economy perhaps forced Beijing to change their approach with the west but the Olympics? Not at all. Now the IOC is making sure they can avoid any problems in the future with any of their host country choices. And when I say "problems" I mean legitimate and well deserved criticism.

International torch relays ahead of the Olympics have been scrapped by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

It follows the controversy that surrounded the Beijing Olympic relay which was dogged by protests as the torch made its way around the world.

The 2008 relay's London leg was hit by several incidents and criticism over China's 'torch police' security staff.

Organisers of the 2012 London Olympics have already said they had no plans to take the torch outside Britain.

Hat tip to Matt BH for catching this latest sad IOC story. Read More......

Judge to issue subpoenas against Bush team of torture

It's a judge in Spain, but this could be interesting to watch. He's the same judge who sought and caught Pinochet. I might wonder about why the US has failed to pursue possible human rights violations at home, but I'm sure political leadership is already occupied with pursuing a fair deal for the Wall Street bailout, since they've been leading the way there as well.

Criminal proceedings have begun in Spain against six senior officials in the Bush administration for the use of torture against detainees in Guantánamo Bay. Baltasar Garzón, the counter-terrorism judge whose prosecution of General Augusto Pinochet led to his arrest in Britain in 1998, has referred the case to the chief prosecutor before deciding whether to proceed.

The case is bound to threaten Spain's relations with the new administration in Washington, but Gonzalo Boyé, one of the four lawyers who wrote the lawsuit, said the prosecutor would have little choice under Spanish law but to approve the prosecution.

"The only route of escape the prosecutor might have is to ask whether there is ongoing process in the US against these people," Boyé told the Observer. "This case will go ahead. It will be against the law not to go ahead."

The officials named in the case include the most senior legal minds in the Bush administration. They are: Alberto Gonzales, a former White House counsel and attorney general; David Addington, former vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff; Douglas Feith, who was under-secretary of defence; William Haynes, formerly the Pentagon's general counsel; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who were both senior justice department legal advisers.

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The protectionist hypocrisy game

Thankfully someone else has noticed this little game as well. If there is a country who isn't playing the game, I've yet to see them. Too bad the media too often helps promote this false story instead of calling them out.

Chinese-owned Minmetals has been blocked from acquiring the key asset in its $2.6 billion bid for OZ Minerals because the South Australian gold and copper mine was too close to a sensitive Australian defense facility, reports The Australian.

In addition, there's also trouble with a proposed $28 billion investment in Rio Tinto and some of its key mining projects by Chinese-owned Chinalco. The Australian government has labeled Chinalco a state-run firm. Under Australian law, state-run firms seeking to buy Australian companies have higher hurdles to jump than private ones.

And let's not forget China.

China, of course, shouldn't escape blame. It recently blocked Coca-Cola Co.'s bid to buy its biggest domestic juice maker -- China Huiyuan Juice Group Ltd. On March 24, Chinese officials denied the decision was aimed at protecting a national brand, but few believe that line .

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Goldman Sachs promotes "poor CEO" story

Oh please. This story about the Goldman CEO's salary dropping 98% is incredibly misleading. The first thought that crossed my mind was "how much did he make in 2007" when he was still cashing in on selling worthless (to everyone except AIG) trash? One of the missing issues remains the past payments and no matter how much the businesses take off the books, the bonuses remain untouched. Somehow we're supposed to sympathize or be in awe that Goldman CEO Blankfein allowed his compensation to fall to a paltry $1.11 million. Stout fellow! Hang in there!

If the Andrew Cuomo investigation into AIG links to Goldman Sachs, what is Goldman going to do if they are suddenly faced with even greater write-downs? Goldman has been treated like royalty so far thanks to Paulson and now Geithner but this could change very quickly if Cuomo's investigation starts asking tough questions. One of these days Congress and the White House are going to wake up on this as well and then Blankfein will be thankful for anything above $1. Read More......

AIG director named to Obama tax task force

Talk about a toxic asset...

One of the people named this week to President Obama's new Task Force on Tax Reform is a member of the AIG board of directors.

Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University, has been on the board of American International Group since 1988. He also was a prominent economic adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Asked about the AIG connection, a senior administration official said Friday that the White House declined to comment on the story.

Like the others named to the tax reform task force, Feldstein also serves on Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which is headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Let me guess. Summers thought it was a great idea. Read More......

Krugman makes the cover of Newsweek

Newsweek's new cover story. Read More......

Earth Hour tonight

Don't forget to join the world tonight and power down for an hour starting at 8:30PM. It's a good excuse to have a romantic dinner with candlelight or no light at all.

At 8:30pm today the luminous face of Big Ben will go dark. Next door, the houses of parliament will switch off all its lights too, along with thousands of landmarks, buildings and people around the world in a global gesture of solidarity in the fight against climate change.

From the international dateline, Earth Hour starts in New Zealand's Chatham Islands and will conclude in Honolulu. Passed like a baton around the planet, cities including Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, Moscow, Istanbul, Dubai, Cape Town and Las Vegas will be darkened for an hour at 8:30pm local time to mark Earth Hour, the single biggest mass event to mark public concern over global warming.

More than 3,200 cities across 88 countries have signed up and the event has received support from international leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. Environment campaign group WWF, which is co-ordinating the global event, expects hundreds of millions of people around the world to take part in turning out their lights for an hour, in the hope of sending a direct message to world leaders that their voters want urgent action to save the planet from rising temperatures.

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