NY Governor Paterson laments loss of bonus tax money

Most people are lamenting the loss of billions across the planet including retirement money, loss of jobs and continued coddling of Wall Street executives who brought us to this point but sure, let's focus on the lost tax income. With this keen attention on the big picture, sounds like NY will do well with Paterson at the helm.

Underscoring how closely the fates of Wall Street and New York are intertwined, Gov. David Paterson said Friday that a single moment in the financial crisis — the decision by Goldman Sachs executives to forgo bonuses — cost the state $178 million.

The executives complied with the urging of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and others who said in November that major Wall Street companies benefiting from federal bailouts shouldn't pay out the usual huge bonuses to executives.

Paterson says it was the right thing to do, but the result is a further hit to the fiscal crisis of state government.

"Things could go even more south in a big hurry," Paterson told reporters.

Losing tax revenue from bonuses was a big hit to New York's finances because Wall Street taxes accounted for 30 percent of state revenue in the last fiscal quarter.

"I think it was the right urge," he said, but "the state lost $178 million in that moment."

The decision by Goldman Sachs' top executives to forgo bonuses in 2008 forced other investment bank bosses to follow suit. Thousands of lower-tier brokers will still collect their hefty bonuses, however, because their employers don't want to lose their top talent.

What ever would we do if the "top talent" who brought us to this point was to leave? The world might come to an end, probably within minutes, because they are so valuable to the system. Please, please, please don't go. Read More......

Gays only major minority not welcome in Obama's cabinet

Even Republicans got two seats. Gays, zero.

Steve Elmendorf, a former deputy campaign manager for John Kerry and senior adviser to Dick Gephardt, called it “very disappointing” that a number of high-quality LGBT candidates had been passed over. “It’s a very diverse and inclusive cabinet for every community except for the gay and lesbian community,” he said.

Not that anyone’s counting, but the cabinet as announced/projected at present includes three Latinos, two Asian Americans, one African-American, three women, and, yes, two Republicans.

Elmendorf observed that the top-tier White House staff doesn’t appear to have any LGBT people in it either. “That just makes the Rick Warren thing an extra kick in the stomach,” he said.

Though Elmendorf sympathized with Obama’s big-tent argument about wanting to reach out to evangelicals through Rick Warren, he added, “but I don’t think [the Obama team] has sent any signals to the gay and lesbian community -- who voted for him overwhelmingly -- that they want to include them.”

The inaugural committee is touting the participation of the Lesbian and Gay Band Association in the inaugural parade as a symbol of inclusion.

Hey, they gave us a band. Read More......

Four years of the mushy middle?

If there's any clear direction it's not clear so far. That said, the economic team shares the distinction of being on the wrong side of the economic crisis so unless they all have a major change of heart, expect more of the same but with more moderation. The US just voted for change and Americans want change so it's only natural that the candidate we voted for would opt for a mushy middle path. Clinton tried this path in the '90s as he tried to accomodate the right and we ended up with a worsening record of environmental protections in Detroit and changes in the law that led us to the credit crisis. It was the GOP who made these free market changes but Team Clinton went along with it and failed to push back with warnings of what could happen with an unchecked Wall Street.

Will we be seeing more of the same?

But many of Obama's other picks reflect his apparent preference for practical-minded centrists who have straddled big policy debates rather than staking out the strongest pro-reform positions. Their reputations as moderates have won Obama plaudits from even some Republicans, but the choices offer relatively few clues to his plans in certain key areas.

"He's clearly been under great pressure to satisfy any number of constituencies, and to a certain extent, these appointments are prisms through which you can see what you want," said Paul C. Light of New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service and a contributor to The Washington Post. "But at some point there will be tough decisions to make, and some of these Cabinet members are going to have to choose, and we'll see how that plays out."

Peter Wehner, a former senior adviser to President Bush, warned that placing too much emphasis on pragmatism could leave the Obama team rudderless and without intellectual cohesion. "Pragmatism has its place, but there are limits, as well," said Wehner, now a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "If you aren't anchored to a political philosophy, you get blown about, and government becomes ad hoc and you make it up as you go -- and if you're not careful, you begin to go in circles."

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Are Santa's reindeer male or female?

Asking for directions? Are you kidding? Never. Joelle tries to be sneaky about getting directions when we appear to be lost but little does she know, I'm just trying a more scenic route. Oh look at that lovely house over there...again and again and again. Sheesh, some people can't enjoy a bit of scenery. Back to the question of Santa's reindeer:

There may be a perfectly good reason why Santa doesn't get lost on his annual Christmas globetrot: His flying reindeer just might be female and don't mind stopping for directions.

The gender of Rudolph and his or her sleigh-hauling friends — the subject of goofy Internet chatter every year around this time — is now being pondered by renowned wildlife experts at Texas A&M; University.

"Santa's reindeers were really females, most likely," said Alice Blue-McLendon, a veterinary medicine professor specializing in deer who cites the depictions of Santa's helpers with antlers as the primary evidence. It turns out reindeer grow antlers regardless of gender, and most bulls typically shed their fuzzy protrusions before Christmas.

But Santa's sleigh helpers might also be castrated males, known as steers, said Greg Finstad, who manages the Reindeer Research Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

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Hope is fading

Reader Richard emails us that he just left the following comment at Change.gov:

For 53 years, I have lived my life as a proud citizen of the United States. I have served my country in uniform, paid my taxes with minimal complaint, and worked to support my government in any way possible within the dictates of my conscience. As a child, I heard the works of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, and was stirred to beleive that this dream could be true for all people, and wept with hope as Mr. Obama was elected to the Office of President of the United States.

When listening to Dr. King, I was a young white boy from the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, and it was the first I had heard of racial equality.

I served my country in the military, both Army and Navy, until I reached the point where as a God fearing American I could no longer be untruthful about my sexual orientation, and therefore requested that I be discharged.

I wept with hope and joy at the election of Mr. Obama because it seemed that it was possible that equality for all could be achieved.

Now that joy is gone. Rick Warren does not beleive that I am deserving of equal treatment under the law, and Mr. Obama has publicly supported that postition. Hope is fading, and I have no more tears to shed.

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Rick Warren told Jewish woman she was going to hell

Now that's civility you can believe in.

When it came time for questions, a woman stood up, proclaimed her Judaism, and asked Warren if she was going to burn in hell. He paused before responding--and then answered her question the only way it could be answered. Yes, he said to audible gasps.

With all due respect, that's bull that this is the only way the question could be answered. I'm a Christian, and I don't think Jews are going to hell. Rick Warren is a far-right bigot, thats why he answered the question so bluntly and so rudely. His religious right brethren also think Catholics worship Satan. That is not the only way you can answer questions like this. Can anyone get us the video or audio? Read More......

Rick Warren's friends just asked the CA Sup. Ct. to nullify the marriages of 18,000 gay couples

Great timing, Ricky. It's as if Warren and his buddy's want to ruin Obama's inauguration. Just imagine what will happen if Rick Warren's buddies kill 18,000 marriages of gay couples days before Obama is sworn in with the obese bigot by his side.

The sponsors of Proposition 8 asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to nullify the marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters approved the ballot initiative that outlawed gay unions.

The Yes on 8 campaign filed a brief arguing that because the new law holds that only marriages between a man and a woman are recognized or valid in California, the state can no longer recognize the existing same-sex unions.

"Proposition 8's brevity is matched by its clarity. There are no conditional clauses, exceptions, exemptions or exclusions," reads the brief co-written by Pepperdine University law school dean Kenneth Starr, the former independent counsel who investigated President Bill Clinton.

Oh yes, he's back too. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Check out the week's best editorial cartoons over at Bob Geiger's site. As you can imagine, the shoe throwing incident caught the attention of the cartoonists. And, the Bush/Cheney legacy gets skewered. Also, watch the Onion News video. The Onion exposes the "pro-weather" bias of the Weather Channel. Bob's post has some good laughs -- and after the past week, we need a few.

Petey sends holiday wishes. His new favorite place to hang out (when he's not at his perch by the window monitoring Wyoming Ave. for intruders) is the back of the couch. This little guy is just adorable and a bundle of love. We really owe the Washington Humane Society for getting us together:

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Mugabe: "Zimbabwe is mine"

Someone - South Africa or the UN, perhaps - needs to step up and usher him out of there. As much as the people of Zimbabwe deserve justice, the problem remains that there is no downside to clinging on to power. People like Mugabe know that if he steps down, he will likely be charged in court and either die in prison or be executed. If he clings on, he will get even more time with the riches of decades in power. Sure there's a risk of it ending violently but since he controls the military, chances are he will survive longer. Cut a deal to get him out and let the people of Zimbabwe recover.

President Robert Mugabe has said that "Zimbabwe is mine" and rejected calls from some African leaders to step down.

"I will never, never, never surrender," he told delegates of his ruling Zanu-PF party at its annual conference.

Mr Mugabe also said he had sent a letter to the country's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, inviting him to be sworn in as prime minister.

Earlier, Mr Tsvangirai said he would pull out of power-sharing talks unless abductions of his supporters stopped.

He said more than 40 members of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were missing and accused the Zanu-PF of orchestrating a campaign of terror.

Zimbabwe is currently gripped by economic collapse and a cholera epidemic. The UN on Thursday reported that the death toll from the disease had risen to 1,123 and that 20,896 people had been infected.

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Morning tunes, The Clash

One of my favorite bands and one of their most underrated songs, from their most commercially successful album. Allen Ginsberg reading as Joe Strummer sings. Read More......

Where does Rick Warren stand on criminalizing homosexuality?

It seems that Barack Obama's buddy Rick has been hanging with some of the biggest gay-haters on the planet. Episcopal Cafe has the story:

Warren wrote Time magazine's egregious puff piece on Nigerian archbishop Peter Akinola, and supported Ugandan archbishop Henry Orombi's decision to boycott the Lambeth Conference because supporters of an openly gay bishop would be there.

Cafe regulars will remember that Akinola supported anti-gay legislation criticized by every major human rights group, the European parliament and the U. S. State Department, and has yet to answer questions about his knowledge of a massacre of 700 Muslims in Yelwa Nigeria in 2004.

Orombi isn't quite as bad. He only believes that gay people and their supporters are out to kill him, and will pay Africans to become homosexuals.

A Kampala newspaper report on Warren's support of the Lambeth boycott included this paragraph:

Dr Warren said that homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right. "We shall not tolerate this aspect at all," Dr Warren said.

Maybe Senators McCain and Obama should turn the tables and ask Warren a few questions, like whether he would like to recriminalize homosexual activity.

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