A Snowy Owl pays a rare visit to my neighborhood

I saw what appeared to be a white owl on the building across the street from me late this afternoon. My upstairs neighbor, Rick Bloom, is a professional photographer and he got a great picture of the bird for me. I'm pretty sure it is a snowy owl, which I had seen once in awhile when I lived in Maine, but never expected to see here in D.C.

Apparently, the snowy owl is a rare, but not unheard of visitor to these parts. Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported a snowy owl sighting in downtown D.C.:

A snowy owl -- an Arctic species rarely seen this far south -- spent part of yesterday afternoon surveying downtown Washington from a high ledge at 17th and L streets NW. The owls, which usually spend winters near the U.S.-Canada border, have turned up in several places across Virginia and Maryland this year. Birding experts think the problem might be a shortage of lemmings, an important prey, on their home turf.

Bird experts said the last time a snowy owl was seen this close to the city's urban core was 1994, when one was spotted at Reagan National Airport. Greg Butcher of the National Audubon Society said he hoped this owl would move on from downtown: "We don't have too many lemmings here.

Not many lemmings but a lot of rats, real and figurative.

Pretty cool. And, a big thanks to Rick for the photo.

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MSNBC invoked radio silence over Cramer/Stewart interview

Via ThinkProgress:

TVNewser reports that “MSNBC producers were asked not to incorporate the Jim Cramer/Jon Stewart interview into their shows today.” By TVNewser’s count, Cramer’s Daily Show interview was only mentioned once on MSNBC today and that was during the White House press conference when a reporter asked for Obama’s reaction

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Hooker-loving GOP Senator says airport security violation was "silly"

Nice that one of the top spokesmen for the Republican party finds anti-terrorism regulations at our nation's airports "silly."

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Lisbon

I barely know Lisbon and had to travel down over the weekend to see a client. It's a charming town with nice people and plenty of character. Sure, I did the tourist trail but you have to start somewhere. The Torre de Belém is one of the starting points and a beautiful structure.










I noticed one of the friendly cats walking around the Castelo de São Jorge, eying the tray of fish inside the restaurant kitchen. The cook was not quite as pleased as I was, and slammed the door on the cat after noticing me snap the photo.



You can see the tray of salmon just above the incoming cook's wrist.



After walking back down from the castle, enjoying some white porto and fried bacalhau at the old cafe Martinho da Arcada. It was the Portuguese who introduced fried food (tempura) to Japan and of course, it was the Arabs who brought that cooking to Portugal. Maybe globalization isn't such a new movement after all. Read More......

It's not about Santelli or Kudlow or Cramer - it's CNBC

I couldn't agree more. CNBC would like to make the recent dust-ups about the individuals but they are only small pieces of the puzzle. I started watching CNBC years ago during the tech bubble buildup years. In a fast growing market, everyone looks clever because there is so little downside. As the tech bubble collapsed, I heard all of the language about soft landings but it never quite worked out that way for many in that sector. When I saw this latest recession coming, the same old excuses were dragged out and the soft landing stories were everywhere. For me, those same lies were the confirmation of how bad it could get. This is what the CEOs wanted to have repeated out there and CNBC as a network was only too happy to oblige.

CNBC sells itself as a network of experts but it's infotainment and nothing more. The network is all about advertising dollars, similar to a Hollywood gossip show or those ridiculous travel networks. There is very little serious reporting done and merely regurgitation of whatever their clients (Wall Street) wants. People like Santelli, Kudlow and Cramer deserve the targeted criticism because that's where they placed themselves by providing such terrible guidance and lack of criticism. They all are self-promoters paid very handsomely and the networks have flogged them by name as experts. That said, it's the executive team at CNBC that ought to be dragged through the mud. They've made the subject of life savings and retirement investments like the Gong Show. Ha, ha, ha...we just pissed away the global economy. How funny!

Cramer has a point that in order to reach a new crowd, a younger audience, the network needed a snappy, fast-paced program such as Fast Money. This is exactly the point. This is why the network itself exists and without the bells and whistles, CNBC is dead man walking. That's also why there's not much of a future for the network. Americans are heavily reliant on the success of Wall Street more than previous generations thanks to the 401K retirement plans. CNBC may not be the future, though there is probably someone out there who will understand this and create something new and untainted by hideously bad decisions.

Imagine a new network that will provide insight into one of the most important issues of our lives. Imagine a network that will provide constructive criticism and think about consumers. Imagine a network that won't be in the pocket of Wall Street but who knows how to interact with Wall Street. Imagine all of that and you will never in a million years imagine CNBC.

Check out the entire, unedited Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer Daily Show. It was Stewart at his most serious and best, though not funny at all. For those of us who have been hit hard both in the near term and long term with the cheerleading episodes, we haven't had much to laugh about in a while. If this round wasn't as similar as the last, maybe some of us wouldn't be quite as distrustful of the fake economic news that promotes what some want us to believe instead of what we see with our own eyes. Most of us have watched enough laughing at CNBC, all while Wall Street was burning. Read More......

Pare down the agenda?

Note to media: The dumb guys has left the building. The smart guy is here now.

I know the media, and America, got used to having presidents who could juggle more than a pretzel or a jelly bean at a time. But those days are over.

All this talk from the Republicans, the media, and even some Democrats that Obama is just trying to do too much - we're all going to die! What exactly has Obama done that's been too much in his first 50 days? He passed a stimulus package that may have averted a depression. What else? Seriously. He's revoked a few executive orders, but that's a signature. What has Obama done that has so distracted him from the business of the country?

It's a Republican talking point that the media seems willing to buy, and even some Democrats are falling for it. The only way to stop Obama from governing is to claim that when he governs he's wasting time that should be focused on the economy. Mind you, when he does focus on the economy the Republicans all vote en masse to stop him from doing anything on the economy.

You get the picture.

America, we no longer have a cerebrally-challenged simian as commander-in-chief. President Obama has a brain and can handle doing what presidents are SUPPOSED to do. He can handle being the leader of the free world. Let him. Read More......

Obama's Weekly address on food safety failings: "That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable."

What? Food safety??? Doesn't Barack Obama know he's only supposed to do ONE thing at a time? Imagine a president taking seriously the issue of food safety. That people in the U.S. were dying because of tainted food never seemed to bother George Bush. But, leave it to Obama to think he has to act on this major problem. What's he trying to do? Be a competent leader? This should throw the Republicans and the talking heads into a frenzy. Obama is doing something else!!! How dare he.

Here's the video:


Here's an excerpt:

But in recent years, we’ve seen a number of problems with the food making its way to our kitchen tables. In 2006, it was contaminated spinach. In 2008, it was salmonella in peppers and possibly tomatoes. And just this year, bad peanut products led to hundreds of illnesses and cost nine people their lives – a painful reminder of how tragic the consequences can be when food producers act irresponsibly and government is unable to do its job. Worse, these incidents reflect a troubling trend that’s seen the average number of outbreaks from contaminated produce and other foods grow to nearly 350 a year – up from 100 a year in the early 1990s.

Part of the reason is that many of the laws and regulations governing food safety in America have not been updated since they were written in the time of Teddy Roosevelt. It’s also because our system of inspection and enforcement is spread out so widely among so many people that it’s difficult for different parts of our government to share information, work together, and solve problems. And it’s also because the FDA has been underfunded and understaffed in recent years, leaving the agency with the resources to inspect just 7,000 of our 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses each year. That means roughly 95% of them go uninspected.

That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg, whom I am appointing today as Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

As I mentioned last week, one reason we post the weekly addresses is so people can watch and hear the president in an unfiltered way. Sure, Obama injects his own spin into them. But, this way, you can hear the message directly from him, instead of through the interpretation of the traditional media. This week, the theme adopted by the pundits and D.C. reporters, spurred on by Republicans, was that Obama has been taking on too much, working on too many issues. That, of course, means they're ignoring the colossal failures of the past eight years -- and many of those same talking heads enabled Bush and ignored his failings. So, watch for yourself. We don't need the corporate gatekeepers to tell us food safety isn't an important issue. Obama is doing his job.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

I'm off to a slow start. It's a cold, gray Saturday here in D.C. I am so ready for spring (but not spring allergies.)

KarenMrsLloydRichards keeps delivering in her series "Haiku for the Obama Administration." This one perfectly captures the blather from cable news about jobs in the recession:

Cable news advice:
Work harder, impress your boss!
(Pray he stays your boss . . . )

And, I couldn't not post one about Madoff:

Gray tufts cascade down:
Bernie's first prison buzz-cut;
Decides "thug" suits him . . .

Says so much with just 17 syllables.

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John Clarke - The Most Evolved

Joelle stumbled on this American guitarist the other day and has been enjoying his music. Nice sound. Read More......

Madoff's worth over $823 million in 2008

The question now is whether crime pays in the long run. Bernard Madoff has admitted being guilty if the family is able to hold on to that substantial sum, the victims and their supporters are not going to be happy. They will be even angrier if he is the only person who goes to jail for this $65 billion scam. Then again, it's not as though anyone has done anything about Charles Prince, Angelo Mozilo, Stanley O'Neal and the rest of the banksters who destroyed even more wealth and the global economy.

Bernard Madoff and his wife had $823 million in assets at the end of last year, including $22 million in properties stretching from New York to the French Riviera, a $7 million yacht and a $2.2 million boat named "Bull," according to a document his lawyers filed Friday.

The document, prepared for the Securities and Exchange Commission at the end of last year, was contained in papers filed with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in an effort to get Madoff freed on bail.

Among the couple's assets: a $12 million half share in a plane, $65,000 in silverware and a $39,000 piano. It values their four properties — in Manhattan, Montauk, Palm Beach, Fla., and Cap d'Antibes, France — at $22 million, and the furniture, fine art and household goods in the homes at $8.7 million.

But the bulk of Madoff's assets, according to the document, consists of an estimated $700 million value put on his investment business. Madoff said during his plea that the market making and proprietary trading side of his business were "legitimate, profitable and successful in all respects."

The couple's monthly expenses included $100,000 for legal fees, $140,000 for personal security, $2,860 for a housekeeper and $885 for a gardener, the document said. It also detailed more mundane monthly expenditures, such as $700 each for electricity and phones, $370 for cable, $250 for doctor visits and $70 for entertainment at the Manhattan penthouse, where Madoff was required to remain while on bail.

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Lose billions, launch two takeovers and lose billions more and hold your job

That's what the Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis thinks is acceptable. It's increasingly unclear why anyone besides Lewis is convinced he is the leader to move the bank forward. The stock is sitting well below at $5.76, down from a 52 week high of $43.46 and it's anyone's guess how many more surprises exist at Merrill Lynch which he had to purchase. Even before Merrill, there was the purchase of Countrywide. The sense of entitlement among CEOs like Lewis simply does not register with the rest of the country. If the best thing someone can say about you is that "someone else *could* have lost even more money, it's a challenge to see how you can keep your job.

Six months ago, Ken Lewis, chairman and CEO of Bank of America, was heralded as a Wall Street savior, snapping up a tottering Merrill Lynch in a high-stakes deal and ensuring the future of his company while some of the country's most storied financial institutions fell apart around him.

In September, Bank of America acquired Merrill for $29 a share, or about $44 billion, and a seemingly ascendant Lewis bragged to reporters: "We are good at this."

What a difference a few months makes. Despite a good day Thursday, Bank of America shares have fallen 84 percent since Oct. 1. The Merrill deal has been scrutinized by Congress and the New York attorney general, and -- adding insult to injury -- the bank, like some of its top competitors, risks a takeover by the federal government.

In the face of dramatic losses to the company's stock price, Lewis, 61, remains bullishly optimistic. But many shareholders and observers are far less certain that the bank can weather the storm of the financial crisis.

Laying the blame squarely on Lewis, who succeeded the larger-than-life Hugh McColl in 2002, some doubt the current CEO will be able to keep his job if the company continues to hemorrhage money, while other investors are calling for his resignation outright.

"It is going to be very difficult to watch the stock price go from $40 to $5 and be able to survive that," said Paul Miller, a banking analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. "This is his baby. He did the acquisitions of Merrill, Countrywide and LaSalle Bank. How anyone can make the decisions he made and survive is baffling."

Beginning last summer, as pillars of the economy fell, from Countrywide -- then the nation's largest mortgage lender -- to Merrill -- a stalwart of the financial services industry -- Lewis bought them up, putting a damper on the bank's balance sheet.

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