Cuomo on Merrill CEO bonus: "shocking"

If only we had representatives - national representatives - that had power and influence who could review such an outrageous request of taxpayers money. We really need to change the system and have popularly elected officials that could take control of such a situation. John Thain should consider himself lucky to have a job, let alone a bonus.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday that the $10 million bonus reportedly being considered for Merrill Lynch's chief executive John Thain is "nothing less than shocking."

In a strongly worded letter sent to members of Merrill's board of directors, Cuomo points out that the brokerage reported losses for every quarter this year, and has lost more than $11 billion in 2008.

He added that Bank of America's (BAC, Fortune 500) takeover of Merrill, which was formally approved by shareholders Friday, "seems to have been the only thing that saved Merrill from collapse."

"Clearly, the performance of Merrill's top executives throughout Merrill's abysmal year in no way justifies significant bonuses for its top executives, including the CEO," Cuomo said in the letter.

Read the rest of this post...

2009 to be the year of the "naycation"

MSNBC:

If 2008 was the year of the staycation, then ’09 is bound to be the year of the naycation.

As in, nay — we’re not vacationing.

The conventional wisdom about travel is that it will slip by just a few percentage points next year. But the unconventional wisdom — supported by several troubling surveys — points to a much bigger drop.

A recent Allstate poll found nearly half of all Americans plan to cut back on travel in 2009. An International SOS survey says slightly fewer of us — about 4 out of 10 Americans — are reducing their international trips next year. And a Zagat survey says at least 20 percent of us will travel less in ’09.

But that’s just the half of it. I’ve been talking with people in the industry, who tell me — direct quote here — that travel is poised to “drop off a cliff” in January. In other words, people are telling pollsters one thing but making other plans.

Specifically, they’re making no plans.

One point that this column misses (and it's a BIG part of the equation) is the sudden lack of credit. It's been too easy to add vacations to whatever crazy credit people were using and now that's gone too. A great point that's made here is the airline industry greed. They've slapped on too many charges to customers and despite all of their talk about high fuel prices, take a guess what has actually increased despite decreasing prices? Joelle and I were planning to come over to DC for the inauguration but like many people, we're scaling back an already tight budget because there are too many negative signs out there above and beyond what we hear all day in the working world.

We are doing Christmas with extended family but are still shopping around for train deals. What about you? Vacations, staycation or naycation for the holidays and into 2009? Read the rest of this post...

We're free of "Freedom's Watch"

Good riddance:

A once-vaunted independent organization that was supposed to help Republicans make up severe fundraising shortfalls is closing after just one cycle in business.

Freedom's Watch, the 501(c)(4) organization that ran advertisements slamming Democratic candidates, will effectively shut down by the end of the year, according to a source with knowledge of the plans.

The group, which ran television, radio, phone and mail campaigns against dozens of Democrats this year, received most of its funding from wealthy gaming mogul Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp.

Adelson, who has worked very hard and spent tons to elect Republicans, has other things to worry about. His company is in big financial trouble thanks to the Bush economy:

Adelson's company, which owns casinos in Las Vegas and Macau, among other properties, has been hard-hit by the economic slowdown. With tourism and gaming industries suffering, Las Vegas Sands stock tumbled from a high of nearly $123 per share to just $5.95 per share at the close of business Monday.

The situation grew so dire earlier this year that some analysts expected the company to miss a loan payment. In November, Adelson stepped in to rescue the company to the tune of more than $2 billion.

Adelson should be really pissed at all those Republicans who destroyed the economy and wreaked havoc on his business.

Don't forget Ari Fleischer was another big player in Freedom's Watch. When he signed on with the new group, the traditional media hyped Fleischer's return to politics in a big way. Check out this syrupy Washington Post profile from last year:

But like Obi-Wan, Fleischer was drawn back into the fight. This return began last spring when Fleischer began speaking with Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, and Mel Sembler, the former ambassador to Italy who currently serves as chairman of the (Lewis "Scooter") Libby Legal Defense Trust. They'd seen support for the war and the president dwindle. It was then they decided to act.

Fleischer helped craft the group's message while others began to raise money. To run the operation on a day-to-day basis, the group chose another veteran of the Bush administration, former deputy assistant to the president Bradley A. Blakeman. Freedom's Watch is staffing up and will have an office in downtown Washington next month. And while a communications guy will be hired, Fleischer will remain important in the group's push to increase public support for the surge.

"Ari's the central manager of our message, which is supporting a strong national defense against terror and achieving prosperity through free enterprise," Sembler says.

Ari wasn't quite the Jed Knight the Washington Post predicted he'd be. Looks like Ari helped destroy a presidency and a major GOP organization. Quite the resume. He's probably making millions with that track record.

Read the rest of this post...

Gay-bashing Mormons censor BYU art project, because it was kind of gay

One is gay, the other isn't. And the artist won't tell you which is which. That proved too much for the bigots running the Mormon church, and its Borg incubator, otherwise known as Brigham Young "University" (air-quotes added). Apparently exposing young impressionable Mormons to art, and another point of view, runs too great a risk of damaging their fragile narrow-minded sense of hate and intolerance.

From Dan Savage:

Says the artist...

Apparently the topic of homosexuality is a bit much for the BYU audience and my part of our Fine Art Classes show was taken down today. It seems that censorship is favored over support and love. This really saddens me. I found out because a friend of mine went to the show and said that my peices had been removed and the show had been rearranged.

The show was rearranged so that no one who attended would realize that the works on display had been censored for political/religious reasons. So... shhh. Don't tell anyone.The student artist took pictures of openly gay BYU students—openly gay and openly ballsy—and a companion portrait of a supportive friend or family member. The artist didn't label the portraits; you don't know who in each pair of portraits is the fearsome, terrible, ungodly gay, and who is the tragically deluded enabler of evil—excuse me, "the supporter." You can see the pictures... here. But they deserve a wider viewing—hey, maybe the Salt Lake City Weekly ("We Not All Crazy Bigots Down Here, You Know!") could put them on its cover.

Read the rest of this post...

Bonuses aren't just for Wall Street failures

They're also being handed out to failures in Washington as well with the added bonus of medals. Does anyone believe in accountability these days or is that completely out of fashion?

Three top executives in the office of the Pentagon inspector general received cash awards of about $30,000 for outstanding leadership even though their agency has a history of weak management and strained relations between employees and supervisors.

The three were recognized in October with Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Awards, a prestigious honor for long-term achievement in government service. The recipients get the hefty bonus — 20 percent of their annual basic pay — and a framed certificate signed by President George W. Bush.

Award candidates are rated in several categories, including their ability to lead people and get results. The nominating forms for Patricia Brannin, Charles Beardall, and Donald Horstman, obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act, glowingly describe the performance of each manager.

For example, Horstman, deputy inspector general for policy and oversight, is a "master communicator" who personally mentors his employees. He has "engendered an unsurpassed sense of purpose and dedication," his nominating form says.

But a confidential survey of employees in the inspector general's office found a disillusioned work force in Horstman's department and others. Employees are not committed to their jobs, their teams or their supervisors, according to the survey conducted in June by the Corporate Leadership Council, a business research company in Arlington, Va.

If only the bonus cash was as worthless as Bush's signed certificate. Read the rest of this post...

Half of mortgage modifications re-defaulting within 6 months

This is really bad news in every imaginable way for this economy. In order to move forward we need housing to settle and it just gets worse. Hopefully the best and brightest are re-thinking the plan.

Recent data suggests that many borrowers who received help with mortgage modifications earlier this year tended to re-default on their payments, a top U.S. banking regulator said on Monday.

"The results, I confess, were somewhat surprising, and not in a good way," said John Dugan, head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in prepared remarks for a U.S. housing forum.

"Put simply, it shows that over half of mortgage modifications seemed not to be working after six months," he said.

Dugan said based on data collected from some of the biggest U.S. institutions, like Bank of America, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase, home foreclosure starts fell 2.6 percent in the three months ended in September.

However, data which is to be issued by the OCC and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) next week could throw cold water on a push by some U.S. policymakers for loan modifications as the key remedy for the ailing U.S. financial and economic crisis.

Dugan said recent data showed that after three months, nearly 36 percent of borrowers who received restructured mortgages in the first quarter re-defaulted.

The rate of re-default jumped to about 53 percent after six months and 58 percent after eight months, Dugan said, without providing an explanation for the trend.

Read the rest of this post...

Last-minute Bush administration rule would let pharmacists and doctors turn you away for any "religious" reason, like if they don't like gays

For example, under the new proposed Bush rule, it seems that pharmacists could refuse to help you if you come asking for:

1. Condoms
2. Birth control
3. Anything they find morally objectionable (Does that mean only "innocent victims" of HIV/AIDS will be able to get their medicine? And what about Viagra?)

What happens if my pharmacist is a Christian Scientist - does that mean they don't have to dispense any medicine at all? And what if my pharmacists is a Baptist and thinks Catholics worship Satan - does he have to help Satan worshippers? According to Congresswoman DeGette's office (D-CO), the new rule could permit a receptionist to refuse to make an appointment that she finds immoral, it could permit a lab technician to not run tests, or even clean equipment, for procedures that he finds immoral.

Bush is doing this for the nutjobs on the religious right, and the far-right Republicans running the Catholic church. They don't care if you're rushed to the emergency room and the doctor on call refuses to help you because you're gay or because you're Muslim or because you're Jewish. They only care about perpetuating hate. More on this from Cong. DeGette. Read the rest of this post...

Black RNC member says membership in whites-only club is no big deal

Black Republican, gay Republican, Jewish Republican - they're all quite adept at selling out.

But I do love this issue, because it just goes to show how racist, and overall bigoted, the Republican party continues to be. In a nutshell, a top candidate for leadership of the entire Republican party has been a member for 12 years of a club that bars black people. The guy claims he's been trying since August - August of this year, just four months ago - to change the policy, and that he's now quit the club. Coincidentally that was at the same time that his name was being discussed as a possible candidate for the head of the party. Gee, what a coincidence. Why didn't he try changing the policy before August? Why is there even a club at all that still bars black members?

Oh, and check out how the local paper describes his reaction to the whites-only policy:

Dawson said last week his continued membership at Forest Lake Club could become a distraction to his efforts to help win elections for Republicans in South Carolina.

A distraction? How about, "I don't associate with racist pigs"? The guy sounds like the perfect man to lead a party built on hate and intolerance. Read the rest of this post...

Publisher of Chicago Trib and LA Times files for bankruptcy

It's only going to get worse. Stimulus now, please. From the NYT:

The Tribune Company filed for bankruptcy protection in a federal court in Delaware on Monday, as the publisher of newspapers like The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune struggled to cope with rising debt and falling ad revenue.

Tribune, which was acquired last year by billionaire real estate investor Samuel Zell, had hired bankruptcy advisers in recent weeks as it negotiated with creditors over debt covenants. (Read the bankruptcy petition here.)

It is only the latest — and biggest — sign of duress for the newspaper industry yet. Several newspaper companies have struggled to cope with declining revenues and mounting debt woes. Tribune has pared back the newsrooms of many of its papers, and it sold off Newsday to Cablevision’s Dolan family earlier this year.

In a court filing, Tribune said it had nearly $13 billion in debt, compared to $7.6 billion in assets. Most of that debt was taken on when Mr. Zell acquired the company — a deal he struck using mostly borrowed money. All of the now privately held company’s equity is owned by an employee stock-ownership plan.

Read the rest of this post...

Supreme Court won't review crazy appeal over Obama's citizenship

No surprise here, besides the fact that this even got any attention from the U.S. Supreme Court:

The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.

The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election. Donofrio says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth -- his mother was American and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject -- he cannot possibly be a ''natural born citizen,'' one of the requirements the Constitution lists for eligibility to be president.

Apparently, the Supreme Court had its fill of overturning elections back in 2000. Read the rest of this post...

Media questions Obama about why, as a known alcoholic, he appears to still be drinking

Oh no, I'm sorry. That would be George Bush, the known alcoholic who has long been rumored to still be drinking, and was just caught in just the last two weeks having an alcoholic beverage at the summit. But no one in the media asked our alcoholic president during war time if and why he was drinking again. But the smoking Democrat, they ask away.

Now, I'm not going to defend Obama's smoking. I loathe smoking, it's a public menace unless it's done in a sealed home. But it would be nice if the media bothered pressing our current president as to why he still appears to be drinking. They asked, and the White House refused to answer if our alcoholic president drank alcohol during his recent trip. How do you "rebuff" a question as to whether the president is still a drunk? Read the rest of this post...

Why are waiting to pass a stimulus package? Why not pass it now?

I get the symbolic "cool factor" of passing a huge stimulus package on Obama's first day in office, or the new Congress' first week in office. But judging by what I'm reading, we need something huge, soon, before mass panic sets in. Two interesting points from Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman in the past couple of days.

1. Krugman is now "getting scared" and thinks the economy is "falling off a cliff." And about a week ago, or so, I saw him on CNBC saying that the economy was in a "free fall." He keeps using this kind of over-the-top, panic-inspiring language. And it strikes me that beneath his hyperbole language is some serious prodding of our elected officials do something huge, fast. He sounds like he's desperately signaling to Washington that whatever is happening isn't coming fast enough and big enough.

2. Krugman has said that it's going to take a while for any stimulus package to really work its way through the economy (you can only build roads so fast). Why wait a month to get this stimulus package passed. Why not pass it now? Obama has a plan, Bush is doing nothing. We can't afford waiting another 6 weeks, as each day's news is sending consumers, and Wall Street, into a greater panic (and guess what that's going to do to consumer and business spending).

Obama wants to sign the stimulus package into law right after he takes office on January 20. I think Congress may need to pass the package now and let the chimp sign into law. And let the Republicans, George Bush included, try to stop the Democrats from passing the package now - and if they do, the Second Great Depression will be forever named the Republican Depression. If the Democrats can muster some of their non-existent backbone (see: Nancy Pelosi caves to lame duck president with 22% approval rating, agrees to gut environmental bill), we can do this now and hopefully stop the economic panic that stole Christmas.

It's getting ugly out there. Read the rest of this post...

Compromise could mean short-term loans of $15 billion for auto industry

Looks like a deal has been cut here in D.C. to throw a life line to the auto industry:

The ailing U.S. auto industry needs changes at the top, an influential Democratic senator said on Monday as Congress and the White House work to complete a plan to save Detroit's Big Three and stem the deepening U.S. recession.

Even if they manage to reach an agreement in principle to provide General Motors Corp, Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co with at least $15 billion in short-term loans, it was uncertain if it would become law.

Democrats have a majority in the 100-member Senate, which is to meet on Monday and could begin consideration of legislation within days. But skeptical Republicans could kill such a measure with a procedural hurdle that would need 60 votes to clear.

Republicans are trying to blame auto workers for the industry's woes. The U.A.W. is fighting back -- and they should. You never heard buffoons like Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) attack the workers on Wall Street, including those raking in millions, for the collapse of the financial sector. Shelby's home state of Alabama provided hundreds of millions in subsidies to foreign auto makers. It's not news that Republicans are hypocrites and want to screw over working men and women. This is just a particularly glaring example. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

So David Gregory did get the job as host of "Meet the Press." Wow. There truly is a dearth of talent at that network if he's the best they can get. He just strikes me as the kind of guy who really knows how to kiss up to his bosses. And, those people at NBC really have an exaggerated sense of the show's value to America. A national treasure?

Unexpectedly, Democrats lost the House seat of indicted William Jefferson over the weekend. This really is not a great loss for the Dems. They'll get that seat back in 2010 and won't have to endure spectacle of having a member of the Democratic caucus on trial for bribery.

But, they did pick up a seat in Ohio. Mary-Jo Kilroy was declared the victor in Ohio's 15th Congressional District, which was held by Republican Deborah Pryce.

Is Illinois ever going to get a new Senator?

Let's the Monday started... Read the rest of this post...

Freddie Mac spent early and often to avoid regulation

It's nice to see Newt Gingrich, the other hero of the right, so well highlighted in this AP article. I know he's no Sarah Palin, but it's nice to see that he managed to make a buck or two supporting those free market values of his. What a great American and what an honor it must be to be on the same list as other great Americans such as Bob Ney and Tom DeLay.

When the Washington Nationals played their first-ever baseball game in the nation's capital in April 2005, two congressmen who oversaw Freddie Mac had choice seats -- courtesy of the very company they were supposed to be keeping an eye on.

Efforts to tighten government regulation were gaining support on Capitol Hill, and Freddie Mac was fighting back.

According to internal Freddie Mac documents obtained by the AP, Reps. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., spent the evening in hard-to-obtain seats near the Nationals dugout with Freddie Mac executive Hollis McLoughlin and four of Freddie Mac's in-house lobbyists. Both were members of the House Financial Services Committee.

The Nationals tickets were bargains for Freddie Mac, part of a well-orchestrated, multimillion-dollar campaign to preserve its largely regulatory-free environment, with particular pressure exerted on Republicans who controlled Congress at the time.

Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006. Power brokers such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were recruited with six-figure contracts. Freddie Mac paid the following amounts to the firms of former Republican lawmakers or ex-GOP staffers in 2006:

* Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, at Park Strategies, $240,000.
* Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota, at Clark & Weinstock, $360,297.
* Rep. Susan Molinari of New York, at Washington Group, $300,062.
* Susan Hirschmann at Williams & Jensen, former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, $240,790.

Read the rest of this post...

Merrill Lynch CEO thinks he deserves a $10 million bonus

Considering his one year tenure during one of the worst periods in corporate history, what has he done to deserve any bonus? When Merrill had the option of sell to BofA or go the way of Lehman, they sold. Losing over $50 billion tends to reduce your choices in the business world but don't tell that to the 2007 "best paid CEO" in America, because nothing is ever enough. And try your best to ignore all of the frantic funding of Wall Street which probably kept them all afloat for many more months than they would have survived in past times. The word at the time was that John Thain and his three friends who he brought in with him last December would share a $200 million pool of money for the sale, yet that's not enough.

The US treats petty criminals much worse than people who lose billions and who stand at the center of cutting 10,000 (probably much more) jobs. Thain is a horses ass but Congress isn't much better if they let low lifes like Thain to entertain such talk and possibly even get his $10 million.

Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain has suggested to directors that he get a 2008 bonus of as much as $10 million, but the battered company's compensation committee is resisting his request, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.

The compensation committee has not reached a decision, but is leaning toward denying Thain and other senior executives bonuses for this year, the people told the paper.

Read the rest of this post...

WSJ reports Chicago Tribune preparing for bankruptcy filing

I guess karma came back to bite Sam Zell in the backside. Perhaps the problem is that Zell never should have been in publishing. From Reuters:

The Wall Street Journal said Tribune has been on wobbly footing since last December, when real-estate mogul Sam Zell led a debt-backed deal to take the company private.

It said that the company's cash flow may not be enough to cover nearly $1 billion in interest payments due this year, and Tribune owes a $512 million debt payment in June.

One of Tribune's most pressing concerns is that the company is likely to be in violation of debt terms that limit borrowings at the end of the year to nine times its adjusted profits, the paper said.

Read the rest of this post...

Fun with Steve and Jane

Jane Hamsher disagrees with Obama campaign deputy Steve Hildebrand about the direction of Obama's appointments. Steve points out that Obama is picking the best people, and he has chosen some excellent people, and clearly a true brain-trust (and that is change). But it does seem that no one from the progressive side of the party is getting any cabinet posts at all. And that's not a litmus test, or a desire to lurch the Obama administration to the far left (at least not as far what I'd like to see) - it's the simple desire to have a Cabinet that aspires to "look like America" actually look like America, and some of those Americans are progressives. Progressive Democrats deserve a place at the table. Just as importantly, Obama's cabinet should be as intellectually diverse as possible so as to ensure that no good idea is left behind, and that whatever course Obama chooses to follow has truly been thoroughly vetted by a brain trust representing good ideas of all philosophical persuasions. Read the rest of this post...