Woolworths to close a quarter of its stores

Hey, I'm game to stop publishing so much dour economic news. Is there any upbeat news? Read the rest of this post...

Broder: Ideological southern Republicans may vote against econ stimulus package

If they do, then we pass a law banning any further hurricane aid to any state below the Mason-Dixon line. Or at the very least, to any state whose member of Congress votes against the stimulus package. I for one am sick and tired of bailing out holier-than-though people who hate me. If they think a second Great Depression isn't enough of a reason for the nation to come together, then let them drown in their own hate and extremism the next time they come to feed at the public trough. Read the rest of this post...

When is a financial loss not really a loss?

When the politicians get involved. Only a politician or perhaps an accountant from the Big Four could manage to turn a failure into a financial success.

In October, largely hidden from public view, the International Accounting Standards Board changed the rules so European banks could make their balance sheets look better. The action let the banks rewrite history, picking and choosing among their problem investments to essentially claim that some had been on a different set of books before the financial crisis started.

The results were dramatic. Deutsche Bank shifted $32 billion of troubled assets, turning a $970 million quarterly pretax loss into $120 million profit. And the securities markets were fooled, bidding Deutsche Bank's shares up nearly 19 percent on Oct. 30, the day it made the startling announcement that it had turned an unexpected profit.

The change has had dramatic consequences within the cloistered world of accounting, shattering the credibility of the IASB -- the very body whose rules have been adopted by 113 countries and is supposed to become the global standard-setter, including for the United States, within a few years.

Read the rest of this post...

Calif. teen's family sues Cigna over transplant

You remember this story. There one where health insurance provider Cigna chose to let a young girl die in 2007. I hope the family ends up owning Cigna. I've had it with insurance companies. I've been talking to more people about my health insurance fiasco, and it just hit me today - even though I have the best self-employed health care I can buy from Carefirst, I pretty much have no health coverage for prescription drugs, period. If I ever have the need for serious drugs, before the age of 65 (when Medicare kicks in), because I come down with something horrible like MS, or because I go to the hospital and catch some infection, I'm screwed. Companies like Cigna can go to hell, as far as I'm concerned. We desperately need the federal government to step in and guarantee coverage. If people want to stick with their current plants, God help 'em, but let them kill themselves and their families if they so choose. But for the rest of us, those of us who have finally gotten the details of our "coverage," and realized that we're basically screwed if we ever REALLY get sick, we need a safety net. And only the government can, and is willing, to provide it. (And for that matter, why don't self-employed plans have dental or vision coverage? When you're glasses are as strong as mine, I'm quite literally blind without them - how is that frivolous and not meriting coverage? Or my teeth? Yeah, who needs teeth anyway.) Read the rest of this post...

New Poll: Good riddance

It's not you, it's me:

A new national poll suggests that three out of four Americans feel President Bush's departure from office is coming not a moment too soon.

Seventy-five percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Friday said they're glad Bush is going; 23 percent indicated they'll miss him....

CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider added, "As President Bush prepares to leave office, the American public has a parting thought: Good riddance....

The portion who say they won't miss Bush is 24 percentage points higher than the 51 percent who said they wouldn't miss President Bill Clinton when he left office in January 2001. Forty-five percent of those questioned at that time said they would miss Clinton.

The poll indicates that Bush compares poorly with his presidential predecessors, with 28 percent saying that he's the worst ever. Forty percent rate Bush's presidency as poor, and 31 percent say he's been a good president.

Only a third of those polled said they want Bush to remain active in public life after he leaves the White House. That 33 percent figure is 22 points lower than those in 2001 who wanted Bill Clinton to retain a public role.

"It's been like a failed marriage," Schneider said.

I'll call you! Read the rest of this post...

Winning Afghanistan with Viagra?

As they say, sex sells. In Southeast Asia, the US picked up where the French left off and funded secret wars via the opium trade. This is a new era so instead of helping to feed junkies, the CIA is now helping to create hard-ons. Another proud moment in American covert military history proving yet again that our system of democracy is the best and purest in the world.

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

"Take one of these. You'll love it," the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes -- followed by a request for more pills.

For U.S. intelligence officials, this is how some crucial battles in Afghanistan are fought and won. While the CIA has a long history of buying information with cash, the growing Taliban insurgency has prompted the use of novel incentives and creative bargaining to gain support in some of the country's roughest neighborhoods, according to officials directly involved in such operations.

In their efforts to win over notoriously fickle warlords and chieftains, the officials say, the agency's operatives have used a variety of personal services. These include pocketknives and tools, medicine or surgeries for ailing family members, toys and school equipment, tooth extractions, travel visas, and, occasionally, pharmaceutical enhancements for aging patriarchs with slumping libidos, the officials said.

"Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people -- whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra," said one longtime agency operative and veteran of several Afghanistan tours. Like other field officers interviewed for this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity when describing tactics and operations that are largely classified.

Read the rest of this post...

Former Huckabee campaign manager, and RNC chair wannabe, distributes racist anti-Obama song for Christmas

The man reportedly ran Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign and is one of the six guys in the running for RNC chair, head of the entire Republican. The song is called "Barack the Magic Negro."

Yes, "negro."

Doesn't it figure that one of the top guys in the race for the head of the party is basically making n-gger jokes for Christmas. Can't wait for Huckabee to run for president again, and have to explain this one. Oh, and big surprise - the guy is from Tennessee and used to run the state party, which is known for its own racist exploits.

Seriously, could these people set the GOP, and the southern Republicans, back any further? Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

The fog rolled into Chicago last night, and it was cool as hell. I've rarely seen fog roll, but there it was, barreling from north to south at a damn good clip. I'm heading back to DC today, Chris has been with his wife taking a mini Christmas break in their south, and Joe is heading back to DC from California or Maine (it's hard to know) later today, I think. Then next week, I'll be taking off for a much needed week off, though I may have Internet access and break down. We'll see.

So anybody got plans for New Years? I've never truly enjoyed New Years. Have always felt it was a bit of a fake holiday (and how can you call something a holiday that doesn't involve silly costumes or seasonal decorations around the home?) Read the rest of this post...

Australia building internet Maginot Line

Dumb, dumb, dumb. I think the Australian government officials have spent too much time doing business with the Beijing government.

A proposed Internet filter dubbed the "Great Aussie Firewall" is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.

Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government — mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.

Hundreds protested in state capitals earlier this month.

"This is obviously censorship," said Justin Pearson Smith, 29, organizer of protests in Melbourne and an officer of one of a dozen Facebook groups against the filter.

The list of prohibited sites, which the government isn't making public, is arbitrary and not subject to legal scrutiny, Smith said, leaving it to the government or lawmakers to pursue their own online agendas.

Read the rest of this post...

Christmas in the Beaujolais

This was our first Christmas (together) in the Beaujolais and like all of the regions of France, people have their regional and seasonal specialties that they like to enjoy over the holidays. Getting together with family is similar to the US so you take that and then add on food and wine and lots of it. And then some more and perhaps just a bit more. We crawled back to Paris last night, still in pain from the visit. Joelle's 94 year old grandmother Colette was in good spirits and her children and grandchildren and great grandchildren all enjoyed spending time with her.

I hope that everyone had an excellent holiday and had an opportunity to spend time with family and friends. Thank you for the Christmas gift and some photos below of our Christmas down in the Beaujolais. We're going to need this weekend to recover.


"Cardon" is typical in the region and hard to find in Paris. (I understand it's typically eaten in Italy as well at this time of the year.) Our "light" Christmas Eve dinner involved some politically-incorrect-food-that-shall-remain-nameless (Christmas Day as well and surely on New Years too), smoked salmon and oysters from Ile-de-Re, where our host was raised. And then the "cardon" arrived. It was so good and impossible to not to kindly accept seconds. (In English it's "cardoon" or artichoke thistle.) The taste was similar to artichoke hearts.


Sushi & Nasdaq's family at the family home. (This is the house where the cats were born.) She's a cousin and just as lovable and affectionate as our cats and pulled the same stunt that Sushi started recently, which is to jump on my lap during dinner.


Christmas morning overlooking the Beaujolais vines.


Joelle and sister Marielle finishing the table. On the wall are sketches of the family that were done during WWII, and a few years after, by a Jewish refugee from Eastern Europe who the family hid in their attic from the Nazis. He started the family portraits (7 children) during the war though he never finished, thanks to the war ending. He later came back to France, after going back home and learning that the rest of his family had perished in the Holocaust. Joelle's grandmother Colette also lost her brother in the Hell Train of July 1944. (He was picked up by the Nazis shortly after D-Day, and charged with sending messages to the Allies as part of the French Resistance. They summarily executed him.)


Lovely place setting courtesy of Joelle and her godmother Agnes.


Joelle's dad (Remi) serving the Champagne to one of our aunts. Colette - Joelle's grandmother - lived in Champagne as a child and has always loved Champagne so we brought a magnum from a producer we recently met. (Pierre Moncuit offers an elegant Champagne and good value.) At Colette's first communion she asked for and received Champagne. No such luck in my household as I asked for pity to skip the communion in the nasty church in Philly.


Cousin Antoine cutting the cervelas, a typical sausage from the region eaten at this time of the year. We had "normal", pistachio and pistachio with truffles.


Joelle's grandmother Colette, surrounded by two of her sons Remi & Hubert enjoying a laugh.


Guineafowl for the main course.


The chestnuts, a new favorite for me this year.


The veggies...asparagus wrapped in bacon.


The cheese plate.


And of course, a second cheese plate.


The sun eventually arrived, just in time for our departure. Read the rest of this post...