While protecting against wolves, don’t forget to watch for termites! March 24, 2009
Posted by vsap in Blogroll, Financial Crisis, US Politics, Uncategorized.Tags: Clinton appointees, Employee Free Choice Act, Obama administration, Termites, Wolves
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When protecting the homestead, it’s a good idea to watch for wolves. They are large and often easy to spot, although they are cunning and can catch you unprepared.
In today’s political climate, the wolves are the economy and the government response to it. Each of us must make decisions about how to best protect our homestead against these wolves, whether the homestead is college, rainy day or retirement savings or simply protecting a way of life granted us by God through the Founding Fathers.
The challenge is this: while we are focused on the wolves, termites can begin to infest the homestead. They are quiet, insidious, and, possibly, more dangerous than the wolves. Termites are those appointees and bureaucrats who actually run the sordid business of government or they are represented by policies and plans that are put forward as legislation that negatively impact the very structure of private enterprise and society.
While protecting against wolves, don’t forget to watch for termites!
I won’t dwell on the wolves. They are covered ad nauseum in the press and everywhere on the Internet moment by moment. I can’t add anything new to that tar pit of pseudo-intellectual bankruptcy. But, you can know more about the termites even if you think you are helpless to combat them. You are not totally helpless if you are informed.
There are a variety of termites in PresBO’s administration. This is change that is unbelievable for those who voted for change they could believe in. Clinton administration appointees infest the new administration, up to, and including the “top unofficial” Clinton administration appointee: Hillary Clinton!
Here’s a few termites to watch: Transition chief John Podesta (served as Clinton’s chief of staff from 1998 to 2001); former Deputy Secretary of Defense John White, former State Department official Wendy Sherman, and former deputies to National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Defense Secretary William Perry, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Michael Froman (served as Rubin’s chief of staff), and Christopher Edley (served Clinton and is married to a former Clinton deputy chief of staff), and let’s not forget former US Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a senior adviser to Clinton, who is Obama’s chief of staff. Did I forget to mention former Clintonistas Jeffery Liebman, Robert Gordon, Xavier de Sousa Briggs, Preeta Bansal, and Kenneth Baer (speechwirter for Al Gore, close enough). That’s just the beginning of the list of termites as appointees and advisors to PresBO who are anything but change to be believed.
Then there are the policy termites. There are too many to cover in a single sitting so let’s take one that you may not have noticed but is critically important no matter where you work, what you do, or who you think you work for. Soon, you could be a union member without casting a secret ballot on your own behalf.
I’ll step aside and let Adam Sichko of the Albany (NY) Business Journal tell it as he did on March 20, 2009 (bold is mine):
“The topic: the Employee Free Choice Act, which Democrats introduced in Congress the day before Burton’s meeting in Coxsackie. The legislation makes it easier and quicker for workers to unionize, and it has ignited this year’s signature battle between business and labor interests.
Business executives like Burton are on notice. Their ability to manage their companies is at stake—and so is the livelihood of the dwindling union movement.
“When you start to take flexibility away from companies that need to be more flexible than ever to survive and remain competitive, that’s certainly not a good thing. And this isn’t only about manufacturing—it affects everybody,” Burton said. He heads the New York facilities of 
Ducommun AeroStructures Inc., an aerospace manufacturer that acquired the former DynaBil Industries Inc. last year.
The legislation seeks to speed up the process of unionizing workers at a company. Union membership nationwide has declined in recent decades, and the unionizing process “totally favors employers,” said Charles Craver, a labor law professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
“If Democrats don’t make enough compromises, they know they won’t get it through the Senate,” he said. “If this doesn’t pass, unions will continue to be almost irrelevant.”
Currently, if 30 percent of a company’s workers sign a card supporting a union, the National Labor Relations Board commissions a company-wide vote on whether to unionize. The process gives company management time to meet with employees and argue against a union.
Under the proposed legislation, if a majority of a company’s workers sign those cards, the union is automatically formed without a full, company-wide vote.
Beyond that, the legislation compels employers to bargain a contract with the new union chapter within four months. If the sides still can’t agree, a government arbitrator would write the contract for the employer, setting wages and benefits.
“I don’t think there’s any employer who can rightfully believe that they are not at risk to an attempt that a union would try to unionize their work force,” said Joanmarie Dowling, a labor attorney at Bond Schoeneck & King’s office in Albany.
Nancy Gold knows that all too well. Earlier this decade, she survived an attempt to unionize her workers, who make luggage and backpacks.
“You’ve run your business your entire life and then some stranger has the final word and will tell you exactly how you will operate? It’s ridiculous,” said Gold, president of Tough Traveler Ltd. in Schenectady.
“How can companies handle this when they’re just barely holding on as it is?”
“They [the business lobbies] are motivated by how they see their economic self-interest. And that’s not a very enlightened approach,” said Benjamin Gordon, director of organizing for the 300,000-member Civil Service Employees Association, based in Albany.
“There’s a lot at stake with this bill. It’s a very, very important piece of our ability to organize,” he added.”
So, keep your eyes peeled for the wolves. They are cunning and resourceful. But, be ever-mindful of the damage termites can do to the very structure of your homestead.
Sci Fi or SyFy? Never underestimate the moron factor March 18, 2009
Posted by vsap in Blogroll, Financial Crisis, Uncategorized.Tags: Moron Factor, Sci Fi Channel, SyFy
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I have a favorite saying: Never underestimate the moron factor. For criminals, Atlanta drivers, and politicians, this is a necessary piece of advice. You hope it doesn’t apply to business, especially your own company, but sometimes it does.
The latest “Coke 2″ debacle centers on Sci-Fi Channel announcing it is changing its name to SyFy. Yes, it is as dumb as it looks…and it took some high-priced help to bring it to market. Here’s Ad Age author Ken Wheaton’s take on it:
“Normally, I don’t put much stock in Web 2.0 outcry and the screams of the Twitterati. As much as I’ve become a Twitter convert, I know that it’s little more than an echo chamber. (If an alien were to base his impression of Earth on Twitter chatter, he’d walk away thinking SXSW was the pinnacle of human achievement rather than Woodstock for geeks.)
But here’s the thing about Sci-Fi Channel: I’d bet that a fairly substantial portion of its audience overlaps with the Web 2.0 crowd. This isn’t a case of “Motrin Moms” calling for the heads of J&J execs while 99.9% of Motrin users go about their lives blissfully unaware that this supposed scandal ever happened. Sci-Fi fans are likely a little geeky. And while the network wants to broaden its base, it should probably remember to dance with what brung you. As it is, you’ve got sci-fi blogs such as io9 running with the headline “Sci-Fi Channel Changes Its Name To A Typo” and asking, “Will this tweak really expand the possibilities of a channel that already runs a schedule full of whatever they loosely call science fiction?”
The channel should have been spending the week celebrating the series finale of “Battlestar Galactica,” one of the best shows to hit TV in the last 20 years. Instead, it’s spending the week being mocked. The good news is that this rebranding was simply an announcement made at an upfront presentation and nothing consumer-facing is set to roll out until July.
So my question to you is: Will the network pull the plug? And if so, when?”
Great question, Ken! We can hope that this upfront trial balloon bursts or dies for lack of a second. Then, there will be no need to pull the plug on it.
It’s an example of a business idea gone bad (or not good in the first place). It isn’t a back shop decision, like outsourcing to India, which may never be known widely by the public until much later. This is a very public decision, given to advertising, marketing and PR types who couldn’t keep a secret to save themselves much less another company’s goofy executives. Frankly, I’m sure execs at Sci-Fi were hoping for the publicity. Maybe they didn’t bargain for all the negativity but, as I say, never underestimate the moron factor.
The geeks are correct, and execs should listen: The channel could use a little tweaking on the programming side to make it more Sci Fi so we don’t have to endure SyFy.
Now I guess you’re going to tell me the execs at AIG got bonuses. What? Hey!
Forget PresBo, TO and ‘Melo, it’s time for baseball! March 11, 2009
Posted by vsap in Blogroll.Tags: baseball, St. Louis Cardinals
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Good times and bad times there’s America’s Pastime: baseball.
Yes, I’ve heard the rumors that football is now “America’s Sport” . Especially this time of year, college basketball and the NBA have their moments in the sun. Hockey? I’m a big fan. English Premier League “futbol” is a beautiful game. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the rabid collegiate football brigade. But, to me, that’s all like watching golf while I wait for baseball.
If you grew up in St. Louis in the 1950s, baseball was your focus. There were no Football Cardinals, no Blues, and the Hawks were white noise, even though they were winners, because most of the attention went to the St. Louis Cardinals. And they stunk up the 50s pretty bad. But, as the Cubs are to Chicago and the Yankees to New York, so are the Cardinals to St. Louis: win or lose, they are your team. And, they still are mine.
Maybe it’s the 162 games in the season. Maybe it’s the tempo of the game that allows you to see how the managers and players are thinking as they set for certain situations. Maybe it’s because it’s set in summer and the smell of the grass and hot dogs brings you back to another time. There’s the “gentle-manliness” of golf with the edge of football, basketball and hockey.
Examples are easy to come by:
Gentleman: Stan Musial
Footballer: Mike Shannon (bowl you over, man)
Basketballer: Ozzie Smith (leap tall buildings)
Hockey puck: Tim McCarver (lord and protector of the “goal”)
You can name your own from your favorite team.
Then, it’s Spring Training time! Prim a donas like to sit it out but it’s the best time to see new talent and check out if the veterans can still bring it. Free agency and Fantasy play help keep the next generation engaged but I find it’s most interesting when guys spend their entire careers in one place. Musial and Bob Gibson come to mind. As John Smoltz discovered purse strings tug harder than heart strings in the business office. Ouch!
Nevertheless, Spring does bring hope and it doesn’t reflect what might happen during the season. Last year I dubbed it “The year of the Cub”, a difficult thing for a Cardinals fan, but there was NO WAY the Cubs were sitting out the World Series. Well, the Dodgers didn’t get the memo. So, now the Cubs can go for their third straight division championship, if nothing else. Who can stand in their way in that division? My Cards are always dangerous, but even if I don’t believe they have the gas, I’ll watch!
You get hooked at places like old Sportsman’s Park and Wrigley Field. I believe this is why the minor league parks, no matter how low the level, are so popular. It brings the game close and you feel you’re in it. And, most likely you were at some time, at some level. I’ll never forget my high school coach telling me as the time for “cuts” loomed: “You’ve got alot of spirit, kid. No talent, but lots of spirit.” That sent me to an honorable 10-year career in park district softball.
It didn’t bruise my ego or embitter me. I marveled all the more at those guys who could do it, who did make it. I had been in the dugout and clubhouse, maybe it was just high school, but the good ones showed it with talent and leadership. They had perspective: one game a season did not make, no matter how crucial it seemed. They performed under pressure pretty well, but if they didn’t, it wasn’t crushing.
I was no threat to the real players. I was a threat to the “hangers-on”. To me, they were the Richie Allens of the sport: enormous talent but too distracted to make much of it. They believed “It” should be handed to them, whatever “it” was (hitting, pitching, fielding – they should receive the benefit of the doubt without question). They were the guys who cried alot about their fates. Excellent players and scrubs, like me, had nothing to prove thus nothing to cry about. The little Richie Allens had something to prove and if they didn’t and got pulled from a game, break out the baby bottles and pacifiers!
You know it’s true. But it never stopped you loving the game.
So, it’s baseball time. Forget about brutal hits against the boards, blitzes that make your head spin and 15-foot jumpers. Cut the lawn, line the field and get out the bats and balls. It’s time for baseball.
PresBO pork not thoroughly cooked March 7, 2009
Posted by vsap in 2008 Presidential Election, Blogroll, Financial Crisis, US Politics, Uncategorized.Tags: Barack Obama, deficit spending, earmarks, economic stimulus, pork barrel spending
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Talk about the awful truth, read John McCain’s recent statement:
“While campaigning for change, Barack Obama said, “We need earmark reform, and when I’m President, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.” But now the President is about to sign a huge 2,697 page spending bill with over 9,000 unnecessary and wasteful earmarks. That’s not the “change” we are looking for. I have called on the President to take a principled stand and veto the bill if it is sent to him, but unfortunately, he appears ready to sign it into law, which is nothing more than politics as usual.
It’s no secret that I’ve spent my political career fighting against out-of-control, wasteful spending in Congress. And in nearly 30 years, I have never witnessed the type of alarming and irresponsible spending as I have seen in Washington over the past few weeks.
I am appalled to see this legislation being rushed through the Congress while containing so many egregious earmarks. It is unconscionable that while we are asking Americans to do more with less in these trying economic times we are about to spend $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa, $2 million for the promotion of astronomy in Hawaii, $475,000 for a parking garage in Provo City, Utah, $300,000 to build a Montana World Trade Center, and $150,000 for a rodeo museum in South Dakota.
Simply put, your federal tax dollars should not be funding these types of projects.
Let me put this all in perspective — our country is currently nearly $11 trillion dollars in debt. Our projected deficit for 2009 alone is an alarming $2 trillion dollars. Just two weeks ago, President Obama signed a bill that the Democratic-led Congress passed to spend an additional $1 trillion in “stimulus spending.” And on top of all of this, President Obama has requested $3.6 trillion in additional spending for 2010.
This type of spending should not happen and we must be principled and stop it! “
Alas, it’s all true but there are Republicans who will throw in with Democrats and your children and grandchildren and great-grand children will be cursing us for it.
Write! Tell your Senators and Congressmen to stop this madness!
Remember 1994? If not, remember Santelli! March 3, 2009
Posted by vsap in Blogroll, Financial Crisis, US Politics, Uncategorized.add a comment
Rick Santelli, of CNBC, and now famous for his February 19th rant against the PresBO government stimulus plan, posted these comments on CNBC.com yesterday (excerpt, bold is mine):
“Many millions of Americans seem to agree with my position otherwise why would this “rant” be so much different than many of my impassioned comments of the past. Why would the Internet light up the way it did if people did not feel so strongly. The answer seems pretty obvious; the nerve I struck resonated across the country. I love my country and hope that the current administration succeeds in fixing the complicated economic and social issues our country now faces. Trillions of dollars of debt are being created without a commensurate amount of debate by all involved. And the idea that future generations unable to voice an opinion or vote may be saddled with mountains of debt through no fault of their own, is an issue too large to shirk from.
If one doesn’t agree with my opinions….I can respect that. It is very American to disagree. It is very UN-American to belittle or ignore the FACTS, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, or the voices of millions of Americans that demand better answers, more transparency, deeper accountability, and the simple idea that our elected officials represent all Americans. All Americans should be treated fairly and equitably as our government puts forth solutions. Mr. Gibbs, the President’s Press Secretary, said I did not read the Presidents Mortgage Plan; for the record, I did read the plan and listened to it live as President Obama was presenting it. Anyone who knows me or views CNBC regularly is keenly aware of the fact that I am exceedingly thorough in my homework.”
Santelli has it right, but more right than he might imagine. PresBO policies can’t stand the scrutiny Santelli gave them. And, as PresBO’s press wonk tried to dispel Santelli as uneducated on the issue, PresBO doesn’t like to be questioned about his dubious policy creations. PresBO is not change you can believe in, he is classic liberal dogma, in essence telling Santelli (and by extension you and me): “I know better than you. I own the moral high ground on all issues. You are just too stupid to figure it out.” Sound familiar? It should. It is Clintonian Doctrine 101. We are a danger to PresBO when we know better than he does and we take the moral high ground.
Santelli is not affiliated with “tea parties” quickly put together for last weekend, but he is the inspiration for them. It’s okay to disagree with PresBO. It is absolutely essential to speak out against government stimulus disguised as economic stimulus. It’s okay to debunk current opinion with careful study of the issues. However, that kind of study is a danger to PresBO and it is not one he will take lightly or allow without vigorous defense.
The vital next step is to vote out the Democrat stooges blindly following PresBO in the 2010 Congressional elections. That may not entirely stop the fast moving train of government stimulus, but it can slow it down.
Remember 1994? If not, remember Santelli!
Paul Harvey and The Rocky Mountain News March 1, 2009
Posted by vsap in Blogroll, Financial Crisis, Uncategorized.Tags: Belleville News-Democrat, Paul Harvey, Riverfront Times, Rocky Mountain News, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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I can’t add anything of substance to the passing of Paul Harvey. As an avid radio listener growing up in the Midwest, Paul Harvey was the most unique voice on the radio…not just how he spoke “the news”, but how he wrote it. In some ways he was the GRIT magazine of the air. While they were never associated in business, it’s hard to imagine one without the other, while sitting in the living room of a farm house in Alhambra, IL, on a sweltering July Friday afternoon. The farm house, then GRIT, now Paul Harvey, all gone. Yet, some memories do not fade.
From The Chicago Tribune today:
“Simply put, Harvey preferred a life “sitting at that typewriter painting pictures” — and then reading those “pictures” over the air.
As he once said, “I’m just a professional parade watcher who can’t wait to get to the curbside.”"
I could listen to his pictures all day. I won’t forget it.
Harvey’s passing, along with that of Johnny “Red” Kerr and Norm Van Lier, and it’s been a tough week for Chicagoans.
Then, dark news from the media front came on Friday when The Rocky Mountain News printed its last edition. In the grand scheme of things, it’s doesn’t seem significant. After all, other “great” newspapers have come and gone in the last 30 years. Why is this different? I’ve wrestled with that question and I don’t know if I can explain it.
I remembered my first experience with a “great” metro paper going under, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The Newhouse organization owned it for a number of years and then John Prentis tried to keep it afloat but it ceased publication October 29, 1986. Leading up to its demise, the Globe was the conservative voice in an otherwise liberal, union-heavy environment. It’s probably a miracle that it lasted as long as it did. Pat Buchanan got his start there in 1961 and I read Bob Burnes’ “The Benchwarmer” for years. He was the antitheses of Bob Broeg at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Pulitzer won that battle but had to finally step away from the war, selling the P-D to Lee Enterprises. Anyway, the Globe did survive in an odd small market past its profitability, I believe, due to it being an alternative voice to the Pulitzer’s mighty P-D. Today, the Riverfront Times is the closest thing to competition left for the P-D, but it is a weekly.
As I scour the internet these days for news from St. Louis, it’s not easy to come by. Lee Enterprises, not known for their editorial generosity, has clamped down on the “newshole”. No sweeping exposes. Not much in the way of controversy although, from time to time, it is unavoidable. Actually, you can get more useful from the Belleville News-Democrat. McClatchy at least tries harder.
The point is, the public is served less well when competition in the news arena decreases. Since the closing of the Globe in 1986, the P-D hasn’t improved. It has collected a number of suburban weeklies and turned them into hollow horses, if you’d like to define that as success. And, the public knows it. If subscriptions have slipped, and they have, and people seek alternatives, whether from reliable sources, like the News-Democrat, or more entertaining sources like RFT, or less reliable blogs or politically-backed venues, who is to blame? The public?
So, it is now in Denver that the Denver Post will reign. How will it handle its new-found market exclusivity? I know what you’re thinking, they haven’t been nor will they ever be the “exclusive” source for information in Denver. No newspaper has been an “exclusive” source for a community since the invention of the telegraph. But, it is a source of one kind and now there is no direct competitor to keep it honest. No Fox News to compare to CNN. No CNBC to compare to Bloomberg. No Fox Sports to compare with ESPN. The analogies can go down the line. Our sources are diminished so the news gathering and reporting are diminished and the public is less informed and, thus, less protected from predators of the government and private sector varieties.
What’s the answer? Subscribe! Or, if nothing else, register and read online if you’re concerned that newspapers sully the environment or they’re simply too awkward to read.
Keep your options open. Don’t cause them shut down and go away.
