Category: Life

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Rep. Jim Jordan continues search for clue on economic meltdown

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R – Ohio 4th Congressional District) once again proves that the GOP are slow on the uptake. In a Q & A with Hancock County leaders he just restated talking points while failing to remember that he is in the party that helped lead us to the economic meltdown.

The Republican from Urbana voted against the package Jan. 28, believing that the $819 billion tax and spending bill would only balloon the federal deficit, reportedly headed toward $2 trillion.

Jordan told officials that a “bailout fever” has infected Washington.

“Once you go down this road, everyone gets in line,” he said.

“A much better solution is to reduce the tax burden on small business owners and entrepreneurs” and cut interest rates and capital gains, he said.

Jordan said he and the other 176 House Republicans who voted against the bill did so on principle, not partisanship.

Jordan says Obama plan won’t work

Remember, we tried the tax cuts and those didn’t work either. But at least Jordan didn’t say anything more ridiculous than another Ohio Congressman.

U.S. Rep. Steve Austria (R- Ohio 7th Congressional District) said to the Columbus Dispatch editorial board:

“When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression,” Austria said. “He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That’s just history.”

U.S. Rep. Austria blames Depression on Roosevelt

WOW! Steve Austria is a dumbass. The depression started in 1929. Roosevelt took office in 1933. In 1933 Unemployment was 25% and by 1940 it had been lowered to 15%… etc etc etc.

And these guys think they have a better plan?

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Weekend Ear Candy: The Carpenters

I always tell this story of my history with music. I was raised on AM radio back in the 1970’s. In fact, it wasn’t until high school that I found out there was such a thing as FM radio that played rock music. By I did know about Punk Rock and New Wave through TV like what use to be on MTV, but my every day radio listening was pure sugar.

So my early tastes were of the “easy listening” variety offered up by WFIN in Findlay. Some of my favorite songs today were fused into my head then and include songs from America, Barry Manilow, and today’s Weekend Ear Candy band The Carpenters.

The Carpenters were a brother/sister duo that enjoyed huge success in the early 1970’s. Their music has influenced many artists that came after them including Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Shania Twain, Mary J. Blige, Alicia Keys, Leann Rimes, and Madonna.

Quite frankly lead singer Karen Carpenter’s voice could melt the coldest heart and I shiver every time I hear it in the albums I own.

I really tried to narrow today’s candy to the my favorite but I couldn’t really choose. I like the rocking middle section of “We’ve Only Just Begun” but I think “Close to You” is one of most beautiful songs ever made. A somewhat unknown fact is “Close to You” got me through my first unrequited crush in high school. Of course my family got sick of me constantly playing the record for the several weeks I was depressed.

Carpenters -We’ve Only Just Begun

Carpenters – Close to you

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Why do Wall Street Bonuses cause complaints? It is simple math and common sense

Everyone knows about the bail out of the nation financial institutions after they risked too much on junk assets that failed to deliver. Most people also should know that after getting the tax payer funded bail out some of these same banks, investment houses, and insurance agencies used that money to pay billions of dollars in “bonuses” to CEOs and employees. Even though such pay outs look stupid and in this case they are, it isn’t because the workers may not deserve it but it is simple math.

Some business experts have tried to cast bonuses as commissions earned for sales. But again if there are no sales how can you justify a bonus. It is still simple math. If you have red ink on the books then you shouldn’t have any money to pay for bonuses.

The bigger question might be why there will be bonuses at all.

After all, even if bonuses fall 50 percent, that hardly matches the drop in profits and revenues plaguing Wall Street. At Lehman Brothers, the employees still left are expected to receive $3.5 billion in bonuses from the firm’s new owners, Barclays Capital and Nomura.

In a system where huge profits bring huge rewards and huge losses bring, well, smaller rewards, can you blame Wall Streeters for taking big risks in hopes of getting the brass ring?

Take a look at what happened to banks in 2007: Citigroup, for example, reported a profit of $3.6 billion, down 83 percent from the previous year. Many other firms saw similar declines. Yet bonuses across Wall Street declined only 4.7 percent from the year before. The payout was $33.2 billion, according to DiNapoli.

Open season on the Wall Street bonus

That’s why I get upset about Wall Street people like John Thain and others who still pay out bonus out of whack from reality.

I’ve been taught that bonuses are tied to the performance of myself and the company I work for, and all the places I’ve worked have done that it that way.

At my current job, there are certain benchmarks I have to meet in order to qualify for a monthly bonus and the size is set based on how I did, above that initial bar. The current maximum is 12% of my base pay if I hit 100% of all the benchmarks.

Our managers, on the other hand, get a bonus based on how all of us do in reaching certain goals for the company for that month.

At another job I worked, which was a retail company, bonuses were tied to the “Earnings Before Taxes” of the company. The amount you got depended on the percentage your department contributed to the EBT. At that job, I worked long enough to get one bonus and it was $600 after taxes. I still have the TV I bought with it.

The common wisdom is if you have lost money there should be no bonuses paid out. That’s why people are pissed off about Wall Street bonuses.

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Weekend Ear Candy – Foreigner Urgent

Back in 8th grade I was elected homeroom representative to our Junior High School student council at Glenwood in a contentious vote. I was up against the smartest girl in the class. Her name was Jill B. She had been on Student Council in 7th grade and fully expected to be re-elected.

I should note we were put in homerooms based on the first letter of our last names. So during my 3 years in Junior High all the A’s to J’s (I believe) were in the same homeroom.

I didn’t like the fact that no one stepped forward to run against her and she seemed a bit smug about it all – like she deserved it. So I raised my hand to volunteer.

We each had to give a speech to say why we should be elected and although Jill was smart, she wasn’t good in off the cuff speaking. I found out I was. The teacher had us stand out in the hall while the vote was taken then shortly were called back in.

To my surprise I won. I think it might have had something to do with her smugness and the fact there were more boys than girls in the class.

Student Council’s main job was to host school events like dances and movie nights. I got to run the popcorn machine which was fun and I had to clean it up at the end of the night – which wasn’t fun.

We would hire a DJ to come in for the dances. Being a school there were some songs he wasn’t allowed to play like “Cocaine” by Eric Clapton, “The Stroke” by Billy Squire, and “Don’t Try Suicide” by Queen but other songs were fine.

One song I remember that got a lot of play that year was “Urgent” by Foreigner. So whenever I hear the song it takes me back to those dances at Glenwood and the smell of popcorn.

Here is a live version of the song:

Foreigner – Urgent (live)

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Non-believers finally exist

Best part of President Obama’s inaugural address on January 20th, for me, was this bit:

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.

Inaugural Address

Of course I feel for those other hundreds of religions and other beliefs left out, but I’m happy to get a shout out for non-believers.

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