Here We Go Again. This Time It's Citigroup

The last time I blogged about bonuses it was in defense of those being paid to the employees and managers of American International Group, AIG. Now Citigroup, which is a holding company as well, is now going to ask Big Daddy if they can pay out bonuses to keep some key personnel. Big Daddy owns a 36% stake in Citigroup. So he can decide if Citigroup can pay any additional money out to key people.

Get ready for some hand wrangling and teeth gnashing from congress and the white house on this. The problem is that Citigroup needs to keep its key people in its energy-trading unit, Phibro, to continue to go forward and emerge from their current fiscal problems. The employees in this unit are threatening to leave because of the paycaps that were instituted under the bailout rules. Phibro has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to the bank.

The CEO of Citi, Vikram Pandit, should have sounded the alarm early on and not sat idly by while he was forced to agree to the government terms of operations to accept bailout funding. He was not alone in this. All of the chief executives of the banks should have been more vocal in their demands. But I guess beggars can't be choosers! All the banks knew that they would have a brain drain of their key people if they could not pay them market rates and bonuses. Now Pandit wants to provide stock-based bonuses for these people to keep them from jumping ship. This stock will vest over three years. Well, I say good luck to that. With your stock price hovering around $3 per share and losing over 95% of its value since 2007 I would rather you pay me with Mega Millions Lottery game tickets.

Citigroup has been operating like germs in a petri dish. Under the microscope and constant observation. These bonuses are needed to raise the morale of a group that are being demoralized by working for the government. When you work for the government you are told that you will toil all day and all night for pittance. You will like it and you will not ask for more because you have a job, be thankful. But for the employees that must work under these conditions if you see the light, go into it. Leave on your terms. Do not bank on the idea that Citigroup can change the mind of the Treasury Department or the President.

The government should help but Obama is a man of polling approval. The vast populace of the country often does not understand bonuses and how they are achieved or paid. They have wealth envy and think that these guys make enough already. The polls will say that Americans are opposed to paying any bonuses and Obama will force Geithner to tell Citigroup, No go!

Bonuses are always a good thing when paid for the right reasons. Have key levers attached and measurements to show that they were achieved and the company does what it is suppose to do and that is pay them when they are achieved. Our banks are becoming Nationalized and the brain drain will continue. The best and the brightest will go work somewhere else but not for these U.S. Banks.

Those are my Words! Please post Yours!

"Lie To Me" and "American Idol" Trump Obama 100 Days

Our distinguished president thinks so highly of himself that he continues to find it necessary to interrupt our regularly schedule television broadcasts to see and hear him speak. Fox network was forced to alter its airing of American Idol several weeks ago in order that the president's prime time news conference be televised. They did this with great reservations. As you know all the networks carry a presidential address and there are no commercial interruptions thus no revenue generated. So airing these pressers cost the networks valuable time and money.

Now it is happening again but the line in the sand has been drawn. According to Yahoo News, Fox will not televise the president's news conference on Wednesday. Fox will instead go ahead with its normal broadcast of "Lie To Me" and "American Idol." The news conference, ironically, coincides with the first 100 days of Obamanation. Boy does this guy love to see and hear himself speak! This is part of sweeps week and ratings are everything for broadcasters. Fox will alert viewers looking for this 4th prime time address to Fox News Channel and Fox Business News.

Could there be some chinks in the armor of the Obama mass hysteria media team? One would like to think so. But ABC, NBC and CBS will air it as per the request but they can't compete against "American Idol" anyway. The question has to be asked though. Why does this president find it necessary to keep giving press conferences as frequently as he does? I have not researched it but I just do not remember any other president appearing this often on television as much as this guy has.

Here's what you can expect from this Wednesday's presser from Big "O". More of the same. More of the blame. We should all get our "bulls*@t bingo" cards ready to play. Here are just a few key words for the cards that will be read from the teleprompter:

Transparency, fairness, tough economic times, 8 years of failed...,shovel ready jobs, green jobs, renewable energy, our first 100 days, tax cut for 95%, crushing health care costs, bi-partisanship, wasteful, prosperity, create jobs. I think you get the picture!

Hopefully his speech will go better than the one today when he got ahead of the teleprompter and asked for a roll up. He could have easily made himself look sincere by adding his usual dramatic pauses, uhm and ahh. But that would not be great speech reading.

So get ready for your monthly dose of Big"O" on prime time television. I wonder if any of the other networks are ready to say, "its tough out here and we need every bit of revenue we can get during these hours and I would prefer not to air your non money making dribble." This is your 4th prime time address. We heard you the first three times. It is always the same. Give us something new.

We will have to wait and see if there is any backlash at Fox for not bringing this address during prime time as requested.

That's my Word! Please post yours!

Where Is Our National Security Rent-A-Cop?

We are under attack again. But the person that is in charge of protecting our nation's homeland is asleep at the wheel. Between changing what a terrorist act is, now a 'man-made disaster', and labeling returning troops a threat of becoming 'right-winged extremist', Janet "The Ice Cream" Napolitano has allowed our security to become even weaker.

If you were not aware the latest threat comes not from a possible 'man-made disaster' but from a lowly pig virus out of Mexico designated as H1N1, swine influenza. The Center for Disease Control initially thought that the virus was most likely a swine virus. However the DNA of this flu virus has a 'never-before-seen' combination of avian, swine and human viral components. In Mexico there have been 20 confirmed deaths, a possible 40 more deaths and over 1,000 people infected. Humans have been known to contract swine flu from pigs but have never been able to pass it to other humans, that is until now. Yet our borders have not been closed to travel from this country. This virus that is now easily passed from human to human is a threat to our national security. Why is this point so important? Because this virus is new and can be passed from human to human it meets two criteria for a possible pandemic crisis that could spread around the world.

Mexico has taken some drastic steps to ward off further passing of this virus. They have closed schools, museums, cancelled government sponsored gatherings, telling their populace to avoid crowded places such as movie theaters and the subway as well as handing out free face masks. Yet not a word from the Department of Homeland Security Chief, "Ice Cream" Napolitano on what the U.S. will do. We should shutter our borders. Restrict travel to that area of the world. Contain the crisis where it is but this may all be too late. The CDC reports that there have been eight confirmed cases in border states Texas(2) and California(6). But in the mean time wash your hands!

We already have the Mexican drug wars spilling over into our border states with nothing in place to stop or repel it. Who is to say that this variant of the flu is not the creation of some Al-Qaeda bioweapons plot. They know that our borders are as hole-filled as a slice of swiss cheese. They know that we no longer quarantine and detain people who are infected with diseases. They know a lot about our weaknesses but we have become noticeably weaker with this latest presidential administration.

Who is Janet "The Ice Cream" Napolitano? How is it that a former U.S. Attorney and former Attorney General for the state of Arizona not get it about law enforcement? Her claim to fame was that she was the governor of a border state. Then she should know the perils we face with the Mexican invasion now combined with an influenza strain that has mutated and is being ferretted across our borders in human cargo. This is another Obama appointment that is lacking in substance and ability. But just like his resume is thin on achievement so too are his appointments.

We have to protect our borders. We have to protect our populace. But with a government that is lax on law enforcement how can we? We should bring our DHS up on charges if we are not protected siting dereliction of duty. Otherwise disband this cabinet level position and go back to where we were pre-9/11. We are just as safe now as we were then.

Those are my Words! Please post yours!

Renewable Energy An Oxymoron?!

Scientist define energy as the ability to do work. There are principally two categories of energy; kinetic and potential. Energy makes changes; it does things for us. It lights our homes, powers our cars and reheats our left over meatloaf. When we use energy it doesn’t disappear it becomes another form of energy but the total amount of energy in the universe remains the same. Explain to me how we have renewable energy when it never changes in the amount available to use? Why do the president and other eco-terrorist think that this country can quickly and economically switch to some form of a renewable energy source? And thereby create millions of “Green” jobs?

During the campaign of 2008, Big "O" indicated that he wanted 10% of electricity to come from clean renewable energy sources by 2012 and 25% by 2025. This would include producing electricity from wind. Iowa governor, Chet Culver, says that a whopping 2,300 'Green Jobs' have been created in Iowa over the past two years. I guess the governor was chumming up to the then presidential candidate Obama and learning how to speak Obama and mislead with job creation numbers.

Turbines for the wind towers are being built by Trinity Tower Structures in Newton, IA that once housed a Maytag manufacturing facility. Let me do the math for you. At it's height the Maytag facility employed over 4,000 people but by the time it closed in 2007 there were only 1,800 employees left. That was a net 2,200 jobs lost prior to the closing. Add the final 1,800 and you have a complete 4,000 person job loss. Now add to that the 2,300 jobs created by the wind industry and you have a net job loss (not creation) of -1,700. This was not job creation but job transference since many of the employees were former Maytag employees. Obama math on job creation. Yet I still wait for the 4.1 million jobs that he (Obama) will create in the U.S.

Wind energy only accounted for .3% of the energy sources in the U.S. in 2007. Renewable energy accounted for 7% of total energy consumption in this same period. And I as I pointed out in the beginning, energy never disappears and remains constant in the universe. Yet we are going to force ourselves off of coal, petroleum, natural gas and nuclear energy in just 16 years and onto biomass, hydropower, geothermal and solar.

Of these 'renewable' sources I prefer hydropower. Hydropower could be a savior for producing what our “Green” friends want; clean electricity produced without burning coal or nuclear fission. However, hydropower will never come to fruition because of those same Eco-terrorist. The first time some power company would seek permits and permission to build dams to harness this water power along come the environmental protectionist to save some obscure snail, tiny fish or plant. These guys would have these organisms declared endangered species and no dams would be built to harness hydropower. Pretty much why we can't drill in Anwar.

Even the most energy rich device in the solar system, the sun, will someday be extinguished. Thus it will not be renewed. If these so-called renewable energy sources had so much to offer then why has solar never taken off. It has been around since I was a little boy yet it trails all energy sources as a useful force. Go ahead and give me the “Big Oil” arguments and conspiracies. Yet with the entire planet yammering for a renewable source some other society could have easily harnessed and commercialized solar energy conversion. But it has not happened because it is not economically feasible and on cloudy days you can’t harness what you cannot see!

Now our Congress seeks to impose a 'cap and trade' upon industries in the U.S. In essence taxing companies for using more than their allotted carbon emissions. Who pays for these increases in production because of these trade measures. We all do! That includes the 95% of us that were to get no tax increases from the Obama presidency. Contrary to what we all believe, corporations do not pay taxes. They collect taxes as part of the cost of selling and pass them along to the consumer. Cost accountants understand what the total cost of sales will be and how much their tax liability will be on those sales and will figure what cost they need to include in the final price of the product to cover for those taxes.

According to the "Global Warming" theorist and Eco-Terrorist, carbon emissions specifically carbon dioxide is causing the planet to warm, via green house effect. Although there is evidence pointing to a more contrary and realistic point of view. As I learned in sixth grade science, carbon dioxide was needed for photosynthesis to occur. Photosynthesis is the process where carbon dioxide is converted into organic compounds using sunlight. All life on earth depends upon photosynthesis to occur because plants using the energy from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into energy and expelling oxygen that humans and other mammals need. My point is why stop the release of carbon dioxide when plants need it and we need the plants. Instead how about planting more trees!?

Did I over simplify renewable energy? Am I off-base on the green house or global warming point? Probably but that is what the left does to convince you about their point. We do need energy independence and an energy revolution in this country. Our foreign oil and natural gas dependence can be changed by drilling on our own soil and off-shore. Forcing automobile manufacturers to build small horse-powered hybrid vehicles that are not selling as well as trying to build unreliable wind farms and expensive solar and geothermal sources will not work either. And when a job is created lets be certain that it is a new job not a transferred job. The country needs job creation not creative math in saving and transferring jobs.

These are my Words! Please post yours!

Pirates Are Testing My Patience...

Up until a few months ago, we sort of romanticized Pirates and their sailing the seven seas. We pictured them with a peg leg, patched eye and parrot on shoulder. Swinging from ropes onto ships they were about to loot for the booty. Their ship sailing a black skull and cross bones flag. You know the Pirates of the Caribbean kind of pirate.

Now we have a group of lawless Somali thugs sailing the Gulf of Aden and Indian ocean while illegally boarding and ransoming maritime shipping. These Somali nutcases currently hold 17 ships and over 300 hostages. Most of the shipping companies are willing to pay the ransoms to free their ships. That was until this past Sunday, when our Navy S.E.A.L snipers ended a week-long standoff with three dead, one captured and one in custody. I don't think that we should bring this degenerate back to the U.S. to be tried. If they did this more pirates would want to be captured for a free trip to the states for the benefits of food, clothing and shelter while awaiting trial. And in some cases may even be released to become government dependents.

Killing the three emboldened the rest of the pirate community. They indicated that they would kill any American that they take captive. They attempted to board another U.S. flagged ship today. So far only the French and the U.S. have taken the bold steps of using force against this lawlessness. Results are 5 dead hijackers and unfortunately one French hostage as well as 12 taken into custody.

It is estimated that the Somali pirates have raked in over $150 million since beginning operation in November of last year. That is pretty good as a start up enterprise. Now "Easy Button" Hillary Clinton had some tough words for the pirates. "These pirates are criminals, they are armed gangs on the sea. And those plotting attacks must be stopped." Now those are some fighting words and I am shaking in my shorts. All the while these fools have attempted to hijack another U.S. flagged ship. I guess they were not listening to the Easy Button.

Now for the whopper coming from Obama's Secretary of Status Now. We are going to seek 'diplomatic efforts to freeze the assets' of these pirates. Now what kind of stupid do they take us for? These are just rhetorical words. Last I checked Captain Jack Sparrow buried his booty in the ground not in the Bank of London. So what assets does she seek to freeze? While she did not commit to military action she did mention that we may go after their bases. My problem with this statement is the word "may". That is just a "NO" in lay-a-way. It took her boss several days to give the rules of engagement and authorization of force against those who held Captain Phillips hostage. She also wants to call for immediate meetings of international counterpiracy task force to expand naval coordination. More words that mean hurry up and wait.

I realize the Gulf of Aden as well as the Indian Ocean is a vast area to cover with our blue water navy but don't we track Al Quaeda terrorist with predator drones. Flying is faster than sailing. Put eyes in the sky and be ready to shoot the boats out of the water upon any threat of piracy. Clean up the seas by force. Soon these delays and shipping stoppages will affect our way of life on goods that travel on these ships coming to America.

End it now. Not with words but with definitive action. Capture, destruction or death!

That's my Word! Please post yours!