That last thread was getting leggy. Let’s start a new one. The post election news continues to flow in. The President is in Asia, and there is a hint that a letter is being drafted to Nancy Pelosi urging her to not run for House Minority Leader.
There is a hint that PWC has lost 2 major companies. Does anyone know anything?
7 of country’s 10 richest counties- surround d.c.!
http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2115275
@e
Notice Prince William County did not make the cut.
The full list is below:
1. Loudoun County, Va.
2. Fairfax County, Va.
3. Howard County, Md.
4. Morris County, N.J.
5. Arlington County, Va.
6. Montgomery County, Md.
7. Nassau County, N.Y.
8. Somerset County, N.J.
9. Calvert County, Md.
10. Charles County, Md
Moon, did you let this guy out? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr8PX7P6gsQ&feature=related
Too funny, Cato. No, I thought YOU let the bears out! Wasn’t there a song about that?
It was ugly today, especially in Apple world.
Yeah, I took a beating today. Yogi and Boo Boo did a little tap dance on my head. I was buying some Apple today b/c I think we’re going to have a pretty good day on Monday. Some analyst nobody ever heard of was spreading a rumor that iPad sales were light (yeah, right) and that’s why it got hit so bad.
@Cato, and the analyst will remain unheard of….yea right, about those light sales.
I can’t wait for iphone to hit verizon in about 2 months. I think they are a little late to the game though.
the problem with Wall Street – even though the average salary is going to be around 400K, they still managed to lay off over 14,000 people. In other words, the very well paid made more money at the expense of the lesser paid worker bees. You would think that some of them would say, reduce my salary a bit to keep others employed – http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/11/12/jobs-report-on-wall-street-it-pays-to-be-good/?mod=yahoo_hs
Pat, nah, selfishness and greed don’t work that way.
Happened onto Glen Beck this afternoon. I was truly surprised and, let me say, appalled to see a rather large group of West Pointers in, what I assume was, dress uniforms – seniors and a few officers, sitting on risers answering questions.
Why would West Point allow its students and officers to appear as an official group on a talk show ? And especially with Glen Beck?
Punchak, you ask a good question. It almost makes me want to write and ask the commandant. I found it made me uncomfortable. I see Beck as a cult leader.
Forbes magazine noted that there are 6.8B people on the planet and they ranked the 68 among the horde that wield the most power. According to Forbes, the top 5 people that really matter are (1) Chinese President Hu Jintao, (2) U.S. President Barack Obama, (3) Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, (4) Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and (5) Pope Benedict XVI. The Prince William County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution that condemns the socialist biased rankings and Attorney General Cuccinelli has filed a lawsuit challenging the science underpinning the results ranking Obama ahead of the Pope. Faux News founder Ruppert Murdoch ranked #13 and fellow right wing fear mongers, the Koch brothers, were #54. Osama bin Laden made the Forbes list at #57 and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was #68. George Soros did not make the list … nor did Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, or Rush Limbaugh (the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was #41 and Oprah was #64). Imagine the right wing rants if these rankings were compiled by the New York Times or Huffington Post.
And if there was any doubt what a leftie Steve Forbes really is, in a sidebar the magazine asked an expert to pick the most powerful people in the media. Who did Forbes choose as the expert to make the media picks? Arianna Huffington.
Palestinian held for Facebook criticism of Islam!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40143564/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/
usps loses 8.5 bil!
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-12/u-s-postal-service-loss-widens-to-record-8-5-billion.html
China builds 15-story hotel in 6 days!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101112/bs_yblog_upshot/chinese-workers-build-15-story-hotel-in-just-six-days
@Morris Davis
What a stupid list. We are all important and can make a huge difference within our own realm. It’s the power of the “widow’s mite” that really matters. Everything else is superficial.
@Pinko, I don’t think we can overlook influence, however, and one’s influence over others.
I believe the broader point has to be who is not on the list.
The article begins: “We are fascinated by power. We stand in awe of those who apply it adroitly – and in fear of those who abuse it. Everyone would rather be a hammer than a nail. The people on this list were chosen because, in various ways, they bend the world to their will.”
You’re right, Moon, who didn’t make the Forbes list is interesting. Who did make it is interesting, too. Most are names widely recognized – Bill Gates, Hillary, and the Pope, for instance – but there are a few that even after reading the little blurb about them I’m not sure why they are viewed as so extraordinarily powerful. Take Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank. I know that’s an important job, but I’m not sure how it makes him the 15th most powerful person in the world. The article concedes that there is no way to precisely define levels of power and that the list is intended to provide a baseline to spark conversation.
Here’s a link to the list. http://www.forbes.com/wealth/powerful-people/list There’s a link on that page to a description of the methodology they used to compile the rankings.
Wow — Sarah Palin’s foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann is also a paid lobbyist for George Soros. I wonder why Glenn Beck overlooked that detail? In the six-degrees of separation sphere you can link just about any two people. In this case, there is only one link in the chain between Palin and Soros. I bet the Christmas party crowd at Scheunemann’s house is interesting. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/palin-adviser-lobbyist-george-soros/
@Moe, why does she need a foreign policy advisor? I bet it is so she can see Russia!!!!!! That’s the ticket!!
@Morris Davis
Kinda makes Beck’s rant about George Soros look more stupid than it already did! And it also tells you that Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, and that blonde bitch whose name escapes me, are not as important as they and the far right think they are. Do you suppose if we could buy them for what they are worth and sell them for what they thing they’re worth, we would do better than Cato’s day trading?
@Moon-howler
You are right, MH–who, indeed, didn’t make the list and why?
Some words of wisdom I received from my mother-in-law in one of those emails I hardly ever forward. Perhaps SHE should be on the list.
—————————————————————-
Twinkies and Root Beer
A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of Root Beer and he started his journey.
When he had gone about three blocks, he met an elderly man. The man was sitting in the park just feeding some pigeons.
The boy sat down next to him and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the man looked hungry, so he offered him a Twinkie.
The man gratefully accepted it and smiled at boy. His smile was so pleasant that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered him a root beer.
Again, the man smiled at him. The boy was delighted! They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.
As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the man, and gave him a hug. The man gave him his biggest smile ever.
When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, “What did you do today that made you so happy?
“He replied, “I had lunch with God.” But before his mother could respond, he added, “You know what? God’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!”
Meanwhile, the elderly man, also radiant with joy, returned to his home. His son was stunned by the look of peace on his face and he asked,” Dad, what did you do today that made you so happy?”
He replied, “I ate Twinkies in the park with God.” However, before his son responded, he added,” You know, he’s much younger than I expected.”
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Embrace all equally!
~author unknown~
Pinko, that is a very humbling story. Thank you for sharing it.
If the teabagging right is going to make an issue of George Soros, it had better not overlook the Koch brothers or Rupert Murdoch. Otherwise, I feel like I’m going to hurl a big “hypocrite’ hairball!
That ought to fix it all up!!
Slow, just trying to empathize a little with the catty rightwing fringe…thought I’d hurl out a bit of undigested detritus.
The dog equivalent of that has got to be dragging one’s doggie butt across the carpet.
ewwwwww…
@Moon-howler
Thanks for letting me post it. I know it’s off track, but that’s usually about where I am 🙂
The Department of Defense is about to release documents redefining how the military conducts strategic communications and information operations. An article in Inside the Pentagon last week said this about info ops:
“Information operations, on the other hand, are designed to ‘convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups and individuals.’”
That sounds like a pretty accurate description of the role Fox News plays in manipulating the emotions, motives, reasoning and behavior of the sheepeople to advance the far right Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, et al agenda. You put on a show that looks like a news broadcast (and that’s how Fox differentiates a Shepard Smith from a Glenn Beck, although to viewers I suspect few recognize a distinction), throw out what the ADL’s letter about Beck’s attack on Soros would call repugnant inaccuracies, pander to fear and emotion, and low and behold you get people living on social security and Medicare in a frenzy over health care reform and tax breaks for millionaires. The Department of Defense should take a lesson from the right wing insurgents; if the military knew how to play the Iraqis and the Afghans like a Stradivarius the way the far right has played a significant segment of the American public they would have overthrown themselves and sent us all their money so we could recycle it and let it trickle down on them.
@punchak
It was a show honoring those that serve.
Good documentary “The Senators Bargain” on HBO On Demand right now. It shows backroom shenanigans during the 2007 “Comprehensive Amnesty” “debate” in 2007. There’s some striking footage in it.
It’s really something to me how cynical and manipulative the pro-Amnesty forces were during this “debate”. That will always stand out to me. The whole approach was to cram this down America’s throats before we could collectively figure out what was going on. That was the approach of the White House and of both parties’ leadership. And by any account, and its visible in this movie, public reaction by way of jamming those switchboards and telling our “elected servants” how we feel kept this from happening.
Thanks, Rick, for letting us know it is available. I love on-demand, even though it is difficult to work sometimes.
Good piece on TARP here by Dick Bove (very well-respected banking analyst) where he calls it the most successful government program ever: http://www.cnbc.com/id/40152707
@Cargosquid
Gee, I wouldn’t have known! Has this happened on any other show?
I mean, some other show similar to Beck’s?
There’s a show similar to Beck’s?