What the roomful of executives saw upon the first screening was a shock--a slow and quiet semireligious, jazz-filled 25 minutes, voiced by a cast of inexperienced children, and, perhaps most unforgivably, without a laugh track. "They said, 'We'll play it once and that will be all. Good try,' " remembers Mendelson. "Bill and I thought we had ruined Charlie Brown forever when it was done. We kind of agreed with the network. One of the animators stood up in the back of the room--he had had a couple of drinks--and he said, 'It's going to run for a hundred years,' and then fell down. We all thought he was crazy, but he was more right than we were."
Posted by: Mike ||
12/09/2008 08:25 ||
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'It's going to run for a hundred years,' and then fell down. We all thought he was crazy, but he was more right than we were.
Which should've pointed out that the illustrator had more of an understanding of what Americans want then all the Programmers and Vice-Presidents in network television that have driven their audiences into other media for the last 40 years. He was of the plebeians who you exist for, not the patricians who you cater for.
#3
It's kinda like grandfathered in there now. They have to keep showing it because it's tradition and people would protest if they didn't. But if they had the decision to make today they'd never show it in the first place. They'd be afraid of a lawsuit by the ACLU or CAIR. Either that or it'd offend their atheist/gay sensibilities so badly they'd throw it out without even getting to the point of thinking about lawsuits. Even the title is wrong. It says A Charlie Brown Christmas. How quaint. These days it'd have to be Charlie Brown Holidays and just never you mind which holiday or what we're celebrating.
The Pulitzer Prizes, the most prestigious US journalism awards, announced Monday they were expanding to include online-only publications.
The Pulitzer Prize Board that oversees the awards said the 2009 prizes, which will be announced in April, had been broadened to include "text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet."
In a statement, the Board said it had "decided to allow entries made up entirely of online content to be submitted in all 14 Pulitzer journalism categories."
Sig Gissler, administrator of the prizes, said the move was a "logical extension of the historic mission of the Pulitzer Prizes."
"We continue to keep an eye on the changing media scene and try to make appropriate adjustments as we go along," he told AFP.
"There's an evolutionary aspect to the Pulitzer Prizes going back through history," Gissler said. "We added photography in 1943, for example, and we added explanatory journalism, and we started allowing online content as early as 1999."
The Board said that online or print entries should come from US newspapers or news organizations that publish at least weekly and are "primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories."
"Consistent with its historic focus on daily and weekly newspapers, the Board will continue to exclude entries from printed magazines and broadcast media and their respective Web sites," the statement said.
Online content from newspaper websites has been permitted in all journalism categories since 2006 but online-only publications were only allowed to submit entries in two categories breaking news and breaking-news photography.
Among the prize categories are local reporting of breaking news, commentary, feature writing, investigative reporting, explanatory reporting and reporting on national or international affairs.
The deadline for entries in the 2009 competition is February 1.
#1
Tip jar is over to the right, folks, and consider doing your seasonalholiday Christmas shopping via Fred's Amazon portal in the sidebar.
Those clear report covers (the ones with the plasic spines) don't come cheap and we want Fred's Pulitzer entry to look first-rate when the hacks at Columbia begin their deliberations...
#2
Sig Gissler, administrator of the prizes, said the move was a "logical extension of the historic mission of the Pulitzer Prizes expansion, considering that print-media is almost as dead as unbiased journalism."
Dostum Says He Is Not in Exile in Turkey and Remains a Potent Force in Afghanistan
A Turkish newspaper has reported that Rashid Dostum, the leader of ethnic Uzbeks in Afghanistan, was flown to Turkey as part of a special operation arranged by the Turkish government. The report maintained that Dostum might be sent into exile by the Afghan government as a result of a secret deal to save him from the impending investigations into his involvement in the kidnapping and beating of political rivals.
Come to Illinois and you can be governor ...
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Ozugergin confirmed that Dostum was in Turkey but denied the claims that he was under house arrest. He noted that there was no current judicial process against Dostum in Afghanistan and he was in Turkey to spend the Eid al-Adha (Kurban bayrami) with his family members who live in Ankara. "General Dostum is the honorary leader of a community with Turkic origins in Afghanistan... He may have some contacts in Turkey," added Ozugergin.
Dostum also spoke to members of the Turkish press denying the allegations. He thanked the Turkish government for its hospitality and noted that he would stay in Turkey after the holiday (December 8 to 11) and discuss the developments in Afghanistan with Turkish officials. Regarding his relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Dostum said, "He is our president and commander-in-chief, and I am his deputy. We have excellent relations. I met with him before coming to Turkey." Dostum added that "Afghanistan is our home. Nobody can send General Dostum into exile. I am an important general"
Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says that Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe has been unsuccessful to rule southern African state.
Really, Kofi? When did you figure that one out? Not while you were Secretary General, was it?
"President Robert Mugabe's government has not demonstrated the ability to lead the country out of its current crisis. There is bitter disappointment in the current leadership," Annan said in a statement issued in Paris on Sunday, allAfrica news website reported.
The former UN Secretary General also called on Southern African leaders to play a more active role in bringing about a transition to an inclusive government in Zimbabwe.
The Sunday statement was issued after a meeting of a group of former leaders known as 'The Elders'. A delegation from the group - compromising Annan, former President Jimmy Carter of the United States as well as former Mozambican education minister Graca Machel - was recently denied entry to Zimbabwe. "The [Mugabe] regime has been in denial about what is happening in their country, and the region has not really wanted to know either," Carter also said in Sunday's statement. He urged rapid formation of a workable government.
Meanwhile, former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi said, "A liberation movement and its leaders lose their legitimacy when they not only ignore the suffering of their people but actually act in a manner that increases their suffering dramatically," comparing Mugabe's anti-colonial past and present actions in power.
Few people would know more about liberations losing their legitimacy than the Algerians ...
Brahimi noted that African leaders and Southern African leaders in particular, had a duty to come to the aid of Zimbabweans.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Carter also said in Sunday's statement. He urged rapid formation of a workable government.
#3
The Sunday statement was issued after a meeting of a group of former leaders known as 'The Elders'.
Held in the Fortress of Eldertude no doubt.
Good to see that Kofi remains a blustering useless little man who seems to favor the company of other blustering useless little men.
#5
Iff the US-WORLD FINANCIAL CRISIS does worsen and pans out for a number of years or even decades as Perts have forecasted, ZIMBABWE = AFRICA MAY HAVE TO WAIT A WHILE FOR THE US TO INVADE.
All this month, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has explained in one speech after another how he would like nothing more than to leave office when his term ends in 2013. But the Venezuelan people are urging him to remain in the presidency, Chavez has said, and he will not disappoint.
"I am not the one planting this. It is the people who are planting this," Chavez said Wednesday before red-shirted supporters in the coastal city of Cumana. "I would prefer to leave in four years, for many reasons -- human and personal reasons. But in the end, at this stage in my life, I am conscious that I do not belong to myself."
Chavez says he belongs to the people of his oil-rich country. The National Assembly, a body with only a handful of government foes, is expected to support a measure next week that would trigger a referendum asking Venezuelans to approve a constitutional amendment scrapping term limits. If Chavez wins that vote, to be held as early as February, the former army paratrooper could rule until at least 2019 -- 20 years after he first took office with a promise to dismantle Venezuela's old social and political order.
"Ten more years of the revolution will come," Chavez said Saturday to throngs outside the Miraflores presidential palace. "I will be here until God wills it."
The populist firebrand's renewed effort to remain in office a year after voters rejected a referendum that would have eliminated term limits underscores the challenge the administration of President-elect Barack Obama faces in Venezuela.
During a tumultuous decade in power, Chavez has survived a coup and an oil workers' strike. He took the initiative against opponents, debilitated foes and, in the process, took control of all government institutions. He has used Venezuela's formidable oil coffers to build an anti-Washington alliance with like-minded governments in Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua.
Chavez has also forged ties with Iran and assisted Marxist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia, American and Colombian officials say, while escalating verbal attacks on Venezuelan opposition figures and the country's private news media.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2008 00:00 ||
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he won't live that long. Venezuela's economy is augering in, based on Hoogo's failed policies and socialist incompetence, and the food strikes will be put down mercilessly, then expect a coup. Oil price drops serve democracy
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2008 8:10 Comments ||
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He'll survive like Mugabe survives. There is no real internal force that can remove him otherwise it would have already occurred. Hope is not a strategy. He'll just ratchet up the repression, just like all the other thugs before him. The one big mistake he could do is to antagonize the Colombians and neutralize the other states to intervene in his defense when they act.
Gangs of youths smashed their way through central Athens, Thessaloniki and other Greek cities on Monday, torching stores, buildings and cars in the third day of mayhem after the fatal police shooting of a teenager.
In the country's worst rioting in decades, dozens of shops, banks and even luxury hotels had their windows smashed and burned as youths fought running battles with riot police. Black smoke rose above the city center, mingling with clouds of tear gas. Broken glass littered the streets. In an outpouring of rage, high school and university students joined self-styled anarchists in throwing everything from fruit and coins to rocks and Molotov cocktails at police and attacked police stations throughout the day.
"Cops! Pigs! Murderers!" protesters screamed at riot police.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2008 00:00 ||
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Fetch the Israeli skunk spray. Spray stinkiness from overhead, and shoot kneecaps from below. This is well beyond boys will be boys. Then jail all the smelly, screaming idiots for complicity, making them all liable for the cost of repairing the destruction they participated in -- proof of said participation being the smell. Broken kneecaps being merely a lagniappe.
Or send in the Q-ships to Arclight the place. That would end the riots, too.
#2
Reports said the teenager who was shot was part of a group stoning the police car. he then proceeded to attempt throwing a "petrol bomb" at the vehicle.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/09/2008 7:19 Comments ||
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#3
Evidently it's now ok in Greece to throw rocks and fire bombs at the police.
Greece's prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, wrote a letter to the boy's parents expressing his sorrow. "I know nothing can relieve your pain, but I assure you . . . the state will act, as it ought to, so that yesterday's tragedy won't be repeated," he wrote.
"It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person, let alone a minor, loses their life," Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said at a Saturday news conference. "The loss of life is something that is inconceivable in a democracy."
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2008 8:11 Comments ||
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If that "minor" had been throwing a rock at me I'd have put two rounds center mass just as soon as he drew his fist back. Rocks are damned dangerous weapons and just because the bastard throwing it isn't of legal age doesn't mean it can't do serious damage. My sympathies lie with the cops. Gun the protesters down in the streets and drive police cars over their dead bodies. Then bury them in a mass grave with no memorial service.
#6
Gangsters, Terrorists and the domestic 'moonbats' have for a long time used women and 'minors' on their "front lines". Any interaction with authority figures creates the effect of 'police (or military) brutality against our children! (or women)'.
I sense that the Greek anarchists are probably no different and actually sent the kids out for the initial confrontation telling them to spark some 'action', whatever it may be. Having this many rioting 'outsiders' in such a short time requires 'pre-planning'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
12/09/2008 8:52 Comments ||
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#7
You people believe the issue is "policemen vs anarchists". I don't blame you since that's what most Greeks (and certainly the anarchists) seem to believe also. But the way I see it the same police that murdered the 15-year old or allowed anarchist violence to run amok (tolerance towards "leftist" violence), is the same police that has allowed Neonazi groups to launch pogroms against immigrants (tolerance towards "rightist" violence), and the same police that brutalizes prisoners (tolerance towards its own violence), and which allowed the terrorists of 17th November to go uncaptured for decades.
This isn't a war of policemen vs anarchists, it's a war that both sides have launched against law and order. Fascism and Anarchy are both the enemies of liberal democracy.
(After all, the police-loving fascist party "LAOS" and the anarchist-loving leftwing parties have a similar attitude of hating the West and loving Russia -- if they were actually on opposite sides of the world ideological conflict one would expect they'd actually differ on foreign policy... atleast occasionally)
"If that "minor" had been throwing a rock at me I'd have put two rounds center mass just as soon as he drew his fist back."
Yes, but then again, you're a coward who justifies lethal action by the mere possibility of *personal* injury.
I mean you could have atleast tried to disguise the cowardice by saying you'd shoot the guy if he was throwing the stone at *anyone*, not just yourself.
#8
I think we can discern a common pattern as they appear to gravitate around university areas. Even on this side of the Atlantic the areas are known hang out and hand outs for anarchists and a general sedentary population [vice transient student population] that suffers from a disproportionate arrested adolescence syndrome. Higher crime stats and general anti-social [aka 'rebellious'] attitudes are systematic. Of course they insist that the society that supports the institution upon which they parasitically survive off of must sustain said institution. Wonder what what happen if the 'university bubble' popped and these cretins had to really work for a living?
#9
The difference between a rock and a bullet is mass and velocity. Both kill - ask Goliath [in ancient history Balearic slingers were famous for their ability to kill or injure on the battlefield] or for that matter numerous females stoned to death in the name of honor.
#14
All governments need a little occasional mayhem to remind them that they are powerless against even a modest uprising. They tend to forget that and push the envelope during periods of extended calm. Our own govt, both current and incoming could profit from a reminder once in a while that they draw their power from the will of the people, not from divine right. They have been hooking up the super-rich class pretty largely for the last 8 years and running the rest of the country to the brink of depression. I wouldn't be surprised to see some unrest here before long. So yeah, the greek rioters are punks and idiots, but the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time....
#16
Q-ships, Arclight, anarchists and Aris all in the same thread. And tw going all Ghengis Khan is just a cherry on top. Drinks, indeed! Make mine a MOAB, on the rocks, please.
Looking back at WWII, we learn the World Workers' Party hasn't much changed its stripes. Some of these cards could've been written by Markos Moulitsas...
The first sign of cracks in President-elect Barack Obama's foreign policy team of rivals emerged on Monday as his choices for secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations visited the State Department. Meow! Hiss!
As Secretary of State-pick Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.N. envoy-choice Susan Rice separately visited the diplomatic agency's headquarters in Washington's Foggy Bottom neighborhood, persons familiar with the transition said that Rice wants to install her own transition team inside the department. LOLZ - I don't think she knows who she's dealing with.
Such a move by an incoming U.N. ambassador is rare, if not unprecedented, because the job is based at the United Nations in New York, where Rice already has a small transition staff, the sources familiar with the incoming administration.
The push by Rice, an early Obama supporter whose position the President-elect wants to elevate to a cabinet post, is also a signal that she intends to use her influence with the new president to play a more significant role than previous U.N. envoys, they said. The transition sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Officials with Clinton's transition team declined to comment on the matter, and aides to Rice could not immediately be reached. State Department officials declined to comment on issues related to the transition. "We have scheduled a one-on-one coordination meeting Friday at 10PM at Ft. Marcy Park a neutral site"
It was not clear if Clinton and Rice--who had strained relations during the Democratic primaries because of Rice's steadfast backing of Obama--saw each other at the State Department as Clinton left the building shortly after Rice arrived.
During the presidential campaign, some Clinton aides saw Rice's early decision to back Obama as a betrayal because of her previous role as a high State Department official during President Bill Clinton's administration. Rice's desire to place her own team in Washington could fuel speculation that those tensions will carry into the new administration. Apparently our UN relations will usurp our national interests. Whodathunkit?
The officials could not say if Clinton's team had formally objected to Rice's plan, or even if Rice would be able to install a separate transition team inside the State Department. But they noted that dueling transition teams could complicate the handover by blurring lines of authority.
Technically, the job of U.N. envoy falls under the authority of the secretary of state, although some previous U.N. ambassadors have held cabinet rank. The last U.N. ambassador to be part of the president's cabinet was Richard Holbrooke, who had a famously icy relationship with then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during the Clinton administration.
Albright, who was President Clinton's first ambassador to the United Nations, was a mentor to Rice. But the two had a falling out when Albright, America's first female secretary of state, lined up behind Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination and Rice backed Obama.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, was to dine Monday evening with the nation's current and second female secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, at Rice's apartment in the exclusive Watergate complex. The two Rices are not related and Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday that she thought Clinton would do a great job.
Also Monday, Clinton was to meet privately with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. and the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to a Democratic official. Kerry, once a contender for the secretary of state job, will oversee Clinton's confirmation. Kerry has pledged to hold "swift and fair" confirmation hearings. interesting since Kerry himself is neither swift, nor fair
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2008 07:36 ||
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Wildebeest stalks Renoster (RINO)? Strange things happening in the bush.
#6
I think Rice is in a perfect position. Ambassador to a corrupt, bloated international bureaucracy who accomplishes, with glacial speed, little or nothing. But they have great parties and a top shelf lifestyle. And, for some reason, she seems to think this gives her maximum juice in the Barry administration?
Hillary will pick her teeth with her bones. And enjoy doing it.
Washington - A genocide prevention task force concludes that US leadership, early warnings, preventive diplomacy, and coordinated international action are crucial elements of any effort to prevent the kind of mass killings that have ravaged Sudan's Darfur and the Congo.
That may sound like another well-meaning Washington study destined to gather dust.
Only if we're lucky ...
But the fate of this task force -- led by two Clinton administration foreign-policy heavyweights, Madeleine Albright and William Cohen -- might be a little brighter.
Halfbright a heavyweight? Just as a reminder of the incompetence of most of the Clinton foreign policy team.
One reason: The conclusion of its year-long labor corresponds with President-elect Obama's naming to his national-security team a diplomat who has advocated swift action when genocide threatens.
Susan Rice, Mr. Obama's pick to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, had experience with the Rwanda genocide of the 1990s during her years as a chief Africa diplomat under the Clinton administration.
She also biffed the grabbing of Osama bin Laden when he was in the Sudan ...
#2
That may sound like another well-meaning Washington study destined to gather dust. Only if we're lucky ...
This is the essentially the white paper for Obama's AFRICOM jump-start and entry into the savior of the world status. The 400 meter target will a natural extension of the effort as he moves to restore 'hope' lost through past genocides and abuses of a domestic nature.
#4
As long as Berkeleyists flock to enlist in the USGPC (United States Genocide Prevention Corps).
I sse a few problems with that.
First That the guys who do the proposing aren't those who will do the dying.
Second: That like we have seen in Irak and even Afghanistan, the beautiful people, the MSM, the whore states (those who would pact with the Devil himself if they could extract a profit: eg teh Euros) not to mention the often very long propaganda arm from the bad guys and outright rivals (eg Russia) will undermine nation's will to fight until, like in Vietnam they handle a victory to the genociders.
Third: That you must know a lot more than what Americans usually know about history and politics of the region in order to know if you are helpng good guys or would be genociders who happen to be losing. Yugoslavia was a prime example of America being manipulated by the euros and the MSM.
Fourth: That this costs money. That America would be running through the world while Euro firms mp the floor with tax-burdened American firms
That does not mean that America should be indifferent, specailly when it is in its interest: Darfur, (but that shoyuld have begun in Afghanistan) could be an opportunity to drive a wedege between Muslims and non-Muslim inhabitants of teh Third World, between Blacks and Arabs thus making fight against Al Quaida and Islam much easier. But the effort must be accompanied with a propaganda effort who has been sorely missing in Afghanistan, but responsability of this failure lies not merely in teh Bush administration but to America's enemies internal and external.
#6
Typical liberal passive-aggressive garbage: all agenda, all the time.
We already have a fully capable system of doing threat assessments called the Department of Defense, but the only thing liberals can think of is how to do an end run around them with the obvious and specific intention of degrading or eliminating a key function of national defense.
This is an element that will fit perfectly into Obama's new defense budget.
This is disarmament by other means and it will only intensify the more into Hussein's administration we go. And Barak ain't even in the White House yet.
#7
Susan Rice, Mr. Obama's pick to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, had experience with the Rwanda genocide of the 1990s during her years as a chief Africa diplomat under the Clinton administration.
Yes, she opposed U.S. involvement in stopping the massacres.
#9
First, we'll cut defense spending and then we'll fritter away increasingly scarce military resources on missions whose parameters are determined by bodies who are often hostile if downright inimical to our interests.
And I bet people who protest this will even have their patriotism questioned.
Sounds like another step in the ongoing Clinton Restoration.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright returned to the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ on Sunday, reports Manya Brachear of the Chicago Tribune. Will the networks notice that Wright suggested ABC and CNN were "the gates of Hell"? They might enjoy Wright suggesting Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly were Satan, but he also listed the Chicago newspapers and Time magazine. He also mocked Elizabeth Hasselbeck as factually challenged -- even as he insisted that December 7 was the day the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima instead of Pearl Harbor Day.
"Jesus said upon this rock I will build--listen to the promise--my church," he said. "And the gates of Hell--listen to the promise--the gates of Hell--neither ABC nor CNN--the gates of Hell--neither Hannity nor O'Reilly--the gates of Hell--neither Time, Time magazine, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune ... the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Nothing will be impossible with God."
At the 11 a.m. service, Wright belittled "baby milk believers," who, he said, suffer a delusion that politics don't belong in the pulpit. He pointed out that "Luke the evangelist, not Wright the radical" lambasted the oppressive policies of the Roman government in the Gospel story that recounts Jesus' life.
"Any preacher who dares to point out the simple ugly facts found in every field imaginable is demonized as volatile, controversial, incendiary, inflammatory, anti-American and radical," Wright said, taking time out to note the thousands of Japanese civilians who died 67 years to the day when American warplane dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. (Actually, Dec. 7 marks the day when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.)
The U.S. bombed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, so Wright was wrong about the day, and of course, wrong about the number of years as well. But Wright was on a roll:
He implied that his previous use of derogatory language to describe Italians in a past sermon referred to the Roman oppression Luke condemned.
"Emperor Augustus in Rome--that's in Italy, dizzy blond on the View," Wright said, presumably referring to conservative television personality Elisabeth Hasselback, who has railed about Wright on the ABC daytime talk show.
Wright also thanked an employee at Fox News -- "a saint in Caesar's household" -- who advised him to cancel his October speaking engagements because the network had an advance copy of his schedule.
But if modern-day Italians can be mocked for what the Roman Empire did, does he think it's okay to say derogatory things about African-Americans over what the Africans did 2,000 years ago? That's a very odd line of argument to justify ethnic attacks on Italians and their "garlic noses." Factually speaking, Augustus Caesar ruled Rome when Jesus was born, but not when he died. Tiberius was the emperor at that time.
I would expect the media elite will try to ignore Wright as non-news since Barack Obama left the church. But where is the media in asking which church Obama will pick in Washington?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2008 00:00 ||
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We already know what Rev. Wright thinks of the USA, so why pay attention to anything else he says?
#2
Because of stuff like this: Religion News Service, March 10, 2005 Obama met Wright 20 years ago in the process of trying to get Wright's Trinity United Church of Christ involved in some community organizing he was doing. Ever since, Obama has been a devoted member of Wright's church. Obama says that Wright is not only his pastor, but he also is his friend and mentor. And Wright is one of the people to whom he turns [to] help him explain how his liberal positions jibe with his faith.
Posted by: ed ||
12/09/2008 1:06 Comments ||
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#3
When he dies in a short while, Imagine where he will be standing.
I was under the impression that AIG was told specifically not to pay executive bonuses.
But not to worry. Government is in charge...
Four million is chump change ...
American International Group Inc., the insurer whose bonuses and perks are under fire from U.S. lawmakers, offered cash awards to another 38 executives in a retention program with payments of as much as $4 million.
The incentives range from $92,500 to $4 million for employees earning salaries between $160,000 and $1 million, Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy said in a letter dated Dec. 5 to Representative Elijah Cummings. The New York-based insurer had previously disclosed that 130 managers would get the awards and that one executive would get $3 million.
Wanted!
Board Level Position with Turning up to work Bonus Scheme.
Must have experience in mis-pricing securities, also experience in creating bonus schemes where no profits exist is a must.
#3
anyone think AIG is bonna pay back those loans? I f they do addd 30% interest too them like the credit card companies have done too us all these years
#5
Seems like these big companies are like the farmer who buys a new truck before declaring bankruptcy. AIG advertises prominately during KU home basketball games (very lucrative space). Sprint, stock abou 5% of what it was a couple years ago, opened the Sprint Center in KC. Ford Stadium in Detroit, Enron Field...I'm sure there are many good and bad examples but these pop to mind instantly.
#6
That's up to $4Million EACH? For 130 managers? Even at $92,500 each for 130 that is over $12Million!
WTF!!!!!
There is not a single manager in AIG that should get a single dollar of bonus money.
#7
Congress is getting all bunched up about the car company executives. Dodd said GM's CEO should go before any consideration of a bailout. There doesn't seem to be the same scrutiny of AIG. Maybe it is because Queen Nancy has retirement holdings in AIG.
#8
perhaps Senator "Friend of Angelo" has the same prescription for Countrywide? Didn't think so. Dodd and Barney Frank should be testifying under oath, not interrogating
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2008 17:37 Comments ||
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Tribune Co., the owner of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA Channel 5 and dozens of other daily newspapers and television stations across the country, filed Monday for bankruptcy protection from creditors, in the latest indication of deteriorating economics for the news business.
The company's ills, which stem principally from declining advertising revenues, have been exacerbated by the heavy debt load of $12 billion it incurred a year ago when it was taken private by Chicago real estate entrepreneur Sam Zell. But they parallel troubles afflicting many other newspaper and broadcasting companies nationwide: In recent weeks, the McClatchy newspaper chain put its Miami Herald up for sale, the Christian Science Monitor said it would abandon daily print publication in favor of Web operation, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Minneapolis Star-Tribune have flirted with or entered default, and the New York Times said it would mortgage its headquarters skyscraper in midtown Manhattan to help cover operating costs.
But none as yet has gone so far as to file for bankruptcy, which could add a new dimension of uncertainty for Tribune and its 16,000 employees. During a bankruptcy reorganization, major management decisions are subject to the approval of a bankruptcy judge, and the ultimate fate of a company -- including whether it remains intact or is sold off in pieces -- could be decided in part by its creditors.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2008 00:00 ||
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Perhaps the Trib's endorsement Oct 17th of the first dem Presidential candidate in their companies history, would have reduced subscriptions and ad revenue to push Zell's 'change' to now 'hope' in Chapter 11.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2008 8:24 Comments ||
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#4
"Obviously we would not want to complete the reorganization until we felt pretty secure that we understood what the future ongoing visibility was."
Here's the "future ongoing visibility." You're a bunch of lying bastards who couldn't be trusted to tell the truth about the direction the sun will rise in the morning. No one but your little leftie coterie is interested in your lies anymore. You're going down, hard, and you're not coming back. The rest of us are going, "AMFs! Don't bother to write!"
Oh yeah and Julia (The Bush administration is persecuting me for my dissent) Keller.
On second thought, just clean the decks entirely.
I can remember when the Trib was a reliably Republican, right-leaning paper. Then the claim was that its owner, one Colonel McCormick, slanted the newspaper to a right-wing bias. I only thought it had good news judgment and treated the facts in stories fairly then.
Well, the Trib has more than made up for that over the years swinging far left on its coverage, columnists and editorial stances.
The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits.
The company has retained Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm, to act as its agent to secure financing, either in the form of a mortgage or a sale-leaseback arrangement, said James M. Follo, the Times Company's chief financial officer.
The Times Company owns 58 percent of the 52-story, 1.5 million-square-foot tower on Eighth Avenue, which was designed by the architect Renzo Piano, and completed last year. The developer Forest City Ratner owns the rest of the building. The Times Company's portion of the building is not currently mortgaged, and some investors have complained that the company has too much of its capital tied up in that real estate.
The company has two revolving lines of credit, each with a ceiling of $400 million, roughly the amount outstanding on the two combined. One of those lines is set to expire in May, and finding a replacement would be difficult given the economic climate and the company's worsening finances. Analysts have said for months that selling or borrowing against assets would be the company's best option for averting a cash flow problem next year.
Standard & Poor's recently lowered its credit rating on the Times Company below investment grade, and Moody's Investors Service has said it was considering a similar move. Times Company stock, which has lost more than half its value this year, closed on Friday at $7.64, down 30 cents.
They were about $47.50 a share in January, 2004.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#3
On the bright side, it is alleged that a conservative in Alabama now owns a large chunk of the Times, and could oust the Sulzburgs for their demolition of the Time's value -- and reputation.
I was walking the streets of Washington, the streets I grew up in, last night. I found myself in front of the Washington Post building again, looking up, this time not longingly. This time I laughed. Let the future begin.
#7
No one can oust Pinchie except his own family. The publicly-traded shares are class A and are non-voting. The family owns class B shares which vote.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2008 8:09 Comments ||
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#8
well the family has lost a LOT of money. Heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2008 8:23 Comments ||
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#10
Fear not! The Democrats will bail them out with your tax money.
Cause God forbid they use their own money. Why not send out a message that every good party member should have a subscription? Because even they know a losing proposition when they see it and have no interest in pouring 'their' money into a pit.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Pulitzer Prizes, the most prestigious US journalism awards, announced Monday they were expanding to include online-only publications.
Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says that Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe has been unsuccessful to rule southern African state. 
All this month, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has explained in one speech after another how he would like nothing more than to leave office when his term ends in 2013. But the Venezuelan people are urging him to remain in the presidency, Chavez has said, and he will not disappoint. 
The first sign of cracks in President-elect Barack Obama's foreign policy team of rivals emerged on Monday as his choices for secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations visited the State Department.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright returned to the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ on Sunday, reports Manya Brachear of the Chicago Tribune. Will the networks notice that Wright suggested ABC and CNN were "the gates of Hell"? They might enjoy Wright suggesting Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly were Satan, but he also listed the Chicago newspapers and Time magazine. He also mocked Elizabeth Hasselbeck as factually challenged -- even as he insisted that December 7 was the day the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima instead of Pearl Harbor Day.
Tribune Co., the owner of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA Channel 5 and dozens of other daily newspapers and television stations across the country, filed Monday for bankruptcy protection from creditors, in the latest indication of deteriorating economics for the news business.
