The Red Brick Times

Your tax (bailout) dollars at work: Union Busting and Auto Company Lawsuits. Where's a suicide bomber when you need one?
Posted 5:06 AM by whatley (1) comments

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Evolution. View the auto industry as dinosaurs. If a meteorite does not crash into their world and cut off all sustenance, they have a chance to evolve. But while doing so, they will fight any change to their body type. So, with Piraticalism in mind, they will act to conserve greed and eschew challenge. We are just jealous because they are huge enough to sue the pants off of anyone who looks cross-eyed at them. Wouldn't you love to sue the donkey who came close to slicing off your fender yesterday because he felt that you were using too much space on HIS road? Wouldn't you love to sue the guy whose dog wakes you up at 5AM barking at the world? GM can. Doesn't mean they are "right". But they will keep fighting and kvetching out of inertia and habit. Our auto industry, right or wrong. Bless 'em.

# posted by  Andy : January 29, 2009 6:52 AM
 
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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats."
- H. L. Mencken

Why the Menken Quote? Check this out: 75% Of Latest Bank Of America Bailout Used To Pay Merrill Lynch Bonuses.

Just another day in corporate America (and for the worthless scum representing us).
Posted 3:26 PM by whatley (4) comments

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Isn't Capitalism just an evolved form of Piracy? Whose side was Mencken on anyway?

# posted by  Andy : January 27, 2009 6:10 AM
 
Moral corruption is not a function of economic system.

"The ethical man knows what he should not do. The moral man doesn't do it."

When there is no repercussion for immoral behavior and we trust to the moral fiber of others, we are too often disappointed.

Letter I received from Sherrod Brown regarding this issue:

"Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about how the money allocated through the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) is being spent.

In October, the Treasury Department began to implement the EESA using the broad authority that was granted to it. As part of the proposal, Congress worked to ensure that provisions were included in the package to authorize the Treasury Department to prohibit executives from receiving lavish pay or golden parachutes. Unfortunately, Treasury did not put this authority to good use, rather, it set out limitations that still permit very generous pay packages.

There have been recent news reports that the companies receiving assistance through this legislation may grant significant bonuses to their employees this year, regardless of the financial troubles that forced them to seek help from the federal government. I share your outrage at this discovery. Middle-class families are facing difficult economic troubles. It is wrong for the employees of these companies to receive lavish perks and compensation.

In addition, several of the banks receiving federal assistance have indicated that they may use part of the money received through the federal government for acquisitions of other banks. Congress approved provisions to supply banks with more money for the purpose of giving out more loans. If these banks are in need of government monies, they should not be using these funds to purchase other banks. Government money should be used to help struggling companies survive – not to help healthy corpporations expand.

Accountability and transparency regarding the use of this funding must be our top priority. I will work hard to ensure that banks spend the rescue funds as Congress intended." - - Sherrod Brown

# posted by  jeichenlaub : January 27, 2009 8:17 AM
 
Mencken used the word "normal" and not "moral". Ethos and morality are tags on philosophical postulates. Likewise, the Communism of the USSR was not the Communism of Lenin and Marx. The Honorable Joseph McCarthy (and J Edgar Hoover) confused the two and many idealistic US Citizens suffered under the inquisition. The Communism of China is Capitalistic with catholic absolutism frosting. The Capitalism of the United States is piracy with golden parachute chandeliers.

# posted by  Andy : January 28, 2009 4:58 AM
 
"Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year..... A poll of 900 financial industry employees released on Wednesday by eFinancialCareers.com, a job search Web site, found that while nearly eight out of 10 got bonuses, 46 percent thought they deserved more."

# posted by  whatley : January 29, 2009 5:47 AM
 
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Dear President Obama:

As you consider the actions of the United States both at home and abroad, please invoke the following:

"...before a protest can be approved by responsible leadership, they must answer the following questions:

1. Do we have a just grievance, or is our purpose merely to create confusion for its own sake, as a form of revenge?

2. Have we first attempted to eliminate the problem by negotiation, petition and appropriate appeals to authority?

3. Having found these channels useless or forcibly closed to us when we embark upon any type of lawbreaking, are we prepared to accept the consequences society will inflict and to maintain, even under punishment, a sense of brotherhood?

4. Do we have a clear program to relieve injustice to ourselves without inflicting injustice upon others, and is that program reasonable and grounded in the ethics and best traditions of our society?

In establishing these prerequisites for direct action, the civil rights movement meets its responsibility to society and fulfills its obligations to democratic principle.

It is an axiom of nonviolent action and democracy that when any group struggles properly and justly to achieve its own rights, it enlarges the rights of all. It is this element that makes both democracy and nonviolent action self-renewing and creative."

By: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

From a speech on May 20, 1965.
Posted 6:14 AM by Andy (0) comments

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Well ... two weeks into the new year and the silence is deafening!!

A couple of quick updates:

I have been unemployed, since 12/22 (MERRY CHRISTMAS BUNKY !!). I was working as a consultant at National City Bank but in the wake of the takeover by PNC the project I was assigned to was 'put on hold indefinitely'. I returned to the job search trenches on 1/6 scouring the usual [monster.com, dice.com] and have about 13 resumes out. In the last week, I have a survived the first two levels of the interview process with Sherwin-Williams and have only to get by a face-to-face with 7 managers over three hours.

I have also been pursuing a couple of independent projects, one with the Summit Co. Engineer and one with a private individual to develop a new web site/web service (can't tell you much more due to signed NDA). Both though, once acquainted with the 'facts of life' regarding how much custom web work costs are suffering a bit of 'sticker shock'. I have hopes (faint) they will come to grips with reality sooner or later ... we shall see.

Robin had to have surgery on 12/29 and is at home recuperating very well. First post-op with the Dr. was yesterday and he (and we) are pleased. No complications, recovery is excellent. Robin will probably return to work in early Feb. (light duty only, no heavy lifting for a couple of months).

Kids are fine, bills are paid, my Mom keeps plugging along (82 last summer), in-laws are good too. I guess in the larger reality we are well and lucky to have the resources available.

Happy New Year to all

Posted 11:42 AM by jeichenlaub (2) comments

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Ouch. Sorry to hear that. Last I knew you were still with that insurance company. Guess that was a while ago. I then wondered if the only email address I had for you was that company so I looked and found one at projectxxi, went to that URL and the design looked pretty familiar. Did you get that from the one I did for a client last July?

I have another web page job I'm just starting for a client I do other tech work for. I'm only charging them $10/hr for the web stuff 'cause I'm kinda slow at it (I get $30/hr for everything else) but if you want to work on it together that would be cool. We'll figure something out moneywise.

# posted by  whatley : January 14, 2009 4:07 PM
 
My regards to Robin. There is no safe haven anywhere. I keep expecting to be told "Thanks for your work. Please go home." The installers that implement the stuff I design were sitting home for December as the annual coffers for ATT ran dry, but we seem to be back and booked through February. Learning this work consists of prying info out of the heads of those who have done it before. I ran into another ex-traffic controller who is also working there and she confirmed my impressions of a company with no good process flow and less plan for efficient transfer of information. As she put it "Everything is in people's heads and they are reluctant to share." So it feels like a company division slated to fail when a more efficient competitor comes along. And the big financial players still hoarding the first half of the 700 billion bailout have not yet bitten the bullet and written down the value of their asset portfolios. That's when the big drop will happen. There was a program on public TV that tied the current world financial swim to Enron, in that "off book" hidden liabilities and losses became such a universal practice that it pervaded the market and has, in part, led to present distress. In fact, many of the key players from Enron became policy-makers in big finance around the world. Dance with the one that brung ya. Hunker down and put up preserves for the polar night.

# posted by  Andy : January 16, 2009 6:24 AM
 
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