Wednesday, March 18, 2009
"Retention" Bonus My Ass
NYT:
The bonuses that the American International Group awarded last week were paid to 418 employees and included $33.6 million for 52 people who have left the failed insurance conglomerate, according to the office of the New York attorney general.I'm betting Ed Liddy's explanation will sound something like: "AIG is contractually obligated to award retention bonuses regardless of whether or not we actually retain an employee."
(Emphasis added).
-AF
Monday, March 16, 2009
Punker Than You
Early this morning I stumbled across a recent NYT piece, "This Band Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk." Needles to say Death had my undivided attention immediately. In the fine tradition of The Chambers Brothers, the three Hackney brothers are brothers. Oh, and they flipped off Clive Davis too!
I was smitten with Death before I heard a note. That never, ever happens. Bolting to iTunes I downloaded their entire 7-song catalog.
Recorded in 1975, but released just last month, Death's ...For the Whole World to See's is fantastic. It's the missing link between Detroit's proto-punk MC5/The Stooges generation & the later Negative Approach et al. All but one tune motors along at breakneck speed. Singer Bobby doubles on bass; his voice a dead ringer for Bad Brains' HR.* (More properly the other way around as Death predates Bad Brains). Bold enough to nick a bit of Zep, guitarist/songwriter/founder David, spits out muscular yet melodic riffs. Death's secret weapons comes courtesy of brother Dannis. His drumming is crisp, propulsive & he has a helluva right foot.
To the eyes & ears of the vast majority of the local scene, these kids might as well have been space aliens. This was a mid-'70s Detroit musical landscape that had Bob Seger (Ugh!) at one end, Funkadelic at the other and disco looming large on the horizon. Playing futuristic politically charged punk rock to an at best indifferent Motown club or house party crowd circa 1973 ends one of only two possible ways: a band gets mighty tough or it dies before its time. After three years of ever-increasing frustration, Death packed it in for good.
The stones music remains. Dig the "A" side of Death's 1976 single "Politicians In My Eyes". If it tickles your pink, snag the rest of ...For the Whole World to See from iTunes, Drag City's website or better yet yer local indie shop.
-AF
*After writing this I discovered The Chicago Reader 's Peter Margasak concurs. The similarity is that obvious.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Bring Me The Heads Of The Jonas Brothers #2
Only they could make Milie Cyrus look like Lydia Lunch.
-AF
Friday, March 13, 2009
I Was Just Thinking...
Writer’s block is a bitch.
Fresh off a verbal castration by Jon Stewart, the smartest thing Jim Cramer can do is go away. Surely his portfolio provides for his retirement.
I’m no rubbernecker. However, the Michael Steele train wreck stops me in my tracks every time.
I don’t wanna say he’s out of his depth but making Steele RNC chair was akin to throwing a baby tied to a cinder block into the Marianas Trench.
It’s probably a Northeast thang. Friendly’s Butter Crunch ice cream rocks my world.
The Republican Party needs an “ideological vasectomy.”
Doesn't that mean they’re all pricks?
Ari Fleischer should shut the fuck up. We’re wise to your lies. When Chris Mathews won’t tolerate it any longer, you gotta give up the jig & move on.
Didn’t Ari quit on Bush six years ago? Since Freedom’s Watch wasn't a smashing success, I guess he needs something to keep busy.
All the Bushies have too much time on their hands. Sucks to be them.
Always knew Chuck Norris was crazier than a shit house mouse. Didn’t realize is he’s a bloody seditionist.
"Weasels" is too kind a word to describe those who crashed our economy.
Citigroup would be smart to quit organizing against EFCA. They really do have more important things to do.
Make a principled stand but first ensure it makes sense, OK?
GOP governors refusing StimPakTM cash couldn't be more stupid. Their respective electorates get more pissed off by the day.
National exposure makes you look tone deaf + foolish = political doom.
Amity Shlaes is metaphorically challenged & her diatribes on FDR's New Deal are complete BS.
I’m a total sucker for anything brickley, butterscotch, toffee or caramel.
This is sarcasm. However, were we ever to use DNA or retinal scans for voter ID, GOP voter caging bastards are finished.
Is it me or does Lindsey Graham become more and more cartoon-like each time he’s on TV?
Either that or the pharmaceutical grade LSD I took back in '98 is creeping up on me again.
-AF
They Said It. I Repeat It.
Jon Stewart's response to Jim Cramer.
-AF
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Did Bush's SEC Willfully Blow Enforcement?
George Bush's SEC sounds more hinky by the minute. Every day we hear about another massive Ponzi scheme, illegal trading or dodgy manuever. Bernie Madoff lead-offs the list but if you're like me you've had trouble keeping track.
So I skimmed SEC's website. I found Billion Coupons, Locke Capital, Diversified Lending/Applied Equities, Sunwest Management, North Hills, UBS/Blackstone, Elucido Fund, ProTrust, Scoop Capital/Scoop Management, CRE Capital, Joe Forte, Stanford Financial Group. There was a $40 million Ponzi scheme reported just yesterday. Earlier this month 14 top Wall Street "specialist firms" were popped for "unlawful proprietary trading" to the tune of $70 million. That's this year alone!
So far we discover these crooks when they run out of money to shuffle around & make 'em look legit. It's painfully clear under Bush the SEC has completely blew its enforcement responsibility. Fer crissakes, they couldn't be bothered to follow up on Bernie Madoff's decade-long whistleblower. How did we come to this? It can't entirely be chocked up to misplaced priorities & the SEC/Wall Street crony culture, right?
It's not. In an appearance yesterday before a House appropriations subcommittee, new SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said something I found interesting:
Schapiro asked lawmakers to allow the agency to use $17 million from previous budgets that went unspent. She said the money is needed to maintain adequate staffing levels and upgrade technology.$17 million in previous SEC budgets unspent? Budgets being plural. That's craaazy. Government agencies, particularly Bush administration government agencies, typically overspend & do a shitty job.
By its underspending during the Bush years an understaffed & technologically backward SEC went totally against type. (Other than doing a shitty job that is). SEC's techological shortcomings & budget surplus do not square with former Chairman Christopher Cox's oft-stated tech upgrade mandate.
A private sector manager desperately needing additional staffers & an IT boost will likely spend every last cent available to correct it. Almost all public sector managers, save the SEC, would do likewise. It's only natural to do anything possible to make your job better, easier.
George W. Bush's SEC literally couldn't have done a worse job if they tried. That the agency left $17 million on the table demonstrates pronounced apathy towards it performance. This apathy allowed Bernie Madoffs to swindled thousands of investors around the world.
-AF
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Randy Bewley R.I.P
PYLON - "Feast on My Heart"
Pylon guitarist Randy Bewley died of a heart attack last week.* He was 54. Randy's playing style was of the singular kind only art students with no formal training develop. Angular. Jagged. Slashing. (See: Wire's Colin Newman & Gang of Four's Andy Gill both Bewley contemporaries ).
Way back in the Dark Ages, rock music was destroyed and built back up again for the 2nd time in about three years. A slew of brilliant music was created at an incredible pace. And at that time there was a moment in time when no song better was than "Feast On My Heart." This sucker positively jumped out of the radio at you.
-AF
*I meant to blog about it Friday but I was still in deep in the throes of my Zanaflex holiday.
