Thursday, March 28, 2013

Bachmann Campaign: "Dispensing Cash for Personal and Inappropriate purposes like a Cypriot Cash Machine"

Like a group of cats playing with the world's largest ball of twine, federal campaign finance investigators began unraveling the wicked web she weaved.  Yes, of course I am talking about the first scandal with legs to hit Minnesota's Congresswoman with legs, Amelia Michele Bachmann Earhart.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one member of the Bachmann Incumbancy Tennesse Campaign Headquarters (B.I.T.C.H.) finance committee recently interviewed by federal agents recited a litany of questionable expenditures including 23 tuition payments to a Hunnington Learning Center in Stillwater, MN, a gross of doggy sunglasses purchased in Des Moines, IA and innumerable bar tabs from the Gay 90's and The Saloon bars in Minneapolis all signed on behalf of the campaign by a shadowy, asexual character with an extremely high pitched voice under a name what looks"Marcia Bachmann" (sic).

Said one official close to the investigation, Bachmann's campaign was dispensing cash for personal and other inappropriate purposes like a "Cypriot Cash Machine".

Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Selfish Politics of Conservative Republicans and the Return of Amelia Earhart

I love the selfish politics of conservative Republicans as demonstrated at the vaudeville show called CPAC.  Like Chaney before him, Sen Portman only has empathy when it comes to one of his own.

Worster yet was the reappearance of the Amelia Earhart of the Republican Party, Michelle Bachmann who has underwent a political "makeover".  The lighter than air, recently undisappeared Mrs. Bachmann is now claiming to be the mantle of a kinder, more gentle brand of conservatism, much like she belatedly tried to coop the "It's Not Tea it's GOP" movement .

Always one to enter an intellectual battle unarmed, the ridiculous congresswoman from Minnesota only ammunition was an ad hominen attack on the President and first family for their "lavish life style" because someone walks their dog. 



Hmmm.  I seem to remember her closeted gay husband saying he was out shopping for sunglasses for their dog the day Amelia Michelle dropped out of the Presidential race and out of sight.  Now tell me what is more bougie*, being the President of the United States and not always having the time to walk your dog or being a so called conservative Republican Congresswoman married to an obviously closeted gay man who flamboyantly puts sunglasses on your dog.








*Urban Dictionary: bougie
1. bougie. July 12, 2005 Urban Word of the Day. Aspiring to be a higher class than one is. Derived from bourgeois - meaning middle/upper class, traditionally ...

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Swiss "Rip Off Initiative" Their Best Idea Since the Army Knife

 


Look out all you fat cat CEO off shore tax cheats, your days of head quartering in Switzerland are coming to an end.  In a move that this country should have implemented as part of the Republican watered down Dodd Frank Wall Street reforms, the Swiss are expected to pass a referendum entitled the "Rip Off Initiative".

As part of the "Rip-off Initiative", shareholders of Swiss head quartered corporations will be given the right to hold a binding vote on a company's compensation for executives and directors. This includes both base salary and their dearly beloved annual bonuses.  The initiative would further ban the huge signing and departing bonuses (i.e. "golden hellos" and "golden parachutes") often part of executive compensation packages and would require more transparency and full disclosure to shareholders of.self-dealing by executives in the form of personal loans.  The proposed penalties for violating the rules range from a fine of up to six times their annual salary and/or up to three years in prison.

As you will recall, Dodd-Frank does not mandate regulation of pay levels for executives of corporations head quartered in this country even though most financial regulators would agree that there is a legitimate interest in setting compensation rules because the structure of compensation can have an impact on the level of risk-taking. Decisions made within individual institutions may be excessively risky because executives are counting on government support should the company lose its risky bets.  Instead, to offset this incentive to take excessive risk,  Dodd-Frank merely required that a significant part of the pay of executives and other risk takers should be delayed and paid out over several years.  That was it.  The Wall Street crowd just laughed at us thanks in large part to the work of their Republican (and some Democratic) shills aka Congress men and women.



It is about time the American People pressured our elected officials for real, Swiss-like Wall Street reform.  In the meantime you can expect an exodus of Biblical proportions by Swiss head quartered corporations once the "Rip Off Initiative" passes.