The excellent financial blog Crossing Wall Street nails it,
Barney Frank was just on CNBC. I’ve started a game of watching at what point Frank goes into his overly dramatic routine that he’s being interrupted and not allowed to answer the question. He does this all the time.
Fortunately, this time he was up against Mark Haines who doesn’t put up with his nonsense. I hope CNBC posts the video. I don’t think Congressman Frank understands that he’s not the chairman everywhere in the world. It’s pretty sad: You put a gavel in some people’s hands and it goes to their heads.
Haines asked a perfectly reasonable question. In Frank’s response, he asked Haines a question to which the anchor responded. This set Frank off. Instead of engaging in the back and forth of a conversation, Frank wastes even more time with his “I can’t answer routine.â€
Congressman Frank is bully pure and simple and today he was put in his place.
These days you would think political math involved numbers in the billions, if not trillions. A really cool blog called Political Math is here to make things easy to understand. Obama was all about change afterall, so here they go explaining his promises about the Stimulus Plan versus The Reality.
Excuse me, Ms. Gilligan, Chris Cassidy is on the phone…
Chris Cassidy of the Salem News is delivering a case study every day in the paper on the importance and influence that a watchdog media can have on the governing class. As I’ve said all along, we need the media to play this role in a vibrant democracy. Perhaps he could go to Washington DC and give a seminar to his infatuated colleagues in the White House press corps?
Look at what he has accomplished in the course of two weeks;
May 26: Earlier pensions OK’d for 911 staff; Plan called “A raid on the retirement system”
Thanks to a subtle change in job title, some North Shore emergency dispatchers will be able to retire five years early under new rules approved by the Essex Regional Retirement Board. By reclassifying police and fire dispatchers as signal operators, the board recently allowed the group to retire with maximum benefits at age 60.
That puts them into an elite group of municipal workers who are eligible for retirement before age 65 – a benefit typically reserved for those with hazardous jobs, such as police officers, firefighters and electrical line workers.
June 1: Panel: DPW workers can retire at 55
Department of Public Works employees could retire at age 55 — 10 years early — under a bill at the Statehouse proposed by the Essex Regional Retirement Board and a Lynn lawmaker. The legislation would give DPW workers the same status as police officers and firefighters, who can retire at 55 because of the inherent dangers of their jobs.
It would also cost taxpayers, who’d be on the hook not only for the extra 10 years of each employee’s pension but for the added salaries and health insurance costs of their replacements.
June 8: Essex Retirement Board reports huge loss
The Essex Regional Retirement Board posted a 33 percent loss last year, the worst of the 107 retirement systems in Massachusetts.
The board made news last month for allowing dispatchers to retire at age 60 and for pushing legislation to let DPW workers retire at age 55. It’s also come under fire for its lobbying and travel expenses. Now its dramatic losses will have further implications for the taxpayers who help fund the system.
Much of the losses were racked up after the board invested last summer in mortgage-backed securities -the very instrument largely blamed for bringing down the U.S. economy.
They invested in mortgage backed securities last summer? What was the pitch? I know my house is on fire, I’ll give you a great deal if you buy it? Don’t fret, they have a sophisticated plan to get the money back. According to Chief Operating Officer Lilli Gilligan,
She said the board will call the city of Northampton — which had the best returns of 2008 — to find out which strategies it used.
Yea, that’s the ticket, chase last year’s winners! A brilliant strategy indeed!
June 10: Pressure builds on retirement board, as some want out
Town managers from about half the communities that pay into the Essex Regional Retirement Board will meet this week to discuss their concerns about the system and ways to reform it, including the possibility of pulling their funds out altogether.
But in a pre-emptive strike, the retirement board is calling its own meeting 90 minutes earlier with all members of its Advisory Council to broach similar topics on its terms.
The meetings come amid a turbulent time for the retirement board, which oversees the pensions of employees in Boxford, Hamilton, Ipswich, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Middleton, Topsfield and Wenham.
The key question is what are we going to do with this news? Are we going to read it and do nothing? Or are we going to read it and pick up the phone and let our voices be heard by the people in power? Are we going to whine and complain and then vote them all back for another term?
I spoke Sunday night with Salem News editorial page editor Nelson Benton, about the role of the media, the reporting of Chris Cassidy as well as the rot within state government and what it will take to change it. Nelson is 100% correct when he says,
When all is said and done, however, we get the quality of government we deserve. And by not demanding more of our elected representatives, we’ve encouraged them to act more like sheep than shepherds.
The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 8-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
Jim Pethokoukis returned last night to talk about his move from US News & World Report to Reuters and the big initiatives that make up Obamanomics. Jim’s Political Risk blog can be found here. Jim was on a roll tonight, he managed to get off a great line that could only come from a former Jeopardy! champion,
Jim: The federal government is so optimized for effeciency.
Producer Rob: Lean and mean
Jim: You’d be cutting into muscle. Uncle Sam is like one of those ripped body builders, no subcutaneous fat.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 8-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
Bruce McQuain from Blackfive joined us once again for Someone You Should Know, our weekly tribute to the troops. Bruce spent 28 years in the U.S. Army and he is a veteran of the Vietnam war. He brings a perspective and understanding to these stories that we could never match.
Last night, Bruce honored the men of D-Day,
The liberation of Europe had begun.
But it was costly. Of the total 10,000 casualties suffered that day on the beaches by the allies, the US had 6,603 of which 1,465 were killed in action. The Canadians suffered 1,074 casualties (359 KIA) and the British had 2,700.
Men who had never set foot on the continent of Europe before died trying to liberate it that day. Today most of them lie in quiet graveyards near where they fell, the only piece of land ever claimed, as Colin Powell said, was enough to lay them to rest.
65 years ago, as the guns boomed, the shells exploded and desperate and courageous men made life and death decisions on the bloody sands of Normandy beaches, the fate of the world literally hinged on their success.
I think it is important, on this day to remember that. It is also just as important to remember that had the rest of the world taken the threat posed by the evil of Nazi Germany seriously earlier than they did, the possibility exists that such a fateful landing would never have been necessary.
But it was. And to those who made it, liberated Europe and destroyed the evil that was Nazi Germany, they have my undying respect and deserve to have what they did -and why they did it – remembered by all for eternity.
The Someone You Should Know radio collaboration began as an extension of Matt Burden’s series at Blackfive. Bruce does an incredible job with the series every week. The Pundit Review Radio Podcast RSS feed can be found here.
What is Pundit Review Radio?
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week we give voice to the work of the most influential leaders in the new media/citizen journalist revolution. Called “groundbreaking” by Talkers Magazine, this unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening from 8-10 pm EST on AM680 WRKO, Boston’s Talk Station.
From the excellent sports blog Awful Announcing,
So Tiger, Jack, Kenny Perry and Stewart Cink, all played together in the Memorial Skins Challenge this afternoon, and not only did Tiger take home the lion’s share of cash, but he also did so in a way only he could. There were four skins that had carried over to the 18th, and Tiger hit a clutch putt to deny Kenny Perry the win. With five skins now carrying over, the four players decided to have a closest to the pin contest from off the 18th green, and Tiger decided to show off by holing his chip….The guy is just insane. He’s donating the money to charity anyway, but that doesn’t matter. I used to think Michael Jordan was the most competitive person ever, but Tiger might have just taken over the number one spot.
Hub Blog is correct, The Legislature is the Problem
I’m Sure Al Qaeda Appreciates It: U.S. releases secret nuclear list accidentally
When Ralph Peters was with us last on Pundit Review Radio, he referred to Obama as “our awesomely naive president“. Hard to argue,
Obama says Iran’s energy concerns legitimate
LONDON — President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are peaceful.
But only if they pinky promise. Hot Air’s Ed Morrisey, on the absurdidy of their “legitimate” need for nuclear power,
The inconvenient fact? Iran has all the resources it needs for energy production now. In fact, with the money they’ve spent on nuclear technology, they could have built oil refineries that would have reduced or eliminated their depending on imports for gasoline, producing it themselves from their own abundant supply. Absent sanctions, Iran could make a mint each year off of oil revenues and produce all the energy they need for domestic consumption, too.
So why do they pursue nuclear power? They want it for something other than energy production, although they’ll take that, too. Since they also spend a lot of money testing and launching rockets these days, the conclusion is a lot less difficult than Obama makes it. Iran has mainly illegitimate motives for pursuing nuclear technology.
I guess it depends on what you mean by “largest”? Obama: America “One of the Largest Muslim Countries in the World”
The Weekly Standard blog corrects this bit of “smart diplomacy”
Eight million Muslims seems to be at the high end of estimates of America’s Muslim community. That number barely puts the United States in the top 40.
He may be on to something…Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post: The Obama Infatuation
WASHINGTON — The Obama infatuation is a great unreported story of our time. Has any recent president basked in so much favorable media coverage? Well, maybe John Kennedy for a moment; but no president since. On the whole, this is not healthy for America.
What he said,
What dismays me most about Barack Obama’s Middle East initiative is that the only country in the area he seems to be pressing is Israel.
Lebron James may be a great player, but he is a sore loser and worst of all, he continually insults Celeveland fans by lusting after New York so openly. It’s offensive.
This is like trying to pick sides in the Iran-Iraq war. Can’t they both lose?
Laurie David = Eco-hypocrite
He thought she was was cold and ungrateful? Me too!
I’ve heard of old money, but this is ridiculous!