After weeks of opening statements, the plaintiff’s attorney in the Microsoft trial in Iowa, showed not one but two videos to the jury as the opening evidence in the case. The jury spent six days watching video testimony. The first one was a ten hour video deposition of Bill Gates. That was followed by a video deposition of the former CEO of Novell, Richard Williams which was not completed. In three weeks the jury has heard opening statements and the…
The scandal of greedy CEO’s and irresponsible Corporate Boards includes the outgoing CEO of Eddie Bauer, Fabian Mansson. I’ve reported about this fact before (12/19), and now the Seattle P.I. reports that even though Edie Bauer lost $275 million this year and is worth just one third of it’s value a year ago, the outgoing CEO will be paid a $10 Million dollar golden parachute after four years as head of the failing company. Mr. Masson was hired in 2002…
Scandal has involved the U.S. home mortgage market which in turn has contributed to the loss of value of the U.S. dollar. Our government doesn’t directly fund or guarantee house mortgages, but it created programs to obtain mortgage loans. To do this the government charted two corporations. They are The Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac"). Fannie Mae was created by the United States Government in 1938 to help provide a…
Penguin Putnam Inc has published M.L. Rossi’s excellent book "What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World" which is gives an overview of world facts and is filled with information I wasn’t aware about. It is a very helpful resource book on world affairs everyone would benefit from reading. Here are few examples of information I thought of interest. I was aware of the Rwandan massacre and had seen the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda, but I didn’t…
Who are the Sunnis and the Shiites and why are they killing each other in Iraq? The media reports that violence is at an all time high between these groups. In Sadr City near the heart of the Shiite Muslim community more then 200 people were killed. The other group responded by burning Sunnis alive and destroying Sunni mosques and homes. It’s reported that 3,700 civilians were killed in October, more then any month since the fighting began. These two…
A friend gave me a book "What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World." by M.L. Rossi which is informative and which explains complicated world issues in an understandable manner. Before reading this book, I didn’t know that the Republic of Indonesia has more then three hundred ethnic groups and is 88% Muslim. Nor did I realize it has a population of 228 million people in a republic with some seventeen thousand islands! The inhabitants range from…
The public has been struggling with excessive gas prices at the pump, but the whole time the oil companies have been piling up huge profits at the pulbic’s expense. Record profits have been posted by the oil industry, but now ExxonMobil (XOM) has announced a record shattering corporate profit record. According to USA Today (TM) the company has just announced third quarter earnings • Net income up 75% to $9.92 billion. That is the most a U.S. company has earned…
I knew Rush Limbaugh was an utter hypocrite after his repeated demand that white drug abusers be put in prison because they too often get away with illegal drug use while all the while he was a closet drug abuser. But, it’s clear he is also a school yard bully who advances his position not by rational argument, but by unseemly mocking of the physical disability of the seriously ill who disagree with him. His shocking behavior regarding Michael J….
Al Gore was in Seattle the day for a politcal rally. As he has elsewhere, he compared the skeptics of global warming to the conspiracy theorists who believe the U.S. actually faked the 1969 moon landing. He said "15 percent of the population believe the Moon landing was actually staged in a movie lot in Arizona" and there are still members in the Flat Earth Society who believe the earth is really flat. What is significant is the adminstrations claim…
The Seattle PI of October 24th had two articles about money. The first was an Associated Press report about the record earnings of the oil industry. It reported that five of the largest energy companies are expected to report combined 3rd quarter earnings of "…more then $30 billion dollars…" This industry has been allowed a free hand in price gouging of the American public. This country’s continued dependence on fossil fuel is the source of much of our nation’s problems,…
