Corporate Naughtiness Revisited

I read this on dailykos this morning. Big surprise here - of course.

"The Rich Are Different by Devilstower

Thu Dec 27, 2007 at 01:54:10 PM PST

Michelle Leder at footnoted.org specializes in reading company reports and looking for those little special treats given to those folks who have their feet at the top of the corporate ladder.

So what has she found? Marketplace has some of Michelle's best finds for 2007.

How about the CEO at Qwest, whose daughter gets to use the corporate jet to travel to school? Puts that kid whose mother pulls up to jr. high in a Hummer in her place. Cost to the stockholders: about $600,000.

Personal travel was a theme in CEO perks this year. Just ask the CEO of I2. The company covered his commuting expenses so he could live in Maine while the company offices were in Dallas. Cost to the stockholders: $949,000 -- and by the way, the company was busy scrambling to avoid collapse. I'm sure the other employees got equally nice treatment."(rest of post here)

They were jacking it from Marketplace themselves. There is something devilishly wonderful about the self-righteous snarkiness that progressives, liberals, or whatever the preferred nomenclature is, express when these perennial stories pop up. Plus who doesn’t like to snark a little themselves?

I was at a funny little dinner party a few days ago with some friends of the family who all work in higher education. They were speaking about the move of some people on the sub-continent away from agriculture and toward manufacturing jobs. Their main thesis appeared to be that if the poor Indians could see the results of the move away from AG to factories ten years on, then they would stay in AG.

I love these people; I grew up with them. But please, give me a break. Do they wish that they themselves had stayed agrarian? I looked in all the packages and gift bags from the day and I only found one not made in China. Talk about hypocritical. I think I disappoint my family when I make comments to this effect, but isn’t it easy to sit in your heated house streaming internet Christmas radio, exchanging inexpensive gifts and even cheaper social commentary?

Progressives are just as complicit in this corporate world as anyone else. As long as cable television is cheap and consumer goods are cheap, we are all willing to grind brown and yellow people into the ground.

Mad Max - Nigeria Edition

"At least 45 people were burned to death on the outskirts of Lagos when fuel they were siphoning from a buried pipeline caught fire. Nine out of 10 people in Nigeria, Africa’s top exporter of crude oil, live on less than $2 a day, and many are prepared to take huge risks to obtain free fuel." By REUTERS Published: December 27, 2007

Is this Mad Max or what? I can just see this type of thing happening down here in South Florida where I live. This really made my morning special when I saw it on the NY Times site. I can't wait for the fuel crisis to really heat up. At least in the US we can still buy guns.

White House's Perino sounds like a sub-normal intelligence Liar again (big surprise)

So I saw this on a Media Bistro link to Politico this morning when I was checking my holiday emails.

"The New York Times has changed the subheadline in Wednesday’s front-page story on the CIA’s destruction of secret interrogation tapes, following a formal request by the White House.

The correction has already been made online, and there will be a print correction in the paper, according to a Times representative.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement that the Times subheadline — “White House Role Was Wider Than It Said” — was inaccurate.

“The New York Times’ inference that there is an effort to mislead in this matter is pernicious and troubling, and we are formally requesting that NYT correct the subheadline of this story,” Perino said.

The White House has continued not to comment on what the representative dubbed “misleading press reports.” (retrieved on 12/26/07 from an article by Michael Calderone on http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7481.html)

Big surprise that the CIA would destroy tapes of torture, right. They are just doing their job - they're spies, duh! The uproar around this is ridiculous. What other action would you possibly expect from spies? I mean really? What? The thing that is fascinating and annoying and stupid is the posturing, of the Times, the White House, the impotent lawmakers, etc, etc, ad nauseam. I wonder what it is like to come off like a total d-bag like Perino does every time she opens her mouth. Bush really loves to put her in the position of sounding like a moronic asshole. I bet she isn't so that is what really intrigues me. What is it like to be forced to say patently idiotic things every day? Even if you have drank the Bush Kool-Aid it must be a little horrifying.

Camillus House

This is a pic of the front entrance to Camillus House. Actually it jus one of four locations that they have down here. It is also right where I parked my SUV. I definitely felt like a cultural tourist. The program was started in 1960 by Mathias Barrett, a Catholic brother from the other side. Brothers are like mini-priests, in case you don't know. I don't remember the exact distinction, but they can't perform a lot of the sacraments and they still can't marry or have sex. So that is a go figure. Apparently they CAN do really awesome charity works, like old brother Mathias. He also founded the Little Brothers of the Good Shepherd, who are these cool Catholics dedeicated to helping the poor and needy à la Camillus House. The brothers are still associated with the house (they said grace before each meal when I was there).

Mandatory Volunteer?

So my first move as a fresh faced volunteer was to work over at Better Way House of Bargains on 79th street, moving stuff around the warehouse and whatnot. However I of course dilly-dallied and when I called Jimmy back to set up my time, he was like ‘Cool! How does the end of December sound?’ My heart fell. I had to make the dreaded email to the professor asking for the extension (always embarrassing). Armed with my extension I went back to my Plan A, Camillus House. I had also waited too long for them to apply back when I had originally looked into it. They get filled up really fast during the thanksgiving season. I sort of guess that this is a primitive white guilt instinct that kicks in just before the instinct to conspicuously consume goes into overdrive, sort of like a capitalist pre-balancing of karma.

Well Ed over at Camillus had already told me that he had open slots the first week of December. Extension in hand, I emailed him back to confirm that the slot was still available. He said that it was and I headed over there after work. I was rushing, so I did not get to put on at shirt and sneakers et al. so I went in there in a starched dress shirt (I left the tie in the car). I found Vita, aka Miss Vita aka Miss ’V’ and she put me to work.

We served the first group, the small line (roughly about 50-60 people). Then we scrubbed pots and pans and got set for the big line (I was shocke dthat the first line turned out notto be the 'Big Line' that Miss V told me about) at 6:30, which was easily 4 times that. There were upper phase clients helping us and all kinds of people running around. AT about 6 a whole team of EMT trainees came to serve the dinner. There was also a dude who was doing court ordered stuff and his whole extended family came in to see if he could leave at one point. He was really funny, just an uptight Hispanic dude, also in a dress shirt, looking around helplessly.

I felt like a fish out of water at first. I obviously had no clue what was going on or who to listen to. I wnt for the dished because I figured that I knew how to do that and that I would make friends easier, being that no one likes to scrub pots after pots after trays after pots etc. etc. The strategy worked and I felt comfortable and the regular upper phase clients seemed to appreciate the scrubbing. Miss Vita put on some old school funk mixed with Miami freestyle: Cameo followed by Debbie Deb followed by Egyptian Lover followed by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force – you get the picture, Miss V was dope and it made the pots much smoother. I got extra points for knowing all the music and also for having seen Cameo, as well as Egyptian Lover live.

I did feel kind of like a schmuck asking them to take a picture. I explained to them that it was for school. At first they assumed I was in trouble with the Law, since most volunteers are either of that group or with a group from work or church. I told them ‘see you next Wednesday.’ Miss V said ‘we would love to have you back anytime you want. ‘ I was covered in dish water and sweat by the time I got the guts for the picture. I wished I had the minerals to get one in the beginning so I could have a before and after. Next time I will.

I felt very good on the way home, having alleviated some white guilt that had been building.