Thursday - January 03, 2013

Green Porkulus Grows Fangs

Delaware taxpayers appear to be getting soaked twice under a deal in which the Democratic governor loaned $21.5 million to a hybrid electric carmaker to set up shop in the state. The company has yet to produce a car in Delaware, and taxpayers are footing the electric bill for the idle plant.

The deal was enthusiastically announced in 2009 by Gov. Jack Markell and Vice President Biden—formerly Delaware’s senior senator—as a way to bring as many as 2,500 green jobs to the state. But California-based Fisker Automotive Inc. has since suffered a series of setbacks that have compounded its shaky financial situation.

“It has not worked out the way he had envisioned,” Markell spokeswoman Cathy Rossi acknowledged Monday in a statement to FoxNews.com. “We didn’t know and couldn’t have known about the underlying technical and financial problems.”

Delaware reportedly has paid at least $400,000 in utility bills since about April, when Fisker halted operations and laid off dozens of workers at the 142-acre, Wilmington-area facility. Markell staffers told The News Journal the payments are part of the grant deal and necessary to at least keep Fisker’s small-scale operation on life support.

Fisker opened for business in 2007, and its early problems were largely related to such technical issues as steering and emissions.

However, in February the U.S. Energy Department stopped disbursements on Fisker’s $529 million loan because the company purportedly failed to meet production and sales goals on its electric plug-in sedan, the Karma.

The Kar-ma? Oy, what a goldmine for one liners that one is. “Hey, I hear that Fiskers new hybrid only drives in circles! Yup, what goes around, comes around”.

“This is never a good roll for the government—corporate welfare,” said Paul Chesser, an associate fellow at the conservative-leaning National Legal and Policy Center. “Let the market put up the money, not the taxpayer.”

Chesser also points out the similarities of California-based solar company Solyndra going bankrupt after receiving nearly $530 million in federal loan money from the Obama administration.

“There’s a trend of companies with no track record—or in this case failure—being worthy of government investment,” he said.

No, really? And it gets better: the Karma ran on batteries built by A123 battery company. You know, the one that Oxama dumped a few hundred million into, only to have it go belly up a short while later. And is now owned by the damned Chinese. It almost ... like this whole thing was planned to fail from the get-go. Like, it’s karma or something.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/03/2013 at 06:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Miscellaneous •  
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   Monday - December 10, 2012

Zapped Again

Wanxiang Group Co., China’s biggest auto-parts maker, agreed to buy most of electric car battery maker A123 Systems Inc. (AONEQ) for $256.6 million, outbidding Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) in a U.S. bankruptcy auction.

The agreement is for assets including A123’s automotive, grid and commercial business, though it excludes the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company’s military contracts, A123 said in a statement yesterday.
...
Wanxiang is seeking A123’s battery technology, used in Fisker Automotive Inc.’s Karma sedan, as China pushes its companies to develop electric vehicles. An earlier accord with the Chinese company was scrapped in October, when A123 said it filed for bankruptcy protection and agreed to sell its automotive assets to Johnson Controls.

Waltham, Mass.-based A123 (Nasdaq: AONE) has a contract to install a grid battery system for Maui Electric Co., a subsidiary of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. (NYSE: HE) subsidiary Hawaiian Electric Co., at the utility’s Wailea Substation as part of the Maui Smart Grid Project.

The company also has a contract to supply an 11-megawatt grid battery system for the Auwahi Wind project that Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE) is building at Ulupalakua Ranch on Maui.

“The work you’re doing will help power the American economy for years to come.”

-- President Obama in a Sept. 13, 2010 phone call to battery maker A123 Systems, congratulating the firm on using the bulk of a $249 million government grant to open new facilities in Michigan.

President Obama travels to Detroit today to talk about the need for increased taxes on top earners to finance federal spending, and is using an announcement of a $100 million investment from German auto giant Daimler to illustrate that his economic prescription is working.

Obama is not likely to discuss another big business story of the day – the sale of the assets of battery maker A123 to a Chinese competitor. A123 spent at least $132 million of its $249 million stimulus package grant to build two Detroit-area factories, including one in Livonia, right next door to Redford Township, where Obama is speaking today.

Assuming a bankruptcy judge and the Obama Treasury Department approve of the sale of A123’s assets to Wanxiang Group, the Chinese battery maker would immediately become the dominant force in the industry.

So for $256.6 million, the Chinese firm would get all that the stimulus package purchased plus the company’s existing operations in Massachusetts and Missouri and have the chance to pare down the company to profitability without the overhead of A123’s debt.

Plus, it gets even better!

An additional irony: Whatever share of the original $249 million stimulus grant that the Treasury borrowed from China will still have to be paid back.

A quarter billion dollars given to them for free and two years later they’re in bankruptcy? Holy shit. Better get A123’s top management working for the government ASAP - those guys are even more on the ball than Turbo Tax Timmy!

Wanxiang’s winning bid came only one day after the Canadian government approved a controversial deal allowing China’s state-owned oil company CNOOC (0883.HK) to buy energy company Nexen Inc (NXY.TO) for $15.1 billion.

Hmm. China owns the oil, the gas, the solar, the batteries, the steel, the nickel, the heavy metals, ...

Posted by Drew458     on 12/10/2012 at 11:51 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business •  
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   Friday - November 16, 2012

Crushed By The Unions

Hostess to Liquidate, Lay Off 18,500 After Crushing Union Fight

Failing to persuade striking employees to return to work, Hostess Brands disclosed plans on Friday to liquidate its assets and lay off most of its 18,500 workers, bringing the 82-year-old maker of Wonder Bread and Twinkies to the end of its line.

The painful decision to wind down the Irving, Texas.-based private company follows a nationwide strike that Hostess said severely constrained its operations.

Hostess said delivery of its products, which include Ding Dongs and CupCakes, will continue and its retail stores will keep their lights on for several days to sell already-baked products.

“We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” Hostess CEO Gregory Rayburn said in a statement.

As a result of the liquidation, Hostess said it will “move promptly” to lay off “most” of its 18,500 employees and focus on “selling its assets to the highest bidders.”

The company will now be forced to close its 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, 5,500 delivery routes and 570 bakery outlet stores throughout the U.S.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/16/2012 at 09:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Unions-Labor •  
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   Monday - October 01, 2012

Failing The Sniff Test

I could not believe my eyes at the pure BS I saw being fed to the rabid Mac fans who just shelled out big green to buy the new iPhone 5 and found that the camera is defective. “You’re holding it wrong”. What a crock. I took the above picture in July 2009, when my old digital camera was starting to wear out. It was a nice bright day, the sun high in the sky. And the CCD cell was going on the fritz. All my pictures came out with this purple haze; if the whole picture was brightly lit, the whole digital image had a purple cast. If the bright light was off to one side (like, oh, say the sun was at the top of the pic) then that side was purple.

Fast forward 3 years and a couple months ...

Apple Acknowledges iPhone 5 Camera Problem, Says You’re Holding It Wrong

After initially denying it, Apple has acknowledged the iPhone 5’s purple flare camera problem in an email to a Gizmodo reader. Their solution: “Angle the camera away from the bright light source when taking pictures.”

Read the rest: it’s your fault, not apple’s.

Yeah right.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/01/2012 at 05:47 PM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Computers and Cyberspace •  
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   Tuesday - June 19, 2012

Circular Stupid

“A unique take on fashion and has nothing to do with slavery” they say.

“Offensive, appalling and insensitive.” says Jesse Jackson. And for once I agree with him.

German sports apparel maker Adidas withdrew its plans to sell a controversial sneaker featuring affixed rubber shackles after the company generated significant criticism when advertising the shoe on it’s Facebook page.

The high-top sneakers, dubbed the JS Roundhouse Mids, were expected to release in August, according to the Adidas Originals Facebook page. “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?” a caption below a photo of the sneakers read.

The June 14 post prompted plenty of criticism from around the web, with many of those commenting saying they felt the shackle invoked the painful image of slavery.

Though dismissing the criticism in a written statement by defending the sneaker’s designer, Jeremy Scott, as having a “quirky” and “lighthearted” style, Adidas nonetheless said Monday that it planned to cancel the shoe’s release.

One of Adidas’ most high-profile condemnations came from the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

“The attempt to commercialize and make popular more than 200 years of human degradation, where blacks were considered three-fifths human by our Constitution is offensive, appalling and insensitive,” Jackson said in a statement Monday, prior to Adidas’s decision to withdraw them from the marketplace.

See? Just once. Then the regular Jesse comes out again. Sheesh; the guy is like Joe Biden with a tan. It’s such a pity that old Jesse can’t broaden his horizons just a little, because if he looked at the entire western hemisphere he’d be saying that African bondage went on for more than 300 years. There were slaves in South America long before there were slaves in North America. Actually, that’s where something like 80% of all the slaves went. And slavery went right on down below the equator, for several decades longer than it stuck around up here. Let’s not mention to him that it continues to this day in Africa, blacks enslaving other blacks, just as it has for 4000 years on that continent. Oh sure, it’s illegal, but it flies under the radar and gets little official notice.

And I just can’t believe he takes this opportunity - a protest against the actions of a European company - to show the world once again just how stupid he really is. Jesse, if those old slaves had counted as fully human you’d be picking cotton today, wearing those shoes made with iron chains. Can’t you ever figure out the truth that 3/5 representation LIMITED the power of the slave states in the federal government??? The ugly truth is that slaves were livestock. Cows don’t vote. Chicken don’t have Congressmen. If slaves had had no representation - if they weren’t counted as human at all - then just maybe they would have been set free a generation or two earlier, because NONE of the compromise bills would have ever passed. So can you finally Get It? 3/5 representation weakened the slave states. It had nothing at all to do with the human livestock they held at the time. Ask Dred Scott.

And of course Jesse doesn’t look beyond his own small world. Yes, it’s quite possible that these sneakers are supposed to invoke slavery. But they’re from Germany, so the kind of slavery they may have had in mind is quite different ...

Posted by Drew458     on 06/19/2012 at 08:18 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Racism and race relations • Stoopid-People •  
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   Wednesday - June 06, 2012

Firms face compulsory quotas if they don’t put women in top jobs

A nice socialist solution?
Mr. Cable as you’d guess, is a left winger and this sort of thing is dear to his heart.
Can you imagine setting aside a prescribed number in a case like this to be able to check the pc boxes.
Well, the new head of state in France is working on it. His declared goal of a cabinet made up of 50% female has been reached. Not my concern and good for them. But I can’t help but wonder as others do, what sort of qualifications do they come to the job with? Or was the qualification, female?

Mr. Cable and a few friends are most concerned that there aren’t enough ladies on the boards of companies. Not demeaning women in any way but, how many are there who want to but can’t because evil men are keeping them out?  Not saying women haven’t been unfairly treated many times in the job market. But Cable and crew are assuming the companies are some sort of anti female conspiracy trying to keep women out. So, his solution is to arbitrarily fix a number to be grafted onto businesses with boards.
Affirmative action anyone? 

More then anything else however, this reminds me of a brainless lefty suggestion by a member of the previous govt. Some of you regulars might recall my post on the subject of, fishing.  Think it’s a joke? Think again.

A few years ago it was said that the famed fishing rivers of England were enjoyed by too many white middle aged men. So the brainless twits on the left thought it would be a good idea to make fishing and fishing lessons available.
To muslim women.  Who it was found, were not to be found enjoying England’s fishing streams and rivers or wherever it was fish go to relax.

I always thought it was my local Tesco, since that’s where my wife had always caught the fish she brought home.
Needless to say, the plan went nowhere. But that anyone thought it was something worthy of a govt. program says a lot about the loons.

Firms face compulsory quotas if they don’t put women in top jobs insists Vince Cable

By JAMES CHAPMAN
PUBLISHED: 22:07, 4 June 2012 | UPDATED: 22:07, 4 June 2012-06-06
Businesses could be hit with compulsory quotas to increase the number of women on boards unless they raise the number voluntarily said Vince Cable.
The Business Secretary said he was ready to introduce legal targets if firms had failed to ensure a quarter of executives at board level were female by 2015.
He also suggested that if he were prime minister, half of the Cabinet would be women.
Mr Cable said there were encouraging signs that firms were beginning to heed calls for gender equality – revealing figures suggesting that in the past three months, half of new appointments to FTSE company boards have been women.

He said he planned to ‘name and shame’ companies that fail to make further progress. One in ten of Britain’s biggest firms still has all-male boards.
‘It’s very, very important that women are there in numbers,’ Mr Cable said.

‘Our objective is to get a quarter of all board membership being women by 2015.
‘Our current approach, which is trying to change the culture, trying to name and shame, I think will work. If it doesn’t, we can look at things like quotas.
‘There is a body called the Financial Reporting Council that requires companies to declare publicly what they do.
‘So companies will be in the future publicly identified and there will then be a role for me to go out and say publicly, “This is a disgrace, you should change your behaviour”.’
Asked whether he woul0d introduce quotas if that approach failed to deliver the target figures, the Business Secretary said: ‘I would, yes. I think that’s a perfectly legitimate last resort. But I think the current approach that we have adopted is beginning to produce serious results, so let’s give it a chance.’

NOW HERE’S WHERE THINGS PICK UP AND GET REALLY INTERESTING. Mr Cable is not the lone voice on the subject. Oh no.
There is this super body of unwanted gas bags.

The EU has announced a consultation on how to increase women’s presence on corporate boards, warning that progress towards equality is too slow.
Mandatory quotas are being threatened if member states fail to make sufficient progress.

The EU’s Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has warned that on current rates of change, it will take more than 40 years for women to hold 40 per cent of board positions in Europe’s publicly traded companies.
In Britain, companies are working towards a voluntary target to increase the percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards to 25 per cent, up from 12.5 per cent last year. But business leaders have warned against compulsory quotas.

On BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour the Business Secretary also took a swipe at David Cameron’s failure to meet an aspiration that a third of his ministers should be women. There are five women – all Conservative – in the Cabinet.

In a reference to the new French president’s decision to make half of his top team female, Mr Cable said: ‘If I ever finish up in Mr Cameron’s job, and who knows what could happen, you might well get a Francois Hollande moment.’
Meanwhile, Tory MP Peter Bone demanded that Vince Cable be sacked from the Cabinet after it emerged that the Business Secretary was in contact with Labour to discuss a possible alliance following the next election.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 06/06/2012 at 01:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Big Brother • Big Business • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • DIVERSITY BS • Nanny State •  
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   Thursday - March 29, 2012

Ok, Who Let The Fox Reporter In AT NBC?

Hard to believe this article came from NBC. It’s not the story itself that matters, just the editorial take at the end.

NO $5 Footlongs in San Fran

The catchy Subway sandwich shop jingle involving a variety of foot-long sandwiches available for $5 doesn’t apply in San Francisco.

The sandwich-making chain stopped selling the five-dollar footlongs in San Francisco due to the “high cost of doing business,” according to SF Weekly.

Oh noes!!

Apparently, the city’s new minimum wage, raised to $10.24 as of Jan. 1, make $5 footlongs an impossible business model.

Unless you want tuna fish, which is the sub of the month. Yum.

My goodness, that’s very nearly a Conservative thing to say! Imagine that, having to pay the proles San Fran’s “living wage minimum” cuts the margins too closely.

We’ve got a Subway in our town too. When they have the $5 deal running, they have steady customers from late morning to mid afternoon. When it isn’t running, business isn’t so good, even though the $5 deal only saves you a dollar or two off their better sandwiches.

Calls to Subway’s corporate headquarters have not yet been returned. But half a dozen San Francisco Subway workers said this recent move was explained to them as a reaction to San Francisco’s minimum wage ordinance. Per the will of the voters, minimum wage is calculated each year based on the “August-to-August change in the Consumer Price Index.” On Jan. 1 of this year, it jumped from $9.92 to $10.24, apparently pushing Subway execs to revoke our county’s cheap sandwich privileges. As the minimum wage rises higher, perhaps Subway will be forced to scrap Jared Fogle for parts.

Again and again, Subway workers cited the city’s minimum wage as the driving factor in this decision.

So there you have it. I don’t know how large the Subway shops in San Francisco are, but the one in my town never seems to have more than 3 people working at any given time. 3 people times an additional ($10.24 - $9.92 = $0.32) 32 cents comes out to less than one dollar per hour. That seems an awfully small amount, but when the margins are microscopic, a dollar an hour could mean the difference between just getting by and losing your shirt.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/29/2012 at 09:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Economics •  
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   Friday - September 30, 2011

Hope for Change

An Alaska Superior Court judge has upheld the validity of temporary, revocable land and water use permits for mineral exploration at the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska.

Project opponents have waged a lengthy legal and political battle against the massive project, frequently citing risks to salmon and other fishery in the Bristol Bay

Bristol Bay is the large inlet just above where the Aleutian Island Chain connects to the mainland. It is where most of the salmon swim through on their way to their spawning grounds.

Superior Court Judge Eric Aarseth delivered a major blow to the environmental activists who have been using regulations lawsuits and billions of dollars to prevent the Pebble Mine Project in Alaska from helping to provide American energy independence. Judge Aarseth handed down a 154-page ruling in favor of Alaska in the most recent lawsuit aimed at preventing the Pebble Mine Project from even being able to begin the permit process.

Pebble Mine is one of the largest copper deposits in the world. It is in the United States and could release us from our dependence on buying copper from China, which provides 97% of the copper used in the world.

The environmentalist have argued that the Pebble Mine MIGHT impact salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska, even though the mine is over 200 miles north of the area.

The judge ruled that evidence “did not support the plaintiffs’ claims that mineral exploration activities in the Pebble Project area were significantly impacting or causing long term harm to concurrent uses.”

After summarizing the state’s monitoring of Pebble’s exploratory activity to ensure compliance with the terms of the permits, Aarseth wrote:

“All of these documented efforts support the conclusion that the state was proactive when issuing permits with appropriate restrictions on Pebble’s activity and not merely rubber-stamping the applications. Further, the review process as well as the field surveys/investigations indicate that the State was actively enforcing the permits issued and thus placing itself in a reasonable position to revoke the permits if necessary. Last, by responding to concerns by Nunamta both in the review process as well as in enforcing the [permit] conditions, the State showed a reasonable concern for the concurrent users of the Pebble Area.”

Aarseth found Nunamta did not meet its burden of proof to show environmental harm and concluded, “Moreover, contrary to Plaintiffs’ assertions, the weight of the evidence tends to show that exploration activities are not changing water quality in the Pebble study area.”

He was also persuaded that Pebble has a “successful reclamation program” and there was no evidence of damage to vegetation. Aarseth similarly dismissed claims of harm to caribou or fish populations.

“The evidence shows that more than 20 years after minerals were first discovered at Pebble, the site continues to have pristine water and support wildlife and fisheries resources,” Aarseth wrote. “The harms that Plaintiffs’ witnesses describe are speculative; they are neither harms occurring in fact nor did they show that the harm will necessarily occur.”

The case was Numanta Aulukestai v. State of Alaska, DNR, and Pebble Limited Partnership and the whole decision is here.



There is another similar case, Rosemont Copper, a copper mine near Tuscan Arizona that could employ 1000, also being held hostage in the court system by the EPA and its tree hugging minions.

While this ruling is a significant win for the goal of American energy Independence, it is not the end of the issue. Environmental groups have aggressively fought the Pebble Mine Project for years. This particular lawsuit has been ongoing since 2009. Since Judge Aarseth’s ruling, they say they are taking the case to the Supreme Court.

Want to get involved? Visit Resourceful Earth to see how.

Posted by Drew458     on 09/30/2011 at 11:35 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Environment •  
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   Saturday - January 15, 2011

the russians are coming?

I’m not terribly well versed on these things BUT ...
according to the radio, BT owns large energy holdings in the USA.

So ....

With the Russians now having a stake in BP for a sizable amount of cash ....
Does that now mean the Russians also will have a hold of any sort in the US?

BP gives 5% stake to state-owned Russian oil firm as they reveal plans to drill Arctic

By Rupert Steiner and Simon Neville

BP signed a major deal last night that will see the Russian government own a chunk of Britain’s biggest oil firm.

It sold 5 per cent of its shares – worth £5billion – to Russia’s state-owned energy firm Rosneft.  Both companies have also agreed to co-operate in drilling for oil reserves in the Arctic.

The historic share-swap deal could open up lucrative revenue streams for BP, which is the third largest energy firm in the world.

But it also raises fresh concerns about the take-over of UK firms by foreign companies – including those, like Rosneft, that are effectively a branch of an overseas government.

Questions will also be asked about the security of Britain’s energy supplies, given Russia’s history of playing politics with oil and other resources.

the rest is here

Posted by peiper     on 01/15/2011 at 04:00 PM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Finance and Investing • Oil, Alternative Energy, and Gas Prices • USA •  
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   Monday - December 06, 2010

Students (?) close store for a hour over tax breaks to business … idiots on the left on the march.

First ... Hello to Franklin,TN if still there.

OK ... things that make a rant.  Like the enclosed.

I had never heard of the Woodcraft Folks before today. In fact, I can’t even find the article I’m looking at now, on line. And I have tried a 100 ways to bring it up. But of course, it’s the Telegraph and I should be used to it by now. Unfortunately, I’m not.

Therefore, rather try and copy the article, I’ll just give you the idea.

You already know about the student protests that started over an increase in college tuition.  Naturally, protests also mean destroying property. It also means that anyone opposing the rabble are right wing Nazi Fascist war mongers or words to that affect.

Now another protest group is hot and bothered because some businesses are avoiding taxes. In the latest case, it’s TopShop where the peace loving young managed to shut the store down. Of course it never occurs to the peace and freedom loving students that they are be depriving people who want to shop, the freedom to do so. No surprise as the only freedom that counts with the left is their freedom to disrupt others from going about their own legal business.

Now then, nobody here at BMEWS I’m reasonably sure will give a thumbs up to tax cheats or those who act in a criminal way to dodge what they owe. However, the thing these schmucks on the left don’t seem to understand is, it’s the government that gives the go ahead on tax forms to avoid some taxes. And what business will volunteer to turn down any tax break they can get?  But no matter, carrying signs proclaiming their allegiance to Socialism, these twits are out on the streets in this cause as well.
Which brings me to a group called Woodcraft Folks. Who are, a left wing version of the Scouts.  Fancy that.

Now then, these socially aware left wing lunatics are encouraging kids as young as 11 to take part in these demonstrations.  Some schools have been found to even give kids time off for this exercise.  WF leader took a group of 13 to 15 year olds to last week’s London protest.
Oh btw … Woodcraft Folks is also govt. funded. How about that?

Here’s what one commenter had to say which shows not all Brits have lost it.

Before targeting businesses we should be focusing our attentions on the far more wasteful and wealth destructive government.
No-one has to shop at TopShop but we all have to hand over our money to the government. That government can give away £13 billion in foreign aid, givea way our EU rebate worth over £1 billion a year, create unnecessary regulations and bureaucracy costing tens of billions a year.
I don’t blame Phillip Green for looking after HIS wealth. He is only accountable to his customers who can go elsewhere. Our governments are rarely accountable.
We need to stop paying hundreds of billions in benefits (including extending the housing benefit racket for another 8 months) before demanding more of other peoples money. 

Topshop forced to close in tax avoidance protest

Britain’s largest fashion store was forced to close as activists unruly left wing dupes carried out a series of protests against tax avoidance by big businesses.

By Michael Howie

Topshop’s flagship branch on London’s Oxford Street turned away customers on one of the busiest shopping days of the year as around 200 protesters took over the store.

Security staff removed a number of campaigners who chanted slogans directed at billionaire Topshop owner Sir Philip Green, whose business five years ago paid a £1.2 billion dividend to his wife, Tina, who resides in Monaco.

Sir Philip was this year appointed as an adviser to the Government on efficiency in the public sector.
The protest was organised by UK Uncut, which used social networking sites Twitter and Facebook to carry out a national day of action against stores owned by Sir Philip’s Arcadia Group, which also owns Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Evans and Miss Selfridge.

The protest group, as revealed in The Sunday Telegraph last month, was set up by Thom Costello, an Oxford graduate from south London who now works as a television researcher.

About 200 protesters inside the store began chanting slogans after whistles were blown at 11am, signalling the beginning of a long protest that forced the store to close for more than an hour.

Security staff and police officers bundled protesters and journalists, including Polly Toynbee, as a largely peaceful demonstration briefly threatened to turn violent.

One 62-year-old campaigner told how he was “pinned to the ground” by security staff after complaining that a young woman had been mistreated inside the store.

The campaigner, who only gave his name as John, said: “A young woman was grabbed around the neck so I complained. Several security guards jumped on me and I was pushed to the ground. I could hardly breath – it was terrifying.”

MORE HERE

A note ... Polly Toynbee is an extreme far left Marxist/Leninist/Trotsky loving wacko who thinks everyone who doesn’t agree with her view from the left must be Himmler himself. She is very quick to invoke the Nazi tag in every argument.

Posted by peiper     on 12/06/2010 at 01:42 PM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Commies • UK •  
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   Wednesday - November 10, 2010

it’s all about business …. innit ?  possible eye candy depending on your view of things

Our very unlikely trade envoy: How David Cameron wants Tamara Mellon to sell Britain to the world

By Geoffrey Levy
For international businessmen interested in trading with Britain, a treat is in store: she’s 5ft 6in, always in 5in stiletto heels, with long dark hair and a mesmerically silken manner.

Her name is Tamara Mellon, founder of the Jimmy Choo shoe label.

Just 24 hours after David Cameron had appointed her to become a global trade envoy (a similar role to that of Prince Andrew), the 43-year-old divorcee was at her office in New York where the books she is said to keep on her desk include Cosmic Coupling: The Sextrology Of Relationships, as well as Brit-Think, Ameri-Think: A Transatlantic Survival Guide.

Tamara is better acquainted with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, through a business leaders’ forum he invited her to join. Certainly, it has been quite a few weeks for the glamorous Ms Mellon, who has a delightful daughter, Minty, eight, from her failed marriage to U.S. banking heir Matthew Mellon.

First, she received an ‘Enduring Vision’ award from the Elton John Aids Foundation, then an OBE for services to the fashion industry from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Now, she’s a government envoy. And she’s already worth around £100 million.

Not bad for a woman who used to run a market stall and almost wrote herself off with drugs. She still considers herself to be ‘in recovery’, helped by periods of meditation, cigarettes and the knowledge that Narcotics Anonymous (whose meetings she once attended) is always available to help if ever needed.

But then, she is the daughter of a man noted for his single-mindedness, a quality she obviously inherited, as became clear when she took her mother to court in a bitter dispute over £6 million shares in the company — and won.

Her dad, Tommy Yeardye, was born in Ireland to an unmarried Irish mother called Kathleen and brought up by her in London. He grew to be 6ft 4in with ‘fists like bricks’ and was nicknamed Muscles.

Stories about Yeardye, who died six years ago, and his alleged early friendships with underworld figures still swirl around the capital.

He most famously lived for some years with screen siren Diana Dors . He met her while working as a film body-double, standing in for Hollywood star Victor Mature. It was a bedroom scene. Within days he had moved into the voluptuous Dors’s Thames-side mansion.

There’s more interesting reading at the source.

THE MELLON GIRL SOURCE

OK ... Did you guys really think I was gonna leave you with a simple boring business story?  Although actually, the story isn’t that boring.
Anyway ... the answer is, of course not.

Ladies and Gentlemen .... I give you the new business envoy. okok, so the photo’s an old one. Who really cares?

Posted by peiper     on 11/10/2010 at 11:29 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Humor • UK •  
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   Friday - October 22, 2010

time and lifestyle and bad habits do tend to catch up with one. darn good to have pots of money then

Just to show ya how mean a newspaper can be.  NOT for showing her as she really is. No.  But for implying that this is her idea.  How daft is that?
She is a famous and VERY wealthy model.  She gets paid big bucks for this.

It’s the advertisers who want this look. And who can blame them?  Think about it.  While no fan of her previous lifestyle with drugs and drink and God knows what else, I think it’s okay that a career isn’t over at 35, especially if you look bad.  Although of course that will raise the question then of, what chance do newcomers have.
My answer to that would be, every chance in the world if they have the looks and the talent.  I guess with modeling though it’s more looks and discipline. And youth will always be in demand.  I just wish the fashion industry would make better use of it with their creations. 

Thank goodness for the world of tech and Photoshop and the airbrush.

Kate Moss turns back the clock with a little help from the airbrush in lingerie campaign

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:01 PM on 22nd October 2010

At the age of 36, it is not uncommon for a few wrinkles to appear on your face.

But Kate Moss seemingly wants us to believe that she has managed to maintain the perfect complexion and flawless figure that made her famous as a teenager.

The supermodel appears in a new campaign for Brazilian lingerie label Valisere looking a good decade younger than her years.

MORE HERE

I really don’t have the heart to post it on the facing page ....

Posted by peiper     on 10/22/2010 at 09:02 AM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • Big Business • Eye-Candy •  
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   Saturday - October 16, 2010

Too Big To Fail, Or To Fine

Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo Mozilo has agreed to a $67.5 million settlement to avoid trial on civil fraud and insider trading charges that alleged he profited from doling out risky mortgages while misleading investors about the risks.

Two other former Countrywide executives also settled before trial next week on charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. But employment agreements that protect the men from lawsuits involving the failed lender mean Bank of America Corp., which bought Countrywide in July 2008, will pick up most of the tab.

The agreement requires Mozilo to repay $45 million in ill-gotten profits and $22.5 million in civil penalties. Former Countrywide President David Sambol owes $5 million in profits and $520,000 in civil penalties, and former Chief Financial Officer Eric P. Sieracki will pay $130,000 in civil penalties.

It’s “the fitting outcome for a corporate executive who deliberately disregarded his duty to investors by hiding what he saw in the executive suite,” SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami said in a conference call with reporters.

But $25 million of Mozilo’s restitution will come from an escrow fund the company set up to cover shareholder litigation and Mozilo has no obligation to pay the remaining amount, according to the settlement agreement.

Sambol’s agreement stipulates that his entire $5 million forfeiture will come from the escrow fund.
...
The SEC accused the men of misleading shareholders about the quality of the loans on Countrywide’s books. The civil complaint also accused Mozilo of acting on his inside knowledge of the company’s precarious state when he sold shares between November 2006 and October 2007 ahead of its collapse, reaping more than $139 million.

Under the settlement, the three men did not admit wrongdoing.
...
Under the settlement, Mozilo agreed to never again serve as an officer or director of a publicly traded company. Sambol agreed not to do so for three years.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/16/2010 at 08:44 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Corruption and Greed • Miscellaneous •  
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   Thursday - August 12, 2010

Sadder, but no wiser

Political observer Rod Pennington says Obama’s numbers are significantly lower if the approval rating from black Americans is removed.

“What the poll fails to mention is the near universal support the President still enjoys among African-Americans which represent 14% of the population. If this support is subtracted from Mr. Obama, then he is somewhere in the range of 30% approval and 70% disapproval with all non-Blacks,”

The Obsolescence of Barack Obama

His fall from political grace has been as swift as his rise a handful of years ago. He had been hot political property in 2006 and, of course, in 2008. But now he will campaign for his party’s 2010 candidates from afar, holding fund raisers but not hitting the campaign trail in most of the contested races. Those mass rallies of Obama frenzy are surely of the past.

...

The country has had its fill with a scapegoating that knows no end from a president who had vowed to break with recriminations and partisanship. The magic of 2008 can’t be recreated, and good riddance to it.

blah blah blah, but it’s a decent read. Too bad it’s in the Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, where right-wing views are frequently found. When stories like this headline the New York Times, or take the lead on MSNBC, then I’ll believe that the great leftist masses have got the message. Until then, keep on fighting. Everything this rat bastard does is wrong, every single one of his policies is against the nation’s best interest on purpose, and every little flair-up in the press is most probably smoke and mirrors to distract you from paying attention to another dirty deal going down in the background.

NOvember can’t come soon enough.

And that “economic recovery”? Horse apples. Every day we get closer and closer to real long term depression. Business is going nowhere.

Posted by Drew458     on 08/12/2010 at 09:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Big Business • Obama, The One •  
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