02/05/09 10:51 - ID#47648
Corporate Salary Cap
So - here is where we are. We're happy that these crooks are going to have their income controlled by the government as long as they are borrowing taxpayer money. However, if these fat cats are going to be paying billions less in taxes due to earning less income, who do you think is going to be closing that budget gap? YOU are, one way or another. Isn't that a bitch?
They won't shrink the size of government and spend responsibly. New York State politicians do not have the will to tell people that they've overspent and made obligations they never could have afforded, and now we are about to have to deal with that problem in a harsh way.
Addition of federal tax money to states in this $1T federal orgy will only exacerbate the problem. Politicians who are afraid of possibly having to get a real job would rather sell the state out than tell the people the truth - that the budget has been too big for too long, and that Albany relied on unusually high tax receipts from Wall St. (and now we know why) over the past 5 years to pay for expansion of government programs that wouldn't be sustainable otherwise. Right now, instead of acting responsibly and paring the budget down to match realistic tax receipt projections, they are waiting to make a decision until that $160B for states is released. Cute, huh?
Not to mention that our state (and our county, and our city...) does its budgeting backwards, thinking of what to spend on before understanding how much you actually have to spend.
Permalink: Corporate_Salary_Cap.html
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01/30/09 10:28 - 22ºF - ID#47569
Outlandish Dog Haircut
Happy Friday -
Josh
PS - I have a post coming re: the whatever you'd like to call it going on in Washington at the moment.
Permalink: Outlandish_Dog_Haircut.html
Words: 31
01/21/09 09:21 - ID#47480
The Cancelling of a Coronation
I'm absolutely thrilled that she bowed out. Then again, Andrew Cuomo, who I've previously been high on, shouldn't be selected either IMO based on his mismanagement of HUD, including having $59 billion of HUD money "disappear." If you want to read about how he was involved in the Fannie/Freddie scandal read this Village Voice article -
I'll go with Gillibrand. She's a Democrat that I'd consider supporting based on her positions, and it seems like she'd be more of a consensus candidate for the entire state. Steven Israel seems to really, really, really want to be a Senator... which is why he should not get it. He should be thankful his district was gerrymandered in his favor six years ago.
Permalink: The_Cancelling_of_a_Coronation.html
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01/20/09 11:08 - 13ºF - ID#47468
Inauguration
This, however, was an atrocity -
Praise song for the day.
Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.
Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."
We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."
We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.
WEW WEW - GRAMMAR POLICE - PULL OVER! Anyway -
Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.
Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."
Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.
What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.
In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.
WOT?
This is why you should not ever recite poetry at an inauguration unless you are an obvious genius, as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou are/were. (Don't have much of an opinion on Miller Williams). When Robert Frost was selected as the first inaugural poet, the poor guy was 86 years old and didn't have it in him to read the poem he wrote for the occasion, so he recited one he knew by heart, which starts like this:
The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people.
Ahhh..... that is like a warm comforting blanket compared to the nails on chalkboard of this "praise song," with its forced pretension and utter meaninglessness.
In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, any poet can be selected (apparently), any sentence passed off as meaningful.
Permalink: Inauguration.html
Words: 595
01/13/09 11:13 - 32ºF - ID#47391
YouTube Comedy, Buffalo Born
Check out SorryMcKinley on YouTube -
Permalink: YouTube_Comedy_Buffalo_Born.html
Words: 38
01/11/09 02:23 - ID#47362
My Five Favorite Females
The Ho sisters - you aren't going to find two realer girls than the Ho sisters. I can't think of many other girls I'd bother to be myself around. The first time I met Jessica and Sarah together was at Sarah's house party on Delaware a few years back, and I remember conversating drunkenly with the Ho sisters outside of Sarah's apartment - at some point it struck me that I was talking to two ladies that weren't bullshitters, and wouldn't accept bullshit either. I was basically in love at that point. Do you know how hard it is to find a girl that will tell you the truth? Maybe I'm wrong and am totally misplacing trust, but if I looked either one stone cold in the eye and said "please, please, please, I want to tell you this but I'm desperate for you to keep this a secret" - that it would remain a secret.
Janine - my former neighbor who is an incredible, incredible girl. I miss the times where we drank wine on Fridays when work was done. The single down to earth girl I've ever met from Long Island. She's in Brooklyn now and I miss her. She's beautiful, intelligent, independent - I'm lucky to be her friend. This is another girl I'd pretty much defend to the end.
Timika - I can't think of another female who has extended herself more to (e:jason) and I. I don't think there is a more generous person with her time and resources than Timika has been to my brother and I. I've missed Timiika's offbeat sense of humor - she understand me and I understand her. I'm a hard guy to understand and over the years I think Timika has gotten the closest. You won't find a more substantial diamond core perfect heart than what is beating within Timika's chest. Damn I love this girl! I owe you for more than what you've given to me. Thank you for being a good friend - Rory is an amazing and cool guy and I wish that you were both a little closer, because you both have depth of character that is hard to find.
So there it is, Mr. Stone Emotion letting certain ladies know where they stand. Thank you all for being generous to a quiet guy like me!
Permalink: My_Five_Favorite_Females.html
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01/07/09 12:19 - 34ºF - ID#47320
$2.5m iPhone
Diamond encrusted (including a 6.6 carot diamond for the home button), cased in a few different types of gold.
It isn't tacky looking, considering how easy it is to make accessories look tacky by adding a trillion diamonds to the item. Still though, who in their right mind would regularly carry and use a $2.5m iPhone?
Permalink: _2_5m_iPhone.html
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01/05/09 03:02 - ID#47287
Grlz R Stoopid - A Larson Tragedy
If I'm being 100% stone cold honest with myself, despite all the stuff she put me through, I'd still be her friend and give her an ear if she needed it. I wish it weren't true and I hate myself for even having this sentiment, gotta tell you. The person singly responsible for the most pain I've ever dealt with, and I don't have it in me to hate her or never speak to her again. What the hell? I know that if I were listening to myself talk from the outside, I'd be saying "YOU ARE AN ASSHOLE FOR FEELING THAT WAY JOSH!" The guy she left me for was a real piece of work - locked her out of the house in the middle of winter, "allegedly" used his hands on her, etc. My spiteful side says that she deserves what she has - if that is what she wants then that is what she'll get. But I'm not living my life with spite - life is short and spite is poisonous.
In the end I think the reason why this news took me aback was because the whole episode reminds me of how for the first time in my life my judgment failed me, how I failed myself, that sometimes being wrong has deep personal consequences that aren't easily dealt with. At least I stopped asking myself silly introspective questions a few years ago. I accept part of the blame for the predicament I was in - I know both Ho sisters, had they been there, might have told me I was a pussy - and the bright side is that I learned what I don't want in a girl!
Permalink: Grlz_R_Stoopid_A_Larson_Tragedy.html
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01/02/09 07:01 - 31ºF - ID#47257
Favorite Pictures of 2008
Walking home drunk from Fahrety's the evening of Taste of Buffalo... that Saturday is was 95 degrees outside.
My brother and my friend Andy, I can't explain what the object of attention was here.
Me, surveying my friend Walt and his gelato at Taste of Buffalo.
Me, and my extraordinarily good looking friends Andy and Jerry, followed by my kinfolk (e:jason), who is a fine mamma jamma in his own right.
Me and one of the statues on Elmwood... I was tanked.
My friend Andrea with the same statue...
Permalink: Favorite_Pictures_of_2008.html
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01/02/09 02:42 - 33ºF - ID#47253
Today
I think thus far today has been a success. Depending, of course, if you define success by running into (e:lee), Rory and (e:ladycroft)! They caught me looking rough and doing my normal day off routine, which is to stumble over to Spot not too long after I've gotten up and grab a coffee. It was a pleasant surprise indeed.
The part about (e:strip) which I think may be unusual for people being introduced to the site is the concept that even mundane things in your life end up being documented, and thus you find yourself being spoken of in reference or in passing. Or someone reminds you of something you wrote in a journal, thus waking you up to the realization that there are some people that remember aspects of your life that you do not. That can be a bit of an uncomfortable thing, but for me I don't particularly care - there is very little that I wouldn't say in person that I wouldn't share here. Just an observation that crossed my mind during the party. By the way, it was incredible to see so many people from out of town, including those I haven't seen in a few years! There was one in particular that I didn't recognize at first thanks to the stuff in my system at the time, and when someone said her full name I felt so embarrassed. She's an incredibly cool girl that I met at one of the first (e:strip) parties I attended, and had I put two and two together I would have had a thousand questions about San Diego for her. I'm sorry (e:iriesara)! It was nice to see you and to meet your manfriend.
What Is New In Josh's Life
Books, mainly. I'm still working through the stuff I'm reading (mainly Cormac McCarthy and Kerouac). I think I have a problem with buying books - the list of books I want to buy and read is so long that I think I'm making my reading list for the next two years. Anyway, I most recently purchased Kerouac's Old Angel Midnight, which is a collection of unique prose poetry written in small notebooks during 1956-1959. (I'm finishing collecting all of the Kerouac books I want to read). What makes this collection unique, and maybe a little puzzling, is that there is no narrative in the prose, no general sense of movement - it is a huge prose poem that reflects the words flowing through the author's head as he hears the noises coming in off of the street through his window. The result is mystifying and strangely beautiful, if not a little crazy sounding when you read it out loud.
Permalink: Today.html
Words: 459
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I'll summarize what I was going to tell janelle - I read the same article! While it is true that bonuses are not outright banned, the method and time structure of these payments will be affected, and that is causing anxiety on the street. The rule will still have an effect on our state tax receipts, even if the reduction in bonuses was modest, say $1B off of that nearly $19B that was just paid out. Even a $1B change would freak Albany out right now.
For example, let's take a look at this thief from Countrywide, Angelo Mozilo. :::link::: In 2006 he was paid almost $3M in base salary, $20.5M in cash bonus and an additional $72.2M in stock. Under the rules right now, the bonus payment wouldn't be allowed, his base salary would be reduced 80% and he would not be allowed to extract any of the money from his stock until Uncle Samuel got his first.
I think there is a question of how effective this will be, but what most people don't realize (because they aren't being told by anyone) what it means when they say that only those who took taxpayer money will be subject to these changes. Most firms on Wall St. did not take taxpayer funds and will pay their executives whatever they like. I think the popular assumption is that Wall St. bonuses are going to be drastically reduced, which will probably not be true. For my part, I'm simply looking at how even a modest change would be big news for our state.
Another point that article made that is interesting to point out - this limit only applies to top executives. The "golden 25" or "golden 50," as it were. If you are a junior executive, or an extraordinarily well paid floor trader, etc., you can still earn millions of dollars. I don't particularly have a problem with that and don't see it as an issue. These people aren't the Madoffs or the Fulds of the world, and last I checked it was still perfectly legal to earn a lot of money in the United States. The design is to limit the pay of these top-flight "golden parachuters" who ruin their companies and end up with hundreds of millions.
(e:jho) - we'll see about how effective it is... I fully expect that these guys will find other ways to compensate themselves at the expense of the company and its clients. Plus, as the article highlights (or perhaps laments...), it doesn't address the companies who haven't taken government money. Wall St. will still pay out lots of money and people are going to wonder why, not realizing that it won't affect people who didn't go to the gov't for help.
In the end though, even a $1B reduction in tax receipts from Wall St. would drastically affect our state budget, so from my view even a modest reduction in executive compensation as a result of this law will result in loss of tax receipts that Albany will find tough to handle at the moment. Can we expect that the law will function in the way it was meant to? Nobody knows. We're already at the point where our state government is using a $600+ SUNY tuition increase solely to close a $1.7B state budget gap, which by the way has little to do with education and a lot to do with mismanagement.
But the proposal from Obama has no teeth in it what so ever. I have to wonder if it is a warning shot, appealing to these fat cats basic survival instinct to not be such fucking dicks with our money.
:::link:::
Shareholders have a say in bonuses above the cap amount and there's not limits on what they can reward. And it doesn't apply to the 350 institutions that already applied for bailout funds.
It seems like it might take time to see just how much of an impact it will have on the NY state budget. But I hear ya on the budget. See what you have first, then budget accordingly. Basic budgeting 101.