Thursday, November 21, 2013

I will be away for at least two days and have no plans of being on the net during that time.

I hope the Senate debate regarding reforms to protect our soldiers from any sexual assault goes well. The votes are there to pass the Gillibrand amendment and it should be given the dignity of a democratic process.

I hope the US House finds the will to actually pass a Budget with a Debt Ceiling increase, too. They need to concentrate on creating jobs without cutting the national budget. Austerity doesn't work.

And there is an opportunity to turn the 2010 elections around in 2014. The tragedy occurring with Middle Class since 2010 is a crime. It certainly isn't American. So, with 38 states having Gubernatorial elections in 2014, we can turn the assault on the Middle Class around at the state level. I think that is the real challenge of the Democratic Party. The House seats are important, but, until gerrymandering can be overcome there are a few seats that are sincerely available for Democratic gains.

I hope some of the ideas on the blog make you smile and certainly make you think.

Until later....

Seven years in preparation, a major accomplishment for this zoo.

The Colorado DNC needs to start lawsuits against those seeking to destabilize the Colorado State Government.

November 14, 2013 10:47 PM

While Colorado politics (click here) have inspired its fair share of hard fought and down right dirty races, by national standards, we play pretty fair. Whenever I’ve figured that I’ve seen it all in a Colorado election, a non-Colorado native quickly reminds me that politics is a game played at a far dirtier level in other cities, usually out east....

...Obviously, the Hudak recall effort represents much higher stakes considering the results of the recalls of John Morse and Angela Giron. Not only is success more likely in a competitive district like Hudak’s, but the balance of power in the Colorado Senate is at stake....

...So by that theory, if major balance of power issues are at risk, then do the gloves come off at this level? If so, this may become the new normal for Colorado politics....

How to destroy a Middle Class in a few easy steps.

TUESDAY OCT 22, 2013 2:50 PM
BY MICHELLE CHEN

...Since Bain took over (click here) in 2007, workers say, labor conditions on the sales floor have eroded under a pay structure based on commissions. According to employees, because base pay has started as low as $7.25 an hour, often without paid vacation or sick days, these commissions constitute a major portion of workers’ income. But this commission on sales kicks in only after reaching a certain minimum threshold—a system known as "fading." Another major frustration for workers has been a lack of autonomy; they say non-sales duties that the Bain management has heaped on them detract from cultivating sales clients. Moreover, a relatively flat wage structure means workers who work their way up the management chain do not receive comparable pay increases....



Musical executives.

By Bloomberg News
November 19, 2013 at 3:45 PM
updated November 19, 2013 at 4:10 PM

Prudential Financial, (click here) the second-largest U.S. life insurer, hired Robert Cignarella as co-head of global leveraged finance from Goldman Sachs Group.
Cignarella will join in January and help oversee more than $33 billion, including bank loans and high-yield bonds in the U.S. and Europe, the Newark-based company said today in a statement. He’ll work with Paul Appleby, a managing director and the current head of Prudential Fixed Income’s leveraged finance team.
“Rob’s more than 20 years of experience and insight in leveraged finance will be a valuable addition in leading our investment management efforts,” Appleby said in the statement.
Chief Executive Officer John Strangfeld, 59, is bolstering Prudential’s asset-management businesses to expand fee income, a strategy also pursued by rivals including MetLife and Principal Financial Group. Prudential Fixed Income had about $397 billion in assets under management as of Sept. 30, compared with $232 billion at the end of 2009.


What? Not Bain Capital?

By Devin Banerjee & Ian Katz - Nov 17, 2013 11:28 AM ET
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (click here) is joining private-equity firm Warburg PincusLLC after a quarter-century career in public service that was capped by his oversight of financial crisis rescues of Wall Street banks and General Motors Corp.
Geithner, 52, will become president at the New York-based buyout firm starting March 1 and help manage the company, its investment funds and client communications, Warburg Pincus said yesterday in a statement. He will work with Chip Kaye and Joe Landy, who have led the firm since 2000 and this year began sharing the title of co-chief executive officer....


By Devin Banerjee - Nov 7, 2013 7:30 AM ET
Warburg Pincus LLC said Scott Arenare, (click here) who joined the private-equity firm as general counsel in 1998, is leaving for a new business opportunity....
 ..Arenare was a member of Warburg Pincus’s executive-management group, (click here) focusing on legal, regulatory and compliance matters, according to a biography on the firm’s website.
Arenare’s tenure “spanned both the strong growth of our firm globally and an era of great change in the private-equity business,” Chip Kaye, Warburg Pincus’s co-chief executive officer, said in the statement.
Warburg Pincus, founded in 1966, oversees about $35 billion in assets and owns stakes in more than 125 companies. Kewsong Lee, a veteran deal maker who had been at Warburg for 21 years, was hired earlier this week as deputy chief investment officer at Carlyle Group LP (CG), where he will report to co-founder Bill Conway.


November 18, 2013 12:32 PM ET

Mr. Scott A. Arenare (click here) is currently on the Board of the Law Alumni Association. He was a Managing Director and General Counsel at Warburg Pincus LLC since 1998. Mr. Arenare spent 15 years at the firm. He joined the firm in 1998 and focused on legal, regulatory and compliance matters. Previously, Mr. Arenare served as a General Counsel at the firm and coordinated legal and administrative matters for the firm. Prior to this, he was an Attorney in the Corporate and Securities Law department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York. Mr. Arenare served on the Editorial Board of the Duke Law Journal and is currently on the Board of Visitors. He also holds a J.D. degree from the Duke University School of Law (Mr. Scott A. Arenare '89). Mr. Arenare holds a B.A. degree in Political Science, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.

One of President Obama's least noticed accomplishments.

Daniel Scherzer, an emergency medicine physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, explains proper EpiPen use to a group of students.

...The law, (click here) which President Barack Obama signed Wednesday, provides financial incentives for states to pass laws allowing schools to stock epinephrine and treat children who do not have a prescription for the drug. States with such laws on the books will now be eligible for grants to stock their schools with EpiPens or other forms of injectable epinephrine, Denny said....

Beagle says only three polar bear cubs next year.



Baby's First Steps at the National Zoo of the 3 month old Panda cub.

The movement to stop the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement is taking shape.

Kindly remember, early this year or last President Bush made a major speech about the US military's change in focus to the Pacific theater. That decision was make in 2008 before Bush left office.

Pacific Rim » (click here) Representatives from 12 nations begin new round of negotiations over free-trade deal at Salt Lake City’s Grand America.

First Published Nov 19 2013 02:33 pm 
Last Updated Nov 19 2013 09:54 pm

...The talks were closed.

And that concerns critics most of all as parties from the Trans-Pacific Partnership launched a 19th round of negotiations — this time in Utah — in search of a sweeping free-trade agreement.
Tuesday’s rally, organized by a coalition called the Citizens Trade Campaign, of Washington, D.C., drew 100 or so protesters, who allege that the high-level talks have been conducted behind closed doors with only multinational corporations given access to proposed provisions.
Carol Guthrie, senior adviser for media affairs of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is negotiating for the United States, said participation by outside groups has been much greater than protesters claim....