CEO insanity

Many Banks paid out more money in bonuses than they made all thanks to government TARP money.

For example: "Goldman Sachs, for instance earned $US2.3 billion, paid out $US4.8 billion in bonuses and received $US10 billion in TARP funding, while JP Morgan Chase earned $US5.6 billion, paid $8.69 billion in bonuses and received $25 billion in TARP funding" http://www.usfst.com/Bonuses-break-the-bank/

Here's another article about the crazy large CEO salaries and bonuses that have no correlation with reality. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/08/14/ceo-salaries-pay-no-heed-to-recession/

Why Isn't the Government Doing Something Useful?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/26/climate-change-bill-may-h_n_221564.html

The House version of the "Let's Tax the Poor By Making Them Pay More For Things Like Electricity" more commonly refered to as the "Climate Change" Bill passed today.

I wonder when the government will get around to doing something useful or beneficial, instead of like today where the House passed a bill that will hurt Americans. They talk about this being good for the environment, but they ignore the science. Since President Obama was lobbing for this crazy bill, he can't be counted on to veto it, so the Senate is our only hope at sanity! Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant! But it never seems to matter how many times I explain it or how eloquently I speak. I'm surrounded by parrots who squawk really loud. :(

Remember kids, positive reinforcement works so much better than negative. I thought the cash for trading in an old car for new with better fuel economy was a good idea. It's too bad my old car isn't old enough or gass guzzleing enough for the deal though.

Please write to your Senators and explain to them just how crappy this bill is and that you don't want your electric bill to get bigger than it already is.

There Is No Such Thing As Too Big Too Fail

So, the government decides to bail out AIG and look what they do with the money! Although, with what Chris Dodd put into the bill, I'm sure they knew AIG would do this.

http://www.eransworld.com/my-rants/american-international-group-aig-10-wanted-fugitives/

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/11/earlyshow/main4661900.shtml?source=mostpop_story

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/21/aig.bonuses/index.html

This is just disgusting. They should have let AIG go bankrupt and deal with it from there.

CSPIA: One Year Stay For Testing

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09115.html

Good news for artisans of children's items. The CPSC has granted a one year stay for testing. The Feb 10 deadline was fast approaching, and this give a bit of breathing room. Now they need to figure out some worthwhile exceptions to this crazy law. Where on Earth did they come up with the idea that blue yarn + purple yarn = DEADLY LEAD ??? Last I checked, alchemy doesn't work.

While I agree that some products need testing. They went about this all wrong. They should require testing from the problem toy companies, not the artists and crafters already making safe toys and children's items!

CPSIA Gets a Little Attention

I have read so many great articles/posts and seen videos about this horrible law that explain it better than I could, so I want to highlight a few of them.

This affects way more people than many realize: not just parents, and creators of handmade children's products, but readers, store owners, teachers, librarians, environmentalists, toy collectors, and the American and World economies as a whole. Small business are important!

Read the mess here: http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

Handmade Toy Alliance
http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/

Here's an article in Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/16/cpsia-safety-toys-oped-cx_wo_0116olson.html

Some news stories about CPSIA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvKFFvw2Nds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjwNu7w2BSQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87UduX5S6E0

Mr. Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RT8MFgvyhw

Video Blogger
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIOwYFv-QA0

And the Bloggers
http://joeyandaleethea.typepad.com/blog/2008/12/cpsia-of-2008.html
http://magdalenejewelsblogs.blogspot.com/2008/12/carnival-atrocities-of-cpsia.html
http://ellebelleblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/did-you-know.html
http://sewitsforyou.blogspot.com/2008/12/cpsia-law-100th-post.html
http://madebymelissa.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-is-cpsia-all-about.html

Thank you Ron Paul for voting against this horrible bill. To everyone who voted for this: shame on you and, and pull your heads out of your asses and fix this law!

Change.org

http://www.change.org/

I checked out this site the other day. It's a pretty cool idea. People vote on what issues they think are the most important. There will be two rounds of voting. First to get the top ideas in each category, and then to get the top 10 ideas overall.

From Change.org :
"The "Top 10 Ideas for America" will be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day. We will then build a national campaign to advance each idea in Congress, marshaling the resources of Change.org, MySpace, and our dozens of partner organizations and millions of combined members."

There are all sorts of ideas on the site, some more important than others and some overlapping.

You do have to create a sign it, but I had fun browsing through all the ideas and voting. I hope that they can get these ideas heard.