The Big Dance, A.I.G. and killings in Chicago
If you’re reading this, you probably check this blog at least semi-regularly for updates. You’ve noticed, then, that I haven’t been making many as of late. I’ve been drowning in work and blah blah blah, plus I know that my previous post about LeBron James causes at least one person to come unhinged, so there’s that. In any case, thanks for reading. I’m greatly appreciative and will try to post more frequently.
How ’bout them Blue Devils, son?! 2009 ACC Champion Duke Blue Devils sounds agout right. Barring serious injury to the starting five for Louisville, Pitt, UConn and unc, Duke isn’t going to win the national championship, but as long as unc loses, and they will, that counts as a win in my book.
After speaking to a certain Homie, I filled out my first-ever NCAA bracket. I’ve got Duke advancing to the Sweet 16 and then losing to Villanova, with UConn besting unc to win it all. Duke is a solid big man away from being a championship team, but Coach K builds, rather than recruits, stars, so it may be a while longer before another one of his teams goes all the way. I’ll wait.
What is the story with A.I.G.? According to Keith Olbermann, the AP reported last night that President Obama knew about the $165 million in bonuses it’s paying as early as last Thursday, the day before he told Americans to be bullish and upbeat about the economy.
I hope the AP has it wrong, but in any case, the bonuses aren’t Obama’s doing. Whether or not he knew about them last week, what could he have done? He’s President Obama, not Omnipotent Obama. If an argument could be made that any one person outside of A.I.G. is responsible for the bonuses, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D - CONN.) comes to mind. From the New York Times article:
The administration official said the Treasury Department did its own legal analysis and concluded that those contracts could not be broken. The official noted that even a provision recently pushed through Congress by Senator Christopher J. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, had an exemption for such bonus agreements already in place.
So, what next? Taxing individual bonus checks at 91 percent, a number I heard being bandied about, sounds great but it probably isn’t legal. Short of penalizing “the best and brightest talent” –make no mistake, they deserve to be penalized– deducting that amount from the $170 billion taxpayer funded corporate welfare check A.I.G. receives seems only fair.
A.I.G. really shouldn’t be a problem for Obama but it is. All the casual observer knows is that Obama is president, he’s out of work or nervous about being laid off and A.I.G. is paying bonuses. In the interest of accuracy, note:
The bonus plan covers 400 employees, and the bonuses range from as little as $1,000 to as much as $6.5 million. Seven executives at the financial products unit were entitled to receive more than $3 million in bonuses.
Being praised during the good times and pilloried during the bad times is what anyone who runs for president bargained for. My sense is that he’s up for the challange, but there can’t be any more A.I.G.s.
It felt like summer in Chicago yesterday. I was able to escape the office at a semi-reasonable time to get out and enjoy the evening, but I’d have been safer staying indoors.
In all, at least ten people were shot and one stabbed in street violence that accompanied springlike 74-degree temperatures.
That’s cause for alarm. Sooner or later, mid-70 temperatures and warmer will be the norm, so what do those of us who aren’t gang-banging, dope-dealings miscreants do?
The Chicago Police Department is in on the verge of imploding, with its superintendant, Jody Weis, receiving a vote of no-confidence from rank and file officers this week.
Greg Bella, third vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, blamed Weis for low morale, poorly staffed districts, lack of cars and a lack of support. The department is in “complete meltdown” and needs a superintendent who has the respect of officers and better knowledge of the Police Department, he said.
Whenever I tell myself that things here can’t get worse they do. With two months left in the ‘08-’09 school year, 28 Chicago Public School students have been killed, eclipsing the previous year’s total. That’s 28 funerals, 28 coffins and 28 burials for 28 children, and 28 different families and friends who have lost someone, a teenager, for no good reason.
I saw a black man being interviewed earlier this week, Monday night I think, about the 28th student to be killed this year. He said it’s time for fathers to tell their sons to put the guns down because, “…it’s not worth it.”
I’m sure he meant well, but that’s too little too late. I wish I knew what enough looked like in this case, but I don’t.