Obama's Masterstroke: Eliminating Income Tax For 22 Million Seniors

The Economy, Stupid

A few days back Barack Obama came along with a refreshing list of tweaks he would apply to the tax code. He would simplify things. For most people who just hold a job and do the standard W2 form thing, the IRS will fill out your form for you. Now that is service. Not exactly most people's idea of a government service.

The clincher though was sending 22 million seniors who make less than 50,000 bucks a year to the tax Bahamas. No income tax for them. So April would mean good weather rather than taxes to them.

Hillary leads among people 60 and older by a rather wide margin. These are people who actually lived segregation. To them blacks going to the same beaches is progress. To me it is a boring detail. Who gives a f___!

Hillary is their choice by default. If it were between Obama and Edwards, they would have gone for the clean cut white boy Edwards. These are the same people who less than a decade back in surveys might have said, we elected Bill Clinton, why is that woman making policy?

But, like Bloomberg says, money talks. You can bribe them. You send them to the tax Bahamas.

Simplifying The Tax Code

It is long overdue. It is a prerequisite for the information age.

Vision

John Edwards Also Climbed Mount Everest




Bill Clinton Is Still Relevant
John Edwards, Voucher Man, Is A Republican

Edwards said in his recent Iowa debate that he took the lead on health care and everyone else is merely following. His ever handy wife goes one step further. She basically accused Hillary of having plagiarized the Edwards plan from months back.

The ideas for universal health care have preceded everyone running for president today. There are multiple good ideas out there. The question is not who has a plan, but who can actually execute it.

Barack Obama has the strength and the judgment to execute.

Barack: Strength And Judgment

Hillary's Millions

The Clintons have made so many millions over the past few years that they have lost touch with reality, or at least the reality of those in the lower income brackets. How else would Hillary come up with the idea of mandating health insurance?

Mandating Health Insurance: The Poor Have Too Much Money

In The News

Last of 'Jena 6' could be freed on Friday CNN
Simpson Arrest Stirs Debate over Celebrity Justice NPR
PROTEST | Obama's absence noted as no-trespassing signs ... Chicago Sun-Times
Obama rallies supporters at Atlanta event Atlanta Journal Constitution a U.S. Senate vote to condemn the MoveOn.org newspaper ad that attacked Gen. David Petraeus .... The Senate on Thursday approved the Republican-sponsored resolution, 72 to 25. ..... at a $25-a-head event at the Georgia World Congress Center that organizers said drew 2,200 supporters. A $1,000-per-person, private event followed. ...... six black teenagers initially charged with attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate. ..... Obama declared he was "puzzled at how on earth a schoolyard fight" could cause prosecutors to level murder charges. ....... Obama still enjoys a rock-star status among many who attended — and raised their cellphones to snap photos as soon as he stepped on-stage. ....... "He's a man of change, excitement. He's shown America if you make the right choices, you can be president," said Mary Soley of Atlanta. ..... In April, Obama drew an estimated 20,000 people when he spoke outdoors on the Georgia Tech campus.
Poll: Clinton's lead grows, Thompson tops Giuliani One-third (32%) of those who say they will vote in a Republican primary or caucus will vote for Thompson while 28 percent will vote for Giuliani. ...... (46%) of those who would vote in a Democratic primary or caucus would vote for the former First Lady while one-quarter (25%) would vote for Illinois Senator Barack Obama ........ Obama does better than Senator Clinton among Echo Boomers (those aged 18 to 29). While 42 percent of this youngest generation will vote for him, 37 percent will vote for her. ...... in the age group that is most likely to actually vote, Matures (those 61 and older), Senator Clinton leads Senator Obama by a very wide margin (56% versus 16%). In fact, one in five Matures (21%) will vote for John Edwards, so he is ahead of Senator Obama ....... Among Matures, the lead is greater - 44 percent will vote for Thompson and 16 percent will vote for Giuliani. ...... three-quarters of Democrats (76%) would consider Hillary Clinton while over half (58%) would consider Barack Obama and just under half (48%) would consider Al Gore. Among Independents, it's a tie as 35 percent would consider Hillary Clinton and 34 percent would consider Barack Obama. ...... 39 percent of Republicans would consider former Secretary of State Colin Powell and 34 percent would consider current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ....... On the Democratic side, it appears that the race really is Hillary Clinton's to lose at this point as her ever expanding lead is now at 21 percent.
The Dark Side of Hillary Clinton's Health Care Plan FOX News 2005, Hillary co-sponsored legislation in the United States Senate to offer free health insurance, under the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to the children of illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States for five years. ....... 50,000,000 uninsured Americans, more than one fifth of those are illegal immigrants. ........ her plan would turn "insurance" into "subsidy." ..... a cash transfer from the healthy to the sick ..... The bulk of the uninsured do not want to have to pay for insurance. They are healthy and don't want the added burden of health insurance. ..... leaves out any attempt at cost control. With health care absorbing 16 percent of our economy, Bill Clinton's warnings of economic disaster if its share of our national income passed 12 percent back in 1993 sound almost quaint today. ........ The current Congress is passing legislation to raise cigarette taxes 61 cents per pack to pay for a $35 billion expansion of the State Child Health Insurance Program. Why not raise them $2 per pack to raise the $110 billion Hillary says her health care proposal will need? ....... "I have a plan that is 100 percent my plan." ..... understanding of what it takes to get things done in our political system
Clinton, Edwards Spar Over Lobbyists, Health Care at Debate Bloomberg ``Fifteen years ago, I was advocating for universal health care,'' Clinton, 59, said. ``It was kind of lonely back then. And I never gave up.'' ....... Obama, 46, didn't attend. .... Hedge funds ``essentially bought up these mortgages,'' Biden said. ``They're the ones going out and collecting on them. No one knew they owned all these things.'' ...... mortgage lenders ``are not regulated; they become loan sharks.'' ..... ``We have in all of our states a system whereby if someone takes someone into a foster home they get paid for it,'' Biden said. People who struggle financially to take care of their parents at home should be compensated in the same way, he said. ..... creating markets for selling lower-cost policies. ...... ``Six, seven months later, Senator Clinton came out with a plan that is very similar to mine,'' Edwards said.
Gop Targets Clinton, Obama Over Ad Vote Guardian Unlimited
Calif Poll Shows Clinton, Giuliani Ahead The Associated Press Hillary Clinton 41 percent Barack Obama 23 percent
Democratic Candidates Play to an Older Crowd New York Times “This is a system that, unfortunately, makes a lot of money for a lot of people.” ..... improved preventive care, especially for diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. ....... similarities in the candidates’ health care plans. “It’s not the plan,” he said. “It’s the man or the woman pushing the plan.” ...... their own mothers live with them. .... Iowa Public Television and AARP, which says it represents nearly 39 million older Americans. ..... a “senior town hall” Friday afternoon in Ames
Columbia Won't Cancel Ahmadinejad Speech The Associated Press
Bloomberg Won’t Listen to Ahmadinejad New York Times
Google's Stock Price Soars to New High The Associated Press as it introduces new ways for advertisers to reach its steadily expanding online audience. ...... market value of almost $175 billion, more than long-established technology bellwethers like Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp. ..... runs the largest advertising network on the world's hottest marketing medium, the Internet. ....... In August, Google handled 54 percent of all U.S. search requests, up 50 percent at the same time last year .... Yahoo lagged well behind at 20 percent followed by Microsoft at 13 percent. ....... video ads on its subsidiary, YouTube .... dramatically increased the number of ads distributed to mobile phones and unveiled a system for displaying ads on "widgets" — mini-applications that are embedded on Web pages. ...... Google's price-to-earnings multiple — a widely used yardstick for appraising publicly held companies — now stands at 37 times its estimated earnings for this year. ..... Google shares will soon surpass $600.
Has Google actually read US v. Microsoft CNET News.com So what is really going on in Google's collective mind? ..... First, Google and Microsoft are colliding as the tech world evolves, so disrupting Microsoft's plans is its own reward. ...... force Microsoft to do it in the name of "fostering competition." ..... as of 1985, two dozen alternatives to MS-DOS were offered by more than 20 vendors, many of them bigger than Microsoft. Microsoft won by being the best at meeting the needs of consumers and developers. ....... Navigator and Java were singled out as examples of middleware. ...... close enough for government work ..... Each new PC contains an average of 35 pre-installed non-Microsoft programs, and in four out of five middleware categories non-Microsoft products outstrip those from Microsoft. ...... The iPod has given Apple new pizzazz. ...... If Google were interested in promoting a competitive desktop operating system, it could create one or it could throw its weight behind Linux. ..... Perhaps antitrust fans can anticipate a U.S. v. Google
Intel Says WiMax Is Coming Next Year — This Time for Sure Wired News If it's small and mobile, Intel wants to put a chip in it. The lumbering rectangular towers we so often refer to as PCs have become passé ..... are increasingly taking a back seat to a new breed of laptops, ultramobile PCs, mobile internet devices and cell phones. .... Montevina, which will become the company's next-generation Centrino mobile platform, is based on Intel's 45-nanometer fabrication technology. It will support things like DDR3 memory, Blu-ray and HD-DVD playback, as well as an integrated Wi-Fi/WiMax module the company calls Echo Peak. ...... the standard known as Mobile WiMax (IEEE 802.16e). ..... the same WiMax you've been hearing about -- but not seeing -- for close to five years now. ...... "150 million [people] will be covered [by WiMax] in 2008, 750 million in 2010 and 1.3 billion in 2012." ...... "We are on the cusp of a new global network, seamlessly integrated around the globe, to go into these ultramobile devices," Otellini said. ..... you'll have the same kind of broadband experience you're accustomed to at home (on your PC), but wherever you go, whatever you're doing, and without wires ..... "will change the paradigm for mobile devices." ..... (bandwidth) is going to inspire all kinds of new applications and architectures ... that will leverage all the information in the cloud ......... cultivate an ecosystem around the wireless technology, the company finally believes WiMax is ready to move into the public domain.
Education 2.0: The College Student's Guide to File Sharing File Sharing 101.
Intel WiMax/satellite combo could bring Internet to remote regions EETimes.com Intel notched a significant victory, this week, in the drive to bring connectivity to chronically underserved pockets of the world, when it announced it had successfully used a combination of WiMax and a geosynchronous satellite to beam wireless broadband to one of the most remote corners of Vietnam. ....... Ta Van, a village in mountainous northern Vietnam near the border with China. It set up a 3.3GHz WiMax base station that receives a spot beam from the IPSTAR satellite and distributes it throughout the village via an omni-directional antenna. ...... with 2Mbps downlink and a 512Kps uplink Internet access, paving the way for voice-over-Internet protocol and other data services. ...... "the combination of satellite and WiMax as a proven, reliable, cost-effective way" to help them tap into the knowledge economy. ...... Intel spokesman Nick Jacobs told EE Times it would "encourage governments in emerging markets . . . to look closely at this as a means to connect their people to opportunity." ...... The IPSTAR satellite, operated by Thailand's Shin Satellite, is the world's largest broadband satellite, which currently has a footprint covering 14 Asia-Pacific countries, including Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Australia and New Zealand. ..... $25 per end user connection per month, and could also bring in revenues by allowing communities to set up businesses, such as Internet cafes for tourists.
Google files for EU OK to takeover ad tracker DoubleClick Malaysia Star New York-based DoubleClick helps its customers place and track online advertising, including search ads .... Google already has a 90 percent share of the German search market, with the same in Spain and slightly less in France and Britain
I seriously want to do TV again: Amitabh Bachchan SantaBanta.com The bustle in his career just refuses to disperse. Amitabh Bachchan is to the entertainment business what the Rolls Royce is to the automobile indust. ....... he had the whole of Toronto ..... Barely 3 days later he rushed to Delhi to collect his National award—"before they change their mind," he joked ...... They say it's a big deal to be in the 'Master's Section', to be invited to the 'Gala' and the 'red carpet'. ..... the standing 15-min ovation. ..... An audience that was cynical and very un- complimentary till date. It's wonderful to see the scenario change. To find everyone conversant and appreciative of our films and our country. ...... To find the locals as awestruck with our stars as they are with a Brad Pitt-Angelina-George Clooney-Matt Damon. .... Its all happening. And bigger things will follow. ...... Shakespeare is a universal entity .... So just because William was British it doesn't mean we cannot study or appreciate or play parts from his plays. ...... Recognition in whatever form is so necessary and important for creative people and when it comes from the highest authority in the country it brings with it that added prestige and relevance. ....... I read intermittently the 25 scripts that lie with me for approval. .... I want to do it all ! But there is limited time. ..... Much above all this is the concern for my Mother's health. Its over a year and a half in hospital in that same critical condition for her. Nothing is of any value with her in this state.
'Playing only romantic leads limits you' Rediff his performance as an eccentric and often cantankerous retired Shakespearean stage actor ..... Bachchan, who plays an actor for the first time in his career .... the film was 'partially made to honour superstar Amitabh Bachchan -- incredible in his first primarily English-lingo pic.' ..... The Toronto Star ran an interview with Bachchan making it the lead in the arts section. .... "So far, my career has been very commercial escapist cinema. In my younger years, I was only playing romantic leads but it limits you. You have to be good-looking, have an interest in a good-looking girl, convince her father to let you marry her and beat the baddies, but that's about it. As you grow older, there's more variety in the roles that are offered and definitely, it becomes more challenging. I can only be grateful to the directors in India who at this stage, of my career still come up with challenging roles for me." ..... featuring Zinta as an actress who's jealous and insecure husband makes her life hell ..... You see him in flowing grey tresses and spectacles. You will also see him often in a foul mood. .... some really funny scenes ..... an emotional sequence when he goes down on his knees begging Siddharth to let him do a scene without using a double or a stuntman. ..... Bachchan, who is fully drunk in the scene, switches on for a few minutes to Bengali. ..... "So in a very crucial and vulnerable moment, he speaks in Bengali." ..... I lost sleep; there were butterflies in my stomach. And that is how it should be. ...... "And when I began working on the script, I could think only of Bachchan. It did not even occur to me he might say, 'no.' .... "In school, like many people I had come to appreciate Shakespeare deeply but I also felt he was a pain in the ass," he continues, smiling broadly. "My association with Shakespeare is not confined to my schooling in the English medium schools. Babuji (father Harivansh Bachchan) translated four of Shakespeare's tragedies including King Lear. So on many levels, working on this film was a precious experience." ..... tutors her to use her lung power to let her voice soar across a valley but without sounding like she was yelling. ..... He spent over a month shooting for the film in Kolkata where he had started working for shipping company before heading to Mumbai to look for acting jobs in the 1960s. .... Bachchan's presence in the city created near chaos as thousands of fans tried to get a glimpse of him. ..... his wife Jaya is from Kolkata."
Tech tycoons dominate US rich list Sydney Morning Herald Gates is the richest person in America for the 14th year in a row. ..... Gates' fortune grew by $US6 billion in the past year to $US59 billion ..... Gates was one of 34 rich list members - all of them men - who made their money in a technology-related area. Five of them appear in the top ten. ..... was recently overtaken as the world's richest man by Mexican telecom billionaire Carlos Slim. ..... Software tycoon Larry Ellison ($US26b), chief executive of Oracle Corp, remains No 4 ..... Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page came in at No 5 with fortunes of $US18.5 billion. They are also jointly the second-youngest billionaires on the list. ....... five Google billionaires made the Forbes list. The others are Google CEO Eric Schmidt (No 48, $US6.5b), the head of sales and business development Omid Kordestani (No 204, $US2.2b) and Kavitark Shriram (No 271, $US1.8b), a board member who was an early investor in the company. ...... Michael Dell .... America's 8th richest, with a fortune of $US17.2 billion. .... Apple co-founder Steve Jobs (No 56, $US5.7b), eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (No 32, $US8.9b), Intel founder Gordon Moore (No 68, $US4.5b) and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (no 35, $US8.7b).
Number of uninsured is rising Cincinnati Post The number of people without health insurance continues to rise in Ohio and Kentucky, costing both states billions of dollars a year ..... of all residents under the age of 65, 29 percent of Ohioans and 31 percent of Kentuckians went without health insurance for at least a month between 2006 and 2007. .... about 89 million people nationwide were uninsured for at least a month during the past two years, more than 1 in 3 Americans under the age of 65. ...... a combination of higher insurance premiums that have pushed many small businesses to no longer provide insurance for their employees, a labor market more skewed toward the service industry and under-funded programs like Medicaid that should serve as a safety net. ...... The dwindling of the local manufacturing and coal industries forced workers from secure jobs with better health care into service industry jobs that rarely provide benefits ...... "Nobody chooses to go without health insurance," she said. .... when people cannot visit a physician, minor medical problems can turn much worse, resulting in lengthy hospital stays and steep bills and cost the uninsured and the state upwards of $3.5 billion. It's estimated that businesses lost an additional $2 billion in productivity in 2006 from employees missing work for conditions that a visit to a doctor could have prevented. ..... it would be cheaper to just provide basic health insurance for Ohioans, in addition to Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program. ..... extend coverage to nearly all Americans, either through public-private partnerships, the creation of new tax breaks or establishment of a national public insurance program.
Gulf Coast under tropical storm warning CNN
NBC to Offer Free Episode Downloads The Associated Press The file will contain embedded advertising that cannot be skipped. .... Seven days after the episode's TV debut, the digital file will expire. ..... now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consumer their favorite entertainment ..... "Life," "Bionic Woman," "30 Rock," "Friday Night Lights," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Barack's Mother Makes An Appearance

Barack Has To Talk Much About His Mother

This is a great move. This humanizes the candidate. Obama campaign staffers and volunteers might not realize this, but most of America does not know Barack Obama. A few months into 1992, most Americans thought Bill Clinton had a rich father. They confused him with Jack Kennedy in more ways than one.

I would not be surprised if many voters start out by confusing Obama with Jesse Jackson. They might not realize he is biracial. They might think he is from the South.

Most of America does not know the basic facts about Barack Obama's life. That just is the fact the campaign has to deal with. That does not have to be our end point, but that is the starting point, we like it or not.

The American people have got to know you as a person before they will vote for you.

After Howard Dean's I Have A Scream speech in Iowa, his wife was out on television saying how Howard Dean simply never, never gets angry. She did not remember the last time he got angry. That was the truth about Howard Dean. But to this day a large chunk of America thinks Howard Dean is some crazed guy, if not wholly, then partly, if not all the time, then part of the time.

They might not be able to demonize you, but curious things can work against you. You can end up looking too bookish and smart. The guy went to Harvard, after all. That is not necessarily a good thing in everyone's book. He went to Harvard, and he taught at Chicago. That can be a double negative.

Why is Hillary beating Obama in the lower income brackets? You got to think. His Columbia, Harvard, Chicago stuff - glad that we are that they are there - has to be balanced out with Indonesia and the South Side.

Life story and policy have to go hand in hand.

Barack Obama can better tackle the war on terror because he has spent some years of childhood in Indonesia. Anti-terror policy is good, but spicing it up with his life story makes it more palatable.



Race

Frankly it is also about race. Barack's mother was white. He is biracial. He can not be anything else. He can not be only white, or only black. The reason I know my first language so well is because that is what I grew up around. Similarly Barack grew up around his white mother and white grandparents. His biologically defining experiences have been white.

The politics of race is there. And Barack transcends that with his political style.

Barack's mother has to be talked about not because she is white, but because she is the mother Barack knew. That mother impressioned him more than anyone else. And that story has to be told.

In telling the story of that mother, you make the candidate come alive.



Story, Policy

Stories have to be told. Stories from Barack's life. But also other stories. Like the story from South Carolina of "Fired Up!" and "Ready To Go!" The people need narratives to better understand the policy.

The weaving of story with policy has to be constant.

You tell stories, you talk policy. The two go together.



In The News

Obama uses mom's image in new ad Chicago Tribune Debuting his second new television ad in Iowa this week, Sen. Barack Obama is using an image of his deceased mother to try to make the case that he is the best qualified to bring change to the way the nation delivers health care. Called "Mother," the 30-second ad briefly shows a picture of Stanley Ann Dunham, who died at 53 of ovarian cancer in 1995. In her arms is a young Obama. Scheduled to start Friday, the ad arrives during a week in which Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) has received extensive coverage for unveiling her health-care proposal. "To fix health care, we have to fix Washington," Obama says in the ad, after explaining that his mother spent her final months "more worried about paying her medical bills than getting well." It's an anecdote Obama had been recently field-testing on the campaign trail. "She wasn't thinking about coming to terms with her own mortality," he said in Santa Barbara, Calif. "She had been diagnosed just as she was transitioning between jobs. And she wasn't sure whether insurance was going to cover the medical expenses because they might consider this a pre-existing condition. I remember just being heartbroken, seeing her struggle through the paperwork and the medical bills and the insurance forms. So, I have seen what it's like when somebody you love is suffering because of a broken health-care system. And it's wrong. It's not who we are as a people." In the ad, Obama promises a health-care plan that will "cover everyone."
Obama Cites Mother's Illness in New Ad The Associated Press
Obama Cites Mother's Illness in New Ad The Associated Press
Obama's mother in new ad Baltimore Sun, United States

Not Allowing President Of Iran To Visit World Trade Center Is A Mistake

40% or more of Republicans to this day believe it was Saddam who was behind 9/11. That just is not true. It was Bin Laden. Saddam and Bin Laden did not like each other. Bin Laden always fantasized about toppling Saddam and erecting an Islamist regime in Iraq, like everywhere else. That is not any way to get along with a dictator.

But Bush-Cheney peddled the lie hard and that is how the war on Iraq was launched.

Ahmadinejad might not be a nice guy, but he also had nothing to do with 9/11. Like they say, just the facts, mam.

The CIA toppled a democratic regime in Iran and put in place a monarchy. That started the bad blood between the two peoples. The US backed Saddam to the hilt during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, just like it backed Bin Laden during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

I am for democracy, and Ahmadinejad, although an elected leader, is only partly elected. There is this supreme council of hard core mullahs in Iran. Only those candidates approved by those mullahs get to run for president. But that still makes Ahmadinejad one step ahead of the Saudi king, Mubarak and Gaddafi.

And I don't see the nuclear crisis in black and white. If all the poor countries of the world were to want to grow at 10% a year as they should, there is no option but to harness nuclear energy to the hilt. And so there is a need to have a strong international body that will apply uniformly across the globe standards that all nuclear power plants including those in the US and France and Russia and China and elsewhere would have to meet if they can be allowed to operate, and that in a framework of a total nuclear disarmament, a goal that gets complicated by not all states being democracies. Perhaps the conversion to democracy will have to happen first. But there is no postponing the energy part.

The Energy Solution: Nuclear Energy

It is tough for women in Iran like in all the other Muslim countries. And Ahmadinejad will have to take some responsibility.

But this is not about analyzing the Iranian president or his country.

The state of Iran had nothing to do with 9/11. And that is reason enough to not bar this guy from going to visit the World Trade Center. He wants to go pay homage.

He might be responding to Obama's call that he will, as president, hold direct talks with the president of Iran. Reagan talked to Gorbachev, Kennedy talked to Khrushchev, Obama will talk to Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad responded by wanting to visit the World Trade Center. He wanted to send a message out directly to the American people that he feels their pain, that he is on their side, even though it has been impossible for him to talk to the leadership that just does not believe in dialogue and diplomacy.

This guy should be allowed to talk to the American people and reach out to the American people if he wants to.

Iran is a state with a standing army. America is a state with the most powerful standing army in the world. Ahmadinejad is many things but not stupid. The state of Iran would not get involved with something like 9/11. They did not for a fact. And that fact has to be stated.

There are those who imagine that in the long run Iran and America are going to be two democracies who get along with each other just fine. The two peoples get along just fine. I am one of them. As to how long a wait that will be is anyone's guess right now, but I believe that time span can be shortened through strong, but engaged leadership, an informed leadership that does not peddle the prejudice that it was Saddam and perhaps Ahmadinejad who were behind 9/11. To knowingly fudge the truth on 9/11 is a disrespect to those who died that day.

Like Rice said once, Iran is not Iraq. Well, Ahmadinejad is not Bin Laden.

Just like in America, there is a political spectrum in the Arab world. Bin Laden and the Islamists are the extreme right. They are the Arab KKK. Then there is the right wing. That would be the unelected leaders like the Saudi king, Mubarak, Gaddafi and the all and sundry monarchs. Then there are the semi-elected right wingers like this Iranian guy. You move further to the middle and you meet reformers. Sadly these variants of the right occupy a large chunk of the spectrum leaving little room for democrats and reformers.

To not be able to see the richness of the spectrum is to tie your hands behind your back in the political solutions department. To be able to see the richness gives you the ability to drive wedges between the various segments.

American right wingers also try to demonize China to the hilt. China says it is just a poor country trying to feed its people. Iran is also a poor country. Ultimately they need to get along with America. Deep down that is what they want. So small measures of trust building are a good thing.

The Arab masses were not behind 9/11.

In the mean time Ahmadinejad gets to watch this video of mine that has received more views than any other of the 600 plus videos I have uploaded at Google Video.



Video: World Trade Center

In The News

New York bans 'photo op' visit to Ground Zero by Iran's president Scotsman
Controversy swirls around Iranian leader's visit to New York AFP
Ahmadinejad heads to Columbia in NY Jerusalem Post
Iranian President Says He Will Not Insist on a Ground Zero Visit New York Times, United States Ahmadinejad said he just wanted to pay his respects at the site and was “amazed” by Americans who viewed his plans as insulting. ...... Mr. Pelley: Sir, what were you thinking? The World Trade Center site is the most sensitive place in the American heart, and you must have known that visiting there would be insulting to many, many Americans. Mr. Ahmadinejad: Why should it be insulting? Mr. Ahmadinejad: Well, I’m amazed. Mr. Ahmadinejad: You are representing a media and you’re a reporter. The American nation is made up of 300 million people. There are different points of view over there. ....... Bloomberg said it would be “inappropriate” for the Iranian leader to visit ground zero. .... particularly this guy who has expressed views that I find totally abhorrent” ..... Bloomberg said: “I think who Columbia invites is up to them. That’s what academic institutions do. ..... questions remained over whether the city had the legal authority or practical ability to prevent Mr. Ahmadinejad from going to the publicly accessible areas around the World Trade Center site. ....... But the city has evidently been defining “ground zero” narrowly, as the World Trade Center site itself, which is not open to the public because of the construction under way. ....... The police commissioner said that a visit to ground zero by Mr. Ahmadinejad would “adversely impact” public safety. ...... As the head of his country’s delegation to the United Nations, Mr. Ahmadinejad would ordinarily have the right to move fairly freely within Manhattan. The United States broke off relations with Iran in 1980 during the hostage crisis, but Iranian diplomats at the United Nations are permitted under diplomatic protocols to travel within 25 miles of Columbus Circle. Lower Manhattan is less than 5 miles from Midtown.
Iranian president still wants to visit WTC site Xinhua, China
Iran Spokesman: Ahmadinejad Won't Visit WTC WNBC, NY
Decision 2008: Iran's request has candidates speaking out WPTV, FL
Israel's friends are calling for the arrest of Iran's president in ... Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
Iran Case Shows Ground Zero Access Tight The Associated Press
Ahmadinejad's Ground Zero Ploy TIME The shrill reaction to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's request to visit Ground Zero is playing right into the Iranian President's hands. ..... his power base is made up mainly of Iranians who participated in the 1979 revolution, among whom the loathing of the U.S. runs very deep. Nothing energizes them more than the sight of their leader being excoriated by the hated Americans. ..... When TIME interviewed him last year, we asked if he had visited the site. His response: "It was not necessary. It was widely covered in the media." And he once wrote a letter to President Bush, suggesting that the attacks on the towers were the work of unspecified "intelligence and security services." ...... a transparently political stunt, aimed at the audience back home. ..... New York's tabloids hyperventilated. The Daily News shrieked: "If you even think of setting foot near Ground Zero, you can GO TO HELL!" The paper went on to describe Ahmadinejad as a "madman," and "an enemy of the U.S. in particular and of civilization in general." ...... American politicians — especially presidential hopefuls looking to score easy points — lit into the Iranian President with a candor they rarely show on the campaign trail. "It is unacceptable for [Ahmadinejad], who refuses to renounce and end his own country's support of terrorism, to visit the site of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in our nation's history," said Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani — who was New York City mayor at the time of the attacks — thundered: "This is a man who has made threats against America and Israel, is harboring bin Laden's son and other al-Qaeda leaders, is shipping arms to Iraqi insurgents and is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons." His fellow Republican candidate Mitt Romney described Ahmadinejad's request as "shockingly audacious." ...... It allows him to tell his fellow Iranians: "Look, I tried to be a nice guy, I wanted to lay a wreath on Ground Zero, but these Americans don't appreciate our compassion." And to the conservative mullahs and hard-liners of Iran, Ahmadinejad's stock rises when Americans put him down.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad banned from Ground Zero Times Online, UK
Local outrage over Ahmadinejad WTC request Newsday, NY
Ahmadinejad denied access to Ground Zero The Carpetbagger Report
Columbia University: Ahmadinejad Yes, ROTC No Yahoo! News
Ahmadinejad Is Not Allowed to Visit Ground Zero eFluxMedia
Furore over site visit Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Bush backs decision to reject Iranian leader's Ground Zero visit People's Daily Online, China
New Yorkers Try To Get Audience With Ahmadinejad WCBS-TV New York, NY
Anger as US uni lets Iran's Ahmadinejad speak Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom
University urged to cancel Ahmadinejad speech Reuters
Iranian president's request to visit Ground Zero denied Resident Publications, NY
Ground Zeroout of bounds for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Bolton: Ahmadinejad's Proposed Ground Zero Visit "Nothing But ... National Review Online Blogs, NY
Iranian President Ahmadinejad Can't Go to Ground Zero, But He Will ... Gothamist, NY
STOP Ahmadinejad: Calling 1000's to Ground Zero Monday 10am! Town Hall, DC
New York: Iran's leader can't visit ground zero CNN International
NY nixes Ground Zero visit by Iran's leader USA Today
Iranian President's Visit to Ground Zero Denied FOX News
No way, no how New York Daily News, NY
US Denies Permission To Iranian President For 9/11 Site Visit AHN
New York Police Deny Ahmadinejad Ground Zero Visit (Update1) Bloomberg

Police deny Iran president's visit to Ground Zero Newsday
Nepal PM fails to woo Maoists back into govt Times of India his party would start collecting signatures for a campaign to convene parliament, bring a no-trust motion against Koirala and have two-thirds of the MPs declare Nepal a republic with the abolition of monarchy.
Jackson says Obama 'acting white' on civil rights case Newsday
Edwards' Wife Bashes Clinton Health Plan The Associated Press
Obama Face-to-Camera With Iowa New York Times In Mr. Obama’s successful Senate race in 2004, he heavily utilized the face-to-camera format.
Elizabeth Edwards: Hillary Clinton's health care plan 'remarkably ... Atlanta Journal Constitution

Barack Has To Talk Much About His Mother

Obama 2008 has a big problem. Most of America does not know the guy. Even those who have heard of him do not know the outlines of his life story.

Health care is going to be President Obama's signature achievement.

When you put those two together, it is a no-brainer that Barack Obama needs to be talking about his mother much more than he has. Barack's mother died at the early age of 53 when she was between jobs and lacked health insurance.

The voters need a story, they need a story they can attach the Obama name to.

Bill Clinton sold his life story as much as he sold his policies in 1992, and that campaign was a classic. The story of how his father died before he was born, the story of his drunkard stepfather who fired a gun at his mother in his presence, the shot hit the wall.

You got the humanize the brilliant candidate's awesome policy stands with his life story, otherwise it comes across like you are trying to impress people with the smarts. Policy proposals become more palatable that way.

Barack Obama has a compelling, compelling life story. But he can count on the vast majority of voters not reading his autobiography.

The average voter today says, I don't know the guy. That is the ground reality.

Barack Obama is going to be a global citizen president in a globalized world. This guy is so fortunate for his diverse heritage. This guy grew up white. He is Midwest. He is what they call heartland, and I call hinterland.

Barack Obama - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In The News

Jesse Jackson: Obama needs to bring more attention to Jena 6 CNN International Jackson says Obama "acting like he's white" in Jena case .... Civil rights leader later applauded Obama for "speaking out" on issue ..... Obama hopes prosecutor will "reconsider the excessive charges" ... the arrest of six black juveniles in Jena, Louisiana, on murder charges ..... Obama needs to be "bolder" in his stances if he wants to make inroads in South Carolina. Obama currently trails rival Sen. Hillary Clinton in South Carolina by 18 points .... "If I were a candidate, I'd be all over Jena," the prominent civil rights activist said Tuesday in Columbia, South Carolina, the The State newspaper reports. "Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma was a defining moment." ....... "He has remarkably transcended race, however the impact of Katrina and Jena makes America's unresolved moral dilemma of race unavoidable," he said. " I think Jena is another defining moment of the issue of race and the criminal justice system. This issue requires direct and bold leadership. I commend Sen. Obama for speaking out and demanding fairness on this defining issue. Any attempt to dilute my support for Sen. Obama will not succeed." ..... after a black student asked the vice principal if he and some friends could sit under an oak tree where white students typically congregated. ..... Obama formally released a statement on the case Friday evening after one of the teen's charges was thrown out, saying, "I am pleased that the Louisiana state appeals court recognized that the aggravated battery charge brought in this case was inappropriate." ...... "When nooses are being hung in high schools in the 21st century, it's a tragedy. It shows that we still have a lot of work to do as a nation to heal our racial tensions. This isn't just Jena's problem; it's America's problem." ...... "There is no excuse for the way the legal system treated those young people. ... This case reminds us that the scales of justice are seriously out of balance when it comes to charging, sentencing, and punishing African-Americans." ..... Americans of all races are traveling to Jena because they believe that how we respond to the racial tensions in Jena says everything about who we are as a nation

Yahoo Mash: Playing Catch Up to Facebook and MySpace? PC World So far Yahoo’s social network strategy has been, well, lame. .... Nearly a year ago Yahoo unsuccessfully offered to buy Facebook for $1 billion. It originally tried to get into social networking business with the launch of Yahoo 360. But even by Yahoo standards, it failed. "Yahoo's social-networking service Yahoo 360 hasn't attained the position the company expected ..... calls Mash a "Wikipedia version of a social networking." .... Noticeably missing from Mash is the ability to send a private message to a friend as well as an effective search feature.
Morgan Stanley Profit Tumbles 17 Percent Washington Post the No. 2 U.S. investment bank was hurt by a global credit crisis and spun off its credit-card unit Discover .... the No. 2 U.S. investment bank was forced to write down nearly $1 billion worth of loans amid the summer's global credit crisis. ...... Stronger equity trading and investment banking fees helped drive revenue up to $7.96 billion from $7.06 billion a year earlier. ..... it may just represent the downside of management's much publicized efforts to increase risk levels ...... the second of four investment banks to report results this week. On Tuesday, Lehman posted a decline in profits that was smaller than had been expected. Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns report Thursday.
Alaska Airlines Plans To Provide In-Flight Wireless Broadband Next ... InformationWeek a satellite-based service .... Row 44's satellite-based system can function over land, water, and international borders
Intel WiMAX chips finally on the table New Zealand Herald by the middle of next year. .... 1.3 billion people to be in range of WiMAX wireless broadband networks by 2012, up from 750 million in 2010 and 150 million next year. .... Computer-makers Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Panasonic and Toshiba will embed WiMAX in their laptops, though computer giants Dell and HP are conspicuously absent from the line-up. ..... "WiMAX is less expensive than cellular infrastructure to roll out. ..... new standards such as 802.16J, which allows the range to be extended by using one base station as a relay to the main base station, means that coverage will continue to get even better .... Like New Zealand, Japan is selling radio spectrum in the 2.5GHz band which is likely to attract fierce bidding between established mobile players and new entrants betting on WiMAX.
IDF: Intel Promises WiMax Equipment by Next Year Wired News WiMax will bring "true mobile connectivity." WiMax will be a superior fourth generation network. WiMax will deliver broadband wireless internet service at speeds five times faster than 3G networks. .... With a planned $5 billion dollar build-out by Sprint, a growing ecosystem of WiMax device manufacturers, and some progress on the interoperability and standard fronts, the wireless technology is about to go public in a big way ....... consumers will see WiMax-enabled notebooks in 2008
Sprint Rethinking WiMax Venture Sprint Nextel Corp. is exploring new options for financing its ambitious plan to build a wireless broadband network known as WiMax
Big-name vendors lined up to offer WiMAX laptops Register Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba .... WiMAX, not HSUPA/HSDPA-augmented 3G, is the wireless technology that will bring mobile broadband to the masses.
WiMax Consumer Links Launched As Mainstream Adoption Gets Closer InformationWeek WiMax is expected to take off within the next few years. ..... a Mobile WiMax client device family called MiMax that includes a USB 2.0 device "that turns any laptop into a high performance Mobile WiMax client." The MiMax USB can be deployed worldwide and supports all planned Wave 2 certification profiles from 2.3 GHz to 5.8 GHz.
Verizon Wireless Expands Wireless Broadband Network to Oxford ... CNNMoney.com Oxford is the latest market to be added to the coverage, which is available to more than 210 million people across the country.
Anti-Syria Lawmaker Slain in Lebanon San Francisco Chronicle
Hewlett-Packard to install AOL services on PCs CNNMoney.com AOL said the portal will be set as the default homepage, and the toolbar and search will have default settings in various countries worldwide. All three features will be jointly branded.
Intel goes full speed on chip development San Jose Mercury News fresh evidence Intel has picked up the pace of technological development to the detriment of AMD. The new generation of plants will create circuits that are 45 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, wide, allowing chips to run faster and use less energy. ...... "Intel's strength is focusing on a goal and going like a bat out of hell." ..... "There really are some fundamental limits," said Moore, who suggested the limits may be reached within 10 or 15 years. "We will hit something that is fundamental.
Intel to ship next generation chips in November Xinhua
Intel Ups Performance, Lowers Power Use In Upcoming Mobile Chips InformationWeek Enabling smaller, faster mobile devices is the company's goal in developing chipsets that promise significant improvements in processor performance, power consumption, and size. ...... the chipmaker plugged WiMax, the chipmaker's favorite wireless broadband technology. ..... 2008 will be the "year of WiMax ..... accessing the Internet on smartphones and other small devices is not a pleasant experience for most consumers, which is why more than 60% of mobile phone subscribers with access to the Web don't use the feature. ...... Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR, which would enable rich Internet applications to run outside the browser. "(Internet apps) become the first-class citizen of the desktop
Intel has new ideas for mobile computing CNET News.com Intel's a big company, with lots of money and smart people. It will need both to take over two separate industries. The company's official search for the next big thing is settling quite definitively on mobile computers. But this is actually two big things: not only does Intel want to create an entire new category of handheld computers called Mobile Internet Devices, it wants to set up a whole new network to service those devices. ..... Intel has been talking up WiMax for several years as an alternative to cellular networks and to the expense of wiring the world with high-speed cable.
Cisco Rides Global Wave for Business Video With 200th Digital ... CNNMoney.com using Cisco Digital Signage to communicate in real time in a dynamic and user-friendly way with employees, job candidates and clients across 70 of its offices in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. .... the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate.
Google Is Still More Of A Threat To Madison Avenue Than To Microsoft InformationWeek
Yahoo Buying Zimbra, an E-Mail Service for Businesses New York Times Zimbra, a start-up that provides Web-based e-mail to businesses and institutions .... $350 million .... Zimbra, a 100-person start-up founded in 2003, specializes in providing e-mail and calendar software to small and medium-size businesses, universities and Internet service providers. The company said it had nine million users. ..... Businesses typically pay Zimbra $28 a user, though universities pay only $1 for each student and $8 for each faculty member. .... just days after Google completed its purchase of the e-mail management company Postini for $625 million .... e-mail, calendar, word processing and spreadsheets and now slide presentation software. ..... Yahoo is the dominant e-mail provider on the Web, and had 181 million visitors in August .... Google’s Gmail sites had 18 million visitors in August.
Wed 9/12 - Choosing Between Zimbra and Exchange
What Next for Microsoft in China? BusinessWeek several embarrassing defections of top China execs, including one who wrote a tell-all book in Chinese that was a big seller. ..... Chen, 50, improved relations with the Chinese government so much that President Hu Jintao had dinner at Gates' mansion during his U.S. trip last year before traveling to Washington to see President George W. Bush. ..... "Before it was us-versus-them; the people in Redmond didn't understand what was going on in China and vice versa." ..... the percentage of counterfeit software in China has dropped to 82% from 92% in 2003. ....... To combat piracy—as well as Microsoft's Ugly American image—the company over the past few years also focused on building relations with local partners.
Digg Goes Deeper with Social Networking Currently, 15% to 20% of Digg's audience are registered users. The vast majority of the 20-million-plus users, by Digg's count, just read the posted stories. ...... "We all have a short list of probably 5 to 10 people whom we feel compelled to share certain information with." ..... the community has been demanding more personalization and privacy for a while, even going so far as to build Digg applications for Facebook where they can discuss articles with smaller groups. ..... the Digg community's well-worn reputation for overwhelming Web sites with traffic
Oracle broadens telecoms foothold VNUNet.com Oracle’s president and general manager, Bhaskar Gorti ...... the Netsure deal is part of a wider strategy aiming to boost Oracle’s presence in vertical sectors. .... “Quite apart from its significant reach in utilities and financial services, the company also has a presence in 22 industry segments.” ... Oracle is focusing most of its efforts on the energy and telecoms sectors, and that by broadening its offerings in this way, Oracle hopes to see off growing competition from SAP. ..... “When [Oracle chief Larry] Ellison was asked at the end of last year about whether the pace of Oracle’s acquisitions would slow down, his answer was that the next 12 months would be similar,” said Mitchell. “Larry has huge plans and growing the vertical markets is a large part of the strategy.”
Oracle Announces Enhanced Business Process Analysis Suite CNNMoney.com featuring unique closed-loop support to improve collaboration between business analysts and IT. .... the latest BPMN and BPEL standards and more closely aligns business and IT users, leading to greater productivity, operational efficiencies and innovation. .... an agile application platform that responds quickly to changing business requirements, helps boost productivity and reduce the business strategy to implementation gap. .... optimized processes that span multiple departments, with hundreds of dependencies and a multitude of back office applications .... enables business and IT managers to automate multi-step processes and simulate workflows to identify organizational, structural and technical problems before they occur.
Foolish Forecast: Reading Oracle's Silence Motley Fool Revenues. $4.34 billion would keep the average analyst happy, and that would be a 19% increase from the year-ago period's $3.66 billion. ..... a remarkably steady combination of earnings growth on autopilot and stable margins. Oracle also generates copious amounts of free cash flow, which tends to be invested in major acquisitions that form the basis of the company's growth. ...... SAP AG's "strategy of trying to build everything themselves using a 1970s-era proprietary programming language ....... Not that two companies with more than a $5 billion market cap combined could hurt mighty Oracle too badly, but the silence is still interesting.
Sun Aims to Double Sales in China Wall Street Journal pushing the country past Japan as Sun's largest market in the region ..... Sun's revenue in the Asian-Pacific region in the year through June 30 totaled $2.37 billion, more than a sixth of Sun's total world-wide revenue of $13.87 billion. Revenue in Asia grew 11%. ..... The company has almost 1,000 employees across four cities in mainland China. ...... Globally, Sun has been struggling for most of the decade to regain business lost after the Internet bust decreased spending by longtime customers. But the company has made a comeback in the past year, swinging to net income of $473 million for the most recent fiscal year from a net loss of $864 million the year earlier. ...... China -- which is second only to the U.S. in number of Internet users at 162 million ... fast-growing emerging markets, such as India and Brazil .... The number of people accessing networks with their mobile phones or playing online games makes the demand for Sun's products "exponential ..... develop global open-document formatting standards, privacy laws and open-source regulations.
Health Plan Overhauled at Wal-Mart New York Times cut employee costs, expand coverage and offer workers thousands of cheap prescription drugs. .... Starting Jan. 1, Wal-Mart’s insurance will look a lot like that offered by many other American companies, but with some twists that even longtime critics described as innovative. ...... could represent a turning point for the retailer, the nation’s largest private employer. ..... Wal-Mart employees, many of whom work part time and earn less than $20,000 a year. ... unclear how many of the 125,000 Wal-Mart workers without health coverage would sign up ..... an upgrade for the 636,000 employees who already receive health insurance through Wal-Mart. ...... “parts of it, like the $4 generics, are game-changing for the industry.” ..... Two years ago, the Maryland legislature took the unusual step of requiring Wal-Mart — and only Wal-Mart — to increase spending on health insurance. The law was later overturned. ...... still high deductibles and lengthy waiting periods. ..... 50 ways to customize coverage, with varying trade-offs like higher premiums and lower deductibles. ...... an employee would pay premiums up to $79 a month, receive a health care credit of $100 and pay a deductible of $500 ..... pay premiums of $8 a month, receive a $100 health care credit, but pay a deductible of $2,000. .... many generic drugs will be available for $4, brand-name drugs will cost $30 to $50. .... About half of Wal-Mart workers have coverage from the company, while 40 percent more get their coverage elsewhere — through a spouse, a parent, a second job or a state program like Medicaid. About 10 percent have no health coverage.
Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site effective at midnight tonight. .... In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free. ....... our projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising ...... many more readers started coming to the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYTimes.com ..... “What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others ...... The Times’s site has about 13 million unique visitors each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, far more than any other newspaper site. ..... “The business model for advertising revenue, versus subscriber revenue, is so much more attractive,” he said. “The hybrid model has some potential, but in the long run, the advertising side will dominate.” ........ The Wall Street Journal .. has nearly one million paying online readers, generating about $65 million in revenue. .... has talked of the possibility of making access to The Journal free online. ..... The Los Angeles Times tried that model in 2005, charging for access to its arts section, but quickly dropped it after experiencing a sharp decline in Web traffic.
Age of Riches: Hedge Funds and Private Equity Alter Career Calculus So he, too, decided to forgo an M.B.A.. Instead, he raised $5 million and started his own hedge fund ...... The fund now manages $300 million out of offices in New York and Dallas, and Mr. Hammond, 28, enjoys seven-figure payouts. ...... The flood of money into private equity and hedge funds over the last decade has made billionaires out of people like Kenneth Griffin, 38, chief executive of the Citadel Investment Group, and Eddie Lampert, 45, the hedge fund king who bought Sears and Kmart. These men are icons for the fast buck set — particularly the mathematically gifted cohort of rising stars known as “quants.” ....... bright enough to be top computer scientists or medical researchers are becoming traders instead, and they measure their status in dollars instead of titles. ....... Many of the brightest don’t covet a corner office at Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley. Instead, they’re happy to work at a little-known hedge fund run out of a two-room office in Greenwich, Conn., as long as they get a fat payday. ...... What sets the new crowd apart is the need for speed and a thirst for instant riches. ..... the changing nature of money-making ..... In many banks and investment boutiques, traders with math and science backgrounds now contribute more to the bottom line than the white-shoed investment bankers who long presided over Wall Street. And traders tend to be less likely to go to business school. ........ you may see M.B.A.’s less represented in the lists of the world’s richest people ...... The number of students who earned M.B.A.’s in 2005 was about 142,600 ..... Management fees charged by funds — typically 2 percent ..... At funds that manage $1 billion to $3 billion, people with just a few years of finance experience will make $337,000 this year ..... successful traders said in interviews that they relished the challenge of their jobs, in addition to the lofty paychecks. ....... because today there are more self-made millionaires — and billionaires — than ever before, 20-something traders seem bolder in their monetary ambitions ...... “Going to business school is a way for people to try to open the door, to try to get into a company or hedge fund. But if you’re already there, it doesn’t make sense to go.” ...... Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse have changed their tune on business school. Instead of pushing all their young employees into M.B.A. programs, banks are telling the best ones to stay put. ...... learning a different product or a different group here at Citi would be more valuable ..... ......buying and selling companies“Most banking — and that includes private equity — is about deals and about relationships” involves relationships and company analysis skills. ..... If he were looking at someone who went to Harvard Business School after the two-year analyst program at Goldman, “I’d be suspicious,” he says. “I’d be saying, ‘What was it you were doing wrong that you couldn’t get a promotion at Goldman or did not pursue an opportunity with a private equity or hedge fund?’ ” ...... calculates the cost of going to a two-year business school to be at least half a million dollars for the average bank employee — $250,000 or more each year in lost salary, plus $50,000 a year in tuition and living expenses. ...... financial engineering. ..... says he likes to hire people fresh out of school so he can teach them himself. ..... “If you’re a superstar, and you’re very good, you’ll grow very rapidly in this field.” .... “If you are trying to raise money for a hedge fund, you will need that network” ..... math equations are likely to be scrawled on white boards around the office and young people hold the purse strings to millions of dollars in investor money ..... a billionaire by 40,” the magazine said. “Or, then again, they could be belly up and bust.” ..... he has seen people go to hedge funds and get fired in six months “because they couldn’t hack it.”
Rather Files $70 Million Lawsuit Against CBS
Wal-Mart Won't Carry $200 HD-DVD Player Wired News