Showing posts with label Bain Capital. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bain Capital. Show all posts

Friday, May 4, 2012

Can I call Mitt Romney's pal Edward Conard an @sshole?

(Below) Edward Conard, Mitt Romney's pal from Bain Capital, thinks that "greed is good".

After reading the New York Times article called The Purpose of Spectacular Wealth, According to a Spectacularly Wealthy Guy by Adam Davidson, my head was about to explode. It's about Edward Conard, who was the managing director at Mitt Romney's Bain Capital from 1993 until 2007.

Go ahead, read it now...then remember, the article was published on May 1st -- International Workers' Day (also known as May Day).

Edward Conard was born in 1956 and grew up in a middle-class suburb of Detroit, just as Mitt Romney also grew up in a Detroit suburb. Romney's neighborhood was called Bloomfield Hills, and consistently ranks as one of the top five wealthiest cities in the United States.

But Edward Conard was the son of a kindergarten teacher and a Ford engineer, yet he managed to end up going to Harvard Business School, just like Mitt Romney. And just like Mitt Romney, Edward Conard retired from Bain Capital with hundreds of millions of dollars at the early age of 51; but his buddy Mitt Romney wants the rest of us to work until we're 70 before we can collect our meager Social Security checks, even though it's common knowledge that it's the RICH that's lives longer that everybody else.

If Edward Conard were born today, he might not be going to Harvard business school, even though both his parents had good union jobs. Corporate America has been busting labor unions since the height of their membership in the 1950s. The United Auto workers cut a deal to pay new employees half of what they once earned, and teachers are being laid off left and right -- their unions are always under attack by Romney's Republican thugs.

Everybody blames the unions for job losses, but those people (if they're lucky) are only making middle-class wages, just like firefighters, the police, and union steel workers do today. Just like autoworkers in Detroit did. Just like Edward Conard's daddy once did.

All the jobs today are in the service industry, and they pay under $10 an hour, probably good wages back in the 1960s and 70s, but not so today in 2012. Corporations are still outsourcing the good-paying domestic jobs for cheaper labor in places like China, India, and Mexico, enabling foreign workers to be the new consumers of their products. Wages have been stagnant for the past 30 years as the cost of living for low-paid workers has skyrocketed.

Even two incomes aren't enough anymore, and especially with a lack of job security these days, who knows when their job is next to go to Korea, Panama, Columbia, or Vietnam. The Republicans want to ease VISA restrictions so American corporations can import cheap engineers here, while millions of college grads remain unemployed. Edward Conard's daddy would have to worry about losing his job at Ford -- and his mom might also be laid off due to budget cuts by the Republicans to pay for tax breaks for the rich...for people like Mitt Romney and Edward Conard.

How much money does someone like Edward Conard, Mitt Romney, Bill Gates or the Walton's need? They never have enough. It's like an obsession or mental illness for them. They're insatiable. They hoard.

"Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame." - Schopenhauer

Instead of the top 1% giving money to charities for a tax deduction, why don't all these rich people just pay their employees a fair, honest, and living wage instead? Maybe a lot less people will need to rely on charities. Do the Waltons need more money when they pay their employees at Wal-Mart $8 a hour with no benefits? How many BILLIONS will be enough?

...and that's why we have to print money....low taxes on the rich, a growing population, and hoarding at the top...money isn't being circulated throughout the economy....pay us well and we'll buy things, pay us too little and we'll have to ask for food stamps.

When Edward Conard grew up his daddy was making a good living at that Ford plant, and with a wife bringing home a second income as a teacher was nice, because back then the divorce rates were much lower. I would guess that Edward Conard doesn't think that the cost of living has went up much since the 1950s, or that college tuition at Ivy league schools are for everybody, and don't require 20 years of student debt just because they earn the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

It must have been a very long time since Edward Conard had to worry about being fired from a job (and paying rent)...like Mitt Romney said he once did. (That was funny.)

Edward Conard mentioned nothing at all about paying workers a living wage in that New York Times piece, or that our tax rates are already historically low (capital gains taxes were taxed at 12.5% in 1921, when the rich got that huge tax break); and the top 1% has been making record profits these last few years while everybody else was being laid off and losing their homes.

People like Edward Conard don't live in the same economy (or country it seems) than the rest of us do. Trickle down economics doesn't work in the "real" economy...it was an utter failure, and today's economy is proof of that.

There was no run on the banks, what they hell was he talking about? Edward Conard is either delusional, ignorant, greedy, or insane...like most of his ilk in his income bracket.

He said, "The wealth concentrated at the top should be twice as large." Oh really? He would eliminate all capital gains taxes just so he and his ilk can be richer, then they would cut all government services to pay for this, and pay all working Americans $1 an hour to empty their garbage can and shine their shoes -- and then tell us all that this economy is "good" for us. He must be insane!

There's also piece about Edward Conard at Forbes that came out two days later after the Times article called Why Capitalism Works: Or, Edward Conard is Too Pessimistic, but I didn't read it....I've had enough of people like Mitt Romney and Edward Conard.

There's also an article at MSNBC called Former Bain honcho says economic inequality is OK

If Edward Conard publishes his new book, I fear he might get death threats and hate mail, although not from me, I've already said my piece.

Oh, I almost forgot... Edward Conard, you're an @asshole!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Rush Limbaugh Might be Sued for Millions (full story with videos, updates, and petitions)

I can see the headlines now...

A high-profile attorney is calling for Rush Limbaugh to be prosecuted on a defamation charge, saying an obscure Florida law can be used to punish him for calling a college student a "slut" and a "prostitute" on the air.

Rush Limbaugh, being a public figure and an outspoken voice for the conservative ideologues, spoke at CPAC on behalf of the Republican Party for GOP presidential nominees last year.

On his very large megaphone, this nationally syndicated talk radio show host attacked a private citizen (a young female college student) and her parents because she testified before Congress on behalf of a friend regarding contraception insurance. (The full text of her congressional testimony from ABC News - PDF)

First of all, why would a 61-year-old multi-millionaire living in a $62 million beachfront mansion on an island in Palm Springs Florida give a damn about birth control for a Washington D.C. college student? Isn't that sort of creepy? Doesn't Rush have more important issues to focus on?

Depraved Rants

Rush Limbaugh, February 29, 2012 (Palm Springs, Florida) "What does it say about the college co-ed Sandra Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps."

Later Limbaugh shied away from his choice of words towards the end of his show by saying "So, she's not a slut. She's round-heeled. I take it back." (Round-heeled is a euphemism for the same thing, an old-fashioned term for a promiscuous woman.)

Limbaugh then turned up the heat and suggested that women who use insurance-covered birth control should post sex tapes online: "So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Femi-Nazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

Rush obviously thought that a woman needs to take a birth control pill every time she engages in a sexual act to keep from becoming pregnant. What an ignorant man. It's no wonder they call him a big fat idiot and the most dangerous man in America.

The Video

A seven minute compilation of Rush Limbaugh's disgusting attacks on Sandra Fluke on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1oOjKQflN0

The "Apology"

After his vulgar, degrading, and cruel statements, Rush began getting a lot of negative feedback from the media. But it wasn't until days afterward, when he began losing sponsors for his radio show, did Rush Limbaugh issue a very insincere "non-apology" to Sandra Fluke on March 03, 2012.

From Rush Limbaugh's website: "For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke. I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit? In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone's bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level. My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices."

(Translated: "I'm sorry if any sluts were offended by being called sluts, but if they'd stop being sluts, I wouldn't have to call them sluts.")

Rush Limbaugh's non-apology was widely seen as just another insult. This wasn't a case of a few poorly chosen words. Rush Limbaugh carried out a sustained attack on Sandra Fluke, never once pausing to consider the potential consequences of his lies on her life. At one point, he even celebrated the impact his jihad would have on his ratings. Now that he's losing advertisers, I'll bet he truly wishes he could take it all back—but it's too late. He can't.

"Rush's apology wasn't actually an apology," commented UltraViolet co-founder Shaunna Thomas, formerly of MoveOn.org, to the Huffington Post. "He did little more than continue to expose himself as the anti-woman and offensive media personality that he is. Our campaign to pressure advertisers to drop their sponsorship of his show will continue next week. No radio show that attacks women should be rewarded with advertising dollars. And more than 84,000 of our members who signed a petition in the last day agree."

While Rush Limbaugh has offered his fake apology to Sandra Fluke for calling her a slut and a whore, it's important to recall each of the 53 times when Rush insulted Fluke last week (Text with links to all 53 slanders listed at the end of this post)

The Media Slant

The Republicans and Fox News are comparing Rush Limbaugh's free speech to that of an "entertainer", and holding up Bill Maher as an example of "left wing hypocrisy".

But it is also well known that Bill Maher is a comedian, so when he was used as an example because he once called Sarah Palin the "c-word", he recently countered this argument on his show HBO's Real Time by saying, "Rush, I don't have sponsors - I'm on HBO."

But in all fairness, let's run down the whole list of "left wing hypocrisy".

Bill Maher had also once called Sarah Palin a “dumb twat”. He called both Palin and Michele Bachmann “boobs” and “two bimbos.” Of Bachmann he said, “She is not a mean girl. She is a crazy girl with mean ideas.” He recently made a joke about Rick Santorum’s wife using a vibrator. Maher said of a woman who was harassed while breast-feeding at an Applebee’s, “Don't show me your tits!”

And there were others on "the left" too: Keith Olbermann also insulted Fox News conservative commentators S.E. Cupp and Michelle Malkin (Keith was later let go by MSNBC and went to TruTV)

Blogger Matt Taibbi once called Michele Bachmann “batshit crazy.” So what? She is!

MSNBC's Chris Matthews called Hillary Clinton a “she-devil,” “Nurse Ratched,” “Madame Defarge", “witchy,” “anti-male,” and “uppity”. He asked if Sarah Palin was “capable of thinking” and called Michele Bachmann a “balloon head”. But Chris didn't use up a whole hour of television air time by calling a private citizen a "slut" who was "having too much sex". MSNBC would have been sued and Chris Matthews would have suspended.

And Bill Maher had only been mocking a public figure and politician for a few minutes on a subscription cable TV channel. Rush Limbaugh's rants and diatribes went on for several hours over the course of three days over the public airwaves -- attacking a young college student and private citizen. That is a very big difference.

And all the quacks at Fox News think President Obama should return the $1 million donation his SuperPAC received from Bill Maher...but we all know that political candidates and their SuperPACs aren't supposed to be communicating with each other...that's against the law!

Oddly, Bill Maher defended Rush Limbaugh, but that's because Bill wouldn't want anyone begging for his job, as the right wingers did when MSNBC’s Ed Schultz called conservative TV and radio host Laura Ingraham a "right-wing slut" (and during the 2008 election Ed Schultz said on his radio show that Sarah Palin set off a “bimbo alert.”). But Ed's apology was VERY sincere to Laura Ingraham compared to Rush's; and Ed even volunteered for a suspension from his show.

But all those people had been playing in the same sand box together. They were all on a level playing field. They didn't single out some private citizen for their wrath, but insulted their "public equal". If you're a politician or TV personality, it's generally understood you're fair game. And they all didn't go on and on for several hours over the course of three days like Rush Limbaugh did either. Rush made Miss Fluke a personal target when she never once mentioned Rush Limbaugh. Had she attacked him first and called him a serial adulterer and fat moronic pig, Rush might have had the grounds to defend himself and insult her back.

So I'll say it for her, "Rush, you are an ugly and moronic and selfish pig who will die one day and just end up another insignificant memory for those who live on, and answerable to no one but your creator."

The Politics

President Obama showed some human decency and traveled the high road by calling Miss Fluke and telling her that her parents could indeed be very proud of her. At a press conference he explained that he wanted to set an example for his young daughters.

The Republicans and Fox News pundits started circling their wagons, coming to Rush Limbaugh's defense, and are now blaming the Democrats for hatching a huge conspiracy against Rush Limbaugh. They're saying "it was a set up", and that Miss Fluke was somehow involved. That is just plain crazy.

When GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney was later asked what he thought about Rush Limbaugh's 3-day diatribe against Miss Fluke, Romney replied as though he agreed with Rush Limbaugh, but that he just would have stated it differently. He said, "Those weren't the words I would have used." (Oh really Mister Romney? Just exactly what words would you have used? Whore? Hooker? Scab?)

A few days later in an interview top Obama adviser David Axelrod said that Mitt Romney's unwillingness to call out Rush Limbaugh for making incendiary remarks raised questions about whether or not Romney would be able to face the world's worst dictators if elected president.

"If Romney couldn't stand up to the most strident voices in your party, how can he stand up to Ahmadinejad? How are you going to stand up to the challenges of the presidency? These are tests. Presidential campaigns are tests. You are tested every single days in different ways. The Limbaugh thing was a test of leadership, and you have them all the time, and Mitt Romney has failed those tests in the campaign."

And to think that Mitt would sell his soul to the devil to be President of the United States.

But we all know the real reason why Mitt Romney was so soft on Rush Limbaugh. Romney gets paid millions of dollars every year from investments through Bain Capital, and Rush Limbaugh's radio show is a part of Clear Channel, which is owned by Mitt Romney's previous company, Bain Capital.

On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced plans to go private, being bought out by two private-equity firms, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital for $18.7 billion.

No wonder Mitt wasn't talking. It's a clear case of the 1% defending the 1%.

Rush Limbaugh's Advertisers

So far, to date Rush has lost almost 50 sponsors and 2 radio stations; and some on Capital Hill are proposing that the Armed Forces Radio drop Rush's show too. Read: Sponsor Exodus Continues

And Peter Gabriel was none too happy either. His 1986 hit "Sledgehammer" had aired when Rush "The Pill Popper" Limbaugh went on his much-maligned tirade against the Georgetown Law student last week. (After a three-year investigation Limbaugh turned himself in to authorities on a warrant charging him with fraud to conceal information to obtain prescriptions.) Livid at the remarks, Peter Gabriel pulled permission for Limbaugh to use his music in the future.

Petitions:

Krystal Ball from MSNBC wrote a good article for the Huffington Post called Boycott Rush: "Limbaugh is even more susceptible to public pressure than a politician. We don't have to wait until Election Day. We can take away the advertisers that give Limbaugh his platform right now. Already his sponsors are feeling the heat and some have decided to pull their ads. Spread the word. Stand up for women. Do not patronize any company that sponsors sexism. Boycott Rush."

Don't be angry Rush! Also see BoycottRush.Org

On a Personal Note

Just like Glenn Beck, this blogger personally despises multi-millionaires such as Rush Limbaugh for viciously attacking the poor and unemployed while they rely on food stamps and unemployment benefits for food and shelter. That's why I created and posted this video at YouTube called "A Dedication to the Republican Party".

Hey Rush, why don't you attack me? I'm a 56-year-old unemployed high school drop-out (since 2008) who has been living on food stamps for the past year. My name is Bud Meyers and I live in Las Vegas. I'm easy to find. I'm usually at the bar at the Palms Hotel and Casino on Friday nights. I use my EBT card (for SNAP) to buy beer and gamble. Ha-ha!!!

Or at the very least Rush, you can buy a copy of my book; and you can also make a generous PayPal donation to me (just click on the DONATE button below). I could really use the money! I sure would appreciate it...thanks Rush!!!

For the Defendant in Fluke v. Limbaugh

The timeline, text and links of Rush Limbaugh's 53 most defaming vile smears against Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke.

Feb. 29, 2012:

1) “testifies she's having so much sex she can't afford her own birth control pills and she agrees that Obama should provide them, or the Pope”
2) “they're having so much sex they can't afford the birth control pills!”
3) “essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”
4) “Sandra Fluke. So much sex going on, they can't afford birth control pills.”

March 1, 2012:

5) “You'd call 'em a slut, a prostitute”
6) “she's having so much sex”
7) “are having so much sex that they’re going broke”
8) “they want to have sex any time, as many times and as often as they want, with as many partners as they want”
9) “the sexual habits of female law students at Georgetown”
10) “are having so much sex that they’re going broke”
11) “having so much sex that it's hard to make ends meet”
12) “four out of every ten co-eds are having so much sex that it's hard to make ends meet”
13) “Now, what does that make her? She wants us to buy her sex.”
14) “to pay for these co-eds to have sex”
15) “she and her co-ed classmates are having sex nearly three times a day for three years straight, apparently these deadbeat boyfriends or random hookups that these babes are encountering here, having sex with nearly three times a day”
16) “Therefore we are paying her to have sex. Therefore we are paying her for having sex.”
17) “Have you ever heard of not having sex so often?”
18) “Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
19) “we want something in return, Ms. Fluke: And that would be the videos of all this sex posted online so we can see what we are getting for our money.”
20) “'If we're paying for this, it makes these women sluts, prostitutes.' And what else could it be?”
21) “essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right?”
22) “I'm having sex so damn much, I'm going broke.”
23) “She's having so much sex that she's going broke! There's no question about her virtue.”
24) “having so much sex she's going broke at Georgetown Law.”
25) “Here's a woman exercising no self-control. The fact that she wants to have repeated, never-ending, as often as she wants it sex -- given.”
26) “She's having so much sex it's amazing she can still walk, but she made it up there.”
27) “Maybe they're sex addicts.”
28) “to pay for her to have sex all the time.”
29) “she wants the rest of us to pay for her sex.”
30) “She wants all the sex that she wants all the time paid for by the rest of us.”
31) “Here this babe goes before Congress and wants thousands of dollars to pay for her sex.”
32) “a woman who is happily presenting herself as an immoral, baseless, no-purpose-to-her-life woman.”
33) “She wants all the sex in the world, whenever she wants it, all the time.”
34) “If this woman wants to have sex ten times a day for three years, fine and dandy.”
35) “to provide women from Georgetown Law unlimited, no-consequences sex.”
36) “so she can have unlimited, no-consequences sex.”
37) “You want to have all the sex you want all day long, no consequences, no responsibility for your behavior”
38) “The woman wants unlimited, no-responsibility, no-consequences sex, and she wants it with contraceptives paid for by us.”

March 2, 2012:

39) "she's having so much sex, she can't afford her birth control pills anymore.”
40) “she's having so much sex, she can't pay for it -- and we should.”
41) “She's having so much sex, she can't afford it.”
42) “this, frankly hilarious claim that she's having so much sex (and her buddies with her) that she can't afford it.”
43) “And not one person says, 'Well, did you ever think about maybe backing off the amount of sex that you have?'
44) “Does she have more boyfriends? Ha! They're lined up around the block.”
45) "It was Sandra Fluke who said that she was having so much sex, she can't afford it.”
46) “By her own admission, in her own words, Sandra Fluke is having so much sex that she can't afford it.”
47) “they're having a lot of sex for which they need a lot of contraception.”
48) “Her sex life is active and she's having sex so frequently that she can't afford all the birth control pills that she needs.”
49) “who admits to having so much sex that she can't afford it anymore.”
50) “she's having so much sex, she can't pay for it.”
51) “As frequently as she has sex and to not be pregnant, she's obviously succeeding in contraception.”
52) “Ms. Fluke, asserts her right to free contraceptive, to handle her sex life -- and it's, by her own admission, quite active.”
53) "Ms. Fluke, who bought your condoms in junior high? Who bought your condoms in the sixth grade, or your contraception?"

"Your honor, I rest my case." CHA-CHING!!! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

* Credits: John K. Wilson and The Jed Report at the Daily Kos. Left of You says Fluke should sue Rush Limbaugh. ( Fluke v. Limbaugh). Disclosure: At the time this was posted, the link to Rush's website for his apology was working, but Politico is reporting that Rush's website is now being purged of certain words, like "slut", etc. - The video is also posted on my YouTube channel.