Alex Rodriguez
and his history of steroid and performance enhancing drug use. There is also an old saying that “those that don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it.”
What do these things have to do with each other? A lot, I think.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
North Dakota conservative talker Scott Hennen says "I hope Obama's socialist policys are a disaster. "
What's all this got to do with the present, when Bush is out of office? Well, the other day I saw a full page ad in a local publication showing a large photo of talk show host Scott Hennen, with the quote "I hope Obama's socialist policys are a disaster. Read More Here
Saturday, September 13, 2008
North Dakota Politics: Military Assets For Sale
The Bush administration is pushing through a broad array of foreign weapons deals as it seeks to rearm Iraq and Afghanistan, contain North Korea and Iran, and solidify ties with onetime Russian allies.
Read More Here
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Barack rocks and unites Democrats in fargo
Democrats Unite in Fargo.
Fargo,ND. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, speaking before veterans, their family members and others in Fargo this afternoon, said the country must do better by those who serve in the military.
Speaking for about 20 minutes at the Children's Museum at Yunker Farm under a bright sky and with his dress shirt sleeves rolled up, Obama noted that the Fourth of July is not only about barbecues, parades and fireworks, but the United States should be sending its young men and women "to war [only] when we must and giving them the equipment they need."
He also contended the medical and financial help for veterans when they return home needs to improve. "It doesn't have to be this way," he said.
Whether going to war is the right decision or not, Obama added, "Caring for our veterans is something that we can still get right."
He pledged, if elected, to reduce the red tape that veterans face when seeking medical treatment or help with education and housing benefits.
He said he wants to expand funding to help veterans buy homes, and medical treatment for mental health care and brain injuries needs "to dramatically improve."
As for financial aid for education, Obama said, the government needs to look to how the GI Bill helped World War II veterans and pay the full bill for college.
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Thursday, June 19, 2008
North Dakota Politics:Nothing else has worked: it is time for Pakistan to try democracy
Nothing else has worked: it is time for Pakistan to try democracy
THE war against Islamist extremism and the terrorism it spawns is being fought on many fronts. But it may well be in Pakistan that it is won or lost. It is not only that the country's lawless frontier lands provide a refuge for al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, and that its jihad academies train suicide-bombers with global reach. Pakistan is also itself the world's second most populous Muslim nation, with a proud tradition of tolerance and moderation, now under threat from the extremists on its fringes. Until recently, the risk that Pakistan might be prey to Islamic fundamentalism of the sort its Taliban protégés enforced in Afghanistan until 2001 seemed laughable. It is still far-fetched. But after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, twice prime minister, nobody is laughing. This, after all, is a country that now has the bomb Miss Bhutto's father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, craved so passionately as prime minister in the 1970s.
There are many other reasons why the murder of Miss Bhutto (and some 20 other people unlucky enough to be near her) makes Pakistan seem a frightening place. That terrorists could strike in Rawalpindi, headquarters of the Pakistani army, despite having advertised threats against Miss Bhutto, and despite the slaughter of some 150 people in Karachi on the day she returned from exile last October, suggests no one is safe. If, as many in Pakistan believe, the security services were themselves complicit, that is perhaps even scarier. It would make it even harder to deal with the country's many other fissures: the sectarian divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims; the ethnic tensions between Punjabis, Sindhis, Pushtuns and “mohajir” immigrants from India; the insurgency in Baluchistan; and the spread of the “Pakistani Taliban” out of the border tribal areas into the heartlands.
North Dakota Politics
Miss Bhutto's murder has left her Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the country's biggest, at risk of disintegration. It is now in the hands of her unpopular widower, Asif Ali Zardari, and her 19-year-old son, Bilawal, who by rights should be punting and partying with his classmates at Oxford, not risking his neck in politics. The election whose campaign killed Miss Bhutto was due on January 8th, but the Election Commission has delayed it by six weeks. The PPP will reap a big sympathy vote. But bereft of Miss Bhutto, the party—and the country—look desperately short of leaders of national stature. Other Bhutto clan-members are already sniping at her successors.
The other big mainstream party, led by her rival Nawaz Sharif, another two-time prime minister, is also in disarray. Both parties have been weakened by their leaders' exiles, as well as by persecution at the hands of President Pervez Musharraf's military dictatorship. In truth, both Miss Bhutto and Mr Sharif were lousy prime ministers. But at least they had some semblance of a popular mandate. The systematic debilitation of their parties benefits the army, which has entrenched itself in the economic as well as the political system. But it also helps the Islamist parties—backed, as they are, by an army which has sometimes found them more congenial partners than the more popular mainstream parties. The unpopularity of the Musharraf regime, hostility towards America, and resentment at a war in neighbouring Afghanistan that many in Pakistan see as directed at both Islam and their ethnic-Pushtun kin, have also helped the Islamists.
So, ironically, America's support for Mr Musharraf, justified as necessary to combat extremism next door, has fostered extremism at home. Similarly, in the 1980s America backed General Zia ul Haq, a dictator and Islamic fundamentalist, as his intelligence services sponsored the mujahideen who eventually toppled the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan. In the process, they helped create what Miss Bhutto called a “Frankenstein's monster”—of jihadist groups with sympathisers in the army and intelligence services. The clubbable, whisky-quaffing, poodle-cuddling Mr Musharraf is no fundamentalist. But the monster still stalks his security forces.
North Dakota Politics
Yet Pakistan's plight is not yet hopeless. Two things could still help arrest its slide into anarchy, improbable though both now seem. The first is a credible investigation into Miss Bhutto's murder and the security-service lapses (or connivance) that allowed it to happen. Mr Musharraf's willingness to let a couple of British policemen help the inquiry is unlikely to produce this. Every time a bomb goes off in Pakistan, people believe that one of the country's own spooks lit the fuse. Until there has been a convincing purge of the military-intelligence apparatus, Pakistan will never know true stability.
Second, there could be a fair election. This would expose the weakness of the Islamist parties. In the last general election in 2002, they won just one-tenth of the votes, despite outrageous rigging that favoured them. Even if they fared somewhat better this time, they would still, in the most populous provinces, Sindh and Punjab, be trounced by the mainstream parties. An elected government with popular support would be better placed to work with the moderate, secular, professional tendency in the army to tackle extremism and bring Pakistan's poor the economic development they need.
Sadly, there seems little hope that the security forces will abandon the habit of a lifetime and allow truly fair elections. The delay in the voting—opposed by both main opposition parties—has been seen as part of its plan to rig the results. The violence that has scarred the country since Miss Bhutto's assassination may intensify. The army may be tempted to impose another state of emergency; or it may cling on to ensure that the election produces the result it wants—a weak and pliable coalition of the PPP and Mr Musharraf's loyalists.
For too long, Mr Musharraf has been allowed to pay lip-service to democratic forms, while the United States has winked at his blatant disdain for the substance. The justification has been the pre-eminent importance of “stability” in the world's most dangerous place. It is time to impress upon him and the generals still propping him up that democracy is not the alternative to stability. It is Pakistan's only hope.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
North Dakota: The Politics of Small Business BLOG
A few months before I started Cedarcrest Capital LLC in 2004 I sat down for lunch with a college buddy who founded E-chalk, a company which supplies a technology platform for schools to link parents, students, and teachers online.
Eager to start my entrepreneurial career, I quizzed him about what founding a company felt like. I think I expected him to tell me about his then four-year venture using words like “Freedom!” “Excitement!”, “Satisfaction!”
Instead, the main word I recall from our lunch was “Ignorance.” Specifically, he related to me a cautionary tale: The best talk he’d heard at a conference on business start-ups he’d recently attended focused on ignorance as the key to entrepreneurship. What the conference speaker meant was that if the average entrepreneur truly knew how hard it would be to build a company, nobody would ever begin. It takes ignorance to want to start a company from scratch.
My friend’s weary look, four years after founding his company, told me he wasn’t kidding. In all my excitement to begin, I’m pretty sure I had no idea what he was talking about.
Shortly after that lunch, I walked into my attorney’s office to begin the process of creating Cedarcrest Capital LLC.
Before I even sat down, he commented to me: “You’ve got the grin of a guy who just quit his job and is starting his own company.”
“Yup!” I said, smiling widely.
He said, wisely I now understand, “You’re going to lose that grin. But hopefully, some day, you’ll be able to get it back.”
The optimism of that meeting has not left me in the subsequent years, but I have certainly had the smugness challenged. Four years since founding my own company, I’ve come to appreciate their thoughts even more.
North Dakota Politics
Eager to start my entrepreneurial career, I quizzed him about what founding a company felt like. I think I expected him to tell me about his then four-year venture using words like “Freedom!” “Excitement!”, “Satisfaction!”
Instead, the main word I recall from our lunch was “Ignorance.” Specifically, he related to me a cautionary tale: The best talk he’d heard at a conference on business start-ups he’d recently attended focused on ignorance as the key to entrepreneurship. What the conference speaker meant was that if the average entrepreneur truly knew how hard it would be to build a company, nobody would ever begin. It takes ignorance to want to start a company from scratch.
My friend’s weary look, four years after founding his company, told me he wasn’t kidding. In all my excitement to begin, I’m pretty sure I had no idea what he was talking about.
Shortly after that lunch, I walked into my attorney’s office to begin the process of creating Cedarcrest Capital LLC.
Before I even sat down, he commented to me: “You’ve got the grin of a guy who just quit his job and is starting his own company.”
“Yup!” I said, smiling widely.
He said, wisely I now understand, “You’re going to lose that grin. But hopefully, some day, you’ll be able to get it back.”
The optimism of that meeting has not left me in the subsequent years, but I have certainly had the smugness challenged. Four years since founding my own company, I’ve come to appreciate their thoughts even more.
North Dakota Politics
North Dakota Views
While pocketbook issues worry many Americans and will be a recurring theme in the campaign, the sharp differences between the two candidates on the war provides the kind of contrast that each would like to emphasize in making his case to be president. The Democratic senator from Illinois is casting a McCain presidency as the third term of George W. Bush; the Republican senator from Arizona argues that Obama does not have the experience or the judgment to be commander in chief.
As Obama was still engaged in his primary contest against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), McCain was hammering at him over Iraq -- criticizing his proposed timetable for withdrawing troops, his opposition to the "surge," his not having visited the country since January 2006 and his not having held one-on-one meetings with Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces there.
In turn, Obama has sharply criticized McCain for his willingness to commit U.S. troops indefinitely in Iraq, and Obama aides consistently speak of the "Bush-McCain" view of foreign policy.
"What's so interesting is, usually in presidential politics, there is some agreement between the parties as to which issues are good for which party," said William Galston, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. "What you have this time is two candidates, each of whom believes they can win the argument over defense and foreign policy."
Susan Rice, an Obama foreign policy adviser, said that "national security is a debate the Obama campaign welcomes," adding: "John McCain is a poster child for the Bush administration's failed foreign policy."
Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, said Obama's positions on Iraq showed "weak judgment" and that he is "just not ready to be commander in chief."
Obama has called for withdrawing most troops from Iraq in his first two years in office, bringing home one or two of the more than 15 brigades there each month. He says he would leave some troops there to defend the U.S. Embassy and to form a special strike force to carry out anti-terrorism missions, although he has not detailed how many troops those initiatives would require.
McCain, in contrast, has adamantly opposed any kind of timetable, arguing that any troop withdrawal from Iraq should depend on the country's security and that setting a timeline would weaken the U.S. effort there.
For McCain, elevating security issues could be crucial to his chances. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll last month, 36 percent of voters said the economy was the top issue in the election, and 6 percent named health care, while about a quarter cited Iraq or national security and the fight against terrorism.
Polls show that voters favor Obama's positions over McCain's on the economy, health care and other domestic issues but that they view McCain as the stronger candidate for combating terrorism. And in last month's Post-ABC poll, 71 percent of voters chose McCain as the candidate with "better experience to be president" while 18 percent chose Obama. The poll showed McCain with a 41-percentage-point advantage on "knowledge of foreign affairs."
On the other hand, more than 60 percent of voters agree with Obama's position that the war in Iraq was not worth fighting. They are about evenly divided, however, about who would handle the war better once in office.
Both candidates seem aware of their vulnerabilities on the issue. In a recent speech, McCain made his first mention of a date for withdrawal, suggesting that he wants a large reduction of troops in Iraq by 2013. Obama has suggested that he will make a trip to Iraq before the election.
The willingness to engage on Iraq does not mean pocketbook issues will not be in the forefront of the campaign. McCain has already run television ads in Ohio touting his economic and health-care plans, while Obama has accused McCain of being out of touch with concerns of people at home and of offering discredited policies from the Bush administration to deal with them.
North Dakota Politics
As Obama was still engaged in his primary contest against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), McCain was hammering at him over Iraq -- criticizing his proposed timetable for withdrawing troops, his opposition to the "surge," his not having visited the country since January 2006 and his not having held one-on-one meetings with Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces there.
In turn, Obama has sharply criticized McCain for his willingness to commit U.S. troops indefinitely in Iraq, and Obama aides consistently speak of the "Bush-McCain" view of foreign policy.
"What's so interesting is, usually in presidential politics, there is some agreement between the parties as to which issues are good for which party," said William Galston, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. "What you have this time is two candidates, each of whom believes they can win the argument over defense and foreign policy."
Susan Rice, an Obama foreign policy adviser, said that "national security is a debate the Obama campaign welcomes," adding: "John McCain is a poster child for the Bush administration's failed foreign policy."
Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, said Obama's positions on Iraq showed "weak judgment" and that he is "just not ready to be commander in chief."
Obama has called for withdrawing most troops from Iraq in his first two years in office, bringing home one or two of the more than 15 brigades there each month. He says he would leave some troops there to defend the U.S. Embassy and to form a special strike force to carry out anti-terrorism missions, although he has not detailed how many troops those initiatives would require.
McCain, in contrast, has adamantly opposed any kind of timetable, arguing that any troop withdrawal from Iraq should depend on the country's security and that setting a timeline would weaken the U.S. effort there.
For McCain, elevating security issues could be crucial to his chances. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll last month, 36 percent of voters said the economy was the top issue in the election, and 6 percent named health care, while about a quarter cited Iraq or national security and the fight against terrorism.
Polls show that voters favor Obama's positions over McCain's on the economy, health care and other domestic issues but that they view McCain as the stronger candidate for combating terrorism. And in last month's Post-ABC poll, 71 percent of voters chose McCain as the candidate with "better experience to be president" while 18 percent chose Obama. The poll showed McCain with a 41-percentage-point advantage on "knowledge of foreign affairs."
On the other hand, more than 60 percent of voters agree with Obama's position that the war in Iraq was not worth fighting. They are about evenly divided, however, about who would handle the war better once in office.
Both candidates seem aware of their vulnerabilities on the issue. In a recent speech, McCain made his first mention of a date for withdrawal, suggesting that he wants a large reduction of troops in Iraq by 2013. Obama has suggested that he will make a trip to Iraq before the election.
The willingness to engage on Iraq does not mean pocketbook issues will not be in the forefront of the campaign. McCain has already run television ads in Ohio touting his economic and health-care plans, while Obama has accused McCain of being out of touch with concerns of people at home and of offering discredited policies from the Bush administration to deal with them.
North Dakota Politics
Thursday, January 3, 2008
North Dakota Politics: How Will History Remember GW Bush?
A uniter not a divider, I am the decision-maker, a compassionate conservative, mission accomplished, bring it on, stay the course, axis of evil, etc... are all terms that will forever be etched in the minds of Americans concerning George W. Bush #43. Like him or not, this Presiden
t has drawn the ire of liberals and the contempt of conservatives.But what should this president be remembered for?
* No terrorist attacks on our soil after 9/11- credit President Bush
* Inherited a recession and employed two major tax cuts to revive economic growth - credit President Bush
* Held firm to sanctity of life issues with embryonic stem cell research - credit President Bush
* Sent 21,000 more troops into Iraq staying the course in the bleakest of moments - credit President Bush
* Appointed Alito & Roberts to the Supreme Court - credit President Bush
* 4 1/2% unemployment, record wealth creation, main street prosperity, & wall street prosperity - credit President Bush
* Peace initiatives between Palestinians and Israelis - credit President Bush
ased Capital Group Cos. and Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed
It is clear that President Bush has drawn an inside straight since November 2006, after losing the House and Senate rather embarassingly. The above achievements will go down as credible victories for a president besieged by liberals and even conservatives who left his side against the fight on the war on terror.
Pundits can rip the president apart today. But history will have the last say about President Bush. I do believe that history will receive this man more kindly than contemporaries receive him today.
North Dakota Politics
North Dakota Politics: Global Warming Jihad
Global Warming Jihad
"Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world," declared Thomas Carlyle.
Enter Al Gore. A privliged Senator's son, a former Vice President, a Global Warming Jihadist, and of course - a Nobel Peace Prize winning statesman right next to Yasser Arafat, who now more than ever -
Mr. Gore has a popular opinion.
This superstar global doomsayer has put on his green cape traveling the world preaching global jihad against industrialism. It is possible that no man today will effect such a profound change in politics, religion, and economics since Einstein's Manhattan Project or Darwin's Theory of Evolution, or Guttenberg's printing press. And thats after losing his presidential bid!
Yet, it is rather difficult to buy the whole enchilada that the sky is falling, the earth is crumbling, and mankind is nearly beyond a point of no return unless he acts now to save himself. Isn't this Al Gore's message to America? And to the world?
An excerpt of an interview with Grist Magazine in May 2006, this caped green crusader provides an answer:
"In the United States of America, unfortunately we still live in a bubble of unreality. And the Category 5 denial is an enormous obstacle to any discussion of solutions. Nobody is interested in solutions if they don’t think there’s a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis."
An over-representation of the facts? This is what we get from Al, the environmentalist? That maybe we aren't in a heap of trouble yet- but why wait to get there when we can yell fire in a crowded theater where the Americans are watching their movie? So apparently lying to the American people; not telling them the version of the story that is most accurate is justifiable for personal political gain???
A man's words is the test of his character. Note how often this global crusader of Green Jihad has exaggerated or outright lied through his career, according to The Free Republic:
shows an amusing 16 lies or exaggerations are tied to this green caped crusader of global warming.
What's the point of dredging up a closet full of old bones?
Because the famous Green Caped Crusader is famous for not leveling with public!
Gore may have written "An Inconvenient Truth". But the real "inconvenient truth" occurs when Gore's test of character is quesitoned concerning his honesty. Superman's weakness was cryptonite. Gore, the green caped craseder's cryptonite is his imaginative fabrications that have come so naturally over the years.
Whether it was Love Canal, creating the internet, or the Buddhist fundraising scandal, trusting Gore is like trusting "Slick Willie" to honor Hillary all the days of his life. Does anyone believe that Gore can honor the truth to a greater degree than his former boss can honor Hillary?
Strange as it may sound, when Gore was just Vice President we were OK. But now as the international coronated king of Jihad against Carbon Emissions, the world has panicked. The effect may well be felt in our wallets with significantly higher taxes.
Single-handedly Al Gore has propelled the world of nations to act upon the desperate global warming issue whether or not the facts support action. A world hero, Gore, has taken the mantle to mock and taunt the Bush administration's perceived failture to act to save the world from mankind. The Green Goracle™, never one to miss a chance to blame the United States in general and George Bush in particular for just about anything, told the delegates that the U.S. was “principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali.”
So what are we to do with a former Vice President who has a Messianic Complex to save Americans and the world from global warming? What can we do? Let the foolish dribble their opinions; let the facts illuminate the truth. In thirty years Gore may have found a new cause: global cooling???
North Dakota Politics
"Popular opinion is the greatest lie in the world," declared Thomas Carlyle.
Enter Al Gore. A privliged Senator's son, a former Vice President, a Global Warming Jihadist, and of course - a Nobel Peace Prize winning statesman right next to Yasser Arafat, who now more than ever -
Mr. Gore has a popular opinion.
This superstar global doomsayer has put on his green cape traveling the world preaching global jihad against industrialism. It is possible that no man today will effect such a profound change in politics, religion, and economics since Einstein's Manhattan Project or Darwin's Theory of Evolution, or Guttenberg's printing press. And thats after losing his presidential bid!
Yet, it is rather difficult to buy the whole enchilada that the sky is falling, the earth is crumbling, and mankind is nearly beyond a point of no return unless he acts now to save himself. Isn't this Al Gore's message to America? And to the world?
An excerpt of an interview with Grist Magazine in May 2006, this caped green crusader provides an answer:
"In the United States of America, unfortunately we still live in a bubble of unreality. And the Category 5 denial is an enormous obstacle to any discussion of solutions. Nobody is interested in solutions if they don’t think there’s a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis."
An over-representation of the facts? This is what we get from Al, the environmentalist? That maybe we aren't in a heap of trouble yet- but why wait to get there when we can yell fire in a crowded theater where the Americans are watching their movie? So apparently lying to the American people; not telling them the version of the story that is most accurate is justifiable for personal political gain???
A man's words is the test of his character. Note how often this global crusader of Green Jihad has exaggerated or outright lied through his career, according to The Free Republic:
shows an amusing 16 lies or exaggerations are tied to this green caped crusader of global warming.
What's the point of dredging up a closet full of old bones?
Because the famous Green Caped Crusader is famous for not leveling with public!
Gore may have written "An Inconvenient Truth". But the real "inconvenient truth" occurs when Gore's test of character is quesitoned concerning his honesty. Superman's weakness was cryptonite. Gore, the green caped craseder's cryptonite is his imaginative fabrications that have come so naturally over the years.
Whether it was Love Canal, creating the internet, or the Buddhist fundraising scandal, trusting Gore is like trusting "Slick Willie" to honor Hillary all the days of his life. Does anyone believe that Gore can honor the truth to a greater degree than his former boss can honor Hillary?
Strange as it may sound, when Gore was just Vice President we were OK. But now as the international coronated king of Jihad against Carbon Emissions, the world has panicked. The effect may well be felt in our wallets with significantly higher taxes.
Single-handedly Al Gore has propelled the world of nations to act upon the desperate global warming issue whether or not the facts support action. A world hero, Gore, has taken the mantle to mock and taunt the Bush administration's perceived failture to act to save the world from mankind. The Green Goracle™, never one to miss a chance to blame the United States in general and George Bush in particular for just about anything, told the delegates that the U.S. was “principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali.”
So what are we to do with a former Vice President who has a Messianic Complex to save Americans and the world from global warming? What can we do? Let the foolish dribble their opinions; let the facts illuminate the truth. In thirty years Gore may have found a new cause: global cooling???
North Dakota Politics
Monday, December 10, 2007
North Dakota Politics: Better Get Use to it... Its official the Arabs will literally own us.
Citigroup Borrows $7.5 Billion 11% interest yikes!
Oh My God, more like it!
Oh My God, more like it!
Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank by assets, will 
receive a $7.5 billion cash infusion from Abu Dhabi to replenish capital after record mortgage losses wiped out almost half its market value.
Citigroup rose 2.6 percent in New York trading today following acting Chief Executive Officer Win Bischoff's statement late yesterday that funds from the state-owned Abu Dhabi Investment Authority will help ``strengthen our capital base.''
Abu Dhabi will buy securities that convert to stock and yield 11 percent a year, almost double the interest Citigroup offers bond investors, underscoring the New York-based company's need for cash. Fourth-quarter profit will be reduced by as much as $7 billion because of losses from subprime mortgages, which led to the departure of CEO Charles O. ``Chuck'' Prince III and a 46 percent slump in its stock this year.
``Clearly, Citi has a problem with capital adequacy after the subprime crisis,'' said Giyas Gokkent, head of research at National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC, Abu Dhabi's biggest bank by market v
alue. ``ADIA has seen an opportunity to get cheaply into a blue-chip stock.''
With the purchase of a 4.9 percent stake, Abu Dhabi, the largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates and its capital, would rank as Citigroup's largest shareholder ahead of Los Angeles-based Capital Group Cos. and Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Depleted Capital
The investment follows purchases by U.A.E. fund Dubai International Capital LLC in companies including London-based HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank by market value, and New York-based hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management LLC. In Abu Dhabi, state-backed Mubadala Development Co. agreed to buy 7.5 percent of Washington-based buyout firm Carlyle Group. ADIA also owns a stake in Leon Black's New York-based buyout firm, Apollo Management LP.
Citigroup Chairman Robert Rubin, who stepped in after Prince resigned, and Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden said on a conference call earlier this month that the bank expects to restore capital to targeted levels by the end of the second quarter without having to cut its $2.7 billion-a-quarter dividend.
Mortgage writedowns cut Citigroup's ``tier 1'' ratio, a metric used to assess banks' ability to weather loan losses, to 7.3 percent on Sept. 30. The figure, while above U.S. regulators' 6 percent threshold for a ``well-capitalized'' bank, was below the bank's 7.5 percent target.
`Bullish' View
The Citigroup equity units that ADIA will purchase can be swapped for as many as 235.6 million shares starting in 2010. The securities will convert into Citigroup shares at prices ranging from $31.83 to $37.24 between March 15, 2010, and Sept. 15, 2011.
Today Citigroup's stock rose 78 cents to $30.54 as of 10:03 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Yesterday, they closed at $29.76, the lowest price in five years.
``The structure of the deal suggests that Abu Dhabi is very bullish, effectively participating in the upside beyond $37.24, and sharing in the downside below $31.83,'' said George Nikas, who helps manage $1 billion at Deutsche Bank AG in Sydney.
Abu Dhabi will have ``no role in the management or governance of Citi, including no right to designate a member'' of the company's board, Citigroup said in its statement.
``This investment reflects our confidence in Citi's potential to build shareholder value,'' ADIA Managing Director Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said in the Citigroup statement.
Cost of Capital
Mounting subprime losses have increased Citigroup's funding costs. The bank sold $4 billion of 10-year bonds on Nov. 14, paying annual interest of 6.125 percent. The securities were priced to yield 190 basis points more than Treasuries, up from 118 basis points, or 1.18 percentage points, in a similar sale three months earlier.
CIBC World Markets analyst Meredith Whitney said in a note to clients today that she still expects Citigroup to cut its dividend as mortgage losses increase.
Abu Dhabi officials met with Rubin in the emirate yesterday to discuss ``world stock markets and their impact on the performance of banks,'' the state-run WAM news agency reported on its Web site.
Abu Dhabi owns the world's fifth-biggest oil reserves. It channels oil surpluses to ADIA, which ranks as the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund with assets of $875 billion, according to July estimates by the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit. The authority will spend $40 billion this year to buy foreign assets, estimates Gokkent at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
Buying Assets
Gulf investors have spent about $70 billion on overseas acquisitions this year, almost double their spending in 2006, as oil prices soared 58 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg show. With oil above $90 a barrel, Gulf producers including Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. earn more than $1.3 billion a day from their energy sales.
State-controlled Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the biggest chemicals company by market value, in May agreed to buy General Electric Co.'s plastic unit for $11.6 billion in a record acquisition for the Gulf. State-owned Dubai World in August agreed to invest as much as $5.1 billion in MGM Mirage, the second-largest casino company, to try to tap into the Las Vegas- based company's U.S. gaming and real estate earnings.
Gulf petrodollars don't always get the prize. Qatar on Nov. 5 said it abandoned a $21.9 billion bid for U.K. supermarket chain J Sainsbury Plc after its cost of funding jumped ``significantly'' since first making the bid July 18.
China's Purchases
China also has been increasing investments in the U.S. and Europe. Bear Stearns Cos., the fifth-biggest U.S. securities firm, agreed last month to sell a 6 percent stake to China's government-controlled Citic Securities Co. for about $1 billion. China Investment Corp., the nation's $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, paid $3 billion for a stake in New York-based private equity firm Blackstone Group LP in May. Barclays Plc, the U.K.'s third-biggest lender, agreed to sell 6.7 percent of itself to China Development Bank in July.
The state-owned Dubai International Financial Center, which bought 2.2 percent of Deutsche Bank AG in May, on Nov. 19 said it is seeking acquisitions in the U.S., where the falling dollar and a lending crisis are driving down the price of banks and property.
Dubai Center
Citigroup is among tenants at the Dubai center, a business park being used to attract banks, insurers and asset managers to the Persian Gulf. Like neighbors Qatar and Bahrain, Dubai is bidding to plug the trading time gap between Europe and Asia and become the region's pre-eminent financial hub.
Qatar, like Abu Dhabi, is seeking to diversify its economy away from near-total reliance on energy earnings. Unlike Abu Dhabi, the oil wells of Dubai and Bahrain have almost run dry.
ADIA ``will bolster Citigroup's capital and competitiveness,'' U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer said in a statement. The New York Democrat was among the lawmakers who criticized the Bush administration's decision last year to approve DP World Ltd.'s $6.8 billion acquisition of London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., a deal that gave the Dubai state-owned port company control of six U.S. terminals.
Schumer was among those who said Dubai ownership would jeopardize U.S. national security, arguing that two terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were from the U.A.E.
AIG's Purchase
DP World agreed in December to sell the U.S. terminals, in cities including New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and New Orleans, to American International Group Inc., the world's biggest insurer.
``The issue for DP World was a misunderstanding that it might misuse its control of some U.S. ports, but that is behind us and Dubai in particular has been doing a lot of deals in the U.S. since then,'' said Mohammed Ghubash, professor of political science at the U.A.E. University in al-Ain.
Prince Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah, invested $590 million in Citigroup predecessor Citicorp in 1991 when the bank needed cash because of loan losses in Latin America and a collapse in U.S. property prices. Alwaleed now holds about $6 billion of Citigroup shares. The prince wasn't available for comment at his Riyadh office today.
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Fargo, North Dakota
Monday, October 1, 2007
Fargo Politics: Nothing New Under the Sun
North Dakota Politics
All societies have believed there own crap. Thought that they had it all figured out. One thing they fail to get is that nothing changes. On average every hundred years or so give or take five to ten everyone here on the planet is dead, and gone. In other words no matter how old the person when you read this every one alive from that point on should be gone in no more than a hundred years. Simple enough until you really think that is about 5.2 billion people recycled every hundred years. And 90% of them thinking that they are the ones that will make something different. Without paying attention to the why and how the ones before have failed. I don't want you the reader to believe that I am trying to project a pessimistic tone. I don't believe in it. The whole idea that you have to be pessimist to be a skeptic is wrong. You just need to not be afraid of what you find. Now I know what most are thinking the Internet, space travel, nano technology to name a few these things are new. People in the past used to know some thing, but not understand it; we I believe understand more but know less. An example of this is in ancient Persia a remedy for rheumatism in you legs was to stand on a special fish. Today we know that the fish had a electric charge and the problem was arthritis. I have no fish nor do have health insurance. What I want a person to think about is who's life was more convenient? All we have done is created
a codependency on our great new stuff. Fire, soap, and Penicillin have saved more lives that anything Pfizer has come up with. In other words a Roman had running water, wood and oil delivered to there home for heat and light, and an abundance of food (( all on the backs of the weak) this is for the democrats/pessimists). I have to work my ass off for food with preservatives, toys with lead paint, overpriced electricity all while paying huge amounts of interest on borrowed money.
The only thing the future hold is more pain unless we learn from the past. Soon we will forget all of the things that have been figured out and be in caves again clubbing women to breed and wondering why raw chicken (squawky birds) make us sick.
"Life is a garden dig it" Joe Dirt. "Peace" Manowar
Fargophantom.com
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Fargo Politics: What Albert Einstein think of of our policies in the Middle East?
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Indeed, Albert considered himself to be a pacifist. In 1929, he publicly declared that if a war broke out he
would "unconditionally refuse to do war service, direct or indirect... regardless of how the cause of the war should be judged." His position would change in 1933, as the result of Adolf Hitler's ascent to power in Germany. While still promoting peace, Einstein no longer fit his previous self-description of being an "absolute pacifist". As the realization of nuclear weapons grew near. Einstein looked beyond the current war to future problems that such weapons could bring. He wrote to physicist Niels Bohr in December 1944, "when the war is over, then there will be in all countries a pursuit of secret war preparations with technological means which will lead inevitably to preventative wars and to destruction even more terrible than the present destruction of life." Einstein Feared more than anything Governments that were not accountable to the people. It is not difficult to see that democratic governments have brought a record of peace and prosperity compared to dictators and one party states around the world. So, the question must be asked. Why is this so? The answer lies in that a democratic government is one that is held accountable for its actions not just at election time but also on a daily basis. Is this really the fundemental reason we find ourselves in the Middle East. This I believe, is exactly what Einstein feared, dictatorships running governments during a time of arm proliferation and technology that most poor nations can now dabble in. I believe if he were alive today he would be hammering this point home.We all know what we really fear in the mideast, Just what the most intelligent mind of the 20 th century thought. Lets get it done. Stick that in your bong and smoke it liberals.....
By The Mean Mr Mustard
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North Dakota Politics
North Dakota Politics: What does Katrina have To Do With Immigration
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Fargo ND We are near the anniversary of Katrina, the storm that all but wiped out New Orleans. What does this have to do with immigration, legal or otherwise? One argument against massive immigration across the United States, for example, on our southern border is the illegal aliens are taking jobs away from Americans. The response is that the jobs they are taking are jobs American are not willing to do, at least not for the same wage. Oh? Why is that true, if it is. Katrina showed the people of Fargo and the rest of the country the massive poverty in New Orleans and by extension, in many other large cities. It revealed hundred of thousands of people, nearly destitute, totally unable to fend for themselves, totally dependent on an unresponsive Federal government. I sure help hope the people of Northwood, ND don't experience the same treatment from our Government. What ever happened to "workfare?" Didn't work, I guess. Well, as long as our lowest class doesn't have to go to work I think it rather obvious it won't work. I think we might be surprised how well many of them could care for a lawn if their livelihood depended on it. As good as any illegal immigrant, I would bet. Further, has anyone considered if we're doing anybody any good? People leave their home countries and come here presumably because life here at its worst is better than at home. By accepting, we are robbing them of their opportunity, or even responsibility, to make their own county better. If their government is the problem, then according to our founding fathers, it is their responsibility to change it. By accepting their immigrants,
we are robbing these countries of the opportunity to develop. Such is not easy: we didn't find it so, but nothing worthwhile ever is.
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Fargophantom.com
North Dakota Politics
Fargo ND We are near the anniversary of Katrina, the storm that all but wiped out New Orleans. What does this have to do with immigration, legal or otherwise? One argument against massive immigration across the United States, for example, on our southern border is the illegal aliens are taking jobs away from Americans. The response is that the jobs they are taking are jobs American are not willing to do, at least not for the same wage. Oh? Why is that true, if it is. Katrina showed the people of Fargo and the rest of the country the massive poverty in New Orleans and by extension, in many other large cities. It revealed hundred of thousands of people, nearly destitute, totally unable to fend for themselves, totally dependent on an unresponsive Federal government. I sure help hope the people of Northwood, ND don't experience the same treatment from our Government. What ever happened to "workfare?" Didn't work, I guess. Well, as long as our lowest class doesn't have to go to work I think it rather obvious it won't work. I think we might be surprised how well many of them could care for a lawn if their livelihood depended on it. As good as any illegal immigrant, I would bet. Further, has anyone considered if we're doing anybody any good? People leave their home countries and come here presumably because life here at its worst is better than at home. By accepting, we are robbing them of their opportunity, or even responsibility, to make their own county better. If their government is the problem, then according to our founding fathers, it is their responsibility to change it. By accepting their immigrants,
we are robbing these countries of the opportunity to develop. Such is not easy: we didn't find it so, but nothing worthwhile ever is.
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North Dakota Politics
Monday, August 27, 2007
North Dakota Politics: North Dakota Politics
NORTH DAKOTA
Your complete directory of North Dakota candidates for Governor, United States Senator and Congress in the current election cycle ... state political parties ... the official state election office ... and state news sources.
CANDIDATE DIRECTORY LEGEND:
Bold = Active Candidate
Italics = Potential Candidate
* = Incumbent
= Winner
(Incumbent Party Listed First)
Filing Deadline (Major Parties): April 2008
Filing Deadline (Others): September 2008
D/R Nominating Conventions: April 2008
Primary: June 2008
This page was last updated on August 27, 2008
STATE CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS:
2008 Elections:
GOVERNOR:
John Hoeven (R)*
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR:
Jack Dalrymple (R)*
STATE TREASURER:
Kelly Schmidt (R)* - (Campaign Site)
STATE AUDITOR:
Robert "Bob" Peterson (R)*
STATE INSURANCE COMMISSIONER:
[ Jim Poolman (R)* - Resigned effective August 31, 2007. ]
STATE SUPERINTENDANT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION:
(Note: Superintendent is officially a non-partisan post.)
Wayne Sanstead (D)*
2010 Elections:
SECRETARY OF STATE:
Al Jaeger (R)* - (Campaign Site)
ATTORNEY GENERAL:
Wayne Stenehjem (R)* - (Campaign Site)
STATE AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER:
Roger Johnson (D)* - (Campaign Site)
STATE TAX COMMISSIONER:
Cory Fong (R)* - (Campaign Site)
STATE LEGISLATURE:
State House
State Senate
U.S. SENATOR:
Kent Conrad (D)* - (Campaign Site) - Next Election in 2012.
Byron Dorgan (D)* - Next Election in 2010.
U.S. CONGRESS:
At Large:
Earl Pomeroy (D)* - (Campaign Site)
STATE POLITICAL PARTIES:
Constitution Party of North Dakota
North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party
Green Party of North Dakota
Libertarian Party of North Dakota
North Dakota Republican Party
STATE ELECTION OFFICE:
Secretary of State's Office
STATE NEWS SOURCES:
Bismarck Tribune
Devil's Lake Journal
Dickinson Press
Fargo Forum
Grand Forks Herald
Jamestown Sun
Minot Daily News
Say Anything (Conservative)
Taking Back North Dakaota (Conservative)
Valley City Times-Record
Wahpeton Daily News
Williston Herald
KFYR TV-5 (NBC - Bismarck)
KXMA TV-2 (CBS - Dickinson)
KXMC TV-13 (CBS - Minot)
North Dakota Public Radio / Prairie Public Television
WDAY TV-6 (ABC - Fargo)
WDAZ TV-8 (ABC - Grand Forks)
The Fargo Phantom
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North Dakota Politics
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Fargo Politics: What is going on in Iraq?
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Fargo N.D. Arguably the hottest political issue at the moment is the 'war'in Iraq. I put war in quotes because I'm not sure that's what it is, nor do I know what it would mean to 'win'this' war.I think in a
war, we must be fighting one or more enemies, and the military definition of win would say that we must occupy their territory and impose our will upon them. Hmm. Doesn't seem to be much of what we're about here. Possibly it would help to start asking some fundamental questions, like what is Iraq? What is an Iraqi? I'm not sure what an Iraqi is, just as I know people that live/have lived there that don't either. Iraq, of course, is a country, but is it a country in the sense we mean it? For example, Is Guam a country? We took it from the Spanish and are still there, so it's a country if we say it is. But is that a country be anybody else's definition, especially the residents of Guam. Why am I going into this? Because is some sense Iraq is not much different. Before World War I(the war to make the world safe for democracy), Iraq was the Ottomon Empire(Turkey)'s province of Mesopotamia. To update those not up on WWI history, Turkey was on the losing side, and the Ottoman Empire was dismantled, with, by prior agreement, Great Britain and France dividing up most of the possessions. Somehow, Saudi Arabia escaped European Colonialism. Great Britain governed Iraq under a League of Nations Mandate, which it gave up in 1932 in favor of King Faisal. The country remained a kingdom until the Baath party overthrew the royal house in 1968. And we know where that led...Saddam Hussein The government was dominated by Sunni Muslims, who are out-numbered by the Shi'ites. And of course there are the Kurds. Notice the one thing missing in all this: nobody has ever asked these factions if they want to be in one country. The large turnouts in the elections don't mean much to me: if the other sides are avowed to wipe you off the face of the map in Allah's name, of course you'll vote. About the Kurds, I don't think there's much question. They want to be 'an Independent Kurdish State'according to a Kurdish acquaintance of mine. Of course some live in Turkey, so this may be difficult to accomplish.
One thing I do find interesting is the apparent universal celebration in Iraq of their recent championship in the Asian Soccer competition. The only sign of unity I've seen involving
By: Fear the Lutefisk
http://www.fargophantom.com
Your Alternative to the Fargo Forum
North Dakota Politics
Fargo N.D. Arguably the hottest political issue at the moment is the 'war'in Iraq. I put war in quotes because I'm not sure that's what it is, nor do I know what it would mean to 'win'this' war.I think in a
war, we must be fighting one or more enemies, and the military definition of win would say that we must occupy their territory and impose our will upon them. Hmm. Doesn't seem to be much of what we're about here. Possibly it would help to start asking some fundamental questions, like what is Iraq? What is an Iraqi? I'm not sure what an Iraqi is, just as I know people that live/have lived there that don't either. Iraq, of course, is a country, but is it a country in the sense we mean it? For example, Is Guam a country? We took it from the Spanish and are still there, so it's a country if we say it is. But is that a country be anybody else's definition, especially the residents of Guam. Why am I going into this? Because is some sense Iraq is not much different. Before World War I(the war to make the world safe for democracy), Iraq was the Ottomon Empire(Turkey)'s province of Mesopotamia. To update those not up on WWI history, Turkey was on the losing side, and the Ottoman Empire was dismantled, with, by prior agreement, Great Britain and France dividing up most of the possessions. Somehow, Saudi Arabia escaped European Colonialism. Great Britain governed Iraq under a League of Nations Mandate, which it gave up in 1932 in favor of King Faisal. The country remained a kingdom until the Baath party overthrew the royal house in 1968. And we know where that led...Saddam Hussein The government was dominated by Sunni Muslims, who are out-numbered by the Shi'ites. And of course there are the Kurds. Notice the one thing missing in all this: nobody has ever asked these factions if they want to be in one country. The large turnouts in the elections don't mean much to me: if the other sides are avowed to wipe you off the face of the map in Allah's name, of course you'll vote. About the Kurds, I don't think there's much question. They want to be 'an Independent Kurdish State'according to a Kurdish acquaintance of mine. Of course some live in Turkey, so this may be difficult to accomplish.One thing I do find interesting is the apparent universal celebration in Iraq of their recent championship in the Asian Soccer competition. The only sign of unity I've seen involving
By: Fear the Lutefisk
http://www.fargophantom.com
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North Dakota Politics
North Dakota Politics: Crash goes the monument?
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Recently the Fargo City Commission heeded a petition drive, reversed it's earlier decision to divest itself of the Ten Commandments Monument and rejected the "gift" of the Red River Free Thinkers of a copy of a Treaty between the United States and Algi
ers, a Barbary state or close to it. The treaty clearly states that the United States is not a Christian country. I don't take this treaty seriously: looks like diplomacy to me, but I don't think we've heard the last of this. First, most court cases involving things like the Monument result in their removal. The court that ruled on the Fargo case based its ruling on the idea that Fargo would accept any other such monument. Even this isn't good enough for many, including me. My spiritual beliefs are mine, and I do not share them easily. I certainly don't want to build monuments to them and don't think monuments to others beliefs should be on government sites. By rejecting the Free Thinkers gift, the Commission has negated the courts reasoning, setting themselves up for another court case, unless the Free Thinkers are either tired of this or are out of money to spend on attorneys. Now, what about the Commandments themselves? I've heard two arguments for keeping it. One is that the Founding Fathers were devout Christians, the other is that the commandments are in some sense universal, applicable to everyone. I think both are rather obviously false. The inconvenient truth about the religious beliefs of our Founders is that most were Deists. At least, that's what the scholars seem to be saying. A Deist believes in a Supreme Being, but do not believe it interferes with the Universe as we know it, does not hear or answer prayers. This seems to indicate they are not Christians. I find it difficult to reconcile Deism with the public statements of many of our Founders save one: Thomas Jefferson, "that notorious Deist(Harpers)". That's good enough for me. There being no evidence that our Founders wished to found a Christian Society, that's pretty strong evidence that they didn't. With regard to who would accept the commandments, I do not think it the Governments Business to outlaw idolatry(nor are they trying to), or enforce the observance of the Sabbath, although they've tried. Since the Sabbath is not the same to everyone(in fact, most think it's Saturday), this clearly can't be done without espousing one or more religions.
A number of Fargo's leading Citizens are Hindus. US Citizens that got that way by legal means within the intent of the Constitution. Hindus believe in three gods, not one: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. I think that unless Fargo wants to offend these citizens, crash goes the monument.
By: London Calling
www.fargophantom.com
Your Alternative to the Fargo Forum
North Dakota Politics
Recently the Fargo City Commission heeded a petition drive, reversed it's earlier decision to divest itself of the Ten Commandments Monument and rejected the "gift" of the Red River Free Thinkers of a copy of a Treaty between the United States and Algi
ers, a Barbary state or close to it. The treaty clearly states that the United States is not a Christian country. I don't take this treaty seriously: looks like diplomacy to me, but I don't think we've heard the last of this. First, most court cases involving things like the Monument result in their removal. The court that ruled on the Fargo case based its ruling on the idea that Fargo would accept any other such monument. Even this isn't good enough for many, including me. My spiritual beliefs are mine, and I do not share them easily. I certainly don't want to build monuments to them and don't think monuments to others beliefs should be on government sites. By rejecting the Free Thinkers gift, the Commission has negated the courts reasoning, setting themselves up for another court case, unless the Free Thinkers are either tired of this or are out of money to spend on attorneys. Now, what about the Commandments themselves? I've heard two arguments for keeping it. One is that the Founding Fathers were devout Christians, the other is that the commandments are in some sense universal, applicable to everyone. I think both are rather obviously false. The inconvenient truth about the religious beliefs of our Founders is that most were Deists. At least, that's what the scholars seem to be saying. A Deist believes in a Supreme Being, but do not believe it interferes with the Universe as we know it, does not hear or answer prayers. This seems to indicate they are not Christians. I find it difficult to reconcile Deism with the public statements of many of our Founders save one: Thomas Jefferson, "that notorious Deist(Harpers)". That's good enough for me. There being no evidence that our Founders wished to found a Christian Society, that's pretty strong evidence that they didn't. With regard to who would accept the commandments, I do not think it the Governments Business to outlaw idolatry(nor are they trying to), or enforce the observance of the Sabbath, although they've tried. Since the Sabbath is not the same to everyone(in fact, most think it's Saturday), this clearly can't be done without espousing one or more religions.A number of Fargo's leading Citizens are Hindus. US Citizens that got that way by legal means within the intent of the Constitution. Hindus believe in three gods, not one: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. I think that unless Fargo wants to offend these citizens, crash goes the monument.
By: London Calling
www.fargophantom.com
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