Remember Georgia? no, not THAT Georgia, I mean the one OVER THERE, you know, next to Russia.

They just had a nifty little war (Nifty except for the death and destruction, of course, but hey, what's a little of that compared with the olympics?)

Of course, the pipeline is undamaged, thank goodness, otherwise somebody might lose money.

and who's making money off this little debacle?

When we look around for villains, we usually settle on Alfred E. Bush or his buddy, Evil Dick Cheney. Sorry, everybody, we're wrong. Bush and Cheney are not the disease - they're two of the symptoms. Take a look at Barack Obama, the person whom many of us consider the last, best hope of America's moral survival. The outlook isn't as bright as it used to be. We're seeing the same forces that gave us the Contract with America and the borrow-and-spend Reagan Revolution now infiltrating the Change We Can Believe In.

The problem is the system we thought would give us all prosperity, but which turns out to be highly selective in where the prosperity ends up. The Bogus Economist feels we ought to think about it.

Every Wednesday noon I go to lunch with a bunch of old friends I call The Curmudgeons.  We are all more than 50, most over 60 and a few of us over 70.  We are all yellow dog Democrats who enjoy sitting around our round table and cursing TGDSOBGWB abd the cowardly Democrats and criminal Republicans in the US Congressw and among the Bush Administrations appointments.

At the same time, we curse with equal passion the criminals who have taken over the control of most of our MSM and major corporate board rooms.

One of the Curmudgeons, an funny IrishAmericanteacher of American  history sent this to all his friends this mrning.

When I grew up, my father owned a computer consulting firm. On each of his business cards was his firm's slogan. In that slogan is an idea that many people, especially in today's age of high speed internet and rapid response blogging, fail to understand. It's a simple idea.

There is time to do it right.

It's a slogan that reasonably explained my father's idea about his work. He believed that it is better to spend more time on a project and get it right than try to push something non-functional, bug-ridden, etc. onto a customer. It has had the effect of maintaining an incredibly dedicated customer base to his company.

Note that this slogan does not imply there is an infinity of time to get the job done. It implies that you can rush and put in a patch job that makes a bigger mess of things in the long run, or you can work solidly and get the job done right the first time. You can overreact to an issue and hack something together that deals with it in the short term, or you can lay out a plan of action and follow through on it and have a fix that lasts longterm.

So what does this have to do with political strategy?

August 6, 1945 was the horrible dawn of the atomic age at Hiroshima.

It's also the less well-known debut of an equally iconic, equally American killing technology:  the electric chair, which claimed its first victim on August 6, 1890 in New York's Auburn Prison.

This weird hybrid of penal reformism, naive techno-optimism and cutthroat corporate competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse made a nauseating botch of its maiden usage upon the person of otherwise obscure wife-murderer William Kemmler.

Cross-posted from Executed Today

Or, at least corporatism, that is.

Last night, after a nice long talk with or neighbor that negated any and all plans for us to go out to a good restaurant, my wife and I decided to go up to TGI Fridays so that we could enjoy a nice drink and celebrate my Birthday.

We're both vets of the restaurant realm. In fact, my wife still bartends on Sundays to keep a nice little pile of cash in the coffee can for the week. Because we've both worked in a variety of restaurant settings from fine dining to short order to diner, we are highly in-tune to all of those stupid things that consultants and management types, who have never served a table in their lives, come up with.

What we witnessed last night at Fridays, however, absolutely took the cake for the worst possible cruelty one can place on an employed server.

As oil prices have soured the Dog has been thinking about the entire globalization and just in time inventory strategy that businesses and countries have invested so much in during the last twenty five years. The globalization model is based on the predicate that transport costs will be cheap and so you can move materials and components to wherever labor costs are cheapest, then assemble them at the final location, or a location close to a an ocean for transport. The Dog has wondering if we are at a place where this model no longer works, and today the New York Times has published an article looking at this very scenario. You can read the whole thing here.

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

He is ninety years young.  Born in 1918, Alexander recalls the Great Depression.  He understands why some thought the Bush Forty-One years were worse than the days after the crash in 1929, although no one ever admitted to that.  Now, near two decades later, denial of economic despair remains intact.  Alex wonders if only history paints a truer picture.  Possibly, when he was but a boy, people did not accept that the crash was the big one.  In retrospect do we realize . . . Alex wonders aloud;  in recent months, each evening he dreams of realities that were during what was defined as the most dramatic, worldwide economic downturn.

Two immigration must reads so far today:  One was today’s Washington Post Metro section front page look at law students aiding in immigration law clinics.  With so much deportation going on and with so many obstacles to legal immigration and staying legal, it’s all hands on deck.  

The second was the lead story in Sunday’s New York Times by Julia Preston on how the business community is starting to stir to put pressure on GOP lawmakers about immigration.  Employers trying to play by the rules are being tarred with the same brush as bottom-feeding employers who exploit the illegal status of workers.  Until we find ways of allowing for sufficient legal immigration, many small business owners are suffering.

I am not in the health insurance business.  I own a small company that started up this year.  It is a 100% telecommuting company, which works well for the type of business I am in and it provides incredible flexibility for my employees.  It is very important to me that my employees receive quality health care, and as a business owner I am happy to pay for their health insurance coverage.

You might think that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott learned a lesson from the beating he took a few months ago in the media over the Deborah Shank case, but you'd be wrong. Wal-Mart now seems determined to keep disability benefits from all Americans, not merely its own employees. To make matters worse, the company has chosen to start its campaign with an injured police officer.

Welcome to my second ISDC report.  I apologize for the delay on it - I've been dealing with 2 grandparents in the hospital.  

Anyway, On Wednesday, May 28th, prior to the start of ISDC, the 4th Space Investment Summit happened.  This was a business development forum, designed to bring together people in the space community, especially those who are current entrepreneurial start-up companies, and those in the investment community, with the hope of providing networking opportunities to raise capital (IE money).  

A lot of the discussion was very focused on how to develop your business, and reach investors.  I will provide a run-down of the companies that presented, and then will provide some links to additional resources.  

Join me over the flipside, so I can introduce you to Ecliptic Enterprises, SkyCorp Inc, XCOR Aerospace, Rocket Racing League, Orbital Outfitters, and Odyssey Moon

Just a short while ago, Senator Barack Obama was on the FOX Business channel for an interview. During the exchange he was asked to comment on the Supreme Court's ruling of 5-4 that struck down the Washington DC hand gun ban.

Obama voiced his opinion that the second amendment is an individual right, although he added that sensible gun laws could still be put in place. Watch the exchange below and weigh in with thoughts/opinions:

A friend of mine sent around an email this morning, and it struck me as one of the most eloquent and pointed queries I have seen in a long time.  I am sharing this with you with his permission.  He raises some great points, and some really thought provoking questions.  So please, give his letter some thought, and share your feelings.  I will share mine too...

Cara

Barack Obama just accepted my invitation to get connected on the LinkedIn website!  Of course, I'm now just one of hundreds of his network connections, but the thrill of getting the email confirmation is undeniable.  But now, whenever anyone views my profile on the site, they'll see that I'm "connected" to the next president of the United States.  How cool is that?

This candidate and his campaign continue to amaze in the ways they not only understand modern reach-out techniques, but actually use them!

We're already familiar here on Daily Kos that Obama has reached out through this venue.  Now he's out there in the professional networking world as well.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal claims that 25 million people are underinsured up from 16 million in 2003.

Today the Atlanta Journal Constitution stated 700 people die per year in Georgia, people that would have lived had they been injured in other states because of an underfunded trauma care system in Georgia.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle explains that Grady Hospital in Atlanta "bleeds 40 million dollars in unpaid emergency bills" emminating from the uninsured and underinsured.

And a few hours ago MSNBC ran a disturbing story about how Hospitals use credit reports to guage patients ability and willingness to pay hospital bills.

It seems Republicans are going with 3 key phrases to fight Obama:  terrorism, Rev. Wright & taxes.  

Democrats must FIGHT the tax charge with vigor.  Why?  Because nothing is more of a tax-in-waiting than continuing to spend $12 Billion A MONTH in Iraq.

Enron anyone?

From the Northwest Arkansas Morning News:

Eduardo Castro-Wright, executive vice president of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., sold 71,450 shares of common stock, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The shares sold for $56 each, putting the transaction value at a little more than $4 million. Castro-Wright sold the shares May 21 and May 22, according to the SEC filing.