Bad Deeds for 9-29-2009

 

Senators Vote Against What Their Constituents Want – The latest Research 2000 polls show that Maine voters want a public option 58% to 29% and Montana voters favor it 47% to 43%. Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) just voted against the public health insurance option in the Senate Finance Committee. They were the deciding votes in the first of several times the Senate will take on this issue in the coming weeks. These senators just voted against what their own constituents want — and voted with corporate interests that have given them millions.

 

Money Spent on Wars Could Easily Pay For Entire Health Care Plan for Everyone – The appropriated cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is around $10 billion a month, which is enough to pay for the entire health care plan by itself. But that doesn’t include the future health care costs for injured American soldiers, which is staggering. Nor the cost to the Iraqis or Afghans, of course.

 

Health Insurance Companies CEO’s Motto: “If we’re not broke, don’t fix it!”
The Five Most Overpaid CEOs

Despite that the companies that they are responsible for are doing terribly, these five CEOs are still sitting pretty. Here is the Corporate Library’s list of the “Highest Paid Worst Performers”:
Abercrombie’s Michael Jeffries was awarded total compensation of $71.8 million last year while it’s stock fell more than 71%.

The bulk of B J Services James Stewart’s $34.6 million windfall came from value realized on stock options, which resulted in a $30 million jackpot as company stock fell 50%.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts received total compensation of $40.8 million last year while it’s stock fell 7%.

International Paper’s CEO got total compensation of $38.2 million while the company stock dropped 63%.

Nabors Indusries’ Eugene Isenberg got a $58.7 million bonus while company stock dropped 51%.

 

US Income Gap Widens as Poor Take Hit – The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans — those making more than $138,000 each year — earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003. Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade’s worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997. Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.

 

Republican Senator Openly Calls for Regime Change in Iran – Considering how well some of our other efforts at “regime change” have gone, does anyone else think it’s not such a great idea openly advocating for it on national television? Here’s Jon Kyl on Meet the Press.

I mean, what we’re trying to do here eventually is to get a regime change with a group of people in there that are more representative of the Iranian people, who we really can talk with in a way that might end up with a good result.

 

Sarah Palin’s Memoir Due in November; English Edition to Follow 😉 – A memoir by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be published this November, with an English translation due shortly thereafter, her publisher confirmed today.

According to Carol Foyler, a spokesperson for the publisher, translators are working “around the clock” to translate Ms. Palin’s text into English. “We have hired the best linguists in the country, but this is still hard work,” Ms. Foyler acknowledged. “It must have been easier to crack the Enigma code in World War II.”

Ms. Foyler said that the publishing company was “delighted” with Ms. Palin’s manuscript and “deeply relieved that she didn’t quit in the middle of it.”

Regards,

Jim