I Want My Money Back!!!

You've got to hand it to MoveOn.org. Whether you support it's positions or not, MoveOn.org lives up to it's motto, Democracy In Action.

It's no surprise that MoveOn.org has found a way to harness the anger Americans from sea to shining sea feel for AIG, American International Group, Inc., the company deemed "too large to fail."

Have you ever thought of throwing tomatoes, or worse, at AIG's corporate office? Kris Khoury, a member of MoveOn.org, created a game that allows you to do just that, even if they're just virtual tomatoes.

It's The Great AIG Tomato Toss!


It's not difficult to understand, of course, why Americans are angry about the government's bailout of AIG.

AIG lost $61.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008. That's the largest quarterly loss ever posted by an American company. The company actually managed to lose $465,000 a minute during the quarter!

The fourth quarter of 2008 was the fifth consecutive quarter AIG lost money. In all, American International Group, Inc. lost $99.29 billion in 2008, wiping out profit dating back to the early 1990s.

It was losses from credit default swaps that threatened to collapse the company; something which, experts say, would threaten the world financial system.

It was, notably, the Financial Products Division that was responsible for bringing down AIG.


Let us not forget that $170 billion of taxpayer money has been invested so far to save American International Group, Inc. from total collapse.

The bailout began in September, 2008 when the government loaned AIG $85 billion.

One week later AIG staged a retreat for company executives at a lavish California retreat which cost $444,000.

Taxpayers were, I think, understandably upset to find AIG personnel indulged in spa treatments, banquets and golf outings. I feel that it was a weak excuse for AIG to say the retreat was planned before the bailout.

Resentment for AIG grew when just 24 hours after news of the retreat broke the Federal Reserve agreed to loan the company another $37.8 billion.

American taxpayers received another slap in the face from AIG in mid-October when AIG executives spent $86,000 on a luxurious English hunting trip. They weren't done yet, though. A $343,000 trip to a lavish resort in Phoenix, Arizona followed in November.


American International Group, Inc. isn't a company that does anything halfway. To show the American people how grateful it is, AIG announced this month the payment of $165 million in bonuses to executives in the Financial Products Division.

Yes, that's right, the Financial Products Divison which was responsible for bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy and playing a key role in the implosion of the American economy.

Which brings us back to MoveOn.org.

When you play The Great AIG Tomato Toss you have an opportunity to sign a petition to demand the return of the bonus money.

MoveOn.org is shooting for 400,000 signatures to deliver to Congress and more than 300,000 people have signed so far.

I join MoveOn.org in encouraging you to check out the game, pass it on and, most importantly, sign the petition if you haven't already.

When The Financial Meltdown Hits Home...

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
- Nelson Mandela

Photograph by Kilroy_60

Barack Obama has been President of the United States for about 50 days and there are people asking why he hasn't pulled our economy out of the ditch yet.

I can answer that question for you. It's because George W. Bush was one of the worst Presidents in the history of the country and the economy we have is a result of his blunders and those of his failed administration.

Barack Obama has a mess to clean up exceeded only by what Franklin D. Roosevelt faced in The Great Depression. It's not going to be easy and it's not going to be fast, so do what you can to become part of the solution and stop being part of the problem.

Republicans, take note. You supported the policies of George W. Bush and you did so enthusiastically. Doing everything you can now to block Barack Obama's efforts to fix what you screwed up isn't beneficial to the country.

But, to hell with all that.

I haven't been posting for about two weeks...not because I was at La Alegría and not because I was traveling to collect on an Obama/McCain election bet. No, I've been working with a client to save one of his companies.

I've worked with GoIrish! for years. We've opened companies together, I've helped him grow and expand operations and we fixed problems he had in various companies.

I don't typically meet with GoIrish! at his home so when he invited me there for dinner I knew we had a serious issue to deal with.

Widget Manufacturing had been a lucrative enterprise for GoIrish! for many years, but it started to decline toward the end of 2007 and things got worse through 2008. He's still making money, but Widget Manufacturing's spreadsheet isn't what it once was.

While banks say they're lending money since getting bailout funds GoIrish! has an A+ credit rating and he's not getting the funding he wants for Widget Manufacturing.

The primary issues GoIrish! wanted to discuss were consolidating operations, restructuring management, laying off hourly employees and, ultimately, the possibility of closing the company.

Normally, GoIrish! pours glasses of Johnnie Walker Blue Label to celebrate a victory of one kind or another. On this night, though, it was to ease the pain. The possibility of closing a business wasn't something he'd ever dealt with before and he wasnt taking it well.

GoIrish! won't be requesting any money from the government to save Widget Manufacturing. We've put a plan in place to stop the bleeding for now and are working on long-term solutions.

I'm waiving my fee for the time being in order to save two management jobs. Meanwhile all the managers have taken a pay cut and GoIrish! is not collecting a salary. So far, Widget Manufacturing has not had any lay offs and that's something I'm doing my best to avoid.

When the history of our financial recovery is written I intend to have Widget Manufacturing be one of the things that contributed to it's success.

That's all for now, I have to jet to a meeting with GoIrish!

Happy Square Root Day! A Kilroy_60 Celebration!!

Photograph by Kilroy_60

Leap Year comes every four years. Well, no, not every four years, because....

My birthday is 29 February and not only are there rules to determine when leap years do and don't occur, there's a formula to figure it out. It's possible that being a leaper led me to be interested in things like Square Root Day.

Yes, that's right, it's Square Root Day today and math geeks around the globe are ecstatic.

Square Root Day occurs when the day and the month are both the square root of the last two digits of the current year. Numerically, March 3, 2009, can be expressed as 3/3/09, or mathematically as √9 = 3, or 3² = 3 × 3 = 9.

You might call Square Root Day a calendar comet. It's a rare event that occurs only nine times in a century.

The last Square Root Day was 2 February, 2004 and the next one will take place in seven years on 4 April, 2016.

Ron Gordon, a teacher from Redwood City, California wants to drum up excitement for Square Root Day so he's staging a contest with a prize of $339.

Gordon is looking for the largest Square Root Day celebration.

If you think your square root-related event will have the highest number of people involved send an entry with a description of the event and/or photos to rgordon@seq.org.

You can snail mail your entry if you prefer to:
Ron Gordon, P.O. Box 5133, Redwood City, CA 94063.

I don't expect to win the Square Root Day contest, but I do have an event planned. I've invited 339 people to join me in smoking 9 bong hits every 33 minutes.

I've also set a blogosphere milepost publishing this post at 3:39 a.m.! Happy Square Root Day, eh.

Courtesy of The Vanity Of It All

Sandra Lee's Marmalade Meat Balls go GONZO!

It's a long-standing tradition that I celebrate my 29 February birthday from the 26th of February through the 3rd of March...and rest on the seventh day. This year is no different.

TheSpecialOne decided it would be nice to have a party this weekend and MarthStewartLite agreed to host. Needless to say, that get together contrasted sharply with the pub crawl The Master Baiter, Spear Chucker and I did Friday night.

I made a batch of Marmalade Meat Balls for the party. The recipe comes from The Food Channel's Sandra Lee.

Ingredient List for Sandra Lee's Marmalade Meat Balls...
--(-)-> 2 pounds full cooked frozen meatballs; she recommends Armanino
--(-)-> 1 bottle (16 oz.) catalina salad dressing
--(-)-> 1 cup orange marmalade
--(-)-> 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
--(-)-> 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

When I make Marmalade Meat Balls, though, I don't use frozen like Sandra Lee does. I make my own using beef, pork and veal.

Sandra Lee never mentions including marijuana in her recipes so I'm guessing she doesn't add the quarter ounce per pound of meat that I do. She may and not include it in the ingredient list, but I don't know that to be the case.


One other thing I do differently than Sandra Lee is add an additional 1/2 cup of orange marmalade. That, of course, gives them more of a citrus flavor.

This is an easy dish to put together. A prime example, you could say, of why I don't object to using a slow cooker.

These are the cooking directions...

• Put meat balls in slow cooker.
• Mix 16 oz. of catalina salad dressing, 1 1/2 cup orange marmalade, 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes.
• Pour over meatballs and stir to coat.
• Cook on high 2-3 hours.

It would best sum up this recipe to say: Sandra Lee's Marmalade Meat Balls go GONZO!