Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans — those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 — receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.
"To hear some of my colleagues say that we should dispense with this frivolous debate because the president has threatened to veto, what a waste of our time -- well, if you logically follow that through, Mr. President, why do we need a Congress? . . . Mr. President, we tried a monarchy once. It's not suited to America," - Senator Chuck Hagel, Wednesday.Well, Senator Hagel, the petulant President did once say it would be much easier if he was dictator, so I wouldn't be so surprised by his disdain for congressional oversight, now that we actually have a Congress that will do oversight of the executive branch. Nice of someone from your side for noticing though.
Specter asked about Gonzales' "candor" in saying earlier this month that he was not a part of any discussions on the firings. He asked about the November 27, 2006 meeting "where there were discussions" and Gonzales allegedly attended. Was Gonzales' statement about taking part in no discussions accurate?via AmericaBlog
"I don’t think it’s accurate,” Sampson replied. “I think he’s recently clarified it. But I remember discussing with him this process of asking certain U.S. attorneys to resign, and I believe that he was present at the meeting on Nov. 27.”
"So he was involved in discussions in contrast to his statement" this month? Specter asked.
"Yes," Sampson replied.
Sen. Charles Schumer then asked about Gonzales also claiming that he saw no documents on this matter.
Sampson replied: "I don't think it's entirely accurate."
Schumer: "There was repeated discussions?"
Sampson : "Yes."
Schumer: "As many as, say, five."
Sampson: "Yes."
Schumer then asked if Gonzales was truthful in saying Sampson's information on the firings was not shared within the department.
Sampson: "I shared information with whoever asked....I was very open and collaborative in the process."
Schumer: "So the Attorney General's statement is false?"
Sampson: "I don't think it is accurate."
Sometimes realize, I could only be as good as you'll let me
Are you woman enough to be my man?
Bandaged hand in hand
I find it on the run in a race that can't be won
All hail the lucky ones, I refer to those in love, yeah
If you're my only one, so could you only one?
I want to be your one, enough...
Your one...your one...your one...
Combining high quality with stunningly low prices, the shirts appeal to upscale customers - and epitomize why some retail analysts say Mr. Sinegal just might be America's shrewdest merchant since Sam Walton.
But not everyone is happy with Costco's business strategy. Some Wall Street analysts assert that Mr. Sinegal is overly generous not only to Costco's customers but to its workers as well.
Costco's average pay, for example, is $17 an hour, 42 percent higher than its fiercest rival, Sam's Club. And Costco's health plan makes those at many other retailers look Scroogish. One analyst, Bill Dreher of Deutsche Bank, complained last year that at Costco "it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder."
Mr. Sinegal begs to differ. He rejects Wall Street's assumption that to succeed in discount retailing, companies must pay poorly and skimp on benefits, or must ratchet up prices to meet Wall Street's profit demands.
Good wages and benefits are why Costco has extremely low rates of turnover and theft by employees, he said. And Costco's customers, who are more affluent than other warehouse store shoppers, stay loyal because they like that low prices do not come at the workers' expense. "This is not altruistic," he said. "This is good business."
[...]At Costco, one of Mr. Sinegal's cardinal rules is that no branded item can be marked up by more than 14 percent, and no private-label item by more than 15 percent. In contrast, supermarkets generally mark up merchandise by 25 percent, and department stores by 50 percent or more.
"They could probably get more money for a lot of items they sell," said Ed Weller, a retailing analyst at ThinkEquity.
But Mr. Sinegal warned that if Costco increased markups to 16 or 18 percent, the company might slip down a dangerous slope and lose discipline in minimizing costs and prices.
Mr. Sinegal, whose father was a coal miner and steelworker, gave a simple explanation. "On Wall Street, they're in the business of making money between now and next Thursday," he said. "I don't say that with any bitterness, but we can't take that view. We want to build a company that will still be here 50 and 60 years from now."
[...]
If shareholders mind Mr. Sinegal's philosophy, it is not obvious: Costco's stock price has risen more than 10 percent in the last 12 months, while Wal-Mart's has slipped 5 percent. Costco shares sell for almost 23 times expected earnings; at Wal-Mart the multiple is about 19.Mr. Dreher said Costco's share price was so high because so many people love the company. "It's a cult stock," he said.
Emme Kozloff, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, faulted Mr. Sinegal as being too generous to employees, noting that when analysts complained that Costco's workers were paying just 4 percent toward their health costs, he raised that percentage only to 8 percent, when the retail average is 25 percent.
[...]
Despite Costco's impressive record, Mr. Sinegal's salary is just $350,000, although he also received a $200,000 bonus last year. That puts him at less than 10 percent of many other chief executives, though Costco ranks 29th in revenue among all American companies."I've been very well rewarded," said Mr. Sinegal, who is worth more than $150 million thanks to his Costco stock holdings. "I just think that if you're going to try to run an organization that's very cost-conscious, then you can't have those disparities. Having an individual who is making 100 or 200 or 300 times more than the average person working on the floor is wrong."
You don't have to sell out to the Wall Street analysts to succeed.
You don't have to pay your executives obscene salaries while paying your employees below poverty level wages and forcing them to apply for state assistance for health care at taxpayers' expense.
You don't have to extort tax breaks from job-hungry communities.
1. Environmental Damage
2004: WAL-MART fined $3.1 MILLION by EPA, the largest ever for a retailer, for Clean Water Act violations in TEXAS, COLORADO, CALIFORNIA, DELAWARE, MICHIGAN, SOUTH DAKOTA, NEW JERSEY, TENNESSEE and UTAH
* "$3.1 Million Penalty Is Largest for Storm Water Violations at Construction Sites"
* "The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware and the states of Utah and Tennessee, today announced a Clean Water Act settlement for storm water violations at Wal-Mart store construction sites across the country...In addition to paying a $3.1 million civil penalty to the United States, Tennessee and Utah, Wal-Mart has agreed to spend $250,000 on an environmental project that will help protect sensitive wetlands or waterways in one of the affected states, which are California, Colorado, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Utah."
* Source: Press Release, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/Department of Justice, May 12, 2004.
2. Buying AmericanWAL-MART Imported $18 BILLION from CHINA in 2004
3. Executive Pay
- "The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, says its inventory of stock produced in China is expected to hit US$18 billion this year [2004], keeping the annual growth rate of over 20 per cent consistent over two years."
- Source: Jiang Jingjing, "Wal-Mart's China Inventory To Hit US $18B This Year," China Daily, November 29, 2004.
Lee Scott earnings for 2005: $27,207,799
4. Average Worker Pay
- Data computed from Wal-Mart Stores 2005 Proxy Statement; includes long-term incentives awarded in 2005 and contemporary value of stock options.
Average WAL-MART Hourly Sales Employee Earnings: $13,861
5. Poverty level
- "On average, Wal-Mart sales clerks -- "associates" in company parlance -- pulled in $8.23 an hour, or $13,861 a year, in 2001, according to documents filed in a lawsuit pending against the company."
- Source: Anthony Bianco and Wendy Zellner, "Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?" Business Week, October 6, 2003. Primary source information on 2001 wage data is from the testimony of Dr. Richard Drogin, in Dukes v. WM.
Federal Poverty Level Family of Four - $17,650
- Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001 Federal Poverty Guidelines
6. Walton Family Wealth. What have they done besides being Sam's kids?HELEN WALTON: $18.0 BILLION
ALICE WALTON: 18.0 BILLION
JOHN WALTON: 18.2 BILLION
ROB WALTON: $18.3 BILLION
JIM WALTON: $18.3 BILLION7. Walton Family Charitable Contributions
- Source: David Armstrong and Peter Newcomb, ed., "The 400 Richest Americans,", Forbes, September 24, 2004.
The WALTON FAMILY Has Given LESS THAN 1% of Their Wealth to Charity
Bill Gates has given 58%8. Walton Family Political Contributions (so they can avoid those pesky estate taxes) Wouldn't want any future Waltons actually have to make something of themselves, would we?
- Source: Business Week, "The 50 Most Generous Philanthropists" [PDF file], November 29, 2004.
The WALTON FAMILY Made $3.2 MILLION in Political Contributions in 2004
- "Led by Sam Walton's only daughter, Alice, the family spent $3.2 million on lobbying, conservative causes and candidates for last year's federal elections. That's more than double what it spent in the previous two elections combined, public documents show...a USA TODAY review of public documents reveals a small-town Arkansas family emerging as a political juggernaut on tax issues, extending Wal-Mart's influence over U.S. society even more."
- Source: Jim Hopkins, "Wal-Mart Family Lobbies For Tax Cuts," USA Today, April 5, 2005.
See you in Wrigley in September Nomar. Hopefully both of our teams will still be in the pennant race at that point.LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Former soccer star Mia Hamm, wife of Dodgers first baseman Nomar Garciaparra, has delivered twin girls.
"Both are healthy and over 5 pounds," Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch said, adding the births took place late Tuesday in the Los Angeles area.
Rawitch said Garciaparra flew from Florida to witness the births, but was in the air when the babies were born.
"He was on a speaker phone with the delivery room speaking with Mia during the births," Rawitch said.
Garciaparra went straight to the hospital upon arriving in Los Angeles to be with his wife.
Investigating the actual politicization of the Justice Department by the White House is just "tit-for-tat, politics as usual" BY THE DEMOCRATS.Really, is it any wonder at all that our government is so fundamentally corrupt and broken when we have a press like this? Why wouldn't top government officials lie continuously when our national press corps finds such lying to be such a source of merriment and humor, and can summon the energy only to attack, mock and condemn those who find the lying objectionable, rather than the liars themselves?
And given that these are the people who are supposed to perform the function of checking government power and uncovering government corruption, is it really any wonder that the administration has felt comfortable engaging in six years worth of systematic lawbreaking? These media stars would never investigate any of it, because they don't think it's a problem, and if it ends up being exposed, they will belittle and mock any objections to the lawbreaking, defend the administration, and distract everyone from the issues raised. They obscure the consequences of corruption revelations with gossipy and giggly speculation about who is helped or hurt politically.
The overriding goal of most of our national media elites is to preserve the prevailing Republican power system that rules Washington because of how beneficial that system is to them. As a result, they admire and want to protect those who rule that system, and thus reflexively view scandals which entail accusations of true corruption by our political leaders -- and especially unpleasant formal investigations and threats of criminal prosecution -- as frivolous and inherently false and unfair.That journalism stuff is hard work. Might make a few enemies. Might get fewer invites to the D.C. cocktail parties. The Preznit might not give me a kewl nickname.
And the president is fine with all of this. Fine with the fact that the Attorney General has not only repeatedly lied to the public but has also been exposed as repeatedly lying to the public. He's fine with at least two US Attorneys being fired for not giving in to pressure to file bogus charges to help Republican candidates.
Of course he's fine with it. Because it comes from him. None of this is about Alberto Gonzales. This is about the president and the White House, which is where this entire plan was hatched. Gonzales was just following orders, executing the president's plans. This is about this president and this White House, which ... let's be honest, everyone on both sides of the aisle already knows.
Army Reserve - Pearl JamRemember the families torn apart by this President.
How long must she stand
Before the ground, it gives way
To an endless fall
She can feel this
War on her face
Stars on her pillow
Folding in darkness
Begging for slumber
I'm not blind
I can see it coming
Looks like lightning
In my child's eye
I'm not frantic
I can feel it coming
Violently shakes
My body
Her son's slanted
Always giving her
The sideways eye
An empty chair where dad sits
How loud can silence get?
And mom, she reassures
To contain him
But it's becoming a lie
She tells herself
And everyone else
Father is risking
His life for our freedoms
I'm not blind
I can see it coming
Looks like lightning
In my childs eye
I'm not frantic
I can feel it coming
Darling you'll save me
If you save yourself
The strain of war has worn down families, many of whom were unprepared for the isolation and demands of such a long conflict. Though many wives said they still believe in the mission and support their husbands, they acknowledge that they have sacrificed more than they bargained for. For this article, the Tribune interviewed only infantry soldiers. While there are many women serving in Iraq, only men serve in combat infantry units.Support family values. End this war. Bring our troops home.
Divorce rates soared in 2004, the year after the war began. Among married Army officers, divorces rose 78 percent from 2003, while divorces among enlisted personnel rose 28 percent, according to the Army. Army officials credited counseling and other programs with a substantial decrease in officer divorces in 2005. Divorce rates for enlisted soldiers, however, have remained about the same.
Some couples that seemed the most committed when the war began were among those to divorce. Others continue the fight to hold their families together while battling financial woes, alcoholism, infidelity, emotional problems and injuries. Some welcomed new babies into the family. Now, women are stepping up again to take care of children alone as dad heads off to war.
World Wide Suicide - Pearl JamThere's another way, but our President is not interested in preventing more death. The only person he is interested in saving is himself.
I felt the earth on Monday. It moved beneath my feet
in the form of a morning paper. Laid out for me to see.
Saw his face in a corner picture. I recognized the name.
Could not stop staring at the. Face I'd never see again.
It's a shame to awake in a world of pain
What does it mean when a war has taken over
It's the same everyday in a hell manmade
What can be saved, and who will be left to hold her?
The whole world,... world over.
It's a worldwide suicide.
The whole world,... world over.
It's a worldwide suicide.
Medals on a wooden mantle. Next to a handsome face.
That the president took for granted.
Writing checks that others pay.
And in all the madness. Thought becomes numb and naive.
So much to talk about there's. Nothing for to say.
It's the same everyday and the wave won't break
Tell you to pray, while the devil's on their shoulder
Laying claim to the take our soldiers save
Does not equate, and the truth's already out there
The whole world,... world over.
It's a worldwide suicide.
The whole world,... world over.
It's a worldwide suicide.
Looking in the eyes of the fallen
You got to know there's another, another, another, another
Another way
It's a shame to awake in a world of pain
What does it mean when a war has taken over
It's the same everyday and the wave won't break
Tell you to pray, while the devil's on their shoulder
The whole world,... world over.
It's a worldwide suicide.
The whole world,... world over.
It's a worldwide suicide.
