John Edwards v. My Idealism: Vote at Your Own Risk

by Francine on February 9, 2010

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No one should subject themselves to what I'm doing: reading Andrew Young's tell-all "The Politician" while watching the stalemate that is our federal government.  The combination of Edwards and his aide Young's efforts to preserve their own privileges with what's currently (not) going on in Congress makes the securitization of subprime mortgages look like Sunday School.

Our government is more bankrupt than Lehmann Brothers. This book admits it.

Not only did John Edwards lose all sense of reality while running for the Presidency, to which he began to think he was entitled, but Andrew Young lost all sense of both reality AND morality while working for his slimy boss. Knowing full well Edwards was on a collision course with self-destruction, Young abetted it because he was afraid for his own financial security. It's horrifying to see Young admit it all after the fact, but that doesn't make him an admirable person — it just makes him a person who has written a book about drinking too much of both the wine and the Kool-Aid at the Edwards' mansion. 

The Edwards' marriage isn't a particularly sordid story: many men are frightened when their strong wives, who have supported them throughout the marriage, suddenly become sick. They go out and find someone healthy to escape with.  You'd be surprised how many men divorce wives with cancer. They can't stand too much reality.

So that's not the point.  The point is that Edwards was running for President, and continued to do so, aided and abetted by Young, who says he knew it was wrong, but had a wife and three kids. Something doesn't compute. His wife was an Edwards skeptic. So why didn't he listen to her? 

It's okay to have those problems, but it's not okay to put them on the unsuspecting electorate, especially the young idealists who worked for the campaign.

I'm not finished with "The Politician" yet, but Rielle Hunter has come onstage, so I know the ending. I've already decided that "The Politician" isn't a book about politics at all, but a book about co-dependency: Edwards and Elizabeth, Young and Edwards. Two very prominent, destructive co-dependencies to which unsuspecting donors contributed millions in dollars and labor.

Bummer. Makes me want to puke.

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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Do Jobs Numbers Matter?

by Francine on February 6, 2010

I'm not an economist, and I'm not an expert. But even I can guess that the jobs numbers we see every month and bet our investment programs and 401ks on are bunk, or maybe junk.

Why? Because yesterday I heard how the government counts them. The numbers never match, because two different methods are used that can be out of sync. Non-farm payrolls, the first method, surveys businesses on whether they hired or laid off. The Bureau of Labor statistics counts them, excluding government employees, employees of non-profits, employees of private households, and farmworkers. Supposedly, that's 80% of all workers.  The other 20%, apparently, are the government and non-profit workers, and your nanny.  Those numbers showed more layoffs.

But then, for the second method, they call 60,000 households and survey individuals. Apparently, that gave us some better news.

But where do they get the rest? The ones who don't work for large companies that submit payroll numbers? The ones who only have cell phones and can't be surveyed? 

How do they accurately count the large and growing number of independent contractors who don't get a payroll, don't work for the government, and hope they aren't working for a non-profit.  Indeed, they hope they are working for themselves.

And what about all the home-based businesses, the startup entrepreneurs with no employees outside themselves, and the laid off workers contracting back to their former employers. Who asks THEM how they are doing?

Take these numbers with a large grain of salt.

Posted via email from Not Really Stealthmode

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The Cost to the Economy of Putting Health Care Reform on the Back Burner

February 4, 2010

No matter which side of the political fence you are on, this is a startling situation, reported this morning in the Wall Street Journal– not a liberal rag:

For the first time, government programs next year will account for more than half of all U.S. health-care spending, federal actuaries predict, as the weak economy sends more people [...]

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Manufacturing Capacity (Except Semiconductors) Fell too Far to Recover?

February 3, 2010

From today's Wall Street Journal: (HT: GoozNews)

America's industrial base is undergoing its most radical restructuring in decades as manufacturers rethink their businesses in the wake of the recession.
From Dow Chemical Co. to Intel Corp., iconic companies are telling stories of wrenching change—both contraction and recovery—as they report their earnings for 2009.

During 2009, the nation's capacity to produce [...]

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Gangplank Pushes Business Boundaries

February 1, 2010

We are honored to be a "tenant" of Gangplank. I've been in Arizona for forty years, and this is THE.BEST.SPACE. we have ever had for entrepreneurs.
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Brian Solis and Privacy v. Publicy

January 31, 2010

For some reason, Brian Solis always brings out my inner writer. This was a comment I made to a post of his, but it took on a life of it’s own. I think it’s an important addition to his thoughts on the impact of the online world on our privacy.
This is a subject on which [...]

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Entrepreneurs Aren’t Hiring: Kauffman Foundation

January 31, 2010

Stealthmode Partners has been working with the Kauffman Foundation since 2003, as a regional center for its Fasttrac Entrepreneurial Education program. On Friday, Jan. 29, the Foundation issued a large report about the state of entrepreneurship in America. Unfortunately, it’s not as good as I had hoped, and much more confusing. But that’s why I [...]

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Bailout Nation: a Comedy

January 29, 2010

So I'm listening to Barry Ritholtz's new book, "Bailout Nation," in my car. (Bless you, Audible). I'm laughing out loud. Barry is about the best financial writer I've read this year, and I've read plenty in my effort to understand how I came to lose my own financial security and almost everyone around me pretty [...]

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IPad in Health Care? Not Yet

January 28, 2010

Such a bummer. Health care workers, like everyone else, love Apple.  And they love mobile devices in the hospital, the office, and the field. But Mobile Health News has decided that the new iPad won't be easily adapted to the specialized use-case of health care. And it's not just because of apps, because the apps [...]

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A Unique Visitor Weighs In $SCOR

January 24, 2010

"Jason Calacanis Punches Comscore In The Face. Comscore Punches Back. Fred Wilson Drags Us Into It. $SCOR" Woke up this morning to the breakup of Brangelina,  the new litter of Shiba Inu puppies, and this answer to a post of Jason's that I read yesterday and felt unequipped to weigh in on.  I don't put ads [...]

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