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Two Congressmen Say Citigroup Shouldn't Pay NY Mets $400 Million for Naming Rights When Sucking $350 Billion from Federal Government
"In the 1960s, CEOs made about 60 times what the average worker made. Now it's 400 to 500 times. CEOs have always justified the disparity by saying that companies were paying for performance. But look at the current performance. The financial industries have driven the world's banking system to the brink. Blame colossal greed and stupidity. Almost no industries are doing well. Topside pay remains obscene. Please pass the word on to citizens. Tell them to storm the Bastille." Somebody need to tack the end of baseball's anti-trust Supreme Court decision onto every single bill that passes through Congress until it is signed, sealed and delivered to the Chief Embezzlement Officers in the financial sector, merely on the principle that now its MLB that's encouraging bad practices at the bad banks already existing... or I may have to change my stand against revolutions.— January 31, 2009 10:23 p.m.
San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith fires John Serrano after Brown Field dust-up
Re apathetic voters: Both sides of my family were here long enough to open Lemon Grove to tomato farming around WWII and grow avocadoes profitably in Encanto Heights around Ito Court, but stepping back, I think you've hit the nail on the head by describing most of us as "permanent tourists". Nothing else can explain how San Diegans have been able to keep the blinders on while developer-led professional politicians flushed the region's prosperity down a very expensive pension pay toilet. I trust that there will be at least some of us who will take the news as you've given it to us, apply some of that flinty bottom-line thinking about the opportunities for personal enrichment that illegal/unethical business operations present, and be personally motivated to go for it "in the public interest". As far as I'm concerned, a little civil action "in the public interest" goes a long way to forgiving a longer personal history of not voting at all.— January 30, 2009 8:23 a.m.
Rapid And Sudden Collapse
I liked the picture of the Red Cross lady with the donation can at the border crossing line. I give her a dollar every time I pass as long as the sports book hasn't already cleaned out my wallet. The whole collection thing reminds me of the soldiers who'd stop us south of Ensenada looking for their Red Cross donation... and since they were all pretty well armed, we gave what we could every time. Back in the 70s, we considered it as our pitcrew tax for the pleasure of throwing cups of water into the dusty faces of Baja 1000 drivers racing for the Mag 7 club.— January 29, 2009 1:49 p.m.
Forsaking Friendships
Hahaha... I was thinking that maybe people were hanging with YOU to appear cool...— January 29, 2009 1:39 p.m.
Forsaking Friendships
Sometimes what passes for friendship is merely one seeking the public advantage of being seen with another. I've been told this is a common theme in many television soap operas...— January 29, 2009 11:19 a.m.
San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith fires John Serrano after Brown Field dust-up
On #18: Well, just don't give me a soapbox! Still, it would seem to be a good idea for anybody worried about power lines breaking in the future and burning down the house to mail (not phone) something to the local public utility (with copy mailed to self) that he or she saw something about the nearby power line that needed maintenance BEFORE the next wildfire... just in case. Just call it a good personal business decision, like a form of self-insurance. After all, when was the last time any of us saw an investor-owned public utility pass up a buck? Manager to amateur boxer: "Protect yourself at all times!"— January 29, 2009 9:28 a.m.
San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith fires John Serrano after Brown Field dust-up
On #5 & #8: In 2004, we more or less got duped into passing Prop. 64 which limited those unfair competition suits from just anybody who saw something wrong going on (kinda like being a personal legal superhero when power used wisely) to only those who were actually damaged by the unfairness... and who happened to be clued in enough to know they were dealing with illegal/unethical firms. Still, there are teeth in the new version. I'm no lawyer, but it would seem that any of the fire-damaged county homeowners threatened by the local power utility potentially counter-suing in the 2007 wildfire liability suits could amend their own complaints to allege unfair competition, borrowing the Sabotage Prevention Act provisions for the utility failing to maintain a defense preparedness activity (see definition in statute regarding public utilities towards end of Military & Veterans Code) where that failure resulted in injury or death in addition to damage or destruction of the defense preparedness activity: just more instances of unfair competition in time of war. In fact, I do believe that under statute, a fire-damaged homeowner described above could claim unfair competition ON BEHALF OF ALL OTHERS similarly damaged/injured under the same fact pattern... See? There's all kinds of fun&profit stuff in the County Law Library...— January 29, 2009 9:07 a.m.
San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith fires John Serrano after Brown Field dust-up
And now for the public service announcement... Under older laws, individual ordinary California citizens could become "private attorneys general" to prosecute unfair competition claims against any firm that was using some sort of illegality, false advertising, or just being ornery in an unethical sense to get ahead of the competition. This law is now changed, so that only individuals who were injured in fact and lost money or property can sue to enforce the unfair competition law, in addition to the standard roster of Attorney General, DAs, and city attorneys in the larger burgs. As more of us with experience in public life reach retirement age and have the free time to loiter at the County Law Library, maybe more of us will have an interest in seeking out firms that behave in unethical manners for potential unfair competition issues. After all, if the system ain't aworkin', and there's little or no hope of seeing it fixed any time soon, why leave it to others what we can do ourselves for fun and profit? BTW: the best firm candidates at which to find issues of unfair and ethical behavior just might be found on the short list of those that have already been found criminally guilty in a federal court recently... otherwise, have your eyes opened by some of Mr. Bauder's previously posted writings found not far from here...— January 28, 2009 12:50 p.m.
Clouds on SDG&E’s Sunny Plans
A number of firms are developing thin-film solar energy technologies, and there may be some products for home installation by 2010 or so. A number of these firms were recently in San Diego for an alternative energy conference hosted at the Convention Center. It may be to our universal advantage to limit our exposure to SDG&E's portion of the power grid by making an investment in home electricity production from solar energy. I can't think of any other reasonable way for us as consumers to mitigate the potential high cost of the direction Sempra's investors and board seem to be taking it and SDG&E in "proposing the most expensive solar technology for its customers", as cutting ourselves off of the grid by complete energy independence from SDG&E may violate the spirit if not intent of the SDG&E-San Diego franchise agreement. Getting rid of all of our electrical appliances should be considered extremely unreasonable. After all, we'd starve without refrigeration.— January 28, 2009 12:31 p.m.
Put That in Your Pipe and Smoke It
If there were people with active brain waves on the Imperial Beach city council, then they could've come up with this: Flat-rate city-wide tobacco-paraphenalia sales tax of $500 per item. Slip in a 25% fine payout to citizens reporting those uncollected taxes by sneaky businesses, and the cost of enforcement is already covered. Hey! It's not like La Mesa has a HIGHER sales tax on bongs than that...— January 26, 2009 4:03 p.m.