ice cream is on my mind

everything else makes me angry or sad but not ice cream :)

Good evening all. Just flew back to NYC from Salt Lake City & am unwinding. Time for a cocktail.

ES! and not ZED… 8-(

Skiing again or bizness this time…? ;-)

dugg ya, ES

I finished an entry for my scandals list a few minutes ago. So it’s still on my mind.

324. In 2004-2005 Gary Aguirre led a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into insider trading involving hedge funds and investment banks. Basically, the investment banks made large profits from commissions from hedge funds and in return tipped off these funds ahead of ordinary investors on lucrative deals about to be announced to the markets. Specifically, Aguirre was looking into Pequot Capital Management run by Arthur Samberg which made $18 million in one such deal in 2001 when it received information that General Electric Capital Corporation intended to buy Heller Financial. In mid-June 2005, Aguirre sought to subpoena John Mack, chief investment executive at Morgan Stanley, an investor in Pequot, and friend of Samberg, together with emails exchanged between the two. In this he was initially backed by his boss Robert Hanson but Hanson soon backtracked warning that Mack had powerful political connections. He wasn’t kidding. Mack was a 2004 Bush Ranger, an elite group of political fundraisers who collected $200,000 or more in bundled donations. Enter at this point Mary Jo White a corporate fixer at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton (see item 229) representing Morgan Stanley. She went over Aguirre’s head directly to the Enforcement Director at the SEC Linda Thomsen and the subpoenas that Aguirre had sought were blocked. Aguirre protested what he saw as special treatment for Mack to essentially all of his superiors at the SEC. For his dedication to his job he was fired on September 1, 2005.

On June 28, 2006, Aguirre testified to Congress about these events and in August 2007 the Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees issued a 711 page report on it. The report noted that previously in February 2005, an attorney for Pequot Audrey Strauss had met the then Enforcement Director Stephen Cutler and that two weeks later the investigation into Pequot was narrowed making it more difficult to establish a pattern of illegal activity. The report also found that an associate director of enforcement Paul Berger and supervisor of Aguirre had not recused himself from the investigation until early 2006 although he had expressed an interest in working at Debevoise in September 2005 only days after Aguirre’s firing. He did eventually get a job there. An investigation by the SEC Inspector General Walter Stachnik was also criticized. Stachnik did not speak to Aguirre, phoned his superiors but took no statments, made no attempt to gather evidence, and then closed his investigation. He retired the same day the Senate report came out.
As for John Mack, it came out that Samberg let him invest with Pequot in a private company (that tripled his investment in about a year) one day before Pequot began buying Heller Financial stock. The SEC in all this was not so much a watchdog of Big Business as its lapdog. Is it really a surprise that they “overlooked” the subprime debacle until it hit?

Good evening and welcome home.. I think I will join you. brb

sorry :(

http://digg.com/music/Late_Lat....._Of_Time_2

you know… just lurking

How was the skiing?

Sure you are…! 8-P

Skiing. 2nd & last trip for this season. snif. snif. *get’s out hanky to wipe fake tears*

token wants to know how tucker is tonight and says hi

well maybe just a little bit *g*

What’s on my mind? I want these freakin primaries to end already. Who’s with me?

Thank you kindly.

What’s on my mind? I want these freakin primaries to end already. Who’s with me?

Oh come on, admit it. You really like them, and the debates too. *g*

Fantastic. Alta surpassed the average annual snowfall of 500″ a week ago, and there’s still 1-1/2 months to go in the season. Got about 3′ of new powder while I was there.
http://www.alta.com/pages/report.php

Count me in.

Subprime Debacle - now they knew how to rock.

I’m with you.

*raises chocolate covered ice cream spoon*

The next mukluk has dropped in Alaska: Ex-Governor Frank Murkowski’s ex-chief-of-staff plead guilty this morning to one count of conspiring to commit fraud in asking for over $60,000 from the already defunct oil service company Veco, to assist in the ex-governor’s losing 2006 campaign.

This is bittersweet for me, because I could see this coming. Jim Clark, the guy who plead is the father of one of my dearest friends. What he’s been indicted for is something that came up in last fall’s trials, but I know from a trip I took to Southeast Alaska last summer, that this is just the tip of Clark’s iceberg. It looks like he’ll be bringing Frank Murkowski and several others down in exchange for the single conspiracy count.

I’m going to need to trade in my VW Golf TDI for something bigger, just to pack Hugh’s scroll around…

Hahahaha!

rubbing hands gleefully

we have been waiting to hear your take on this et

and i’m sorry for your friend, et. tis a rough time for a lot of the families of the GOP.

That looks like a beautiful place to ski. A 154 inch base–!

Sorry that it’s your friend’s father. But is this the beginning of the end of the R pol corruption in Alaska?

I’ve been waiting for you to show up, ET. Sorry to hear Clark is your friend’s father. That’s got to be awful for your friend.

Yeah, the ADN article hinted there was more to the story.

Hugh, I assume you caught this article in the New Yorker by James Stewart on Private Equity firms? Really good.

what can i say? mr wobbs made ice cream for me (i’m such a cheap date)

Ain’t that the truth! A whole ‘nother ream can be added… Before the clock runs out, you might need a Mack truck…! ;-)

Hello!

Not until I’ve voted, dearie. May 9. Indiana. Symbolic, maybe, but hey, that’s my middle name.

I left her a message a little while ago, choking up as I talked….hard to finish….

*chuckling* Actuually you can’t ski it unless the base is at least 50″ because there are some big boulders to get covered. But yes, 154″ is pretty extraordinary.

There was a story in NatGeo around 1982 about Great Salt Lake flooding and canoeing down State Street. I was told on this trip that the snowfall that year at Alta was 800″, the record. Don’t think they’ll make a new record this year, but will probably be close to 700″.

*waves to LooHoo*

Ok, you get a pass. ;)

Can you share, or is this more personal?

Home made ice cream? Does Mr. Wobbs have any single brothers?

sigh - homemade ice cream is so so hard to say no to

token wants to know how tucker is tonight and says hi

Tucker says hi back to token, he had a good time and is still a little tired from all the excitement yesterday. I am sure he is hoping he gets to go visit again… he took a liking to Goldie :>)
What a beautiful day here in God’s country… hit low 70’s here.

His older brother is single although a bit odd as well. I taught Mr wobbs how to mix the ice cream (frozen bananas, almond milk, aguave nectar, raw fair trade coca powder and a pinch of salt)he then just throws it in the ice cream machine.

Hopefully, Mr. Wobbs has seven or eight brothers.

just two….but they have the cute english accents

Ain’t that the truth! A whole ‘nother ream can be added… Before the clock runs out, you might need a Mack truck…! ;-)

Heh! Sorta like IND applications to FDA back before electronic filing. They’d literally fill a semi trailer with paperwork.

Hi, everyone. Sorry about your friend, ET. Sorry to ccmask about the job thing.

FunnyD

Hey nahant! Sounds like you’re feeling healthy now. At least much better?

I knew it! Your screen name sounds so British. I just love it.

It’ll all come out over the next few weeks, I suppose. Jim Clark lives right down the street from my best long-term friend in Alaska. He gave another of my best friends his first job, cleaning his Sitka law office and running errands, when my friend was in high school.

His daughter is one of the world’s greatest kayagum performers. It is a Korean predecessor of the Japanese koto. She speaks six or seven languages. I think she has multiple PhDs. Like a lot of classical musicians, she’s very apolitical. But Clark’s wife is one of Juneau’s most influential progressives, and everyone’s favorite yoga instructor - has been for the past 30 years. Jim and his wife have cancelled each others’ votes out forever.

Clark is no fool. He will bring several GOP thugs down, and barter his sentence down to about a year, if what I think is going to happen next does. Unlike Veco’s Bill Allen and Rick Smith, the Feds’ witnesses in the three earlier trials last year, Clark has a lot of credibility.

For sure.. thanks for inquiring :>) How are you?

thanks. it is quite british, isn’t it? one of many expressions/words i’ve picked up from him

I shall bid ya’ll another fond adieu! Aloha Oe!!!

boa noite CTuttle

aloha ct

boa noite, pups. my tummy is full and i am in chocolate bliss. sleep well.

g’nite wobbly (sigh home made ice cream)

Nite, everyone. I’m beat. All you Dems in TX and OH, vote early and well.

E.L.F. (Earth Liberation Front), described as eco-terrorists by the Department of Homeland Security allegedly burned down some new mini-mansions built in Washington state to showcase green building methods and products in various builder’s homes. The homes were criticized prior to being built for infringing on the rural area they are located on and threatening the wet lands near by.

They have surfaced here in Los Angeles recently, destroying a large number of Hummers and SUVs at an auto dealership, and down in San Diego they torched a condo complex under construction.

I wonder if these folks are really terrorists or just protesters that are well organized and have a lot of guts to pull this stuff off. They seem to go out of their way not to hurt any people when they do an action. I usually think of a terrorist as someone who is trying to kill people. I’m curious what everyone else thinks of these folks, what they do, what they stand for, and are they justified in their action? I loved it when they did the thing at the auto dealership but burning down buildings is more extreme.

g’nite TOW

The way the definition of terror creeps looking at someone wrong be will terrorist activity in another few years.

trying to remember where i read that even though there was a ‘note’ from ELF that the tactics used of fireman bombs (meant to kill) was completely in opposition to ELF’s position of no one gets hurt by their actions… fork, wish i could remember where i saw that

Destruction of property is still a crime and they can never make sure that no one will get hurt. Furthermore, they must be nuts to continue to commit these acts after being categorized as terrorists. And finally, they give peaceful environmentalists a bad name. I do not approve.

Will do, TOW.

That has always been SOP for ELF

i’m not disagreeing that destruction of property is a crime. i’m just saying that ELF tactics have never before put anyone at risk that I can remember and have never targeted first responders with secondary devices. I’m thinking of the suv’s burned down in san diego and the condo complex that was under construction. no one around at all when they went up.

So suppose two teenagers had sneaked into one of the SUV’s to screw? You can never make sure that you will not hurt anyone.

so call it a crime rather than slap a terror sticker on it.

The arson in Washington has been all over the news here all day. The article on HuffPo about it has a whole lot of comments saying the builders burned the houses down because they were’nt selling for the insurance money. They say the builders made it look like it was ELF by planting the usual protest banners or “calling cards.”

that is a hypothetical! *g

exactly!

it is a crime.

Yep. By the same loose description, any legal infraction could be classified among the same statute. They are trying their damnedest.

I didn’t slap a terror label on it, the federal govt did. And anyone who continues such activity in light of that label must be certifiable.

If they think the label is wrong, continuing what they are doing is not exactly the way to get it changed. Everyone here ought to be aware of that, since we spend so much time with calls & letters, trying to change the system.

Violence begets violence. I will not split hairs on the whys & wherefores.

What eCAHN said.
They torched a building at UW several years ago as some sort of protest, and ended up destroying a whole lot of research that was working TOWARD better environmental policy. I think they’re more about publicity, giving the “establishment” the finger and being destructive of others’ property than anything else. There’s a point at which getting media attention for the cause just isn’t enough to make a legitimate group of advocates, and ELF passed it many years ago.

FunnyD

*shrug* you seem just fine calling it terrorism.

i don’t see your point.

dont get me wrong, crimes should be investigated, arrests made and convictions sought. what i find troubling is the difference in MO and the gov’t automatically calling it a terrorist act.

will they soon be calling our sending rubber stamps to the congresscritters terrorist acts?

Thanks for the real life example. I was going to say that I saw a TV cop-type story to the effect that ELF accidently killed someone while trying to destroy an environmentally bad project. Didn’t want to dilute my point by citing Hollywood, but the program alerted me to the risk they are taking.

idk, last thing i want to do right is get into some pie fight over ELF.

just because there was a sheet left on a fence that had ELF spray painted on it does not mean that it was in fact ELF that did it.

ditto

right now*

too sleepy :)

good night and sweet dreams pups!

Amen, brother.

The issue of whether ELF did it or is being scapegoated is a separte one. Still, by committing violent acts, they leave themselves open to such problems. In foreign policy circles, I believe it’s call blowback.

lol god nigth!

g’nite tw3k

Hey, tw3k. Hope we’re not getting into a pie fight, because I think we’re all actually on the same side. (OK, except for thinking it’s cool to destroy SUVs at a car dealership.) Maybe we’re like the blind men describing the elephant?

Suz is right that law enforcement should be doing a thorough investigation instead of going for the easiest/most obvious “suspects.” Evidence, please. Get the right people put away for the crime.

eCAHN has 2 valid points: ELF does commit property crimes, and it’s not all that smart to persist in that behavior, whether or not they “deserve” to be called terrorists.

Suz points out that calling this group or that “terrorists” has gotten to be too easy and widespread. Though, c’mon, dear, mailing rubber stamps and torching shit are pretty damn different. Unless they’re exploding rubber stamps or something.

Leaving ELF out of it for a moment, you ask how “terrorist” should be defined. Or perhaps how it is defined for law enforcement purposes. I’m not sure I agree that if no one is physically hurt or killed that it’s not terrorism. There are ways to terrorize a target without going after their actual physical person.

JMHO

FunnyD

nite tw3k;)

ok pups, i’m still recovering from yesterday’s meetup following by my embarrassing errors here last nite. i’m gonna head off to bed now before i make an even greater fool of myself and prove my critics right (laughing)

g’nite ya’ll

I’m with ECAHN on this. As much as the little boy in me likes to watch shit blow-up, it ain’t right! The FirePups work so hard every day to change the system for the better and with a better system we would have better enviromental laws and regs and agencies with Bite in their bark.

Suz we double dugg this one… thats three in a week??

nite suz

Heh. And I’d assert that any group that’s actually trying to constructively address an issue or solve a problem should take “blowback” into account when choosing their tactics. Some tactics serve one’s strategy better than others. But then there’s the whole question of a group’s stated strategy/goal/go vs their actual strategy/goal.

Not pie-fighting, honest.

FunnyD

P.S. ELF wouldn’t then have to do stuff like that if their true aim is conservation and preservation.

G’night, Suz!
Pleasant dreams (of big, fat real estate offers…)
FunnyD

Hey, Felix
You put it so succinctly in #90. And I think skepticism about ELF’s true aim is justified. There are a lot of other groups out there working toward conservation and preservation that seem to get results without leaving a lot of destruction in their wake.
FunnyD

FunnyD & FelixM,
Thanks. This just seems so clear to me, I can’t quite figure out why there’s another side.

I think what ELF does is wrong. I also think they shouldn’t be labeled terrorists because that degrades the terrorism label which I thnk should be taken seriously. (Yet another form of blowback, this time against the govt.)

I also favor living in the real world, not the one we’d like to exist. In the real world, ELF is labeled terrorist and they should take that into account in their behavior, but they don’t seem to.

Now, I’m not up-to-speed on ELF, so if what I’ve said misrepresents what they do, I will stand corrected.

‘Night Suzanne.

I want to be a mailing rubber stamp terrorist again! It’s been to long since my last group rubber stamp attack! (note to the NSA.. no, not exploding rubber stamps)

I don’t support ELF’s ways, but I don’t think they should be called terrorists either.

Well, eCAHN, that settles it. We’re all on the same side. Glad you clarified about the “terrorism” label, though.
Heh. Kinda fun to have the last word sometimes, though!

FunnyD

poofing but wanted to say that if we don’t stop labels being applied that do not apply, pretty soon we may be looking at being labeled as subversive to the government and our efforts to change the government as terrorist acts.

poofing and g’nite for realsies - off to dream of full price offers with no inspections

ChimpCo is all about conflation.

Iraq = terrorist state.
Democrats = traitors.
War = Godly.
Chimpy = Christ.

Hi, ES.
Yeah, what’s wrong with “violently radical” or something? There’s too much terrsts this and terrsts that going around.
FunnyD

Burning the houses down got ELF national news coverage today whether they actually did it or not. If they did a “sit-in” or protest march out in front of the houses they may have been lucky to make the local news. That’s the difference, and being as radical an outfit as they appear to be, blowback is not an issue for them. Getting their point across in extreme fashion is what it is about.

Very funny, FunnyD (not a snark). Didn’t think I needed to clarify the terrorism label, because somehow I thought that was “embedded” in my prior comments. Just shows ya how incomplete we understand our own communications. *g*

G’night. I agree that we’re on a slippery slope with the loose/sloppy definition of terruh-izm. Especially in light of some of the executive orders we’ve been seeing.

FunnyD

Perhaps. But I don’t agree that the ends justify the means, or that short term national publicity is the same thing as real progress toward solving environmental issues. The GOP pulls all kinds of extreme shit that gets all kinds of national attention. Doesn’t make it right and certainly doesn’t foster any sort of rational problem solving.

FunnyD

and who are the real terrorists anyhow?

TABLA RASA