Hi Julia!

hey there.

” . . . straight talk and mavericity.”

I like that.

Hey Julia.

Great stuff. Except it gives me the creeps, ’cause we’ve already been thru this kinda schtick, and look what we got for 7 yrs & counting. That’s one expensive t-shirt. If we do it again, I’m pulling the covers over my head and never gittin’ outta bed till it’s over.

That was quite an epic opus. Rethugs—they’ve got plenty of nothin’.

Maybe Brit Hume will take the job if offered.

i find it comical that he continues to honestly act like he’s going to win. iiiii don’t think so!

but it sure would be GREAT! for Dems to be able to go ahead and fully campaign against him, start making that point to the nation, about how destructive and wish washy McSame is…….
IF SOMEONE WOULD JUST CONCEDE TO SOMEONE, and get herself OUT OF THE WAY!!!!!
no offense to anyone, but
sheeeeeeesh!

Oh, pppplllllease pick Lieberman. Pretty, pretty please? Mavericity is picking for VP a guy who used to pretend to be a Democrat. Maybe then Reid would have a handy excuse to strip Joe of his committee assignments.

and,
GREAT POST Julia!

I find McCain’s invitation to Obama to travel to Iraq with him kinda weird. McCain didn’t come up with that I’m sure. Obama don’t even think about it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he chose Lieberman. It would be a historic first and worth a headline. When you consider McStain’s poor chances everywhere, Lieberman at least gives him cover to draw in low information moderates. I don’t think there’s a chance in hell this would win him the election, but none of the other bozos on his list can either. What his campaign needs is more Joementum!

Yes, McCain and the Republicans have a surfeit of kooks to choose among. Maybe somebody should start keeping a scrapbook of pictures of Lieberman and McCain together which they could send to Harry Reid. The pictures would have to be big because Harry’s eyesight on this is pretty bad.

Candidate: Carly Fiorina, frmr head of HP

Most dangerous to Obama of the bunch. She’ll give Hillary voters a place to run. Let’s face it: a lot of Hillary folks really don’t care for Obama.

You’d think she’d be an easy target, but imagine the whisper campaign. The Dems don’t really care about Women, they betrayed Hillary and now they’re destroying Carly”. It would have an effect.

We need to hope that McBush decides to shore up his base, rather then go for the middle.

Boxturtle (Think’s Brownback would be the most fun in November)

Awesome rundown of McCain suitors.

67 species of bird? I see a lot of brown footed boobies knee deep in the bbq sauce.

Oh, pppplllllease pick Lieberman. Pretty, pretty please? Mavericity is picking for VP a guy who used to pretend to be an American.

but who will get [the] gnawed for Veep?

Well Carly Fiorina is pretty polarizing for successful men in the tech business. HP is practically a sacrosanct institution of innovation and success and she ran it into the ground. iirc. wait, maybe that’s a positive.

the chewsed-on one

If only to get hojo out of connecticut’s senate seat. great pick. do it. do it. I double dog dare McCain.

However, I think hojo is too smart to go for it, vain enough sure, but shrewd enough to hold out for a cabinet seat instead. DoD anyone, SoS?

McCain’s speech against Webb’s New G.I bill yesterday was the beginning of the end cause if McCain can’t bring in the Vets well then who is his base?
Huckabee or Romney as VP might end up being more popular than McCain before McCain’s run for the Presidency is over.

I would think Carly Fiorina would be polarizing for most folks - she’s got that quote (in one of the linked articles) about how no job belongs to an american by right, from when she was lobbying to keep the tax break triggered by sending manufacturing jobs overseas.

thanks :)

I’d be really tickled if mavericity memed - it’s such fun to say.

Plus very few people even know who she is.
Can’t think she would bring much to the ticket.

McCain is giving a speech live right now. He’s wearing a suit with abou 10′ shoulder pads and a skinny waist…A protester shouted something and stopped McCain from speaking, then his supporters shouted back….they’re doing it again…back and forth….Hahahahahaha

McCain cited that in his other town meetings, he had the right of free speech…

they’ve got pawlenty of nothin’.

Fiorina - that would be the same Fiorina who wiretapped her own board

No doubt. Very strong negatives, but she’s not likely to LOSE McBush any votes he wouldn’t have lost anyway. And she could gain enough in the swing states. Maybe.

And I think Brownback would be more fun than Holy Joe. He’ll be swiftboated by the Flying Spagetti Monster. :-)

Boxturtle (Touched by his Noodlin’ appendage)

The rethug voters would be very underwhelmed to be forced to vote for McCain with a female VP. I don’t think McCain and his handlers have the moxy to pick her. They are sexist no matter how much they pretend to be otherwise. That said, it would be an excellent strategery.

and there is that pesky spying on board members thingy

A big part of [Mark] Hurd’s defense is plausible deniability. He wasn’t at HP when the snooping program started in early 2005. His predecessor, Carly Fiorina, launched it as a way to find out which board members were leaking information to the press. In the shake-up that ousted Fiorina, board member Patricia Dunn became chairman and assumed responsibility for the program.

more

Interesting that there are two closeted gay possbilities: Lindsey Graham and Charlie Crist.

I agree that Crist would be strongest, but his homosexuality is not going to play well with the conservative base.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with anyone’s homosexuality. What’s wrong is to go out there bashing gays right and left and be a closet homosexual.

Crist may still help McCain in FL because he is popular and his homosexuality is old news there, but elsewhere in the US is may signal to a lot of conservatives to stay home (in their eyes they’d have to chose between the Black ticket and the Gay ticket).

In a rational election, she wouldn’t bring ANYTHING to the ticket and might not even be a publically mentioned advisor.

There will be an attempt to split the Dems based on Hillary losing. Rely on it. Carly brings the fact that she’s a woman who can talk good sense in a public forum.

Boxturtle (with her fingers crossed behind her back, no doubt)

My ex got educational benefits from the VA after serving in Korea at or shortly after the time of the Vietnam ordeal. I had a boss in school who sometimes carried his VA check for his education in his pocket. When I asked what the check was, it was for his support while he was in school. That was in addition to tuition benefits. Both men also had full time jobs and were taking courses as well, so it was definitely to their advantage to go to school and soak up those benefits. I don’t see any reason to begrudge them since society also benefits greatly from having a more educated and informed work force. Their earning power supposedly increases and therefore produce more tax income for society to tap into later on, which, of course, is why not signing onto Webb’s veteran bill is counterproductive. Bush doesn’t care if the benefits are not seen until he’s long out of office so he can’t take credit.

Yea, this is great. Make him look sympathetic, brilliant.

I’m still tryin’ to stop the compulsive giggles over GrayHam bragging over seein’ ALL dem birds, TWICE! *hick-up* There’s a confession for ya’! dubblevision aw right. uh huh. and check out that flushed face. woo hoo! pugs sure know how to parteeeeeeeee. suggest saving that video - aint he a contendah?

Lieberman for SOS. May as well appoint Netanyahu. That’d be good for our diplomatic standing./snark

Yup, that’s her! Can you think of a more perfect person to get Neocon support? :-)

Boxturtle (Frankly, there’s not enough makeup for any of them hogs)

For the GOP, the individual a heartbeat away from a Presidency must have a penis.

I really don’t even understand this Kabuki dance. McCain is going to choose a white, Protestant, heterosexual man. The only one on this list who convincingly fits that description is Huck, and economic conservatives hate him. The only viable pick that I’ve even seen floated so far has been Tim Pawlenty, who has the added advantage of being the governor of the state that the convention is in, so he may be interesting enough to drag reporters away from the Larry Craig Memorial Bathroom Stall in Minneapolis.

What is better to be McCain’s VP and the likely GOP Presidential Contender and Party standard bearer in a year when we expect the GOP to have a civil war as everybody runs from McCain and defeat?
Or not being VP and try and lead the party like Reagen did? Assuming that the GOP will get lucky again and the economy will still be in shambles like it was when Reagen took over?
Hmmm my money is on not being tarnished by defeat by being McCain’s VP and trying to be Reagen hoping for a bad economy for years later.

The only reason anyone does anything is so we can say “kabuki” over and over and over and over

if Mr. Paul persists as a thorn in McCain’s side, the latter may have to revert to Sink-Ron-icity

Exactly what foreign policy has McCain been involved in formulating that gives him all that “experience” he claims he has?

How about re-establishing relations with Vietnam?

can you say c-o-n-t-i-n-g-e-n-c-y plans ???

to prepare for that eventuality, the Obama campaign has, for the first time, really, begun to bank delegates. Sources close to the campaign estimate that as many as three dozen Democratic superdelegates have privately pledged to announce their support for Obama on June 4 or 5.

McCain might choose what you say but will anyone with future ambitions want to be McCain’s VP?
McCain should have been Kerry’s VP. I’m sure GW bought his loyalty with a promise though that he would be the next GOP nominee. Which might explain John hugging the guy who called his kid a bastard.

I noticed that too. The Repug closet is a rather large thing. It would make lots of heads explode if one of them wound up on the ticket. I don’t think the wingnuts could handle it.

Will McCain try to recover the Christian right after kicking them to the curb last week by picking Huck?

This VPstakes speculation is all good fun but in the end it won’t make any differnce who Mav picks. People vote for President, not for the Vice-President, and Mav will still be an old white guy who wants to stay in Iraq for a hundred years and deny benefits to the Vets.

Change You Deserve? I think not.

I’m starting to prefer “pivot”.

Good point. I predict the VP selection for McBush will have the nickname “expendable”.

Sooo…who’s expandable from that list? Holy Joe. Carly. Crist.

Boxturtle (IMO they’re ALL expandable, but gotta look from a GOP perspective)

True. What I’m getting at is whether his extensive experience claim is warranted or not. What do you think? Serious question.

actually, my impression is that, aside from being a member of the Republican party, he’s pretty gay-friendly as a politician. They don’t seem to like him very much in That Wing of the party.

Which would, of course, make him a figleaf, and McCain’d have to push him to the right, but he’s probably the least offensive, which is why it’s a good thing they probably won’t do it.

Ask Rev Hagee what he would think about it.

Might as well pick Kathyn Harris.

and McCain looks like a kid at christmas looks like a kid at christmas with the political and business leaders political and business leaders.

McCain also picked up his Obama should go to Iraq softener yesterday.

I think it will be a hot topic in the debates and subject to one’s perspective.

Ann, I heard an interview on NPR months ago from Bill Gates and his father about the effect of the GI Bill. Bill Gates’ father was a farm kid from Washington State - they could not afford college. If he had not gone into the military and gotten the education benefit, he would not have become an engineer for xxx( Boeing?). He would have gone back to the farm and his kids would have been farm kids and they would not have had the education and exposure that his kids WERE able to have. Bill Gates agreed that if he’d been a farm kid, he never would have been able to do what he has done, Microsoft would not have existed. So, the effect of the GI Bill has come down for several generations; it was the smartest investment the US ever did.

Let’s face it; a lot of Obama folks really don’t like Hillary either, and a lot of Rethugs would come out to vote specifically to vote against Hillary if she were the Dem candidate regardless of who the running mate is.

ooof.

I agree. Haven’t all rethug VP’s been lilly white, protestant heteros? Republican voters have a hard enough time accepting McCain (even though all his perceived liberalism is concocted crap).

I noticed that too. The Repug closet is a rather large thing. It would make lots of heads explode if one of them wound up on the ticket. I don’t think the wingnuts could handle it.

They can’t, especially with a ballot initiative in California. They might have been able to get away with it if there were no anti-gay-rights initiatives on the ballot, but the California Supreme Court made sure that issue stayed in play. And it’s clear that gay rights advocates are done playing nice. Ellen DeGeneres made that clear to John McCain already.

When LBJ signed (pretty much against his will) the Vietnam “Serviceman’s Readjustment Act” he noted it was “the greatest economic flywheel in US history”.

There’s something they’re leaving out, though - Charlie Rangel wrote about how he only by happenstance took advantage of his, because the (white) guys who demobbed him didn’t offer it to black vets (and Charlie had a Bronze Star).

One of the big reasons that black prosperity is so far behind is that in WW2 - Korea, pretty much everyone went, and if you went you went to college if you came back. Built the middle class that way.

Unfortunately, some people weren’t allowed to join in.

Mortgage assistance went the same way, I believe.

OT Glenn Greenwald has a post up about Norman Finkelstein who arrived in Israel Friday, was held for 24 hours, deported, and banned from Israel for 10 years. His crime is that he is a well known critic of Israeli policies. So much for that bit about Israel being a liberal democracy.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/g.....index.html

Yeah, that’s true. But with Obama the likely nominee, I’m less worried about protest votes from that side.

I’m thinking regardless of who wins, the GOPers are going to come out in droves to votes against him/her. There’s a deep vein of Clinton hate, but Obama is a progressive (and black with a funny name) and they’ll hate that just as much.

Boxturtle (expects to see the largest turnout in my lifetime this November)

I wonder why Ron Paul wasn’t invited?

McCain might choose what you say but will anyone with future ambitions want to be McCain’s VP?

Are you serious? What GOP nutcase wouldn’t jump at the chance to be Cheney’s replacement?

Iraq.

Warmongerers and defense contractor whores only.

Wow. It must be against their “Constitution” to speak out against government policies. Oh, yeah…I’m not sure they have a Constitution.

caught that. heh. terrific post Julie. Well worth clicking thru all the links. Best laugh I’ve had all week, but then, it’s been a miserable week here.

At the moment we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop, as it were. Our Obama sign was ripped outta the ground (tee hee, little vandalite found that initial forayyyy a lil’ more strenuous than he’d ’spected - his’n knuckles-prints are forever part of the sign’s enduring appeal; but NOW i’m waiting for his return engagement, for which the ante has been raised a tad. Any gardeners out there know what “Tanglefoot” is? Marvelous for political signage placement & vandalite I.D.

Signed: cranky old lady ;->

la-dee-dah.

society also benefits greatly from having a more educated and informed work force

This is exactly why Republicans do not want this GI Bill.

Hmm, I’d be interested in seeing that information. I did extensive research on both the GI Bill and the GED and never came across that. No one “offered” GI Benefits, you take your dd214 and get a certificate of eligibility. Now, the fact that there was most certainly discrimination in housing and education comes in to play but are far as the benefits themselves being denied, I have never heard that.

Some subtle genius selecting images:

showing off ranch?

big dog?

OT - courtesy of Bill from Portland’s Cheers and Jeers at DKos

Go-Bama

Too cute to pass up.

There are so few people in the military I don’t think it matters one way or the other in terms of the “workforce”.

speaking of Uncle Tom’s Closet -

go ahead, pick Minority Leader McConnell

I hear he could be out of job soon

jeebus, those are right-leaning Rasmussen numbers

Wow. Just WOW! I’ve always respected that guy. But I didn’t know about this. How someone who went through so much can still navigate with an even keel….

I salute you, Charlie Rangal. You are indeed a hero and a treasure. Thank you for your continuing service.

Yes, I heard that interview with Charlie Rangle also. But, in general, college pre-WWII was a rich man’s game unless you were from NY and went to City College, which I think was free.

well, if no-one tells you you have benefits and they don’t offer you the paperwork, essentially you don’t have benefits.

;->

Hmm, interesting. The elite institutions, Ivy League, Chicago et al wanted nothing to do with vets after WWII black, white or otherwise.

It is an incremental effect, though. This is how the Reps have been so successful over the years at advancing their policies. A little bit here, a little bit there. Pretty soon, that frog is dead, broiled, and served with a side salad.

Also here at FDL via Cliff Schecter…

I understand and I am not questioning you or Charlie. I am just trying to be clear on what is being said. I think what you are saying here is “de facto” segregation.

apologies! at least I oughtta get the poor fella’s name spelled right. Just looked it up.

Beg pardon Rep. Rangel!

Amy Goodman airs an interview she did with Utah in 04. He tells my favourite Miles Horton story - the horse pistol and the goons.

Utah Phillips

A must see.

Miami home prices fell nearly 25 percent in March, the second-steepest decline in the country, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index said.

Las Vegas saw the biggest drop, at 26 percent.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sou.....aily5.html

Gov. Charlie Crist is head of Florida a must win state for the GOP but is he being blamed for the lower real estate prices or not?
Lots of Cubans in Miami and those of a certain age who support the GOP the most are now seeing the home they thought would finance their retirement drop in value.
Maybe Florida Sen Mel Martínez he puts Florida and the Cubans back into the GOP column long term he might bring over Hispanic voters and hey where else can the Minute Man vote go?
Unless they want four years of Democrats?
This would be a smart pick for the GOP but I don’t see them doing it because… well the GOP is racist.

I will also point out to you that the percentage of Nam vets who took advantage of the GI Bill was very small in comparison to the WWII vets. When I came home in 69 the dollar amount I got was almost exactly what my old man got in 1946. There was several years of hell raising before it got raised. . .this is nothing new.

Sure. I have to think they let the good old boys run things in most places.

Well, the demographics of Vietnam - poor kids and minorities - was much more like what exists now than back when it was expected that everyone would go.

BTW, thank you for not referring to McCain’s mansion as a “ranch”. The first question from reporters on arriving at a “ranch” should be, “Where are the cows?”

Ah, but don’t forget, a great deal of the Rethugs also can’t stand McBush! He only gets about 75% of the Rethug vote, and there are going to be a few other candidates in this race: Barr and Nader! So for every protest Obama vote, I see an offsetting one or more against McBush. Barr and Nader’s count goes up, some folks come in as an undervote, and Obama wins. I hope there is a way higher vote total, because the more people vote, the harder it will be for Rethugs to steal the vote! Obama being a street fighter from Chicago politics, don’t count him out until the last vote is counted, probably in Gary, IN (I’m pretty sure they’ll do better in Nov.)

Today’s troops are far better educated than we were.

I’m currently reading Invasion of the Party Snatchers by Victor Gold and got to the part where Cheney et al convinced dubya to pick Rummy (who had dissed Bush41 by railroading him into the CIA back in the day) by trotting all kinds of “choices” before presenting him with the gloriously charming Rummy who turned on the charm full tilt to seal the deal.

I think what we are witnessing is a procession of beauty pageant contestants but we haven’t seen the real winner yet who has already been chosen. Then they can say “oh, we looked at ALL the viable candidates”.

And Yeah I agree Carly is off the table esp. after the girls need more training remark by McCain.

Project 100000

typical easterner’s geeky sign-on-forhead.

Cattle. Horses. Sheep even. But never “cows”. eh? assuming u wanna “fit in”. Cranky wouldn’t know the diff. Neither would brush-cutter.

We noticed a big influx of former military coming to university after 1st Gulf War. fwiw.

Homosexuality? What Homosexuality? /s

If they pick Crist, they will have prayed the gay away. won’t exist.

typical easterner’s geeky sign-on-forhead.

Doh! I’m SO busted. I was raised on the east coast, even though I live in Texas now. :)

Yea, I sure. I just don’t think the numbers approach the other. gotta go

whut IS that yer drinkin?

My mom went to SUNY-Cortland in the 1950s - the tuition/fees then were a couple of hundred dollars a semester. When I worked there in 1980, the tuition/fees were a couple of thousand dollars a semester. Now, it is close to $6,000 a year for tuition and fees. So, in terms of what the vets actually GOT for their benefit after WWII, they got far more ‘bang for the buck’ than Vietnam vets could get.

If they pick Crist, they will have prayed the gay away. won’t exist.

Sorry, but even if you’ve prayed the gay away, you’re still stigmatized. If you don’t believe me, let a right-winger go on and on about how gays can be “cured”, and then ask them if they’d be okay with their daughter marrying an “ex-gay”. He’s not a viable candidate. And there’s no way in hell we’re going to leave the issue alone with the California ballot initiative out there.

Maybe the lack of money offered to Vets after the war is what kept many out of college and by the time the money was raised many Vets had gotten married and started new lives that did not have the time for college.
This sounds like an intentional bureaucratic mistake designed from the beginning to keep the costs of the G.I bill low.
We can’t afford to let that happen again.

Someone last night talked about a study where for every $1 spent on the G.I bill society got $7 of benefit sorry no link.

LOL.

Hey, who brought the koolaid to this vegan potluck?

Me too, ‘cept I only visited TX a couple times. Takes one ta know one.

Me gramma tried ta’ join the DAR (dau. of Amer. Revol.). All her resoich went for naught. So-o-o-o-o purely, hopelessly…. that-there ancestor wuz on dee wrongdamside, captured early, & spent whole war on a prison ship in the Hudson R.

Whut in blazes am I doin’ talkin’ westerneese?!

Laura Flanders has a new episode ready of GRITtv: What Will The Next President Do About Civil Liberties? Looks interesting to me. See you all there.

the FBI agent, silly.

Yikes. Pumpkin time, I guess.

Thanks, folks.

I’d be interested to see a comparison of soldiers then (viet nam) and now based on marital and family obligation status.
(realizing it shifted with draft exemptions)

I guess I must explain.

I totally agree with you and am only commenting (again in my own clumsy way) that if wingers want something they can go totally deaf, dumb and blind about the “flaws” of the person involved.

Now I must explain I don’t think gay orientation is a “flaw” at all but wingers do (at least publicly).

I give up. It’s too down the rabbithole.

If we get a good G.I bill then vets should go to the states with the lowest school costs like California was after the war I wonder if that fact is connected to the tech boom and Silicon Valley?
If so smart states should all be lowering tuition well accept the Southern states thanks to racism allot of Southern African Americans went North to school to get away from racism. But other state schools should benefit that and not everyone can leave their homestate because of family issues.

I’m sure you’re right. Course where I met some was a field course and we had plenty time to sit and chat in the evenings and over meals. That course was one of very few bright spots for those folks. I always appreciated the fact that they not only were there to learn, but they helped educate the rest of us who up to them were kept pretty ignorant of what they went through, by the “powers that be” in gov’t & MSM.

We’ve still got our yellow ribbon out by the road. It will stay there until… whenever… A small thing, just to remind folks we care, and we haven’t forgotten. If only we didn’t feel so helpless to stop the insanity… So glad we have FDL and folks like you, Raven…

Or a study of those who were drafted and who who avoided the draft.

these times, with the multiple deployments, the lack of anything other than pure greed and slime among those who started the war and keep sending folks into the meat grinder - for WHAT?! profit???

sorry folks. just makes me sick. it’s so wrong…

multiple folk from this administration & their enablers should be in jail.

but even that won’t bring back the lives. so much hurt.

there’s no putting this back together again. so much utter destruction.

apologies…

I want to know what percentage of college revenues today are the result of federal (or federally funded) projects. Also, which colleges have excessive tax privileged endowments that aren’t being used to support student tuitions,
but are being used to amass additional wealth.

If we can’t afford to fund tuition benefits, perhaps some of the colleges themselves can or should pay a price if they don’t.

Miss Adie, why are you apologizing?

The Bush cabal has trampled over our constitution, robbed our treasury, and murdered thousands of people. Laws and lives mean nothing.

I never thought this could be possible, never dreamt of the possibility.

the Fair Tax, which has its virtues

It does? I wish some would explain them to me! It’s a shame I arrived so late, because the regressive “fair Tax” is anything but. It places an undue burden on the lowest tier on the poorest and the richest skate. Any tax that does not tax income is simply too regressive to be fair. But those eighteen families I heard about love it and have spent big promoting it.

I do know that there are several states(Mass. being one) which are looking into the whole untaxed endowments business right now. One of the problems with endowments, esp. really old ones, is that many times the money was given with very specific directions. When I was in college, I was on a committee and we had money that we could just not give away to a student because it had been given with the direction that it had to be given to the son of a Baptist minister from Connecticut. So, it sat there, just getting bigger and bigger because we could not find any members of the family to change the request.

Why? Because we didn’t do enough to STOP them.

I discovered Molly Ivins years ago, and read pretty much everything she wrote. She knew. She & Lou DeBos, and a few others. They knew the danger. They warned this country repeatedly, with citations and concrete-solid reasoning and heart and soul.

Because of her efforts, WE as a society knew. We did not stop that dang brush-cutter and his puppeteerS. We ALL bear some responsibility for allowing them to well nigh destroy this nation and everything it stands for.

that’s all.

apologies…

biologists have a simple bit they mutter on occasion:

EXTINCTION IS FOREVER

What do you treasure? Is it still here? For how long?

OT
But you all may want to go over there and sign this,

Keep America’s Largest Forest Off of the Chopping Block

thank you.
:)

Well, consider the source.

Thanks siri.

There’s one thing we can do.

Rinse and repeat.

Waxman has Stephen Jophnson, head of the EPA up before them and he is trying to explain his last minute reversal of the California waiver on the Clean Air Act. CA wanted more stringent Regulations! This reversal occurred right after Darth met with reps from the BIG 3 Automakers. Johnson being arrogant won’t answer questions. Not claiming privilege, just refusing to answer…

Yep. But at some point you run (or should run) smack into the rule against perpetuities. I know congress is asking questions (hence the sudden Harvard, etc tuition giveaways), but we need to quit horsing around about this stuff.

This money should be used or lost — and not just used for monumental infrastructure. Universities should be held to higher standards or deprived of federal funds, direct or indirect. That might move some of these restrictive endowment terms into the courts for reframing, pronto.

If the schools want to make the argument their endowment accruals are justified based on investment risk, they are making the wrong investments. It appears at some schools the investment managers are paid more (much more) than faculty and senior administration - y’know, market rates and all. This is a dead give away something is out of kilter.

Thank you nonplussed.

There’s another thing.

Find multiple ways to support Waxman’s efforts.
(hint: have you called your congresscritter? ALL those running for prez or veep??? Waxman - to encourage and ask how to help?)

Rinse and repeat.

Toby, if you’re still around:
http://www.citizen.org/pressro.....fm?ID=2182

(sorry, for the life of me I can’t embed links)

dosido. I apologize partly because I’m so often commenting OT.

No matter how many times I tap my compass, North is still North, etc. etc.

We must find some ways to become more activist, more effective, yet operate within our own judgement scale of right and wrong.

We are losing the battle with the greedybastids like shooter who don’t give a @*&% what’s gonna happen in the future, just so long as they’re comfy right here & now.

We? We as a species. We as THE most powerful cognizant, potentially logical, force in our world.

Some biologists believe the best thing that could happen for the sake of the very survival of our world is the extinction of human life. They do not advocate such a horrible thing. All they mean to imply is that humans are most probably the single most destructive force in our world. They are serious. That’s how great the danger of ignoring the idiots who think they can make a quick buck and skate free.

There are consequences to acting in such an insane manner.

There are also consequences to ignoring people who seem not to care a whit about future generations.

No joke. No threat from me, ever. Just calling it as some very fine people, a lot smarter than I, see it. Some very intelligent, very compassionate, very hard-working and well trained people are very, very worried about the future of our world. Really. It has a lot to do with protecting our environment and planning for the future.

so, apologies for the interruption.

No. I’m not ’round-the-bend nuts, or at least that has nothing to do with the thots expressed above.