CivicSpace
A quick look at the bail out from a staunch conservative
Courtesy of Mark Tapscott, the not-at-all-liberal eidtor of DCExaminer.com :
Side-by-Side Comparison of Rescue Legislation
|
Issue |
Paulson Plan |
Frank-Dodd |
Final Bill |
|
$ |
700B |
700B – Delivered in 150B traunches that can be delayed by Congressional disapproval (and a Presidential signature) |
250B – Immediately available to the Secretary. 100B – Available upon report to Congress. 350B – Available ONLY upon Congressional action. |
|
Insurance (House Republican Mode) |
Requirement to establish mandatory insurance/guarantee program at no expense to the taxpayer. “Pay to play” for participating companies, based on risk. |
||
|
Executive Compensation |
Far reaching executive compensation standards that would affect companies not even involved in this financial crisis. Additionally, the bill lowered the deduction on executive pay to $400,000 for ALL companies. |
Workable prohibitions on executive compensation to ensure bad actors are not rewarded. In a total takeover (like what happened with AIG), there will be no golden parachutes or severance pay. For equity participation, over $300M total ban for top 5 executives on golden parachutes and tax deduction limit on compensation above $500,000. |
|
|
Oversight / Transparency |
Onerous, unworkable and repetitive reporting and oversight requirements, hindering proper implementation of program. |
Establishment of bipartisan oversight commission, split evenly between minority and majority. Practical reporting requirements to ensure proper reports to Congress and the public. If after 5 years the government has a net loss of taxpayer funds as a consequence of the purchase program, the President will be required to submit a legislative proposal to recoup such funds from program beneficiaries. |
|
|
“Say on Pay” Union Take Over of Corporate Boards |
So-called “say on pay” or “proxy access” which propose to mandate a non-binding shareholder vote on proxy access and other corporate governance issues for all companies in which the Treasury Department buys a direct stake in certain assets. |
OUT |
|
|
Affordable Housing Slush Fund (ACORN Fund) |
Included a giveaway that would force taxpayers to bankroll a slush fund for ACORN – an organization fraught with controversy for, among other scandals, its fraudulent voter registration activities on behalf of Democratic candidates. |
OUT |
|
|
Bankruptcy “Cram-down” (aka, trial bar give-away) |
Included so-called “cramdown” provisions allowing bankruptcy judges to reduce mortgage principal under the guise of helping those at risk of foreclosure. If enacted into law, the provision would be a bonanza for trial lawyers and undercut the effectiveness of any economic recovery effort by making it even harder to value mortgage-backed securities. |
OUT |
|
|
Mark-to-Market Accounting |
GAO study on the impacts of mark-to-market accounting standards and effects on the banking crisis. Restatement of existing authority to suspend mark-to-market. |
||
|
Equity / Warrants |
Mandatory equity interest in all participating firms. |
Mandatory equity interests in total takeover scenario. Proportional equity interest based on percentage of assets sold if deemed appropriate Secretary. |
|
|
Tax benefits for community banks |
Ability for community banks to take capital losses on GSE assets against ordinary income. |
Cautiously optimistic
The good news is, the site is back up. The bad news is, we still have not gotten the new server. Hopefully the transition will go smoothly and the added RAM will have this site hopping.
Hopefully.
Loading times in Firefox on my Powerbook G4 are still slowish. If you have slower machines, can you tell me how bad it is on your end? Safari seems to be the only browser to load with no problems ... although the site looks a bit funky in it.
The image galleries are all out of whack. I will be working on them throughout the weekend. This would be a good time to contribute to my caffeine, acetominophen and Snickers fund.
The real bad news is that I tore down the site I had built using CivicSpace to rebuild it using my own Drupal mix. Pitty. I had real high hopes for CivicSpace. It really is not ready for a consumer market.
Blogging made easier with a bit of code
What is a blogging bookmarklet? It is a piece of code you put on the bookmarks or favorites toolbar of your browser. When you want to grab a quote fromm an article on the net, all you have to do is :
(1) highlight the text
(2) click on the bookmarklet
What the javacript in the code will do is pull-out the text highlighted text as a blockquote with a link back to the page; including the title of the article (if it is available on the page's source code).
So take this culturekitchen Blog It! bookmarklet and drop it in your Safari or Firefox browser.
If you have a bit of a problem dropping it in, you can manually create a bookmark in both browsers by dropping the code in the URL section of a bookmark.