For those of you who are local (to me, I mean), I’ll be speaking at a U Michigan College Dems event tonight. And there will be the requisite socialization at Arbor Brewing Company afterwards. I’d love to see some of you there.
Details:
The College Democrats at the University of Michigan will be hosting a Statewide Blogging Convention to talk about the role of blogs, politics, and new media today. It will feature
- State Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer
- Marcy Wheeler who blogged about the Libby Trial and wrote a book about it
- Christine Barry from Blogging for Michigan about state progressive politics
- Graham Davis, who blogs for Governor Granholm and Lieutenant Governor Cherry
- John from the Rainbow Mittens blog about LGBT politics
When: 8PM this Thursday, March 16th
Where: Vandenberg Room of the Michigan League at 911 N. University Avenue Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=55427994462&ref=mf
A reception will follow after at Arbor Brewing Company to have a meet and greet with our speakers.
Oh foo, sounds like a good time and I’m already booked up tonight at another event closer to my locale!!
Those other speakers are lucky to get to share the stage with you! I hope they buy you rounds and show proper adoration.
Go Blue!
The burning question is whether Arbor has Beamish on tap.
Nope. Doesn’t have Guinness either.
I once cut short a vacation in Wales so that I could get back to Dorset where one particular pub had a certain beer on tap. I think it was called “Devenish”. I had concluded that the best English beer was better than the best German beer. (I’d lived in West Germany for about 3 years by that time.) This Beamish sounds good!
There’s an evening I still don’t remember that started in the pub attached to the old brewery in Tadcaster where they brew Sammy Smith’s…
Good ale. The Devenish ale has been gone for about twenty years. More’s the pity. I prefer Old Speckled Hen and Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown. For a morning headache, there’s always Theakston’s Old Peculiar. Ann Arbor may not have your preference, but it has more than a couple of beers on tap.
question off topic for the lawyers;
is it legal for congress to pass tax on bonuses already earned or recieved?
I think not but Ianal
this is the same thing as passing a law after I commit the act and holding me to that new law for what happened before the law
The law congress just passed on the 90% tax on bonuses is unconstitutional.
that’s what I thought, only becuase the money is already earned, it’s probably constitutional for future bonuses not yet declared and earned
is that all ya got ???
type that into your repuglitarded twitter feed
you do know those mcstain trollblogger points are worthless now, right
he was answering my question in his answer at response number 10, I am not a trol and I agree the law taxing money already made is unconstitutional
I also think we can simply get it back but I don’t think we can add a law after the fact and have that law in effect before the fact
ianal but this is my understanding of our law
tax law is a bit more screwed up than that
I think what you’re referring to is the “ex post facto” clause, but I don’t think it applies to tax law
as long as it happens within the same fiscal year, congress can fuck with the tax rate
there might be a question about the specific targting, but I figure that the SCOTUS rulings against targeting would provide a blueprint for how it could be done legally
from what I understand, income taxes are barely constitutional in the first place. There was a need for a specific amendment just to make it happen
so the income tax laws are a part of the constitution, and they can oppose or infringe on other constitutionally guaranteed rights
aha
now that makes sense
To boot, they made it retroactive to 01/01/09, I do not think that this would ever hold up in court. Seems like a cover up for the mistake off doling out all the money with out very clear guidelines.
like we believe that; A, you could ever be a lawyer (sorry, we ain’t buying that) B, that you have any clue about constitutional law, or C, that you THINK period
that’s three things you’ll never convince this crowd of, pal
I got more legal experience than you, and I only practice Personal Criminal Defense (even been found not guilty on a few occasions)
Not that I’ve figured out exactly what their crimes might have been, but if people who can be indicted for something were getting bonuses for acting in that very capacity, they cannot be allowed to profit from their crimes, yes/no?
try looking under “Fraud” and “Malfeasance”
that will get you started
OT: People may already have seen Lawrence Wilkerson’s post at the Washington Note or his appearance on KO.
It doesn’t tell us much that readers here didn’t already know, but it is well said, especially in its explanation of the mad “mosaic” methodology for detention and interrogation (of mostly innocent people) that DoD worked out, and he is quite wonderful on the subject of the sheer incompetence involved in recording and cataloguing interrogations. We’ve heard from the military defence lawyers often about how much is simply missing, and we know that a lot of what remains is simply unusable in any serious court of law.
Anyway, I admire Wilkerson for speaking so plainly, whatever the humiliation of supporting Powell’s infamous UN presentation.
Wee correction: Wilkerson was on Rachel’s show, not KO. Sorry.
They were not committing a crime under the law. They were doing what every other insurance co and bank were doing.
If they were profiting from their actions do we also take their whole salary away not just bonus?
I wouldn’t be quite so quick to assume they were doing nothing wrong.
AIG’s 10-K for ‘07 states that the folks in charge, learned things were going to sh*t in late ‘07. The “retention” bonuses were negotiated in early ‘08 after it became known that things were going to sh*t.
With all the questions surrounding timing, there is a lot of smell attached to the bonus sh*t.
And the bonuses are written such that the folks who created the mess are needed to receive a bonus so they won’t walk? Isn’t that called blackmail?
freep
Can you ask our troll if he knows where one can get Beamish in DC?
… or Mumbai, it might be one of those outsourced trolls. *g*
naw, he ain’t that stockholmed yet (or should that read “he ain’t that SYNDROMED yet, I’m confusd)
anywho, he can only find luke warm Corona, san lime
what can I say, he a repuglitard
but we’re workin on it
gots me an ACME Troll Taming Kit, Yes I do …
congrats on knockin out Clemson too
I am not sure if you can nullify contracts that were signed to retain or get individuals to take jobs. If I was promised a certain amount of $$ not to walk when I took a particular job, then you bet I would want that money. I may not have taken that job if that $$ was not offered.
If these people walk and go to the competition will that co fail. Possibly.
If all of the individuals give their money back and then quit what will happen to AIG or any other co.
If a contract is signed under fraudulent conditions, I think that makes it an invalid contract.
And having signed some employment contracts myself, if the AIG folks walked to a competitor, then they are probably breaking non-compete clauses, which are far more likely at the level we are talking about here.
And if they disclose AIG secrets to that competitor, then that’s another level of fraud and law breaking they can be prosecuted for.
If they all quit AIG, maybe AIG can actual find (difficult as it will be to do so) some folks with honesty and integrity.
Why would the contracts that were signed be fraudulent?
If they were employment contracts they are fine.
How many non-compete clauses have been enforced. Some sates have a right to work law, meaning a company can not stop you from making a living.
AIG, reported in their 10-K for ‘07, published in 2/28/08 I believe it was, that they had recognized the problems in their Financial Products area as of late ‘07. The “contracts” were re-negotiated in early ‘08 to assure that the managers of the FP area were paid at the same levels for ‘08 as they were in ‘07
They knew the problems were there and the storm was coming so they re-negotiate contracts to protect themselves? Smells like fraud to me.
Non-compete clauses may not be enforced all the time but at the level of management of somewhere within a place like AIG, financial markets in general (or large scale consulting firms, they DO get enforced.
Or do the right-to-work laws abrogate the sainted world of contracts? You can’t have it both ways. If a contract is to be enforced on one level, then it needs to be enforced across the board. This isn’t the Sunday buffet
In what year is this event?
8PM this Thursday, March
16th19th,[2009]…time flies when…