A Socialist Against Labor? Barack Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama couldn't let General Motors fail, but he won't concede he's taking over the company.

With a 60 percent equity stake in the carmaker and $50 billion in taxpayer money riding on GM's success, the federal government isn't exactly a hands-off investor.

As GM enters into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Obama's economic team is stressing that its goals are to maximize the return to taxpayers and to exit from its involvement as quickly as possible. But as one administration official put it Sunday night, there is an inevitable tension between those two objectives.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (daily kenoshan) - General Motors, the 100 year old industrial superpower and maker of Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and other automobiles, announced they will file for bankruptcy protection, the outcome of which will cut 21,000 jobs and reduce to 2600 the number of automobile dealerships. President Obama applauded the reorganization move and estimated the time frame for the court action to be completed at 60-90 days. Once the bankruptcy is finalized, the government will own 60% of the failed GM Corporationand will pump billions into the leaner, reorganized company. This will be the governments biggest foray into private industry in history.

The Merchants of Cool

You can view the other four parts of this series on YouTube.

I'd also like to give a plug to Naomi Klein's No Logo, which features a lot of the concepts seen in this documentary.

KGC - Kentucky Grilled Chicken

(YAHOO!) LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Would KGC ever have the same ring?

In a culinary gambit backed by buckets of big money, KFC is hoping to replicate its founder's recipe for success with the national introduction of Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

This week's rollout is KFC's most ambitious attempt to win over health-conscious customers as the chain known worldwide for fried chicken tries to reinvigorate lackluster U.S. sales.

"It's going to get people who haven't eaten KFC for a long time to come back into our restaurants," said KFC President Roger Eaton. "It's going to get people who have never eaten KFC to come into our restaurants."

Eaton says he spent years as part of the team tinkering with a grilled alternative, and the rollout follows KFC's longest market test ever. It will be backed by a marketing blitz.

You can't make yourself something you aren't.

Obama Asks CEO of GM To Resign

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

On Monday, President Barack Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. The plan is based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

General Motors issued a vague statement Sunday night that did not officially confirm Wagoner's departure. - Politico

The government intruding on private enterprise. Real nice.

Bill To Help Newspaper Companies

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.

"This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat," said Senator Benjamin Cardin.

A Cardin spokesman said the bill had yet to attract any co-sponsors, but had sparked plenty of interest within the media, which has seen plunging revenues and many journalist layoffs.

Do we really need to rescue everything?

An Auto Pizza Machine

ROVERETO, Italy — Is Europe bringing back the automat? Claudio Torghele hopes so.

Over the last decade, Mr. Torghele, 56, an entrepreneur in this northern Italian city who first made money selling pasta in California, has developed a vending machine that cooks pizza. The machine does not just slip a frozen pizza into a microwave. It actually whips up flour, water, tomato sauce and fresh ingredients to produce a piping hot pizza in about three minutes.

The machine, which Mr. Torghele calls Let’s Pizza, is only the spearhead of a trend. Restaurants reminiscent of the old Horn & Hardart chain in the United States, which are fully automatic, are also showing up around the Continent.

Unlike the old automats (the last Horn & Hardart closed in 1991), which were staffed with workers who refilled the machines with creamed spinach and baked beans as fast as customers pulled them out, these restaurants consist entirely of vending machines. - New York Times

This is great. Bring it to Wakefield High!

Madoff Wanted To Deliver "At Any Cost"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bernard Madoff, who cultivated a worldwide mystique as he churned out amazingly steady returns for his investors year after year, finally admitted it was all a lie, saying he had felt compelled to deliver "at any cost."

If his thousands of customers were expecting deep insight into why he did it, they were disappointed.

The silver-haired money manager, wearing his signature gray suit and showing little emotion, offered an apology and an explanation of sorts in a 10-minute courtroom monologue. While saying he was "actually grateful" for the chance to speak, he did not dwell on the motive behind his crime spree.

Madoff said he wanted to keep investors seeking good returns happy and that, once he started, he could not stop.

What a little crook.

Burger King Coming Soon

If you drive to Irving Gas Station circa 2012, you may be delighted to see a Burger King across from it. Plans for a Burger King have been approved by the town of Wakefield. You know how long it took for Dunkin' Donuts and Irving to be built/open so yeah don't expect BK anytime in the near near future.

Playboy Reports Huge Loss

During a conference call today announcing Playboy’s fourth quarter and year-end 2008 financial results, interim chairman and CEO Jerome Kern was asked by an analyst if, now that longtime CEO Christie Hefner is no longer with the company, it will consider a sale and/or changes in the strategic direction of Playboy magazine.

“Yes, we’re open to discussions,” Kern said.

Playboy reported a year-end net loss of $156.1 million in 2008, compared to a net gain of $4.9 million during 2007. The majority of that loss came during the fourth quarter, which saw a profit loss of $145.7 million due, in part, to $157.2 million in impairment and restructuring charges. - Foliomag.com

Reason is kind of obvious: internet porn. This is the same reason why print journalism is becoming obsolete in general: people are turning to the internet.

Another Auto Bailout Proposed

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors and Chrysler LLC asked the government Tuesday for $21.6 billion in additional loans, but the final cost of a bailout of the auto industry could be significantly higher.

The two struggling auto giants have already received a total of $17.4 billion in loans. If they get the new loans they want, the price tag of the bailout would climb to $39 billion.

What's more, $7.5 billion in loans have already been approved for the financing arms of GM and Chrysler. Congress also approved funding last year for $25 billion in loans to help automakers convert their plants to produce more fuel efficient cars.

Just what we need! Actually, we need to stage a peaceful coup d'etat.

Microsoft To Open Retail Stores

SEATTLE (AP) — Microsoft plans to open its own stores despite the economic downturn that has left many retailers struggling.

The company said Thursday that it had hired David Porter, a 25-year veteran of Wal-Mart Stores, as its corporate vice president for retail stores. Mr. Porter was head of worldwide product distribution at DreamWorks Animation SKG since 2007.

Mr. Porter, who is set to start work on Tuesday, is charged with improving the PC-buying experience. The company said his first task would be to set the timing, locations and design of Microsoft-branded retail stores, which will sell computers installed with Microsoft software as well as other company products.

Unnecessary, but that's just me.

IBM Makes Stimulus Pitch to Obama

Standing beside President Barack Obama, who was touting his $825 billion stimulus package this week, IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano stepped up to the lectern and waxed patriotic.

“We need to reignite growth in our country,” Palmisano said. “We need to undertake projects that actually will create jobs.”

He is positioning IBM to get a slice of the stimulus pie.

Since November, Palmisano has been making a pitch to Obama’s transition team that investing $30 billion in expanding rural broadband access, computerizing health-care records and improving the electrical grid could create 949,000 U.S. jobs. - Recordonline

Yeah, let's just give everyone a slice of this useless stimulus pie.

Take this man's word for it:

Politicians and bureaucrats have already done their fair share to ensure that jobs in the private sector are prohibitively complicated and expensive to create. They are now shocked that the economy is shedding jobs, and want to simply create hundreds of thousands of jobs to make up for the job losses, through another so-called economic stimulus package. The private sector must be permitted to do that, but instead they are massively burdened with taxes and webs of red tape and regulation. Washington’s band-aids will only prolong this agony. The Austrian school of economics teaches that only a free market economy, unencumbered by onerous government controls, creates long-term prosperity. Politicians, however, tend to be notoriously short-sighted.

"The Inspirational Caylee Sunshine Doll"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A businessman's plans to sell a doll named after a slain 2-year-old Orlando girl were suspended early Tuesday after public outcry over "The Inspirational Caylee Sunshine Doll."

Caylee Anthony's story touched people across the country. After a five-month search, her body was found in a wooded area near Orlando. Her mother, Casey Anthony, is charged with first-degree murder in the case.

Just over a month after a utility worker found Caylee's remains, Jaime Salcedo's company, Showbiz Promotions, created a doll with intention to donating $3 from the sale of each $29.95 doll to charity - MSNBC

This is far more kosher than writing a play about a girl who overdosed on ecstasy.

GDrive

Google is to launch a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection, according to industry reports. But campaigners warn that it would give the online behemoth unprecedented control over individuals' personal data.

The Google Drive, or "GDrive", could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive. Instead a user's personal files and operating system could be stored on Google's own servers and accessed via the internet.

The long-rumoured GDrive is expected to be launched this year, according to the technology news website TG Daily, which described it as "the most anticipated Google product so far". It is seen as a paradigm shift away from Microsoft's Windows operating system, which runs inside most of the world's computers, in favour of "cloud computing", where the processing and storage is done thousands of miles away in remote data centres. - Guardian

Sounds nice if you put a lot of trust in corporations and the government.

"Freedom of Choice" Doughnut

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American's sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies -- just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet "free" can be.

"Krispy Kreme is taking the inaugural festivities nationwide," said Ron Rupocinski, executive chef for Krispy Kreme. "We're inviting our fans in cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., to commemorate this historic day with a favorite American treat."

The Inauguration Day promotional offer is good for one doughnut of choice per customer on Jan. 20. No purchase is necessary. To find a participating store near you, visit http://www.krispykreme.com/storelocator.html.

Damn. If only the stores in Medford and Saugus didn't fail.

Advertising War

Planned Parenthood's Staff Cuts

Hit with declines in funding from the economic crisis and the Madoff scandal, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America is laying off around 20% of its staff.

Roughly 30 people were let go earlier this week, according to a source who works for the nonprofit. Executives at Planned Parenthood confirmed the layoffs, but declined to give more details.

“As with many other nonprofit organizations, Planned Parenthood has had to make staff reductions at our headquarters due to the challenging economic times facing our country,” said Maryana Iskander, chief operating officer at the agency. “While taking this action is never easy, we want to ensure the millions of women and men who rely on Planned Parenthood as a health care provider that the reductions will not impact our ability to deliver care to those in need.” - Crain's New York Business

As long as these laid off workers don't go back into the "health care" business, all shall be well.

Environmental Cost of Google Search

Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.

While millions of people tap into Google without considering the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.” - Times UK

Oops, that sucks.

Whopped Sacrifice

Do you have too many 'friends' on Facebook? You know, the 'friends' that paid you no mind in high school but then, when they find you on Facebook, it's all good times and buddy-buddy. Maybe you thought you were living in the 1930's when you introduced yourself with your full name at that corporate event and woke up the next day to find friend requests filling your inbox.

Well get down on your knees and give thanks for the advertising geniuses working for Burger King these days. First they brought us the brilliantly hilarious BK perfume site, and now here comes a Facebook application that will help you trim the fat on your 'friends' list without hurting too many feelings in the process.

The new app is called Whopped Sacrifice and it rewards you with a coupon for BK's signature burger for every 10 'friends' you manage cut loose. Each time you delete a 'friend' from your massively cluttered list, the application sends a notification to the banished party via Facebook's news feed explaining that your desire for a Whopper is stronger than your love for the unlucky former 'friend.' The app also adds a box on a user's profile page charting their progress toward the free burger with the line, "Who will be the next to go?" - Salon.com

Sounds like a great idea.

Funny Pic of the Day (12/11)