Actractorguy Forum Posts (2,089)

RE: gitmo and torture

So now you agree that shooting a Military person is being a terrorist.

Good for you.

RE: can you drink every day and not be a alcoholic?

Alcoholic = a person that has quit, on the wagon and such.

Drunk = A person that drinks excessively every day.

Occaional/casual = Can drink a glass of wine, a beer and such without the need to consume more.

JMHO

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Wrong. Pay back what is owed before profit sharing. Think tha bail out wwasn't designed to rob the taxpayers.



WASHINGTON -- U.S. taxpayers are about $10 billion in the red on their General Motors Co. investment after Wednesday's initial public offering. Whether the Treasury can ultimately break even will depend on how GM shares perform over the next few years.

The Treasury Department agreed Wednesday to sell 358.5 million of its common shares in GM at $33 a share, senior Obama administration officials said.

That sale raised $11.8 billion for U.S. taxpayers. It also valued the Treasury's entire 61% stake in GM -- including the shares it sold -- at about $30 billion.

The Treasury paid about $40 billion for the 912 million common shares it held at the start of the day Wednesday. To get that all back at once, the Treasury would have had to sell all its shares at about $43.85 in the IPO.

After the IPO, the Treasury Department retains about a 37% stake in GM. The remaining 554 million common shares the government owns have an indicated value of about $18.3 billion at Wednesday's IPO price.

The Treasury can't sell any additional shares for the next six months under the terms of the IPO.

To recover its full investment in GM, the government's remaining stake would need to reach a value of about $28.2 billion, or nearly $51 a share, on average. The Treasury is expected to sell off its remaining shares over time based on market prices.

The U.S. poured a total of $49.5 billion into GM last year to usher the Detroit auto maker through bankruptcy reorganization. The government has since recouped about $9.5 billion of that money as GM repaid loans, made interest payments and repurchased preferred stock from Treasury.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

AP Source: GM (Government Motors) hourly workers get $4,000 bonuses

DETROIT – General Motors Co. will pay more than $189 million in profit-sharing to 48,000 U.S. hourly workers and millions more in performance bonuses to salaried employees, according to company documents obtained by The Associated Press.

GM will pay most hourly workers more than $4,000 each as compensation for its strong financial performance last year, said a person briefed on the bonuses. The payments come less than two years after the automaker emerged from bankruptcy protection with the help of a huge government bailout. They're more than double the previous record payment of $1,775 in 1999, at the height of the boom in sales of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks.

"On the whole, we made tremendous progress last year," CEO and Chairman Dan Akerson said in an e-mail message to employees announcing the payments on Monday. "With our collective teamwork, this can be just the beginning."

GM's 28,000 salaried workers, such as engineers and managers, will get bonuses equal to 4 to 16 percent of their base pay. Fewer than 1 percent will get 50 percent or more; another 3 percent will get from 16 percent to around 50 percent, the person said. GM is not giving annual pay raises.

GM made $4.2 billion in the first nine months of 2010 and is expected to soon announce a fourth-quarter profit. The company needed a $49.5 billion government bailout to survive a mid-2009 bankruptcy filing, and the government still owns 25 percent of GM's stock. Chrysler, which needed a $12.5 billion bailout, plans to pay bonuses as well. The government owns about 9 percent of Chrysler stock.

The payments were condemned by a leading critic of the industry bailout in Congress.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

PROBABLY???????

You know damn well there are. Wonder if all the people for it have read it or if there just going by what they have been told from their political side.


Health Care bill good.

People who don't want health care bill bad.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Yes just like the individual mandate can start the slope to removal of all semblance of individualism. One I don't want to see us go down. Another erase the bad parts of history so we can relive it at a later time and watch it fail over and over like a bad science experiment.

RE: Love

Go Boban.

RE: Love

Didn't say she wasn't entitled; but it's not the answer and you do know that I'm sure. I've seen first hand what it can do. It doesn't always end up in a good way.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

I didn't sa a start to what just a start.

RE: Love

Sorry to hear.

Back away from the bottle. Trust me it doesn't do any good. I'm sure you have other options. Go for a stroll in the park hit the fishing hole or anything else. The bottle is no answer or a remedy for what you are feeling.

RE: write a word that starts with the last letter of word of person above you (only animal names)

Egretta caerulea (Little blue heron)

RE: AMERICA IS GREAT.

Contrary to Obama's belief of there are 57 states; there are actually only 50 still. IF we all agreed we would be lemmings. I'm not gonna jump off a cliff just because the guy in front of me did.

Your saying that GB doesn't have any division in the rank and file of it's populace?


To the last one I agree. The greatest place is where you hang your hat.

RE: Happy Valentine's Day Ladies!

Choclates

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

And for thise that don't want to read also




Orwell 1984 for your enjoyment.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Who is John Galt?

Atlas Shrugged Official Movie Trailer.

RE: which is the best for motivation?

Both but only if truly needed.

Sad when you have to dangle a carrot to get someone to do something they know they need to do.

Also sad to have to wag the stick when the carrot does not work.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

From that link.

As of today, a total of 733 waivers have been granted for 2011. Key facts about annual limits waivers:

* There was an increase in the number of applications received at the end of 2010 because December 1 was the final day to apply for a waiver for a plan or policy year that begins on January 1 – as many plans do. Over 500 waivers were granted in December. While the number of approved waivers increased by more than 200 percent, the total number of enrollees in plans receiving waivers has increased by only 48 percent since the previous posting.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

The U.S. government, faced with a diminished drug-development pipeline in the private sector, is starting its own federal drug development center. The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences will receive $1 billion in funding to conduct drug research, with the goal of attracting private investors.

In the past, the National Institutes of Health have usually focused on basic research. But the new science center might take discovery a step further, testing new chemicals in animals or even in human trials.

Popular Science reports:

"The Food and Drug Administration has approved fewer and fewer new compounds every year since 1995 ... ig pharma has been scaling back research spending, and drug giants like Merck and Pfizer have laid off thousands of scientists in the past year alone."


I'm all for it as long as drug companies are left out. Legally anything discovered by the government cannot be copyrighted or patented. That will bring down the costs of drugs remarkably. The main problem is when Drug companies take federal grant for research and then take out a patent for 20 years reaping the benefit and not putting back.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

The White House Wants Advice On What's Blocking American Innovation

from the let's-let-them-know dept

The White House website kicked off a new feature this week, called Advise the Advisor, in which a senior staff member at the White House will post a YouTube video on a particular subject, asking the public to weigh in on that topic via a form. The very first such topic is one near and dear to our hearts: American Innovation. Here's the video of David Plouffe asking how to encourage innovation and get rid of roadblocks: at the link.

The form only allows 2,500 characters, which really isn't that much. I ended up sending in two separate answers due to the space constraint. The first answered one of the questions posed:

What are the obstacles to innovation that you see in your community?

And here is the answer I provided:

Research on economic growth has shown time and time again the importance of basic innovation towards improving the standard of living of people around the world. Economist Paul Romer's landmark research into innovation highlighted the key factor in economic growth is increasing the spread of ideas.

Traditionally, many people have considered the patent system to be a key driver for innovation, but, over the last few decades, research has repeatedly suggested that this is not the case. In fact, patents more frequently act as a hindrance to innovation rather than as a help to it. Recent research by James Bessen & Michael Meurer (reviewing dozens of patent studies) found that the costs of patents far outweigh the benefits.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Wikipedia but it's a start.



As in most other countries, the manufacture and production of pharmaceuticals and medical devices is carried out by private companies. The research and development of medical devices and pharmaceuticals is supported by both public and private sources of funding. In 2003, research and development expenditures were approximately $95 billion with $40 billion coming from public sources and $55 billion coming from private sources. These investments into medical research have made the United States the leader in medical innovation, measured either in terms of revenue or the number of new drugs and devices introduced. In 2006, the United States accounted for three quarters of the world’s biotechnology revenues and 82% of world R&D spending in biotechnology. According to multiple international pharmaceutical trade groups, the high cost of patented drugs in the U.S. has encouraged substantial reinvestment in such research and development.

Economist Dean Baker finds that the development of drugs relies heavily upon research funded by the public, and he suggests that savings to consumers would be immense if public funding increased to 100% of R&D, thus eliminating drug companies' justifications for monopoly pricing rights.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Here is some info on just her self recusals since joining the SC.

It is ethical but also required if there is a conflict of interest for any sitting judge.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Waiver information

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Like a polecat don't want to be any where near it in any direction.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

I don't think it's a big leap that if they get the power to force purchase of a product of one type then to automatically assume they can do it for other products. Remember once the power is given to themselves it's virtually impossible to take it away.

Would you agree?

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

I think it's a right to get basic medical care to save a life. I also think that the US should bill the hell out of every country that has illegal aliens here draining the system.

Also get the cost of malpractice under control and reign in the 20 year patents on medication down to say 2-5 to allow generics to be made sooner and reduce drug costs.

There are tons of things to do to lower cost. Also the Health care bill had an opt out for companies and so far over 750 have applied for and received waivers. How fair is that?

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

What happens if the Supreme court gives the mandate the thumbs up. Then because they now have the power to force you to purchase a product. They now can force you to purchase buy a 60" HD tv and a specific brand oh if you don't have the money to buy it then they fine you twice the price at the end of the year. Take that money and do it every year that you can't afford it because your job doesn't pay that much after paying the main bills. That then accrues penalties and interest. See where it's headed. That slippery slope of indentured servitude forever. No way to avoid it.

Do you really want to be there?

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Yes buy paying taxes. Taxes go to many different places.

Not your nor my fault that the Supreme Court said that hospitals are required to treat and stabilize patients. Now if the ones using the ER for colds and such wouldn't then the burden would be less.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Are you forced to buy the car? No

The state places that requirement to register the car not the fed's.

Also the federal government does not force anything to be bought they can't Commerce clause does not give them the authority to do it. only regulate inter state commerce and imports.

How about lessening the requirements of 30+ mpg on every car or truck.

As far as the BP oil spill don't know. but a total ban on any offshore drilling was uncalled for.

RE: Obama is going ot win the presidency in 2012!

Yes it creates jobs; but at what expense to the taxpayers?

By signing that monstrosity of a health care bill and banning well drilling in the gulf. And many other things.

Not made more government jobs. Could have made the tax cuts permanent. Not wanting to prop up Fannie and Freddie mac. Not propping up GM or Chrysler. Small business brings in the largest amount of tax money than any other business. Agreed to lessen some of the Environmental regs where they hinder rather than help.

Yes but not in the way it was addressed. You can't force someone to buy a product or face a fine for which they are going to hire about 15,000 more government employees.