SodaHead - valrie life's a Beach!'s Blog

The best temp gig in history -WaMu CEO gets $19 Mil

2008-10-01T17:11:10Z

+5 raves

THIS GREEDINESS MAKES ME MAD! GRRR Posted Sep 30 2008, 12:47 PM by Kim Peterson Rating: Filed under: Kim Peterson, JPMorgan, Washington Mutual Congress wants to crack down on CEO mega-salaries for banks participating in the bailout. And while the politicians argue how best to do that, Alan Fishman of Washington Mutual is headed for the doors with $19 million in his pocket. If that wasn't outrageous enough, consider this: Fishman started the job three weeks ago. I never saw the employment ad Fishman answered, but it must have read something like this: WANTED: Top executive for train-wreck bank about to be seized by federal regulators. Must be able to look busy while FDIC sells business from under you. Previous experience with angry shareholders sitting on worthless stock a plus. Perks: $7.5 million hiring bonus and $11.6 million cash severance. Fishman got the best temp gig in history. He gets to keep the bonus and severance pay, though he must stay on the job while JPMorgan Chase completes its purchase of WaMu's banking assets. To be fair, Fishman wasn't the one that took WaMu down a path lined with toxic mortgages and other bad assets. No, that role belonged to former CEO Kerry Killinger, who received $54 million over five years before leaving earlier this month. He's eligible for around $20 million in severance pay. Other execs are also cashing in big. President Stephen Rotella gets $12.7 million in cash if he's terminated or quits with "good reason," according to the Portland Business Journal. And CFO Thomas Casey would get a cash severance of $6.3 million. And WaMu shareholders got huge payments of...oh, wait. The stock is worthless. Shareholders got wiped out.

Ed Freeman RIP To all the Viet Nam War Heroes on SH!

2008-09-13T13:08:17Z

valrie life's a Beach!

+5 raves

You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965. LZ Xray, Vietnam. Your Infantry Unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see a Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it. Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses. And, he kept coming back...... 13 more times..... and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out. Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise, ID......May God rest his soul.....

COMPARISON BETWEEN MCCAIN & OBAMA - EEEK

2008-08-28T19:19:10Z

valrie life's a Beach!

+8 raves

SIMPLE MATH: 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE COMPARISON TALKING POINTS ISSUE JOHN McCAIN BARAK OBAMA Favors new drilling offshore US Yes No Will appoint judges who interpret the law not make it Yes No Served in the US Armed Forces Yes No Amount of time served in the US Senate 22 YEARS 173 DAYS Will institute a socialized national health care plan No Yes Supports abortion throughout the pregnancy No Yes Would pull troops out of Iraq immediately No Yes Supports gun ownership rights Yes No Supports homosexual marriage No Yes Proposed programs will mean a huge tax increase No Yes Voted against making English the official language No Yes Voted to give Social Security benefits to illegals No Yes CAPITAL GAINS TAX MCCAIN 0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax. OBAMA 28% on profit from ALL home sales. (How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.) DIVIDEND TAX MCCAIN 15% (no change) OBAMA 39.6% - (How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that 'Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.') INCOME TAX MCCAIN (no changes) Single making 30K - tax $4,500 Single making 50K - tax $12,500 Single making 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 60K- tax $9,000 Married making 75K - tax $18,750 Married making 125K - tax $31,250 OBAMA (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts) Single making 30K - tax $8,400 Single making 50K - tax $14,000 Single making 75K - tax $23,250 Married making 60K - tax $16,800 Married making 75K - tax $21,000 Married making 125K - tax $38,750 Under Obama, your taxes could almost double! INHERITANCE TAX MCCAIN - 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax) OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes. NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet. New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already) New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity) New taxes on retirement accounts, and last but not least....New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!! You can verify the above at the following web sites: http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/election/2008/index.html http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.taxes.html http://elections.foxnews.com/?s=proposed+taxes http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourworld/politics/articles/mccain_o... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/candidates/barack... http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/candidates/john_m...

The content has been removed! Yea!

2008-08-17T13:11:24Z

valrie life's a Beach!

+8 raves

http://sodahead.com/user/profile/662291/ Please help me to have these explicit comments taken off this guys page or at least made private!

Bobby Kennedy

2008-06-07T14:33:19Z

valrie life's a Beach!

+2 raves

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

How to Save a Life

2008-01-12T21:52:55Z

valrie life's a Beach!

0 raves

"How To Save A Life" Step one you say we need to talk He walks you say sit down it's just a talk He smiles politely back at you You stare politely right on through Some sort of window to your right As he goes left and you stay right Between the lines of fear and blame And you begin to wonder why you came Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life Let him know that you know best Cause after all you do know best Try to slip past his defense Without granting innocence Lay down a list of what is wrong The things you've told him all along And pray to God he hears you And pray to God he hears you Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life As he begins to raise his voice You lower yours and grant him one last choice Drive until you lose the road Or break with the ones you've followed He will do one of two things He will admit to everything Or he'll say he's just not the same And you'll begin to wonder why you came Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend Somewhere along in the bitterness And I would have stayed up with you all night Had I known how to save a life