Currently viewing the tag: "Lavish"
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday, Sen. Jim DeMint argued that if PBS, CPB, and Sesame Street can afford lavish salaries for their executives, then surely they have the money to survive as private, non-commercial broadcasters. (He doesn't even mention how people chipping in $ 25 to "save" shows like Sesame Street might feel misled if they saw the salary numbers.)
PBS President Paula Kerger even recorded a personal television appeal that told viewers exactly how to contact members of Congress in order to "let your representative know how you feel about the elimination of funding for public broadcasting." But if PBS can pay Ms. Kerger $ 632,233 in annual compensation—as reported on the 990 tax forms all nonprofits are required to file—surely it can operate without tax dollars.
The executives at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes the taxpayer money allocated for public broadcasting to other stations, are also generously compensated. According to CPB's 2009 tax forms, President and CEO Patricia de Stacy Harrison received $ 298,884 in reportable compensation and another $ 70,630 in other compensation from the organization and related organizations that year. That's practically a pittance compared to Kevin Klose, president emeritus of NPR, who received more than $ 1.2 million in compensation, according to the tax forms the nonprofit filed in 2009.
Harrison was a wildly controversial choice when she was appointed to the CPB by President Bush in 2005, since she had been co-chair of the Republican National Commitee from 1997 to 2001. Once appointed, she quickly "went native," becoming a fierce protector of the subsidized liberal sandbox. DeMint continued:
Despite how accessible media has become to Americans over the years, funding for CPB has grown considerably. In 2001, the federal government appropriated $ 340 million for CPB. Last year it got $ 420 million. As Congress considers ways to close the $ 1.6 trillion deficit, cutting funding for the CPB has even been proposed by President Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction commission. Instead, Mr. Obama wants to increase CPB's funding to $ 451 million in his latest budget.
Meanwhile, highly successful, brand-name public programs like Sesame Street make millions on their own. "Sesame Street," for example, made more than $ 211 million from toy and consumer product sales from 2003-2006. Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell received $ 956,513 in compensation in 2008. With earnings like that, Big Bird doesn't need the taxpayers to help him compete against the Nickleodeon cable channel's Dora the Explorer.
PS: The sad state of the National Lampoon brand is proven by an attempt by "humorist" Philip Rodney Moon to explore how terrible PBS will get if conservatives defund it, including a show called "Mr. Roger Ailes' Neighborhood."
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday, Sen. Jim DeMint argued that if PBS, CPB, and Sesame Street can afford lavish salaries for their executives, then surely they have the money to survive as private, non-commercial broadcasters. (He doesn't even mention how people chipping in $ 25 to "save" shows like Sesame Street might feel misled if they saw the salary numbers.)
PBS President Paula Kerger even recorded a personal television appeal that told viewers exactly how to contact members of Congress in order to "let your representative know how you feel about the elimination of funding for public broadcasting." But if PBS can pay Ms. Kerger $ 632,233 in annual compensation—as reported on the 990 tax forms all nonprofits are required to file—surely it can operate without tax dollars.
The executives at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes the taxpayer money allocated for public broadcasting to other stations, are also generously compensated. According to CPB's 2009 tax forms, President and CEO Patricia de Stacy Harrison received $ 298,884 in reportable compensation and another $ 70,630 in other compensation from the organization and related organizations that year. That's practically a pittance compared to Kevin Klose, president emeritus of NPR, who received more than $ 1.2 million in compensation, according to the tax forms the nonprofit filed in 2009.
Harrison was a wildly controversial choice when she was appointed to the CPB by President Bush in 2005, since she had been co-chair of the Republican National Commitee from 1997 to 2001. Once appointed, she quickly "went native," becoming a fierce protector of the subsidized liberal sandbox. DeMint continued:
Despite how accessible media has become to Americans over the years, funding for CPB has grown considerably. In 2001, the federal government appropriated $ 340 million for CPB. Last year it got $ 420 million. As Congress considers ways to close the $ 1.6 trillion deficit, cutting funding for the CPB has even been proposed by President Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction commission. Instead, Mr. Obama wants to increase CPB's funding to $ 451 million in his latest budget.
Meanwhile, highly successful, brand-name public programs like Sesame Street make millions on their own. "Sesame Street," for example, made more than $ 211 million from toy and consumer product sales from 2003-2006. Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell received $ 956,513 in compensation in 2008. With earnings like that, Big Bird doesn't need the taxpayers to help him compete against the Nickleodeon cable channel's Dora the Explorer.
PS: The sad state of the National Lampoon brand is proven by an attempt by "humorist" Philip Rodney Moon to explore how terrible PBS will get if conservatives defund it, including a show called "Mr. Roger Ailes' Neighborhood."
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Friday, Sen. Jim DeMint argued that if PBS, CPB, and Sesame Street can afford lavish salaries for their executives, then surely they have the money to survive as private, non-commercial broadcasters. (He doesn't even mention how people chipping in $ 25 to "save" shows like Sesame Street might feel misled if they saw the salary numbers.)
PBS President Paula Kerger even recorded a personal television appeal that told viewers exactly how to contact members of Congress in order to "let your representative know how you feel about the elimination of funding for public broadcasting." But if PBS can pay Ms. Kerger $ 632,233 in annual compensation—as reported on the 990 tax forms all nonprofits are required to file—surely it can operate without tax dollars.
The executives at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes the taxpayer money allocated for public broadcasting to other stations, are also generously compensated. According to CPB's 2009 tax forms, President and CEO Patricia de Stacy Harrison received $ 298,884 in reportable compensation and another $ 70,630 in other compensation from the organization and related organizations that year. That's practically a pittance compared to Kevin Klose, president emeritus of NPR, who received more than $ 1.2 million in compensation, according to the tax forms the nonprofit filed in 2009.
Harrison was a wildly controversial choice when she was appointed to the CPB by President Bush in 2005, since she had been co-chair of the Republican National Commitee from 1997 to 2001. Once appointed, she quickly "went native," becoming a fierce protector of the subsidized liberal sandbox. DeMint continued:
Despite how accessible media has become to Americans over the years, funding for CPB has grown considerably. In 2001, the federal government appropriated $ 340 million for CPB. Last year it got $ 420 million. As Congress considers ways to close the $ 1.6 trillion deficit, cutting funding for the CPB has even been proposed by President Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction commission. Instead, Mr. Obama wants to increase CPB's funding to $ 451 million in his latest budget.
Meanwhile, highly successful, brand-name public programs like Sesame Street make millions on their own. "Sesame Street," for example, made more than $ 211 million from toy and consumer product sales from 2003-2006. Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell received $ 956,513 in compensation in 2008. With earnings like that, Big Bird doesn't need the taxpayers to help him compete against the Nickleodeon cable channel's Dora the Explorer.
PS: The sad state of the National Lampoon brand is proven by an attempt by "humorist" Philip Rodney Moon to explore how terrible PBS will get if conservatives defund it, including a show called "Mr. Roger Ailes' Neighborhood."
ABC’s Kirit Radia reports: During her husband’s first year in office, First Lady Michelle Obama received a large number of gifts from foreign dignitaries, but perhaps none are more impressive than the ones she got from Saudi King Abdullah. Unfortunately…
Political Punch
Take the poll!
While Republican leadership in the House has taken great pains to project an image of austerity in order to match their aims at spending reductions in the federal budget, not everyone in the caucus will join in staying low-key as the 112th Congress opens. Newly-elected Rep. Jeff Denham has invited his fellow freshmen to a [...]
The economic picture in Florida is not pretty: there were 1.1 million Floridians unemployed last month, and 55 of Florida’s 67 counties reported double-digit unemployment. It has the fifth-highest foreclosure rate in the country, and the state is facing a $ 3 billion budget shortfall, including a $ 1.5 billion shortfall for pressing needs like schools and [...]
ThinkProgress
For those keeping score at home, the Democrats have pulled the tax-cut extension and still have no idea how to complete a budget. They’ve punted on a number of issues that they claimed were big priorities for them. So…what to do?
Oh yeah, throw a big party!!
Outgoing Appropriations Chair David Obey (D-WI) [rarely have we written [...]
Big Government
David H. Brooks, a former contractor who supplied the military with body armor, was found guilty today on 17 counts, including fraud and insider trading, after allegedly stealing millions of dollars from his company and bilking his shareholders.
Prosecutors say Brooks used corporate funds from his company, DHB Industries, to fund a conspicuously lavish lifestyle, complete with luxury cars, thoroughbred racehorses, plastic surgery for his wife, prostitutes for his employees, a $ 10 million bat mitzvah for his daughter and a $ 100,000 diamond, sapphire and ruby-encrusted belt buckle in the shape of the American flag.
A jury on Long Island found Brooks guilty today after two weeks of fraught deliberations that included jurors breaking protocol to complain to the judge about each other and allegations that Brooks tampered with the jury. The feds have opened a grand jury investigation into the tampering allegations.
The eight-month-long trial was a similar circus, with Brooks twice caught trying to smuggle anti-anxiety medication into the jail where he’s being held. In one case, a supporter handed him a pen in court apparently stuffed with pills.
The jury also found his co-defendant and former COO, Sandra Hatfield, guilty of similar charges.
According to prosecutors, Brooks bilked his shareholders by lying about his inventory to inflate stock prices, and then selling his shares for a whopping $ 185 million.
David H. Brooks - Insider trading - Business - Fraud - United States
King and Queen Obama are both out of touch with America and do not care … “Let the peasants eat cake.”
Michelle Obama was warned by aides against going to Spain and having a lavish vacation in the lap of luxury while back home common folk faced a nearly 10% unemployment rate and millions were unemployed. Her answer to the warnings, who cares, don’t you know who I am. Michelle Obama showed a complete disregard for the plight that the “common folk” were going through and now wonders why her carefully manufactured image is now tarnished and beyond repair. Michelle Obama finds her popularity poll numbers on the same path of President Obama, going south fast.
The New York Times reports First Lady Michelle Obama’s aides cautioned against her going on the early August European vacation in which she stayed at a 5-star resort in Spain and mingled with royalty. The lavish trip, the aides reportedly argued, could result in harm to her image. “Aides say privately that they warned her there would be a cost to the trip, but she overruled them, insisting it was a rare chance to spend time with Sasha and with a friend whose father had died,” the paper reports. “But the intensity of the uproar — including accusations that she was a ‘modern-day Marie Antoinette’ — caught the White House and Mrs. Obama off guard.”
The trip resulted in the first extended negative press of the First Lady’s time in the White House. Critics questioned why Mrs. Obama chose to go to a glitzy, high-priced resort at a time when unemployment is high and many Americans are suffering economically.
How out of touch exactly is Michelle and Barack Obama? In one breathe Barack Obama talks about that this was the worst economic time since the Great Depression and in the next moment we see his wife Michelle “Marie Antoinette” Obama running off to Spain. Record number of Americans are on food stamps and Marie Antoinette Obama goes on an extravagant vacation. While Americans do not have jobs and have had their houses foreclosed on, let alone cannot take a vacation, Michelle & Barack think that the image of Michelle Obama on the beaches of Spain is a perfectly ok image.
If Obama did not care what the American people thought when it came to the $ 787 billion stimulus package, Obamacare or illegal immigration, does any one thing that Michelle Obama cares what the American people think about her vacation?
As stated at Town Hall, Michelle Obama’s image has taken a major hit following the “life-styles of the rich and famous” vacation to Spain. In a time in which Americans struggle to pay their bills, keep their homes or even have a job, Michelle Obama went on her ill advised vacation to Spain. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll of her popularity following the vacation had her at 50%, down 14% from 2009.
After a widely admired start in the White House, first lady Michelle Obama’s popularity is falling and, if the current downward trend in her approval ratings continues, could touch lows not seen since the scandal-tainted days of Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 50 percent of those surveyed say they have a positive opinion of Mrs. Obama. That’s down from 64 percent in April 2009 and 55 percent in January of this year. The first lady’s positive rating is barely ahead of her husband’s personal-approval figure, which stands at 46 percent in the new poll.
