His 9-9-9 plan has come under heavy attack as being completely insufficient to pay for even the limited government Republicans endorse, with its constantly burgeoning defense budget. Cain may have even gotten the idea for it from SimCity 4, a computer game, though he of course denies this.
But Cain's got some real skeletons in the closet. Besides being a pizza magnate, he was a member of the Kansas City Federal Reserve and a member of the board of Aquila Inc.
Considering that huge swaths of the Republican Party believe that the Fed is the devil, this should put Cain on the seventh level of hell.
Aquila is more interesting, and much more telling. Aquila was basically Enron's envious little brother, right down to the pension scandal. Cain was on its board and endorsed employees investing their pension money in Aquila stock even as it was falling. Aquila pulled the same kind of gimmicks Enron did to inflate its stock price: selling electricity to a subsidiary, which then sold it right back to itself to inflate sales numbers. They also used the "ricochet" gimmick, buying power in California at a capped price, moving it out of state, then selling it back to California at an inflated price.
Cain also chaired the compensation committee at Aquila, which gave out $30 million in bonuses to the top five execs at Aquila in 2002, while the stock price was plummeting.
Aquila employees filed a class action against the company, naming Cain and other board members in the suit. The company settled for $10 million in 2007. Cain left the board in 2008.
Herman Cain is not an outsider or a small-business-friendly entrepreneur. He's worked for giant companies like Coca Cola, Pillsbury, Burger King and Godfather's Pizza. He never started a business of his own, he's always been a hired gun and part of the old boys' network. He's been on the boards of companies like Nabisco, Whirlpool and Aquila. He has always been in bed with self-dealing CEOs who think ever-soaring salaries are theirs by the divine right of kings.
Cain is the kind of guy that got us into the mess we're in today, with the salaries of regular folks dropping like rocks while CEOs who screw the pooch get richer and richer.
10 comments:
thanks for that. now point us to the same hard hitting informative research you did into obama before the 2008 election.
Which would reveal what exactly?
It would reveal that what many have suspected is true: he is trying to use robots to steal people's luggage.
Yep, I knew it was N even before I got to the bottom - since he was blaming the budget problems all on defense. 20% dude. You can kill it all and you are still in a deep hole looking up. I'll happily agree that we could spend less on DoD - but you have to be stone fucking stupid to think that is the biggest part of our budget problem.
Considering that huge swaths of the Republican Party believe that the Fed is the devil
There's another steaming pile of stupid. Ron Paul is the biggest Republican critic of the Fed - and for that (and other reasons) he is on the fringe, if not slightly beyond. Huge swaths? Fucking REALLY?
Jaysus N I really didn't think someone could be more tone deaf and detached from reality than M on a rant, but I have to hand it to you.
...and part of the old boys' network
LMAO - why don't you just go ahead and call him "uppity"?
I swore off arguing on this site, however given your penchant for saying that conservatives only want to win (the argument) and/or can only find fault w/ Obama (or liberals in general), here’s an interesting article from your friend & mine, Jonah Goldberg, complimenting Obama on sending troops to Africa to help against Joseph Kony.
Cowboy Obama:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/280505/obama-wears-white-hat-jonah-goldberg
Well, I think you will agree, dave, that President Obama has been superior in his national security and foreign policy endeavors. The results speak for themselves. Thanks for the link. I've been wondering what Goldberg has been up to lately.
that President Obama has been superior in his national security and foreign policy endeavors
Superior to whom? I'm not sure he has been any better than W, and if that is ALL he is better than - talk about damning with faint praise.
Going after Kony and the LRA is perhaps the single dumbest move the U.S. has ever done. Why the hell can't anyone in Africa do something about him if he is so bad? To argue that we must do something is so Kipling-esque as to defy belief.
I disagree with you on this juris but can understand your perspective in a better way than some of your other views. I do think we need voices like yours that argue against "cowboy diplomacy" as there are indeed many unexpected consequences that can arise from these sorts of actions.
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