enlarge Before Ron Johnson bought ran for Russ Feingold’s Senate Seat and won, he was CEO of a small plastics company called Pacur. Johnson spent over $9 million running for the Senate, ostensibly out of his own pocket. And like a miracle, $10 million showed up after his election in the form of a deferred compensation payment. Imagine that…just enough money to cover the cost of buying his election running for the Senate and winning. JS Online : Johnson’s plastics company paid him $10 million in deferred compensation shortly before he was sworn in as Wisconsin’s junior senator, according to his latest financial disclosure report. The first-term Republican declined to say how his Oshkosh firm, Pacur, came up with a figure that so closely mirrored the amount he personally put into his campaign fund. “You take a look in terms of what would be a reasonable compensation package, OK?” Johnson said this week. “It’s a private business. I’ve complied with all the disclosure laws, and I don’t have to explain it any further to someone like you.” Attitude notwithstanding, he certainly should have to explain it to “someone like me,” especially when this magical deferred compensation package was not an agreed-upon annual set-aside as most corporate deferred compensation packages are. In fact, the person who set the amount of the payment was one guy – Ron Johnson. In an interview this week, Johnson emphasized that he has not taken a salary from the plastics manufacturing company since he bought it in 1997. Records show the Oshkosh businessman still had income of $1.3 million and $2.3 million annually from 2005 to ’08 from capital gains, corporate earnings and real estate. In the first half of 2010, he received $650,000 in what he called “pass-through income” from a limited liability company that owned Pacur. After the election, in which he defeated Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, Johnson said he dialed down his active involvement with Pacur and received the deferred compensation package for serving as its CEO over the previous 13 years. Unlike most deferred package deals, however, it appears that the company had not set aside a specified amount annually that would be paid out when he left the firm. Instead, Johnson said the $10 million payment was “an agreed-upon amount” that was determined at the end of his tenure with the company. Agreed upon with whom? “That would be me,” he said. About that claim that he hasn’t taken a salary? Well, yes, and no. What he did is what a lot of small business owners do to defer taxes. He converted the corporation to a “pass-thru entity”, then loaned himself $650,000 per year. Because payments to him were characterized as loans, he paid no federal or state income tax on them. But clearly, he was paid a handsome salary..er…loaned a handsome salary. The interesting part comes when you look at his financial disclosures . He disclosed his ownership interest in Pacur, LLC as being worth $1-$5 million. Yet his ultimate deferred compensation payment was $10 million — just enough to cover his campaign costs. Of course, any other candidate (including Russ Feingold), would not be allowed to finance their campaign with corporate funds. Yet it appears that Ron Johnson has done just that, while availing himself of the lowered Wisconsin tax rate on wealthy citizens and corporations to maximize his tax savings. To be clear, while it appears to get around the rules about corporate campaign financing, it doesn’t mean anything illegal has occurred. At least, not overtly. The IRS could, if they wanted, challenge the $10 million payment as unreasonable compensation. They could decide that the loans to Johnson were really a way to dodge taxes rather than given as legitimate corporate loans to an officer. They could, but it’s unlikely. But it raises a larger issue. Any discussion and/or vote on tax reform in the Senate that Johnson participates in opens a huge conflict of interest. How can he possibly represent all of the citizens of Wisconsin when he clearly benefitted from corporate loopholes to finance his run for the Senate and to dodge income taxes on Pacur income for all of those years? It’s hardly likely that this Senator who just managed to avoid paying taxes on $650,000 per year in income would vote to close loopholes on the wealthy or tighten corporate rules with regard to executive compensation, after all. Oligarchy, much? [h/t TalkingPointsMemo and Solidarity Wisconsin ]
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A woman has reportedly died from the shock of coming to life at her own funeral. Fagilyu Mukhametzyanov, 49, was wrongly declared dead by doctors, but she actually died after hearing people pray for her soul in Kazan, Russia, according to the Daily Mail. She was taken back to a hospital where she was declared dead, this time for good. “Her eyes fluttered and we immediately rushed her back to the hospital but she only lived for another 12 minutes,” her husband, Fagili Mukhametzyanov, said, according to the Daily News. Mukhametzyanov said he plans to sue the hospital, which says it is conducting an investigation of the incident. Her final cause of death was heart failure, according to reports. Her “first death” was also heart-related, a suspected heart attack. This isn’t the first time a funeral has taken an unexpected twist. In recent years, a man showed up alive for his own funeral in Brazil and a premature baby declared dead woke up before his own funeral before dying shortly after in Paraguay.
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Hot Topics: Is Charlie Sheen Broke? Twitter Bans 3rd Party Ad Platforms Injecting In-stream ads (Social Blade) Q&A: My Thoughts On Sponsored Tweets YessirBc says: @CeeDLS paid tweets thruu sponsors -.- yhuup cakin' like a bakery & YEEER GRADUATING?? I forgot :p big girl now lmfao!
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Type: DVD Title: The Andy Griffith Show – The Complete First Season See all customer reviews Description: THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW – THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON, a spin-off from “The Danny Thomas Show,” is a comedy about a North Carolina widower named Andy Taylor who divides his time between raising his son, Opie (Ron Howard) and being sheriff of the small and virtually crime-free town of Mayberry. With next to no crimes to solve, Andy spends time philosophizing and trying to calm down his cousin, Deputy Barney, played by Don Knotts. Actors: Andy Griffith Ron Howard Don Knotts Elinor Donahue Frances Bavier See the details
Continue reading …With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War upon us, experts on African-American history are hoping that a group of under-appreciated spies will finally get proper recognition for years of dangerous service, reports the AP . Some of the most useful intelligence-gatherers during the Civil War were black men and women…
Continue reading …9 Out Of 10 Americans Don’t Expect Raises To Compensate For Rising Price Of Goods, Survey Says
June 25, 2011 No Comment
As the economic gloom settles in, American workers seem to be coming around to the conclusion that they may be facing a permanent midnight. A new survey from American Pulse, released in June, shows that 9 out of 10 American workers are not expecting salary increases next year to compensate for the rising cost of basic necessities like fuel and food. Faced with increasingly expensive purchases and stagnant salaries, 70 percent said they planned on changing their habits by buying only necessities going forward, according to the survey. Only 6.6 percent said they planned on changing nothing in their budgets. This is bad news, not just for the American worker, but for the economy as a whole: consumer spending accounts for roughly seventy percent of G.D.P.. If Americans are only spending on necessities, they won’t be driving economic growth. In the first three months of the year, consumer spending expanded at a rate of just 2.2 percent — much slower growth than anticipated. American Pulse’s results join a host of other recent findings that together paint a grim portrait of Americans’ expectations. Nearly half of America thinks the U.S. is nearing a second Great Depression, according to a CNN opinion research poll, while a new Gallup poll showed economic confidence plummeting in June. A third poll indicated that workers are more dissatisfied than they were before the recession — facing low prospects of advancement, nearly one in three of those surveyed said they they were seriously considering leaving their jobs. And with an unemployment rate above 9 percent, those sentiments could be here to stay, especially with corporate profits now 22 percent above their pre-recession level, according to a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute. As economist Brad Delong notes in the Mother Jones’ story “All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup”, corporate profits and rising wages for employees used to be more closely linked. Not long ago, “businesses would hold on to workers in downturns even when there wasn’t enough for them to do,” Delong says. “That era is over”
Continue reading …Terrence Hargrove Dead: Saints DE Anthony Hargrove’s Brother Killed In Florida
June 25, 2011 No Comment
Terrence Hargrove, the older brother of New Orleans Saints defensive end Anthony Hargrove, died of stab wounds early Thursday morning in North Port, Fla. According to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, police found the 29-year-old wounded in his home at about 3:30 a.m. and he died after being taken to the emergency room. Police said they were interviewing a “person of interest,” but no arrests have been made. “It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Anthony Hargrove’s brother Terrence,” the Saints organization said in a statement released on Thursday night. “Our thoughts and prayers will be with him over the coming days.” The Hargrove brothers lived together while Anthony played for the Buffalo Bills.
Continue reading …In her new book, Bristol Palin writes that she has no recollection of losing her virginity because Levi Johnston got her drunk on wine coolers. “Levi wasn’t even there to help me process—or even confirm—my greatly feared suspicions,” she writes of waking up alone in their tent the…
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PETER FRAMPTON ★ VAUDEVILLE NANNA AND THE BANJOLELE ♫ 2010 Peter frampton in Concert Show Me The Way part 2 Peter Frampton, Wolf Trap 6/23/11 NYCAutoShow says: see details http://dlvr.it/Xnn3h
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Day two of music at Glastonbury festival continues with headline performances from Coldplay, Chemical Brothers and Big Boi 12.05am: Our chief pop critic Alexis Petridis is here raving about Tinie Tempah, Chemical Brothers and Fool’s Gold. He’s about to head off with Rosie Swash to record another daily Music Weekly podcast. Which seems as good a time as any to sign off from the live blog for tonight. I’ll be sticking around to post full reviews of Janelle Monae and Coldplay but, those pieces aside, this blog will be quieting down for a while … 11.48pm: “Call me crazy,” says Joseph Kern in the comments . Ok, you’re bloody crazy Joseph, a flippin’ maniac. Oh, hang on, there’s more … “but I think Coldplay are putting together a really great set tonight; they’re thoroughly embarrassing U2.” That seems to be the word coming back here too from those in attendance (I think the band have just this minute finished actually). To be honest, you can tell from the reaction of the crowd that they’re killing it out there – you don’t have to be a diehard fan to accept that Chris Martin et al know how to pull off a triumphant Glastonbury show. 11.39pm: It’s the battle of the five star reviews as Rosie Swash and Dorian Lynskey battle it out over who can dribble the most saliva in the space of 300 words. Here’s Swash on Pulp . And here’s Lynskey on Elbow 11.34pm: Our good man Kingsley also met Don the ice cream man, who has the unenviable task of trying to flog choc ices to a bunch of ravers off their noggin in the dance arena. He thinks it’s a “bit loud” … hmm. Meet Don, who mans the ice cream van here at the dance village. Don’s a gardener from London, but he hits Glasto most years to help out his friend, who owns the van, and can’t manage the 24-hour shifts all on his own. Don couldn’t really hear my questions, but we established he thinks the music here is a “bit loud”, and that he prefers selling ice cream at the Other Stage, for the simple reason that people there tend to buy more ice cream. Don has had an uneventful night so far, though during the day he was startled to find a lady wearing nothing but a piece of string outside his van window. 11.29pm: Ignoring all those people turning up to play music for a moment, here’s Patrick Kingsley getting down to some virtual graffiti … Punters not contented with the music over here at the dance village can still stay urban by creating their own virtual graffiti on this wizard computer screen. (pictured) As you can see, someone, god knows who, has created a truly beautiful bit of Guardian-themed imagery. The silhouette in front of the artwork is actually that of Banksy. 11.25pm: A live blog isn’t a live blog without an hour out while we deal with “technical difficulties”. But now we’re back! Many apologies if you’ve been frantically following. Here’s a badly-shot video of people dancing at Pulp by way of an apology … 10.24pm: I have no idea what it’s like to be out watching Coldplay right now but the muffled noises coming into this press cabin suggests they’re going down a storm … 10.20pm: I think it might be time for some more reader reviews, don’t you? . I’m not too fussed about missing Coldplay but I’m officially well jels to miss Janelle Monae over on West Holts. Henry Barnes is there and here’s his first dispatch … Janelle so good I’m not convinced she isn’t miming. So far she’s been a robot, beaten up a monk and pretended to be on fire. Currently tearing through I Want You Back by the Jackson Five. The girl that Hey Ya! built done very good. 9.58pm: Talking of Elbow, here’s a quick snippet for the live blog from multimedia supremo Matt Hall who, while still massively positive, is not quite surfing along on Mr Lynskey’s higher plane. Here’s what he had to say … Onto the Pyramid stage walk Elbow, holding pints aloft in greeting, looking like they’ve just nipped out from their front room for a fag to find 70,000 of their mates had popped in while they were out. Guy Garvey celebrates his ordinary-ness, strolling around the stage in trousers with mud caked up to mid-thigh. Elbow are a band that work when they connect with their audience. Whether it’s beginning every song with a “let’s see those hands”, checking that the front few rows were OK for water, or getting the audience to sing Happy Birthday (in honour of the 20th anniversary of the band’s formation) as they gathered about the piano for a stripped down Weather To Fly. Although weighted between old and new, it was the tracks from their breakthrough album The Seldom Seen Kid that got the crowd swaying. And of course they left One Day Like This until the very end, capping off a triumphant set that saw Elbow set firmly in the big time. 9.46pm: Pulp? Who needs Pulp? Dorian Lynskey is just back from Elbow and has declared them the official winners of Glastonbury 2011. Everyone else, he says, might as well pack up and go home. Yes, you heard Beyonce, shift up out of here and take your Crazy In Love with you. I won’t spoil the review but expect some wild-eyed praise coming your way in a moment. 9.31pm: And you’re back in the room with me, Tim Jonze. I seem to have unluckily, or some might say luckily seeing as Coldplay are headlining the Pyramid stage for what seems like the 17th time, landed the Saturday night slot on this here live blog. I’ve just been up at the Park stage to witness the HUGE crowd at Tame Impala, a crowd size more normally associated with returning Britpop legends than stoner psych-rock from Australia. Which is lucky seeing as some band called Pulp popped up to play after them. I arrived an entire hour and a half before the band were due on but still couldn’t get a viewing spot without decamping right up towards the Stone Circle (see picture below). Rosie Swash is threatening us with a full review at some point but I’ll share my thoughts for now which include … *Jarvis has earned the right to take the piss out of the Killers (“Was anyone expecting the Killers? That was the other rumour. Somebody told me …”) *Mr Cocker also namechecked this story which I broke on yesterday’s live blog. Oh, ok, Paul Lewis broke it by actually researching, writing and publishing it. But, you know, it would have been nothing without me adding it to the live blog. *The entire Stone Circle area was packed with people singing along to every word. The overall crowd demographic were “of a certain age”. *They really should have been playing the Pyramid Stage – the Park just isn’t cut out for such big name acts *Watching with my wife, it all got a bit emotional during Something Changed *Here’s a picture of the crowd behind me … 9.16pm: Tim Jonze is here – brain-piece in hand – ready to share the Pulp news. I’m off to watch Big Boi and dance to this until my feet plead mercy. Bye-tonbury! 8.56pm: Still no word from our brave men and women surfing that huge nostalgia wave at the Pulp gig. Perhaps they are calling their mothers, saying “Mother. I can never come home again. I appear to have left an important part of my brain somewhere in a field” … Said important part would be any information on Pulp’s first appearance at Glastonbury for 13 years. Set-list, crowd reaction, depth of cord on Jarvis’s suit jacket. If you can help with any of this, Tweet us a review using the #gmreview hashtag. Desperation-tonbury … 8.50pm: Back in the Comments field @Mark42 is stamping his boots and having a little holler at The Guardianistas over their pretentious setlist: Tini Tempah and Paolo Nutini (not cool enough for the guardianistas) were superb. Duly noted @Mark42. Now – check out our new wiggy wonder. It’s Warpaint performing Undertow on the John Peel stage earlier today (courtesy of the BBC). Cool enough for us. Some insta-reaction of Pulp’s set from folk on Twitter: • The Guardian’s @alexispetridis is going to have a little cry due to a “combination of Something Changed, sudden flood of nostalgia and thundering hangover”. • The Guardian’s @NickyD is enjoying Cocker’s chat: “Jarvis doing perfect do you remember the first Glastonbury patter with crowd at ‘secret’ Pulp gig”. • Consumer electronic company product managing’s @grumpymandj is “Giving Pulp a miss and heading for Elbow”. • Fundraising’s @georginagem is breathlessly “watching pulp sat on a hill in glastonbury with a plastic cup of perry in the glorious sunshine”. And as the gig draws to a close … • @notjarviscocker is saying: “Can you sum up a career in 12 songs? We tried, hope you enjoyed it.” Which just leaves us to ask “Could they?” and “Did you?”. Tweet us using the #gmreviews hashtag and let us know: @guardianmusic 8.17pm: Rosie Swash has sent in this: And says: “Yes. It is.” She adds: “There is a woman here translating Pulp’s entire set into sign language. Es and Whizz was a challenge.” I’m sure F.E.E.L.I.N.G. C.A.L.L.E.D L.O.V.E was a cinch. 8.04pm: Pulp’s special guest slot has started, so the Guardian cabin ‘o’ porta’s Roaming Journo Hotline is about to ring off the wall. For now let’s have a quick scan around the line-up to see who’s playing what elsewhere … • Noah and the Whale are playing delicate, nice-but-slightly-wet indie to impatient and dismissive Battles fans on the John Peel Stage. • Friendly Fires are being skinny and funky and perfect for a BBC ident on the Pyramid stage. • Ms Dynamite’s mate, Zinc, is starting on Oxylers in West. • And across the way Wretch 32 getting ready to drive his Traktor into pole position in the race for most aptly-named festival tune. • Meanwhile, the Comments field is slowly starting to fill. “Oh bollocks. It is Pulp. Dislike”, says thestowmassive . “I’ll stick around to see if the whole of the festival gets sucked down into the sticky quicksand mud like a hedonistic Atlantis”, says the chippy jaredneedsalife . And inspired by festival bard Tony Walsh domframkos has sent in some poetry: everybody over to the advert stage mobys on oh yes then its groove armada with the theme from M&S then its a bloke i don’t really know with the song from a mobile ad then its suggs with the iceland song then mobys on again Hmmm. I’d say it needs some work-tonbury. 8.01pm: The Park stage’s special guest is Pulp. We’ll have reaction from our massed journos there (they’re of a certain age) soon. For now Adam Gabbatt emails: “Big crowd at the Park”. Hot stuff. 7.46pm: By the way, Toby – if you’re reading – feel free to vent in the comments below. 7.29pm: The sun’s out and there are good vibes spilling all over the place like a fifth pint of Somerset cider. With that in mind, let’s get the wanton cruelty out of the way early. We met this group of revellers on our walk around the site earlier: They seemed like a nice bunch, but what does that bit of paper gaffer-taped to their torsos say? Is it a charity plea maybe? Publicity for an up-and-coming band? Nope. It’s a jibe at a friend who couldn’t be here. And they encourage you to gloat along with them by texting poor old Toby and telling him how much fun you’re having. Most cruel. Unfortunately our production system has blurred the Toby’s phone number, but I have it here. It’s 077 …. //// …. {failed upload. Did not recognise symbol}. Ah. Oh well. As ever we’ll let technology stand in for our conscience. 6.52pm: Hello. I’m Henry Barnes , ready to pull on the muddy boots of live-blogging that Rosie Swash left lying around here . I’ll be wearing them until around 9pm. We’ve learned a lot today already. There’s been lessons in mud tectonics from Professor Brian Cox … Tony Walsh, the festival’s resident poet, has discovered that you can make a contraction out of any word + “tonbury” … and we’ve learnt that John Harris’s impression of Bob Dylan is “fine”, bordering on “really quite good”. Tonight our curriculum will cover live reviews of Pyramid Stage headliners Coldplay, second fiddlers Elbow and Outkast’s own Big Boi. We’ll also give you the first word on today’s Park stage surprise guest, which is Pulp. Or Prince. Or somebody else. As ever you can send us your mini-reviews of any show you’re at by Tweeting us at @guardianmusic (using the hashtag #gmreview) post your videos to us at your.videos@guardian.co.uk , share your photos on our Flikr group AND say what you’re thinking in the comment field below – the driest field around these parts for miles. We all have such a lot to learn. It should be very exciting. Or should I say: It should be very excit-tonbury. Let’s get down to it … 6.52pm: Hello. I’m Henry Barnes , ready to pull on the muddy boots of live-blogging that Rosie Swash left lying around here . I’ll be wearing them until around 9pm. We’ve learned a lot today already. There’s been lessons in mud tectonics from Professor Brian Cox … Tony Walsh, the festival’s resident poet, has discovered that you can make a contraction out of any word + “tonbury” … and we’ve learnt that John Harris’s impression of Bob Dylan is “fine”, bordering on “really quite good”. Tonight our curriculum will cover live reviews of Pyramid Stage headliners Coldplay, second fiddlers Elbow and Outkast’s own Big Boi. We’ll also give you the first word on today’s Park stage surprise guest, which is Pulp. Or Prince. Or somebody else. As ever you can send us your mini-reviews of any show you’re at by Tweeting us at @guardianmusic (using the hashtag #gmreview) post your videos to us at your.videos@guardian.co.uk , share your photos on our Flikr group AND say what you’re thinking in the comment field below – the driest field around these parts for miles. We all have such a lot to learn. It should be very exciting. Or should I say: It should be very excit-tonbury. Let’s get down to it … Glastonbury 2011 Glastonbury festival Pop and rock Indie Festivals Henry Barnes Tim Jonze guardian.co.uk
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