August 2009

Ted Kennedy – An Extraordinary Leader Leaves Us

Tears filled my eyes this morning when I learned Ted Kennedy died. He died late Tuesday, 8/25/09.

I recently bought a book about him – “Last Lion – The Rise and Fall of Ted Kennedy”, but have been so busy with my schedule, I didn’t even open page one yet. Of course I will start this book tonight. I bought it so I can learn more about the man I already highly respected, the one I wanted to learn from. I wish I had gotten the honor to shake his hand.

I would surmise he gained the utmost respect from almost every person he interacted with instantly. Regular folks and other Congress people and leaders across the world. You could see that witnessed in the success of all he championed – the tough battles he fought on The Hill – for many incredible causes. 46 years this man lead the Senate in a way no other could; establishing and holding the foundation of the Democratic Party in America.

A man perhaps not meant to hold the Presidency – because, like his brothers,  it most likely would have led to an untimely death earlier  - but more a man to make just the same amount of positive  impact on Americans – especially Massachusetts – and others worldwide.

A man who endured such personal tragedies in his life – the loss of so many in his family at young ages, his own personal battle with alcohol, his recent fight against brain cancer – yet he never stopped working. He wanted to achieve and make a difference as much as he could in his lifetime. He used more than just the 46 years in Congress to do that too. His dedication to public service was before he was elected to the Senate, and it didn’t stop until yesterday.

Mr. Ted Kennedy, You are a man of such great stature, intelligence, strength, courage, dignity and steadfastness, your incredible persona – the way you captured everyone’s attention when you spoke when you were in the public eye – not just within Capitol Hill – will never be forgotten, never be replaced, and your legacy will live on forever.

I am sure today is a tough day for many, including Obama, Biden, Byrd & Kerry, so my thoughts are with them and with others that worked with and knew personally, this extraordinary fellow.

My thoughts are also with his wife and family, and for the folks in Massachussetts.

77 years old was still too young for a man who had the will, determination, passion, compasion and ease of bibartisan comradership and respect of all to do even more on Capitol Hill, and then get the later years of his life to just enjoy relaxing at his compound on the water in Hyannis Port, Massachussetts.

I have lowered my American flag in honor of you Ted Kennedy.

God Bless America – without a man like Ted Kennedy.

Dec 1988 Pan Am Libya Bomber Free From Jail

There are no words for this horrendous decision.

I can not even remotely understand how someone from any country – with any intelligence, with any care for those that died over Lockerbie on Dec 21 1988 – deciding this man should be freed.

Poor Megrahi. Boo hoo – he has terminal cancer and he only has a few months to live. So he should be given the opportunity to die out of jail?

Why?

He killed 270 people a few days before Christmas -many of them very young – and now all of a sudden that is okay? We should have compassion for him? Why? He showed none when he bombed the plane.

Why?  Oh, cause he has cancer and won’t live long?

Who cares! There are many who have cancer that won’t live long that are more deserving of compassion – and those people didn’t mass kill people.

This is disgusting. Dispicable!

If ya ask me – I think someone from Libya should go bomb Scotland – make sure that bomb hits Justice Secretary MacAskill.   THAT would be justice served till the end.

I think the US, the Brit’s, the Canadians, should instantly support UN Sanctions on Scotland – sounds like they support terrorists.

I used to look favorably upon Scotland. I use to want to go there. Now they will never receive my tourist money. I will not set foot in that place.

Welcome a new topic

I understand this health care reform is of great importance, and it’s a very delicate subject for both sides, but come on – enough is enough.

This seems to be the only focus of the White House these days. This is definitely the only topic being written about or mentioned on www.whitehouse.gov.  Everytime I open it up – this is the only thing being mentioned on here.  Again and again, day after day, week after week. This is Obama’s 3rd weekly address on it.

Yawn.

He has stated his message across America in numerous states via town halls, numerous Association conferences in D.C., and already a few times in his Weekly Address. All times, very clearly addressing all myths and stating what he believes will be good for the American people with a detailed agenda – all in print – transparent for Americans to see.

How much more can we keep on talking about it? It’s getting ridiculous! At nausium!

The more the President talks about it, the more ’stuff’ comes up with the public and the opponents of it. And the more he talks about it, the more the media and the opponents will just keep spinning the truth, fabricating myths.

I will also comment that it is pathetic – no, simply ridiculous – how outraged Americans are getting about this, too. Sounds like they are really just angry about a whole bunch of issues and are putting all their anger in their health care argument.

Mr. President, you have made your agenda clear. You have presented this well, addressed the American people about this in the beginning, kept us informed in detail/writing on whitehouse.gov,  given the American people a chance to voice their opinion on it more than once, argued against the myths, etc., etc.

So, what more do you need to say?

I would just move on. The more you focus on it, the more the outraged Americans and opponents will also. Like attracts like.

The Americans that are accepting of this have forgotten about it and are spending time reading about other things – and are very tired of hearing about this constantly. Why not poll to find out how many of us Americans there are. There are more than you think.

We are savvy and are curious as to what else is going on in the world from your point of view. The rest of the world hasn’t stopped just because America is seeking healthcare reform. There are plenty of other topics to talk about. Not every American is so obsessed about this.

So please Mr. President, make this August 15th, your last weekly address on this topic. Perhaps make a statement mid-week on the South Lawn that you are no longer going to spend time trying to convince or reason with the American people.

You are our President, and more respect needs to be shown for your intelligence and your plan. And that just really hasn’t been given here. There will always be aspects Americans don’t like about some of the changes you have planned, but you need to have a boundary of how long you are going to discuss it. Nothing will be perfect. You have given fair and opportune time to this subject.

You have set your agenda and intentions and now it’s up to you and Congress to hash it out.

And btw: You don’t need to fill Congress’s entire recess time with endless talks about it. You can talk 24/7 on this – and you are still not going to convince the opponents or the outraged Americans to ever see it your way. You just aren’t. So stop trying. It’s a waste of energy and time.

I am requesting you get back to speaking to us/addressing the American people on other pertinent topics.

It’s time – really time Mr. President – to move on to more important matters. 9/11 is coming up. I’d say lets spend some time on this topic or a zillion other worldwide problems that we are dealing with today.

It would be great to open whitehouse.gov and see nothing more about health care or health care reform. Just a message to let me know when it’s passed through Congress and got your approval.

I’d welcome a new topic….

Need ideas? I have them.

Abbey

2 Seriously Overlooked Aspects in The Recovery Act

I think this is an excellent program. I commend Vice President Biden on how he has made such great strides with this already within the first 200 days, even with his many overseas trips.

However, there are 2 aspects that perhaps somehow got overlooked when government officials strategized, set standards and began implementing plans of how we would help American businesses within this essential Act.

I am speaking within the broad range of keeping business doors open to doing more than just breaking even, to expanding to their full potential to really impact economic trade or help stimulate the consumer economy.

I started my business in the Spring of ‘07 with it going more full force after a relocation in the Winter ‘07 to Arlington, VA and the holidays.  So by January ’08, my name and business, BLC, were really making headway, just as we were coming into the worst of the economy.

My original business plan incorporated working with private wealth only. However, that was modified a bit to withstand this economic cycle over the next few years, so many of my projects have also been sourced out to loan funds as a second option. I am personally not a big fan of loans, so I am always most critical and skeptical of them.  But, I am also grateful they are there as options for my clients.

What I extremely surprised about is that I am seeing the same type of loans being passed around today, Summer 09, as I was back in early Spring 08. I thought the loan terms would be significantly different a few months after the Recovery Act was implemented. But they are not.

This is the 1^st seriously overlooked problem of the Recovery Act.

I got an amusing email today from one of my clients that I have had since 08. It was basically his statement of being just as tired of these loan situations as I am.

I think in his frustration, and him also politely telling me, ‘this one also won’t work’, he created an example for me using a smaller dollar amount than what his business is requesting (keeping himself anonymous) – but still point out the silliness of the loan.

He knew I already knew this, I think he really wanted me to step up to the plate and send his email back to the loan source and say:  “wake up fellas this is absolutely ridiculous! If you had a small – medium sized business, would you do this?”

But since I won’t do that, because it would just be a waist of my time (they won’t change anything), I am posting it here for your amusement – pretty much verbatim:

“There are a few things in the deal that bother me and make it almost impossible to take a loan of any significant amount.

1. They want a $2,000 Escrow deposit plus another 10% deposit placed into an escrow account to start. So, if, for example, we wanted a $500,000 loan, this would mean that we put $52,000 into escrow before we start the process. We can not do that.

2. They want 4 points for the broker and 1 point for closing. That is 5% of the total amount; again on a $500,000 loan that is $25,000. Seems expensive, but I would do it anyway if the other terms were acceptable.

3. They want the loan backed primarily by the person rather than the company; a situation I would not want to get into. You never know what will happen in the business world in today’s environment, as we see “mighty companies” going bankrupt, and I would never personally guarantee a loan of $500,000 or more and have to worry about my personal assets in the event of company failure for whatever reason. I am sure you would feel the same. As you know, we have offered to take on a loan against the earnings and equity of the company.

I think the big thing here is the amount of deposit they require before any loan funds are received. I don’t know of any small business who can tie up $50,000 or more while processing for a loan that could take at least 30 days, and probably more time than that.”

(end of his email)

Just to let you know, without revealing exacts, my client’s investment request is over $1M, but under $5M. If you go back up and redo those numbers picking any million dollar amount in the range I gave you, you will grasp how ridiculous and impossible this situation is for a small to medium sized business owner, and does not really help him get his millions.

This is one of just many types of loan examples. This is actually nothing compared to what I have seen – I would go far as to saying, this is the ‘kinder’ one, believe it or not – that is supposed to ‘help’ businesses.

The 2^nd problem the Recovery Act has failed to address is what I call this industry’s “ironic norm”.

When I started my business, my mentor told me the first week, it would be “harder to find smaller amounts of money than larger sums.” I asked him to repeat what he said, thinking he switched it around by mistake. Nope, he said it the same way again. I laughed. He said, “you’ll see”.

We talk a lot, but a year later, I called him back and told him he was right. He chuckled with the biggest grin (I could tell).

I can find $100M quicker than I can find $3M. Go figure.

No, it’s not on a secret tree. It’s just investors want to invest larger sums. The wealth they usually have is that range. Also, from the investor’s view: ‘if it’s only $3M, why hasn’t anyone pony’d it up yet –what’s wrong with the project?” There is nothing wrong with the project; this is how the wealthy think.

So I go back to my clients trying to hold back the laughter saying: “hey, any way you really need $20M instead of $3M? I can get you $20M in 2 weeks. What are your projections for the next 15-20 years, not the next 5-10 years?”  I am not trying to fabricate anything, just trying to help him now get ALL the money he possibly needs now.  (We never change the investment request in the end – we just keep looking).

Truly a surreal conversation to have throughout my days, but I have them.  Shame it doesn’t work this way in the consumer, every day world, huh?

Now, you would think in today’s economy, this “ironic norm” would go back to the more logical phrasing of every day, non-business life  – “it’s easier to get smaller amounts of money, than larger sums.” But it hasn’t.

But that, too, is the problem as it is the same way for loan sources.

About 80% of the loan sources circulating out there have a set minimum of $10M USD. That basically leaves the small business owner left with 20% of the loan sources that exist. Weed out the frauds and scams, you are down to 10%. As you saw by the example I provided earlier above,  many of those choices aren’t even viable.

Again, this is the 2^nd problem with aspects in the Recovery Act in terms of how they help businesses.

There are exceptional and viable businesses all over our nation that don’t need $10M to do what they need to do, whether to help them from closing their doors, or even to stay afloat, or to even expand to engage in bigger business to help our economy. They simply need $1M – $5M.

And it’s those businesses that line more of your streets and sit on more of the big lawns in our towns than the bigger businesses – which as we have seen over the past year collapse, lay off and/or file bankruptcy.

These small and medium size businesses are what’s holding America together, yet no one has their back to help them – without them having to bleed in the process.

They hold to all their responsibilities, paying taxes timely, participating in their communities, many have donated in the past, they are not laying off, some are actually trying to expand which will create jobs, increase economic growth, etc. Yet they can’t get what they need to do that or to just stay afloat.

This is most frustrating to them – as they see Obama pouring millions into saving traditional powerhouses – with slimy executives that significantly contributed to their own industry’s collapse, let alone and more importantly, the economic collapse we are all experiencing – when they have been dutiful citizens and good business owners, and are asking for significantly, significantly smaller millions.

To me, it’s more illogical than frustrating – but yes, frustrating! It’s made me want to knock on the White House door almost every day since I moved back to the DC area (I have never had a desire to do this before, if that gives you any idea where I am at with this). Perhaps I really should have before I left Arlington, VA. Believe me, I thought of it more than once!

What is our Recovery Act for?

This is ridiculous.

This is not smart.

Part of The Recovery Act is focused on helping businesses – both small to large enterprises.  But it really isn’t helping businesses at all – or the right ones, shall I say.

So I ask you Vice President Biden: Why aren’t you throwing out outrageous millions to the small and medium sized business owner through the Recovery Act?

If you offered up just $300M, my colleagues and I could fund about 10 projects combined right now.  The 2 projects I would allocate for this have to do with National Security & our US Military, then I would ask my colleagues to pick their highest ‘urgents’.

That’s 10 companies you are saving or allowing to expand. Not one big conglomerate that should have shut down anyway with all the corruptness going on at the higher levels.

As Obama and Biden state often, they never will know if their programs are working until the American people and the world start to feel and see the difference.

So, I am letting you know, with great respect Mr. Vice President, from an individual whose business is directly in this, and hearing it from my almost all my clients and colleagues – your Recovery Act is not really working in this realm.  It needs re-adjusting – and fast.

American businesses need your help to correct this situation. By not doing so, you are the one hindering more growth, contributing to more job losses, etc. That is not accusatory. It’s just fact from someone that has been involved in this for 2 years.  This needs your attention more than the existing road that is paved needs it’s potholes resurfaced, or the new railway system to be built.

I am not saying that to be a smart alec – I am saying that because I can hand you about 200 projects right now, that my colleagues and I have had since the beginning of ‘08 that have not gotten what they needed because the private wealth has not fully resurfaced yet, and more so, because the loans existing today are ridiculous and do not work with the current economic situation.

My clients and my colleagues’ clients need loans just to take out the loans that are being offered to ‘help’ them in the first place! Do you see something wrong with that statement?

The Recovery Act – as it relates to small and medium sized businesses -needs to be handled differently then the way it’s being handled at this time and it needs to generously favor the businesses – not the banks or the lending institutions. We are still fattening the pockets of the wrong people.

The stringency needs to be switched to the loaning institutions and banks, not on the small or medium sized business owner.  The loan terms need to be more reasonable.

The ideal ? This is how I think it should be:

Business loans should be akin to car loans. It’s simple and it works and it’s quick.

Congress should be writing specific legislation around The Recovery Act that focuses on businesses and loans; and the finance industry overall.

Back to the process of a car loan…A small business owner should be able to contact any lender, fill out a page long form (not 15 pages), get approved, pay an interest rate monthly based on his credit and income and collateral, and that is it. NO upfront fees. Not $5K, not $700K, nothing, not even one dime. The lending institution’s hold on the person can either be charging double the interest rate if they don’t make monthly payments, or just taking the collateral. To me, that is what a basic loan should be.

But, since I said ‘ideal’, and I know that will never happen in my lifetime, because sometimes the government just doesn’t really understand business, I will propose the following changes for business loans and be quite happy/satisfied if at least these changes are made:

They need to stop setting $10M minimums and take anything that is $1M+ to help the small or medium sized business owner.

They need to lower their %’s for deposits in escrow accounts.

They need to stop all – I mean all – upfront fees. Some fees are $10K and higher! There is no need for that fee.

The rest of their terms and %’s need to be flexible to each business owner applying – nothing standard – because each business owner is in a different position, etc. etc.

Until this happens, you will have more layoffs, more businesses closing, less expansion, less imports/exports and less global growth.

The Recovery Act was created to help the American people, and I know it is working in some realms. However, I think it is very weak in how it is standing behind it’s small American business owner and I think this needs to become a priority for Biden and his team working within this Act to reevaluate.

The small and medium sized American business owner has been the backbone of America since the 20th century, but they won’t last much longer in the 21st century without The Recovery Act being the backbone behind them. The Recovery Act needs to be the catalyst to enact legislation in Congress for the financial industry to work easier and more fairly with these businesses.

They aren’t asking for monetary handouts. They are proud, not greedy and worked hard to build the exceptional companies they have. They are simply asking for a fair shake with the lending institutions and banks.

If you follow my 4 suggestions, make these changes, watch how positive it will affect American morale, the global economy will boost, jobs will be kept and more created, and the financial struggles of many American families will end as a result.

After all, wasn’t that what The Recovery Act’s principles were based around?

Bill Clinton vs. Hillary Clinton – who should lead on North Korea?

It’s not really a battle per se.

They both have the same clear goals and want what is best for the USA and for the rest of the world in terms of security, and in terms of preventing a nuclear catastrophe.

So my question is:

Should we change the laws/role of this position – US Secretary of State?

We made them – so I am presuming we can change them.

Here is why I state this.

Except for Bill Clinton’s first term (Christopher), the past 2 Secretary of States and the current Secretary of State are females – Albright, Rice, and now Clinton.

North Korea doesn’t respect females. So, you are already starting off with a serious obstacle with N. Korea when you have a female dictating terms to them and attempting to establish good relations.

Indeed, N. Korea’s leader has made it clear he doesn’t respect our current Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton – as he has already ridiculed her publically basically stating she holds no respect in their eyes, no authority.

It’s certainly not that Hillary is weak or unqualified to handle N. Korea – that would be Rice. Hillary is one tough lady; this is just their take on her.

So, unfortunately, Hillary Clinton is not going to be the best one to send in for negotiations or to get anything truly accomplished.

What this basically means is the US Secretary of State holds no authority or power when it comes to the subject of nuclear and N. Korea.

I can’t speak for everyone in the world, but to me, as an American, that is unsettling.

With that said, our former President, Bill Clinton does hold the current leader’s respect. And not just the respect of the head of the country, the respect of the regime’s chief negotiator of nuclear discussions.

This is not my opinion. This is fact. When Hillary’s 2nd attempt was made to release the reporters with her request for amnesty, N. Korea responded with: we will give pardon, but only if Bill comes.

That speaks volumes.

This was all conveniently confirmed just this past week, as we witnessed Bill Clinton’s prowess and authority to come before one of the toughest, unforgiving, non-negotiable country leaders, and walk out with the 2 reporters he came for.

US Secreatary of State, Hillary Clinton tried twice. Nothing changed.

If she can’t even get 2 girls released, how is she going to get N. Korea to wipe out their enitre ill- intended nuclear program?

Again, this is not about her ability. It’s more, they didn’t even say “get on a plane Hillary and we will negotiate something.”  Nope – they sent for her husband. This is how they think – men rule.

Even when he was President, Bill Clinton had better relations with N. Korea than either of the Bush’s. He has just been better with N. Korea overall.

Perhaps that is because in his first term, he had a male Secretary of State and the beginning relations with N. Korea were established stronger, and then N. Korea just maintained them out of courtesy to President Clinton even though he had a female as Secretary of State  in his last term.

Future presidents should take note of this. It’s not about gender inequality in America; it’s not that a female can’t do this job. It’s about a country that has nuclear warheads pointed in many directions worldwide. That needs to be more a deciding factor when picking US Cabinet Members in the future.

So what I am proposing about changing the laws/role of the US Secretary of State is the following:

With respect to our Nations safety and actually, the world’s safety, for former President Bill Clinton to have all Secretary of State ruling authorities & power  - including his inked signature on any Agreements to be just as valid as if Hillary were signing herself – when it comes to North Korea and anything related to the topic of nuclear. Hillary can hold her own for other discussions. But for nuclear, we just can’t risk it.

It would be one thing if N. Korea had basically been quiet on this subject. But we have seen over the past months, this is just the opposite.

My idea isn’t really too far fetched. After all, he’s married to the US Secretary of State, and he was our US President for 8 years. Who better than Bill to share the role of Secretary of State?

I don’t think any Americans, or anyone else in the world, would really have a problem with this, if the alternative was a nuclear missle headed to our towns.

Let’s think about this: there was a reason they had Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gwan, the regime’s chief nuclear negotiator involved in Clinton’s very short trip.

So let’s be smart and let’s take advantage of all ‘this’ – Bill Clinton’s highly respected and good repoire with the current N.Korea leader- before ruling is taken over by his son. Let’s not delay this anymore!

When Congress returns from recess, have them draw up an immediate addendum to the rules and role of the Secretary of State to expand to:

“any and all former high level government officials,  if it regards a topic that is extremely serious and potentially catastrophic to the safety of America or the world”.

Have both the House and Senate do a quick vote on it to set it in place, have Obama’s signature on it, and put it ‘effective immediately’.

This document can be modified or reworded as a work in progress as the week goes on, but the idea is to allow Bill Clinton to immediately step into the talks, plans and possible rework of how we approach N. Korea for nuclear discussions.

I create urgency here for a reason. The key to this is the current relationship and repoire Bill Clinton has with Kim Jong, II.

Although not showing any signs of this, Jong could die soon. We know that as he preps his son for his takeover. It also might not be the same with the V.F.M. Kim Gwan if Jong dies. So we need to act on this now.

These nuclear negotiations will take a long time to make any headway; this obviously won’t be as easy for Bill as it was for the release of Gore’s reporters. You need to also factor in that things take time for signatures to actually get on formal agreements. More crucially, the time it takes for N. Korea to actually start honoring what they agree to & making some significant headway to see measurable results, with the US and other world leaders stepping in for oversight over the years.

All this is most likely at least a year or two out, as we basically have 4 months left in 09.  If this is successful, I predict  2012 is when some kind of harmony (far reaching word, I know ) will occur between N. Korea and the rest of the world in terms of nuclear and safety.

Who knows if N. Korea will ever be viewed as a friendly country or will ever be the way America ideally wants it to be in terms of safety and other topics, but we will never know unless we give our former President, Bill Clinton that absolute full authority and power of the position his wife holds, to give it his best shot.

I believe no one will be better at doing this, not even Obama and his team alone. Bill will be crucial for results, and results that will be lasting past Jong’s death.  Bill will be the one.

So, you see – the sooner we enact this new expansion of the role of the US Secretary of State – the better.

If this all strikes you as a ‘no way is this possible’ – please think in terms of this:

Just as much as The Supreme Court considers The Constitutional Rules in determining their decisions, they also understand these were written by our founding father’s hundreds of years ago and all cases also need to be considered in light of today’s world – just as equally.

So, I believe our highest US Cabinet roles also need to be flexible to adjust to the grave realities of today’s current situations (threats especially) and respond to them appropriately the same way the Supreme Court rules today.

As Obama is rebuilding the foundation of America, perhaps we should rebuild the infrastructure of the US Cabinet Member’s roles – redefining or expanding on them over the 21^st Century for the good of our great nation and our important role in the world.

Now, if my idea is not accepted, then there is one more option:

Just ask Jong II & Gwan who they want to talk to over the years to discuss this issue – Hillary Clinton or Bill Clinton.

Still an Active Presidential Figure

Not much needs to be said on this one – except a humungous KUDOS for our former Presidential Team – Clinton/Gore!

Bold, necessary and outstanding!

No better than to send Clinton vs Kerry (the only 2 actually invited to N. Korea) to cinch the deal to get these 2 ladies home to the USA!

But ouch – Clinton upstaged his wife on this one (not that she or anyone else even cares)!

Perhaps Bill Clinton should really be more involved in our nuclear discussions with North Korea while their leader is still alive. Things might be a lot different when his son steps in. I am not so sure Obama and his team will be as effective without him.

Commendable job, Bill!