Hillary Comes Clean About Emails: Rings False to Me

Well she is finally addressing about the own server email controversy.

Hillary Clinton broke her silence Tuesday on the scandal surrounding her use of a private, nongovernmental email address while she served as secretary of state, saying that it was "a matter of convenience," that she "thought it would be easier to carry just one device" and that it was allowed under the rules of the State Department.

Yeah she could have carried one device and just had two email accounts on it. Or carried a work Blackberry and a personal Blackberry like just about every other government official would have to do. That work device would contain Top Secret info on it and should not be touching anything at the home. I guess the rules don't apply to her. She might have breached national security as a "matter of convenience."

"Looking back, it would have been better if I had simply used a second email account and carried a second phone," Clinton said in a brief press conference at the United Nations after delivering a speech on women’s rights. "I thought using one device would be simpler, and obviously it hasn't worked out that way."

Yeah it was a simple matter to open a security breach for the sake of convenience.

Officials there said that Clinton provided some 55,000 pages of documents — a fraction of what exists and a statistic that reveals little about what she shared, what she withheld and why. Clinton said she withheld personal emails that she later deleted.

"I chose not to keep my private, personal emails — emails about things like planning Chelsea's wedding, my mother's funeral arrangements, condolence notes to friends as well as yoga routines, family vacations," Clinton said. "No one wants their personal emails made public, and I think most people understand that."

Who knows what she actually deleted. Only Hillary knows if the email about yoga routines and the one about the Saudi donors doing pay for play at using the Clintons fundraising account was kept or deleted. Technically the kick-backs aren't State Department business and thus falls in the rubric of personal emails that she "didn't have to make public." This part is especially funny:

Clinton said she is confident that "there were no security breaches" and that she did not send classified material from her personal email account.

If she had any security background (or just common sense) she would not mixed State Department emails with her yoga routines in the first place. Let's let Mandiant or Palo Alto Networks sit down at that email server and make damn sure it was protected or not. My problem is not about her hiding the emails my problem is that they isn't a copy somewhere on a Red Chinese server right now.

Too Much Funny Money Sloshing Around: Rare Coin might Fetch $10 Million

I think there is just too much FED helicopter money flying around and this is the kind of thing that makes me thing that.

A rare five-dollar gold piece and a prized silver dollar each could fetch $10 million or more in upcoming auctions, making the American rare coin market as attractive, though not nearly as glamorous, as fine art.

Sales of rare U.S. coins reached a record of nearly $536 million last year, and now collectors are turning to the D. Brent Pogue Collection, which could boost it higher.

Yeah people are paying millions extra for rare art and cars. That certainly means that there is a bubble forming somewhere. Hopefully I will be 100% cash when the thing finally bursts.

Rubio's Tax Plan: I Like It!

Finally someone is stepping up to the plate with some tax reform.

The current seven individual tax rates would be consolidated into two brackets of 15 percent and 35 percent – a slight reduction from the current top rate of 39.6 percent. Meanwhile, the top corporate tax rate would fall from 35 percent to just 25 percent.  

That sounds excellent so far. He is also adding this sweetening to the pot.

There was far less enthusiasm for the centerpiece of the Rubio-Lee plan – a $2500-per-child tax credit to help ease financial burdens for middle-class Americans. This is the group Rubio and other presidential wannabes hope to woo.

I think that is a good idea but maybe split the different with a $1500 child tax credit and a $1000 bump to the earned income tax credit for people making under some threshold like $50K a year. That way parents get a boost with some more money while every other American also gets a cool grand and a big boost to their take home pay from a move to a 15% tax bracket. This would unleash quite a bit of spending in America I assure you. I would not care about this part.

When scored with traditional methods used by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Rubio-Lee plan would result in revenue losses of $414 billion a year after a 10-year transition period, William McBride, chief economist for the Tax Foundation, wrote this week.

This is if you did not do any dynamic scoring and just believed that these tax cuts would not cause any growth to the economy which is asinine. I think car buying would shoot up as everyone will get a nice down payment at tax time and can afford the terms because their take-home pay will rise. I think it would be a great way of rewarding a middle class that has been beaten in the face by the Obama-economy this last 6 years.

White House Scrambles to Explain Why the Didn't Know Hillary had a Private Email Account: She had her own email account for 4 years!

This has to be the worst CYA in a very long time.

That timeline got murkier on Friday as the White House struggled to respond to mounting questions over Hillary Clinton's private email use. The heat was turned up after Politico reported that top White House officials knew back in August that Clinton was conducting official business on personal email. 

Wait they only knew of this development in August of last year? She was sending email from that private account for 4 years!

White House spokesman Josh Earnest, when asked about what the White House knew, said senior officials were emailing Clinton while she was secretary of state and a few noticed she wasn't using a .gov email address. However, he did not say when they noticed it and whether red flags were raised. 

She was there for 4 years! They didn't notice that her probably 1000s of MBs of emails did not have .gov at the end when all of theirs do? Also I need to ask who else at the White House has their own private email services? How many of those servers have Red Chinese lurking on them?

He also said he had no idea when President Obama first found out and claimed he wouldn't be surprised if Obama only learned about it from "newspapers."

Again the most powerful man in the world has to learn things from "newspapers" rather than staffers or his billion dollar security apparatus. Hell, Obama could have found out that Hillary was running her own private email by looking at any piece of email he got from her at any time in the 4 years she was in Secretary of State. The White House must really think the American People are morons.

Wait Hillary Used her Own Home Email Server to Conduct Government Business? How do we Know that Server Wasn't Hacked?

I think the talk about transparency misses the point.

The computer server that transmitted and received Hillary Rodham Clinton's emails — on a private account she used exclusively for official business when she was secretary of state — traced back to an Internet service registered to her family's home in Chappaqua, New York, according to Internet records reviewed by The Associated Press.

 This part is especially rich.

Operating her own server would have afforded Clinton additional legal opportunities to block government or private subpoenas in criminal, administrative or civil cases because her lawyers could object in court before being forced to turn over any emails. And since the Secret Service was guarding Clinton's home, an email server there would have been well protected from theft or a physical hacking.

 Wait this is the same Secret Service that did this.

The Secret Service's ability to keep the first family safe is under scrutiny after a report Monday revealed that a knife-wielding White House intruder managed to run through the main floor of the presidential mansion earlier this month before he was stopped. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson is scheduled to address the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee Tuesday as some lawmakers are calling for her resignation. The White House intrusion is only the latest Secret Service security breach during the Obama administration. Since President Barack Obama took office in 2009, his security detail has been hounded by allegations of misconduct and improper procedures, including a breach involving party crashers at a state dinner in 2009, bullets hitting the White House in 2011, drinking and prostitution scandals, and 16 instances of people climbing the White House fence.

If they couldn't let all this from happening how do you think they are able to harden a server on a private residence that was being used for State Department business? That server probably had spy agencies competing for bandwidth on that thing. The Red Chinese Malware could have been crashing North Korea's Malware because they all can't download vital state secrets fast enough. People won't talk about this part of the scandal but I think it is far worse than her just hiding her emails from FOIA requests.

Blackstone Things Europe Will Never Grow: Never?

I guess Blackstone has forsaken Europe more or less.

At a luncheon hosted by the Wall Street Journal, Blackstone CEO Steven Schwarzman said that his firm is working under the assumption that Europe will never grow.

“Our baked-in assumption is that Europe never grows," Bloomberg quoted Schwarzman as saying, “you have to improve it..."

And by "improve" Schwarzman means making meaningful structural reform, which will require political action and consensus.

I think that action might eventually come but it might have to come via riots and social change by unemployed people. It has happened to Europe in the past but people were far more destitute then so it is hard to tell.

A Supposition: Maybe Obama Wants Iran to Get the Bomb

I was thinking why Obama would be so anti-Israel and is willing to give Iran nearly anything they want on a nuclear deal. Maybe the White House and the 56 Congressmen that ducked out of Bibi's speech want a nuclear armed Iran as a counterbalance to Israel.

Everyone knows that Israel has a number of nuclear warheads that has created a virtual detente in the region. I mean there is regional fighting between proxy armies like Hamas and Hezbollah but no out-and-out fighting like in the 70s. Israeli nuclear deterrent keeps the other nations from attacking them and gives them a freer hand in the region. This might give them too much power in the eyes of the White House and the "anti-Israel 56."

But what if the Dems and Obama want this calculus to change? Maybe they want a counterweight against Israel to come in the form of Iran. The Saudis will probably go nuclear as well so that Iran would not threaten them as well. So we would have three nations that could conceivably annihilate one another. Maybe this detente is what the White House is looking for. A new Cold War in the Middle East.

Up to three nuclear powered enemies squaring off might force Israel to come to concessions on Palestine that the Dems find more palatable. That means destruction of Jewish settlements and other things Obama hates that is "standing in the way of peace." Maybe the Dems can get right of return and Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine thrown in as well.  A peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians that is bought at the barrel of Iranian nukes.

The White House and the anti-Israel 56 are banking on the idea that if Iran gets the bomb they will not use. The Iranians will only threaten to use it. Much like how the Soviets bluffed in the Bay of Pigs but climbed down when there were warships off Cuba. I guess 8 million Israeli lives are the stakes these people are playing with.

Obama Poo-Poos Netanyahu Speech: Says Nothing New in It: I Guess Israel Stands Alone

Obama is such an amateur on the world stage.

President Barack Obama says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn't offer any "viable alternatives" to the nuclear negotiations with Iran during his speech to Congress.

Obama says he read a transcript of Netanyahu's speech Tuesday. He says "there was nothing new" in the speech.

I guess Obama skimmed it because a viable alternative is continue the sanctions until Iran gives up the pursuit of the bomb. Between a bad deal and no deal you take no deal. A 10 year waiting period on a nuclear Iran is no kind of deal if Obama is serious about Israeli Security.

If Iran keeps going after the bomb you have to destroy their research facilities. I mean Israel will do it if the White House blinks. Then Obama will probably condemn it in the strongest possible terms and punish Israel for protecting itself. You would bet the Dems would want to put sanctions in place on Israel if they start bombing nuclear sites.

#Netanyahu for President 2016: This is How a You Give a Speech to Congress

It is rare to see an actual leader with conviction speak to Congress after 7 years of Obama but Netanyahu knocked it out of the park.

Facing me right up there in the gallery, overlooking all of us in this (inaudible) chamber is the image of Moses. Moses led our people from slavery to the gates of the Promised Land.

NETANYAHU: And before the people of Israel entered the land of Israel, Moses gave us a message that has steeled our resolve for thousands of years. I leave you with his message today, (SPEAKING IN HEBREW), 

“Be strong and resolute, neither fear nor dread them.”

My friends, may Israel and America always stand together, strong and resolute. May we neither fear nor dread the challenges ahead. May we face the future with confidence, strength and hope.
May God bless the state of Israel and may God bless the United States of America.

I can understand why Obama dodged the speech and 56 spineless Democrats joined him. Including Hawaii's 2 cowardly Senators. They don't want to hear the strait truth from a real leader. Netanyahu is fighting hard because Iran with nukes can destroy Israel on a whim. It will be Holocaust Redux this time with 8 million victims. The 10 year path to the Iranian bomb, that Obama wants to pad his thin accomplishments with, will leave the world much more dangerous with everyone in the region with nuclear arsenals.

If I was playing Iran in the Great Game I would take this nuclear deal yesterday because it comes from a desperate White House that hates the leadership in Tel Aviv. They will probably not get a better deal from Hillary or Scott Walker or whomever. The idea of no sanctions for 10 years so you can build up a literal war chest and then a year to ramp up to the bomb in 2025 and you are a nuclear power. I would take that deal so quick it would knock Kerry off of his wind surfboard. Oh and now the Dems seem to be supporters of a nuclear armed Iran that is clear.

Here is Why Income Inequality Doesn't Resonate So Much with Most Americans

I think the Dems need another issue because as LBJ would say "this dog just won't hunt."

PSID data show that by age 60:

- 70% of the population will have experienced at least one year within the top 20th percentile of income;
- 53% of the population will have experienced at least one year within the top 10th percentile of income; and
- 11.1% of the population will have found themselves in the much-maligned 1% of earners for at least one year of their lives.

That means the majority of Americans have spent at least a little time in the top 20th percentile of income with more than half in the top 10th percentile. You couple this with the fact that almost all Americans actively strive to get into that top 20 percent. That is why this income inequality issue falls by the wayside. People don't care about minimum wage when most Americans do not want to make that amount again if they can help it. So when the Dems attack something that many Americans work hard for then their economic message is drowned out.

Obama to Iran: Wait 10 Years Before You Build a Bomb

Obama must be the worst negotiator of all time.

Iran must commit to a verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear activity for a landmark atomic deal to be reached, but the odds are still against sealing a final agreement, U.S. President Barack Obama told Reuters on Monday.
Interviewed at the White House, Obama moved to dial back tensions over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned speech to Congress on Tuesday opposing the Iran deal, saying it was a distraction that would not be "permanently destructive" to U.S. Israeli ties.

He's right about it not being "permanently destructive" because Obama will not be in office in 2 years. I'm sure Hillary Clinton or Scott Walker or whomever will actually treat Israel like an ally and not a pariah like Obama has. However, if Iran just waits out the clock they can go right back to building a nuke in 10 years time. Obama is so desperate for a legacy that he will take almost any deal Iran comes up with and the "10 years to the bomb plan" is not something anyone wants.

New Battle of the Sexes? Ronda Rousey called out by Former Dallas Cowboy I have Never Heard of Named Jesse Holley

After she has been demolishing most of the women in MMA maybe Rousey should fight this guy.

A former NFL player says he's found the ONE person who could beat Ronda Rousey in an MMA fight -- himself -- saying if the two got in the octagon, Rousey wouldn't stand a chance!!!
The man talking the smack is Jesse Holley -- who played WR for the Dallas Cowboys after winning a tryout with the team on Michael Irvin's 2009 reality show "4th and Long."

Holley -- who's 6'3", 215 pounds -- was on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas this morning ... when the gang began questioning if ANYONE will ever defeat the greatest female fighter in UFC history.

He would have to drop weight to get down to 135 which is what Rousey weighs. I don't think that would be possible but stranger things have happened. It would be interesting to find out if a female MMA fighter can beat an athletic amateur male who has 8 weeks to train. I know Rousey would demolish the vast majority of shlubby guys out there but I would watch her against someone like this Holley character.

Obama "Middle Class Tax Cuts" Amount to $12?

Yeah some "fighting for the middle class." You cannot even pay for an entire McDonalds meal for a family of four with this pitiful cut.

But these proposals are mostly small in scope, with limited near-term effects on middle-class economic fortunes. The White House had a telling spat last month with the Tax Policy Center, a center-left joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution that produces estimates of the distributional impacts of tax proposals. Len Burman, the center’s co-director, who was a Treasury official in the Clinton administration, ran the numbers and found the president’s plan produced an average tax cut of just $12 for families in the middle quintile — a surprising result for a plan aimed at the middle class, and one that produced inconvenient headlines.

What the White House needs to do is dangle tax incentives for companies that follow Wal-Mart's lead in jacking up entry level pay to $9. Or even better tripling the earned income tax credit so every American making below a certain amount can get more than $12 back from so-called "tax cuts." That will get people spending again. Put a couple $1000 in someones pocket and they can pay down debt or put a down payment on a car or something similar.

Second Weird Light seen on Ceres

One is a coincidence but two is a trend.

Could dwarf planet Ceres be watching us watching it? As NASA's Dawn spacecraft approaches the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it seems to be lighting up. Not long after images of Ceres revealed a strange reflective spot, another dimmer one came into view in the latest NASA images, giving the appearance of a spooky pair of eyes peering back at Dawn.

So what's going on here? Metallic mineral deposits? The local ice skating rink on an improbably shiny frozen lake in the bottom of a huge crater? A giant Ceresian mirror or solar farm?

If we lose contact from the Dawn spacecraft after it was zapped with an Ion cannon then we have a much bigger problem.

It's Official ISIS is now Officially Genocidal Maniacs that Engage in War Crimes

As if there were any doubt.

Several human rights groups released on Friday what they consider to be the first legal analysis for war crimes proceedings against IS.

The report, titled “Between the Millstones,” says the jihadists are guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and even genocide for their persecution of Christians, Kaka’i, Shabak, Turkmen and Yazidi.

I wonder if the UN will just condemn their crimes in the strongest possible terms or are they really going to something about ISIS.

We Shall Live Long and Prosper Leonard Nimoy

This is one great final Tweet.

A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.  LLAP
— Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) February 23, 2015

GOP Pragmatism: Homeland Security Department funded for Now

At least they aren't going to shut down parts of the government again.

Congress closed in Friday on approving a short-term spending bill for the Homeland Security Department that would avert a partial agency shutdown hours before it was to begin.

The legislation also leaves intact Obama administration executive actions on immigration that Republicans have vowed to overturn. But Republicans insisted that passing a short-term bill preserved their ability to keep fighting them.

An early vote in the House clearing the way for final passage of the bill was approved easily, 240-183.

The GOP blinks for once. Hopefully, they will get some actual reform done and we can solve immigration problem more or less.

Sign that there is Too Much Money Sloshing Around: Art Sales Hit New Record

Even though much of this spending is by new museums opening up that money is coming from somewhere.

Works worth $15.2 billion (13.5 billion euros) sold at auction during the year, an increase of 26 percent on 2013, Artprice said in its annual report, produced with China's Artron.

A record number of 1,679 sales worth $1 million or more were recorded over the year, four times more than a decade ago, it added.

Thierry Ehrmann, founder and CEO of Artprice, described the figures as "an amazing result, an increase of 300 percent in a decade".

That decade was one of low interest rates and much money printing. Oh and this generic looking thing sold for $84 million.

Net Neutrality Passes: Verizon and Comcast Can't Rip Us Off: At Least for Now

Well this is quite a blow to two of the worst companies in America by reputation.

New rules from the Federal Communications Commission adopted on a 3-2 vote will prohibit Internet service providers like Comcast (CMCSA) and Verizon Communications (VZ) from discriminating against any web site or online service. That means sites like Netflix (NFLX) or Google’s (GOOGL) YouTube won’t have to pay extra fees or face sluggish connections with their users. And new sites and services will be able to reach everyone on the Internet on the same terms as the big players.

So I don't have to pay a "Gamer Rate" because the majority of my packets are coming from the Xbox One or other nonsense. This defense is just hilarious as well:

Cable and telecom companies say congestion is due to the Internet companies sending more data. Higher fees are needed to cover the cost of building more capacity, they say.

Comcast made nearly $7 billion in profit last year and bought back $2 billion in shares in Q4 and are increasing their share buyback to $10 billion. I think they have more than enough money to "clear the congestion" and "build more capacity." Maybe cut that share buyback down to $5 billion and take the other $5 billion and improve service? In any case I think it will be a stopgap until Comcast can get their financial wizards online to figure some other way to nickle and dime us.

Weird Light on Dwarf Planet Ceres: Its Alien Mining Colony or something!

Now this is one weird thing.

A dwarf planet is shining two bright lights at a NASA spacecraft right now, and our smartest scientists are unsure what they are. 

As bizarre as that sentence sounds, that's the situation with Ceres — the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, officially designated as a dwarf planet (the same category as Pluto). 

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is approaching Ceres ahead of a March 6 rendezvous. The picture above was taken February 19, from a distance of just under 29,000 miles, and shows two very shiny areas on the same basin on Ceres' surface. 

My money is on an alien surface base shining a light on a craft that is flying close to their mining operation. Now more UFOs will be seen on earth to see what we humans are up to.

Ball Rolling Downhill: TJ Maxx Follows Wal-Mart 's Lead by Hiking Pay

It seems that Wal-mart is the trend-setter. Hopefully other retailers will follow suit.

The owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and Home Goods stores said Wednesday that it will boost pay for its U.S. workers to at least $9 per hour.

The announcement by TJX Cos. comes a week after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it would increase wages for its employees and is a sign that more competitors may follow suit. Low-paying retailers are having a harder time retaining workers as the job market improves.

I think this may have a knock-on effect to the rest of the economy. You give workers another $2 an hour and they will spend another $2 on goods and services. I would love to see an economist calculate the economic impact of a majority of companies hiking their minimum pay all at once. Also it would be interesting the see the cost savings of reducing employee churn. Lets see what other companies do with this trend.

401K Supreme Court Case Could save us some Money

I hope the SCOTUS finds in favor of the 401K participants.

In the initial class-action lawsuit, Tibble v. Edison, participants in the 401(k) plan sponsored by California-based utility Edison International argued that they were being charged excessive fees. 

Under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, companies that sponsor 401(k) plans have a "fiduciary responsibility" to act in the best interest of their employees. The lawsuit claimed that Edison breached this duty in the case of six of its fund options, where almost identical offerings charging lower fees were available. 

Sounds like this is a no-brainer.The company offering the 401K should put lower fee options in when the offerings are the same. That means institutional shares over retail ones every time.

It Seems ISIS Wants to Destroy Rome, Break Crosses, and Enslave our Women

I guess Obama not calling them Islamic Extremists does them a disservice.

The Islamic State is different from al Qaeda and almost all other jihadist movements, according to Mr. Wood, “in believing that it is written into God’s script as a central character.” Its spokesman has vowed: “We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women.” They believe we are in the End of Days. They speak of how “the armies of Rome will mass to meet the armies of Islam in northern Syria.” The battle will be Rome’s Waterloo. After that, a countdown to the apocalypse. 

I think the armies of Rome needs to smash the crap out of these guys but people like Obama don't understand the threat these guys pose. I think we might need boots on the ground going forward because they hold territory that needs to be recaptured.

The Greek Euro Exit aka Grexit has been Postponed for 4 Months at Least

The can has been kicked.

The euro gained against the U.S. dollar on Friday after euro zone ministers agreed to extend Greece's financial rescue package by four months.

The agreement removed the immediate threat that Greece could run out of money next month and be forced out of the single currency area. The new leftist-led Athens government now can try to negotiate longer-term debt relief with official creditors.

"It certainly looks like we're moving away from disaster," said Sebastien Galy, senior foreign exchange analyst at Societe Generale in New York. "It should help a stress that has been building up in the market to be released."

Maybe a gradual exit from the Euro with promises to stay from the other laggards like Portugal will go a long way to solving this crisis. People will take a haircut but the Germans no longer have to prop up the bad debts from Greece going forward. 

Climate Change Big Wig Might be a Sexual Harasser: Did he Show Her his Growing Carbon Footprint?

Is isn't just global warming making things hot in there.

Indian police are investigating claims that the one of world's top climate change officials, Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sexually harassed a 29-year-old woman, police and lawyers said on Friday.

The woman, who is a researcher at Pachauri's Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), claims the 74-year-old Indian scientist began harassing her soon after she joined the non-profit think-tank in September 2013.

Oregon Governor Out under Cloud of Suspicion

I guess corruption and cronyism finally got to him.

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned Friday, giving in to mounting pressure to abandon his office amid suspicions that his fiancee used her relationship with him to land contracts for her green-energy consulting business.
In a lengthy statement, the state's longest-serving chief executive insisted he broke no laws. He said the resignation would be effective Wednesday.

He won pretty handily so this is really quite a fall from grace.

Obama Calls out Staples for Skirting Obamacare Rules

I guess this is the power of the jawbone or shame them into compliance.

"It's one thing when you've got a mom-and-pop store who can't afford to provide paid sick leave or health insurance or minimum wage to workers … but when I hear large corporations that make billions of dollars in profits trying to blame our interest in providing health insurance as an excuse for cutting back workers’ wages, shame on them,” Obama said in an interview with BuzzFeed.

Staples also payed $355 million in taxes last year as well. I guess that isn't their fair share. This is the same tired line from Obama that companies shouldn't be maximizing profits. These companies need to make profits in order to stay in business and keep employing the 46,000 people that Staples currently employs.

They are cutting back hours so that they don't have to pay fines. Sounds like a perfectly sound business decision. That is what happens when you use the stick instead of the carrot to get companies to comply. Lets say for the sake of argument each company got $500 per 40 hour a week employee (or some arbitrary number) in tax deductions or credits to offset higher health insurance costs you would bet that no hours will be slashed.

End of an Era: Jon Stewart Out at Daily Show

Well now the derby for his replacement begins.

The AV Club is reporting that Stewart told the audience at today's taping that he's stepping down from the Comedy Central news show he's hosted since 1999. No word yet on when he'll be leaving, or who might replace him. (Perhaps Stewart himself will deliver the news on tonight's broadcast.)

I think they need a woman to replace him to change things up. My vote is for Amy Poehler or Olivia Munn. I would tune in to watch them day to day. They wouldn't be as biting as Stewart but they would be interesting change of pace. It would also be interesting to have a number of different guest hosts for several months. Have a rotating anchor to get a taste for different people on the show.