Eddie Bauer files for bankruptcy protection
As I said in this post about A&F:
FYI: Eddie Bauer used to be as revered. At one time they were THE outfitters for all the major Himalayan expeditions and the quality was unsurpassed. I still have my circa 1972, goose-down Karakorum -40º mummy bag. The label says “For the rest of your life” and they meant it.
I’d hoped they were starting the transition back to QUALITY expedition gear when one of their emails touted “Return to Everest!”
SEATTLE, WA – On the morning of May 19, two legendary mountaineers on the First Ascent “Return to Everest” expedition reached the highest point on Earth. Ed Viesturs and Peter Whittaker stood on the summit with members of their production crew before descending to High Camp at 26,000 feet. Forced to spend an extra 24 hours in the “death zone” while waiting for high winds and whiteout conditions to improve, the team began their final summit push around 11:00 p.m. on the evening of May 18. Their successful summit comes 46 years and 18 days after Whittaker’s uncle, Jim, became the first American to do so, on May 1, 1963.
The common thread between the two expeditions besides the Whittaker name: Eddie Bauer was the outfitter, then and now. First Ascent marks Eddie Bauer’s return to its heritage as America’s original expedition outfitter.
Why does every beancounter in the world want their store to be the GAP?
…is on the TV YET again ~ for the fifteenth frickin’ time today. Announcing YET another agency to take-over whatever use to pass as free markets, which has ruined the American dream and caused him YET more sleepless nights.
Only 3 1/2 more years. Thank God I remember most of those Lamaze breathing techniques for the pain caused when his mug appears YET again on the tenatively free airwaves.
Incoming!!!
…”It appears to suggest that I was removed because I was disabled — based on one occasion out of hundreds,” he said.
“I would never say President Obama doesn’t have the capacity to continue to serve because of his (statement) that there are 56 states,” Walpin said, adding that the same holds for Vice President Biden and his “many express confusions that have been highlighted by the media.”
Well, actually, not “us” but “him”
Reporting from Washington — The Obama administration this week will propose the most significant new regulation of the financial industry since the Great Depression, including a new watchdog agency to look out for consumers’ interests.
Under the plan, expected to be released Wednesday, the government would have new powers to seize key companies — such as insurance giant American International Group Inc. — whose failure jeopardizes the financial system. Currently, the government’s authority to seize companies is mostly limited to banks.
Look, I think there needs to be clear regulation of a lot of the financial industry, and I think that limits need to be in place so that no one company’s demise could wreck the entire economy. But there’s no way in hell the government should have the power to go around seizing companies.
On Monday, Obama administration officials sketched the outlines of the plan the president is to unveil Wednesday. They said it would seek to reduce gaps in regulatory oversight, rein in the use of mortgage-backed securities and other complex derivatives, reduce incentives for companies to take excessive risk and give the government new power to quickly intervene during any future crises.
The government should regulate the derivatives market in a simple way: amend the rules of incorporation so that the traders who initiate these trades, and the executives who sign off on them, are personally liable for any losses that occur. These huge losses occurred in part because the people who came up with and approved these trades didn’t understand them, and no one had the stones to say :you know, I don’t think we’ve thought this through all the way” and put the kibosh on the trades. If, however, these folks faced the threat of personal financial ruin if these things tanked then maybe they’d take a closer look at the risks involved.
It’s beyond Monopoly money
WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate sources say the latest cost estimates for health care legislation are around $1.6 trillion over 10 years. Two Senate staffers, one Democratic and one Republican, said Congressional Budget Office estimates put the cost of the Finance Committee version of the bill at around $1.6 trillion.
In-freakin-sane.
Gmail dumped your address.
And I have access to new Russell Crowe as Robin Hood snaps…::swoon:: His Max is a Must.
Just sayin’.
Girlfriends should share.
And I mean HO LEE SH*T!!!!!!
Win a Phone Call from the Time Bandit Captains!
Every 100th person who purchases Time Bandit gear from the Time Bandit store will receive a call from one of the Time Bandit Captains! At the end of the contest, one person will be chosen from the winners to receive free, personalized gear! Will you be the keeper? This contest is only going to soak until June 19th! For more contest details and to view the rules, visit “On Deck”
Don’t even bother dialing, kiddies. Those salty dogs are MINE.
Oh.
Hi, honey….
When he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother
When they said that man could fly
They told Marconi
Wireless was a phony
It’s the same old cry
They laughed at me serving you
Said I was a cheap damn Scot buffoon
But oh, you came through
Now they’ll have to change their tune
They all said you never could taste yummy
They laughed at me and how!
But ho, ho, ho!
Who’s got the last laugh now?
(link via my lovely Bride)
…is a great idea.
“Man, how about Iran? Wearing a green shirt, for what it’s worth, but what is it with the Persians and Carters? (Or Carter-like Presidents)“
I don’t think I own a green shirt (unthinkable for an Irish type, eh?), but I’ve got a green scarf. No one’ll know but me, and that’s okay.
UPDATE: Wahoo!! Found one and, strangely enough, the boss is in green, too! I explained to him why he was. {8^P
My friends call me Snow Miser
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) ?
Parts of New Jersey were pummeled by a massive hail storm on Monday afternoon, leaving it looking as if a June blizzard blew through with inches of dime-sized pellets piling up.
Washington Township residents were seen on their driveways breaking out the snow shovels and officials sent out bulldozers to act as snow plows to clear the streets after severe thunderstorms pounded the region. Children were seen forming hailballs.
CBS 2 HD’s Christine Sloan was in Washington Township and spoke to stunned residents. This as the snow and ice piled up around them.
It was a day for snow boots and a jacket as several inches fell in what’s being looked at as one freak storm.
I’m too much…
Microbe Wakes Up After 120,000 Years in Ice
After more than 120,000 years trapped beneath a block of ice in Greenland, a tiny microbe has awoken. The long-lasting bacteria may hold clues to what life forms might exist on other planets.
You know…not EVERYTHING in ice needs to be ‘woken up’. The bitch is in telling which one.
…eating and drinking myself into a well-deserved coma ~ and in spite of the fact that she sounds like a lovely girl who wrote just the sweetest email request ~ SOMEthing in my DNA will NOT allow me to paint something so sweet…
…and so completely VILE.
“…My *** is getting married on July ***…as a…present I was hoping to get…personalized toasting flutes…what I am looking for is a Man wearing…
…a Red Sox T-shirt that says groom above him, and a Woman wearing a Red Sox T-shirt that says bride…”
No, ma’am.
THAT I cannot do.
…that’s undoing all the damage that Chimpy McHitler did to our relationships with key allies.
Key allies like, say, Britain
Senior aides to President Barack Obama accompanied four Uighur prisoners as they were flown from Guantanamo Bay to the British colony of Bermuda, without the UK being informed, it was revealed yesterday.
In an escalating diplomatic row over the transfer of the former terrorist suspects, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the transfer with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in what was said to be an uneasy conversation. Privately Whitehall officials accused America of treating Britain, with whom it is supposed to have a “special relationship”, with barely disguised contempt.
One senior official said: “The Americans were fully aware of the foreign-policy understanding we have with Bermuda and they deliberately chose to ignore it. This is not the kind of behaviour one expects from an ally.”
Feel the love.
Didn’t Wile E. Biden say something about some kind of test
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea’s communist regime has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic bomb-making program in defiance of new U.N. sanctions.
The North’s defiance presents a growing diplomatic headache for President Barack Obama as he prepares for talks Tuesday with his South Korean counterpart on the North’s missile and nuclear programs.
…South Korea’s Unification Ministry issued a statement Sunday demanding the North stop stoking tension, abandon its nuclear weapons and return to dialogue with the South.
On Saturday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry threatened war on any country that dared to stop its ships on the high seas under the new sanctions approved by the U.N. Security Council on Friday as punishment for the North’s latest nuclear test.
It is not clear if the statements are simply rhetorical. Still, they are a huge setback for international attempts to rein in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions following its second nuclear test on May 25. It first tested a nuclear device in 2006.
I’m sure Kim Jong Il is just pulling our leg for a few laughs. That card.
I thought noted tax cheat Geithner was the smartest fellow in the world, the only one who could lead Treasury and follow the divine wisdom of the One and his faithful sidekick Wile E. Biden? Now Biden’s telling us the Most Competent Administration Evuh was just…guessing?
“No one realized how bad the economy was. The projections, in fact, turned out to be worse. But we took the mainstream model as to what we thought — and everyone else thought — the unemployment rate would be.”
“Everyone guessed wrong at the time the estimate was made about what the state of the economy was at the moment this was passed.”
So for $1 trillion we’ve gotten, what, 4 new government jobs and a pack of Juicy Fruit.
Change you can believe in.
Shine.
Why???
I am so dead.
…just got a little tougher
Olympic Airporter, an airport shuttle service that has carried thousands of Shore travelers to Newark and JFK airports for more than 30 years, will close on June 19 because of rising expenses and slowing demand, company officials said Thursday.
Advertisement
Its decision devastated customers, who viewed the service as an inexpensive alternative to a taxi or parking at the airport.
“It’s going to be a tragedy for me, I’ll tell you that much,” said Kathy Brown, 63, of Red Bank, who uses the service four times a year. “The price is right, and it’s convenient.”
Wall-based Olympic Airporter operates 19 trips a day, with stops in Toms River, Wall, Middletown, Keyport and Newark Liberty International Airport. It also shuttles passengers to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
…It started the airport shuttle service in 1987. It purchased the Princeton Airporter in 2006, adding service from Princeton to Newark Liberty and changing its name to the Olympic Airporter. Today, it has 128 full- and part-time employees and a fleet of 90 vehicles.
And next week it has zero. I’d love for the article to delve into the burden that Washington’s and especially Trenton’s regulatory mania has placed on the company.
But I ain’t gonna get that from the APP.
This weekend, just cranking out more of those effective strong letters of disapproval
WASHINGTON (AP) – North Korea may be preparing for its third nuclear test, a show of defiance as the United Nations considers new sanctions on the dictatorship for conducting an underground nuclear explosion in May, according to a U.S. government official.
…”We have come to expect North Korea to act recklessly and dangerously,” NSC spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement. “But while the world unites to pass a strong new Security Council resolution, it is clear that North Korea’s behavior is succeeding only in further isolating itself.”
President Barack Obama’s special envoy on North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said Thursday that the United States is determined to make sure the North faces serious consequences for its growing missile and nuclear threat.
Serious consequences, friends.
Maybe he’ll make Kim go on Letterman.
…requires something that Brown hasn’t got
Britain cannot veto the massive shift in regulatory power to Brussels now under way. Internal market laws are decided by qualified majority voting (QMV), and London has few friends in this fight.
What Gordon Brown can do at next week’s EU summit it to play the Luxembourg card by invoking “vital national interest”, if he is willing to risk a showdown with fellow leaders. This has no legal status. It is the political equivalent of a stamping bull, or a viper’s rattle. It means back off, or we strike.
…Britain has long fudged matters in dealings with the EU, hoping that common sense will prevail, as it often does. But the assault on the City may be a line too far. London has been the centre of global finance for three hundred years. Either the British government controls the City, or the EU apparatus controls it. This cannot be fudged.
A set of stones.
Big deal.
Women’s Advocacy Group Leader Blasts Letterman’s Jokes About Palin, Calls for Apology
The president of a national women’s public policy group on Thursday blasted David Letterman’s “offensive” jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter and called on the CBS late-night host to formally apologize.
“There’s a saying that out of the heart, the mouth speaks, and Letterman’s statement reveals a pretty ugly reflection of who Letterman may be,” Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, told FOXNews.com.
They’re a conservative, biblical values group, for crying out loud. What a surprise they’re offended.
I want one of Hilary’s big shot girlie groups to say something.
Anything.
…of your LIFE?
Oh, you are so wrong, baby. It’s coming.
Administration: Rein in pay in US private sector
Obama administration: Executive pay needs curbs, better management, across US private sector
Enjoy that flush while you can.
Biz | Mr. Bingley | 
June 17, 2009 2:21 pm | 
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