DISQUS

I'm feeling you on this comment, Black Sis. There is a time for everything. There are times to experiment, but I think that this uber historical event was not the time. I guess Michelle disagrees. If the dress were more flattering....It makes her look wide and flat chested. It looks like a bride's maid's nightmare. I'm sure she's been very busy moving from place to place. Obviously the dress selection was not really a priority.

It looks like it's made out of toilet paper. I have been such a defender of her fashion choices, but this dress sucks and is also unflattering. I was really expecting simple elegance tonight. Oh well. Her makeup is really fresh.

Jeb Bush Joins the Tenet Gravy Train
Brett Arends
05/09/07 - 10:25 AM EDT
A senior member of the Bush dynasty is about to get a large sum of money from a company with a history of ethical violations.

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Jeb Bush, the president's brother and former governor of Florida, is up for election Thursday as a director of troubled hospital chain Tenet Healthcare (THC Quote - Cramer on THC - Stock Picks). Assuming he's waved through, his pay in his first year would come to nearly $37,000 a day.

This is the same Tenet that had to pay $900 million to Uncle Sam last summer to settle charges that it had overbilled Medicare and Medicaid over many years.

Nine hundred million dollars.

The U.S. attorneys announcing the settlement accused the company of "fraud" and trying to "manipulate and cheat the system."

Mike Leavitt, the Health and Human Services Secretary appointed by Jeb's brother George, said the company had "fraudulently abused the Medicare program."

It's also the same Tenet that just paid $80 million to the IRS after an audit found it owed back taxes going back as far as 1995.

The company recently had to restate nearly five years of earnings statements after an investigation into its books.

And this is just the big stuff. Tenet's recent public filings read like a police blotter. One of its clinics in South Carolina performed 436 open heart operations without certification. The company is being sued in California by staff claiming they were systematically short-changed on pay and overtime, in breach of the state's labor code. Three former Tenet staff members, at a New Orleans hospital it owned, are under investigation for allegedly euthanizing four patients following Hurricane Katrina.

All in all, it's hardly a surprise Tenet Healthcare stock has lost 85% of its value over the past five years.

The company hadn't returned phone calls seeking a comment by press time; neither had the former governor's representatives.

Tenet isn't partisan. Among its current directors is Bob Kerrey, the former Democratic senator from Nebraska.

This will be Jeb Bush's first job since leaving the governor's office in Tallahassee four months ago.

Of course, it's not quite the election he was hoping for. Once upon a time, the dynasty was grooming him to run for president. But his older brother got there first and has probably poisoned that well forever.

Chris Matthews and Wolf Blitzer won't be on hand for the vote at Thursday's stockholders meeting. Do not expect to see many "Jeb '08" badges around the Westin Hotel in Dallas. Somehow, the atmosphere won't quite match the excitement of waiting for the returns from Ohio.

But Jeb, look on the bright side.

You've been complaining about your finances. Your last filings as governor showed your net worth was down to just $1.4 million. Obviously, that figure won't count any of the vast Bush family fortune. But still, it's embarrassing. Who wants to ask mom and pop for extra cash every Fourth of July? At your age, you should be buying your own yacht.

Sure, the Tenet job may look pretty tacky for someone of your standing, but the pay isn't bad.

It's lucky the media aren't paying too much attention. Anyone reading the public filings would have discovered that in your first year, you'll earn $474,500 -- for 13 days' work.

That's $36,500 a day. And the "work" consists of sitting in a board room, so it's not exactly heavy lifting.

If the board meetings last an average of four hours, you'll be pulling in $9,125 an hour.

Not bad for a guy who could manage only a B.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas. Many of Tenet's 65,000 personnel are qualified medical staff with years of experience. Yet according to public filings, their average salary and benefits last year came to around $69,000 for full-time work.

You get that in two days.

Who says all the good jobs are going to China?

I'm sure your family lawyer has already explained the details, Jeb, but just to recap the terms: As a nonemployee director you'll get an immediate golden handshake of $260,000 in "restricted stock units." Nothing says "welcome aboard" quite like a quarter-million. Plus you'll get another $130,000 in restricted stock units each year. That's on top of your retainer of $65,000 a year.

And all that is before you turn up for a single board meeting. For each one you attend, you get another $1,500. There's another $1,200 every time you show up at a committee meeting.

A word of advice: Avoid the audit and compliance committees. There's too much work and there's always the risk something will go wrong. For an easy life, join the compensation committee. It meets only seven times a year and you don't have to do anything. Just hire some consultants to review executive pay, and agree to whatever they suggest. The executives will be grateful, and that can pay real dividends down the road. See it as using shareholder money to stock up the favor bank.

What a deal!

I'm right with you, CPL. Either they leaked it or threatened to leak it to the press. There was a story on HuffPo yesterday/WashPo....

"An upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project.

John Berry/The Post-Standard
Robert J. Congel donated $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation as Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed bills to help his mall project.
Mrs. Clinton helped enact legislation allowing the developer, Robert J. Congel, to use tax-exempt bonds to help finance the construction of the Destiny USA entertainment and shopping complex, an expansion of the Carousel Center in Syracuse.

Mrs. Clinton also helped secure a provision in a highway bill that set aside $5 million for Destiny USA roadway construction.

The bill with the tax-free bonds provision became law in October 2004, weeks before the donation, and the highway bill with the set-aside became law in August 2005, about nine months after the donation. "

The only thing is, they don't care and they aren't going anywhere. They were like Rod Blogojevich before he was like himself. And it's obvious that their deals are so deep that if they didn't get back in national power, Chelsea might have had an unfortunate accident.

I smell 2 rats and their names are Bill & Hillary.

It's sad to lose Bill Richardson from the national service arena. He would have made a GREAT SOS, and he really seemed deflated after he was offered the cracker jack consolation prize. If I were an international entity, there's no way I would talk to Hillary. For what? I really can't see her brokering peace in the middle E. after she publically stated she would "obliterate" Iran. What kind of confidence should anyone have after that?

I don't know why I'm so upset about the war in Israel, but I am. I can barely talk about it.

Happy New Year, JJP. Have safe holiday and a blessed & prosperous year.

I hate it, as well as him loading up on both Clinton & Bush former staffers. It stinks. I also think Bill is going to exploit the hell out of this, if given the opportunity. There is a huge conflict of interest since he is a lobbyist for foreign nations. We're going to have to innundate his website with our opinions, though I probably need to wait until I'm in a better mood so I won't sound so demanding.

I LOVE THIS PAINTING!!!

Grandma is moving into the white house, so she will be the 1st grandma. I LOVE IT!! She is the cherry on the cake that is their incredibly beautiful family. O loves her sweet potato pie, so I'm sure she'll be making it for the holidays. Aside from that, they will be eating courtesy of the white house chef. Michelle is fixin to have servants! I know it will take time for her to get use to, but it will free her up to adopt a cause. I would love to see the 1st Lady & 1st Grandma work together on a cause which makes improvements for women & children.

I second this motion! They need to kick his ass out immediately. I don't really understand what the hesitation is about except that Joe the backbiter & Harry Reid are very close (almost as close as Joe & McCain), AND Joe delivers his vote for what Harry R. wants 90% of the time (so they say, but I'd like to see some statistical data to believe this). So what it looks like to me is that Harry is doing whats best for Harry rather than what is best for the party or for the nation. How does Joe the Benedict Arnold benefit the nation or the party? I think he is very complacent and should be replaced by someone with a fire to serve and help O get things done.

Joe the Turncoat BEGGED O to help him win his re-election, and O did. As soon as LIEberman got what he wanted, he backstabbed O with a quickness. I remember seeing footage of O stepping to him on the floor of the Senate. I was expecting to hear his punk ass call for security. O was all up on him invading his personal space. I think Joe needs to go. He can't be counted on to support Obama, so what good is he?

Well, this explains some things about her daughter's promiscuity. Palin's flirty example & Bristol's lack of supervision equals 2 babies by 17 years old. Pitiful.

SHE'LL BE BAAACK

skip

But Republican leaders say the election was just the beginning for Sarah Palin.
Despite coming under fire for her inexperience, insiders say she is already being groomed to run for the presidency in 2012.
She even let slip her own ambitions last week, saying in a TV interview that she’s ‘not doing all this for naught'.
And should her presidential ambitions full flat, Hollywood has also come calling.
Several top producers are vying to see if she can turn her popularity among the country’s conservatives into TV ratings.
Now Joe Biden will be filling the vacant VP job in Washington, network executives are sharpening their pitches to try and persuade her to capitalise on her new found celebrity.
Her self-mocking appearance on Saturday Night Live, with lookalike star Tina Fey and actor Alec Baldwin, only heightened Palin fever in Hollywood.
‘Any television person who sees the numbers when she appears on anything would say Sarah Palin would be great,’ said veteran morning-show producer Steve Friedman.
‘The passion she has on each side, love and hate, makes television people say, "Wow, imagine the viewership".‘
According to the Hollywood Reporter, most industry insiders believe an Oprah Winfrey-style daytime talk show will be the probable route for the 44-year-old.
They think her folksy, straight-shooting personality would be an immediate hit with the predominantly female audience.
'I see her less a variety show host like Ellen De Generes and more of a single-topic host like Tyra Banks,’ said one top TV producer.
Cable news is another possibility and perhaps easier to fit in with her day job. Mike Huckerbee, who lost out to John McCain in the Republican primaries, has just begun his own weekly show on Fox News.
One producer has even floated the idea - only half-jokingly - of taking advantage of the curiosity surrounding the entire Palin clan and their Alaska setting and packaging a reality show called ‘The Palins’ as a mixture of The Osbournes and Northern Exposure.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1083142...

I love him. If he wasn't promiscuous he could've been the VP.

My sincere, heartfelt hope is that O will find some qualified, diverse people, and that his administration will look like the country. I hope he has Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, Jewish & Arab-americans, women, everyone.

Happy Birthday to you & LexusofOakland! This is a great birthday gift! I wish both of you a wonderful day & a blessed & prosperous year.

I will definitely be watching the morning hos in the a.m. Joe the biggest ho couldn't even keep his seat in congress. Lets see if they suspend the hatefest for a day or not.

Note to Joe: PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA-GET USE TO IT!

Yep, thats a weird thing about them. They truly live in a parallel universe. I guess they live in a bubble. Maybe their handlers limit their intake of information or something. You'd think They'd have more of a clue.

Wow! The street in front of the White House is Packed. That is a weird thing about DC. In the hood, people like to hang out in large groups. What are they doing? Nothing-Just loitering en masse, hundreds at a time-congregating. Tonight they took it to 1600 Pennsylvania Av.

Yeah, and the drapes are already measured! I hope she picked a hideous pattern-Bwahahaha.

YES!! I might finally be able to stop apologizing to foreigners for our psycho, imperialistic government. Really, we are the laughing stock of the western world. W has been a complete humiliation.

I hope that psycho heffer loses.

O gave a great speech as always. He never disappoints. He seems so tired though, and perhaps now will be able to mourn the loss of his Gran. Michelle, our First Lady, looks so happy and radiant. Lord, please build a hedge of strength and love and protection around them. It seemed like I could detect a bullet proof vest on him and that breaks my heart.

I'm so sorry to hear about the passing of your cat. I understand, friend. If my cat passed. I'd feel just like you. Go ahead and mourn. It's ok.

OMG get outta here!!! You are so lucky! We're definitely going to want all the DETAILS!! I hope my brother gets to go.

The Obamas are matching! Michelle's dress is evokative as usual. I'm not sure red is her color.

It's a shame that I'm probably the same height as Melia (smirk-5'4").

I will personally lend financial support whoever wants to grind her semi-literate ass into a powder.

Get up offa that thing, and dance and you'll feel better. James Brown

Why are the pundits @ CNN so effing somber? What the hell. the ony one who has been somewhat upbeat is Jeff Toobin.

Soon enough I will be going thru campaign withdrawls. Maybe I should go cold turkey. I think I'll text David Plooufe, and Joe Biden, and David Axelrod, and Michelle, and....

I want my congressional health care now.