Author: Nate

Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup

via AmericaBlog:
Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup

November 20 (Bloomberg) — The Somali pirates, renegade Somalis known for hijacking ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, are negotiating a purchase of Citigroup.

The pirates would buy Citigroup with new debt and their existing cash stockpiles, earned most recently from hijacking numerous ships, including most recently a $200 million Saudi Arabian oil tanker. The Somali pirates are offering up to $0.10 per share for Citigroup, pirate spokesman Sugule Ali said earlier today. The negotiations have entered the final stage, Ali said.

“You may not like our price, but we are not in the business of paying for things. Be happy we are in the mood to offer the shareholders anything,” said Ali.

The pirates will finance part of the purchase by selling new Pirate Ransom Backed Securities. The PRBS’s are backed by the cash flows from future ransom payments from hijackings in the Gulf of Aden. Moody’s and S&P have already issued their top investment grade ratings for the PRBS’s.

Head pirate, Ubu Kalid Shandu, said: “We need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money. Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets has allowed us to purchase Citigroup at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster.”

Shandu added, “We don’t call ourselves pirates. We are coastguards and this will just allow us to guard our coasts better.”

Continue reading “Somali Pirates in Discussions to Acquire Citigroup”

President Obama

Congratulations to the new President Elect.

I hope that we’ll be able to heal the divide in this country, but at the same time it’s time to start holding the Democratic party’s feet to the fire on progressive issues – if Bush could claim a mandate after the squeaker in 2004, this is a landslide, and we should take advantage of it.

My two surprises so far on the results.

1) PA called early, had figured Obama would probably get it but to have it close instantly was a huge surprise.
2) VA not called early. I figured it was the bellwether for Obama, and at this rate he may make it to 270 without VA called yet.

8:02pm Pacific time – MSNBC called the national election for Obama after CA, HI, OR, and WA closed. A little skeptical of how early the PA and OH polls closed earlier, but too many outstanding he could still win.

It’s a proud day to be an American.

8:19pm – McCain’s concession speech, showing quite a bit of class so far.

An interesting tidbit off of NPR (Kqed)

San Mateo county is expecting 82% turnout, half of which (thus 41% total) is vote by mail.

As for the results, VA is still too close to call. My bet is that it’s the bellweather this year.

A few more hours to go.

If you haven’t voted yet, and are registered, go vote.

I don’t care who you vote for — good turnout and healthy democracy is more important than any partisan victory.

Israelis for Obama

Interesting. Via Flyertalk.

More Tokyo pics

From today’s trip to Akihabara and Shibuya, added to the same album as before… yesterday’s trip to the Mikasa will be in its own album but will have to wait, maybe later tonight more likely when I get back to the US unless the internet connections in Thailand have gotten better than I remember them.

From Tokyo 2008

Also trying to upload a video of the Shibuya crossing, but no luck so far – the Youtube upload link keeps timing out.

What a change from the old days!

The following statement can be found here

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations
136 East 67th Street
New York, NY 10065

STATEMENT

20 October 2008

ON FUNDRAISING LETTER FROM JOHN MCCAIN ELECTION CAMPAIGN

We have received a letter from Senator John McCain requesting financial contribution to his Presidential campaign.

In this connection we would like to reiterate that Russian officials, the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations or the Russian Government do not finance political activity in foreign countries.

via Flyertalk, although you may need to be signed in there to see it.

Travel Photos, Tokyo day 1

From Tokyo 2008

Or view the full album; this was the “Cityrama Morning Tour” with shots from the Meiji Shrine, Imperial Gardens West, and the Asakusa Kannon Temple plus a few of my room and a few of the area nearby in Shibuya.

Nothing edited yet; Picasa is pretty cool for posting RAW shots to the web quickly.

Off to see the Memorial Ship Mikasa tomorrow, and will probably have photos of that for you tomorrow night. Not sure what else I’ll be up to in my remaining pair of days her, but for now jetlag is about to overwhelm me.

That’s non-canon!

Solving Problems by Declaring Parts of Your Life to Be Non-Canon
Must read comic strip, via Jim at work.

Krugman on the candidates’ health care policies.

Krugman on McCain’s healthcare plan vs. Obama’s:
Health Care Destruction
Skipping to the punchline:

I agree: the McCain plan would do for health care what deregulation has done for banking. And I’m terrified.

Jumping back:

Barack Obama offers incremental reform: regulation of insurers to prevent discrimination against the less healthy, subsidies to help lower-income families buy insurance, and public insurance plans that compete with the private sector. His plan falls short of universal coverage, but it would sharply reduce the number of uninsured.

Better than nothing.

via Atrios.

Sarah Palin Debate Flowchart

Sarah Palin Debate Flowchart

via Flyertalk OMNI