b>-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The ultimate hostile take-over: America, a goose that was ripe for the plucking....
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:40:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jane stillwater jpstillwater@yahoo.com
To: america's-first-trillionaires@whitehouse.com
The ultimate hostile take-over: America, a goose that was ripe for the plucking....
By Jane Stillwater
http://jpstillwater.blogspot.com
Remember back in the 1980s when those Wall Street dudes in slick new suits whom we politely called "corporate raiders" would look around for companies with the fattest pension plans and the most assets and say to themselves, "Hummm. We got a hot one here. This goose is ripe for the plucking!" And what happened next? The company that was currently in their cross-hairs would go on the chopping block and be gutted and royally screwed. Back in the day, this act of legal highway robbery was called a "hostile takeover."
According to howstuffworks.com, "In a corporate raid, a company purchases another through a hostile takeover (often with an leveraged buy-out) because their assets are worth more than the value of the company. As soon as the new owners complete the acquisition, they close the company and sell off all the assets."
If you remember your old-school history, what happened then was that corporate raiders gutted company after company in America and life was good. For them. Not for us. But then one day one of those corporate raiders was analyzing which company to loot next when it suddenly occurred to him. "What is the largest company of them all? What company has the biggest pension plan we can sack? Which company has the most money, is the most profitable, has the largest physical plant and the most rolling stock?"
Hint: It wasn't General Motors. It wasn't General Electric. And it wasn't General Foods.
Oh, rats. You've already guessed the answer. That's no fun. Yes, the correct answer is "America".
"Some analysts feel that hostile takeovers have an overall harmful effect on the economy, in part because they often fail. When one company takes over another, management may not understand the technology, the business model or the working environment of the new company. The debt created by takeovers can slow growth, and consolidation often results in layoffs." Sound familiar? If not, just go ask your mailman. Or someone in your National Guard. Or perhaps someone who used to live in New Orleans....
And this is the story of what became of the corporate raiders of the 1980s. They just learned to think bigger. America was there for the sacking. The raiders moved in. Can you blame them? Why think in terms of looting companies for mere millions or billions when there are trillions to be had! "I have an idea! Let's call it privatization!"' And they did.
America was a plump goose that was ripe for the plucking. So we were plucked. And now our goose is cooked.
PS: Just exactly how did these unscrupulous corporate raiders achieve the hostile takeover of America? It was easy. They simply seized control of the stockholders' votes. How'd they do that? By manipulating unwary stockholders' proxies in both 2000 and 2004. In 2000, they manipulated the stocks by using the "Supreme Court" option. And in 2004, the "Diebold Option" turned the trick. A takeover doesn't get more hostile than that!
PPS: "When one company takes over another, management may not understand the technology...." When America's corporate raiders took over the Oval Office, they neither understood nor cared about the technology of democracy and smooth-running government. They were only interested in profits. And what turns a profit the fastest? War, of course.
If you look carefully at the wars on Afghanistan, Palestine, Darfur, Somalia and Iraq through the rose-colored glasses of these guys, then you'll stop seeing a hopeless bloody quagmire and start seeing nothing but PROFITS. Heck, from the point of view of the corporate raiders who now run America's Boardroom for their own personal gain, even Vietnam was a great victory!
Always remember, America, that the whole purpose of the war on Iraq is to make money for Halliburton. That's all. That's it. Seen from this angle, this "war" -- that most Americans mistakenly preceive as a failed military operation and a bottomless money pit -- begins to make perfect sense.
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How Stuff Works:
Going Hostile
There are several reasons why a company might want or need a hostile takeover.
http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:aAK-oxxg4T0J:money.howstuffworks.com/hostile-takeover2.htm+hostile+takeover+1980s&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us
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Speaking of corporations taking over the government, here's the trailer for "Sicko" -- wherein Michael Moore states there are four (4) big-medicine lobbyists for every congressperson: http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/trailer/
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From the Iraq Slogger [even more reason for the Bush-Cheney corporate raiders to rejoice!]: Iraq Second Worst Failed State: New Study Ranks Iraq Just Behind Sudan in 2007 "Failed State Index": Using 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators, the study ranked 177 states in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and societal deterioration. The index scores are based on data from more than 12,000 publicly available sources collected from May to December 2006, and the 60 most vulnerable were ranked for the failed state index.
"Iraq and Afghanistan, the two main fronts in the global war on terror, both suffered over the past year," the report said.
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/3240/Iraq_Second_Worst_Failed_State
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If any news agency wants to embed me in Darfur, Somalia, Gaza, the tribal area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, New Orleans or Washington DC, please let me know.
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Please donate to Congressman Dennis Kucinich's 2008 presidential campaign. It's time to put an honest person in the White House! http://kucinich.us/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1
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I'm now the publicist for this highly informative and entertaining book, "Mecca and the Hajj: Lessons from the Islamic School of Hard Knocks". Buy it and help me make it a best seller, okay? You can order it at Amazon.com or at Barnes & Noble:
http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_11_1/102-4274877-0384107?ie=UTF8
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780978615703&itm=5#pDetails
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From Me: "Life is a competition. The winners are the ones that do the most good deeds."
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I have become shocked and amazed lately at how bitter and cynical and mean my e-mails are becoming -- but ever since Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld and Cheney bombed several defenseless countries into rubble, failed to protect my country on 9-11, scalped our treasury and blatantly STOLE two national elections, I've just not been the same. I WANT to be a kind and loving and caring person but the example being set for me by America's "leaders" has precluded that from happening. My apologies.
In defense of my country, I must fight fire with fire. Those people in the White House are NASTY.
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If you like getting my outside-the-box essays but your in-box is too full and you need a break, that's okay. Just e-mail me, say "Dear Jane" on the subject line and I will take you off my list. Thanks.
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