News Roundup for 1/26/09

'My name's Mr. B-A-R-A-C-K O-B-A-M-A and I'll be your president today...'

-Headline of the day-
"Members of Congress can't spell new president's name."

Not O-B-A-M-A, but B-A-R-A-C-K. The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call "conducted a (highly scientific, natch) Internet search of [Congress] Member Web sites on Friday to see if anyone had referred to the prez using two of the most common misspellings — 'Barak' and 'Barrack.'"

The results, "Barak" shows up on the sites of Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).

"Barrack" was a less popular mistake, with only Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), and Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) screwing things up that way.

According to the report, "At the very least, none appear to have confused him with the head of al Qaeda, as some in the media have, though, of course, sometimes that was done on purpose. But, most probably, Obama would laugh off the report and say that it was fine, as long as they keep calling him Mr. President."

Haha! Congress is dumb. Not exactly earth-shattering news, is it?(Raw Story)


-Money unwell-spent-
Bailed-out-with-taxpayer-billions bank Citigroup is getting themselves a brand-spankin'-new corporate jet. Keen!

The report mentions a "new 7X," which must mean a Dassault Falcon 7x. According to the manufacturer's website, this plane is freaking awesome.

"The Falcon 7X offers a widebody cabin as generous in width as the best selling Falcon 900EX, but substantially longer. Even with all that space, the airplane's most welcome feature may be Dassault's breakthrough environmental system. Unseen yet critical elements of comfort have been taken into account in the Falcon 7X," we're told. "These include 'quieting acoustics,' advanced temperature monitoring that allows for thermal controls to hold a precise temperature throughout the cabin and an in-flight 'cabin altitude' of just 6,000 feet, 2,000 feet lower than today's standard. Comfort, it turns out, is the weaving together of many elements, not the least of which is the custom-crafted interior furnishings you select and Dassault Falcon so meticulously installs."

Asked about the plane, Bill McNamee, head of CitiFlight Inc., the subsidiary that manages Citigroup’s corporate fleet, was outraged. "Why should I help you when what you write will be used to the detriment of our company?" he asked a reporter for the NY Post. "What relevance does it have but to hurt my company?"

Dude, we're paying for it. We get to ask. (In One Ear... Out the Other, via reddit)


-Speaking of corporate bastards...-
Meet Richard S. Fuld Jr., former chairman and chief executive of Lehman Brothers.

Junior Fuld bought a mansion on Jupiter Island, FL five years ago for $13 million. He just sold it for ten bucks. Wow, the Florida housing market must really be in the crapper, huh?

Not really. See, the buyer was some nice lady named Kathleen Fuld who, by a coincidence of cosmic proportions, just happens to be Junior's wife. Seriously, what are the odds?

Pretty good, it turns out. According to the report, "It is possible that he is now transferring properties because of his fears of investor lawsuits or a possible bankruptcy, lawyers in Florida said."

"This is the oldest trick in the books” said Eric S. Ruff, a lawyer with Ruff & Cohen in Gainesville, Fla. “It’s common when you hear the feet of your creditors approaching to divest yourself."

I'd bet good money that new homeowner Kathleen lets Dickie Junior live there with her.

Any chumps... I mean, takers? (New York Times)