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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (50558)	7/8/2004 1:06:49 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

'Im on top of the World Ma' Saddam's Apparent Novel Runs in Newspaper By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt - Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s latest novel contains an apparent reference to the Sept. 11 attacks and returns to his favorite theme of good vs. evil — Arabs and Muslims fighting their enemies in the West. The first excerpt of "Get Out, You Damned" appeared Thursday in Asharq al-Awsat, a London-based Arab newspaper, which is publishing the entire work over the next several days. The manuscript was found in the Ministry of Culture after Baghdad's fall, indicating that it was written while Saddam was still in power. The newspaper said it had received its copy from Saddam's physician, Alla Bashir, who fled Iraq (news - web sites) after the war and was believed to be in Qatar. Ali Abdel Amir, an Iraqi writer and critic who has read the whole manuscript, said the novel was similar in style to three others attributed to Saddam. All four were signed simply: "Its author." Abdel Amir said "Get Out, You Damned" describes a Zionist-Christian conspiracy against Arabs and Muslims, with an Arab leading an army that invades the land of the enemy and topples one of their monumental towers, an apparent reference to the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York by Islamic militants of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s terrorist network. The novel opens with a narrator, who bears a resemblance to the Jewish, Christian and Muslim patriarch Abraham, telling cousins Ezekiel, Youssef and Mahmoud that Satan lives in the ruins of a Babylon destroyed by the Persians and the Jews. Saddam had heavily restored the remains of Babylon, one of the world's most important archaeological sites, located just south of Baghdad. Ezekiel, symbolizing the Jews, is portrayed as greedy, ambitious and destructive. "Even if you seize all the property of others, you will suffer all your life," the narrator tells him. Youssef, who symbolizes the Christians, is portrayed as generous and tolerant — at least in the early passages. Mahmoud, symbolizing Muslims, emerges as the conqueror at the end of the book, Abdel Amir told The Associated Press. Saddam "was completely out of touch with actual reality, and novel writing gave him the chance to live in delusions," Abdel Amir said. Saddam's close aide and deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, was quoted by his American interrogators shortly after his surrender to U.S. troops as saying Saddam used to spend most of his time in recent years writing novels, leaving key decisions to his sons and other trusted relatives. Saddam also has been credited with writing "Zabibah and the King," "The Fortified Citadel" and "Men and a City." "Zabibah and the King" tells a story of a leader who sacrifices a luxurious life for the sake of his people. "The Fortified Citadel" described the rise to power of Saddam's Baath Party. "Men and a City" is widely viewed as a thinly veiled autobiography, presenting him as powerful and heroic. It appeared at a time when tens of thousands of U.S. troops were about to start a war to remove him from power. Egyptian novelist Youssef al-Qaeed described the works as "naive and superficial." "They look like political leaflets," he said.

To: Jim Willie CB who wrote (50558)	7/8/2004 1:12:51 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Buffett Rips Congress on Options Wednesday July 7, 5:42 pm ET - By Bill Mann Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.a - News)(NYSE: BRK.b - News) chairman Warren Buffett sent a blistering fusillade across the bow of the U.S. House of Representatives in a Washington Post (NYSE: WPO - News) editorial yesterday. He noted that the worst assault on math in American history was a 19th Century Indiana legislative initiative to round pi up to 3.2. Buffett labeled a current bill in the House that would legislate how companies could treat stock options as having the potential to "cause the mathematical lunacy record to move east from Indiana." Sing it, Warren. Many companies, particularly in the high-tech industry, have railed against a current Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) proposal to account for employee stock options as expenses because it would increase the reported cost of these options and make their financial results appear worse. FASB isn't in the business of outcome-based decisions, but Congress sure as heck is. So the House, perhaps noting after the accounting scandals of the past decade and in the face of disgust over exploding executive compensation, recognizes that some further tightening of the rules is perhaps inevitable. As Buffett notes, though, what the House bill has in mind is simply bizarre. It accepts the fact that options are compensation and, therefore, should be expensed, but then it comes up with the gimmick that companies must only expense for the five highest-paid executive officers at each company. Further, the pricing mechanism that the House bill proposes to be used is one that assumes that the price of the underlying stock never fluctuates. Great. Show me the company stock that never fluctuates. Everything fluctuates. Buffett's verdict: "A for imagination... flat-out F for logic." And just so his point isn't lost in the inevitable recriminations of the "he doesn't know how it works" or "he's just jealous" crowd, Buffett notes that his position on accounting for options has fealty from the following: all seven members of FASB, all four of the big accounting firms, and legions of investment professionals (I'm sure he was including me in that assessment. I'm just sure of it.). That House members wish to ignore the voices of these folks who know a thing or two about accounting (the standard setters as well as the largest, most knowledgeable consumers thereof) is simply frightening. There is a good reason that FASB is an independent group not beholden to political interests: because it can make decisions for the benefit of the polity of accounting consumers without consideration of the special interests.