On the subject of stimulus planning...

Can I sue, too?

Donna Barstow is uncomfortable in her art, this week:



And who can blame her after the thrashing Sean Delonas took for this:



I was so stoked, since that particular image showed up in conjunction with a story about the Post's [thoroughly, ridiculously, unnecessary] apology I found while looking for a copy of the original cartoon to post here. I thought they had grown a set of Weevil-sized brass ones and reprinted the cartoon as the front page of their newspaper. Alas, this is a screen shot of the Post's web page for the artist's most current comic. Oh, well.

Of course it hasn't ended for him, as David Harsanyi points out here.

Let's hear it for the grandfather clause!

Well, shit. Maybe my mom's right.. er, correct. There's no doubt about her being "right".

More

On the Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan:

Then there was the guy who asked him to buy the Detroit Lions.

And this:
"Mark,

I just love your heart!!

I also love our Mavs!

Brenda
Gainesville"

Stimulate this

Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, has pledged to possibly inject some of his own capital into the economy.

Great Idea on his part, I think. If more of the richest 10% would do it, they'd get richer and President Obama wouldn't have to raid my pants pockets to get us out of this.

That being said, I have nothing for Mr. Cuban. Reading the replies (where the Ideas are to be posted) Resulted in this funny exchange:

"SVI HAS SUCCESSFULLY GAINED AN OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD INTERNATIONALLY,
HAVING RECEIVED A COMMITMENT FOR $1.25 BILLION DOLLARS, HAVING
EXPANDED OPPORTUNITIES FOR POTENTIALLY $40 BILLION DOLLARS, YET WITH
THE CURRENT FINANCIAL SWING IN NORTH AMERICAN, WE ARE HAVING
DIFFICULTIES IN RECEIVING SEED/SUPPORT FUNDS ALLOWING US TO GO
FORWARD WITH ALREADY COMMITTED GOVERNMENT FUNDS TO SECURE THE CONTRACT

WE ARE PRESENTLY LOOKING FOR INVESTORS TO ALLOW US TO GET PAST THE
INITIAL HURDLES. THIS PROJECT WILL RE-EMPLOY THOUSANDS OF TRADESMEN
AND PROVIDE HUGE DOLLARS IN SUPPLIES, GENERATING 75% OF COMMITMENT TO
THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENT.

THANK YOU AND HOPE TO HEAR FROM SOMEONE SOON.

From Mark Cuban> Let me guess, its in Nigeria ?"

And, several hundred posts in, the first Idea Mr. Cuban likes. It's a super duper people counter for service industries.

Second Idea he likes is flea markets in closed down big box store parking lots.

Oooh, the SVI group claims that it is not a scam. Too long to post here, though, click on the link and search for SVI, if you really want to know. The short of it is that it is in Africa, but they claim it's legit all the same.

Then there's this exchange:

"Online typing, spelling and sentence construction lessons for bloggers.

From MC> What about humor lessons for commentors ?

Comment by Eric Barbaric — February 10, 2009 @ 11:06

Then there's this:
"

Congratulations:

You’ve just created the worst venture capital company in the world.

The people that invested $500K in our startup and spent 8 years in R&D would quite literally shoot me if I pusued this funding arrangement. Lets see:

1. Give away your idea to the world
2. Sign a crappy disclosure/funding agreement
3. Sign away control

As you look back in the history of technology or business I challange you to offer one example where this kind of approach was successful. Every founder who represented his initial investors by agreeing to terms like this is where he/she belongs … broke and nowhere."

He goes on to suggest that Mr. Cuban give his money to the government instead of directly to entrepreneurs. Mr. Cuban replies:

From MC> Actually, if I was someone that gave you a nickel, I would be pissed that you even had a second of time to be reading and responding to blogs rather than busting your ass and eating, sleeping and breathing your business with the single goal of making it profitable and paying me and other investors our money back. So , no , I wont reconsider

I'll end here and start another post for the next group.

How do you spell fear?

This, from Financial Week's website, my less conservative friends might say, doesn't:

Congress will consider legislation to extend some of the curbs on executive pay that now apply only to those banks receiving federal assistance
-House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.


When he says this, on the other hand, it should scare even them:
"the compensation restrictions would apply to all financial institutions and might be extended to include all U.S. companies."

All?

This sets off the weevils in my conspiracy theory sub-brain and now I'm scared.