New York Times Co. in Talks With Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim for needed much needed money

Now this is quite interesting:

The New York Times Co. is in discussions with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim about investing in the newspaper publisher to help ease its financial problems, according to people familiar with the matter.

The talks are ongoing and may yet fall apart but one of the options being discussed is a preferred-stock issue. Under this scenario, the Times Co. would issue Mr. Slim preferred stock, which carries no voting right but pays an annual dividend, in return for his investment. The investment would be similar to a loan. Preferred shares are often convertible into common stock after a defined period.

via New York Times Co. in Talks With Carlos Slim on Preferred Stock Investment – WSJ.com (Sub Required).

Interesting…. The New York Post picks it up:

The 68-year-old telecommunications tycoon is said to be discussing a large purchase of preferred shares. The talks are ongoing and may fall apart, as they probably would need the consent of the Sulzberger family, including publisher Arthur Sulzberger, who control the media powerhouse through its ownership of preferred shares.

The preferred shares under discussion would carry no voting rights, but pay a dividend, according to the report. His current stake puts Slim among the largest non-Sulzberger owners of the Times.

The Times is under the gun to raise cash as a $400 million credit line expires in May. The recession has squeezed the paper, which reported a 21 percent drop in ad revenue in November.

The newspaper has made some drastic moves recently to increase cash flow and to raise the needed money, including:

* An ongoing attempt to raise $225 million by selling its 58 percent stake in the new 52-story Midtown skyscraper and then leasing the office space.

* Putting its 17.5 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures, the parent of the Boston Red Sox, on the block. That could raise about $150 million.

* Layoffs and buyouts at the flagship New York Times and its Boston Globe property.

* Cutting back its dividend to investors for three years.

* The recent move to reduce the number of standalone sections and to sell advertising for the first time on Page 1 of the Times.

For Slim, fattening up his stake in the Times would expand his already sizeable holdings. The mogul controls Telmex, which handles about 90 percent of Mexico’s land-based telephone service, and Telcel, which has an 80 percent market share on the country’s cell business.

In 1997, just before Apple launched its iMac line, Slim bought a 3 percent stake in the tech company at a split-adjusted price of about $4.50 a share. Apple closed Friday at $82.33.

Just Warren Buffet, worth about $62 billion, according to Forbes, is richer than Slim. Bill Gates, for years the richest man in the world, is worth about $58 billion, the magazine said.

Very interesting indeed, it is indeed a sign of the times. It does kind of bother me, that the NYT would go south of the border to get someone to put money into their company. Is there not any millionaires here in America? Where’s all those Liberal Hollywood celebrities that cater to those mindless loons that make that newspaper?

I would go off on a “Bill O’Rielly” sounding rant and say it’s because of their bias. But I won’t, because I’m just a bit more honest than that. The Economy is bad, old Media is become the thing of the past, the internet is killing traditional media. hey, times change, either you keep up or your outmoded. Just that simple.

But, damn, what the hell are they gonna call the old gray lady now? The Taco-Head Times? D’ohDoh

Others: Yourish.com, Gawker, Gothamist, Don Surber, MediaMemo, Doug Ross, Silicon Alley Insider, 24Ahead, Don Surber and JammieWearingFool

Once again the Liberal media lies about those who do not support Obama

This is getting to be about the stupidest bunch of nonsense, that I have ever heard in my entire life.

It now seems that the Communist News Network, also known as CNN is now trying to trump up the possibility of President Obama being assassinated, and in the process smeared David Duke.

Via CNN:

Hate crimes experts and law enforcement officials are closely watching white supremacists across the country as Barack Obama prepares next week to be sworn in as the first black president of the United States.

So far, there is no known organized effort to express opposition to Obama’s rise to the presidency other than a call by the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for its members to wear black armbands as well as fly the U.S. flag upside down on Inauguration Day and Obama’s first full day in office.

As Tuesday approaches, when Obama stands outside the Capitol to take the oath of office, experts expect anger about the new president to spike. But they don’t expect it to go away.

“The level of vitriol, I expect, will go up a bit more around inauguration time,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino.

There “is concern” about white supremacist groups during the inauguration, said Joe Persichini, the assistant FBI director who is helping to oversee security during the inauguration. What might the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. have said? »

The inauguration of the nation’s first minority president increases any potential threat, “particularly stemming from individuals on the extremist fringe of the white supremacist movement,” said a recent intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

But law enforcement has the appropriate resources to respond if needed, Persichini said.

“We have seen a lot of chatter,” Persichini said. “We have seen a lot of discussions. We have seen some information via the Internet. But those are discussions. We look at the vulnerabilities and whether or not the groups are taking action.

“You have freedom of speech,” he added. “Anyone in this nation can have a discussion about their beliefs, but we are concerned about whether or not they take that freedom of speech and exercise some act that is against the law.”

Anger, violence and interest in racist ideology did increase in the hours and days after Obama was elected president in November, hate groups experts said.

Three New York men were indicted on charges of conspiracy to interfere with voting rights — accused of targeting and attacking African-Americans in a brutal crime spree soon after Obama was declared the winner on November 4.

And interest in racist ideology was so high right after the election that computer servers for two White supremacist Web sites crashed, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

But the violence and interest soon subsided. Leaders within the white supremacist movement are now seeking to capitalize on Obama’s presidency by using his election to help grow their organizations.

“President-elect Obama is going to be the spark that arouses the ‘white movement,’ ” reads a posting on the National Socialist Movement Web site. “Obama’s win is our win. We should all be happy of this event.”

In an interview posted on his Web site on election night, former Louisiana state Rep. David Duke said Obama’s election “is good in one sense — that it is making white people clear of the fact that that government in Washington, D.C., is not our government.”

“We are beginning to learn and realize our positioning,” Duke, a prominent white supremacist, later said in the election night recording. “And our position is that we have got to stand up and fight now.”

Mark Potok, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, said the leaders of these groups are frustrated by Obama’s win.

“I think the hate groups are desperately looking for a silver lining in a very dark cloud for them,” Potok said.

While experts said it is difficult to determine how many people belong to hate groups, they do agree with an SPLC estimate that claims there are about 900 operating now, a 40 percent increase from 2000. The vast majority of these groups promote white supremacist beliefs, and range from skinheads living in urban areas to the KKK ,which is based largely in rural settings.

It is difficult to pinpoint how many people subscribe to white supremacist views, because the Internet allows people to follow the movement under the cloak of anonymity. Leaders of the white supremacist movement are able to use their Web sites to reach a new subset of potential followers and push their racist rhetoric to the limit without outright calling for violence.

Levin said one challenge in protecting Obama is that the identity of a potential attacker would likely be unknown — a person who believes in white supremacist ideology, but decides to act as a lone wolf.

Threats of violence are more likely to be found on Web sites that allow posters to remain anonymous.

Most white supremacist leaders have been careful in what is posted on their Web sites, “hyper-aware that they are being watched,” Potok said.

But not all white supremacist leaders are mindful of their actions or care to be. Two months before the election, American National Socialist Workers Party head Bill White posted a magazine cover on his Web site featuring a picture of Obama in the cross hairs of a rifle scope with a headline “Kill This N—–?”

White is now in jail on unrelated charges that he “threatened use of force against” a juror who had helped convict another white supremacist as well as several other charges of making threats to unrelated victims.

Racism in the U.S. “remains a real problem” even though Obama won the White House, Potok said, and he predicted that hate groups will continue to grow during Obama’s presidency.

“I think we are in a very worrisome moment historically,” Potok said. “I say that because there are several things converging that could foster the continued growth of these groups: continuing high levels of nonwhite immigration, the prediction by the Census Bureau that whites will lose their majority in 2042, the tanking economy, and what is seen as the final insult, the election of a black man to the White House.”

Levin noted that it is common knowledge the U.S. Secret Service is taking great measures to protect Obama (who began receiving coverage in May 2007, the earliest point ever for a candidate in a presidential campaign), and emphasized it is a great challenge.

“President-elect Obama is so used to a public presence, and being among people poses some real difficulties for his protection,” Levin said.

I think it is important to note that the Southern Poverty Law Center is a Communist Liberal run organization, who goal and aim is to stifle the free speech of those whom they deem to be hateful.

More after the jump:

Continue reading “Once again the Liberal media lies about those who do not support Obama”

Zo breaks it down about Hollywood and Liberals!

…and takes a shoe to the side of the face, twice, in the process! 😆

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Rep. John Conyers says "No go" to Dr. Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General

Here we go, with the blatant Identity Politics!

Via HuffPo:

I join in opposition with respected Noble Peace Prize award wining economist Paul Krugman, who has very serious concerns with having Dr. Gupta be the nation’s Surgeon General. […]

Also, there are highly experienced medical professionals who question whether Dr. Gupta has the necessary experience or even the medical background to be in charge of some 6,000 physicians or more who work in the United States Public Health Service. Gerard M. Farrel, Executive Director of the Commissioned Officers Association, stated in the January 7, 2008 Washington Post that Dr. Gupta will certainly face a “credibility gap” because he never served in the National Health Service Corp, and furthermore, does not have the “experience or qualifications to be the leader of the nation’s public health service.” Clearly, it is not in the best interests of the nation to have someone like this who lacks the requisite experience needed to oversee the federal agency that provides crucial health care assistance to some of the poorest and most underserved communities in America.

Translation? He is not a black man. So, he won’t serve our interests. Plus, he had the gall to question Michael Moore. So, no go on this man.

The Democrats make it so easy anymore. You all see why I left that bunch of psychopaths?

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Wish I could get this lucky!

Not to make light of this, but man, it must be nice!

Via CNN.com:

A family facing foreclosure is anything but a unique story in these troubled economic times.

But this is a happier story of one family whose financial ruin was averted by the actions of a friend, the compassion of strangers, the networking power of the Internet and the holiday spirit of giving.

“This is our Christmas story,” said Ebony Sampson. “It’s going to be told for generations and generations to come.”

Sampson, who lives in Aberdeen, Maryland, with her husband, Daniel, and their two young children, has overcome more hardship than one person should ever have to face. When she was in the 10th grade, she lost her entire family in a horrific car accident. Raised by a grandmother in New York, Ebony eventually used some life-insurance money from her parents’ death to buy the home in Aberdeen, near where she grew up.

But in June, Daniel got sick. After several tests, his doctors concluded that he was suffering from salmonella after eating a tainted tomato. As a new employee of Bank of America, he had not accrued enough paid time off to keep his job as a credit-card account manager.

Suddenly, the sole breadwinner in the Sampson household was out of work. Though the Sampsons received unemployment checks from the government, the money wasn’t enough to make ends meet.

First came the shut-off notices from the electric company. Then one of their cars broke down. One morning, Daniel woke up and looked out his bedroom window and saw his truck was missing. It had been repossessed.

With no job, no car and no income, the Sampsons got another surprise: Ebony Sampson learned she was eight weeks pregnant.

The Sampsons returned home from church, where they are practicing ministers, on a Sunday in November to find a stranger knocking on their front door. He wanted to put a bid in on their house. Ebony told him their home was not for sale. The next day, the Sampsons were notified that they were facing foreclosure unless they could come up with $10,000 in the next two weeks to bring their mortgage up to date.

“Once we received that letter, it was like, ‘Oh my God, what are we going to do?’ ” Daniel Sampson said. “I don’t think anyone in their right mind would receive a foreclosure notice and not be rattled by it.”

Somehow, the couple maintained their sense of humor. Ebony Sampson called one of her oldest friends, Jaki Grier, and jokingly asked her if she had $10,000. Jaki told her, “Sure, just let me open up my invisible purse!”

But then Grier got an idea.

A self-described geek, Grier started blogging years ago. Since then, she’s contributed to a magazine’s Web site and regularly posts thoughts and life happenings on her LiveJournal page. So, she published Ebony and Daniel’s story, along with a link where people could make a donation.

Pretty bad when you gotta use a Blog and the internet as a tin cup. They were ministers, why didn’t the Church take up a collection for them?

Some Church. 🙄

Of course, when a white man like me says anything about it. I’m a raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccccciiiiiist!

Update: For those who think I am being cruel or just being an asshole. Let me tell you something, ok? I used to be in over my head in debt. Finally, I filed for backruptcy. I filed for chapter 7, I lost it all, and started over.  I had a Paypal account myself, did I get on the internet and cry, “Please send me money!”? No, I didn’t; I would never ask anyone else to help “Bail me out” of a sitution I put myself into. The facts are, they could have filed for backruptcy, even reaffairmed some of thier debts, like the house and could have been able to keep it. But no, they took the beggers route. It just steams me when I see people do that, I never did, I delt with my own problems and did what I could, I could have taken the route these people did, but I did the right thing and, as they say in the ghetto, “Delt with my own.”

Funny Video: Sponsor an Executive

This was sent to me by the smartest Democrat I know………………My Mom.  😀

Video: America's War on Common Sense

An excellent video:

(Source: Taki’s Magazine)

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The Automotive Bailouts: The Other Side of the Story

I have been sitting here, trying to keep out of this. But I have sat and looked at the Republican and NeoConservative Spin on this Story and I’m sick of it. 😡

So, I am giving you, the other side of the story, from the horses mouth; without commentary from me.

I did not ask that you agree, I simply ask that you listen and hear this man out. Now I am almost sure, that the Blogs, that I have linked to, will remove my trackback, like the Neo-Con Fascists that they are. I mean, it is all about controlling the message with those guys.  🙄

Here we go:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Media Q & A:

Media Q & A Part 2:

Media Q & A Part 3:

There you have it. The other side of the story. You decide.

(Source UAW.ORG)