F
frank
Guest
As we all know, one of our president's greatest talents is offering up the spoils of battle to his best friends and contributors, regardless of their talents. We all remember Mike Brown, the former so called FEMA director. Who can forget the line, “Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job!” Except for possibly millions of people from South Louisiana and Mississippi.
"Yes, that's right... the man responsible for directing federal relief operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, sharpened his emergency management skills as the "Judges and Stewards Commissioner" for the International Arabian Horses Association... a position from which he was forced to resign in the face of mounting litigation and financial disarray.” (dailykos.com)
And what about Bush's latest flame, Harriet Miers? I don't even want to go there. Who am I to judge? Hey wait a minute. Who is she to judge?
So you're asking, what does all of this have to do with Amtrak? Well, I'll tell you. You would think that people to be considered as possible appointees to positions as important as board members or directors of Amtrak would be folks with tons of railroad or transportation experience. Makes a little sense, doesn't it? Please remember, these people are nominated by the president, and then must be approved by Congress. Unless, of course, they're pushed through during a recess. Let's look into Amtrak board members backgrounds.....hmmm, let's start with Floyd Hall, former CEO of K-Mart from 1995 until his retirement in 2000, and see what kind of extensive background in rail or transportation he brings to the plate.
Floyd Hall
Kmart board deserves 'F' for oversight
The history of Kmart's board -- under former Chairman Joseph Antonini, under his successor Floyd Hall and certainly under Conaway -- is marked by benign neglect and an inability to exercise the power vested in it.
The debacle of the Conaway era is only the most spectacular chapter in a long, depressing saga of missed opportunities, strategic missteps and simple hubris. Most galling is that thousands of ordinary employees and trusting shareholders are paying the highest price for those gaffes while executives such as Adamson, Hall and others walk away with millions.
Where is the accountability?
So far, there isn't much. Sure, there's the embarrassment of appearing to be willing dupes -- or, at least, easily deceived and misled. And there's the likelihood that Kmart creditors will sue its current directors once they are replaced by an all-new board, as typically happens in bankruptcy restructuring.
But the legacy of passivity in Kmart's boardroom, evident at least since about 1990, suggests that the company's directors owe employees, investors and the public a more extensive explanation of why they did what they did -- or didn't do. Detroit News, 02/09/03.
And a headline from the same publication dated 06/01/00, just before Kmart's bankruptcy:
Chairman Floyd Hall, 61, retired Wednesday with 7,260,362 shares of Kmart stock worth about $61.7 million.
Well, I don't know about you, but anyone who can run a retail chain into the ground and still make that kind of money seems shrewd enough to run a railroad, right? Anyone familiar with the roots of American rails will understand that graft and deceit were the mainstays of normal commerce in that era. Does Credit Mobilier ring a bell?
Enrique Sosa
Nominee Needs Training
(Washington Post 6/7/04)
Democrats have this quaint notion that presidents should nominate experienced people to sit on boards and commissions overseeing various matters. Despite ample and bipartisan precedent to the contrary, they believe this practice should continue even in June of an election year.
So there was Sen. Frank J. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) at a Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing Wednesday, talking to retired oil industry executive Enrique Sosa from Florida, nominated to the Amtrak board of directors.
Lautenberg badgered Sosa, a major GOP contributor who has given a bit to Democrats, about some labor matters. Then he noted that Sosa, breaking custom for nominees, had not submitted an opening statement. And on documents he did submit, Sosa said he had no experience on land transportation matters.
Have you ever ridden on Amtrak or in the Northeast corridor? Lautenberg asked. Well, no, Sosa replied. But he pledged to do so if confirmed.
David M. Laney
David Laney specializes in corporate and banking law at Jenkins & Gilchrist. Then-Governor George W. Bush appointed him as a Texas Department of Transportation Commissioner in 1995. As a Bush transportation point man, Laney lashed out in 2000 against federal rules that slash federal highway funds to cities that flunk federal air standards and fail to produce credible compliance plans. Laney said such “draconian” measures could create more traffic jams that would pollute the air even more. As president, Bush appointed Laney to the Amtrak board. Jenkins & Gilchrist was the second-largest source of bundled contributions to Bush’s 2000 campaign ($92,400), the Center for Responsive Politics reported in 1999, supplanted only by Vinson & Elkins (see Thomas Marinis). A federal judge ordered Jenkins & Gilchrist in June 2003 to disclose the names of 600 wealthy clients to the Internal Revenue Service. The firm billed at least $72 million to advise these clients on setting up tax shelters that fabricated $2.4 billion worth of tax deductions, according to the IRS. The firm is fighting disclosure, saying that it did not sell bogus tax shelters but merely advised clients on how to do so—a service that it claims is protected by attorney-client privilege. The firm paid $75 million in 2004 to settle a lawsuit filed by clients who alleged that Jenkins & Gilchrist devised the tax shelters, Deutsche Bank (see Jeffrey Amling) executed them and Ernst & Young (see Leslie Brorsen) marketed them to wealthy clients. (Whitehouseforsale.org)
Norman Mineta
Under his "Reform" plan, Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta proposes a zero budget for Amtrak for FY 2006. This will force Amtrak into bankruptcy, and make it discontinue (in Mineta's view) "running trains nobody rides between cities nobody wants to travel between". Mineta claims a better Amtrak will emerge, focused entirely on short-distance corridors. But this plan actually assures there will be
no interstate train service in the United States! (Railtravelnews.com)
Norman Mineta wrote, upon seeing Japan's modern rail system, “But it has not come cheap and Japan's ultra-modern railways have landed it with a historic debt of 28,000bn yen (£153bn). That is roughly equivalent to 200,000 yen (£1,089) for every Japanese man, woman and child.
It is a sum which dwarfs the $4bn (£2.6bn) which hangs around the neck of the beleaguered Amtrak, the giant US rail company which was set up as a non-profit corporation in 1971.
I looked into Amtrak's boardroom, and I was embarrassed. They are all undressed and elderly and it shows. They're all naked and wrinkled, and it's not a pretty sight.
Frank
ps. We've all heard the terrible warnings about the risk of an influenza pandemic from an avian flu virus. But the Bush administration official in charge of making sure America is ready has no experience related to his job, he's a political appointee. Stewart Simonson is the Bush administration's point man for a flu pandemic, but he has no public health management experience. He got his job because he is a close associate of former Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
Heaven help us.
Frank
"Yes, that's right... the man responsible for directing federal relief operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, sharpened his emergency management skills as the "Judges and Stewards Commissioner" for the International Arabian Horses Association... a position from which he was forced to resign in the face of mounting litigation and financial disarray.” (dailykos.com)
And what about Bush's latest flame, Harriet Miers? I don't even want to go there. Who am I to judge? Hey wait a minute. Who is she to judge?
So you're asking, what does all of this have to do with Amtrak? Well, I'll tell you. You would think that people to be considered as possible appointees to positions as important as board members or directors of Amtrak would be folks with tons of railroad or transportation experience. Makes a little sense, doesn't it? Please remember, these people are nominated by the president, and then must be approved by Congress. Unless, of course, they're pushed through during a recess. Let's look into Amtrak board members backgrounds.....hmmm, let's start with Floyd Hall, former CEO of K-Mart from 1995 until his retirement in 2000, and see what kind of extensive background in rail or transportation he brings to the plate.
Floyd Hall
Kmart board deserves 'F' for oversight
The history of Kmart's board -- under former Chairman Joseph Antonini, under his successor Floyd Hall and certainly under Conaway -- is marked by benign neglect and an inability to exercise the power vested in it.
The debacle of the Conaway era is only the most spectacular chapter in a long, depressing saga of missed opportunities, strategic missteps and simple hubris. Most galling is that thousands of ordinary employees and trusting shareholders are paying the highest price for those gaffes while executives such as Adamson, Hall and others walk away with millions.
Where is the accountability?
So far, there isn't much. Sure, there's the embarrassment of appearing to be willing dupes -- or, at least, easily deceived and misled. And there's the likelihood that Kmart creditors will sue its current directors once they are replaced by an all-new board, as typically happens in bankruptcy restructuring.
But the legacy of passivity in Kmart's boardroom, evident at least since about 1990, suggests that the company's directors owe employees, investors and the public a more extensive explanation of why they did what they did -- or didn't do. Detroit News, 02/09/03.
And a headline from the same publication dated 06/01/00, just before Kmart's bankruptcy:
Chairman Floyd Hall, 61, retired Wednesday with 7,260,362 shares of Kmart stock worth about $61.7 million.
Well, I don't know about you, but anyone who can run a retail chain into the ground and still make that kind of money seems shrewd enough to run a railroad, right? Anyone familiar with the roots of American rails will understand that graft and deceit were the mainstays of normal commerce in that era. Does Credit Mobilier ring a bell?
Enrique Sosa
Nominee Needs Training
(Washington Post 6/7/04)
Democrats have this quaint notion that presidents should nominate experienced people to sit on boards and commissions overseeing various matters. Despite ample and bipartisan precedent to the contrary, they believe this practice should continue even in June of an election year.
So there was Sen. Frank J. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) at a Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing Wednesday, talking to retired oil industry executive Enrique Sosa from Florida, nominated to the Amtrak board of directors.
Lautenberg badgered Sosa, a major GOP contributor who has given a bit to Democrats, about some labor matters. Then he noted that Sosa, breaking custom for nominees, had not submitted an opening statement. And on documents he did submit, Sosa said he had no experience on land transportation matters.
Have you ever ridden on Amtrak or in the Northeast corridor? Lautenberg asked. Well, no, Sosa replied. But he pledged to do so if confirmed.
David M. Laney
David Laney specializes in corporate and banking law at Jenkins & Gilchrist. Then-Governor George W. Bush appointed him as a Texas Department of Transportation Commissioner in 1995. As a Bush transportation point man, Laney lashed out in 2000 against federal rules that slash federal highway funds to cities that flunk federal air standards and fail to produce credible compliance plans. Laney said such “draconian” measures could create more traffic jams that would pollute the air even more. As president, Bush appointed Laney to the Amtrak board. Jenkins & Gilchrist was the second-largest source of bundled contributions to Bush’s 2000 campaign ($92,400), the Center for Responsive Politics reported in 1999, supplanted only by Vinson & Elkins (see Thomas Marinis). A federal judge ordered Jenkins & Gilchrist in June 2003 to disclose the names of 600 wealthy clients to the Internal Revenue Service. The firm billed at least $72 million to advise these clients on setting up tax shelters that fabricated $2.4 billion worth of tax deductions, according to the IRS. The firm is fighting disclosure, saying that it did not sell bogus tax shelters but merely advised clients on how to do so—a service that it claims is protected by attorney-client privilege. The firm paid $75 million in 2004 to settle a lawsuit filed by clients who alleged that Jenkins & Gilchrist devised the tax shelters, Deutsche Bank (see Jeffrey Amling) executed them and Ernst & Young (see Leslie Brorsen) marketed them to wealthy clients. (Whitehouseforsale.org)
Norman Mineta
Under his "Reform" plan, Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta proposes a zero budget for Amtrak for FY 2006. This will force Amtrak into bankruptcy, and make it discontinue (in Mineta's view) "running trains nobody rides between cities nobody wants to travel between". Mineta claims a better Amtrak will emerge, focused entirely on short-distance corridors. But this plan actually assures there will be
no interstate train service in the United States! (Railtravelnews.com)
Norman Mineta wrote, upon seeing Japan's modern rail system, “But it has not come cheap and Japan's ultra-modern railways have landed it with a historic debt of 28,000bn yen (£153bn). That is roughly equivalent to 200,000 yen (£1,089) for every Japanese man, woman and child.
It is a sum which dwarfs the $4bn (£2.6bn) which hangs around the neck of the beleaguered Amtrak, the giant US rail company which was set up as a non-profit corporation in 1971.
I looked into Amtrak's boardroom, and I was embarrassed. They are all undressed and elderly and it shows. They're all naked and wrinkled, and it's not a pretty sight.
Frank
ps. We've all heard the terrible warnings about the risk of an influenza pandemic from an avian flu virus. But the Bush administration official in charge of making sure America is ready has no experience related to his job, he's a political appointee. Stewart Simonson is the Bush administration's point man for a flu pandemic, but he has no public health management experience. He got his job because he is a close associate of former Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
Heaven help us.
Frank
Intercity passenger rail service in the US truly has been trivialized, outside the NEC, Left Coast, and Chicago. Even the Empire Builder is viewed, outside of our little circle here, as just a "cruise ship on rails." I'm not saying I view it that way, or the folks of Montana view it that way; just that Mr. Average American views it that way.
