China gains majority stake in US in debt-for-equity swap

A headline we may see if this Wall Street bailout doesn't work!

Ballmer: Stop worrying and turn off CNBC

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer agrees it’s hard to tell how the Wall Street crisis will play out, but his comments Thursday indicate he thinks tech may be insulated from it.
Ballmer was the guest speaker at a Churchill Club dinner that drew 550 people to the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara.
While members of the Congress, White House and U.S. Treasury Department were pulling their hair out trying to craft a bailout bill to prevent credit markets from collapsing, Ballmer said people he’s close to in the tech industry still see a certain “buoyancy.”
“For now, people in our business are feeling better than if they watched CNBC all day,” he told Ann Winblad, a partner in Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, who interviewed him onstage at the event.
While he admitted that the tech industry is not immune to the changes and challenges in the global economy, the latest crisis on Wall Street hasn’t impacted software companies yet. To be sure, Microsoft had a rosy June quarter, its most recent, with an 18 percent increase in revenue to $15.8 billion, versus the year ago quarter, a 42 percent increase in operating revenue to $5.7 billion and a 48 percent increase in earnings per share to $0.46. Still, that was almost three months ago, when even people like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were telling us everything was under control. It’s hard to believe even a company like Microsoft can be insulated from some adverse effect. If credit markets collapse because no bailout plan is produced or the one created fails, companies will have difficulty borrowing money for operating or capital budgets to be spent on new computer software.
Surprisingly, little was said at the Churchill Club forum about Microsoft’s failed bid to acquire Yahoo earlier this year. Microsoft sought the $31 a share deal to better position itself against search engine leader Google. Yahoo and Microsoft are distant second and third place finishers, respectively.
Ballmer took a few questions from the audience, including one from an obviously irate PC user: “When are you going to fix Windows Vista so it works?” the man asked from the back of the ballroom. Vista has been notoriously buggy since its debut in 2007 and many critics say Vista is proof that operating systems are getting too big and unwieldy for their own good.
“I’ll fix your PC myself so it works,” Ballmer cracked, then argued that Microsoft has 5,000 people continuing to work on improving Vista and said that while people might be having problems with Vista, overall, every new Windows operating systems is better than the preceding one.

Cadmium: The Dark Side of Thin Film

While looking for fulltime employment, I'm making do writing freelance. Here's a post I wrote for the GigaOM-related blog Earth2Tech about the presence of cadmium in solar panels.

Does anybody see a troubling pattern here?

Palin staff won't testify in trooper probe, AG says
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/17/palin.investigation/index.html

Rove ignores committee's subpoena, refuses to testify
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/10/rove.subpoena/index.html

More proof that McCain-Palin will be more of the same from Bush-Cheney.

Spare us the phony belated Hillary sympathy

What a bunch of crap from the McCain-Palin campaign in the form of VP candidate Gov. Sarah Palin's suggestion to ABC's Charles Gibson that Sen. Barack Obama may come to regret not choosing Sen. Hillary Clinton as his running mate. No doubt other GOP surrogates will be repeating that talking point, transparently designed to sow doubt in voter's minds about the Obama-Biden ticket. If Obama had picked Clinton, the GOP would have continued to mercilessly attack her with what I like to call the Hate Hillary Inc. machine. They would be encouraging the media to do stories on supposed dissent within the Obama-Clinton ranks (and sadly, many would take the bait) and would be beating up on Hillary and Bill Clinton just as they have since 1992. Do you think we're going to buy this sympathy and respect for Hillary's "determination and grit" from the same campaign whose nominee, Sen. John McCain, laughed when a supporter asked him "How do we beat the bitch?"
Oh, and stop saying that Palin has foreign policy experience because Alaska is close to Russia (or as Tina Fey so brilliantly put it on SNL, "I can see Russia from my house!") That's like saying I'm experienced because I had a Stoly martini once.
Read this story about how vindictive Palin was as mayor of Wasilla and as Governor of Alaska, firing political adversaries and using personal e-mail for official business so it couldn't be subpoenaed in any possible investigation. I'm not opposed to Palin because I'm sexist; I voted for Hillary Clinton in the California primary. I'm opposed to Palin's candidacy because she is by every measure, unqualified for the VP or, if it comes to that, president.

Time to dust this blog off and fire it up

I started this blog almost a year ago but after a few postings, its importance drifted away. I started Mullico Musings to talk about technology, my career field of journalism, and politics, with maybe a little pop culture mixed in. I think it's time for me to resume blogging here. I have another (relatively) more active blog about my extended family, McCorryFamilyUSA
I started Mullico Musings to talk about technology, my field of journalism, and politics, maybe a little pop culture. It's time for more of that, especially with what I think is at stake in the upcoming presidential election.
But first, on technology, I'm currently freelancing while looking for fulltime employment. I just had a story of mine posted on SearchFinancialSecurity.com about a security breach at Citibank's ATM network. Hope you find it interesting. It was interesting for me to report it.

Chelsea ineligible for third term as First Daughter

Chelsea Clinton would be ineligible under the 25th Amendment to serve a third term as First Daughter if her mother, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), is elected president, constitutional scholars say.
Ms. Clinton served as First Daughter from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton, thus serving the maximum two terms allowed under the 25th Amendment, said William Wainwright, professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University. Her parents would be eligible to return to the White House if Sen. Clinton is elected in November as they would be serving different roles than in the first Clinton administration, Wainwright explained. Hillary would be president instead of First Lady and Bill would be First Gentleman, "or something like that."
But as for Chelsea, "Sorry, but she's out," said Rupert Heffernan, dean of the Stanford University School of Constitutional Studies. "The 25th Amendment was designed to prevent someone from holding an office too long and amassing too much power. I hope she's not too disappointed."
Ineligibility for First Daughter would deprive Ms. Clinton of the many perks associated with the office, including free housing, use of a Secret Service driver and availability of the White House for "awesome" parties.
Reached on the campaign trail with her parents, Ms. Clinton immediately suspended licking envelopes and other campaign activities.
"This sucks," Ms. Clinton reportedly told the candidate. "Mom, how about a cabinet post?"