As you may have heard by now, Greg Oden, basketball player from The Ohio State University, was the #1 pick in the NBA draft last night. Here is a great story from the Indy Star:
While the Trail Blazers were on the clock with the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, thousands of fans gathered in Portland started chanting "We want Oden!"
Besides being a great basketball player, Greg Oden is a very nice young man. In one of his post selection interviews, he thanked OSU's Coach Thad Matta by saying, "I want to thank Coach Matta because he taught me what it means to be a man." Wow. Nice.
BUSINESSES LOVE PRYCE
If you've ever wondered about Republican Rep. Deborah Pryce's (OH-15) leanings in a battle between regular people vs. business, the following excerpt from MetroCorpCounsel will give you a hint:
Does the Private Equity Model Create Long-Term Value?
In their testimony, Mr. Lowenstein and Mr. Luther responded to Chairman Frank's challenges. They emphasized the constructive nature of private equity investments. Both indicated that the operating model of private equity firms is to restructure the companies they acquire so as to attract future buyers who will pay a premium over acquisition costs. This, they stated, can only be accomplished by growing the company and adding value. They contrasted this to the alternative approach for dealing with troubled companies - liquidation, either inside or outside bankruptcy, accompanied by the piecemeal sale of company assets and the disappearance of facilities, jobs, benefits, and competition.
In support of this perspective, Representative Deborah Pryce (R-OH) voiced her view that many companies are acquired by financial buyers, like private equity firms, as opposed to strategic buyers, precisely because they are "short-term losers" with no alternative access to capital or resources. She said that "a healthy long-term private company is better than a stagnant public one," and maintained that the focus of government policy should be on decreasing the burdens on public companies and not increasing those on private firms. Representative Edward Royce (R-CA) echoed this perspective, suggesting that the recent popularity of private equity investment is a by-product of the regulatory and litigation burdens that are saddling public companies. Representative Royce cited as examples the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and what he characterized as "abusive" shareholder lawsuits.....
Let me emphasize this part......
She (Pryce) said that "a healthy long-term private company is better than a stagnant public one," and maintained that the focus of government policy should be on decreasing the burdens on public companies and not increasing those on private firms.
In brief, Pryce wants to remove government restrictions on private/public businesses and corporations to let them operate how they damn well please. In this manner, she basically says that the rights of individuals and the public at large should be subservient to the rights of business. This kind of talk by Pryce only confirms that she is nothing but a tool of big business, big oil, and pharmaceutical companies.
According to Open Secrets, in the 2006 election, Pryce only received 36.5% of her campaign contributions from individuals and 57.2% came from PACs.
(By the way, Republican Rep. Edward Royce's (CA) remark that calls shareholder lawsuits "abusive" is really an incredible thought. Royce thinks he was elected to protect the rights of businesses, not citizens.)