Auto Bailout, Exec Wages, SciFi Ratings, Battle Report and Credit Cards

Bush Approves Auto Bailout - After the Republican's killed auto bailout in an attempt to bust the auto unions (needed but now isn't the time), Bush went ahead and authorized the money anyway; essentially using the bill the House had passed. Grand total the companies will get around $17.4 billion and might keep them afloat until April where they will probably ask for more.

Bailout Went to Executives - In a sign of how much golden parachutes and bonuses have infected company upper managements and the poor choices they make (because no consequences), nearly $1.6 BILLION in pay, bonuses, etc. "The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for 53 of the 116 banks" that took bailout money. This is why any company that accepts bailout money should be required to apply equality rules and equations for salaries, raises, bonuses etc to ALL employees. That means if employees get only a 3% raise based on performance then that is all execs get. If bonuses are only 5% of salary guess what, that’s all execs get. If each job has a pay ceiling, then so do executive positions. Basically the rules of pay get applied to all regardless of title. Probably wouldn't hurt to fire a few CEO's and their lieutenants either since right now all those that made the bad decisions have all been rewarded rather then punished.

SciFi Ratings Up - The SciFi Channel has shown "unprecedented growth for 2008" in viewer ship, pretty much the opposite of sibling NBC. Lots of numbers, but pretty much in the demographics that advertisers like, SciFi is performing well. Its top shows average around 1.5 to 2 million, good for the channel. However, being topped rated doesn't mean a show will not get cancelled. Ironically, Stargate: Atlantis is one of its top five shows yet it was cancelled. I think because NBC's shoddy management and viewer ship resulting in cost cutting measures for all NBC Universal networks that canceling Atlantis (just like SG-1) met. If the Jay Leno plan is any indication, NBC's fortunes are going to remain horrible and SciFi will probably have to make more budget cuts next season.

Starcraft Battle Report - A battle report with commentary as two Blizzard employees go at it in an alpha version of Starcraft II and show off some of the new features and classes in the game.

New Credit Card Rules - Way way late in coming and sadly way way late in taking effect (July 2010), at least there are finally some new rules to curtail the ripping off and nickeling and diming that is now the norm for the credit card industry. Click the links for some of the new rules none of which include an interest rate cap since 30% is just in reasonable and should be illegal.