Now the firm is finally suffering for its anti-American behavior. Payback is a bitch, isn't it? (Investment News):
First Command is “imploding” and “losing reps right and left,” said an executive at another broker-dealer, who asked not to be identified. “The leadership of the organization is so extremely into antiquated products, there’s nobody there who knows how to lead them into being a modern company,” the executive said.
[First Command spokesman] Mr. [Mark] Leach did not say how many registered representatives remain affiliated with the firm, but the executive from another broker-dealer, who asked not to be identified, said that First Command had fewer than 300 reps. Last year, the firm confirmed that it had 450 reps.
The article also notes that "Lamar Smith, the firm’s chief executive, has been replaced as chairman by Jim Lanier, a board member who until 2000 worked under Mr. Smith as president."
How did Lamar Smith get access to sell criminally overpriced life insurance to soldiers? Maybe it had something to do with his generous contributions to George W Bush, who needlessly put the soldiers in harm's way in the first place. Allowing First Command to sell such "antiquated" (i.e., criminally overpriced) products was okay in Bush's mind because he pretends to support the troops by wearing uniforms and such. Not only did Bush not support the troops, he let Lamar Smith swindle them.
After five years of war, replacing Lamar Smith now is too little, too late.
If you are a soldier — do not invest with First Command. It's that simple. Not because a liberal blogger said so, but because they charged soldiers on their way to war commissions so disgustingly high they no longer exist in the civilian world. Do you think you deserve to pay an astronomically higher commission than civilians for an investment you probably don't even need?
Ask yourself: Why did First Command stop charging such commissions? Bad conscience keeping them awake at night? Bush administration looking out for the welfare of the troops?
Nah, they just got caught. But not by the Bush government. By the so-called liberal press and the financial services industry itself.
As her lung cancer spread, shortening her breath, pressing into her back, Minna Shakespeare had faith that a thick, brown liquid she bought by mail from a California physician for $13,536 would cure her.
Her husband says Mrs. Shakespeare, a registered nurse and devout Christian in Cambridge, Mass., stopped chemotherapy on the doctor's advice. Easton Shakespeare recalls his wife assuring him that the doctor, who prayed with her over the phone, was trustworthy.
Mrs. Shakespeare died in April 2003, four months after her first dose of the viscous liquid. Her husband's complaints triggered a federal investigation of Christine Daniel, a licensed physician and Pentecostal minister practicing in Mission Hills, Calif. Investigators say she used religion to sell expensive nostrums that she claimed could cure cancer.
Dr. Daniel's small business is part of a boom in "Christian wellness" -- dietary supplements and herbal formulas, sometimes along with diets inspired by Biblical descriptions, that sell briskly in a lightly regulated industry. Sales by religiously affiliated companies have surged since the mid-1990s to account for 5% to 10% of the dietary-supplements business, which had about $21 billion in 2005 sales, says Grant Ferrier, editor of Nutrition Business Journal in San Diego.
The products are heavily promoted on religious TV, radio and Web sites through ads featuring testimonials akin to those that evangelicals share in church services. "Rather than sending money to the guy on TV who promised to heal you, you now can send your money for a book on diet and a list of supplements," says Donal O'Mathuna, a chemist and co-author of a book on alternative medicine.
Federal authorities have identified at least three dozen people who drank Dr. Daniel's mixtures, says a person familiar with the matter. Among those, at least eight people died of cancer, according to a Food and Drug Administration investigator's affidavit. Some patients bypassed conventional therapies for Dr. Daniel's regimen, according to the affidavit, patients and family members.
Snake oil from lying tricksters. Bigotry from closet gropers. Pro-death policies from "pro-life" mouthpieces.
It is time for Christians to shut the fuck up. If you want to pray, do so silently. You are collectively too stupid to deserve a political effect on others' lives, so we nonbelievers will respect you only to the degree that you respect us.
If only we had a rational electorate and an honest president who got blow jobs instead of coded messages from the beyond, telling him to steal everything in the US Treasury for his brethren.
Tanks for the memories. How thoughtful of Georgie Gasbag to recommend that the US cut gasoline consumption by 20 percent, long after its price more than doubled on his watch and his cronies already exited stage right with the highest profits in all of human history.
Miscellaneous other observations:
How many "pro-life" protesters have extended their so-called logic to protest the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians?
How stupid is Liz Cheney?
How great is Libby's implication of The Axis of Cheney-Rove?
And, finally, how many Oscars will Al Gore receive for Inconvenient Truth?
Are you an animal lover; and also an atheist, agnostic, jew, muslim, or other non-Christian? If so, you might qualify for the JesusPets Partner Program! JesusPets will pay YOU to take care of dogs, cats, and other pets. To qualify, you must agree with this statement: I believe it is immoral to have sex with animals, and have no desire to do so.
AUSTIN — At his inauguration, after being sworn into office by the first black chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court — a man he appointed — Gov. Rick Perry spoke wistfully of a tolerant Texas, where "no one is invalidated because of their heritage, but valued because of their humanity."
If you ask critics, the spirit of unity didn't last through the governor's $75-a-ticket inaugural ball, held later Tuesday night at the Austin Convention Center.
Rocking the house as the night's final act was singer Ted Nugent, a friend of Perry's known as the "Motor City Madman." Nugent appeared onstage wearing a cut-off T-shirt emblazoned with the sure-to-draw-headlines Confederate flag and shouting some unflattering remarks about non-English speakers, according to people who were in attendance. His props were machine guns.
Speaking of non-English speakers, won't Nugent be pissed off when he finds out that Michigan was not part of the Confederacy!
Before the euro marked its fifth anniversary Jan. 1, a number of countries demonstrated their trust in the European currency over the U.S. dollar -- a stark contrast to five years ago. The United Arab Emirates, home of the Middle East business epicenter Dubai, said at the end of last year that it would convert some of its reserves into euros from U.S. assets.
That followed Indonesia, Russia, Switzerland and Venezuela making similar moves, and China reportedly is considering a shift in its currency reserves, as well.
Iran and Venezuela also have proposed that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, based in Vienna, Austria, begin selling oil denominated in euros.
All this occurred as the euro rose more than 11% versus the U.S. dollar last year.
"Why should you invest in the U.S. [dollar] if you are Arab or Chinese or somewhere else in the world if you can in the euro?" asked Axel Merk, president of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Merk Investments LLC and manager of its Merk Hard Currency Fund (MERKX), which invests in a basket of hard currencies. The basket is filled mostly with euros.
For the one-year period ended last Monday, the fund, which was launched in May 2005, climbed 7.14%, compared with a 3.28% gain for the average world bond fund.
"The most positive thing for the dollar is, everybody hopes that its decline will be slow and gradual," Mr. Merk said.
Vice President Dick Cheney was scheduled to be in western Pennsylvania Monday for a hunting trip. [...]
Cheney will hunt at the private Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier Township, about 45 miles east of Pittsburgh, where he has hunted several times in recent years for pheasants and ducks.
Cheney will not make any public appearances, but will hunt with some companions that McBride declined to identify.
