Dell hit by $1bn lawsuit over alleged kickbacks

Michael Dell, who this week returned to day-to-day control of the troubled computer maker that bears his name, has been slapped with a lawsuit alleging he and the company benefited from billions of dollars in kickbacks from the chip maker Intel.



America's highest-profile class action lawyer, Bill Lerach, filed a suit against Dell, its directors and the accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers, alleging that the company used the payments to prop up quarterly profits.

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friday random ten

Arithmomania Edition


1. "One Hit" - The Knife [Silent Shout]


2. "Two Step" - Throwing Muses [The Real Ramona]


3. "Three Peaches" - Neutral Milk Hotel [On Avery Island]


4. "Four Long Days" - Voxtrot - [Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives]


5. "Five Moments" - The Field Mice [For Keeps]


6. "Six Holes On a Stick" - Deerhoof [Halfbird]


7. "Song Seven" - Swell [41]


8. "Eight Flew Over, One Was Destroyed" - Mew [Frengers]


9. "I Am Nine" - Desperate Bicycles [Remorse Code]


10. "Number Ten" - Casiotone for the Painfully Alone [Pocket Symphonies for Lonesome Subway Cars]

Bonus #11



AH HA HA HA HA!

Rest In Peace Miss Molly

Molly Ivins (1944-2007)

Syndicated political columnist Molly Ivins died of breast cancer Wednesday evening at her home in Austin. She was 62 years old, and had much, much more to give this world.

She remained cheerful despite Texas politics. She emphasized the more hilarious aspects of both state and national government, and consequently never had to write fiction. She said, “Good thing we’ve still got politics—finest form of free entertainment ever invented.”

Molly had a large family, many namesakes, hundreds of close friends, thousands of colleagues and hundreds of thousands of readers.

Bush Commits One Additional Troop To Afghanistan

WASHINGTON, DC—In an effort to display his administration's willingness to fight on all fronts in the War on Terror, President Bush said at a press conference Monday that American ground forces in Afghanistan will be aided by the immediate deployment of Marine Pfc. Tim Ekenberg of Camp Lejeune, NC.

"I want the American people to know that I have not forgotten that our battle for freedom began in Afghanistan, rooting out the extremists of al-Qaeda and the Taliban," Bush said. "Today, I am ordering the deployment of the 325th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Private Tim Ekenberg, to the embattled Kandahar region."

[snip]

Ekenberg is scheduled to arrive in Afghanistan on Friday. His duties include providing full military support for the still-tenuous democratic government, resolving potential conflicts between rival warlords, gathering intelligence for his superiors, delivering humanitarian relief to millions of Afghan citizens displaced by factional warfare, and maintaining a high level of personal physical fitness.

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White House Quietly Retracts Entire State Of The Union Address

WASHINGTON, DC—In a brief statement faxed to major media outlets at approximately 11:50 p.m. Friday, the White House retracted the entire 5,600-word State of the Union address delivered by President Bush last Tuesday. "This includes all components of the address, and is not limited to the president's congratulations to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi or his plan to give more Americans affordable health care through tax cuts, which has since been deemed infeasible," the statement read in part. "Furthermore, the president's urge for bipartisanship as well as his final statement about the state of the union being 'strong' are hereby stricken from the public record." Like the State of the Union address itself, the White House's retraction has not yet become a significant national news story.

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great news for special interests

NYT

President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.

In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.

This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats.