President fingers Susan Schwab

Today the President fingered Susan Schwab to take over from Porter as No 1 Trade negotiator. Let's hope she has no more tax problems to blame on Calpine and her accountant.

Susan Schwab became the No. 2 trade negotiator in November 2005 after leaving her posts as professor and earlier as a dean at the University of Maryland sha was also a Director of Calpine Ltd.,

In October 2003, Schwab withdrew her nomination to be Deputy Treasury Secretary for personal reasons, which the Wall Street Journal later said were possible questions about her tax returns.

In November 2000, Schwab exercised options to buy 20,000 Calpine shares and then sold 17,500 of them, receiving an income of about $1.5 million, the Journal reported Nov. 3, 2003. Her tax return made it appear she wasn't obligated to pay Medicare taxes of about $45,000 and the remaining 2,500 shares yielded another $210,000 of income she didn't initially report, the newspaper said.

Schwab blamed the non-payments on poor advice from her accountants and bad record-keeping by Calpine, the newspaper said. hey, US$1.5 Mn ..shit happens baby!

Schwab also was a director in corporate business development of Motorola Inc. from 1993 to 1995. She previously served in the first Bush administration as an assistant Commerce Department secretary from 1989 to 1993. (Evidently didn't take Tax 101)

It is perhaps interesting to note that as second to Porter she went to a meeting of the Presidents Export Council at which By Honorable Carlos M. Gutierrez Secretary of Commerce said , "We believe, again, that it is all about responsible tax policies. The last thing we need today is a tax increase. One thing I would just say, is not passing and not making the President's tax cuts permanent would be equivalent to a tax increase." something Susan Schwab would no doubt heartily endorse not having taken Tax 101. (anyway the record shows she didn't object).

What it does record is Andy Card whose resignation started off the Schwab / Porter / Bolten / Card "reshuffle" as the Press calls it saying what happened when he spoke to the Pres. on the morning of 9.11 in that Florida Schoolroom - which as far as I know has never been told before ...

"But I whispered into the President's ear, on a pretty historic day, unfortunately, a day of infamy, not unlike tomorrow's day of infamy (? sic), when I said, "A second plane to the second tower in America is under attack." That was in a classroom at a school in Florida. It was September 11th, a beautiful, sunny day in 2001. So that means when he went in the room he knew that the first plane had hit ? Hmmmm.

Anyway that's something Susan can talk to Andrew about now that he's got the time to talk about it. But then maybe not.

For more about Calpine and it's clean air (they are getting rid of the dirty power stations in concentrating on their core business by the way. Hence the nifty logo at the top. (pic Maryland U faculty of SS where they say Schwab spent most of the 1980s as a trade policy specialist and legislative director for Senator John Danforth playing a major role in numerous U.S. trade policy initiatives, including landmark trade legislation that Congress enacted in 1984 and 1988. Thomas Eagleton called Danforth "the least-phony politician that I know". More about St. Dan here)

US / Russian WTO talks - deal done on net music piracy

Russia wants to obtain membership of the World Trade Organisation.

Allofmp3.com -- is an easily accessible online music store that sells inexpensive songs, unencumbered by copy protection based in Russia owned by Mediaservices . (see their FAQ's about copyright) CIO Vadim Mamotin interview here.

The US have taken the opportunity of Russia's application to slot in RIAA's demands to shut down Allofmp3.com - who are breaking no Russian laws. The US have been successful however in putting the pressure on the credit card companies (see Visa / Mastercard shut out on AllofMP3) based in the US to close down what they see as net pirates - see their success in stopping US based gamblers gambling on online US sports / political events.

The game is given away by a letter, "Results of Bilateral Negotiations on Russia's Accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Action on Critical IPR Issues November 19, 2006"

"The United States and Russia have agreed on a binding blueprint for actions that Russia will take to address piracy and counterfeiting and improve protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR), both stated priorities of the Russian Government, starting immediately."

"The agreement requires action on critical IPR issues, including:
• fighting optical disc piracy;
• fighting Internet piracy;
• protecting pharmaceutical test data;
• deterring piracy and counterfeiting through criminal penalties;
• strengthening border enforcement against piracy and counterfeiting;
• bringing Russia’s laws into compliance with the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) and other international IPR standards; and
• continuing training and bilateral cooperation on IPR protection."

"Russia has provided information showing that through September, Russian authorities continue their efforts on IPR enforcement, with raids at comparable levels to last year. We believe that Russia is committed to more aggressive actions before the end of the year."

"The bilateral agreement calls for stronger enforcement. The U.S. Government will continue working with stakeholders to closely monitor implementation of Russia’s commitments."

Nothing is going to happen overnight - perhaps the operation will just move overseas - Antigua - Costa Rica .. Gibraltar who knows.

Of course, ultimately the US authorities main concern - like the UK's, is to suppress the expression of political dissent and inconvenient truths. Tony Blair's "Terrorism - it's a 12 step program" last August outlined plans (as yet not implemented) to draw up of specific extremist websites, bookshops, centres, networks and particular organisations of concern. Active engagement with any of these will be a trigger for the Home Secretary to consider the deportation of any foreign national.

Matthew Taylor described as the retiring Government chief strategy adviser, spoke at an e-democracy conference last week about "the end of deference, the rapid pace of social change and growing diversity." All "good" things, he argued, but they also meant governments found it increasingly difficult to govern.

"We have a citizenry which can be caricatured as being increasingly unwilling to be governed but not yet capable of self-government," Mr Taylor told the audience. He then derided internet blogging critics of the Government as "teenagers".

It is evident that the US authorities (more at The Register) , guided by U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, have got their heavy boots on....

Meanwhile Vadim Mamotin if you are reading ... don't eat any sushi with someone you don't know very well... because you might not feel very well.