Re: Shoe story media missed
Hey my back feels better now so pretty soon ill be back in shape and ill take on the pres 1 on 1. I wonder how tall he is.
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Re: Shoe story media missed
The hoopster in chief plays basketball on Sunday at the Department of Interior.
Posted February 28, 2009 3:15 PM
President Barack Obama, returns to the White House after playing a game of basketball with members of his staff and guests at Interior. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
by Mark Silva
President George W. Bush had his mountain bike.
President Barack Obama has his basketball.
The former president would slip out of the White House on a Saturday morning, if slipping entails a high-speed motorcade, and head for the woods.
This morning, on a cold and overcast day in Washington, the president and friend Marty Nesbitt (pictured here), wearing sweat suits, climbed into the presidential SUV at the White House for a short ride around the Ellipse in a slow-speed motorcade to the Department of Interior.
Obama aide Reggie Love, riding in another SUV, carried the first basketball.
"Who knew they had a basketball court?'' the Dallas Morning News' Todd Gillman, performing Saturday pool duty, wrote of the trip.
Like the former president's weekly bike rides, which were performed out of eyesight of the pool reporters, the president's game on the court at Interior was played in private. The outing ran a little under two hours.
It might have been a rough game: Nesbitt, who had joined the president in taking in a game of the Bulls and Wizards the night before at the Verizon Center, wore a brace on his right leg and walked with a limp as they returned to the White House.
Press aide Ben Finkenbinder's T-shirt was darkened with sweat from his first basketball game with the boss, and played the event like a dutiful press aide would: No details on the players, score or highlights of the game.
(Photo of the president's friend, Martin Nesbitt, returning to the White House after a basketball game at the Deparment of Interior, by Pablo Martinez Monsivais) / AP. With thanks to print pooler Todd Gillman).Leave a comment:
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Re: Shoe story media missed
Last edited by freakyfreaky; 02-27-2009, 11:19 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: Shoe story media missed
Completely off point, except that, the next time the Prez is in LA he may want to consider visting one of these Armenian cobblers to fix those holes in his shoes.
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL
Shoe repair shops bring new life and style to classic bags, heels
Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times
REINVENTED: “It’s taking what’s there and making something new out of it,” says Pasquale Fabrizio.
Among L.A.'s favorites for high-end repairs and remakes are Pasquale Shoe Repair, Arturo's Shoe Fix, Shoe Wiz 22 and Eddie's Shoe Repair.
By Melissa Magsaysay
February 22, 2009
Serene Cicora craved a new black bag last fall, but couldn't come to terms with the $1,000-plus price tags on the styles she liked. So Cicora, an L.A. publicist, took her brown Mulberry Bayswater bag from several seasons ago and spent $120 to have it dyed black. The makeover gave her a key "new" piece -- and moved her $1,800 bag back to the front of the closet.
Such accessory updates are simple, and they're a smart way to extend the life of basic pieces, customize sale finds or reinvent something for a new season. A brown hobo bag, for example, loses the bohemian vibe when dyed black or deep gray. It can get even more sophisticated if you replace the rustic brass hardware with pewter or brushed silver.
We've found four local cobblers who don't just fix shoes and bags, but also rework, reconstruct and update them. They can restyle a pump, turn a gladiator sandal into a T-bar and give a trendy clutch new life as a classic evening bag.
Pasquale Shoe Repair
5616 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 936-6883. 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday.
Pasquale Fabrizio took over his uncle's shoe-repair business 15 years ago and now owns and operates the 50-year-old shop, nestled on a residential corner along San Vicente Boulevard. A lot of high-end items come through his work area, especially with the Christian Louboutin and Marc Jacobs boutiques funneling their repairs to him. And lately, he's had a lot of requests for makeovers of older pieces. "Not everyone can buy the latest thing," he says, "but you can buy last season for the look, and with a little tweaking, it can be right."
Fabrizio specializes in dying leathers, and I recently took in a pair of burnt sienna Frye boots to see if I could give them a motorcycle boot vibe. Fabrizio dyed them black, then distressed them so the finish wasn't too shiny or, well, too dyed-looking. The dye was $95, the distressing cost $45, and I got "new" boots for $140 when a comparable pair would have been no less than $250.
Fabrizio took a couple pairs of Manolo Blahnik pumps from simple to shocking for a customer who needed something new. "They were tan and brown before and I made them bright green and bright red. The green suede really jumps out -- it's taking what's there and making something new out of it," he says.
He warns that the more complicated the job or delicate the leather, the more skilled the cobbler must be. "It's like fixing a Ferrari," he says. "You can't just drop it off at some garage." The "Ferraris" he services come in the form of Cartier bags, Prada totes and Louboutin pumps. He notes that, lately, some people are asking that designer logos be removed. "They don't want the flashiness but do want the quality," he says. "They don't want the name but want the look and style. Perhaps there's a certain guilt associated with the labels."
Arturo's Shoe Fix
9643 Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. (310) 278-9585. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, closed Sunday.
Owner Arturo Azinian has been in the shoe repair business for 50 years and, at 82, still works in the Beverly Hills shop that has long been a favorite with the area's high-end clientele. Azinian's grandson Ari Libaridian works alongside him as the shop manager.
"Most of the orders we have right now are older things that people have worn just once or twice or maybe not at all," says Libaridian, who adds that the shop is up for any challenge and can "turn a pointed toe into a peep toe," restructuring a shoe and breathing new life into the design.
The purses they treat are usually items that cleaning can't restore. "Once those light-colored Balenciaga bags get dirty, you'll compromise the finish and leather if you keep cleaning it," Libaridian says. "Dying it darker will look more natural than trying to get it back to the original color."
The most common repair at Arturo's is a heel tap, which runs $10, but they also put on a lot of "dancing soles" -- a thin piece of rubber placed on the sole under the ball area of the foot. They offer a red dancing sole too, so women won't have to worry about unsightly black rubber eclipsing the signature red sole of their Louboutin shoes. The red soles last three to four months and go for $30 for a full sole and $28 for half.
Shoe Wiz 22
Beverly Connection, 100 N. La Cienega Blvd., Suite 106, Los Angeles. (310) 657-5010. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Cash Feschyan knows how much wear and tear shoes can go through. In addition to repairing the broken buckles and stubborn zippers on merchandise sent over from the Aldo, Nine West and Charles David stores in the Beverly Center, he tends the soles that take a beating on "Dancing With the Stars" and the tours of Madonna and Janet Jackson.
A cobbler for 15 years, Feschyan learned the skill from his grandfather and now owns three repair shops, including one in the Beverly Connection, where he's most often found.
Currently, his most requested alteration is for re-creating the look and fit of fall boots. "A lot of women buy boots, and the shaft" -- the portion that goes over the calf -- "might be too tight or maybe too loose," says Feschyan. "I can shorten, lower, tighten or make the boot's shaft bigger." Translation: Those sexy knee-high boots from a few seasons ago can get cropped down to kicky little ankle boots for a more current look.
Eddie's Shoe Repair
13716 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. (818) 789-1972. 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday.
As the third-generation owner and cobbler at Eddie's Shoe Repair in Sherman Oaks, Greg Papazian understands his customers' biggest shoe concerns.
"We maintain shoe collections," he says. "Our customers want preventative care. We replace the plastic sole with rubber, protect, polish and waterproof the whole shoe."
Eddie's has been maintaining shoes from what's now Macy's and Bloomingdale's in Sherman Oaks for the last 40 years, but has recently seen fewer new designer pieces come through its doors for tweaking. "I think people are feeling better renewing what they already have rather than going out and buying something new," he says.
His customers have been bringing in shoes in shocking shades such as fuchsia for maintenance, but as soon as the color can no longer be kept up through protection and cleaning, they make a choice to go darker. "An alternative is to go to a black or dark brown with the item," he says. "You end up getting more life out of it."
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Re: Shoe story media missed
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Thomas B. Edsall [email protected] | HuffPost Reporting From DC
Gimme Shelter: Tax Evasion And The Obama Administration
February 23, 2009 08:40 AM
If government watchdogs -- determined to root out waste, fraud and abuse -- want to go after big game, they should skip chasing nickel-dime welfare cheats, and learn from an IRS foray into Miami's exclusive Art Basel festival -- the annual December event sponsored by Davidoff cigars, Cartier, Net Jet and, of course, banking giant UBS -- where wealthy patrons forge the 'relationships' that will enable them to avoid sharing their hard-earned income with Uncle Sam.
For UBS, sponsorship of Art Basel has done more than burnish the Swiss wealth management specialist's corporate image. It has been an opportunity to make money, and lots of it, wooing clients (perhaps better described as co-conspirators) seeking advice on tax shelters.
It's not just a Swiss thing. As watchdogs get a taste for pursuing tax scams, they are exploring some intriguing findings by the Government Accountability Office. A 2008 GAO study shows that 83 of the top publicly held U.S. companies have set up operations in such tax havens as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and the Virgin Islands. In addition, 14 of the corporations with operations in tax-haven countries are beneficiaries of the current $700 billion government bailout, including American International Group (AIG), Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.
The GAO report and the activities of UBS at Art Basel both go directly to the issue of tax avoidance.
A unique combination of events -- the GAO report, the economic collapse, the bank bailout, the pressure to raise federal revenues without hiking taxes, and a series of tax fraud indictments in Southern Florida -- has set the stage for what could become a serious assault on tax shelters, tax havens, tax loopholes, tax evasion, and what are known to economists as "tax expenditures."
For those determined to wring out every drop of "waste, fraud and abuse" from the federal budget, blocking and restricting tax evasion offers the potential of boosting revenues by multiples of billions. One tax break that looks to be a particularly inviting target, for example, allows companies to avoid paying taxes on overseas income until they bring the money back to the US. Obama and others have attacked this break as a federally subsidized incentive to invest abroad. If left intact, this provision will cost the federal government $56.4 billion from 2008 to 2012, according to Congressional tax analysts.
Or take the case of the festivities at Miami's Art Basel, where the fabulously rich spend the tax dollars they have 'conserved' on everything from $1.5 million De Koonings to $1,500 hookers, as chronicled by Conde Nast Portfolio's Jay McInerney.
Until February 19, 2009, when UBS for the first time agreed to release to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) an as yet undetermined number of the names of bank account holders, the closed-door private Miami sessions sponsored by UBS were not just opportunities for people with a lot of extra cash to get tips on hot artists. They were also events where rich people could learn how to avoid paying taxes altogether.
UBS offers put to shame more traditional tax shelters. UBS folks presented to some very receptive Americans ways to avoid paying anything to the IRS, taking advantage of the bank secrecy rules in Switzerland and Lichtenstein.
The one hitch was that the schemes were illegal. But, the UBS folks noted, they had ways to structure transfers from phony Bermuda and Cayman Island accounts to overseas accounts held by shell corporations that were so complex and arcane that U. S. authorities -- mired in confusion -- would give up the chase.
An estimated $20 billion flowed from American clients into UBS tax avoidance schemes in recent years, according to DOJ officials. If, conservatively, just 30 percent of that amount should have been paid in taxes, these scams saved the well-to-do clients of UBS just under $7 billion.
The only problem was that in 2004 a relatively small crack opened up in the scheme. That year, the IRS and the Justice Department found out that Bradley Birkenfeld, a US citizen working for UBS, and Mario Staggl, a Lichtenstein resident, had devised a tax evasion plan for Igor M. Olenicoff, a billionaire California developer.
The Birkenfeld indictment does not spell out who talked first, but Olenicoff, who pleaded guilty on December 13, 2007, to a charge of filing a false tax return, and who eventually paid $52 million in back taxes, later filed a lawsuit against UBS that accused Birkenfeld of luring him into an illegal tax scheme.
The who-fingered-who dispute is, however, secondary to what followed. South Florida U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta has moved steadily up the chain to reach the top management of UBS, and, more significantly, to force unprecedented disclosure of the identity of thousands of U.S. taxpayers who took up the UBS offer to cheat on their taxes -- an extraordinary setback for Swiss banking authorities who have guarded their clients names for centuries, and whose business has been built on the rock of the once-sacred promise of secrecy .
"In an unprecedented move, UBS, based on an order by the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA), has agreed to immediately provide the United States government with the identities of, and account information for, certain United States customers of UBS's cross-border business," the DOJ proudly declared on February 18 of this year.
An undetermined number -- anywhere from just 250 to 19,000 -- of US taxpayers with Swiss bank accounts face the prospect of IRS examination of their bank documents with an eye to prosecution and/or civil litigation of the account holders. The DOJ, in addition, on February 19 -- the day after reaching an initial settlement with UBS -- demanded UBS bank account documents for a total of 52,000 additional depositors.
Swiss banking authorities are claiming that their guarantee of absolute banking privacy will somehow survive this attack -- "Banking secrecy remains intact," declared Hans-Rudolf Merz, Switzerland's president and its finance minister.
That is small comfort to the uncounted thousands of folks in the United States, potentially subject to criminal charges, who are using other banks and shell accounts in Switzerland and in select countries with a history of safeguarding the names of banking customers. As the Asset Protection Law Center (a California law firm which advertises itself as "A complete reference source on offshore trusts, family limited partnerships, limited liability companies and advanced asset protection strategies") helpfully points out, European countries with bank secrecy laws include:
"Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Channel Islands, and Gibraltar. In the Caribbean, the established havens are the Bahamas, Bermuda, and the Cayman Islands. Some of the newer entries such as the Cook Islands and Turks and Caicos now provide legitimate bank secrecy products." The $20 billion salted away by Americans at UBS only touches the surface of the use of countries with bank secrecy protections to evade US taxation.
There is, however, much more money escaping taxation through entirely legal means -- through provisions in the U.S. tax code -- and there is an accurate accounting of the revenues that are lost. Every year, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation puts out an illuminating but little-read document with the bestselling title "Estimates of Federal Tax Expenditures," subtitled this year, "For Fiscal Years 2008-2012."
While few people read this slender publication, it is a bible to two very wonkish constituencies: tax reformers who, in the main, hate "tax expenditures," and tax lobbyists and lawyers, who, in the main, love them. And behind every tax expenditure, there is a constituency -- ranging from the 1.3 million member National Association of Realtors to the 184-member National Indian Gaming Association.
The list of tax expenditures fills 28 pages of small type, and runs the gamut from the mortgage interest deduction, which will reduce federal revenues by an estimated $443.6 billion from 2008 to 2012 and is politically inviolable, to the exclusion from taxation of housing provided for ministers at a five year cost of $3.3 billion -- also unlikely to be challenged by elected officials.
There are, in addition to the $56.4 billion break for corporations that delay repatriating foreign profits, a host of ripe targets, especially for a new Democratic administration determined to cut the deficit in half by 2012. Congress has incrementally enacted a Byzantine collection of 39 energy tax breaks in what amounts to a piecemeal energy policy costing $29 billion over five years, affecting every industry from wind to coal. Any tax expert worth his or her salt could advise ways in which to cut this tax expenditure in half -- although there is no guarantee that Congress would go along.
With Obama now on the hunt for revenue, the Joint Committee's publication is very likely to become a bestseller, at least on Washington's K Street. It might be something the sponsors of Art Basel should consider handing out on an annual basis. The tax expenditures described in the government volume provide not only ideas for direct tax breaks, but also material for tax lawyers and accountants to structure new tax shelters -- a process that continues regardless of the actions of Congress.Last edited by freakyfreaky; 02-24-2009, 01:25 AM.Leave a comment:
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Last edited by freakyfreaky; 02-23-2009, 10:21 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: Shoe story media missed
2/10/07 Barack Obama announces his candidacy for POTUS. http://www.barackobama.com/2007/02/1...ck_obam_11.php
2/17/07 Obama co-authors the Stop the Tax Haven Abuse Act with Senators Levin and Coleman. http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=269479
9/18/07 Obama speaks on tax fairness to middle class. Identifies offshore tax havens as problem. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS...s.taxfairness/
"We've got a shift in our tax values that disproportionately benefits the wealthiest Americans; corporate carve-outs that serve no national purpose; tax breaks that allow companies to stash their profits overseas; a government that's paralyzed when dealing with offshore tax haven countries; an overloaded tax code that's too complicated for ordinary folks to understand, but just complicated enough to work for someone who knows how to work the system."
9/22/08 - Obama campaigns in Green Bay, WI and promises to shut down offshore tax havens. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...201500_pf.html
"And for all his talk about earmark abuse, what Senator McCain doesn't mention these days is the corporate abuse of our tax system - abuse that has cost far more than earmarks ever have. In 2003, loopholes and tax breaks allowed 28 major corporations to actually have negative tax liabilities. We lose $100 billion every year because corporations get to set up mailboxes offshore so they can avoid paying a dime of taxes in America. Imagine if you got to do that? There is a building right now in the Cayman Islands that is the address for 18,000 corporations. Well that is either the biggest building in the world or the biggest sham in the world, and I think we know which one it is. I will shut down those offshore tax havens and all those corporate loopholes as President, because you shouldn't have to pay higher taxes because some big corporation cut corners to avoid paying theirs. All of us have a responsibility to pay our fair share. That's putting country first."
Ending Tax Haven Abuse remains on President Obama's agenda for fiscal discipline.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/fiscal/ ("Building on his bipartisan work in the Senate, Obama will give the Treasury Department the tools it needs to stop the abuse of tax shelters and offshore tax havens and help close the $350 billion tax gap between taxes owed and taxes paid.")
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Subway to Venus. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQVmqVkzHE
Magic Johnson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA6KR...eature=relatedLeave a comment:
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Re: Shoe story media missed
Hey kid, how do you like my new shoe?
PHOENIX (AP) - What's the ideal gift for a basketball-obsessed president? Try a size 23 sneaker personally autographed by Shaquille O'Neal.
The Phoenix Suns center couldn't be around himself when President Barack Obama arrived at Sky Harbor International Airport Tuesday afternoon. So when the president stepped off of Air Force One, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon's son Jake made the presentation at the foot of the stairs.
The orange-and-white sneaker made a big impression.
Obama set it on the ground next to his own, much smaller shoe, and grinned as photographers captured the moment. Then Obama scooped it up and took it with him as he stepped into the presidential limo.
On Sunday, O'Neal shared MVP honors with Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers.
What he really needs is a good Armenian cobbler.
Obama shoes, they are the new sensation.
Last edited by freakyfreaky; 02-23-2009, 10:04 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: Shoe story media missed
The audacity of hoops: what does the Prez's basketball skills say about his ability to lead? Perhaps, that he has trouble going to his right. http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/play...hp?cl=12050613
Bryant Gumbel interviews Democratic presidential primary candidate Obaba about basketball and politics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Lqm5emQl4Last edited by freakyfreaky; 02-16-2009, 02:16 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: Shoe story media missed
Something I wrote before 9/11. http://web.archive.org/web/200108161....cgi?read=1133
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Welcome to the Green Scare - my indy smash hit from 2001
Ladies, gentlemen and others:
The Red Scare was the U.S. crackdown on "communists". It was really more like a campaign to promote political agenda while discarding of "undesirables" as identified by J. Edgar Hoover, McCarthy and their friends.
On the other hand, the confirmed mutual effort of the U.S. and the OECD to reign in "offshore" jurisdictions worldwide appears to some to be merely a crackdown on overzealous "capitalists".
Supporters of this global campaign likely argue that this pursuit of money launderers, tax cheats and other white collar criminals, known and unknown, and to their booty stashed abroad is long overdue.
If we are truly witnessing the origin of the "green" scare, its genesis is probably rooted in the following factors:
1. The proliferation of tax evaders aided by shoddy and shady promoters/providers of "offshore financial vehicles";
2. The advancement of technology including the use of the internet to market fraudulent schemes and conduct financial transactions within mouseclicks of one another;
3. The paranoia that the taxpayers of first world tax nations are going offshoe with the overall purpose of defrauding governments;
4. The increase of specific individuals (Harris, Van Brink, Schneider, etc.) having substantial influence or contorl over small, scarcely populated, isolated island sovereignties;
5. The overuse of offshore tax havens by criminals, including, in speculation, terrorists, to launder money and safe harbor "ill-gotten" gains or the fear that this can occur if these jurisdictions are not adequeately monitored and forced to self-police;
6. Offshore promoters, providers, consultants, etc. publicly accusing each other of conducting shams;
7. World leaders and politicians jockeying for position, status and prolonged "power" professions by taking opposite sides on this "offshore" issue and casting accusations too;
8. Politicians and other public figures identified as "unknowing" promoters of known shady figures in the dark side of the "offshore" market;
9. The braggadaccio of tax lawyers, accountants, and financial brokers in marketing illegal financial products to others at seminars across the world;
10. The belief that the burgeoning amount of monies "offshore" has, or will have, a detrimental effect on the fiscal future of first world tax nations and other emerging nations.
In the U.S., President Clinton went "all in" on the OECD'S hand to scare tax havens clean as part of his campaign to purge the U.S. of passive or agressive tax protesters and other like offenders.
During the Bush Administration, the "green" scare will probably continue for political and economic reasons and maybe even national security. For instance, Treasury Secretary O'Neill has succumbed to the power wielded by a Democrat controlled Senate and Bush has realized that his overall agenda will fail horribly without concessions.
Moreover, President Bush may even be snickering to himself over the thought that he may gain support, and another four years perchance, from the middle class for taking down a couple U.S. attorneys and other wealthy businessmen on Bill Clinton's populist coattails.
Arguably, the aftermath of the global "green" scare is that the lives of many will be ruined by a small number of people - the perpetrators and the politicians.
In conclusion, you are all invited to witness the fiscal cleansing of the "offshore" world. Welcome to the Green Scare.
I'm Lloyd Daniels and I'm on the "A" Train!!! Moo!!! Traveling in an unidentified cattle car with no credentials!!! Do you have any credentials for sale?
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The "Green Scare" concept was taken up by ELF and others worried about the war on dissent in 2002.
Last edited by freakyfreaky; 03-08-2009, 10:49 AM.Leave a comment:
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