Jay Bookman

By Taxpayer

July 9, 2008 8:58 AM | Link to this

Mr. Bookman,

Your points are well taken. That is why I would merely include this in a long list of examples of greed, incompetence, corruption, etc., in both public and private institutions. As you indicate, this example is “mild” compared to many others. Still, it’s not an excuse. The real question is how do we initiate a change for the better or can we? People are people.

By hillbilly ragger

July 9, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this

Jay, that’s an interesting point, this whole shift-of-outrage depending upon whether a perceived unfairly generous buyout is in the public or private sector. May it generate some rational discussion.

I’ll bring up a semi-related point, just to throw out there. I’ve noticed that many of the free-marketeers who are fine with American CEO pay being way higher than we find in other industrialized countries, and who don’t dispair over golden parachutes—yet they are (not all, but often) absolutely bat-crap crazy when you bring up professional athlete compensation.

What’s up with that? Why shouldn’t a ballplayer negotiate the best deal for him/herself? why shouldn’t a team pay a market rate? Why are there salary caps? Why do free-marketers turn Commie when it comes to the business of sports?

Ok, done stirrin’ the pot for now. ‘later.

By Observer

July 9, 2008 9:36 AM | Link to this

Jay, I agree whole-heartedly with point #1. As I was reading it I was wondering how you were going to spin this story into liberal vs. conservative / socialist vs. capitalism rant. Then I read point #2.

While I agree that the numbers would have certainly been higher in the private sector, assuming the pints made in #1 remain constant, the CEO in question would wind up in jail (does the name Ken Lay ring a bell).

Neither the public nor private sectors hold a patent on corruption. The difference is that it’s usually swept under the rug in the public sector and dealt with (granted, usually at great expense) in the private sector.

The real issue is that what happened at Grady was wrong. Period. No liberal spin. No conservative spin. Just wrong.

By James Winslo

July 9, 2008 9:40 AM | Link to this

GRADY IS SHADY !

By Cotton Gin Rummy

July 9, 2008 9:56 AM | Link to this

Okay, Bookman, one more thing, then I’ll stop trying to save the world from hacks.

Bookman wrote: “Yeah, right”. (Hey everybody, Bookman is doing Conan Obrian!!!)

Every joke Conan has ever told: “The FDA just issued a warning about produce. They claim that pesticides cant be washed off, boiled off, or even peeled off. Yeah, right. That’s the bad news…….The good news is Black Flag has five new flavors!”

Quit writing the way words sound. Words read differently to readers than they sound to listeners. The power of words depend on the media. Sorry, pal, but it’s true. That’s why some writers cant write speeches, and why other writers cant write copy. (and why most writers do better with fingerpaint)

Okay, I’m done peeing in ragger’s stirred up pot.

By Wild Bill Hiltner

July 9, 2008 10:10 AM | Link to this

Jay, Jay, Jay, now there you go again. PS was the chairman of the board when she, who was totally unqualified for the position and never would have been considered for hire at a like institution, in effect, awarded herself a secretive, sweethart deal. The guys we praise for, in your words, “getting what she could” are people like Bob Nardelli would had a track record of accomplishment and conducted a very effective auction for his talents when he was at the top of the market. (BTW, for all the naysayers, has Home Depot done better or worse since Bob left?) The real question, and also the one a liberal such as thy would never address, is are there any examples of such a brazen (one could almost say, audacious in its hope, eh?, inappropriate grab for riches in governments run by white people, or is this, ancecdotally or otherwise, endemic only to minority controlled governments?

ps - If you delete my post for speaking that which shan’t be spoken in liberal society, please forgive me as I tried to raise the issue with candor and goodtwill.

By El Kabong

July 9, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this

Is the Grady CEO job open? I have an accounting degree! Am I qualified? If so, where do I apply?

By Believer

July 9, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this

You must be doing something right — they keep coming back, Mr. Bookman. I guess it doesn’t really matter in the final tally (You did say that you get paid based on the number of posts, right?). Whether the attraction is flies to honey or stink on manure (just an expression, not an opinion), they keep coming back and that’s what counts in the end, isn’t it? So, please continue to plant those cotton seeds and don’t worry about that crotchety old gin. After all, the boll weevil may have forced the cotton gin to lose its day job but that doesn’t mean that the machine can’t be modified for a different purpose.

Yeah, right.

By Dusty

July 9, 2008 10:32 AM | Link to this

Well, Bookman,

I am glad you brought this issue into a better light. Just reading over the link you gave makes me angry.

For a temporary director to receive a fabulous salary, a months vacation the first year, and everything from cars to computers furnished…all this from an institution running short of MONEY….just plain foolish.

Ms. Stephenson was placed in charge of Grady because she UNDERSTOOD Grady, state law and government aid issues. Now… this is a MEDICAL FACILITY. Is it too much to ask for a learned person in MEDICINE to run the place? We have a doctor running CDC. We have doctors running most government health related agencies. But Grady HOSPITAL has a LAWYER running the place.

And what a board. Only one person even remembers seeing the luscious contract given to Ms. Stephenson!!

Hey, I think I will go apply for the job of running Grady. I UNDERSTAND Grady and I certainly do understand BIG SALARIES. All in favor say “Aye”!!

By Spellcheck

July 9, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

Dusty’s doing the best she can……

By Tom

July 9, 2008 11:36 AM | Link to this

For Grady to be in such dire straights, this is outrageous that #1 they would offer and #2 that she would accept—-shame on them all!!!! And #3 that no one still has learned the lesson as to Grady. Too bad the Woodruff Foundation wasted millions to save the institution when it is really not going to be run and has not been run any differently…just more big bucks down the drain and then all those who drain society and who drain Grady will continue. That money could have been put to much better use elsewhere. If I were on the Woodruff Board there is NO way I would have agreed to bail them out without the Board having a huge hand in making the needed changes. Woodruff, y’all need to rethink what you just did and there apparently being no accountability to you in return.

G-R-A-D-Y spells corruption from every angle. It would be a shame to let it fall apart, but sometimes that is what you have to do before it can be rebuilt and done right.

By George Hussien Washington

July 9, 2008 11:40 AM | Link to this

Come the revolution, all current and former managers and administrators will be put againt the wall…..Power to the People…..comrades

By getalife

July 9, 2008 11:44 AM | Link to this

Today, the corrupt Senate will kill the 4th amendment.

This is what they will pass today

Pathetic.

By rc

July 9, 2008 12:13 PM | Link to this

Pam Stephenson is just as guilty as the guy that robs a gas station, only this time it is the taxpayers. Exactly why I left Fulton County for the mountains. Good luck on fixing Grady, Beltline, airport and infrastructure!

By rc

July 9, 2008 12:15 PM | Link to this

Pam Stephenson is just as guilty as the guy that robs a gas station, only this time it is the taxpayers. Exactly why I left Fulton County for the mountains. Good luck on fixing Grady, Beltline, airport and infrastructure!

By BoneHead

July 9, 2008 12:19 PM | Link to this

Why not move Grady to Clayton County?

By Believer

July 9, 2008 12:24 PM | Link to this

There IS no escape to the mountains. Ma Bell knows where you live and she’s watching — and recording. And sharing. Be afraid. For at this very moment, Bush may be in your house, in your den, your bedroom, listening, learning. There IS no escape. Ma Bell and Uncle Sam — they use the same toothbrush. Be afraid. Vote your fears — your true fears — in November. Don’t be afraid — Yet.

By Dusty

July 9, 2008 12:54 PM | Link to this

Spellcheck@10:46

PoFo, you posted the exact same thing yesterday, slacker.

Whatsamatta? Nobody fed you today?

By Sam

July 9, 2008 1:06 PM | Link to this

dusty IS doing the best she can…….

By George Hussien Washington

July 9, 2008 1:07 PM | Link to this

IMHO, Pam is a poorly educated liberal arts major seeking to secretly cash in on a public disgrace….She and her ilk are the reason Grady is such a failure….Fire them all and start over…Some of the Medical Residents have management potential, I suggest hire from within….

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

July 9, 2008 1:21 PM | Link to this

Jay, in this time of unbid contracts being let in Iraq to companies that will realize billions in profits, in this day of theft on a grand scale, as exemplified by Scanlon and Ralph Reed, $750,000 qualifies as a petty theft. Of course, as with the other, more spectacular heists of the public’s money, the same folks, the Republicans, are overseers. In this sad age when a bum like Abramoff owns public self-servants and has his photo taken with the President of the United States, in the White House, it is time for a revolution! Gas is over $4 a gallon. So is milk. Everything keeps going up and the middle class, soon to be little more than serfs, can not keep up with it. And the Republicans keep stealing and piling up more debt and more shame. Vote them out of office! Vote for Obama and every other Democrat. Rid this nation of this Nazi plague that infests the highest offices of this nation!

By George Hussien Washington

July 9, 2008 1:27 PM | Link to this

Jay - The wsj today has a good article that I think points to the future of the newspaper business…It is about online coverage of the Big Sur fire…A woman web site designer has set up a blog from a coffee shop near Big Sur that has a free internet connection, and she gets people who have refused to evacuate from the fire zone to file stories and provide digital photographs, which she edits and posts online, no comments permitted. She also posts the official information, but that is usually behind and not as detailed. A future cutting edge online publication could have a select group of unpaid information gatherers in every city on earth, feeding reports to an editior or editors, along with photographs. When an important story occurs in one of these cities, the local reporters gather first hand information and pics and send them on. Their reward would be a potential by-line for good reporting, and goodies like an upgraded digital camera, or a better laptop computer. The ajc could have its own unpaid reporters in Tehran, Bejing, Moscow, London, Tele Aviv, Damascas and every other city on earth, for free.

By steve

July 9, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this

Pam Stephenson for County Fleecer…she seems to be qualified

By steve

July 9, 2008 1:50 PM | Link to this

Pam Stephenson for County Fleecer…she seems to be qualified

By truthman

July 9, 2008 1:50 PM | Link to this

OK, on to more serious subjects:

Calling all wingnuts! You folks gotta problem.

Iraq, which W calls a soverign nation, has called for a U.S. Troop withdrawal timetable. McCain said in 2004 that if Iraqi leaders asked us to leave we’d have to leave.

A-Maliki has asked for, and his defense minister has reiterated the need for a U.S. troop withdrawal timetable or they will not sign a “Status of Forces” agreement with the U.S. (good for them!).

The Bush/Cheney junta has always said we’d stand down at Iraqis stand up…looks to me like they are standing up and want us to leave.

But now, McCain/Bush are flip-flopping on the whole “soverign nation” thing by saying U.S. Troops will leave on Bush/McCain’s timetable…or lack thereof!

So, what’s it going to be Dust-bomb? RW? Shawny? Andi-dunce/Zell? Is Iraq a soverign nation as W says it is (when it’s convenient for Iraq to be soverign in his missguided opinion)?

Al-Maliki has asked us to leave. If Iraq is its own country, we must abide by its wishes, right wingnuts?

By getalife

July 9, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this

And you thought gas prices cost you an arm and a leg

The warmongering on Iran will keep oil prices high stupid.

By truthman

July 9, 2008 1:52 PM | Link to this

More Bush crimes covered up by chicken-shi! Dems:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/TurleyonFISAbillThefix0709.html

Jeez, Obama should be ashamed of himself!! This one really pi$$es me off!!!

Why can’t I get away with espionage?

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

July 9, 2008 2:06 PM | Link to this

Truthman, the united States attacked Iraq without provocation. The evidence used to justify the attack and occupation was concocted and has been shown to be bogus. Everyone knows this. No weapons of mass destruction, other than the ones we took with us, have ever bee3n found. They don’t exist. So our motive for being there has been shown to be non-existent. Why didn’t we leave when that became public knowledge? the only answer can be that we were there on a pretext. The iraqis want us gone but we’re staying. Why? Because we now own iraq is the only reason I can think of. Bush now wants to attack iran because they may be working on a nuclear bomb and he’s afraid they might use one on us. He really shouldn’t worry. Only one barbaric nation has ever had enough disregard for humanity to unleash a nuclear weapon upon civilian people. And it wasn’t Iran! We know pakistan has numerous atomic devices but we never threaten that nation. Why? Could it be because they don’t have any oil?

By truthman

July 9, 2008 2:12 PM | Link to this

Brother Calhoun,

I’ve not come across you writings before (I was a mainstay at the Luckovich blog), but I like your reasoning and use of that almost forgotten art - Logic!

Take care, fellow traveler!

Truth “Hussein” Man

By Bud Wiser

July 9, 2008 2:37 PM | Link to this

I went fishing this morning. Caught a six-pounder, and will be eatin’ fine tonight!

What have I missed, other than looking up and seeing some guy called ‘truthman’ that apparently wants to have a close male bonding session of some sort with calhoun.? Although what AJ Calhoun says about the invasion of Iraq may or may not be true, so far as I have seen, the the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, also known as the World Court, has yet to take the matter up as far as legal proceedings go, ergo I suspect that someone somewhere has seen or been shown whatever evidence was used a justification for the action, therefore, no action taken by the Court.

You goobers like to pronounce your own spittings as evidential truths, but have no tangible ‘proof’ or evidence of your own. If it is published in the NY Times, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, or by Jay Bookman, indeed you must ‘hold these thruths to be self evident,” and thats okay, but most of the real world wants proof, and not the high pitched socialist rantings of demagogues.

Just who are these filthy rich guys, by name, that are getting richer just by being associated with, or supposedly buddies, pals, amigos, etc. of George Bush? Name names and associations thereof, just don’t leave everyone in the same darkness you dwell in…share. Share or shut the hell up. It grows tiresome to read the spittings of imaginative but unintelligent or unproven allegations.

By truthman

July 9, 2008 2:47 PM | Link to this

But-wiper,

I’m certain you get all of your talking points from Fox Noise and Rush, eh!?!

For starters vis-a-vis those who are profiting from W’s War for Oil:

• The Bush Family

• The Cheney Family

• The Bin Laden Family

• Condi Rice (she was a board member at Exxon before being W’s slave-mistress).

• The CEOs of the various oil companies who met with Cheney to lay out the neo-con “energy strategy,” which was to fleece Americans for all they can while doing everything in their power to thwart alternative energy solutions.

• The Saud Family

• The Rulers of the U.A.E and Kuwait?

Enough names for you, Wiper?

NOW, WHO DIDN’T PROFIT!

• Me (no oil in my yard)

• Afghanistan (no oil, but lots of opium).

• Darfur (people are dark enough, but not what’s under their feet!).

• New Orleans residents (see Darfur).

By truthman

July 9, 2008 2:53 PM | Link to this

Roland S. Martin has a great column today on CNN.com talking about what a useless, racist basturd Jesse Helms was and how the media should always remember he was an obstructionist and an embarrassment to progressive southerners everywhere!

Helms will not be missed!!

By Bud Wiser

July 9, 2008 3:06 PM | Link to this

Once again ‘truthman” you prove yourself to be an idiot. Bush, Cheney, Bin Laden? You are such a tool. There are so many legal obstructions that would snag any politico profiteering from the war that it just ain’t happenin’ bro. Hell, the Repukicans tried to get Clintons on the White Water land deal but came up dry! Don’t you think that if there is one piece of evidence that could tie them to it they’d be hung? You are a tool.

Yeah, Exxon and the oil boys are profiteering beyond the edge of decency, but that is because the Fed continually devalues the dollar by dropping interest rates to let non-qualified buyers become “eligible” to buy homes, and then Congress (Democrat controlled) tosses another 300 mil of our money into the till. Your lack of understanding of how things works comes as no surprise though, because all you do is spit insults and rant and rave against your political opponents, and, like your fellow Demamgogues, er Democrats, offer NO SOLUTION.

Why don’t you quit playing with daddy’s computer before he finds out, because you are coming off as such a moron.

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

July 9, 2008 3:11 PM | Link to this

Bud (none the) Wiser, Truthman laid a few names on you. Halliburton, and any and everyone associated with it, including Vice President Mephistopheles, has profited enormously from the United States war of terror. Abramoff comes to mind. Tom Delay was enriching himself. It paid better than bug extermination, which is what he did before. Ralph Reed, Scanlon and a whole host of other Republinazis. Want more names? See a movie called The Selling of Iraq. And quit playing dumb! You know the Republinazis are war profiteering scum!

By Steve Hatchett

July 9, 2008 3:31 PM | Link to this

Whatever dude!

By Algonquin J. Calhoun

July 9, 2008 3:46 PM | Link to this

Bud (none the) Wiser, you are an idiot if you think Bush and Cheney and many others in the administration aren’t getting richer from profiteering on the war. Hell, it was started for that very purpose! you are a Republinazi imbecile whose excuse offering is humorously dull witted.

By rick

July 9, 2008 3:52 PM | Link to this

I agree that this Stephenson Enrichment Play at Grady needs to be stopped and, if possible. look for criminal fraud charges to be filed. Society has sunken to everyone trying to get what they can—unearned—and if they cross the line into criminality, we neglect to pursue.

Stay on this, Jay. Stephenson has done nothing to justify this agreement payout! Especially considering that the inherent conflict of interest in reaching the “agreement” is so obvious.

Prosecute Stephenson!

By Ben

July 9, 2008 4:13 PM | Link to this

Love ya, T-man.

Add to that list all of the Carlysle Group alumni, who made billions selling war toys to anyone with money. Not that THAT will come back to haunt us later, no sir…

I’m too busy to use The Googles just now, but the statistics showing a shrinking percentage of the American population gaining a growing percentage of American wealth is mind boggling…HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?

It happens when a few greedy men meet in private and plan to siphon billions out of the public treasury by oh, um…let’s see…A WAR!

By Observer

July 9, 2008 4:14 PM | Link to this

Calhoun - You’re an uninformed moron. In an earlier post you asserted that the reasons laid out for going to war have been shown to be bogus - a worn out talking point of the left. Well, the reasons that were laid out - WMD’s and Saddam’s nuclear enrichment program - seem to have been true after all.

It is an unassailable FACT that Saddam used WMD’s on his own people so don’t give me the overused BS about not having them. As for the nuclear enrichment program, please see the story linked below. It details the 550 TONS OF YELLOW-CAKE URANIUM that was recently sent to an energy company in Canada. It seems this was kept quiet until the transfer was completed for the sake of opperational security.

[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080708.YELLOWCAKE08/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/]

It would appear your mindless drivel is - as usual - devoid of fact.

By sunshine and thunder

July 9, 2008 7:12 PM | Link to this

Jay wrote:

if Grady was a private corporation, the same people condemning the institution today would be defending Stephenson’s salary as evidence of the free market at work and praising her for getting what she could.

Oh, and her golden parachute wouldn’t be $750,000, it would be more like $7.5 or $75 million.

First of all, if Grady were a private corporation it would have gone out of business long ago. Just as many privately owned hospitals have done. And shareholders such as DeKalb County would not so easily dump millions of dollars into this failed enterprise.

And another thing, if the CEO’s were paid 7.5 million and the enterprise was working and delivering its product on time and efficiently (in the black as opposed to the fiasco that currently operates in the red) wouldn’t that be a little better than having surrounding counties throwing money down a bottomless rathole?

By Hillbilly Deluxe

July 9, 2008 8:24 PM | Link to this

I am opposed to sweetheart deals and golden parachutes be they the public or the private sector.

Bob Nardelli was mentioned earlier. When he was at Home Depot, sales went down, market share went down, stock prices went down, most every measure of corporate achievement went down. Yet he made out like a bandit and now he’s at Chrysler. I hear they aren’t doing so well either. Many of these board members for major corporations sit on each others boards and they all look out for each other.

At Delta Airlines the Leo Mullins crowd had to be well compensated to “keep the team together”. What kind of team does it take to run a once proud airline completely into the ground?

A lot of what is going on today reminds me of the Robber Baron period of the late 1800’s.

Sooner or later hubris and excess are always met by a backlash.

By GodHatesTrash

July 9, 2008 8:53 PM | Link to this

Truthman, thanks for reminding Jay he hasn’t posted anything RE: Jesse Helms. So let’s start with the truth…

God works holidays. On July 4th, He took out the trash.

By AJC Reader

July 9, 2008 10:05 PM | Link to this

Has anyone bothered to note that Pam Stephenson is an elected State Representative (D-Lithonia)???

How can she possibly represent her constituents AND be a full-time CEO? She can’t. So while the Legislature was in session earlier this year, was this woman working at Grady or working in the General Assembly. If the former, she was not doing her elected constitutional duty (FRAUD). If the latter, she was STEALING from the taxpayers (FRAUD and THEFT).

While I agree with Part 1, Jay, Part 2 of your argument is fallacious. Yes, corrupt people make more in the capitalist private sector—OLD NEWS (as in 1840). The thing that makes this story different is that Pam Stephenson and her Board puppetts APPOINTED her to this position. At least private sector CEOs get their jobs—for the most part—based on MERIT and REPUTATION, rising through the ranks (except in family-dominated businesses like Cox and Comcast). The only merit Pam Stephenson can claim is that she is the right skin color, gender and profession (lawyer) to get a job for which she is absolutely UNQUALIFIED.

Pam Stephenson=CROOK. May her constituents in Lithonia wake up and realize that.

By Mike S

July 9, 2008 10:46 PM | Link to this

Sky-high corporate salaries is just one of the reasons I oppose turning over offshore oil areas to the powerful and greedy. By the time each CEO got %75 million a year in salary, bonuses, options and tips, there’d be no way oil prices could be cut. The thing to do with Stephenson is to sue her for malfeasance in office. We all know she is incompetent. I loved the news story a few months ago when she claimed to have turned another hospital around but — get this — refused to name it out of concerns for privacy. Just stiff her like she did the public.

By Papa Fred

July 9, 2008 11:00 PM | Link to this

The name of the hospital Pam Stephenson used to run was LEGACY MEDICAL CENTER (the old Southwest Hospital). She ran it into BANKRUPTCY, forcing the loss of over 100 jobs and foreclosure of the property.

Pam Stephenson also allegedly cut backroom deals between Legacy and Grady for Grady to handle patients Legacy couldn’t. Allegedly, Legacy never paid Grady’s bills for those patients. Talk about conflict of interest. Isn’t using a non-profit hospital like Grady to prop up a for-profit entity ILLEGAL?

Pam Stephenson also claims to have authored Georgia’s CON law.

If these are not reasons enough to ostracize her from healthcare, I don’t know what is.

By Chuck Uga

July 9, 2008 11:03 PM | Link to this

I don’t know Pam Stephenson, but if she is a minority, a lawyer and a legislator, there is a snowballs chance in hell that anything happens to her other than she cashes in. She’ll smile all the way to the bank with her middle finger pointed at you fools who elected her.

By Mike

July 9, 2008 11:38 PM | Link to this

“In a last-ditch effort to fend off the disaster they long claimed could never come, President Bush and others are proposing to escalate our effort in Iraq, reportedly increasing our commitment by roughly 20,000 troops.It is a futile gesture, a vain attempt to salvage what is already lost.”

Jay Bookman - 1/10/07

By Tom Ga Hunter

July 10, 2008 6:18 AM | Link to this

truthman Condi doesn’t do boys,, girls only..

By Bitter EX democrackkk

July 10, 2008 6:41 AM | Link to this

How do you know Condi’s preferences?