The following e-mail was sent by my to my representative this evening regarding the “Pay Performance Act of 2009″, Barney Frank’s descent into cutting the pay of millions of hard working employees.

“As a constituent and banking employee I strongly urge you to either reject completely the Pay Performance Act as amened by Rep. Barney Frank or to ensure that protections are written into the act to prevent operational and other financial service employees who are not a part of the bad loan originations, credit swap securities, or any other areas where similar products are derived. I recognize the highly charged emotions surrounding the AIG bonuses and the public outcry, but Mr. Frank’s addition is a terrible reaction to the issue.

While I understand the desire to reduce/eliminate the potential bonus payouts to employees involved in the questionable practices, his amendment as written leaves banking back office personnel and other administrative support areas (such as IT, HR, Finance, etc.) subject to loss of annual merit increases and potential pay cuts. Often times, the people in these affected areas are the lower and middle class employees who earn wages far below the $75,000 or $100,000 cutoff lines modern legislation uses.

I’m hoping this is a regrettable oversight and not a deliberate attempt by Mr. Frank to financially punish anyone connected with the financial sector. If the protections are not put into place, millions of financial service employees who were not in any position to handle these toxic assets will find themselves closer to financial ruin. I certainly hope that this is not a desired outcome any Congressman or Senator wants.

I appreciate your time, thank you for your service, and hope that you will be able to protect the workers that Mr. Frank has (intentionally or not) decided to overlook.”

I expect a form mail to come back, but maybe a spark will take hold amidst the unicorns & rainbows we’re receiving.  I’m also disappointed that Mr. Frank’s Congressional e-mail is not easily displayed on his page.  I will find it eventually and contact him, even though he doesn’t answer non-constituents.   Gotta love that free & open government he and his ilk proclaimed.

TARP & bonus outrage aren’t just for the top finance executives, nor is it enough to “fire” the CEO of General Motors.  A bill is floating around by the abominable Barney Frank (D-elusional) that takes the obvious next step and tries to set the salaries of “all employees — not just top executives — of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.”

Beyond AIG: A bill to let Big Government set your salary

Hey Barney….when you look at our HR records you’ll see I fall below the EMV for my position.  I’m sure you’re going to bring me up to even, right?  Right???

Earlier this year CNBC did a feature on Morgantown surviving the economic downturn while other news articles reported our nationwide-lowest 2.7% unemployment survey.  Tuesday night NBC featured us on the Nightly News as a “Boomtown”.  Video here.

From CNet…..

“This is a story about Jerry Jalava, a Finnish software developer who lost part of his finger in a motorcycle accident last July. According to his friend, Henri Bergius, when the surgeon assigned to work on Jalava’s prosthetic finger discovered his hacking history, he made a clever suggestion: incorporate a USB key into the new digit.”

More here….

This weekend was the first time that either ESPN version of Gameday, football or basketball, had come to Morgantown for a live broadcast.  (Gameday is the Saturday 11am show that “prepares” viewers for the games to be played that day.)  I had been moping around the house several days with a nagging cold, and finally gave up around lunchtime Friday in favor of several resting hours after noon.  I was feeling pretty decent that evening when a buddy called and asked if I wanted to go to the Coliseum Saturday to watch the show.  I agreed, then took more meds to keep the cold down.

And I’m glad I did – I don’t know that I’ve seen many more impressive events in The House Jerry Built than Saturday.  I was there for the first conference game against Georgetown in 1995, the first conference home win over Syracuse later that season, Senior Night for Kevin Pittsnogle & Co., and the UCLA upset, and the emotion from about 4,000 students & fans was on par with any of them.  Heck, there was almost as much pride from the crowd as there was in the Georgia Dome.

We got there around 9am and the students filled the normal season ticket holder sideline seats front to back all the way up the lower section (the upper decks were taped off, as was the back half of the seating basket to basket).  My friend & I decided to head down to the permanent baseline seating over the new ribbon boards,where we got front row seats and a good side view of the set.  We wound up being in the upper left corner of the shot when Rece Davis was standing in front of the “bubble team” whiteboard.  Terry can be seen waving, and my gut appears right in the corner edges.  Obviously they took most every pre-taped shot with the students and most of the freebie handouts went over there, although we did get our paws on some of the State Farm sponsored “Go Mountaineers!” scrolls.  (Did no one research our slogans???)

Watching all the choreography & rehearsals gives a fresh perspective on how these shows run, and the producers have it all down pat.  Around 9:15 or so Rece came out to shake hands, sign autographs, and pose for pictures with the students.  He chatted up most of the front row and appeared to genuinely enjoy himself.  About 9:30 the show ringleader came out to get the students revved up, to pick out the pep band songs, to encourage the students to sing & cheer, and how/when to do it.  Surprisingly, this came from the guy who seems like the biggest ass of the group on camera – Digger Phelps.  He came out dancing to AC/DC with the Dance Team, made the students do the different cheers we know, listened to the pep band play and made suggestions, and generally played to the crowd.  He kept the crowd updated to know when live shots would occur during “Sportscenter”, and even encouraged noise when Jay Bilas was doing a live interview to mess with him.  (Jay would remark on-screen that he couldn’t hear what the studio announcer said because of the crowd). I’ve always pictured Digger as the on-set prick, but he was the most impressive of the group.

Bob Knight came out around 10:30-ish to a standing ovation.  He didn’t really play much to the crowd, but did address the a couple of times.  First, he wanted to let them know that they were making an impressive amount of noise, that they needed to cheer like that during the game, and that they needed to make sure “Huggins doesn’t wear that goddamn suit!”  He would later tell a Digger story (probably told everywhere) that Digger walked into a glass door at dinner and the crew did CPR on him.  Digger then noted that Bobby didn’t let on about throwing a chair at the door, and Bobby says that he threw the chair at the door “so the dumb son of a bitch couldn’t walk into it again.”

Nobody really seemed to care about Hubert Davis, and while he smiled & waved at the applause he didn’t make much of an effort to break the wall.  I was most surprised that Jay Bilas did not do much with the kids.  He came out just before the 10am Sportscenter, didn’t address the crowd or acknowledge them beyond a nod or two, and almost acted like they weren’t there other than to disrupt his earpiece.  I expected more.

As for the production itself, they keep it outwardly simple.  Digger would call for a specific cheer/song right before the live Sportscenter views and everyone got rolling.  After the last look-in, all five castmembers were in place and they ran a couple of rehersals.  Mostly the producers were trying to decide in what order to present the Mountaineer rifle fire, the somersaulting cheerleaders, and the WVU flag carriers.  They ran it a few different times with the cheering & band until they quickly settled on the shots they wanted, which went off without a hitch and looked seamless on my DVR playback.  During the show the crowd did a damn fine job of staying loud as asked, and the cast kept smiling as a new cheer would rise up.  Occasionally, as a segment switch was upcoming a producer would either signal the kids to ramp it up or ask the cheerleaders to.  During commercial breaks, however, you could hear a pin drop.  Most of the crowd had been camping out since Wednesday evening, sleeping on a concrete sidewalk, and catnapping before the cameras rolled.  When the lights did come on, though, they were as loud & boisterous as ever.  They needed those couple of minutes to catch back up.

The loud boos for discussions with Pitt and Michigan were completely spontaneous, but the cast took it in stride knowing what was coming.  Yes, Beilein did leave the program much, much healthier than he found it but that doesn’t mean we have to like Ann Arbor.  Oh, and there might have been something about football in there too.

All in all, it was an amazing experience and I’m glad I was talked into going.  Lots of fans have been wanting to see the football version on campus for some time, and hopefully the crowd support the producers saw this weekend (coupled with an interesting schedule) brings us a little more in-focus and visibility nationally…at least the good kind.  (I’ll resist discussing the regional inferiority complex of the state for now.)

It’s just too bad that the final score did not reflect the mood of the day.