Now here they're going after Meg Whitman on this illegal maid business. Let's not forget here, the head of the IRS at the time, Little Timmy Geithner had an illegal alien working as a nanny for his family for years and he never paid any Social Security or FICA tax or any of the required taxes for her, and in fact we find out he hadn't paid his own federal income taxes because of a TurboTax error. What were we told? Well, we have to look past this; everybody makes these kinds of mistakes; minor little miscalculation. There's only one man in America who can shepherd our country through the bailouts and the TARP; only one man smart enough to translate all of this gobbledygook and make it so that the country will be safe, only one man capable." And that's the little nerdy looking Timmy Geithner.
So we'll look past the fact that he had a nanny untaxed, illegal, we'll look past the fact that he cheated on his own tax because he was so important, he was so crucial. And now here comes Meg Whitman. I got no brief for Meg Whitman, I mean don't misunderstand, but here comes a phony trumped up thing about a nanny or illegal nanny or what have you. Meanwhile, the people in California are about to be priced out of health insurance. The economy is south. There aren't any jobs. Obama has destroyed us. And we're supposed to think bad things about Carl Paladino and Meg Whitman. Well, no longer, folks. It's not gonna work this way anymore. The American people, in increasing numbers, are simply not gonna play the game according to the old rules.
Didn't Meg Whitman do everything she was supposed to do under our laws? If she had done more wouldn't she be guilty of the hate crime of profiling? You know, when you're a Republican, I don't care if you're a RINO, I don't care if you're a liberal Republican, when you're running against a Democrat, they're gonna destroy you no matter what.
Here's a bio from Wikipedia:
Margaret Cushing "Meg" Whitman (born August 4, 1956) is an American businesswoman and Republican candidate for Governor of California. Whitman was Chief Executive Officer and President of eBay from 1998 to 2008, and served on its board of directors. She is the fourth wealthiest woman in the state of California with a net worth of $1.3 billion in 2010, and has spent more of her own money than any other self-funded political candidate ever.
A native of Long Island, New York, Whitman is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School. Whitman has served as an executive in numerous international companies, including The Walt Disney Company, DreamWorks, Procter & Gamble, and Hasbro, in addition to eBay.
In February 2009 she announced her candidacy for Governor of California. She won the Republican primary on June 8, 2010. She will face ex-governor Jerry Brown in the November election.
Early life and education
Whitman was born on Long Island, New York, the daughter of Hendricks Hallett Whitman and Margaret (née Goodhue) Whitman. She attended Cold Spring Harbor High School in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, graduating after only three years in 1974. She was in the top ten of her class. She had wanted to be a doctor, so she studied physics and mathematics at Princeton University. However, after spending a summer selling advertisements for a magazine, she switched to studying economics, earning a BA with honors in 1977. Whitman then obtained an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1979.
Whitman is married to Griffith Harsh IV, a neurosurgeon at Stanford University Medical Center. They have two sons. She has lived in Atherton, California, since March 1998.
Career
Beginning her career in 1979 as a brand manager at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio, Whitman later moved on to work as a consultant at Bain & Company's San Francisco office. She then rose through the ranks to achieve a senior Vice President position.
In 1981, Whitman became vice president of strategic planning at The Walt Disney Company and in 1991, joined Stride Rite Corporation, before becoming president and CEO of Florists' Transworld Delivery in 1995.
In January 1997, Whitman joined Hasbro's Playskool Division as a General Manager. Here she oversaw global management and marketing of two children's brands, Playskool and Mr. Potato Head as well as importing the Teletubbies into the U.S.
eBay
Whitman joined eBay in March 1998, when it had 30 employees and revenues of approximately $4 million. During her time as CEO, the company grew to approximately 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue by 2008. Originally, when Whitman had joined eBay, she found the website as a simple black and white webpage with courier font. On her first day, the site crashed for eight hours. She believed the site to be confusing and began by building a new executive team. Whitman organized the company by splitting it into twenty-three business categories. She then assigned executives to each, including some 35,000 subcategories.
In 2004 Meg Whitman made several key changes in her management team. Jeff Gordon took over PayPal, Matt Bannick took control of international operations and Bill Cobb was placed in control of U.S. operations, which has the colorful U.S. logo, while each international site has its own unique branding.
Shortly after taking the company public, Whitman retold how stock for the company would rise 80 points and fall 50 points in a single day. Soon after, Whitman received a call at her eBay office from Arthur Levitt, Jr., Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She called in her general counsel and the two sat down and answered the line on speaker phone. Instead of any perceived negative reaction to stock volatility, Levitt was calling to ask about the company going public and was concerned about whether the SEC was customer-friendly. He also discussed his interest in collectible Depression era glass, post 1929.
In June 2007, while preparing for an interview with Reuters, Whitman allegedly shoved her subordinate, communications employee Young Mi Kim. Of the incident, Whitman related, "In any high-pressure working environment, tensions can surface." Kim also stated, “Yes, we had an unfortunate incident, but we resolved it in a way that speaks well for her and for eBay”. The matter was resolved after a six-figure settlement.
During Whitman's tenure as CEO, eBay completed the controversial purchase of Skype, a competitor to Google's telephony services, for $4.1B in September 2005. The transaction was widely questioned as reckless in the business press and, in 2009, the company was sold at a reduced valuation of $2.75B.
Whitman resigned as CEO of eBay in November 2007, but remained on the Board and served as an advisor to new CEO John Donahoe until late 2008. She was inducted into the U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2008. "I've said for some time that 10 years is roughly the right time to stay at the helm at a company like ours", adding that "it's time for new leadership, a new perspective and a new vision", she said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
Directorships
Whitman also served on the board of directors of the eBay Foundation, Procter & Gamble and DreamWorks SKG, until early 2009. She was appointed to the board of Goldman Sachs in October, 2001 and then resigned in December 2002, amidst controversy that she had received shares in several public offerings managed by Goldman Sachs. (see "Ties to Goldman Sachs" for further detail)
Political positions
Whitman was a supporter of former Bain Capital founder and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in 2008 and was on his National Finance Team. She was also listed as Finance co-chair of Romney's exploratory committee. However, after Romney stepped out of the race and endorsed McCain, Whitman joined McCain's presidential campaign as a national co-chair.
McCain mentioned Whitman as a possible Secretary of the Treasury during the second presidential debate in 2008.
Whitman has made monetary donations to various candidates and PACs. While these have gone to both Republicans and Democrats, the donations are weighted to Republicans. Though Whitman has contributed to a few Democrats, including Senator Barbara Boxer; donating $4,000 to her campaign and serving on the "Friends of Boxer" committee in 2004, she donated more than $225,000.00 during the same period to Republicans, eBay's PAC and to Americans for a Republican Majority, the PAC of former Rep. Tom DeLay.
Whitman has emphasized three major areas: job creation, reduced state government spending, and reform of the state's K-12 educational system. She has argued that it is best to start only a few things and finish them, instead of starting a lot of things and finishing few of them.
Education
Whitman's policy papers state that she supports "policies that will not allow undocumented immigrants admission to state-funded institutions of higher education, such as UC, CSU and community colleges."
In mid 2010, Whitman launched a Spanish-language television ad during the World Cup soccer games. One advertisement is quoted by the LA times that "The Latino kids attending public schools in California today will be tomorrow's doctors, engineers, businessmen and teachers."
Environment
Whitman said that if elected, on her first day she would suspend AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, to study its potential economic implications. AB32 requires the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020.
At the state GOP Convention in March 2010, Whitman described California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's climate change bill as a "job-killer." Whitman opposes Proposition 23 that would delay the global warming law AB32 until California's unemployment falls to 5.5 percent and stays there for a year.
On water issues, Whitman opposes further restrictions on water supply in the Central Valley and has suggested President Obama should overturn a federal judge's ruling under provisions in the Endangered Species Act which reduced water supplies another 5% to 7%.
Marriage
Whitman supported California's Proposition 8 in 2008, which reversed In re Marriage Cases and defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman in the state. Whitman believes that the same-sex marriages that took place before the ban should be recognized, and that gay and lesbian couples should be permitted to adopt children. Whitman has criticized Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown for not defending Proposition 8 in the federal judicial system. Whitman is a supporter of civil unions.
Abortion
Whitman voted in favor of California Proposition 4, an initiative that requires minors to notify a parent prior to undergoing an abortion, except in certain cases. Whitman supports abortion rights, but not late-term abortion.
Illegal immigration
Whitman states that Arizona's approach to illegal immigration with Arizona SB 1070 is wrong and that there are better ways to solve the problem.
She has said that, if she had lived in California in 1994, she would have voted against Proposition 187 concerning illegal immigrants. In an op-ed during her gubernatorial campaign, Whitman wrote, "Clearly, when examining our positions on immigration, there is very little over which Jerry Brown and I disagree".
Whitman states that illegal immigrant students should be prohibited from attending state-funded institutions of higher education. Currently, California permits illegal immigrant students to enroll in the state's three higher education systems.
According to Whitman's website, "Meg believes the federal government should complete the construction of the border fence and ensure that adequate resources and manpower are deployed to the Mexican border." "Meg will seek a legislative solution to prevent cities, such as San Francisco, from shielding undocumented immigrants from federal immigration laws." "Modeled after drug seizure raids, Meg will institute a system where state and local law enforcement agencies conduct inspections of workplaces suspected of employing undocumented workers."
In 2009, Whitman called for "a path to legalization" of illegal immigrants. During the 2010 campaign, she ran a radio ad entitled "Tough as Nails" in which she stated her position on illegal immigration as the following:
I am 100 percent against amnesty for illegal immigrants. Period. As governor, I will crack down on so-called sanctuary cities like San Francisco who thumb their nose at our laws. Illegal immigrants should not expect benefits from the State of California. No driver’s license and no admission to state-funded institutions of higher education. And I’ll create an economic fence to crack down on employers who break the law by using illegal labor.
Meg Whitman employed an undocumented worker, provided her with a fake Social Security number, state registered driver's license, and signed a required statement stating that she was a legal resident of the country as her housekeeper from 2000-2009. Gloria Allred is suing on behalf of Ms. Diaz for back pay including mileage.
Marijuana
Southern California Public Radio states that Whitman's stance on marijuana is relatively new. She said that the legalization of marijuana is not what any law enforcement person would suggest for any reason and that "this is the worst idea [she has] ever seen".
Voting record
The Sacramento Bee reported that Whitman did not vote for 28 years, after reviewing her voting records in California. Records uncovered by conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt countered the claims of the Sacramento Bee and resulted in an interview by Hewitt with editor Amy Chance. However, Whitman has described her voting record as "atrocious", apologized for it, and stated that she is happy to discuss the matter.
2010 campaign for California Governor
On February 10, 2009, Whitman announced she would run for governor of California in the 2010 election.
Whitman's campaign is largely self-funded, and she became the largest self-funded political candidate in history. As of September 15, she had spent a record-breaking $119 million of her own money.
The Daily Caller said that her "penchant for throwing money around is well known in California political circles." The comment came in connection with the disclosure that her campaign had paid far above market rates for advertising on a conservative political blog. The blog's founder, addressing the issue of a possible attempt to influence the blog's content, said he had made clear to the Whitman campaign that "advertising and editorial are two very different things."
In the summer of 2010 Whitman released a political ad which seemingly contained images of the FAIL Blog website, making it appear in the ad as if Jerry Brown had been the subject of one of the website's namesake "fails."
Ben Huh, founder of the Cheezburger Network, of which failblog.org is a part, has demanded an apology and the removal of the video, stating that the image was faked, and that the website is non-partisan and has never endorsed a particular political candidate or party. FactCheck.org found that "Meg Whitman's attack ad fails to tell the truth"
Awards
Whitman has received numerous awards and accolades. On more than one occasion, named among the Top Five most powerful women by Fortune Magazine . Harvard Business Review has named her the eighth-best-performing CEO of the past decade as well as having the Financial Times name her as one the 50 faces that shaped the decade.
Ties to Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs, whose executives have donated $100,000 to the Whitman campaign, manages a part of Whitman's fortune. As CEO of EBay, Whitman earned approximately $1.78 million resulting from a practice known as spinning (IPO) whereby executives who did business with Goldman Sachs could reap profits by getting early deals before the public on hot IPOs offered by the bank. While Whitman was on Goldman’s board, she served on the compensation committee, which approved multi-million dollar bonus packages for then-CEO Henry Paulson and his top aides. Public domain documents reveal that Whitman has a multi-million dollar stake in 21 different investment funds managed by Goldman.
Given Goldman's major investments in California state finances, all these various ties to Goldman Sachs have led to considerable controversy.
In response, Whitman has vowed to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest, and has publicly stated that she will immediately sell her Goldman stock and put her Goldman-managed investments in a blind trust if elected governor.
Griffith R. Harsh IV and Margaret C Whitman Charitable Foundation
Whitman founded a charitable foundation with husband Harsh on 21 December 2006 by donating to it 300,000 shares of eBay stock worth $9.4 million. By the end of its first year of operation, the foundation had $46 million in assets and has disbursed $125,000 to charitable causes. Most of the money disbursed went to the Environmental Defense Fund. In 2010 Warren Buffett asked Whitman to join the Giving Pledge in which billionaires would commit to donate half of their money to charity. Whitman declined, saying that she is committed to working with her foundation.
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