CEO DOES THE RIGHT THING

FINALLY, ONE CEO WHO IS DOING THE RIGHT THING

ATLANTA, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Continental Airlines Inc (CAL.N) said on Monday that its new Chief Executive Jeff Smisek has agreed to forgo his annual salary and bonus beginning with the 2010 calendar year unless the company turns a profit each year.

But the stipulation in the new CEO's employment agreement could prove a formality at least for 2010 as current Wall Street estimates call for Continental to return to profitability this year.

Smisek, who took over the chairman, president and chief executive posts on Jan. 1 following the previously announced resignation of Larry Kellner, will not receive his annual salary of $730,000 and any yearly bonus if Continental does not deliver positive net income excluding unusual items, according to terms of the employment agreement detailed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Continental-Airlines/Boeing-757-224/1634803/L/&sid=b2ea9d24ad11c900e8a5befc5084336d

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SMISEK IS MAKING HIS MONEY THE OLD FASHION WAY: HE’S EARNING IT!

YEMEN MOUNTS MAJOR OFFENSIVE AGAINST ALQUAIDA

Western embassies in Yemen locked up Sunday after fresh threats from al-Qaida, and the White House expressed alarm at the terror group's expanded reach in the poor Arab nation where an offshoot apparently ordered the Christmas Day plot against a U.S. airliner.

In the meantime, the government of Yemen is reportedly conducting a major offensive against Al-Qaida and pockets of insurgents.

The Yemeni government, which issued no official comment on the embassy closures, is friendly to the West but the population is often mistrustful of Western motives and influence. Yemen has pledged to clamp down on militancy, but government control is weak outside the capital and the country has a history of freeing some alleged militants and tolerating others.

GOOD FOR THEM! It was about time they did something, after all, their very survival depends on not allowing the Al-Qaida elements to operate freely and undermine their government. Eventually they could succeed and they would have another Iran-type theocracy.

While they are at it, they might as well call in all their clerics and give them a message: STOP USING THE PULPIT WITH INFLAMATORY RHETORIC AND URGING FOLLOWERS TO BLOW THEMSELVES UP TO ACHIEVE MARTYRDOM, THAT IS NOT WHAT ISLAM IS ABOUT. Islam is tolerance, wisdom, man behaving in a noble way. And if they don’t pay attention, tell them they can go on preaching that shit. Just don’t get in your car and start it. If a few are blown up to smithereens and still they don’t cease then the Yemeni government should blow up their Mosques….if that still doesn’t work, they will blow up their houses with their families in it…let’s see how fast these extremist Fundamentalist Muslims change their tune.

SOURCE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100103/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_al_qaida