1,000 Point Stock Market Plunge, Brits Still Tied After Election, Examining Obamas Humor - News Headlines 7 May 2010

From Denny: What a weird week this has been with the stock market plunging 1,000 points in only five minutes, supposedly due to a computer malfunction or human error. Who believes that lie? Come on; someone thought it would be cool to "short" a company, make some money really fast, and then right the ship in only five minutes. But it didn't turn out that way. Everyone is suspicious and the investigations have begun.

Speaking of weird, how about that crazy three way tie in the British elections? Now if Brown gets serious and decides to truly carry out a possible resignation then things might move ahead for his party. This has to be surreal for the British people, living in limbo like this for a national government - even after the votes were cast.

And to top off the weird category this week there is a story about President Obama's humor is examined. Apparently, some journalists decided it was noteworthy - it isn't in my opinion - to chastise Obama for no longer being quite so self-deprecating and poking fun at his friends and political enemies. Why is this newsworthy? I'll leave it to you to decide that weird one... :)






Greek Debt, Trader Error Eyed in Market Sell-Off (CBS)

Dow Plunged 1,000 Points Late in Day Before Recovering to Finish Down 347; Did Trader Type 'Billion' Instead of 'Million'?


The stock market had one of its most turbulent days in history as the Dow Jones industrials fell to a loss of almost 1,000 points in less than half an hour.

The sell-off was first thought to have been driven by fears that Greece's debt problems could halt the global economic recovery. But reports suggest that a trader error may have been the primary catalyst or that both factors contributed to the massive drop.

CNBC first reported that "According to multiple sources, a trader entered a 'b' for billion instead of an 'm' for million in a trade possibly involving Procter & Gamble, a component in the Dow."

Because so much U.S. trading is now done electronically based on programmed scenarios, such an error could have triggered its own domino effect of "sell" orders across the market.

The market's plunge came less than 90 minutes before the end of trading. The Dow's drop was its largest loss ever during the course of a trading day, but it recovered to a loss of 347 at the close. All the major indexes lost more than 3 percent...

Computer trading intensified the losses as programs designed to sell stocks at a specified level kicked in. Traders use those programs to try to limit their losses when the market is falling. And the selling only led to more selling as prices fell.

The selling was furious:

At 2:20 p.m. 6 May 2010 EDT, the Dow was at 10,460, a loss of 400 points.

It then tumbled 600 points in seven minutes to its low of the day of 9,869, a drop of 9.2 percent.






U.K. in Deadlock, Parties Jockey for Power (CBS)

Prime Minster Brown, Conservatives' Cameron Each Court 3rd-Place Liberal Democrats to Form Ruling Coalition


The leaders of Britain's leading political parties each made bids for the keys to 10 Downing Street, after Thursday's election failed to produce a majority winner.

Conservative leader David Cameron, ahead but shy of a majority, seized the initiative with a "comprehensive offer" to the ideologically dissimilar but possibly willing Liberal Democrats.

"We have to accept that we fell short of an overall majority," said Cameron, 43, as results showed his party 20 seats short in the House of Commons.

"Britain needs strong, stable decisive government and it is in the national interest that we get that on a secure basis. ... I want to make a big, open and comprehensive offer to the Liberal Democrats," he said.

But Cameron promised only a "committee of inquiry" to look into the Liberal Democrats' major goal, reform of Britain's electoral system so that the number of seats gained is based on the percentage of vote a party achieves. They say that is fairer than the current system, in which a party can win a parliamentary majority by getting only a third of votes.

In Thursday's election, the Conservatives won 36 percent of votes cast, Labour 29 percent and the Liberal Democrats 23 percent.

Final results in Thursday's election gave the Conservatives 306 seats it the 650 seat House of Commons. Labour won 258 seats, the Liberal Democrats 57, and smaller parties 28. Voting in one constituency was postponed until later this month because of the death of a candidate.

"The country has spoken - but we don't know what they've said," former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown said, summing up confusion.

The uncertainty sent markets slumping.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Friday he is prepared to speak to any other party about forming an alliance.

"We find ourselves in a position unknown to this generation of political leaders," Brown said outside 10 Downing Street this morning. "What we have seen are no ordinary election results. People have been talking for some time inside and outside of government about the possibility of a hung Parliament. That possibility has now become very real and very pressing.

"The question for all the political parties now is whether a parliamentary majority can be established that reflects what you, the electorate, have told us," Brown said.

As sitting prime minister, Brown would traditionally be given the first chance to put together a government. His left-of-center Labour Party is seen as a more natural coalition fit with the Liberal Democrats, the third-place party now thrust into the role of potential kingmaker...





Oil Leak Container Touches Down on Seafloor (CBS)

Robot Submarines Used to Position 100-Ton Structure; Contraption Needs 12 Hours Minimum to Settle


A BP-chartered vessel lowered a 100-ton concrete-and-steel vault onto a ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, an important step in a delicate and unprecedented attempt to stop most of the gushing crude fouling the sea.

Underwater robots guided the 40-foot-tall box into place. Now that the contraption is on the seafloor, workers will need at least 12 hours to let it settle and make sure it's stable before the robots can hook up a pipe and hose that will funnel the oil up to a tanker.

"It appears to be going exactly as we hoped," BP spokesman Bill Salvin told The Associated Press on Friday afternoon, shortly after the four-story device hit the seafloor. "Still lots of challenges ahead, but this is very good progress."

Once a hose is connected to siphon the box's contents to a ship on the water level, engineers have to separate the mix of oil, water and gas, a potentially explosive process, CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann reports from Venice, La.

By Sunday, the box the size of a house could be capturing up to 85 percent of the oil. So far about 3 million gallons have leaked in an environmental crisis that has been unfolding since a deepwater drilling platform exploded April 20, sending toxic oil toward a shoreline of marshes, shipping channels, fishing grounds and beaches. Eleven workers were killed in the accident.

The lowering of the containment device was a slow-moving drama playing out 50 miles from Louisiana's coast, requiring great precision and attention to detail. It took about two weeks to build the 40-foot box, and the effort to lower it by crane and cable to the seafloor began late Thursday night. After it hit bottom Friday afternoon, the crane gradually eased off to allow it to settle.

"We are essentially taking a four-story building and lowering it 5,000 feet and setting it on the head of a pin," Salvin said...





Obama's Humorous Shots at Opponents (CBS)

Bill Plante talks to Washington Post's Paul Farhi, author of an article about presidents and their funny bones.



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Greedy Opportunistic Wall Street: Political Cartoons, Opinion Post - 24 April 2010

From Denny: Wall Street continues to trumpet it's record MULTI BILLION DOLLARS PROFIT QUARTERS in business after business. Gasoline consumption is way down yet the prices remain high. The President and Congress have done absolutely NOTHING to help the middle class in this area.

They are dragging their feet thinking the average person can keep waiting. Politicians seem to forget the public has been waiting since the last two years of the Bush-Cheney administration when the economy was tanking and millions of jobs were lost and not replaced. Congress and this White House do not appear to possess a sense of urgency because it is not in their face. This White House spends far too much time coddling the Republicans when they should be paying attention to the public needs - not the bankers on Wall Street who created this economic mess in the first place.

These idiot waiting periods like Congress did for the credit card legislation set off an 18 month nightmare for the middle class - forcing a large number of people into bankruptcy. Now Congress has a waiting period for the new health care bill and the health insurance companies have already hit with their first salvo.

Now health insurance companies are outright denying further health insurance to any women who have had breast cancer and surgery. They targeted these women purposefully. They are now telling women they will have to pay for their own surgeries. I suppose this White House - and whoever his really bad advisors are - will tell the President again to not interfere and tame Big Business. This is an outrage. Women and children continue to be classified as second class citizens in this country because Big Business knows there is no one to stop them.

Am I the only blogger or journalist going balls to the wall for the middle class? Does any one seem to care thousands of people are committing suicide, breaking up their marriages, losing their businesses and their homes over financial stresses? There is far too much complacency from the media on the state of the middle class. Right now the middle class has no champion fighting against the odds. Whatever happened to the kind of good character people who used to be part of the media and "challenge the powers that be"? Whatever happened to integrity and courage in this country - especially from the media?

Here's hoping for some decent financial reform instead of the usual weak response from Congress...

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Daryl Cagle - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Pat Bagley - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Monte Wolverton - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by John Cole - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

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See Cartoons by Cartoon by Brian Fairrington - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

*** Check out the rest of the Saturday series of political cartoons this week:

Whats Happening in America This Week - Political Cartoons 24 Apr 2010

College Grads Chances of Finding Jobs: Political Cartoons

Political Cartoons: Iceland Volcano Wrecks World Economy

Ridiculous Outrageous Extra Airline Fees: Political Cartoons

Cool Earth Day Links, Message From Our Prez

The Smallest Earth Day Poem - Libations Friday 16 Apr 2010


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Poison Politics Meet Domestic Terrorists, Volcano Axes Economies, Wall Street War, Octupus Thief - News Headlines 20 Apr 2010

Could Tea Party Rhetoric Lead to Another Oklahoma City?: (CBS)

It was fifteen years ago today that Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people by detonating an explosives-filled truck near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in the nation's deadliest-ever homegrown terrorist attack.

McVeigh was an anti-government extremist inspired by the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound at Waco; he railed against taxes, gun control and federal interference in Americans' lives...

Former President Bill Clinton, among others, see echoes of the rhetoric that drove McVeigh in the current political discourse. In an op-ed in the New York Times today tied to the bombing, he wrote that the bombers were driven by "the belief that the greatest threat to American freedom is our government, and that public servants do not protect our freedoms, but abuse them."

Lamenting the fact that "deeply alienated and disconnected Americans decided murder was a blow for liberty," Clinton went on to say Americans have a right to dissent but not violence when they don't get what they want.

There is, he wrote, "a big difference between criticizing a policy or a politician and demonizing the government that guarantees our freedoms and the public servants who enforce our laws."

That was a shot at folks like Rep. Michele Bachmann, who last week railed against what she called the "gangster government" at a tax day Tea Party rally. Clinton said it is not appropriate to call elected officials "gangsters" and added, "you can attack the politics" but "don't demonize them, and don't say things that will encourage violent opposition."

Time magazine's Joe Klein, meanwhile, suggested that the rhetoric of Glenn Beck and "to a certain extent" Sarah Palin "rub right up close to being seditious." Added New York Magazine's John Heilemann in that weekend interview: "Joe's right and I'll name another person, I'll name Rush Limbaugh who uses this phrase constantly and talks about the Obama administration as a regime. That phrase which has connotations of tyranny. And what's so interesting about it to me, to get to Norah's point - what is the focus, what is the cause of this? You think back to 1994, there was Ruby Ridge. There was Waco. There were triggering incidents. There's been nothing like that. The only thing that's changed in the last 15 months is the election of Barack Obama. And as far as I can see, in terms of the policies that Obama has implemented, there's nothing."

Thirty-eight percent of Americans now see domestic terrorism as a more serious threat than international terrorism, according to a new CBS News poll; that's up eight points from 2002. On Monday, MSNBC is airing a documentary called "The McVeigh Tapes" detailing McVeigh's motivations and perspective on his crime -- and raising questions about the dangers of the extreme rhetoric that influenced him...


Read the rest of the article as it's worth it, just click on the title link.

Reader Poll in the news story: Should Americans be concerned that heated rhetoric will incite domestic terrorism?

Results:

Yes - 63%
No - 36%





This recounting is astounding in its magnitude of how Mother Nature can affect our economies.


Volcano Ash Cloud Sets Off Global Domino Effect: (CBS/AP)


While the volcanic ash cloud covering parts of Europe continues to wreak havoc for airlines - costing the industry more than $1 billion as of Monday - grounding most of the continent's air travel for several days has had a ripple effect extending far beyond Europe's borders.

The following is a collection of international anecdotes demonstrating how the ash cloud has done more than hit airlines' bottom lines and inconvenienced air travelers.

• The lack of refrigeration facilities at the airport in capital of the West African nation of Ghana has been a big blow to pineapple and pawpaw farmers who sell to Europe because of the lack of flights. As of Tuesday, no cargo flights have taken off yet.

• In Africa, a group of five people from Sierra Leone and Liberia had to abandon a fact-finding trip to the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor in The Hague.

• In Kenya, thousands of day laborers are out of work because produce and flowers can't be exported amid the flight cancellations. Kenya has thrown away 10 million flowers - mostly roses - since the volcano eruption. Asparagus, broccoli and green beans meant for European dinner tables are being fed to Kenyan cattle because storage facilities are filled to capacity.

• The U.S. Travel Association estimates that the ash cloud produced by the eruption has cost the U.S. economy $650 million, approximately $130 million per day. That kind of loss to the economy affects the cash flow to fund about 6,000 American jobs, the association said. Every international flight bound for the U.S. is worth an average of $450,000 in spending from travelers, which the association says pays for five jobs per flight.

• Nissan Motor Co.'s production at a line at its Oppama plant near Tokyo and two lines at its Kyushu factory in southern Japan will stop all day Wednesday because the planned shipment of tire pressure sensors from Ireland has not arrived, company spokeswoman Sachi Inagaki said. The suspension would affect nearly 2,000 vehicles, including the Cube compact made at the Oppama plant, and the Murano and Rogue crossover SUV models produced at the Kyushu plant as well as eight other models that are produced on the same production lines, Inagaki said.

• BMW North America spokeswoman Jan Ehlen told the Herald-Journal of Spartanburg on Monday that the automaker will likely reduce production at the BMW plant in South Carolina because of a shortage of supplies, but shouldn't have to shut the plant down. BMW uses planes to ship transmissions and other components from its German factories to South Carolina. The Greer plant makes BMW's X5 and X6 sport utility vehicles.

• The Pentagon said Monday that medical evacuation flights out of Iraq and Afghanistan are taking eight hours longer because flights have been halted to Ramstein Air Base in Germany for treatment at the Landstuhl military hospital. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military is using the Navy's Rota Air Base in Spain to fly troops back to the United States for care at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington.

• The German Foundation for Organ Transplant is delivering hearts, lungs and livers to patients on the basis of how close they are to a delivery. In coordination with the European organization Eurotransplant, the foundation said all organs that usually get flown out to patients were instead being distributed via ground transportation.

• In New York City's Flower District, thousands of dollars worth of tulips, peonies, daffodils and hundreds of other varieties usually come in on the Friday night flights from the Netherlands to be distributed starting Saturday morning. Last weekend's weddings didn't have Dutch flowers.

• Swiss supermarket Migros warned of diminishing supplies of green asparagus during the beloved vegetable's peak season amid halted air deliveries from the United States. Cod from Iceland and fresh tuna filets from Vietnam and the Philippines could also run out, it warned.

• Italian farmers' lobby Coldiretti said each workday without flights costs euro 10 million (about $14 million) as mozzarella and fresh fruits risk going bad.

• Cambridge University's modern and medieval languages faculty delayed oral exams for Monday and Tuesday after students and examiners were left stranded late last week, Britain's Sunday Times reported.

• Marathoner David Gray missed his second consecutive Boston Marathon Monday. In 2009, he sat out the race because of injury. This year, he couldn't climb Heartbreak Hill because he was stuck in a hotel room in Brussels, Belgium.

• People trapped in the U.K. would partially offset the loss of revenue from tourists unable to fly to England, Howard Archer, chief economist of IHS Global Insight, told British newspaper The Guardian. "Obviously, the longer that the problem does persist, the more serious will be the economic repercussions," he told the paper.

A backlog of passengers waiting for flights to resume means tens of thousands of people are still stranded and increasingly strapped for cash. Stuck passengers have had to shell out for hotels, restaurant meals, clothing and transport to and from the airport as they seek information on when their travel nightmare might end.

• Andrew and Debbie Jackman of Britain spent more than two years saving up for their family vacation to Australia. After the couple and their two teen-aged sons squeezed into a 150 Australian dollar ($138) hotel room Friday night, the hotel raised the price of the same room to AU$350 Saturday - simply because it could, Andrew said ruefully. After endless negotiations, the hotel brought the price back down to AU$160, but the family, broke and frustrated, opted to move Sunday to a hostel.

• In Japan, Francois Broche was down to his last 3,000 yen ($30). The 33-year-old literature and philosophy professor from Nimes, France, said he would have to call his bank at home to see if he can get his money transferred - but doesn't know how.

• Nicolas Ribard, 29, from Avignon, France, was among about a dozen stranded tourists squatting on sleeping bags that Narita airport officials had lent them. He and three other friends had about 3,000 yen between them, and were surviving on airport-issued crackers, bottled water and coupons for one free shower a day.






Here's a related story of how those in poverty can't afford to miss a day of low wages.


More Ash Fallout: 10 Million Roses Ruined (CBS/AP)
5,000 Kenyan Horticultural Workers Laid Off as Blocked Flights Prevent Flower Exports


Daniel Oyier has been eating only once a day since an ash-belching volcano more than 5,000 miles away caused him to be laid off from his $4-a-day job packing red roses and white lilies for export to Paris and Amsterdam.

Some 5,000 day laborers in Kenya who have been without work since the ash cloud from Iceland shut down air traffic across Europe, showing how one event can have drastic consequences in distant lands in today's global economy.

"If this goes on for a week it will be really bad for us," said Oyier, 23, who sat against a fence most of Monday near Nairobi's international airport, hoping his employer would call him in. "I don't know how I will make rent."

Kenya has thrown away 10 million flowers - mostly roses - since the volcano eruption. Asparagus, broccoli and green beans meant for European dinner tables are being fed to Kenyan cattle because storage facilities are filled to capacity.

The horticulture industry is Kenya's top foreign exchange earner, making $922 million last year. Kenya exports 1,000 tons a day of produce and flowers - including roses, carnations and lilies, said Philip Mbithi, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya.

Mbithi warned of a cascading series of losses if the travel ban lasts much longer. Small-scale farmers who fund their operations through bank loans will begin defaulting on payments and won't be able to get funding for next season if exports don't resume, he said...





Help to Haiti "Not Good Enough": (CBS)

The Long Road Back: Two Million Still Homeless Seen as Sorely Lacking in Basics such as Sanitation, Schools and Security

In a tent city in Haiti, having an actual tent is a luxury. The homes are improvised. People have become masters at making something out of nothing. Even kids make kites out of discarded paper plates and pieces of plastic bags.

CBS News Anchor Katie Couric reports formal education is a luxury too. The few schools that have sprung up are a source of tremendous pride and excitement: two rare commodities.

Three months after the earthquake, what once was an impromptu urban settlement with just a few hundred families has swelled to more than 48,000 people.

"We think there're about 13,000 children here - about 250 or so of them are in school," said Dr. Louise Ivers...

Much more to this story about the daily lives of people in Haiti still living in inhumane conditions - click on the title link.





Michael Lewis: SEC Launched Culture War With Wall Street: (CBS)

The SEC suit against Goldman Sachs may be the tip of the iceberg. According to Michael Lewis, author of the best selling, The Big Short, on the Wall Street financial collapse, "We are in for six months of revelations that are going to astonish people about what happened during the subprime boom and bust."

In an interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric, Lewis said that Goldman Sachs isn't likely to be the only firm under scrutiny by the SEC. "What the SEC alleges Goldman did is something an awful lot of people were doing."

The bond market, which has been a kind of unregulated Wild West of sub-prime mortgage bundles and other exotic financial instruments, now has the belated attention of the SEC.

"Other Wall Street firms will implicated and other deals at Goldman Sachs deals will come to light," Lewis said. "The SEC essentially launched what amounts to a culture war."

"It's crazy for Wall Street firms to make bets for their own books on the stocks and bonds they are advising customer to buy and sell," Lewis said...

Lewis believes that Wall Street can't control itself and needs "wholesale change."

"People on Wall Street essentially had incentives to design bonds that would go bad...incentives to disguise risk, incentives to misallocate capital, and incentives to underwrite loans that would never be paid. The incentive systems need to change," he concluded.



Watch CBS News Videos Online






Glad to see the White House moving ahead aggressively on this issue. It's amazing any female would vote Republican when they and their daughters get handed a slap in the face like Bush did to women.


Bush-Era Policy on Sports Gender Equity Reversed: (CBS/AP) Schools Must Now Provide Stronger Evidence that They Offer Equal Opportunities for Female Athletes.

The U.S. Department of Education is repealing a Bush-era policy that some critics argue was a way to avoid complying with federal law in providing equal opportunities for female athletes.

Under the move, schools and colleges must now provide stronger evidence that they offer equal opportunities for athletic participation under the federal Title IX gender equity law.

It reverses a 2005 policy under former President George W. Bush that allowed schools to use just a survey to prove a lack of interest in starting a new women's sport and encouraged schools to consider a non-response to the questionnaire as disinterest.

"Discrimination continues to exist in college athletic programs - and we should be vigilant in enforcing the law and protecting this important civil right," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a prepared statement...

"Making Title IX as strong as possible is a no-brainer," Biden said. "What we're doing here today will better ensure equal opportunity in athletics and allowing women to realize their potential — so this nation can realize its potential."

The Education Department has sent letters about the change in policy to more than 15,600 school districts and 5,600 college and university presidents.

"This is a great step, a reaffirmation of faith in equality for women," said former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, who helped pass the law in 1972 and called the change long overdue.

Schools have three ways to comply with Title IX: Match the proportion of female athletes to the proportion of women on campus; show a history of increasing sports for women; or prove the school has met the interest and ability of women to participate in athletics.





And for something to amuse you... a friendly octupus! And I have the video to prove it.


Octopus Steals Camera, Takes Video: (CBS)

Swipes $700 Device from Diver, who Retrieves It from Creature's Mouth, Saves Footage

A San Francisco man living in New Zealand was shooting some underwater video last week off the southern coast of Wellington when he got a bit too close to a curious octopus.

The octopus decided to steal the diver's expensive camera, and do a bit of shooting of his own!

Victor Huang said the octopus might have been attracted to the metallic blue color of the camera.

"It just saw something a bit different and unique and wanted to collect it for its little gypsy collection," Huang said.

"Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez pointed out that it's interesting that octupi like to collect items to keep in their lairs for protection.

Huang, who was diving without an oxygen tank, said he was initially "freaked out" by the octopus, and feared for his life. However, Huang added that he soon realized the eight-legged creature was just after his $700 camera, prying it with its strong arms from his hands.

"That's nuts. That's so crazy," "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith remarked.

But Huang wasn't going to say good-bye to his equipment that easily. After going up for air, he chased the octopus for nearly five minutes from the surface, finally noticing that the octopus had slowed down beneath him. He dove down to the animal and held out a spear gun. The octopus attached, opening its mouth, providing a moment for Huang to reach into the animal's mouth and pull out his camera.

Smith pointed out that the beak on an octopus can crack open rocks. So why did Huang bother?

For the octopus' footage, Huang responded.

"I figured that camera must have had amazing footage, so I kind of took that risk and just went for it."



Watch CBS News Videos Online







*** Also funny political news:

Crazy Limbaugh Blames Iceland Volcano on Obama

Outrageous Tea Party Tax Signs and the Perverted Fools That Carry Them - outlandish but true photos collected here from Tea Party rallies



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Prez Clinton Interviews, Slamming Wall Street, Tea Party Spat With Fox, Volcano Effect - News Headlines 19 Apr 2010

From Denny: President Clinton is remembering the toxic political rhetoric back when Timothy McVeigh made the decision to become a domestic terrorist 15 years ago. That vile man killed a lot of innocent people, including 19 children. He had no remorse. What kind of unhinged mind targets soft target civilians instead of military installations? Targeting the innocent and unarmed is not protesting the government. It's depraved indifference insanity.

The Republicans are beating the drums to create more domestic terrorism by whipping their base into a lather and a furor. At least the FBI has arrested many of the crazies issuing death threats. Many have cut natural gas lines to the houses of relatives of the politicians of their hate choice of the day.

The insanity won't stop until ALL the persons of conscience in this country stand up to be counted against this violence and domestic terrorism.



Prez Clinton interviews:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Can it be? The Tea Party and Fox News now don't trust each other? Was it a political lovers' spat? :) (Who cares?) Well, Keith Olbermann had some fun with this so-called news story from the no news station, Fox:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What's Next In The Goldman Sachs Case? (NPR)

the SEC announced on Friday:

The SEC is looking into mortgage deals packaged by other banks, the WSJ reports.

Deutsche Bank, UBS and Merrill Lynch (now owned by B of A) all put together mortgage-based investments that "soon went sour," the Journal says, but it isn't clear which deals the SEC is investigating. Several banks "helped market designed-to-fail investments on behalf of the hedge fund Magnetar, which was betting on that failure," Paul Krugman writes in his NYT column today. Krugman cites the reporting of Planet Money partner ProPublica; ProPublica's Web site has more on which banks were involved in these deals.

The leaders of the U.K. and Germany called for investigations of Goldman.

The biggest loser in the Goldman deal that's the focus of the SEC suit wound up being the Royal Bank of Scotland, which paid out roughly $841 million, according to the SEC's complaint. RBS was bailed out by the British government. The German bank IKB, which also received a bailout, lost nearly $150 million on the deal.

Goldman made several arguments to rebut the SEC charges.

In a statement, Goldman said the investors in the deal, who were "among the most sophisticated mortgage investors in the world," "were provided extensive information about the underlying mortgage securities." That allowed them to assess the risks those securities presented. Goldman denies the SEC's charge that it said Paulson & Co. was going to be a long investor in the deal. (Paulson took the short side of the deal.) And, Goldman says, it lost $90 million of its own money on the deal. Goldman is reporting its quarterly earnings tomorrow, by the way.

Politicians rushed to tie the Goldman case to finance reform.

If you Google "Goldman Sachs SEC," one of the ads that comes up is a headline that says "Help Change Wall Street." Click on it, and you're sent to barackobama.com, where you get a message about "accountability on Wall Street." The site is run by the Democratic National Committee, according to Politico, which wrote about the ad. We'll doubtless hear more about Goldman this week from the Senate, which is scheduled to debate the big finance-reform bill.





I was wondering how this Icelandic volcano was going to start impacting other parts of the world because of spewing so much ash into the air. Eventually, that ash has to land somewhere.

Icelandic Volcano Hurts Kenyan Flower Growers (NPR) Europe's volcano-related flight restrictions will start to ease up tomorrow...

The broader effects should be relatively mild, economists say, provided the slowdown doesn't go on for too long. That's largely due to the fact that almost all exports and imports travel by boat, rail or truck, rather than by air.

But some producers of time-sensitive goods have been hit hard. Take Kenya's horticulture business, which consists largely of selling fresh-cut flowers to European buyers. It's the country's biggest industry, accounting for 20% of exports, and it's been slammed.

More than 3,000 tons of flowers have already been thrown away because of the slowdown, the BBC reports. Exporters of flowers, fruits and vegetables are losing some $3 million per day.





In case you haven't heard already... looks like two more terrorists went to meet their Maker to explain their foolish lifestyle.


U.S. Confirms 2 Al-Qaida In Iraq Leaders Killed (NPR/AP)

The two top al-Qaida in Iraq figures have been killed in a joint operation by American and local forces, Iraq's prime minister and U.S. military officials said Monday.

The deaths were touted by America's top general in Iraq as possibly the most significant blow to the terror group since the beginning of the insurgency and a sign of the growing strength of Iraqi security forces.

But the news, which comes as U.S. forces prepare to end combat operations, belies the resiliency of Sunni terror groups that have shown their ability to change tactics and launch new and deadly attacks despite repeated strikes to their leadership.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the killings of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri at a news conference in Baghdad and showed reporters photographs of their bloody corpses. The deaths were later confirmed by U.S. military officials in a statement.

The U.S. military said they were killed in a nighttime raid on their safe house Sunday near Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. An American helicopter crashed during the assault, killing one U.S. soldier, the military said...

Al-Masri was the shadowy national leader of al-Qaida from Iraq, which he took over after its Jordanian-born founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a June 2006 U.S. airstrike. Al-Masri's real name was Abdul-Monim al-Badawi, according to a 2009 al-Qaida statement describing the makeup of a new "War Cabinet."

Al-Baghdadi is the self-described leader of the al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq, identified by U.S. military officials Monday as Hamid Dawud Muhammad Khalil al-Zawi. Past Iraqi claims to have captured or killed al-Baghdadi have turned out to be wrong, and the Islamic State of Iraq has issued at least two denials of his capture.

Al-Baghdadi was so elusive that at times U.S. officials also have questioned whether he was a real person or merely a composite of a terrorist that the ISI invented to bolster its threats. The U.S. military once even asserted that audio recordings in the name of a fictitious al-Baghdadi were in fact read by someone else.






Distrust Of Government Undermines Obama's Support (NPR)

For a Democratic administration that wants to do big things with government, the severe erosion of trust in government is a real problem -- and President Obama knows it.

"We have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now," he said during this year's State of the Union address. "We face a deficit of trust -- deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years."

What the president calls a deficit of trust has been impossible for him to surmount -- and it's undermining support for him and his policies, says Andrew Kohut, the director of the Pew Research Center that just completed a big survey looking at Americans' growing distrust of government.

"No other factor loomed as large in preventing Americans from embracing the proposals of the Congress and Barack Obama than views about government," Kohut says. "A president who wants to use government to solve problems when a public says, 'We don't trust the government; we want less government,' is a problem."

In Kohut's poll, 84 percent of those opposed to the president's new health care law said the reason was too much government. In November 2008, 43 percent said they wanted a smaller government with fewer services. That number has now grown to 50 percent...



This is a good story and you may want to click on the title link to see the rest. NPR is going to be running several stories about the history of mistrust of government in America. After all, it's what our country was founded upon: "throw the bums out!" And the British made a hasty exit... :)





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How Wall Street Killed the Middle Class in America

From Denny: If you missed this great tutorial and exchange on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, then feast your eyes and ears on this. Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel on TARP, talks about the urgency of Wall Street reform. The reality is that she makes some very good points about the history of how our current situation evolved and the incredible manipulations of how our finance system got to where it is today - corrupt. Currently, reform finance legislation is bottled up in the Senate. Write your Senators and DEMAND FINANCE REFORM is you still want a middle class in America:

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Obama Slaps Fat Cat Bankers Greedy Snouts

From Denny: I have to admit I really enjoyed witnessing the President spank these odious bankers on their greedy snouts. :) The hope is that Congress is serious about tightening the noose on the financial system in America - and soon. The word is there is legislation in the making. The question is just how far it will go. The last legislation passed was weak in regard to taming the banks and the credit card system. Well, that runs out in February. Hopefully, so does their ability to abuse their customers.

Here Obama slams bankers for getting taxpayer bailouts and yet not paying it forward by giving loans to the small businesses and taxpayers to get the economy going again:

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Populist outrage and history:

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American Capitalism Gone Without a Whimper

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

WRITTEN by Stanislav Mishin, printed by Pravda on April 27th, 2009 and highlighted by Glenn Beck in his June 1st, 2009 newsletter

Obama-Dem Mistake #3

President Barack Obama and his Democratic Party cohorts in Congress have done it again. In fact, they've done it a couple of times, and so both today and tomorrow we will take a look at these two most recent Obama-Dem mistakes. I am starting out today by playing catch-up with a mistake made a couple of weeks ago, that being the behemoth $3.6 trillion dollar Obama spending fiasco that he calls a 'stimulus' budget plan. This ridiculous-on-its-face plan to get out of our current financial crisis by taxing and regulating businesses both small and large while at the same time increasing spending at outrageous levels is a complete over-reach by the liberal wing that is now dominant among the Dems. I like to compare it to the famous episode of the television comedy Seinfeld in which Jerry and Elaine decide they need to have sex in order to save their friendship. Ludicrous on its face and a disaster waiting to happen, which indeed it does, which anyone with half a brain could see coming a mile away. The exact wrong solution for a difficult problem they were experiencing. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Alan Chanrey, the director of USA Action, one of many ultra-liberal groups pushing Obama strongly and speedily towards the socializing of the American governmental system, stated "This budget is real change, the change Americans voted for last November." He is right in one regard, that 53% of Americans did indeed vote for a party change last November. But he and the rest of the Democratic Party, and Obama as the President, have been making one major error after another because they do not understand what kind of change the majority of these Americans voted to see happen. Americans wanted a philosophical change away from a war footing and a perceived antagonistic face in world affairs. They did not vote for Socialism. The financial budget and programs that Obama and the Dems are instituting will result in more layoffs, higher taxes, more business closings. Obama and his supporters will argue that it should create jobs. But these are jobs that will depend on the Federal government either directly as employees or through Federally funded programs and grants. They will argue that it creates an opportunity for all Americans to receive health care coverage, but they never, ever speak about the cost involved. The cost in financial terms of not only creating such a program, but then maintaining it and likely expanding it over time will simply be the largest expenditure ever incurred by our government. Part of their plan involves $650 billion dollars over a decade in a 'cap-and-trade' plan that is nothing more than a tax on businesses. Another is increased limitations on both mortgage interest and charitable tax deductions that will effect millions of Americans at tax time, as well as payment cuts to Medicare insurers, in order to fund their new medical coverage plan. Obama and the Dems are planning on allowing tax cuts instituted by the Bush administration to expire in a couple of years, thus raising the taxes of millions more American families. Further outlays in the massive budget plan include billions involving so-called 'green' plans to combat a controversial global-warming situation that may in the end be nothing more than a natural phenomenon. There are so many other huge spending programs in this plan that it is almost a joke. One of the leading conservatives on the Republican side, Newt Gingrich, actually says that he agrees with much of Obama's rhetoric on the financial issues. But Gingrich sees a "gap between the words and reality" in a plan that actually promotes "higher-tax, weaker-economy, fewer-jobs" in its practical applications. How can the government possibly expand like this when everyone else is contracting? The simple answer is that they cannot. The Wall Street stock market is reacting to the obviousness of this folly with its weekly free-fall. The administration of President Barack Obama surely inherited a difficult financial situation, and this situation required tough decisions. But it also required smart decisions, and the obviously dumb ones of the past few weeks are only turning the economy for the worse in both the short and long term outlooks. It is similar to Obama walking into a situation where there was a fire growing. He had the opportunity to begin to pour water over the fire and extinguish the flames. Instead he and his Democratic Party cohorts led by Nancy Pelosi in Congress have chosen to pour gasoline over them. Their logic is that by making the fire bigger and bigger, we whose property is actually going up in smoke will become more and more dependent on their government to eventually put it out. But the fact is that day will never come. What will actually happen is that their power will grow as our fire grows, until eventually one of two things happens. Either we vote them out of office quickly, or they burn our American house down to the ground. The gigantic, enormous, humongous behemoth of a budget that is misrepresented as 'stimulus' is the Obama-Dem Mistake #3. Tomorrow we will cover the most recent mistake number four. NOTE: All of the items in the Obama-Dem Mistake series can be found by visiting that below label.

Feet That Run Swiftly to Evil

Continuing in the 'Sunday Sermon' series (each entry of which can be read by clicking in to the label below this posting) with the fifth of the six things that the Lord hates from Proverbs 6:16-19 in the Bible's 'Old Testament.' This time we are discussing those times that we not only sin, not only plan and plot to sin, but we rush to it enthusiastically, even happily. Of course we know that gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. Some of us know that all too well. And yet despite that knowledge we not only fail to control our appetites, we not only allow ourselves to remain obese, but we rush to the ice cream aisle at the grocery store for some Haagen Dazs or Breyers or Turkey Hill. We know that lust is a deadly sin, but we dive into that sexual affair anyway. We not only plan and plot to make time for physical intimacy with that illicit partner, but we rush happily and excitedly to those liaisons. We all understand that greed is a deadly sin, but we all too often succumb to the mantra spoken by Michael Douglas' character of Gordon Gekko (pictured) in the 1987 motion picture 'Wall Street': "..greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works." Especially when it comes to money, we want more. Wanting more isn't the bad thing. What is bad about it is when we want that 'more money' so badly that we cut corners to get it, possibly even commit fraud and other crimes. When we take away from others what is rightly theirs, including time with us from our families. Those working hard to make ends meet and give their families a better life, perhaps working two jobs or extended hours, are not those being spoken about here. Here we are talking about those whose ends are meeting like nobodies business, but who continue to drive forward, distancing themselves from their loving, familial, inter-personal relationships. Greed, for lack of a better word, is bad. It is wrong, it does not work. It destroys, it separates, it blinds those who fall into its trap. Yet so many rush off eagerly to get more, to make more, to sell more, to steal more, to take more, caring about little else in that greedy dash to win a rat race that no one has ever won. In the end, we all end up in the same place. You and me and Donald Trump and Bill Gates all end up in the same exact place in our earthly lives. But where will we end up when those lives are completed? Sloth is the sin of simply not caring, or of giving up in despair. How many people do we know who simply continue to wallow in the mire of their own self-pity. Life is difficult at times, and at times it deals all of us bad hands. Sometimes it deals us incredibly emotional tragic hands. Sorrow is a natural reaction, as is grief. We all need time to grieve. But we also need to heal, and we need to mend. When we allow ourselves to continue on, wallowing in our grief and sadness and despair, we are sinning. God challenges us for reasons that only He knows. It is our job to meet those challenges head on, not to eagerly run into a corner and hide from the life which goes on despite the hurt that we refuse to overcome. Another of the deadly sins is wrath, that anger which we all have felt at times. But there are some who seem perpetually angry with the world. The angry young man who is mad at the world, the woman who is constantly yelling at her spouse or kids. The deadly sins include envy and pride also. How many of us are jealous of someone else's home, or kids, or partner, or job, or clothes, or look, or even their entire life? Look at what you have, and make it the best that you can, and find your happiness there. No one can be truly happy by taking what belongs to another. Two of God's commandments speak directly to this situation: "Thou shalt not covet they neighbor's spouse" and "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods". Wipe the covetous thoughts from your mind and heart rather than embracing and being overcome by them. As for pride, how many of us in reality have it so much better than everyone else that we can afford this sin? My body is hotter than yours. My hair is better than yours. My test grades are higher than yours. My car is faster and sleeker than yours. Fact is, there is always someone out there who has it better than you. If you have something good going on, enjoy it and be happy about it. But you should never flaunt it in someone else's face. When God gives you a gift, whether that is something physical or material or spiritual, you need to humbly acknowledge that gift, cherish it, and manage it with great care. We also always need to remember those who have less. Not out of pity, but out of genuine human caring and concern. We are all going to fall. We are all sinners. But when we are sinning and in the process of doing so rush excitedly to commit them, when our feet run swiftly to evil, then we are doing something that the Lord expressly and exceedingly hates. We need to begin applying the brakes, stop in our tracks, and turn around to Him and His way and away from the sins we rush madly towards.

I'm Betting on America

The stock market is actually a very simple idea to wrap your arms around at it's most basic levels. A company, let's pick an old standard that everyone knows like Coca Cola, wants to make some more money. It wants to make more money for many reasons: it can pay its employees better salaries and offer them better benefits, thus attracting better workers; it can build bigger and better facilities, and purchase newer vehicles to transport their products to market more efficiently; it can research and produce new products that will get them new customers; it can purchase another company that has a product or service which Coke feels would be compatible with their own; it can allow them to advertise more on TV, radio, the internet and thus sell more of their products. All of these efforts by Coke are efforts to make their company better, stronger, healthier. So the powers at Coke decide to 'go public' by offering 'shares' of Coke on the stock market. This means that you can purchase an ownership stake in Coke by purchasing a 'share' at a certain price. A number of people decide to buy these shares, basically giving Coke their money in order to do those things they want to make their company stronger. The market determines what that price will be, so for instance initially Coke might offer shares in their company at $15 each. If you believe that Coca Cola is run well by good people, that their company is healthy, and that it is going to thrive and even maybe expand strongly in the future then you may buy a share. By doing so, you are basically betting on Coke, and you are putting up $15 of your real money in order to get a share. If you buy 10 shares, you have $150 invested in Coke. Now let's say they do well over the next few years, and as they do well the price of their stock goes up. It does so because more and more people believe in Coke like you did, so the people at Coke can raise the price of their shares because people are willing to pay that higher price. Say a couple years later the price of Coke shares is now $25 per share. Those 10 shares that you put $150 into two years ago? Well now they are worth $25 per share, or $250 total, and you have made yourself $100 on your investment. On the flip side, if Coke did poorly, if their company assets were mismanaged or stolen, or if their products were no longer as valuable to the public (in other words, fewer people liked to drink Coca Cola), then the price they could get for thier shares would go down. Say they went down to $5 per share, then your 10 would now be worth just $50. You would have lost 100 on your investment in Coke. That is how the stock market works at its most basic level. What you hear on TV every day as the 'Dow Jones Industrical Average' or simply as 'The Dow' going 'up' or 'down' is basically the world betting on America. You get in on this action, get to 'play the market', by purchasing those shares which are sold by that thing which we call the 'stock market'. Not unlike going to the grocery market for your food, you go to the stock market to purchase your stock shares. The main place that Americans do their purchasing is at the U.S. Stock Exchange, located on Wall Street in New York City, and thus you hear the market sometimes simply referred to as 'Wall Street'. The Dow is the total value of 30 selected stocks that key investors have determined make up a reflection of a wide range of important companies in America. For instance if Coke is worth $15 per share, and McDonalds is worth $10 per share, and Home Depot is worth $16 per share, and Comcast is worth $20 per share, you would add them together and get a total of 61 'points', or the dollar value of all the 'costs per share' of the companies in our little example index. If tomorrow those share values go up, and the new total is 81 points, our index of those four companies has gone up by 20 points. So it goes with The Dow, only in their case it is with the prices of those 30 American companies that I mentioned make it up. So in other words, when The Dow is going up, people are betting that America is healthy and strong. They believe that, in general, the future looks bright for business here, which means that products will get better, that their will be good jobs available, that companies will succeed. When The Dow is down, people believe that America is not going to succeed, that companies will fail. When too many people begin to dislike too many things about too many companies, they may decide that they don't like having their money in shares of stock any more, and so they pull thier money out of the stock market and do something else with it. This makes the shares in the market drop, because they are not as valuable if many people no longer want them, and so the market goes 'down'. If enough people pull enough money out in a short enough period of time, as has been happening recently, we have a market 'downturn' or even a 'crash'. A 'crash' is generally defined as when the overall stock market loses 20% or more of its value in a very short period of time. They happen usually about once every couple decades or so, and are usually seen as being a 'correction' in the market. This means that people have found that prices on company shares were a bit too high and stopped buying them until they got to levels that people were again comfortable with. What always happens is that a time comes when people look at the prices of stock in companies and say to themselves "hey, that stock is getting pretty low, it's really worth more than that" and they jump back in to the market. More and more people do this, and the market goes back up aqain. The very bottom line here is that buying stocks in good American companies is like betting on America to succeed. Do you believe that the United States of America is going to fail? Really, ultimately, completely fail? Or do you believe that 5, 10, 50 years from now there is going to be a United States of America that is still a democracy, that still is a world leader, that still bases its economy on capitalism and the value of rewarding hard work by both individuals and business? If so, then you should do exactly what I am doing by keeping the shares of my retirement plan invested in ways that reflect the market. Despite all the doom and gloom seen on television broadcasts today, I am betting on America. Despite a few hiccups along the way, she has never, ever let me down in the long term of my 47 year life. She might struggle for a bit over the next few months, even the next few years, while some details are worked out and some badly run companies are weeded out. We might even suffer a bit more should Barack Obama get elected and Democrats control Congress, thus raising our taxes and our spending and worsening our situation in those next few years. But in the long run of the next decade or so, she will be back strong, of that I have no doubts. The bottom line for me is that I'm staying in the market, I'm betting on America.