Las Vegas Marathon Runners Get the Runs

*Note* They were drinking out of garbage cans…

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Some runners who participated in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in Las Vegas say water passed out during the race made them sick.

The Las Vegas Sun reports that health officials are investigating at least 10 claims of intestinal problems following the Sunday night marathon. They also have posted a survey to pinpoint a possible source for illness complaints that have been posted on Facebook.

Race organizers filled lined buckets or trash cans with hydrant water, which was used to fill cups offered to racers along the course.

Some runners complained that the water tasted odd or unclean.

Race organizers say the hydrant water was tested and found to be safe.

The event drew some 44,000 racers who paid up to $179 to run a half or full marathon.

Source

Keep in mind that Blodget was found guilty of securities fraud and is banned from the securities industry.

by Henry Blodget

In the war of rhetoric that has developed in Washington as both sides try to blame each other for our economic mess, one argument has been repeated so often that many people now regard it as fact:

Rich people create jobs.

Specifically, entrepreneurs, when incented by low taxes, build companies and create millions of jobs.

And these entrepreneurs, therefore, the argument goes, can solve our nation’s huge unemployment problem–if only we cut taxes and regulations so they can be incented to build more companies and create more jobs.

In other words, by even considering raising taxes on “the 1%,” we are considering destroying the very mechanism that makes our economy the strongest and biggest in the world: The incentive for entrepreneurs to start companies in the hope of getting rich and, in the process, creating millions of jobs.

Now, there have long been many absurd holes in this theory, starting with

1. Taxes on rich people (capital gains and income) are, relative to history, low, so raising them would only begin to bring them back in line with prior prosperous periods, and
2. Dozens of rich entrepreneurs have already gone on record confirming that a modest hike in capital gains and income taxes would not have the slightest impact on their desire to create companies and jobs, given that tax rates are historically low.

So this theory, which many people regard as fact, is already ridiculous.

But now a super-rich and super-successful American has explained the most important reason the theory is absurd, while calling for higher taxes on himself and people like him.

Read the rest of Blodget’s absurd piece here.

Gosh. Who knew that a massive tax could solve all imagined climate problems?

David L. Hagen writes:

The UN is demanding control over $1.6 trillion per year to control climate. See Section 47 in draft # FCCC/AWGLCA/2011/CRP.39 9 December 2011 #GE.11-71576 at: http://trade.cc/owg

47.  The provision of the amount of funds to be made available annually to developing country Parties, which shall be equivalent to the budget that developed countries spend on defence, security, and warfare. Fifty per cent of that amount shall be for adaptation, 20 per cent for mitigation, 15 per cent for technology development and transfer and 15 per cent for forest-related actions in developing country Parties;

See Reuters: Worldwide military spending edged up in 2010 to a record $1.6 trillion, a leading think-tank said on Monday. Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s military expenditure database. http://trade.cc/owi . . .

Read the rest here.

by Tom Steward

It’s that time of year again.  Thousands of Minnesotans begin implementing evacuation plans to temporarily relocate somewhere south and warm.  Before embarking, many make a preemptive appointment in a tanning facility to ramp up their exposure to ultra violet (UV) rays in advance. This winter, however, traveling tanners will have to look harder for a place to catch some rays — and not just in the frozen north.

Fourteen percent of indoor tanning facilities in Minnesota have gone out of business since 2009, according to the Indoor Tanning Association (ITA).  The number of professional indoor tanning salons registered with ITA in Minnesota has plummeted from 477 to 419 in less than two years. In the industry’s view, it’s no coincidence the store closures and layoffs came so soon after the federal government targeted tanning salons for tax hikes. “Once again we have our government trying to control our behavior,” said John Overstreet of the Indoor Tanning Association.  “You can’t just pick out an industry because someone views them some way and try to tax them into submission. That’s just crazy.”

While the economic downturn has undercut consumers’ discretionary spending, the industry places more blame on the ten percent excise tax imposed as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The one—two punch of the untimely health care act tax and sour economy wiped out 16 percent of tanning parlors nationwide — a loss of 3,100 businesses and 24,000 jobs.  Three-quarters of tanning operations are owned by women which is three times the national average for other businesses.

“Basic economics tells you that you can’t tack ten percent on your prices without affecting demand. They’ve seen people cancel their packages, it’s definitely impacted demand and the number of customers and profitability of these businesses,” Overstreet told the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota. The tanning tax took effect in July 2010, the first tax imposed under the Obama administration’s health care reform legislation with 81 new IRS agents to enforce it. Congress estimated the excise tax on the estimated 25,000 professional tanning salons in business back then would generate $2.7 billion in revenue over ten years. The tax has raised about $37 million in the first half of the current fiscal year, putting it on course to generate less than half the $200 million in revenue projected by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation for the first full year of collections.

Read the rest here.

ens of thousands of Russians turned out in central Moscow and across the country Saturday to protest what they believe were rigged parliamentary elections.

United Russia, the party of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, suffered big losses in the election, but retained its parliamentary majority. On Saturday, protesters chanted “Putin out,” according to a correspondent from state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

Between 20,000 and 25,000 protesters had gathered in the capital, Moscow, Ria Novosti said Saturday, citing police. There have been no reports of unrest and security has been tight.

READ THE REST HERE 

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By Carl Levin in The Daily Caller

__________

Unless the bastards come after me again, this is my last column on a national disgrace.

So let me be absolutely clear about who the bastards are: The New York Times, Senator Carl Levin and their 40 Democratic allies in the House of Representatives. The disgrace in question: The Times’s April 2008 “exposé” alleging conflicts of interest and wrongdoing by the retired military analysts often featured on television newscasts before and during the Iraq War.

I was one of those analysts. In fact, I wrote a first-person history of the Pentagon briefing program in a 2006 book, Warheads. After the Times article was published, I repeatedly argued that the story was perversely unfair, misleading and badly slanted. Among other defects, it omitted the “small detail” that Warheads had even been published, immediately raising fundamental questions of inaccuracy, even plagiarism.

What was far worse: Solely on the basis of The Times’s article, Senator Levin and 40 House Democrats promptly demanded investigations: by the Pentagon inspector general, the Federal Communications Commission and the General Accounting Office. None found any of the wrongdoing alleged by The Times in the article for which it was subsequently awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

This ignominy finally came full circle last week in a Washington Times article by Rowan Scarborough, one of the only journalists courageous enough to follow this story through to its wildly improbable conclusion. Scarborough had watched in 2009 while Senator Levin leveraged his powerful position as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee to press the Pentagon IG for a re-investigation. Surely the IG must have overlooked wrongdoing by the previous administration, the chairman’s reasoning went, but with Barack Obama now in power, go back and look even harder!

Pentagon inspectors general follow orders but don’t compromise their integrity. In September 2011, Scarborough reported that, its two-year re-investigation complete, the DOD IG was about to report that Pentagon officials and retired military analysts had complied with all laws and regulations. Having provided lengthy sworn statements to each of those investigations, I kept asking DOD IG public affairs officers when the final report would be released, receiving increasingly evasive replies.

Scarborough eventually uncovered and reported the shocking truth: Senator Levin directly intervened in the investigation in order to influence the wording of the final IG report. This was the political equivalent of jury-tampering but, for a while, it seemed like Senator Levin’s misconduct would go un-noticed. But then, Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced his intention to examine Senator Levin’s meddling. The DOD IG’s final report was issued last week, reported appropriately enough by Rowan Scarborough.

Read more: http://trade.cc/ost

Full article

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has warned that the federal budget cuts could be “devastating” for the Pentagon. (Jonathan Ernst – Reuters)

With deeper budget cuts looming, the Pentagon is starting to cut back by trimming the Defense Department’s civilian workforce.

The Army said Thursday it is moving forward with plans announced in July to cut about 8,700 positions, using a mix of early retirement offers, buyouts and attrition to trim the jobs by the end of the fiscal year in late September.

“Army commands and agencies are continuing to take necessary actions to reduce their civilian on-board strength to meet funded targets established by the secretary of defense and reflected in the President’s budget,” Thomas R. Lamont, assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, said in a statement. “To the maximum extent possible, the Army will rely on voluntary departures to achieve these manpower reductions.”

The cuts will come in 37 states at 70 different locations across eight commands and agencies with nearly 90 percent of the cuts taking place within the Installation Management Command, Army Materiel Command and the Training and Doctrine Command. Most of the cuts are likely to occur in Virginia and Texas, where most of the DOD’s civilian workers are located.

In addition to eligible workers who retire, commanders will be able to use voluntary early retirement offers and buyouts to cut jobs, the Army said.

The failure of the bipartisan debt supercommittee means the Pentagon budget could be cut by a total of $1 trillion over the next decade — what defense leaders warn is a “huge” cut that would amount to a 23 percent reduction in the defense budget, resulting in furloughs and layoffs of “many” civilians and a reduction in the size of the military. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has warned that the cuts could be “devastating” for the Pentagon, creating a “substantial risk” that the country’s defense needs might not be met.

SOURCE 

STORY HERE

(CNN) — Almost half of German people believe that their country’s economy would be in a better position today if it hadn’t joined the euro, according to the findings of a survey commissioned by CNN.

About the same number of Germans is also opposed to a more tight-knit “United States of Europe,” along lines favored by their leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel. The concept enjoys stronger backing in poorer countries such as Spain and Greece, the study found.

The research conducted by ComRes and released on a day that saw European leaders agree to strengthen financial ties to ward off financial crisis, shows opinions broadly divided along lines of national wealth across the continent.

Read here:

While most of the country is still mired in a troubled economy, North Dakota is riding an unprecedented boom that has jobs looking for people, rather than the other way around.

“And largely that’s driven by the oil play in what we call the Bakkan Formation,” Lynn Helms, Director of North Dakota Dept. of Natural Resources explains.

“We’re estimating now about 18,000 square miles of western North Dakota, another 6,000 square miles in Montana, Saskatchewan and Manitoba that is mature oil-source rock. It can be drilled up almost (like) an oil-producing factory. We did not drill a single dry hole in the last year-and-a-half,” she said.

WASHINGTON – House Republicans are on a collision course with the White House and potentially the Senate over an emerging proposal to extend the payroll tax cut, teeing up a protracted debate that could keep lawmakers in Washington for the holidays as they try to avert a Jan. 1 tax increase.

The Senate on Thursday afternoon rejected rival Democratic and GOP plans for extending the cut. The failure was expected, cueing the House to step in with a new plan.

Details of that proposal, expected to be unveiled in full on Friday, suggest its Republican authors are preparing for a showdown with President Obama. The bill includes a controversial provision to move along the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas — the Obama administration recently put that project on hold until after the 2012 election, citing environmental and safety concerns.

The provision pertaining to the Keystone pipeline helped sweeten the deal for House conservatives skeptical of a payroll tax extension.

PARIS (AP) – The Moody’s rating agency downgraded three leading French banks on Friday, saying that the spiraling debt crisis in Europe was making it hard for them to get loans and that the situation may get worse.

After a review, Moody’s lowered the overall financial strength ratings of BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole SA. The banks’ long-term debt ratings were also downgraded, saying they were “affected by the fragile operating environment for European banks.”

Banks are at the front-line of the debt crisis raging across the 17-country eurozone that has threatened to drag the global economy back into recession.

It took action a day after a regulator said European banks have to raise about €115 billion ($154 billion) — more than expected — to meet a new standard meant to shore up the lenders against market turmoil.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s industrial output growth dropped in November to its slowest pace in more than two years and inflation tumbled as economic conditions deteriorated, raising expectations that Beijing will pursue a more pro-growth policy to support jobs.

Easing inflation pressure on consumers at the same time as data signals a serious risk of a sharp industrial slowdown is potentially perilous for policymakers trying to engineer a soft economic landing against a backdrop of a deepening crisis in China’s main export market — debt-ridden Europe.

“The sharp contraction in the real economy, the external uncertainties lingering on, plus the easing inflationary pressure all point to a larger scope for further policy easing. So the basic tone of the macro policy will lean towards the pro-growth side,” said Nie Wen, analyst at Hwabao Trust in Shanghai.

A deluge of data on Friday showed China’s annual consumer inflation rate tumbled in November to 4.2 percent, the lowest level since September 2010 and slightly below expectations. It was the first time since February it had fallen below 5 percent.

Inflation has dropped from a three-year high of 6.5 percent in July, allowing Beijing to shift its policy stance towards offering support for the economy, especially as CPI is now closer to the full-year government target for 2011 of 4 percent.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota, set to lose its crown as the world’s top-selling automaker this year, more than halved its annual profit forecast to $2.6 billion, reeling from a strong yen and Thai floods that severed its supply lines.

Toyota Motor Corp’s (7203.T) inability to make enough cars – production was also ruptured by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in March – is expected to see it overtaken in sales this year by General Motors Co (NYSE:GM) and probably Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE).

While Toyota is poised for record production next year as it rebuilds depleted inventories, the yen’s persistent strength against virtually every major currency means profit recovery will continue to be slow given its huge exposure to exports.

“Toyota is hitting a trough,” said Cho Soo-Hong, auto analyst at Woori Investment & Securities in Seoul.

BOSTON (MarketWatch) — If you want to understand the latest Franco-German proposal to “save” the euro, imagine this.

Imagine the governments of China and Japan demanding they be given the legal right to override the U.S. budget’s legislative process if needed, and to impose tax hikes and spending cuts on the American people as needed.

After all, China and Japan are our biggest creditors. The U.S. government owes them trillions. We’re not quite as deeply in debt as a share of our economic output, as Europe’s naughtiest Nellies. But we’re not far behind either.

Markets rallied this week on hopes that the leaders of the European Union will at long last solve the region’s budget crisis. Center stage is the new proposal from Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. They want to turn Europe into, effectively, a federal government, with the power to impose budget discipline on wayward members.

Their proposal is preposterous. Anything can happen in this life, but it would be remarkable indeed if this idea got off the ground. Anyone pinning their hopes that this will solve the crisis needs to think it through.

Why would the Portuguese accept the right of Germany to impose budget cuts on their country? Why would the Greeks?

Would we accept that role for the Chinese and the Japanese, the biggest holders of Treasury debt? How would you feel if you opened the paper to be told that the new Sino-Japanese “Fiscal Stability Commission” in Washington had just slashed your grandma’s Social Security checks by one-third, scaled back federal highway repairs, and that it would impose a 10% national sales tax?

That is, after all, effectively what is being offered to the people of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.

It’s absurd. There is no reason why these countries should have to surrender sovereignty. They can simply, where necessary, default. A default by, say, Louisiana would not destroy the dollar. Neither did the bankruptcy of Enron or Lehman.

The British look smarter and smarter for staying out of the euro area in the first place. Prime Minister John Major, and then, later, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, each took the decision to keep the British pound free. At the time fashionable opinion predicted disaster for the Brits. So much for that.

(Predictably, fashionable opinion now says the Brits look “isolated” for staying out. Really, you couldn’t make it up).

It has long been clear the Franco-German duo wanted to use their shared currency to bludgeon the continent into something closer to a federal system.

Any investor pinning their hopes on this bird flying needs to be aware it looks a lot more like a turkey than an eagle.

This week’s meeting of European leaders already marks the fifth “summit” to solve the region’s debt crisis since early 2009.

My favorite comment this time: “After a series of ‘final’ summits, it would be nice this time to have a real ‘final’ summit.” That was from Standard & Poor’s chief European economist, appropriately-enough named Jean-Michel Six. What’s the betting Mr. Six will be attending Summit No. Six in the new year?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in October to its lowest point of the year after Americans bought fewer foreign cars and imported less oil.

The shrinking trade gap boosted growth over the summer and may do so again in the final three months of the year.

The Commerce Department said Friday that the trade deficit shrank 1.6 percent to $43.5 billion. It was the fourth straight monthly decline.

Overall imports fell 1 percent to $222.6 billion, which largely reflected a 5 percent decline in oil imports. The average price of imported oil fell for the fifth straight month to the lowest level since March. Oil prices rose last winter because of turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa.

Exports slipped 0.8 percent to $179.2 billion, the first drop after three months of gains. Shipments of industrial supplies, such as natural gas, copper and chemicals, fell. Exports of autos and agricultural goods also dropped.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Consumer sentiment rose to its highest level in six months in early December due to signs of better labor conditions and an improving outlook on the economy.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary reading on their overall index of consumer confidence climbed for a fourth straight month to 67.7. This compared with 64.1 in November and a low of 55.7 back in August.

The early December figure exceeded the 65.5 predicted by analysts recently polled by Reuters.

LONDON (AP) — A deal to get almost all EU countries to tie their economies closer together received some support in the markets on Friday, even though European leaders failed to reach unanimity on the plan, with Britain opposing the plan.

Following the summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed Britain was the only country in the 27-nation European Union to hold out against supporting the new treaty.

The new treaty will penalize overspending governments in a bid to avoid a repeat of Europe’s debt crisis. Germany and France, the two biggest economies in the 17-nation eurozone, had hoped to persuade the whole European Union to back a change to the current EU treaty. Britain’s refusal means they will have to settle for a new intergovernmental agreement instead.

Following losses in Asia and an early retreat in Europe, market sentiment improved somewhat.

“The principle of a strong commitment to a new ‘fiscal compact’ — tough discipline and sanctions in case rules are breached — and stronger coordination of economic policies has been established,” said Herve Goulletquer, an analyst at Credit Agricole. “This is a significant step forward. What markets want now is to be sure that it will work. The devil is too often in the detail.”