FT reporting that the S&P has warned Germany, France, and 3 other AAA rated countries they are in review for a potential downgrade. FT further reports the credit watch warnings will come later today. Market pares 60% of its gains on the news….
Comments »Yearly Archives: 2011
Bank Executives Reveal That Earnings for Banks and Brokerage Firms Will Continue to See Trouble
CFTC Creates More Restrictions on How Brokerage Firms Can Use Client Monies
In the wake of MF Global tighter limits were approved today to limit how client monies can be used.
Comments »The King of Sweden Gets Busted for Eyes Wide Shut
The King of Sweden has been exposed for knowing of bribes to nigh club owners to remove statements involving sex parties in a new upcoming book.
Comments »Citron Negative on $QIHU
maintains $5 price target. Full report here
Comments »Sarkozy and Merkel AKA S&M Agree Upon “Coercive Discipline”
They hope this new agreement on “coercive discipline” will allow the ECB to act decisively against debt crisis contagion.
Comments »Greece Gets a 2.2 Billion Euro Funding Tranche From the IMF
It has been reported on the DJ news wire that Greece is receiving a 2.2 billion euro tranche from the IMF
Comments »THE ARAB SPRING FOR DUMMIES {PHOTO}
State of the Nation: Ignorant and Getting Hosed by a Phantom Al-Qaeda
Did Al-Qaeda ever exist ? Think of all the taxpayer money that may have been stolen from you and your childrens future if this account is true.
[youtube://http://wwwyoutube.com/watch?v=Gzun4ehFjeA&feature=youtu.be&a 450 300]
Strip Clubs Find Female Dance Professor to Stave Off Government
Judith Hanna, a 75-year-old grandmother and anthropology professor, spent an afternoon in 2005 on a beach in Jacksonville, Florida, photographing women’s swimsuited backsides.
Hanna, who has spent almost 50 years studying the cultural expression of dance, called the fieldwork “interesting.” Her pictures, meant to demonstrate local enthusiasm for exposed flesh, became evidence in a nightclub’s fight against an ordinance requiring strippers to better cover their derrieres. Since 1995, Hanna, a University ofMaryland researcher, has helped clubs repel efforts to tax, regulate or close them, arguing more than 100 times that striptease is just as much an art as ballet.
Next year, her lap-dances-are-art argument will be part of an appeal before New York’s highest court. A stripper in heels is like a ballerina en pointe, she says, and her communication of feeling is no different than that of the New York City Ballet — and no less protected by the First Amendment.
“Patrons of gentleman’s clubs aren’t just there to look at nude bodies,” Hanna, who lives in Bethesda, said in a telephone interview. “They want to read into it. It’s not just the eroticism, it’s the beauty of the body, and the fantasy they create.”
Hanna says she has observed at least 1,500 ecdysiastic performances in her defense of the $12 billion U.S. exotic-dance industry, which comprises about 4,000 clubs. When a city or state passes a law to kick the clubs out of town, owners turn to Hanna. She sends clients an average bill of about $3,000, and estimated that she has 45 wins to 21 losses.
Voice of the Industry
Hanna “plays a really important role in letting people see our side,” said Eric Langan, chief executive officer of Houston-based Rick’s Cabaret International Inc. (RICK), which operates adult websites and clubs in Texas and Minnesota.
Opponents say her sophistry defends the indefensible.
“You can’t just trump the law by saying a naked dancer’s erotic message is protected by free speech,” said Scott Bergthold, a Chattanooga, Tennessee, attorney who helps municipalities craft and defend adult-business regulations. “We’re dealing with cases where cities are outlawing touching between naked dancers and customers that involve prostitution acts and she’s coming in with these opinions. It’s ridiculous.”
Hanna’s prominence has grown with the spread of stripping, Bergthold said in a telephone interview.
“The industry has exploded, and they’re now in towns and cities that 20 years ago didn’t have strip clubs,” he said.
‘Secondary Effects’
The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed crime rates around clubs to be used as cause for regulation. This year, the Missouri Supreme Court and a federal appeals court in Ohio upheld laws against touching customers. The Texas Supreme Court upheld a $5 per customer tax on nude clubs that serve alcohol. The so-called secondary effects doctrine, which allows laws restricting activities regarded as protected expression so long as they are aimed at deleterious side effects such as crime, was applied in all three.
At trial, Hanna’s testimony is often accompanied by that of sociologists who dispute crime data as the industry recasts itself as classy entertainment.
“Sex, drugs and heavy drinking have been replaced by good- looking women, $300 chairs and bright lights,” said Langan whose company has a market capitalization of about $77.6 million and whose stock has outperformed the Standard and Poor’s 500 Index by almost 1 percentage point this year.
And there is nothing new under the bustier, Hanna said.
“Exotic dance has nudity and is marginalized and stigmatized for it,” Hanna said. “It’s really old hat. It’s in musicals, operas, and theater.”
Grace and Violence
The New Testament tells of Salome, who “danced and pleased” her stepfather Herod, the ruler of Galilee, and then asked for John the Baptist’s head. Herod sent an executioner.
Vaslav Nijinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” ballet sparked a riot when its depiction of fertility rituals debuted in Paris in 1913.
“Exotic dance shares with virtually all dance genres the fact that it is a purposeful, intentionally rhythmical, culturally patterned, nonverbal, body movement communication in time and space,” Hanna writes in “Naked Truth: Strip Clubs, Democracy and a Christian Right,” to be released next year. It “conveys meaning by the use of space, touch, proximity to an observer, nudity, stillness and specific body movements.”
Preparing Temptation
Stripping can transcend the carnal, said Toni Bentley, an author who danced for choreographerGeorge Balanchine’s New York City Ballet before a hip injury ended her career.
“It’s hard to make the argument that just thrusting your pelvis is art,” Bentley said in a telephone interview. “You have a much better chance at doing something beautiful with work and preparation.”
The key to eroticism is careful planning, said Jennifer McCumber, 28, a retired stripper who runs a website from her Houston home where she teaches business concepts to dancers.
“To make a lap dance work, I had to combine concepts from gymnastics, things I learned from pole dancing, belly dancing I learned in college and even martial arts,” McCumber said in a telephone interview. “You have to have physical and mental agility to perform, while also making it seductive and alluring.”
Choreography is at the heart of the case in New York, where a club in Latham, near Albany, is arguing that most of its sales should be tax-free because of the state’s exemption for entrance fees to “dramatic or musical art performances.”
‘Stunningly Sweeping’
Andrew McCullough, a lawyer for Nite Moves, gave the court videos that dancers use to “adapt new techniques into their choreography.” And he hired Hanna to “get the message across” to the Tax Appeals Tribunal, he said.
It didn’t get there.
“To accept Dr. Hanna’s stunningly sweeping interpretation of what constitutes choreographed performance, all one needs to do is move in an aesthetically pleasing way to music,” tribunal Commissioners Carroll Jenkins and Charles Nesbitt wrote in their April 2010 ruling against the club.
The case is headed to the New York Court of Appeals, which said in October it will hear arguments next year.
In 2002, Bentley, the former ballet dancer, published “Sisters of Salome,” a study on early 20th Century strippers. As research, Bentley did a striptease of her own at a New York City club.
“There’s no definition to art and it’s eternally debated,” Bentley said. “Like the Supreme Court with obscenity, I know it when I see it. And from going to all kinds of strip clubs, some of it is and some of it is not.”
Comments »Lunch Break: Europe Applies the Leaches
Mutant state-ist corporatism
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGQIxYfKKtc 450 300] Comments »FLASH: Italian 10 Year Drops Below 6%
Crack Spreads Edge Higher
+2.8% to $14.55
Comments »This Morning’s 52 Week Highs and Lows
NYSE
New Highs 70 COMPANY SYMBOL HIGH VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Airgas Inc ARG 77.82 62,636 Alliance CA Municipal AKP 14.44 1,617 AllianceBrnstn NtlMun AFB 14.50 9,873 Amer Tower AMT 59.68 394,041 American Water Works Co AWK 31.80 58,653 B&G Foods BGS 23.64 132,704 BlackRock CA Municipal Tr BFZ 14.49 4,481 Blackrock Invest BKN 15.00 5,300 BlkRk MuniHldgs II MUH 15.19 3,805 Blkrck MunHl NJ Qlty MUJ 15.01 8,560 BlkRk MuniHldgs Qlty II MUE 14.10 5,121 BlkRk MuniHldgs Quality MUS 13.95 8,804 BlkRk MuniYld MI Qlty MIY 14.89 6,843 BlkRk MuniYld NJ Fd MYJ 14.91 5,876 BlRk Muyld NJ Qlty MJI 14.96 6,312 BlkRk MuniYld Quality MQY 15.57 11,294 BlkRk MuniYld Ins Qlty MFT 14.47 3,712 Blackrock Strategic Muni BSD 13.73 1,223 Blyth BTH 71.16 7,737 Cambrex Corp CBM 7.25 43,566 Citizens Inc CIA 8.92 17,318 Clarcor Inc CLC 49.72 12,590 Dollar General DG 41.25 885,164 Enterprise Pdts Partners EPD 46.70 94,450 Extra Space Storage EXR 24.68 84,883 FMC Tech FTI 54.52 185,527 Fair Isaac FICO 37.25 34,928 Federated Premier FMN 15.05 2,200 Genuine Parts GPC 60.61 96,379 Group 1 Auto GPI 51.57 42,963 Guggenh Bond Mneg Dur Tr GBAB 21.13 5,618 Humana Inc HUM 90.76 328,296 IHS Inc IHS 90.00 8,585 ITC Holdings ITC 81.90 356,843 IBM IBM 192.94 757,583 Inv CA Ins Tr IIC 14.52 3,200 Invesco InsCa ICS 14.03 267 Invesco Mun Incm Opps Tr OIA 6.59 3,092 Invesco MIO II OIB 7.21 1,187 Invesco MIO III OIC 7.90 1,223 Invesco NY Qty IQN 14.88 1,200 Invesco Van Kampen Bd Fd VBF 21.37 2,558 Inv Vn Km NJ VTJ 17.11 2,062 Kenexa KNXA 29.20 270,470 Kinder Morgan Mgmt KMR 72.02 20,117 Kodiak Oil & Gas KOG 9.25 1,150,678 Kraft Foods KFT 36.90 1,340,479 Lithia Motors LAD 24.54 43,003 MI Developments MIM 33.49 25,271 Manning & Napier MN 12.89 12,800 MarkWest MWE 55.12 44,485 McDonald's MCD 96.59 481,305 Mistras Group MG 24.39 18,580 Movado Group MOV 19.24 49,468 NetSuite N 45.50 274,941 Nuveen Div Fnd NAD 14.14 10,551 Nuveen Performance Plus NPP 14.97 12,024 Nuveen Premium Inco Muni NPI 14.27 6,423 Oneok Inc OKE 84.33 56,383 Oceaneering Intl OII 48.68 69,692 Omnicare Inc OCR 33.91 188,697 Philip Morris Intl PM 77.03 506,863 Plains All Amer Pipeline PAA 67.30 104,396 Principl Finl Gp 6.518% B PFGpB 26.51 2,098 Qwest Corp7.50%Notes2051 CTW 25.97 12,121 Rex American Resources REX 19.69 6,282 Simpson Mfg SSD 33.72 8,613 SpectraEnergy SE 30.04 234,544 TJX Cos TJX 63.25 244,068 Targa Resources TRGP 38.14 71,003 New Lows 4 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ LEH 7% Sprint Cap JZK 19.29 650 MarriottVacations VAC 15.75 294,836 Syswin ADS SYSW 1.27 700 Teavana Holdings TEA 16.10 84,191 NASDAQ
New Highs 39 COMPANY SYMBOL HIGH VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Abiomed ABMD 20.48 46,588 Altisource Ptfl Sol SA ASPS 48.24 8,442 America's Car-Mart CRMT 38.98 8,712 Arabian American Dev ARSD 8.47 60,906 Astronics ATRO 36.85 12,583 Citizens Republic Bancorp CRBC 11.17 40,275 CommVault Systems CVLT 50.88 120,735 Conn's CONN 12.32 19,794 Core Mark Hldg Co CORE 39.00 1,712 Cyanotech CYAN 6.37 13,571 Deltek PROJ 8.77 24,407 Dollar Tree DLTR 83.75 202,994 Fastenal Co FAST 42.56 365,867 Fifth St Finance FSC 9.94 59,420 Garmin GRMN 37.50 168,820 Glbl Educ & Tech Grp ADS GEDU 10.86 86,199 Golar LNG Partners LP GMLP 29.75 2,039 Golar LNG GLNG 45.10 78,836 Hi Tech Pharmacal Co HITK 44.58 85,323 Hibbett Sports HIBB 46.41 18,568 Home BancShares HOMB 25.43 21,681 INX INXI 8.87 2,528 Lakeland Fincl LKFN 25.48 2,920 Nortek NTK 26.64 300 O'Reilly Automotive ORLY 79.35 149,737 Panera Bread Co PNRA 144.70 46,075 Perrigo Co PRGO 101.94 114,785 PETsMART PETM 49.66 104,900 Pharmacyclics PCYC 15.82 65,405 Pizza Inn Holdings PZZI 7.04 106,980 RBC Bearings ROLL 43.18 1,725 Ross Stores ROST 93.79 125,149 Spectrum Pharmaceuticals SPPI 14.71 261,149 TGC Inds TGE 8.76 65,646 Taleo (Cl A) TLEO 39.48 1,364,751 Texas Capital Bancshares TCBI 29.60 44,766 Ulta Salon Cosmetics ULTA 75.70 273,151 Ultimate Software Group ULTI 71.66 219,566 Verisk Analytics Inc VRSK 39.75 83,421 New Lows 10 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Aetrium ATRM 0.64 930 BSD Medical BSDM 2.20 14,739 China Sky One Medical CSKI 1.30 18,576 First Fincl Service FFKY 1.13 12,417 Poage Bankshares PBSK 10.76 800 PostRock Energy PSTR 2.61 1,570 PremierWest PRWT 0.87 261 Tii Network Tech TIII 1.23 140,495 Transition Therapeutics TTHI 1.23 30,208 Versant Corp VSNT 9.33 1,700
Comments »
This Morning’s Most Active Option Trades
-CALLS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE SFI 7/21/12 6.0000 2022 1.1000 up 0.0500 AMZN 12/9/11 210.0000 1678 0.5500 up 0.0500 MUR 4/21/12 60.0000 1455 3.7000 up 0.4000 BAC 12/17/11 6.0000 1398 0.2200 up 0.0600 C 12/17/11 30.0000 1302 1.3200 up 0.6800 F 12/17/11 12.0000 1170 0.0500 up 0.0100 AA 1/21/12 10.0000 1165 0.7000 dn 0.0100 MRO 12/17/11 29.0000 1014 0.5800 up 0.2200 MRO 12/17/11 28.0000 1012 1.1300 up 0.3800 JPM 12/17/11 34.0000 975 1.2700 up 0.7000 -PUTS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE GE 1/21/12 15.0000 1967 0.3000 dn 0.1000 CAT 1/21/12 90.0000 1238 2.6200 dn 0.2800 XLNX 12/17/11 29.0000 1178 0.1000 dn 0.0300 XLNX 12/17/11 30.0000 1178 0.1600 dn 0.0100 MRK 7/21/12 33.0000 1023 2.0100 dn 0.1600 MO 1/21/12 24.0000 995 0.1400 dn 0.0200 C 12/17/11 30.0000 990 1.3300 dn 1.1500 LULU 12/17/11 50.0000 957 1.6000 dn 0.4000 RFMD 1/19/13 5.0000 947 0.7500 up 0.0000 BAC 12/17/11 6.0000 907 0.3500 dn 0.1500 -VOLUME- CALLS PUTS TOTAL 218643 257226 475869
-CALLS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE MS 1/21/12 24.0000 350 0.0500 up 0.0100 BAC 12/17/11 7.0000 343 0.0300 up 0.0000 BAC 12/17/11 6.0000 330 0.2200 up 0.0700 BAC 12/9/11 6.0000 264 0.1400 up 0.0200 AGO 12/17/11 12.0000 257 0.7000 up 0.4400 GLD 12/17/11 185.0000 161 0.1400 up 0.0100 BIDU 12/9/11 140.0000 153 1.0000 dn 0.1600 BAC 1/21/12 6.0000 132 0.4900 up 0.0700 DIA 12/30/11 121.0000 126 2.8400 up 0.4900 BAC 1/21/12 7.5000 123 0.1100 up 0.0100 -PUTS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE AAPL 12/9/11 380.0000 515 0.9300 dn 1.0200 GRPN 4/21/12 10.0000 500 1.2500 up 0.0500 RIMM 12/17/11 16.0000 172 0.8900 up 0.1000 TLT 1/21/12 110.0000 141 0.9800 up 0.0900 TLT 1/21/12 109.0000 141 0.8200 up 0.0900 BAC 1/21/12 5.0000 115 0.2500 dn 0.0500 GE 12/9/11 16.0000 90 0.0800 dn 0.1200 BAC 12/17/11 5.0000 90 0.0700 dn 0.0200 GLW 12/17/11 13.0000 85 0.2900 dn 0.0100 MS 12/17/11 12.0000 73 0.0500 dn 0.0500 -VOLUME- CALLS PUTS TOTAL 14901 16078 30979Comments »
Today’s Early Winners
min mkt cap: 250 mill
No. Ticker % Change Market Cap
1 SFSF 51.22 2,190,000,000
2 TLEO 18.17 1,340,000,000
3 KNXA 13.94 664,540,000
4 CSOD 13.05 787,120,000
5 IL 11.75 280,540,000
6 CNQR 11.37 2,410,000,000
7 LYG 10.53 25,970,000,000
8 GCI 9.57 2,680,000,000
9 ULTI 9.51 1,720,000,000
10 GMO 9.26 295,980,000
11 AGO 9.16 1,700,000,000
12 ARBA 9.12 2,720,000,000
13 DNN 8.39 507,750,000
14 THC 8.37 2,030,000,000
15 QLIK 8.20 2,360,000,000
16 IMAX 7.94 1,270,000,000
17 NUVA 7.48 580,860,000
18 AWC 7.35 3,230,000,000
19 ITC 7.31 3,770,000,000
20 FTNT 7.30 3,560,000,000
21 RDN 6.70 313,020,000
22 ING 6.66 28,830,000,000
23 TAT 6.57 457,160,000
24 DOLE 6.35 741,960,000
25 HWD 6.32 942,900,000
26 NAT 6.19 562,370,000
27 C 6.14 73,790,000,000
28 SFL 6.05 788,880,000
29 OPEN 5.97 860,740,000
30 VDSI 5.84 300,690,000
31 HMA 5.76 2,060,000,000
32 KND 5.65 655,160,000
33 CRM 5.63 15,020,000,000
34 RVBD 5.60 4,100,000,000
35 CARB 5.57 289,760,000
36 NBR 5.54 5,090,000,000
37 PDC 5.49 652,880,000
38 APO 5.46 1,490,000,000
39 XRA 5.36 283,710,000
40 END 5.35 264,390,000
41 IVN 5.35 15,720,000,000
42 TXI 5.25 770,040,000
43 CGV 5.21 3,200,000,000
44 FTK 5.20 444,560,000
45 MS 5.15 27,970,000,000
46 GOL 5.14 2,140,000,000
47 MGA 5.05 8,330,000,000
48 CTCT 5.04 624,840,000
49 JRCC 5.04 285,580,000
50 STD 5.02 66,350,000,000
NBC/Marist Poll Says Ron Paul is the Best Chance to Beat Obama
Non Manufacturing ISM:Prior 52.9, Actual 52 vs Consensus 53.8
What Do Your Christmas Gifts Really Cost ?
ALERT: ITALIAN, SPANISH AND BELGIAN YIELDS ARE CRATERING
Italy -10% to 6%
Spain -10% to 5%
Belgium -6% to 4.38%
