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Like, OMG, Here’s the “Happy Mardi Gras” Party for the Obamas

via Drudgereport.com


JAGGER SINGS 'COMMIT A CRIME' TO OBAMA AT WHITE HOUSE
Tue Feb 21 2012 20:11:21 ET

Subject: Pool #1--The BluesPool was escorted into the East Room for "In Performance at The White House: Red, White and Blues" at 6:45pmPOTUS and FLOTUS entered the room at 7:25pm to rousing applause.

Highlights: POTUS began his speech by wishing the crowd a "Happy Mardi Gras." Turning to the Blues, he said the music has "humble beginnings, roots in slavery and segregation, a society that rarely treated Black Americans with the dignity and respect that they deserved."

POTUS said the Blues helped lay the foundation for Rock n Roll, R&B and hip hop. POTUS said the blues "Speaks to something universal." "No one goes through life without both joy and pain, triumph and sorrow. Blues gets all that sometimes with just one lyric or one note," he said.

The music "teaches us that when we find ourselves at a crossroads, we don't shy away from our problems. We own them. We face up to them. We deal with them. We sing about them. We turn them into art."

Obama then called BB King, whom he called "the King of the Blues" to the stage, helping him up.BB King (wearing a shiny leaf-patterned jacket) and other musicians listed below then led the crowd in a rendition of "Let the Good Times Roll." (For all you Rolling Stones fans, Mick Jagger was not on the stage.)

Spotted in the crowd: First Granny Marian Robinson, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and WH senior adviser Pete Rouse. Full set list: “In Performance at The White House: Red, White and Blues”B.B King, Trombone Shorty, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Shemekia Copeland, Susan Tedeschi, Gary Clark, Jr., Keb’ Mo’, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes

Set List

1. “Let the Good Times Roll” (Ensemble)
2. “The Thrill Is Gone” (B.B King)
3. “St. James Infirmary” (Trombone Shorty)
4. “Let Me Love You Baby” (Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck)
5. “Brush With The Blues” instrumental (Jeff Beck)
6. “I Can’t Turn You Loose” (Mick Jagger)
7. “Commit A Crime” (Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck)
8. “Miss You” (Mick Jagger, Shemekia Copeland, and Susan Tedeschi,)
9. “Beat Up Guitar” (Shemekia Copeland, Gary Clark, Jr.)
10. “Catfish Blues” (Gary Clark, Jr.)
11. “In The Evening (When The Sun Goes Down)” (Gary Clark, Jr.)
12. “Henry” ( Keb’ Mo’)
13. “I’d Rather Go Blind” (Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes)
14. “Five Long years” (Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, Gary Clark, Mick Jagger)
15. “Sweet Home Chicago” (Ensemble)

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Meredith Whitney Lands Book Deal

via NYT Dealbook

Meredith WhitneyJonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg NewsMeredith Whitney

Meredith Whitney, the banking analyst who made a name for herself with a series of hard-nosed reports about the financial sector, is ready to plant her own literary flag.

Ms. Whitney has signed a deal with Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Group, to write a book about the growing problems in the municipal bond market, according to a statement from the publisher. The book, tentatively titled “Downgraded: Why the Next Economic Crisis Will Be Local,” is expected to hit bookstore shelves in November.

In the book, Ms. Whitney – who shook bond markets with a 2010 appearance on “60 Minutes” in which she predicted scores of municipal defaults – will “reveal why America’s cities and states are in deeper trouble than is commonly realized,” according to the publisher.

Ms. Whitney made a name for herself as an analyst at Oppenheimer & Compnay, where she gained attention for a 2007 report on Citigroup that correctly predicted that the bank would cut its dividend. She hung her own shingle in 2009, starting the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, and has since been a regular on the business television circuit, in addition to being featured in Michael Lewis’s book, “The Big Short.”

Despite her newfound celebrity, Ms. Whitney’s 2010 call on municipal bonds, in which she predicted “50 to 100 sizable defaults,” has not exactly panned out. Only a handful of defaults have come to pass, and Ms. Whitney’s reputation for prescience has suffered as some critics have accused her of alarmism.

Still, as a Paris Hilton-imitatingprofessional wrestler-marrying market maven, Ms. Whitney is doubtless one of the most entertaining equity analysts out there. (A bit of a tallest leprechaun contest, but still.)

“Since late 2008, dozens of American school districts, agencies, towns and cities have been taken under state control due to their inability to manage their own finances and pay their debts,” Portfolio said in its statement explaining the book’s premise. “According to Whitney, the evidence points to a mounting fiscal crisis in America’s towns and states that will drive a political and economic wedge between the haves and have-nots.”

The book deal, Ms. Whitney’s first, was negotiated by Robert B. Barnett, the literary super-lawyer who has represented clients like Barack Obama and Sarah Palin (and who recently scored a reported $4 million advance for Amanda Knox, the American student who was convicted of murdering her roommate in Italy but subsequently set free). The size of Ms. Whitney’s advance is unknown.

Will Weisser, Portfolio’s associate publisher, declined to comment on whether Ms. Whitney had enlisted the services of a co-writer, but said she was “very heavily into the process of writing” and was on track to meet her deadlines.

“We expect it to be somewhat controversial,” Mr. Weisser said of the book-to-be. “Obviously there are a lot of strong feelings on this issue.”

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GASPARINO: Insider Cases Will Pile Up in Courts for Years

Charlie Gasparino via FoxBusiness.com

Federal law enforcement officials say they have at least five years worth of insider-trading cases in the pipeline, a tally that could lead to hundreds of additional arrests in what’s already the largest probe of its kind, the FOX Business Network has learned.

This broad conclusion being reached by officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the result of numerous interviews conducted by the FOX Business Network in recent weeks with senior law enforcement officials directly involved in the investigation.

The current investigation — which traces its roots to an SEC inquiry in 2007 and FBI agents gaining court approval to use wiretaps to snare targets — has resulted in 66 people being charged with insider trading and related crimes, and 57 convictions, the largest crackdown on insider trading in modern law enforcement history.

But law enforcement officials interviewed by FOX Business say the investigation is far from over and will get much larger in the years to come. According to these officials:

–They have “scheduled out” cases for the next five years, meaning that the use of wire taps and informants have netted far more cases than they had originally thought.
–Though it’s difficult to predict future case loads, law enforcement officials are in general agreement that “hundreds” of additional people could be charged in the years ahead. “In five years, we can easily see hundreds of people arrested and charged,” another senior law enforcement official told FOX Business.
–Law enforcement officials say they expect to charge another major figure in the hedge fund business, someone at the level of Raj Rajaratnam, the former founder of the giant Galleon Group hedge fund, before the inquiry is concluded. Officials declined to provide names of potential targets, but some of the big hedge funds that have received subpoenas in the probe include SAC Capital, run by Steve Cohen, and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investments.

Press officials from both companies have said they have done nothing wrong. The SEC and the FBI declined to comment.

Senior law enforcement officials tell FOX Business that a combination of wiretap evidence and the use of wiretaps to convince market participants to become government informants has played a key role in the investigation’s current success, and what they believe will be the probe’s success for years to come.

They consider among their best informants former Galleon Group trader David Slaine, who helped them nab Rajaratnam and produced leads on many others who have yet to be charged.

The size and scope of the investigation will likely lead to massive changes in the hedge fund business. Already hedge funds have scaled back on their use of so-called expert networks, which provide detailed information about particular industries such as technology and health care.

Several executives working at expert firms have been snared in the probe for passing inside information to their hedge fund clients. While only a handful of hedge funds have been closed so far, many more are likely to shut down as the investigation widens.

“Will the hedge fund business survive this? Yes I think so,” said Columbia Law School Professor John Coffee. “But it will likely cripple the hedge fund whose name is associated with any insider trading charges.”
Read more: http://trade.cc/anyi

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FLASH: Scientists Discover New ALIEN WORLD “Like No Planet We Know Of”

Image: GJ1214b
David A. Aguilar / CfA / NASA / ESA

GJ1214b, shown in this artist’s view, is a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. New observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show that it is a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. GJ 1214b represents a new type of planet, like nothing seen in the solar system or any other planetary system currently known.
updated 45 minutes ago
Scientists have discovered a new type of alien planet — a steamy waterworld that is larger than Earth but smaller than Uranus.

The standard-bearer for this new class of exoplanet is called GJ 1214b, which astronomers first discovered in December 2009. New observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope suggest that GJ 1214b is a watery world enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere.

“GJ 1214b is like no planet we know of,” study lead author Zachory Berta of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., said in a statement. “A huge fraction of its mass is made up of water.”

Adding to the diversity
To date, astronomers have discovered more than 700 planets beyond our solar system, with about 2,300 more “candidates” awaiting confirmation by follow-up observations.

These alien planets are a diverse bunch. Astronomers have found one planet as light and airy as Styrofoam, for example, and another as dense as iron. They’ve discovered several alien worlds that orbit two suns, like Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine in the “Star Wars” films.

But GJ 1214b, which is located 40 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer), is something new altogether, researchers said.

This so-called “ super-Earth ” is about 2.7 times Earth’s diameter and weighs nearly seven times as much as our home planet. It orbits a red-dwarf star at a distance of 1.2 million miles (2 million kilometers), giving it an estimated surface temperature of 446 degrees Fahrenheit (230 degrees Celsius) — too hot to host life as we know it.

Scientists first reported in 2010 that GJ 1214b’s atmosphere is likely composed primarily of water, but their findings were not definitive. Berta and his team used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to help dispel the doubts.

Hubble watched as GJ 1214b crossed in front of its host star, and the scientists were able to determine the composition of the planet’s atmosphere based on how it filtered the starlight.

“We’re using Hubble to measure the infrared color of sunset on this world,” Berta said. “The Hubble measurements really tip the balance in favor of a steamy atmosphere.”

Berta and his colleagues report their results online in the Astrophysical Journal.

A watery world
Since astronomers know GJ 1214b’s mass and size, they’re able to calculate its density, which turns out to be just 2 grams per cubic centimeter (g/cc). Earth’s density is 5.5 g/cc, while that of water is 1 g/cc.

GJ 1214b thus appears to have much more water than Earth does, and much less rock. The alien planet’s interior structure is likely quite different from that of our world.

“The high temperatures and high pressures would form exotic materials like ‘hot ice’ or ‘superfluid water,’ substances that are completely alien to our everyday experience,” Berta said.

GJ 1214b probably formed farther out from its star, where water ice was plentiful, and then migrated in to its current location long ago. In the process, it would have experienced more Earth-like temperatures, but how long this benign phase lasted is unknown, researchers said.

Because GJ 1214b is so close to Earth, it’s a prime candidate for study by future instruments. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which is slated to launch in 2018, may be able to get an even better look at the planet’s atmosphere, researchers said.

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The Federal Government Violates it Own Laws in Helping Veterans Find Work

“Why is it so hard for US servicemen to land steady employment once coming home? For one thing, the same government that gave them guns isn’t so quick to give them jobs.

The US government enacted the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) back in 1994 to make it an offense to discriminate against troops returning home on basis of their military status. Nearly 20 years later, though, a recent study reveals that a good chunk of those guilty of violating that law is the federal government itself.

In a recent Washington Post article, it’s revealed that during fiscal year 2011, nearly one-out-of-five of the complaints of violation filed regarding the USERRA were aimed at the US government. In that year alone, more than 18 percent — or 1,158 of the complaints filed — attested that the same government that sent Americans overseas to ready for war weren’t so excited to send those men and women into the workplace.

“On the one hand, the government asked me to serve in Iraq,” retired Army Brig. Gen. Michael Silva tells the Post. “On the other hand, another branch of government was not willing to protect my rights after serving.” Silva says that after serving in Iraq, he returned to the US to reclaim his job with the US Customs and Border Patrol. They had other plans.

According to the USERRA, employers are forbidden from penalizing service members due to the military service. Silva and more than a thousand other last year say that they suffered as such, however, and the guilty party was their own government. With the issue of homeless vets becoming an epidemic in America, a lack of jobs is only worsening a problem that the federal government seems unable—or unwilling — to help otherwise.

Other studies published as of late reveal that homelessness is not just a problem for American vets—it’s a practical disaster. When the 100,000 Homeless Campaign published the results of their last study in November 2011, the authors explicitly noted, “Men and women who risked their lives defending America may be far more likely to die on its streets.”

“When you come home, you’re foreclosed on, your job is gone, and then they want you to go to shelters. And shelters pretty much housing criminals, drug addicts, and a lot of us can’t tolerate that lifestyle,” homeless U.S. army veteran Joe Mangione explained to RT….”

Full article

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Adelson: I May Give Newt $100 Million

“Casino/hotel titan Sheldon Adelson isn’t fazed by complaints that he’s trying to buy a victory for Newt Gingrich in the Republican presidential race.

The $25 billion man and his family already have committed $11 million to the former House speaker’s super PAC, Winning Our Future, and are expected to put in another $10 million soon, Forbes reports. That may just be the start of it, Adelson tells the magazine.

“Those people are either jealous or professional critics,” he said of the complainers. “They like to trash other people. It’s unfair that I’ve been treated unfair, but it doesn’t stop me. I might give $10 million or $100 million to Gingrich.”

Adelson doesn’t necessarily approve of the way campaign finance works, but he’s going to do what he has to do. “I’m against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections,” Adelson said….”

Full article

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Market Update

Stocks slipped shortly after the open, but were able to rebound for modest gains. The upward move slowed when the Dow came in contact with the 13,000 line, which was last tested in 2008.

Early participants showed little overall excitement to news that eurozone officials finally agreed to give flagging Greece another round of bailout funds. The decision by China’s leaders to reduce the reserve requirement ratio on their country’s banks was also met with little fanfare.

Although modest, a generally positive tone to morning trade helped stocks continue their upward trend before pressure took the S&P 500 to the neutral line. Support there helped restore buying interest and drive a rebound, but momentum stalled when the Dow reached the psychologically significant 13,000 line.

Walmart (WMT 59.67, -2.51) has failed to contribute to the Dow’s advance. Instead, shares of the giant retailer have dropped to a new monthly low in response to a disappointing quarterly report. Fellow blue chips Home Depot (HD 47.09, +0.38) had an upside earnings surprise, while Kraft (KFT 38.61, +0.60) matched the consensus.

No economic data of consequence has been released today, but results from an auction of 2-year Treasury Notes are due at any moment.

Market Update

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Gallup Surveys Show Unemployment Rising to 9% in February

“Unemployment in the U.S. rose to nine percent in mid-February, up from 8.3 percent a month earlier, according to a new Gallup survey. The polling company said this suggests that it is “premature” to assume the economy will not feature prominently in the 2012 election season.

Gallup figures typically provide an indication of what the government will report at the end of the month.

“The U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is 9.0% in mid-February,” Gallup said in its mid-month unemployment survey, released on February 17. “The mid-month reading normally reflects what the U.S. government reports for the entire month, and is up from 8.3% in mid-January.”

Gallup said the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) would likely report a rise in the official unemployment rate in early March, when it publishes its February figures….”

Full article

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Are Rich People Meaner?

via Gerri Willis, FoxBusiness.com

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.

Many of those, the statistical lies that is, seem to pop up in academic studies.

Some of them on view this weekend in a Boston Globe story called, “Why It Matters that Our Politicians Are Rich.”

The story tries to make a connection between the political views of the GOP Presidential field and their wallets concluding “people with that much money are not like the rest of us at all. As a mounting body of research is showing, wealth can actually change how we think and behave, and not for the better…Rich people have a harder time connecting with others, showing less empathy to the extent of dehumanizing those who are different from them. They are less charitable and generous.”

In other words, according to no less an expert than the Boston Globe, you have to be poor to be nice.

Among the studies presented as evidence, a study from the University of Minnesota in which subjects were given subliminal suggestions to think about money (some sat at computers with a screensaver that was a dollar bill, others saw a sheaf of Monopoly money on the table they sat at).

They were then questioned about their attitudes toward money and work, and those who didn’t see the screensaver or the Monopoly bills scored as more generous than those that did.

Likewise, those that saw the money were less likely to help a clumsy lab assistant pick up pencils.

See, says the story’s author, just the suggestion of money made people meaner.

I say poppycock!

How can you draw conclusions like that? And that’s just the problem with this research. It leaps to conclusions jumping right over conventional wisdom, and leaving rationality behind.

Remember, even the greed-head GOP candidates have given more than the average person to charity. Mitt Romney gave 14% of his income to charity in 2010.

Meanwhile, Warren Buffett gave a cool $42 million to charities in the second half of last year.

Just six months.

That’s pretty nice.

And consider this: more than half or 56% of total charitable giving comes from people earning $200 thousand or more a year.

Read more: http://trade.cc/anvn

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