5 of Romney’s distant cousins were announced to be in support of the Paul campaign…
Comments »Monthly Archives: March 2012
Cancer Risk Found in Coke, Pepsi: Group
Fisher: Investors Should Prepare for Less Easing
“Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said he opposes additional Fed purchases of securities and urged Wall Street to get ready to become less dependent on monetary easing.
“I would suggest to you that, if the data continue to improve, however gradually, the markets should begin preparing themselves for the good Dr. Fed to wean them from their dependency rather than administer further dosage,” Fisher said today in a speech in Dallas. Financial markets “have become hooked on the monetary morphine we provided” after the 2008 financial crisis, he said….”
Comments »FLASH: Lenny Dykstra Sentenced to 3 Years in California Prison
SAN FERNANDO, Calif. —
Former New York Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra has been sentenced to three years in a California state prison in a grand theft auto case.
Dykstra was sentenced Monday after a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge refused to allow him to withdraw a no-contest plea.
Prosecutors say Dykstra and two others tried to lease and then sell high-end cars from several auto dealerships by claiming credit through a phony business.
Dykstra also faces federal bankruptcy charges and is scheduled to stand trial this summer.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
Former New York Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra may be sentenced on Monday if a judge rejects his motion to withdraw a no-contest plea on charges of grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement.
Dykstra, 49, is seeking to withdraw his plea but faces up to four years in state prison if it’s not granted. Dykstra initially pleaded not guilty to 25 counts after police arrested him and found cocaine, Ecstasy and synthetic human growth hormone at his Los Angeles home last April.
Dykstra and two co-defendants are accused of trying to lease and then sell high-end cars from several car dealerships by claiming credit through a phony business. His accountant Robert Hymers pleaded no contest to one count of identity theft, while Christopher Gavanis pleaded no contest to one count of filing a false financial statement. They are both awaiting sentencing.
Dykstra changed his plea in October to no contest and in exchange prosecutors dropped 21 counts.
He has had a series of legal problems over the past year. He faces federal bankruptcy charges and is scheduled to stand trial this summer.
Dykstra, who bought a mansion once owned by hockey star Wayne Gretzky, filed for bankruptcy three years ago, claiming he owed more than $31 million and had only $50,000 in assets. Federal prosecutors said that after filing, Dykstra hid, sold or destroyed more than $400,000 worth of items from the $18.5 million mansion without permission of a bankruptcy trustee.
Dykstra also has pleaded not guilty to indecent exposure charges for allegedly exposing himself to women he met on Craigslist.
The ex-major leaguer has been in a sober living facility, according to court documents.
Barack Obama’s Love Song To Saul Alinsky
Prior to his passing, Andrew Breitbart said that the mission of the Breitbart empire was to exemplify the free and fearless press that our Constitution protects–but which, increasingly, the mainstream media denies us.
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” – “Who guards the guardians?” Andrew saw himself in that role—as a guardian protecting Americans from the left’s “objective” loyal scribes.
Andrew wanted to do what the mainstream media would not. First and foremost: Andrew pledged to vet President Barack H. Obama.
Andrew did not want to re-litigate the 2008 election. Nor did he want to let Republicans off the hook. Instead, he wanted to show that the media had failed in its most basic duty: to uncover the truth, and hold those in power accountable, regardless of party.
From today through Election Day, November 6, 2012, we will vet this president–and his rivals.
We begin with a column Andrew wrote last week in preparation for today’s Big relaunch–a story that should swing the first hammer against the glass wall the mainstream media has built around Barack Obama.
***
In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama claims that he worried after 9/11 that his name, so similar to that of Osama bin Laden, might harm his political career.
But Obama was not always so worried about misspellings and radical resemblances. He may even have cultivated them as he cast himself as Chicago’s radical champion.
In 1998, a small Chicago theater company staged a play titled The Love Song of Saul Alinsky, dedicated to the life and politics of the radical community organizer whose methods Obama had practiced and taught on Chicago’s South Side.
Obama was not only in the audience, but also took the stage after one performance, participating in a panel discussion that was advertised in the poster for the play.
Recently, veteran Chicago journalist Michael Miner mocked emerging conservative curiosity about the play, along with enduring suspicions about the links between Alinsky and Obama. Writing in the Chicago Reader, Miner described the poster:
Let’s take a look at this poster.
It’s red—and that right there, like the darkening water that swirls down Janet Leigh’s drain [in Psycho’s famous shower scene], is plenty suggestive. It touts a play called The Love Song of Saul Alinsky, Alinsky being the notorious community organizer from Chicago who wrote books with titles like Reveille for Radicals and Rules for Radicals. On it, fists are raised—meaning insurrection is in the air.
And down at the very bottom, crawling across the poster in small print, it mentions the panel discussions that will follow the Sunday performances. The panelists are that era’s usual “progressive” suspects: Leon Despres, Monsignor Jack Egan, Studs Terkel . . .
And state senator Barack Obama.
Miner obscured the truth. His article only reveals only a small portion of the poster. Here’s the whole poster:
Read the rest here.
Comments »End Game: Where Do Western Nations Go From Here ?
{MEDIA} A PSYCHOTYPOLOGY OF AVATARS
Apple App Downloads Hits 25 Billion
DAY 27: Pump It Up, Pump The Jam
NETANYAHU TO OBAMA: ISRAEL ‘RESERVES THE RIGHT’ TO STRIKE IRAN
Government Math May Screw Up Hopes Of Keeping The Euro Humpty Dumpty Together
“The Greek PSI will be resolved one way or the other this week. Early reports suggest a weak start and the triggering of collective action clauses and credit default swaps remain a distinct possibility. Portugal is next and, although the credit dynamics and implementation of reforms is superior to Greece, the risk remains high that it will need a second aid package and/or debt restructuring, as it is unlikely to be able to return to the capital markets in H2 2013. With 2 LTROs and collateral liberalization, the 10-year benchmark in Portugal is yielding more than 13%, compared with a bit more than 12% at the end of last year.
However, the devolution in Spain is particularly troubling. The new fiscal compact had just been signed last week, which includes somewhat more rigorous fiscal rule and enforcement, when Spain’s PM Rajoy revealed that this year’s deficit would come in around 5.8% of GDP rather the 4.4% target. This of course follows last year’s 8.5% overshoot of the 6% target.
The problem that for Spain is that the 4.4% target was based on forecasts for more than 2% growth this year. However, in late February, the EU cuts its forecast to a 1% contraction. This still seems optimistic. The IMF forecasts a 1.7% contraction, which the Spanish government now accepts.
This will be the third year in 5 that the Spanish economy contracts. Unemployment stands at an EU-high of 23.5% in February. The strong export growth seen in recent years, the best growth in the euro area, is stalling. Domestic demand has been hit by rising unemployment and government austerity. At the end of last year, the Rajoy government adopted a 15 bln euro package of spending cuts and tax increases.
Moody’s says that another 25 bln euros in savings is needed for Spain to reach its budget target. Fitch says this is unrealistic and that the overshoot not necessarily impact their credit worthiness.
Spain is already under the excessive deficit procedure (since April 2009), as are 23 of the EU 27 members. Rajoy’s revelations butt against the EU agreement that urged members to adhere to their fiscal commitments. Moreover, Rajoy struck a strident chord by saying he did not communicate this to the other heads of state because he did not have to and that Spain was sovereign….”
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S&P Stocks are Cheaper Today Than the Past 34 Peaks Since 1989
“Corporate profits that doubled since 2009 have left the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index cheaperthan at all 34 peaks since 1989, even as options traders push the cost of protecting against losses to the highest in four years.
Companies in the benchmark gauge of U.S. stocks trade for 14.1 times earnings after advancing 102 percent since March 2009 to an almost four-year high last week, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Valuations are lower than at every 52-week peak since 1989. Traders have pushed the price of contracts that pay should the S&P 500 drop 20 percent to the most since 2007 compared with ones betting on a rally of the same size….”
Comments »FLASH: NASDAQ GETS DECAPITATED
The NASDAQ is taking heavy losses; 3 x that of the DOW and nearly 2x that of the S&P.
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Movie Theaters are Ripping You Off and This Lady is Doing Something About It
Rebecca Motley emerges from the AMC Star Southfield after seeing “Good Deeds” on Friday morning — and paying $11 for pop and popcorn on top of the $5 ticket. “The prices are ridiculous,” she said. / ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Press
Joshua Thompson loves the movies.
But he hates the prices theaters charge for concessions like pop and candy.
This week, the 20-something security technician from Livonia decided to do something about it: He filed a class action in Wayne County Circuit Court against his local AMC theater in hopes of forcing theaters statewide to dial down snack prices.
“He got tired of being taken advantage of,” said Thompson’s lawyer, Kerry Morgan of Wyandotte. “It’s hard to justify prices that are three- and four-times higher than anywhere else.”
American Multi Cinema, which operates the AMC theater in Livonia, wouldn’t comment on the suit. A staffer at the National Association of Theatre Owners in Washington, D.C., angrily hung up the phone when asked about industry snack pricing practices.
Although consumer experts predicted that the case will be dismissed, it struck a chord Friday with area moviegoers, who said they’re tired of being soaked on movie munchies.
“The prices are ridiculous,” Rebecca Motley, 55, a self-employed Southfield physician, said while leaving the AMC Star Southfield 20.
Motley said she and her office manager spent $5 each for morning movie tickets and $11 each for soft drinks and popcorn.
“When I was a kid, $1 could get you into the movies and buy you a pop and popcorn. But not anymore,” Motley said. “I don’t know how kids can go on their own to a movie anymore.”
Timothy Fells, 29, part owner of a Redford Township gym, agreed with Motley.
“Movie concession prices are extremely high, and that’s why I don’t stop at the snack bar very often,” he said while leaving the AMC theater in Southfield.
Thompson didn’t want to be interviewed because he doesn’t want any notoriety, Morgan said. But Thompson said in his lawsuit that he used to take his own pop and candy to the AMC in Livonia until the theater posted a sign banning the practice.
On Dec. 26, he paid $8 for a Coke and a package of Goobers chocolate-covered peanuts at the Livonia theater — nearly three times the $2.73 he paid for the same items at a nearby fast-food restaurant and drug store, the suit said.
The suit accused AMC theaters of violating the Michigan Consumer Protection Act by charging grossly excessive prices for snacks.
The suit seeks refunds for customers who were overcharged, a civil penalty against the theater chain and any other relief Judge Kathleen Macdonald might grant.
Two consumer lawyers predicted that Macdonald will dismiss the suit.
“It’s a loser,” said Gary Victor, an Eastern Michigan University business law professor. He said state Supreme Court decisions in 1999 and 2007 exempted most regulated businesses from the Michigan Consumer Protection Act.
Added Ian Lyngklip, a nationally known consumer lawyer in Southfield: “Movie theaters are regulated, so the lawsuit won’t go anywhere”
Victor, an avid moviegoer, agreed that snack prices are excessive at theaters. That’s why he shuns the concession counter unless he’s with a date.
Griping about excessive prices at the theater concession is a time-honored tradition, says Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst forwww.hollywood.com , a movie industry website.
“But like high airline prices, it’s just one of those things that we’ve become accustomed to because we don’t have any control over it,” he added.
Although movie ticket sales are down — 1.2 billion tickets were sold last year compared with 1.6 billion in 2002 — he said a difficult economy mainly is to blame, not snack prices.
To cope with the issue, some consumers eat before or after they go to the movies, or resort to smuggling.
Fells said he sometimes smuggles Gummi Bears into the theater to save money.
Kristy Belanger, 20, a real estate secretary from Redford Township who showed up at the AMC in Livonia on Friday to see a movie with her boyfriend, concealed two bottles of Pepsi in her purse.
“I did it to save money, and I feel like I did,” she said, adding that what she saved on Pepsi enabled her to buy a $4.74 serving of nachos to share with her beau.
Molycorp (NYSE:MCP): REO Prices Still Falling, but Consumers Are Returning – Morgan Stanley
Comments »Morgan Stanley is making some fairly positive comments on Molycorp (NYSE:MCP) saying falling rare earths prices have started to attract customers again.
– They think REO prices, down 25% YTD, have reached a level that will drive demand. A recovery in heavy REO prices may already be under way, with yttrium up in February. Heavy REOs should be followed by magnetic REOs (crucial to MCP’s earnings). MCP shares price in REOs at 30% of spot at full capacity.
Firm is reiterating Overweight rating and $81 PT.
Judge Napolitano: Timothy Geithner May Face Criminal Charges; Reports of Arrest & Release (video)
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Comments »All Talk & No Action: Obama Oil Speculation Task Force
Krugman: America is doing exactly what both theory and history say it shouldn’t
“The economic news is looking better lately. But after previous false starts — remember “green shoots”? — it would be foolish to assume that all is well. And in any case, it’s still a very slow economic recovery by historical standards.
There are several reasons for this slowness, with the most important being the overhang of household debt that is a legacy of the housing bubble. But one significant factor in our continuing economic weakness is the fact that government in America is doing exactly what both theory and history say it shouldn’t: slashing spending in the face of a depressed economy.
In fact, if it weren’t for this destructive fiscal austerity, our unemployment rate would almost certainly be lower now than it was at a comparable stage of the “Morning in America” recovery during the Reagan era.
Notice that I said “government in America,” not “the federal government.” The federal government has been pursuing what amount to contractionary policies as the last vestiges of the Obama stimulus fade out, but the big cuts have come at the state and local level. These state and local cuts have led to a sharp fall in both government employment and government spending on goods and services, exerting a powerful drag on the economy as a whole….”
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