Europe Facts, Not Fiction: Usage Of ECB Deposit Facility Goes Parabolic, Sov CDS Wider Across The Board

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While the market continues to trade purely on rumor, counter-rumor and refutation of a refutation, the facts demonstrate that Europe is ugly and getting worse. Today’s now daily update focuses on continuing deterioration in both liquidity and solvency. First, the usage of the ECB Deposit Facility soared to €198 billion on Monday from €182 billion on Friday. This is a massive €118 billion increase in the past month alone. As the chart below demonstrates, a good word to describe the chart is parabolic. Furthermore, USD Libor continues to rise and has now risen nearly 40 days in a row. While not nearly parabolic, it is time to shift attention away from Credit Agricole, which is still the most “funding challenged”, and focus on CSFB which once again rose by 0.01%, and threatens to overtake the troubled French bank in pole position. Time to refocus the shorts from France to Switzerland? Lastly, the CDS are ugly across the board.

 Read More at zerohedge.com

Keep your “bulwarks” Barry and just SHOOT THE BUNNY: America needs fuel not tree hugging smugness

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The recent Texaswildfires have consumed nearly 4600 square miles of vegetation destroyed over 1000 homes and taken several lives. If only Texas´ (not to mentionArizona,Californiaand New Mexico´s) forests could have been systematically harvested to help our economy!

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case as Obama´s Director of the Bureau of Land Management, Bob Abbey, has opposed recent legislation proposed under H.R. 1581 (The Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act of 2011) sponsored by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). Abbey, it appears, is going for the jugular to rouse a nation impervious to 9% plus unemployment and defend the environment by comparing this GOP initiative to: “…shooting a small rabbit with a large gun, leaving almost no meat on the bone.”

At stake is lifting Forest Service protections to nearly 36 million acres of inventoried road-less lands as well as compelling the Bureau of Land Management to release over 6 million acres of Wilderness Study Areas to permit mineral development, and thinning forest areas to obtain economic benefit and logging. But according to Harris Sherman, Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the Agriculture Department, so called “road-less areas” “ …support biodiversity and contribute habitat for one- fourth of federally listed species ….while serving as a ´bulwark´ against nonnative and invasive species.”

For those who can live without “bulwarks” on approximately 65,600 square miles (aland mass nearly as big as Washington State) that render huge swaths of territory propitious for the propagation of such bambi like creatures as grizzlies, mountain lions and coyotes (spotted in such remote places as Manhattan) then you’re in for some news if not rabbit meat. Established technology enables one to pelletize (if not make into firewood) this endless font of biomass that could otherwise fuel out of control house burning wildfires.

For a mere $43,900 an entrepreneur can obtain equipment to produce wood/cellulose pellets to sell to local buyers for home heating. Logging corporations, no doubt, make heftier investments and would be delighted to start building lumber access roads to help Obama have some “shovel ready” jobs to brag about creating.

Read More at Coach is Right By Carlos Calianka, Coach is Right

On 9/12 We Ran to God

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On 9/11 we ran for cover. On 9/12 we ran to God. Churches overflowed. Synagogues were packed. Sanctuaries and temples swelled to capacity. Four thousand people gathered in a Manhattan Cathedral. A New York City church filled and emptied six times in one day. Street vendors were replaced by prayer counselors who stood beneath banners that read: “We will pray for you.”
Across the country, congregations hastily assembled post-attack prayer services. We did in San Antonio, Texas. “Come and Pray for Peace” our outdoor sign invited. You would have thought it was Easter Sunday. Standing Room Only.

Ironic. Usama Bin Laden intended to bring America to her knees, and he did—we prayed. What does this say about us? At least this much: we are a spiritual people. For all our talk about secularism, self-reliance and self-sufficiency, where we do we turn in turbulence? We turn to God.

We find Him to be — to use the old coinage –“an anchor of the soul” (Heb. 6:10). Everyone anchors to something. A retirement account, a resume. A person or a position. “When the storm comes,” they say, “this will get me through.”

On 9/11 we turned to the sturdiest anchor of all: God. Only He promises to secure our most precious commodity — our souls. When God breathed into Adam, he gave him more than oxygen; he gave him an eternal essence. He gave you the same. Because of your soul, you wrestle with right and wrong, value the lives of others and get choked up at the singing of our national anthem. The soul is that part of you dares to believe that good comes out of evil, Right still sits on the throne and the next life will make sense of this one.

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Read More at Fox News By Max Lucado, Fox News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A botched 9/11 commemoration

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Count me out from those who would conclude that we got it just right in marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11. We got it only half right — the well-deserved honors to the nearly 3,000 victims, the formal and informal remembrances of who they were and what a great loss they were to family, friends and acquaintances. They fully merited all the solemn attention and resolve to never forget them.

But what was missing was what should have been the other half of the 9/11 commemoration — reminders of who exactly the 19 plane hijackers were, where they came from, what animated them to make such a gross and vicious attack on the very heart of America. In reading the papers and watching the TV news, I didn’t find any comparable reminders of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the hijackers who piloted the first plane into the World Trade Center. Where did he come from and what drove him to suicidal destruction of America’s crown jewels? What exactly was his agenda? Why were most of the hijackers Saudis? What does it teach us about what was inculcated in them?

And most important, has their jihadist agenda against the West expanded or ebbed in the last 10 years? While there was no second 9/11 during the last 10 years, how many Mohammed Attas are still being nurtured and groomed in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to say nothing of Yemen, Gaza, the West Bank, Algeria, Lebanon, and Muslim enclaves in France, Germany and, yes, even in the good old USA?

All that seemed to have fallen victim to institutional amnesia and a collective media decision not to touch that half of 9/11 lest they be accused of Isalmophobia.

My guess is that the victims of 9/11 would not have wanted such a politically correct, half-baked commemoration in their honor. Certainly not the passengers aboard the plane that went down in Pennsylvania who showed far more guts and moral clarity than their mourners today.

Read More at American Thinker By Leo Rennert, American Thinker

Barone: Obama buys the drinks other guys pay for

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What is there to say about Barack Obama’s speech to Congress Thursday night and the so-called American Jobs Act he said Congress must pass? Several thoughts occur, all starting with P.

Projection. That’s psychologist-speak term for projecting your own faults on others. “This isn’t political grandstanding,” Obama told members of Congress, as Republicans snickered (but thankfully resisted the temptation to shout, “You lie!”). “This isn’t class warfare.”

These sentences came four paragraphs after Obama insisted that “the most affluent citizens and corporations” should pay more taxes (which spurs job creation how?) and not long before he promised to “take that message to every corner of the country.”

Lest there be any doubt about Obama’s real intentions, consider that his speech was obviously modeled on Harry Truman’s call for a special session of the Republican Congress in the summer of 1948 so he could campaign against it. And consider that Obama pointedly refused to rebuke Jim Hoffa’s “let’s take these sons of bitches out” — meaning Republicans — when he introduced him last Monday in Detroit.

Pragmatism. Perceptive writers like David Brooks of the New York Times told us in 2008 that Obama was basically a pragmatist, a slave to no ideology but simply a student of what works. Brooks was apparently impressed by Obama’s mention of Edmund Burke and the sharp crease in his pants.

Read More at The Washington Examiner  By Michael Barone, The Washington Examiner

Obama’s Jobs Ponzi Scheme

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Obama reminded us that he is the exquisite showman minus the show. There was nothing new in his “I can’t create jobs” campaign speech. If you were unfortunate enough to have to watch it as I was, you were treated to his change from the mantra of, “I inherited this mess,” to “Who can I now blame for this mess?”

A skipping record, stuck in the groove, Obama has surrounded himself with incompetents that explain, “If at first you don’t succeed, ask for advice from those around you who can’t succeed either.”

The Ponzi scheme disguised as a “jobs plan caused Obama to cut his vacation half a day short in order to get right on ‘that jobs thing.’ You could drive a tanker through his arguments without coming anywhere close to anything sane.

TAX THE RICH! “Raise capital gains,” not that anybody is actually experiencing any gains. Obama’s policies attack everybody.

The housing market has lost over $6T, the stock market is a travesty, almost appearing to toy with Obama, falling precipitously after every Obama public speaking appearance.

Read More at the Black Sphere  By Kevin Jackson, The Black Sphere

Perry keeps close to tea party roots on California trip

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On the morning after the debate, I sat with two nice GOP women as we baked in the sun and waited for Gov. Rick Perry to show up at his event at an upscale garden center. Both said they like Perry and Mitt Romney. Both said they’ll vote for the one with the best chance of beating President Barack Obama.

“I just want to beat the man,” Peggy Kane, 77, told me.

The other woman agreed, saying Obama “needs to be beat.” She didn’t want to say much else because she is kind of famous. She is Alice Zamboni, daughter-in-law of Frank Zamboni. If you’re a hockey fan, that’s all you need to know. If you’re not, don’t worry about it.

For Perry, folks like these women are crucial as November electability becomes an issue as the GOP race narrows to a Perry-Romney battle.

“We’ve got our differences,” Perry, talking about the GOP field, told the crowd Thursday. But, he added, “the point is we need to have a nominee that doesn’t blur the lines between themselves and the current resident of the White House.”

Read More at statesman.com By Ken Herman, statesman.com

Chris Matthews’ Social Security admission: ‘It is a Ponzi scheme’

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Betcha didn’t see this one coming.

On MSNBC’s Thursday broadcast of “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews committed the mortal sin — he nearly parroted the theory that mortified so many of the network’s hosts and guests throughout the day. Matthews called Social Security “a Ponzi scheme” the day after Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry doubled down on his previous statements echoing that sentiment in the Republican debate (h/t Matt Lewis)

Matthews first put forth what he thought Social Security was originally intended to be: “You pay for it while you work. When you retired and have no other form of income, this will help you out. In fact, a lot were impoverished in the old days without Social Security. It’s a great anti-poverty program. But then people started to live past 65. Even the great Franklin Roosevelt didn’t make it to 65. In those days, if you made it to 65, you were lucky. You got a few bucks on Social Security.” (RELATED: Has Chris Matthews lost his mind?)

Then he put forth what it has become: “Today, lots of people fortunately make it past 65,” he said. “They live into their 80s and 90s. They’re still getting checks. The system doesn’t work that way anymore. It’s not as healthy as it once was. So, how does a Republican deal with the fact it is a Ponzi scheme in the sense that the money that’s paid out every day is coming from people who have paid in that day. It’s not being made somewhere.”

Todd Harris, Matthews’ guest and a Republican strategist agreed. “That’s absolutely right,” Harris said. “And you will never get back the amount of money that you paid into it under its current structures.”

Read More at The Daily Caller By Jeff Poor, The Daily Caller

Video Game Targets ‘Tea Party Zombies,’ Fox News Personalities

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A New York-based video game developer has set his virtual crosshairs on Republican and conservative political figures in a game called “Tea Party Zombies Must Die,” which allows players to indiscriminately slaughter politicians like Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin.

The gruesome game, created by StarvingEyes Advergaming, is billed as “first-person shooter” featuring “Tea Party zombies” to be targeted with an “arsenal of weapons,” including multiple firearms and a crowbar. Notable politicians depicted in the game include current and previous presidential hopefuls like Palin, Bachmann, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum. Several Fox News personalities are also featured, including Huckabee, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Brit Hume.

Lesser-known targets include “factory made blonde Fox News Barbie who has never had a problem in her life zombie” or the “Koch industries Koch Whore lobbyist pig zombie.” Fox News logos and a recreation of its studios can be seen in blood-spattered screengrabs posted on the company’s website.

Attention to the game’s release has heightened after violent rhetoric from Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, who in a speech over the weekend told President Obama that his supporters would “take out the son-of-a-bitches” in the Tea Party who were waging “war” against unions.

“The liberal media have been preaching for years that conservatives are the ones who invoke violent imagery and rhetoric. Yet in the space of two days, the radical, pro-Obama left calls us ‘son-of-a-bitches’ and says they want to ‘take us out.’ And they follow that with a hideously violent game where they do just that — depicting ways of shooting prominent conservatives, presidential candidates and journalists,” said Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center. “The news media would be in an uproar if violence had been incited against liberals. Their silence disgusts me.”

Read More at Fox News   By Joshua Rhett Miller, Fox News

What Obama Could Say in His Speech That Would Really Turn the Economy around

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Recent polling indicates that seventy-six percent (76%) of voters say the country is heading down the wrong track. Clearly, something needs to be done to turn the train around and head in a different direction.

First we need to know where we’ve been headed and then make a conscious decision to do a 180.

Three recent news stories—all under-reported—offer a snapshot of the wrong direction.

Exxon is in a legal battle with the US government. The company has a new oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico in what is called the Julia Field. Exxon reports an estimated one billion barrels of recoverable oil—worth potential royalties to the government of $10.95 billion. The discovery is believed to be the largest in the Gulf of Mexico. (Note: we are not out of oil; we keep finding more.)

In its exploration, Exxon is known for moving slowly and studying all the options before committing billions of dollars—using the best technology and science to utilize the shareholders’ risk capital. This is good. Deep-water exploration is difficult and complex. It needs to be done right.

Read More at globalwarming.org By Marita Noon, globalwarming.org