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Saturday, December 20, 2008

Sunday - December 20, 2008 - 38 Injured in Denver Airport Accident, Unemployment is Really Closer to 12.5% in the USA,

(Click here to get enlarged and latest LIVE view of the chart above)


Lawsuit accusation: 3 plainclothes Galveston Police Officers arrest and beat 12 year old blackgirl for prostitution, when all she was doing was running outside the house for her mom to turn back on a breaker switch

Woman's pastor intends to talk badly about her from the pulpit to the Congregation

Unemployment: Worse Than It Looks

Caribbean Nations Call for More Criminal Executions to Control Crime



NBA scores, schedule and standings

Dwyane Wade scores 43 in the Miami Heat's victory over the New York Knicks last night

How to avoid being a fincancial scam advisor's next victim

Hostages from Mumbai hotel say police error probably led to more deaths

Greed drove a 13-year-old to plot with an adult friend and another boy to kill his own half brother, burn his body and take more than $10,000 worth of drug money

Caylee Marie Anthony investigation shifts to grandparent's home


Continental jet plane skids off runway at Denver Airport, injuring 38 people

NFL Scores, Standings and Schedules

Ravens win 33-24 against the Cowboys in Texas Stadium

Shopping bargains and last minute shoppers collide with bad weather leaving many stores on the verge of bankruptcy

4th Largest Credit Card Company in the World, Discover Card, to Become a Bank So It Qualifies for TARP Money

30,000 US troops might be going to Afghanistan

Saturday - December 20, 2008 - Extra - More Residents Leave California, MGM City Center Has 12,000 Job Openings, Paris is Plundered,






Need a job? MGM City Center in Las Vegas is ready to hire 12,000 of you




Powerful winter storm cuts power, disrupts travel

Snow in half the USA today, New York City is finally hit hard

Friday, December 19, 2008

Saturday - December 20, 2008 - Winter Storm Slams Midwest and Northeast, China Says No More New York Times Online, Richmond Wins FCS Crown


The benchmark US crude price sank below the $33-a-barrel level on Friday.


Sleep in the limo tonight: Paris Hilton's bedroom is plundered

Nude Edmonton, Alberta woman lands in snowbank; man lands in jail

A first: Unregulated hedge funds ask for and receive access to $200 Billion in bailout money

Need a job? Defense contractor Northrop Grumman is offering cash and free dinner inducements to applicants to fill hundreds of positions. There's a catch: many jobs require highly specialized skills and a security clearance.

Maine man finds cash on the floor of a store twice this week and returns it both times to rightful owners . . . he plans on playing the lottery next

Banks Try New Ways to Handle Bonuses


University of Richmond Spiders beats University of Montana Grizzlies 24-7 in the FCS title game

NFL Scores, Schedules and Standings

Wearing a Jacksonville Jaguars warmup shirt and a huge smile, Richard Collier drove off the field in his new motorized wheelchair Thursday night as fans chanted his name amid a standing ovation.

NBA Scores, Schedules and Standings

D. Wade and the Miami Heat defense defeat the Western Conference leading L. A. Lakers 89-87. It was the lowest score for the Lakers this season



Winter storm slams into the Midwest and Northeast, power out for hundreds of thousands in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio

How do you think this will end? Pentagon decides to hire private contractor . . . to oversee private contractors

Excellent read . . . Paul Krugman: The Madoff Economy

Dysfunctional Family from Hell: Parents Drug, Shackle Daughter in Forced Marriage Bid in Bangladesh


Was it something they said? China, begins blocking access to the NY Times website

Florida becomes 3rd state in the US to imprison more than 100,000

A Missouri man who impersonated a federal drug agent, conducting raids and making arrests, has been sentenced to five years in prison.

FAA cuts back weather staff at airports all over the US, meteorologists freak out and predict deaths

Friday - December 18, 2008 EXTRA Edition - Bush Unveils $17.4 Billion Car Bail Out, 2 Strippers Class Action Lawsuit Against a List of Stripclubs,

DNA positively IDs Caylee Marie Anthony's remains found by meter reader

Plastic Surgery Business Sags Amid Recession, Celebrity Regrets

Semi-Annual U.S. Economic Outlook: CollapsingOn Schedule - by Gary Shilling

The New Impecunious Wealthy Class: Profiles in Panic

Layoffs: Sovereign Bancorp cutting 1,000 jobs amid downturn




North Carolina beach house owners, welcome to the homeowner's nightmare in Florida: Homeowners insurance to soar along North Carolina's coast

Pedestrian bridge in Atlanta collapses . . . 1 dead, 15 injured

Pet lovers protest cats on the menu in China

Iraqi judge says shoe-tossing reporter was beaten

Bristol Palin's future mother-in-law arrested on drug charges. No comment as of yet from the Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin



Two strippers have filed a class action lawsuit against several strip clubs, alleging they'd do better financially picking grapes in a field.

Port St. Lucie's weird domestic fights continue: Police say suspicious wife who demands to smell husband's genitals beaten

74 year old Riviera Beach, FL Realtor shooting victim goes to work with bullet in head

Late to rate: Standard and Poor's cuts rating or outlook on 12 major financial institutions






Yes Detroit, there is a Santa Claus: Bush unveils $17.4bn car bail-out

Retailers drop prices dramatically to avoid a Big Flop of a Consumer Fest

Tyler Hansbrough, reigning NCAA Basketball Player of the Year, breaks North Carolina Tarheel's 30 year old all-time scoring record last night.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said African leaders are not brave enough to force him from power

Hyperinflation: Zimbabwe's new $10 Billion note (not a misprint) worth $20 in US currency

FedEx on Thursday moved to slash employees’ salaries and other benefits

Spokane, Washington digs out from record (since 1881) 2 feet of snow in 21 hours . . . same storm hit Chicago last night, landing in NYC tomorrow

Pro wrestler 'Mad Dog' Bell who was focus of documentary film, "Bigger, Stronger, Faster" found dead in a live-in rehab clinic

'Angel' of foreclosure defense bedevils lenders: Jacksonville, FL legal aid attorney is the best in the US for helping clients keep their homes

"Deep Throat" Mark Felts dies at 95

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Friday - December 18, 2008 - Coast to coast frigid weather, Mish: ARMs Reset Problem Vanishes Into Thin Air,Headbanging Harms Your Brain,















Alan Taylor's Big Picture Blog "Year 2008 in Pictures" Part 1

Fleck:Stocks may claw upward for now, but the next quarter could be a different story.

Brazil to build South America's first nuclear Navy

Least competent criminal of the week: Postal worker stole gold from pawn shop mailing then sold the gold back to the same pawn shop

Andy Kessler: Madoff didn't set out to be a crook, instead he became one in increments because he sucked as an investor

Some of Madoff's clients who got out of the Ponzi Scheme early might have to give back part or all of their winnings

Global demand for Chinese goods has slumped, unrest is on the rise in the industrial heartland, and China is scrambling


Even New York City commercial Real Estate has got the blues . . . bad

Almost no segment of New York City’s real estate industry was spared in the Madoff scandal, which may be history’s largest Ponzi scheme: commercial brokers large and small, little-known developers and prominent families like the Wilpons and Rechlers all lost money to Bernard L. Madoff, industry executives say.

NYT: "On Wall Street, Bonuses, Not Profits, Were Real"

Obama promises more regulation of the financial and insurance sectors

Salon: How the hell did Rick Warren get inauguration tickets?

Japan's government has forecast that the country's economy will have zero growth in the year ending March 2010.

NASCAR has settled a $225 million lawsuit filed by a former official who said she was subjected to racial discrimination and sexual harassment

New web game hit . . . play it here . . . Sock and Awe game allows you to throw shoes at a ducking President Bush


Tumor removed from the brain of a Colorado Springs infant contained a tiny foot and other partially formed body parts.

NY man charged with insider trading on wife's info





Thursday - December 18, 2008 - NFL/Redskin's Great Sammy Baugh Passes One Last Time, Fran Drescher to Take Her Hot Legs to the Senate?

HUD Chief says the Loan Modification program to help homeowners save their homes is a failure

Mish: Giant California Pension fund loses 103% on its residential "investments"


55% of So Cal home sales last month were foreclosures

Alan Taylor's Big Picture Blog shows us what the riots in Greece look like from the frontlines


Banks still constipated with bailout cash despite the Fed's latest desperate Hail Mary

Ex-defense contractor gets 2 1/2 years in prison for his part in bribing ex-Representative "Duke" Cunningham

Afghan women fear return to the "Dark Days"

More snow coming for areas of Northeast where power is still not back on from last week's ice storm

Charred, smoking body of Boston area teen found in 10 feet deep hole

World Coal Reserves Could Be a Fraction of Previous Estimates

Hotels deflate during Hard Times: nosedive in business pits chain against chain in lower rates, upgrades, freebies

Humiliate robber leaves cashless: A San Antonio fast-food restaurant cashier laughed at a robbery suspect and told him to get a job

Stephanie Pomboy of Macro Mavens interviewed: It's going to be a long cold winter

Borrowers rushing to refinance loans after new historic rate drop




First State Bank of the great Conch Republic buys ship to be made into reef near Key West

7 kids honored as heroes for saving puppy's life

Little 'Adolf Hitler' Denied Birthday Cake at New Jersey Grocery Store

A former Bond girl was murdered after grappling with an intruder whom she caught in her home in Dublin Monday.

Police: Clues Keep Coming to Suggest Dead Child Is Caylee Anthony, Stretching Search


"How corrupt is America?"


35 Iraqis, including two Generals on American Invaders deck of Most Wanted cards, arrested in coup plot

Holes in Earth's magnetic cloak let the sun in

Study: Young People Watch Less TV

President-elect Obama set to name seasoned regulator Mary Schapiro to head the Securities and Exchange Commission today as he considers a major overhaul of the heavily criticized agency

Former Indiana University standout thinks drugs caused rifts on last season's team

Dollar wipes out months of gains after Bernanke lowered rates Tuesday. In turn, gold's rise was robust



Snowstorm dumps the most snow in Las Vegas in decades, closing airports, schools and roads

General Mills Inc. and ConAgra Foods Inc. each reported sales gains driven by price increases, a sign that food makers are still grappling with high commodity costs

Microsoft patches critical IE bug with emergency update: go get it!


Nanny star Fran Drescher eyes Hillary Clinton's Senate seat


Tidal waves displace 75,000 in Papua, New Guinea

Musicians win one against the bean counters: U2's move to cash in stock guranteed to be worth $25 after lock up date, hammers Live Nation Corporation into the ropes

New US Mortality Map shows where you are more likely to be zapped by a force of nature


Berlin veterinarian authorities clean out 1,500 parakeets from a two room apartment

Bahrain arrests 15 people suspected of plotting to blow up exploses during a series of Shia Muslim services

Human sized heart found at a Paw Paw, Michigan car wash will be examined by Hospital to determine the species

Meltdown 101: Why OPEC moves aren't sending prices higher


Hail to the Redskin's "Slingin'"Sammy Baugh (1914-2008) - the first great passing quarterback of the NFL






Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Wednesday - December 17, 2008 - Obama Time's Person of the Year, Chrysler to Close All Plants for One Month, Yahoo First Search Engine to Quit Spying

First search engine to quit keeping records on users: Yahoo today, Dec. 17, vowed to anonymize log data for not only search, but also page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks, within 90 days

Internal State Department memo says Blackwater may lose its license to work in Iraq

Pastor raises $21,000 for children's toys in Atlanta by social networking on My Space, Twitter and Facebook

Parent sets up blog for toddlers's lost toys

Air marshall, "...man with a golden badge," busted for transporting drugs on commercial flights and luring a young boy to his hotel room where he sexually abused and took porn photos

Cult leader, aptly named Wayne Bent, explains to judge that fondling young girls in his sect is okay by God since its a "sacrament"

Three women die from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning in car at California ski resort

Layoffs: Western Digital slices 2500 workers

Motorola freezes pension plans and raises to save money

Layoffs: Aetna cuts 1000 jobs

Chysler to halt production at all plants for one month

Oil falls below $40 in trading for the first times since 2004

Smoking increases your chances of colon cancer

Honda cuts profits forecast by 62%

Morgan Stanley loses $2.3 Billion in the 3rd Quarter

Multinational forces rescues about 30 Chinese sailors on merchant ship from pirates off Somalia

Obama to Pick Tom Vilsack, Governor of Iowa (D) To Lead USDA




Time names Obama "Person of the Year"

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it was adding a label warning on heightened suicide risk for users of antiepileptic drugs.

Wednesday - December 17, 2008 - ZIRP, Darfur Slavery, Botched Call for Help Ends in Murder,

Islamic Arab militants from Janjaweed Militia are enslaving black natives of Darfur. Sudanese Army is using female and children as sex slaves and domestic help in Darfur.

Diabetes increases cancer mortality rate


21 year old student cries for help to 911 operator who claims later to have heard nothing despite tapes of the call capturing screams, gasps and what sounds like struggle. Police show up 48 minutes later after fiance calls to report his girlfriend had been murdered















Facing 5 Years in Prison: KB Home Corp.'s former head of human resources agreed Monday to plead guilty to conspiring in 2006 with then-Chief Executive Bruce Karatz to obstruct a probe of options-backdating at the Los Angeles home builder.


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Tuesday - December 16, 2008 - God Wants You to Be Rich, Charles Hugh Smith's "Triage",Bernie Madoff: The Poster Boy for Unregulated Capitalism

Report: Canada would lose 600,000 jobs if Big 3 Automakers go under

Breaking: FED CUTS RATES TO A HISTORIC LOW . . . RATES TO BE RANGE BOUND BETWEEN 0.00% and 0.25% !!!

While most companies cut back on capital spending, Dow Corning announced yesterday it will invest billions of dollars in solar cell research with two Japanese companies

Navy to buy 55 lightweight combat ships for use in shallower waters

Southern California home prices fall 35% in on year, November 2007 to November 2008

Robert Powell of WSJ and Market Watch has front row seat to Madhoff Ponzi Scheme: "For much of my life, the name Bernie Madoff has meant nothing to me. Now, however, it means far more than it should in my household and countless others across America. In my household, the net effect of the Madoff scheme is that my wife has lost all the money in her 401(k) account and her job as well."

OPEC to cut daily output of oil by 2 million additional barrels

Arctic Loses Over 2 Trillion Tons of Ice

Bernie Madoff: The Poster Boy for Unregulated Capitalism






God Wants Me to Be Rich

Goldman Gone Wrong: How Hank Paulson's old outfit transformed from being the best of class client driven investment firm to basically "one giant hedge fund"

Californian state house Republicans want to cut $10 Billion from schools

Cheney has no regrets, takes parting shots before leaving town on a fast plane to his unspecified retirement location


Charles Hugh Smith: "Triage"


Traffic stop of star athelete ends with his suicide by shotgun . . . investigation ensues

Intel Corp. survey: Nearly 1/2 of all women and 1/3 of men prefer the Internet to sex

Lead singer of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Anthony Keidis, escapes kidney failure?

Dynamite found planted in famous Paris department store . . . Group takes responsibility and demands France pull out of Afghanistan

Monday, December 15, 2008

Tuesday - December 16, 2008 - Builder Confidence Holds at Record Lows, Housing Permits and Starts Fall to Record Lows, CPI has a record 1.7% fall

( click here to see LIVE 24/7 surface temperatures in Faranheit degrees of the same map above in enlarged form)


In the year 2025, the USA will no longer rule supreme suggests NIC report

Will the Greek student riots spread to France's restive campuses?



Monday Night Football: Eagles beat the Browns 30-10

Maccau, China's gambling mecca, is emptying of players

Pirates outmaneuver warships off Somalia

Two Candian diplomats go missing in Niger

Italian Police arrest nearly 100 suspects in anti-Mafia roundup

INTERNET EXPLORER SECURITY ALERT! Users of the world's most common web browser have been advised to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

Truthout asks, "Why should taxpayers bailout homeowners who have no equity built up in their homes?"

The Lo-o-ong List of Victims who lost big money in the Up in Smoke Bernie Madoff Pyramid Scheme

Slideshow of victims burned by Bernie Madoff

Now they are rewarding failure in College Football: New Auburn coach pick causes Charles Barkley, an Auburn alum, to lose his cool. Wait until you see the new hire's current won/loss record at Iowa State. Of course race had nothing to do with the new hire, wink, wink.

The coming credit card reforms are going to cost the banks Billions of $$$

Don't drive your couch to a Cleveland Browns game

Truckers have fewer hauls as Retailers cut back

Port St. Lucie giving Key West a run for the weirdest news in the Great Banana Republic: for the second time in less than 30 days, a Port St. Lucie man is arrested for assaulting his woman with a sandwich

Remember when Homebuilder CEOs and Realtors who drank the NAR Kool-Aid were predicting a bottoming for the Housing Crash to take place in 2007? Home values have dropped over $2 Trillion in 2008 alone

About one-fourth of new auto sales this year left consumers upside-down, according to Edmunds.com

Normal Blue Book values on clean used cars less than a year old have deflated a further 9% - 39% as more owners now upside down on their car loans

The 17th Floor Where Wealth Went to "Money Heaven"

The end of dating, the rise of the Hook Up

Good News! Gasoline drops to early 2004 levels

Obama chooses "centrist" Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) to be Secretrary of the Interior

How Buddhism and Christianity cross-pollinated ideas during the Dark Ages in the East

Secret Service defends its response to Iraqi who threw his shoes at President Bush's head

Many bet the Fed will cut rates to .50 basis points . . . or . . . 1/2%!

Arena Football League cancels its 2009 season

Tax revenues are so down in North Carolina for work on roads and highways, that the state is considering new revenues from charging motorists .0025 cents (1/4 cent) for every mile driven.

Monday - December 15, 2008 - 60 Minutes Report on Why the Worst Is Not Over in Housing and the Asset Bubble Crash, Frank Rich's Brilliant Op Ed Piece

( Mr. Happy, Stephon Marbury of the N Y Knicks is not wasting away in Margarittaville, but rather Purgatory. Photo courtesy of AP.)













Excellent quick look at why America is only half-way through the Housing Crash and only in the 3rd inning of the Asset Bubble Crash: CBS 's 60 Minutes: New Wave of Mortgage Adjustments Could Force More Homeowners to Default (video and transrcipts from last night's investigative piece)

As bailout falters, US Government benefits from Treasury sales

Ex-World Champion chess player, Garry Kasparov, launches liberal uniting movement called "Solidarity" in Russia. 90-130 of supporters arrested in street demonstrations over the weekend

Only 9 more days before we are obliterated! Leeland Freeborn and 12 other survivalists hunkering down in Utah as Freeborn "Prophet" predicts nuclear annihilaton. Let's hope the women following this charlatan will "Run, Forrest, Run" when the country isn't vaporized on Chirstmas Day



Oil rises to $47 a barrel overnight as OPEC prepares for production cuts this week

Business Week blogger on Ponzi Nation: “The largest Ponzi scheme in the history of the capital markets is the relationship between failed mortgage lenders and investment banks that securitized the risky overpriced loans and sold these packages to other investors—a Ponzi scheme by every definition applied to Madoff. These and other related deeds led to the largest global credit meltdown in the history of the world.”

Global Economy: The world was told the U.S. was a low-risk, high-return investment. But like the Wall Street trader Bernie Madhoff's victims, we are learning the truth

Bush makes surprise visit to Afghanistan to pump up troops's morale

Washington D.C.'s transit system may collapse during Obama's inauguration



Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims move around the Kaaba, the black cube seen at center, inside the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) #2 out of 41 photos (click on image to enlarge)

Alan Taylor's Big Picture Blog gives us 41 photos of the Hajj and the Eid al-Adha

Barron's interviews Stephanie Pomboy who feels the US will go through an extended period of paltry economic growth, akin to what Japan went through from 1990 to the present.

Complex auto industry has tentacles reaching into every community in the USA

McCain scolds Republicans for fanning the Illinois scandal and trying to tie it to Obama

Global warming is the ticking time bomb Obama cannot ignore

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