Oldtent Archives 2011

Wish I was there.

R Paul The war mongers made excuses and partial truths in a way to blind the people of the whole truth. Ron Paul should of asked them how they felt about the rest of the truth and pointed our that that exactly how our freedoms get manipulated with this half truths. Among other things. Yeah go after the terrorists but only if their terrorists. They are using the propaganda to include anything to throw their weight around while putting citizens in danger ” not themselves” and get out of actually declaring war.

First MFGlobal. Now Barret Capital, who seem to specialise in PMs.

www.zerohedge.com/news/second-mf-global-unveiled-canadian-regulator-accuses-barret-capital-commingling-client-funds

three foxes and a rabbit discussing whats for dinner

chop

I’m sure he’s right about the despair that is taking over Americans though. But a Nobel laureate he is not. Nobel, who was first and foremost a scientist, probably spins in his grave every time his name is mentioned with economics!

The Verschleiser story is …. amazing. Left me speechless.

www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz147/English

The welfarites will never vote for him because welfare is not mandated constitutionally. Obama will easily set them against Paul.

Democracy is all about voting yourself other peoples’ money.

Abolish Debt.

www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-wall-street-in-one-brief-tale-20120113#ixzz1jctglewn

Ya know, I’m almost to the point that I think these world markets are going higher no matter what happens. Maybe it’s just a function of getting out of weak currencies and into other assets. The hyperinflation argument I guess.

Watching the debates, the warmongers are hammering Paul. The audience loves war. Amazing.

BTW – I agree with you, the media has decided. Obama vs. Romney = Obama 4 more years

13 minutes ago

(AP:BUENOS AIRES, Argentina) Argentina’s tax agency has raided a Monsanto Co. contractor and found what it calls slave-like conditions among workers in its cornfields.

The AFIP tax agency says Rural Power SA hired all its farmhands illegally, prevented them from leaving the fields and withheld their salaries. They had to de-tassel corn 14 hours a day and buy their food at inflated prices from the company store.

AFIP says it will hold the American agro-giant responsible for its contractor’s slave-like labor conditions.

Monsanto didn’t immediately respond to calls Monday to its headquarters in Buenos Aires and in St. Louis, which was closed for the Martin Luther King holiday.

Argentina’s congress last month gave farmhands an 8-hour day and other benefits long denied under a dictatorship-era law.

Would you want to be relying on Ron Paul if you were getting all the freebies from the USA government?  Didn’t think so!  

Might as well go on and print the ballots – OBAMA  or  ROMNEY.  I don’t like it, but that is what it will be.  The media has spoken.

Lets face it..The Obamites NEED the Stock market to rally ….its all they got….they cant possibly with all thier might fix the Job Market or the Housing Market….all they can fix is the Unemployment Numbers (BLS) and the Stock Market…..

Because if (when) they have to face Ron Paul they are gonna be in deep dodo…unless they can manufacture a very quick “Helicopter Recovery”

So…I am thinking we get a big rally in “risk assets” starting like Yesterday…..the crack up boom ?

You will notice how with the S&P announcement after the close here Friday (the very best time to dump any bad news), downgrade of the 9 European countries, and the MLK Holiday today with the USA markets closed, the CROOKS have been able to rally the Dax, FTSE,  CAC today.  Just like nothing happened.  They are good!

By Jonathan Turley, Published: January 13
Every year, the State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for undermining due process. Other countries have been condemned for the use of secret evidence and torture.

Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence. In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. The most recent example of this was the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Dec. 31, which allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. At what point does the reduction of individual rights in our country change how we define ourselves?

While each new national security power Washington has embraced was controversial when enacted, they are often discussed in isolation. But they don’t operate in isolation. They form a mosaic of powers under which our country could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian. Americans often proclaim our nation as a symbol of freedom to the world while dismissing nations such as Cuba and China as categorically unfree. Yet, objectively, we may be only half right. Those countries do lack basic individual rights such as due process, placing them outside any reasonable definition of “free,” but the United States now has much more in common with such regimes than anyone may like to admit.

These countries also have constitutions that purport to guarantee freedoms and rights. But their governments have broad discretion in denying those rights and few real avenues for challenges by citizens — precisely the problem with the new laws in this country.

The list of powers acquired by the U.S. government since 9/11 puts us in rather troubling company. The Ten

Ron Paul is Mean and On Fire !

Wow…check it out

I missed that but …Probably

Once I figured out why the market was not trading today….I made sure I showered quick and put on business clothes and worked my arse off all day long…

adding to the little bit of strength last night. Never know until they show up tommorrow at 8:00 EST

ditto DPM – great company, great stock. And pays one heckuva dividend. As does BTE….

By

– January 15, 2012

that has to become one of the three great lies! 

Maybe drop “the check is in the mail”   and add  “your information is safe with us“

interested in investing, as Deadeye says (10:26), in the pipeline rather than in the product being carried in the pipeline. That’s why Pembina Pipeline (PPL.TO) is a core holding in our family portfolio. Equiz.

www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/deal-puts-pembina-in-drivers-seat-for-piping-oil-sands-crude/article2303664/

24 million customer accounts hacked at Zappos (Amazon)

Wasnt he the fella that sang “Danny Boy” with Irish??

‘Evening from NS

Winedoc

Many of you with Tottsville experience may remember Val D’or Kid….He is doing well …living in Columbia…with his Columbian Wife and loving it….sends his best wishes to all…

Val D’or was one of the first Goldbugs I met in person…a gentleman and a scholar

I told him to send us a post…

LONGWOOD – 

A 3,500-year-old Central Florida landmark is no more.

A fire early Monday has destroyed the 125-foot-tall bald cypress tree known as “The Senator,” the centerpiece of Longwood’s Big Tree Park.

• Got old photos of “The Senator”? UPLOAD them now!
• LIVE Chat: Join us NOW as we remember “The Senator.”

“The Senator” was the tallest cypress tree in the United States, and believed to be the oldest of its kind in North America, and the fifth oldest tree in the world.

Officials with Seminole Fire Rescue said they do not believe the fire is the result of arson.

A passer-by reported the fire around 5:45 a.m. Monday.

Crews had to lay over 800 feet of hose just to get to the tree, but Steve Wright, with Seminole County Fire Rescue, said they could not save “The Senator.”

The tree was so old and hollow that it burned from the inside out.

“We saw some of the helicopter views,” Winfree said. “It looked like a giant torch.”

The tree got its name from Sen. Moses Overstreet, who donated the land to Seminole County in 1927.

“That tree was older than Jesus,” Winfree said.

Within two hours, it burned to the ground.

“It’s just terrible,” Winfree said.

“The Senator” was a part of Winfree’s family for years. Her son has a picture from his first visit 11 years ago when he was a baby.

“We’ve all grown up coming here,” Winfree said.

Once the tree collapsed, fire spread through surrounding brush approximately 30 feet from the tree. 

The fire did not spread to any neighboring trees, including “The Senator’s” sister tree, the 89-foot-tall “Lady Liberty.”

Now the investigation begins into what started the fire.

“If somebody did this, they’re going to get it from God, that’s for sure,” Winfree said.

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, as well as local law enforcement, are taking part in the investigation, which is still ongoing.

Because the tree is considered a national landmark, the person responsible could face federal penalties. However, it is too early in the investigation to be certain.

www.cfnews13.com/article/news/2012/january/370329/The-Senator-falls,-worlds-5th-oldest-tree-destroyed-by-fire-in-Longwood

UPDATE:

The cause of the fire is officially unknown, the investigator said.

Read more: www.wesh.com/news/30221278/detail.html#ixzz1jf5wzykD

(Reuters) – Greece’s private sector creditors warned on Monday that the Athens government must urgently break a deadlock in debt swap talks triggered by “unreasonable” demands from international lenders if is to avoid a disorderly default.

Barely a month after an injection of bailout funds helped to avert bankruptcy, Greece is back at the centre of the euro zone crisis as fears of a default and a subsequent euro zone exit overshadow a mass credit downgrade of euro zone countries.

Cash-strapped Athens needs a deal with the private sector within days to avoid going bankrupt when 14.5 billion euros of bond redemptions fall due in late March.

But talks with its creditor banks broke down on Friday over the interest rate on new bonds Greece will offer and a plan to enforce investor losses. Negotiations were suspended until Wednesday, and Athens sent senior officials to Washington to consult with the International Monetary Fund.

With a growing number of experts — including a senior Standard & Poor’s official — warning a Greek default was on the cards, the country’s creditors expressed alarm.

“There is an urgent need for agreement to inject an element of stability,” Charles Dallara, head of the Institute of International Finance who represents Greece’s private creditors, told Reuters. He said banks were “very surprised” at “completely unreasonable” interest rates offered to them.

Greece put a brave face on the standoff.

“There is a little pause in these discussions,” Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told CNBC television.

“But I am confident that they will continue and we will reach an agreement that is mutually acceptable in time.”

He expressed optimism that talks on both the debt swap and the latest bailout would be completed in two to three weeks.

But Athens is quickly running out of time on the bond swap front. A deal must be sealed before senior inspectors from the EU, IMF and ECB “troika” arrive in Athens at the end of the week to agree details of a second, 130-billion-euro bailout.

Furthermore, an agreement in principle is needed by the end of this week if it is to be finalized in time for the March bond redemptions, Dallara said.

Banking sources say Athens is not the problem in the talks, pointing the finger at terms insisted on by the so-called troika of EU, ECB and IMF lenders keeping Greece afloat with aid.

In a bid to resolve the impasse, a government source said the head of Greece’s debt agency and a senior adviser were travelling on Monday to Washington to meet IMF officials – just a day before a team of technical experts from the troika arrives in the Greek capital.

Underscoring the stakes involved, a senior S&P official told Bloomberg Television that Greece would default “very shortly.”

“Whether there will be a solution at the end of the current rocky negotiations I cannot say,” said Moritz Kraemer, the head of the agency’s European sovereign ratings unit.

“There is a lot of brinksmanship on and a disorderly default will have ramifications on other countries but I believe policymakers will want to avoid that…The game is still on.”

Earlier on Monday, Bill Gross, the manager of the world’s largest bond fund PIMCO, tweeted that a mass credit downgrade had made investors “aware” that countries can default — and that Greece would be the next to do so.

COUPON UNCERTAINTY

Under the bailout terms agreed in October, Greek privately held debt would be reduced by half so that, together with structural reforms, the overall debt-to-GDP ratio of Greece would fall to 120 percent in 2020 from 160 percent now.

After initial optimism last week that a deal was near, negotiations stalled on Friday over the interest rate Greece must pay on new bonds it offers.

“That is essentially the area where the differences are substantial,” said Dallara. “They are looking at the private sector to accept interest rates that they would not accept (themselves), which is completely unreasonable.”

One banking source said official sector creditors had asked for a coupon of less than 4 percent, irking banks for whom it would have meant losses of over 75 percent on the bonds.

A second source involved in the discussions said the troika had pushed for a coupon of 2 to 3 percent that banks deemed unacceptable, below the 4 percent level that Greece and France proposed. Banks considered a 4 to 5 percent coupon sustainable for Greece, the source said.

Without a more palatable offer, the level of participation among private creditors could slip to below the level needed to ensure the deal is considered voluntary, the source said.

“They’ve got to understand that a voluntary exchange has got to be something we can stomach,” said a third source close to the talks.

A fourth source said the banks were ready to strike a deal if they reached common ground with the EU, IMF and ECB.

Changing assumptions about the economic outlook was not helping the situation either, Dallara said.

Underlining the precariousness of the situation, British finance minister George Osborne warned uncertainty over fixing Greece’s debt crisis was more of a threat to Europe’s stability than the downgrade on Friday of nine euro zone countries’ credit ratings by S&P. [ID:nL9E7K801V]

The downgrades were largely expected and traders said pressure on Italian and Spanish bond yields on Monday were offset by the European Central Bank stepping in to buy the bonds.

MORE MONEY NEEDED?

In its fifth year of recession, Greece has repeatedly flirted with bankruptcy in recent months, with only bailout loans from European partners and the IMF agreed on condition of unpopular austerity measures preventing a default.

The latest impasse in talks has prompted fears that Greece may need further financial support to put its debt on a viable footing. Papademos played down speculation that Athens would need additional aid to that agreed in October.

“I think the funds that have been pledged at the Euro Summit, combined with the outcome of the private sector involvement process should be sufficient in order to support financially the Greek economy,” Papademos said.

Pledging more funds to Greece would be politically tricky for many euro zone countries struggling with economic problems of their own. Germany’s foreign minister, on a trip to Athens, warned Greece must show it was honoring its end of the deal.

“We don’t want only a hint of a temporary recovery supported by banknotes,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in an interview to be aired on Greek Skai television later on Monday. “We want structural reforms so that Europe does not face a similar situation in the future.”

One of the long-term holds in our portfolio, Provident Energy (PVE.TO), was perky today because it is being gobbled up by one of the other long-term holds in our portfolio, Pembina Pipeline (PPL.TO). I like it when some things perk while the PM portion of the portfolio is in winter heibernation. Equiz.

stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=PVE.TO&p=D&yr=0&mn=3&dy=0&id=p15327449552

55 minutes ago….

www.moneytalksnews.com/2011/01/13/the-stella-awards-truth-or-fiction/

Cheers

Subject: FW: The Stella Awards

The judge should have kicked all of these out.!

It’s time again for the annual ‘Stella Awards’!

For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald’s in New Mexico, where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That’s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know the kind of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy

Here are the Stellas for this past year — 2011

*SEVENTH PLACE*

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of
her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably
surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

Start scratching!

* SIXTH PLACE *

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord.
Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor’s hubcaps.

Scratch some more…

* FIFTH PLACE *

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol, Pennsylvania, who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut.
Forced to sit for eight, count ‘em, EIGHT days and survive on a case
of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner’s
insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish Keep scratching. There are more…

Double hand scratching after this one..

*FOURTH PLACE*

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the
Stella’s when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor’s beagle – even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

Pick a new spot to scratch, you’re getting a bald spot..

* THIRD PLACE *

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a
Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a
spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. What ever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

Only two more so ease up on the scratching…

*SECOND PLACE*

Kara Walton, of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000….oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure.

Ok. Here we go!! Drum roll ….

* FIRST PLACE *

This year’s runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv
Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home.
On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owners manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down? $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

If you think the court system is out of control and America has lost ALL common sense, be sure to pass this one on!!!

really sucks. I thought the facing page was photos of the ship BEFORE the accident. New spectacles are in order. Sheesh…..

Pretty funny even in a language most of us can’t read. Doh!

For the Record
“There are two stories coming out of New Hampshire. The big story is Mitt Romney. The bigger one is Ron Paul. … He got 21 percent in Iowa, 23 in New Hampshire, the only candidate other than Romney to do well with two very different electorates, one more evangelical and socially conservative, the other more moderate and fiscally conservative. Paul commands a strong, energetic, highly committed following. And he is unlike any of the other candidates. They’re out to win. He admits he doesn’t see himself in the Oval Office. They’re one-time self-contained enterprises aiming for the White House. Paul is out there to build a movement that will long outlive this campaign. Paul is less a candidate than a ’cause,’ to cite his election-night New Hampshire speech. Which is why that speech was the only one by a losing candidate that was sincerely, almost giddily joyous. The other candidates had to pretend they were happy with their results. Paul was genuinely delighted with his, because, after a quarter-century in the wilderness, he’s within reach of putting his cherished cause on the map. Libertarianism will have gone from the fringes — those hopeless, pathetic third-party runs — to a position of prominence in a major party.” –columnist Charles Krauthammer

The Foundation
“I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles.” –Thomas Jefferson

are you sure you put up the right link re poor editing??

good go deadeye …next to the tent it couldn’t go for a better cause imo and kentucky i and mrs wanka voted this morning absentee for rp too and the ballot is being dropped off at the supervisor of elections as we speak so to speak.
hoo ra! go go go ron paul for president. wj