Street Calls of the Week
Polls
Reuters/Ipsos national survey of registered Republicans:
Newt Gingrich 24%
Mitt Romney 22%
Herman Cain 12%
Rick Perry 10%
Magellan Strategies survey of New Hampshire Republicans. [Survey not noted as most reliable, however.]
Mitt Romney 29%
Newt Gingrich 27%
A more respected Bloomberg News survey has Romney at 40% in New Hampshire, followed by Ron Paul at 17% and Gingrich at 11%.
In Iowa, the American Research Group poll has Gingrich now at 27%, Romney 20% and Paul at 16%.
--I loved Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate on CNN. The New York Post’s Michael A. Walsh shares some of my thoughts.
“In the crispest debate since the series began back in May, everyone was on his or her game. There were no gaffes, no flubs, no disastrous memory losses. The candidates – almost any one of whom would have a real chance of unseating President Obama…were all smooth and polished, sticking to their well-staked-out issues.
“Indeed, they’ve become like characters in a long-running sitcom, with each one slickly playing his or her assigned role.
“There’s Ron Paul, the wacky libertarian who believes in a kind of international Golden Rule: do unto other nations as you would have them do unto you. There’s Michele Bachmann, consistently assailing Obama. And Rick Santorum, the bright kid who always complains he’s not getting enough attention from the teacher.
“But there was one big difference last night: This was the first debate in which Mitt Romney, the eternal but generally unloved front-runner, was just another figure on stage, looking nervously over his shoulder not just at the man standing next to him, Rick Perry (who had his best debate performance to date) but at the man who’s supplanting him atop the polls, Newt Gingrich.
“True, Newt couldn’t score any cheap points by going after the moderator, as ‘Blitz’ (as Herman Cain delightfully called him) kept the tone elevated. But this kind of forum plays to Gingrich’s strengths – a firm grasp of both foreign and domestic issues and how they relate, married to a newfound consistency of purpose that allows him to talk straight and play to the crowd….
“Will the Gingrich boomlet last? His famous ‘baggage’ would make him an easy target for Obama, but his formidable intellect would counter that in the head-to-head presidential debates.”
A different take…Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post
“The foreign policy debate Tuesday night was a surprise on many counts. It was lively and serious, which many debates haven’t been. Rep. Michele Bachmann exceeded expectations. Rick Santorum showed personal restraint (not complaining about the lack of attention) and displaying his depth of knowledge. As one might imagine, Herman Cain was perhaps the least comfortable man on the stage while Mitt Romney was the most at ease. Texas Gov. Rick Perry had some moments but some rather bad ones as well. The big surprise was Newt Gingrich, who not only failed to impress but created some problems for himself. [Ed: i.e., his answers on immigration.]”
I was just surprised how Rubin went on to slam Gingrich further, while being effusive in her praise for Bachmann, “who was poised, informed and knowledgeable throughout. She made clear that Obama’s lack of leadership is responsible for Iran’s progress on a nuclear weapon. She defended aid to Pakistan which is in our national security interest. She made an excellent point about sending our dollars to China, which in effect builds up its military at the expense of ours. She pivoted on an energy question to chide Obama for delaying on the Keystone pipeline. If she performs this well in future debates, look for her to make progress.”
And this from the New York Daily News’ Thomas Defrank and Alison Gendar.
“Mitt Romney fibbed about his real first name in a bid for laughs…and immediately fed criticism he’ll say anything to get elected.
“CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer opened the debate by asking candidates to introduce themselves. ‘Here’s an example of what I’m looking for: ‘I’m Wolf Blitzer and yes, that’s my real name.’’
“Romney couldn’t help himself in going for a quick laugh. ‘I’m Mitt Romney and yes, Wolf, that’s also my first name,’ he said to dead silence from the audience.
“That wasn’t the worst of it: Romney’s real first name is Willard – Mitt is his middle name.”
But Romney had a good week, all in all, in picking up South Dakota Sen. John Thune’s endorsement which could help in neighboring Iowa. [Too bad Thune isn’t running for president as I’ve seen this field develop. A Romney-Thune ticket is definitely a possibility as of today, however.]
--The New York Post’s Michael Goodwin, on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s incoherent stance on Occupy Wall Street, which the mayor took two months to clear from Zuccotti Park.
“As the NYPD was battling mobs trying to shut down lower Manhattan, the mayor was in Midtown arguing to business leaders that the protesters have an important message.
“ ‘We’re coming to a point where Occupy Wall Street is just the beginning, the Tea Party is just the beginning,’ he said, according to a Times report. ‘The public is getting scared. They don’t know what to do, and they’re going to strike out, and they don’t know where.’
“Even the incoherence of the movement, Bloomberg insisted, ‘tells you what the problem is. They just know the system isn’t working, and they don’t want to wait around.’
“Lenin is said to have coined the phrase ‘useful idiots’ to describe ignorant Westerners who sympathized with his totalitarian state. There is no better description for people like Bloomberg who, having succeeded wildly under democracy and capitalism, offer any support to the socialist mobs who aim to destroy both.”
For his part, on a different matter, Bloomberg blasted Barack Obama for his failure to lead on the deficit. Accusing Congress of “political cowardice” for helping to bring about a “disaster for the country,” Bloomberg then went on to say this about the president:
“The executive branch must do more than submit a plan to a committee – and then step aside and hope the committee members take action. That’s not how any CEO would run a business.”
But a Bloomberg third party candidacy, if that’s where he’s headed, or a Ron Paul one, which to some looks increasingly likely, would hand the election to Obama.
--Candice M. Giove / New York Post
“Hell no, we won’t go – unless we get goose down pillows.
“A key Occupy Wall Street leader and another protester who leads a double life as a businessman ditched fetid tents and church basements for rooms at a luxurious hotel that promises guests can ‘unleash [their] inner Gordon Gekko,’ The Post has learned.
“The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to protesters in his swanky platinum-card room.
“ ‘Tents are not for me,’ (Spitzer) confessed when confronted in the sleek black lobby of the Washington Street hotel where sources described him as a ‘repeat’ guest….
“Meanwhile, Dutro, 35, one of only a handful of OWS leaders in charge of the movement’s $500,000 in donations, checked in on Wednesday, the night after police emptied Zuccotti Park.
“While hundreds of his rebel brethren scrambled to find shelter in church basements, Dutro chose the five-star, 58-story hotel, with its lush rooms and 350-count Egyptian cotton sheets. He lives only a short taxi ride away in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
“ ‘I knew everything was going to be a clusterf—k in the morning,’ he told The Post, alluding to Occupy’s own disruption plans. ‘How would I get over the bridge when they were shutting it down?’”
Dutro told The Post he paid for his room with his American Express card.
“It is an expensive hotel. Whatever,” he said.
To the whole OWS movement, I offer my own… “Whatever.”
--But while I dismiss OWS, oh, I want a revolution, that’s for sure. Just not the kind OWS wants. Case in point, New Jersey Democratic Congressman Rob Andrews. Now this guy appears on CNBC from time to time and he’s one arrogant a-hole.
So last Sunday, the Star-Ledger’s Matt Friedman had a front-page story on the primo jerk. To wit.
“A three-night stay at a five-star hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland, for a wedding: $7,725.
“A set of china from Bloomingdale’s for the bride and groom: $463.
“Cab rides, meals, tips and airline baggage fees: $953.
“Expensing it to your campaign account: Priceless.
“In June, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1st Dist.) and his family visited Edinburgh for a wedding – part of a larger European vacation. There, Andrews, his wife and two teenage daughters stayed at the Balmoral Hotel in the center of town, which bills itself as a ‘luxury hotel in the true sense of the word.’ The price was indeed five-star: Two rooms for three nights cost $7,725….
“In all, Andrews and his family spent more than $9,000 on the Edinburgh leg of the trip. Rather, his congressional campaign did.”
Andrews claims the expense was legit because the wedding was for a key donor and volunteer adviser, allowing him to call it a political event.
So stay in a freakin’ Holiday Inn.
But while Andrews then continued his defense with the paper, the Ledger reported further:
“Also in June, Andrews’ campaign spent more than $10,000 on a party at his Haddon Heights home to celebrate his 20 years in Congress and his daughter’s high school graduation. And his campaign has made tens of thousands of dollars in donations to Philadelphia theaters – sometimes within months of another daughter appearing in one of their productions.”
Time to tear the House down.
--This is a story to discuss over the dinner table. Country duo Sugarland, some of you may recall, were the feature act at the Indiana State Fair on Aug. 13 when a wicked storm blew through, wind gusted to 60 mph, the stage rigging collapsed onto spectators, and seven were killed, another 40 injured. Sugarland would have taken the stage about five minutes later.
But they are being sued, along with producers, stage riggers and others, by at least 20 law firms.
I can understand producers and those associated with the stage for being named, but Sugarland?
Well, it seems their contract specified that they had the final say on whether to cancel the concert due to weather, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.
“Unfortunately, the tragedy could have been prevented if the responsible parties had been concerned about the concertgoers that night,” one attorney told the AP.
Bottom line, read the fine print on some contracts. Sugarland shouldn’t be blamed, but, just this cursory explanation has to make you think twice. It’s a shame, but the law is the law.
[The state and fair are involved in a totally separate series of suits.]
--According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, the level of sea ice in the Arctic shrank this year to its second-smallest size since 1979. Further, according to a study published in the journal Nature, “The loss of sea ice in the Arctic at the end of the 20th Century is ‘unprecedented’ in the past 1,450 years in its duration and magnitude.” [Bloomberg]
So when you have sea ice, 80% of the sunlight striking it is reflected back to space. But when the ice melts, 90% of the light actually heats the water, which can profoundly influence climate patterns.
--Meanwhile, get this. A week ago, Thursday, Fairbanks, Alaska, hit a record-low temperature, in mid-November, of 41 degrees below zero. That beat the record low set two days earlier of 40 below. It’s about the jetstream, people; always has been, always will. And my friend Mark R.’s sunspots. As for the above sea ice issue, I don’t discount this affects the weather as well.
--Barack Obama is lucky he is a lock to win New York in 2012 because this coming Wednesday, he’s going to get a lot of heat in the Big Apple for scheduling a bunch of fund-raisers on the same night as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting, the mother of all traffic gridlocks. As Jeff Spicoli of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” fame would have said of Obama’s scheduling, “What a…..” Oops, we’re talking the president. Can’t finish this one off out of respect for the office.
--In his television ads for NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams is full of gravitas. “This is a very personal business for me.” A day later I’m watching Williams talk about an upcoming segment featuring two kids spreading flour on the living room floor, no doubt prodded by the mother with her video-camera, “and it got people talking today.”
Oh brother. Number one; only idiots would call their friends and tell them to catch the YouTube video of this fraud. But there it was, 90 seconds of precious nightly news time, the serious stuff.
Of course then the Today Show compounded matters by having the family in the following morning for “an exclusive.”
Yes, friends, yet another sign of the apocalypse.
--Tom Wicker died. He was 85. Among his many achievements, Wicker wrote what I consider the most balanced portrayal of Richard Nixon, “One of Us.”
--Great news from space, maybe. Remember the troubled Russian Mars mission, the one where the spacecraft got stuck in earth orbit when some engine burns, that would have shot it into outer space, failed?
Well contact was finally made with it as a tracking station in Perth, Australia, picked up a signal.
“Good day, Mate. You okay?”
“Nyet.”
“Can we help you get out of that orbit?”
“Nyet.”
Russian spacecraft have limited vocabularies, as does your editor.
[Evidently only a few days remain for the Russkies to work on uploading new commands or else it could come crashing down on any one of you.]
--Finally, NASA is set to launch the world’s biggest extraterrestrial explorer, perhaps as early as today. A six-wheeled, one-armed Mars rover that is due to reach the red planet in eight months. It’s nicknamed Curiosity and is the size of a car. I hope the battery isn’t lithium, witness the Chevy Volt experience of batteries catching fire now under investigation.
---
Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.
God bless America.
---
Gold closed at $1683
Oil, $96.77
Returns for the week 11/21-11/25
Dow Jones -4.8% [11231]
S&P 500 -4.7% [1158]
S&P MidCap -4.5%
Russell 2000 -7.4%
Nasdaq -5.1% [2441]
Returns for the period 1/1/11-11/25/11
Dow Jones -3.0%
S&P 500 -7.9%
S&P MidCap -10.4%
Russell 2000 -15.0%
Nasdaq -8.0%
Bulls 47.4
Bears 32.6 [Source: Chartcraft / Investors Intelligence]
Reuters/Ipsos national survey of registered Republicans:
Newt Gingrich 24%
Mitt Romney 22%
Herman Cain 12%
Rick Perry 10%
Magellan Strategies survey of New Hampshire Republicans. [Survey not noted as most reliable, however.]
Mitt Romney 29%
Newt Gingrich 27%
A more respected Bloomberg News survey has Romney at 40% in New Hampshire, followed by Ron Paul at 17% and Gingrich at 11%.
In Iowa, the American Research Group poll has Gingrich now at 27%, Romney 20% and Paul at 16%.
--I loved Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate on CNN. The New York Post’s Michael A. Walsh shares some of my thoughts.
“In the crispest debate since the series began back in May, everyone was on his or her game. There were no gaffes, no flubs, no disastrous memory losses. The candidates – almost any one of whom would have a real chance of unseating President Obama…were all smooth and polished, sticking to their well-staked-out issues.
“Indeed, they’ve become like characters in a long-running sitcom, with each one slickly playing his or her assigned role.
“There’s Ron Paul, the wacky libertarian who believes in a kind of international Golden Rule: do unto other nations as you would have them do unto you. There’s Michele Bachmann, consistently assailing Obama. And Rick Santorum, the bright kid who always complains he’s not getting enough attention from the teacher.
“But there was one big difference last night: This was the first debate in which Mitt Romney, the eternal but generally unloved front-runner, was just another figure on stage, looking nervously over his shoulder not just at the man standing next to him, Rick Perry (who had his best debate performance to date) but at the man who’s supplanting him atop the polls, Newt Gingrich.
“True, Newt couldn’t score any cheap points by going after the moderator, as ‘Blitz’ (as Herman Cain delightfully called him) kept the tone elevated. But this kind of forum plays to Gingrich’s strengths – a firm grasp of both foreign and domestic issues and how they relate, married to a newfound consistency of purpose that allows him to talk straight and play to the crowd….
“Will the Gingrich boomlet last? His famous ‘baggage’ would make him an easy target for Obama, but his formidable intellect would counter that in the head-to-head presidential debates.”
A different take…Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post
“The foreign policy debate Tuesday night was a surprise on many counts. It was lively and serious, which many debates haven’t been. Rep. Michele Bachmann exceeded expectations. Rick Santorum showed personal restraint (not complaining about the lack of attention) and displaying his depth of knowledge. As one might imagine, Herman Cain was perhaps the least comfortable man on the stage while Mitt Romney was the most at ease. Texas Gov. Rick Perry had some moments but some rather bad ones as well. The big surprise was Newt Gingrich, who not only failed to impress but created some problems for himself. [Ed: i.e., his answers on immigration.]”
I was just surprised how Rubin went on to slam Gingrich further, while being effusive in her praise for Bachmann, “who was poised, informed and knowledgeable throughout. She made clear that Obama’s lack of leadership is responsible for Iran’s progress on a nuclear weapon. She defended aid to Pakistan which is in our national security interest. She made an excellent point about sending our dollars to China, which in effect builds up its military at the expense of ours. She pivoted on an energy question to chide Obama for delaying on the Keystone pipeline. If she performs this well in future debates, look for her to make progress.”
And this from the New York Daily News’ Thomas Defrank and Alison Gendar.
“Mitt Romney fibbed about his real first name in a bid for laughs…and immediately fed criticism he’ll say anything to get elected.
“CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer opened the debate by asking candidates to introduce themselves. ‘Here’s an example of what I’m looking for: ‘I’m Wolf Blitzer and yes, that’s my real name.’’
“Romney couldn’t help himself in going for a quick laugh. ‘I’m Mitt Romney and yes, Wolf, that’s also my first name,’ he said to dead silence from the audience.
“That wasn’t the worst of it: Romney’s real first name is Willard – Mitt is his middle name.”
But Romney had a good week, all in all, in picking up South Dakota Sen. John Thune’s endorsement which could help in neighboring Iowa. [Too bad Thune isn’t running for president as I’ve seen this field develop. A Romney-Thune ticket is definitely a possibility as of today, however.]
--The New York Post’s Michael Goodwin, on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s incoherent stance on Occupy Wall Street, which the mayor took two months to clear from Zuccotti Park.
“As the NYPD was battling mobs trying to shut down lower Manhattan, the mayor was in Midtown arguing to business leaders that the protesters have an important message.
“ ‘We’re coming to a point where Occupy Wall Street is just the beginning, the Tea Party is just the beginning,’ he said, according to a Times report. ‘The public is getting scared. They don’t know what to do, and they’re going to strike out, and they don’t know where.’
“Even the incoherence of the movement, Bloomberg insisted, ‘tells you what the problem is. They just know the system isn’t working, and they don’t want to wait around.’
“Lenin is said to have coined the phrase ‘useful idiots’ to describe ignorant Westerners who sympathized with his totalitarian state. There is no better description for people like Bloomberg who, having succeeded wildly under democracy and capitalism, offer any support to the socialist mobs who aim to destroy both.”
For his part, on a different matter, Bloomberg blasted Barack Obama for his failure to lead on the deficit. Accusing Congress of “political cowardice” for helping to bring about a “disaster for the country,” Bloomberg then went on to say this about the president:
“The executive branch must do more than submit a plan to a committee – and then step aside and hope the committee members take action. That’s not how any CEO would run a business.”
But a Bloomberg third party candidacy, if that’s where he’s headed, or a Ron Paul one, which to some looks increasingly likely, would hand the election to Obama.
--Candice M. Giove / New York Post
“Hell no, we won’t go – unless we get goose down pillows.
“A key Occupy Wall Street leader and another protester who leads a double life as a businessman ditched fetid tents and church basements for rooms at a luxurious hotel that promises guests can ‘unleash [their] inner Gordon Gekko,’ The Post has learned.
“The $700-per-night W Hotel Downtown last week hosted both Peter Dutro, one of a select few OWS members on the powerful finance committee, and Brad Spitzer, a California-based analyst who not only secretly took part in protests during a week-long business trip but offered shelter to protesters in his swanky platinum-card room.
“ ‘Tents are not for me,’ (Spitzer) confessed when confronted in the sleek black lobby of the Washington Street hotel where sources described him as a ‘repeat’ guest….
“Meanwhile, Dutro, 35, one of only a handful of OWS leaders in charge of the movement’s $500,000 in donations, checked in on Wednesday, the night after police emptied Zuccotti Park.
“While hundreds of his rebel brethren scrambled to find shelter in church basements, Dutro chose the five-star, 58-story hotel, with its lush rooms and 350-count Egyptian cotton sheets. He lives only a short taxi ride away in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
“ ‘I knew everything was going to be a clusterf—k in the morning,’ he told The Post, alluding to Occupy’s own disruption plans. ‘How would I get over the bridge when they were shutting it down?’”
Dutro told The Post he paid for his room with his American Express card.
“It is an expensive hotel. Whatever,” he said.
To the whole OWS movement, I offer my own… “Whatever.”
--But while I dismiss OWS, oh, I want a revolution, that’s for sure. Just not the kind OWS wants. Case in point, New Jersey Democratic Congressman Rob Andrews. Now this guy appears on CNBC from time to time and he’s one arrogant a-hole.
So last Sunday, the Star-Ledger’s Matt Friedman had a front-page story on the primo jerk. To wit.
“A three-night stay at a five-star hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland, for a wedding: $7,725.
“A set of china from Bloomingdale’s for the bride and groom: $463.
“Cab rides, meals, tips and airline baggage fees: $953.
“Expensing it to your campaign account: Priceless.
“In June, U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews (D-1st Dist.) and his family visited Edinburgh for a wedding – part of a larger European vacation. There, Andrews, his wife and two teenage daughters stayed at the Balmoral Hotel in the center of town, which bills itself as a ‘luxury hotel in the true sense of the word.’ The price was indeed five-star: Two rooms for three nights cost $7,725….
“In all, Andrews and his family spent more than $9,000 on the Edinburgh leg of the trip. Rather, his congressional campaign did.”
Andrews claims the expense was legit because the wedding was for a key donor and volunteer adviser, allowing him to call it a political event.
So stay in a freakin’ Holiday Inn.
But while Andrews then continued his defense with the paper, the Ledger reported further:
“Also in June, Andrews’ campaign spent more than $10,000 on a party at his Haddon Heights home to celebrate his 20 years in Congress and his daughter’s high school graduation. And his campaign has made tens of thousands of dollars in donations to Philadelphia theaters – sometimes within months of another daughter appearing in one of their productions.”
Time to tear the House down.
--This is a story to discuss over the dinner table. Country duo Sugarland, some of you may recall, were the feature act at the Indiana State Fair on Aug. 13 when a wicked storm blew through, wind gusted to 60 mph, the stage rigging collapsed onto spectators, and seven were killed, another 40 injured. Sugarland would have taken the stage about five minutes later.
But they are being sued, along with producers, stage riggers and others, by at least 20 law firms.
I can understand producers and those associated with the stage for being named, but Sugarland?
Well, it seems their contract specified that they had the final say on whether to cancel the concert due to weather, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys.
“Unfortunately, the tragedy could have been prevented if the responsible parties had been concerned about the concertgoers that night,” one attorney told the AP.
Bottom line, read the fine print on some contracts. Sugarland shouldn’t be blamed, but, just this cursory explanation has to make you think twice. It’s a shame, but the law is the law.
[The state and fair are involved in a totally separate series of suits.]
--According to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, the level of sea ice in the Arctic shrank this year to its second-smallest size since 1979. Further, according to a study published in the journal Nature, “The loss of sea ice in the Arctic at the end of the 20th Century is ‘unprecedented’ in the past 1,450 years in its duration and magnitude.” [Bloomberg]
So when you have sea ice, 80% of the sunlight striking it is reflected back to space. But when the ice melts, 90% of the light actually heats the water, which can profoundly influence climate patterns.
--Meanwhile, get this. A week ago, Thursday, Fairbanks, Alaska, hit a record-low temperature, in mid-November, of 41 degrees below zero. That beat the record low set two days earlier of 40 below. It’s about the jetstream, people; always has been, always will. And my friend Mark R.’s sunspots. As for the above sea ice issue, I don’t discount this affects the weather as well.
--Barack Obama is lucky he is a lock to win New York in 2012 because this coming Wednesday, he’s going to get a lot of heat in the Big Apple for scheduling a bunch of fund-raisers on the same night as the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting, the mother of all traffic gridlocks. As Jeff Spicoli of “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” fame would have said of Obama’s scheduling, “What a…..” Oops, we’re talking the president. Can’t finish this one off out of respect for the office.
--In his television ads for NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams is full of gravitas. “This is a very personal business for me.” A day later I’m watching Williams talk about an upcoming segment featuring two kids spreading flour on the living room floor, no doubt prodded by the mother with her video-camera, “and it got people talking today.”
Oh brother. Number one; only idiots would call their friends and tell them to catch the YouTube video of this fraud. But there it was, 90 seconds of precious nightly news time, the serious stuff.
Of course then the Today Show compounded matters by having the family in the following morning for “an exclusive.”
Yes, friends, yet another sign of the apocalypse.
--Tom Wicker died. He was 85. Among his many achievements, Wicker wrote what I consider the most balanced portrayal of Richard Nixon, “One of Us.”
--Great news from space, maybe. Remember the troubled Russian Mars mission, the one where the spacecraft got stuck in earth orbit when some engine burns, that would have shot it into outer space, failed?
Well contact was finally made with it as a tracking station in Perth, Australia, picked up a signal.
“Good day, Mate. You okay?”
“Nyet.”
“Can we help you get out of that orbit?”
“Nyet.”
Russian spacecraft have limited vocabularies, as does your editor.
[Evidently only a few days remain for the Russkies to work on uploading new commands or else it could come crashing down on any one of you.]
--Finally, NASA is set to launch the world’s biggest extraterrestrial explorer, perhaps as early as today. A six-wheeled, one-armed Mars rover that is due to reach the red planet in eight months. It’s nicknamed Curiosity and is the size of a car. I hope the battery isn’t lithium, witness the Chevy Volt experience of batteries catching fire now under investigation.
---
Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.
God bless America.
---
Gold closed at $1683
Oil, $96.77
Returns for the week 11/21-11/25
Dow Jones -4.8% [11231]
S&P 500 -4.7% [1158]
S&P MidCap -4.5%
Russell 2000 -7.4%
Nasdaq -5.1% [2441]
Returns for the period 1/1/11-11/25/11
Dow Jones -3.0%
S&P 500 -7.9%
S&P MidCap -10.4%
Russell 2000 -15.0%
Nasdaq -8.0%
Bulls 47.4
Bears 32.6 [Source: Chartcraft / Investors Intelligence]