Asia stocks sink as AI doubts batter tech; weak China data weighs
From time to time I feel compelled to remind readers, especially new ones, that what I’ve been doing these almost 13 years is developing material for the best possible book on our times; the main thing I will leave behind when I’m long gone. I’ve just dragged you along for the ride. At this point I refuse to take a week off because I’m afraid I’ll miss a little nugget that could be a spark for later on.
So the preceding is preamble for the fact that I recognize the following polls could be dated (albeit by just a few days), assuming the daily tracking data is correct and that Newt Gingrich has peaked. Again, this is a snapshot of a point in time, not necessarily six hours ago. You can imagine that I have the greatest polling info for the 2000, 2004 and 2008 races, which will all be part of the story I eventually write. Thanks for indulging me.
--American Research Council...Iowa
Gingrich 22 percent
Romney 17
Paul 17
Perry 13
--Public Policy Polling…Iowa
Gingrich 22
Paul 21
Romney 16
Bachmann 11
Perry 9
--NBC / Marist
South Carolina
Gingrich over Romney, 42-23
Florida
Gingrich over Romney, 41-28 [likely Republican primary voters in both states]
NBC / Wall Street Journal…Republican primary voters nationwide
Gingrich over Romney, 40-23
[Gingrich negatives very high, however]
Hypothetical matchups
Obama over Romney, 47-45
Obama over Gingrich, 51-40
Obama’s approval rating in NBC/WSJ survey is at 46%, up 2 points.
--Regarding Thursday’s debate in Sioux City, Iowa, John Podhoretz / New York Post:
“As for Romney, who was terrible in Saturday’s debate in Iowa, he found something new last night that might carry him all the way to the nomination: A tone of humility.
“He found a strong way to address the idea that his actions as a private-equity manager of businesses cost jobs by explaining that capitalism involves failures and successes. He knew both and had learned from both….
“The most amazing performance last night, however, was by Michele Bachmann, who showed herself (as she did in the early going) to be a remarkably substantive and tough-minded debater who is able to engage with what is going on in front of her and go on the attack when her rivals say things spontaneously that she wishes to take issue with.”
--I’m anxious to get to New Hampshire after New Year’s and track down Ron Paul for one of his appearances. Will he run as a third party, which everyone knows would throw the election to Barack Obama?
A new USA TODAY/Gallup Swing States Poll finds 54% of Americans nationwide and 52% in the nation’s top battlegrounds agree that the two major parties “do such a poor job that a third major party is needed.”
“In the dozen most competitive states, the political group most likely to back the idea of a third party are moderate and liberal Republicans – perhaps because they feel disenfranchised by the clout of a conservative Tea Party movement. Nearly two-thirds back the idea of a third party. Moderates and liberals make up nearly four in 10 Republicans.
“Among Democrats, too, moderates and conservatives seem somewhat disaffected from the liberal activists who often define their party. Just over a third of moderate/conservative Democrats and moderate/liberal Republicans say they’re enthusiastic about voting for president in 2012, among the lowest of any groups.”
George Will had the following on a potential Paul third party bid in his Washington Post column:
“It would enable Obama to carry two states he lost in 2008: Missouri (10 electoral votes), which he lost by 0.13 points, and Arizona (11), which he lost by 8.52 points to native son John McCain. It would enable Obama to again win four states he captured in 2008 and that the Republican nominee probably must win in 2012: Florida (29), Indiana (11), North Carolina (15) and Virginia (13).
“It would secure Obama’s hold on the following states he won in 2008 but that Republicans hope to take back next year: New Mexico (5), Colorado (9), Nevada (6), Michigan (16), Ohio (18), Pennsylvania (20) and New Hampshire (4).
“At a minimum, a Paul candidacy would force the Republican nominee to spend time and money in places he otherwise might be able to economize both. And a Paul candidacy would make 2012 much easier for Obama than 2008 was.”
Even without a Paul third party bid, I have little confidence the Republican nominee will defeat the president, as of today, I hasten to add. Everyone keeps pointing to his approval numbers being below the key 50 mark, but it wouldn’t take much to get them back above that level, like a gradually improving unemployment rate.
Wait for my yearend review and 2012 outlook, however.
--Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman told U.S. News’ Paul Bedard it might take a “catastrophe” to change Washington, and that in the meantime, a third party is probably appropriate, reasoning that voters might just give up on the Democrats and Republicans if the gridlock continues.
“If Walmart spent its entire advertising budget attacking Target, and Target spent its entire budget attacking Walmart,” Lieberman argues, “the net effect would be that a lot of people who are shopping at both stores now would shop somewhere else.”
--After watching a bunch of debates, you know who I really don’t like? Jon Huntsman. He couldn’t come off more poorly, or as Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post puts it, haughty.
--No doubt, I don’t agree with Ron Paul’s foreign policy, but when he talks about bringing all the troops home, he’s right in one regard. What the heck do we have 52,000 of our men and women in Germany for? Keep Ramstein Air Base for tactical reasons and 10,000 troops and airmen, but that’s it. Get the Europeans to start paying for their own defense, though, yes, in this time of austerity that is the furthest thing from EU governments’ minds. Well that’s their problem.
--Kathleen Parker / Washington Post
“You don’t get more un-Romney than Gingrich. Imperfect and untidy, he’s the serial husband with whom anyone could feel comfortable sharing a beer. Or a keg. A sinner like the rest of us, he’s as familiar and comfortable as an old sofa.
“But no one other than Callista Gingrich thinks her husband can prevail in a general election. No. One. The consensus on Gingrich is so overwhelming that conventional wisdom has taken a holiday. That is, no one in Washington thinks he can win, and Washington is where Gingrich is known best. Instead of rallying to support him, former colleagues are going out of their way to politely say, ‘He can’t lead.’”
--Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal
“I had a friend once who amused herself thinking up bumper stickers for states. The one she made up for California was brilliant. ‘California: It’s All True.’ It is so vast and sprawling a place, so rich and various, that whatever you’ve heard about its wildness, weirdness and wonders, it’s true.
“That’s the problem with Newt Gingrich: It’s all true. It’s part of the reason so many of those who know him are anxious about the thought of his becoming president. It’s also why people are looking at him, thinking about him, considering him as president.
“Ethically dubious? True. Intelligent and accomplished? True. Has he known breathtaking success and contributed to real reforms in government? Yes. Presided over disasters? Absolutely. Can he lead? Yes. Is he erratic and unreliable as a leader? Yes. Egomaniacal? True. Original and focused, harebrained and impulsive – all true….
“What is striking is the extraordinary divide in opinion between those who know Gingrich and those who don’t. Those who do are mostly not for him, and they were burning up the phone lines this week in Washington.
“Those who’ve known and worked with Mitt Romney mostly seem to support him, but when they don’t they don’t say the reason is that his character and emotional soundness are off. Those who know Ron Paul and oppose him do so on the basis of his stands, they don’t say his temperament forecloses the possibility of his presidency. But that’s pretty much what a lot of those who’ve worked with Newt say.”
--Poor Rick Perry. In Iowa last weekend, he thought there were 8 U.S. Supreme Court justices, not 9, and then he fumbled for the name of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, eventually calling her “Montemayor,” which sounds better, but isn’t exactly what the questioner was looking for. [A Des Moines Register editorial board member eventually helped Perry out. I concede I might have come up with former pitcher, John “The Count” Montefusco.]
--Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post
“In (Osawatomie,) Kansas, Obama lamented that millions ‘are now forced to take their children to food banks.’ You have to admire the audacity. That’s the kind of damning observation the opposition brings up when you’ve been in office three years. Yet Obama summoned it to make the case for his re-election!
“Why? Because, you see, he bears no responsibility for the current economic distress. It’s the rich. And, like Horatius at the bridge, Obama stands with the American masses against the soulless plutocrats.
“This is populism so crude that it channels not Teddy Roosevelt so much as Hugo Chavez. But with high unemployment, economic stagnation and unprecedented deficits, what else can Obama say?
“He can’t run on stewardship. He can’t run on policy. His signature initiatives – the stimulus, Obamacare and the failed cap-and-trade – will go unmentioned in his campaign ads. Indeed, they will be the stuff of Republican ads.
“What’s left? Class resentment. Got a better idea?”
--The National Transportation Safety Board unanimously recommended that all texting, emailing or chatting on a cellphone while driving be banned. The NTSB cannot itself issue such a ban, but this should lead more states to crack down on one if not all of the practices.
NTSB chairman (far more accounts say chairman rather than chairwoman) Deborah Hersman, while noting the move wouldn’t be popular, said, “We’re not here to win a popularity contest. No email, no text, no update, no call is worth a human life.”
Of course after all I’ve written on this topic, you shouldn’t be surprised I totally support the NTSB’s recommendation.
--Kobe Bryant’s wife filed for divorce! [Oops, sorry…just got the headline on one of my services.]
--Bob S. was first to tell me the joyous news that buried in the 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through September is a provision “which prevents the Obama administration from carrying through a 2007 law that would have set energy efficiency standards that effectively made the traditional light bulb obsolete.”
Yessss! The premiums’ on me this weekend, though I’m still going to keep filling a spare bath tub (behind a shower curtain, lest you get too concerned) with bulbs until I’m 100% sure this is going to be the case.
It turns out the House Republicans stuck to their guns and made it one of the last major sticking-points in the negotiations on the bill to fund the government.
I’m as giddy as a school boy…might even buy the biggest goose in the window at Barth’s butcher shop. Actually, I live on the third floor. Today, I’ll just call out to the young boy below taking his family’s trash out.
“Say, young lad. You know how to get to Barth’s?”
“I think. Is that the place with the huge goose in the window?”
“Here…here’s a gold dollar coin. If you bring the goose back, there’s more where that came from.”
“What do I say?”
“Tell ‘em to charge it to the Editor.”
“I’m not doing this for less than $50.”
Kids.
--Time magazine named “The Protester” “Person of the Year” for 2011. That’s so stupid. Everyone knows it should be “Mother Nature.”
[I’ll have my own pick on Dec. 31, as well as our proprietary “Dirtball of the Year.” Tons of candidates for the latter. Virtually zero for the former, given my strict guidelines.]
--A Pew Research Center analysis found that only 51% of all adults 18 and older are married. Back in 1960, the figure was 72%. So by 2111, it will be around 10%, which will really mess with the reality television programming schedule.
--Speaking of television, I watched Chelsea Clinton’s debut on NBC News, Monday night, and she was horrid.
Or, as the Sydney Morning Herald put it, “The reviews are scathing.”
“The Washington Post’s Hank Stuever said it was no surprise Clinton’s debut wasn’t a triumph of TV journalism, considering she has no experience in it.
“ ‘Rather, what was surprising to see on Monday night’s show is how someone can be on TV in such a prominent way and, in her big moment, display so very little charisma – none at all,’ he wrote.
“ ‘Either we’re spoiled by TV’s unlimited population of giant personalities or this woman is one of the most boring people of her era.’” Heh heh.
--Uh oh…remember that Russian Mars probe that never got into its proper orbit? It’s going to fall back to Earth next month. You may want to sleep with one eye open, just as we do each night at StocksandNews.
--Ah yes, Christmastime…childhood memories of licking the bowl containing the cookie dough from which Mom was making delicious sugar cookies.
But now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say eating raw cookie dough is outright dangerous. Raw, ready-to-bake cookie dough can contain pathogens like E. coli!
However, fear not, kids. If your mother has made the cookie dough from scratch, as mine had, eat the whole freakin’ bowl if you want…just be prepared to face Mom’s wrath. [And be near a bathroom.]
Cookie dough ice cream is safe, by the way.
--From Lebanon’s Daily Star:
“Riyadh: A Saudi woman was beheaded Monday after being convicted of practicing sorcery, which is banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the Interior Ministry said.”
Poor Saudi women…can’t drive, can’t be witches…
--Miriam Jordan of the Wall Street Journal (as I turn serious again):
“Arrests of people trying to sneak into the U.S. from Mexico have plunged to the lowest level in four decades, the latest sign that illegal immigration is on the retreat even as legislatures, Congress and presidential candidates hotly debate the issue.
“Behind the historic drop is a steep decline in the birthrate in Mexico and greater opportunities there relative to the weak U.S. economy*. Stepped-up U.S. patrols along the border make it both riskier and more expensive for Mexicans to attempt to enter the country.
“Government crackdowns on U.S. employers who hire illegal workers also have discouraged immigrants.”
*Thousands of illegal immigrants have lost their jobs in sectors such as construction and hospitality.
--Here in the New York area, it was sickening to see a NYPD officer, Peter Figoski, gunned down by a guy who should have been locked up weeks ago for shooting a man in Greensboro, N.C….only when the man was busted for drugs in New York on Nov. 3, the judge, Evelyn LaPorte, released him on his own recognizance, even after being shown the warrant from down south.
The problem was the warrant didn’t call for extradition, and despite it showing the shooter was armed and dangerous, the judge had her out. Five days later, North Carolina amended the warrant to allow for extradition from New York but by then the bastard “was in the wind,” as one officer put it. He struck about a month later.
[The Brooklyn DA’s office also deserves to be blasted because the prosecutor at the killer’s hearing on the drug charge only asked for $2,500 bail… “stunningly low,” as the New York Post editorialized.]
--We note the passing of commentator and author, Christopher Hitchens, who died way too early of esophageal cancer at the age of 62. He was as entertaining, infuriating, and thought-provoking as they come. As his Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter best summed up, Hitchens was “a man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar.”
--In a disturbing, highly detailed report by a reporter for McClatchy Newspapers who was embedded with recent Medal of Honor recipient, Marine Dakota Meyer, the reporter, and the paper, after examining voluminous military documents, shows the record of the action that earned Meyer the highest honor is deeply flawed.
“McClatchy found that the claim that Meyer saved the lives of 13 U.S. Marines and soldiers couldn’t be true. Twelve Americans were ambushed – including this correspondent – and of those, four were killed. (One wounded American would die a month later.) Moreover, multiple sworn statements affirm McClatchy’s firsthand reporting that it was the long-delayed arrival of U.S. helicopters that saved the American survivors.
“There are no statements attesting to Meyer killing eight Taliban as recounted on the Marine Corps website. The driver of Meyer’s vehicle, Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, reported seeing Meyer kill one insurgent.
“No sworn statements – including one Meyer gave to military investigators five days after the battle –refer to him leaping from the Humvee’s turret to rescue 24 wounded Afghan soldiers on his first two runs into the valley. Rodriguez-Chavez attested to nine Afghan soldiers getting into the Humvee by themselves while Meyer remained in the turret.”
To be clear, Dakota Meyer did indeed act heroically in the battle. At least seven witnesses attested to him performing heroic deeds “in the face of almost certain death.”
But the official record has clearly been embellished. Perhaps, greatly so. Why?
Ironically, for the reason I gave recently in this very space. The dearth of Medal of Honor recipients in the Afghan-Iraq wars vs. historical precedent, such as World War II and Vietnam.
Plus, the Marines felt like they were being dissed after serving in the toughest parts of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Personally, as a subscriber to Army Times, I have read a series of reports over the months concerning Army Capt. William Swenson, who some feel also deserved the Medal of Honor if Dakota Meyer was receiving it; Swenson having also served heroically on Sept. 8, 2009, in the Ganjgal Valley. I didn’t feel it was worth bringing up either in this space or another column I write wherein I recount tales of the wars. In hindsight that was a mistake on my part.
As McClatchy reports:
“A Medal of Honor nomination for Swenson, who’s since left the Army, was submitted in December 2009 – months before Meyer’s – but it remains under review after being lost for 19 months, according to the Army. The account of the battle in Swenson’s nomination is sharply at odds with the Marines’ account of Meyer’s deeds, McClatchy learned.”
Swenson declined to be interviewed. I’m disgusted by the ongoing lack of professionalism on the part of higher ups in the U.S. military, including the debacle at Arlington National Cemetery and the treatment of remains at Dover.
Let me repeat a theme of mine since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. My prayer at the end of this column is for the grunts, almost solely.
I’ve studied too much, including American history, to know that when it comes to the actual leadership, rare is the U.S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson, Mark Clark, Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, Norman Schwarzkopf and David Petraeus.
More often than not it’s George McClellan, Rick Sanchez and Tommy Franks.
Pray for the men and women of our armed forces….and all the fallen.
God bless America.
Gold closed at $1597…lowest level since July, still above 12/31’s $1421
Oil, $93.53
Returns for the week 12/12-12/16
Dow Jones -2.6% [11866]
S&P 500 -2.8% [1219]
S&P MidCap -3.4%
Russell 2000 -3.1%
Nasdaq -3.5% [2555]
Returns for the period 1/1/11-12/16/11
Dow Jones +2.5%
S&P 500 -3.0%
S&P MidCap -5.7%
Russell 2000 -3.7%
Nasdaq -7.9%
Bulls 45.3
Bears 30.5 [Source: Chartcraft / Investors Intelligence]
So the preceding is preamble for the fact that I recognize the following polls could be dated (albeit by just a few days), assuming the daily tracking data is correct and that Newt Gingrich has peaked. Again, this is a snapshot of a point in time, not necessarily six hours ago. You can imagine that I have the greatest polling info for the 2000, 2004 and 2008 races, which will all be part of the story I eventually write. Thanks for indulging me.
--American Research Council...Iowa
Gingrich 22 percent
Romney 17
Paul 17
Perry 13
--Public Policy Polling…Iowa
Gingrich 22
Paul 21
Romney 16
Bachmann 11
Perry 9
--NBC / Marist
South Carolina
Gingrich over Romney, 42-23
Florida
Gingrich over Romney, 41-28 [likely Republican primary voters in both states]
NBC / Wall Street Journal…Republican primary voters nationwide
Gingrich over Romney, 40-23
[Gingrich negatives very high, however]
Hypothetical matchups
Obama over Romney, 47-45
Obama over Gingrich, 51-40
Obama’s approval rating in NBC/WSJ survey is at 46%, up 2 points.
--Regarding Thursday’s debate in Sioux City, Iowa, John Podhoretz / New York Post:
“As for Romney, who was terrible in Saturday’s debate in Iowa, he found something new last night that might carry him all the way to the nomination: A tone of humility.
“He found a strong way to address the idea that his actions as a private-equity manager of businesses cost jobs by explaining that capitalism involves failures and successes. He knew both and had learned from both….
“The most amazing performance last night, however, was by Michele Bachmann, who showed herself (as she did in the early going) to be a remarkably substantive and tough-minded debater who is able to engage with what is going on in front of her and go on the attack when her rivals say things spontaneously that she wishes to take issue with.”
--I’m anxious to get to New Hampshire after New Year’s and track down Ron Paul for one of his appearances. Will he run as a third party, which everyone knows would throw the election to Barack Obama?
A new USA TODAY/Gallup Swing States Poll finds 54% of Americans nationwide and 52% in the nation’s top battlegrounds agree that the two major parties “do such a poor job that a third major party is needed.”
“In the dozen most competitive states, the political group most likely to back the idea of a third party are moderate and liberal Republicans – perhaps because they feel disenfranchised by the clout of a conservative Tea Party movement. Nearly two-thirds back the idea of a third party. Moderates and liberals make up nearly four in 10 Republicans.
“Among Democrats, too, moderates and conservatives seem somewhat disaffected from the liberal activists who often define their party. Just over a third of moderate/conservative Democrats and moderate/liberal Republicans say they’re enthusiastic about voting for president in 2012, among the lowest of any groups.”
George Will had the following on a potential Paul third party bid in his Washington Post column:
“It would enable Obama to carry two states he lost in 2008: Missouri (10 electoral votes), which he lost by 0.13 points, and Arizona (11), which he lost by 8.52 points to native son John McCain. It would enable Obama to again win four states he captured in 2008 and that the Republican nominee probably must win in 2012: Florida (29), Indiana (11), North Carolina (15) and Virginia (13).
“It would secure Obama’s hold on the following states he won in 2008 but that Republicans hope to take back next year: New Mexico (5), Colorado (9), Nevada (6), Michigan (16), Ohio (18), Pennsylvania (20) and New Hampshire (4).
“At a minimum, a Paul candidacy would force the Republican nominee to spend time and money in places he otherwise might be able to economize both. And a Paul candidacy would make 2012 much easier for Obama than 2008 was.”
Even without a Paul third party bid, I have little confidence the Republican nominee will defeat the president, as of today, I hasten to add. Everyone keeps pointing to his approval numbers being below the key 50 mark, but it wouldn’t take much to get them back above that level, like a gradually improving unemployment rate.
Wait for my yearend review and 2012 outlook, however.
--Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman told U.S. News’ Paul Bedard it might take a “catastrophe” to change Washington, and that in the meantime, a third party is probably appropriate, reasoning that voters might just give up on the Democrats and Republicans if the gridlock continues.
“If Walmart spent its entire advertising budget attacking Target, and Target spent its entire budget attacking Walmart,” Lieberman argues, “the net effect would be that a lot of people who are shopping at both stores now would shop somewhere else.”
--After watching a bunch of debates, you know who I really don’t like? Jon Huntsman. He couldn’t come off more poorly, or as Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post puts it, haughty.
--No doubt, I don’t agree with Ron Paul’s foreign policy, but when he talks about bringing all the troops home, he’s right in one regard. What the heck do we have 52,000 of our men and women in Germany for? Keep Ramstein Air Base for tactical reasons and 10,000 troops and airmen, but that’s it. Get the Europeans to start paying for their own defense, though, yes, in this time of austerity that is the furthest thing from EU governments’ minds. Well that’s their problem.
--Kathleen Parker / Washington Post
“You don’t get more un-Romney than Gingrich. Imperfect and untidy, he’s the serial husband with whom anyone could feel comfortable sharing a beer. Or a keg. A sinner like the rest of us, he’s as familiar and comfortable as an old sofa.
“But no one other than Callista Gingrich thinks her husband can prevail in a general election. No. One. The consensus on Gingrich is so overwhelming that conventional wisdom has taken a holiday. That is, no one in Washington thinks he can win, and Washington is where Gingrich is known best. Instead of rallying to support him, former colleagues are going out of their way to politely say, ‘He can’t lead.’”
--Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal
“I had a friend once who amused herself thinking up bumper stickers for states. The one she made up for California was brilliant. ‘California: It’s All True.’ It is so vast and sprawling a place, so rich and various, that whatever you’ve heard about its wildness, weirdness and wonders, it’s true.
“That’s the problem with Newt Gingrich: It’s all true. It’s part of the reason so many of those who know him are anxious about the thought of his becoming president. It’s also why people are looking at him, thinking about him, considering him as president.
“Ethically dubious? True. Intelligent and accomplished? True. Has he known breathtaking success and contributed to real reforms in government? Yes. Presided over disasters? Absolutely. Can he lead? Yes. Is he erratic and unreliable as a leader? Yes. Egomaniacal? True. Original and focused, harebrained and impulsive – all true….
“What is striking is the extraordinary divide in opinion between those who know Gingrich and those who don’t. Those who do are mostly not for him, and they were burning up the phone lines this week in Washington.
“Those who’ve known and worked with Mitt Romney mostly seem to support him, but when they don’t they don’t say the reason is that his character and emotional soundness are off. Those who know Ron Paul and oppose him do so on the basis of his stands, they don’t say his temperament forecloses the possibility of his presidency. But that’s pretty much what a lot of those who’ve worked with Newt say.”
--Poor Rick Perry. In Iowa last weekend, he thought there were 8 U.S. Supreme Court justices, not 9, and then he fumbled for the name of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, eventually calling her “Montemayor,” which sounds better, but isn’t exactly what the questioner was looking for. [A Des Moines Register editorial board member eventually helped Perry out. I concede I might have come up with former pitcher, John “The Count” Montefusco.]
--Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post
“In (Osawatomie,) Kansas, Obama lamented that millions ‘are now forced to take their children to food banks.’ You have to admire the audacity. That’s the kind of damning observation the opposition brings up when you’ve been in office three years. Yet Obama summoned it to make the case for his re-election!
“Why? Because, you see, he bears no responsibility for the current economic distress. It’s the rich. And, like Horatius at the bridge, Obama stands with the American masses against the soulless plutocrats.
“This is populism so crude that it channels not Teddy Roosevelt so much as Hugo Chavez. But with high unemployment, economic stagnation and unprecedented deficits, what else can Obama say?
“He can’t run on stewardship. He can’t run on policy. His signature initiatives – the stimulus, Obamacare and the failed cap-and-trade – will go unmentioned in his campaign ads. Indeed, they will be the stuff of Republican ads.
“What’s left? Class resentment. Got a better idea?”
--The National Transportation Safety Board unanimously recommended that all texting, emailing or chatting on a cellphone while driving be banned. The NTSB cannot itself issue such a ban, but this should lead more states to crack down on one if not all of the practices.
NTSB chairman (far more accounts say chairman rather than chairwoman) Deborah Hersman, while noting the move wouldn’t be popular, said, “We’re not here to win a popularity contest. No email, no text, no update, no call is worth a human life.”
Of course after all I’ve written on this topic, you shouldn’t be surprised I totally support the NTSB’s recommendation.
--Kobe Bryant’s wife filed for divorce! [Oops, sorry…just got the headline on one of my services.]
--Bob S. was first to tell me the joyous news that buried in the 1,200-page spending bill that funds the government through September is a provision “which prevents the Obama administration from carrying through a 2007 law that would have set energy efficiency standards that effectively made the traditional light bulb obsolete.”
Yessss! The premiums’ on me this weekend, though I’m still going to keep filling a spare bath tub (behind a shower curtain, lest you get too concerned) with bulbs until I’m 100% sure this is going to be the case.
It turns out the House Republicans stuck to their guns and made it one of the last major sticking-points in the negotiations on the bill to fund the government.
I’m as giddy as a school boy…might even buy the biggest goose in the window at Barth’s butcher shop. Actually, I live on the third floor. Today, I’ll just call out to the young boy below taking his family’s trash out.
“Say, young lad. You know how to get to Barth’s?”
“I think. Is that the place with the huge goose in the window?”
“Here…here’s a gold dollar coin. If you bring the goose back, there’s more where that came from.”
“What do I say?”
“Tell ‘em to charge it to the Editor.”
“I’m not doing this for less than $50.”
Kids.
--Time magazine named “The Protester” “Person of the Year” for 2011. That’s so stupid. Everyone knows it should be “Mother Nature.”
[I’ll have my own pick on Dec. 31, as well as our proprietary “Dirtball of the Year.” Tons of candidates for the latter. Virtually zero for the former, given my strict guidelines.]
--A Pew Research Center analysis found that only 51% of all adults 18 and older are married. Back in 1960, the figure was 72%. So by 2111, it will be around 10%, which will really mess with the reality television programming schedule.
--Speaking of television, I watched Chelsea Clinton’s debut on NBC News, Monday night, and she was horrid.
Or, as the Sydney Morning Herald put it, “The reviews are scathing.”
“The Washington Post’s Hank Stuever said it was no surprise Clinton’s debut wasn’t a triumph of TV journalism, considering she has no experience in it.
“ ‘Rather, what was surprising to see on Monday night’s show is how someone can be on TV in such a prominent way and, in her big moment, display so very little charisma – none at all,’ he wrote.
“ ‘Either we’re spoiled by TV’s unlimited population of giant personalities or this woman is one of the most boring people of her era.’” Heh heh.
--Uh oh…remember that Russian Mars probe that never got into its proper orbit? It’s going to fall back to Earth next month. You may want to sleep with one eye open, just as we do each night at StocksandNews.
--Ah yes, Christmastime…childhood memories of licking the bowl containing the cookie dough from which Mom was making delicious sugar cookies.
But now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say eating raw cookie dough is outright dangerous. Raw, ready-to-bake cookie dough can contain pathogens like E. coli!
However, fear not, kids. If your mother has made the cookie dough from scratch, as mine had, eat the whole freakin’ bowl if you want…just be prepared to face Mom’s wrath. [And be near a bathroom.]
Cookie dough ice cream is safe, by the way.
--From Lebanon’s Daily Star:
“Riyadh: A Saudi woman was beheaded Monday after being convicted of practicing sorcery, which is banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the Interior Ministry said.”
Poor Saudi women…can’t drive, can’t be witches…
--Miriam Jordan of the Wall Street Journal (as I turn serious again):
“Arrests of people trying to sneak into the U.S. from Mexico have plunged to the lowest level in four decades, the latest sign that illegal immigration is on the retreat even as legislatures, Congress and presidential candidates hotly debate the issue.
“Behind the historic drop is a steep decline in the birthrate in Mexico and greater opportunities there relative to the weak U.S. economy*. Stepped-up U.S. patrols along the border make it both riskier and more expensive for Mexicans to attempt to enter the country.
“Government crackdowns on U.S. employers who hire illegal workers also have discouraged immigrants.”
*Thousands of illegal immigrants have lost their jobs in sectors such as construction and hospitality.
--Here in the New York area, it was sickening to see a NYPD officer, Peter Figoski, gunned down by a guy who should have been locked up weeks ago for shooting a man in Greensboro, N.C….only when the man was busted for drugs in New York on Nov. 3, the judge, Evelyn LaPorte, released him on his own recognizance, even after being shown the warrant from down south.
The problem was the warrant didn’t call for extradition, and despite it showing the shooter was armed and dangerous, the judge had her out. Five days later, North Carolina amended the warrant to allow for extradition from New York but by then the bastard “was in the wind,” as one officer put it. He struck about a month later.
[The Brooklyn DA’s office also deserves to be blasted because the prosecutor at the killer’s hearing on the drug charge only asked for $2,500 bail… “stunningly low,” as the New York Post editorialized.]
--We note the passing of commentator and author, Christopher Hitchens, who died way too early of esophageal cancer at the age of 62. He was as entertaining, infuriating, and thought-provoking as they come. As his Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter best summed up, Hitchens was “a man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar.”
--In a disturbing, highly detailed report by a reporter for McClatchy Newspapers who was embedded with recent Medal of Honor recipient, Marine Dakota Meyer, the reporter, and the paper, after examining voluminous military documents, shows the record of the action that earned Meyer the highest honor is deeply flawed.
“McClatchy found that the claim that Meyer saved the lives of 13 U.S. Marines and soldiers couldn’t be true. Twelve Americans were ambushed – including this correspondent – and of those, four were killed. (One wounded American would die a month later.) Moreover, multiple sworn statements affirm McClatchy’s firsthand reporting that it was the long-delayed arrival of U.S. helicopters that saved the American survivors.
“There are no statements attesting to Meyer killing eight Taliban as recounted on the Marine Corps website. The driver of Meyer’s vehicle, Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, reported seeing Meyer kill one insurgent.
“No sworn statements – including one Meyer gave to military investigators five days after the battle –refer to him leaping from the Humvee’s turret to rescue 24 wounded Afghan soldiers on his first two runs into the valley. Rodriguez-Chavez attested to nine Afghan soldiers getting into the Humvee by themselves while Meyer remained in the turret.”
To be clear, Dakota Meyer did indeed act heroically in the battle. At least seven witnesses attested to him performing heroic deeds “in the face of almost certain death.”
But the official record has clearly been embellished. Perhaps, greatly so. Why?
Ironically, for the reason I gave recently in this very space. The dearth of Medal of Honor recipients in the Afghan-Iraq wars vs. historical precedent, such as World War II and Vietnam.
Plus, the Marines felt like they were being dissed after serving in the toughest parts of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Personally, as a subscriber to Army Times, I have read a series of reports over the months concerning Army Capt. William Swenson, who some feel also deserved the Medal of Honor if Dakota Meyer was receiving it; Swenson having also served heroically on Sept. 8, 2009, in the Ganjgal Valley. I didn’t feel it was worth bringing up either in this space or another column I write wherein I recount tales of the wars. In hindsight that was a mistake on my part.
As McClatchy reports:
“A Medal of Honor nomination for Swenson, who’s since left the Army, was submitted in December 2009 – months before Meyer’s – but it remains under review after being lost for 19 months, according to the Army. The account of the battle in Swenson’s nomination is sharply at odds with the Marines’ account of Meyer’s deeds, McClatchy learned.”
Swenson declined to be interviewed. I’m disgusted by the ongoing lack of professionalism on the part of higher ups in the U.S. military, including the debacle at Arlington National Cemetery and the treatment of remains at Dover.
Let me repeat a theme of mine since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. My prayer at the end of this column is for the grunts, almost solely.
I’ve studied too much, including American history, to know that when it comes to the actual leadership, rare is the U.S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson, Mark Clark, Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, Norman Schwarzkopf and David Petraeus.
More often than not it’s George McClellan, Rick Sanchez and Tommy Franks.
Pray for the men and women of our armed forces….and all the fallen.
God bless America.
Gold closed at $1597…lowest level since July, still above 12/31’s $1421
Oil, $93.53
Returns for the week 12/12-12/16
Dow Jones -2.6% [11866]
S&P 500 -2.8% [1219]
S&P MidCap -3.4%
Russell 2000 -3.1%
Nasdaq -3.5% [2555]
Returns for the period 1/1/11-12/16/11
Dow Jones +2.5%
S&P 500 -3.0%
S&P MidCap -5.7%
Russell 2000 -3.7%
Nasdaq -7.9%
Bulls 45.3
Bears 30.5 [Source: Chartcraft / Investors Intelligence]