Back to the Moon in Goldman Sachs Super Bubble Machine… What a time to Leave US Walter!
Looks like the world has gone completely nuts… If ANYONE has watched Hank Paulson testify before congress you have to have come away with picking your jaw off the ground. The audacity and the duplicity are a wonder to behold… Even more remarkable is the fact that this was the largest bank heist in the history of the universe and it appears that his crew have successfully pulled it off because there is no one to stop them… Why would anyone believe them in the first place… Suppose we had no one to trust… Walter was old and now he’s gone. But its just as incredible to believe eveyone got suckered by these guys. Came across this clip on Bill Moyer’s Journal “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.”
Bail-out is the biggest bank heist ever | Opinion | The First Post
By Philip Delves Broughton
FIRST POSTED NOVEMBER 6, 2008With every passing day of economic woe, the scale of the heist just perpetrated against America’s taxpayers by the country’s largest banks becomes more apparent.
In the shadow of the presidential election, the nine biggest banks were given $125bn of taxpayer money with the understanding they would send this fresh capital coursing into the economy in the form of loans. It was a plan inspired by Gordon Brown’s decision to recapitalise Britain’s main banks.
Unfortunately, the US government forgot to get the lending requirement in writing. Instead, the banks are sitting on the money, earning interest and mulling mergers and acquisitions and replenishing bonus pools for their employees.
A stinging letter from Leo Gerard, the president of the United Steelworkers and a bullhorn from traditional American industry, to Hank Paulson, the Goldman Sachs banker-turned-Treasury Secretary, is now in wide circulation and its contents should have Wall Street barricading its doors.
Hank Paulson spent $10bn on a stake in Goldman Sachs worth only $5bnGerard makes several devastating points. The first is that the Treasury grossly overpaid for the stakes it has taken in these nine major banks. Twenty days before Paulson invested $10bn in Goldman Sachs, the investor Warren Buffett invested $5bn for a stake of equal value. Thus Paulson paid twice as much as he should have to his old employer.
This pattern, Gerard argues, was repeated across the board. Again and again the Treasury paid double what it should have, giving away half of its investment as a gift to shareholders. “This is no different than if you paid me $10,000 for a car for which no one else would pay more than $5,000,” Gerard wrote. “If this deal is the model for how you intend to spend the whole $700bn that you got from Congress, then it would appear that you intend to reward the institutions that have driven our nation, and now it appears the whole world, into its most serious economic crisis in 75 years, with a gift of $350bn from the American taxpayers, who have watched 760,000 of their jobs disappear over just the past nine months.”
The word is spreading, and Paulson did not help himself with beads of sweat on his forehead one is transported back to a much more innocent time but then Nixon just bugged the Democratic Headquarters… Not like he walked away with Fort Knox. These guys wired tapped every phone on the planet and walked away with a booty tens times that of the Federal Gold Repository. Interesting piece in the Rolling Stone on just how they did it!
The Great American Bubble Machine | Corrente
* goldman sachs
From Matt Taibbi’s “The Great American Bubble Machine” in Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83.
Fri, 06/26/2009 – 10:53pm — lambert[Goldman Sachs fans might also like today's post on how 32 megs of Goldman Sachs proprietary trade code got uploaded to a German server. Researchers should also note the links at the bottom of this post, which lead to a table of contents that organizes all our contemporaneous posts on The Big FAIL (the current financial crisis) as it unfolded, going back to pre-TARP days. Note also the Goldman Sachs tag above. --lambert]
Here’s the Matt Taibbi’s article on how Goldman-Sachs helped bring about and profit from our current financial crisis, “The Big FAIL”, found at Something Awful (via LOLfed). Despite the weapons-grade snark in the first paragraph, which I underlined, it’s a Big Picture post, very analytical, and has a hypothesis of what is to come that we can test for. So I recommend you read the whole thing, even though it is quite long.
Inside The Great American Bubble Machine : Rolling Stone
In Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83, Matt Taibbi takes on “the Wall Street Bubble Mafia” — investment bank Goldman Sachs (click here to read the whole story). The piece has generated controversy, with Goldman Sachs firing back that Taibbi’s piece is “an hysterical compilation of conspiracy theories” and a spokesman adding, “We reject the assertion that we are inflators of bubbles and profiteers in busts, and we are painfully conscious of the importance in being a force for good.” Taibbi shot back: “Goldman has its alumni pushing its views from the pulpit of the U.S. Treasury, the NYSE, the World Bank, and numerous other important posts; it also has former players fronting major TV shows. They have the ear of the president if they want it.” Here, now, are excerpts from Matt Taibbi’s piece and video of Taibbi exploring the key issues.
Matt Taibbi On Goldman Sachs’ Big Scam
From Matt Taibbi’s “The Great American Bubble Machine” in Rolling Stone Issue 1082-83.
The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.
Any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain — an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.
As we stand upon the 40th anniversary of what is perhaps mankind’s greatest adventure its good and fitting to remember Walter Cronkite was there then and that’s the way it was. God speed! Looking back its hard to believe we came this far to fall in a black hole as deep as the moon courtesy of the supercollider Goldman Sachs Super Bubble Machine. Smells like burnt toast.
Let’s just try speaking a little truth to power… Not in this for what they say or think, really could care less. But its just crazy, the world stops for MJ… In California they pull 3000 police officers to duty so they can do crowd control for 600 people (why didn’t they just deputize the crowd??? Would have saved themselves a ton of money). In the meantime, of MJ’s 500 million half goes to pay off debts, and the rest is split between his mother, kids, and charity… While in court Hank Greenburg former CEO over at AIG walks away with a cool 4.5 billion… (that 4,500 million or about 8 times the ENTIRE Michael Jackson estate ) Sooooo lets just all double down on stupid…. Cause that’s just the way we roll now days. I’m sure now we are not about the money but having Smoky Robertson and Mariah Carey on the same stage live, its not going to hurt your rating card and besides you have the media trumping its own horn… Brooke Shields and the Queen Latifah giving their own emotional send off.
Michael Jackson’s Memorial: Hollywood’s A-List Celebs Brooke Shields, Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer, Al Sharpton – ABC News
At his public memorial service today in Los Angeles, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson finally got his wish: to be treated like royalty.
Pop star sings the Jackson 5’s 1970s hit.Celebrities from around the world descended on Los Angeles’ Staples Center to pay tribute to Jackson. Kobe Bryant, Wesley Snipes, Spike Lee and Smokey Robinson were among the first stars to arrive. Robinson started off the ceremony by reading condolences from friends including former South African president Nelson Mandela, Kobe Bryant, Wesley Snipes, Spike Lee and Smokey Robinson and soul legend Diana Ross.
Seriously if the people in control over at AIG wanted to save the company, it might make sense to put the man who built the company (Hank Greenburg) back at the helm (Worked with Steve Jobs Apple doing better than ever)… Instead they had rather sue Hank and gives themselves another hundred million dollars in bonuses, (talk about your rocket scientist)… So let’s see what these geniuses have done (besides buying off congress and sticking to Joe taxpayer) Maybe losing a multi-billion lawsuit and trying to sue their former founder or maybe just driving the company a hundred billion dollars into debt, or perhaps the idea of selling some of the most prime prized real estate in the world at near or at record low levels (Wonder how these guys do it!) … Wow we really need to hang on to talent like that. But seriously they are not in it to save the company, why? Of course they are too big to fail… Only people who gets screwed in this deal is the American TAXPAYER. So why not give them those big bonus checks… Let’s all just double down on stupid, makes perfect sense in this Wacko Jacko world in which everything is upside down and backwards so it must be right. Michael was not really nuts just the perfect reflection of “We are the World” weird as ever.
Still there is no accounting for any of how these billions of dollars in monies are spent. There is an extremely difficult effort in the works to make some of this information available to the general public at large on how public officials soak the public coffers.
Sunshine for Senate | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-Journal | Spartanburg SC
If you want to see how our congressional representatives and senators are handling their budgets for staff salaries, travel and office expenses, you can. It’s public knowledge. All you have to do is travel to Washington, D.C., go to a Capitol office building and peruse one of the printed volumes of expenses, or order one of the tomes for yourself.
The information is public, it’s just not accessible, and for most of us that means it’s not truly available at all.
That’s wrong and, hopefully, changing.
Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the House’s chief administrative officer to post House members’ expense reports online as soon as possible. The information is currently expected to be released on the Internet no later than Aug. 31.
Now, the Senate is also planning to begin posting the information online. The change is being pushed by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who said taxpayers should be able to see how lawmakers allocate their budgets, and hold their feet to the fire when appropriate.
Still this is just a small step in addition to what is truly needed is an overhaul of the entire mess… The Psychic News cam across this letter from, perhaps, one of the most important congressional districts in the country. Florida’s 18th Congressional District is not only important because of its wealth but its poised upon the critical issues of our time, climate change, our national parks (our national treasures) and the health care future of the large immigration population areas of our nation … When Rep.Ileana Ros-Lehtinen writes a letter you better believe I listen and think you should too
With Power Comes Responsibility, Why We Must Audit the Fed
Dear Friends:
I have joined a majority of the House, 245 of 435 members in co-sponsoring the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. It directs the independent Comptroller General to complete, before the end of 2010, an audit of the Federal Reserve System and of the federal reserve banks, followed by a detailed report to Congress.
Over the last year, the Federal Reserve has taken on the major role in dealing with our nation’s unusual and overwhelming financial squeeze. For the first time in over 50 years, the Federal Reserve expanded its lending to non-bank financial firms. As a result of the Fed’s new lending its balance sheet increased significantly, from $874 billion on August 1, 2007, a date shortly before the financial system first experienced turmoil, to $2.312 billion at its peak on December 17, 2008, an increase of 165%.
Among this new lending was the Fed’s $29 billion loan to have JP Morgan buy the assets of Bear Stearns, a $120 billion bailout of the American Insurance Group, a guarantee of $306 billion in assets of Citigroup, and a similar guarantee on $118 billion in Bank of America assets. In all of these agreements, the Fed and the American taxpayer has been exposed to a greatly increased financial risk if the assets purchased or guaranteed fall in value.
This incredible $1.5 trillion increase in lending by the Federal Reserve is backed by you the American taxpayer. This huge amount of spending gives the Fed, an unelected appointed institution, a tremendous amount of power to influence your family, job and financial security far beyond what most had ever thought possible. With this power must come more responsibility, accountability and transparency by the Fed to you and the other taxpayers.
If the Fed is going to print over one trillion dollars that the US taxpayer can’t afford, I think we have a right to know exactly who they are giving this money to and how much. It’s time for the Fed to open up its books to an independent audit conducted by Congress’s budget watchdog, the Comptroller General.
Sincerely,
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Member of Congress
Amen Give them hell Ileana or at least let them know what to expect when they get there! Still what lies ahead is not easy… We have a long road to recovery but we can make it if we try. Came across this clip the other day, it captures something of the human spirit that is incredibly powerful…
In a bit of a side note in memory of a local hero
Articles
Lymphoma claims giant in Spartanburg cycling
Founder of Assault on Mt. Mitchell stayed humble, helped others reach goals
John Bryan brought thousands of people to Spartanburg by organizing and promoting the Assault on Mt. Mitchell.By Dudley Brown
dudley.brown@shj.comThe patriarch of Spartanburg’s cycling community has died.
More Photos:* Bike pioneer John Bryan
John Bryan, founder of the annual Assault on Mt. Mitchell, died Saturday after a seven year bout with lymphoma. He was 74.
“He was a gentle man and cared about all cyclists and all aspects of cycling,” said Marly Divver, a cyclist and friend of Bryan’s family.
Thousands of people have come to Spartanburg over the past 30 years to ride what cycling magazines consider one of the 10 toughest rides in the United States. People from the Philippines, Great Britain and locations around the globe have ridden 102 miles en route to, at 6,684 feet, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River.
I’m sure the Governor does not need Doctor Buzzard’s or anyone else’s help on this but know South Carolina politics can be exceptionally vicious… Christian Sunday morning during the day and a bloody blind knife fight in the dark of night… Hillbilly bumpkins maybe but will as soon pike a head as not. Ben Laden’s cut throats have nothing on these buba rattlers. It all just so hypocritical.
Woman Linked to Sanford Comments on E-Mail – NYTimes.com
BUENOS AIRES — Maria Belen Chapur, the Argentine woman linked to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, said Sunday that she had a “firm suspicion” who hacked into an e-mail account of hers that discussed her intimate relationship with the governor, but she declined to name the person, according to a statement read on the Argentine television station CN5.
Still all this in the media seems to be a bit over blown… But when then President Clinton had his troubles, figured a lot of this would come back to bite a few on the assets. Its not like someone just invented sex… Its been around for a while. Just now its more open and in a Facebook near you. Perhaps, if the Governor had found a new religion in some same sex shevestite bizarro world the media would just say it was part of some very slick political calculus and the story would have never seen the light of day. This is a Woman! OMG, how sick is that??? Very attractive, not exactly a pigeon toed Disestablishmentarian… But has anyone asked? Of course not its all about trash and the Governor at this point the paparazzi is stretched thin with Micheal Jackson, Ed MCMahon, Fararah Fawcett, and now pitchman Billy Mays all going the way of General Motors. Hard to get at the real story but some kind of Paradigm Shift is taking place… All of a sudden the world has changed. Hopefully for the better. Still this story is going to have legs because there is much more behind the scenes. Some have a spiritual take on this entire business…
AP Exclusive: Spiritual adviser says womanizing ‘not in Sanford’s DNA’; affair 1-time deal – Los Angeles TimesCOLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Each Sunday afternoon in May, Gov. Mark Sanford and his wife hosted five other couples at the executive mansion for a spiritual “boot camp.” Topics discussed during the hour-and-a-half-long sessions included forgiveness and “not loving your wife as Christ loved the church.”
Group leader Warren “Cubby” Culbertson did not tell the other four couples what he and his wife, Susan, had known for months: The governor was having an affair with a woman in Argentina
But looks like this maybe the real reason behind Gov. Sanford’s trip to Argentia
Argentina’s Economic Collapse
You Tube
Thursday, April 9, 2009Documentary on the events that led to the economic collapse of Argentina in 2001 which wiped out the middle class and raised the level of poverty to 57.5%. Central to the collapse was the implementation of neo-liberal policies which enabled the swindle of billions of dollars by foreign banks and corporations. Many of Argentina’s assets and resources were shamefully plundered. Its financial system was even used for money laundering by Citibank, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan. The net result was massive wealth transfers and the impoverishment of society which culminated in many deaths due to oppression and malnutrition. Official name: Memoria del Saqueo by Fernando Solanas 2003.
Might just turn out that Governor Sanford is more hero than media hype scumbag type
Watching Phil Mickelson play the US Open at Bethpage Black and see that sea of pink on Fathers Day, all reminded of mother, wife, sister, friend and women that we adore more than anything in life… An so upon this Solstice of Summer and Father’s Day, it is good and fitting that we dedicated our day, everyday, to the cause and cure for the women in our life… Redouble our efforts and do everything humanly possible to protect them and help claim victory over this terrible disease. To this end the Southeastern Writers Association joins with the Royal Opera House and the US Open to find a cure.
Annual writers conference presented by Southeastern Writers Association
Annual writers conference presented by Southeastern Writers Association
SWA sponsors a week-long writers conference in June every year on St. Simons Island. Workshop leaders are second to none.
Writers Workshop |Southeastern Writers Association34th Annual Writers Workshop
“Writers Helping Writers”Online Registration Here ~ Mail-in Registration Here
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o I’m a novelist with a little help from my friends
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BannerOpera buffs: The classical performers stripping naked to be calendar girls | Mail Online
We’re more used to the idea of getting dressed up to go to the opera – so it comes as quite a surprise to see the stage at the distinguished Royal Opera House populated by men and women in the buff.
Male and female artists as well as backstage staff at the opera house have stripped naked to pose for a calendar to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
The calendar gives its stars the opportunity to “lay bare more than their artistic soul”, say the Royal Opera House, adding that while it retains the Opera House’s elegant style, there’s more than a “hint of cheek”
For Phil Mickelson’s Amy and all the Armies of Amy’s that are out there and those yet to be… Join together in a single fight.
Emotional About Wife’s Illness, Mickelson Rejoins Tour – NYTimes.com
“I’m not playing just to play,” Mickelson said, whose white cap featured a patch in the shape of a pink ribbon, the symbol of breast cancer awareness. “Bethpage is a golf course that suits my game. I love that course. Obviously, I’m playing because I believe I can win. That’s the goal.”
Update… Local legend of Hampton High makes good… Just something in the air but at least if Phil Mickelson can’t win its nice to see a favorite son have his dream come true
Player Bio: Lucas Glover – CLEMSON OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE
In High School: Three-time Rolex High School All-American, one of the few high school players in the 1990s to do that…won the South Carolina State High School championship as a freshman and sophomore, he finished second as a junior and senior…played in the Cannon Cup for two seasons…earned spot in the final 16 of the United States Junior tournament…all-state all four years of high school…won the South Carolina Golf Association Junior tournament in 1996…Personal: born November 12, 1979…played at Wade Hampton High School in Greenville, SC…grandson of former Clemson football and baseball star Dick Hendley, who is a member of the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame. …majoring in speech communication.
Lucas Glover came through as others came up short – Los Angeles Times
By Mike James
8:20 PM PDT, June 22, 2009
How it all came together . . . and apartA look at how Lucas Glover held on to win the U.S. Open on Monday . . . and what Phil Mickelson, David Duval and Ricky Barnes did to finish in a three-way tie for second, two shots behind the champion.
An interesting experiment is under way in what the CIA used to call remote viewing and tho there was an abundance of supporting evidence and remote viewer agents employed on numerous occasions, the results were deemed inconclusive because they were difficult to replicate and verify. The thing that may get in the way of any of this actually resolving itself in a satisfactory manner is the nature of time itself and that interesting paradox of parallel universe… The act of viewing an experiment actually changing the experiment as Quantum psychics might see it…
Psychic Experiment to Be Conducted Using Twitter – Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News – FOXNews.com
The test, conducted by university professor Richard Wiseman, requires Tweeters to correctly guess a location from five photographs.
Prof. Wiseman said: “The instant nature of Tweets allows thousands of people to take part in real time, making it perfect for an extra-sensory perception experiment. If the effect does exist then having so many people participate will help detect it.”
The University of Hertfordshire lecturer will travel to a mystery U.K. site, where he will send a tweet asking users to reply with their impressions of his chosen spot.
They will then receive a Web site link via Twitter where they can vote on a set of five photos, one of the actual location and four decoys.
The telepathic test, being conducted with New Scientist magazine, begins on Tuesday and will be repeated at a different location each day until Friday.Twitter Users Join Psychic Study By Hertfordshire University Professor Richard Wiseman | Technology | Sky News
The test, conducted by university professor Richard Wiseman, requires Tweeters to correctly guess a location from five photographs.
Prof. Wiseman said: “The instant nature of Tweets allows thousands of people to take part in real time, making it perfect for an extra-sensory perception experiment. If the effect does exist then having so many people participate will help detect it.”
The University of Hertfordshire lecturer will travel to a mystery U.K. site, where he will send a tweet asking users to reply with their impressions of his chosen spot.
They will then receive a Web site link via Twitter where they can vote on a set of five photos, one of the actual location and four decoys.
The telepathic test, being conducted with New Scientist magazine, begins on Tuesday and will be repeated at a different location each day until Friday.
One thing for certain the one that sets Psychic News to twitter is the lovely Georgia Anderson. All were lovely and two (honourable mentions) “Tinea Smith” and “Esti Ginzburg” (rounded up because of her late entry) had virtually the same numbers but what set them apart was the complete body of work, a book, a very diligent daily blog, as well as some very insightful predictions that appear spot on and ahead of the curve… And what beautiful curves indeed. Perhaps not a Queen of Wands, Georgia Anderson certainly sets the heart of Psychic News a titillating… She is the selection seduction supreme for the Psychic Princess of the month May-June 2009.
Psychic News Princess
Its rather amazing that the Atlantis has just completed one of the most complicated and physically gruelling missions in the entire history of manned space flight and do not even get mentioned on the national broadcast of the CBS evening news with Katie and company. Back in the day with Walter Cronkite, the broadcast would have followed their every move. Its just another sign of the times as we enter upon the backslide of everyone”s 401K…
Suppose we have evolved from mission control into remote-controlled world of cyber thrills at the speed of light. With the release of the Sport’s Illustrated swimsuit edition and the fire-storm created first by the Women of Wall Street and now they’ve added some fresh fuel with the entry of the opera world Julliard’s mezzo-soprano America Olivo
Julliard's mezzo-soprano
Celebrity Mound » Archive » Playboy’s June cover girl is actress America Olivo – next up in Transformers 2 and Bitch Slap
She can do a job on a popsicle, but when it comes to acting, America [Olivo doesn’t suck. With four movies coming out in 2009, including the much hyped Bitch Slap, the sexy singer and actress was photographed for the cover of Playboy’s June issue by famed celebrity photographer Terry Richardson, and appears in a 6-page nude pictorial inside (issue on newsstands and online at www.playboydigital.com Friday, May 15). The photos are Richardson’s first for the magazine.
Olivo, last seen in the recent Friday the 13th remake, stars as a drug-running, street-fighting lesbian in the upcoming movie Bitch Slap, which boasts the longest girl fight in cinema history. While filming, Olivo teases that she had to do “blatant lesbian scenes on a trapeze, in which I’m making out, kissing this girl between the legs and riding her so intensely I was more sore than a mofo.”
Before her Bitch Slap days, the 31-year-old earned her degree as a mezzo-soprano at Juilliard. “‘Every time I sang about love,’ she giggles, ‘my 97-year-old mentor would say, ‘You can’t really sing a song like this until you’ve lost your virginity, and I can tell you haven’t!’” Her solution? “I lost my virginity in Rome in a park with a view of the Vatican—literally.”
Water and fire is sure to produce a lot of steam!
SI’s 2009 Swimsuit Issue Drops Today at 850 & 620 THE BLOG
Sports Illustrated dropped their 2009 Swimsuit Issue today, putting the lovely Bar Rafaeli on the cover. Does it top last year’s Marisa Miller cover? Hmmm, time will tell.
Maxim, FHM and every other “I’m trying too hard to be hip young guy” magazine might have pushed the envelope in terms of making scantily clad women as erotic as possible without being relegated to a behind the counter publication, but SI is still the grand-daddy.
Personally the models in SI's Swimsuit are simply stunning... Just a couple of lovely shots that Googled up.
(Just a quick Update as far as being wet) Since this piece was published it has rained every day across an entire area that was stricken by one of the most severe droughts in recent memory... The lakes in Georgia and upstate Carolina are starting to fill for the first time in ages, tho the temperatures have remained a bit on the cool side (perhaps because of the Operatic influence)... Furthermore this is a weather pattern that covers a large portion of the entire nation. There were even tornadoes in Denver and around Colorado . Instead of Global warming it should be called Global weird. Denver Weather Examiner: Weather forecast for Denver CO and vicinity, Saturday, May 23, 2009
As the afternoon arrives, those thunderstorms will likely start building again and the chance for showers increases. Areas of rain could be heavy at times and that may lead to some minor small stream and urban flooding. There is enough instability in the atmosphere that we could even see a landspout (short-lived, weak tornadoes), particularly east of the metro area.
Well at least some of those fire-storms appear under control... Time to grab your swimsuits and join the ducks!
[Esti Ginsburg,]
Refaeli setting the Bar
[Top by Mara Hoffman Swimsuit by Shay Todd]
With all this opera and classical studies combining together of sexy fashions kinda makes one wonder what they’re really teaching at Julliard… Indeed some of us may need to brush up on some refresher courses
SportsIllSwim_2.jpg (JPEG Image, 650×433 pixels)
Julie Henderson comes from a good family. Her grandfather Samuel Henderson invented the Henderson grapefruit in the 1960’s and built an empire in Texas . She has been modeling for the past 7 years and is an accomplished Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue favorite appearing in the issue 3 years in a row.
Its easy to see why Julie is a fav of the SI editors… Put her on as one of the top choices for the PNN too… Its really hard to choose a couple from the ton of lovelies offered up by the editors over at Sports Illustrated… Its a hard job, suppose someone has to do it. See for yourself the SI Swimsuit edition on sell now!
2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition – SI.com
Free Calendar Download
Of course if Playboy really was interested in doing a full opera spread, maybe check out some real beauties such as Allison Sanders or AmyG… You don’t have to be a psychic to see how these gals can get the show on the road hitting the real high notes. If Playboy was serious about selling magazines they would bring us the Met!
Subscribe to the magazine now!
Picture of Esti Ginzburg at Listal
Jennifer Rivera looks like a close shave
This is how We wanna see Il Barbiere: Jennifer Rivvers Spices up Siviglia
Esti
The Women of Opera
(Update)
Getting a ton of hits for America Olivo… One looks like from the Met! Okay here ya go the link for your site sweetie.
America Olivo Website Home
CHECK OUT “NEWS AND TRAILERS” FOR
A SNEAK PEAK OF AMERICA ON THE COVER OF THE JUNE 2009 ISSUE OF
PLAYBOY
Order yours online at
www.playboydigital.com
Here is another beauty that almost got away… 22 year old RussianTennis star Maria Kirilenko.
Meanwhile, Maria was shot wearing this print bikini from adidas by Stella McCartney.
Maria Kirilenko Adidas Print by Stella McCartney
From Kirilenko’s site: “I have very good memories of the photo shooting for Sports Illustrated. I went to Dominican Republic with my mother. I was there for three days and I had a great time ! All days on the beach posing I can tell I was busy all the days but it was so nice ! A great team worked with me. The great photographer Walter Iooss, I think it is a greatest photographer I ever work with.”
Update Sports Illustrated”s Bar Refaeli
Bar Refaeli Cover Sports Illustrated
Orlando Sentinel – 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition unveiled by What the Blog
This undated image released by Sports Illustrated/Raphael Mazzucco, shows model Bar Refaeli on the cover of the Feb. 14, 2009 issue of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, on sale now.
Refaeli happens to be an on-again, off-again muse of Leonardo DiCaprio’s.
She’s a 23-year-old Israeli model whose been on the inside pages of the SI annual porn-light edition for the previous 2 years.
The cover was revealed on Monday night’s Late Show With David Letterman.
Because I know you all are wondering, the swimsuit is made by Missoni.
According to the AP, SI group editor Terry
McDonell McDonell, along with Swimsuit editor Diane Smith and SI creative director Steve Hoffman, sifted through 90,000 photos this year from 19 models featured in the magazine.The shot at left happens to of Refaeli in the water on Canouan Island in the Grenadines.
SI’s swimsuit issue began in 1964, when February marked the low
point of the sports seasons. After putting safe-driving tips and dog shows on the cover, SI decided to put an attractive female on the cover and
call it a “skin-diving story,” Smith told the AP.Kathy Ireland’s 1989 cover remains the best-selling cover.
The Endeavour awaits (twice struck my lighting) at the ready of a moments notice for any unforeseen accident in space as NASA attempts one of its most daring space flights since the Apollo moon missions of the late ’60s and early 70’s. Thus saving the best of the shuttle for the very last. This could be the beginning of a new era in space exploration or signal the end of an era. The Shuttle fleet is soon to be retired and a new generation of heavy launch vehicles with a smaller but more dependable and expendable space capsule reminiscent of the Apollo moon craft are scheduled to replace the heavy lifting of the manned space efforts… Very likely this is the last manned mission as we have come to know them. Like the rocket plane flights of the late ’50s and early 60’s and later the missions that were the stepping stones to the moon, so too the shuttle have arrived to its moment of truth.
Shuttle Crew to Grapple Telescope… Space shuttle Atlantis will meet up with the Hubble Space Telescope today. The actual grapple of the telescope using the shuttle’s robotic arm is scheduled for 12:54 p.m. EDT as Atlantis soars 340 statute miles above the northeast coast of Madagascar. The telescope will be latched to a high-tech, “lazy Susan” device known as the Flight Support System for the duration of the servicing work.
The STS-125 crew will perform five spacewalks to refurbish, restore and renew the Hubble Space Telescope. The first spacewalk is scheduled for Thursday.
Engineers continue to examine the images captured during Tuesday’s inspection of Atlantis’ thermal protection system and exterior surfaces. During that inspection, mission managers noted one area of damage on the forward part of the spacecraft where the wing blends into the fuselage. Initially it appears to be very minor and of no concern for the mission, and the flight team notified the crew late Tuesday that no focused inspection of that particular area is necessary.
Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Obama orders independent review of manned space plans
The Obama administration’s proposed fiscal 2010 NASA budget includes $630 million in additional near-term funding for development of follow-on rockets and spacecraft needed for the agency’s post-Columbia moon program, officials said Thursday. But most of the increase is from the administration’s economic stimulus package and projections through 2013 show a $3.1 billion reduction in overall funding for the program when compared with 2009 projections.
Unveiling NASA’s $18.7 billion fiscal 2010 budget today, acting Administrator Chris Scolese said the Obama administration had ordered an independent review of NASA’s plans to replace the space shuttle with a combination of manned and unmanned Ares rockets, Apollo-style Orion capsules and lunar landers needed to establish research stations on the moon by the early 2020s. The new rockets are the central elements of what NASA calls the Constellation program.
Endeavor Last flight from pad 39
Still in this new dawn we may perhaps rejoice in the triumphant from the past as we lament the tragedy of the human sacrifice. The truth is a bit hard to grasp as we always seem to fall short between the cost over runs and tempest of climate change… Still NASA remains the only horse in the race and clearly it is a race that will demand a rider. Its a thing of beauty and in such a race Beauty always wins!
Sign of the times that both the shuttle story and Ms. California got something of the same billing
Miss California — Pants on Fire! | TMZ.com
Donald Trump Lets Miss California Keep Crown – ABC News
Donald Trump’s not letting a slew of semi-nude photos and conservative beliefs stop Carrie Prejean from being Miss California USA.
Miss California USA retains her title.Carrie Wins!
The real estate mogul and co-owner of the Miss USA organization announced Tuesday that the scandalized beauty queen, who spoke out against “opposite marriage” at the 2009 Miss USA pageant, igniting a fire storm of scrutiny about her stance on gay marriage and her modeling career, will keep her crown.
“[Prejean] gave a very, very honest answer when asked a very tough answer at a recent pageant. It’s the same answer that the President of the United States gave. It’s the same answer that many people gave,” Trump said. “If her beauty wasn’t so great, nobody really would’ve cared.”
About the 21-year-old beauty queen’s semi-nude photographs, more of which appeared online Tuesday, Trump said, “We have determined that the pictures taken are fine. … In many cases, they were very lovely pictures.”
has lied to the pageant that feeds her.
TMZ has obtained an email Carrie sent to Keith Lewis, Co-Executive Director of Miss California USA. The email, sent yesterday, refers to the topless photo of her circulating on the Internet
. The email reads: “This was when I was 17 years old. I was a minor. It was when I was first getting into the modeling world, being naive, and young. I shouldnt (sic) have taken the photo of me in my underwear. There are no other photos of me. This was the only one I took.”Carrie is not telling the truth. Last Sunday, someone sent TMZ 4 — FOUR — photos of Carrie without her top and in her panties. We did not publish the pics after her rep contacted us and said she was 17 when the pics were taken.
We told Keith Lewis about the 4 photos. His reaction: “I’m absolutely stunned. This completely changes things for us. Yesterday we thought she had explained things accurately. We need to revisit this issue with her.”
Looks like the issue has been revisited and as the flames continue to spread across California and around the country Carrie will keep her crown, and manned space flight will continue to blaze the trail into space, because the more things change the more they stay the same… It is, after all, a BEAUTY PAGEANT (for some of the more bewildered suck up media moron types who still just don’t quite get it). Its not like she was poising for Playboy but actually Carrie and the entire country might be better served if she did… Just cannot understand the hypocrisy of all the moralizing on one hand while on the other Cheney and company are allow to get away with murder at the expense of American blood and treasure that was, from its inception, a complete and total fabrication. Anyone care to explain that one?
Hubble Update
The Space Shot – CNET News-Repaired Hubble relaunched from shuttle
by William Harwood
The repaired Hubble Space Telescope was relaunched Tuesday from the shuttle Atlantis after a historic fifth and final in-orbit overhaul.
Astronaut Megan McArthur, operating the shuttle’s 50-foot-long robot arm, released the 24,500-pound observatory at 8:57 a.m. EDT as the shuttle sailed 350 miles above the west coast of Africa. The repaired telescope now boasts two new instruments, new gyros, fresh batteries, a new science computer, a refurbished star sensor, and two instruments brought back to life by spacewalking astronauts.
“The release of the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed,” mission control commentator Kyle Herring said. “Hubble now back on its own for the final time with a gentle release by one, but carrying the fingerprints of hundreds of thousands.”
A NASA graphic shows the Hubble prior to release from the shuttle Atlantis.
(Credit: NASA TV)As Atlantis pilot Gregory Johnson slowly backed Atlantis away, commander Scott “Scooter” Altman radioed mission control, confirming a smooth deploy.
So now mankind will have a new look that peers deep into the very creation of the universe, thanks to the crew of STS-125 Atlantis on a successful conclusion of their Hubble rescue repair mission. Altogether a remarkable conclusion to the manned shuttle missions.
Some of the numbers are to be released today may determine the direction of the market for the rest of the year. Some certainly will not be blamed if they take a little cream and bow out for the moment… The rest are eagerly adjusting their sets.
Not sure if the stress test is going to give us what we’re looking for but you can bet the farm that over at Playboy they’ve got the mixture of hot stocks, tho some might be a bit in the red at the moment, a little iced tea to cool down the melt down just might be in order…
The Playboy Stimulus Plan – Dealbreaker – A Wall Street Tabloid – Business News Headlines and Financial Gossip
Remember a million years ago (real time: back in October), when Playboy put the call out for “Women of Wall Street” to help tackle the financial crisis by taking their clothes off? The feature was supposed to run in the February issue, but that came and went with nary a peep of financial services T&A. We assumed it was ’cause no one in the field was willing to get naked, despite the fact that it was for the good of the economy. Apparently, not so much!
The thing is we all have our personal choices… Like Fortune 500 executive assistant Tara DeGregorio ( looks great in the red).
Tangeable Assets
Overall if one is trading stock with a brokerage team nice to have one with a good track record and a smile you know you can trust.
Charles Schwab financial advisor Tinea Smith
Tell me sex does not sell! Contact Tinea direct and open an account Today!
Most of these are fresh off the May press sizzling busty beauty babes of Spring have thermometer popping and seemed to have stirred up a heat wave, at least here in South Carolina, where parts are experiencing some record heat for this time of year and have wildfires busting loose all over the place. At one of the top tourist attractions…
Wildfires Hit Myrtle Beach Area – NYTimes.com
Wildfires swept through a coastal region of South Carolina on Thursday and threatened North Myrtle Beach, destroying about 70 homes and forcing more than 2,500 people to evacuate, state officials said.
Fire SALE BEACH FRONT PROPERTIES
Fire at Roebuck businesses
Brothers building joins the summer
Photo Credit: TIM KIMZEY / tim.kimzey@shj.comFirefighters with Roebuck, Arkwright, Croft, and the City of Spartanburg work the scene of a business fire at German Motors on Strickland Drive in the Roebuck community Wednesday evening, 4-22-09.
Fire destroys commercial building in Roebuck | Spartanburg, South Carolina | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-JournalGodbout said he didn’t have insurance to cover the fire.
“I’m just thankful no one was hurt,” he said between talking with fire officials and answering his phone.
The building, at 100 Strickland Drive, housed Sports Car Specialty and EZ Auto & Truck Rentals and was destroyed. German Motors, which is immediately next to it, and three cars parked in front sustained superficial damage.
Godbout owns the two businesses, which specialize in foreign car sales, service and rental.
Firefighters were dispatched at 6:43 p.m., Roebuck Fire Chief Brian Harvey said. Callers reported flames going through the roof of the building. And as soon as the firefighters arrived, they saw it collapse in on itself, Harvey said.
“It’s unusual to have a fire this much involved when we arrive, that it totally collapses,” he said. “That tells us the building had been burning awhile before anybody saw it.”
About 40 firefighters from six departments responded. Most concentrated on keeping the fire from spreading to other buildings, Harvey said.
A few small explosions were caused by flammable materials inside the building, Harvey said. Godbout said he had been in the process of renovating the building that burned, which he said was his sales office.
On thing for sure this is shaping up to be one long hot summer!
Long Hot Summer
Below, Georgia Anderson. The beautiful and successful broker at Global Futures.
Georgia Anderson
The hemline indicator is off the scale… Rendering new meaning to a bare market condition… Playboy May 2009 Wow!
The markets are going to turn… Anyone whom has ever looked at Elliot Wave will recognize the markets move from the March 9th lows and immediately recognize two very strong technical moves and now it looks like we are upon the cusp of the third. From a perspective of a Bull Elliot Wave type recovery indicator, the third wave is considered the strongest and will determine the speed and chart of the recovery.
Others say no Dr. Nouriel Roubini’s Global Monitor, Robert Reich, and “Street Critique” -Hilary Kramer, Author of “Ahead of the Curve.” All agree we have a row to hoe yet it does appear the worst isbehind us. However, in every recession since WWII, the way out is lead by the Automotive sector, that’s why its unlikely that Uncle Sam will force an economic Katrina upon the state of Michigan by forcing GM into bankruptcy. I suppose stranger things have happened in that DC town but the numbers simply do not add up… When it cost less, in pure dollars, to fix rather than exacerbates the problem to the point of perhaps causing a Great Depression (I mean what do they think all those unemployed autoworkers are going to do with their current home mortgage?) … You have to think (and pray) that those guys have better sense. But like I said, strangers things have happened but I can’t exactly remember when.
However, some see the Elliot Wave as something akin to some kind of pseudoscience mix of black magic Keynesian voodoo economics. All I can say is that it has been a spooky dependable guide for making calls on major market moves in the past. Its simply a tool that appears to work but there are other things to consider since the March 9th bottom. AIG, since the government infusion, has been following the Swiss model of recovery, which some believe that we should have applied to all the toxic banks… They have been according to volume, considered a bit oversold… Now volume has narrowed. Also the banks (if the Wells Fargo’s report is to be believed) appear to have improved upon their assets in a considerable fashion… Add to this the international Markets (especially in Asia and along the Pacific realm) and even with Japan’s new capital infusion… In the distant the thundering herd of the third wave bull market is about to be unleashed… Awesome and sublime.
FT.com / Markets – Wall St rally extends into fifth week
Wells Fargo leapt 31.7 per cent to $19.61 after it more than doubled its expectations for first quarter earnings, with the integration of the recently purchased Wachovia going more smoothly than expected.
This came as the banking sector in general received a lift after the New York Times reported that all 19 banks undergoing government “stress tests” were likely to pass, with Federal Reserve officials finding the financial system in better shape than expected.
Citigroup rose 12.6 per cent to $3.04 on the news, while Bank of America jumped 35.3 per cent to $9.55 and JPMorgan picked up 19.4 per cent to $32.75.
Bob Maneri, an analyst at Victory Capital Management, warned banks’ capital positions were under stress but said: “The revenues from mortgage banking are going to continue to rise into the second quarter as interest rates remain low and people continue to refinance.”
ThunderSnow or What Happens When The Sky is Falling AIG
You will simply not believe this… We have just experienced some of the strangest weather ever seen in this part of the world. Just as tornados touched down all over the south, buckets of rain, sleet, but then the thundersnows started with some of the heaviest snowfall ever witnessed in such a short period of time… Snowflakes the size of your hand. Amber and red glow from the lighting… Just plain weird but beautiful. Now if to apply some of the current natural weather events with some of what is happing in the economy seems to fit in some kind of odd manner. The thunder snowstorm of a few days ago… It was just as about as odd as it gets. The weather was one way one moment and in the next the landscape had totally changed… Not unlike what we are currently experiencing in economy. And not unlike the economy it seemed like a once in a lifetime event. During the Great depression the stock market fell 35%, and today the markets have fallen over 50% from their all time highs. However there is a need to keep it all in perspective and be clear as to the cause.Because some are the reason advanced by some are just wrong. Chuck Saletta writes in the Fool:
Stocks for the Next Great Depression
On top of that, poorly crafted government reactions exacerbated both situations. During the Depression, the protectionist Smoot-Hawley tariff triggered global retaliation and contributed to a worldwide recession. More recently, poorly executed bank seizures and excessive subsidizing of failure have distorted the market’s ability to correct its excesses. Add a dash of protectionism from the “Buy American” provisions in the recent stimulus act — and the potential for retaliation — and you’ve got quite a foundation for Great Depression II.
Bit of an over statement and simplification of the current situation, which was NOT caused by overzealous investors but rather by systemic problems created in the subprime by the mortgage brokers along with the index services such as the Standard and Poors failure to recognize and properly to asset the risk by providing AAA bond ratings (either by intention or design) was clearly THE underling cause of the crash.
Now the “Oracle Of Omaha” has pronounced the country is in economic shambles… Well thank you Mr.Buffett, who is arguably one of the greatest investors of all time… Ok, Like Duh… Now what? Buy AIG! Of course:) Maybe not a bad idea to buy American because IT IS HERE IN AMERICA that we would hope to establish jobs… ATT maybe wish to create jobs in India but in looking at the situation it is clear to see we have uncovered another part of the problem. Some think we can fix stocks by fixing the “Global” economy… To wit the nit wits should realize by now that all economies are basically local…. Charity begins at home AND IF WE ARE GOING TO “FIX” the “WORLD” economy we need to get on own house and economic engine in order and working properly(In these parts that means buying Adidas, BMW, and Fords!)… Or so it would seem. No one in Wall Street so much as lifted a finger when Southern textiles and furniture industry was shipped out from under the Carolinas and left hundred of thousand standing in the unemployment lines. Suppose it all depends upon from the place in line where one stands, to know where one has been, to clearly know the place one wishes to be.
Of course with a 35% stake the American taxpayer already owns much of AIG and at 35c a share its not a bad deal.
