Anagram: Curious Statements/Securest Mutations

    I have been going through the news again.  Some curious things are afoot.  Some are significantly larger, and dumber.  I’ll  handle the stupid first.

     Denofrio v. Wells , a case questioning the citizenship of President-Elect Barack Obama, has been denied review by the Supreme Court.  This is the second time that such a denial has happened, and there are more challenges expected, and they are also expected to meet the same fate.  This particular challenge was based on Mister Denofrio’s interpretation of the constitution and other law.  He seems to think that since mister Obama’s father was a British subject (AKA citizen of Kenya, at the time a British protectorate) that he is therefore not a natural born citizen of the United States.  He fails to see one vitally important point.  If you are born anywhere in the United States, you are a citizen.   It went through the supreme court 110 years ago, look it up yourself.  The case name is United States v. Wong Kim Ark.  There is also a more simple thing he could have done.  Read the first sentence of the first clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It reads:      

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

      That is that. Next Up:  Auto Bailout news.

    I watched as a somewhat curious statement was made by the junior Senator from Alabama, Jeff Sessions,  today.  He was on the floor of the Senate, about an hour ago, and he was reading a piece of the text of the proposed auto bailout.  It was curious because what he read is something that I had not heard of before.  The auto bailout is much bigger than the $15,000,000 number that is being bandied about in the press.  Three times that large.  Now it is possible that he misread it, these documents are notoriously difficult to read, but if the man says he saw “$45,000,000,000” then I for one believe him.  I am looking on line for text of said document but I cannot find it anywhere.  and trust me on this, I know how to look.  I am combing through the LOC and several other locations for it, and so far, no dice.  When i find it, and I WILL find it, I’ll pass it on to you. 

     And if Sen. Sessions read the damn thing wrong, I’m gonna kick him in the ass.

     Next Up:  Happy hour on Wall Street?

     The Dow is at the highest point it’s been at in a month!   According to the Bloomberg story on this, today’s rally was built on the back of news that President-Elect Obama will create the biggest public works projects since the 1950’s and will create over 2,500,000 new jobs.  The Dow went up almost 300 points today, closing at 8934.18, a 3.46% rise in the market.  Read the happy news here.  Perhaps the happiest statement in the whole article is this:           

Today’s gains put a technical end to the 13-month bear market that began after the S&P 500 reached a record close of 1,565.15 in October 2007. An advance of more than 20 percent from a low is the standard definition of a bull market.

       Bull market? Really? NICE. I think I’ll wait a bit more to actually call it that.  I don’t think anyone is ready to relax just yet. A few months of slow and steady improvement in the market rather than just a “technical end” to a bear market is what will convince people to jump back in with both feet.  But it’s nice to see that things maybe are looking like there is a light at the end of this tunnel that isn’t a freight train barreling down on us. 

    That’s it for the news.  2 videos, a few quotes, and I am done.

   First up, METAL MONDAY!  Music to pummel strangers to,  The Best *^$@(!*  song ever!  SARGENT D & MARCH OF THE S.O.D.

     “He’ll make you wish that you didn’t exist, Sargent D is comin, and your on his list!”  Holy shit that’s great…

   Next up: Senate Majority leader Harry Reid talking about the Auto Bailout, from earlier today. Something of an overstatement at the 1:25 second mark, but he gets it right starting at the 2:05 mark.  check it out:

        That’s it for me.  Later!

Today’s Nuggets, Via Wikiquote:  I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: “The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.” In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.   Bertrand Russell

I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.  Robert A. Heinlein, from the book “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”

Anagram: News And Weather/Ten New Warheads

          A Video to start the morning proceedings.   President-Elect Obama introducing his new Secretary of Veterans Affairs, General Eric Shinseki.  A former veteran of Vietnam, and a Former Chief of Staff of the United States.  If you missed it, in the run-up to the Iraq war, It was General Shinseki who criticized then Secretary of  Defense Donald Rumsfeld for not having a large enough force for postwar Iraq. You can call him what ever else you like.  He was one thing on this count.  He was right.   

        Bailout news.  The big three will be getting money, but not nearly what they were hoping for.  Old news, right? It’s been out there for a few days, and yet it bears repeating for a reason.  First off, the number keeps shrinking. Initially I was hearing 25 Billion, that was when it was first announced Friday.  Then it shrank to about half, I remember hearing 17 or 18  billion sunday morning from the NPR report.  Now word comes down from the AP that the number is now down to 15 billion and that money could come back and be stripped from them if they did not meet requirements set forth by a board to be created by the federal government.  A video, from Meet the Press from Sunday morning, with guest President-Elect Barack Obama.

    BTW, a hearty congratulations to David Gregory who has been named the new host of “Meet The Press” beginning next week.

   One more bit of good news.  The DJIA Futures  are up 175 points as of 6:01 am, when bloomberg last updated it’s numbers.

     That’s about it from here. Oh…Weather… Umm…. It’s December.  I’m in New York.  It’s friggin cold, 17 degrees and a wind chill of 6 degrees according to www.weather.com   Not Ice cold, i’ve dealt with colder, but 17 degrees is not warm by any stretch of the imagination.

   That’s It for me.  Later!  And don’t mind the typos, if there are any. The spell check causes everything to freeze when i use it.  I’ll correct what mistakes there are later. 

Today’s Nuggets, From Marcus Aurelius, Via Wikiquote:  Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today inquisitive, ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill.

At dawn of day, when you dislike being called, have this thought ready: “I am called to man’s labour; why then do I make a difficulty if I am going out to do what I was born to do and what I was brought into the world for?”