Politics - what I see and what I do not understand: 07/09/12

Friday, September 7, 2012

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

A South Korean soldier participates in an anti-terror exercise as part of Ulchi Freedom Guardian at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea. South Korea and the United States have begun annual military drills that North Korea calls a precursor to war.

photos of the day

Three white Indian tiger cubs were vaccinated, weighted and chipped during a veterinary examination in the Liberec Zoo in the Czech Republic. Two of them are male, one is female. They were born on July 1.

photos of the day

Government officials wearing gas masks evacuate a government complex during a civil defense drill against a North Korean attack as part of Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises in Seoul, South Korea.

photos of the day

An man walks with his horse as monsoon clouds hover in Jammu, India.

Channi Anand/AP

photos of the day

People start the annual Lake Zurich crossing swimming event in Zurich, Switzerland.

photos of the day

A woman rows a small boat on a flood-affected street in the Kyune Kone township delta area in Myanmar. More than 700 villages and 200,000 acres of rice fields were flooded.

Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

photos of the day

A Lebanese Sunni Muslim fighter carries a woman away from clashes in the Sunni Muslim neighbourhood of Bab al-Tebbaneh in Tripoli, northern Lebanon.

Omar Ibrahim/Reuters

photos of the day

Supporters applaud as Hong Kong fishing vessel Kai Fung No. 2, which went to the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu islands, docks at a public pier at Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor. Anti-Japanese protests rocked Chinese cities on Sunday after nationalists from Japan landed on an East China Sea island at the heart of a territorial dispute between the two nations.

Bobby Yip/Reuters

photos of the day

Syrian girls hold their relative, Mohammed Mustafa, who was born five days ago in a school where his family took refuge in Kafar Hamra on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. The girls and their families fled their home in Anadan due to fighting between the rebels and the Syrian army.

Muhammed Muheisen/AP

photos of the day

Beach visitors of different sorts watch the sunset on Dauphin Island, Ala.

Dave Martin/AP

photos of the day
September 7, 2012

Louise Llewellyn pushes the wheelchair of her son Lee, as they arrive at the Olympic park to see the competition during the 2012 Paralympics in London.

Emilio Morenatti/AP

photos of the day

September 7, 2012

A rainbow is seen over the skyline after two days of heavy rainfall in Mumbai, India.

Manish Swarup/AP

photos of the day
September 7, 2012

A Hindu devotee performs evening rituals on the banks of the River Ganges in Allahabad, India. Allahabad, at the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, is an important Hindu pilgrimage center.

Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

photos of the day
September 7, 2012

A woman wearing a full veil (niqab) plays with her children at a public beach at Abu Qir in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Egypt.

Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

photos of the day
September 7, 2012

A Tasmanian devil cub tries to bite his way out of a small bag during an event marking the National Endangered Species Day in Sydney, Australia. The National Threatened Species Day is a community action and an education event aimed at highlighting vulnerable Australian animals and and what can be done in our daily lives to save them.

Rob Griffith/AP

photos of the day
September 7, 2012

A Belarus' Interior Ministry special forces soldier performs during a military show to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the formation of the unit in Minsk, Belarus.

Sergei Grits/AP

photos of the day
September 7, 2012

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff stands in a vehicle during a civic-military parade commemorating Brazilian independence Day.

Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

photos of the day
September 7, 2012

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft took this image showing the Sun being partially blocked by Earth. Twice a year, for three weeks near the equinox, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) moves into its eclipse season -- a time when Earth blocks its view of the sun for a period of time each day.

NASA/Reuters

photos of the day
September 7, 2012

Pengchia Islet, northeast of Taiwan in the East China Sea, is seen under the Taiwanese national flag after a visit by President Ma Ying-jeou. Ma used a high-profile visit to the Taiwan-controlled island to warn Japan against making any attempts to nationalize islands that are part of a disputed chain in the East China Sea.

Wally Santana/AP

photos of the day
September 7, 2012

A Syrian refugee looks at the camera while squatting next to his brothers by their tent at the Bab Al-Salam refugee camp in Azaz, near the Syrian-Turkish border.

Zain Karam/Reuters

Stocks nudge upward after tepid jobs report

Trader Gregory Rowe, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday. Stocks rose slightly following news that the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in August.
(Richard Drew/AP)

By Bernard Condon, AP Business writer
posted September 7, 2012 at 5:24 pm EDT

New YorkThe stock market followed one of its most exciting days of the year with a rather dull one Friday. Indexes barely rose following a weak jobs report, which increased hopes that the Federal Reserve would act next week to support the economy.
The gains, while meager, kept major market indexes at their highest levels in more than four years following a massive surge the day before.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14.64 points to close at 13,306.64. The Standard & Poor's 500 was up 5.80 points to 1,437.92. The Nasdaq composite barely moved, up 0.61 points at 3,136.42.
The government reported that 96,000 jobs were created in the U.S. last month, fewer than economists had forecast. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent, but only because more people gave up looking for work.
Tech bellwether Intel dealt a blow to the market early in the day by cutting its revenue outlook because of weak demand for its semiconductors. Intel fell 90 cents, or nearly 4 percent, to $24.19.
The flat trading for the major indexes Friday followed big gains Thursday. U.S. stocks hit four-year highs after the European Central Bank announced plans to buy an unlimited amount of short-term government bonds from struggling countries in the region such as Italy and Spain. The hope is that the borrowing costs of those countries will fall, making a breakup of the 17-nation euro zone less likely.
Steven Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities, said the weak U.S. jobs report means the Federal Reserve is more likely to announce steps at its meeting next week to keep interest rates low and encourage lending. He thinks the Fed will announce that it will hold benchmark rates near zero through 2015 and, possibly, launch a third round of bond purchases.
"The economy is still struggling, and so it's subject to shocks from overseas," Ricchiuto said. "We're going to get more stimulus from the Fed."
Shortly after jobs numbers were released, analysts from RBS told investors in a note that they see the likelihood of the Fed announcing new bond purchases next week at 90 percent. "We expect the Fed to act in September," they wrote.
Most major markets in Europe rose, too. Benchmark indexes rose 0.7 percent in Germany and 0.3 percent in France. Italy's main index rose 2 percent.
In U.S. trading, materials companies rose 2 percent, the biggest gain among the S&P 500's ten industry sectors. The biggest losers were consumer staples, down 0.8 percent.
Intel followed several other major companies in reducing its profit forecast, including FedEx. The world's second-largest package delivery company lowered its forecast for earnings earlier this week, citing the slowing global economy.
Overall, for every three companies in the S&P 500 telling investors to lower their expectations for future earnings, only one is saying to raise them, according to S&P Capital IQ, a research firm.
Wall Street analysts estimate earnings for companies in the S&P 500 will fall 1.8 percent in the current quarter, the first drop since the Great Recession, according to S&P Capital IQ. They expect earnings grew 0.9 percent in the April-June quarter, the slowest quarterly pace in three years.
Among stocks making big moves, Pandora Media plunged $2.10, or 17 percent, to $10.47 after the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is working on a rival service that could hurt the online radio company.
Amazon rose $7.76, or 3 percent, to $259.14. The company unveiled four new Kindle tablet computers Thursday, including ones with larger color screens.
Smith & Wesson rose $1.07, or 12 percent, to $10.07 on surging gun sales and a raised profit forecast. The gun company said it expects earnings for the quarter ending October to climb to as much as twice what analysts had expected.
Dell rose 12 cents, or 1 percent, to $10.64 after announcing it would pay a dividend of eight cents per share in October. It is the computer maker's first cash dividend.
Glencore International fell 14 cents, or nearly 4 percent, to $3.78. The commodities trader said it is prepared to raise its offer to buy mining company Xstrata PLC. Xstrata rose 35 cents, or nearly 4 percent, to $10.14
More than two stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading volume was light at 3.7 billion.

The Koch Brother's Epic Hashtag Fail

Posted by William Melton 5pc on September 06, 2012

The Koch-funded conservative mouthpiece Americans for Prosperity decided that they were going to get themselves a hashtag and join this Twitter thing they've been hearing about ever since Obama used it to trounce conservatives in 2008.

As reported on the Palm Beach Post, the group spent over six-figures on sponsored tweets featuring the hashtag #16trillionfail. Why? Well, in AFP's fantasy world, the Twitterverse would have exploded with anti-Obama rhetoric with regards to the national debt. Unfortunately for AFP, the rest of Twitter lives in reality.

So instead of blasting the President, #16trillionfail has become an instant hit among liberals who have turned it into a rallying cry against the conservative agenda.

Here are some of the more choice tweets: