Did anybody see the lunar eclipse last night?

The New York Times reports

"many of its rivals that have coursed through the industry since last fall. While Citi quietly began pruning its work force this summer, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York Mellon — and almost every large European bank — have announced big job cuts.

Wall Street companies have come under intense pressure as the world economy has slowed in recent months, and their once-lucrative trading businesses have sputtered as investors have parked their cash on the sidelines. More traditional banking has also been hit hard by anemic demand for loans, as well as new regulations and consumer outcry against fees on checking accounts, debit cards and credit cards.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs financial services conference on Tuesday, Mr. Pandit framed the layoffs as part of his plan to brace the company for an even more difficult road ahead"

In 2009, Keith Olbermann called you by name to be fired This guy has led Citigroup through the financial crises and should have seen the door in the 2009 for engaging in crony capitalism.

Maybe, if Citigroup listened to Olbermann, they might have in better shape. But we know the banks never listen to us so Mr. Pandit gets keep his job while his employees get shown the door.

What is the difference between a liberal and a progressive?

It looks like Boeing is not optimistic on future of defense spending. From the Los Angeles Times

"The chief executive of Boeing Co.’s defense, space and security sector spoke to investors at a defense forum in New York about how the company was positioning itself in the coming years with constrained federal budgets.

At the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Defense Outlook Forum on Thursday, Dennis Muilenburg described bracing for what he expects to be a “tough defense environment.”

"We do a lot of scenario planning about how it might impact individual programs, which would get into individual facilities and infrastructure," he said. "But we are preparing ourselves and had been preparing ourselves for that worst-case budget scenario."

Boeing has extensive defense, space and security facilities across the Southland including in El Segundo, Anaheim, Long Beach and Huntington Beach. In all, the company employs 21,347 people in the state.

“We are anticipating already seeing at least $500-billion reduction in the U.S. defense budget over the next 10 years that could be as high as $1 trillion dollars,” he said.

The Chicago company, which also makes commercial jets, has already begun to slash defense jobs in preparation of a shrinking Pentagon budget.

Earlier this year it relocated two key defense programs and 800 jobs from Long Beach. The company also cut 900 jobs at its nearby sprawling complex where it makes C-17 cargo planes, citing declining orders.

“Certainly, it’s a challenging defense environment and we’ve been very realistic about it, we’ve anticipated it, we’ve expected it,” Muilenburg said. “Clearly we’re in a down dense cycle budget-wise in the U.S., while we see some opportunities on the international front.”"


That is not an optimistic future from defense spending. There is a lot of jobs to be loss. Outside of jobs and profits for the corporation stock, what will be lost.

The first thing that defense spending cuts means that more money is free for veterans care. The money could be directly moved from the contractors to more veterans programs.

The second place is that defense spending could go is to fund unemployment compensation. Simply, cut $60-$100 billion dollars from the Pentagon's bottom line and you can fund unemployment compensation for each year.

It is sacred cow that needs to be cut. Even though my job directly depends on weapons spending programs, it still does not help the country in the long run.

There are tons of programs that could use the Pentagon's resource that would better serve to invest in the country's future.

The reality is that I personally would rather see huge tax increases than have government spending to be cut. The defense lobby does not seem to know that tax increases are its best ally. They would rather the corporate income tax be decrease, than the government get a ton of new revenue and defense funding can receive modest cuts instead of sharp cuts that are projected by the Boeing CEO. For this industry and its lobby, taxes are the solution.

But no corporate CEO is willing to state that he is willing to pay significantly higher taxes in order for the corporation to continued funding for the Pentagon.

So the defense industry is an industry in decline. The war industry must be become a dying industry because the peace industry has not begin. It will not escape the deficit-cutters because Republicans cannot stomach huge tax increases that are required to fully fund the defense contractors. It is more important to see tax rates lower than to endure another Iraq or Afghanistan.

The days of chasing that lucrative cost-plus contracts are over. There is just not enough funds to get that elusive cost-plus program that provides easy profits to a contractor. Cost plus contracts are real easy to place for cost growth to occur and drive up the cost of weapon system. In an era of budget cuts, Boeing is going to see far less cost plus contract come along for new high technology systems.

Without the lucrative contracts, Boeing has going to turn to its profitable commercial division that makes aircraft such as Boeing 777 and 787. For Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, the news even more grimmer because they rely on government contracting for a significantly higher percentage of their business.

Should we mourn the defense contractors getting less business? No, because the industry of peace bring a higher dividend to the country than does massive military does. Our main wars would be fought via trade now and not with guns.

However, climate change might change things and once the resource wars begin, then Lockheed Martin and Boeing will start to see gravy train once again. For right now, there are just going to have to used to lower revenues and less business until that date occurs.

This is a strange crime as described by the AP

"Riverside County - A Southern California jury on Monday convicted a man of attempted murder in a string of bizarre attacks on police that included improvised booby traps and the firing of a World War II-era bazooka at a police station.

Nicholas John Smit, 41, of San Jacinto, was found guilty of four counts of attempted murder of a police officer, all of them for orchestrating attacks against the same Hemet police detective who had arrested him on a drug charge, Riverside County district attorney's spokesman John Hall said.

In one instance, natural gas was rerouted into the office of a gang task force and rigged to explode. In the bazooka attack, a training rocket was fired from the roof of a nearby market and started a small fire.

"He's almost like a movie-type villain, who's just very, very flawed," Deputy District Attorney Daniel DeLimon told the Associated Press after the verdict.

The bold attacks began in late 2009, putting police officers on edge and unsettling the desert community of Hemet, about 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles. At first, a motorcycle gang was blamed, but its members were cleared"

At least this guy will get a life sentence so we know that cities street will be safe of this guy. This guy is nothing but a threat to the public and should not be released for a long time.

It sucks to die like this guy http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011... |by falling into a pool while mowing your law as reported by the LA Times>.

It is just not the right way go. How many people thought about that their last day in life will be spent on a lawn mower and than subsequently, falling into a pool.

The message is we never know what our last day is or when it comes. Heck, we could be caught on a lawnmower and than we die a fateful death. I guess luck had failed this man and he had last day on earth.

Voter fraud is a myth that Republicans create so they can prevent poor and minorities from voting (http://t.co/oerqXMii )

The reports

ACRAMENTO, Calif. — California girls who dream about the sun-kissed skin glorified in song by Katy Perry will have to wait until they turn 18 before they can get the effect from tanning beds under a new first-in-the-nation law.

Gov. Jerry Brown announced Sunday that he had signed into law a bill that prevents children under 18 from using the popular tanning method. The law takes effect Jan. 1.

Although Texas has banned the use of tanning beds for children under 16, SB746 bill makes California the first state to set a higher age limit. Thirty other states also have some age restrictions on the use, said the bill's author, state Sen. Ted Lieu.

Under current law, children 14 and under in California already cannot use the beds, but those ages 15 to 17 can do so with permission from their parents. Illinois, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island have considered an age limit similar to California's, but have yet to enact them, said the Democrat from Torrance, Calif.

The ban will hurt businesses, many of them owned by women, said the Indoor Tanning Association. About 5 percent to 10 percent of its members' customers are under 18, the industry group noted.

The organization said tanning salons already are regulated by the state Department of Consumer Affairs and the federal Food and Drug Administration – regulations it called the most stringent in the nation."

I think this law impedes into civil liberties of teenagers and it is another example of legislature that spends time on making bad laws. This is the same legislature that has outlawed talking on cell phones in car. This is the same legislature that micromanages regulations, but fails to pass a new state sentencing commission on state sentencing or passes major structural changes to the budgeting process.

It is just another example of state legislature going too far and not getting its priorities right.

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I guess I am not going to my fantasy trip back to see Led Zepplin and the Beatles live in concert. Time travel is not possible. Via Discovery

"Hong Kong physicists say they have proved that a single photon obeys Einstein's theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light -- demonstrating that outside science fiction, time travel is impossible.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology research team led by Du Shengwang said they had proved that a single photon, or unit of light, "obeys the traffic law of the universe."

"Einstein claimed that the speed of light was the traffic law of the universe or in simple language, nothing can travel faster than light," the university said on its website.

"Professor Du's study demonstrates that a single photon, the fundamental quanta of light, also obeys the traffic law of the universe just like classical EM (electromagnetic) waves."

The possibility of time travel was raised 10 years ago when scientists discovered superluminal -- or faster-than-light -- propagation of optical pulses in some specific medium, the team said.

It was later found to be a visual effect, but researchers thought it might still be possible for a single photon to exceed light speed.

Du, however, believed Einstein was right and determined to end the debate by measuring the ultimate speed of a single photon, which had not been done before.

This is purely shocking. Via the Imperfect Parent

"In January of this year, Jonathon Mark Smith of Moore Oklahoma, allegedly took out an ad in the popular classified advertising service known as ‘Craig’s List’ looking for someone to perform oral sex on his 6-year-old autistic son, and supposedly at least one man answered the ad.

Teddy Dean Davis is accused of showing up at Smith’s door back in January, and asking to see the 6-year-old boy.

Oklahoma News 9 is reporting that police say Smith’s children were asleep and his wife was at work at the time. According to the police report, Smith led Davis to the boy’s room and allowed him to fondle the boy. Court papers allege Smith stayed in the room, watched the molestation happen and masturbated while watching.

It’s not known how police found out about the alleged molestation.
"

What a horrifc crime! This is horrific. This is a crime that should be prosecuted to the maximum.