Post Scripts

by Jack Lee

Aaron Parks wrote this in November, 2007:

“3 1/2 years of investigations, no indictment!

Your house gets raided and files relating to the associate that got you into this investigation in the first place are left behind. Of course, your young daughter is terrorized during the whole ordeal and no one cares.

You are a Republican Congressman and three of your colleagues resigned in disgrace, two of whom went to jail, so therefore you are presumed guilty.

And so it goes, instead of idealogical attacks which had never worked in the past the tactics change to throwing it through the fan and alleging corruption. John Doolittle did the same thing we do in my office, pay relatives for consulting thats the worst of it.”

OK, that story was from a year ago…so, now it’s been a total of 4 1/2 years he had been under investigation and still no indictment??? Justice delayed is justice not served. The John Doolittle case needs closure one way or the other. 4 1/2 years an absurdly long time for a corruption investigation.

Doolittle’s ex-Chief of Staff Kevin Ring was indicted on a 10 counts of conspiracy with Jack Abramhoff last September.

by Jack Lee

Losses for the S&P were 6% on the day and this approached the all time record of 6.04% one day drop. The DOW Industrials shed over 679 points at the close or a net loss of 7.7%. The NASDAQ fared even worse… it lost nearly 9% of its total value today. Despite the somewhat better than expected retail sales on Black Friday, the global economic news was the driving force in today’s turn that ended a technical rally that began on the 24th of Nov.

To put the stock market in some perspective, the NASDAQ has lost roughly half its value in 12 months and the big board has lost about 40% during the same period.

Hardest hit were the financials (-9.5%), then energy (-7.2%) and finally materials (-6.4%).

Meanwhile, a Bloomberg report said, “Domestic automakers were putting the finishing touches on turnaround plans that they will present to Congress in hopes of securing $25 billion in emergency loans to help them survive the current economic crisis. But unlike during their first visit to Washington, top executives from General Motors Corp. , Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler on Tuesday will each hand in separate blueprints for what they are looking to do with the money. After that, Congress will convene for two sessions on Thursday and Friday before a vote is likely held next week that will determine whether the automakers’ pitches hit their marks.”

Ford stock rallied early today, but finally gave way to selling pressure and closed down 5.2%. GM was off almost 12.4% and last traded at $4.59.

“Things are looking quite bleak. Everyone acknowledges that,” said Brian Gendreau, investment strategist at ING Investment Management in New York.

NEWS FLASH: It’s now official, the nation’s economy peaked, and the recession began, in December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced today. This should come as no surprise to PS readers; you were warned we were headed for serious financial trouble almost a year ago.

PS If was also announced today that American’s have emerged from negative savings and now save about .01 on the dollar. It is recommended we save at least .10 cents on the dollar. Are you?

Posted by Tina

Recent headlines work together to make sense for America:

New York, Nov 18 (ANI): The gun sales have shot up in the United States as Americans fear that the Barack Obama Administration will bring stiffer rules for possessing fire arms. *** During election week, the FBI did 374,510 background checks on prospective gun owners, compared with 251,804 in the same week last year. Last month, the G-men did checks on 285,894 people buying handguns, compared with 223,141 in October 2007.

As few as 10 terrorists armed with simple weapons tormented one of the world’s most vibrant cit ies for three days, inflicting 500 casualties – nearly 200 of them dead. No commandeered airliners were involved; no massive bombs, no radioactive material. All it took was one squad of committed-unto-death terrorists with assault rifles, grenades and a few rucksacks filled with explosives. – New York Post

Just wanted to remind the world that cowboys are alive and well armed in America!

by Jack Lee

(Taj Hotel caught fire during attack) Their professed goal was the issue of sovereignty for Kashmir, however their more obvious goal was creating chaos, conflict and fomenting hate between Pakistan and India. This is their MO and it has been for years in countries around the world. This is what radicalized Muslims do.

Killing tourists does not advance independence for Kashmir; those tourists had nothing to do with local politics and its doubtful any of the half dozen American tourists that were targeted could even find Kashmir on the map. But, they were Americans and for no other reason this made them targets. The captured terrorists showed no remorse as they talked freely about killing civilians for in their eyes the victims were already damned souls, virtually sub-human and killing them was not a crime according to their interpretation of the Q’ran.

The attack has been somewhat successful because it has already begun to strain the relations between Pakistan and India. It’s disrupted Pakistans efforts to root out terrorist camps in its mountainous regions along the border with Afghanistan and that no doubt also played a big part in this bloody rampage.

The surviving terrorists claimed they trained for months inside Pakistan before the attack in Mumbai that left 183 people dead in a 3 day siege. Indian authorities believe as many as 15 participated, however only 10 have been accounted for.

In a rare act of outspoken definace, Muslims living in Mumbai do not want the dead terrorists buried in their local cemeteries. They say their violent actions do not reflect their Muslim views of peace and they do not believe they were true Muslims.

Posted by Tina

** Even though employees at the Peer Bearing Co. no longer work for the Spungen family that recently sold the Waukegan-based ball bearings maker, they still received a turkey each this Thanksgiving in keeping with tradition. But even better was the gift that came in mid-September, when the Spungens threw a party to celebrate the company’s acquisition by a Swedish company. They gave away $6.6 million in year-end bonuses to Peer’s 230 employees… AP **