Free Republic

The media is not talking about it too much right now, but it appears we may be starting the greatest Short Squeeze in history. There are only about 70 million shares where about 20 million are insiders. Reports say that on Friday Institutions reported owning about 125 million shares. That does not include retail and does not include insiders. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY_sk907MYg

I logged into my bank account and saw a message not seen before - timing is curious, "Alert: Comerica Bank does not currently allow the use of debit cards or web or mobile banking services for use with online gambling sites. Attempting to use these sites may result in your debit card or web banking being temporarily disabled."

On Saturday night, 31 states and the District of Columbia reported at least one confirmed or presumptive positive case, with those cases totaling 372. Including those infected people repatriated from abroad, and those trapped aboard the quarantined cruise ship Grand Princess off San Francisco, the total is at least 442. Washington state had the most cases with 103, including 16 deaths, followed by New York with 89 cases and California, with 81 cases and one death. Florida, which reports 11 cases, has also seen two fatalities. In the interior of the country, a number of more sparsely populated states reported...

Cops said Sum Bora, 28, slipped into the tiny crevice on Sunday while trying to retrieve his flashlight, which had fallen in the small rocky hollow. Sum’s brother found him and alerted authorities to his location in the mountains. About 200 rescue workers carefully freed the trapped man by destroying bits of the rock that had pinned him in an effort that took about 10 hours, police spokesman Sareth Visen said.

If you believed that the Muslim Brotherhood would sit back and watch this opportunity pass them by you were horribly naive. The disciplined and organized Islamist groups in Egypt are already stealing the revolution from the youth groups. An Egyptian protester shouts slogans at Tahrir Square in Cairo April 1, 2011. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Tahrir Square calling for the demands of the revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak from power to be met. (REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El-Ghany) Today thousands of protesters rallied in Tahrir Square in Cairo. But it may be too late. CNN reported: Thousands of demonstrators...

New Shape shifting design allows Chinese women to fly under the radar of the bamboo curtain. See video at link. (Another example of Chinese entrepreneurial success of capitalism.)

Silver was the star of the precious metals complex today as it shot higher in the face of a stronger Dollar and a mixed performance by the overall commodity sector. Its strength helped to pull gold higher particularly when it cleared $30 for the first time since many moons ago... I have been receiving emails from some detailing the efforts to squeeze Morgan... ...Wheat keeps moving higher with weakness in corn and the beans pulling it back a tad. Palladium was down today but is trading above $750 which is amazing considering the fact that it was trading at $424...

VISTA - A jury on Friday convicted a Carlsbad man for forcing his wife to perform oral sex on him, but deadlocked over whether the man also raped and sodomized her.

NEW YORK (AFP) – The sweeping reform of the US health-care system could exact a high price on some businesses and deprive two million Americans of health insurance, industry and union leaders say. President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a final, adjusted version of the health care reform bill into law, capping a historic overhaul that extends health insurance to an additional 32 million Americans. Congress, controlled by Obama's Democratic Party, passed the legislation without a single vote from Republicans, .. On Friday, telecommunications giant AT&T said it would take a one-billion-dollar charge in the first quarter of 2010 to...

Pop group Squeeze have said hits like Cool for Cats and Up the Junction would not have happened if the band were starting out in today's music industry. Singer Glenn Tilbrook... "If we'd been placed under the same commercial criteria, I think we'd have been gone after our first album." Their second album, which came out in 1979, contained their biggest hits. He was speaking as the group were honoured with a plaque at the site of one of their first gigs in south-east London. Tilbrook and Chris Difford returned to the Greenwich Borough Hall - where they played in...

US-Iranian relations are once again headline news after dropping off the radar for several months in the wake of the US National Intelligence Estimate in December 2007. In recent days, media and public attention has focused on the growing US diplomatic overtures to Tehran, as well as the reports about a possible military attack on Iran that continue to circulate. With all of the focus on the diplomatic and military fronts, there has been little attention paid lately to the middle ground between the two: the US financial campaign against Iran. Financial pressure may be the most important tool the...

Dick Wilson, the character actor and pitchman who for 21 years played an uptight grocer begging customers "Please, don't squeeze the Charmin," died Monday. He was 91. Wilson died of natural causes at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital in Woodland Hills, said his daughter Melanie Wilson, who is known for her role as a flight attendant on the ABC sitcom "Perfect Strangers." "He is part of the culture. He was still funny to the very end. That's his legacy," his daughter said. Wilson made more than 500 commercials as Mr. George Whipple, a man consumed with keeping bubbly...

FLORENCE, Italy - Florence, Renaissance city of art and history, is trying to clean up its streets by cracking down on squeegee men, saying they were causing "great danger" to drivers and pedestrians alike. Mayor Leonardo Domenici issued a decree last week to force the squeegee men — people who wash drivers' windshields and demand payment — off the streets, imposing fines and detention of up to three months. The decree, which is valid through Oct. 30 but can be renewed, alleged the squeegee men were hindering traffic, inconveniencing pedestrians and abusing drivers, particularly women. While the measure was applauded...

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (news, bio, voting record) crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had taken sleep medication and a prescription anti-nausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy, D-R.I., addressed the issue after a spate of news reports. His initial statement said: "I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident."'Later, however, he issued a longer statement saying the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat Kennedy's gastroenteritis.Kennedy said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a final series of votes...

March 10, 2006 U.S. Squeezes North Korea's Money Flow By JOEL BRINKLEY WASHINGTON, March 9 — Six months after the Bush administration blacklisted a bank in Macao accused of laundering money for the North Korean government, senior administration officials say the action has proved to be far more effective than anyone had dreamed. Banks around the world are limiting their dealings with North Korea, and the nation's leadership is complaining with a vigor unusual even for that government. "It really struck a nerve," a senior administration official said with a smile. It also has given new energy to those in...

Why is it that Southern California residents continually get ripped off when it comes to the distribution of federal funds, but their congressmen the people charged with distributing those funds continually get re-elected? It's all about money. Southland lawmakers have some of the biggest campaign war chests in the country, thanks to countless special interests all too happy to purchase their favor. Of seven Golden State lawmakers going into the campaign season with more than $1 million as of June 30, six are from Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties. Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, has the third-largest congressional...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major offensive against insurgents in Baghdad's western Abu Ghraib district late Sunday, and aides to a radical anti-American Shiite cleric worked to defuse tensions caused by a recent spate of sectarian killings. Amid the violence, Iraq's government demanded that Syria do more to stop foreign fighters from crossing the porous border and a senior Iraqi Trade Ministry official was killed in an ongoing terror campaign that has killed more than 550 people in less than one month. Iraqi authorities also announced that Ghazi Hammud al-Obeidi, 65, one of the most-wanted...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

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