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B4 the Bell, Moonday Aug. 9, 2004


Guest yobob1

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3Martinis -

from my family's collection of Martini Recipes . . .The Dugout Martini, as served by the Dugout Bar (not Pub) off Oxford St. in Sydney in the basement of some "hotel" - name escapes me. . .

 

The Dugout Martini

 

? Buy 5 lbs. of dry ice. Put Fifth of Gin or Vodka in a styrofoam ice chest (plastic becomes brittle at ?80 degrees. Cover with dry ice package. Cover that with ice. Let sit for several hours. (The Dugout used a medical-quality freezer.)

? Fill a small aerosol with fresh dry vermouth, refrigerate.

? Chill martini glasses in refrigerator freezer.

? Remove glasses from freezer, wipe rim with slender lemon twist, leave twist in glass. Alternatively, use pitted olives ? these must be pitted otherwise you will confuse the pit with the solidly frozen flesh of the olive resulting in a visit to the dentist.

? Spritz glass once or twice with vermouth.

? While wearing clean cotton gardening gloves, remove liquor (spell checker?) from styrofoam ice chest. Uncap carefully. Smack on the bottom like a bottle of catsup to get the icy mixture out directly into glass.

? Serve immediately.

? Warn imbiber that this is not a usual martini. Your lips could stick to the glass until it re-warms up; when the icy mixture hits your gut it will light you up like a highway flare, with little icy razors that seem to be vivisecting you inside out. NEVER have more than two. Never drive after these. Lupe and I used to have 4 then I would ride the train 45 minutes back to Cronulla, then walk from the train to the house (2 klics). If I weren't actually sick the next day, I would at least have serious regrets.

 

Ahhhhhhhh Icky......you make kitty drooool........ I am smitten with that recipe, and will pass along those observations that can be recalled, and/or any particularly interesting aftermaths, of which there are sure to be many, that will result from exploring the length and breadth of this delightful new addition to the Grand Library of Martini Lust. Sure to be a classic.

 

Most marvelously kind of you Sir.

post-20-1092114006_thumb.jpg

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Reuters

Blue Chip Survey Cuts Growth Forecast

Tuesday August 10, 12:22 am ET

By Andrea Hopkins

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top forecasters have cut forecasts for U.S. economic growth this year and next amid concerns that lofty energy prices and weak consumer spending are slowing the expansion, a survey out on Tuesday showed.

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/040810/economy_bluechip_1.html

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Reuters

U.S. Oil Strikes New Record

Tuesday August 10, 12:10 am ET

By Tanya Pang

 

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. oil prices hit a fresh record on Tuesday, just short of $45 a barrel, after the stoppage of Iraqi crude production compounded fears that tightly stretched global supply would be inadequate in times of any disruption.

 

U.S. light crude rose to $44.99 a barrel, up 15 cents on the day and the highest since futures were launched on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) in 1983.

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/040810/markets_oil_1.html

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By the way, it is so abundantly clear that the Fed is raising rates 25bps tomorrow, that if you don't realize this, you're not paying attention.

 

And if anyone feels contrarily, I will wager $50 ag'in 'em, to be paid to Doc: if the Fed raises, you pay. If the Fed stands patt, I pay.

 

Either way, Doc wins.

 

Takers?

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Guest Icky Twerp

Jimi -

 

No way. They gotta raise. Said the would. Prolly sorry now. Can't back down.

 

If they did XL the raise -- would be Yobob / Hypertyger time :o

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The occupation of Iraq continues to bring great harm to the people there and our overstretched troops face the enormous task of trying to pacify a nation in widespread insurrection. The two-month truce between U.S. forces and militia fighters aligned with Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is over and the fighting around Najaf is taking a terrible toll. More than 300 Iraqis died and that marks the heaviest number of casualties in a short period of time since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

 

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the senior and most respected Shiite leader and voice of moderation, is ill. He has been able to keep the lid on those urging open war on the occupiers. When he goes to rest in Abraham's bosom, the power vacuum likely will result in general insurrection and the bloodshed will get worse.

 

Since the transfer of political power in Iraq, U.S. losses are continuing at a deadly pace -- 42 Americans died in June, 54 in July. Electrical shortages are everyday occurrences. In many areas, raw sewage is polluting water supplies and typhoid and hepatitis are rampant.

 

George W.'s war of choice and experiment in nation-building have created considerable harm, fostered more terrorism and helped al-Qaida, our real enemy. But to spare himself from political harm, it's best for Bush to scare the hell out of the American people and polish his image as our great "war president."

 

So when the administration declares a new, elevated terror alert three days after the end of the Democratic Convention, we should wonder if it was just another political stunt. The way the warning was orchestrated only buttresses that cynicism.

 

Ridge seemed to be following a Karl Rove script when he gave the alert a political brush, gratuitously saying, "Understand that the kind of information available to us today is the result of the president's leadership in the war on terror."

 

Bush was quick to maximize the threat, saying, "It's serious business. ... I mean, we wouldn't be, you know, contacting authorities at local levels unless something was real." Really?

 

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/gallagher175.html

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BUSH-CHENEY CREDIBILITY GAP

 

BUSH: "One of the most important parts of a reform agenda is to encourage people to own something. Own their own home, own their own business, own their own health care plan, or own a piece of their retirement. Reforms that trust the people, reforms that say government must stand on the side of people. Because I understand if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of America."

 

Bush/Cheney: Owned By Halliburton, Inc.

 

Time Magazine Report Contradicts Previous Cheney Denials:

 

-- Cheney: "As vice president, I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government." (NBC News, "Meet the Press", 9/14/03)

 

-- "Cheney's spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise said, 'The vice president's office has nothing to do with' either USAID or Department of Defense contracting." (Houston Chronicle, 3/15/03)

 

-- "Asked if Cheney had anything to do with the awarding of the Halliburton no-bid contract, his press secretary, Jennifer Millerwise, said, 'Nope.' Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall also said Cheney played no role." (Chicago Tribune, 5/8/03)

 

Halliburton Agreed to Pay $7.5 Million to Settle SEC Probe into Cheney-Era Accounting Practices. Halliburton agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a SEC probe of the company's accounting practices during the tenure of Dick Cheney. In 1998, Halliburton failed to disclose a change in the way it accounted for revenue from some construction work, the SEC said in a statement. Cheney served as Halliburton's chief executive from 1995 until August 2000. The SEC said Cheney provided sworn testimony and cooperated in its two-year investigation. Regulators said today that the company's failure to tell investors about the change until 2000 was "materially misleading." (Bloomberg News, 8/3/04; Washington Post, 8/4/04)

 

Changes Allowed Halliburton To Post Higher Profits in 1998 and 1999. The SEC said the accounting tricks enabled Halliburton to report annual earnings in 1998 that were $278.8 million, or 46 percent higher than they would have been had the change not been made and allowed the company to report a profit $40 million higher than they would have been in 1999. (New York Times, 8/4/04; 5/22/02; Wall Street Journal, 5/10/02)

 

Cost Overruns Represented Half of the Companies Operational Revenue in 1998 Fourth Quarter. According to the New York Times, "Cost overruns still in dispute represented 50 percent of Halliburton's operating profit in the fourth quarter of 1998, according to company financial reports." (New York Times, 5/30/02)

 

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease....id=133-08092004

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We have turned Iraq into a shooting gallery. More than 900 American soldiers have been killed. More than 6,000 are wounded. Ten thousand Iraqi civilians are dead since we moved in.

 

New polls show Arabs hate our Iraq policy. They still like our products, technologies and movies, but as a result of our policies, now an unheard of 98 percent of Egyptians have an unfavorable attitude toward America; 89 percent of Moroccans, and 85 percent of Jordanians do.

 

Richard Clark, who headed counterterrorism for Presidents Bush and Reagan, says there was no al-Qaida and no terrorism in Iraq before our invasion in 2003. Rumsfeld's suspicions came true. Iraq is now a recruitment center for al-Qaida, with 1,000 active al-Qaida terrorists in Iraq, according to reports.

 

Yet a stubborn, secretive, deceptive Dick Cheney still won't admit it. He told a group of Marines, just last week: "Terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength. They are invited by the perception of weakness."

 

Not so. His idea of strength has weakened our alliances. His idea of strength has weakened our economy. His idea of strength has weakened our name around the world, bringing those who were for us to be against us. His idea of strength has weakened our security. His idea of strength has skyrocketed gas prices. His idea of strength has fans booing Lance Armstrong. The only strength coming out of this war are the pockets of his old company, Halliburton.

 

We have poured $130 billion into Iraq. If we had sent the money to South Carolina instead, we could have run the state for about eight years, without ever paying taxes. If we had this money, we wouldn't be debating how much to spend on education. Every kid could go to college.

 

http://www.islandpacket.com/editorial/loca...p-3340296c.html

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The charges in the filing go far beyond those outlined this week in a settlement of a civil lawsuit by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which called for Halliburton to pay $7.5 million and Muchmore to pay $50,000 for failing to disclose a change in accounting procedures in 1998. The SEC said the change caused the company to mislead investors in 1998-1999.

 

The filing claims that in late 2001 Halliburton executives misled investors about the company's liability to pay asbestos-related claims. The executives did not disclose for 10 weeks that the company had been ordered to pay a $130 million verdict in Texas - when the case did become public knowledge, Halliburton shares fell 42 per cent in one day.

 

Houston-based Halliburton inherited many of the asbestos claims through a 1998 acquisition of rival Dresser Industries, one of Cheney's main accomplishments as Chairman and CEO.

 

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/B...G_INVESTORS.asp

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1100-1115 maybe higher before more down. However a lower low should happen first. It's a crap shoot from here the way I am seeing this. We could be in an impulse wave 4 with 5 down coming tomorrow and than a rally back up to 1080. That is how I see it. We shall see.

From where I'm sitting TE this whole damned thing is one big crapshoot. :D

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