Friday's News

++The Dow has crossed 15,000 for the first time ever. The S&P hits 1,600.

++The economy added more jobs for nearly three straight years and unemployment is down to 7.5%.

++Rhode Island became the 10th state to legalize same sex marriage. This means that all of New England has legalized same sex marriages. The significance of Rhode Island is that it is the most Catholic of all the states and it was passed by huge margins in both the Senate and the House.Colorado legalized civil unions. Delaware is expected to be the next state for same sex marriage. Minnesota and Illinois have bills to do the same.

++Colorado passed a bill to expand voter participation in elections. Ohio seeks to penalize universities for encouraging student voters.

++Maryland became the 18th state to outlaw the death penalty. 

++West Virginia adopted the expansion of Medicaid  required by the Obama healthcare overhaul.The Florida legislature adjourned without voting on Medicare expansion.

++South Carolina passed a law making it a crime to honor Obamacare. It is not clear that Nikki Haley will accept it.

++44% of Republicans believe that armed revolution might be necessary to "preserve our liberty".

++Over 70% of Republicans believe in the second coming of Christ and this belief is thought to be the major factor in the GOP believing that climate change is a hoax and there is no necessity in stopping it.

++The NRA is meeting in Texas and elected a new leader who believes the Civil War was an act of Yankee aggression and that training people to shoot is essential for protecting ourselves against the Government.

++The death toll from gun deaths after Newtown has reached 4,000. By the end of May, this number should surpass American casualties in Iraq.

++The oil and gas reserves in the Dakotas and Montana have been vastly underestimated by the Department of Energy. The issue of energy self-sufficiency is rapidly becoming moot. The geostrategic implications for this are enormous. The Pacific pivot came come sooner than we think.

++The sequester has resulted in a payment of $35billion on our national debt.

++Iraq has suffered its worst month since 2008. The country is rapidly descending into a civil war that the Irish Independent calls as worse than Syria.

++Col. Wilkinson, General Powell's former chief of staff,alleged on the Young Turks that the issue of the chemical attack in Syria was a "false flag operation by the Israelis". Wilkinson argued that the Netanyahu government was the most incompetent in Israeli history and that the country faced its worse situation geopolitically since its founding.

++Polls show that the overwhelming number of Americans oppose military intervention in Syria and in Iran.

++President Obama is in Mexico following up with last month's visit with President Prieto. The purpose is to discuss economic relations rather than security arrangements.

++Governor Howard Dean blasted the GOP as a bunch of gasbags who are self-destructing on the Last Word. Dean claimed that the Republicans seem determined to lose the House in 2014 and that there has not been any rebranding. He also predicted that immigration reform will not pass the House and this will doom the GOP chances in the future.