Echo From History: Vigilant Republicans in Wisconsin Search Blogging Professor's Emails

This is what is commonly known as an 'intimidation' tactic, a fishing expedition. No need for explanations or probable cause. All perfectly legal. Nice.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin has made an open records request for the emails of a University of Wisconsin professor of history, geography and environmental studies in an apparent response to a blog post the professor wrote about a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Professor William J. Cronon, who is the president-elect of the American Historical Association, said in an interview on Friday that the party asked for emails starting Jan. 1.

The request was made by Stephan Thompson of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. In his request, Thompson asked for emails of Cronon's state email account which "reference any of the following terms: Republican, Scott Walker, recall, collective bargaining, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, or Mary Bell."

Most of the names are Republican legislators. Marty Beil is the head of the Wisconsin State Employees Union and Mary Bell is the head of the Wisconsin Education Association Council.

Thompson was not immediately available for comment.

Bloggers Beware (If You Work at a State University in Wisconsin)

Dirty stuff really, but considering some of the advice these guys have come up with recently about false flag operations, dirty tricks, and physical violence as public policy it is not all that surprising. They could also have the State Police search his car each day as he leaves the parking lot to make sure he has not taken any state property, such as pencils or pads of paper. Who knows what they might find along the way?

Even if nothing ever turns up, there is potential upside. A former Wisconsin Republican made a great national career out of using this sort of political tactic, and endless investigations into anyone he deemed worthy of suspicion, who disagreed with him, capturing the atteniton of the public for a quite a few years: Joe McCarthy.

"Have you no sense of decency?" No they don't.

On the other hand, this *could* set up an interesting precedent and become a trend. The possibilities are almost endless.

I am wondering if we can put forward a Freedom of Information Request for the emails of high level SEC employees that contain any of the following words:   "teen" "horny" "nude" "epic" "erotic" "babe" "MILF" "VIP" "consultant" "interview" "signing bonus" and "Blankfein."

It might be several terabytes of data, but it could be a good read on a cold winter's night.

And I shiver in anticipation of a broad search on the emails of the CFTC: "silver" "gold" "position limit" "JPM" "Summers" "GATA" and "Blythe"

We could have an eBay type auction or a British style betting pool for the most popular search words for Obama's emails to help raise funds for Social Security. I predict a bull market in 'birth certificate,' 'oil,' and 'Hillary.'

Bread and circuses. And Ben and Timmy are the clowns. But two guesses on who is going to clean up after the elephants.

Good night, and good luck.

"We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights."   Justice Felix Frankfurter

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Blythe Rises Early But Lacks Staying Power

"Skillful accumulation is what my observation has been telling me as well. this market is trading just like I used to try and trade illiquid junk bond names that I was trying to buy - hit the market's bid side for a bit and try to shake out sellers and fill in with your own bid...feels like that's what's happening out there right now."

Denver Dave

It was option expiration on the Comex today and they hit the metals again hard, but earlier than usual.

My friend Dave made that comment above early this morning, and I thought he was right. This was not so much a real bear raid as a chance to skin the naive amongst the options traders and holders of miners and funds, and then cover shorts and get a little long.

They keep hitting the miners, probably taking gains there in addition to what they can wring out of the metal itself.

If you have to ask how and if I traded this today, then you have not been following the action. Buy strength, sell weakness, while the trend remains intact. I did add shorts on the stock indices near the top of the day at resistance as insurance, as I was picking up a few miners and higher volatility things in addition to bullion.  I have an open mind on the stocks, but think it will take a 'trigger event' to really bring them down in a serious correction. 

I liked the early hit, as it gave me time to go out and buy some fresh vegetables and fish. My wife usually does all the shopping but she is not feeling so well. She does scrutinize all my purchases carefully however, especially the prices paid. And if I have paid too much, oi yoi!

I do not now how many calls actually translated into new futures positions, but if there are enough it is traditional for Blythe and crew to give them at least one more 'gut check' before letting the markets return to their natural trend, whatever that might be.

As a reminder, the US will report its Non-Farm Payrolls for March on Friday April 1.  The metals are typically hit on such occasion as well.  We are also ending the first quarter.  It could be an interesting week with quite a few cross currents.

I had an interview with Chris Martenson and it is now available here.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Go Long If You Want to be a Big Money Playah

Weak buying from the technical trade caused stocks to rise most of the day, but a definite lack of legitimate retail and institutional buyers, indicated by low volumes, caused equities to sell off into the close, as the momentum players went flat and hit the exits.

Nothing is really broken yet support wise, but the news from Japan and the Middle East remains a drag on the stock optimists.

Europe is troubling, and although it seems to be largely in la-la land, the States are probably heading for a long, hot summer.

Timmy and Ben are under this market. Whether that will be enough is hard to say.  It depends on what happens. 

There is some thought that if the correction does not materialize by the end of the second quarter in June, that there will be a summer rally as fund managers sitting on the sidelines scramble to catch up.   

It might be more likely that they will be sucked in first, and then taken for a ride by the hellhounds of Wall Street.  The market will let us know which scenario unfolds.