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Yes, Obama Claims Power to Kill Americans on U.S. Soil

The seemingly endless GOP primary goes through the states of Michigan and Arizona tonight, where Romney and Santorum are the key competitors, while Gingrich and Paul focus elsewhere. BBC reports: "Both men have been campaigning intensively over the past few days. Pre-primary polls gave Mr Romney a marginal lead in Michigan, and a stronger advantage in Arizona. Analysts say a victory in his home state of Michigan is key for Mr Romney. He has long been seen as the front-runner and favourite for the nomination - and currently leads the race for delegates - but has struggled to win over a strong majority of conservative Republican voters. Most polls will close in Michigan at 20:00 EST (01:00 GMT), where 30 delegates are at stake. Delegates will be awarded to candidates in each congressional district, with two at-large delegates also awarded. In Arizona, where polls will close at 19:00 local time (02:00 GMT), 29 delegates will be awarded to the winner of the state's primary."

"All the options from here are bad, I am afraid" is how MEP Daniel Hannan describes the way forward in Europe in this FOX News interview. In one of the clearest and least status-quo-hugging explanations of what has occurred (gentile and bloodless coups in Italy and Greece), the 'cruel and irresponsible behavior' of European leaders stuns him and all in the name of the 'wretched single-currency'. When asked why they (the EU leaders) just don't get it (channeling Upton Sinclair's now infamous quote), Hannan replies "It is remarkably difficult to make a man understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" as he makes it clear that the vested interests in keeping the Euro going (well paid and powerful government jobs for example) means they are prepared to inflict this shocking poverty on the Mediterranean countries. Summing it up nicely: until they leave the Euro, the Greeks have got no light at the end of the tunnel, making the point that Greece's least painful option is to Default, Decouple, and Devalue.

It is time for the US administration to remind everyone that while every other piece of bad news may be priced into the markets in perpetuity, there is still geopolitics. Although that may also be priced in. Either way, the WSJ has just reported that "Federal agents on Friday arrested a man who they allege planned carry out a suicide bombing at the U.S. Capitol, part of a sting operation in which undercover agents posing as al Qaeda operatives provided fake explosives. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington field office said the man was arrested "in the vicinity of the U.S. Capitol." It said the suspect never posed a danger to the public." Ah yes, the good old "threats are among us" gambit. And let's just go with the most trivial cliche possible. If nothing else, it sets the stage for next steps. As for what next steps may be, here is a hint, via Reuters: "Two Iranian naval ships have sailed through Egypt's Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, in a move likely to be keenly watched by Israel. "Two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal (on Thursday) following permission from the Egyptian armed forces," a source in the canal authority said Friday. Two Iranian warships sailed along the strategic waterway on February 17 last year, in a move that Israel called a "provocation." Either way, Suez developments may be Israel's issue for the time being. We now apparently have our own suicide bombers to be 'very worried about.'

• Eurozone dismisses Greek budget deal (FT)
• Germany Says Greece Missing Debt Targets in Aid Rebuff (Bloomberg)
• Germans concerned over Draghi liquidity offer (FT)
• Azumi Says Japan Won’t Be Shy About Unilateral Intervention (Bloomberg)
• Schaeuble Signals Germany Is Flexible on Revising Terms of Portuguese Aid (Bloomberg) - food euphemism for "next on the bailout wagon"
• Venizelos Tells Greek Lawmakers to Back Budget Cuts or Risk Exiting Euro (Bloomberg)
• Putin May Dissolve Ruling Party After Vote (Bloomberg)
• HK Bubble pops? Hong Kong Sells Tuen Mun Site to Kerry for HK$2.7 Billion, Government Says (Bloomberg)
• Gross Buys Treasuries as Buffett Says Bonds Are ‘Dangerous’ (Bloomberg)

So Now Is The Time To Get Your Financial Priorities In Order

CFTC article from 1993 warned of dangers of SIPA liquidation for a futures broker. So why Ch 11 for the parent company, which destroys customer rights?

Imagine pensions not paying retiree funds, insurers not paying claims, and banks collapsing everywhere. Sounds like fun? I will be discussing this live on RT's Capital Account with the lusciously locquacious Lauryn Lyster at 4:30pm.

In under one hour, the New Hampshire GOP Primary polls close. The New Hampshire primary is the second contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican presidential nomination to face Democratic President Barack Obama on Nov. 6. Romney narrowly won the first contest, the Iowa caucuses, on Jan. 3. According to Reuters, and pretty much all of the mainstream media, Mitt Romney is in charge, and Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman appeared to be in a battle for second place in New Hampshire, the small New England state known for its independent streak and outsized role in presidential campaigns. As for Mitt, "A multimillionaire who says his experience as head of private-equity firm Bain Capital would help him spur America's economy as president, Romney might face a bigger challenge in the next primary in South Carolina on Jan. 21, where the economy is weaker and conservatives make up a larger slice of the electorate." Because apparently people in New Hampshire are big fans of 25% IRRs predicated by 5x Debt/EBITDA LBOs. Or something. Follow the primary via the CNN live webcast below, through the WSJ live blog, or via Politico. Fox News is tracking New Hampshire exit polls here. Finally, the live tally of final results can be tracked using the interactive Google map below.

The buck stops here and the votes begin: starting at 7 pm CST, more than 100,000 voters - only a small percentage of the state's electorate - are expected to gather across the state at more than 800 public spots, and cast their votes for their GOP candidate with only three: Paul, Romney and for some unknown reason, Santorum expected to have a fighting changes. Results should begin coming in within a few hours. For those following the caucus for the only important reason: to see how Ron Paul does, or is allowed to do, we have the following live feeds for our readers' disposal.

This could probably explain a lot. According to the FT, which has managed to sneak a peek into Kweku Adoboli aka, the scourge of UBS, Facebook profile, in a July 31 update said: "Will they? Won’t they? Reduced to watching Fox News for guidance, it’s a grim affair". It appears that Adoboli should thus be commended - under those conditions we believe it is a miracle a person's loss can be confined to just $2 billion. FT continues with the cyberstalking: " That was followed a week later amid steep market falls, by an entry that read: “Can we shut down global markets for a week so everyone can just chill out?” It also appears that the Delta One'er (which is just a fancy name for "correlation desk" trader) enjoyed his downtime as well: "He came across as someone who worked quite hard to get where he was and played quite hard too," said the acquaintance. Yet by all counts it appears that the event that did ole' Kweku in was the Swiss intervention on September 6: "However, the final message left by the trader on his own Facebook page on September 6 simply read “need a miracle”." Odd: so does Tim Geithner and the Eurozone. Alas, as the latest "rogue trader" incarnation just found the hard way, those are in short supply these days.

For those who missed it, here is the full video and summary from Boehner's earlier appearance on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. The "Asian market open" strawman is getting closer, and there is absolutely no resolution yet. Ironically, just like with QE3, the all too habituated market will buy every dip (remember: nothing can possibly go wrong in the global Bernanke put regime) easily validating the republicans' paradoxical case that the market can more than survive a failure to reach a debt ceiling hike consensus. In the meantime, even as the S&P surges to unseen heights the economy is on the verge of cannibalizing itself as the government begins scrambling for every available penny of incremental revenue.

No doubt this will be spun as an "editing error". We've heard this before: "fake, but accurate", right? Will FOX news anchor Bill Hemmer resign in disgrace?

Fundamentals got you down? Worried that 19 year old kid with the trigger reflex, trading breakout chart formations and a stratospheric P&L will replace you any day now (especially if you are an expert on "finding good jobs in tough times")? Better use up all those TV-spots while you got them to hit on pretty, barely legal University of South Carolina anchors.

(At 2:25 am in the morning, a little levity is allowed: there is at least 7 hours before the short squeeze rips again.)