By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
The New York Times

Home Depot was forced to drop the sale price of its commercial supply business by nearly $2 billion yesterday, according to people involved in the negotiations, one of the first big buyouts to be renegotiated as a result of recent tightening of the credit markets and problems in the housing market.

The renegotiated deal, which cut the sale price roughly 18 percent, to $8.5 billion, could lead to reconsideration of some other large buyouts that are still pending and are worth nearly $400 billion collectively. Such turmoil is likely to leave the Wall Street banks that backed those deals stuck with billions of dollars in loans that cannot be resold.

In cutting the price tag of the deal so dramatically, Home Depot may have created a template for other buyout firms to drag sellers back to the negotiating table. It could also bring an end to the two-year buyout boom, which was fueled by cheap credit.

More broadly, the modified deal will be a test for the stock and bond markets, which calmed a bit last week after two weeks of decline and uncertainty. Takeovers by private equity firms had helped fuel the stock market’s rise in the last few years, and investors have been watching this deal closely for signs of how the credit squeeze might affect deal-making and the prospects for the overall economy.

read more HERE

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KC & The Sunshine Band
Boogie Shoes

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Nouri, you sound a little pissed. About time! Now, start acting like a damn leader and take some responsibility!

Iraq’s al-Maliki lashes out at Hillary Clinton

Leader responds to Democrat’s call for his replacement; tensions run high

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking Sunday in Baghdad, criticized Democratic frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton for ‘interference’ in his nation’s affairs.

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-al-Maliki lashed out on Sunday at U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton who had called for him to be replaced.

In a sign of increased tension between him and Washington, al-Maliki also criticized the U.S. military for killing civilians.

“There are American officials who consider Iraq as if it were one of their villages, for example Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin,” al-Maliki told a news conference.

“This is severe interference in our domestic affairs. Carl Levin and Hillary Clinton are from the Democratic Party and they must demonstrate democracy,” he said. “I ask them to come to their senses and to talk in a respectful way about Iraq.”

Clinton, a leading candidate to succeed George W. Bush as president, joined Levin, the head of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, in calling last week for Iraq’s parliament to replace al-Maliki for failing to reconcile warring sects.

Al-Maliki criticized the U.S. military for killing civilians during raids in Shiite areas of Baghdad, which have provoked demonstrations by mourners and condemnation from Shiite groups.

“We have said this many times before. When you want to arrest someone it is not acceptable to go there and kill another 10 innocent people or destroy houses. These are violations.”

Reuters

Source: MSNBC.com

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ABC’s “This Week”:
Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and John Cornyn, R-Texas; former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers.

CBS- “Face the Nation”:
Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., and his wife, Elizabeth.

NBC’s “Meet the Press”:
Sen. John Warner, R-Va.; cyclist Lance Armstrong.

CNN’s “Late Edition”:
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. military commander in Iraq; former Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga.

“Fox News Sunday”:
Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Jack Reed, D-R.I.; former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

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This really hits home to me. Many in my family tree, including my dad, were coal miners. Dad was an underground electrician and mechanic. Had to retire early though. Coal dust can do a number on a man’s lungs.

I can only remember one accident that involved a “fall-in”. A big rock fell from the roof of the mine and crushed a man to death. Very sad.

New bore hole drilled at Utah mine finds no sign of life

(CNN) – A sixth bore hole drilled into a space where six Utah miners were thought to be trapped found that the chamber contained no space where the men could have survived, an attorney representing some of the miners’ families told CNN.

“There was zero void,” he quoted Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy, as telling the relatives.
[...]

“They are going through a living hell, and it’s just heartbreaking,” King said of the miners’ families.

Source: CNN.com

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Why do I get the feeling that there’s a handful of higher-ups in our government that know exactly where Bin Laden is?

Into Thin Air

He’s still out there. The hunt for bin Laden.

Osama Bin Laden; Slip sliding away

Sept. 3, 2007 issue - The Americans were getting close. It was early in the winter of 2004-05, and Osama bin Laden and his entourage were holed up in a mountain hideaway along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Suddenly, a sentry, posted several kilometers away, spotted a patrol of U.S. soldiers who seemed to be heading straight for bin Laden’s redoubt. The sentry radioed an alert, and word quickly passed among the Qaeda leader’s 40-odd bodyguards to prepare to remove “the Sheik,” as bin Laden is known to his followers, to a fallback position. As Sheik Said, a senior Egyptian Qaeda operative, later told the story, the anxiety level was so high that the bodyguards were close to using the code word to kill bin Laden and commit suicide. According to Said, bin Laden had decreed that he would never be captured. “If there’s a 99 percent risk of the Sheik’s being captured, he told his men that they should all die and martyr him as well,” Said told Omar Farooqi, a Taliban liaison officer to Al Qaeda who spoke to a NEWSWEEK reporter in Afghanistan.

The secret word was never given. As the Qaeda sentry watched the U.S. troops, the patrol started moving in a different direction. Bin Laden’s men later concluded that the soldiers had nearly stumbled on their hideout by accident. (One former U.S. intelligence officer told NEWSWEEK that he was aware of official reporting on this incident.)

And so it has gone for six years. American intelligence officials interviewed by NEWSWEEK ruefully agree that the hunt to find bin Laden has been more a game of chance than good or “actionable” intelligence. Since bin Laden slipped away from Tora Bora in December 2001, U.S. intelligence has never had better than a 50-50 certainty about his whereabouts. “There hasn’t been a serious lead on Osama bin Laden since early 2002,” says Bruce Riedel, who recently retired as a South Asia expert at the CIA. “What we’re doing now is shooting in the dark in outer space. The chances of hitting anything are zero.”

Evan Thomas, Newsweek

Read the rest of this (large & in depth) article at: MSNBC.com

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REUTERS

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A wealthy Russian tried to buy a U.S. B-52 bomber from a group of shocked American pilots at an air show near Moscow, a Russian newspaper reported on Friday.

The unidentified Russian, wearing sunglasses and surrounded by bodyguards, approached the U.S. delegation and asked to buy the bomber, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said.

An astounded member of the U.S. delegation said the bomber was not for sale but that it would cost at least $500 million (249.5 million pounds) if it were to be sold on the spot.

“That is no problem. It is such a cool machine,” the Russian was quoted as saying by the newspaper, which said its reporter overheard the conversation. The bomber was not sold.

Russia’s new rich, who built fantastic fortunes trading commodities and contacts after the fall of the Soviet Union, have made a name for themselves as ostentatious purchasers of everything from British football clubs to Faberge eggs.

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