Oil and Tar

No joke

2009-04-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

As newspapers across the nation slide into oblivion AP is cracking down hard, and I mean HARD, on copyright infringements. Never mind bloggers give them more readers but I digress... and from several forums there are folks already being contacted to cease and desist on even the smallest of potatoes on such things as posting a paragraph, or short quote, with a link on forums. (On forums?) Anyway, such layouts on blogs are being pointed out as a no-no. (Though, again, all the emails/letters/phone calls I've heard about have been sent to forums! Insanity!) That said, I will more than likely do one of three things: Be closing Oil and Tar, write my own bits about the story in full rather then include quotes or paragraphs from the original, or wait to see how this stink pans out. Goodness knows they shouldn't go after the little guys... but then again, in this failing, fragile economy, never say never.

Part of me understands, both as a writer and having dealt with AP, another part of me says they are shooting themselves in the foot.

Anyway, you can always visit me at Mother of the Munchkins. No quoting and linking there. I don't readily speak politically at that blog but I'd be more than happy to have you over.

Adios!
MOTM

An older video on AP issue...

Stupidity times a million!

2009-03-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

It's very unfortunate that these teens, these children, are that stupid.

Many Boston teens surveyed say Rihanna is at fault for assault

Nearly half of the 200 Boston teenagers interviewed for an informal poll said pop star Rihanna was responsible for the beating...
Link here...

Mind-boggling.

Sad.

Disturbing.

Reality check

2009-03-09T15:37:00.000-07:00

We interrupt this broadcast, with the truth!

2009-03-05T05:14:00.001-08:00

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Stupid is, as stupid does

2009-03-03T11:21:00.000-08:00

Silly woman, it's only a 911 emergency when they forget to salt the fries. Duh!

A McNuggets "Emergency"
Floridian called 911 three times over McDonald's chicken shortage

MARCH 3--Angered that her local McDonald's was out of Chicken McNuggets, a Florida woman called 911 three times to report the fast food "emergency."

Link here...

Time for some good news! Of sorts.

2009-03-02T14:04:00.001-08:00

I think we need a little good news today, right?

If more employers would simply embrace this new way of thinking what an enormous change to our country, our lives! The old school thinking needs to be abandoned. (This goes with schools but we'll leave that subject for another day.) Why employers find it necessary to have warm bodies to prove production, (In such jobs that can be done from home, of course.) is beyond me. It's just too bad one of the company examples in this story is Capital One. I no likey C.O.

Telecommuting: Once a Perk, Now a Necessity

Eve Gelb's life was once a blur of hour-and-a-half commutes on the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles. What memories...

Link here...

I can't write here anymore because...

2009-02-23T16:41:00.000-08:00

... of the sheer stupidity of our government...

Washington sends $1 food stamp checks to 250,000
The Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. The state of Washington sent out $1 checks to the 250,000 food stamp recipients in the state.

(with information from The Olympian)

Link here...

No reading between the lines necessary!

2009-02-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

We interrupt this broadcast...

2009-01-30T17:46:00.000-08:00

Too close to home

2009-01-29T05:23:00.000-08:00

Police Investigate Possible Murder-Suicide

WHITEHALL, Ohio – Police are investigating a possible murder-suicide after four bodies were found inside a Whitehall home Wednesday.

Police responded to a home on Beechwood Road at about 1:30 p.m. after detectives received a call from a concerned family member, NBC 4‘s Candice Lee reported.

The relative who called police indicated there may have been guns at the property, prompting the officers to enter the home with caution.

Inside the home, police found the bodies of an adult man, adult woman and two children, ages 8 and 5.

A neighbor told NBC 4 that the man living in the home had recently lost his job and investigators said that may have contributed to the deaths.

Police said they found a weapon inside the home, but refused to say whether it was used in the deaths.

The bodies remain at the scene while the investigation continues.

Stay with NBC 4 and refresh nbc4i.com for the latest news and information.
To submit a story idea or news tip, e-mail stories@nbc4i.com.

Link here...

Just another day in our little messed up world

2009-01-27T06:08:00.000-08:00

Give it time to hit our shores...

Open up, madam. We've a warrant to search your fridge

Recession, what recession? The economy may be going to hell in a handcart, but the Government still has money to burn.

Link here...

93-year-old froze to death, owed big utility bill

BAY CITY, Mich. (AP) - A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his home just days after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills, officials said.

Link here...

Nations turn to barter deals to secure food

Countries struggling to secure credit have resorted to barter and secretive government-to-government deals to buy food...

Link here...

History in the making

2009-01-20T10:35:00.000-08:00

Full text of speech

Optimism is good...

How the Presidents stack up

We interrupt this broadcast...

2009-01-19T05:14:00.000-08:00

Well, here's some rap I actually enjoy! (NSFW or little kids ears due to a few colorful words in the lyrics.)

Don't shoot the messenger

2009-01-16T19:06:00.001-08:00

Being completely honest there are days I feel like I am living a double life. Especially noted on my two blogs. On one, I write about the humorous day-to-day musings as a mother of two small children. That life seems particularly surreal when I come to, Oil and Tar, to the realities of our world. I'm constantly torn between these two worlds. Feeling a fake as I write at MOTM and feeling like the Messenger of Doom here.

I often wonder, which world will win?

California controller to suspend tax refunds, welfare checks

John Chiang announces that his office will suspend $3.7 billion in payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, as a result of the state's cash crisis. Student grants are also affected.

Link here...

More information here and here on what payments will be missed and how it will affect you, if you live in California.

...

Need a break from the gloom...
...in sorts...
play
The Bailout Game!

...

Now there's a hunk of... change?

2009-01-14T09:23:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry... the country is B-R-O-K-E and they are throwing millions at a party? (Check the full article to see how much YOU, the tax payer, are expected to foot on this bill.) Don't get me wrong, this is a monumental time in history, people should celebrate, but we need to be realistic, too. Our country is in dire times, we are headed for ever more dire times. How much more is the tax payer expected to take on?

Bush declares a 'state of emergency' as cost of Obama's swearing-in ceremony soars to £110m

Barack Obama's inauguration is set to cost more than £100m making it the most expensive swearing-in ceremony in US history.

...

As the Obama team went into damage control over Geither, President Bush declared a state of emergency in Washington - because so many people were expected to attend the inauguration.

Link here...

Shipping rates hit zero as trade sinks

Freight rates for containers shipped from Asia to Europe have fallen to zero for the first time since records began...

Link here...

U.S. Economy: Retail Sales Decline for a Sixth Month

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Sales at U.S. retailers fell more than twice as much as forecast in December as job losses and the lack of credit led Americans to cut back on everything from car purchases to eating out.

Link here...

"We had fun"??

2009-01-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

Seriously, can this man just shut up already??

9/11, two wars, Katrina: 'We had fun', says Bush

It was eight turbulent years: 9/11, two wars, Hurricane Katrina and the worst recession since the 1930s. But President George Bush's verdict at his final press conference yesterday was: "We had fun."

Link here...

*I'm sorry, but it should read ALL of US history...

Meanwhile, as they are fighting and pointing fingers, people are in danger of FREEZING!

Russia, Ukraine trade blame as Europe sees no gas

MOSCOW – Russia and Ukraine hotly blamed each other Tuesday as Russia restarted natural gas supplies but little or no gas flowed toward Europe.

Link here...

Closer to home...

Ohio unemployment fund runs out

Ohio's unemployment compensation fund has been depleted, forcing the state to begin borrowing federal funds.

Link here...

More Kool-Aid?

2009-01-09T04:32:00.000-08:00

Folks need to realize the gov will do anything, ANYTHING to paint the picture rosy, or at the very least, as mild as possible, by screwing with the REAL numbers. I've said it before, when it comes to the numbers given on unemployment easily add another 10% to get reality...

Great Depression jobs parallel may not be far flung

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When economists tell us the current U.S. slump could never turn into another Great Depression, they all point to one thing: one of four Americans was out of work in the 1930s.

Link here...

An HR 4040 video, barely scratches the surface on the implications this new law will have, but it's a good start.

A must read about the Somali pirates...

You Are Being Lied to About Pirates

...

The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. ...

...

Link here...

What MSM won't show

2009-01-08T05:56:00.001-08:00

Funny, I heard about the Oakland riots from my news forum but not anywhere on MSM news. Am I surprised? .... hardly...

Oh, wait, here AP has a story....

Fatal Calif. train station shooting sparks anger

By TERRY COLLINS – 6 hours ago

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Protests over the fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer turned violent Wednesday night with windows broken, fires set and train stations closed.

Link here...

UPDATE!!!

I couldn't leave this as a link, Dan speaks too well of what is going on with the MSM!!

No soup for you!

2009-01-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

What? No more garage sales or consignment buys for the kiddies? Absolute insanity!!!

New safety rules for children's clothes have stores in a fit

Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children's clothing.

Link here...

That little doozy above has far reaching implications. Think about it. If you want to dig further into this new law, search: HR 4040, also known as the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

Putin orders halt in gas supplies to Ukraine

MOSCOW (AP) -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered Gazprom to stop all shipments of natural gas to Europe through Ukraine.

Link here...

Is anyone else just a wee bit embarrassed over the fact we were getting cheap oil from Chavez for our poor? Chavez... seriously??

Venezuela shuts cheap oil pipeline for 200,000 US homes

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Some 200,000 US households will no longer get cheap heating oil from Venezuela after the state-owned CITGO subsidiary announced it was dropping the program due to falling oil prices...

Link here...

In case you missed the memo

2009-01-06T07:37:00.001-08:00

Hard-Hit Families Finally Start Saving, Aggravating Nation's Economic Woes
BOISE, Idaho -- Rick and Noreen Capp recently reduced their credit-card debt, opened a savings account and stopped taking their two children to restaurants. Jessica and Alan Muir have started buying children's clothes at steep markdowns, splitting bulk-food purchases with other families and gathering their firewood instead of buying it for $200 a cord.
Link here...

SPEND EVERY LAST PENNY TO SAVE AMERICA!!! NEVER MIND IF AMERICA WILL SAVE YOU ONCE YOU'RE BROKE*!!!!!

*unless you are a bank, of course, the gov will be happy to throw millions your way, without any need to know what you plan on spending it on!

What's that noise when something is crashing?

2009-01-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

This one's going to hurt...

Microsoft getting ready to lay off 17% of staff

Worldwide cutbacks

The rumor that Microsoft was set to lay off people on January 15th, 2009 is no longer a rumor but a fact. Staff at Microsoft have been informed that the company is readying major layoffs to its worldwide operations and it's not a small cut, either.

Link here...

Oh, now if this doesn't just fit the bill!

Bernie's funda-mental defense

If you thought Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion investment scheme was audacious, get ready for his alibi.

Link here...

Good gravy!!!

US asks Arab nations for $300 Billion to fund auto bailout

The US has had to go cap in hand to the Middle East asking for $300 Billion to fund the bail out for the auto industry.

Link here...

... so let's see what the New Year is up to...

2009-01-01T06:33:00.001-08:00

Now all of Congress needs to follow this example! Remember, in these dire times, Congress is going ahead with their raises because it is automatic. Goodness knows it is just too much trouble to make changes...

Rep. Barrett to give pay raise to charity

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett says he is donating his new congressional raise to an Anderson charity.

Barrett says he will donate the $4,700 salary increase that begins in 2009 to Anderson Interfaith Ministries - an organization of churches and individuals who provide assistance to the needy and helps them become self-sufficient.

Link h ere...

Guess they were serious this time.

Gazprom Cuts Off Gas Deliveries to Ukraine

MOSCOW — Gazprom, the Russian energy monopoly, shut the entire flow of natural gas intended for Ukraine’s domestic consumption Thursday morning after negotiations over prices and transit fees unraveled the day before.

Link h ere...

Fire sale, everything U.S. of A. must go... news is a couple days old but looks like price tags will be over everything. Just who is going to buy it should have all of us worried and on our feet!

U.S. states consider selling off roads, parks

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) — Minnesota has a huge budget deficit, but the state still owns a premier golf resort, a sprawling amateur sports complex, a big airport, a major zoo and land holdings the size of the Central American country of Belize.

Link here...

Burning bills

2008-12-31T08:35:00.000-08:00

...meanwhile...

U.S. throws GMAC $6 billion lifeline

Treasury injects $5B into finance firm key to General Motors' survival, while automaker gets $1B loan to make its own investment in GMAC.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In yet another move to prop up the crumbling U.S. auto industry, the government announced Monday that it will pump $6 billion into GMAC ...
Link here...

...and since we can't seem to learn ANYTHING from our mistakes...

GMAC to Expand Retail Auto Financing

DETROIT, Dec. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- GMAC Financial Services will immediately resume auto financing for a broader spectrum of U.S. customers as a result of expanded access to funding...

Link here...

2009 is going to be hell...

Tough one to swallow

2008-12-30T05:26:00.000-08:00

Out of all the doomer articles I've read this one definitely gives 100% chills... at least now I understand my obsession with the word, "Eh." I'm going to be Canadian!

As if things weren't bad enough, Russian Professor predicts end of U.S.

In Moscow, Igor Panarin's forecasts are all the rage; America "disintergrates' in 2010.
By ANDREW OSBORN
MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010....

Link here..

click pic for larger view

Ebert a doomer?

2008-12-29T16:01:00.000-08:00

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold

By Roger Ebert
It's all coming to pieces, isn't it -- the world we live in, the continuity we thought we could count on, the climate, the economy, the fragile peace. The 20th century was called "the American Century," with some reason. I do not believe the 21st century will belong to anybody, and it may not last for 100 years of human witness. There are nuclear weapons in the Middle East and on the Indian subcontinent, and if one is used, more will follow and who can say when the devastation will end?

The weather is unhinged. It is no longer a question of global warming. It is a question of what in the hell is happening? I do not have to rehearse for you the details of this horrible American autumn, and a winter not yet half over. The tornadoes, the hurricanes, the floods, the blizzards, the wild fires, the heat waves, the water shortages, the power blackouts. The White House declares "a state of emergency" and the federal government sends money. How many states of emergency are we still in? How much more money is there?
Link here...

Be sure to read the comments after the posting... it is always helpful to get different opinions. Make your own, of course, but be open minded. Always.

Environmental disaster hell

2008-12-28T19:24:00.000-08:00

This has been going on for a week with little news coverage. It is considered by many environmental groups as larger then the Exxon spill...

more here...

and here...

...So the accident raises a serious question: Is there such a thing as "clean coal"?

Link here...

Monkeys

2008-12-22T10:38:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each.

This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.

They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!

Now you have a better understanding of how the WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN WILL WORK!!!!

Boooooooo!

2008-12-19T07:43:00.000-08:00

SHAME!!!!

With economy in shambles, Congress gets a raise

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” said Daniel O’Connell, chairman of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan group. “This money would be much better spent helping the millions of seniors who are living below the poverty line and struggling to keep their heat on this winter.”

Link here...

Send your highly pissed off letter to your congressman. NOW! Asking why in these incredibly dire times they have the balls to give themselves a raise?

write 'em here

Keep your enemies closer, eh?

2008-12-18T05:29:00.000-08:00

I dropped the ball again didn't I? Well, I've got plenty of good excuses... especially of that being how much BAD news is out there. Which to pick...

Paulson May Seek Next $350 Billion in Financial-Rescue Funds

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson may ask Congress for the second half of the $700 billion bank rescue program...

Link here...

...Uncut...

As Bush makes a crude joke about a “size 10 shoe,” Muntader al-Zaidi
can be heard screaming in the background.

Who needs enemies when you've got friends like this!

Woman Says Church Threatening To Make Sins Public

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A divorced Jacksonville woman said her former church has threatened to "go public with her sins" ...

Link here...

...what you will...

2008-12-14T18:17:00.000-08:00

...Shoe will be worth something...

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-10T08:24:00.000-08:00

...

8 really, really scary predictions

Known as Dr. Doom, the NYU economics professor saw the mortgage-related meltdown coming.

Link here...

Economy rescue: Adding up the dollars

The government is engaged in an unprecedented - and expensive - effort to rescue the economy. Here are all the elements of the bailouts.

Link here to see a chart of all the scary unknowns...

And things just got a whole lot uglier...

The Consequences of Nuclear Conflict between India and Pakistan

NRDC's nuclear experts think about the unthinkable, using state-of-the-art nuclear war simulation software to assess the crisis in South Asia.

Link here...

Ho...*gulp* Ho...

Timing is everything...

2008-12-09T08:47:00.000-08:00

... is it just me or this a bit of a quinkie-dink arrest considering Rod's recent dealings with BOA? Hmmmmm......

FBI Arrests Illinois Governor
FBI agents this morning arrested Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich (D) and his chief of staff on conspiracy and bribery charges...

Link here...

Pakistan: We're ready for war with India

Pakistan warned it is ready for war with India if it is attacked following the strike by the Mumbai terrorists.

"We do not want to impose war, but we are fully prepared in case war is imposed on us," said Mr Qureshi.

Link here...

Meanwhile...

India quakes over China's water plan

BANGALORE - Even as India and China are yet to resolve their decades-old territorial dispute, another conflict is looming.

Link here...

Houston, we have a problem...

2008-12-08T08:49:00.000-08:00

Let's hope they're wrong because the domino affect of losing 1 mil a month would be devastating.

Fears of a million layoffs a month in corporate America

As many as a million American jobs could be lost every month by next spring as businesses struggle to raise capital in financial markets consumed by fear, according to a new analysis.

Link here...

State budget troubles worsen

This one is a little dated, from mid-November, but still rings pretty harsh...

States are facing a great fiscal crisis...

Link here...

Oh, but the market is soaring, so what's the prob... oh yeah... more unemployment!

Dow Chemical Gains on Plan to Cut 5,000 Jobs, Close Factories

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Dow Chemical Co., the largest U.S. chemical maker, rose the most in more than a month in New York trading after announcing plans to eliminate 11 percent of its workforce, close plants and sell businesses.

Link here...

Get the ball rolling again...

2008-12-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

Let's see...

Workers Stay At Shuttered Window Plant

Union Claims Bank Of America Has Violated Their Rights In Cutting Off Republic Windows And Doors

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Dozens of former employees of Republic Windows and Doors continued to remain at the shuttered North Side plant late Friday, saying they're being cheated.

Link here...

Oh, but we can't possibly hit another Depression... just like for months they said we weren't going to have a recession. Um, yeah... whatever.

California Eyes IOUs for Second Time Since Depression (Update1)

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- California, the world’s eighth-largest economy, may pay vendors with IOUs for only the second time since the Great Depression, State Finance Director Mike Genest said...

Link here...

It is time for the .gov to stop with their hokey unemployment numbers and start telling the truth. But we know how .gov is with anything concerning, "the truth".

Grim Job Report Not Showing Full Picture

As bad as the headline numbers in Friday’s employment report were, they still made the job market look better than it really is...

Link here...

WHOA!

2008-11-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

Has it really been that long since I blogged? I think the weariness of the elections got to me and simply couldn't post anymore... hang on to your hats. Let's see if I can get back to biz.

Storm of the Century

2008-08-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

FEMA: New Orleans Levees May Not Hold

Nagin says, Get out!

The mayor of New Orleans has issued a mandatory evacuation order for the entire city, as Hurricane Gustav bears down on the US Gulf Coast.

He called it "the storm of the century" and added: "You need to be scared".

...

"If you are stubborn enough, if you are not taking this as seriously as we need you to take it, and if you decide to stay; you are on your own."

Let's hope everyone gets out.

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-08-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

First comes Gustav... then comes Hannah,
is that third one the baby carriage?

Ulk...

Not going to be pretty....

... a lovely flower garden...

2008-08-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

I LOVE these folks!!!

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-08-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

Because this is HUGE!!!!

You can add the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to the list of entities that may be in line for a Treasury Department bailout...

Link here...

This is a clear indication of just how bad things really are "behind the scenes". AND, there are reports of MORE banks on the trubs list?

When does this house of cards fall?

I kind of repeated myself there... ah well...

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-08-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

I came across a new site, haven't really dug in there but you might find his thoughts interesting. Scary. Or trite.

To each their own.

P.S. Sorry for the absence. HDD crash followed by ailments followed by WAH job insanity! Cheerios!

WAR ALERT!!!
by Edgar J. Steele

If I'm wrong, then so be it. I'll apologize for being overreactive later. Too much hangs in the balance if I am right. Treat it as an exercise if you like. A practice for when the real thing happens, because you can be sure the real thing will happen ... and soon.

Link here

As with everything here at Oil and Tar, I don't necessarily agree with everything, but find it valid to post it as interest to my readers. Take from it what you will.

Adios for now!

P.S. Check out online news channels, including (outside US MSM) newscasts on the Georgia war here.

Why?

2008-07-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

A MUST read that should be passed along to all your family and friends.

Thar She Blows: The Last Hurrah for the Banking System

Something has gone terribly wrong with the economy, but no one knows what it is?

..."The blogs were a bit out of control. We're very mindful of the media coverage and blogs in controlling misinformation. All I can say is were going to continue to stay on top of it. The misinformation that came out over the weekend fed a lot of depositors' fears."

Link for full article here...

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-07-27T14:27:00.001-07:00

There is no place we feel safe.

2008-07-24T14:10:00.001-07:00

Folks, the sinking ain't over...
and there aren't enough life preservers.

Governor plans to slash state workers' pay

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans next week to slash the pay of more than 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum of $6.55 per hour to help ease the state's budget crisis, according to a draft executive order obtained by The Chronicle on Wednesday.

Link here...

Jobless claims surge above 400,000

WASHINGTON — The number of newly laid off people filing claims for unemployment benefits bolted past 400,000 last week as companies trimmed their workforces to cope with a slowing economy.

Link here...

Food stamp use soars in Mass.

Massachusetts, which earlier this decade had the lowest percentage of eligible residents using food stamps, now has the fastest-growing food-stamp program in the country, a dramatic turnaround that state officials attribute to soaring food prices and a simplified application process.

Link here...

The SUB... Sport Utility BIKE!

Link here...

The battle continued...

2008-07-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not really sure what the heck is going on with the layout, but I'm working on it... grrrr....

Does your back ache? Do your shoulders feel heavier then usual, as if you've a sudden dozen plus monkeys on your shoulder? Maybe a ton of bricks? Ought to take a look back there and see what it is, don't you think?

Woes Afflicting Mortgage Giants Raise Loan Rates

Mortgage rates are rising because of the troubles at the loan finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, threatening to deal another blow to the faltering housing market.

Link here...

U.S. Expansion May Be First Without Income Recovery

The current U.S. economic expansion is the first in 60 years that may end before many Americans have recovered from the last slowdown. ...

Link here...

It's a Class War, Stupid

I am a single mother with a 9-year-old boy. To stay warm at night my son and I would pull off all the pillows from the couch and pile them on the kitchen floor...

— Letter from a single mother in a Vermont city, to Senator Bernie Sanders

Link here...

The angry questions

2008-07-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

Well, TPTB have managed to make water a luxury,
so I guess it's only fair that food follow.

(Oh, and when do they start taxing us on breathing air, you suppose?)

Food: A luxury Item?

Who would have imagined having to go to a boutique to buy rice, beans, vegetables, and meat? But perhaps this reality is not so far off. The average price of food has tripled in the last twelve months.

Link here...

Don't you just looooove the spinmeisters. How they twist an enormous loss of money and jobs as, "Not being as bad as we thought." Wow! That's optimism for ya!

Citigroup posts $2.5B loss, but beats expectations

NEW YORK - Citigroup posted another loss and laid off 6,000 employees in the second quarter as it struggled with surging loan defaults, but the $2.5 billion shortfall was smaller than Wall Street anticipated.

Link here...

... so, just to brighten your day (not)

Development: US fails to measure up on 'human index'

Nation slumps from 2nd to 12th in global table
Richest fifth take home $168,000, poorest $11,000

Link here...

But they do

2008-07-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

** first, sorry that the page looked skewed. I work through FireFox so it keeps the layouts looking great. If you are through IE then the page probably looked like crap. My bad. **

IndyMac customers, hope you kept good records on how much money you have so as not to get screwed! P.S. I'll be removing the video soon, since I can't get the controls to show due to my layouts. Link will remain.

Link here...

"I'm not an economist, I'm an optimist."
- George W. Bush, July 15, 2008

How does Bush sleep at night?

Speaking of GM...

Shell-shocked GM retirees react: 'This is a knife stab in the back'

Effective Jan. 1, GM will end health benefits for 97,400 salaried retirees 65 or older, their spouses and dependents. Retirees will receive an extra $300 a month in their pension checks that could be used to buy health care.

Link here...

But NO, we're not in a recession... just be optimistic and everything will be okay.

Um. Yeah. Right.

We've planted every seed we've got

2008-07-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

Wow.

It seems to be the only word I can use that doesn't send me into some sort of emotional tirade about the current state of affairs about the globe.

Are you ready for this?

They were told their money was 'totally safe.' It wasn't.

Norm Brown thought he was doing three of his friends a favor last year when he suggested they invest in a little-known type of security whose interest rate was higher than that of a money market account but was supposed to hold little risk.

Today, he wishes he'd kept his mouth shut.

Link here...

10 Reasons Why Your Economic Pain Isn’t ‘Mental’

Yesterday, Phil Gramm backtracked from his candid view that America has “become a nation of whiners.” (Watch the video of his original comment.) But he refused to back down from his assertion that Americans and the media are to blame for the current economy. “I said we are in a mental recession. We keep getting the steady drum beat of bad news…it’s become a mental recession,” Gramm said. That comment tracks John McCain’s own view that the economic pain experienced by Americans is largely “psychological.”

Link here...

US STOCKS-Futures tumble on credit woes; Bernanke eyed

NEW YORK, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell sharply on Tuesday as concerns about the credit crisis' impact on banks and other financial services companies curbed investors' appetite for riskier assets and sparked a global stock market slide.

Link here...

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-07-13T16:12:00.001-07:00

Wow. Simply wow. I'm appalled that the word, "whiner" has suddenly become vogue verbage in regards to anyone who is the slightest bit pessimistic about our economy.

It reminds me of Bush, when he said, "Either you are with us or against us." Meaning, if you weren't in agreement about the Iraq war then you were on the side of the terrorists.

In the near future, should you question the Powers That Be and their decisions, will you be labeled a terrorist AND a whiner?

Wow.

I think the problem is far too many assume whiners are those harping that they can no longer afford $50 jeans, eat out, go to the mall, or buy large screen TVs. Let's face it, the MSM just loves to zero in on these idiots during LIVE get-your-opinion pieces.

No, the real, so-called whiners they are insulting are the ones with legit concerns. Who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads due to a loss of a job. Can't afford health care. Facing utility cutoffs, etc. These are the people they want to permanently shut up for questioning whether things are really so rosy.

How audacious of anyone to crinkle their brow and go hmmmm about the doings of the powers that be!

So when you hear the word, "whiners" being thrown out in a MSM story just remember the man who said he was dropping his health insurance (I would love to get my hands on that video.) so he could afford to continue driving to work...

STOP WHINING?

Wow.

Has the last straw finally fallen on your back, yet?

Where to write your senator here

An easy way to write your state Representative here

*pic from www.workitownit.com

If you want it...

2008-07-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

I do believe it states, "We the People..."

Remark dogs McCain

McCain was already running into a stiff headwind because of an ailing economy, and his task became tougher after former Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, suggested the United States has "become a nation of whiners."

Gramm, who has helped shape McCain's presidential campaign and is a close friend of the candidate, expressed no regret Thursday for the comments he made in an interview with the Washington Times, saying: "I'm not going to retract any of it. Every word I said was true."

Link here...

And that doesn't mean I'm a big fan of Obama, either...

Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government

Washington, DC -

Update: Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley is pushing the bill.

Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America's small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill's managers without debate this week, would require the nation's payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

Link here...

Bush signs new rules on government wiretapping

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed a bill Thursday that overhauls rules about government eavesdropping and grants immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the U.S. spy on Americans in suspected terrorism cases

Link here...

Rove ignores committee's subpoena, refuses to testify

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Karl Rove, President Bush's longtime political guru, refused to obey an order to testify before a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday.

Link here...

Oh, this last one just cracks me up to no end...

Airlines Send Letters To Flyers Asking For Help

MILWAUKEE -- The struggling airline industry is reaching out to its best customers by asking flyers to call on Congress to help them.

Link here...

Has the last straw finally fallen on your back, yet?

Where to write your senator here

An easy way to write your state Representative here

A little sour

2008-07-05T07:40:00.001-07:00

Life, liberty and an SUV: Why we can’t all live like Americans.

The US, with one twentieth of the world’s population, currently uses about 7.5 billion barrels of oil a year. If everyone consumed oil at the same rate, then planetary consumption would be twenty times 7.5 billion. That means we would be using over 150 billion barrels per annum. Known petroleum reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion – which sounds like a lot…

So, how long would those oil reservoirs last if we all lived the lifestyle of the average American and burnt over 150 billion barrels a year?

Just eight years.

Link here...

Is it the name, "Bertha" alone that makes it sound so menacing? Or that "Bertha" is fairly close to the name, "Bernanke"? I know, it is a stretch, but still gives me the creeps.

Tropical Storm Bertha forms in the Atlantic

MIAMI — Tropical Storm Bertha has formed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa.

At 11 p.m. EDT Thursday, Bertha was centered 185 miles west-southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands.

The second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season is moving toward the west at about 14 mph, and forecasters expect that to continue for the next two days.

Maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph. Some gradual strengthening was forecast during the next day or two.

It's still too early to say if or where Bertha will hit land.

The first named storm this year, Arthur, formed in the Atlantic the day before the season officially started June 1 and soaked the Yucatan Peninsula.

Link here...

Fed to the wolves... but wait... where the heck ARE all the wolves??

The Economy? Words Fail Me.

Link here...

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-07-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hey, is that Bush on the drums?

What do you think?

2008-07-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Part one: America is falling apart
Growing backlog of repairs to roads, sewers and other basics threatens economy, livability

America is falling apart.

Literally.

From highways to bridges to plumbing to telecommunications, we are not keeping up with our national maintenance chores.

Our highways are crumbling. Just maintaining them as they are would cost up to 40 cents a gallon more in gas taxes over the next five years.

And that would do nothing to meet the increased demand; highway travel and hours stuck in traffic have both grown by about 25 percent in the past 10 years.

Remember that bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last summer? More than one-quarter of U.S. bridges -- including one-quarter of Oregon's -- are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.

We need to spend $250 billion to fix our aging water pipes. And our telecommunications system is far slower than the rest of the world's lightning-fast broadband.

Link here...

Dow Jones breaks Great Depression record for poor performance

"Nothing's going right for the average American household: Gas prices are at record highs, stock prices are falling, housing values are evaporating, we' re losing jobs, unemployment rising. It's just a very difficult time," Moody's Economy.com Economist Mark Zandi said.

Getting from here to there is more difficult as well. Boating is way down. Airline prices are way up. Even filling the gas tank has people doing the math. "I could maybe do $5. But once it gets close to $6 a gallon, it really makes you think a lot," Brian Hanable, a motorcycle rider from California, said.

Link here...

Feel Powerless? Buy Something
Research Shows Lost Power Leads to Conspicuous Consumption

Want to know why you just bought that gadget that you really can't afford? Because you were feeling like a wimp.

A new study out of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., shows that the more often we feel powerless, the more likely we are to spend ourselves into the poor house. The study, published in the current edition of the Journal of Consumer Research, contends that when the boss puts you down, you feel so robbed of power that you're more likely to go out and buy yourself some status symbol. When that happens, you're willing to pay a lot more for it than if you felt powerful, a process the researchers call "compensatory consumption."

Link here...

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-06-30T09:36:00.000-07:00

I gave my husband, "World Made by Hand" by James Kunstler and he started reading it last night. I've been meaning to share my thoughts on the book but keep putting it off because I really don't have a whole lot of nice things to say about it.

I had originally bought the book for myself in hopes that I would draw something from it, as I did immensely and forever life-changing after reading, "Into the Forest" by Jean Hegland. But with absolutely no single strong female character and a host of other problems, "World Made by Hand" was very disappointing.

It isn't a terrible book, if you are a male, that is. And yes, it is extremely thought provoking and terrifying about our lives after peak oil. But I think a majority of women readers would find it offensive so I strongly recommend Hegland's Into the Forest as an introduction to a peak oil world.

Now to the problems with World Made by Hand.

One problem is the huge gap as to exactly what happened. There's no definitive dates as to how long it has been since things went belly up. There are bits-n-pieces, but I found it very confusing. Some folks may like that, I did not. I wanted direct answers.

Another problem is the far too easy set up of having the main character living in a community full of people who, for one thing, get along. Save those unsavories in the trailer park. That this little community is chock full of folks who can do every-other lost-art task. Such as growing a successful garden and deriving plenty of food from it. Sewing clothes, basket weaving, having a few teachers here and there to edu-ma-cate the few surviving young 'uns. That there are plenty of carpenters or plumbers in town, with also the fortune of having at least one dentist and a doctor in the area.

Another problem is that Kunstler has not one strong female character. He throws women back at least 100 years. They hold no major offices or positions in the community. The only two female characters who manage to get some readership time are pathetic. One is an unpaid concubine (more or less) to the male lead who is unable or unwilling to make any decisions in her life. Well, maybe that's because the only major decisions given her is which man to love. Her husband or the male lead. The second female character is a pretty young thing named Tiffany or Britney, (So forgettable obviously.) who is half the age of the male lead, and comes across as a sniveling limp child with no purpose in her life beyond keeping someone warm in bed. Which, of course, ends up being the very bed of the male lead, twice her age.

Blech.

I would tell you what the third, completely unimportant and preposterous female character is, but she has perhaps two pages and no purpose. When I came across her my first thought was, "Why?" followed by, "What. The. Hell?"

I'll let you discover that one on your own. Should you dare to take this mission and especially if you are female and don't mind being disgusted page by page.

That sadly said, I think WMBH will make a good introduction for men as to the Peak Oil situation but let's hope they don't take it literally. I would hate to see, for all the work we've done, women thrown back to, "barefoot and pregnant". At the very least, allow my husband to walk away with the dire situation our world, our lives, are in once oil is unattainable. Just not the notion he'll be getting some pretty little sex fiend named either Britney or Tiffany in a PO world. LOL

For the most part I find Kunstler extremely informative from his blog and articles. Just because I didn't like his fictional work does not mean I have no respect for his other work. You have to allow him some failures, he is a man, after all. ;)

All joking aside,Kunstler's non-fiction, blog and articles are immensely valuable so if you've a chance Google him and read up. Again, if you want a fictional piece, a solid, strong, and valuable learning tool on a world after peak oil, please check out, Into the Forest by Jean Hegland.

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-06-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

My hometown sold out?

Greenville may be burial site for greenhouse gases

By Ben Sutherly
Staff Writer
Sunday, June 29, 2008

GREENVILLE — Efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions are going underground here — literally.

The federal government is funding the bulk of a $92.8 million project that would inject 1 million tons of compressed carbon dioxide emissions from an ethanol plant into a well more than half a mile deep.

"In the United States, it hasn't been done at this scale in a single well so far," said Neeraj Gupta of Columbus-based Battelle, a leading partner in the project.

Before the four-year injection period begins in 2010 at The Andersons Marathon Ethanol LLC plant, scientists will research whether the technology — called carbon sequestration — could trigger seismic activity at the Greenville site.

Seismic activity was linked to deep well injection in Colorado in the 1960s, including earthquakes with Richter magnitudes of 5.1 and 5.2.

Significant tremors in the Greenville area are unlikely, according to officials at Battelle, which manages the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership. MRCSP is contributing nearly $32 million for the project, including $3 million in state funding through the Ohio Coal Development Office. The federal government is paying $61 million.

"We're pretty confident in the technology that exists and that we can do this properly," said Chuck Lowe, a geologist in the Underground Injection Control group with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which issues permits for such wells.

Currently unregulated, carbon dioxide is a nonflammable, nontoxic gas thought to contribute to global warming. Forced into the ground under pressure, it should stay within a mile of the injection. A 500-foot thick layer of dense rock would cap it, according to a project proposal.

"We think it is highly unlikely that the carbon dioxide is going to migrate upward into drinking water," said David Ball, MRCSP project manager.

More info and original story here... and here and here...

Power. Food. Jobs

2008-06-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

Superb article from L.A. Times:

Envisioning a world of $200-a-barrel oil

As forecasters take that possibility more seriously, they describe fundamental shifts in the way we work, where we live and how we spend our free time.

...Besides the obvious effect $7-a-gallon gasoline would have on commuters, automakers, airlines, truckers and shipping firms, $200 oil would drive up the price of a broad spectrum of products: Insecticides and hand lotions, cosmetics and food preservatives, shaving cream and rubber cement, plastic bottles and crayons -- all have ingredients derived from oil.

Link here...

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-06-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

Dern ninjas!

School locked down after 'ninja' sighted in woods

BARNEGAT, N.J. — It's the case of the nonexistent ninja. Public schools in Barnegat were locked down briefly after someone reported seeing a ninja running through the woods behind an elementary school.

Turns out the ninja was actually a camp counselor dressed in black karate garb and carrying a plastic sword.

Police tell the Asbury Park Press the man was late to a costume-themed day at a nearby middle school.

The lockdown began shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday and lasted until 9:30.

Link and video here...

*top pic from askaninja.com

No. We'd better save it.

2008-06-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

The unfunded debt this country has burdened our children with now totals into the 72 Trillion dollar range. People want to blame BUSH Junior or Clinton or Bush Senior or Regan or Carter or Nixon.

You can’t blame any of them. The Rubicon we crossed in 1971 is one that we can’t undo as a country unless we come to our senses and realize that we can’t CONSUME 26 MILLION BARRELS of oil every single day as a country and only produce SEVEN!!

No combination of drilling, ethanol, solar, nuclear or anything else is going to make this equation even out. Only through a massive re-alignment of our economy and expectations as a people, will we ever get back to a real and growing economy(though much slower). In 1971 the United States of America declared bankruptcy.

The powers at that time had a choice. LIE or TELL THE TRUTH. They lied to us and told us that we could continue in a direction that was ultimately akin to National Suicide. We’ve been bleeding out ever since.

Link to Robert's brilliant post here for June 26th...

What?

2008-06-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

I really couldn't decide which mind-boggling story to show first... so let's just start with something really awful turning out (so far) okay.

Trucks containing 57,000 lbs of frozen chicken stolen from Delaware food bank FOUND!

NEWARK, Del. - June 25, 2008 (WPVI) -- Trucks stolen while holding tons of chicken for a food bank have been found with the food.

The trucks were stolen during the weekend, containing about 57,000 pounds of frozen chicken that was donated by the Perdue chicken company.

Police found the trucks this morning in Jersey City, New Jersey. The trucks were running and the food was still inside. Officials are checking the frozen chicken to see if it is still OK for people to eat.

Link and videos her e...

...and for having worked in a newspaper for three years doing this exact job, my mouth simply hangs. Wow!

OC Register to outsource some editing to India

An Indian company will take over copy editing duties for some stories published in The Orange County Register and will handle page layout for a community newspaper at the company that owns the Pulitzer Prize-winning daily, the newspaper confirmed Tuesday.

Orange County Register Communications Inc. will begin a one-month trial with Mindworks Global Media at the end of June, said John Fabris, a deputy editor at the Register.

Link here...

So it continued...

2008-06-24T07:08:00.000-07:00

Bad news is proliferative and mind-boggling. Well, let's just give ourselves a good shot-in-the-arm of optimism with this drivel-laced work of blech... can we say, "yeah... right,"?

Gas prices could fall to $2 if Congress acts, analysts say

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The price of retail gasoline could fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy-futures markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday.

Link here...

Now, let's move on to the state of our schools. Will your kids be going to school this fall? Hmmm... got you wondering, yes? At what point does push come to shove? Will schools have to: Have the kids clean the rooms, volunteer to clean the bathrooms, force all to pack lunch so as not to have a cafeteria, make everyone walk or get their own ride, cut staff down to a minimum, obviously bump the class sizes up, turn down the heaters, say bye-bye to the librarian and computer aides, no sports of any kind, shorten the school year and school week? There's only so much you can do.

In the meantime what are TPTB doing? Well, they are making some big, major decisions that are so gonna save our you-know-whats, right in the nick of time...

US mayors vote to phase out bottled water consumption

NEW YORK - The nation's mayors voted Monday against spending taxpayer money to buy bottled water, a blow to the beverage industry that has enjoyed growing profit from water sales in recent years.

Link here...

Yes, I was being sarcastic. ;)

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-06-20T08:01:00.001-07:00

We must have used them.

2008-06-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

This is frightfully dangerous and sad. With such a precariously fine thread holding the pieces our overly me-me-me society together, it takes but a fair wind to throw it asunder. Are more aware then letting on, simply at that overwhelming stage of denial and isolation?

The Economic Debate Has Yet To Target Key Issues: While The Candidates Spar On Policy Points, Rome Is Ready To Burn

New York, June 16, 2008: There is still an air of unreality in the economic debate that is increasingly dominating the election.

For one thing, it is still "AAU" (All About Us), as if what happens in the US economy in a globalized world is somehow separate and disconnected to what happens to people "out there."

It is as if our growing deficit, subprime crisis and dropping dollar only affects the United States. Of course, that's not true. OPEC has blamed the rising price of oil on speculators, the subprime scandal and the deliberate decline of the dollar.

The gigantic movements protesting US trade policy in South Korea shows that people worldwide do not want to be controlled by US corporate policies. All around the world workers are also challenging rising gas prices. AFP reports:
"Auto plants in Spain were paralyzed and Portugal's main airport banned planes from refueling Wednesday as a third day of strikes by thousands of truckers caused heightened chaos and shortages.

Truckers in Thailand also threatened to strike next week while their counterparts in South Korea plan to stop work on Friday, as the outrage over soaring fuel prices intensified around the world."

Link here...

Interesting...

Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back

BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.

Link here...

Not seeing much of anything

2008-06-18T05:23:00.000-07:00

RBS issues global stock and credit crash alert

The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks.

"A very nasty period is soon to be upon us - be prepared," said Bob Janjuah, the bank's credit strategist.

...The authorities cannot respond with easy money because oil and food costs continue to push headline inflation to levels that are unsettling the markets. "The ugly spoiler is that we may need to see much lower global growth in order to get lower inflation," he said.
"The Fed is in panic mode. The massive credibility chasms down which the Fed and maybe even the ECB will plummet when they fail to hike rates in the face of higher inflation will combine to give us a big sell-off in risky assets," he said.

Link here...

Falling Water Tables, Falling Harvests

Scores of countries are overpumping aquifers as they struggle to satisfy their growing water needs. The drilling of millions of irrigation wells has pushed water withdrawals beyond recharge rates, in effect leading to groundwater mining. The failure of governments to limit pumping to the sustainable yield of aquifers means that water tables are now falling in countries that contain more than half the world’s people, including the big three grain producers—China, India, and the United States.

Link here...

Why We're Gloomier Than The Economy
Consumer Anxiety Outstrips the Data

Ask Americans how the economy is doing, and their answer is stark: It is not just bad, it is run-for-the-hills terrible. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in almost 30 years. Only 12 percent of Americans think the economy is in good shape. On the Internet, comparisons to the Great Depression are widespread.

But the reality is different. According to most broad measures of how the economy is doing, it's not all that grim

Link here...

If it were a rumor...

2008-06-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

If you plan on flying somewhere, do it now...

Analyst: Air fares could double if oil prices keep rising

Airlines may have to double fares this year if crude oil prices rise above $150, industry analyst Michael Boyd warned Friday. Ticket prices will need to jump 80 percent to 100 percent to cover the airlines' jet fuel if oil prices go that high, he said.

Link here...

Why Saudi Arabia's King Wants to Dampen Oil Prices

Consumers aren't the only ones being hit by high oil prices. Now that the oil shock has reached producing countries, Saudi Arabia has called a crisis summit this weekend in an effort to find concerted solutions that could push barrel prices down.

Others would be overjoyed to be earning a $1 billion a day, and to have good reason to expect that number to climb to $2 billion a day next year.

But Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud seems less than thrilled these days, and the newly tense atmosphere at the Saudi Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry in Riyadh is a reflection of his mood. Early last week, the Saudi king decided that enough had been said about the oil price, and that it was time for action. He invited the world's petroleum elite to attend a meeting at his summer residence on the Red Sea, and this time he wants everyone on the list to attend: the heads of state and relevant cabinet ministers of oil-producing countries and the biggest oil consumers, the heads of ExxonMobil, Shell and Gazprom, and bankers from Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers. The meeting, to be held at the Royal Palace on the Corniche in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, is scheduled for June 22.

Link here...

Ex-British Army Chief in Iraq Confirms Peak Oil as Motive for War

Brigadier-General James Ellery CBE, the Foreign Office's Senior Adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad since 2003, confirmed the critical role of Iraqi oil reserves in potentially alleviating a "world shortage" of conventional oil. The Iraq War has helped to head off what Brigadier Ellery described as "the tide of Easternisation" – a shift in global political and economic power toward China and India, to whom goes "two thirds of the Middle East's oil."

Link here...

*pic from www.decordova.org

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-06-17T06:58:00.000-07:00

This may very well be the craziest thing I've read. Considering most tend to believe that over-population is the reason behind most of our current world wide problems. One has only to think of Africa and what immediately comes to mind but over-population. Yet once one considers the demographic aspects, remember Africa's adult population dying of AIDS, thus leaving behind children and the elderly, well, then it sort of makes sense.

I say, sort of....

Baby Bust!
The world is panicking over birthrates. Again.

If you’re a woman of childbearing age in a developed country, there’s a good chance your government will pay you to reproduce at the currently desirable rate. Russian women who opt for a second child receive a lump sum of 250,000 rubles ($9,200)—not bad compared to Poland’s going rate of a measly 1,000 zloty ($460) per kid. France and Sweden combine pro-natalist incentives with more traditional social welfare schemes. Fecund couples in Sweden, for instance, receive a combined 13 months of parental leave, 11 of which can be taken by one parent, and during which the government provides 80 percent of a parent’s former income. Parents collect 900 euros ($1,410) per year; bosses then must allow their employees to work part time for prorated pay once they become parents.

Are lad mags and the Nintendo corporation responsible for a global decline in birthrates? Broadly, nations that are more developed (and therefore more likely to produce video games and men’s magazines) produce fewer children than less developed nations. But while Demographic Winter uses Europe as the ultimate cautionary tale, Europe’s current demographics largely contradict the idea that more socially conservative societies tend to produce more children.

Periods of anxiety over “race suicide” are rarely good times for women. Protestants who were worried about the rising tide of foreign Catholics passed anti-abortion laws in the 1880s that endured until 1973, when Roe v. Wade limited their scope. Embracing historical continuity with the nativists who came before him, Mark Steyn takes time in America Alone to blame women for aborting the generation that might have stood between us and the coming Islamification of the West. It’s not surprising at all that the single greatest social anxiety of our time has been reduced to crude demographic projections that pin the blame on empty wombs.

Link here...

*pic from img.dailymail.co.uk

I think I have to try.

2008-06-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

Ohio's unemployment compensation fund running out of money

Ohio's unemployment compensation fund will go broke by year's end or early 2009, and the state will likely have to borrow money from the federal government while the Ohio General Assembly figures out how to fix the problem, according to state officials and advocacy organizations for unemployed workers.

The Ohio Department of Job & Family Services and Policy Matters Ohio, a policy research group, both have said it is likely that the state will have to begin borrowing from the U.S. government by early 2009 to continue operating the federally required fund for providing benefits to unemployed workers.

Link here...

AAA: Ohio fuel costs lowest in region

Record-high gasoline prices are eating into wallets across the nation, but AAA says Ohio drivers may be better off than most.

A daily survey of average gas prices by AAA on Monday put the average cost for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in the state at $3.97. That's more than a dime below the national average of $4.08 and the lowest among the states surrounding Ohio.

Prices in nearby states range from a high of $4.11 in Michigan to $3.98 in Kentucky.

A barrel of crude oil traded for a short time above $139 on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday, according to the Associated Press, before slipping back to $137.25.

Link here...

High-speed rail line for Ohio gets boost from rising gas prices

If the state could write its own ticket, trains traveling 110 miles an hour would whisk passengers between major and minor cities throughout Ohio.

But at billions of dollars, an extensive high-speed rail network always seemed ambitious at best, unrealistic at worst. Until now.

Link here...

Sorry what?

2008-06-13T12:18:00.000-07:00

Strike hits Shell petrol supplies

Petrol supplies to Shell garages were hit today as hundreds of drivers launched a four-day strike in a long-running row over pay which union leaders warned will lead to shortages over the weekend.

Members of the Unite union employed by two companies on Shell contracts walked out at 6am and mounted picket lines which they said drivers from other firms refused to cross.

Link here...

$5 Gas Likely by July 4th; Get Ready for 'Stay-cation'

Americans could be celebrating the Fourth of July with $5-a-gallon gas, and the effects will ring out from sea to shining sea.

As consumers use more of their income to fill up their gas tanks, they'll have less to spend on discretionary items like new bathing suits to wear to the beach and jewelry to accessorize.

Instead of visiting theme parks and ballgames, they'll be more inclined to find fun things to do at home--"stay-cation" has quickly embedded itself in the American lexicon--and will cook burgers and hotdogs on the grill before heading out to a fancy restaurant.

Link here...

Ethanol plants shut on record corn price: Citi

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Record corn prices pushed up by flooding in the Midwest have forced five small to mid-sized U.S. ethanol plants to shut and output of the biofuel could be slowed for months, a Citi research note said on Friday.

Link here...

This is no dream.

2008-06-12T07:02:00.000-07:00

Why isn't it surprising that the US media doesn't seem to be reporting on this? I don't watch the evening news on regular TV so perhaps they are reporting on the truckers strike outside Madrid.

Are they?

Meanwhile, this strike is threatening to overspill to Britain. Shouldn't there be a little more concern of a domino affect?

The body of a striking truck driver lies on the road in Granada after he was run over [AFP]

Factories close, supermarkets empty and jets run
out of fuel as truckers' strike bites

Spain promises tough response despite deaths
Britain on alert as action threatens to spread

Strike action by thousands of Spanish and Portuguese truckers produced ominous knock-on effects on food supplies, aviation and industry yesterday, as Lisbon airport ran out of fuel, car factories shut down and petrol stations and supermarkets reported shortages.
In a worrying sign for other European countries that face rising discontent at the spiralling cost of diesel, a third day of strikes generated widespread mayhem and the mood turned ugly after the first casualties of the standoff: two strikers died in clashes on picket lines.
Tourists flying to Lisbon faced delays after the airport ran out of fuel. Some flights were diverted to Porto. Only emergency, military or state flights were allowed out of Portela airport, a spokesman said. Only emergency fuel stocks saved Spanish airlines from similar disruption.
Supermarkets, meanwhile, reported dwindling supplies. Authorities at Spain's two biggest wholesale markets, Mercamadrid, in Madrid, and Mercabarna in Barcelona, reported deliveries of meat, fish and fruit were almost at a standstill.

Link here...

We'll be fine. cough

2008-06-11T11:35:00.000-07:00

At $135 Oil… Are You Starting to Worry Yet?

In her famous book, On Death and Dying , Elisabeth Kubler-Ross describes the stages of grief:
Denial: “It can’t be happening”
Anger: “Why me? It’s not fair”
Bargaining: “Just let me live to see my children graduate”
Depression: “I’m so sad, why bother with anything?”
Acceptance: “It’s going to be OK.”
In my opinion, the American public is going through the stages of grief right now. Rising prices are just a market-based signal that we are losing our economic and resource abundance. As the American dream fades away, it’s like a death in the family.

Right now, I think we are between the stages of denial and anger. Ask yourself these questions: What do you think when you pull up to the fuel pump and have to pay $4 for a gallon of regular gas, or nearly $5 for a gallon of diesel? Or how about when you go to the supermarket and have to pay $4 for a gallon of “store brand” milk, or the same price for a loaf of “store brand” bread? Are your emotions between disbelief and anger? Are you saying to yourself, “Hey, what the heck is going on?” (I’m cleaning it up a bit because this is a family-friendly publication.)

I think folks mistakenly thought prosperity would go on forever.

Link here...

Police: Things get ugly at California gas pumps

CYPRESS, Calif. (AP) - Violence broke out at the gas pumps in Orange County. Police say a La Palma doctor waiting in line to buy gas at the Costco warehouse store in Cypress grabbed a tire iron and confronted a motorist who cut into the line.

Link here...

ECB chief warns against oil shock

PARIS: The president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, on Monday called on oil producers and consumers to learn from past mistakes if Western economies were to avoid a repeat of the high inflation and unemployment that followed the first global oil shock in 1973.

That year is widely acknowledged as an economic watershed, a time when an OPEC oil embargo led to a spiral of higher prices, recession in Western economies and a wrenching contraction in the early 1980s that finally put an end to a decade of sharp inflation.

Link here...

Airlines look for new ways to cut weight - and fuel costs

DETROIT: Airlines are scrutinizing every step of their operations, from the tarmac to the sky, and from the nose to the tail of their planes, searching for new ways to cut their soaring fuel bills.

They are power-washing jet engines more often to get rid of grime, carrying less water for the bathroom faucets and toilets, and replacing passenger seats with lighter models.

Link here...

You are your own person, my mother said.

2008-06-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

If you read one article today, just one, let it be this one, EXCELLENT!

Don't give up

Do you feel it's a waste of time trying to prevent climate change? That reducing your carbon footprint is pointless when someone else is happy to increase theirs? That changing lightbulbs is a futile gesture? Well don't, says Michael Pollan, because even small changes in your lifestyle - and your thinking - can help save the world

Michael Pollan
The Guardian,
Friday June 6 2008

...For us to wait for legislation or technology to solve the problem of how we're living our lives suggests we're not really serious about changing - something our politicians cannot fail to notice. They will not move until we do. Indeed, to look to leaders and experts, to laws and money and grand schemes, to save us from our predicament represents precisely the sort of thinking - passive, delegated, dependent for solutions on specialists - that helped get us into this mess in the first place. It's hard to believe that the same sort of thinking could now get us out of it...

...As Adam Smith and many others have pointed out, this division of labour has given us many of the blessings of civilisation. Specialisation is what allows me to sit at a computer thinking about climate change. Yet this same division of labour obscures the lines of connection - and responsibility - linking our everyday acts to their real-world consequences, making it easy for me to overlook the coal-fired power plant that is lighting my screen, or the mountaintop in Kentucky that had to be destroyed to provide the coal to that plant, or the streams running crimson with heavy metals as a result...

...If you do bother, you will set an example for other people. If enough other people bother, each one influencing yet another in a chain reaction of behavioural change, markets for all manner of green products and alternative technologies will prosper and expand. (Just look at the market for hybrid cars.) Consciousness will be raised, perhaps even changed: new moral imperatives and new taboos might take root in the culture. Driving an SUV or eating a 24oz steak or illuminating your house like an airport runway at night might come to be regarded as outrages to human conscience. Not having things might become cooler than having them. And those who did change the way they live would acquire the moral standing to demand changes in behaviour from others - from other people, other corporations, even other countries...

...But the act I want to talk about is growing some - even just a little - of your own food. Rip out your lawn, if you have one, and if you don't - if you live in a high-rise, or have a garden shrouded in shade - look into getting an allotment. Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it's one of the most powerful things an individual can do - to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.

Link here...

If you enjoy this article, if you find it as moving and well-written as I, please take a moment to email: environment@guardian.co.uk ... author: Michael Pollan

*pic from http://www.happynews.com

Our parents' house is falling down around us.

2008-06-08T05:22:00.001-07:00

My optimism wanes. Course I'm not feeling 100% today so that could be part of the problem. I've my moments when I feel highly optimistic, this is not one of them.

If you think gas prices are bad today... click here and listen very closely at minute 1:50.

Now here is what she is saying at that minute 1:50. We are today paying for gas when it was around $90 a barrel. So think about it, oil has moved to a staggering $140.00 a barrel which means gas at the pump will eventually reflect a price equal to $6 or $7. But this will be a blip in the radar if per barrel pricing goes any higher, and something tells the majority of us -- skies the limit.

A poster on a PO forum I belong to pointed out, you can figure $1 for every $20 on a barrel. In that theory, once again, we'll see gas at the pump equal $7 a gallon at $140 a barrel.

$7 a gallon... our society is not built for $7 a gallon gasoline. The airlines are crumbling, mass transit is overwhelmed with the influx of folks leaving their vehicles behind, people are tapping into retirement nest eggs, 401k's, savings... etc. just to get by on the basics.

Dare I even mention the foreclosure rate?

We've yet to feel the true rippling effect of this crisis and my mother says I've not a very optimistic attitude about all this, that things are being done.

Done? What exactly is being done? How can I be anything but pessimistic when you see these horrifying numbers and know what staggering effects they have on our lives.

What will fall, as school starts, look like at this rate?

Okay, that out there... feeling some relief.

Note: I'll be more than happy to be wrong. To open mouth, insert foot and do a happy dance if oil takes a plunge. As speculated in this article. I don't agree with him whatsoever.

See--you should have known

2008-06-07T05:34:00.000-07:00

***

"Serious concern" they say, meanwhile in the sanctuary of their homes they are bouncing off the walls, pulling out hair and biting nails down to stubs.

U.S., Asia Express `Serious Concern' Over Oil Prices

June 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and Asia expressed ``serious concern'' over record oil prices one day after the market posted its biggest dollar gain ever, and urged consumer-nations to shift to alternative sources of fuel as energy costs rise.

Oil prices have reached ``unprecedented'' levels, officials from Japan, China, India, South Korea and the U.S. said in a joint statement issued after a meeting in Aomori in northern Japan today. Crude oil climbed $10.75 in New York yesterday to settle at $138.54 a barrel, its biggest one-day increase.

Link here...

Suddenly her eyes widened in surprise.

2008-06-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, breathe... breathe... in - out.

Oh, what am I saying? Like Lamaze breathing really helps during labor. Why should it help now?

AAM Concerned with CCC Inventories

WASHINGTON - Larry Matlack, President of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), has raised concerns over the issue of U.S. grain reserves after it was announced that the sale of 18.37 million bushels of wheat from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.

“According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are only 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be only 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory,” warned Matlack. “Our concern is not that we are using the remainder of our strategic grain reserves for humanitarian relief. AAM fully supports the action and all humanitarian food relief. Our concern is that the U.S. has nothing else in our emergency food pantry. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve. The only thing left in the entire CCC inventory will be 2.7 million bushels of wheat which is about enough wheat to make ½ of a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America.”

Link here...

What I wonder is whether these problems have always existed, but that we simply are more aware thanks to the power/intrusion/info-overload Internet.

Or if things really are that messed up nowadays and we all should be wiggin' out.

About 1 in 11 Mortgageholders Face Loan Problems

About 1 in 11 American mortgages were past due or in foreclosure at the end of March, according to a report released on Thursday, a figure that is rising fast as home prices fall and the job market weakens.

Link here...

Chile Supermarkets Run Out of Food as Truckers Strike

June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Chilean supermarkets are running out of fresh meat, hospitals may not have enough oxygen and salmon processing plants are shutting down as striking truckers block roads to protest the high price of fuel.

The strikers yesterday resolved to extend their protest, originally scheduled to last 48 hours, leaving grocery stores short of basics, Fernando Alvear, president of the Chilean Supermarkets Association, said today in an interview. Stores in the capital may start running out of produce today, he said.

``We're already having more serious problems in some regions outside Santiago,'' Alvear said. ``It gets worse as the hours go by.''

Link here...

Well... you have yourself a nice weekend, ya'll...

...blech...

The man nodded.

2008-06-05T06:57:00.000-07:00

Report: Olmert to urge U.S. attack on Iran

Ehud Olmert will urge President Bush to prepare an attack on Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported.

Citing sources close to the Israeli prime minister, Yediot Achronot reported on its front page Wednesday that Olmert, who is due to hold closed-door talks with Bush in Washington, will say that "time is running out" on diplomatic efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program.

Link here...

Iran threatens to sue 5 nations over nuclear reputation

VIENNA (AP) — Iran accused the United States on Thursday of pressuring the U.N.'s nuclear agency to base its latest investigation of Tehran's nuclear activities on fake evidence suggesting Iran had a secret weapons program.

It also threatened to sue countries that pushed to have U.N. Security Council involvement in its nuclear program, a clear allusion to the United States and its key allies.

Link here...

Approaching an Iranian winter

Contemplate, if you will, this wild scenario: In November, after Senator Barack Obama becomes president-elect of the United States, outgoing president George W. Bush inflicts a severe blow on Iran. That could take the form of a naval siege, the flexing of American military muscle, or even an all-out air strike targeting Iran's nuclear program.

Link here...

We do hang on. (Or so we hope)

2008-06-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

Stay home, read, have sex

Will insane gas prices finally pummel us into evolving? How bad will it get?

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

It will be heaven, it will be hell. President Obama will likely hesitate not at all to instigate a massive hybrid/plug-in/alterative fuel initiative, challenging inventors and Big Auto alike to finally get their asses in gear and knock it off with the internal combustion BS that hasn't changed in any fundamental way in, oh, about 150 years.

Carpooling will soar. People will walk, bike, scooter, take the bus, work shorter weeks, stroll and amble and hum a merry tune, reacquaint themselves with the neighborhood, telecommute, vacation locally, have more phone sex. They will shop locally to avoid skyrocketing shipping prices, buy less plastic, recycle. The era of cheap oil that enabled hideous urban sprawl will now quite possibly flip over and begin to enable the exact reverse ... whatever that is...

In a perverse way, I love this place, this place where all predictions fail, this place where no one knows exactly what the hell will happen. Will an oil crunch force major nations of the world to work together in unprecedented, selfless ways for the betterment of all humanity? Or will it push insular, angry, fearful nations to kill each other over dwindling resources (aka: "the Bush Method")? Or will it be a wacky, volatile mix of both? Let's go for one last long, leisurely drive, and talk about it.

Link here...

I'm not sure about the, "President Obama" thrown in there, but with those lovely eyes, I'll agree with anything this gent' says. LOL

We interrupt this broadcast

2008-06-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure which is worse. That folks who don't need to dive do so at this rate or that they find food in such good shape... in a dumpster...???

We could be

2008-06-03T05:01:00.000-07:00

Good for Sacramento!! Just say NO to grass! Weeeeee....

Food Revolution
Forget idyllic fields out in the countryside. Urban growers want to plant their farms smack dab in the middle of Sacramento.

Don’t leave the lots vacant. Don’t develop them with shopping malls and big-box chain stores. Instead, put that land into production.

Plant a farm smack dab in the middle of the city.

Link here...

Climate Concerns Shape the Cities of Tomorrow
The Future of Urban Life Looks 'Green,' Say Experts

"By locating the production of goods closer to the point of consumption, we reduce fuel and pollution costs as well as road wear and we keep jobs here for a vibrant working class."

Link here...

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm getting to them now... I was busy farming! ;)

Look at what it did to me.

2008-05-29T05:19:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day, 2008: The Tipping Point in the Peak Oil Debate

"They've got to go up, because the people that have the oil want it to go up. They're running out of oil. They're going to have to have—85 million barrels a day is all the world can produce. The demand is 87 million. It's that simple. It doesn't have anything to do with the value of the dollar. It's a fact of supply and demand. That's it."

Link here...

Recalling the suburban gas riots of 1979

This much can be said for the advent of the $4 gallon of gas: It has not driven anyone to run riot. Yet.

Link here...

Gasoline consumption falls, but prices remain high

Americans burned a remarkable 5.5 percent less gasoline last week than a year earlier, a new report says, as record fuel prices and a slowed economy curtailed driving.

Link here...

Okay

2008-05-28T05:26:00.000-07:00

Sure, what do we need here, nothing right? Oy.... Oh wait, I've got an idea, let's send our entire government body over to Iraq!

Bush wants $600 million for Iraq police, but cuts aid to U.S. cops

WASHINGTON — At the same time the Bush administration has been pushing for deep cuts in a popular crime-fighting program for states and cities, the White House has been fighting for approval of $603 million for the Iraqi police.

The White House earlier this year proposed slashing the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program, which helps local law enforcement officials deal with violent crime and serious offenders, to $200 million in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Link here...

Soooo who exactly has the really bad intelligence and more importantly, which one to believe?

No new evidence of al Qaeda threat despite report: U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There is no evidence of a direct threat from al Qaeda or that the group has obtained weapons of mass destruction, U.S. intelligence officials said on Tuesday, despite reports that al Qaeda will release a new video urging jihadists to use such weapons to attack the West.

Link here...

And in this corner...

Enough oil to last 'for at least another 30 years'

AUSTRALIA'S rural economic forecaster has challenged predictions the world is about to run out of oil, saying ithas enough to last for at least another 30 years.

ABARE chief Phillip Glyde told a Senate estimates committee yesterday that the peak-oil school of thought, which holds that reserves are near depletion, was wrong. "The rough level of reserves to production remains the same, so we are confident there is not a physical limit to supply over the next 30 years, which is the period we're talking about - simple as that," he said.

Link here...

Any gas in town?

2008-05-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Now, if you weren't already confused before about peak oil, speculation... etc. etc. that affects every possible aspect of your life, welp, here's a cherry to top it all off...

Oil Falls More Than $2 as Record Prices Curb U.S. Fuel Demand

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell more than $2 a barrel in New York on signs that U.S. fuel consumption is dropping because of a slowing economy and record energy prices.

U.S. consumer confidence fell to the lowest level in more than 15 years, a report today showed. The dollar rose against the euro today, curbing the appeal of commodities to investors. Energy and metals have become attractive in the past year to those seeking to offset the dollar's fall against the euro.

Link here...

Whenever they manage to stop throwing up the smoke screen of bickering and scratching their heads and actually do something, they will only manage to make things ten times worse. You know it, we all know it... but they sure don't know it. Lord help us.

Congress bickers over gas policy goals

Veterans? Check.

Homeowners? Check.

Gas prices? Well, um, they’re working on it. Kind of.

Link here...

The world as we know and live it is going through a massive, unequivocal, and mind-boggling change. How we come out on the other side remains to be seen and can be very frightening. Yet, there is good news - more and more people are becoming aware of how life-altering this is going to be and are actively pursuing an optimistic rebirth of how they live their daily lives.

They are thinking... what's old is new again.

I've got the gun and there's more ways to run...

2008-05-23T04:41:00.000-07:00

And just think, buying a car used to mean deciding on the fancy gadgets or which color...

US car dealer in free gun offer

A car dealership in the United States is offering a free handgun with every vehicle sold.

Max Motors in Butler, Missouri, says sales have quadrupled since the start of the offer.

Link here...

Well, I won't be flying... ever...

Airline Default Risk Soars, Bonds Tumble on Record Oil Prices

``We now expect AMR to have trouble avoiding bankruptcy by sometime in 2009,'' Higgins wrote in a note to clients yesterday. ``UAL is too close to that possibility for our comfort,'' and Continental is ``close to our comfort threshold.''

Link here...

Hey, at least they are optimistic.

Consumers can't save the economy

Americans are too deep in debt to lead the economy into a recovery, according to a new forecast. The result: The recovery will be a bit slower.

Link here...

So I had to take a break from all the bad days. Maybe I'll just take an extra long weekend break, too. We'll see... see you on the flip side. Have a safe, happy holiday.

What do you think?

2008-05-20T06:12:00.000-07:00

My husband, or as I refer to him at my MOTM blog, the hub and I brushed over the topic of fuel rationing. What we will do when that day comes 'n Big Brother forces our hands on when or IF we can get gas. Or when gas becomes so outrageously priced we need to personally ration for his 30-minute commute to work. We threw around a few ideas, one that included his staying with a co-worker, who is only a few blocks from work.

We also discussed lock-n-key gas caps for our cars.

Yes. It has come to that point. That seemingly weird and reality biting conversation in our household. Perhaps I'm just overly peak-oil-paranoid and forcing that fear onto the hub. But regardless of the cause...

Peak-oil: The Earth is chucking out the last of our life blood.
Political Peak Oil: Oil prices and quantity nothing more than a tug-of-war between Big Wheels. IE. speculation.

... it doesn't hurt to have a back-up plan.

Just in case, eh?

I have to ask... which cause is more dangerous to you?

Peak Oil Worries

Dr. Hirsch: This is not a surprise... What happen is that we've hit a plateau in oil production. Been going on since 2004... [they] do not understand the magnitude of the problem... there's no single thing that is going to solve this problem. The prices we are paying today are going to look like the good old days.

Must see video here.

If TPTB are betting our future on alternative energy sources they had best play their hand quickly. We need to drill here, NOW, and work on the alternatives at the same time, at a much hurried pace. The longer we discuss, argue, Bill create, pass and veto, only to argue some more on the causes, etc. ... the less our chances of success.

*pic from www.ameshistoricalsociety.org

I saw you dance

2008-05-19T07:33:00.000-07:00

Not Enough Oil Is Lament of BP, Exxon on Spending

Never have so many oil and gas companies spent so much to produce so little.

Link here...

Bush to Arab nations: You're running out of oil

PRESIDENT George Bush yesterday told leaders of the oil-rich states of the Middle East that they must face up to a future without their precious hydrocarbons.

Link here...

but asked the other day for more? Hmmmm.....

Is There Really An Oil Shortage?

OPEC claims there is plenty of oil in the system and yet there is not enough to go around. Why is that so? I have explained this many times in the past but not for several months. All oil is not equal.

Link here...

Confused yet?

But perhaps something had happened.

2008-05-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

At least 100 people were killed and scores injured when fuel from a pipeline ruptured by an earthmover caught fire and exploded in a Nigerian village near the biggest city of Lagos, the Red Cross said today.

The fireball engulfed homes and schools at Ijegun village in the Lagos district of Alimosho, and many of the dead, who included schoolchildren, were killed in the ensuing stampede as people fled the flames.

Link here...

The U.S. declared the polar bear a threatened species, giving protected status for the first time to an animal because of global warming while also including provisions to ensure continued oil and gas development.

Link here...

Worried about gas prices hitting $4 a gallon and beyond? Imagine if they were $6, $7 or even $8 a gallon. Those levels are a certain possibility should Congress pass cap-and-trade legislation, which could face a vote in early June.

Link here...

... and then they went unpaid altogether.

2008-05-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

Possibly the scariest graph I've ever seen depicting US bank reserve status. As pointed out frightfully from this post. Leaves my head spinning. (Click graph for larger image)

Some points to highlight:

The taxpayer is in fact paying the light bills, salaries and bonuses of insolvent banks and we are not being told about it!

I think a vast majority know and those numbers grow every day... but what can we do? Keep reading.

What happens when (not if) foreigners deduce that our entire banking system, in aggregate, has no reserves and is in fact simply being propped up by taxpayer debt, effectively adding its deficit to the government's, as it has lost hundreds of billions speculating on bad paper in the housing market?

They've got to know; just a matter of time, right?

All you can do is transfer who takes the loss; in this case, Bernanke's intent is to transfer that loss to the taxpayer through intentional obfuscation and Congress has permitted it by refusing to force the truth out into the open where it can be dealt with before it blows up in our face.

Yes, the real system deficit could be as high as $1 trillion.

What can we, the average Joe and Jane American do? Surely the following can't be the only option?

Considering the state of our banking institutions, just from the graph above, the ramifications of people making a run on the banks is frightening. While I doubt there'll be enough people who'd go through all the trouble of draining their accounts, what with fees or having to close an account completely... you never know.

I'm sure there were folks who doubted dropping tea into a harbor would be much of a show of resistance; we know how that turned out.

Surely, in our current situation, there has to be another way.

Right?

"Hide," I whispered.

2008-05-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

The world has yet to rest...

A series of bomb blasts have ripped through crowded market areas in the Indian city of Jaipur, killing up to 60 people and injuring dozens more.

Link here...

MIANYANG, China (AP) — The toll of the dead and missing soared as rescue workers dug through flattened schools and homes on Tuesday in a desperate attempt to find survivors of China's worst earthquake in three decades.

Link here...

RANGOON, Burma (AP) — Burma's state television says the death toll in this month's cyclone has gone up to 34,273.

Link here...

Considering the current devastation around the world, who really cares what new all-time high price of oil is so early in the week? But here it is....

Oil prices shot to a new record near $127 a barrel Tuesday on concerns that Iran may consider cutting crude production. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose to a new record over $3.73 a gallon Tuesday, and their advance shows little sign of slowing with Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer driving season, just 10 days away.

Link here...

We interrupt this broadcast.

2008-05-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

It's good.

2008-05-11T11:03:00.000-07:00

Note: The video is somewhat stale and they do an unbelievable amount of chatting for almost ten straight minutes right there on the little porch. I promise, you'll survive, barely, but it'll be worth it when they FINALLY step into the garden. I must say though, when the woman starts in with her chicken imitation...

The town looks pretty empty.

2008-05-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

Wow.

I would not want to be one of their customers after the weekend.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- Federal regulators says they've closed ANB Financial National Association banks after discovering "unsafe and unsound" business practices there.

David Barr, a spokesman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says many customers served by the bank's nine locations had accounts under $100,000, which will be fully insured by the government. Barr says customers can continue to write checks and draw money from ATMs through the weekend.

Link here...

If you think that's bad...

It was the third closure this year of an FDIC-insured bank. Douglass National Bank, a Missouri bank with $58.5 million in assets, was shut in January; another Missouri institution with assets of $18.7 million, Hume Bank, was shut down in March.

And if that wasn't bad enough to slightly wig you out, try this one on for size.

The FDIC is planning to beef up its staff, including temporarily hiring up to 25 retired FDIC employees who worked in the agency's more than 200-person division that handles failed banks. They will handle an anticipated increase in bank failures.

"Come on," Screamed Eva, "we've got to do something."

2008-05-08T18:44:00.001-07:00

Right now was probably not the best of times to be without electric. Because of remodeling and not anything to do with the weather.

No. It had nothing to do with an important evening dinner and wanting to look nice.

No. It had nothing to do with my inability to do my WAHJ because no electric meant no computer.

No. It had nothing to do with small children getting bored and wanting to play games, be on the computer or watch one of their shows.

Rather, it had everything to do with what I surround myself with as of late. That being the doom and gloom of our economy, our way of life, our very existence.

A life surrounded heavily with a lot of "without". Specifically that of energy. Electricity.

I spent almost nine hours without electric, running everything I've read through my head, over and over... and paced.

I did A LOT of pacing. Then washed some windows in an attempt to appease my mind that I was at least doing something productive. As the rain was heavy, the wind chilled, I couldn't be out in the garden digging more garden beds or putting together a new rain barrel.

I had plenty of time on my hands, to think and wonder what if life was this.

When the electric came back on, I whooped and hollered, silently, reverently.

So I spent almost $2000 today - to fill up our oil tank. We heat primarily with wood, but use oil as a back-up system to keep the pipes from freezing, and occasionally on days when we’re going to be out for an extended period. Our hot water is also heated with oil. For whatever reason, most oil heat in the US is in the Northeast, mostly in towns beyond gas lines like mine. I suspect today’s purchase may well be the last tank of heating oil we ever buy.

Link here...

I would be more than happy, thrilled, delighted, if all the predictions were nothing more then dour-sour less-than-likely possibilities that never pan out. But as I've said on a previous post, we're on that fence, teetering... teetering... teetering.

*pic from sunsite.berkeley.edu

We ran out of gas.

2008-05-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

The implications of a possible energy war, a World War III, is frightening, but is it a realistic probability?

Well... the manner in which we've guzzled our resources, been bred to consume beyond our means and now sit teetering on the brink of disaster with no real leadership, seemingly waiting for the final, big push... how can we not be anything but on the brink of war?

It's terrifying that we've allowed ourselves to be slaves to our teetering. Why can we not climb off the fence, make the enormous leap to successful implementation of less finite resources. Drill at home, turn coal to liquid fuel, but also, simultaneously, push the envelope of technology for solar, hydro and wind energies.

Anything is possible ... let's hope we are not already in free-fall.

While the day-to-day focus of US military planning remains Iraq and Afghanistan, American strategists are increasingly looking beyond these two conflicts to envision the global combat environment of the emerging period--and the world they see is one where the struggle over vital resources, rather than ideology or balance-of-power politics, dominates the martial landscape. Believing that the United States must reconfigure its doctrines and forces in order to prevail in such an environment, senior officials have taken steps to enhance strategic planning and combat capabilities. Although little of this has reached the public domain, there have been a number of key indicators.

Link here...

We tell the Iranians that the military option is "on the table." But three decades of playing cat-and-mouse with American power have emboldened Iran's rulers. We have played by their rules, and always came up second best.

Link here...

I think it's gas!

2008-05-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

The commercial division of Mexico's national oil company, Pemex PMI Comercio Internacional, has some bad news for U.S. oil consumers. Mexico will be sending America less oil this year - to the tune of 184,000 barrels per day.

Link here...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush is expected to talk with Saudi Arabian officials about the effect record oil prices are having on the U.S. economy during his upcoming visit to the kingdom, the White House said on Monday.

Link here...

The price of a barrel of oil has risen above $120 for the first time, driven by concerns about the situations in Nigeria and northern Iraq.

Link here...

*pic from seasteading.org

We interrupt this broadcast...

2008-05-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

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Back then, it seemed the forest had everything we needed.

2008-05-03T04:33:00.000-07:00

Is this an inevitability? I think we're still holding our breaths and waiting to see.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Imagine a life where each morning you cycle to work, and come home at night to tend your allotment and eat a dinner of locally produced food.

Maybe after your meal you take a walk down the car-free streets to the nearest bar where you buy a round of drinks with locally produced currency and settle down in a corner to watch a troupe of musicians play some local folk music.

It might sound like some kind of fairytale arcadia -- a return to the simple lives of our forefathers, before fossil fuels and consumer culture turned everything on its head.

In fact this is how many people are beginning to envision our future -- a world where we come to terms with inevitable fuel shortages and work towards a less energy-dependent lifestyle.

Link here...

The problem with this vision is the supposed simplicity. Nothing in life is simple, humans make everything far more difficult and of course, Mother Nature throws quite a few wrenches into the works. About the time you've a decent crop in plows a tornado or a wicked hail storm, putting everything to ruin. Something to remind us that we're not the "masters of our domains" as much as we sometimes fool ourselves into believing.

I sound pessimistic but I strongly believe steps MUST be made towards local sustenance, a lot more people are joining that bandwagon every day, but there is still a long, long way to go.

Then an even stupider hope buoyed me.

2008-05-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Total U.S. wheat stocks are down from 777 million bushels in 2001, and are the lowest since World War II. The USDA says that's about a 35-day supply of wheat and notes that farmers in Texas are already starting to harvest a new crop. The American Bakers Association estimates the country has a 24-day supply of wheat compared with the previous three-month level on hand.

International grain supplies are the tightest in three decades, and prices of wheat, corn, rice and other food staples have doubled or tripled.

"The whole world has gotten fairly sanguine about food supplies," says Bruce Babcock, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University. "Advances in logistics and just-in-time production have allowed the world to get by on very low stock levels for a very long time. We kind of undershot it this year."

L ink here...

With high food prices prompting grocery-store apologies to customers and raising fears of starvation in impoverished countries, Congress suddenly faces renewed pressure to cut subsidies to the wealthiest farmers and incentives for ethanol production.

Link here...

DESPERATE times call for desperate measures: in Haiti hungry protesters forced the Prime Minister to resign; in Cameroon 24 people have been killed in food riots; and Egypt's president has ordered the military to start baking bread.

Link here...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - He's not predicting the weather, but House Minority Leader John Boehner on Thursday voiced worry about the potential for a food fight should drought disrupt the U.S. supply of corn this summer.

"If we get into a drought of any sort in the Midwest we are going to have real fight over who gets the grain, who gets the corn, whether its the cereal producers, the ethanol producers or frankly the livestock producers," the Ohio Republican said at a news conference.

Link here...

*Pic from www.resimao.org

I didn't cry.

2008-04-30T05:31:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like a lawyer is needed to decipher the morning news? Someone who can read between the legalized lines and explain exactly what is going on. Take for example a new story on how gas supply is up, demand down, but prices at the pump continue to climb.

Say hunh?

Oil prices fell more than $3 a barrel today as the market absorbed data showing demand is falling even as supplies are rising. Meanwhile, gas prices inched higher at the pump, continuing their record-breaking press toward $4 a gallon.

Link here...

I suppose a psychologist can help us understand the maneuvering of a President who simply has no clue...

On Tuesday, Bush vouched for more ethanol, saying, "We're transitioning to a new era, by the way, a new era where we're going to have batteries in our cars that will power — you know, enable people to drive 40 miles on electricity. There's going to be more ethanol in the market, more alternative fuels. Our driving habits will change.".... meanwhile... Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. warned, "People are starving to death because of this transfer from food to fuel. As the ranking member of the EPW committee, which has jurisdiction, I'm going to ask for an immediate waiver to stop this mandate."

Link here...

Hey, on a bright note, if you can come up with the answer to our energy crisis, a cool $100 million could be all yours!

The X Prize Foundation made its name handing out $10 million awards for cutting-edge innovation in promising but thinly financed fields of research. But now the Santa Monica (Calif.) foundation is targeting one of the most-crowded contests in technology: the race to discover clean alternatives to fossil fuels.

In its richest and largest competition yet, the foundation will divvy up some $100 million for transformations in biofuels, clean aviation fuel, energy storage, the provision of basic utilities for developing nations, and other categories.

Link here...

She was more silent than usual.

2008-04-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

You know there's a problem when someone relates a sci-fi movie, in this case I am Legend, with our current food/gas crisis... I call it "crisis", you may consider it only a hiccup or a pain in the wallet. However your view, the situation cannot be taken lightly. Not for our country (USA) or the rest of the world.

Now that milk and gasoline can each cost $3.50 a gallon, filling up your grocery cart or sport-utility vehicle has become an exercise in pain. Most people just wince, pay and get along as best they can. But someone like me can't help but see these price spikes as a nasty side effect of America's ethanol program. How nasty? Think of the recent film starring Will Smith, "I Am Legend."

You might ask what the connection is between a half-baked energy policy and overdone sci-fi. Answer: the unanticipated consequences of supposed miracle cures.

Link here...

I will say that while I tend to be more pessimistic, which goes against my nature, my mother on the other hand is highly optimistic that we (humankind) will find our way out of this pickle. I can understand her viewpoint, she lived through the 70s with two small children. She had her own preps and fears during gas shortages, skyrocketing food prices and a few rationed staples.

I don't honestly know whether to take comfort in that she, as well as my brother and I , obviously survived a similar tsunami of problems 30 years ago. Or be terrified that this time, things are going to be A LOT worse.

Perhaps I should have a long conversation with my grandmother. Considering what she lived through...

Please let my optimism shine through!

Three Chinese shoppers were trampled to death in November as they battled for discounted cooking oil after the price had climbed about 40 percent during the year.

Link here...

The stakes couldn't be higher for Ben Bernanke. If the Fed chief decides to lower rates at the end of April, he could be condemning millions of people to a death by starvation. The situation is that serious. Food riots have broken out across the globe destabilizing large parts of the developing world. China is experiencing double-digit inflation. Indonesia, Vietnam and India have imposed controls over rice exports. Wheat, corn and soya are at record highs and threatening to go higher still. Commodities are up across the board. The World Food Program is warning of widespread famine if the West doesn't provide emergency humanitarian relief. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said it best:

"It is a massacre of the world's poor. The problem is not the production of food. It is the economic, social and political model of the world. The capitalist model is in crisis."

Link here...

What's going on?

2008-04-28T05:59:00.000-07:00

UNION bosses were last night planning fresh strike action at the Grangemouth refinery after negotiations stalled again.

A second crippling stoppage could now take place in as little as seven days - shutting the refinery for a month.

Link here...

As congressional Democrats debate when and how to advance a second economic stimulus package, President Bush announced Friday that tax rebates approved earlier this year will start going out Monday.

Link here...

For used car dealer Ivan Hoyos, accepting a sport utility vehicle as a trade-in is no longer good business. The only SUV he's offering at his Florida Auto Sales and Finance is his mother's red 2004 Mitsubishi Endeavor.

Link here...

With the next new moon arriving May 5, 2008, which is usually the time the Pentagon War Mongers love to attack countries Israel wants bombed, this next terror drill, coming up next week, could be more than interesting. Especially the part about invoking "Continuity Plans and Capabilities."

Link here...

*pic from www.cybersalt.org

Even so.

2008-04-23T11:22:00.001-07:00

Made-for-TV movie, "The Day After" is probably not the best of movies to be watching right now. I simply couldn't help myself when I caught it airing on the SciFi channel last night. Considering all the issues plaguing the world today I should have skipped it rather then let it feed into my subconscious.

A little history on the movie: When "The Day After" was first televised in 1983 actual 1-800 lines had to be opened to help those who were left a little jittery after the film and yet many consider the movie a watered-down version of a nuke holocaust. (I sure do!) Though I don't think it puts too much of a damper on one's reaction. Believe me, it is a disturbing film, even with the now out-dated special affects and the fact it is chopped to pieces from its original four-hour length. It is after all, "about the message, stupid!" The scene with people storming the grocery store alone should put one in a "hold breath, clutch a love one close" holding pattern after all the news as of late concerning food shortages. (Trust me, that is by far NOT the worst/worse scene from this film. When you see the ravages of radiation exposure and the violence people will descend to for even the slightest of needs, you start to feel fairly depressed.)

What REALLY yanks my chain though is the message shown before the scroll of credits at the end. (Cannot read on the youtube copy.) I can't help but feel it is a cop-out. That they were somehow trying to soften the reality blow, on an already watered-down take, so that folks didn't go into an out-right-panic-driven-hysteria-riot. Which fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, happened anyway.

Entire film here...

*pic from media.lawrence.com

When I think of how we used to live...

2008-04-22T05:05:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck:

I said on my radio program, back on February 11, and if I can quote, here it is: "America, for the first time in history we will have to import wheat. Now, what does that mean to the rest of the world? We`ve sold too much wheat. We don`t have enough wheat for ourselves," end quote.

Food shortages and rationing are not just memories from World War II; they`re beginning to be real and happening now. So here`s "The Point" tonight. The breadbasket of the world is burning through its food supply, and it`s our leaders in Washington who are taking the food right directly out of your and your children`s mouths. And here is how I got there.

We used to be so good at producing food in this country that American farmers grew more than we could eat. That`s how we became one of the world`s primary food suppliers. Well, today slightly a different story. Demand for staples like flour, rice, cooking oil, are as high as they have ever been, but the supply is getting lower by the day. And for the first time in our history, we`re actually importing wheat. Told you that back in February.

...

Tonight America, here`s what you need to know. Go to the store, please, and buy some food and then store it. Please. I`ve been telling you for months and it still makes sense. It`s not because I think we`re going to run out of food. We`re America. We`re not going to run out of food. But demand and inflation are only going to increase. The price of food is going to get a lot worse before it even gets just a little bit better.

...

ANDELMAN: Well, nothing is going to stop, obviously. But things could get very bad very quickly. There`s no question about that.

Look, OPEC said today it was not going to produce any more oil because -- to raise to lower prices. Well, guess what? They can`t. There isn`t any more there. There`s only as much as they`re pumping now. And that`s as much as there`s ever going to be.

Frankly, the peak oil people are probably right. We`ve gotten about as much oil out of the ground or are getting as much oil out of the ground as we possibly can.

Monday, April 21 TV news broadcast from Glenn Beck. Full transcript here... The only TV news media outlet to discuss the possibility of a U.S. food crisis and peak oil.

May I see your card, please?

2008-04-21T06:09:00.000-07:00

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World
By JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | April 21, 2008

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. — Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing.

Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain for the large sacks of rice they usually buy. “Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said. “You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”

The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A 20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.

“You can’t eat this every day. It’s too heavy,” a health care executive from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel,grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the Basmati into a shopping cart. “We only need one bag but I’m getting two in case a neighbor or a friend needs it,” the elder man said.

The Patels seemed headed for disappointment, as most Costco members were being allowed to buy only one bag. Moments earlier, a clerk dropped two sacks back on the stack after taking them from another customer who tried to exceed the one-bag cap.

“Due to the limited availability of rice, we are limiting rice purchases based on your prior purchasing history,” a sign above the dwindling supply said.

Shoppers said the limits had been in place for a few days, and that rice supplies had been spotty for a few weeks. A store manager referred questions to officials at Costco headquarters near Seattle, who did not return calls or e-mail messages yesterday.

An employee at the Costco store in Queens said there were no restrictions on rice buying, but limits were being imposed on purchases of oil and flour. Internet postings attributed some of the shortage at the retail level to bakery owners who flocked to warehouse stores when the price of flour from commercial suppliers doubled.

The curbs and shortages are being tracked with concern by survivalists who view the phenomenon as a harbinger of more serious trouble to come.

“It’s sporadic. It’s not every store, but it’s becoming more commonplace,” the editor of SurvivalBlog.com, James Rawles, said. “The number of reports I’ve been getting from readers who have seen signs posted with limits has increased almost exponentially, I’d say in the last three to five weeks.”

Spiking food prices have led to riots in recent weeks in Haiti, Indonesia, and several African nations. India recently banned export of all but the highest quality rice, and Vietnam blocked the signing of new contract for foreign rice sales.

“I’m surprised the Bush administration hasn’t slapped export controls on wheat,” Mr. Rawles said. “The Asian countries are here buying every kind of wheat.”

Mr. Rawles said it is hard to know how much of the shortages are due to lagging supply and how much is caused by consumers hedging against future price hikes or a total lack of product.

“There have been so many stories about worldwide shortages that it encourages people to stock up. What most people don’t realize is that supply chains have changed, so inventories are very short,” Mr. Rawles, a former Army intelligence officer, said. “Even if people increased their purchasing by 20%, all the store shelves would be wiped out.”

At the moment, large chain retailers seem more prone to shortages and limits than do smaller chains and mom-and-pop stores, perhaps because store managers at the larger companies have less discretion to increase prices locally.

Mr. Rawles said the spot shortages seemed to be most frequent in the Northeast and all the way along the West Coast. He said he had heard reports of buying limits at Sam’s Club warehouses, which are owned by Wal-Mart Stores, but a spokesman for the company, Kory Lundberg, said he was not aware of any shortages or limits.

An anonymous high-tech professional writing on an investment Web site, Seeking Alpha, said he recently bought 10 50-pound bags of rice at Costco. “I am concerned that when the news of rice shortage spreads, there will be panic buying and the shelves will be empty in no time. I do not intend to cause a panic, and I am not speculating on rice to make profit. I am just hoarding some for my own consumption,” he wrote.

For now, rice is available at Asian markets in California, though consumers have fewer choices when buying the largest bags. “At our neighborhood store, it’s very expensive, more than $30” for a 25-pound bag, a housewife from Mountain View, Theresa Esquerra, said. “I’m not going to pay $30. Maybe we’ll just eat bread.”

Link sporadically works here...
*pic from www.adliterate.com

Oil and Tar

No joke

Stupidity times a million!

Reality check

We interrupt this broadcast, with the truth!

Stupid is, as stupid does

Time for some good news! Of sorts.

I can't write here anymore because...

No reading between the lines necessary!

We interrupt this broadcast...

Too close to home

Just another day in our little messed up world

History in the making

We interrupt this broadcast...

Don't shoot the messenger

Now there's a hunk of... change?

"We had fun"??

More Kool-Aid?

What MSM won't show

No soup for you!

In case you missed the memo

What's that noise when something is crashing?

... so let's see what the New Year is up to...

Burning bills

Tough one to swallow

Ebert a doomer?

Environmental disaster hell

Monkeys

Boooooooo!

Keep your enemies closer, eh?

...what you will...

Merry Christmas!

Timing is everything...

FBI Arrests Illinois Governor

Houston, we have a problem...

Get the ball rolling again...

WHOA!

Storm of the Century

We interrupt this broadcast

... a lovely flower garden...

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We interrupt this broadcast

Why?

We interrupt this broadcast

There is no place we feel safe.

The battle continued...

The angry questions

But they do

We've planted every seed we've got

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If you want it...

A little sour

We interrupt this broadcast

What do you think?

We interrupt this broadcast

We interrupt this broadcast

Power. Food. Jobs

We interrupt this broadcast

School locked down after 'ninja' sighted in woods

No. We'd better save it.

What?

So it continued...

Gas prices could fall to $2 if Congress acts, analysts say

We interrupt this broadcast

We must have used them.

Not seeing much of anything

RBS issues global stock and credit crash alert

If it were a rumor...

We interrupt this broadcast

I think I have to try.

Sorry what?

Strike hits Shell petrol supplies

This is no dream.

We'll be fine. *cough*

You are your own person, my mother said.

Our parents' house is falling down around us.

See--you should have known

Suddenly her eyes widened in surprise.

The man nodded.

Report: Olmert to urge U.S. attack on Iran

We'll be fine. cough