Where are all these "possible McCain VP" rumors coming from? Are they trial balloons floated by his campaign? If so, all they're doing is reinforcing a suppressed doubt/dislike of the maverick.
I seldom read other blogs but this morning I stopped by the BC.
I'm sorry, but I can't read through all the dissertations. I've gotten too busy in the work-a-day world to devote the time to a forum which I used to love. It takes nearly all of my downtime to keep up with this joint.
I took a glance over there to see what Buddy Larsen had to say; and, sure enough, it was instructive.
He mentioned the Crimean War (which I knew, absolutely nothing, about.) I realized, after a quick Wiki search, that some knowledge of this episode is very important to understanding European/Russian relations.
August 16, 2008 Obama admits relationship with Frank Marshall Davis
Alan Fraser
The admission that Obama's mentor was Frank Marshall Davis, an identified CPUSA member, can only add to growing public concern about Obama's inner thoughts. A relationship with a Communist pawn of Moscow, who was the subject of security investigations by the FBI and various congressional committees which examined Soviet activities in the U.S., is a matter of legitimate inquiry. Posted at 11:54 AM | Email | Permalink
Comments Would we want a known person who has sat in a church for 23 years listening to Wright spread his hate messages and also one that has been well trained in the communist manifesto by Mr. Davis to be our leader ? . It is not only dangerous but would be very destructive to our way of life, any one who votes for Obama has to want communism to be their form of leadership.We must not let this happen period it would end our being able to walk the streets when we wanted and also we would not be able to speak freely and express our views on life . .
Posted by: Ken Roberts | August 16, 2008 12:19 PM
And so the bus's undercarriage prepears to run red in ernest.
I swear, if I thought it would get me anywhere, I'd think that there's a conspiracy afoot that's more sinister than the usual Chicago Democrat dealings.
Posted by: cb | August 16, 2008 12:35 PM
Obama the Commie. If this guy was a white Republican do you believe there would be any chance at all of him still being in this race?
I have said many times, and used Socialist-Democrats to identify the Democratic Party as a fifth column many times. This was not done simply for editorial effect. Every member of the Congressional Black Caucus is also a member of the Democratic Socialist Party who parrot Moscow and Marx. Obama's continued support proves this country is in deep do-do. First we get Clinton and his illegal trip to Moscow during his Oxford days, (the facts of which have to this day never seen the light of day) and in the middle to the Cold War, whereupon on his return he begins organizing anti American rallies in London. The Democrats are Fabian Socialists at best and agents of the old Soviets at worst.
Obama's self described mentors are either rabid racists or communists. From Black Liberation Theology to Marx and Engels Obama doesn't possess a shred of traditional American values. His wife is even more vulgar. In fact they are the antithesis of what this country stands for. He's running as big a con game on America and the world as his buddy Vlad Putin is doing right now in Georgia. Of course the New York Times with it's rich tradition of Walter J. Duranty Stalinist apology reporting is supporting the Commie Obama as much as they can. Will Obama, if elected replace the Secret Service with NOI thugs for protection a la Hitler and the SS? Who would be surprised?
Did you hear the one about the punk and the poet walk into the bar.
Punk says How many engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Poet says:
A1: None. They are all too busy trying to design the perfect light bulb.
A2: Only the one with the instruction manual.
A3: One. But she would insist that the way she did it was distinctive.
A4: Three. One to hold the ladder, one to hold the light bulb, and the third to interpret the Japanese text.
A5: Five. One to design a nuclear-powered light bulb that never needs changing, one to figure out how to power the rest of the USA using that nuked light bulb, two to install it, and one to write the computer program that controls the wall switch.
A6: None. "According to my calculations, the problem doesn't exist."
Rat should be posting at BC. Some of the newer members are rediscovering Russell & Co - the Anglo-Saxon union as a power balance to the emerging states.
In the mid-1980s, European leaders, led by Germany, moved to boost energy imports from Russia as a way to curb the Continent's dependence on oil from the strife-prone Mideast. Yet as Marshall I. Goldman, an old Russia hand and author of the book Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia, tells it, plans to build a pipeline linking Russian gas fields to countries in Western Europe met with stiff resistance from one Ronald Reagan. Remember the Berlin blockade, warned Reagan, who grasped early on the geopolitical risks that the pipeline would create. To drive home his point, Reagan banned General Electric (GE) from exporting its leading-edge compressors and pumps for use in the project. He also lobbied then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to institute a similar ban on British companies. But in a rare disagreement between the two, Thatcher refused.
Can we please stop fussing over every new Olympic record?
A new record means that an athlete using today’s equipment outperformed an athlete using yesterday’s equipment. It’s not a fair fight.
In swimming alone, today’s advantages include:
1. LZR Racer suit. It reduces friction (compared with skin) and is structurally designed to compress and streamline the body for maximum speed. Estimated drag reduction: 5 percent to 10 percent. Estimated average improvement in top swimmers’ best times: 2 percent. Designed by NASA scientists and computers, among others. Cost: $500.
2. Pool depth. This is the deepest pool ever used in the Olympics. Depth disperses turbulence, reducing resistance.
3. Pool width and gutters. Two extra lanes at the margins disperse waves to gutters, reducing ricochet and resistance.
4. Lane dividers. The plastic ones in Beijing deflect turbulence down instead of sideways, reducing resistance.
5. Starting blocks. Nonskid versions have replaced the old wooden ones, boosting dive propulsion.
If these high tech athletes were competing against those athletes with their yesteryear gear, that would be a problem. As it is, don't all the swimmers wear the new fangled duds? So what's the fuss?
Ash said... "The territory of East Germany is now considered part of the NATO area but there is an agreement not to station non-German forces there. Russian troops left in 1994 after Germany provided the money to pay for new accommodation in Russia. Soviet troops have now left Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The desire of the governments of the members to reduce military expenditure is leading to reduction in forces and the closure of some of the United States bases in Europe."" --- Oh yeah, they left out the part that if said countries later started been invaded and occupied by Russia, maybe some folks might want to change their minds.
Probly left it out 'cause anyone with an ounce of common sense would consider it superfluous and absurd.
...but then we're all supposed to act like we don't have a lick of common sense so we can engage w/you on a level playing field.
Doug's correct. People are healthier, taller, stronger. Spports reflects that.
Israeli researchers have found that height, although genetically determined, is controlled by the environment which turns on/off genes affecting your height. The more stressed and malnourished the general population, the shorter they grow. The healthier and nourished that population, the taller they grow.
It is perhaps equally possible Hillary will launch a coup, if enough super delegates abstain in the first roll call vote, in order to throw the voting open on subsequent ballots.
"In 1944, historian Richard Hofstadter published Social Darwinism in American Thought, an aggressive and widely influential critique of the libertarian philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) and his impact on American intellectual life. In Hofstadter's telling, Spencer was the driving force behind "social Darwinism," the pseudo-scientific use of evolution to justify economic and social inequality. According to Hofstadter, Spencer was little more than an apologist for extreme conservatism, a figure who told "the guardians of American society what they wanted to hear." The eugenics movement, Hofstadter maintained, which held that humanity could improve its stock via selective breeding and forced sterilization, "has proved to be the most enduring aspect" of Spencer's "tooth and claw natural selection."
A hit upon publication, the book helped make Hofstadter's name, doing much to secure him his prominent perch at Columbia University, where he taught until his death in 1970. But there's a problem with Hofstadter's celebrated work: His claims bear almost no resemblance to the real Herbert Spencer. In fact, as Princeton University economist Tim Leonard argues in a provocative new article titled "Origins of the Myth of Social Darwinism," [pdf] which is forthcoming from the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Hofstadter is guilty of both distorting Spencer's free market views and smearing them with the taint of racist Darwinian collectivism.
So what happened? As Leonard notes, Hofstadter was no neutral observer. Rather, he "wrote as an opponent of laissez-faire, and also as a champion of what he took to be its rightful successor, expert-led reform." A one-time member of the Communist party, Hofstadter himself later admitted that the book "was naturally influenced by the political and moral controversy of the New Deal era."
...In fact, far from being the proto-eugenicist of Hofstadter's account, Spencer was an early feminist, advocating the complete legal and social equality of the sexes (and he did so, it's worth noting, nearly two decades before John Stuart Mill's famous On the Subjection of Women first appeared). He was also an anti-imperialist, attacking European colonialists for their "deeds of blood and rapine" against "subjugated races." To put it another way, Spencer was a thoroughgoing classical liberal, a principled champion of individual rights in all spheres of human life. Eugenics, which was based on racism, coercion, and collectivism, was alien to everything that Spencer believed.
The same can't be said, however, for the progressive reformers who lined up against him. Take University of Wisconsin economist John R. Commons, one of the crusading figures that Hofstadter praised for opposing laissez-faire and sharing "a common consciousness of society as a collective whole rather than a congeries of individual atoms." In his book Races and Immigrants in America (1907), Commons described African Americans as "indolent and fickle" and endorsed protectionist labor laws since "competition has no respect for the superior races."
Similarly, progressive darling Theodore Roosevelt held that the 15th Amendment, which gave African-American men the right to vote, was "a mistake," since the black race was "two hundred thousand years behind" the white. Yet despite these and countless other examples of racist pseudo-science being used by leading progressives, Leonard reports that Hofstadter "never applied the epithet ‘social Darwinist' to a progressive, a practice that continues to this day."
And that's the trouble. Once Hofstadter's smear took hold, it was an uphill battle to set the record straight..."
cjm: "oil and natural gas are byproducts of internal processes within the earth’s crust. oil will run out when the earth’s core cools, several billion years from now. so yeah, let’s panic now." ---
Any petroleum geologist would say what you say is drivel. Especially about petroleum. There may be a case of extra-biological origin of certain methane reservoirs in the crust, but not many. Some formations thought to be ancient, pre-life methane containing and been disproven by radioisotope analysis (not that that discourages many believers, as a good bulk of them come from the “Jaysus gave Amuuricaaa endless oil”, and disbelieve radioisotope dating because it threatens the veracity of the 6,000 year-old Earth.)
Supply-side ideologues who talk up endless human population growth as great for the planet and GNPs, about endless fresh water, arable land, strategic metals and minerals, and magically refilling oil reservoirs - are sucking hard on their crack pipes. --- bobal: Cedarford, I agree with everything you say there. ---
cjm:
right, it’s all dead leaves and dinosaurs. guffaw. you do love the sound of your own voice. experts say what they are paid to say. you’ll know when oil is genuinely in short supply, because the russians won’t have to create false shortages to cover for their incompetence. concentrate on my mis-spellings, that’s your best bet. --- Hey al-Bob, I really do agree w/everything C4 has to say about Oil there:
I bought some black and white Cowhide Levis back in the 70's. Along with some cork soled brown and blue elevator mickey mouse shoes. That and my toupee and Rawhide Jacket, and I was the coolest Gay Dude @ the Halloween Party.
Neat Gal @ her third Olympics. Has nowhere to go when she gets home. She'd do well as a coach/conselor here, be nice to come up with an answer for her. Other gals says she has a heart of gold. The Last Swing for Crystl Bustos -
It all depends, Doug. If you summerfallow before wheat, you use some diesel, but really no chemicals, as you've killed the weeds (hopefully) summer fallowing. By the old method, that is, which is, you cultivate the field two or three times during the summer. Nowadays, guys are using chem-fallow, that is, you spray it once, with something like Roundup, that way, you only got one pass over the field, so you use little diesel. Put on maybe 140 pounds of N, maybe a little sulfur. In this instance you'll have stubble still standing from the year before, so, when you plant, you either use a no-till drill, of, use the old kind of drills, and cultivate once before you plant. I really don't know the costs anymore. Fertilizer is high as a cat's ass, I know that.
320 acres in Montana, ain't gonna make it. Low rainfall for the most part. Notice they farm half and half. Put it in the Soil Conservation Reserve is my advice.
He said a significant increase in wheat crops is expected from next year's harvest. "The high price of commodities has encouraged farmers to switch from poppy cultivation to wheat. In fact, we are already seeing evidence of this happening, for instance in the Bamian region, where some farmers have planted half wheat and half poppy crops," Tekie said
Poppy/wheat rotation might be a winner. Wonder if poppies fix nitrogen in the soil?
Thanks a lot, al-Bob. --- They don't give that roundup away either, do they? Must take quite a bit of oil/energy/chemical equipment to make that stuff.
Clusterfuck Nation by Jim Kunstler August 11, 2008
Shoulder Season
America is on vacation from its financial, fiscal, and economic problems, having left the centers of power in Wall Street and Washington for a Nantucket-of-the-mind, where, in a haze of artisanal vodka and bong smoke, it's out in the cool dune grass watching imaginary whalefishes blow, leaving only the TV Bubbleheads behind back home. Larry Kudlow of CNBC was practically drooling into his cufflinks on screen last week when the dollar popped against the Euro, and crude oil slumped, and the equity markets climbed up a flagpole. This sort of euphoria is actually an alarming pre-crash symptom, in this case of a patient (the US) entering the terminal phase of sclerosis. Our society and all its playerz -- especially the appointed communicators -- just can't fathom the reality of the threats we face, which are 1.) the loss of primary energy resources, 2.) the loss of technological potency, and 3.) the loss of a comfortable standard of living. As the boys over at the Financial Sense News Hour podcast have been saying for months, we're caught in a paradigm shift and we're trying desperately to prove (to ourselves) that we can get back to the way things used to be. This is a broad cultural phenomenon and helps to explain why even the greenest captains of environmentalism strive to find groovy new ways to run all our cars, while their counterparts on Wall Street strive desperately to salvage a set of "innovative" financial rackets based on getting something for nothing. It also explains the foolishness of the "drill drill drill" crowd, which believes we could be back to 99-cent gasoline if only Exxon-Mobil were allowed to prospect offshore where the codfish used to swim. (By the way, I'm in in full favor of granting them permission to do so, if only to put an end to this foolish debate.) Reality, meanwhile, strives to take us in another direction. Our destination is a far less complex society in a larger, rounder, and less economically-integrated world. We will be leaving a lot of our technological comforts behind, staying closer to home, living in smaller cities and reactivated small towns, working the land more intensively to produce the food we need, and possibly organizing our governance at something less than the continental scale our dwindling riches used to afford. That is, if we're lucky enough to avoid the real possibility of social disorder and violence that would attend a fullblown economic collapse scenario. August is historically a quiet time for oil, the so-called "shoulder season" when vacationing climaxes, but before deliveries of heating oil get underway in earnest. We have no real prospects of overcoming any of the structural problems now built-in to our oil supply, starting with the grim central fact that we import at least 70 percent of the oil we use. Add to this the fact that world production of conventional crude has not exceeded the 2005 rates; that export rates from our Number 3 and 4 sources of oil, Mexico and Venezuela, are down a combined 30 percent this year; that discoveries of new oil are meager to the degree that they fail by a long shot to offset current world-wide depletion; that the oil available on global markets is proportionately more sour and heavy crude than the light and sweet our refineries are designed for. And so on.... These geological matters form the base on which the geopolitical issues work their hoodoo. For instance, the war currently underway in former Soviet Georgia (I say this in case the folks in Atlanta wonder why Stone Mountain is not being bombed) will at least end up with Russia in control of the major oil pipeline that runs from the Caspian region across Georgia, through Turkey, to Europe -- even while parts of that pipeline get blown up. The net effect will be of Russia will taking control of even more of the oil now flowing to Europe. The whole point of building that pipeline was to bypass Russia, which was crippled by its own paradigm shift in the years when the pipeline was built. The US might talk tough about this threat to the status quo, but what is it going to do? Pull troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan to mount a land war against Russia in a landlocked region of its own neighborhood? Fuggeddabowdit. Notice, the Europeans are not making so much as a peep -- because when the time comes that Russia does control that pipeline, the Europeans will do anything to keep the contents flowing toward them. Europe may be organized as a trade-and-currency confederation, but not as a military power. NATO is strictly a US auxiliary, not a power unto itself. The result of all this will be that Russia, already the world's leading oil producer, even as it has entered depletion, will now possess a potent geopolitical-and-financial weapon with control of that pipeline. A collateral effect will be Europe's inclination to bid more desperately for Middle East oil -- the oil that comes via the Suez Canal -- which can't help but boost the price-per-barrel that the US is forced to pay. One part of the oil equation we haven't seen yet this year -- the prelude to the heating season which could be just as spectacular as the opening of the Beijing Olympics -- is the hurricane season. This will be an interesting week for that, as two tropical depressions have now formed off West Africa and begun their grinding progress into our part of the world. Stay tuned to that (National Hurricane Center). With Wall Street on vacation at its various beaches, the idea has taken hold that the so-called credit crisis is mostly over. In fact, we're still in the first quarter of that classic. The big move before the investment bankers packed their snorkels and baggies was Merrill Lynch selling off a batch of its fraudulent securitized debt bundles for roughly five cents on the dollar. That pretty much marked-to-market the similar garbage that every other big bank or pension fund or hedge fund has hidden in its closet. My guess is that some of them will just declare "game over" without even bothering to haul their garbage out and hang a "for sale" sign on it. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are essentially there now. The Federal Reserve will be in the awkward position of having to make more loans (that will never be paid back) to many of these companies and entities, and in the process will fork over their remaining treasuries in exchange for garbage collateral that they will never get rid of. I don't see how the Federal Reserve survives this process. It will not have any reserves left. The collapse of the Federal Reserve would take America into an outer space version of uncharted territory, really into a whole other dimension of distress. While Europe faces its problems on Russia and energy and its own economic performance, it has more probability of staying afloat than the US in this upcoming period. I would look for the dollar to make a new big "leg" down against the Euro. It was fascinating to watch a CNBC report Sunday night about the progress of General Motors and McDonalds Hamburgers in China. It sure makes one wonder about the current mood of Sino-triumphalism -- the favorite car of the Chinese elite is... the Buick, a product that even demented old ladies in Columbus, Ohio, will not touch with a stick. It appears that China has succeeded in turning Peking and Shanghai into simulacrums of Atlanta and Dallas, complete with glass office towers and all the on-and-off-ramps they'll ever need -- a pretty stupid project when you consider how little oil of its own China actually has. One can only say, with a shudder, that they got into the Happy Motoring game a bit late, and wish them "good luck." The Mickey-D phenomenon appears to be a mere fad, a toy that Chinese trade officials tossed to its people in the euphoria of ramping up the world's last manufacturing economy. For starters, China doesn't have enough groundwater or grain to feed the necessary steers (and hogs) that McDonald's uses for it's "meat products" there. The most amusing part of the CNBC segment was the deportment of the smarmy American executives representing those companies: Rick Waggoner of GM, who was depicted in the full flower of a campaign to hose his Chinese "partners," blowing smoke up their asses as if he were some kind of a human walking-talking bong, and the two necktied creeps from McDonalds' Asian office scheming on camera about opening tens of thousands of so-called "restaurants" across the ancient kingdom. These were all perfect representatives of people stuck in a paradigm already bygone. When the Olympic mania ends, China will find itself in a new reality, too. Its single advantage, as far as I can see, is that it holds a lot of US dollars in various formats, and I don't know that this is much of an advantage given the imminent tanking of American finance. Yes, China has become the world's factory. But if the world's leading shopper is shopped-out and busted, this might not be much of an advantage. Beyond that, as suggested above, they face huge problems with oil, water, and food, not to mention over-population and environmental degradation at a scale we can barely imagine here. The slide toward Labor Day will remain interesting, even with all the Boyz off at the beach. Notice we haven't even touched on the upcoming political theater of presidential politics, a show that I'm inclined to call "The Party That Wrecked America."
Actually I think Roundup is cheaper now, as least relatively, than when I first used it, and the patent is off. It was high then. By the way, never buy the Roundup brand at Wal-Mart, buy the generic, which is made for Wal-Mart. Exactly the same stuff, half price. Read the label on Roundup, then match that to the generic. It's glucophosphate, if memory serves.
Whites aren't cowboy boots, but they're great boots. When we bought ours they made 'em up individually to each foot. Loggers use them alot.
Main reason I want to Drill/Mine Coal is national security. ...like that Captain says, would be neat to have the DOD running on fuel derived from Coal.
And, save a little money, use only 2/3 or 3/4 dose of what the directions say. Will do just as good, though might take a little longer. Definitely don't use more than the label, as you might kill the plant above ground before the chemical gets to the roots.
Roundup is the best thing I know of for morning glory, only thing that works, really.
Defense Department OKs facilities turning natural produce into energy
By Joe Kovacs
Naturally occurring bacteria used to convert biomass into hydrocarbons.
A Georgia company looking to solve America's energy problem has finally teamed up with the federal government, hoping to make millions of barrels of oil every day from virtually anything that grows out of the Earth.
Bell Bio-Energy, Inc. says it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Defense Department to build seven test production plants, mostly on military bases, to quickly turn naturally grown material into fuel.
"What this means is that with the seven pilot plants – the military likes to refer to them as demonstrations – with those being built … it gives us the real-time engineering data that we need to finish the designs for a full-scale production facility," J.C. Bell, the man behind the project, told WND today.
"In 18 months or so, we will start manufacturing oil directly from waste and we will build up to about 500,000 barrels a day within two years. In another six months, we'll reach a million barrels a day."
As the United States now imports about 13 million barrels of oil a day, the only obstacle then to total energy independence from foreign sources will be the money needed to develop the processing plants, he said.
"Working with the USDA we've identified enough waste material around the country, we truly believe we can make the United States totally energy independent of foreign countries in about five years," he said.
WND originally reported on the project in March as Bell, an agricultural researcher, confirmed he'd isolated and modified specific bacteria that will, on a very large scale, naturally and rapidly convert plant material – including the leftovers from food – into hydrocarbons to fuel cars and trucks.
That means trash like corn stalks and corn cobs – even the grass clippings from suburban lawns – can be turned into oil and gasoline to run trucks, buses and cars.
Wood pulp is among the many natural materials that can be converted into oil and gasoline, according to Bell Bio-Energy, Inc., of Tifton, Ga.
He said he made the discovery standing downwind from his cows at his food-production company, Bell Plantation, in Tifton, Ga.
"Cows are like people that eat lots of beans. They're really, really good at making natural gas," he said. "It dawned on me that that natural gas was methane."
WND also reported how the national news media more or less ignored his announcement of a potential solution to America's dependence on Middle East nations for its oil.
But the U.S. military was listening. And Bell now confirms his agreement with the Department of Defense, the Defense Energy Support Center and the Army will have seven demonstration facilities built at Fort Benning and Fort Stewart in Georgia, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort AP Hill in Virginia, Fort Drum in New York and Fort Lewis in Washington, as well as one more installation in San Pedro, Calif.
"We should have all of the plants running within 60 days," he said. "This is a big step in our growth, from the engineering that we develop with these plants, we will be able to build our full-scale production facilities and be in full production in the next 12 to 18 months.
"Everyone now accepts the fact that we can make oil through bacterial action and now it is just a matter of time and money until we are turning out one million to two million barrels per day," he said.
He told WND the first full-scale facility probably will cost $100 million to $125 million to build, and that an investment of $2.5 billion likely will be needed to reach a production level of a million barrels per day.
But he said the return – even if the oil were sold for $70 a barrel, just half of what it was going for six weeks ago and still substantially lower than the current market rate of about $110 a barrel – would be significant.
"It will feel very, very good to be to the point where we finally turn off the spigot from overseas," he said.
The process previously had been verified, said Dr. Art Robinson, a research professor of chemistry at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine who publishes the Access to Energy newsletter. "These other ways [of producing energy] work; the only question is if they're competitive in price. Any hydrocarbon under pressure and temperature can turn into oil."
How big does Bell believe the process eventually could be?
"With minor changes in the agricultural and forestry products, we could create two to two and a half billion tons of biomass a year, and you're looking at five billion barrels of oil per year," he said.
IGOETI, Georgia (AP) - Russian forces built ramparts around tanks and posted sentries on a hill in central Georgia on Saturday, digging in despite Western pressure for Moscow to withdraw its forces under a cease-fire deal signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The United States and France said it appeared Russia was defying the truce already. Russian troops still controlled two Georgian cities and the key east-west highway between them Saturday, cities well outside the breakaway provinces where earlier fighting was focused.
"From my point of view - and I am in contact with the French - the Russians are perhaps already not honoring their word," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
From bobal's link above: "I spoke with Atbashian by telephone, and his work for the Party ought to send a chill up your spine. He said he immediately recognized Obama's work with ACORN, where Barack was a 'community organizer'. From the description of Obama's ACRORN job Oleg snorted and said, "For all intents and purposes that's the same job as a Party Organizer."
There's more to the housing bailout measure than meets the eye, says a Minnesota lawmaker. She contends that members of Congress need to be called back to Washington to reverse the measure that, among other things, sends millions of taxpayer dollars to a radical illegal immigration advocacy group.
The housing package signed into law by President Bush extends an unlimited line of credit to troubled mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and rescues homeowners near or in foreclosure. The measure also increases the federal debt limit by another $800 billion -- and sends millions of dollars in aid to La Raza and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, says she finds it "unconscionable" that the legislation included funding for the two groups, which serve as political action arms of the Democratic Party.
"At the same time that the American taxpayer was being asked to bail these companies out, Barney Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, instituted a sort of tax on Freddie and Fannie, and that tax goes into what's called an affordable housing trust fund," explains Bachmann. "It's a really a taxpayer-subsidized housing fund, but that money will go to organizations like La Raza and...ACORN." Both groups -- "particularly ACORN," says Bachmann -- have been found to be involved in "activities where they have perpetrated voter fraud," she contends.
Bachmann advises Congress to get back to Washington, stop the funding stream for ACORN and La Raza, and also get American taxpayers off the hook for bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Nah, I'm too old. Wouldn't do it anyway. If I get some money I'd like to buy a summer cabin on a lake in Canada. Might happen. I'm working on it. I'll always be an American, to the bitter end.
Dr. Bill is saying the fastest way to get more nuclear power is to build more units at some of the existing sites, where the is room. He gave an example of one site for instance that was certified for four units, and only two were built. There's more of that type situation he says. All we need is the political will to do it.
Nothing is more important than love. Even in this economy. So you're lucky to have a friend in Shane and Company, San Francisco, with outlets in Oakland and San Matao where you can buy the diamond of you choice for you loved one.....same sex couples welcome....
advertisement read with the sleeziest radio voice you can imagine...
DALLAS - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama side-stepped a pointed query about abortion on Saturday by “mega-pastor” Rick Warren during a televised forum.
Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity … is above my pay grade.”
Boba: San Francisco, with outlets in Oakland and San Matao where you can buy the diamond of you choice for you loved one.....same sex couples welcome....
LMT - LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP (NYSE)
ReplyDeleteSymbol: LMT Last: 116.67 Change: 3.49 +3.0836%
RTN - RAYTHEON COMPANY (NYSE)
ReplyDeleteSymbol: RTN Last: 61.71 Change: 1.40 +2.3213%
Who builds the Peace Train?
ReplyDeleteWould you settle for a Piece Train?
ReplyDeleteRat, what is your best western dude boot?
ReplyDeleteWho builds the Peace Train?
ReplyDeleteI don't know; but they must have mixed up the blueprints. The damned things off the rails, again!
It looks like Chelsea Clinton smuggled aboard that piece train.
ReplyDeleteWhere are all these "possible McCain VP" rumors coming from? Are they trial balloons floated by his campaign? If so, all they're doing is reinforcing a suppressed doubt/dislike of the maverick.
ReplyDeleteI seldom read other blogs but this morning I stopped by the BC.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I can't read through all the dissertations. I've gotten too busy in the work-a-day world to devote the time to a forum which I used to love. It takes nearly all of my downtime to keep up with this joint.
Maybe I need exercise and vitamins...
Who was it the other day that asked when they will start analyzing each other?
ReplyDelete500 comments is about 400 too many.
ReplyDeleteI took a glance over there to see what Buddy Larsen had to say; and, sure enough, it was instructive.
ReplyDeleteHe mentioned the Crimean War (which I knew, absolutely nothing, about.) I realized, after a quick Wiki search, that some knowledge of this episode is very important to understanding European/Russian relations.
Let me Synopsize. Europe is a freakin' mess.
Once again the true nature of our enemies, which have been greatly minimized by many, have over been taken the actions of said enemies...
ReplyDeletea great big THANKS goes out to the Russians for REALLY showing us what shit heads you really are...
nothing shows clarity better than the Russian Bear clawing it's way through a tiny paper thin protected nation....
hmm, Maybe We Shouldn't Let Ukraine Into NATO
ReplyDeleteGood article.
That girl behind Chelsea has a little bruise, or hickey, on her left breast.
Habu post at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteObama is a commie.
American Thinker
August 16, 2008
Obama admits relationship with Frank Marshall Davis
Alan Fraser
The admission that Obama's mentor was Frank Marshall Davis, an identified CPUSA member, can only add to growing public concern about Obama's inner thoughts. A relationship with a Communist pawn of Moscow, who was the subject of security investigations by the FBI and various congressional committees which examined Soviet activities in the U.S., is a matter of legitimate inquiry.
Posted at 11:54 AM | Email | Permalink
Comments
Would we want a known person who has sat in a church for 23 years listening to Wright spread his hate messages and also one that has been well trained in the communist manifesto by Mr. Davis to be our leader ? . It is not only dangerous but would be very destructive to our way of life, any one who votes for Obama has to want communism to be their form of leadership.We must not let this happen period it would end our being able to walk the streets when we wanted and also we would not be able to speak freely and express our views on life . .
Posted by: Ken Roberts | August 16, 2008 12:19 PM
And so the bus's undercarriage prepears to run red in ernest.
I swear, if I thought it would get me anywhere, I'd think that there's a conspiracy afoot that's more sinister than the usual Chicago Democrat dealings.
Posted by: cb | August 16, 2008 12:35 PM
Obama the Commie. If this guy was a white Republican do you believe there would be any chance at all of him still being in this race?
I have said many times, and used Socialist-Democrats to identify the Democratic Party as a fifth column many times. This was not done simply for editorial effect. Every member of the Congressional Black Caucus is also a member of the Democratic Socialist Party who parrot Moscow and Marx. Obama's continued support proves this country is in deep do-do. First we get Clinton and his illegal trip to Moscow during his Oxford days, (the facts of which have to this day never seen the light of day) and in the middle to the Cold War, whereupon on his return he begins organizing anti American rallies in London. The Democrats are Fabian Socialists at best and agents of the old Soviets at worst.
Obama's self described mentors are either rabid racists or communists. From Black Liberation Theology to Marx and Engels Obama doesn't possess a shred of traditional American values. His wife is even more vulgar. In fact they are the antithesis of what this country stands for. He's running as big a con game on America and the world as his buddy Vlad Putin is doing right now in Georgia. Of course the New York Times with it's rich tradition of Walter J. Duranty Stalinist apology reporting is supporting the Commie Obama as much as they can. Will Obama, if elected replace the Secret Service with NOI thugs for protection a la Hitler and the SS? Who would be surprised?
Posted by: Habu | August 16, 2008 12:40 PM
Did you hear the one about the punk and the poet walk into the bar.
ReplyDeletePunk says How many engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Poet says:
A1: None. They are all too busy trying to design the perfect light bulb.
A2: Only the one with the instruction manual.
A3: One. But she would insist that the way she did it was distinctive.
A4: Three. One to hold the ladder, one to hold the light bulb, and the third to interpret the Japanese text.
A5: Five. One to design a nuclear-powered light bulb that never needs changing, one to figure out how to power the rest of the USA using that nuked light bulb, two to install it, and one to write the computer program that controls the wall switch.
A6: None. "According to my calculations, the problem doesn't exist."
Rat should be posting at BC. Some of the newer members are rediscovering Russell & Co - the Anglo-Saxon union as a power balance to the emerging states.
The Gipper Saw It Coming
ReplyDeleteIn the mid-1980s, European leaders, led by Germany, moved to boost energy imports from Russia as a way to curb the Continent's dependence on oil from the strife-prone Mideast. Yet as Marshall I. Goldman, an old Russia hand and author of the book Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia, tells it, plans to build a pipeline linking Russian gas fields to countries in Western Europe met with stiff resistance from one Ronald Reagan. Remember the Berlin blockade, warned Reagan, who grasped early on the geopolitical risks that the pipeline would create. To drive home his point, Reagan banned General Electric (GE) from exporting its leading-edge compressors and pumps for use in the project. He also lobbied then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to institute a similar ban on British companies. But in a rare disagreement between the two, Thatcher refused.
US Commies Endorse Obama
ReplyDeleteTeresita's right, it's the technology--
ReplyDeleteCan we please stop fussing over every new Olympic record?
A new record means that an athlete using today’s equipment outperformed an athlete using yesterday’s equipment. It’s not a fair fight.
In swimming alone, today’s advantages include:
1. LZR Racer suit. It reduces friction (compared with skin) and is structurally designed to compress and streamline the body for maximum speed. Estimated drag reduction: 5 percent to 10 percent. Estimated average improvement in top swimmers’ best times: 2 percent. Designed by NASA scientists and computers, among others. Cost: $500.
2. Pool depth. This is the deepest pool ever used in the Olympics. Depth disperses turbulence, reducing resistance.
3. Pool width and gutters. Two extra lanes at the margins disperse waves to gutters, reducing ricochet and resistance.
4. Lane dividers. The plastic ones in Beijing deflect turbulence down instead of sideways, reducing resistance.
5. Starting blocks. Nonskid versions have replaced the old wooden ones, boosting dive propulsion.
If these high tech athletes were competing against those athletes with their yesteryear gear, that would be a problem. As it is, don't all the swimmers wear the new fangled duds? So what's the fuss?
ReplyDeleteDeuce
ReplyDeleteLucchese Boots for my money.
Ash said...
ReplyDelete"The territory of East Germany is now considered part of the NATO area but there is an agreement not to station non-German forces there. Russian troops left in 1994 after Germany provided the money to pay for new accommodation in Russia. Soviet troops have now left Czechoslovakia and Hungary. The desire of the governments of the members to reduce military expenditure is leading to reduction in forces and the closure of some of the United States bases in Europe.""
---
Oh yeah, they left out the part that if said countries later started been invaded and occupied by Russia, maybe some folks might want to change their minds.
Probly left it out 'cause anyone with an ounce of common sense would consider it superfluous and absurd.
...but then we're all supposed to act like we don't have a lick of common sense so we can engage w/you on a level playing field.
BULLSHIT!
ReplyDeleteLike in most sports, athletes are more highly trained than ever.
Given the same equipment, they'd still kick the old guys asses.
Also more highly fed, much larger, stronger, and etc.
There's this concept of evolutionary progress, see?
ReplyDeleteIOW everything that athletes knew about conditioning, physiology, nutrition, and etc in 1930, has been added to in the intervening 80 years.
Assuming such a concept is not held to be DARWINIAN BLASPHEMY.
Putin the Poisoner Has Gorby Singing His Song
ReplyDeleteGorby still wants to hand around the old country, I quess.
BULLSHIT
ReplyDelete==
Doug's correct. People are healthier, taller, stronger. Spports reflects that.
Israeli researchers have found that height, although genetically determined, is controlled by the environment which turns on/off genes affecting your height. The more stressed and malnourished the general population, the shorter they grow. The healthier and nourished that population, the taller they grow.
Americans are still fat asses. :D
duece, for riding, partying, or just bein' "western"?
ReplyDeleteTony Lama makes a good working boot.
Justin Boots are sweet
"Ropers" have a low heal that is easy to walk in.
If you're riding, get leather soles, rubber if you're just walkin' around a dude ranch.
The leather allows the foot to slide out of the stirrup easier, do not want to hung up if you fall off. That's a good way to get crippled.
Leather soles if dancing is involved in your Dude activities.
It is perhaps equally possible Hillary will launch a coup, if enough super delegates abstain in the first roll call vote, in order to throw the voting open on subsequent ballots.
ReplyDeleteObama and the Hillary Voters
A convention coup? Nay, well, maybe...
On justice, history and intellectually correupt academics:
ReplyDelete"In 1944, historian Richard Hofstadter published Social Darwinism in American Thought, an aggressive and widely influential critique of the libertarian philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) and his impact on American intellectual life. In Hofstadter's telling, Spencer was the driving force behind "social Darwinism," the pseudo-scientific use of evolution to justify economic and social inequality. According to Hofstadter, Spencer was little more than an apologist for extreme conservatism, a figure who told "the guardians of American society what they wanted to hear." The eugenics movement, Hofstadter maintained, which held that humanity could improve its stock via selective breeding and forced sterilization, "has proved to be the most enduring aspect" of Spencer's "tooth and claw natural selection."
A hit upon publication, the book helped make Hofstadter's name, doing much to secure him his prominent perch at Columbia University, where he taught until his death in 1970. But there's a problem with Hofstadter's celebrated work: His claims bear almost no resemblance to the real Herbert Spencer. In fact, as Princeton University economist Tim Leonard argues in a provocative new article titled "Origins of the Myth of Social Darwinism," [pdf] which is forthcoming from the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Hofstadter is guilty of both distorting Spencer's free market views and smearing them with the taint of racist Darwinian collectivism.
So what happened? As Leonard notes, Hofstadter was no neutral observer. Rather, he "wrote as an opponent of laissez-faire, and also as a champion of what he took to be its rightful successor, expert-led reform." A one-time member of the Communist party, Hofstadter himself later admitted that the book "was naturally influenced by the political and moral controversy of the New Deal era."
...In fact, far from being the proto-eugenicist of Hofstadter's account, Spencer was an early feminist, advocating the complete legal and social equality of the sexes (and he did so, it's worth noting, nearly two decades before John Stuart Mill's famous On the Subjection of Women first appeared). He was also an anti-imperialist, attacking European colonialists for their "deeds of blood and rapine" against "subjugated races." To put it another way, Spencer was a thoroughgoing classical liberal, a principled champion of individual rights in all spheres of human life. Eugenics, which was based on racism, coercion, and collectivism, was alien to everything that Spencer believed.
The same can't be said, however, for the progressive reformers who lined up against him. Take University of Wisconsin economist John R. Commons, one of the crusading figures that Hofstadter praised for opposing laissez-faire and sharing "a common consciousness of society as a collective whole rather than a congeries of individual atoms." In his book Races and Immigrants in America (1907), Commons described African Americans as "indolent and fickle" and endorsed protectionist labor laws since "competition has no respect for the superior races."
Similarly, progressive darling Theodore Roosevelt held that the 15th Amendment, which gave African-American men the right to vote, was "a mistake," since the black race was "two hundred thousand years behind" the white. Yet despite these and countless other examples of racist pseudo-science being used by leading progressives, Leonard reports that Hofstadter "never applied the epithet ‘social Darwinist' to a progressive, a practice that continues to this day."
And that's the trouble. Once Hofstadter's smear took hold, it was an uphill battle to set the record straight..."
That's my AlGore scenario, bob.
ReplyDeleteRe-entering the public subconscious
Yeah:) that's why I put it up. If you turn out to be right, you are the greatest seer in the land.
ReplyDeleteAug 16, 2008 - 6:01 pm
ReplyDeletecedarford:
cjm:
"oil and natural gas are byproducts of internal processes within the earth’s crust. oil will run out when the earth’s core cools, several billion years from now. so yeah, let’s panic now."
---
Any petroleum geologist would say what you say is drivel. Especially about petroleum. There may be a case of extra-biological origin of certain methane reservoirs in the crust, but not many. Some formations thought to be ancient, pre-life methane containing and been disproven by radioisotope analysis (not that that discourages many believers, as a good bulk of them come from the “Jaysus gave Amuuricaaa endless oil”, and disbelieve radioisotope dating because it threatens the veracity of the 6,000 year-old Earth.)
Supply-side ideologues who talk up endless human population growth as great for the planet and GNPs, about endless fresh water, arable land, strategic metals and minerals, and magically refilling oil reservoirs - are sucking hard on their crack pipes.
---
bobal:
Cedarford, I agree with everything you say there.
---
cjm:
right, it’s all dead leaves and dinosaurs. guffaw. you do love the sound of your own voice. experts say what they are paid to say. you’ll know when oil is genuinely in short supply, because the russians won’t have to create false shortages to cover for their incompetence. concentrate on my mis-spellings, that’s your best bet.
---
Hey al-Bob,
I really do agree w/everything C4 has to say about Oil there:
Where do you find fault?
If I beg a little will you tell me how much diesel and chemicals you required per acre over the course of a year?
ReplyDeletePutin on the Ritz
ReplyDelete...or you could even point me to a public source
ReplyDelete(NOT connected to some Messianic Ethanol Project.)
Georgia explained
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletedesert rat said...
ReplyDeleteduece, for riding, partying, or just bein' "western"?
Tony Lama makes a good working boot.
Justin Boots are sweet
"Ropers" have a low heal that is easy to walk in.
If you're riding, get leather soles, rubber if you're just walkin' around a dude ranch.
The leather allows the foot to slide out of the stirrup easier, do not want to hung up if you fall off. That's a good way to get crippled.
Leather soles if dancing is involved in your Dude activities.
Note If I lived in Dallas ever again, I'd trade my cole haans in (in a flash) for my Tony Lama Ostrich boots...
been in the closet since 1985 and are amazing... (wore then every day from 1976-1985)
How do I get to be like Paul Bremmer?
ReplyDeleteI bought some black and white Cowhide Levis back in the 70's.
ReplyDeleteAlong with some cork soled brown and blue elevator mickey mouse shoes.
That and my toupee and Rawhide Jacket, and I was the coolest Gay Dude @ the Halloween Party.
ABC News Dallas From the Ranch to Real Life
ReplyDeleteThen and now Dallas Pics
---
Neat Gal @ her third Olympics.
Has nowhere to go when she gets home.
She'd do well as a coach/conselor here, be nice to come up with an answer for her.
Other gals says she has a heart of gold.
The Last Swing for Crystl Bustos -
Bustos, Softball’s Babe Ruth
ReplyDeleteIt all depends, Doug. If you summerfallow before wheat, you use some diesel, but really no chemicals, as you've killed the weeds (hopefully) summer fallowing. By the old method, that is, which is, you cultivate the field two or three times during the summer. Nowadays, guys are using chem-fallow, that is, you spray it once, with something like Roundup, that way, you only got one pass over the field, so you use little diesel. Put on maybe 140 pounds of N, maybe a little sulfur. In this instance you'll have stubble still standing from the year before, so, when you plant, you either use a no-till drill, of, use the old kind of drills, and cultivate once before you plant. I really don't know the costs anymore. Fertilizer is high as a cat's ass, I know that.
ReplyDeleteThese Folks Say They Have About $7 a Bushel Into It Which I can believe.
ReplyDeleteWhat To Do With Granny's Wheat Field
ReplyDelete320 acres in Montana, ain't gonna make it. Low rainfall for the most part. Notice they farm half and half. Put it in the Soil Conservation Reserve is my advice.
In Afghanistan, the
ReplyDeleteHeroin Futures Market is down, so some of the boys are getting out of poppies and switching to wheat
He said a significant increase in wheat crops is expected from next year's harvest. "The high price of commodities has encouraged farmers to switch from poppy cultivation to wheat. In fact, we are already seeing evidence of this happening, for instance in the Bamian region, where some farmers have planted half wheat and half poppy crops," Tekie said
ReplyDeletePoppy/wheat rotation might be a winner. Wonder if poppies fix nitrogen in the soil?
Thanks a lot, al-Bob.
ReplyDelete---
They don't give that roundup away either, do they?
Must take quite a bit of oil/energy/chemical equipment to make that stuff.
Didn't somebody post that poppies had the highest oil yield of all?
ReplyDeleteClusterfuck Nation
ReplyDeleteby Jim Kunstler
August 11, 2008
Shoulder Season
America is on vacation from its financial, fiscal, and economic problems, having left the centers of power in Wall Street and Washington for a Nantucket-of-the-mind, where, in a haze of artisanal vodka and bong smoke, it's out in the cool dune grass watching imaginary whalefishes blow, leaving only the TV Bubbleheads behind back home. Larry Kudlow of CNBC was practically drooling into his cufflinks on screen last week when the dollar popped against the Euro, and crude oil slumped, and the equity markets climbed up a flagpole.
This sort of euphoria is actually an alarming pre-crash symptom, in this case of a patient (the US) entering the terminal phase of sclerosis. Our society and all its playerz -- especially the appointed communicators -- just can't fathom the reality of the threats we face, which are 1.) the loss of primary energy resources, 2.) the loss of technological potency, and 3.) the loss of a comfortable standard of living.
As the boys over at the Financial Sense News Hour podcast have been saying for months, we're caught in a paradigm shift and we're trying desperately to prove (to ourselves) that we can get back to the way things used to be. This is a broad cultural phenomenon and helps to explain why even the greenest captains of environmentalism strive to find groovy new ways to run all our cars, while their counterparts on Wall Street strive desperately to salvage a set of "innovative" financial rackets based on getting something for nothing. It also explains the foolishness of the "drill drill drill" crowd, which believes we could be back to 99-cent gasoline if only Exxon-Mobil were allowed to prospect offshore where the codfish used to swim. (By the way, I'm in in full favor of granting them permission to do so, if only to put an end to this foolish debate.)
Reality, meanwhile, strives to take us in another direction. Our destination is a far less complex society in a larger, rounder, and less economically-integrated world. We will be leaving a lot of our technological comforts behind, staying closer to home, living in smaller cities and reactivated small towns, working the land more intensively to produce the food we need, and possibly organizing our governance at something less than the continental scale our dwindling riches used to afford. That is, if we're lucky enough to avoid the real possibility of social disorder and violence that would attend a fullblown economic collapse scenario.
August is historically a quiet time for oil, the so-called "shoulder season" when vacationing climaxes, but before deliveries of heating oil get underway in earnest. We have no real prospects of overcoming any of the structural problems now built-in to our oil supply, starting with the grim central fact that we import at least 70 percent of the oil we use. Add to this the fact that world production of conventional crude has not exceeded the 2005 rates; that export rates from our Number 3 and 4 sources of oil, Mexico and Venezuela, are down a combined 30 percent this year; that discoveries of new oil are meager to the degree that they fail by a long shot to offset current world-wide depletion; that the oil available on global markets is proportionately more sour and heavy crude than the light and sweet our refineries are designed for. And so on....
These geological matters form the base on which the geopolitical issues work their hoodoo. For instance, the war currently underway in former Soviet Georgia (I say this in case the folks in Atlanta wonder why Stone Mountain is not being bombed) will at least end up with Russia in control of the major oil pipeline that runs from the Caspian region across Georgia, through Turkey, to Europe -- even while parts of that pipeline get blown up. The net effect will be of Russia will taking control of even more of the oil now flowing to Europe. The whole point of building that pipeline was to bypass Russia, which was crippled by its own paradigm shift in the years when the pipeline was built.
The US might talk tough about this threat to the status quo, but what is it going to do? Pull troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan to mount a land war against Russia in a landlocked region of its own neighborhood? Fuggeddabowdit. Notice, the Europeans are not making so much as a peep -- because when the time comes that Russia does control that pipeline, the Europeans will do anything to keep the contents flowing toward them. Europe may be organized as a trade-and-currency confederation, but not as a military power. NATO is strictly a US auxiliary, not a power unto itself. The result of all this will be that Russia, already the world's leading oil producer, even as it has entered depletion, will now possess a potent geopolitical-and-financial weapon with control of that pipeline. A collateral effect will be Europe's inclination to bid more desperately for Middle East oil -- the oil that comes via the Suez Canal -- which can't help but boost the price-per-barrel that the US is forced to pay.
One part of the oil equation we haven't seen yet this year -- the prelude to the heating season which could be just as spectacular as the opening of the Beijing Olympics -- is the hurricane season. This will be an interesting week for that, as two tropical depressions have now formed off West Africa and begun their grinding progress into our part of the world. Stay tuned to that (National Hurricane Center).
With Wall Street on vacation at its various beaches, the idea has taken hold that the so-called credit crisis is mostly over. In fact, we're still in the first quarter of that classic. The big move before the investment bankers packed their snorkels and baggies was Merrill Lynch selling off a batch of its fraudulent securitized debt bundles for roughly five cents on the dollar. That pretty much marked-to-market the similar garbage that every other big bank or pension fund or hedge fund has hidden in its closet. My guess is that some of them will just declare "game over" without even bothering to haul their garbage out and hang a "for sale" sign on it. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are essentially there now.
The Federal Reserve will be in the awkward position of having to make more loans (that will never be paid back) to many of these companies and entities, and in the process will fork over their remaining treasuries in exchange for garbage collateral that they will never get rid of. I don't see how the Federal Reserve survives this process. It will not have any reserves left. The collapse of the Federal Reserve would take America into an outer space version of uncharted territory, really into a whole other dimension of distress.
While Europe faces its problems on Russia and energy and its own economic performance, it has more probability of staying afloat than the US in this upcoming period. I would look for the dollar to make a new big "leg" down against the Euro.
It was fascinating to watch a CNBC report Sunday night about the progress of General Motors and McDonalds Hamburgers in China. It sure makes one wonder about the current mood of Sino-triumphalism -- the favorite car of the Chinese elite is... the Buick, a product that even demented old ladies in Columbus, Ohio, will not touch with a stick. It appears that China has succeeded in turning Peking and Shanghai into simulacrums of Atlanta and Dallas, complete with glass office towers and all the on-and-off-ramps they'll ever need -- a pretty stupid project when you consider how little oil of its own China actually has. One can only say, with a shudder, that they got into the Happy Motoring game a bit late, and wish them "good luck."
The Mickey-D phenomenon appears to be a mere fad, a toy that Chinese trade officials tossed to its people in the euphoria of ramping up the world's last manufacturing economy. For starters, China doesn't have enough groundwater or grain to feed the necessary steers (and hogs) that McDonald's uses for it's "meat products" there.
The most amusing part of the CNBC segment was the deportment of the smarmy American executives representing those companies: Rick Waggoner of GM, who was depicted in the full flower of a campaign to hose his Chinese "partners," blowing smoke up their asses as if he were some kind of a human walking-talking bong, and the two necktied creeps from McDonalds' Asian office scheming on camera about opening tens of thousands of so-called "restaurants" across the ancient kingdom. These were all perfect representatives of people stuck in a paradigm already bygone. When the Olympic mania ends, China will find itself in a new reality, too. Its single advantage, as far as I can see, is that it holds a lot of US dollars in various formats, and I don't know that this is much of an advantage given the imminent tanking of American finance. Yes, China has become the world's factory. But if the world's leading shopper is shopped-out and busted, this might not be much of an advantage. Beyond that, as suggested above, they face huge problems with oil, water, and food, not to mention over-population and environmental degradation at a scale we can barely imagine here.
The slide toward Labor Day will remain interesting, even with all the Boyz off at the beach. Notice we haven't even touched on the upcoming political theater of presidential politics, a show that I'm inclined to call "The Party That Wrecked America."
Actually I think Roundup is cheaper now, as least relatively, than when I first used it, and the patent is off. It was high then. By the way, never buy the Roundup brand at Wal-Mart, buy the generic, which is made for Wal-Mart. Exactly the same stuff, half price. Read the label on Roundup, then match that to the generic. It's glucophosphate, if memory serves.
ReplyDeleteWhites aren't cowboy boots, but they're great boots. When we bought ours they made 'em up individually to each foot. Loggers use them alot.
Main reason I want to Drill/Mine Coal is national security.
ReplyDelete...like that Captain says, would be neat to have the DOD running on fuel derived from Coal.
glucophosphate, pretty simple.
ReplyDeleteYeah, so it was when they still had the patent that it was so high, huh?
And, save a little money, use only 2/3 or 3/4 dose of what the directions say. Will do just as good, though might take a little longer. Definitely don't use more than the label, as you might kill the plant above ground before the chemical gets to the roots.
ReplyDeleteRoundup is the best thing I know of for morning glory, only thing that works, really.
This sounds a little too good to be true--
ReplyDeleteU.S. green lights 'anything into oil'
Defense Department OKs facilities turning natural produce into energy
By Joe Kovacs
Naturally occurring bacteria used to convert biomass into hydrocarbons.
A Georgia company looking to solve America's energy problem has finally teamed up with the federal government, hoping to make millions of barrels of oil every day from virtually anything that grows out of the Earth.
Bell Bio-Energy, Inc. says it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Defense Department to build seven test production plants, mostly on military bases, to quickly turn naturally grown material into fuel.
"What this means is that with the seven pilot plants – the military likes to refer to them as demonstrations – with those being built … it gives us the real-time engineering data that we need to finish the designs for a full-scale production facility," J.C. Bell, the man behind the project, told WND today.
"In 18 months or so, we will start manufacturing oil directly from waste and we will build up to about 500,000 barrels a day within two years. In another six months, we'll reach a million barrels a day."
As the United States now imports about 13 million barrels of oil a day, the only obstacle then to total energy independence from foreign sources will be the money needed to develop the processing plants, he said.
"Working with the USDA we've identified enough waste material around the country, we truly believe we can make the United States totally energy independent of foreign countries in about five years," he said.
WND originally reported on the project in March as Bell, an agricultural researcher, confirmed he'd isolated and modified specific bacteria that will, on a very large scale, naturally and rapidly convert plant material – including the leftovers from food – into hydrocarbons to fuel cars and trucks.
That means trash like corn stalks and corn cobs – even the grass clippings from suburban lawns – can be turned into oil and gasoline to run trucks, buses and cars.
Wood pulp is among the many natural materials that can be converted into oil and gasoline, according to Bell Bio-Energy, Inc., of Tifton, Ga.
He said he made the discovery standing downwind from his cows at his food-production company, Bell Plantation, in Tifton, Ga.
"Cows are like people that eat lots of beans. They're really, really good at making natural gas," he said. "It dawned on me that that natural gas was methane."
WND also reported how the national news media more or less ignored his announcement of a potential solution to America's dependence on Middle East nations for its oil.
But the U.S. military was listening. And Bell now confirms his agreement with the Department of Defense, the Defense Energy Support Center and the Army will have seven demonstration facilities built at Fort Benning and Fort Stewart in Georgia, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Fort AP Hill in Virginia, Fort Drum in New York and Fort Lewis in Washington, as well as one more installation in San Pedro, Calif.
"We should have all of the plants running within 60 days," he said. "This is a big step in our growth, from the engineering that we develop with these plants, we will be able to build our full-scale production facilities and be in full production in the next 12 to 18 months.
"Everyone now accepts the fact that we can make oil through bacterial action and now it is just a matter of time and money until we are turning out one million to two million barrels per day," he said.
He told WND the first full-scale facility probably will cost $100 million to $125 million to build, and that an investment of $2.5 billion likely will be needed to reach a production level of a million barrels per day.
But he said the return – even if the oil were sold for $70 a barrel, just half of what it was going for six weeks ago and still substantially lower than the current market rate of about $110 a barrel – would be significant.
"It will feel very, very good to be to the point where we finally turn off the spigot from overseas," he said.
The process previously had been verified, said Dr. Art Robinson, a research professor of chemistry at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine who publishes the Access to Energy newsletter. "These other ways [of producing energy] work; the only question is if they're competitive in price. Any hydrocarbon under pressure and temperature can turn into oil."
How big does Bell believe the process eventually could be?
"With minor changes in the agricultural and forestry products, we could create two to two and a half billion tons of biomass a year, and you're looking at five billion barrels of oil per year," he said.
ReplyDeletesharing_stage,_obama_and_mccain_split_on_abortion
"Abortion"
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks for all the good news, Mat, and the Chinese thank you too.
ReplyDeleteI forgot what you said was best for thistle.
ReplyDeleteNothing?!
Roundup's good on thistles, too.
ReplyDeleteBob,
ReplyDeleteYou’re right, that is the good news. We know what’s coming.
Our High School Dropouts will save us.
ReplyDelete"Drink, don't drive!"
ReplyDeleteBeer. Now cheaper than gas.
AspergersGentleman said we should turn to the hiphoppers.
ReplyDeleteSanta Barbara Oil Seepage
ReplyDeleteWho woulda thunk it--
ReplyDeleteIGOETI, Georgia (AP) - Russian forces built ramparts around tanks and posted sentries on a hill in central Georgia on Saturday, digging in despite Western pressure for Moscow to withdraw its forces under a cease-fire deal signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The United States and France said it appeared Russia was defying the truce already. Russian troops still controlled two Georgian cities and the key east-west highway between them Saturday, cities well outside the breakaway provinces where earlier fighting was focused.
"From my point of view - and I am in contact with the French - the Russians are perhaps already not honoring their word," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
I am F...... SHOCKED!
ReplyDeleteCommunists, LYING!
What's the World Coming To?
the fake obama birth certificate story was repeated today by jerome corsi on Fox News in the process of a discussion of his book obama nation.
ReplyDeleteOleg The Russian Knows His Agitprop
ReplyDeleteFrom bobal's link above:
ReplyDelete"I spoke with Atbashian by telephone, and his work for the Party ought to send a chill up your spine. He said he immediately recognized Obama's work with ACORN, where Barack was a 'community organizer'. From the description of Obama's ACRORN job Oleg snorted and said, "For all intents and purposes that's the same job as a Party Organizer."
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Housing Bill sends millions of dollars in aid to ACORN and La Raza
There's more to the housing bailout measure than meets the eye, says a Minnesota lawmaker. She contends that members of Congress need to be called back to Washington to reverse the measure that, among other things, sends millions of taxpayer dollars to a radical illegal immigration advocacy group.
The housing package signed into law by President Bush extends an unlimited line of credit to troubled mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and rescues homeowners near or in foreclosure. The measure also increases the federal debt limit by another $800 billion -- and sends millions of dollars in aid to La Raza and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, says she finds it "unconscionable" that the legislation included funding for the two groups, which serve as political action arms of the Democratic Party.
"At the same time that the American taxpayer was being asked to bail these companies out, Barney Frank, the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, instituted a sort of tax on Freddie and Fannie, and that tax goes into what's called an affordable housing trust fund," explains Bachmann. "It's a really a taxpayer-subsidized housing fund, but that money will go to organizations like La Raza and...ACORN." Both groups -- "particularly ACORN," says Bachmann -- have been found to be involved in "activities where they have perpetrated voter fraud," she contends.
Bachmann advises Congress to get back to Washington, stop the funding stream for ACORN and La Raza, and also get American taxpayers off the hook for bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
I learned that last nite and my blood ran cold.
ReplyDeleteI wrote my Phd thesis on the Crimean War, Rufus.
ReplyDelete...but it was on toilet paper, and my wife "accidentally" put it on the roll in the guest bathroom.
Charles, Little More Scuttlebut On Obama
ReplyDeleteI sure wish something would stick.
The President, Mr McCain and the Republicans, they're all on board, doug.
ReplyDeleteGet some sunshine, warm your blood.
Just preachin' to the choir, bob.
ReplyDeleteBut what if Obama wins?
Are you movin' on out, like that Baldwin fellow used to threaten?
Nah, I'm too old. Wouldn't do it anyway. If I get some money I'd like to buy a summer cabin on a lake in Canada. Might happen. I'm working on it. I'll always be an American, to the bitter end.
ReplyDeleteDr. Bill is saying the fastest way to get more nuclear power is to build more units at some of the existing sites, where the is room. He gave an example of one site for instance that was certified for four units, and only two were built. There's more of that type situation he says. All we need is the political will to do it.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why, bob, it's not getting done.
ReplyDeleteThat's all.
ReplyDeleteEasy.
ReplyDeleteSix years of this bloggin', all that the US has ever lacked, is the Will.
ReplyDeleteI think I just heard Dr. Bill saying Al Gore has financial interests in coal. If that's right, explains his killing the nuclear industry.
ReplyDeleteYup, where's the will. They'll be reading mine, before anything gets done.
Nothing is more important than love. Even in this economy. So you're lucky to have a friend in Shane and Company, San Francisco, with outlets in Oakland and San Matao where you can buy the diamond of you choice for you loved one.....same sex couples welcome....
ReplyDeleteadvertisement read with the sleeziest radio voice you can imagine...
Shane and Company, sleeziest oiliest voice in advertising
ReplyDeleteObama on abortion--
ReplyDeleteDALLAS - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama side-stepped a pointed query about abortion on Saturday by “mega-pastor” Rick Warren during a televised forum.
Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity … is above my pay grade.”
I couldn't even get through the Wiki synopsis, Doug. My eyes glazed over, and I woke up on the floor.
ReplyDeleteBoba: San Francisco, with outlets in Oakland and San Matao where you can buy the diamond of you choice for you loved one.....same sex couples welcome....
ReplyDeleteActress Portia de Rossi and US comedian Ellen DeGeneres have wed during an intimate ceremony at their $33.5m Beverley Hills home.
Now when people ask Ellen why she's a lesbian, she can just pulls out wallet pictures of her wife.
2020.06.08曾經酒店小姐的基本介紹跟工作內容雞排妹的《深夜保健室》最新一集與培根到酒店訪問我在酒店上班的日子的酒店小姐跟不敢來酒店上班-酒店打工的原因，影片中介紹如:顏射(精子射在臉上) 、口交口爆(精子射在嘴裡) 、戴套肛交進行交易專業精緻化，酒店消費服務方式，還有小姐帶出場接S(性交易)等大家好奇的問題，其中酒店上班-酒店兼職-兼差如何達成人生的第一桶金小姐的薪水也是一般人想知道的問題，酒店兼差不是一個複雜的工作環境？透露，最菜最基本的酒店妹，一個月至少也可以賺10到20萬元，也曾有「職場須知 【酒店PT 】魔王級人物」一周就能賺40萬元，相當於月薪200萬，雞排妹問到酒店妹外貌與薪水成正比？酒店經紀表示並不是，通常看小姐自己的手腕，包括: 顏射(精子射在臉上) 、口交口爆(精子射在嘴裡) 、戴套肛交進行交易。突破高薪資的境界。至於常傳聞演藝圈知名網紅跨國賣淫，會轉行到酒店兼職，酒店經紀透露曾遇過10名通告女星「拍過廣告、拍過電影」找上門希望願意配合國外伴遊接受消費者陪睡性交易:顏射(精子射在臉上) 、口交口爆(精子射在嘴裡) 、戴套肛交進行交易，不過他表示雖然她為公眾人物，但在這行沒有差別待遇，起薪與一般小姐無異，不過影片中沒透露該女星身分，讓網友相當好奇。
ReplyDelete2020.08.09不敢來酒店上班-酒店打工的原因我很慶我幸身為一個女人。也很慶幸我是一個打扮起來還不差的女人。十八歲生日沒有狂歡沒有慶祝。酒店小姐的基本介紹跟工作內容在網路上找了間經紀公司，當天下午就開始上班。我在酒店上班的日子年輕的肉體再加上尚未染上風塵的氣質，很快我成了店裡的紅牌。下午茶玩的是什麼? 酒店兼差不是一個複雜的工作環境？酒店晚上營業，下午時段店家場地借給午茶，就是在那樣的小包廂裡，一個客人一個小姐，大約五十分鐘的時間，就看小姐怎麼讓客人在這短短的時間小小的包廂裡喜歡上自己。酒店小姐上班通常會取什麼名字?有客人喜歡，才會有指台，酒店小姐去酒店上班都一定要出場接s嗎？才會有預約。中午十二點上班，晚上八、九點下班，換了衣服卸了妝，身邊沒有人發現我的工作特殊。一樣的一天八小時，每上一台我可以領個一千。或許吧!有的人覺得我出賣身體、出賣靈魂。但是我寧可出賣這些，也不想過像我的父母那樣的生活，那樣捉襟見肘的生活，那樣跟西家借錢還東家的生活，那樣無止盡為錢爭吵的生活，那樣要躲在家裡不出聲不開燈以免被發現的生活，那樣連感冒想去藥局買個成藥都要惦量惦量的生活。還記得工作第一個禮拜，我領了兩萬多的薪水。那些扣除林林總總後居然還有這樣多!這是我第一次拿著那麼多錢，我好想大聲地告訴我的父母，我會賺錢了，若是時光回溯，我是不是就可以幫上你們的忙了?大約過了兩三個月，一開始覺得「領好多錢」的感覺也沖淡了。開始審視自己要的是什麼?我想要有一個家，一個完完全全屬於我的家，一個不用因為繳不出房租被房東趕的家。於是我不再是那個滿足於一個禮拜領個三萬左右的女孩。
ReplyDelete