Month: March 2012

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Robert Reich: Oil Speculation 101 (Half the Story)

Commerce, Corruption
Robert Reich

A few players with deep pockets, placing huge bets

Robert Reich

Kansas City Star, 28 February 2012

Nothing drives voter sentiment like the price of gasoline, which is already up nearly 30 cents from the start of the year and hitting $4 in many places. The last time it topped $4 was 2008.

And nothing energizes Republicans like rising energy prices. House Speaker John Boehner is telling Republicans to take advantage of voters’ looming anger over rising prices at the pump. House Republicans have passed a bill to expand offshore drilling and pressure the White House into issuing a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

But the current surge in gas prices has almost nothing to do with energy policy. It doesn’t even have much to do with global supply and demand. It has most to do with America’s continuing failure to adequately regulate Wall Street.

Oil supplies aren’t being squeezed. Over 80 percent of America’s energy needs are now being satisfied by domestic supplies. In fact, we’re starting to become an energy exporter.

Iran is threatening to cut production in retaliation for sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States. But Saudi Arabia’s increased production is more than enough to make up the difference.

Demand for oil isn’t rising in any event. Oil demand in the U.S. is down compared to last year at this time. The American economy is showing only the faintest signs of recovery. Meanwhile, global demand is still moderate. Europe’s debt crisis hasn’t gone away. China’s growth continues to slow.

But Wall Street is betting on higher oil prices.

Read full story.

Phi Beta Iota:  Brother Reich offers only half the story.  Speculators are indeed rampant, and KEYSTONE has nothing to do with US energy needs, only oil company desires to revive aging refineries a long way from Canada, knowing that they can externalize all the costs of wasted water flushing tar sands, and environmental damage along the way.  What the learned former Secretary of Labor does not mention is that Goldman Sachs bet on high oil prices long before today, and rumor has it that Israel and Iran did also.  he also fails to mention that the price of oil is not really rising, it is the dollar that is falling.

See Also:

Continue reading “Robert Reich: Oil Speculation 101 (Half the Story)”

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Eagle: Occupy to Attorney General – Enforce Constitution – Criminal Complaint Filed Against All Members

Uncategorized
300 Million Talons...

Forum Post: Tell Eric Holder US Attorney General To Enforce The Constitution Upon Congress – Criminal complaint filed against all members

This is important. Officials need to know that you know and care about congresses violations of oath and constitution by failing to convene an Article V convention.

Contact the AG here to assist in direct defense of the Constitution.

http://www.justice.gov/contact-us.html

Here are details on the legal complaint against congress to the Attorney General. This is absolutely legitimate and is based in congress having intentionally misinterpreted the constitution regarding citizens first and last right, Article V. This violation of law IS criminal.

http://www.nolanchart.com/article9376-holder-begins-criminal-investigation-regarding-article-v-convention.html

Article V is the codification of this part of the Declaration of Independence.

Read rest of article.

Phi Beta Iota:  This is a delusional silly endeavor by Occupy.  They had one chance, from November to the reconvening of Congress in January, to focus on the Electoral Reform Act of 2012, and they blew it.  They got so hung up on kum-ba-ya children's games and allowing single individuals to block coherent consensus that they frittered away a once in a lifetime opportunity to scare Congress into restoring the integrity of the electoral system.  Occupy is not dead but it has been marginalized.

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David Swanson: Murder of US Citizens and Others Legal — Dissection of Eric Holder Speech

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, IO Impotency, Law Enforcement
David Swanson

Murder Is Legal, Says Eric Holder

By David Swanson

Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday explained why it's legal to murder people — not to execute prisoners convicted of capital crimes, not to shoot someone in self-defense, not to fight on a battlefield in a war that is somehow legalized, but to target and kill an individual sitting on his sofa, with no charges, no arrest, no trial, no approval from a court, no approval from a legislature, no approval from we the people, and in fact no sharing of information with any institutions that are not the president.  Holder's speech approached his topic in a round about manner:

“Since this country’s earliest days, the American people have risen to this challenge – and all that it demands.  But, as we have seen – and as President John F. Kennedy may have described best – ‘In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.'”

Holder quotes that and then immediately rejects it, claiming that our generation too should act as if it is in such a moment, even if it isn't, a moment that Holder's position suggests may last forever:

“Half a century has passed since those words were spoken, but our nation today confronts grave national security threats that demand our constant attention and steadfast commitment.  It is clear that, once again, we have reached an ‘hour of danger.'

“We are a nation at war.  And, in this war, we face a nimble and determined enemy that cannot be underestimated.”

Continue reading “David Swanson: Murder of US Citizens and Others Legal — Dissection of Eric Holder Speech”

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Eagle: Maryland Slapped Down on Gun Limitations

09 Justice
300 Million Talons...

Federal judge says gun owners need not provide ‘good reason,' rules Maryland law unconstitutional

Fox News, 5 March 2012

BALTIMORE –  Maryland residents do not have to provide a “good and substantial reason” to legally own a handgun, a federal judge ruled Monday, striking down as unconstitutional the state's requirements for getting a permit.

U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg wrote that states are allowed some leeway in deciding the way residents exercise their Second Amendment right to bear arms, but Maryland's objective was to limit the number of firearms that individuals could carry, effectively creating a rationing system that rewarded those who provided the right answer for wanting  to own a gun.

“A citizen may not be required to offer a ‘good and substantial reason' why he should be permitted to exercise his rights,” Legg wrote. “The right's existence is all the reason he needs.”

Continue reading “Eagle: Maryland Slapped Down on Gun Limitations”

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Winslow Wheeler: Drones Dead on Arrival

Budgets & Funding, DoD, Government, Military, Office of Management and Budget
Winslow Wheeler

A Final Word on Drones and Reaper (doc 20 pages)

A Final Word on Drones and Reaper

Last week I distributed a five part series on drones, specifically the MQ-9 Reaper.  It was published at Time Magazine's Battleland blog.  This last message on the series distributes each of the five parts and the entire paper as originally written for any who might be looking for a missed part or to read the paper as one piece.  But also, I attempt here to raise some broader issues.

My paper addressed Reaper as a physical system, and I take a few shots at some of the more uninformed things that have been written about drones by some people who, had they looked more into the data, probably would have been a little less effusive about the “revolution in warfare” and expectation that drones should naturally replace manned aircraft for air combat roles in the foreseeable future.

My paper only scratched the surface of the implications of the burgeoning love affair of the US defense community with drones.  Some of those issues have already been thoroughly discussed in the press: such as the use of unmanned systems to pursue air to ground combat roles in friendly, ambiguous and hostile countries as a “safe” way to pursue policy makers' objectives.  The endnotes in the first part of the series referenced several excellent articles on this issue, or you might want to read Andrew Cockburn's more recent essay in the London Review of Books at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n05/andrew-cockburn/drones-baby-drones.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: Drones Dead on Arrival”

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DefDog: NASA lost ‘full control’ to hackers, pwned 13 times last year

Government, Hacking, IO Impotency
DefDog

NASA lost ‘full control' to hackers, pwned 13 times last year

Houston still has a problem with security

By John Leyden

The Register, 5 March 2012

Cybercrooks broke into NASA's computer systems 13 times last year gaining “full functional control” of important systems in the worse cases, according to the testimony before the US Congress by the space agency's inspector general.

Read full article.

See Also:

1994 Sounding the Alarm on Cyber-Security

1998 TAKEDOWN: Targets, Tools, & Technocracy

2010: OPINION–America’s Cyber Scam

2012 Reflexivity = Integrity: Toward Earth/Life 4.0

DefDog: $15 Billion for Cyber-Command, Zero for Actual Needs + Meta-RECAP

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Gary North: Time for Rival Explanations & Solutions + RECAP

Uncategorized
Gary North

Salaries: Dim Light, Long Tunnel

by Gary North

Recently by Gary North: C.S. Lewis Warned Against the New World Order

MarketWatch ran an article on the lack of optimism for the American job market. It offered no analysis of why the market is bad, but it made it clear that it is not likely to get better anytime soon.

The article focused on the job market since 2008. It included a chart on salaries since 1980. It has three categories: college graduates, high school dropouts, and total. The chart reveals that there has not been much improvement for a decade. The flat-lining of salaries began a decade ago, not in 2008.

Conclusion: things are a lot worse than the article reported.This flat-lining is not simply a result of the recession of 2008-9. It is a long-term condition.

. . . . . . .[read full article]. . . . . .

CONCLUSION

Nothing is working. The annual deficits are at $1.3 trillion. There is no sign of relief. The job market is in the pits. The Establishment economists' explanations no longer explain the persistence of the problems. The Keynesians call for more government. Europe is moving into recession. Another war looms in the Middle East. If oil goes to $150 or more after an attack on Iran, the world economy will head back into recession.

The Establishment got us into the mess. It is unable to get us out.

This creates opportunities for rival explanations with rival solutions.

The best explanation is Adam Smith's: too much government. The solution is laissez faire.

The problem is convincing voters, half of which are recipients of government payments.

Read full article.

Phi Beta Iota:  Brother North is brilliant, right up to where he bleeds to death from the enlightenment fallacy.  He has written a very long article that is very good on the evils of government employment and government entitlements (one third based on borrowing in our name), but falls short in his conclusion that “laissez faire” is the solution.

Continue reading “Gary North: Time for Rival Explanations & Solutions + RECAP”