John Wathen's Incredible Video of a Dying Gulf of Mexico

http://bpoilslick.blogspot.com

Keith Olbermann Interview with John Wathen

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Is Obama the Only Choice for President?

All across the Blogosphere progressive writers, as well as bloggers with undefined political leanings, use their firebrand styles to perforate both McCain and Obama. They fling their pointed daggers at them expressing dislike, disgust, and disappointment with their political policies and positions.

It is important that we criticize Obama's centrist views as he tries to appeal to separatist Republicans instead of solidifying a rallying cry toward progressives, Clinton-disappointees, and Americans wanting real change instead of "Change-lite". And again, we all know, except for those attending and glued to the t.v. special of Monty McCain and his Flying Circus, starring Sarah Palin, that real change is needed if this nation is to rise from the burning flames of our economic meltdown and into a country of windmill and solar panel technologies that would feed our energy needs without the massive tap-in to the oil fields of hostile producers.

During Palin's June 8, 2008 address to graduating students at the Wasilla Assembly of God Church, she told those malleable minds that the U.S. soldiers were carrying out "God's Plan". She framed her belief in a way where those students might think, just as her, that the U.S. has a mission in Iraq directed by God, her Christian God, which apparently has a different mission for those Muslims believing that God has a plan for them in their own country.

She spoke from her bully-pulpit and said, "Pray for our men and women who are striving to do the right thing. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders are sending [our soldiers] out on a task that is from God. That's why we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."

I guess, our GO-Plundering circus grand-mistress is directly connected to God's CENTCOM headquarters. How cool! It sounds like oil hegemony, killing, mass destruction, and nation-state occupation are the war plans of the Heavens! 

During that same address, Sarah Palin was pitching for her love of gas, and I don't mean the kind you get from eating too much moose meat, but the $30 billion natural gas pipeline project. She said, "God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built [in our state of Alaska]." Hey Sarah, maybe you should try selling God on toning down those hurricanes hitting the gulf coast; or, how about healing our global warming and drought problems. What's with the pipeline swan song? Did God fix the voting machines to usher in your governorship, too? Did he not realize that you appear to be a dangerous wackjob?

While on the Larry Kudlow CNBC show called "Kudlow and Co." she said in regards to the question about being chosen to be McCain's personal care companion, "As for that V.P. talk all the time, I'll tell you, I still can't answer that question until somebody answers for me what it is exactly that the V.P. does everyday...?" (other than hold McCain's hand when signing his name.)

You know, I always trust my 5 minute impressions when I ask someone to answer the 3 A.M. nuclear button call, even though that trusted stranger has no experience knowing anything about other nations, except when leafing through a desk atlas. I guess, Bush thinking that they speak Latin in Latin America is OK, and he is our president. It may not really matter in the long run. Look, the Boy President glanced into Putin's eyes, and Georgie saw his soul. WOW! I am so glad our foreign policy is based upon what the crystal ball reveals during cabinet meetings. And now, Putin did not like those first impressions of himself. He got all mad and decided to get tough on Georgia, as well as with that safe NATO supply line going through Russia and on into Afghanistan. Don't mess with Putin or else. What's a little rough housing among soul brothers anyway? That is the GO-Plunderers for ya.

Ain't we done with the GOP, yet? Hearing former (at least, we can thank God for his defeat as PA Congressman) Rick Santorum's voice at the GO-Plundering convention made me cringe knowing he has a delegate's vote.

McCain does not speak about a timetable for exiting out of Iraq. He is bent on leaving it up to the commander, General Petraeus. They both support a conditions-based withdrawal. Although, on other days, McForget says, "Withdrawal? No way, man. I wanna stay for 100 years! And, Ya gonna like it!"

Obama has a timetable, although, he becomes the marshmallow center when it comes down to specifying the timeframe. McCain believes in "winning in Iraq". Obama asked Petraeus what his minimum requirement would be for withdrawal. Good question, but not good enough for me and most progressives. We want out ON DAY ONE!

On health care, McCain wants to tax the employee's employer-based contributions. He believes in giving Americans his special brand of choice vouchers so they can go out in the hell-fire called Insurance Land, and attempt to purchase a rat's ass policy, while he, McCain, gets the best health care money can buy, especially for a guy who is considered disabled and would likely be "red-tagged" by any ordinary-middle class-here's-my-vouch insurance company. McCain's definition of choice means to screw you and make those insurance companies even wealthier, while leaving the lone citizen no real chance to negotiate for a lower premium price that would offer a quality benefit. He is all scam. Monty McCain and his Flying Circus. And under the big tent is Sarah Palin, Laura Bush and Cindy. They represent a new line of toy play girl dolls for Republican children.

Obama is still holding on to the greedy private insurance model paid for through employer-employee plans. For those who cannot opt into such a plan, the government would offer Medicare-style coverage.

Obama wants to tax the upper 5-10% of our wealthiest Americans who have gotten very rich off the system and help out the rest of us who have been hurt by such tax shifting policies of the GOP. McCain wants to continue the Bush slash and burn legacy of "Trickle Down".

Bush Tours America 

This  Onion video is a tongue-in-cheek look at how Bush has damaged the country.

McCain's energy plan is to drill, send more troops to countries with oil and pipelines we so want for ourselves, and either kill, or threaten our economy and national security in order to get it. The Republic of Georgia has a pipeline the neo-cons want to protect from Russian control, so let's recreate a cold or hot war with Putin. This is the GO-Plundering energy plan. Obama wants to energize the economy by using alternative and renewable forms of energy, as well as drill realistically and RESPONSIBLY for domestic oil, and not recklessly like Mav-wreck would likely do. 200,000 barrels of oil per day gotten from off-shore drilling, by around 2030, when priced on a global scale, as well, when improving vehicle gas mileage for government fleet and personal vehicles would show better national fuel savings when compared with the 200,000 barrels per day drilling strategy without the risk of environmental damage.

They both like the idea of further plundering in Afghanistan. McCain would not be persuaded against "more wars, my friends." There is not a war McCain would not love. It appears he wants to kill and plunder his way to recovery from his days as a P.O.W. Obama might be persuaded against such a fatal attraction.

A comment made by an anonymous reader of the blog called Obama a communist-the entire word was capitalized. Does Obama sound like a communist? Now, does McCain sound like a neo-con fascist who wants to further the riches of the corporate war and oil elite machine at the expense of our nation's well-being and security? Does his vice presidential choice sound like the female version of George Bush? You each have to decide this for yourselves. I have a bias. Your views may be the total opposite. One thing is for sure, this nation needs help, and one of them better do it for us or we are all in big trouble!

Maybe McCain suffers from an Oedipal Complex and has chosen Sarah because she reminds him of how he sees President Bush, which could be as a mommy figure. Oh boy. It is going to be a long several weeks ahead.

John Stewart of the Daily Show says it all

Peggy Noonan says Palin choice is bullshit

What is With These Oil Prices?

There had been a huge number of comments written about Mike Whitney's article, "The Great Oil Swindle", on informationclearinghouse.info/.The debate raged on over whether peak oil was affecting the price of the gooey black stuff, or if the world has adequate supplies of the new gold. It had drawn in a range of commenter from expert, to those wanting to put their 2 cents into the debate.

Here was a comment about the price of oil. "1 bbl of =19.5 gals of refined gas. Today's price of a gallon of gas-$4.00 (rounded US average). So, 1 bbl. yields-$78.00 USD. That bbl took about 6 months to reach the consumer's gas tank and thus was purchased in Nov/Dec [2007] from the producer/distributor for about $60-70 USD." At the time, this commenter was saying a bbl was $121. This week oil hovered around $130 [on 6-6-08 it went to $139], rising from $121 in only several days. That is the cost of crude. "Add $1.75 per gallon to refine (leaving aside shipping costs. which are a few pennies), and 19.5 bbls of oil will price out at roughly $6 [or more] per gallon in six months. Someone (I don't remember who) said that the American economy will collapse at $10 per bbl, which is due about Dec. [2008], at this rate."

In July of 2007, gas prices at the pump were near $4.00 per gallon and the price of a barrel of crude was just under $80. But today, the price at the pump is the same, while the price of a barrel has grown by 50%. What is going on?

Another commenter stated that it took around $50 per barrel to break even when drilling and extracting Canadian tar sands or pumping out crude from deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. I also read the cost to be $30.00. Whatever the price is to obtain it, it will raise the price at the pump. We all know that the price will not drop, although what was interesting was an article from October 2007, written as a research paper stating that the price per barrel would drop in 2009, and in 2010 to $75.00. Another article I read (http://www.eia.doe.gov/steo) said that WTI (West Texas Intermediate) crude oil price was projected to average $110 per barrel in 2008, and $103 per barrel in 2010! The authors went on to say that the average price of regular grade gas would be $3.52 per gallon in 2008, and the regular grade gasoline's monthly average price would be $3.73 per gallon in June 2008. Well, here we are now and the price we are paying is higher than their projections, but not by much. So why the per barrel cost spread, but the pump price not reflecting the 50% increase? How about speculation? This article said that the world's consumption would be projected to grow by 1.2 million barrels per day in 2008.

In addition to speculation, the value of the dollar has fallen since these studies were written.

A Washington State University study, written in 2007, "2007 Gas Price Study", said that "on July 31, 2007, we hit an all time high of $78 per barrel. In May 2007, a gallon of gas was $3.46 and the refining margin cost was $1.23 or 36% of the total price of gas. By July 2007, that refining margin cost per gallon percentage dropped to 22%. What is going on? Hot weather outages increases refining margin percentages, and doesn't lower them. 

http://www.atg.wa.gov/uploadedFiles/Another/Safeguarding_Consumers/Antitrust/

Unfair_Trade_Practices/Gas_Prices/2007%20Gas%20Price%20Study%20-%20phase%20I.pdf

Remember, the housing bubble had not broken apart yet, so the Wall Street gamblers were still trying to cash in on mortgage securitized derivative profits before the big hit slammed them. These hedge and private equity fundies had not boarded the commodities speculation speed train like they have now. So, this makes me believe that the reason the barrel of crude is so high today is basically due to these gamblers.

Supply and demand is playing a factor, yet always has been and always will, yet, nevertheless, a barrel of crude still jumped by 50% in only 11 months, while the price at the pump stayed close to within 15 cents throughout this time period, at least here in Pittsburgh, and, it appears, in Washington State, too. World consumption for crude per day was 85 million barrels per day in 2006.  83,607,000 in 2005. In 2004, 82 million barrels per day. In 1996, 71 million per day. In June 1995, world consumption of crude was 56 million barrels per day.

One would think, China and India bought more oil as they expanded and developed over the last 11 months. Now over the last 5 years, China's increase in oil had grown by 920 million barrels per year. Mr. Whitney stated that over the same 5 years, Index speculator's demand for crude oil futures had increased by 848 million barrels. And these same speculators have been holding on to 1.1 billion barrels of crude oil futures. This amount is almost equal to the additional amount China needed per year. No doubt, they are holding long waiting for the price to rise. I expect the same for food commodities prices, too.

Other commenters were arguing that speculation was driving the high price of gas at the pump and not so much a scarcity of the stuff, at this point in time. One person said that some time in 2007, we reached $4 at the pump, but the price per barrel was only $75.00. Yet today, we are seeing a barrel costing over $130, while the price at the pump has not changed that much.

What will happen when more and more countries buy oil in other currencies other than dollars? Already, Vietnam, Venezuela, Kuwait and Iran have made to switch out of dollars. The next wave will likely be Saudi Arabia, U.A.E and Qatar. And there is China and Russia. Once the dollar becomes the currency of the past when trading in oil, we will have fond memories of $4/gallon.

I believe Mike Whitney has his finger on much of the argument by believing that speculation from hedge and private equity funds, and others are driving up the price not only of crude, but of other commodities. There is also a commodities index fund and those investors are gambling on the prices being forced up by these Wall Street gamblers.

What could happen is a new bubble being formed. The Republicans have not shown interest in regulating these gamblers. McCain and Bush like it just the way it is. More for the haves and less for the have nots. No doubt, they feel just fine knowing that hard working Americans have to use up more of their expendable incomes to keep their work and commuter vehicle gas tanks full.

Former Senator Phil Gramm, vice chairman of securities for UBS, and McCain's economic advisor worked hard to deregulate the financial industry and now we have unregulated hedge and private equity "fundies" who have been given unfettered access to gamble Federal Reserve Treasury dollars on commodities. This is affecting the prices worldwide. Not only have these "fundies" been given free reign in the speculation arena, the banks and broker dealer financial institutions have been allowed to join in the fun, too. And they are more than likely doing it with OUR tax dollars through the Federal Reserve's Open Window policy of giving loans at their 2% rock bottom price. As I have said before, these institutions are exchanging garbage debt for usable cash in order to join in on the worldwide speculation gambling game.

Instead of the banks and financial institutions using this cash to refinance underwater home loans, or being told to loan this freshly printed deflating dollar to rebuild America's infrastructure, or industrial sectors, they are using it to make the ultra rich even richer, but instead, creating another economic bubble. This is not benefiting the nation. This is actually a national security risk. This should be Code Red on the Homeland Security danger barometer. But no. The Bush/McCain Republi-con plan is to bring about more wealth to the wealthiest of Americans, as well as foreign investors.

We now have our U.S. Federal Reserve vice chairman Donald L. Kohn wanting to allow Wall Street securities firms permanent access to the Federal Reserve loans. (See  "Bailing Out Wall Street", by Peter Morici, 6-2-08, Counterpunch.org). This hare-brained scheme would allow these banks and financial institutions an ATM card to the Treasury 100% of the time. They would no longer have the Fed as the lender of last resort. It would morph into the lender of first resort. No need to go into the Free Market Place to find investors. The American people would be their lenders. Privatize the profits, but socialize the access and any losses that would incur. Kohn said that in exchange these institutions would be subjected to greater regulation. He expects us to believe this? Give away the store, and then we'll watch the burglars.

The top financial institutions like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, and others would find themselves diving into a deep well of cash even though Lehman Brothers might end up underwater, too. The upcoming writedowns of debt that they and others are about to experience is looking to be damaging to their assets. They have booked nearly $400 billion in writedowns and credit losses to date. They have not seen bottom yet. Some are saying there is much more to come. As with housing mortgage losses, and bankruptcies, auto loan defaults, and credit card defaults, as stated by Willem Sels, a credit analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort, there is more to come. (economicrot.blogspot.com, 6-3-08).

Last week, Meredith Whitney, an Oppenheimer analyst, said "The real harrowing days of the credit crisis are still ahead of us and will prove more widespread in effect than anything yet seen." (Written in Mike Whitney's article of 6-3-08, posted on Counterpunch.org, "The Remorseless Algebra...")

Mr. Whitney wrote in the same article that the Federal Reserve loans to the banksta gangsta climbed to the highest level on record even as Wall Street investment companies scaled back their borrowing. They averaged $15.95 billion in daily borrowing for the week ending May 28, compared with $13.5 billion for the previous week, and the total was a record. The previous high of $14.4 billion came in the week ending May 14. The Fed said it will conduct three auctions in June, each offering $75 billion in short term cash loans. How sweet it is to be loved by Benny. Scaling back borrowing means record borrowing?

The Case-Shiller home price index showed a slump of 14.1% in the first quarter of this year. The worst since this index began 20 years ago. Credit Suisse predicted that foreclosures will end up close to 6.5 million homeowners over the next few years. 

I bet this will a long, hot summer!