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Rise of the New Energy World Order

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:27:44 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: long article but very informative

Oil at $110 a barrel. Gasoline at $3.35 (or more) per gallon. Diesel fuel at $4 per gallon. Independent truckers forced off the road. Home heating oil rising to unconscionable price levels. Jet fuel so expensive that three low-cost airlines stopped flying in the past few weeks. This is just a taste of the latest energy news, signaling a profound change in how all of us, in this country and around the world, are going to live

supplies are not exactly disappearing — though that will occur sooner or later — but they are not growing fast enough to satisfy soaring global demand.

Here, in a nutshell, are five key forces in this new world order which will change our planet:

1. Intense competition between older and newer economic powers for available supplies of energy:

2. The insufficiency of primary energy supplies:

3. The painfully slow development of energy alternatives:

4. A steady migration of power and wealth from energy-deficit to energy-surplus nations:

5. A Growing Risk of Conflict:

Official Says Fraud Loophole Was A ‘Mistake’

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:13:44 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: The U.S. has spent about $102 billion on rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan over the last five years. Federal investigators have uncovered about $14 million in fraud.
WTF?--there's gotta be a LOT more than that missing or corrupted.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration inadvertently exempted foreign contracts in Iraq from fraud oversight, a top administration official said Tuesday, resulting in a loophole that Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said could have protected private firms that steal taxpayer money. The admission follows weeks of controversy surrounding the exemption’s mysterious appearance in a new rule guiding contractors being paid billions for government work in the U.S. and in foreign countries around the globe.

The administration removed the single paragraph exemption on Monday, hours before a House panel convened a hearing to question officials about its origin and to debate legislation introduced by Welch to close the loophole and punish fraudulent contractors.

“We did not knowingly, thinkingly put in the exemption,” said David Drabkin, the top acquisition officer at the General Services Administration. “The exemption language was a drafting error.”

“It was a mistake. Well, that’s not reassuring

The Cavalry Isn’t Coming

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:10:03 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

There is no short-term fix. In the long term, we must put more money into more people’s pockets. That means higher wages and lower taxes for the poor and middle class. Some of what is needed is easy to see: a more progressive tax code, repealing laws that allow employers to harass and fire those who try to organize unions, nationalizing industries run by vampire capitalists

Banks encourage predatory lending while stifling saving. They ought to be re-regulated. What madness permits them to charge 30 percent on credit cards while paying one percent on passbook savings accounts?

More — much more — is necessary to prevent the wholesale collapse of the U.S. economic system. A maximum wage should be imposed — the highest paid American should earn no more than ten times the lowest paid. I know, I know — none of this will happen. There will be nothing but Band-Aids and lazy rhetoric as we plummet into the abyss.

the media is corporatized, and we the people are dull and apathetic.

The Man Who Would Be Bush

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:49:36 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: What a jerk-off circus!

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Are Americans unusually stupid or is it something our president put in the water? ? As millions surrender their homes and sacrifice other standards of our nation’s economic and political reputation to the caprice of the Bush-Cheney imperium, a majority of voters tell pollsters that they might vote for a candidate who promises more of the same.

Assuming that likely voters are not now thinking of yet another Republican president simply because John McCain is the only white guy left standing — an excuse as pathetic in its logic as the decision four years ago to return two Texas oil hustlers to the White House because they were not Massachusetts liberals — must mean that tens of millions of Americans have taken leave of their senses.

Clinton and Barack Obama supporters say they prefer McCain to the other Democrat? How otherwise to explain the nation’s widespread bipartisan rejection of the Bush presidency and yet a willingness to let McCain continue in that vein?

Change In Farming Can Feed World

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:37:57 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Start your garden.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

Sixty countries backed by the World Bank and most UN bodies yesterday called for radical changes in world farming to avert increasing regional food shortages, escalating prices and growing environmental problems.

But in a move that has led to the US, UK, Australia and Canada not yet endorsing the report, the authors said GM technology was not a quick fix to feed the world’s poor and argued that growing biofuel crops for automobiles threatened to increase worldwide malnutrition.

The report was issued as the UN’s World Food Programme called for rich countries to contribute $500m (£255m) to immediately address a growing global food crisis which has seen staple food price rises of up to 80% in some countries, and food riots in many cities. According to the World Bank, 33 countries are now in danger of political destabilisation and internal conflict following food price inflation.

: “Business as usual will hurt the poor. It will not work.

Your Morning Onion Radio Snippets

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:14:13 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.theonion.com

Clipmarks | papananook's clips

Rise of the New Energy World Order

Official Says Fraud Loophole Was A ‘Mistake’

The Cavalry Isn’t Coming

The Man Who Would Be Bush

Change In Farming Can Feed World

Your Morning Onion Radio Snippets

Giant Greenhouse Built Over Nation Blamed For Climate Change

New U.S. Smiley-Face Dollar To Boost Economy

Tropical Storm Brings Deadly Cloud Of Worthless Knickknacks Up East Coast