News media and environmental activists suffer most
(21 August 2006) What a difference a year makes. After the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the 2006 season is now below normal. As of yesterday (20 August) three tropical storms will have formed in the Atlantic in an "average" year, which is the same number that have formed this year so far. Because of multi-year averaging, that means that today (August 21) slightly more than three storms would have formed, making this year (statistically speaking) just below normal. In the hurricane category, this year is decidedly below normal, with no hurricanes so far, while by this date 1.5 hurricanes have formed in the average of years 1944 though 2005.
Part of the reason for the slow season is that tropical western Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are running about normal, if not slightly below normal. In contrast, at the same time last year SSTs in the same region were running well above normal. The cooler SSTs in the Atlantic are not an isolated anomaly. In a research paper being published next month in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists will show that between 2003 and 2005, globally averaged temperatures in the upper ocean cooled rather dramatically, effectively erasing 20% of the warming that occurred over the previous 48 years.
Global cooling on the rise, Ice Age looms, Bush blamed, news at 11:00
Women and minorities affected most ...
The slow hurricane season and the cooling sea surface temperatures might be somewhat surprising to the public. Media reports over the last year have suggested that, since global warming will only get worse, and last year's hurricane activity was supposedly due to global warming, this season might well be as bad as last season. But it appears that Mother Nature might have other plans.
With only 3 named storms compared to 9 on this date last year, it is nearly impossible at this late date to have a season anywhere near as busy as last season, which totaled 27 by the end of the year. The most recent prediction from the National Weather Service is for there to be 12 to 15 named storms by December -- only half of last year's total. It now looks like that prediction might be too generous. While it is still possible for this hurricane season to end up above normal in activity and reach that forecast, each day that passes without so much as a tropical 'depression' makes that target less and less likely.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 11:56 ||
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And from our Department of Bad Timing: CNSNews.com) - One year after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, hundreds of protesters plan to gather outside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in suburban Washington on Saturday -- "to call for housing and jobs for Katrina survivors and an end to Bush's cover-up of global warming's role in stronger, more destructive hurricanes," a coalition of environmental activist groups said. According to the U.S. Climate Emergency Council, national leaders and activists will read aloud the names of hundreds of people still missing from Katrina, and the event will include passionate speeches, dramatic props, and music."
Don't forget your giant puppets
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 12:23 Comments ||
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Nice weather, why does it hate me?
Posted by: Ray Nagin ||
08/21/2006 12:32 Comments ||
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When will the MSM propaganda machine get all their memos in order? It is Global Climate Change now, not global warming.
Sheeze. Read the freaken memos people!
And yep, they may be born in the Atlantic, but most of the really ugly ones (Camille, Katrina, etc.) generally seem to do their "growing up" in the Gulf. Keep an eye on the water temps there, too. If the right one makes it there, warm Gulf water could turn it hideous.
As for global warming, the ones who have a near religious belief in it anyway are going to think that the cooling trend is caused by....global warming, believe it or not. I forget how one of them made that argument to me, mainly because two minutes into it my head really started to hurt trying to make sense of it all.
Posted by: ed ||
08/21/2006 13:21 Comments ||
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As Ms Trilby Lundberg comments in the post "Watching Gas Prices" higher up:
For instance, she calls global warming a "boogeyman for political opportunism." Those who promote the theory are trying to create a power base and "believe global warming is a reason to hike taxes and hike prices," she said.
#9
Yes, it is the Sun, but those suffering from BDS just can't find a means yet to wrap their heads around blaming Bush for the Sun. However, I'm sure they're working 'feverishly' on that as we type.
#13
It really irritates me when the MSM uses 'normal' as a synonym for average.
The average person has one testicle and one breast.
As I recall from my statistics many years ago, 'normal' is anything within 2 standard deviations of the average. So last year was a 'normal' hurricane season as is this year.
#15
We've had rain at least every other day, and quite often every day, for the last eight to nine weeks. We're still about 4 inches below average, but almost 5 inches above what we've gotten over the last six years (which is why Colorado is considered in a major drought). No one's been able to explain it completely yet, but much of it has to do with the amount of cooler water flowing along the northwest coast, plus the lower than average jet stream, and cooler low pressure areas coming down from Canada. We had two days of highs in the low 70's this week, and only one day in the last ten with highs above "average" - 88/90 this time of year.
We really don't have a clue how the overall ocean/air/solid surface interfaces work (driven by the solar cycle) to produce weather, and thinking we do is hubris cubed.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/21/2006 18:38 Comments ||
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Yes, it is the Sun,
With Mars, Pluto, and Jupiter showing signs of warming, what else could it be?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/21/2006 18:45 Comments ||
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We've had no rain for 3 weeks, mostly in the mid 80's with low humidity. It's like Northern California without the low lying coastal fog burning off by midday right here in Central Pennsylvania.
#18
Mobile is in a drought, we normaly get more rain than the famed Seattle, but now the rainfall is less than Seattle, so "We have a Drought"
(The weathermen like to play with "Facts")
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/21/2006 19:11 Comments ||
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The Nipplese Nepalese (heh) have the answer for your drought woes...
The American school teacher who says he killed JonBenet Ramsey, visited a Bangkok clinic specializing in sex changes in a country where many foreign transgenderS turn to for quick, cheap surgery. John Mark Karr, 41, had a consultation at the downtown Pratunam Polyclinic, said Dr. Thep Vechavisit. He declined to provide additional details, but confirmed Sunday that Karr was "one of my patients."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:12 ||
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Who gives a rat's ass?
Let the child rest in peace until there's an actual conviction.
The glee of the "media" covering what should be a somber event - the murder of a child - is disgusting beyond measure.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2006 0:33 Comments ||
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Who gives a rat's ass?
sheech.. The media is only doing a thorough job Barb, it's extracting the last few molecules of decency from the Ramsey family...what's left of it anyways.
Posted by: Bob ||
08/21/2006 0:44 Comments ||
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Yeah, it's not like there is anything important going on in the world in, say maybe Lebanon or Iran, for example. Jackals and buzzards have a more highly developed sense of decency.
#4
It still has not been explained how an alleged pedophile got into the family's home and ultimately into their basement, even assuming he killed the kid somewhere else. Looks like KARR has poten opened a can of worms for the kid's family.
Just yesterday, while the JonBenet clown was flown from Bangkok in a $5,000 dollar biz class seat with champagne toasts and prawns, I was hustled to the "special security" area at JFK, subjected to multiple extremely personal wandings, had the soles of my feet inspected and the entire contents of my handbag swabbed for explosives. I am not a happy camper.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Fred, they just wanted to make sure he was the only snake on that plane.....
#2
He just wanted to get back to the states. Guess he ran out of funds for the sex holiday in Thailand. Fess up to the Jon case and then start making claims for all sorts of stuff that doesn't match time/place/event. Soon even the 'authorities' will end up with having to acknowledge he's either a nut case or it was all show.
#3
Yeah, but here's the thing, Fred. I keep seeing story after story about how the US flying public is "taking the new security measures in stride" and "learning to live with the new restrictions" and how they are "just grateful the TSA is doing whatever it takes to keep us safe", blah, blah, blah.
This is all a big fat lie. The TSA has not made us safer, and I'm amazed that the seeming vast majority of Americans take the further erosion of their freedoms and liberties "in stride".
Most of us aren't even Americans any more. We don't even seem to remember what the term means. I'd call for a total boycott on air travel until the politicians get the message that they can't keep eroding our freedoms without paying the price. Unfortunately, this would fail miserably, not because air travel is essential, but again because the vast majority of 'Americans' don't give a rat's ass that their way of life is slipping away.
Franklin said it best:
"Those who who would give up essential liberty, for a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
By that measure, we don't deserve the few precious freedoms we still have.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/21/2006 13:27 Comments ||
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Karr is creepy. But the "special treatment" was no doubt designed to soften him up and get him talking. Also, he wasn't technically under arrest (which has happened since entering the US), but was merely being deported and was making his own food/drink choices and paying for them, as I understand.
JUBA, Sudan - Ugandas rebel Lords Resistance Army on Monday demanded huge cuts in the government military and 40-percent representation in the reduced force at peace talks in southern Sudan. The position, presented at halting negotiations aimed at ending northern Ugandas brutal, nearly two-decade war, was immediately rejected by Kampala, which called the demand ridiculous and tantamount to disbanding the army. But LRA officials insisted that a sharp reduction in the Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) was the only way to achieve lasting stability and called for foreign peacekeepers to be deployed to ensure the drawdown is implemented.
At the venue for the talks in the southern Sudanese town of Juba, they said they wanted the UPDF cut from 100,000 troops to 20,000, 12,000 of which would be drawn from the current army and the other 8,000 from the ranks of the LRA. The rest of the soldiers must be demobilized and a new system set up to cater for them, for those with disabilities, and for those who want to start businesses and so on, LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny told AFP.
One of the more useful things that happen when you sit down to negotiate with the other side is that you generally figure out what's most important on their minds. I think we just found out what's really bothering the LRA.
The rebels also want a full list of government weapons stockpiles, the withdrawal of UPDF forces from contested areas in northern Uganda and foreign peacekeepers from as-yet undetermined contributor nations, he said.
"...and a pony!"
Try calling the French, I hear they're not busy any more ...
Kampalas delegation at the halting talks being hosted and mediated by the government of autonomous southern Sudan and the regions capital of Juba, flatly dismissed the demands and rejected the rebels estimate of the size of the army. Ugandan officials say their army was reduced by half from 100,000 to 50,000 in 1991 and 1992 following donor demands that the force be streamlined.
What the LRA is asking for is for the UPDF to be basically disbanded, said Paddy Ankunda, a spokesman for Kampalas team. This is really ridiculous. The UPDF was set up according to the constitution, so what they seem to be telling us is for us to throw out the constitution, he said, adding that the government would not give the rebels any description of its weapon supplies. We will not tell them what weapons we have because we are the government and they are the rebel force, Ankunda said.
There's a moment of clarity. We're the government and we're the ones with a monopoly on violence within the country.
The on-again, off-again talks, which began last month, broke on Monday after the LRA presented its positions on disarmament, the effect of which on the negotiations was not immediately clear.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/21/2006 11:16 ||
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We will not tell them what weapons we have because we are the government and they are the rebel force, Ankunda said.
HARARE: Zimbabwe may allow "exceptional" extensions to Monday's deadline to trade in old currency, state media said on Sunday as panicky consumers went on weekend shopping sprees to offload their old banknotes. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe last month announced it was lopping three zeros off the Zimbabwe dollar in a move aimed at taming hyperinflation and gave Zimbabweans until Aug 21 to adopt new banknotes. Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono told the Sunday Mail that while there would be no blanket extensions to the deadline, the bank might make a few exceptions. "As in all situations in life, there will always be genuine cases that merit exceptional consideration. We will treat each case on the basis of its own circumstances," Gono said, saying disabled people were one group who may win more time to make the switch.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:05 ||
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The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe last month announced it was lopping three zeros off the Zimbabwe dollar in a move aimed at taming hyperinflation
oh that'll werk, especially since we're not bound by colonial rules anymore.
Posted by: Bob ||
08/21/2006 0:33 Comments ||
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What is not mentioned is, that with panic buying, comes higher prices.
There have been other drastic actions within the government. Perhaps what we are seeing here is a sort of campaign amongst the younger government officials within ZANU-PF; an effort to prove that one can lead both the party and this failing state.
#5
"As in all situations in life, there will always be genuine cases that merit exceptional consideration. We will treat each case on the basis of its own circumstances how much they're willing to bribe us"
There - fixed that for ya', Mr. Gonorrhea.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2006 3:10 Comments ||
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Simply whacking 3 zeros off the note won't do shit to stop inflation. It won't trade internationally at a higher rate, it will simply look and carry a little lighter in your pockets. Maybe you can use a smaller wheelbarrow to go to the bread store.
#8
French francs would be hilarious, seeing as they were replaced by Euros almost 5 years ago. But no doubt they're still worth more than ZimBob dollars.
President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is set to face Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba in a presidential runoff after no single candidate gathered more than 50 percent valid votes in the first round of presidential elections, election officials announced Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's cabinet has given initial support to a tax hike on heavy crude oil operations in the Orinoco river basin, a legislator said on Sunday. Rodrigo Cabezas, president of the National Assembly's Finance Commission, said that under the proposed tax reform, companies extracting heavy crude in Orinoco would now be required to pay a tax amounting to 50 percent of the company's earnings (similar to other oil operations) instead of the current 34 percent.
The heavy oil produced by companies operating in Orinoco projects is upgraded to a lighter and more marketable crude, at the rate of around 600,000 barrels a day. Cabezas added that the proposal will now be sent to the National Assembly for approval.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal was restarting the trial Monday of seven Bosnian Serb military and paramilitary members charged with involvement in the massacre at Srebrenica of 8,000 Muslim men and boys. The trial is the Hague court's latest attempt to hold senior officials responsible for the 1995 massacre in the UN-declared safe haven in Bosnia. Five of the suspects face genocide charges in Europe's worst civilian massacre since the Holocaust. Two more are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. All the suspects have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry maximum life sentences.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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What's there to say that it won't take as long as the still unconcluded Pol Pot/Kampuchea one? that one must've kept the tribunal well and UN long on the UN payroll. By which time, little matters as both witnesses and accuse could already have passed on.
"In essence, the FBI has left the task of defining and identifying its essential operational processes and its IT concept of operations to outsiders," the NRC researchers concluded. "The FBI lacks experienced IT program managers and contract managers, which has made it unable to deal aggressively or effectively with its contractors."
Daniel Guttman, a fellow at Johns Hopkins University who specializes in government contracting law, said: "This case just shows the government doesn't have a clue. Yet the legal fiction is that the government knows what it's doing and is capable of taking charge. The contractors are taking advantage of that legal fiction."
Having wasted $170M on this, the FBI has a new $425M project to try again. "It's gonna be great this time. Really!" And the guy who didn't think to ask about the bug count until a few weeks before delivery is now the FBI's Chief Technology Officer.
#3
The FBI lacks experienced IT program managers and contract managers, which has made it unable to deal aggressively or effectively with its contractors.
Well then fucking hire some.
Geez, do I have to think of everything around here?!?!
#4
Sounds simple, doesn't it? One problem with large systems like this is feature creep. They may start small, but eventually they accumulate more requirements from more stakeholders and eventually collapse under their own gravitational fields. I saw this happen at EDS once, where a work group LAN for a half-dozen engineers grew into a plan to wire up 3 floors of the building before a higher-up canned the project as to expensive. As someone ( Brooks in The Mythical Man/Month?) once said, all large functioning systems have grown from smaller functioning systems.
We discussed this project here at the 'Burg in one of its previous failure cycles. At the time, IIRC, we decided a simple wiki could serve as the starting point for their case file system.
#5
Wonder how much the Army has developed in Iraq could be transfered to the functions of the FBI? If its 80%, it a sale. Keep the kiddies figures out of the gold plating business.
#6
we decided a simple wiki could serve as the starting point for their case file system
It's true that the FBI is particularly behind the technology curve. It's not obvious to me, however, that they can bootstrap from wikis or any such thing. The legal requirements on them to trace source and provenance of information and evidence are substantial and quite rigid. That's one reason they didn't automate some things more quickly -- the belief (at least partially justified) that they could not afford to wing things.
#7
I will say what I said before they started this last "DESTINED TO FAIL" FBI upgrade.
IT WILL NOT AND CAN NOT WORK!
The FBI is lawyer types.... not engineers. They should not be allowed to touch one line of the spec. Hollyweed could do better!
They should just duplicate what the NSA has. Machine for machine. Program for program. Then let the NSA train people for their IT and run it for the first few years. DON'T LET THE LAWYERS FBI types NEAR IT!.
#8
3dc, Get the NSA system, but then have an FBI Unitary Control Keyhole/Information Technology-Upgrade Program made up of the lawyers. Give them an IT budget and have them develop and approve specifications for and prioritize the budgeted upgrade requests through the FUCK/IT-UP process. Require NSA to sign of on all FUCK/IT-UP modifications before they go into production code.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
08/21/2006 18:44 Comments ||
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The problems with most large systems like this is that the people who have to use it don't get to say how it's designed, or what it's supposed to do. The military was especially bad about this. The brass has no idea what the worker-bees need, but demand to have a major role in developing it.
Silly idea, but take a small PC, let the guy that needs to do the work design what kind of process he's going to use, multiply by 20 or 30, iron out the duplication and inconsistencies, develop an network protocol to tie these 20 or 30 together, and start building up. Believe it or not, it works.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/21/2006 18:56 Comments ||
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Their biggest mistake is a refusal to use off the shelf components. Their next mistake is not starting with a small scalable core and then add new features in a later release. They choose to go completely custom and implemented it as one 'big bang' release. It was doomed to failure from the start.
For those playing at home, this is their second attempt and their second failure. Anyone want to place bets on attempt # 3.
The Kashmir war saved the Indian Army from being scrapped, seems strange? Well, a biography of Major General AA "Jick" Rudra of the Indian Army by Major General DK "Monty" Palit claims so.
According to the book, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru blew his top when Lt General Sir Robert Lockhart, the first commander in chief of India took a strategic plan for a Government directive on defence policy.
"Shortly after independence, General Lockhart as the army chief took a strategic plan to the prime minister, asking for a government directive on the defence policy. He came back to Jick's office shell-shocked. When asked what happened, he replied, The PM took one look at my paper and blew his top. 'Rubbish! Total rubbish!' he shouted. 'We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is ahimsa (non-violence). We foresee no military threats. Scrap the army! The police are good enough to meet our security needs'," the Daily Times quotes the book as saying.
According to the book, Jick believed the Kashmir war saved the Indian Army.
"General Sir Douglas Gracie had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army and he and General Lockhart daily exchanged information about refugees traversing Punjab in both directions. One day in late October 1947, Gracie mentioned that he had had reports of tribesmen massing in the area of Attock-Rawalpindi. Both men knew that cross-border raids from Pakistan had been mounted against Poonch. Kashmir was not a part of the dominion of India and Lockhart felt that the tribesmen posed no threat to India. He did not pass on the information to the ministry or general staff," the paper said.
"When confronted by Nehru three months later, he admitted this and added that he may have been remiss. Nehru turned to him and asked the general if his sympathies were with Pakistan? Aghast, Lockhart replied, 'Mr prime minister if you have to ask me that question, I have no business being the commander-in-chief of your forces. I know that there is a boat leaving Bombay in a few days, carrying British officers and their families to England. I shall be on it'," it added.
According to the biography General Lockhart called up his Military Secretary Jick Rudra the next day, January 26 1948, and suggested he start looking around for a successor since he had resigned from his post.
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2006 19:56 ||
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"I remember many a time when our senior generals came to us, and wrote to the defence ministry saying that they wanted certain things... If we had had foresight, known exactly what would happen, we would have done something else... what India has learnt from the Chinese invasion is that in the world of today there is no place for weak nations... We have been living in an unreal world of our own creation."
Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajya Sabha, 1963
The roots of politicisation of the army are to be found in Nehru's hatred for the man in uniform. Soon after Independence the first commander-in-chief of the Indian armed forces, General Sir Robert Lockhart, presented a paper outlining a plan for the growth of the Indian Army to Prime Minister Nehru.
Nehru's reply: "We don't need a defence plan. Our policy is non-violence. We foresee no military threats. You can scrap the army. The police are good enough to meet our security needs."
He didn't waste much time. On September 16, 1947, he directed that the army's then strength of 280,000 be brought down to 150,000. Even in fiscal 1950-51, when the Chinese threat had begun to loom large on the horizon, 50,000 army personnel were sent home as per his original plan to disband the armed forces.
After Independence, he once noticed a few men in uniform in a small office the army had in North Block, and angrily had them evicted.
Soon after Independence he separated the army, navy, and air force from a unified command and abolished the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces, thus bringing down the status of the seniormost military chief.
He continued to demote the status of the three service chiefs at irregular intervals in the order of precedence in the official government protocol, a practice loyally continued by successive governments to the benefit of politicians and bureaucrats.
During the 1947-48 war with Pakistan in Kashmir, Nehru interfered with purely military decisions at will, which delayed the war and changed the ultimate outcome in Pakistan's favour. He developed a precedent to violate channels and levels of communications at that time. His penchant for verbal orders to the various army commanders, of which he kept no records, violated the chain of command.
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2006 19:59 Comments ||
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If Pakistan had only waited a few years, they would have had all the territory they wanted...
Posted by: john ||
08/21/2006 20:02 Comments ||
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Technicians on Sunday successfully swapped out two bolts securing a crucial communications antenna on space shuttle Atlantis because engineers thought they were too short. The last-minute change-out was not expected to affect the schedule for Atlantis' planned launch next Sunday on a mission to resume construction on the international space station.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2006 00:00 ||
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Will be flying to Orlando on Saturday... and hopefully will be going to the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday to hopefully watch this launch.
Prices have been dropping the last few days in my neighboorhood.
Trilby Lundberg, the nation's guru of gasoline prices, has no idea how many miles her new Mercedes-Benz gets per gallon. When she has to fill the tank, she's more concerned with convenience than price. Yet for decades, the nation has turned to the assertive, 57-year-old cat lover and her twice-monthly Lundberg Survey of gas stations to keep track of the fluctuating price of gasoline.
Lately, the news hasn't been good. On Aug. 13, Lundberg reported the nationwide price for self-serve regular hit another record, jumping to nearly $3.03 a gallon.
Lundberg said the cost of crude oil isn't the only reason for the skyrocketing prices. Demand, taxes, weather and government regulations who wudda thunk it? all figure into the complex equation, she said.
Are there five oil industry executives someplace deciding the price of gas? "That would be tragic because that would wreck the market," she said. "And it would be a comedy because it is impossible." Lundberg said oil companies have no interest in helping each other and instead want to increase their sales at the expense of the competition. "They all have no mercy," she said.
Interest in the price data could increase after this month's shutdown of a crucial Alaskan pipeline by oil giant BP. Lundberg, however, doesn't expect much impact at the pump, even though the shutdown means a temporary loss of as much as 8 percent of domestic production. "Unlike many of the jumps in oil prices from world headlines, especially from unstable areas of the world, this is a production loss," she said. "But there's still no shortage."
Watching the oil industry has led Lundberg to some interesting conclusions.
She condemns the "overzealous meddling" of the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies, and said government-mandated reformulation of unleaded gas and engine modifications aimed at curtailing emissions are more to blame for gas price increases than the worldwide Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
She also criticized the "woefully ignorant" media and public perception about gas prices. "It is wild-headed and often destructive," she said of the reporting. "The explanation can be boring, it can be a little bit dry, it takes a long time, and the majority of folks simply do not have that time and do not have the interest."
Lundberg has strong opinions on other issues. For instance, she calls global warming a "boogeyman for political opportunism." Those who promote the theory are trying to create a power base and "believe global warming is a reason to hike taxes and hike prices," she said.
Lundberg balks at suggestions that she is a tool of the oil industry. "What hurts me is those who call me an oil apologist or self-styled consumer advocate. I'm not," she said. "I do have passionate feelings about that."
Bob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical & Refining Association, said Lundberg is highly respected in the industry. "She's a character," he said. "She's first there with a national gasoline price and I think everybody from the media to (Wall) Street to the oil industry looks forward to hearing from her."
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/21/2006 10:10 ||
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"On Aug. 13, Lundberg reported the nationwide price for self-serve regular hit another record, jumping to nearly $3.03 a gallon."
And on August 20, I paid $2.65 a gallon in Chesterfield County, VA (outside Richmond).
I should have bought gas the day before, when it was $2.63.
"Lundberg said the cost of crude oil isn't the only reason for the skyrocketing prices. Demand, taxes, weather and government regulations all figure into the complex equation, she said."
She "forgot" blood-sucking leeches SPECULATORS.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2006 13:17 Comments ||
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Look for Islamic Charities to kick into high gear
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/21/2006 13:29 Comments ||
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And don't forget that Government is hook on taxing gas, like a meth addict. At the point of extraction, at the point of refining, at the point of transportation, at the point of sales. If you eliminated all the passed on taxes as well as the direct tax at the pump, just how much would the gas price fall?
SAN FRANCISCO - Photographer Joe Rosenthal, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his immortal image of six World War II servicemen raising an American flag over battle-scarred Iwo Jima, died Sunday. He was 94.
"What I see behind the photo is what it took to get up to those heights the kind of devotion to their country that those young men had, and the sacrifices they made," Rosenthal once said. "I take some gratification in being a little part of what the U.S. stands for."
He liked to call himself "a guy who was up in the big leagues for a cup of coffee at one time."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The American school teacher who says he killed JonBenet Ramsey, visited a Bangkok clinic specializing in sex changes in a country where many foreign transgenderS turn to for quick, cheap surgery. John Mark Karr, 41, had a consultation at the downtown Pratunam Polyclinic, said Dr. Thep Vechavisit. He declined to provide additional details, but confirmed Sunday that Karr was "one of my patients."
HARARE: Zimbabwe may allow "exceptional" extensions to Monday's deadline to trade in old currency, state media said on Sunday as panicky consumers went on weekend shopping sprees to offload their old banknotes. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe last month announced it was lopping three zeros off the Zimbabwe dollar in a move aimed at taming hyperinflation and gave Zimbabweans until Aug 21 to adopt new banknotes. Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono told the Sunday Mail that while there would be no blanket extensions to the deadline, the bank might make a few exceptions. "As in all situations in life, there will always be genuine cases that merit exceptional consideration. We will treat each case on the basis of its own circumstances," Gono said, saying disabled people were one group who may win more time to make the switch.
President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is set to face Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba in a presidential runoff after no single candidate gathered more than 50 percent valid votes in the first round of presidential elections, election officials announced Sunday.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's cabinet has given initial support to a tax hike on heavy crude oil operations in the Orinoco river basin, a legislator said on Sunday. Rodrigo Cabezas, president of the National Assembly's Finance Commission, said that under the proposed tax reform, companies extracting heavy crude in Orinoco would now be required to pay a tax amounting to 50 percent of the company's earnings (similar to other oil operations) instead of the current 34 percent. 
The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal was restarting the trial Monday of seven Bosnian Serb military and paramilitary members charged with involvement in the massacre at Srebrenica of 8,000 Muslim men and boys. The trial is the Hague court's latest attempt to hold senior officials responsible for the 1995 massacre in the UN-declared safe haven in Bosnia. Five of the suspects face genocide charges in Europe's worst civilian massacre since the Holocaust. Two more are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. All the suspects have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry maximum life sentences.
