SPECULATION, SPECULATION, SPECULATION. Learn it, say it, and repeat it often. The price per barrel is being manipulated. The markets are being manipulated by large trading banks, hedge fund managers, ENERGY COMPANIES and INVESTMENT GIANTS.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/17/...in4188620.shtml

The oil companies are not only driving up the price of their own product artificially by BETTING on high prices in the futures market but they are gouging you at the pump as well.

I am not for a “Windfall Profits Tax”. A TAX is not what’s needed. FEDERAL PRISON is what’s called for. Think Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling of ENRON FAME.

REVIEW THE SCAM
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...756C0A9649C8B63

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3893599.html

YOU can not sell a bag of ice after a hurricane for $5.00 without being arrested for gouging but companies can gouge all they want. The LAW AND ORDER posers on the right have some pretty stiff penalties for individuals. There are nearly 2.3 Million in US prisons but Corporations can steal, cheat and gouge all they want. This is their Fascist interpretation of LAW AND ORDER.
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5009270&page=1

IS THE SURGE WORKING?

Well violence is down, although a car bomb in Baghdad just killed 51. But violence is down. Maybe because everyone is DEAD? Over 655,000 Iraqi’s had died as of 2006!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6101001442.html

And millions have fled Iraq:

In Iraq, with the sectarian divide and the lack of a comprehensive political solution, the number of internally displaced rose from 1.8 million at the start of the year to close to 2.4 million by the end of 2007
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0618/p99s01-duts.html

AND MANY MORE have been ethnically cleansed. Foreign Affairs has the story:

Some backers of the surge even argue that the Iraqi civil war is over and that victory on Washington's terms is in sight -- so long as the United States has the will to see its current efforts through to their conclusion. Unfortunately, such claims misconstrue the causes of the recent fall in violence and, more important, ignore a fatal flaw in the strategy. The surge has changed the situation not by itself but only in conjunction with several other developments: the grim successes of ethnic cleansing, the tactical quiescence of the Shiite militias, and a series of deals between U.S. forces and Sunni tribes that constitute a new bottom-up approach to pacifying Iraq. The problem is that this strategy to reduce violence is not linked to any sustainable plan for building a viable Iraqi state. If anything, it has made such an outcome less likely.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080501faes...-the-surge.html

I know you don’t want to believe we murder innocent people but don’t worry, we torture them first!

- The Bush/McCain standard of American jurisprudence: "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong." Un-f’ing-believable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8061702862.html

- Tortured detainees, as a matter of policy, were hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/41394.html

- Watch The Marquis de BUSH blame all torture on a few of our soldiers. Shouldn’t he be in PRISON already???
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/17/p...-ghraib-abuses/

WE NEED TO TALK - 866-87-RANDI.


HOMEWORK

IT’S ALL ABOUT ‘DARK MARKETS’ – SPECULATORS DRIVING THE PRICE OF OIL!!!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/06/17/...in4188620.shtml

THE REST IS JIBBERISH
http://www.cpa.org.au/garchve08/1370oil.html

Never one to miss an opportunity to shill for his oil crack dealin buddies', Dubya chimes in on the Offshore Drilling debate. Drill! More! Sink that hole right off South Beach!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25222914/

"Maverick" McCain flip-flops for Big Oil
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/200...16/1146574.aspx

".....McCain has a mixed record on supporting off-shore drilling in the senate, but this decision seems to be a bit of a capitulation to the oil companies who are in favor of searching for new sources of oil. McCain is against drilling in ANWR......"

New oil finds can take A DECADE to bring online. 10 years.... and the half trillion bucks we've spent on Iraq......and we couldn't come up with a different path???? Right.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/weekinre.../20mouawad.html

OBAMA AUDIO ON NEW DRILLING
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25217879#25237746

FACT CHECK
http://www.factcheck.org/gas_price_fixes_that_wont.html

Fla Gov Charlie Crist (on the McCain VP short list?) gets acrobatic.....was a VOCAL opponent of offshore drilling. Until now.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/con...17cristoil.html

Will Congress pass legislation to allow MORE LEASES?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...&refer=home

FLOODING

Bush speaks to America like we're 7 years old
http://www.crooksandliars.com/Media/Downlo...ds-disaster.wmv

Limbaugh once again proves he's got a pointy white hate somewhere in a drawer in The Castle...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/17/r...the-floods-hit/

The Red Cross is out of cash
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25211200/

Oh yeah! Remember all the Very Smart People lecturing us on how New Orleans shouldn't be rebuilt after Katrina because it's in a flood plain?
http://www.slate.com/id/2125810/

http://www.watchblog.com/republicans/archives/003029.html

And yes that means you Glenn Beck!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypq-llFx_4w

Where are your pontificating rants about abandoning the constantly reflooding lily white towns on the banks of the Mississippi? (cough!)...rrrracist!(cough)

THE RACE

Let The Healing Begin: Hill and Barack Plan First Joint Appearance
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2...irst_joint.html

Good Ol' Reliable 'Liberal Media': Hardball fudges the numbers to make a black guy look weak with white people:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200806170001?f=h_top

Post slams Franken for his 'style'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8061702006.html

THE OCCUPATION

51 KILLED IN BAGHDAD BOMBING
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25217879#25217716

Has life in Iraq Improved? If you prefer your sewage in pipes and more than 4 hours of electricity a day NO
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/05/...ices/print.html

Did the surge work? Ummm Ethnic cleansing did lower violence
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080501faes...-the-surge.html

TORTURE

Report: Exams prove torture in Iraq, Gitmo
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25218584/

“No one has ever made a claim that substantial intelligence was gained”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/25217879#25217879

The Bush/McCain standard of American jurisprudence: "If the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong." Un-f’ing-believable.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8061702862.html

Tortured detainees, as a matter of policy, were hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/41394.html

Bush blames all torture on a few soldiers at Abu Ghraib and if you think differently then you are “slandering America.” Shouldn’t he be in prison?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/17/p...-ghraib-abuses/

THE MIDDLE EAST

See what actually TALKING to your enemies can do? Israel/Hamas agree to cease fire
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Middle_East/10221958.html

WAR FUNDING: Dems Planning to Wuss Out Again????
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/17/9701/

Love you Randi

I'd be calling today. Stay tune.

Price Manipulation is nothing new!!!!! There's already a playbook out there! I work for Bunker & Herberts older siblings here at Hunt Petroleum in Dallas....

Exhibit A – Silver Thursday

Beginning in the early 1970s the Bunker & Herbert Hunt (The Hunt Brothers) began accumulating large amounts of silver. By 1979, they had nearly cornered the global market[4]. In the last nine months of 1979 the brothers earned an estimated $2 billion to $4 billion in silver speculation, with estimated silver holdings of 100 million oz.[5]

During Hunt's accumulation of the precious metal, prices of silver futures contracts and silver bullion during 1979 and 1980 silver prices rose from $11 an ounce in September 1979 to $50 an ounce in January 1980. Silver prices ultimately collapsed to below $11 an ounce two months later[1].

In 1989 in a settlement with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Nelson Bunker Hunt was fined US $10 million and banned from trading in the commodity markets as a result of charges stemming from his attempt to corner the market in silver, leading to a commodity crash known as Silver Thursday[1]. This was in addition to a multimillion-dollar settlement to pay back taxes, fines and interest to the Internal Revenue Service for the same period [1].

Hunt filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the Federal Bankruptcy Code in September 1988, largely due to lawsuits incurred as a result of his silver speculation[1].

Nelson Bunker http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_04/laborde012704.html

If I do all that homework now, I'll miss the show and the board!! And I can't miss either.

Just pretend you're still in school and just read the stuff you like and skip the math.

Feel better now?

Randi you are doing a good job. Keep it up. Without you, I'd still be living in the dark ages!
Thank You!
Sincerely, LilaTheGreat

Randi, darling ... if it don't make ya SWEAT, it ain't ROCK & ROLL, baby!

Oh, and by the way ... _I_ am this message board's resident DeadHead! 172 Grateful Dead shows from 1973 - 1995!

That guy in the front row - is that Bob Dole??!!

I don't think so. Looks like him though.

Oh man where you there? Roosevelt Stadium in New Jersey 1978 Dark Star into Truckin' that riff?
Whoa!!!!!

I love this picture....
I took it! NOT
I only wish I was there!

Actually, it CAN'T be - he's using both hands.

Chicago 1994 spring tour, Dark Star into Truckin, too. Out of all of my 30-40+ shows only saw Dark Star ONCE!!! That was my last show, too. By the way, I was wearing that Tour T-shirt yesterday, 14 years old!!! Still looks good, too.

Roosevelt Stadium closed in '76 ... I saw the Dead there in '74 and '76. In '78, they played GIANTS stadium, just before leaving to play those shows at the Sphinx in Egypt.

Anything ELSE you'd like to know?

Okay Randi, NO SMOKING a joint before the show!
Barakman to the tune of Batman!!!

My first Dark Star was at the Arena in the Meadowlands (Byrne? Continental? Your Name Here?), in 1990 - GREAT show (real good 'shrooms, too!) . That show has been released, as the album "Nightfall of Diamonds".

Jerry Garcia LIVES!


What they said.

Three of our favorite entities on the face of the planet in one picture.
It's a beeyooteefull thang.
Whoo-hoo, hoo-rah, hopla. Long live the resistance, vive la Randistance.

That's gonna be my new desktop & screen saver!!

Can Someone say: The Bush Family and The S&L Scandal

- What is important to note about the S&L scandal is that it was the largest theft in the history of the world and US tax payers are who was robbed. Now we have a new Theft taking place.

Quoth BroDave -
Jerry Garcia LIVES!

-----------------------------
Don't I WISH!

The NEXT Bushite meme:

GOD sent the floods to the midwest to punish America, because California passed a law allowing gay marriage!

I know, I know. We'll always have the music.

Guess that explains why the show goes up to 11!!!

The San Andreas is ready to rock and roll baby!

... and THAT my man, is a blessing ... if I'm not listening to Randi or Hartmann, then I probably AM listening to Sirius 32 - the Grateful Dead channel (or 17 - Jam_ON)!

Oh yes, we must not talk to Bushie enemies lest one gets a verbal tongue lashing from Dr. Rice shant we ?

Sometimes, I can't help thinking that the old school republican guard of American cold wars is portraying Obama to be the Mohhamid Ali of the 21st century. Ali was portrayed as a draft dodger by those who carry contempt prior to investigation. On closer examination, Ali was practicing his faith and was willing to go to jail for it. Ali is no house monkey lemme tell ya. And I would not mess with his daughter either.

So, I was going to post a link to the official Whitehouse website concerning a speech by Darth himself given to our Best of the Best at Fort Meade, NY. on December 6, 2006 but I could not google it up for myself today. The speech indicates that progress in Iraq has been tremendous and provincial elections were just around the corner, imagine that.

I found the timing of this play by oil companies to be, hmmmm, intriguing ? Remember that Peanuts cartoon deal when Lucy holds the football every season so that Charlie brown can kick the ball ? At the last instant, lucy always pulls up as a kickstand and Charlie Brown falls on his butt. Some people never learn do they:


ABC Alaska
Jamey Kirk
Story Created: Jun 17, 2008 at 10:09 PM AKDT
Story Updated: Jun 17, 2008 at 10:09 PM AKDT

"...One outstanding issue that the legislature has been working to confront is the possibility of other competing pipeline producers. The day just prior to the announcement of the TransCanada pipeline BP and ConocoPhillips announced their intentions to build a similar pipeline as proposed by TransCanada. On Monday BP and Conoco submitted a request to the Federal Regulatory Commission for the pre-filing process..."

"...Anchorage Democrat Les Gara commented on the BP/ConocoPhillips pre-filing request, "Today they have essentially issued what amounts to another press release stating they might be interested in building a pipeline. They still can't detail, some people suspect maybe there not that serious and not derail this special session and know for sure."..."

I have intentions too, like saving what little money I have for a rainy day.

Lila,
You must see the BRILLIANT new documentary American Drug War--> http://www.AmericanDrugWar.com

Peace!
~ Charell

(Ahem).... ____I____ am another resident Deadhead here. Over 75 shows from 1985 to 1995! Thank you, Jerry.

Randi,
First of all, I have listened to your show since 2005. I think that your insights, hard work, assertiveness and directness have made a real difference. I would guess that you would not take "credit" for the impact (like a politician would), but you should.

My reason for posting is to share a summary of Kevin Phillips' new book called Bad Money. Now, I personally think Phillips is brilliant in the way he ties history to current events. Again, in this book, he shows how the big money people have continued to conjure, control, manipulate and buy influence to make things fall their way. He believes, as do I, that we are reeling our way to a major and very long "correction" as we deleverage and transition our economy.

I would characterize what is happening today as the "death" of an old economy that has been based on transportation, fossil fuels, the military-industrial complex and consumerism. This has been in play for many years and change will be pretty traumatic. Right now, the "smart guys" are milking it for all it's worth. I hope they go away soon and many of them end up in jail or bankrupt, the bastards! I also hope that the Bloviators go too.

So, what will come out of it? I think that's why this election cycle is so critical, not only for the Presidency but also for the congressional seats. We have to throw the bums out because they will not stop until they eke every dime and scrap out. We, the people, have to shout out how pissed off we are for being played for so long by the 'Royals". I for one will show up and do what i can on every level to change things.

Thanks again for being there for us!


'Bad Money' by Kevin Phillips
Slip sliding away: Are new cracks in U.S. economy portents of lean days ahead?
Sunday, April 06, 2008
By Glenn Altschuler
Europeans once believed that all swans were white. But in the 17th century, the impossible happened: Black swans were spotted in Australia.

Following the lead of Nassir Taleb, a scientific-minded public intellectual, policy wonks now use the term "black swan" as shorthand for any event with an extremely large impact, something outside the realm of human expectations and quantitative calculations.







"BAD MONEY: RECKLESS FINANCE, FAILED POLITICS AND THE GLOBAL CRISIS OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM"
By Kevin Phillips
Viking ($25.95)




Kevin Phillips sees a black swan -- no, a flock of them -- on the horizon. Once a political strategist for Richard Nixon and now a born-again economic populist, he believes that the crisis of American capitalism has begun.

In his new book, he examines the weapons of mass destruction now detonating all around us:

Housing prices, credit-bubbles, untested and unstable financial instruments (including derivatives and hedge funds), increasingly inadequate supplies of oil, dynastic politicians in thrall to entrenched interests and imperial hubris that has wreaked havoc with the prestige of the United States around the world.

Sensing that fear has begun to supplant greed on Wall Street and Main Street, Phillips hopes to pressure candidates for national office in both parties to confront "domestic and international problems bearing down like an express train."

His book provides a primer in economics, detailed but not dull, accessible to the uninitiated, and useful to the already well-informed.

Phillips' dire warnings rest in part on his partial to substantial belief in several worst-case scenarios. But even if the black swans stay down under, his brief against the risky gambits of the venal center in American politics and finance is provocative, and perhaps prescient.

The domination of financialization, Phillips observes, presaged the decline of global powers in Spain, the Dutch Republic and Great Britain. Unfortunately, the United States now "luxuriates in finance at the expense of harvesting, manufacturing or transporting things."

Constituting 21 percent of gross domestic product, the financial services sector, which is loosely regulated by government, has made billions promoting, packaging and leveraging public and private debt.

By bundling debt, whose market value is difficult to specify, Phillips maintains, liquidity factories, in forms ranging from private equity to hedge funds, have created a money pyramid without parallel in history.

In 20 years, debt has quadrupled to $43 trillion, and, after 9/11, President Bush gave debt a nudge by adding "a slight tint of red, white and blue."

Then-Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan cooperated by slashing interest rates and ratings agencies bestowed high safety classifications on questionable loans. Delayed-fuse mortgages went to buyers with no income, jobs or assets.

Phillips predicts that the impact of financial sector securitization and the real-estate bubble will be deadly. Responsible for about 40 percent of economic growth and employment during Bush's tenure, housing now seems to be leading the nation into a recession.

Lenders find themselves holding "neutron loans" -- like the neutron bomb, they kill the people and leave the houses standing. If prices fall 15 percent to 20 percent from their peak, about $3 trillion in value will be lost.

Compounding these perils is the entwined vulnerability of U.S. oil supremacy and the embattled dollar. After all, as J. Paul Getty once quipped, "The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights."

Four-fifths of the world's oil reserves are controlled by the state-run companies of 13 nations. Holding more and more of the trump cards, they've begun to look at the United States in the rearview mirror.

Reluctant to peg oil prices to an ever weaker dollar, Phillips suggests, they might switch to the euro or a market basket of currencies and could instruct their sovereign wealth funds to stop buying assets in the United States. Either action, of course, would send dollars, bonds and stocks into free fall.

And if the supply of oil is at or approaching its peak they might decide to do business with China and India, leaving America high and dry.

The President's Working Group on Financial Markets (nicknamed "The Plunge Protection Team") has its work cut out for it. And, as Phillips reminds us, historical precedent suggests skepticism about both sustained public attention and effective government action to address the economic problems of empires in decline.

After raising the specter of blighted cities and conflict over immigration, he strains to find a silver lining.

America's landing might be somewhat softer, he indicates in a concluding paragraph, because of its natural resources, large population and continental hegemony, especially if the next administration abandoned a (costly) militaristic foreign policy.

He points out that after a half century or more in the shadows, Spain, Holland and Great Britain re-emerged, shorn of imperial glory, but more prosperous than ever.

Update:

Crude Oil Declines as China to Increase Fuel Prices Tomorrow

By Mark Shenk

" June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell more than $4 a barrel on speculation demand will decline, after China said it will raise fuel prices starting tomorrow.

China, the second-biggest fuel consumer after the U.S., will increase gasoline and diesel prices by 1,000 yuan ($145.50) a ton, the National Development and Reform Commission said. The increases represent a 17 percent gain for gasoline and 18 percent for diesel. Oil has almost doubled in the past year, partially because of growing demand from China..."

Wowo, only about 30 bucks to go for some kind of stability but way off $55.00 per gallon pre-chaos. Could have probably met that demand from China without an artificial intervention in Iraq. Refer to 2002 stats on Iraq from DOE, IEAE-EIO it's off to the poorhouse I go, thanks.