Iraq will sign a $1.2 billion oil service contract with China to replace a production-sharing deal agreed under Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi newspaper quoted oil minister Hussain al-Shahristani as saying on Tuesday.
The oil minister is travelling to China at the end of this month to discuss the deal, which was orginally signed in 1997 between Iraq and the China National Petrolium Company (CNPC)...If finalised, the revised deal would be the first oil service contract signed by the new Iraqi government since the fall of Saddam in 2003.
Five years after the worst blackout in North American history, the country’s largest utilities say the U.S. power system faces the prospect of even bigger and more damaging outages.
The specific flaws that led to 50 million people losing power in 2003 have largely been addressed, they say, but even bigger problems loom. Excess generating capacity in the system is shrinking, for example, and power-plant construction has slowed as costs to build and operate plants have soared.
At the same time, it is estimated that electricity use will increase 29 percent between 2006 to 2030 — much of it driven by residential growth, according to a government report issued in June
European and those of European decent are literally being taxed into extinction. The AP comes out with this nice, fluffy article (below) saying whites will no longer be the majority in ~30 years. Why? What it comes down to is they primarily pay the taxes and minorities primarily reap the benefits and thus can afford to have children.
You can create a global continuum with the most individualistic societies — like the United States or Britain — on one end, and the most collectivist societies — like China or Japan — on the other....The individualistic countries tend to put rights and privacy first. People in these societies tend to overvalue their own skills and overestimate their own importance to any group effort. People in collective societies tend to value harmony and duty. They tend to underestimate their own skills and are more self-effacing when describing their contributions to group efforts.
Either way, individualistic societies have tended to do better economically...But what happens if collectivist societies snap out of their economic stagnation? What happens if collectivist societies, especially those in Asia, rise economically and come to rival the West? A new sort of global conversation develops...The opening ceremony in Beijing was a statement in that conversation. It was part of China’s assertion that development doesn’t come only through Western, liberal means, but also through Eastern and collective ones.
If Asia’s success reopens the debate between individualism and collectivism (which seemed closed after the cold war), then it’s unlikely that the forces of individualism will sweep the field or even gain an edge.
The rise of China isn’t only an economic event. It’s a cultural one. The ideal of a harmonious collective may turn out to be as attractive as the ideal of the American Dream.
(This is what passes for a conservative at the New York Times? -Roland)
Michelle Malkin: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called congressional Republicans who want up-or-down drilling votes “hand maidens of the oil companies.” Let’s call Pelosi what she is: House girl of the Big Wind boondogglers.
Though she seemingly backtracked on labeling drilling a “hoax” this week, Pelosi refuses to consider GOP energy proposals that don’t include massive government subsidies for eco-fantastical alternatives that have never panned out.
Last week, I wrote on efforts by House GOP members to draw attention to the fact that Nancy Pelosi sent House members home for the summer without a vote on domestic oil drilling. The American people want it, and the GOP House members are fighting for it. I also wrote on how big the energy issue is. It could be THE issue of the upcoming elections... an issue upon which Republicans could run AND win.
However, this is a new week, and whenever too much time passes, there is bound to be a new effort by the GOP to stall momentum and stab conservatives right in the heart. Who needs Democrats when so many GOP "leaders" act just like them? Now, we have the "Gang of 10." This group of senators (5 Republicans and 5 Democrats) claims to have forged a "bi-partisan energy compromise." In reality, we have a group of five GOP senators who are set on taking the winning issues of drilling and energy off the table and selling out to the liberals.
A report in Investor's Business Daily (IBD) sums up the situation perfectly: "If you thought Republicans were no longer 'The Stupid Party,' then you haven't met the senators who may have just destroyed the GOP's biggest hope this election year: the drilling issue."
Michelle Malkin: Maybe Do-Nothing Nancy should enter the Olympic diving competition. She gets a 10 for her flip-flop-flop yesterday on drilling. It is now no longer the “hoax” she knew.
What a hoot. Did she think she could sell 2 more books trying to pander and straddle like this? Nan, you’re slaying us. My sides hurt.
If the trend continues into September at anything like the same rate of descent, most of the inflationary spike of the past 12 months will miraculously have been sliced away. This is a dramatic reversal, and it is worth trying to work out why it is happening and what it means.
Just possibly, it means that what investors refer to in shorthand as the great "oil up" story has finally revealed itself not as the fundamental reflection of scarce supply that its adherents liked to claim, but as a simple, speculative bubble that was always going to burst
FTA: This is my U.S. Senator, who will toe the party line, even at the expense of his constituents’ needs. He objects to a consent agreement which would allow emergency drilling on the outer continental shelf even when the price of gas reaches $10.00 per gallon. Salazar calls drilling a “phantom solution”
How long do Coloradoans have to suffer high gas prices before we drill for the natural resources which are under our territory? Are you so beholden to the environmentalists, Senator Salazar, that you could care less about the working families you supposedly represent?
More>>>
A bipartisan group of senators Friday unveiled a compromise energy plan that would open new areas in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and Southeast Atlantic to oil and gas drilling, while raising taxes on the major oil companies. Hoping to break a stalemate that has kept the nation's energy policy in idle even as gasoline prices soared, the self-styled Gang of 10 would allow producers to explore as close as 50 miles off Florida's Gulf coast
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has the power to shut off microphones and still video cameras, but that has not stopped House Republicans – and a steady stream of Capitol Hill visitors – from gathering in the House chamber for a third day on Tuesday for what seemed like a pep rally for energy independence.
“Nancy Pelosi has said no to a vote on a comprehensive energy bill,” said Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) before the rest of her words were drowned out by booing from the crowd. “Madam Speaker, get off your book tour …”
Musgrave’s words were again lost as the crowd cheered, repeating the standing ovation given to speakers who came before and after her. The crowd chanted “vote, vote, vote,” in response to remarks by members who spoke, including Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and John Shadegg (R-Ariz.)
The Obama spend-o-meter is now up around $800 billion. And tax hikes on the rich won't pay for it. It's the middle class that will ultimately shoulder this fiscal burden in terms of higher taxes (to the tune of about a $6800 increase per family - ed.) and lower growth.
Obama wants you to believe that America is in trouble, and that it can only be cured with a big lurch to the left. Take from the rich and give to the non-rich. Redistribute income and wealth. It's an age-old recipe for economic disaster. It completely ignores incentives for entrepreneurs, small family-owned businesses, and investors. You can't have capitalism without capital. But Obama would penalize capital, be it capital from corporations or investors. This will only harm, and not advance, opportunities for middle-class workers.
Boone Pickens may be a fine man, and has played a colorful and useful role on the American stage for decades. But his "energy plan," which he's spending a fortune to promote on cable TV, is not a plan. Asserting that something would be good to do is not "a plan." Saying how to do it is "a plan."
House Republicans are on good footing along the path of redemption. Their effort to forego the month-long vacation called the "August recess" and stay in Washington to work on energy solutions is certainly the right thing to do, and it is in the best interests of the American people. After being vilified by Democrats the past few years for everything from corruption to their own habit of taking too many lengthy breaks
This is Day Two of the GOP revolt over energy, and the debate is taking place in a darkened House floor with no microphones, no lights and no C-SPAN cameras (on orders of the Democratic speaker). So Republican congressmen pushing for an up-or-down vote on offshore oil drilling have taken to twittering...posting Qik and YouTube videos and corralling unsuspecting tourists to plead their case to the public.
Pelosi called proposals to allow more offshore drilling a deceptive "decoy" rather than a solution and indicated she would bar a vote on any bill that included it. "I'm not giving the gavel away to a tactic … that supports the oil (companies)...
In other words, the average workaday American can expect no relief from this beholden-to-the-environmentalists Congress - Roland
I know I've been away for a few days, and while I was gone, no running mates were picked but polls shifted in McCain's favor.
But let's ease back into the Campaign Spot with the latest edition of our continuing series, Obama's statements and their expiration dates.
OBAMA'S STATEMENT: "The reserve should only be used in the event of an emergency, and that we shouldn't be tapping the reserve to provide a small, short-term decrease in gas prices." — August 31, 2005
EXPIRATION DATE: Today: "Democrat Barack Obama called today for tapping the nation's strategic oil reserves to help drive down gasoline prices, a shift from his previous position on the issue."
All Barack Obama statements come with an expiration date. All of them.
UPDATE: Of course, the RNC notes Obama was arguing against tapping into the strategic oil reserves a lot more recently than August 2005:
"I do not believe that we should use the strategic oil reserves at this point. I have said and, in fact, supported a congressional resolution that said that we should suspend putting more oil into the strategic oil reserve, but the strategic oil reserve, I think, has to be reserved for a genuine emergency. You have a situation, let's say, where there was a major oil facility in Saudi Arabia that was destroyed as a consequence of terrorist acts, and you suddenly had huge amounts of oil taken out of the world market, we wouldn't just be seeing $4-a-gallon oil. We could see a situation where entire sectors of the country had no oil to function at all. And that's what the strategic oil reserve has to be for." (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At Media Availability, St. Louis, MO, 7/7/08)
Some Republicans say they are prepared to vote against a resolution to fund the federal government for the 2009 fiscal year unless Democrats agree to lift an offshore drilling moratorium. If the budget resolution fails, many agencies and departments would be denied money to operate and would be forced to close.
"We don't want the government shutdown to be an issue, but the fact is the Democrats are so overconfident that they're willing to talk about a ban and they're willing to talk about raising taxes on gasoline, so this is just pretty incredible," said Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican who is circulating a letter encouraging colleagues to demand that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, strike the drilling moratorium from the budget resolution.
"But I think that once Americans realize that this [drilling] ban will expire unless we pass something, I think there is going to be just an outcry to not vote for anything that had a ban in it."
It was hard to not get twisted up in pretzel knots listening to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose explanation on "This Week with George Stepanopoulos" about why she hasn't allowed a vote on Republican energy legislation that would ease restrictions on offshore drilling was, to be polite, confusing. It may have left some in the audience feeling like a seabird fouled by an oil spill.
According to CNN, Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter.
That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second.
Buried in the story we also find that "In addition to making hefty profits, Exxon also had a hefty tax bill. Worldwide, the company paid $10.5 billion in income taxes in the second quarter, $9.5 billion in sales taxes, and over $12 billion in what it called 'other taxes.'"
MP: In other words, Exxon Mobil paid $32.361 billion in taxes in the second quarter, which works out to $4,114 in taxes per second. Another way to look at it - Exxon paid almost $3 in taxes ($32.361 billion) for every $1 in profits ($11.68 billion), see chart above.
Barack Obama's newly unveiled "Emergency Economic Plan" is quite a document, sounding more like the rantings of an extremist fringe candidate than a serious contender for the presidency
The six-page package is a doozy, replete with populist ideas that will wreck the economy and leave us poorer. The only real emergency we should worry about is the debacle that would follow its passage.
With high oil prices and calls from President Bush and Republican presidential aspirant Sen. John McCain to open coastal waters to domestic production, support for drilling has jumped, particularly among Republicans, the poll says. Support increases with age and is slightly higher among men than women.
But as the price of oil hovers around $120 per barrel, double the cost a year ago, support for drilling has increased even among Democrats and independents, says the survey of 2,504 adult residents polled across the state July 8-22.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.
Democrat Barack Obama arrives in Washington on Monday. On the campaign trail, Obama has styled himself a centrist. But a look at those who've served as his advisers and mentors over the years shows a far more left-leaning tilt to his background — and to his politics.
When pictures of ANWR are actually shown by the "mainstream" media, they often feature the southern area of ANWR, which is very different than the Coastal Plain area where drilling is desired. While the southern area is very beautiful with lots of trees and vegetation, once you cross the mountains, the terrain quickly becomes barren marsh.
A plan by Barack Obama to redistribute American wealth on a global level is moving forward in the Senate. It follows Marxist theology — from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
We are citizens of the world, Sen. Obama told thousands of nonvoting Germans during his recent tour of the Middle East and Europe. And if the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433) he has sponsored becomes law, which is almost certain if he wins in November, we're also going to be taxpayers of the world.
What if I told you that a prominent global political figure in recent months has proposed: abrogating key features of his government's contracts with energy companies; unilaterally renegotiating his country's international economic treaties; dramatically raising marginal tax rates on the "rich" to levels not seen in his country in three decades (which would make them among the highest in the world); and changing his country's social insurance system into explicit welfare by severing the link between taxes and benefits?
Some terminally ill patients in Oregon who turned to their state for health care were denied treatment and offered doctor-assisted suicide instead, a proposal some experts have called a "chilling" corruption of medical ethics.
Since the spread of his prostate cancer, 53-year-old Randy Stroup of Dexter, Ore., has been in a fight for his life. Uninsured and unable to pay for expensive chemotherapy, he applied to Oregon's state-run health plan for help.
It’s yet to be finished, but with these artistic renderings, we get to see inside of the future record holder for the world’s largest ship, a serious competitor for another maritime wonder, Liberty of the Seas. Oasis of the Sea will be a luxurious traveling city, complete with shopping streets, bars, restaurants, an amphitheater the size of a football field. And if this didn’t blow you away, the ship is also equipped with its own micro-climate and rock-climbing walls. It will weigh around 220,000 tonne, be 1,081ft long and have 16 passenger decks.
When leaders of the world’s richest nations pledged this month to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, they didn’t specify how this would be accomplished. By one reckoning, however, Americans could roughly halve their emissions, and their energy consumption, much sooner — simply by scaling back their lifestyles. How far back? If Americans could settle for the same living standard they had in 1969, that might do the trick.
I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia's compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.
The world has spent $50 billion on global warming since 1990, and we have not found any actual evidence that carbon emissions cause global warming...
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