Oil’s below $130 a barrel, now that’s a trend I like to see.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell 41 cents Friday to settle at $128.88 on the New York Mercantile Exchange — well below its trading record of more than $147 a week earlier.

As Kate pointed out re my previous post, announcing we will drill had a positive effect. Bush ok’d it. Now the stumbling block seems to be Congress, more specifically Nancy Pelosi who is adamant against offshore drilling. If she doesn’t budge, it will never go to the House for a vote. See, it still needs Congressional approval before they can drill. We have the oil, just need to get it out of the ground. If Congresscritters and Pelosi don’t get the hint, they should not be reelected. Put somebody in that has some common sense.

I heard/read somewhere that there are offshore sites that could be producing within a year. Might have been on FoxNews. If so, there is even more urgency to drill.

Meanwhile, I drive less. Already drive a small car with, by today’s standards, good gas mileage so no need to get another. Even people that own big cars are trading down.

Car buyers have been fleeing to more fuel-efficient models. U.S. sales of pickups and sport utility vehicles are down nearly 18 percent this year through June, while sales of small cars are up more than 10 percent.

Let’s see if that trend continues with the drop in oil prices. People driving less would be another trend to watch.

So what did Obama mean when he stated:

“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Sounds ominous having read about something similar in a novel recently. Not a WWII novel either. Just what is that national security force supposed to do? He doesn’t say.

Thou the overall speech sounded rather reminiscent of the New Deal. Take a listen and you’ll get the idea. Expanding AmeriCorps, proposing an Energy Corps and on and on. Where will he get all the money to implement all the programs he’s proposing?

Taxes, we’ll be taxed to death.

And it won’t work, government can’t solve everything by creating more and more programs. Only thing the government seems to get right is the military. They should stick to that. Something about the federal government being responsible for that in the Constitution. The Tenth Amendment states.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Like it says leave the rest to the states and the people, private enterprise and charities. Don’t put the federal government in charge.

Hattip WND.

Looks like the government is going to bail out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae after all.

The short-term uncertainty about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae — which together hold or guarantee half the nation’s mortgage debt — was to an extent relieved on Sunday. Federal officials again threw their support behind the government-sponsored enterprises; the Treasury pledged to expand its current line of credit to the two companies and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also said the government could, if needed, buy equity capital in the companies, whose stocks lost half their value last week. The Treasury’s moves would require congressional approval.

There goes the national debt. However, they aren’t going to bail out any other financial companies. Can’t afford to. Can’t afford to bail out Fannie and Freddie either. Whatever! Wonder what Congress will do with this mess. At any rate, expect a disaster. For example:

Now that the federal government has thrown a lifeline to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, taxpayers could be on the hook for billions more if the crisis of confidence spreads.

See what I mean. Disaster. Expect more taxes. By the numbers:

As long as more homeowners default on mortgages, losses to financial institutions will mount. Those losses already exceed $400 billion, and some analysts believe they will top $1 trillion before the housing carnage is over.

That’s a huge amount of money. People around here are just walking away from their homes and mortgages, some 3000 or so houses in foreclosure here in Gilbert alone last time I checked. Friend bought one that was in foreclosure, there are some good deals out there. Only bright spot in this mess.

Dow isn’t doing so well either, closed at 11,055.19. Obviously the stock market has yet to react positively to the bailout.

Gee, I wish someone would give me “hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash-stuffed envelopes.” Of course, then there would be the corruption charges to deal with. Olmert might as well get it over with and resign… for the betterment of his country.

“It’s hard to fathom what Olmert is trying to achieve by postponing his dishonorable exit from public life when it’s obvious to everyone else that his public career is over,” said the lead editorial Friday in the newspaper Haaretz.

Bout time too what with needing to deal forcefully with Iran and Hamas, Israel needs a P.M. that won’t be a wuss and botch it like he did with the war with Hezbollah only to agree later to a prisoner swap which is what he didn’t agree to initially which led to that war. Also need a P.M. not mired in corruption scandals. Back to that money.

In a stunning deposition in May, Talansky testified he handed Olmert hundreds of thousands of dollars in envelopes over the years and said some of the money went to pay for expensive cigars, hotels and other luxuries. Police suspect the cash was either for illegal campaign contributions or bribes.

Olmert’s backers note he has been written off before only to re-emerge intact. This is the fifth major corruption case against him, and few people had thought he would survive the fallout from his much criticized handling of the war with Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon two years ago.

How much corruption can he handle before it bites him in the rear? Dunno, maybe this time it will. This is good.

Nevertheless, the weight of the corruption probes taken together, combined with Olmert’s rock-bottom approval ratings and Friday’s highly embarrassing disclosures, is overwhelming. Olmert has said he will resign if indicted.

Bush and Congress are the only ones with rock-bottom approval ratings. Easier to get rid of an Israeli P.M. thou than any of those.

He’s also got some creative billing going for airline tickets and the like.

After police questioned the prime minister for two hours at his official residence in Jerusalem, the police and Justice Ministry issued a statement saying that Olmert, “while serving as mayor of Jerusalem and as minister of industry and trade, is suspected of seeking funding for flights abroad in his official capacity from several sources at the same time … including the state.”

…Police officials said Olmert also billed multiple sources for other expenses, such as hotels, on dozens of trips abroad — with the illicit funds amounting to some $100,000.

Nice, huh! Creative billing isn’t just limited to doctors double billing Medicare. P.M.’s do it too. Allegedly. Can’t convict the guy until the courts do. However, with regards to corruption, bet Arafat could have taught him a few tricks. Israelis have nothing on Palestinians in that respect.

Oh wow, the Dow sunk below 11,000 now at 10,986.47 according to the quote on Yahoo. The reason why?

Wall Street sank further into a bear market Friday as investors dumped stocks in response to troubles at mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and oil’s continuing climb into record territory. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 200 points and slid below the 11,000 mark for the first time in two years.

Oh and oil shot up briefly to $147.27 a barrel before settling down to $146.60. Back to Fannie and Freddie, they aren’t worth much anymore.

At midday, Fannie shares traded at $9.15, down 31 percent, while Freddie traded at $5.85, down 27 percent. Both have lost close to 90 percent of their value since August. The companies’ bonds posted gains.

That’s a huge loss, huge. To get an idea how big they are, ponder this.

The pair hold or guarantee around $5 trillion worth of mortgages. That’s roughly half of the $9.5 trillion debt of the United States. The fear is that a failure of one or both would wreak havoc on the nation’s financial system and the broader economy as well.

A bailout would cost the taxpayers dearly. Not good at all to shift the burden to us taxpayers. A bit on the history of the companies for the clueless.

Congress created the companies to provide a steady stream of money for home mortgages. Although the government doesn’t guarantee Fannie’s and Freddie’s debts, most investors believe the government would come to their rescue if the companies fell into dire straits. This “implicit” guarantee allows them to borrow money at lower interest rates than other financial companies.

Although created by Congress, they are privately owned thus the government doesn’t have to bail them out or take them over, meaning nationalize them. It will do one of them eventually. One wonders isn’t government nationalizing industries a bad thing? It would certainly be a disturbing trend. After all, that is something Hugo Chavez is known to do. For the U.S. to do the same bodes ill for our freedom.

Update: Fannie and Freddie say they have plenty of money. Not to worry folks… much.

Think Congress is doing a good job, that’s a new low. And the Democrats are in charge there. Makes you think, no? Quoting Rasmussen Reports:

The percentage of voters who give Congress good or excellent ratings has fallen to single digits for the first time in Rasmussen Reports tracking history. This month, just 9% say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Most voters (52%) say Congress is doing a poor job, which ties the record high in that dubious category.

Reaching new highs and lows at the same time, a real record breaking Congress. And I think most if not all of them are up for reelection. Should prove interesting.

Take my Congressman, Jeff Flake, a Republican. Numbers USA gave him a C grade overall on his immigration voting record with some flagrant F’s in reducing chain migration, amnesties and unnecessary foreign worker visas. Republicans not doing much better than the Democrats and that’s just one issue. No wonder Congress is held in such high esteem.

Under investigation, the Federal Reserve bank. Apparently the U.S. central bank has to answer to a higher power and it isn’t George W. Bush.

As part of the assessment, the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the major investment banks, mortgage banks and hedge funds will be asked to hand over confidential documents to the IMF team. They will be required to answer the questions they are asked during interviews. Their databases will be subjected to so-called stress tests — worst-case scenarios designed to simulate the broader effects of failures of other major financial institutions or a continuing decline of the dollar.

Under its bylaws, the IMF is charged with the supervision of the international monetary system. Roughly two-thirds of IMF members — but never the United States — have already endured this painful procedure.

So who put the IMF in charge? Did the U.S. have any say in the matter? More important did the citizens of the U.S. have any say in the matter? Did we know about it? Do we care? Enquiring minds want to know.

It gets better. Now this is the interesting part.

For seven years, US President George W. Bush refused to allow the IMF to conduct its assessment. Even now, he has only given the IMF board his consent under one important condition. The review can begin in Bush’s last year in office, but it may not be completed until he has left the White House. This is bad news for the Fed chairman.

OK, so Bush has some say over when we get investigated but it sure seems interesting he doesn’t want it completed until he is gone. Thus sheltering him from any fallout from the report. I’d worry about this if the economy didn’t suck bad as it does. We know we have a problem, don’t need the IMF to tell us that we do. Come to think about it, I’d still worry depending on what the IMF does or forces the Fed to do as a result of this investigation. The consequences could be dire.

Hattip SurvivalBlog.

Listening to Obama speak today on FoxNews, I caught a glimpse and wondered. Did he just diss religion when he said about people “…should give to a man of the cloth and hope it trickles down.” How insulting. Does he think government is the solution to all man’s problems, that giving to churches is unwise cause the pastor takes the lions share of the donation? Well, I suppose he has his pastor, the Rev. Wright as an example. Geesh, they’re not all like that.

Obama is the Democratic candidate for President, he got the delegates and the all important superdelegates.

Cheered by a roaring crowd, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois laid claim to the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday night, taking a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation’s first black president. Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket without conceding her own defeat.

I kindof doubt he’d pick her for VP but anything can happen. She didn’t concede defeat in her speech, could still argue her case that she’d be the stronger candidate. She did win in those big electoral vote states. It will be fun to watch in any case.

Obama sealed his nomination, according to The Associated Press tally, based on primary elections, state Democratic caucuses and support from party “superdelegates.” It takes 2,118 delegates to clinch the nomination at the convention in Denver this summer, and Obama had 2,151 by the AP count.

Why he even has the endorsement of old peanut-brain, Jimmy Carter. That says a lot and not in a good way. McCain better win this one or we’re doomed.

Look who’s talking and spouting the same old rhetoric… none other than Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad spoke Monday at a ceremony honoring the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

According to IRNA, Ahmadinejad said that “criminal and terrorist Zionist regime” with a track record of “60 years of plundering, aggression and crimes … has reached the end … and will soon disappear from the geographical” charts.

Sounds threatening to me. Course, his anti-Israel rhetoric is nothing new but the soon disappear part is troubling.

And since Iran is allied with Syria, Israel better not give up the Golan Heights as it is strategic territory. Incidentally, that’s what Syria wants, not peace with Israel.

Syrian President Bashar Assad said during a visit to The United Arab Emirates on Monday that Israel’s agreement to withdraw from the Golan Heights was a prerequisite for the renewed peace negotiations between the two countries.

Once the Golan is gone, there’s nothing to bargain with. Israel, unlike Syria or Iran, has no desire to wipe it’s neighboring countries out of existence. Just bomb their nuclear facilities to protect it’s existence.

So the Obamas resigned from their church, big deal.

“Our relations with Trinity have been strained by the divisive statements of Reverend Wright, which sharply conflict with our own views,” they wrote. “These controversies have served as an unfortunate distraction for other Trinity members who seek to worship in peace, and have placed you in an untenable position.”

No denunciation, mind you, they just want the people to worship in peace. Divisive statements aside, he didn’t denounce Black Liberation Theology which is the form of Christianity preached there. Just what did he convert to anyway? The NYTimes summarizes.

Mr. Obama said that his resignation was not a matter of political convenience, but rather that he had reached the point where neither he nor Trinity’s pastors and congregants could worship in peace. He noted that reporters now pored over sermons and that some had called sick members at home to ask about the church.

Not politically convenient, oh please! As if that’s going to stop them. The can has been opened, the worms will come out. I’m guessing Sean Hannity won’t let it go either.

So he’s off to find another church but not until after the election. Guessing he doesn’t want to open any more cans until the Presidency is in the bag.

He acknowledged that the search would be a tricky business, not least because African-American pastors often pride themselves on speaking with a clear “prophetic voice” about social and racial injustices. Their aim is not to force parishioners to agree with every word, they say, but to spark thought.

Spark thought, that’s putting it mildly. Perhaps he’d be better off in a church that was less political and more Christian. I know they have those in the Black community cause their preachers have appeared on FoxNews. He could always find some mixed race church too, plenty of those. Maybe some elitist DC church. That would suit a President.

More fun here for Obama, another preacher problem surfaced.

Pfleger told the Trinity congregation, “We must be honest enough to expose white entitlement and supremacy wherever it raises its head.”

He continued: “Reverend Moss, when Hillary was crying, and people said that was put on, I really don’t believe it was put on. I really believe that she just always thought, ‘This is mine. I’m Bill’s wife. I’m white. And this is mine. I just got to get up and step into the plate.’

“And then out of nowhere came, hey, I’m Barack Obama. And she said, ‘Oh damn, where did you come from? I’m white. I’m entitled. There’s a black man stealing my show.’”

Pfleger then mimicked Clinton crying as the audience erupted into applause and gave Pfleger’s remarks a standing ovation. Clinton has become emotional during several interviews this year, and some media commentators have questioned her sincerity.

In his sermon, Pfleger added, “She wasn’t the only one crying. There was a whole lot of white people cryin’.”

This is a preacher, Catholic priest even, this is a sermon? What in the world does it have to do with Jesus Christ which is what Christian churches should focus on? Faith? Repentence? Baptism? Confirmation? Charity? Golden rule? Service? Tithing, surely he might want to hit on that?

This is pure politics of the most hateful kind.

Oh and not surprisingly, Pfleger had praised Obama.

“Faith is key to his life, no question about it,” Pfleger told the Sun-Times. “It is central to who he is, and not just in his work in the political field, but as a man, as a black man, as a husband, as a father. … I don’t think he could easily divorce his faith from who he is.”

However, the brand of Christianity Obama and family was exposed to is Black Liberation Theology, troubling if that is what he believes. Irregardless of how he distances himself from the soundbites coming out of his preachers, he can’t escape the fact he has been influenced in a radical vein for around twenty years or so. One may indeed wonder what he would do as President.

Someone’s wanting change in the government… of Israel.

Israel’s powerful defense minister on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down amid a burgeoning corruption scandal and threatened to bring down the government if the Israeli leader does not comply.

The ultimatum was the latest in a string of career-threatening challenges that Olmert has weathered during his two years in office.

If Labor Party leader Ehud Barak carries out his promise to withdraw from Olmert’s fragile coalition, new elections could usher in a government opposed to current peace talks with the Palestinians and Syria.

And that’s a good thing. Olmert would give too much away and get nothing. Can’t have that. Wouldn’t be an Israel left if he did that. He’s given too much away already. Without talks. Without preconditions. Of course, the destruction of Israel is the goal of those Israel is negotiating with.

One of his little faults, taking money from an American. Doesn’t pay to have a foreigner finance one’s lifestyle. Methinks he needs to take lessons from Bill Clinton on how to do that.

More erudite commentary at Meryl’s. She’s better at this stuff than I am.

This is a bit much - kitty porn!

Of course, what do you expect from PETA? It was even banned from MTV, heh.

Not recommended for those under aged as content objectionable although you may see it at home even with neutered pets however without the musical accompaniment. Bazel and Meowza used to do it with Jezi. She wasn’t neutered, they were. Think they all have to be to discourage bad behavior.

Hattip WND.

This is bad news indeed.

Lebanon’s feuding factions reached a breakthrough deal Wednesday that ends the country’s 18-month political stalemate, but also gives the militant Hezbollah group and its allies veto over any government decision.

The deal, reached with the help of Arab mediators, was immediately praised by Iran and Syria, which back Hezbollah. But it appears certain to accelerate fears in the West over Hezbollah’s new power.

That is brain dead, giving a terrorist organization veto power over their government. Note it gives Iran and Syria power to control Lebanon via it’s puppet. And look who endorsed the deal.

In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the Lebanese deal was an “example of regional integration for achieving stability and tranquility.”

Syria also promptly endorsed the deal, with Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem saying “Lebanon’s security and stability are important and vital to Syria’s security and stability.”

Well what do you know, Iran and Syria natch.

The agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, states that the factions “pledged to refrain” from taking up weapons to resolve disputes and that the “use of arms or violence is forbidden to settle political differences under any circumstances.”

How to prevent all out war, give in to the terrorists. Hmm, is that anything like appeasement? Why, yes it is. Exactly. Appeasement.

Guessing from news clips this will be Obama’s tactic for dealing with our enemies. Hey, as President, he’d meet with them, no preconditions, giving them legitimacy a la Jimmy Carter who we know is a huge embarassment to the U.S.. That’s the nicest thing I could say about Jimmy Carter.

So, now that Hezbollah won’t be using their arms against their fellow Lebanese, wonder what they will do with them. Considering what countries border Lebanon, shouldn’t be much of a stretch to figure that out.

I knew it. When they said he had a seizure, one of the possibilities was a brain tumor. It is.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor.

Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left parietal lobe. Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma, they said.

Good location for a seizure too. Wonder what stage it is. Stage 4 is the worst. Peeps tend to not live long with those.

Guessing he won’t be teaming up with McCain for more disastrous legislation any time soon.

Little aid has gotten through to the victims of that cyclone in Burma and just maybe Burma’s junta will allow some aid to actually reach them finally. What is it now, couple weeks.

Britain’s Asia minister said a turning point could be near on a framework to accelerate international aid to the millions needing help after Cyclone Nargis slammed into Myanmar’s Irrawaddy delta early this month.

Than Shwe, the reclusive leader of Myanmar’s military junta, made a public appearance on Sunday for the first time in relation to the cyclone aid effort.

Aid has been trickling in for the up to 2.5 million people affected by the cyclone. Myanmar’s military rulers, suspicious of the outside world, have been reluctant to admit major foreign operations and the workers to run them.

At least our leaders don’t waste time making appearances and touring disaster areas. Even China did a better job in that respect. Why does it matter?

If the reclusive military government does not open its doors to a large-scale tsunami-style aid operation, disaster experts say Nargis’s body count could still climb dramatically.

Unacceptable in a world where aid is offered so readily by governments of other nations, NGOs and even the U.N.. I’ve already gotten hit up for aid. The NGOs don’t waste time there even thou it is unlikely it will ever reach those that need it.

But one part seems to have bothered people, most particularly Senator Obama. This part.

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

Bush called it as it is, I see no problem with that. If we can’t see appeasement for what it is and where it leads, we are doomed. And seeing as Jimmy Carter was recently over in the Middle East all kissyface with Hamas, I think Bush speaking out against exactly that over in said Middle East was entirely appropriate. Have to undo the damage Carter did. Of course, Obama thinks Bush was referring to him. If the policy fits…

I thought John McCain had a good comeback to Obama’s perceived shortcomings.

“It shows naivete and inexperience and lack of judgment to say that he wants to sit down across the table from an individual who leads a country that says that Israel is a ’stinking corpse,’ that is dedicated to the extinction of the state of Israel. My question is, what does he want to talk about?” McCain said.

Maybe he wants to talk about stopping uranium enrichment but that’s been done before. Didn’t work. Sanctions didn’t work either. Ah, but talk does serve the purpose of giving Iran time… time to build a bomb or three. Enough to attack Israel and us. Hamas is no different, they only want peace to give them time to rearm for the next battle all the while lobbing rockets at Israel. Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction too. Talk won’t change anything.

First Massachusetts and now, not surprisingly, California has legalized same-sex marriage.

The California Supreme Court overturned a ban on same-sex marriages on Thursday in a major victory for gay rights advocates that will allow homosexual couples to marry in the most populous U.S. state.

The court found that California laws limiting marriage to heterosexual couples are at odds with rights guaranteed by the state’s constitution. Opponents of gay marriage vowed to contest the ruling with a statewide ballot measure for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages.

Dissenting, there were those that did do that.

A dissenting opinion by Judge Marvin Baxter and joined by Judge Ming Chin said a narrow majority of the court had carved a constitutional right out of existing equal-protection laws, overstepping legislative powers in what amounted to “legal jujitsu.” A third justice dissented on different grounds.

“It simply does not have the right to erase, then recast, the age-old definition of marriage, as virtually all societies have understood it, in order to satisfy its own contemporary notions of equality and justice,” Baxter wrote.

That will create no small amount of controversy. Historically speaking for the last 6000 years or so, gay marriage has never been a God given right and won’t be as long as God is God. Going against God isn’t a good idea either IMHO.

Doubt the founding fathers imagined this when they wrote the constitution. It’s questionable whether it’s constitutional either notwithstanding the California court’s decision. But considering it is California, not surprised.

The details and the maps especially the Google map of the area hit by that now 7.9 quake in China. Despite that the death toll keeps rising or that foreign aid workers weren’t allowed in the affected area, some people will be focused on one fact being of paramount importance.

They were likely visiting the Wolong Nature Reserve, home to more than 100 giant pandas, whose fate also was not known, Xinhua said, adding that 60 pandas at another breeding center in Chengdu were safe.

What about the missing pandas? Who cares about the silly humans? Just you wait, there will be those.

PETA.

China, rocked by an earthquake, a big one, well 7.8 anyway. The details.

Nearly 10,000 people were killed by the earthquake that hammered southwest China, officials said on Tuesday as rescuers struggled to reach the worst-hit areas, where many more may have died.

Rescuers worked frantically through the night, pulling bodies from schools, homes, factories and hospitals that were demolished by the 7.8 magnitude quake, which rippled from a mountainous area of Sichuan province across much of China on Monday afternoon.

The toll from China’s worst earthquake for over three decades appeared sure to climb as troops struggled on foot to reach the worst-hit area, Wenchuan, a hilly county of 112,000 people 100 km (62 miles) from Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu.

More details. Pics. That rivals the typhoon in Burma. Well maybe not as many dead but still a big disaster. Doubt many of their buildings were up to code either. Lots of children killed too, collapsed schools and all. Tragic.

Can’t blame that one on global warming, Al.

You expected Ritzi and her kittens, not a chance. Catfight would ensue. So you get them. Have a happy one whether a mother or not.

image credit AFP

Well, someone would think she wouldn’t be in the offering as they have been at each other tooth and nail. Kindof like watching a cat fight but more fun.

“She is tireless, she is smart. She is capable. And so obviously she’d be on anybody’s short list to be a potential vice presidential candidate,” said Obama, who inched closer to winning the nomination by routing Clinton in North Carolina and almost defeating her in Indiana on Tuesday.

Some Democrats are saying Obama and Clinton would be a formidable team against Republican John McCain in the race to the November election.

According to a CBS News/New York Times poll released last week, a majority of both Obama and Clinton voters say they would favor a so-called “Dream Ticket” involving both candidates.

Well, that would unite the Democrats, more fodder for the Republicans too. Aside from that, people have been hinting for Hillary to bow out now but she isn’t. And the political pundits have been having a field day over why she’s still here. Reminds me, need to stock up on popcorn.

It could be a lot worse. Case in point, Burma’s government is worse.

Myanmar’s military government came under pressure on Wednesday to open its borders to more international help after a devastating cyclone that a U.S. diplomat said may have killed more than 100,000 people.

That’s a lot of deaths. In terms of loss of human life, it is a huge tragedy. Dwarfs Katrina although our government’s response to Katrina was less than optimal, ok abysmal.

image credit AFP

Naturally, politics only makes it worse, sounds familiar.

“What remains is for the Burmese government to allow the international community to help its people. It should be a simple matter. It is not a matter of politics,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters in Washington.

John Holmes, the top U.N. humanitarian official, urged Myanmar to waive visa restrictions he said were slowing efforts to bring in relief experts and supplies to help an estimated one million people affected by Cyclone Nargis.

Even the U.N. can’t get much action here. I listened to Laura Bush speak about this last Saturday but as the death toll wasn’t estimated to be that high, I didn’t blog about it. There was a volcano eruption somewhere else, earthquakes, lots of stuff I missed blogging about. Incidentally, she looked awful like she’s had too tight a face lift. To recap unless this escaped people, it was reported to be a Category 3, like Katrina actually. Cyclone is a hurricane.

The cyclone, with 190 kph (120 mph) winds, slammed into coastal towns and villages in the rice-growing Irrawaddy delta southwest of Yangon on Saturday. Witnesses reported villages destroyed and people fighting for survival by clutching trees.

Reminds me of the tsunami although on a smaller scale, only one country affected. One who’s government is slow to accept aid. Still a major humanitarian disaster.

Disasters can strike anywhere and it is better to be prepared rather than expect government to do it. They tend to muck it up under the best of circumstances. Come to think of it, government can be a disaster. If Newt is right, it just may be come November. We shall see.

Oil just keeps going up and up. The latest. This hits the pocketbook faster than anything a politician proposes.

Oil futures extended their seemingly relentless advance Wednesday, rising to a new record near $124 a barrel as investors captivated by the market’s upward momentum looked past the government’s report of an increase in crude and gasoline supplies. At the pump, gas prices rose for the first time since last week.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery hit a new trading record of $123.90 in after-hours activity on the New York Mercantile Exchange after settling up $1.69 at a record close of $123.53 a barrel.

That means gas will er has gone up too. And will keep going up.

At the pump, meanwhile, the average national price of a gallon of regular gas rose Wednesday for the first time since last week, adding 0.8 cent to $3.618, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices are back within a cent of the record $3.623 a gallon set last week, and are expected to rise to an average of $3.73 a gallon next month, according to the latest Energy Department forecast.

And may make it to $4 a gallon sooner rather than later. Not good at all. Hillary has proposed a gas tax holiday for the summer. Problem with that is summer will be here before she or, more likely, Obama gets elected. Any relief, if it is to come, will be from the Bush administration. Dems haven’t come thru with their promise to bring down gas prices either. Typical empty rhetoric.

No, not me. I’m still awake. Them and I don’t mean them.

The White House said on Friday that there was no evidence so far that the U.S. economy had slid into recession after the government released an employment report showing only a small decline in jobs.

“The evidence of one isn’t there so far,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters on Air Force One when asked about the prospects for a recession as President George W. Bush headed to St. Louis for a speech on the economy.

Guessing Bush doesn’t do the shopping in his family. The rich/elite are clueless to how the other half live, the masses, the common folk. Those that have to work to survive. Us.

By the same comments he only found offensive before, well those and a few more. From CNN is his response.

Sen. Barack Obama said he is “outraged” by comments his former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, made Monday at the National Press Club and is “saddened by the spectacle.”
Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday denounced comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

“I have been a member of Trinity Church since 1992. I have known Rev. Wright for almost 20 years,” he said at a news conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. “The person I saw yesterday is not the person I met 20 years ago.”

Obama said he is outraged by Wright’s remarks that seemed to suggest the U.S. government might be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and his equation of some American wartime efforts with terrorism.

Maybe he should have paid attention to the clips that have been running on FoxNews these past several weeks that sparked the outrage. Took Wright hammering in the point for Obama to get the point.

“What particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing,” Obama said, adding that Wright had shown “little regard for me” and seemed more concerned with “taking center stage.”

His mild refuting of them earlier came across as disingenuous. And it took him a few days and more than one reiteration by Wright to notice Wright dismissed his distancing himself from Wright as political posturing. Wonder too if it still is. Note, with both of them, it’s all about “me.”

Obama said Wright’s comments were not only “divisive and destructive,” but they “end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate.”

Obama said he did not think Wright’s comments accurately portrayed the perspective of the black church and said they “certainly do not portray accurately” his own values and beliefs.

Oh yes, I had failed to come up with Wright’s comment on that, something along the lines of it being not an attack on him but an attack on the black church. Maybe Obama was one of those C & E people and just failed to catch the offensive sermons. That would have been a good excuse. He goes on to really distance himself from Wright.

Obama said Monday that Wright’s remarks were “antithetical to our campaign; it was antithetical to what we’re about.”

“I cannot prevent him from making these remarks,” but “when I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts what I’m about and who I am. … It is completely opposed to what I stand for and where I want to take this country.”

Well, Wright left no doubt where he stands and it isn’t taking sound bytes out of context. Obama had no choice but to come out forcefully against his former minister if he’s to win the election and put this mess to rest. But do we believe him or is it politics as usual?

The Reverend Wright story isn’t going away, well not with him going on his ‘all about me’ tour. This in USA Today article.

“I come from a religious tradition where we shout in the sanctuary and march on the picket lines,” he said. “The black religious experience is different. … Different does not mean deficient.”

During a nearly hour-long interview aired Friday on PBS, Wright said he had been “crucified by corporate-owned media.” He did not recant his controversial sermons — including one in which he suggested that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were payback for “terrorism” that the U.S. government had perpetrated abroad in military actions against Libya, Panama, Iraq and in the nuclear attacks on Japan that ended World War II.

He said he is being exposed to “vitriolic hatred” and death threats because Americans “would rather cling to what they are taught” than come to grips with facts about their government’s acts of oppression against Native Americans, African-Americans and foreign civilians caught in the crossfire of war.

And what Barack Obama had to say about the controversy, note he doesn’t say which comments offended him.

“I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past,” he said. “The fact that he’s my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue.”

OK, that means he’s fair game for the Republicans. Meanwhile over at CNN, Wright clarifies his position.

Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama’s former pastor told an audience of thousands at an NAACP dinner Sunday that he was “descriptive” but “not divisive” when he talks about race relations in America.

“I describe the conditions in this country,” the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said during his lively keynote address at the Detroit chapter’s 53rd Freedom Fund dinner.

“Conditions divide, not my descriptions,” he said.

“I am sorry your local political analysts and your neighboring county executives think my being here is polarizing and my sermons are divisive, but I’m not here to address an analyst’s opinion,” he said. “I am here to address your 2008 theme … (of) change is going to come.”

Um, not divisive, not buying that. And from the sound bytes I’ve heard today and I’ve heard plenty, he’s still divisive.

The Reverend Wright’s comment on Barack Obama’s comment on Reverend Wright’s comments to his congregation which were taken out of context according to Reverend Wright.

“He goes out as a politician and says what he has to say as a politician. I continue to be a pastor who speaks to the people of God about the things of God.“

Got that? Obama has to say what he has to say as a politician, typical. Not some innovator arguing for change, a politician. P. O. L. I. T. I. C. I. A. N. And we know what they’re like.

Oh, incidentally, from that comment and others he has made and been widely circulated on FoxNews, looks like Wright considers his black congregation the people of God. Never mind historically, it has always been the Jews. Brief primer on history, Christianity was taken to the Gentiles after the Jews, God’s people, rejected it and, even then, they proceeded to pervert it.

Yes, I consider Black Liberation Theology a perversion of Christianity and I am not alone in that assertion.

And the Messiah who will come isn’t black either. Whether one believes him to be Jesus, a Jew, or not, he will still be a Jew.

There, I’ll get off my soapbox and go back to petting kitties.

Prefer cats to politics: BKCFoC CotC ARK WCB

Got this in the email and decided to take a look at it. I copy/pasted it exact, spelling errors and all. Thought it was funny.

Dear Friend.

Good day is an act of greeting, I dont mean your name is Good day all i mean is an expression of greeting so dont get me wrong. Meanwhile, Like i told you before. i have been waiting for you since to come down here and pick your bank draft but did not hear from you since that time then i went and deposited the $1.200,000.00 usd draft/cheque in the bank.We have arranged your payment through swift card payment center Asia pacific, this card center will send you an atm card which you will use to withdraw your money in any atm machine in any part of the world, but the maximum is One Thousand, Five Hundred United States Dollars Per-Day.

Kindly contact the below person who is in possition to release your ATM Payment Card.Send your information which they will use to send the card to you.

1:: Your full name::
2:: Your home address were you them to send the atmcard::
3:: Current occupation::
4:: Age::
5:: Your current home telephone number/mobile phone number::
6:: A Copy of youridentification::

However, kindly contactthe below person who is in position to release your atm card.
YourATM Payment Card
Mr. samuel kelvin Director,
ATM Payment Department Apex Bank
Ttel: +229-93 89 80 82
Email:APEX_bank_b@yahoo.com

I have paid for the processing and delivery charges.the only money that your are going to pay to them is only $165 dollars which they will use to obtain the affidevit of onwership from the federal high court of Benin Republic.

Try to contact them as soon as possible to quicken the processing of your card before your draft gets expired .

Let me know as soon as you receive your card. Wait for your respond. .

Note the email address. What reputable bank would have a yahoo.com email address? Incidentally, Benin borders Nigeria. Apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Anyone falling for this scam should be forced to accompany Jimmy Carter on one of his infamous trips. Eediots would go together so well.