Archive for world
Russia Will Drill for Oil in Gulf of Mexico, But we Can’t
Posted by: | CommentsMore evidence that Obama does not have the best interests of Americans in his heart. Just think how much health insurance we could buy if we started drilling for our own oil!
The Washington Times: The Obama administration is poised to ban offshore oil drilling on the outer continental shelf until 2012 or beyond. Meanwhile, Russia is making a bold strategic leap to begin drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. While the United States attempts to shift gears to alternative fuels to battle the purported evils of carbon emissions, Russia will erect oil derricks off the Cuban coast.
Offshore oil production makes economic sense. It creates jobs and helps fulfill America’s vast energy needs. It contributes to the gross domestic product and does not increase the trade deficit. Higher oil supply helps keep a lid on rising prices, and greater American production gives the United States more influence over the global market.
Well there you have it. Offshore oil production makes economic sense, so of course Obama’s against it. While he’s putting a moratorium on drilling, Russia’s securing contracts for oil production in the Gulf of Mexico off Cuba’s shores.
Popularity: 3% [?]
More Gloomy Economic News
Posted by: | CommentsMoody’s reports that the US and the UK are getting close to losing their AAA credit ratings.
Bloomberg: The U.S. and the U.K. have moved “substantially” closer to losing their AAA credit ratings as the cost of servicing their debt rose, according to Moody’s Investors Service.The governments of the two economies must balance bringing down their debt burdens without damaging growth by removing fiscal stimulus too quickly, Pierre Cailleteau, managing director of sovereign risk at Moody’s in London, said in a telephone interview.
Under the ratings company’s so-called baseline scenario, the U.S. will spend more on debt service as a percentage of revenue this year than any other top-rated country except the U.K., and will be the biggest spender from 2011 to 2013, Moody’s said today in a report.
“We expect the situation to further deteriorate in terms of the key ratings metrics before they start stabilizing,” Cailleteau said. “This story is not going to stop at the end of the year. There is inertia in the deterioration of credit metrics.”
The pound fell against the dollar and the euro for the first time in three days, depreciating 0.8 percent to $1.5090, while the dollar index snapped a four-day drop, adding 0.3 percent to 90.075.
The U.S. government will spend about 7 percent of its revenue servicing debt in 2010 and almost 11 percent in 2013, according to the baseline scenario of moderate economic recovery, fiscal adjustments in line with government plans and a gradual increase in interest rates, Moody’s said.
Under its adverse scenario, which assumes 0.5 percent lower growth each year, less fiscal adjustment and a stronger interest-rate shock, the U.S. will be paying about 15 percent of revenue in interest payments, more than the 14 percent limit that would lead to a downgrade to AA, Moody’s said.
This isn’t a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention. You don’t need to be an economist to understand. Too much debt is bad, and a bad credit rating means higher interest rates. It’s a pretty simple concept, really. Ramming through a trillion dollar health care bill isn’t going to help matters.
Other potential bad news:
The Wall Street Journal: The U.S. and China have upped the ante in the high-stakes game of currency policy poker, leading some investors to cut back on their risky bets.
The dollar and yen advanced Monday as investors sought safety, with some of their gains attributed to escalating rhetoric between the two countries.
Recent statements by President Barack Obama and Premier Wen Jiabao on trade and currencies have a sharper edge than before, which raises the specter of a breakdown in bilateral relations that could lead to official sanctions.
For sure, it’s a huge leap to a trade war from the words of Obama and Wen, but currency markets have a proclivity for anticipating a worst-case scenario. With markets already nervous because of concerns about the bumpy recovery of the world economy and the soundness of sovereign debt inside and outside the euro zone, even the hint of a trade war is enough to push investors into traditional haven currencies.
They aren’t saying there’s definitely going to be a trade war, but with this gang in office, nothing would surprise me. With China holding so much US debt it makes me nervous.
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Sean Penn: Journalists Who Criticize Hugo Chavez Should be Jailed
Posted by: | CommentsSean Penn was interviewed by Bill Maher about Haiti. Maher asked him about his friend Hugo Chavez. Penn rambled about the great things Chavez have done for the 80% who have no dreams, he didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it’s clear what he wants to happen to those who criticize Hugo Chavez.
PENN: The collaborative opportunity in Haiti, when you talk about Hugo Chavez, and some of the other people who are demonized [think Castro], and you know, when some of these countries accuse us of an occupation — where I believe this was strictly a humanitarian action by the United States military, and an incredible one – I’m a little sympathetic. Because every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it! And accept it. And this is mainstream media, who should – truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.
Isn’t it funny? Now that we have a socialist president Penn feels the need to defend the US.
(Quote starts at about the 7:00 mark.)
Newsbusters points out how many times the main stream media in the US has characterized Chavez as a thug dictator.Let’s just say, it isn’t that often. I guess straight up, unbiased news reports are enough to lead one to believe Chavez is a thug.
If Hugo Chavez is so great, why doesn’t Sean Penn move to Venezuela? Why doesn’t Sean Penn go live in any of the communist countries he loves so much?
H/T Fenway Nation
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Michael Moore: 250,000 Killed in Haiti Because it’s a ‘Republican Paradise’
Posted by: | CommentsDoes anyone listen to this slob? What a typical lefty. The fact that he manages to make a living really says something about Americans.
For those of you who agree with Moore – building codes are local. And without a strong economy nobody can afford to to build strong structures. If Haiti’s government weren’t so corrupt and inept perhaps the people would have had the resources to build structures that can withstand an earthquake. It would have been in their own interest, with or without a mandate or building code.
Addendum: Even without regulations, most structures are mortgaged these days. Mortgage companies and insurers have requirements in order to secure financing and insurance. So even without government regulations, anyplace with a robust private sector will be better off than places like Haiti.
Via Weasel Zippers
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Who needs a crystal ball? For a peek into our future just look at Greece
Posted by: | CommentsHave you heard about the problems in Greece? Too many entitlements and too much government spending have pushed that country to the brink of financial disaster. To deal with the disaster, they’re going to hike taxes. Prime Minister George Papindreou has to propose cuts in spending and increases in taxes so he can grovel to the EU for a bailout.
AP: Government officials said the measures would include cuts in civil servant’s annual pay through reducing their Easter, Christmas and vacation bonuses by 30 percent each, and a 2 percentage point increase in sales tax to bring it to 21 percent from the current 19 percent.
In a dramatic speech to his Socialist party deputies in Parliament Tuesday night, Papandreou said his country was in a “state of war” and was fighting for its national survival.
The new austerity package comes after European Union officials bluntly told Athens to make deeper spending cuts. Ratings agencies have also warned of more damaging downgrades if Greece is unable to rein in its debt.
I wish them luck, but it’s doubtful the increase in taxes will raise more revenue. People will just stop spending as much money. Can you imagine a 21% tax on everything you buy? Wouldn’t you just buy less stuff? As for the cuts in spending, those aren’t going to happen without a big fight by the unions.
Greeks have their annual salaries split into 14 monthly installments, with the last two considered holiday bonuses. Unions have said abolishing the 14th salary would be tantamount to a “declaration of war.”
“It is a very difficult day for us … These cuts will take us to the brink,” said Panayiotis Vavouyios, the head of the retired civil servants’ association. “Brussels is demanding cuts and the government is doing nothing to stop them. To make poor pensioners pay for this crisis is a disgrace.”
This is all so predictable. How long will it be until we’re in the same situation as Greece?
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Baby Survives Bullet Wound After Parents’ Global Warming Murder-Suicide Pact
Posted by: | CommentsThis is so sad.
The Daily Mail reported:
A seven-month-old baby girl survived three days alone with a bullet in her chest beside the bodies of her parents and toddler brother.
Argentines Francisco Lotero, 56, and Miriam Coletti, 23, shot their children before killing themselves after making an apparent suicide pact over fears about global warming.
Their son Francisco, two, died instantly after being hit in the back.
But their unnamed daughter cheated death after the bullet from her dad’s handgun missed her vital organs.
I hope Al Gore is happy with himself. An innocent two year old boy is dead, and a little baby girl fights for her life thanks to his scare mongering.
If only they lived long enough to find out that a leading climate scientist admitted he hid climate data because it was standard practice.
Gateway Pundit and Dana Loesh have more information.
Find out what others are saying at memeorandum.
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Huge Quake Hit Chile, Tsunami Headed for Hawaii – Updated
Posted by: | CommentsUpdate 2: It’s a little after 6:00 PM ET. I heard that Hawaii may have dodged a bullet this time. I certainly hope so.
Update: The Washington Post has more on Hawaii’s emergency response plans. The wave is supposed to hit at 11:05 local time/4:05 Eastern Time.
The New York Times reported a major earthquake has hit Chile.
A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, shaking the capital of Santiago for 90 seconds and sending tsunami warnings along much of the Pacific basin.
Chile’s TVN cable news channel was reporting 122 deaths, with the toll expected to rise, as communications were still spotty around the center of quake, near the city of Concepción in the south. Chile President Michelle Bachelet declared a “state of catastrophe.”
The Associated Press quoted Mrs. Bachelet as saying that a huge wave had swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles off the Chilean coast, but there were no immediate reports of major damage there. Those reports bore out early fears that a major tsunami was on its way across the Pacific.
A Department of Homeland Security official said early Saturday that FEMA was monitoring the situation and was in contact with state emergency personnel in Hawaii, which is under a tsunami warning. But the decision to evacuate coastal areas and handling this evacuation is the responsibility of state and local officials in Hawaii, the Homeland Security official said.
The quake downed buildings and houses in Santiago and knocked out a major bridge connecting the northern and southern sections of the country.
Hopefully the people of Hawaii have time to get out of harm’s way. My prayers go out to all of those affected.
CNN reported that this earthquake was much stronger than the one that hit Haiti.
Via Breitbart
Via memeorandum
Fox News has more information.
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Lights Go Out During Live Rant of Hugo Chavez
Posted by: | CommentsToo funny! It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. 
Via Breitbart
The Washington Post has the story.
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Cool – The Brits are Launching a Tea Party
Posted by: | CommentsLed by none other than Daniel Hannan. I love it!
The inaugural British Tea Party will take place on Saturday in my home town of Brighton, and I’ll be speaking. Do try to come: here are the details.
Labour has raised more than a trillion pounds in additional taxation since 1997. Yet, unbelievably, Gordon Brown has still managed to run up a deficit of 12.6 per cent of GDP (Greece’s is 12.7 per cent). A far lower level of taxation brought Americans out in spontaneous protest last year.
He’s even serving tea!
I think Obama’s trying to outdo Gordon Brown and Greece on the deficit and taxes.
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Another Health Care Horror Story on the Eve of ObamaCare Summit
Posted by: | CommentsOn the eve of Obama’s health care dog and pony show summit, another medical horror story surfaces in Great Britain. This is our future if Obama and the Democrats have their way.
Times Online: Patients were routinely neglected or left “sobbing and humiliated” by staff at an NHS trust where at least 400 deaths have been linked to appalling care.
An independent inquiry found that managers at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust stopped providing safe care because they were preoccupied with government targets and cutting costs.
The inquiry report, published yesterday by Robert Francis, QC, included proposals for tough new regulations that could lead to managers at failing NHS trusts being struck off.
Staff shortages at Stafford Hospital meant that patients went unwashed for weeks, were left without food or drink and were even unable to get to the lavatory. Some lay in soiled sheets that relatives had to take home to wash, others developed infections or had falls, occasionally fatal. Many staff did their best but the attitude of some nurses “left a lot to be desired”.
The report, which follows reviews by the Care Quality Commission and the Department of Health, said that “unimaginable” suffering had been caused. Regulators said last year that between 400 and 1,200 more patients than expected may have died at the hospital from 2005 to 2008.
If you remember nothing else from this story, remember these two words: Unimaginable Suffering.
Read the full story, then read the comment from Joe Dutra. (Heck, read all the comments, very enlightening.)
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IAEA Covered Up Iran’s Nuclear Program for Years
Posted by: | CommentsThis isn’t really surprising. Disturbing, but not surprising.
The most important thing gleaned from the report by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) circulated on Feb. 18, which states that Iran may indeed be bent on developing a nuclear bomb, is not new information about Iran. It is that for years the United Nations apparatus lied about what they knew and actively stood in the way of efforts to prevent the world’s most dangerous regime from acquiring the world’s most dangerous weapon.
The “confidential” report leaked to every news agency on the planet, is quoted as stating that on the basis of “extensive” and “credible” information the IAEA now has “concerns about the possible existence in Iran of … current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile,” and “concerns about possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.”
While Obama administration officials have attempted to spin the first report of IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, who took over last December, as a U.N. achievement, the implications of the evident U.N. deceit cannot be overstated. After all, the organization has a choke hold on global imaginations. In 2005 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the IAEA and its then Director General Mohammed ElBaradei “for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes.” It is now clear that this occurred at the very same time that ElBaradei was engaged in what may well prove to be the most lethal cover-up in human history.
For almost a decade, the IAEA and its director general stalled for time on behalf of Iran, with reports feigning ignorance of Iranian designs while leaving an escape hatch should the IAEA’s disguise as a non-proliferation agency be blown. In February 2006 ElBaradei reported: “Although the Agency has not seen any diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, the Agency is not at this point in time in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran. The process of drawing such a conclusion … is a time consuming process.”
Read Anne Bayefsky’s full report at Forbes.com. She goes on to detail the stalling by ElBaradei, over and over again. Every time sanctions were called for. Year after year. And each year billions of our taxpayers have been given to the United Nations. Then comes Obama, calling for nuclear non-proliferation. Of course ElBaradei cheered the Nobel winner, knowing he full well the IAEA had covered for Iran. It’s so perverse and dangerous. Obama’s naivete is stunning.
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Weird: Russia Pushing Privatization of Business – Updated
Posted by: | CommentsThis is weird. If socialism and communism were such great “isms,” why on earth would Russia be pushing for privatization of business?
Gateway Pundit: It’s an Obama world. Up is down. Square is round. Trucks are jokes. And, losing 20,000 jobs actually brings down the unemployment rate.
And, now this… Russian leaders are ordering the government to privatize successful companies and will punish bureaucrats who hamper investment. At the same time Obama and democrats continue to attack America’s capitalist system.
The sky is green and the grass is blue. The science is settled, yet the scientists who declared it settled say its unsettled. No wonder people are so confused.
And now we have this, from the nation that tried and failed at central economic planning.
Moscow Times: President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday ordered the Cabinet to sell off more government stakes in successful companies to private investors over the next two years.
The Cabinet must submit proposals for increasing the number of “major … strategic companies that are attractive for investment” in its privatization plan by March 15, the Kremlin said on its web site.
The current plan, which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed in November, already seeks the sale of stakes in several strategic companies, such as shipper Sovkomflot. Medvedev has the responsibility of striking these companies off the list of strategic assets for the stakes to change hands. He hasn’t approved their exclusion as yet.
Medvedev’s order for a greater sale of key assets comes after he conferred with officials last week about ways to encourage investment — and as the government is facing a budget deficit for a second straight year.
Medvedev also instructed the Cabinet to come up with a proposal to punish more severely those bureaucrats that hamper investment, probably targeting those engaged in corruption. The Kremlin didn’t elaborate on the measure.
While the rest of the world is beginning to understand that socialism fails wherever it’s been tried, the US government is doubling down on socialism and central planning. It’s pure insanity.
We’re now living in Bizarro World.
Regular readers of this blog probably aren’t surprised by this news.
Update: A reader commented below, but it’s worth noting here:
This is nothing more than Vladi mimicking Obama’s plan. Vladi knows that outright Socialism doesn’t work so he’s going for the next best thing, the government not owning businesses but controlling them. This is Fascism plain and simple; The Third Reich did this as well, so Putin will encourage investment through the investment of assets of others to set up a system where he steps in and controls through regulation, taxation and executive orders. Sound familiar?
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Ahmadinejad Announced Iran is Now a Nuclear State
Posted by: | CommentsI thought electing Barack Obama was supposed to put an end to the madness.
Today is the 31st anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the occasion to make a big announcement.
Daily Mail: He said it [Iran] had produced its first batch of 20 per cent enriched uranium – and had the capability to enrich to far higher levels at its Natanz plant.
Enriching uranium produces fuel for a nuclear power plants but can also be used to create material for atomic weapons.
The international community has warned Iran against further enrichment activities, threatening new UN sanctions.
Today Gordon Brown again reiterated the threat of sanctions.
‘I believe the mood around the world is now increasingly one where, patience not being inexhaustible, people are turning to look at the specific sanctions we can plan on Iran,’ Mr Brown said.
‘This is a critical time for Iran’s relationship with the rest of the world.’
MrBrown said the international community did not want to impose sanctions but would do so if Iran did not cooperate more fully over its nuclear plans
The Iranian leader insisted the material was not intended to produce an atomic bomb, however.
‘We have the capability to enrich uranium more than 20 percent or 80 percent (the level needed to create an atomic bomb),’ he said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
‘But we don’t enrich (to this level) because we don’t need it…
Maybe it’s time for the West to stop talking about sanctions and start doing something.
Via memeorandum
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Haitian Judge to Release US Missionaries?
Posted by: | CommentsIt looks like the Haitian judge may have more compassion than the US State Department.
Fox News: A Haitian judge will order the release of 10 American missionaries who were arrested for taking 33 children and trying to transport them out of the country, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed judicial source.
The missionaries have been jailed in Haiti since Jan. 29, after being stopped at the Dominican Republic’s border with Haiti.
Reuters’ source says the Americans could be released as early as Thursday.
“One thing an investigating judge seeks in a criminal investigation is criminal intentions on the part of the people involved and there is nothing that shows that criminal intention on the part of the Americans,” the source told Reuters…..
If true, this is great news for those 10 Americans.
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Aw – Hugo Chavez is Grateful for Sean Penn’s Crazy Rantings
Posted by: Lonely Conservative | Comments (2)"I love this useful idiot!"
I still can’t understand why Sean Penn doesn’t just pack up and move to Venezuela.
Via Weasel Zippers
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