Readers, be informed, and beware! Sam Bodman, US Energy Secretary, is a Bush appointed Yes-man. Bodman states that insufficient production is making oil prices soar. Bush wants you to think that the OPEC countries are responsible for high oil prices, but the truth is, OPEC has been significantly increasing production over the past several months. Where is all that oil going? It's being stockpiled by US investment banks, who are creating a fake shortage to drive up the price. Congress has already started to investigate this criminal practice. Bush, who has deregulated the banking industry, tries to blame it on OPEC. By now you should be familiar with Bush's MO: he says you should be very afraid of Muslims.
Who you should really be afraid of are investment bankers at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers. Check this out:
Michael Masters of Master Capital Management (a global investment manager) testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Government Affairs a couple of weeks ago. Quotes from his testimony:
"Today, Index Speculators are pouring billions of dollars into the commodities futures markets, speculating that commodity prices will increase. In the popular press the explanation given for rising oil prices is the increased demand from China. According to the DOE, China's demand for petroleum has increased in the last five years from 1.88 billion barrels to 2.8 billion barrels, an increase of 920 billion barrels. Over the same five year period, Index Speculators' demand for petroleum futures has increased by 848 million barrels. THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM INDEX SPECULATORS IS ALMOST EQUAL TO THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM CHINA. Index Speculators have now stockpiled, via the futures market, the equivalent of 1.1 billion barrels of petroleum, effectively adding EIGHT TIMES as much oil to their own stockpile as the US Government has added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the last five years."
"The Senate has asked the question "Are Institutional Investors contributing to food and energy price inflation?" And my unequivocal answer is "YES." In this testimony I will explain that investment banks are one of, if not the primary, factors affecting commodities prices today. Clearly, there are many factors that contribute to price determination in the commodities markets; I am here to expose a fast-growing yet virtually unnoticed factor, and one that presents a problem that can be expediently corrected through legislative policy action..."
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL. They're supposed to be protecting us from these kinds of abuses, but Bush allowed loopholes in the CFTC regulations that you can drive a truck through. An oil truck, that is.
Links to Masters' Senate testimony, and 2 articles:
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/_files/052008Masters.pdf
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20011.htm
http://globalresearch.ca/
Bridge to the GOP
Will the Twin Cities be ready for the Republican convention?
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At 5:30 p.m. last August 1, Lois Anderson drove across the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, a route she took four times a day to and from her job as a customer account specialist. A half an hour later, the span collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people and injuring 145. Today, almost a year after the tragedy, she remains grateful for her survival, but is still dealing with the logistical fallout: taking alternative routes has doubled and sometimes even tripled her commute time. With the bridge still out and 45,000 visitors expected to converge on the Twin Cities Sept. 1-4 for the Republican National Convention, Anderson, 63, is dreading her drive even more. "Traffic will be horrible," she says. "I don't want to think about it."
But planners and transportation experts in Minnesota say she has little to worry about. Since I-35W was not a primary artery between Minneapolis--where large blocs of hotel rooms have been booked--and St. Paul, where the convention is taking place--the bridge would not have played much of a role in traffic flow. What's more, the biggest events at the convention hall, the XCel Energy Center, are scheduled for prime-time TV viewing, long after the rush-hour rat race has run its course. "We've known so far in advance that we had to plan for this," said convention spokesman Matt Burns. "We can adjust and get people where they need to go."
Delegates and other convention-goers are expected to forgo cars for the most part and instead commute from their hotels to the hall on 300 to 350 shuttle buses provided by the Republican National Committee, said John Maczko, St. Paul city engineer and transportation coordinator for the convention. They may even decide to jump on one of 1,000 free bicycles provided by the Humana health care company and Bikes Belong, a cycling advocacy group. (In a decidedly non-partisan gesture--and a canny marketing move--Humana and Bikes Belong will also provide the Democrats with free two-wheel transportation at their convention in Denver in August).
Easygoing Minnesotans seem calm at the prospect of an influx of Republicans arriving the week of Labor Day. "Forty-five thousand people isn't a special issue. We have more than that here any day for a Minnesota Twins baseball game," said Capt. Tom Fraser of the Minnesota State Patrol. But that doesn't mean it will be business as usual for every commuter. "There will be inconveniences," acknowledges Maczko. "It may take more time or (require) taking a different route than usual."
City-dwellers say they are preparing for the worst but hoping for the best. "People are talking about the convention and they're concerned," says Jenna Strain, 23, a third-grade teacher living in Minneapolis. But she has faith the complications will be worked out. "We've been able to find solutions and solve a problem here," she said.
That resiliency was called into action after the I-35W bridge collapsed 10 months ago. The six-lane, steel bridge, which opened in 1967, carried more than 140,000 vehicles a day. An ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that a number of the bridge's steel gussets--plates that connect steel girders--were too thin (because of a design flaw) and that extra weight on the bridge from construction vehicles and materials being used at the time for resurfacing may have led to the collapse. A final report is not due until the end of the year.
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