Anyone Smell A Whiff Of Enron?

Probe of Crude Oil Trading Disclosed
Agency Has Been Examining Market For Past 6 Months

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 30, 2008; D01

During continued volatility in oil prices, federal regulators said yesterday that they had been investigating crude oil trading, storage and transportation for the past six months with a focus on possible "futures market manipulation."

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which normally keeps investigations confidential, said in a statement that it was "taking the extraordinary step of disclosing this investigation because of today's unprecedented market conditions."

Those conditions have sent oil prices to record heights, adding to the U.S. trade deficit, hurting consumers and companies, and weighing heavily on the nation's economy.

Gregory Mocek, director of enforcement at the CFTC, said five senior trial lawyers, "some of the most experienced prosecutors that we have," and other investigators were engaged in the inquiry. "The scope is quite broad," Mocek said, adding that the commission was looking at the "national crude market," including trades on regulated exchanges, cash trades, storage, pipeline operations and shipping.

Yesterday was another chaotic day for crude oil prices, which had soared about 30 percent since the start of the year. This time, however, prices tumbled $4.41, or 3.4 percent, to $126.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as traders tried to decipher new U.S. inventory numbers. The Energy Information Administration said petroleum stocks fell sharply, which would ordinarily drive prices up, but it blamed the drop on "temporary" delays in oil tanker off-loadings on the Gulf Coast.

I See Nothing........

If you've noticed a failure to blog on a daily basis this month, it's because I've been stupid crazy busy yea yea whoa..... and it may not let up real soon. Anyhow, in hockey news the fucking Penns played a good game and beat the Wings last night. The first goal seems to be huge in these games..so we'll see if the Wings can adjust and take the split by winning Saturday.

In non hockey news.. Scotty ' White Boy' McClellan decides to go the limited hang out route and fess up that maybe ( just maybe mind you) there was some lying going on in the Bush White House. And maybe, just maybe.... 'Ol Dubbya is not quite Winston Fucking Churchill in the leadership department. Really? Ya think so Scotty? What was your first clue the place was on fire Mrs O'Leary? Scott Motherfucking  McCellan waking up to almost smell the coffee at this late date is like Sergeant Schultz saying he had his suspicions all along that Hogan was up to something. 

Fuck me..what time is the game on?

Requiem Aeternam

T.J. From the RVFD remembered this day.

The Wizard Of Oz

Game Two

Red Wings : 2

Penns: 0

Game One

Wings: 4

Penns: Zipo, Nada, Zilch, Bupkus, Scratch, Naught,Zero

WTF Hillary?

WTF Hillary? Yeah I think I know what you were trying to say, and I am sure you are dog tired...but still ...Bobby???  WTF!!!! I remember that night all too well...as I'm sure you do. All of us of a certain age recall the end of the 60's and the end of any innocence and naiveté we had about what this country really represents. We kill change agents, we kill dreamers, we kill moral men... we always have and I guess you know deep down that we always will. I understand your calculus, yeah something could happen.... just like something happened before to put a Texan in the White House, just like something happened at the Loraine Motel, just like that awful scene in the Ambassador Hotel... something happens....... and if, or when it does this time.... you'll cry big fat tears while you rub your hands with glee. Is that really your game? 

Fuck you Hillary.

Hey Joe, I thought We Told You To Shut The Fuck Up

From an Op Ed By "Joe" In Todays Wall Street Journal



Far too many Democratic leaders have kowtowed to these opinions rather than challenging them. That unfortunately includes Barack Obama, who, contrary to his rhetorical invocations of bipartisan change, has not been willing to stand up to his party's left wing on a single significant national security or international economic issue in this campaign.
In this, Sen. Obama stands in stark contrast to John McCain, who has shown the political courage throughout his career to do what he thinks is right – regardless of its popularity in his party or outside it.

And Two In Six Think Jerking Off Is The Same As Boinking Angelina Jolie

ABC News reports on the findings of a study that concluded 16% of U.S. science teachers are Creationists, and that, disturbingly, one in eight are teaching creationism as a valid science:

Despite a court-ordered ban on the teaching of creationism in U.S. schools, about one in eight high-school biology teachers still teach it as valid science, a survey reveals. And, although almost all teachers also taught evolution, those with less training in science -- and especially evolutionary biology -- tend to devote less class time to Darwinian principles...

...The researchers polled a random sample of nearly 2,000 high-school science teachers across the U.S. in 2007. Of the 939 who responded, 2 percent said they did not cover evolution at all, with the majority spending between 3 and 10 classroom hours on the subject.

However, a quarter of the teachers also reported spending at least some time teaching about creationism or intelligent design. Of these, 48 percent -- about 12.5 percent of the total survey -- said they taught it as a "valid, scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species".

Two Last Words For The Dallas Stars...

Buh Bye.......

Hotzi Totzi

Last month the world of Formula One racing was rocked when Max Mosley, the organization's president, was captured on videotape participating in a 'Nazi-style' orgy with prostitutes. Well, the situation has become even more bizarre as the sex scandal has been linked to the British spy agency MI5 (from the Times Online):
An MI5 officer has been forced to resign after admitting that his wife was a prostitute who took part in a notorious "Nazi-style orgy" with Max Mosley, the Formula One racing chief.
The intelligence officer, who cannot be named for security reasons, left the service last month after it emerged that his wife was one of the five call girls who took part in the sadomasochistic sex session with Mosley.
Exposure of the lurid orgy led to calls for Mosley, the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, the wartime British fascist leader, to step down from his post as president of the FIA, the governing body of world motor sport.
In an extraordinary turn of events yesterday, MI5 was forced to deny through Whitehall channels that the orgy had been a "sting" that it had set up to discredit Mosley. "Any suggestion that the service was involved in setting up Mosley is total nonsense," a senior Whitehall official said.

Another God Damn Loss..And Something To Help The Pain

Fucking Hell..  The wings picked a bad time to go cold, and Chellios picked the wrong day to have a bad game....The Stars beat the Wings 2-1 today. So finding this made me feel a little better:

May 15, 2008
Categories: Bad behavior

Conyers: 'We're closing in on Rove'

Just off the House floor today, the Crypt overheard House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers tell two other people: “We’re closing in on Rove. Someone’s got to kick his ass.” 

Asked a few minutes later for a more official explanation, Conyers told us that Rove has a week to appear before his committee. If he doesn’t, said Conyers, “We’ll do what any self-respecting committee would do. We’d hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested.” 

Conyers said the committee wants Rove to testify about his role in the imprisonment of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, among other things. 

“We want him for so many things, it’s hard to keep track,” Conyers said.

Robbery in The Big D, And Something To Help Me Feel Better

The Wings were robbed of a goal last night in Dallas by some piss poor officiating, which may well have cost them the game. Anyhow they get to try and close out those punks from Texas back home at the Joe Friday night.

Since the game put me in a foul mood, I was glad to read this quote (below) from Frank ( What Rhymes With Luntz) Luntz:

A palpable sense of doom has set in among Republican rank and file as the party begins to lick its wounds from last night's defeat in a special Mississippi congressional election. The loss, which was the GOP's third straight in what had been reliably Republican districts, spurned talks of even greater, historical setbacks in the fall.

"This is 1994 all over again," Frank Luntz, a famed Republican communications consultant, told The Huffington Post. "I was there. I saw it firsthand. The Republicans of 2008 are behaving exactly like the Democrats of '94 and making exactly the same mistakes. It's pathetic.

Hey Joe, Shut The Fuck Up

From TPM:

It was only a matter of time, really. If you ever doubted that Joe Lieberman would be using what's left of his "Independent Democrat" credentials to legitimize the GOP's bogus "Hamas endorsed Obama" attack, here he is on CNN doing just that...

When Wolf Blitzer pointed out that Obama also labels Hamas a terrorist organization, making his position the same as McCain's, Lieberman said, "that's true," adding that Obama "clearly doesn't support any of the values and goals of Hamas."

Then, with depressing predictability, came the inevitable caveat:

But the fact that the spokesperson for Hamas would say they would welcome the election of Senator Obama really does raise the question, "Why?"

And it suggests the difference between these two candidates.

Lieberman is clearly emerging as a chief attack-dog for McCain on foreign policy, and here he is echoing McCain's talking points with unerring precision: While we all know that Obama doesn't in any way support Hamas or its goals, it's okay to use the group to tar the Illinois Senator anyway, merely because McCain and the Republicans want to.

One wonders whether Harry Reid will keep this sort of stuff in mind when considering committee chairmanships in 2009.

And So Will The Size Of Your Fat Ass......

Limbaugh: 'My impact will increase'

By JONATHAN MARTIN 5/11/08 6:21 AM EST

Diverted for now by Operation Chaos and the Democratic primary, Rush looks ahead to a McCain presidency and says he "will thrive."

Conservatives are despondent, liberals are as enthused about a presidential candidate as they’ve been in 40 years, and the candidate he has long loathed won the Republican nomination. But never mind the pervasive sense of GOP malaise: Entering his 20th year on the national airwaves, Rush Limbaugh is having a dandy 2008 cycle. Regardless of how many votes Limbaugh actually pushed into Hillary Rodham Clinton’s column with his mischief-making “Operation Chaos” plan to encourage his listeners to keep the Democratic primary going, the endeavor was a success in another important way. It reminded the mainstream media and others outside the conservative orbit of the following he commands. And that the “drive-by media” he so delights in tweaking would recognize his influence enough to put his stunt on the front page, as The Washington Post did last week, underscored another essential fact about the right-wing talk show host: Limbaugh is one heck of a showman. Even as the Internet supersedes radio, Limbaugh’s skills as a political provocateur, as much P.T. Barnum as conservative ideologue, are such that he can fuel buzz in the political-media world like few others. In other words, Operation Chaos was good box office, and that may well have been the point.

Mothers Day

I've published this before, but it is fitting on Mothers day. It will be 28 years this summer since I heard her voice. I still miss her.

For Lucile

Lucile, I've laid out your cup with sugar and spoon
Yet the coffee grows cold
I cannot hear your laughter
Can I blame the gardener who finds one rose, more beautiful
And says " you shall grace my home"
Lucile, I've laid out your cup with sugar and spoon.

Who Is To Blame For Partly Cloudy?

 I saw a clip tonight of that fat scowling freak John Haggee blaming Hurricane Katrina on gays. This made me wonder who we should blame for other weather phenomenon. If it's too cold, is that the fault of the adulterers? What if it's just a little on the hot side? Blame the chronic masturbators of course. Thunderstorms a problem? It's the Jews. Hail stones the size of canned hams? Fucking Catholics.  Three feet of snow in your drive way? Must be those God Damn lesbians going at it again. 

I fail to see how this level of insane "theology" is any bit more advanced than the notion of sacrificing virgins into the Volcano to appease the angry 'Gods' , and cause the crops to grow. I know the fundie right wing scum bags hate pagans, but their belief system is pagan at the core.

Plus ...why do all those southern nut job preachers look like fat versions of George Wallace? 

Two Words About The Red Wings vs Dallas

Fuck Dallas

It Wont Go Well For Them On Judgment Day Redux Or: "For I Was Hungry"

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The food price crisis is caused largely by greed and speculation rather than food shortages, the head of Southern Africa's development bank said on Tuesday. Spiraling food costs -- called a "silent tsunami" by the World Food Program -- have ignited fury and a rash of protests from Haiti to Somalia to Bangladesh. Exporting countries have curbed shipments to ensure domestic supplies and tame inflation.

"These increases in food prices are not the consequence of food shortages, it's the consequence of human greed that is putting at risk the lives of millions of men, women and children," Jay Naidoo told Reuters.

"There are companies that are making super profits on this issue."

The root causes of the more than 40 percent rise in food prices in the last year are disputed. Experts point to strong demand from Asian emerging markets, adverse weather in some producer countries and increased use of biofuels.

If He Tries To Take The Fifth, Strap His Ass To The Waterboard..

WASHINGTON — A former Justice Department lawyer who wrote a now-repudiated memo allowing harsh interrogations of military prisoners has agreed to testify to Congress about those practices, say House Judiciary Committee officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the panel has not yet made the announcement.
John Yoo, now a law professor at University of California-Berkeley, has agreed to testify to the House Judiciary Committee voluntarily about the Bush administration's interrogation practices after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Yoo's memo, dated March 14, 2003, outlines legal justification for military interrogators to use harsh tactics against al-Qaida and Taliban detainees overseas _ so long as they did not specifically intend to torture their captives.
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, and former Assistant Attorney General Dan Levin have also agreed to give testimony at a future hearing. Former CIA Director George Tenet is still in negotiations with the committee.
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Tuesday to compel David Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, to testify.

She's A Beauty, She's One In A Million

Just a pic of my baby girl 

( who ain't a baby any more ) dressed up for a dance Friday night. With all due respect to Fee Waybil, shes one in a Zillion!

You Tell 'Em Howard

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Sunday that Republicans are using “hate and divisiveness” to win elections.

Dean argued that the use of Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) former pastor Jeremiah Wright in GOP ads in local races is “race baiting.”

“When you start bringing up things that have nothing to do with the candidate and nothing to do with the issues, that’s race baiting,” Dean said on Fox News Sunday in response to a question whether the Wright issue and his ties to Obama hurt Democrats down ticket.

“There’s a lot of difference between the Republicans and the Democrats on issues, but the biggest issue of all is we don’t use this kind of stuff. We never have used this kind of stuff, and we’re not going to start now,” said the DNC chairman. “America is more important than the Republican Party, and that’s the lesson that the voters are about to teach the Republicans.”

Say A Prayer For Our Brothers

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- A man is dead and three firefighters seriously injured in an apartment blaze that had victims jumping for their lives early Saturday.
Firefighters arrived to find heavy flames and smoke in the three-story, garden apartment building in the 12800 block of Twinbrook Parkway about 1 a.m. Some firefighters set about rescuing residents, while other began to attack the flames.
Within five to 10 minutes, the blaze caused a "catastrophic floor collapse," sending three firefighters through the floor into a second-story room fully engulfed in flames, fire spokesman Pete Piringer said.

The firefighters issued a mayday as they tried to make their way out. Two jumped out of second-story windows and the third was able to make his way downstairs and outside.
About the same time, rescuers found a man's body in a second-floor apartment. Investigators identified the victim as 50-year-old Timothy Moran. It is believed the fire started in his apartment and that he died of smoke inhalation and burns.
Officials identified the injured firefighters as Capt. R. Dwayne Dutrow, 38, a 17-year veteran; Firefighter James Heikka, 31, an 8-year veteran; and Firefighter Mark Mechlin, who is in his 20s and has been with the fire department for about a year.
Dutrow and Heikka were flown by helicopter to Washington Hospital Center's MedStar Burn Unit, where both were listed in serious but stable condition suffering burns and internal injuries.
Mechlin was taken by ambulance to the burn unit, where was expected to be treated and released.

Whenever Two Or Three Are Gathered On The Same Calling Plan

British Christians will be able to pray together wherever they are in future, by subscribing to a new mobile phone text alert service unveiled Thursday.

A Christian charity, Prayer in Action, has teamed up with a mobile phone company to offer the Prayer Mobile service, which it hopes will eventually reach 500,000 people across the country.

Subscribers will receive a text asking them to pray, simultaneously, on issues ranging from terrorism to homelessness and the credit crunch, said an official from the phone firm.

"Within the next two to three years, this service will be offered to about 500,000 Christians," said Erik Fok, sales chief of Ecumen, a range of religious products for mobiles developed by telephone company Teimlo.

"With a world in turmoil, it's amazing to think that we could soon have half a million people in the United Kingdom alone joining in focused prayer on an issue of national concern.

Jeeezz maybe with a "world in turmoil "some of these morons might actually want to DO SOMETHING....as opposed to wishing er I mean praying for change.......

Masada

My colleague Beth Anne and I had a meeting the other day with some folks at a center for adults with mental retardation. MR adults are often hidden away, they are not cute, and we as a society don't know what to do with them. After our meeting, Beth Anne and I stood outside chatting for a while at the top of a hill, and watched the MR folks come out in a fire drill. It was wonderful to see how they helped each other: one fellow even carried another out on his back. The two of us remarked how this renewed our dedication to the mission of Fire Rescue.  And as I drove away I had the thought that we ought to take each rookie class to see something like this, and have them take their oath in the presence of these folks. That would be hard to forget.

Maybe If Their Coffee Wasn't Overpriced, Bitter Tasting, And Gave You The Shits...

SAN FRANCISCO — Starbucks, faced with a sharp drop-off in customers, reported on Wednesday that earnings declined 21 percent during the second quarter.

Starbucks reported that net income declined to $108.7 million, or 15 cents a share, from $150.8 million, or 19 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. The company said revenue rose 12 percent, to $2.5 billion.

The report came just a week after Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee chain, warned of lower-than-expected earnings and cut its full-year forecast, citing a decline in quarterly sales and describing the economic environment as the weakest in the company’s history. Wall Street analysts had forecast 19 cents a share for the quarter.