Who Will Become the 51st US State?

The USA has been stuck on just 50 states for over half a century now. There has been a good deal of talk about adding Puerto Rico to the US as the 51st state, but both the Puerto Rican population and the US population seem at least a little bit ambivalent about that choice.

51 Star US Flag

Another candidate that has been tossed around a bit, is Taiwan!

...David Chou comes right out and says it: Taiwan should become the 51st state of the United States.

Mr. Chou is not joking. He has a plan. It may never work, but just try telling Mr. Chou that. He has been working on it for years.

Mr. Chou set up the 51 Club in 1994 to promote his idea. He admitted 51 members. But to him it is not a gimmick. It is a cause. And with all the confusing explanations that Taiwan's Government puts forth about whether it is part of China or something separate, Mr. Chou's unusual proposal is refreshingly straightforward.

''If we were a state, our most serious problem -- security -- would be solved,'' said Mr. Chou, 49, who looks and sounds considerably more normal than his proposal might suggest. ''The current Government can't solve it; neither can the opposition. But statehood can.'' _NYT

Perhaps it is possible that the security situation for Taiwan may grow dire enough for its people to look to the US for the "absolute security" that statehood would guarantee. Time will tell.

World Map: In Search of 51st State

The names of other currently independent nations -- such as Canada and Mexico -- have been tossed around for potential statehood, ever since the passage of NAFTA.

The USA's North American neighbors already exist under a US defence umbrella, and are given very privileged trade status. But actual statehood may be too much for the US' neighbors to the north and south to swallow, for now.

Other potential candidates across the Pacific in addition to Taiwan that have been discussed in the context of statehood, include the rapidly de-populating Japan, the Philippine Islands, and South Korea. As with Taiwan, the most likely reason for a majority of the people of any of those countries to be willing to submit to US statehood, would be for security reasons -- although economic and demographic reasons may also come into play over time.

Most of the US' great land acquisition took place during the 1800s. Since the year 1900, the US has given up more territory than it has acquired. One of the most important territories to have given up, was the Panama Canal Zone. The Philippine Islands were also given up in 1946, after having been considered for full statehood prior to the Japanese occupation.

It may seem odd to be talking about adding more states to the USA, when so many current US states have been discussing the possibility of secession from an increasingly dysfunctional union.

Under President Obama, the US government has overstepped itself far beyond the putative limits of the US Constitution, as never before. For that reason, as well as for other reasons, a number of scholars are predicting the collapse and dissolution of the USA as we currently know it.

But for such a collapse to occur, there would need to be some form of viable alternative as global economic, military, and political hegemon. To this point, nothing except a coming anarchy has shown its future face as a replacement for the USA.

And even in decline, some organisations have been known to attempt to bloat themselves up to massively oversized proportions, just before the end. Much like spouses in a failing marriage often choose to have more children, in a last-ditch attempt to preserve the union.

Citizens of the US are being given an opportunity -- in a second Obama term -- of seeing how badly the US could have declined during a second Jimmy Carter term. National malaise under Carter was admittedly severe. If not for the surprising "US fracking boom," things would likely be even worse by now, under Obama.

If Obama embraces the boom in US oil & gas resources, along with the coming boom in next-gen nuclear power reactors and the accompanying booms in nanotech, biotech, materials science, advanced automated manufacturing, and a number of other significant scientific and technological advancements which an abundant economy would allow -- he could be known to future generations as one of the great US presidents, despite the underlying reality.

Should that unlikely recantation of his previous life occur, the US might be looking at rates of economic growth previously only dreamed of in the history of the country. At that point, the idea of 51 states -- or 57 states, for that matter -- would not seem such outrageous subject matter.

In such a case, for the sake of avoiding a more rapid decline into an Idiocracy, the US might well choose candidate territories with higher -- rather than lower -- population average IQs than the current US population IQ average..

A Symbolic Gesture -- But Is It Art? And Why Is eBay Censoring Free Speech?

In a bizarre publicity stunt turned online censorship debate, eBay on Wednesday morning took down conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s auction of a Barack Obama bobblehead doused in beer serving as a stand-in for Beck’s own urine. _Mashable

If the amber liquid in which the US President is doused, happens to be beer -- then perhaps eBay is worried that it might fall into the hands of under-age drinkers? Would a 14 year old high school kid truly pay $11,000 for a jar full of cheap beer?

After Beck made “Obama in Pee Pee” on his program, he announced he would sell it online along with other original Beck artwork to raise money for charity. It was listed on eBay, where it reached a price of $11,000 in less than an hour. The item, however, was quickly removed. In an email sent by eBay to Beck, eBay said it does “not allow the sale of bodily waste,” despite Beck’s claim that the “urine” in the jar is actually beer. Beck was refunded his listing fee and told not to re-list the item. _Piss Poor Obama

It sounds as if eBay may have been co-opted by the PC Police, if they are willing to be so dishonestly disingenuous. This is likely to be merely the opening bell to the first round of a many-rounds fight -- which may well land in the US courts before it is finished.

eBay has just given Glenn Beck a very rich and powerful Christmas present.

America's Haute Noblesse: Living Well on Other People's Money

Haute Noblesse to Citizens:  Back in the soup line, little people!

The following article is adapted from a piece first published on abu al-fin

The US is a nation struggling with economic uncertainty and cultural decline. While real unemployment is well above 10% and underemployment approaches 25%, America's new political nobility provides itself a lavish lifestyle in which previous president's and their families never thought to indulge.

President Obama has spent far more lavishly on White House state dinners than previous chief executives... current and former government officials said the documents obtained by The Examiner point to an unprecedented upsurge in White House spending on such events.

...A knowledgeable government official who made the documents available to The Examiner said the extravagant spending seemed unfair with so many Americans out of work.

"It just kind of takes your breath away to see the expenditure of money that has occurred since 2009," the official said.

Gary Walters, who ran presidential household operations for 21 years during Democratic and Republican administrations, before retiring in 2007, told The Examiner the costs reflected in the documents were "excessive. They are high." _Examiner

Not surprisingly, the government agency responsible for paying for these extravaganzas of the haute noblesse, is run by a US State Department official who also happens to be a business partner of the man who caters these exorbitantly costly events.

Of course, that is but one side of the story. The very costly vacations taken by the nouveau haute noblesse would make a billionaire blush -- if his vacations were taken at taxpayer's expense.

But to the nouveau haute noblesse, such costly pleasures are considered minimal perquisites, for the many duties required of them as official and unofficial figures of state. "If you cannot live well on other people's money, what good is becoming involved in government?" they are likely to ask.

And America drifts backward toward the autocratic rule which the founders of the original republic had tried to hard -- at such a high cost -- to escape. Welcome to the Idiocracy.

More: The following is just a partial list of some of the pleasures taken by the haute noblesse at the expense of other people, while the citizens were struggling to get by --

– March 19, 2012, The elder daughter, is spending her springbreak in Mexican city of Oaxaca in the company of 12 friends, Malia Ann Obama, are staying at a downtown hotel in this city famous for its colonial architecture and well-preserved native American traditions. Malia and her friend are guarded by 25 US Secret Service agents as well as Mexican police.
– President’s Day 2012, Michelle and the first daughters in Aspen, Colorado to ski. Michelle Obama and her daughters are on a ski trip to Aspen, Colo., the White House confirmed to POLITICO. The first lady and the Obama daughters are on a private family trip to Colorado.
– Christmas 2011, the first family in Hawaii for an extended vacation. The Obamas celebrated the holiday by attending a Christmas service at the Kaneohe Bay Chapel on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, followed by a visit with military families at Anderson Hall.
– Summer 2011, in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., for the annual beach break. the first family, their Vineyard haven is taking on the flavor of a summer White House. President Obama, for the third straight year, is planning to return to Martha’s Vineyard for vacation this summer, according to a White House official. The Obamas are scheduled to spend seven to 10 days on the island in mid- to late August, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
– June 2011, the first lady, her mother and daughters traveled to South Africa and Botswana. Michelle Obama, her family and her staff to South Africa and Botswana. Judicial Watch received mission expense records and passenger manifests for the Africa trip that described costs of $424,142 for the flight and crew alone. Other expenses, such as off-flight food, transportation, security, etc. were not included.”
In the past two weeks, we have:
-$800,000 for the GSA’s lavish Las Vegas vacation
-$470,000 for Michelle Obama’s Spanish getaway
-95+ Rounds of golf played by Barack…during a recession.
-$850,000 for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s $32,000 round trip tickets home to see his family.
-Secret Service Agents involving themselves with prostitution
-Barack Obama seen in a video telling a crowd part of his job is to scout out vacation spots for Michelle
– President’s Day 2011, the first lady and first daughters travel to Vail to ski. Michelle Obama and her two daughters are spending the Presidents Day weekend on the ski slopes in Aspen, Colo., a newspaper reports. Obama arrived Friday.
– Christmas 2010, in Hawaii. The Obama’s go back to Hawaii for what is expected to be a 17-day vacation. The total cost for a 17-day round trip vacation to Hawaii for the President and his family and staff and security is estimated at around $4,113,038.. Obama’s $4 million Hawaii Christmas vacation,
– August 2010, the first family traveled to Panama City Beach, Fla., for some sun and fun at the beach.
– August 2010, Obama spent the weekend alone in Chicago for his 49th birthday bash. Barack Obama is coming home to celebrate his 49th birthday. Obama will be in Chicago on his birthday– August 4. The White House said he is looking forward to spending the night in his family’s home in Hyde Park on the city’s’ South Side and gathering with friends.
– August 2010, the first lady and daughter Sasha traveled to Spain for a mother-daughter vacation. Michelle Obama and her daughter Sasha, 9, are vacationing at a lavish resort in Spain. The first lady and her entourage landed at Malaga, on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, at 10:30 a.m.
– August 2010, summer vacation again at Martha’s Vineyard. Obama and his family arrived August 19 for a 10-day visit. The President and Me, we invite you to post photographs of your encounters with the first family, whether you’re dining with the leader of the free world, swimming or golfing with him, playing a game of Horse, or just offering advice.
– July 2010, the first family went to Mount Desert Island, Maine. President Obama and his family are arriving Friday for the weekend. The summer playground of the Astors, the Rockefellers and the Morgans – as well as newer social titans like Martha Stewart.
–May 2010, the first family had a four-day trip to Chicago. Obama in Chicago working out Sunday morning. Obama Secret Service agents in Chicago in sort of “standoff” with Farrakhan’s Fruit of Islam guards
– March 2010, first lady and daughter spend Spring Break in New York City. Obamas arrived in New York on Saturday, when they visited Dylan’s Candy Bar and caught a performance of Blue Man Group. Before seeing “Memphis” on Sunday, they ate brunch at Mesa Grill. After the show, they got a private tour of the Empire State Building, devoured cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery in the West Village and ate at the Russian Tea Room.
– Christmas 2009, Hawaii again for the annual break. The president, first lady and their daughters came to the island of Oahu for a more-than-weeklong vacation away from Washington. The Obamas have no public schedule and are expected to celebrate the holidays in private at a rented compound in Kailua.
– August 2009, at Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon for a short vacation. the president, First Lady Michelle and the kids are heading west on Aug. 14 for a long weekend to visit Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National parks. Just days later, the First Family travels to Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts. On Friday, Aug. 14, the First Family will visit the Bozeman, Mont., area. On Aug. 15 they will travel to Yellowstone, Wyo., and Grand Junction, Colo. They will then travel to the Grand Canyon and Phoenix, Ariz., on Aug. 16, and return to Washington, D.C., on Monday, Aug. 17. The First Family’s visit to the national parks occurs during a free weekend for our national parks. Mrs. Obama and her daughters have already made two overseas trips this summer.
– August 2009, their first summer vacation as first family at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. The 28.5-acre Martha’s Vineyard estate where President Obama, his family and, of course, the Secret Service will spend part of the president’s summer vacation. Caroline Taylor, another Martha’s Vineyard realtor, estimated that the property would go for $35,000 to $50,000 a week. The Obamas will pay for at least a portion of the rental, but taxpayer funds will be used to pay for Secret Service and staff housing on the property.
_EmptySuit

American politicians often become very wealthy either while in office, or soon after leaving office -- regardless of the prior state of their finances. Is it corruption? Hush! That kind of talk is for the little people, softly and behind closed doors.

La haute noblesse to the little people: Apres nous, le deluge!

You Didn't Build That: The Obama Guide to Parenting

This article was adapted from an earlier posting on abu al-fin


Obama's approach to tough love parenting is illustrated below, in an average American family setting. Observe, and learn.

Notice the "tough but firm" approach used by the parents to put their overly-independent daughter in her place. In Obama tough love parenting, the individual ego must be firmly suppressed whenever it shows its ugly head. "You didn't build that" is a most effective ego-disciplinary phrase, which President Obama thought of all by himself.

The priceless book: "Honey, You Didn't Build That!: President Obama's Little Red Book of Tough Love Parenting" is chock-full of other totally original sayings by the US President who is also a bringer of light.


And just to reinforce that you will not be building anything in the future -- and that everything will be built by replicators -- this Wired feature spotlights The Replicator 2 by Makerbot.

Imagine children learning to program such 3D printers to create all kinds of objects and machines. As children grow older, the "toys" they create can grow more sophisticated -- and more dangerous.

As replicating "inks" grow more varied and more capable, the limits on types of objects which can be created will retreat into the horizon. From weapons to vehicles to adventure toys to shelters and more, the list of things "you didn't build" is apt to grow very, very long.

Battle of the US Presidential Endorsements Heats Up

Ross Perot, third party US presidential candidate in 1992, has officially endorsed Mitt Romney in the US presidential race. Meanwhile President Barack Obama received a strong endorsement from celebrity star Honey Boo Boo.

President Obama is popular among celebrities and media personalities, such as CNN's Candy Crawley, who are rallying around the president in these challenging times.

Mr. Romney is forced to settle for endorsements from businessmen high and low, and others whose personal competence must generally be demonstrated on a regular basis -- unlike most of those who support the US president.

Meanwhile, for the most part, US blacks remain supportive of the president, hoping against hope that perhaps in his second term, Obama can stop the collapse of the US black community and finally do something to help ordinary blacks.

Obama appears to be running against George W. Bush yet again, this campaign, but a better comparison might be with another president who had to deal with a difficult recession -- Ronald Reagan. The graphic above compares the Reagan recovery with the Obama recovery.

The graphic above compares the number of Americans added to the national work force to the number of Americans added to those not in the work force. It would appear that Mr. Obama's record on employment is something he will probably choose to avoid, obscure, or lie about.

Mr. Obama's campaign efforts to avoid discussing his actual record as president could be labeled "The Great Bamboozle!" or "The Great Hoodwinking!" With the help of the news and entertainment media, as well as a number of less savoury characters in the Chicago style of things, Mr. Obama may be able to postpone his departure from the White House for another four, increasingly depressing years.

But think of all the great White House parties and presidential vacations that American taxpayers will pay for during that time. Think of it as a 4 year fin de siecle celebration, followed by an increasingly likely US default on its debt, should current federal deficit trends continue.

Obama himself wrote that he was a type of "blank screen" that allowed others to project their own views. It is odd that this should still be the case after these disastrous years, but there you are.

American blacks are threatening to riot and commit all forms of violence, if Obama loses the election. On the other hand, if Obama wins the election, a much larger scale of ethnic violence in the US is virtually inevitable, sooner or later.

Either way, there is likely to be politically instigated violence -- but it will be on a much larger scale and over a more extended time frame if the Obama decay and national malaise are allowed by voters to continue.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. And as the world becomes a more dangerous place, consider what you will have to do to meet that danger.

Would There Be Outrage if Muslim Terrorists Had Dragged Obama's Body Through the Streets?

After muslim terrorists destroyed the US embassy in Benghazi, and fatally attacked members of the US diplomatic delegation, they apparently dragged the US Ambassador Christopher Stevens into the street where he was brutalised and finally killed.

There was very little initial outrage in the US over the event. President Obama wasted no time in heading out to Las Vegas to raise campaign funds and let off a little steam.

What if muslim terrorists had dragged US President Obama's body into the streets for a bit of religious supremacist fun and pleasure? Would there have been outrage in the US in that event?

What if more Americans had been told by their news media that Obama had removed a US special operations security detail -- against the wishes of Ambassador Stevens -- just over a week before the fatal attack? If they had been better informed by their media, would Americans have felt any outrage?

The whole incident has been fairly well obscured and whitewashed by now, and the media is unlikely to re-open the sorry episode with a ten foot pole, at this late date.

But what if that had been Obama's bloody, abused body out in those streets? Would the news media and the American public have taken notice, and felt outrage?

More:

Less than two months before the fatal attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, the State Department concluded that the risk of violence to diplomats and other Americans in Libya was high and that the weak U.S.-backed government in Tripoli could do little about it.

“The risk of U.S. Mission personnel, private U.S. citizens and businesspersons encountering an isolating event as a result of militia or political violence is HIGH,” a State Department security assessment from July 22 concludes.

The department’s former top security officer told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he had recommended keeping U.S. military and additional State Department security forces on hand through October, documents released by the committee show. _WaPo

In recent days, the public has learned that the Obama administration knew full well the dangers that faced Stevens and his colleagues in Libya and in fact denied requests to provide more security for diplomats in that very hazardous place. On Wednesday, the head of a security team that was ordered home from Libya in August will tell the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that embassy staff strongly opposed the security cuts. "We felt we needed more, not less ... for the environment we had," Lt. Col. Andrew Wood told CBS News in a hearing preview. ...__Source

American Labor Day Holiday Cancelled Due to Insufficient Jobs: National Empty Chair Day Celebrated Instead

Empty Chair?  Empty Stool?  Empty Suit?  Empty Skull?  Obama's Many Faces

America Celebrates National Empty Chair Day

Barack Obama: The Empty Stool

President Obama has consistently been absent, more concerned about branding than leadership, with image and atmospherics than truly rallying the troops and harnessing our resources and solving our most pressing problems.

...According to most accounts, even friendly ones, President Obama is haughty and surly. To those with eyes to see, he is an act. A vacuous promise. An illusion. An empty stool. _EmptyStool

As a legislator in both the Illinois Senate and the US Senate, Obama became known as "Senator Present," even though he was most often absent -- out campaigning for his next election. Perhaps he was warming up for his role as "the empty stool" even then.

Even when he appears to be sitting in the chair, there is something clearly missing. It is not exactly that the emperor has no clothes. . . It is more that the clothes have no emperor. "There is no there, there" as Al Fin once remarked to Gertrude Stein, sitting in an Oakland cafe in a previous life.

Perhaps America should send out an expedition of scatologists in search of "the real Obama." The fate of the next century may just depend on what is discovered.

Outside observers may blame American voters for electing this mystery man, but if the American media failed to do its job of investigation, it deserves a large share of any blame to be placed.

It is not entirely clear as to why America replaced the Labor Day Holiday with National Empty Chair Day, other than the general lack of jobs. Some claim that it has something to do with what is depicted in the photograph to the left.

Since the image depicts only a single person -- an American cinema star -- it is possible that it is a scene taken from a motion picture. But if so, where is the rest of the movie? Historians may fight over the question for decades.

No matter. The change may represent a coming trend of changes to American national holidays. It is rumoured that up until now, efforts to change the Christmas Holiday to "O Holy Bama Day" have been rebuffed. But now, who can predict such things?

One thing is for certain: If US President Obama is re-elected in November, Thanksgiving Day will receive some serious scrutiny for change, if not hope.


Photo credits: Top, Bottom

Obama Sells Guns; Lots of Guns

Americans have taken their gun rights seriously for centuries, since long before the United States was officially founded. But every now and then a particularly persuasive individual will come along and give Americans even greater incentive to value their right to keep and bear arms. President Barack Obama is one such individual.

When an incumbent president seeking a second term has already put two people on the nine-member Supreme Court who would vote away this basic human freedom [Second Amendment gun rights], they have the right to be fearful. And when you realize that, if reelected, that incumbent president would have a good chance of getting a few more Supreme Court picks, and so could reshape the high court for decades, people have a right to be motivated to buy firearms now. _Forbes

US gun sales jumped significantly after Obama's election in 2008. And now just the thought that Obama may get re-elected is spurring US gun sales even more.

As gun sales surged in early 2009 the going joke among employees of gun manufacturers was that President Barack Obama was the “greatest gun salesman of all time.” ...

...Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SWHC) saw its fiscal year sales surge 20 percent in 2012. Many makers of handguns and “black guns” (what the Left calls “assault rifles” but the NSSF calls “modern sporting rifles”) also did very well. _Forbes

President Obama has not been a friend to the US Constitution, or its Bill of Rights. The Obama administration has seen the Constitution as more of an obstacle to power, rather than as the key to the US' traditional prosperity and history of opportunity.

Obama's anti-Second Amendment stance is just one example of his regime's conspicuous flouting of traditional Constitutional rights, and the attempt to re-shape the formerly dynamic new world US into a more rigid, top-down, static old world society.

The number of women gun owners in America has gone up from 13 percent in 2005 to 23 percent today. Also, the number of Democratic households with firearms in their homes skyrocketed from 30 percent in 2009 to 40 percent today.

What has been happening is that the NRA, the NSSF and other gun-rights groups have been busy fighting for Second Amendment rights, advocating for participation in the shooting sports, instructing people how to shoot and store firearms safely, working with police officers and the military and doing a myriad of other things. The NRA has also been lobbying, defending the Second Amendment in courtrooms all over the country and growing its membership. As a result, they’ve attracted more Americans to the shooting sports, made the shooting sports safer and helped more people learn to shoot and to defend themselves. _Forbes

China: The Biggest Loser in Green Energy?

This article is cross-posted to Al Fin Energy blog

China is losing a lot of money on solar -- even more than Obama lost betting on the intermittent unreliable form of energy!

China’s top ten photovoltaic makers have accumulated a combined debt of 17.5 billion U.S. dollars so far, leading the whole industry to the brink of bankruptcy, data from U.S. investment agency Maxim Group showed.

Goodness. That’s 35 Solyndras!

LDK Solar, the world’s second-largest maker of solar wafers, and Suntech Power, the world’s largest solar panels producer, are the mostly likely to be headed for bankruptcy, Maxim noted. LDK reported a net profit loss of 1.08 billion yuan in the first half of this year, with a total liability of 26.7 billion yuan, about 88 percent of its total assets. 2.42 billion yuan of debts will come due in 2013, compared with a cash pile of only 830 million yuan. With its debt-to-equity ratio at 7.4, the Jiangxi-based LDK has already been in insolvency based on corporate accounting standards in the Europe and the United States, according to Maxim. A bankruptcy filing or restructuring could be needed for LDK, it added. _Reason

Unfortunately for the Chinese people, solar companies in China are devastating the landscape with toxic waste on a monumental scale.

And more than half of China's installed wind power lies fallow -- disconnected from the power grid! Imagine all the wasted resources, just to be able to claim a large installed wind power base.

But knowledge of the grand green charade of China's wind and solar industries has not reduced the fervour of US green political activists such as Barack Obama or Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. In fact, Senator Reid is indulging in a grand corrupt and nepotistic scheme in his home state of Nevada, involving a public lands give-away to a Chinese solar company and an associated US company involving his own son!

Of course this type of insider political deal is not unusual for either Nevada - style or Chicago - style political operators.

Energy Producer Land Requirements

China's grand scheme of infrastructure buildup -- including green infrastructure -- is proving to be something of a big bomb. China has been spending money hand over fist, stalling for time in hope that its big export customers -- Europe and North America -- would pull out of their economic doldrums, and start to buy Chinese products on a grand scale, once again.

China is getting a bit desperate, and cannot help but be relieved every time a foreign sucker -- in Germany, the US, Australia ect. -- gets sucked into another green energy scam.

Yes, China is poisoning itself to build and sell intermittent unreliable products such as big wind and big solar energy generation equipment. But if foreign devils like Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel, etc. are stupid enough to buy this junk at high prices, why not? It's not as if China's people can do anything about it.

Coal Will Be Thriving Long After Obama Is Gone

This article was previously published on Al Fin Energy blog

The National Coal Council delivered a report to the US DOE which points to increasing uses of coal -- to generate electric power, to produce large quantities of liquid fuels via CTL, and to expedite enhanced oil recovery (EOR) using CO2 recovered from coal gasification (both IGCC and CTL).

• By 2035, the combination of coal-based EOR and CTL technology could provide up to 30 percent of U.S. liquid fuel demand and ensure America's energy security for decades....
• Use of ... CTL could generate $200 billion in economic activity, more than 1 million skilled jobs and $60 billion in tax revenues.
• At least 100 gigawatts of advanced coal generating capacity could be built or retrofitted over the next two decades. These advanced plants would use an additional 300 million tons of coal annually.
• CTL plants with carbon capture could convert coal into more than 2.5 million barrels a day of additional oil. An additional 450 million tons of coal would be used annually in these operations.
• Capturing a high volume of CO2 for commercial purposes, coupled with CTL operations, would increase coal use to 1.75 billion tons annually. This production level is well within the capability of the United States, home to 30 percent of the world's coal reserves.

_Nat.Coal Council Report to US DOE

Obama's misguided war against coal -- along with his war against all other forms of viable energy -- mark him as a political activist rather than a true leader. Obama's war against energy and against the US private sector has led to a stagnant economy with very slow job creation.

Meanwhile, Primus Green Energy is pushing ahead with a shale gas - to - liquids project which hopes to produce 100 million gallons of gasoline from shale oil per year.

The allure of cheap nature gas has altered the course of a New Jersey biofuel start-up’s path to commercialization. Shale gas will serve as Primus Green Energy’s (PGE) bridge fuel until it shifts to biomass feedstocks.

PGE today held a dedication ceremony for a demo plant at its Hillsborough, NJ headquarters. Local luminaries and a swarm of politicians, including former governor Jim Florio, Representative Leonard Lance, and an Obama administration agricultural official, were in attendance.

The plant will create up to 5 barrels of fuels per day, which will be used for customer certification testing and approvals. It is also a proof of concept for technology that PGE says can scale to upwards of 100 million gallons per year at a significantly higher yield (35 percent) than the industry average.

The company is hoping to raise US$150 million to build a facility next year that would produce 20 million gallons of fuel annually. In comparison, the Pearl GTL (gas to liquids) facility in Qatar has cost over $19 billion to build. _SP

The Pearl GTL plant in Qatar expects to yield profits of $6 billion a year, for as long as the price of crude oil (Brent) remains above $80 a barrel.

Primus Green Energy had intended to be a biomass-to-liquids (BTL) company rather than a GTL company, but basic economics dictated Primus' decision to go with shale gas rather than biomass -- at least in the beginning.

Meanwhile, commodities prices remain well above 2007 levels, suggesting that without big government stimulus from the US, Europe, and China, there is still significant deleveraging and deflating of bubbles that could occur.

The billions which Obama spent on his green energy crusade created almost no jobs, and has had a negligible effect on the nation's energy supplies. Most of the $billions went to political cronies of the president, and that money is long gone. Several of Obama's startups have gone bankrupt, with others in very deep financial trouble. Mr. Obama's great green crusade is turning out to have been a grand political gesture to get elected. What will he do for an encore?

The Obama government has injected about $1.5 trillion per year of fiat stimulus into the US economy, with very little positive effect to show for it -- except a rapidly growing debt which could destroy the economy if interest rates should be forced upward.

The energy world does not exist apart from the political and economic worlds, but is rather inextricably enmeshed within both.

Obama has attempted to re-shape the energy worlds, the political worlds, and the economic worlds -- as a legacy to his own unique greatness. Time will tell what lasting impact Obama's policies have had on those worlds -- if any.

See also: The Slow Sinking of Obama's Green Energy Policy

Obama Regime Seeks to Allow Killing Bald Eagles

Up until now, it has been a federal crime to kill a bald eagle inside the United States, without a difficult to obtain permit. But now, Obama officials are moving ahead to expand decriminalisation of the act of killing the US national bird. The regime has never cared for patriotic symbols, of course. But the reason for the impending open season on bald eagles has more to do with carbon hysteria and promoting unreliable and intermittent forms of energy, than with any latent anti-American tendencies residing within the administration.

The USFWS [US Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of the US Department of the Interior] explains at FederalRegister.gov:

We have reviewed applications from proponents of renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar power facilities, for programmatic permits to authorize eagle take that may result from both the construction and ongoing operations of renewable energy projects. During our review, it became evident that the 5-year term limit imposed by the 2009 regulations (see 50 CFR 22.26(h)) needed to be extended to better correspond to the timeframe of renewable energy projects.

Current law allows permitting for “programmatic” killing of bald eagles, which “is recurring, is not caused solely by indirect effects, and that occurs over the long term or in a location or locations that cannot be specifically identified.”

The USFWS notes that permits “may authorize lethal take that is incidental to an otherwise lawful activity, such as mortalities caused by collisions with rotating wind turbines.”

According to the regulation, measures will be taken to attempt to minimize bald eagle mortalities, and additional actions may be authorized if mortalities exceed “anticipated” levels. USFWS began investigating numerous bald eagle deaths associated with wind turbines in early 2012.

Without the proper permit, the killing of a bald eagle is a federal crime. _Foundry_via_GWPF

The killing of bald eagles in order to permit the overbuilding of an unreliable, intermittent, exorbitantly expensive and wasteful form of energy production, is a double crime to many Americans. Not only is the Obama administration cynically facilitating the killing of a national symbol. They are doing so in the name of an expensive and heavily subsidised form of energy which will only destabilise the power grid, without providing any tangible benefit.

Inept leadership is bad enough. Unfortunately, the Obama regime is far worse than merely inept. It is becoming devotedly destructive.

President Obama Is Playing Politics With Pipelines

This article is adapted from an earlier posting at Al Fin Energy

NP
Canadians are wondering why Mr. Obama has to make simple trade issues so complicated. By obstructing much of the potential flow of Canadian oil southward, Mr. Obama opens entirely new cans of worms which did not need to be opened.

The [Keystone XL] pipeline decision was delayed until after the presidential election so Obama wouldn’t have to offend his environmental supporters while he seeks re-election. None of the excuses offered for the delay holds water: The chosen route for the project through a valuable aquifer was no great threat, the project had passed crucial safety tests, and the area is already criss-crossed by a large network of other pipelines. It was all about politics.

But the result of the decisions is the quandary now facing the president: The U.S. needs oil one way or another. Whatever the long-range attractions of reducing dependency on fossil fuels, the world isn’t going to switch to biofuels and solar power overnight, and a secure supply of oil will remain crucial for decades to come.

The source of that fuel is critical to the U.S. The problems with Iran are a perfect demonstration of that: in the absence of a friendly, secure, reliable supplier, the U.S. is forced to look to places like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. After Canada and Mexico, the top suppliers to the U.S. are Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Angola and Iraq. Not one real democracy in the lot, all of them with serious political and stability issues. and none of them right next door.

Canada, on the other hand, is just across the border, is a close friend and ally of the U.S., and is both ready and eager to ensure a reliable increase in supply. But Washington’s willingness to play games with the Keystone project has only served to increase Ottawa’s awareness of the need to find other customers.

...Mr. Obama could have avoided all this by accepting the self-evident benefit to the U.S. of getting Keystone built as quickly as possible. Instead he’s got to juggle Saudi capacity against Iranian vengefulness, and the long-term implications of a risky sanctions plan that could blow up in the face of its supporters.

Relying on his friends in Canada would have been so much easier. _NP_

Enbridge has recently announced the expansion of its pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, to provide an alternative pathway for Canadian oilsands in the wake of the recent Obama rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline northern leg.

Enbridge Oil Sands Alternative via Chicago
When Obama took executive action to prevent the upper leg of the Keystone XL pipeline, environmentalists celebrated as if they had won a victory. But there may be more involved in the story than what was printed in the newspapers or broadcast on the airways and cable channels. Whenever an economic decision is made by a government, sceptical people always ask: "Who benefits?"

Brian Westenhaus takes a look at the recent Enbridge announcement that it is expanding its pipeline network to provide an alternative pathway to the Gulf of Mexico for Canadian oilsands.

Oil flowing through Illinois is subject to local fees and taxes, which enrich the many corrupt FOOs (friends of Obama) who have taken up positions of power there. But one must also wonder what goes on behind the scenes before such a decision is even made.

Keystone XL Bypasses ChicagoAs you can see if you follow the dotted green line representing the Keystone XL pipeline, the pipeline which Obama is stonewalling does not come anywhere close to Illinois or Chicago. In that sense, the pipeline is no good to Obama or all the crazy FOOs in that corrupt state. Unlike the alternative pipeline plan recently announced by Enbridge. Politics can be a byzantine affair, twisted and labyrinthine in its ways of distributing power and money to those who please the king.

A Public Service Announcement from President Obama

My Fellow Americans:

I am very aware of the pain that many of you are feeling, with no jobs, no income, no health insurance. My administration is doing everything it can to help the economy recover from the Bush years. Some recent job openings have come to my attention while I was watching news coverage for next week's SuperBowl in Texas. It seems that thousands of people are needed for high paying jobs as "prole dancers" in the Dallas - Ft. Worth area over the next several days.

I had never heard of prole dancing before, but it seems clear that it involves some form of rhythmic movement set to music, performed by white trailer trash performers -- a group currently suffering particularly high unemployment.

After researching the topic on the internet, I can see that I was correct. It looks quite easy to do, and there are many tutorials available on the internet. Here is one:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Michelle has informed me that prole dancing can also be used as a workout program, for losing weight and gaining fitness. That is most fortunate, since one sees far too many fat proles walking the streets these days. Disgusting.

Here is more information about the use of prole dancing as a fitness tool:

TV & Movie Spoofs Channel
Tags: Atom.com | Funny Videos | Tournament | Upload

Thank you for your attention. And I hope this will put an end to all of the accusations against this administration, that it doesn't care about proles or white trailer trash. Because we certainly do, and this announcement is proof of it.

Eh? What's that Rahm? You say it's called "pole dancing", not "prole dancing?" Anyone can do it -- not just trailer trash? Oh. Well, then. Never mind.

Retired Admiral In Spotlight, Obama Considers Another Vacation

BP workers in the Gulf of Mexico have stopped drilling a relief well and are preparing to evacuate the oil spill site as a tropical depression nears.

There is a 20-30% chance of tropical storm force winds (39mph or more) at the spill site by Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center says.

Because of the slow-moving vessels at the spill site, evacuation plans are already well under way.

Work on the relief well could be suspended for up to two weeks. _BBC

It is time to make critical decisions about the state of the Macondo wellhead. But decision making by government officials has been glacially slow -- part of the reason why this storm may set well-killing efforts back almost a month. The Obama administration is still considering re-opening the oil spill and allowing millions more gallons of oil to re-pollute an already healing Gulf. But where is Obama in this decision-makiing? Hiding behind the ample bulk of retired admiral Allen.

With the weather in the Gulf likely to get worse in the coming days, the oil response team has a decision to make, one that could mean letting thousands of barrels of oil gush into the gulf again. It's a decision few people envy having to make.

After the first full week of no oil getting into the Gulf from BP's blown-out well, no one wants to have to oil the Gulf on purpose.

"Leave it closed," said one local man.

"Why reopen the well and let the oil leak?" asked a woman as she commuted to work in New Orleans.

But National Incident Commander Thad Allen's decision isn't that easy. Ever since the cap was installed one week ago, they've had to monitor it day by day to make sure nothing happens that could potentially make the disaster even more disastrous. But tropical weather could mean two weeks of no one on the scene to do anything. It's a decision no one wants to make. _WWL.com

Mr. Obama only takes the spotlight when he is in a position to project moral authority and to take credit for something seen to have gone well. In situations of critical decision-making, Mr. Obama tends to stall as long as possible, and finally to vote "present" -- placing responsibility for bad results on subordinates and predecessors.

It may not be such a bad thing that Mr. Obama takes so many vacations. I understand that Phuket is very nice, once again.

Addendum 23July2010: US Energy Secretary Steven Chu has ordered the Macondo well to remain capped and closed during the approach, passage, and aftermath of the tropical storm. All efforts to permanently kill the well will be postponed until seas calm and the working surface vessels can safely return. Meanwhile, the White House has suggested that President Obama and his family are considering a vacation to the Gulf of Mexico sometime this summer.

Oil skimming vessels are being sent to port, but have not found appreciable oil slicks for recovery in the past few days anyway. It is almost uncanny, how quickly the coastline has begun recovering, and how rapidly the oil slicks have faded, once the well was shut in.

10 Geopolitical and Economic Predictions for 2010

Guest Article from OilPrice

2010: The Short Term Strategic Outlook – Beyond the Statements

A great - and still growing - divergence appeared in 2009 between public statements by leaders and their public performance. The politicized, romanticized theater of increasingly populist “democratic” leaders and media seemed to be of a different planet from activities taking place in the real world.

While a large part of the global population appears still transfixed by words, there is a growing perception that great fissures already rend the global strategic architecture.

This is a trend which will compound during 2010.

There is a widespread belief that the world has “ducked the strategic bullet” of global economic collapse, but this is merely the delusionary euphoria of the severely wounded patient. Severe structural damage has occurred to the key driver of global economic stability, the United States. Most major economies of Western Europe and Asia, although in plight, have been protected in their fall by a complex web of structures and the fact that they were not, in many respects, as leveraged as the US. Britain and Japan, however, remain leveraged in their debt-to-asset ratio, to a death-defying degree.

All of this has been long in coming, and brought to a speedy climax by the unprecedented recklessness of inflationary spending by US Pres. Barack Obama, and, in the UK by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The modern world (East and West, but prompted by the West) is at a junction point in a long process of constantly growing — but poorly-defined — obsession with “rights” (entitlements). This had its origins with the halting, but consistent, rise in global prosperity which began with the early stages of the Second Industrial Revolution (1700-1900).

Thus, a butterfly flutters its wings in 18th Century Britain and a tsunami engulfs the world in the early 21st Century.

Managing the now-overwhelming sense of entitlement in what we call modern democracies has become, because of the power of a comprehensive, but ill-informed electorate, an exercise in mob control, and an opportunity for populist demagoguery.

Pres. Obama’s statement of January 25, 2010, that he would now curb US Government spending was, like most of the statements of the past year, self-serving and had nothing to do with reality. His plan to push through a State-dominated healthcare system at a reputed cost in excess of $1-trillion (quite apart from other discussions about a new “stimulus package” of spending) makes a mockery of the pre-election posturing of fiscal moderation (that is, his posturing before the 2008 and the 2010 elections). In any event, a review of the statistics of the US shows that his proposed “freeze” on a small part of US Government spending would be, compared with his profligacy and reduction of private sector productivity and capital formation ability, a derisory diversion.

Without dwelling, for the purposes of this estimate, on the cumulative impact of ever-broadening the electoral franchise — which creates an automatic disposition of an electorate to demand increasing benefits without attendant increases in productivity — the Western economies are probably at a point where they must attempt to create fairly draconian, centralized power structures to rule more by diktat than by “democracy”. That is the only recourse to stem the growing dysfunction of government brought about by the “democratic” necessity to pander to a restive populace.

In a report on March 20, 2009, I noted: “the ‘professional politician’ will morph into new forms of Cæsarism or Bonapartism. This is already underway, as ‘leaders’ with no practical experience of the world increasingly fear the uncertainties of markets and the confidence of those who can actually create, manage, and build. Thus, the ‘new socialism’ is a system built by leaders who demand central control of societies and who genuinely fear freedom.”

The new circus includes the pandering to newly-created pseudo-scientific religions, such as “climate change”, which have so greatly distracted governments, the media, and populations from their daily work as to have already hampered the chances for economic viability in the near future. Those, however, who live by the sword of populism — mob rule — must ultimately answer to that same fickle crowd, which, as Elias Canetti noted in Crowds & Power, has no mind, only wants.

Pres. Obama is already facing the turning crowd, which is why, on January 25, 2010, he began his studied portraiture of reasonableness and fiscal moderation, a process to continue in his January 27, 2010, State of the Union address to the US Congress. The policy analyst, however, must look to actions, and the feasibility and context of those actions, and not to the words which attend them.

Let me highlight some of the cautions which I have made over recent years, without merely repeating the ground of the March 20, 2009, report.

1. The decline in Western asset values will likely continue in the broad sense through 2010, which will automatically lead to a compounded reduction in the asset-based credit available. In other words, Western economies will be forcibly “de-levered”, quite apart from the fiscal prudence which will cause a reduction in risk investment;

2. The West will demonstrably not contest dominance of the major oil and gas fields of Iraq, Iran, Nigeria (and elsewhere in the Gulf of Guinea) against competition from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and, to a lesser extent, India. This will force moves in the US toward natural gas exploitation and — as Obama and the “green left” depart — possible exploitation of US oilfields and new nuclear energy approaches. This would in turn imply a renewed look at nuclear waste disposal. But none of this Western search for alternatives will occur in 2010.

3. The conflict in Afghanistan will become increasingly strained as the US sends out, literally, signals of surrender to the Taliban, who take all calls from the US for a “negotiated settlement” in the wake of a pronouncement of US imminent withdrawal as a sign of weakness and defeat. It is, in fact, such a signal. And while senior US military and security officials “reassure” regional states, such as Pakistan, that the US would, in fact, remain in the area beyond the Obama withdrawal deadline of 2011, the reality is that — absent the removal of Obama from office — this will not happen. Once again, the “long-timers” in the US bureaucracy, including those in Defense and State, believe that they can outwait and outwit the “short-timers”. But the determined short-timer, such as Pres. Obama, can and will wreak havoc and destroy the pillars of the system before he leaves. And when Obama leaves, the money, in any event, will be also gone, and with it the capability and viability for the US to remain in or near Afghanistan. Indeed, the destruction of key elements of the US economic and political framework has already occurred.



4. Quite apart from the US ability to sustain South Asian operations in the manner which the Washington insiders have assured the Pakistanis (and others, such as the Australians), the reality is that India — which the US has been courting as a strategic partner — will of necessity have to re-align with Russia if it is to gain any access to the Eurasian heartland. If it does not, it will never be able to compete strategically in the near future with the PRC, which is pushing ahead with the construction of more efficient overland links to the Indian Ocean through Myanmar and through Pakistan (from the Karakoram Highway down to the Baluchistan Arabian Sea port of Gwadar, which had been offered twice by Pakistan to the US, which refused it).

5. A strategic opportunity is emerging for the West — and possibly for India — in the transformation now occurring in Myanmar as the ruling military leaders take very seriously their approach to elections later in 2010. This could — could, not necessarily will — mean that Myanmar opens to a more Western orientation to the detriment of the PRC, but only if the US can support the notion of providing some measure of post-election security, ideally within Myanmar, for the retiring military leaders. The US lost massive credibility in this kind of undertaking when it lured Liberian Pres. Charles Taylor into exile in Nigeria in 2003 and then broke promises of safe-haven for him, and organized his subsequent extradition to the UN’s International Criminal Court (ICC), to which the US does not even subscribe.

6. As global productivity fades during 2010 (albeit with some pockets of resilience), many Western leaders will turn to sophistry and intellectual distractions, such as an attempt to assert or blame “international law” as the mechanism for remedying their situations. There is, in reality, no such thing as “international law”, but there is an attempt to create it, even absent global acceptance of such a concept. There are norms of international behavior, but, strictly speaking, the United Nations (around which much of the proposed “international law” is being built) specifies the right of nations and peoples to self-determination, free from external interference. But what we are seeing is the creation of a minority-controlled set of structures — such as the “International Criminal Court” and its derivatives — creating laws without any valid legal framework. The ICC derivative judging “war crimes” in the former Yugoslavia, for example, has been making up laws and case law to validate its position. In any event, 2010 will see a stark removal of the media-perpetuated view that “international law” exists. The PRC and India have already indicated that they will not comply with so-called climate change measures; they will not commit their populations to starvation by forcing emission reduction measures on their industries, making them unaffordable or uncompetitive. This, as I have often said, is part of the trend which sees nations moving back toward nationalistic stances and protectionism. “International law”, and the United Nations itself, is heading toward irrelevancy. The feel-good gatherings, such as the World Economic Forum, at Davos, Switzerland and even the Copenhagen conference on “climate change”, become mere distractions from the real issues facing the world.

7. The unease and conflict in the Arabian Peninsula will continue apace, with strong Iranian support and some Russian interest, merely because there is nothing to stop it. Only a total compromise of Yemen Pres. ‘Ali ‘Abdullah Saleh to Iran — something which would greatly antagonize Saudi Arabia — can bring the fighting in the area to a more contained level, and even that would signify an Iranian victory. Inter-governmental talks on the security and stability of Yemen, held in London on January 27, 2010, were essentially cosmetic, and signified the lack of Western commitment to addressing the problem in the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea. The most significant unknown factor is the degree to which Oman can stop the spread of unrest into its country, which controls the southern littoral of the Strait of Hormuz. Equally, Oman’s unique culture, and the strength of its leader, Sultan Qaboos bin Sa’id al-Said, is its best safeguard, as well as the West’s best hope for security at the Strait.

8. It is in a climate of profound international distrust in any Western support or ability to protect that we will see the transition of power occurring in places such as Egypt and Nigeria in 2010. Both states are critical to the West, both geopolitically and in energy terms. France has offered a strong degree of support for a stable Egyptian transition, but the rest of the West has been fairly impotent. Similarly, Pakistan is undergoing a constitutional crisis which may see Pres. Asif Ali Zardari removed by the Supreme Court which he, essentially, helped reinstate after the end of the Musharraf Administration. Even if Pres. Zardari can circumvent the mounting constitutional legal case being mounted against him, his powers are being eroded by the National Assembly.

9. It is profoundly unlikely that Israel will militarily attack Iran in 2010, or in the foreseeable future. As a result, the clerical leadership in Iran will move inexorably toward greater consolidation, a process which will occur in diametric contrast to the rising shrillness of US condemnation of Iran’s nuclear position. The reality is that (a) international embargoes against Iran have already failed, and new embargoes cannot be implemented as long as Russia and the PRC guarantee Iranian trade, (b) the US (and Israel) cannot militarily attack Iran with any hope of a positive strategic outcome because the nuclear and National Command Authority targets are too diffuse and there is no capability of a ground-force follow-up, and (c) the Iranian population would, as they have always done, react with great hostility to any foreign attack, rallying around the government of the day, even if they have despised it. The only hope of what the US calls “regime change” in Iran can come if it is at the hands of the Iranian population, and Russian and PRC support for the Administration of Pres. Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad’s security services has ensured that the Iranian public cannot effectively combine to remove him. Still, mounting internal frustration in Iran could result in a coup by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC: Pasdaran).

10. The People’s Republic of China will continue to manage the great internal disparities through 2010, but there is no guarantee that Beijing will not face major hurdles in the year. Moreover, the continuing poor economic performance in Japan and the US will continue to constrain PRC exports and dampen PRC economic options given the extent of Chinese holdings of US securities which grow less attractive by the day.

Originally published at: http://www.oilprice.com/article-10-geopolitical-predictions-for-2010--short-term-strategic-outlook.html


Written By Gregory R. Copley for Oilprice.com who focus on Fossil Fuels, Alternative Energy, Metals, Crude Oil Price and Geopolitics To find out more visit their website at: http://www.oilprice.com

Al Fin's comment: Mr. Copley's analysis appears quite sound overall. The US might well find it easier to partner with Russia on several projects were a different regime in place in Moscow. At this time there is no reason whatsoever for the US to favour either Moscow or Beijing over the other. Strategic alliances between the US and India, Turkey, and the countries of Eastern Europe remain critically important -- not to mention the critical importance of strong alliances with the nations of the Anglosphere, Japan, S. Korea, and increasingly Chile and Colombia.

The US cannot afford to be the world's policeman any longer, but it can also not afford to step back from global shipping and trade routes and strategic regions altogether. It must make wise alliances based as much as possible upon equitable trade relations.

Housing Bubble Collapse: ACORN @ Eye of the Storm

Barack Obama's favourite corrupt government contractor -- ACORN -- sits squarely at the center of causation of the great 2009 Obama depression and economic collapse. It makes for an interesting story, but one that you will never hear from today's White House, or its extended public relations department -- the mainstream media.

The problem started in 1977 with Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act.  Then in the 90s, Congress empowered more loose-lending practises via the 1992 GSE, and further rule-loosening via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Finally, Bill Clinton open the floodgates of loose lending, via executive order, near the end of his last term.  By the time George W. Bush heard the ticking of the home lending time bomb, it was too late to stop the train wreck. [ Bush tried to stop it in 2003, but Bush only had bicameral majorities four out of his eight years, and never had control of Congress in the overwhelming numbers that Obama does.]

From the WSJ:

All agree that the bursting of the housing bubble caused the financial collapse of 2008. Most agree that the housing bubble started in 1997. Less well understood is that this bubble was the result of government policies that lowered mortgage-lending standards to increase home ownership. One of the key players was the controversial liberal advocacy group, Acorn (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now).

ACORN was deputized to help write the statutory regulations that set mandates for affordable housing. ACORN further lobbied its congressional heavyweights sitting on banking and finance committees to put pressure on banks, to force them to accept unsound loans.

...As a result of congressional and regulatory actions, the percentage of conventional first mortgages (not guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration or the Veteran's Administration) used to purchase a home with the borrower putting 5% or less down tripled from 9% in 1991 to 27% in 1995, eventually reaching 29% in 2007.
Fannie and Freddie acquired $1.2 trillion of loans from banks and other lenders from 1993 to 2007. This amounted to 62% of all such conventional home purchase loans with a down payment of 5% or less that were originated nationwide over the same period.

Fannie and Freddie also acquired $2.2 trillion in subprime loans and private securities backed by subprime loans from 1997 to 2007. Acorn and the other advocacy groups succeeded at getting Congress to mandate "innovative and flexible" lending practices such as higher debt ratios and creative definitions of income. And the serious delinquency rate on Fannie and Freddie's $1.5 trillion in high-risk loans was 10.3% as of Sept. 30, 2009.

This is about seven times the delinquency rate on the GSEs' traditional loans. Fifty percent of the high-risk loans are estimated to be CRA loans, with much of the remainder useful to the GSEs in meeting their affordable-housing goals.

The flood of CRA and affordable-housing loans with loosened underwriting standards, combined with declining mortgage interest rates—to 5% in 2003 from 10% in early 1991—resulted in a massive increase in borrowing capacity and fueled a house price bubble of unprecedented magnitude over the period 1997-2006.

Now this history may repeat itself as many of the same community groups are pushing Congress to expand CRA to cover all mortgage lenders, credit unions, insurance companies and others financial industry segments. Are we about to set the stage for another catastrophe? _WSJ

It is not a question of "if", but of "when" history will repeat itself. Most of the same idiots are sitting on the same banking committees, in positions of even more power to force the banks to do their will -- now that they have "bailed out" the banks once.

President Obama has long and close ties to ACORN. ACORN helped put Obama in the White House, so he will find it difficult to deny the quasi-criminal organisation anything it asks for.

If that means being complicit in blowing up another housing bubble-within-a-bubble, and initiating yet another economic crisis, well, there's still a former president who can be blamed. The current clown president's core constituency will believe anything the green rookie says. If he tells them __it is peanut butter, they will gobble it right up.

Implications of International Climate Treaties

Americans have elected a President who is eager to please multiple international interests -- sometimes even at the expense of US national interests and security. If Americans fail to exert the necessary oversight of this President's (and this Congress') actions, their children and grandchildren will suffer the consequences.

It may already be too late for Europe, but not for Canada and Oceania.

Pay attention.

H/T Anthony Watts

Government Workers Get Paid Even When No One Else Does

Image via Economist

...many are disturbed by the expansion of government that followed the crash. Voters particularly dislike the way the state is using their money to reward deadbeats, says Mr Brooks. They themselves work hard and live within their means. They see their neighbour, who borrowed more than he could afford to buy a fancy house, getting a bail-out to save him from the consequences of his own poor judgment. They see reckless bankers getting bailed out too, and the ill-managed carmakers of Detroit likewise. And they resent it.

...they can see that one group of Americans has been practically unaffected by the recession: government employees. Their hours have not been cut, their benefits are gold-plated and they are almost impossible to sack. In good times, few Americans notice these things, but in bad times, the disparity grates. Cops and firefighters can retire in their 40s and draw defined-benefit pensions for life. With overtime, one tenth of the police in Massachusetts made more than the governor’s annual salary in 2006, according to the Boston Globe. Including benefits, the average employee of New York City makes more than $100,000, according to Forbes, while some Californian prison guards “sock away $300,000 a year”.

And what do taxpayers get for their generosity?... Union contracts force the postal service to pay thousands of unneeded workers to do nothing. In New York, public-school teachers who can’t be trusted to teach but can’t be sacked either are paid to sit and do crosswords.

.....Most Americans admire firemen, teachers and cops. They like receiving government benefits, too. And roughly half of them will pay no federal income tax at all this year. The problem is that this is not sustainable. During his election campaign, Mr Obama promised not to raise taxes on anyone except the rich, but with the deficit so vast, the question is not whether he will break this promise but when.__Economist

The bankrupt US media has actively ignored the simmering discontent of the American taxpayers and unemployed, during the continuing Obama depression. But there is a limit to how long the skank media can keep the lid on this pressure cooker. When hundreds of thousands of protestors stormed Washington DC September 12, 2009, to protest government spending and taxation -- the media could not be bothered to cover the story. When last weekend a few thousand gay and lesbian protestors walked around the US capital, it was headlined in all the media as a "huge protest."

It is becoming a race between the US government and the US media to see which can self-destruct the soonest.

Obama Denied Nobel Prize in Economics

In a decision as shocking as Friday's surprise peace prize win, President Obama failed to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Monday. _Marketwatch

US President Barack Obama had hoped to win two more Nobel prizes this year -- in economics and in literature.The prize for literature, alas, went to German Herta Muller ("I never heard of her", said Obama). The economics prize went to Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson.

Ostrom, a political-science professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, is the first woman to win the prize in economics, which was established in 1968.

Her work "has challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be completely privatized or regulated by central authorities," the academy said.

Williamson, professor emeritus at the University of California Berkeley, has developed a theory where business firms serve as structures for conflict resolution.

Their work over the last three decades has "advanced economic governance research from the fringe to the forefront of scientific attention," the academy said. _Marketwatch

So far, the Nobel Prize Committee has refused to explain itself. Of course Obama and most of his close followers (O.Z. s) believe that a single Nobel Prize does not adequately represent Obama's achievements -- let alone his potential.

It is possible that this apparent misstep by the committee was actually intentional. Perhaps the committee intends to award Mr. Obama a single Nobel prize for each year he is in the White House. This approach would make more sense politically, since every active US President needs extra support this time of year -- just before elections. Such a more conservative year by year parceling of prizes to Obama may actually work in his political favour.

You may wonder what other prizes Obama might qualify for besides Peace, Literature, and Economics? Relax. It's not exactly clear that Mr. Obama qualifies for those three, let alone any of the others. When it comes to politics, qualifications simply do not signify.