heding the Bush call to spend money here and stimulate the economy: WashPo
With the dollar near its lowest rate ever against the euro and the numbers of international tourists in New York at all-time highs, some store owners figure accepting the euro offers a convenience to customers and sometimes generates a stockpile of a strong currency for themselves.
Leroy began accepting euros after a buying trip to a Paris flea market in November, when the exchange rate meant he couldn’t afford to purchase his usual volume of dressers, mirrors and wax figurines. This is his way to raise euros back home.
“European customers are here, buying apartments, and when they’re buying apartments, they’re here buying furniture for the apartments,” said Leroy, in his shop, smoking a cigar. “This weekend, 50 percent of my customers were European.”
The precipitous fall of the dollar — currently one euro is worth nearly $1.50 — has already changed the city.
Last year, the weak currency helped draw 8.5 million foreign visitors to New York, more than ever before, said George Fertitta, chief executive of NYC & Co., the city’s tourism operation, and what they have been buying is as varied as lingerie and condominiums. Tourists generated $28 billion in spending last year and supported more than 350,000 jobs, and Europeans represent the largest group of foreign visitors, he said.
LONDON (The Times) Feb. 23, 2008 – The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined.
…
From the unhealthy brew of emergency funding, multiple sets of books, and chronic underestimates of the resources required to prosecute the war, we have attempted to identify how much we have been spending – and how much we will, in the end, likely have to spend. The figure we arrive at is more than $3 trillion.
.
War profitering! Besides Blackwater and Halliburton, there are many others like the Exxon, Shell and BP. Let us not forget Rumsfeld’s protegé’s Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas J. Feith, also here. It would be similar to hiring Hitler’s generals and adjudants post WWII to help rebuild Europe.
We don’t raise taxes, however fuel and food prices are rising proportionately to Bush’s foreign policy and the everlasting WOT rethoric.
“..however fuel and food prices are rising proportionately..”
Don’t forget that skyrocketing prices for food & fuel, both gasoline & home heating, aren’t included in the criminally deceptive “Core Inflation” that’s used to determine cost of living increases for wage earners and those on Social Security.
What’s happening with the cost of food is downright scary, and I’m not even on a fixed income. I can’t wait for the gardening season to get here because things have gotten so expensive. And this year, we’re going to be doing a better job of freezing stuff for the winter months.
OT, but I’m going to put up a Knit-a-palooza this afternoon-ish (I got too busy over the weekend). Are you ready?
I’ll get my camera going! Sweater is finished and the sock is coming along.
On food prices, we’ve had a fair amount of luck at the local Kroger store shopping the Manager’s Specials. They mark down the packaged salads, mushrooms, etc. a couple days before they go off date and they’re often cheaper than a head of lettuce. Ditto with meat, cheese and, occasionally, the prepared foods. Other than that, we shop sales & use coupons – stocking up on good deals of things we know that we’ll use. The deer ate our garden last summer – and we’re in a residential area just outside of a village!
Last night while reading about old Ralph, I came across a statement that said it all about the egomaniac. In 2000, while running on the GREEN party ticket, Ralph prevented Al Gore from becoming the greenest president in history. Does he still get his funding from right wingers?
Here’s a little piece, but the whole article is pretty short and worth reading if you haven’t already seen it:
Dan Kennedy, a media critic who teaches at Northeastern University, has followed the site from its inception. What Talking Points Memo does, he said, “is a different kind of journalism, based on the idea that my readers know more than I do.”
Writing on a blog for his journalism students, Mr. Kennedy called the announcement of the Polk award “a landmark day for a certain kind of journalism.” Talking Points Memo, he said, “relentlessly kept a spotlight on what other news organizations were uncovering and watched patterns emerge that weren’t necessarily visible to those covering just a small piece of the story.”
He added, “This is crowd sourcing — reporting based on the work of many people, including your readers.”
the netroots are pushing the traditional media…hard:
A few morsels of bad news that emerged over the weekend:
1.The Pulitzer Prize-winning Albuquerque Tribune closed shop after Saturday’s paper. The E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP) newspaper had been around since 1922. However, circulation had dropped to less than a quarter of where it was 20 years ago.
2.Time Warner’s (NYSE: TWX) Time Inc. magazine arm will lay off more of its workers this quarter.
3. Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of New York Times (NYSE: NYT) to sell.
Heathrow Airport is investigating a significant security lapse after four Greenpeace protesters succeeded in climbing on the roof of an aircraft which had just landed from a domestic flight from Manchester.
Greenpeace says that the protesters, two male and two female, climbed on top of the fuselage of the British Airways Boeing 777 flight at 9.45am. Greenpeace described the demonstration as an “incredible security breach”.
In what they said was a protest at a third runway to be planned for Heathrow, the demonstrators unfurled a huge banner on the aircraft tail, saying: “Climate Emergency – No Third Runway.”
there’s an awful lot of weaponry in airports these days, and the ‘gestapo-esque’ attitude of lot’s of the people carrying them is not something l would care to test.
The NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft has identified an intriguing dark feature that may be the site of a past or present lake of liquid hydrocarbons at Titan’s south pole.
According to new Cassini data, Saturns largest moon, Titan, has “hundreds” times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the liquid fossil fuel deposits on Earth. This is impressive as Titan’s 5150 km diameter is only about 50% larger than Earth’s Moon and only a little larger than the planet Mercury. Titan’s hydrocarbons cycle into the atmosphere, fall as rain and collect in lakes creating massive lakes and dunes.
I smell tax cuts for the oil industry so that they can create & build a space industry. As part of the incentive package, NASA will be moved to the Department of Energy.
“I hope you enjoy your meal,” Mr Lapp told delegates during a luncheon. “It is the cheapest one you are going to have at this forum for a while.”
His warning that a strong wave of food inflation is heading towards the world economy was met by nods from agriculture traders, food industry executives and western’s government officials at the USDA’s annual Agricultural Outlook Forum.
Larry Pope, chief executive of Smithfield Foods, the largest US pork processor, warned delegates of a wave of “real food inflation” just at the time central banks were under pressure to cut interest rates.
“I think we need to tell the American consumer that [prices] are going up,” he said. “We’re seeing cost increases that we’ve never seen in our business.”
The comments highlighted one of the conference’s main concerns – that rising agricultural prices have reached a stage at which the impact will be felt not only on fresh food but will also filter through the supply chain and raise the cost of processed food.
Tom Knutzen, chief executive of Danisco, one of the world’s largest ingredients companies, said rising vegetable oil costs made it more expensive to produce preservatives, colourings and flavourings.””
(African Future) Feb. 20, 2008 – Uproar is slowly spreading among African civil society organisations and scientists, fearing that the biofuel revolution will bring more food insecurity, higher food prices and hunger to the continent. A petition calling for a “moratorium on new agrofuel developments in Africa” has so far been signed by over 30 NGOs all over the continent.
Biofuels have already revolutionised agriculture in the US, Brazil and parts of Asia, and if EU energy commitments are lived up to, soon will do so in Europe. Now, foreign investors are queuing at African government offices to realise giant biofuel projects on this fertile continent, promising a new “green revolution”, greater independence from the oil market and even fuel export possibilities. And they are successful. So successful that the petitioners fear a quick negative impact on African food security, which is already endangered by rising world market prices for basic foods.
Ethanol is a dumb idea, it uses fossil fuel in production provides less btu/octane. Also is corrosive – damages vehicles fuel injection system meaning every 6 months or so needs to be replaced.
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai police have put out an all-points bulletin for used cooking oil to fuel its patrol fleet as ballooning oil prices eat away the annual crime-fighting budget.
Anyone is welcome to contribute a source for biodiesel, from large food processing plants to roadside fried banana stalls.
“Thai police in the globalised world must have one hand holding pistols and arresting crooks and the other hand making biodiesel,” Lieutenant-Colonel Tepvisit Potigengrit, head of a biofuel project at a Bangkok police station told Reuters.
nearly 20 years on from disaster, and 14 years after the verdict itself; originally $5b but reduced to $2.5b, the case has finally wound it’s way thru the legal morass to the supreme court:
Exxon Oil Spill Case May Get Closure
In the time span of the battle — 14 years after the verdict, nearly two decades since the spill itself — claimants’ lawyers say there is a new statistic to add to the grim legacy of the disaster in Prince William Sound: Nearly 20 percent of the 33,000 fishermen, Native Alaskans, cannery workers and others who triumphed in court that day are dead.
“That’s the most upsetting thing, that more than 6,000 people have passed and this still isn’t finished,” said Mike Webber, a Native Alaskan artistic carver and former fisherman in the Prince William Sound community of Cordova. “Our sound is not healthy, and neither are the people. Everything is still on the surface, just as it was.”
“The bottom line,” said Tim Joyce, the mayor of Cordova, where half of the town’s 2,400 full-time residents are parties to the suit, “is that there is still oil on the beaches. And this lawsuit still isn’t finished.”
The high court is scheduled to hear arguments on Wednesday on whether punishment is excessive or even permitted under maritime law. The case, Exxon Shipping v. Baker, may turn, in the eyes of the justices, on a nearly 200-year-old precedent set when privateer ships sailed the oceans, or on the more recent provisions of the Clean Water Act….
…When the jury awarded $5 billion in 1994, that represented a year of Exxon profits. An appeals court subsequently reduced the damages to $2.5 billion — “about three weeks of Exxon’s current net profits,” the plaintiffs told the Supreme Court in their brief.
“I’m a capitalist, I’m a conservative Republican, I am pro-development and pro-industry,” said Palin, who is herself a former commercial fisherman once party to the suit. “But consider what Exxon has made in terms of profits in all these years. The American judicial system came down with this judgment, and they’ve appealed and they’ve appealed and they’ve appealed.”…
that was my initial reaction as well. upon further thought though, alito’s recusal puts an interesting twist on it.
that leaves an interesting dynamic with an evenly divided court, 4 v. 4. scalia, roberts and thomas aren’t going to cross over…so, will the liberals stand firm?…who’s the critical swing vote?
it may not be as predictable and clear cut as it would have been had alito been hearing the case. of course, who knows what goes on in private in the chambers.
LIMA (Reuters) – A circular plaza built 5,500 years ago has been discovered in Peru, and archeologists involved in the dig said on Monday carbon dating shows it is one of the oldest structures ever found in the Americas.
A team of Peruvian and German archeologists uncovered the plaza, which was hidden beneath another piece of architecture at the ruins known as Sechin Bajo, in Casma, 229 miles north of Lima, the capital. – linkage
LONGYEARBYEN, Norway – It’s been dubbed a Noah’s Ark for plant life and built to withstand an earthquake or a nuclear attack.
Dug deep into the permafrost of a remote Arctic mountain, the “doomsday” vault is designed by Norway to protect the world’s seeds from global catastrophe.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a backup to the world’s 1,400 other seed banks, was to be officially inaugurated in a ceremony Tuesday on the northern rim of civilization attended by about 150 guests from 33 countries.
The operation is financed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which was founded by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and Biodiversity International, a Rome-based research group
heding the Bush call to spend money here and stimulate the economy: WashPo
Too bad it’s because our own currency is so weak.
.
LONDON (The Times) Feb. 23, 2008 – The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined.
…
From the unhealthy brew of emergency funding, multiple sets of books, and chronic underestimates of the resources required to prosecute the war, we have attempted to identify how much we have been spending – and how much we will, in the end, likely have to spend. The figure we arrive at is more than $3 trillion.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
That is just criminal.
From a budget surplus in the Clinton years to a war-based deficit of that proportion. Unbelievable.
.
War profitering! Besides Blackwater and Halliburton, there are many others like the Exxon, Shell and BP. Let us not forget Rumsfeld’s protegé’s Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas J. Feith, also here. It would be similar to hiring Hitler’s generals and adjudants post WWII to help rebuild Europe.
We don’t raise taxes, however fuel and food prices are rising proportionately to Bush’s foreign policy and the everlasting WOT rethoric.
The Cheney-Rumsfeld Cabal Deception
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
“..however fuel and food prices are rising proportionately..”
Don’t forget that skyrocketing prices for food & fuel, both gasoline & home heating, aren’t included in the criminally deceptive “Core Inflation” that’s used to determine cost of living increases for wage earners and those on Social Security.
What’s happening with the cost of food is downright scary, and I’m not even on a fixed income. I can’t wait for the gardening season to get here because things have gotten so expensive. And this year, we’re going to be doing a better job of freezing stuff for the winter months.
OT, but I’m going to put up a Knit-a-palooza this afternoon-ish (I got too busy over the weekend). Are you ready?
I’ll get my camera going! Sweater is finished and the sock is coming along.
On food prices, we’ve had a fair amount of luck at the local Kroger store shopping the Manager’s Specials. They mark down the packaged salads, mushrooms, etc. a couple days before they go off date and they’re often cheaper than a head of lettuce. Ditto with meat, cheese and, occasionally, the prepared foods. Other than that, we shop sales & use coupons – stocking up on good deals of things we know that we’ll use. The deer ate our garden last summer – and we’re in a residential area just outside of a village!
Ralph Nader is up to his same old crap again?
Dude, give it up. Go get an ego massage somewhere else, please.
Last night while reading about old Ralph, I came across a statement that said it all about the egomaniac. In 2000, while running on the GREEN party ticket, Ralph prevented Al Gore from becoming the greenest president in history. Does he still get his funding from right wingers?
about Josh Marshall’s Polk Award: NYT
Here’s a little piece, but the whole article is pretty short and worth reading if you haven’t already seen it:
good on josh marshall and TPM.
the netroots are pushing the traditional media…hard:
l wonder how the WSJ is fairing under rupert’s leadership?
.
Heathrow Airport is investigating a significant security lapse after four Greenpeace protesters succeeded in climbing on the roof of an aircraft which had just landed from a domestic flight from Manchester.
Greenpeace says that the protesters, two male and two female, climbed on top of the fuselage of the British Airways Boeing 777 flight at 9.45am. Greenpeace described the demonstration as an “incredible security breach”.
In what they said was a protest at a third runway to be planned for Heathrow, the demonstrators unfurled a huge banner on the aircraft tail, saying: “Climate Emergency – No Third Runway.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Nice.
Good thing they didn’t do it here, they’d probably be rendered to Gitmo.
…if they were fortunate enough to survive.
there’s an awful lot of weaponry in airports these days, and the ‘gestapo-esque’ attitude of lot’s of the people carrying them is not something l would care to test.
.
The NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft has identified an intriguing dark feature that may be the site of a past or present lake of liquid hydrocarbons at Titan’s south pole.
According to new Cassini data, Saturns largest moon, Titan, has “hundreds” times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the liquid fossil fuel deposits on Earth. This is impressive as Titan’s 5150 km diameter is only about 50% larger than Earth’s Moon and only a little larger than the planet Mercury. Titan’s hydrocarbons cycle into the atmosphere, fall as rain and collect in lakes creating massive lakes and dunes.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
I smell tax cuts for the oil industry so that they can create & build a space industry. As part of the incentive package, NASA will be moved to the Department of Energy.
Simultaneous with the unfolding financial meltdown is the next Crisis – It’s more serious than we’d like to believe. Count on it.
Worldwide Famine: it will surely affect everyone. Everyone unless you live on a farm. As the man said:
Pity the next president. We’ll need another FDR.
.
(African Future) Feb. 20, 2008 – Uproar is slowly spreading among African civil society organisations and scientists, fearing that the biofuel revolution will bring more food insecurity, higher food prices and hunger to the continent. A petition calling for a “moratorium on new agrofuel developments in Africa” has so far been signed by over 30 NGOs all over the continent.
Biofuels have already revolutionised agriculture in the US, Brazil and parts of Asia, and if EU energy commitments are lived up to, soon will do so in Europe. Now, foreign investors are queuing at African government offices to realise giant biofuel projects on this fertile continent, promising a new “green revolution”, greater independence from the oil market and even fuel export possibilities. And they are successful. So successful that the petitioners fear a quick negative impact on African food security, which is already endangered by rising world market prices for basic foods.
Colonization and terra nullius
● Brazil and ethanol production
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
Bio-fuels and ethanol two of the culprits.
Ethanol is a dumb idea, it uses fossil fuel in production provides less btu/octane. Also is corrosive – damages vehicles fuel injection system meaning every 6 months or so needs to be replaced.
some savings, huh!
.
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai police have put out an all-points bulletin for used cooking oil to fuel its patrol fleet as ballooning oil prices eat away the annual crime-fighting budget.
Anyone is welcome to contribute a source for biodiesel, from large food processing plants to roadside fried banana stalls.
“Thai police in the globalised world must have one hand holding pistols and arresting crooks and the other hand making biodiesel,” Lieutenant-Colonel Tepvisit Potigengrit, head of a biofuel project at a Bangkok police station told Reuters.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
ridicule pole: mike webber
nearly 20 years on from disaster, and 14 years after the verdict itself; originally $5b but reduced to $2.5b, the case has finally wound it’s way thru the legal morass to the supreme court:
this case has been reviewed 5 times in 14 years, and justice alito, who owns exxon stock, has recused himself from the case…whata guy.
any bets on the outcome?
I’m betting that Exxon will receive the fruits of Bushco’s SCOTUS labors…sealed with kisses from Scalia, Roberts, and Thomas.
that was my initial reaction as well. upon further thought though, alito’s recusal puts an interesting twist on it.
that leaves an interesting dynamic with an evenly divided court, 4 v. 4. scalia, roberts and thomas aren’t going to cross over…so, will the liberals stand firm?…who’s the critical swing vote?
it may not be as predictable and clear cut as it would have been had alito been hearing the case. of course, who knows what goes on in private in the chambers.
Thanks for the archeology news. Always interesting.
.
LONGYEARBYEN, Norway – It’s been dubbed a Noah’s Ark for plant life and built to withstand an earthquake or a nuclear attack.
Dug deep into the permafrost of a remote Arctic mountain, the “doomsday” vault is designed by Norway to protect the world’s seeds from global catastrophe.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a backup to the world’s 1,400 other seed banks, was to be officially inaugurated in a ceremony Tuesday on the northern rim of civilization attended by about 150 guests from 33 countries.
The operation is financed by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which was founded by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and Biodiversity International, a Rome-based research group
Beware of the polar bear
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."