Now all they need to do is corner the market on drinkable water and breathable air. Seems like some fuckjack was actually talking about that just a year or two ago — Carl Icahn? Rupert Murdoch? They all look the same to me.

I’m holding out for a Pulitzer Prize for the crack team of political reporters who broke the Obama Bowling Score scandal. That’s a prize that’ll have to be split – what? – 56 ways?

Commodities and a price spiral? Let ‘s talk about i…
Hey, look!!!
Rev. Wright, Obama’s Muslim father, you know the guy who heads Obama’s Muslim Christian Church, just said something.
What? Oh, who has time…
Because, wait! Hillary’s about to…
No! Burma just missed another close shave with a cyclone….
China….
Appeasement….

Wait! Let’s focus, media. That poor white teenage girl is still missing in Bermuda! Where’s the coverage of THAT!

Our MSM – PRAVDA was held to higher journalistic standards….

Kaplan,
Obama may have lost the bowler’s. But, you gotta admit, he won over the pool players!
“The party’s no longer ‘split!’ Hillary’s behind the Eight-ball'” now!”

Just practicing for my Pulitzer Prize award at headline writing….

I highly recommend this Nation article on how free market reforms forced on the third world by the IMF/WB/WTO contributed to the food crisis.

As a side note, ever notice how the food crisis is basically being completly ignored by the right-wing blogs and pundits? Don’t ever tell me that they give a shit about the suffering of the third wold. They’d rather discuss Obama’s flag pin or whatever.

The people predicting things like peak oil and resource wars said that there will be/is a huge run-up in prices as nations are affected by the crises. First they will profit hugely, then they will be forced to bid ever-higher prices for scarce goods. The pessimists said a later, major step will be reached when resources are simiply too expensive to ship all over the world.

The next step then is the collapse of multi-naitonal conglomerates, no longer able to pass on their expenses. Goods will no longer be shipped over oceans, and multi-nationals will be forced to devolve as food, ferilizer, oil, and plastics become to expensive for people to afford.

I mean, it’s not bad enough that I missed Michael Medved’s delightfully Herrenvolkisch screed about the superiority of American DNA

I’d just like to announce that I really, really, REALLY hate pop genetics.

Anywhere, where the hell is the Pantload to call Michael Medved a liberal?

It turns out, if you dig through enough obscure news sources like Senate subcommitte reports or evil communist trade rags, you can find bits and pieces of a story that, if combined with some decent investigative journalism, would probably yield a story about how the same guys at Enron who were behind the rolling blackouts in California a few years ago are now thinking bigger, and have stuck their botom-feeding jaws into the international wealth streams that are the world’s food and oil supplies.

This really is a hard story to pursue.

Two nights ago I was talking to a friend, who does some work in this area with the UN, and he was adamant that market speculation is NOT the whole problem with food shortages and prices. Definitely part of the problem, he said, but only part.

The issue is two-fold – there really are fundamentals in the food and oil markets that are leading to price increases. In the case of food, diversion of food sources to other production, such as ethanol/bio-fuel and feeding livestock for increased meat demand in China and India, is a factor. In the case of oil, increasing demand combined with lower and harder to find/exploit resources is a major factor.

That’s the first fold. The second fold is that when there is increased demand for resouces, or when resources become scarcer, speculators see an opportunity to make money and drive up prices.

Some of that is a natural market response. And, no doubt, some of what we’re seeing now is due to market manipulation of the Enron variety by some speculators.

All of those factors are pushing up prices, which obscures whatever manipulation is occuring, since the prices are leading in that direction anyway. And that makes it harder to determine where the manipulation is taking place, and who the bad actors are.

It doesn’t absolve the media from reporting on it, but one can see how it would be challenging to isolate the good guys / bad guys angle from all of the other factors that are in play.

Ultimately, though, all of this needs more reporting because there are major decisions and initiatives that need to take place regarding distribution, the allocation of resources, and policies to prevent, criminalize, investigate, and prosecute, profiteering and market manipulation of resources that people need for survival.

.

I’m in the middle of teaching the Great Depression, and I have my students doing an activity where they watch the news at night and keep track on an index card of every time they hear a news story that sounds similar to the things they have learned about in class as having helped cause the depression.

Needless to say, they’re getting something of a surprise.

What’s driving me crazy at this point is that we are just standing by and letting it happen. We’re telling ourselves that “the war” is driving up the price of gas, when even a brief look at the cycles of severity in the Iraq war compared to the cycles of price increases on gas show no real correlation. We’re completely ignoring stories like this, which deal with how poor Haitians are being driven to eat dirt, for the love of Pete.

The blindness that industrialized nations are currently displaying is shocking as hell. I’m constantly reminded of Marx talking about how history reapeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. We’re walking straight into another global economic crisis, just like we did the first time. Except this time, it has a slapstick soundtrack to it.

U.S. to Saudis: “We sure would like it if you inceased production to lower gas prices, old pal, old friend. Our drones are freakin’ out just before the election.”
Saudis to U.S.: “No, old friend.”

Saudis: However, while we are discussing energy, we would like to have nuclear power.
US: Nuclear power? But the only reason an oil-rich country would need nuclear technology is for weapons! Besides, nuclear power is water intensive and…
Saudis: Please?
US: Well… ok. Sure we can’t have more oil?
Saudis: I wish there was something we could do.
US: And you promise you won’t use it for weapons?
Saudis: Promise.

I had the exact same thought about a week ago. Exactly.

“This all seems very familiar. What if…naaah.”

and i though we were so enthralled by hedda hopper’s um chris matthews take on the gossip

one big frigging gossip machine

JGabriel – that was a good synopsis of what is going on. The “speculators” are only a small bit of the problem. Say what you like about Krugman, but he made a good point this week (paraphrasing since I am too lazy to link to it): France has roughly half the per capita oil consumption of the US and Paris does not look like the set of the Road Warrior. The point is that conservation and the development of real alternatives to fossil fuels is the key – not ethanol, sorry. Trying to solve this problem from the supply side is not going to work.

Scientific American had a fantastic cover story back in January (I think) about large development and deployment of solar power, including timelines, economic analysis etc. A real forward thinking, far-reaching solution to the energy problem for the US. Cost? $400 billion over the next 30 years. A pittance if you think about it. Mustering the political will and fighting the entrenched energy establishment will be far more difficult than raising the money.

I would estimate that out of the $125/bbl price of crude right now, the underlying fundamentals are by far the biggest component. Unrest in the Middle East and speculation probably make up the remainder of it. The demand from China, India and SE Asia is off the charts. Even coal exports are way up. Normally, you would not think of coal as an exportable commodity, but it is being shipped out of the US at 6 times the rate relative to year ago, at record prices.

But didn’t you know that socialism is evil because of the Great Famine??

But didn’t you know that socialism is evil because of the Great Famine??

The great thing about the free market is there’s no single person to blame.

“Free” being in scare quotes and so forth.

It has to do with the current crazy price spiral the world is going through on essential commodities like food… I think the rise of wingnuts has been a major factor in the rising cost of food. Jonah Pantsload is personally responsible for the logarithmic increase in the price of Cheetos.

What’s driving me crazy at this point is that we are just standing by and letting it happen.

Ding Ding Ding.

Here we have a winner.

Isn’t it interesting that our media and politicians have collectively developed a set of taboos, topics that are simply NOT to be mentioned, let alone discussed. Things like an unsustainable economy, an INSANE amount of military spending, reduction of longterm R&D to near zero, etc. Instead they must talk about optimistic growth scenarios and pretend that the entire tottering tower of debt and economic three-card-monte can continue forever. The greatest example is John McCain seriously advocating another 2 TRILLION dollars in tax cuts.

It seems that we can’t even have a serious dialog about increasing domestic spending programs, to be offset with reduced spending internationally, on wars, military bases, occupations, huge embassies, etc.

Nope. Not only is the car headed for the cliff, but the driver isn’t paying attention. He’s watching a DVD of “It’s a Wonderful Life”….

mikey

I missed Michael Medved’s delightfully Herrenvolkisch screed about the superiority of American DNA…

It’s another Medved masterpiece! Residents of the United States are genetically designed for predatory capitalism. Any attempt to change that system is a perverse betrayal of our most fundamental nature. Oh, and one other thing… the superiority of American DNA does not extend to black people, who inherently just don’t measure up.

Medved’s largely basing this slop on a pop-science book by Peter C. Whybrow. The book sounds like jive to me, though I’ve never read it, but in fairness to the author he evidently directly contradicts Medved. One of the Whybrow’s main theme seems to be that our economic system is tearing the country apart by encouraging “rampant greed spawning the addictions of consumer culture” and needs to radically altered.

In other words, Medved took a book that seems pretty questionable to begin with and then willfully completely lied about what the author actually wrote in order to promote racism. What a guy.

Why do you want to make me cry, Jillian?

Jillian, I am shocked and appalled!…shocked and appalled I tell you. That you have the nerve to cast aspersions on the inherent goodness of our corporate overlords.

No more soylent green for you!

Excellent, Jillian. And these things don’t happen in a vacuum or by accident; they are enabled:

From here:
Many farmers say the price problems stem from a surge in investment fund activity. Investment funds have been in commodities for decades but a key rule change by the CFTC [Commodities Futures Trading Commission] a couple of years ago helped open the floodgates. The commission gave index funds an exemption to limits on commodity trading that applied to market speculators. The change meant the funds were treated like farmers and food processors, who are also exempt.

Wheat contracts, securitized mortgages, oil futures, all the same problem. There is nothing the Wall Street parasites’ voracious maws won’t consume and destroy, courtesy of their enablers (and beneficiaries) in government.

JGabriel brings up a good point, though.

I don’t think the ENTIRE disaster that is the global commodities market can be blamed on speculators driving up prices. However, they are certainly a part of the perfect storm we’re watching develop.

I also suspect that the collapse of the housing bubble has something to do with the timing on this – although I admit I haven’t found anything yet to back up my suspicions. I used to occasionally watch “Flip This House” with a mixture of amusement and outrage, because I would’ve bet a week’s pay that this would happen.

Not that I think global equity firms were buying up repossessed properties in Detroit and fixing them up in the hopes of a quick profit. Nope – that was being done by a bunch of yuppie yahoos, and I sincerely hope that every single one of them gets caught in the housing collapse, loses their life savings in it, and then catches a nasty venereal disease to go with it. But the Bear Sterns of the world were the ones inventing new and more fiendishly clever mortgage derivatives to trade, and now that the housing market is gone, these sharks have to find something else to throw their ill-gotten billions at in the hopes of a quick profit. So, I suspect that the money that was being thrown into the housing market is now being thrown into oil and corn futures instead.

But what do I know? I’m just a high school social studies teacher.

After all, it’s not like corporate controlled American media interests would allow a story about corporate malfeasance fall through the cracks – would they?

Hau hau hau!

Anyone have the thigh-high waders needed to go see what Malkin’s saying about Teddy Kennedy?

I imagine she’s emitting dophin-like squeaks and chirps of joy. If only she had the brains of one….

“dolphin”

Did someone mention water privatization? That little experiment has been ongoing for ten years, and Canada, bless it’s shrivelled little soul, supports and financially contributes to the Private-Public Infrastructure Advisory Facility, a World Bank division that promotes turning water into a commodity and privatizing water services in low income countries. Last April business and government leaders in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico met to discuss bulk water exports. According to the Council of Canadians, they had a “closed-door meeting as part of a larger discussion on North American integration. Titled the ‘North American Future 2025 Project,’ the initiative calls for a series of ‘closed-door meetings’ on North American integration dealing with a number of highly contentious issues including bulk water exports, a joint security perimeter and a continental resource pact.”

Water, like air, is a necessity of human life. It is also, according to Fortune magazine, “One of the world’s great business opportunities. It promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th.”

In the past ten years, three giant global corporations have quietly assumed control over the water supplied to almost 300 million people in every continent of the world. A 12-month investigation by journalists in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America shows that the results range from questionable to disastrous. And it shows how well-meaning municipal governments in the U.S. and Canada can become vulnerable to the persuasive techniques of these high-powered corporate giants.

I call bullshit on “well-meaning, vulnerable” governments. That is CRAP. Any government that hands water and other crucial natural resources to corporations to manage and control is EVIL and needs to be tossed.

Americans are so used to having everything (except the post office) privatized probably don’t realize the difference in quality. Health care is a prime example. Americans have never enjoyed public health care so they have nothing to compare their systems to. But in Canada, where the public sector at one time regulated, managed and controlled health care – as well as hydro, sewage, and transportation, the contrast in quality, safety, and results between the public and private sectors is startling. Health care in particular is tanking badly up here now that governments are privatizing services. Wait times have increased, hospitals and clinics are short on staff, cleaning standards are appalling (infection rates are way up), security is lax, the food is worse, patients are being physically abused, neglected, and people are literally dying while they wait in overcrowded emergency rooms. Citizens can’t get or afford doctors (some of whom are charging extra for services because governments won’t pay them). This NEVER happened prior to private-public partnerships. Never. And us older farts know it because we remember what the health care system was like.

Ugh, I don’t have the stomach to go looking for vulture laughter over TK.

Just remember, these are the exact same people who considered “John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr, where are you now that we need you?” to be the most sickening act of pure hatred ever perpetrated.

The fact is, the government needs to be out of every aspect of my life, especially when the free market will provide any service that is needed. I should be able to negotiate as a free individual with other individuals and corporations for what I require. I am sure I would get a better deal, but the socialists try to say it won’t work. Maybe we need to try it, and if you on the eleite out of touch coasts will not, here in the heartland we will,.

In the event anyone needs a laugh today (and why wouldn’t you?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT3xtXtJarw

Warning: not safe for delicate minds or work.

You need better teacher in the Heartland, Gary.

Gary doesn’t care how much people have to pay for gas because he rides his bike to work at the Big Box store.

Jillian – i still think you are overstating the effect of what the speculators are doing. They are probably more the beneficiaries of certain global trends that are causing high prices rather than the source of the high prices. One can look at the recent trends in the societies of the far east and India and see that as these countries become more economically developed, the populations become more “middle class” and therefore consume more. This applies to calories and natural resources with the two linked to a large degree, you need more of the second to produce more of the first. Now throw in the effect of needing a lot of food resources to produce ethanol. All else being equal, prices for basic energy and food commodities are going to increase. There are some smart folks engaged in commodity trading and they exploiting the effect of these trends.

The basic problem in today’s world is that you can’t raise the income and standard of living of hundreds of millions of people in a short period of time and expect the supply side to adjust quickly and catch up. On the bright side, we, in the US, have a lot of slack in our profligate ways and we can get more efficient in a variety of areas. On the not so bright side, I don’t believe it will be an easy road for us to go down to change our ways. People here are too damn spoiled.

What a load of mush. Jillian’s point is corruption, skimming. You are arguing other points.

Your points are incoherent. Prices are rising so people are “exploiting the effect” by engaging “in commodity trading. But there’s no speculation in commodities or oil. Those two statements negate each other.

You also state that all we have to do to end supply problems is supply more goods and “the supply side” will “catch up.” But what about if supply increases further? It’s an obvious problem.

And we end with a moral sermon. Sweet. I can’t wait to be lectured to by people who call themselves after that philosophical and moral giant, Garry Ruppert.

–but what if demand increses–

I can only conclude that – in addition to being heartless in the heartland – Gary is rolling in cash and can afford every expense, no matter how high. I’m curious, Gary, what do you do for a living and how much do you earn?

———————————————–

Btw, folks, the PayPal button is now up on Healing Arts’ site (supporting Haiti), as per Brad’s post.
http://www.healingartmissions.org/Donate.htm

Healing Arts replies – not with a form letter thank you – but personally, engaging dialogue about how you would like the money spent.

Maybe, Brad, this could be a standing link on SN’s site? There are many worthwhile causes but when they come personally recommended and you can count on the money getting to the people, that’s a bonus.

Slick satire you got going there : )

Maybe I misread what she wrote. It seems she is implying that speculators are the primary cause or at least a major factor of the high commodity price environment. If she is saying that, then I am saying that this is an overstatement. It is a common theme in the media to blame the “speculators” for the fix we are in. I never said there was no speculation. Read what I wrote. Speculation is a factor. A smallish one in my opinion. The underlying supply and demand fundamentals are a much bigger problem and the fixes are going to be painful.

The fact is (ha! ha!), we ARE wasteful and profligate as a society. It is not a lecture, it is a statement of fact. I live in Houston for crying out loud. I see it every day.

Lastly, at this point, there are more Gary Ruppert parodies on this site than we could have possibly imagined. Heck, whole threads get hijacked with people making GR jokes. My handle is not in honor the inimitable Gary Ruppert; I simply forgot change back my handle above from one of those marathons last month. Lighten up.

To follow on what Jillian said in her last post: I’ve been arguing (quite persuasively, if you ask me) for months that the root cause of the housing meltdown lies in growing wealth inequality. Too much wealth concentrated in too few hands, belonging to those who cannot possibly spend it all and so instead look for places to invest it and grow it into an even larger amount…even though they can’t possibly spend it all. By the time the “housing boom” was gearing up, all other potential areas of investment within the US had already dried up. Invest in manufacturing? We don’t make anything. Invest in retail or wholesale businesses? Consumers already overburdened with debt aren’t going to be increasing their spending. So all that money rushed into the mortgage market and exerted pressure to relax lending standards. Now that it’s gone tits-up, I’ve no doubt that Jillian is absolutely correct that the same bunch is now trying to pump up the commodities market, and the effect is the same as it was in real estate – prices are being inflated not due to supply and demand, but due to an influx of investment demanding a higher return.

And so it goes, until no one but the few have ANY money at all, at which point it all comes crashing down while the perpetrators stand around, dicks in hand, asking “wha happen?”

This is the glaring flaw in all conservative economic theory and policy, which blithely ignores that, in order for a market economy to flourish, wealth must be widely distributed. Of course in modern conservative economic “theory”, this notion is equal to socialism, so even though in practice it generates the greatest wealth not only for the nation as a whole but also for those who sit at the very pinnacle of the wealth distribution pyramid, it must be rejected and ridiculed. Because you can’t control people as easily if you don’t own them, and that’s worth giving up a little extra wealth for people who already have so much they can’t get rid of it.

The fact is, shalom, gentlemen.

Lesley – I would love to donate to that cause, but the fact is, I have most of my investment banker’s bonus in commodity futures. I am long oil, natural gas, wheat and rice. Donating money to that cause would run counter to my investment strategy.

You might want to rethink that Gary. I hear there’ll be a burst in the commodities bubble. You might want to get a second opinion.

I live in Houston too. It’s a lot like everywhere else, only less public transportation and more strip clubs.

Gary, you’re blathering. Be funny, be insightful, or be gone.

Susan,

You are rather humorless today. Seriously, lighten up. The fact is, I believe your corn flakes reek of urine. Also, I went back near the top of the thread and read your first post and then actually clicked on your blog (probably the only person this month to have done so, you can thank me later). The fact is, “mush” would be a charitable description of your ramblings.

-GMR

And your blog would be…..

The fact is, won’t someone please think of the children? *faints*

Actually, Gary, thanks for mentioning my blog. I have a little tribute to Jonah Goldberg there, as well as some of a radio interview there in which he talks about how much smarter he is than Jon Stewert. I also discuss morality and religion, and put in a gratuitious link to my beloved “League of Extraordinary Bloggers.”

It’s been great fun so far, and I hope to explore more about Authoritarianism in politics and life, and insult a whole lot of wingers. Drop by any time. I’ve been sharpening my knives.

Gary Marvolo Ruppert…now with more poo smell than the original Gary Ruppert.

The fact is, I liked that bit on your blog about Doughy. He really is pretty delusional. That was pretty good, although ragging him now for that book feels a bit like yesterday’s news.

In other news, Mark Steyn has a letter to the editor in the current issue of Harper’s attempting to refute some assertions made about him and his views in an article from a couple of months back ridiculing the wingnut stance that the Muslims are taking over Europe and the West.

Ragging the Doughy One will never get old.

I can haz fact is?

‘Control the oil and you’ll control the nations; control the food and you’ll control the people.’ — Henry Kissinger (1970)

I get super paranoid when I start reading about genetic seed monopolies and the people behind this doomesday vault.

Jonah Pantsload is personally responsible for the logarithmic increase in the price of Cheetos.

And Rush Limbaugh is responsible for the major increase in methane gas emissions.

The seven year metldown watch continues, I see. For some analysis, check out Canada’s Kate McMillan, who skewers the whol notion of the liberal fearmongering, at Small Dead Animals. Hey maybe you libs will learn something..!

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/008700.html#comments

On a brighter note, someone forwarded me a mass-email of “How multiculturalism is killing America”.

I responded by quoting the last line (“If we don’t get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire, and destroy everything in its path, especially the American Dream”), along with the date the email was first widely circulated on the tubes: June 16, 2005. Because, really, what’s been the most destructive element in these last three years, preventing people from achieving the American dream, if not immigrants?

I’ve always thought American DNA was special too. Judging from those here now, every child molester, pervert, parasite, fat pig, wanna-be capitalist, snake-oil salesman, wife-beater, religious wackjob, douchbag, or just general low-life, etc. who was able to leave Europe one step ahead of the sheriiff, lynch mob, or just neighbors tired of the howls of agony coming from the children next-door ended up here. How much you wanna bet Medved’s ancestor’s neighbors took up a collection to get all the ur-Medveds out of the shtetl?

Hunter said, For some analysis, check out Canada’s [neoconservative rag Small Dead Animals] …maybe you libs will learn something..!

Like, “The New York Times link to me yesterday […] generated one-fifth of the traffic I normally get from a link from Small Dead Animals.” Kathy Shaidle

Woohoo, Kathy Shaidle, linked to and endorsed by another wingnut Canadian. That’s some credibility right there.

Thanks for the laffs!

If you haven’t read it, ‘Not on the Label’ is a very good book about the conentration of control of the international food supply into fewer and fewer hands. It also delves into what exactly is in the food we eat and how it is produced.

The book foresees a time in the not too distant future where about a half dozen people will own all the food in the world.

Kind of like what’s happened to media…

Oh yeah, SDA, Canada’s redneck, knee-jerk, echo chamber. “Let’s kill al lthe Muzzies, there is no climate change, guns are good, social programs are bad…blah blah blah….” Every now and then there’s a good post but I stopped reading iSDA quite awhile ago.

What kills me about all this superficial partisanship is that nobody is all wrong or all right all the time. Being knee-jerk about issues, to me, just indicates a shallow mind.

And I’m a conservative in outlook. As in, conserve…not as in being a bigoted, religiomaniacal, hang-em-high, head in the sand nutbar.

The fact is…oh, phooey. I can’t do it.

The fact is, some in the media *are* reporting on it. Like me. I am an agricultural journalist. How do you do.

The fact is, the farmers sure as shit weren’t complaining when all this started. All of a sudden, commodity prices were much higher than they were used to, and they kept going up. Guys were able to pay the bills, and pay down their debt, and replace aging equipment.

But it’s a funny thing about those futures markets some of you are condemning. A lot of people, not just speculators, use them. Farmers sell a contract to lock in a price; if corn is $6 (and right now, for the first time in history, it is), if they short the market, their price less basis is no lower than $6; if the market declines, they can buy back the contract for the lower price to make up the reduced value of their crop.

Merchandisers use it, too. That’s why farmers are unhappy. Grain elevators sell contracts for the same reason the farmers do, to lock in a price. But you have to put up a certain amount of money to do that, and if commodity prices are double what they usually are, so is the margin. Elevators don’t have that kind of jack lying around, and if they go in and ask the banker for it, he looks at you like you just sprouted another head. So, elevators are telling farmers they won’t accept forward contracts, and if farmers want to lock in a price, they have to use the futures market.

That brings into account the “basis” I mentioned before; that’s the amount the elevator discounts the cash price versus the futures market. The farmer doesn’t know what that will be at harvest. If he locks in what he thinks is $6 now, it could be $5 at harvest. Or less.

Prices are very high right now for most crops, but the cost of production is going up too. I could write eleventy-billion words about this, and do, all day. But the upshot of it is these costs–energy, and chemicals, and equipment, and fertilizer–are going to keep going up, and if the farmer’s price doesn’t do likewise, a lot of farmers are going to go under.

The end.

Yes and maybe you’lll learn that Small dead Animals is one of the most influential blogs. And go ahead and mock Kathy Shaidle like the liberal lefty mindset you think you have. Did you know that Kathy Shaidle and Small Dead Animals, Mark Steyn and others are being attacked by the Canadian state? For standing up for freedom of speech, something you in the US should have at least some appreciation for…no, it’s so much easier to lead your media led and deluded lies about America, freedom, democracy, war, etc.

Lesley, I might just point out that Kathy Shaidle is a published writer and works hard to get other female bloggers writing work. On her site, she has posted several please for recognition. More so than I think those on the “progressive’ side actually do for female bloggers.

Small dead Animals has receives 8 million visits so far, and of those, many are international visitors, most others are influential politicians and media watchers who now take their cue from bloggers like Kate.
She doesn’t tow the line. You just may want to follow her lead. She is actually an agenda setter, doesn’t sit back down and mock others for their work, she searches out stories, issues that are ignored…much like the MSM used to do.

Why waste it?

Actually, a few bloggers are in a bit of trouble right now for libelling an individual. I don’t know what’s happening with the case but here’s a bit of info:

http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2008/04/sask-blogs-aggregator-striking-martyrs.html

Kathy Shaidle is a whiney self-denigrating hypocrite who slags poor people and liberal social policy programs, even though she herself collected welfare benefits in Ontario for four years. She slams the public health care system, even though she takes full advantage of it. The Kathy Shaidles of Canada would never live in their dreamland, the USA, because they couldn’t afford the private health insurance and wouldn’t have their ailments and medications covered.

The lot of them were in some hot water a few weeks ago, not sure how the libel case is going:

http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com/2008/04/sask-blogs-aggregator-striking-martyrs.html

Ok, waitaminute here.

You want me to take something called “small dead animals” as some kind of serious work for our times?

Hokay. I’ll just walk THIS way.

Now, the concept that there even IS something like American DNA is stupid. There is no real race – that’s an artificial construct aimed at creating classes and control.

But humans are ALL the FUCKING same!

This is why killing each other is so goddam stupid. There is a finite amount of wealth and wisdom. We could be spending it to help each other. It would be SO goddam easy.

Instead, we create things like nationalism and religion and ideology in order to designate who we hate and allow us to kill them.

Christ. Did any of you ever REALLY think about this? Gaad…

mikey

Small Dead Animals is a most influential blog.

On her site, she has posted several please for recognition.

Hello, Gary.

More so than I think those on the “progressive’ side actually do for female bloggers.

FiredogLake, Digby, Kos, H-Post…. um, next?

Did you know that Kathy Shaidle and Small Dead Animals, Mark Steyn and others are being attacked by the Canadian state?

You mean like clubbed like baby seals? Are they beaten in any way? At least, you know, shoved around a bit? Or is it some other kind of attacked, where the person being attacked gets to go on the TV or gets to have 8million web hits? And who are these others? Marc Emery?

And would you happen to live in Vancouver and have a summer home in Montreal or Quebec City? I have trouble keeping the sockpuppets straight.

the canadian state – now run by neoconservatives – is hardly clubbing mark steyn; and let’s not forget the “fair and balanced” National Post that runs his putrid columns now and then.

Mikey, Small Dead Animals is not a name to be taken literally, it is more of a diary type of inspiration, Kate posts links, then people comment and add their tips in “reader tips,” and contribute to the every growing world of online opinion dissemination. I suppose you would be taking names to be meaning more or less than they do? Maybe you get upset when conservatives simply speaking Obama’s WHOLE name? What then is that? Maybe if you actually READ Small Dead Animals and Kate McMillan, you’d understand what is at play here. Game changers lead, others follow, usually too late out of the gate.

stryx, thank you for advocating violence against conservatives. Looks like lefties like to pack a bit of punch in their progressive mixture, how utterly non surprising. Very Maoist of you…

Hey “Hunter”.

Wanna go “Hunting”?

You’re an idiot, an asshole, a liar, a wingnut, and my patience, unfortunately, is at an end.

You’ve been hunting like I’ve been ballroom dancing.

You’re are a lying, ugly bigoted piece of shit and I’ve decided I don’t have any time for you fucks.

So. Lock and load, or shut up, big fellah…

mikey

Kate posts links, then people comment.

slapping up a link and a couple of lines takes real skill and effort. Give her a writing award.

Oh gosh, that idiot Mark Steyn. That uneducated disc jockey who gives a bad name both to disc jockeys and the uneducated. That Muslim-hating, maundering, misbegotten mule-lover whose illiterate scribbling are a noxious combination of crayon scratches and snot. That’s a shining star to follow, alrighty. And if you aren’t right now Breeding for Jesus, I have no desire to hear you worship the Steyn.

Mikey, I am a female, thank you so very much! Assuming like a progressive would that only men can hunt. I guess you haven’t seen Kate’s hunting photos? on her site?

Kate has already been recognized and has written for the National Post newspaper in Canada and for the CBC, the socialist state sponsored radio and tv station, to get the conservative point across in a lefty dominated medium.

She recently went to China for an art show and took some amazing photos which are posted on her site – who knows, I think Kate may have shown those socialists a thing or two about Canadian know how! LOL

yes, so lock and load, mama don’t care! I;ve been taking care of myself for a long time, and I think its high time the truth was told, and I think the message needs to be carried to the lefty blogs!

The fact is, liberals are envious of people who have facts and truth and no bias. All liberals have is bias and hate, hate for USA, for freedom, for free markets, for the heartland and God. Here in the heartland, we laugh at the coastal eleites who criminalize initiative as they kowtwo to Maoism and the New Caliphate. We will not bow to Shania Law here in the Heartland, no way. In the Heartland we have traditional values, and the liberal biased media, which has no facts balanced or arguments of facts or balance, is not respected the way Fox news is. You also have extreme BDS. America is AWESOME!

Kate posts links, then people comment and add their tips in “reader tips,” and contribute to the every growing world of online opinion dissemination

Wow, that is the new thing, isn’t it? We’ve gotta get caught up here!

WTF is the “message”?

Racism? Hatred? Nationalism? Divisiveness?

Why would you espouse that kind of “message”?

What do you fear?

What aren’t you up to the challenge of facing?

mikey

Hunter, you are a mouth breathing retard, right?

So tell us Hunter, how many children do you have? Do yoiu take them to Church every Sunday and home-school them? Does your husband support your both and is his word your law? Do you dress respectably and donate to charity?

I’m pretty picky about the quality of the people I let tell me how to live.

Mikey, I am a female, thank you so very much!

Taking bets she’s either Kathy Shaidle or the author of small dead neoconservatives.

stryx, thank you for advocating violence against conservatives. Looks like lefties like to pack a bit of punch in their progressive mixture, how utterly non surprising. Very Maoist of you…

Now we see the violence inherent in the system! Help, Hunter is being repressed.

Call the WAAHmbulance!

of course she sounds a lot like Markette Rupertette, so we’ll open the bets on that, too.

Actually, I’m not really a woman at all. I just like to dress like one.

You go, girl.

American DNA?
So a “melting pot” can now miraculously breed thoroughbreds.
Suck it, Darwin!

Steyn’s in Dutch with the Human Rights Commission over publishing the “Mohammed” cartoons that he KNEW would offend Canada’s large Muslim community, nakedly craving to instigate the same violence they spawned in Europe (Muslim, anti-Muslim, he didn’t care, he just wanted to see some blood spill for The Sacred Cause – as long as it wasn’t HIS). When that was a big fat goose-egg, he then rejoiced at his newfound “martyr” status when the HRC bitch-slapped him for his cute little hate-crime. Knew the law, wiped his crack on it – & now he’s pretending he’s a hero. He’s been singing The Ballad Of The Innocent Victim ever since, & sadly, getting some free press for his trouble. Free speech is one thing, knowingly inciting violence while crying “free speech” is another … state oppression, my ass: Steyn is at least as bad as Limbaugh in the malevolent shit-disturber department. Anyone that thinks he’s some sort of “Free Speech Warrior” needs a rectal craniectomy, stat.
Coverage in Sir Con-man Black’s National Post – Canada’s print version of FOX NEWS, without the stripper “exposes” – is hardly a ringing endorsement, & the CBC is about as “far-left” as ABC-TV, since at least 1991 … & they lost any shot at a “socialist” merit-badge even earlier, when they started taking ads.

Kathy Shaidle is just pathetic. Hits don’t mean squat: they can be gamed just like TeeVee ratings can be, & are.

Funny how the wingnuts who espouse “no-bias” or a “Spin-Free Zone” are always the most vigorous champions of formulaic thought-patterns & language that REQUIRE massive unilateral bias. Such chronic immunity to cognitive dissonance is usually found only in the most isolated & extreme cults – or on coma-wards.

the coastal eleites who criminalize initiative as they kowtwo to Maoism and the New Caliphate.

Now that’s some classic Gary- crazy and misspelled!

New Maoist Caliphate, coming to a campus bar near you.

Can we just go ahead and establish a S,N! style convention where we always write it as Mark “the Human” Steyn.

‘Cause it makes me laugh everytime I read that.

Hunter, it’s “toe” the line, not “tow” it.

When I read someone who can’t get the metaphor right, it makes me wonder about their ability to get the underlying argument right.

Not understanding metaphor can be a sign of brain damage.

I’d get that checked.

If you can afford it.

Hunter sounds like a prime asshole.

Actually, Hunter’s writing style sounds just like our recent troll Da Troof.

Actually, I’m not really a woman at all. I just like to dress like one.

Laughed. Out. Loud.

Steyn was in trouble for quoting an Imam in an article (kind of like Parker in the post below this one – it wasn’t him saying it, it was the Imam, dammit). Our best public affairs show, The Agenda on TVO had Steyn and the three law students who are complaining about him. They didn’t care what he said, they were pissed because MacLean’s mag wouldn’t let them run an article with the Muslim viewpoint, ie, air the views of the other side. So, they are suing MacLean’s and Steyn.

Steyn hijacked and ruined the show, it was unbelievable. It’s live and I’ve never seen the host so rattled and discomfited. Steyn was blathering away, admittedly making some sense here and there, and then all three students were talking at the same time. We couldn’t believe how it went.

As for SDA, Shaidle (formerly Relapsed Catholic, now Five Feet of Flurry) and Saskblogs, they are being sued for libel against a guy named Warman – saying he’d made racist comments about Sen. Anne Cools, who happens to be black. I tried to post a link to some info about that earlier but my comments didn’t go through.

You can find the story at Big City Lib Strikes Back, April 10 entry.

Here’s an excerpt:

Incidentally, the passage in the statement of claim that Lance (and others) seem to be worried about concerns Kate MacMillan letting SDA guest blogger K. Shaidle link to the original FreeD post re. Senator Cools (something I’ve done at least once, incidentally). I think the first part of paragraph 28, which most people seem to be ignoring, is the important one:

Ms. McMillan permitted the defendant Shaidle to access SDA and post the Cools posting along with the allegation that Mr. Warman was responsible for it…

I have a feeling that these people won’t be writing much for the Nat Post anymore.

Btw, Senator Anne Cools is some piece of work. Perhaps she’s changed, but when I had the misfortune of working with her many years ago in a transition house for battered women, she alienated and isolated staff with rumour and innuendo, and divided and conquered her way into a directorship. She borrowed pots of money from a colleague and refused to pay it back. In one day, five of us quit the transition house because we couldn’t bear to work with her anymore (even though we’d set the place up and raised all the funds for it and hired her). There was no way to get rid of her. I found her to be a bitch and a bully of the first order. I don’t know how she scored that senator’s job but I have my doubts that she came by it honestly. (Senators are appointed in Canada, not elected.) Strangely, after she made a career running women’s shelters she became an advocate for men who felt oppressed by the feminist movement and blamed women for all their problems. She’s a pathological liar and a fraud in my experience, and probably collects that huge senator’s salary without doing much to earn it.

Are teh commentzez back yet???

&*%*^%*&^ wordpress…

Roadkill for Brains across Canada said,

May 18, 2008 at 7:55

Btw, Senator Anne Cools is some piece of work.

The fact is, she is black. That explains most of it.

What truth am I spreading you, ask? I view my work as a conservative as being similar to the following video., along with Kate of Small Dead Animals, and Kathy Shaidle of Five Feet of Furry, and its as if we are taking on the liberal lefty socialists who seek to control the agenda of thought, freedom and democracy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fWvub_WBho

As you see, it is a battle. But we can prevail, indeed we must prevail.

In fact, I also play this song when reading small Dead Animals and Five Feet of Fury. Here are the lyrics, this will explain why SDA is the best around (LOL) and I’d like to dedicate this song to Kate McMilan and Kathy Shaidle and their work as conservative freedom of speech promoters!! Maybe the John McCain campaign for US President can use it – it would fit the man and his message of freedom, echoed by others.

Try to be best
‘Cause you’re only a man
And a man’s gotta learn to take it

Try to believe
Though the going gets rough
That you gotta hang tough to make it

History repeats itself
Try and you’ll succeed

Never doubt that you’re the one
And you can have your dreams!

You’re the best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you dow-ow-ow-ow-own

Fight ‘til the end
Cause your life will depend
On the strength that you have inside you

Ah you gotta be proud
starin’ out in the cloud
When the odds in the game defy you

Try your best to win them all
and one day time will tell
when you’re the one that’s standing there
you’ll reach the final bell!

You’re the best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you dow-ow-ow-ho-how-ho-own

INSPIRING GUITAR SOLO

You’re the best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you dow-ow-ow-ow-own

Fight ‘til you drop
never stop
can’t give up
Til you reach the top (FIGHT!)
you’re the best in town (FIGHT!)
Listen to that sound
A little bit of all you got
Can never bring you down

You’re the best!
Around!
Nothing’s gonna ever keep you down
You’re the Best!
Around!

repeat to fade, occasional background shouts of “Oh Ye-eah!”

Maybe the John McCain campaign for US President can use it – it would fit the man and his message of freedom, echoed by others.

Sure, if by freedom you mean freedom to be killed by bombs made in the USA.

Medved doesn’t sound like a Murrkan name to me.

Sounds like some Eastern Europe commie.

He’s a psycho. A real reichwing ranter who needs to be institutionalized and put on strong meds.

“conservative freedom of speech promoters”

That’s an oxymoron, you fascist idiot.

Neocons HATE our freedoms, especially freedom of speech.

They’ve tried to shut down dissent since before 9-11.

You McLame supporters are morons who want 4 more years of failed Chimpy policies, and then you call it “Change”??

The only change McLame has coming is changing his Depends.

All I need now is for someone to tell me which stalwart bastion of American journalism has produced this Pullitzer-winning masterpiece, so I can go check it out for myself.

I believe that would be the crack reporters Judy Miller and Jeff Gannon. They’re just sitting on the story until Broder comes up with the filler quotes on what ordinary Americans think about it.

I hear Rove is also working on a related op-ed that explains why this is bad for Democrats and good for the GOP.

[…] Sadly, No! » While I was sleeping It has to do with the current crazy price spiral the world is going through on essential commodities like food and energy. It turns out, if you dig through enough obscure news sources like Senate subcommitte reports or evil communist trade rags, you can find bits and pieces that, if combined with some decent investigative journalism, would probably yield a story about how guys like the Enron execs who were behind the rolling blackouts in California a few years ago are now thinking bigger, and have stuck their bottom-feeding jaws into the international wealth streams that are the world’s food and oil supplies. […]

Hunter: people might take your posts (slightly) more seriously if your grammar, puntuation, and usage were above a third-grade level. As a favorite teacher of mine said, “what’s in the brain ends up on the page.”

speaking of testing, check out this teacher who just said no to it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj_bJkGTC8U
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880514024
http://www.thesylvaherald.com/html/cvs_teacher_suspended_for_refu.html

The fact is, pelicans are responsible for the rice shortage, not that those of us in the Heartland eat foreign foods like that anyway.

The fact is, liberals are envious of people who have facts and truth and no bias. All liberals have is bias and hate, hate for USA, for freedom, for free markets, for the heartland and God.

You forgot American Idol, Mom and apple pie. We hate that shit, too.

We will not bow to Shania Law here in the Heartland, no way.

Really? I thought President Charlie Daniels out in the Heartland already decreed SHANIA Law a few years back by executive order. No?

Many farmers say the price problems stem from a surge in investment fund activity. Investment funds have been in commodities for decades but a key rule change by the CFTC [Commodities Futures Trading Commission] a couple of years ago helped open the floodgates.

A standing proposition: Sweet Jesus, there’s always a key rule change — or an Enron loophole.

Optional corollary: No one could ever have predicted [insert disastrous end result here].

Grace, I have long since called your optional corollary the “Governor Tarkin theorem“: Whenever something shitty happens that anyone with any sense could have seen coming, those most responsible for it will cover their asses by standing up and saying something to the effect of “She lied! She lied to us!”

But then again, to my everlasting shame, I am a Star Wars geek.

Shocked? Our corporate overlords, seeing the success in Repressive countries throughout the world, aren’t done yet!
Things are going to get much worse, before they get better.
Whew, I feel so much better after talking to myself in cyberspace.
FUBAR!!!!!!!!!

We had the story as soon as it came out. We have most stories not published in the MSM. check it out:

CLICK HERE

The thing is that the speculators spiking prices accelerate the information through the system, so that the people who are in a position to capitalize on the situation and remedy it are incentivized to do so. Prices are simply an axis of data moving through a supply graph.