Oil 31

'10 Tough Questions Reporters Should Ask on Oil and Gas Prices
For starters, Joseph Davis asks: Why is Congress so passive on the lack of refining capacity? What about probes into price manipulation? The House passed a bill on price gouging; who’s holding it up in the Senate?
By Joseph A. Davisjdavis2@starpower.net
Q. If Congress and the candidates are serious about reducing U.S. dependency on foreign oil, why would they passively accept little or no growth in U.S. refining capacity at a time when world refining capacity is growing?
Q. What has come of the various Congressional investigations, or calls for investigations, into possible manipulation of the domestic motor fuel market?
Q. What are the prospects for the House-passed bill (H.R. 1252) setting stiff penalties for gasoline price-gouging? Why has the Senate Commerce Committee taken no action on it? What Senators are holding it up?
Q. What are the root causes of soaring oil and gasoline prices? What will candidates and Congress do to address them?
Q. Why has U.S. refinery capacity not grown more and more quickly?
Q. What is the financial strategy that causes oil companies not to invest more in refinery capacity at a time when they are flush with profits and demand exceeds supply and is growing? How much, precisely, is industry currently investing in new or increased refinery capacity? What do stockholders think of this?
Q. How is the price of domestic wholesale and retail gasoline actually set? Is it really a free, open, and competitive market? Does the diminishing number of companies in the market – and the ownership of distribution and retail outlets by the refining companies – offer opportunity for anti-competitive practices?
Q. What is the credibility of industry claims that refiners are worried that demand for gasoline may drop disastrously as a result of the government push for more ethanol use? How does this square with historical demand growth and the current market signal of strongly and persistently rising prices?
Q. What is the credibility of the Federal Trade Commission’s 2006 report [also click here] finding no manipulation or collusion among refiners in restricting supply or setting prices. Are those findings consistent with findings in the FTC’s 2001 investigation?
Q. Has the Justice Department investigated the possibility of anti-competitive practices in the domestic motor fuel industry? What were the results? Did then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in 2006 shut down a Justice Department investigation sought by state Attorneys General?
The price of gasoline at the pump is climbing steadily toward $4.00, the summer driving season is likely to make things worse, and some political leaders have again begun trying to convince the voters that they have solutions.'

Lees verder:
http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2008/05/05/10-tough-questions-reporters-should-ask-on-oil-and-gas-prices/

De Israelische Terreur 356

'Dear friends, colleagues and activists:

Another week of bad news, good news, and activism goes by. We can never rest until justice and peace is restored. Those of you able to make it, there will be a memorial service for Riad Hamad Saturday in Austin Texas (Saturday May 10, 1-3 PM, Celebrating the life of Riad Hamad, St. James Episcopal Church, 1941 Webberville Rd., Austin, TX 78721Info Contact: khartwell@austin.rr.com). I hope to see those of you who can attend there. You may want to check this new article on Riad: "Salamat, Riad Hamad," by Greg MosesRiad would want us to continue and actually expand the work that he dedicated his life to (and lost it!). So in that vein, there will be two other events in Austin on the issues that were central to Riad's work (I will dedicate both talks in Riad's memory):Saturday May 10, 1-3PM Jones Auditorium, Ragsdale Center, St. Edward's University, 3001 S. CongressPalestine/Israel: From the Catastrophe- HopeMazin Qumsiyeh Sponsored by the Interfaith Community for Palestinian RightsSunday May 11, 5:00 pmWestlake Hills Presbyterian Church, 7127 Bee Cave Rd., Austin, TX 78746Mazin Qumsiyeh speaking on the Nakba and the plight of native Christians and Muslims in PalestineYesterday we had a very good event in the Westport Library which created a controversy and today we have a good event in Hartford Seminary. Hundreds of events are going on around the world. Silence is no longer an option. Saying we did not know is no longer an option.Now for this week's other action itemsACTION 1: 100 Prominent British Jews signed and published a statement: We are not celebrating Israel's 60th anniversary A similar effort is being launched in the US to get signatures on this statement. If you are Jewish in the US and agree with the British statement, send your name and any identification (showing organizational affiliation does not mean organizational endorsement) to Stanley Heller at MECC@comcast.net(Stan is chair of the Middle East Crisis Committee, TheStruggle.org)ACTION 2: Canadian Postal Workers Union boycott of Apartheid IsraelFor background, see: http://www.cupw.ca/1/0/6/4/2/index1.shtml Article on the subject (not good but shows how Zionists are trying to minimize and dismiss such critical actions) http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14568&Itemid=86The Zionist organizations are busy exerting pressure on the leadership of the Union. Postal workers could benefit from messages of support sent toDenis Lemelin, National President, CUPW National Office, 377 Bank StreetOttawa , Ontario K2P 1Y3 tel : (613) 236-7238 fax : (613) 563-7861ACTION 3: For those in the Washington DC metropolitan area: 12000 visit the Holocaust Memorial Museum every day. This is an incredible educational opportunity on the issue of Palestine and the slow genocide (Baruch Kimmerling used "politicide") of the Palestinian people. Please contact me and I will connect you with those doing a vigil and flyering there on a weekly basis.ACTION 4: Action week for Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Please take action, seehttp://www.freesamialarian.com/ACTION 5: Congress is about to vote more money for war.. tell them NO.http://capwiz.com/fconl/callalert/index.tt?alertid=11325771&type=COFinally watch these two powerful videos1) If Americans Knew Video seen by half a million people on youtubehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynWjYHP91gA2) Amazing poetry reading (forwarded by Peace Action members):http://youtube.com/watch?v=NCOb2YlTJkwHere is the POEM readFor Eli by Andrea Gibson Eli came back from Iraqand tattooed a teddy bear onto the inside of his wristabove that a medic with an IV bagabove that an angelbut Eli says the teddy bear won't liveand I know I don't know but I say, "I know"cause Eli's only twenty-four and I've never seen eyesfurther away from childhood than hiseyes old with a wisdomhe knows I'd rather not haveEli's mother traces a teddy bear onto the inside of my armand says, "not all casualties come home in body bags"and I swearI'd spend the rest of my life writing nothingbut the word light at the end of this tunnelif I could find the fucking tunnelI'd write nothing but white flagssomebody pray for the soldierssomebody pray for what's lostsomebody pray for the mailboxthat holds the official lettersto the mothers,--------fathers,---------sisters,and little brothersof Micheal 19... Steven 21... John 33how ironic that their deaths sound like bible versesthe hearse is parked in the halls of the high schoolrecruiting black, brown and poorwhile anti-war activistsoutside walter reed army hospital scream100, 000 slainas an amputee on the third floorbreathes forget-me-nots onto the window painbut how can we forget what we never knewour sky is so perfectly blue it's repulsivesomebody tell me where god livescause if god is truth god doesn't live hereour lies have seared the sun too hot to live bythere are ghosts of kids who are still alivetouting M16s with trembling handswhile we dream ourselves stars on Survivoranother missile sets fire to the face in the locketof a mother who's son needed money for collegeand she swears she can feel his photograph burnhow many wars will it take us to learnthat only the dead returnthe rest remain forever caught between worlds ofshrapnel shatters body of three year old girltowelcome to McDonalds can I take your order?the mortar of sanity crumblingstumbling back home to a home that will never be home againEli doesn't know if he can ever write a poem againone third of the homeless men in this country are veteransand we have the nerve to Support Our Troopswith pretty yellow ribbonswhile giving nothing but dirty looks to their outstretched handstell me what land of the freesets free its eighteen-year-old kids into greedy war zoneshones them like missilesthen returns their bones in the middle of the nightso no one can seeeach death swept beneath the carpet and hidden like dirteach life a promise we never keptJeff Lucey came back from Iraqand hung himself in his parents basement with a garden hosethe night before he died he spent forty five minutes on his fathers laprocking like a babyrocking like daddy, save meand don't think for a minute he too isn't collateral damagein the mansions of washington they are watching them burnand hoarding the waterno senators' sons are being sent out to slaughterno presidents' daughters are licking ashes from their lipsor dreaming up ropes to wrap around their necksin case they ever make it home aliveour eyes are closedamericathere are souls inthe boots of the soldiersamericafuck your yellow ribbonyou wanna support our troopsbring them homeand hold them tight when they get here-----------------Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhDhttp://justicewheels.org/http://peace-action.org/http://academicsforjustice.org/http://qumsiyeh.org/http://palestineconference.org/

Een Ander Joods Geluid 2

'Een Ander Joods Geluid en SIVMO (Steuncomité Israëlische Vredes- en Mensenrechtenorganisaties) haalt in de periode van 5 tot en met 16 mei acht vertegenwoordigers van Israëlische vredes- en mensenrechtenorganisaties naar Nederland, in het kader van het zestigjarig bestaan van Israël. Ze zullen hier met het Nederlandse publiek en de Nederlandse politiek in gesprek gaan en een pleidooi houden voor een andere Israëlische politiek. Zij vragen hiervoor steun van Nederland en Europa.
Wij willen u graag alvast wijzen op de twee volgende bijeenkomsten die in die twee weken georganiseerd worden.
Voor deze bijeenkomsten verzoeken wij u wel om van te voren te reserveren (onder opgave van Amsterdam of Utrecht) via eajg@xs4all.nl of telefonisch op 020 679 58 50. Kijk voor meer informatie de komende tijd op http://www.eajg.nl/ of http://www.sivmo.nl/.

Programma 7 mei
Het andere Israël bestaat!
Plaats: Studio Desmet, Amsterdam, Plantage Middenlaan 4
Aanvang: 20:30
Op 7 mei presenteren Een Ander Joods Geluid en SIVMO het andere Israël in studio Desmet in Amsterdam. Vier vertegenwoordigers van Israëlische vredes- en mensenrechtenorganisaties zullen aanwezig zijn om te laten zien dat er een ander Israël bestaat, en zullen hun ideeën en activiteiten presenteren. Er is gelegenheid tot het stellen van vragen en discussie.
Deelnemers:
Nurit Peled van the International Committee on Education and Occupation (ICEO)
Esther Goldenberg van Zochrot
Suleiman Al Hamri van Combatants for Peace
Elik Elhanan van Combatants for Peace
Midden-Oostendeskundige Ruud Hoff zal de avond leiden. De voertaal tijdens het programma zal Engels zijn.
Inloop 20:00
Programma 20:30 - 22:30
Napraten 22:30 - 23:00
De avond zal muzikaal worden begeleid door de Ot Azoj Klezmer Band, en er kan nagepraat worden onder het genot van een drankje en een hapje.
Entree € 5,–

Programma 15 mei
Israël: welke toekomst na 60 jaar?
Plaats: Domkerk, Utrecht, ingang bruine deur t.o. Domstraat
Aanvang: 19:30
Op 15 mei zal er in de Domkerk in Utrecht een discussieavond plaatsvinden over het zestigjarig bestaan van de staat Israël. Vertegenwoordigers van verschillende organisaties zullen met elkaar hierover in debat treden.
Deelnemers:
Annelien Kisch van de Israëlische vredesorganisatie Machsom Watch
Eldad Kisch van de Israëlische mensenrechtenorganisatie Physicians for Human Rights
Wim Kortenoeven van Centrum Informatie en Documentatie Israël (CIDI)
Jan Slomp, islamoloog en voorzitter van SIVMO.
De voertaal is Nederlands.
Entree is gratis.'

Fundamentalistische Christenen

Dit is de evangelist John Hagee, John is gek, maar ook een echte christen die alle joden so snel mogelijk naar Israel terug wil hebben, zodat het einde der tijden kan aanbreken en iedereen, inclusief de joden die zich niet tot het christendom bekeren, door de allerhoogste in het christelijke vagevuur zullen verdwijnen. Zoals gezegd: John is gek. Opvallend is intussen dat je als zwarte dominee veel minder mag zeggen dan als witte evangelist. De VS is gebouwd op racisme, eerst gingen de Indianen eraan, toen werden de zwarten gedeporteerd vanuit Afrika en nu worden de Latino's uit Mexico vervolgd.

Kijk even mee naar John Hagee's show: kostelijk. Daar kan Balkenende nog een puntje aan zuigen.

The All-White Elephant in the Room By Frank Rich The New York Times

Bored by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for "John Hagee Roman Church Hitler," and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive.
What you'll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is "the Great Whore," Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking "the blood of the Jewish people." That's because the Great Whore represents "the Roman Church," which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.
Mr. Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch. On Feb. 27, he stood with John McCain and endorsed him over the religious conservatives' favorite, Mike Huckabee, who was then still in the race.
Are we really to believe that neither Mr. McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Mr. Hagee's views? This particular YouTube video - far from the only one - was posted on Jan. 1, nearly two months before the Hagee-McCain press conference. Mr. Hagee appears on multiple religious networks, including twice daily on the largest, Trinity Broadcasting, which reaches 75 million homes. Any 12-year-old with a laptop could have vetted this preacher in 30 seconds, tops.
Since then, Mr. McCain has been shocked to learn that his clerical ally has made many other outrageous statements. Mr. Hagee, it's true, did not blame the American government for concocting AIDS. But he did say that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled "homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came."
Mr. Hagee didn't make that claim in obscure circumstances, either. He broadcast it on one of America's most widely heard radio programs, "Fresh Air" on NPR, back in September 2006. He reaffirmed it in a radio interview less than two weeks ago. Only after a reporter asked Mr. McCain about this Katrina homily on April 24 did the candidate brand it as "nonsense" and the preacher retract it.'

Zie: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050508K.shtml En:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uViQ0hVV57Q

Iran 198

'Iraq Backs Off Allegations That Iran Is Behind Violence By Leila Fadel and Shashank Bengali McClatchy Newspapers

Baghdad - The Iraqi Government seemed to distance itself from US accusations towards Iran Sunday saying it would not be forced into conflict with its Shiite neighbor. And Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ordered the formation of a committee to look into foreign intervention in Iraq.
As the government appeared to back down from its hardening stance against Iran, four marines were killed in Anbar in the deadliest attack in the Sunni province in months.
The government spokesman, Ali al Dabbagh, told reporters Sunday that a committee was formed to find "tangible information" about foreign intervention, specifically Iran's role in Iraq rather than "information based on speculation."
"We don't want to be pushed into any conflict with any neighboring countries, especially Iran. What happened before is enough. We paid a lot," Dabbagh said, referring to the eight years war between the two nations in which an estimated 1 million people died.
While the Iraqi government has long said they would not be used for a proxy war between the U.S. and Iran at odds over Iran's nuclear aspirations, the statement came as the Iraqi government had taken tough stances towards Iran in the past week. This included sending a delegation last week to Iran to urge them to stop the flow of weapons and to refrain from funding Shiite militias battling Iraqi Security Forces.
U.S. officials in Baghdad rejected allegations made Saturday by a senior Iranian official who, according to Iranian state media, accused the United States of attacking Iraqi civilians.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Armand Cucciniello said that the remarks by an unnamed Iranian official "align the Iranian government with these very extremists and criminal elements and against the Iraqi government and people.
"The only appropriate response...to the concerns raised by the government of Iraq is for Iran to immediately cease providing funding, training and arms to extremist militias in Iraq."
In Sadr City the battle continued with overnight U.S. air strikes in the northeast Shiite slum and stronghold of Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi Army.
While Maliki said he would not stand for enemy "gangs" in Iraq, Sadr officials said they were open to negotiation.
Baha al Araji, a Sadrist lawmaker, condemned attacks on the heavily fortified Green Zone where the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government offices are located and said that disbanding the Mahdi Army was a legitimate request. The Green Zone has come under heavy rocket fire for over a month.'

Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050508J.shtml

Het Israelisch Expansionisme 75

Zie: http://www.netwerk.tv/weblog/index.php?itemid=102

Noam Chomsky 24

'For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of 'brainwashing under freedom' to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling instruments. Noam Chomsky

=The press is our chief ideological weapon. Nikita Khrushchev former Russian head of State, Communist Party Chairman

=The result has been that an increasingly authoritarian agenda has been sold to the American people by a massive, multi-tentacled media machine that has become, for all intents and purposes, a propaganda organ of the state. David McGowan

=Although this science will be dilligently studied, it will be rightly confined to the governing class and the populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated...education should aim at destroying free will, so that, after pupils have left school, they will be incapable...of thinking or acting otherwise than their schoolmaster would have wished. Bertrand Russell

Elite Policy and the "Axis of Evil"

By Noam Chomsky 02/05/08 "

Z Magazine"

Having brought up Iran [in Part 1], we might as well turn briefly to the third member of the famous Axis of Evil, North Korea. The official story right now is that after having been forced to accept an agreement on dismantling its nuclear weapons facilities, North Korea is again trying to evade its commitments in its usual devious way—"good news" for superhawks like John Bolton, who have held all along that the North Koreans understand only the mailed fist and will exploit negotiations only to trick us. A New York Times headline reads: "U.S. Sees Stalling by North Korea on Nuclear Pact" (January 19). The article by Helene Cooper details the charges. In the last paragraph we discover that the U.S. has not fulfilled its pledges. North Korea has received only 15 percent of the fuel that was promised by the U.S. and others and the U.S. has not undertaken steps to improve diplomatic relations, as promised. Several weeks later (February 6), in the McClatchey press Kevin Hall reported that the chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea, Christopher Hill, confirmed in Senate Hearings that "North Korea has slowed the dismantling of its nuclear reactor because it hasn't received the amount of fuel oil it was promised." As we learn from the specialist literature, and asides here and there, this is a consistent pattern. North Korea may have the worst government in the world, but they have been pursuing a pragmatic tit-for-tat policy on negotiations with the United States. When the U.S. takes an aggressive and threatening stance, they react accordingly. When the U.S. moves towards some form of accommodation, so do they. When Bush came into office, both North Korea and the U.S. were bound by the Framework Agreement of 1994. Neither was fully in accord with its commitments, but the agreement was largely being observed. North Korea had stopped testing long-range missiles. It had perhaps one to two bombs worth of plutonium and was verifiably not making more. After seven Bush years of confrontation, North Korea had eight to ten bombs and long-range missiles, and was developing plutonium. The Clinton administration Korea specialist, Bruce Cumings, reports the Administration "had also worked out a plan to buy out, indirectly, the North's medium and long-range missiles; it was ready to be signed in 2000 but Bush let it fall by the wayside and today the North retains all its formidable missile capability." The reasons for Bush's achievements are well understood. The Axis of Evil speech, a serious blow to Iranian democrats and reformers as they have stressed, also put North Korea on notice that the U.S. was returning to its threatening stance. Washington released intelligence reports about North Korean clandestine programs; these were conceded to be dubious or baseless when the latest negotiations began in 2007, probably, commentators speculated, because it was feared that weapons inspectors might enter North Korea and the Iraq story would be repeated. North Korea responded by ratcheting up missile and weapons development. In September 2005, under international pressure, Washington agreed to turn to negotiations within the six-power framework. They achieved substantial success. North Korea agreed to abandon "all nuclear weapons and existing weapons programs" and allow international inspections, in return for international aid and a non-aggression pledge from the U.S., with an agreement that the two sides would "respect each other's sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize relations." The ink was barely dry on the agreement when the Bush administration renewed the threat of force, also freezing North Korean funds in foreign banks and disbanding the consortium that was to provide North Korea with a light-water reactor consortium. Cumings alleges that "the sanctions were specifically designed to destroy the September pledges [and] to head off an accommodation between Washington and Pyongyang."'

Lees verder: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19856.htm