Thursday, April 28, 2011
Energy:
The Guardian (UK) - Fossil fuel firms use 'biased' study in massive gas lobbying push
"Senior executives in the fossil fuel industry have launched an all-out assault on renewable energy, lobbying governments and business groups to reject wind and solar power in favour of gas, in a move that could choke the fledgling green energy industry.
Multinational companies including Shell, GDF Suez and Statoil are promoting gas as an alternative 'green' fuel. These companies are among dozens around the world investing in new technologies to exploit shale gas, a controversial form of the fuel that has rejuvenated the gas industry because it is plentiful in supply and newly accessible due to technical advances in gas extraction known as 'fracking'.
The expansion of shale gas holds out the promise of a glut in gas that is driving down prices and creating a bonanza for the fossil fuel industry. Burning gas in power stations releases about half the carbon emissions of coal, allowing gas companies to claim it is a 'green' source of fuel.
Central to the lobbying effort is a report claiming that the EU could meet its 2050 carbon targets €900bn more cheaply by using gas than by investing in renewables. But the Guardian has established that the analysis is based on a previous report that came to the opposite conclusion – that renewables should play a much larger role. The report being pushed by the fossil fuel industry has been disowned by its original authors who referred to it as 'biased' in favour of gas..."
Indefinite Detention Without Charge:
The Telegraph (UK) - WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed
"Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose..."
War & Empire:
WIRED: Drones Rejoice! Petraeus to Head CIA, Panetta to Pentagon
"The long-awaited shakeup of the Obama administration’s national security team has begun. Leon Panetta will leave the CIA to replace Robert Gates as secretary of defense. Gen. David Petraeus will leave command of the Afghanistan war to replace Panetta. It’s a good day to be an armed Predator drone or a shadow warrior..."
The Problem of the Influential Banksters:
Danny Schechter: Why Wall Street Is Winning
"Two years ago as financial reform was put on the U.S. Congressional agenda, a skeptical Senator, Dick Durbin of Illinois, spoke of the power of the banks over the country’s legislative process.
'They run the place,' he said matter of factly.
The comment was then treated as a sidebar in the few newspapers that carried it, perhaps because it hinted at how interests, not ideology, dictate what happens on Capital Hill.
The remark about a shadowy power structure far more important than all the partisan in-fighting that dominates the news is worth recalling as a way of explaining how little has been done to rain in Wall Street in the years since its crash virtually wrecked the global economy.
It is also worth realizing that the people who 'run the place' usually do so in ways that rarely get high profile media scrutiny or even public attention..."
Budgetary Priorities:
Dean Baker: What we're not being told about Paul Ryan's Medicare plan
"The mainstream media has failed to report that the Ryan plan is a privatisation programme that will hand $30tn to insurers..."
Ted Rall: Thrifty Families and Other Lies
"...Americans are up to the ears in debt.
Four out of five individuals have at least one credit card. The average family has an outstanding balance of $10,700. It spends 21 percent of its monthly income to pay interest on that balance.
The average American family has assets: It owns a house worth $160,000. But it owes $95,000 to the bank. As the housing market continues to crash, equity shrihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnks.
Our average family's savings are virtually nonexistent: $3,800 in the bank, no retirement account whatsoever (for half of families, average retirement savings $35,000 for the other half), no mutual funds, no stocks, no bonds.
The claim that American families live within their means is a joke..."
Medicine:
Before Its News: Cannabinoids Kill Cancer And Our 'Government' Has Known for 36 Years
"A new study published in Nature Reviews - Cancer provides an historic and detailed explanation about how THC and natural cannabinoids counteract cancer, but preserve normal cells.
The study by Manuel Guzmán of Madrid Spain found that cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals. They do so by modulating key cell-signalling pathways, thereby inducing direct growth arrest and death of tumor cells, as well as by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels that supply the tumor.
The Guzman study is very important according to Dr. Ethan Russo , a neurologist and world authority on medical cannabis: 'Cancer occurs because cells become immortalized; they fail to heed normal signals to turn off growth. A normal function of remodelling in the body requires that cells die on cue. This is called apoptosis, or programmed cell death. That process fails to work in tumors. THC promotes its reappearance so that gliomas, leukemias, melanomas and other cell types will in fact heed the signals, stop dividing, and die.'
'But, that is not all,' explains Dr. Russo: 'The other way that tumors grow is by ensuring that they are nourished: they send out signals to promote angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels. Cannabinoids turn off these signals as well. It is truly incredible, and elegant.'
In other words, this article explains several ways in which cannabinoids might be used to fight cancer, and, as the article says, 'Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated, and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies.
Usually, any story that even suggests the possibility of a new treatment for cancer is greeted with headlines about a 'cancer cure' however remote in the future and improbable in fact it might be. But if marijuana is involved, don't expect any coverage from mainstream media, especially since mainstream editors have been quietly killing this story for the past thirty years."
The Guardian (UK) - Fossil fuel firms use 'biased' study in massive gas lobbying push
"Senior executives in the fossil fuel industry have launched an all-out assault on renewable energy, lobbying governments and business groups to reject wind and solar power in favour of gas, in a move that could choke the fledgling green energy industry.
Multinational companies including Shell, GDF Suez and Statoil are promoting gas as an alternative 'green' fuel. These companies are among dozens around the world investing in new technologies to exploit shale gas, a controversial form of the fuel that has rejuvenated the gas industry because it is plentiful in supply and newly accessible due to technical advances in gas extraction known as 'fracking'.
The expansion of shale gas holds out the promise of a glut in gas that is driving down prices and creating a bonanza for the fossil fuel industry. Burning gas in power stations releases about half the carbon emissions of coal, allowing gas companies to claim it is a 'green' source of fuel.
Central to the lobbying effort is a report claiming that the EU could meet its 2050 carbon targets €900bn more cheaply by using gas than by investing in renewables. But the Guardian has established that the analysis is based on a previous report that came to the opposite conclusion – that renewables should play a much larger role. The report being pushed by the fossil fuel industry has been disowned by its original authors who referred to it as 'biased' in favour of gas..."
Indefinite Detention Without Charge:
The Telegraph (UK) - WikiLeaks: Guantanamo Bay terrorist secrets revealed
"Guantanamo Bay has been used to incarcerate dozens of terrorists who have admitted plotting terrifying attacks against the West – while imprisoning more than 150 totally innocent people, top-secret files disclose..."
War & Empire:
WIRED: Drones Rejoice! Petraeus to Head CIA, Panetta to Pentagon
"The long-awaited shakeup of the Obama administration’s national security team has begun. Leon Panetta will leave the CIA to replace Robert Gates as secretary of defense. Gen. David Petraeus will leave command of the Afghanistan war to replace Panetta. It’s a good day to be an armed Predator drone or a shadow warrior..."
The Problem of the Influential Banksters:
Danny Schechter: Why Wall Street Is Winning
"Two years ago as financial reform was put on the U.S. Congressional agenda, a skeptical Senator, Dick Durbin of Illinois, spoke of the power of the banks over the country’s legislative process.
'They run the place,' he said matter of factly.
The comment was then treated as a sidebar in the few newspapers that carried it, perhaps because it hinted at how interests, not ideology, dictate what happens on Capital Hill.
The remark about a shadowy power structure far more important than all the partisan in-fighting that dominates the news is worth recalling as a way of explaining how little has been done to rain in Wall Street in the years since its crash virtually wrecked the global economy.
It is also worth realizing that the people who 'run the place' usually do so in ways that rarely get high profile media scrutiny or even public attention..."
Budgetary Priorities:
Dean Baker: What we're not being told about Paul Ryan's Medicare plan
"The mainstream media has failed to report that the Ryan plan is a privatisation programme that will hand $30tn to insurers..."
Ted Rall: Thrifty Families and Other Lies
"...Americans are up to the ears in debt.
Four out of five individuals have at least one credit card. The average family has an outstanding balance of $10,700. It spends 21 percent of its monthly income to pay interest on that balance.
The average American family has assets: It owns a house worth $160,000. But it owes $95,000 to the bank. As the housing market continues to crash, equity shrihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnks.
Our average family's savings are virtually nonexistent: $3,800 in the bank, no retirement account whatsoever (for half of families, average retirement savings $35,000 for the other half), no mutual funds, no stocks, no bonds.
The claim that American families live within their means is a joke..."
Medicine:
Before Its News: Cannabinoids Kill Cancer And Our 'Government' Has Known for 36 Years
"A new study published in Nature Reviews - Cancer provides an historic and detailed explanation about how THC and natural cannabinoids counteract cancer, but preserve normal cells.
The study by Manuel Guzmán of Madrid Spain found that cannabinoids, the active components of marijuana, inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animals. They do so by modulating key cell-signalling pathways, thereby inducing direct growth arrest and death of tumor cells, as well as by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels that supply the tumor.
The Guzman study is very important according to Dr. Ethan Russo , a neurologist and world authority on medical cannabis: 'Cancer occurs because cells become immortalized; they fail to heed normal signals to turn off growth. A normal function of remodelling in the body requires that cells die on cue. This is called apoptosis, or programmed cell death. That process fails to work in tumors. THC promotes its reappearance so that gliomas, leukemias, melanomas and other cell types will in fact heed the signals, stop dividing, and die.'
'But, that is not all,' explains Dr. Russo: 'The other way that tumors grow is by ensuring that they are nourished: they send out signals to promote angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels. Cannabinoids turn off these signals as well. It is truly incredible, and elegant.'
In other words, this article explains several ways in which cannabinoids might be used to fight cancer, and, as the article says, 'Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated, and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional chemotherapies.
Usually, any story that even suggests the possibility of a new treatment for cancer is greeted with headlines about a 'cancer cure' however remote in the future and improbable in fact it might be. But if marijuana is involved, don't expect any coverage from mainstream media, especially since mainstream editors have been quietly killing this story for the past thirty years."
Monday, April 25, 2011
Energy:
NY Times; Chemicals Were Injected Into Wells, Report Says
"Oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009, according to an investigation by Congressional Democrats.
The chemicals were used by companies during a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, which involves the high-pressure injection of a mixture of water, sand and chemical additives into rock formations deep underground. The process, which is being used to tap into large reserves of natural gas around the country, opens fissures in the rock to stimulate the release of oil and gas.
Hydrofracking has attracted increased scrutiny from lawmakers and environmentalists in part because of fears that the chemicals used during the process can contaminate underground sources of drinking water.
The inquiry over hydrofracking, which was initiated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee when Mr. Waxman led it last year, also found that 14 of the nation’s most active hydraulic fracturing companies used 866 million gallons of hydraulic fracturing products — not including water. More than 650 of these products contained chemicals that are known or possible human carcinogens, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, or are listed as hazardous air pollutants, the report said.
A request for comment from the American Petroleum Institute about the report received no reply.
Matt Armstrong, an energy attorney from Bracewell & Giuliani that represents several companies involved in natural gas drilling, faulted the methodology of the congressional report released Saturday and an earlier report by the same lawmakers.
'This report uses the same sleight of hand deployed in the last report on diesel use -- it compiles overall product volumes, not the volumes of the hazardous chemicals contained within those products,' he said. 'This generates big numbers but provides no context for the use of these chemicals over the many thousands of frac jobs that were conducted within the timeframe of the report.'
Some ingredients mixed into the hydraulic fracturing fluids were common and generally harmless, like salt and citric acid. Others were unexpected, like instant coffee and walnut hulls, the report said. Many ingredients were 'extremely toxic,' including benzene, a known human carcinogen, and lead.
Companies injected large amounts of other hazardous chemicals, including 11.4 million gallons of fluids containing at least one of the toxic or carcinogenic B.T.E.X. chemicals — benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene. The companies used the highest volume of fluids containing one or more carcinogens in Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.
The report comes two and a half months after an initial report by the same three lawmakers that found that 32.2 millions of gallons of fluids containing diesel, considered an especially hazardous pollutant because it contains benzene, were injected into the ground during hydrofracking by a dozen companies from 2005 to 2009, in possible violation of the drinking water act..."
NY Times; Chemicals Were Injected Into Wells, Report Says
"Oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009, according to an investigation by Congressional Democrats.
The chemicals were used by companies during a drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, which involves the high-pressure injection of a mixture of water, sand and chemical additives into rock formations deep underground. The process, which is being used to tap into large reserves of natural gas around the country, opens fissures in the rock to stimulate the release of oil and gas.
Hydrofracking has attracted increased scrutiny from lawmakers and environmentalists in part because of fears that the chemicals used during the process can contaminate underground sources of drinking water.
The inquiry over hydrofracking, which was initiated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee when Mr. Waxman led it last year, also found that 14 of the nation’s most active hydraulic fracturing companies used 866 million gallons of hydraulic fracturing products — not including water. More than 650 of these products contained chemicals that are known or possible human carcinogens, regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, or are listed as hazardous air pollutants, the report said.
A request for comment from the American Petroleum Institute about the report received no reply.
Matt Armstrong, an energy attorney from Bracewell & Giuliani that represents several companies involved in natural gas drilling, faulted the methodology of the congressional report released Saturday and an earlier report by the same lawmakers.
'This report uses the same sleight of hand deployed in the last report on diesel use -- it compiles overall product volumes, not the volumes of the hazardous chemicals contained within those products,' he said. 'This generates big numbers but provides no context for the use of these chemicals over the many thousands of frac jobs that were conducted within the timeframe of the report.'
Some ingredients mixed into the hydraulic fracturing fluids were common and generally harmless, like salt and citric acid. Others were unexpected, like instant coffee and walnut hulls, the report said. Many ingredients were 'extremely toxic,' including benzene, a known human carcinogen, and lead.
Companies injected large amounts of other hazardous chemicals, including 11.4 million gallons of fluids containing at least one of the toxic or carcinogenic B.T.E.X. chemicals — benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene. The companies used the highest volume of fluids containing one or more carcinogens in Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.
The report comes two and a half months after an initial report by the same three lawmakers that found that 32.2 millions of gallons of fluids containing diesel, considered an especially hazardous pollutant because it contains benzene, were injected into the ground during hydrofracking by a dozen companies from 2005 to 2009, in possible violation of the drinking water act..."
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Media:
Do we have a public that won't lap this Koch-sponsored nonsense like so much free beer?
Raw Story: Koch Industries buying ads to refute news stories
"...Mike Hoyt, executive editor at the Columbia Journalism Review, told the Center for Public Integrity that this was the first time he had seen political attacks on journalists from online ads.
'Public relations has grown so tremendously while journalism has, due to the recession and the digital shakeup of the business model, shrunk,' Hoyt said. 'Combine that with the ability of powerful entities to buy their own gateways to the public, and you have a civic conversation that can be skewed. A main job of the press is to examine the powerful, and that becomes harder given the PR muscle of the powerful,'..."
Again, How Iraq Was Always About Oil:
That makes every Bush Administration official involved a liar, intent on frightening the American people into an unnecessary war. Not that we'd expect any consequences for their actions, of course...
Paul Bignell: Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq
"Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.
The papers, revealed here for the first time, raise new questions over Britain's involvement in the war, which had divided Tony Blair's cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction..."
The 2012 Presidential Race (Already?!?)
DailyKos: Donald Trump's (a la Sarah Palin) Disastrous NBC Interview
"I never thought I would say this, but Donald Trump is far more clueless when it comes to domestic and international issues than even Sarah Palin, as unbelievable as this might sound. My jaw has not left the floor following an interview conducted by Savannah Guthrie on NBC and shown on MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown this morning. During the interview, Trump ignorantly blusters his way through a series of questions regarding China, the debt ceiling, to the right to privacy..."
Energy:
Marcus Baram: Hydrofracking Pushed By Agents Instructed To Mislead Landowners: Report
"An oil company distributed what appear to be 'talking points' to its salesmen, instructing them to mislead landowners about the dangers of oil and gas drilling, according to a document obtained by environmental news website TreeHugger and several other blogs.
Entitled 'Talking Points for Selling Oil and Gas Lease Rights', the document implores its 'Field Agents' to 'mislead people about the risks of drilling, to omit important facts, and even, on occasion, to outright lie,' writes TreeHugger's Brian Merchant. He cautions that TreeHugger has neither confirmed the authenticity of the document nor determined which oil company it belongs to.
Here's a sample from the purported talking points:
Other parts of the document instruct field agents to steer away from any discussion of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial technique used to extract natural gas, and to confuse landowners about the difference between two different forms of the process.
In another section, field agents are instructed to avoid letting landowners know that many well heads may have to be drilled on their land.
The Huffington Post was not able to confirm the authenticity of this document either..."
Do we have a public that won't lap this Koch-sponsored nonsense like so much free beer?
Raw Story: Koch Industries buying ads to refute news stories
"...Mike Hoyt, executive editor at the Columbia Journalism Review, told the Center for Public Integrity that this was the first time he had seen political attacks on journalists from online ads.
'Public relations has grown so tremendously while journalism has, due to the recession and the digital shakeup of the business model, shrunk,' Hoyt said. 'Combine that with the ability of powerful entities to buy their own gateways to the public, and you have a civic conversation that can be skewed. A main job of the press is to examine the powerful, and that becomes harder given the PR muscle of the powerful,'..."
Again, How Iraq Was Always About Oil:
That makes every Bush Administration official involved a liar, intent on frightening the American people into an unnecessary war. Not that we'd expect any consequences for their actions, of course...
Paul Bignell: Secret memos expose link between oil firms and invasion of Iraq
"Plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves were discussed by government ministers and the world's largest oil companies the year before Britain took a leading role in invading Iraq, government documents show.
The papers, revealed here for the first time, raise new questions over Britain's involvement in the war, which had divided Tony Blair's cabinet and was voted through only after his claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction..."
The 2012 Presidential Race (Already?!?)
DailyKos: Donald Trump's (a la Sarah Palin) Disastrous NBC Interview
"I never thought I would say this, but Donald Trump is far more clueless when it comes to domestic and international issues than even Sarah Palin, as unbelievable as this might sound. My jaw has not left the floor following an interview conducted by Savannah Guthrie on NBC and shown on MSNBC’s The Daily Rundown this morning. During the interview, Trump ignorantly blusters his way through a series of questions regarding China, the debt ceiling, to the right to privacy..."
Energy:
Marcus Baram: Hydrofracking Pushed By Agents Instructed To Mislead Landowners: Report
"An oil company distributed what appear to be 'talking points' to its salesmen, instructing them to mislead landowners about the dangers of oil and gas drilling, according to a document obtained by environmental news website TreeHugger and several other blogs.
Entitled 'Talking Points for Selling Oil and Gas Lease Rights', the document implores its 'Field Agents' to 'mislead people about the risks of drilling, to omit important facts, and even, on occasion, to outright lie,' writes TreeHugger's Brian Merchant. He cautions that TreeHugger has neither confirmed the authenticity of the document nor determined which oil company it belongs to.
Here's a sample from the purported talking points:
Tell the landowner that all their neighbors have signed. Even if the neighbors have not, this often will push an undecided landowner in favor of signing. Remember, the first visit is the most crucial. They will not know if their neighbors have signed, and even if they do they will want to sign so they do not lose out on the potential profits. Once they have signed, then you can show those leases to undecided neighbors for added pressure.
Other parts of the document instruct field agents to steer away from any discussion of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial technique used to extract natural gas, and to confuse landowners about the difference between two different forms of the process.
In another section, field agents are instructed to avoid letting landowners know that many well heads may have to be drilled on their land.
The overall plan is to drill exploratory wells, and then use more advanced techniques to get at the small oil pockets we find. This will require multiple well heads, where we pump in high volume of water and chemicals, much the same manner as in the fracing process. DO NOT DISCUSS this point. We want no correlation between fracing and enhanced oil recovery processes. We do not want landowners aware char we may have to drill many well heads in a single area. After we have the leases signed we have the freedom to use the land as we see fit. If needed we can even write leases with 'No Fracing' posirions, and even with these lease modifications we can legally drill multiple wells and inserr high pressure 'extractants'.
The Huffington Post was not able to confirm the authenticity of this document either..."
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Politics:
The gall of this Senator in misrepresenting facts is quite breathtaking.
Apparently, somehow this is OK, when trying to make a political point?
The Senator really needs 1) a fact-checker and 2) a reality check for what constitutes a 'factual statement.'
Raw Story: Stewart on Sen. Kyl’s ‘political strategy known as lying’
"Last week, one of the last sticking points in reaching a budget deal to avoid government shutdown was whether Planned Parenthood would receive federal funding or not. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) argued that abortion is 'well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does,' when abortions actually account for only 3 percent of PPFA’s services. When confronted, his office said that it was 'not intended to be a factual statement.'
Jon Stewart contributed his own 'not intended to be a factual statement' about Kyl on last night’s Daily Show. Find out what it is, and hear his analysis of 'the political strategy known as lying' by watching the clips below."
The gall of this Senator in misrepresenting facts is quite breathtaking.
Apparently, somehow this is OK, when trying to make a political point?
The Senator really needs 1) a fact-checker and 2) a reality check for what constitutes a 'factual statement.'
Raw Story: Stewart on Sen. Kyl’s ‘political strategy known as lying’
"Last week, one of the last sticking points in reaching a budget deal to avoid government shutdown was whether Planned Parenthood would receive federal funding or not. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) argued that abortion is 'well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does,' when abortions actually account for only 3 percent of PPFA’s services. When confronted, his office said that it was 'not intended to be a factual statement.'
Jon Stewart contributed his own 'not intended to be a factual statement' about Kyl on last night’s Daily Show. Find out what it is, and hear his analysis of 'the political strategy known as lying' by watching the clips below."
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Nukes:
Helen Caldicott : How nuclear apologists mislead the world over radiation
"Soon after the Fukushima accident last month, I stated publicly that a nuclear event of this size and catastrophic potential could present a medical problem of very large dimensions. Events have proven this observation to be true despite the nuclear industry's campaign about the 'minimal' health effects of so-called low-level radiation. That billions of its dollars are at stake if the Fukushima event causes the 'nuclear renaissance' to slow down appears to be evident from the industry's attacks on its critics, even in the face of an unresolved and escalating disaster at the reactor complex at Fukushima.
Proponents of nuclear power – including George Monbiot, who has had a mysterious road-to-Damascus conversion to its supposedly benign effects – accuse me and others who call attention to the potential serious medical consequences of the accident of 'cherry-picking' data and overstating the health effects of radiation from the radioactive fuel in the destroyed reactors and their cooling pools. Yet by reassuring the public that things aren't too bad, Monbiot and others at best misinform, and at worst misrepresent or distort, the scientific evidence of the harmful effects of radiation exposure – and they play a predictable shoot-the-messenger game in the process.
To wit:
1) Mr Monbiot, who is a journalist not a scientist, appears unaware of the difference between external and internal radiation
Let me educate him..."
UCS 'All Things Nuclear' Blog - Panic on the 18th floor
"Several years ago the Nuclear Regulatory Commission started a research program known as the 'State of the Art Reactor Consequence Analyses,' or SOARCA, which I discussed in a post on April 6. SOARCA’s mission is to assess the consequences of 'severe accident scenarios at nuclear power plants that might release radioactivity into the environment.
UCS has long been concerned that the NRC imposed constraints on the SOARCA program that would significantly skew its results to ensure an outcome suggesting the public has little to fear from severe nuclear plant accidents. In 2006, to bolster confidence in the process, UCS requested that the NRC publicly release its guidelines for the program, the constraints it imposed on it, and the assumptions underlying the program’s assessment of accident scenarios as well as its justifications for them.
The NRC refused to release that information, despite the fact that the NRC plans to make SOARCA’s results public and, earlier in 2006, NRC Commissioner Gregory Jaczko—now the agency’s chairman—called for the agency to release the material UCS requested.
UCS just discovered from a new set of FOIA documents that in March 2010 Chairman Jaczko again asked the NRC to release the SOARCA materials. The agency still has not done so.
One reason UCS questioned the SOARCA process was that around the time the program was created, NRC staff and at least one commissioner repeatedly asserted that a previous study of this type—the 1982 Calculation of Reactor Consequences (CRAC2) study conducted by Sandia National Laboratory—overstated the potential severity of nuclear accidents. UCS was concerned that the NRC may have shaped the SOARCA study to produce results that cast the nuclear power industry in a more positive light...
...In any event, it’s news that SOARCA studies are apparently showing there would be early fatalities from acute radiation exposure in a nuclear plant accident. To our knowledge, that has never before been disclosed.
It will be interesting to see how many acute fatalities are estimated in the draft SOARCA study when the NRC releases it publicly."
Wikileaks:
Ed Pilkington: Bradley Manning: top US legal scholars voice outrage at 'torture'
"More than 250 of America's most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his 'degrading and inhumane conditions' are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture.
The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America's foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.
Tribe joined the Obama administration last year as a legal adviser in the justice department, a post he held until three months ago.
He told the Guardian he signed the letter because Manning appeared to have been treated in a way that 'is not only shameful but unconstitutional' as he awaits court martial in Quantico marine base in Virginia..."
Economics:
Michael Tomasky : The shutdown and tax revenue and the top 400
"As we discuss thirty-odd billion in cuts that will largely impact poor people most directly, let's step back and permit ourselves to be reminded of the big picture, with help from Jesse Drucker of Bloomberg Business Week:
A 17% effective rate. That's less than I pay, and I'm pretty sure it's less than you pay. I really wonder, conservative commenters, does this strike you as fair? Does this not bother you even a little?
Trillions of dollars have been sacrificed over these last three decades to an economic theory (supply-side) that has demonstrably not worked as advertised, ever: Ronald Reagan grasped this by 1983 and started raising taxes, which he did seven or 11 times, depending on what you count. George W Bush would not acknowledge it, and the deficit skyrocketed as revenues did indeed drop, and dropped significantly..."
Helen Caldicott : How nuclear apologists mislead the world over radiation
"Soon after the Fukushima accident last month, I stated publicly that a nuclear event of this size and catastrophic potential could present a medical problem of very large dimensions. Events have proven this observation to be true despite the nuclear industry's campaign about the 'minimal' health effects of so-called low-level radiation. That billions of its dollars are at stake if the Fukushima event causes the 'nuclear renaissance' to slow down appears to be evident from the industry's attacks on its critics, even in the face of an unresolved and escalating disaster at the reactor complex at Fukushima.
Proponents of nuclear power – including George Monbiot, who has had a mysterious road-to-Damascus conversion to its supposedly benign effects – accuse me and others who call attention to the potential serious medical consequences of the accident of 'cherry-picking' data and overstating the health effects of radiation from the radioactive fuel in the destroyed reactors and their cooling pools. Yet by reassuring the public that things aren't too bad, Monbiot and others at best misinform, and at worst misrepresent or distort, the scientific evidence of the harmful effects of radiation exposure – and they play a predictable shoot-the-messenger game in the process.
To wit:
1) Mr Monbiot, who is a journalist not a scientist, appears unaware of the difference between external and internal radiation
Let me educate him..."
UCS 'All Things Nuclear' Blog - Panic on the 18th floor
"Several years ago the Nuclear Regulatory Commission started a research program known as the 'State of the Art Reactor Consequence Analyses,' or SOARCA, which I discussed in a post on April 6. SOARCA’s mission is to assess the consequences of 'severe accident scenarios at nuclear power plants that might release radioactivity into the environment.
UCS has long been concerned that the NRC imposed constraints on the SOARCA program that would significantly skew its results to ensure an outcome suggesting the public has little to fear from severe nuclear plant accidents. In 2006, to bolster confidence in the process, UCS requested that the NRC publicly release its guidelines for the program, the constraints it imposed on it, and the assumptions underlying the program’s assessment of accident scenarios as well as its justifications for them.
The NRC refused to release that information, despite the fact that the NRC plans to make SOARCA’s results public and, earlier in 2006, NRC Commissioner Gregory Jaczko—now the agency’s chairman—called for the agency to release the material UCS requested.
UCS just discovered from a new set of FOIA documents that in March 2010 Chairman Jaczko again asked the NRC to release the SOARCA materials. The agency still has not done so.
One reason UCS questioned the SOARCA process was that around the time the program was created, NRC staff and at least one commissioner repeatedly asserted that a previous study of this type—the 1982 Calculation of Reactor Consequences (CRAC2) study conducted by Sandia National Laboratory—overstated the potential severity of nuclear accidents. UCS was concerned that the NRC may have shaped the SOARCA study to produce results that cast the nuclear power industry in a more positive light...
...In any event, it’s news that SOARCA studies are apparently showing there would be early fatalities from acute radiation exposure in a nuclear plant accident. To our knowledge, that has never before been disclosed.
It will be interesting to see how many acute fatalities are estimated in the draft SOARCA study when the NRC releases it publicly."
Wikileaks:
Ed Pilkington: Bradley Manning: top US legal scholars voice outrage at 'torture'
"More than 250 of America's most eminent legal scholars have signed a letter protesting against the treatment in military prison of the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, contesting that his 'degrading and inhumane conditions' are illegal, unconstitutional and could even amount to torture.
The list of signatories includes Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor who is considered to be America's foremost liberal authority on constitutional law. He taught constitutional law to Barack Obama and was a key backer of his 2008 presidential campaign.
Tribe joined the Obama administration last year as a legal adviser in the justice department, a post he held until three months ago.
He told the Guardian he signed the letter because Manning appeared to have been treated in a way that 'is not only shameful but unconstitutional' as he awaits court martial in Quantico marine base in Virginia..."
Economics:
Michael Tomasky : The shutdown and tax revenue and the top 400
"As we discuss thirty-odd billion in cuts that will largely impact poor people most directly, let's step back and permit ourselves to be reminded of the big picture, with help from Jesse Drucker of Bloomberg Business Week:
For the 400 US taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross income, the effective federal income tax rate – what they actually pay – fell from almost 30% in 1995 to just under 17% in 2007, according to the IRS. And for the approximately 1.4 million people who make up the top 1% of taxpayers, the effective federal income tax rate dropped from 29% to 23% in 2008. It may seem too fantastic to be true, but the top 400 end up paying a lower rate than the next 1,399,600 or so.
That's not just good luck. It's often the result of hard work, as suggested by some of the strategies in the following pages. Much of the top 400's income is from dividends and capital gains, generated by everything from appreciated real estate – yes, there is some left – to stocks and the sale of family businesses. As Warren Buffett likes to point out, since most of his income is from dividends, his tax rate is less than that of the people who clean his office.
A 17% effective rate. That's less than I pay, and I'm pretty sure it's less than you pay. I really wonder, conservative commenters, does this strike you as fair? Does this not bother you even a little?
Trillions of dollars have been sacrificed over these last three decades to an economic theory (supply-side) that has demonstrably not worked as advertised, ever: Ronald Reagan grasped this by 1983 and started raising taxes, which he did seven or 11 times, depending on what you count. George W Bush would not acknowledge it, and the deficit skyrocketed as revenues did indeed drop, and dropped significantly..."
Monday, April 11, 2011
The Bankster Heist:
William Greider: How Wall Street Crooks Get Out of Jail Free
"When Charles Ferguson received an Oscar for his documentary on the financial crisis, Inside Job, he reminded the audience that 'not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong.' Given the abundant evidence of massive fraud, Americans everywhere have asked the same question: Why haven’t any of those bankers gone to jail? If federal investigators could not establish criminal intent for any top-flight executives, didn’t they have enough evidence to prosecute banks or financial houses as law-breaking corporations?...
...The technical difficulties in making a case for criminal prosecutions are real enough, given the complexities of modern finance. But the government’s lack of response to enormous wrongdoing reflects a deeper conflict of values. Will society’s sense of right and wrong prevail, or will corporate capitalism’s amoral need to maximize profit? So far, the marketplace appears to be winning.
The government’s ambivalence about prosecuting the largest corporate interests could be heard in the president’s comments. 'Nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past,' Barack Obama said in a different context (crimes of torture and unlawful detention committed under the Bush administration). Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner bluntly dismissed the 'public desire for Old Testament justice.' That might be morally satisfying, he said, but it would be 'dramatically damaging' to economic recovery..."
Johann Hari: How to Build a Progressive Tea Party
"Imagine a parallel universe where the Great Crash of 2008 was followed by a Tea Party of a very different kind. Enraged citizens gather in every city, week after week—to demand the government finally regulate the behavior of corporations and the superrich, and force them to start paying taxes. The protesters shut down the shops and offices of the companies that have most aggressively ripped off the country. The swelling movement is made up of everyone from teenagers to pensioners. They surround branches of the banks that caused this crash and force them to close, with banners saying, You Caused This Crisis. Now YOU Pay.
As people see their fellow citizens acting in self-defense, these tax-the-rich protests spread to even the most conservative parts of the country. It becomes the most-discussed subject on Twitter. Even right-wing media outlets, sensing a startling effect on the public mood, begin to praise the uprising, and dig up damning facts on the tax dodgers.
Instead of the fake populism of the Tea Party, there is a movement based on real populism. It shows that there is an alternative to making the poor and the middle class pay for a crisis caused by the rich. It shifts the national conversation. Instead of letting the government cut our services and increase our taxes, the people demand that it cut the endless and lavish aid for the rich and make them pay the massive sums they dodge in taxes.
This may sound like a fantasy—but it has all happened. The name of this parallel universe is Britain. As recently as this past fall, people here were asking the same questions liberal Americans have been glumly contemplating: Why is everyone being so passive? Why are we letting ourselves be ripped off? Why are people staying in their homes watching their flat-screens while our politicians strip away services so they can fatten the superrich even more?.."
William Greider: How Wall Street Crooks Get Out of Jail Free
"When Charles Ferguson received an Oscar for his documentary on the financial crisis, Inside Job, he reminded the audience that 'not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong.' Given the abundant evidence of massive fraud, Americans everywhere have asked the same question: Why haven’t any of those bankers gone to jail? If federal investigators could not establish criminal intent for any top-flight executives, didn’t they have enough evidence to prosecute banks or financial houses as law-breaking corporations?...
...The technical difficulties in making a case for criminal prosecutions are real enough, given the complexities of modern finance. But the government’s lack of response to enormous wrongdoing reflects a deeper conflict of values. Will society’s sense of right and wrong prevail, or will corporate capitalism’s amoral need to maximize profit? So far, the marketplace appears to be winning.
The government’s ambivalence about prosecuting the largest corporate interests could be heard in the president’s comments. 'Nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past,' Barack Obama said in a different context (crimes of torture and unlawful detention committed under the Bush administration). Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner bluntly dismissed the 'public desire for Old Testament justice.' That might be morally satisfying, he said, but it would be 'dramatically damaging' to economic recovery..."
Johann Hari: How to Build a Progressive Tea Party
"Imagine a parallel universe where the Great Crash of 2008 was followed by a Tea Party of a very different kind. Enraged citizens gather in every city, week after week—to demand the government finally regulate the behavior of corporations and the superrich, and force them to start paying taxes. The protesters shut down the shops and offices of the companies that have most aggressively ripped off the country. The swelling movement is made up of everyone from teenagers to pensioners. They surround branches of the banks that caused this crash and force them to close, with banners saying, You Caused This Crisis. Now YOU Pay.
As people see their fellow citizens acting in self-defense, these tax-the-rich protests spread to even the most conservative parts of the country. It becomes the most-discussed subject on Twitter. Even right-wing media outlets, sensing a startling effect on the public mood, begin to praise the uprising, and dig up damning facts on the tax dodgers.
Instead of the fake populism of the Tea Party, there is a movement based on real populism. It shows that there is an alternative to making the poor and the middle class pay for a crisis caused by the rich. It shifts the national conversation. Instead of letting the government cut our services and increase our taxes, the people demand that it cut the endless and lavish aid for the rich and make them pay the massive sums they dodge in taxes.
This may sound like a fantasy—but it has all happened. The name of this parallel universe is Britain. As recently as this past fall, people here were asking the same questions liberal Americans have been glumly contemplating: Why is everyone being so passive? Why are we letting ourselves be ripped off? Why are people staying in their homes watching their flat-screens while our politicians strip away services so they can fatten the superrich even more?.."
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Energy:
Here are two different ways in which societies act in an era of high fuel prices...
The Guardian (UK) Spain lowers speed limit to cut fuel bill
"An army of workers changed motorway speed signs overnight from 120km/h to 110km/h, as part of a series of measures designed to save €2.3bn a year in oil costs..."
Autoblog: Texas House approves nation's fastest speed limit at 85 mph
"They say everything is bigger in Texas, and now it seems everything might be faster too. The House of Representatives in Texas has approved a new transportation bill, and it includes legislation that would allow the Texas Department of Transportation to raise speed limits to 85 miles per hour..."
Here are two different ways in which societies act in an era of high fuel prices...
The Guardian (UK) Spain lowers speed limit to cut fuel bill
"An army of workers changed motorway speed signs overnight from 120km/h to 110km/h, as part of a series of measures designed to save €2.3bn a year in oil costs..."
Autoblog: Texas House approves nation's fastest speed limit at 85 mph
"They say everything is bigger in Texas, and now it seems everything might be faster too. The House of Representatives in Texas has approved a new transportation bill, and it includes legislation that would allow the Texas Department of Transportation to raise speed limits to 85 miles per hour..."
Friday, April 08, 2011
Economics:
Robert Reich: Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich
David Michael Green: When Pigs Rule
Nukes:
Tom Burnett: 'Worse Than Chernobyl': When the Fukushima Meltdown Hits Groundwater
Union Of Concerned Scientists: IAEA Confirms Very High Levels Of Contamination
"...'The IAEA is reporting that measured soil concentrations of Cs-137
as far away as Iitate Village, 40 kilometers northwest of Fukushima-Dai-Ichi, correspond to deposition levels of up to 3.7 megabecquerels per square meter (MBq/sq. m). This is far higher than previous IAEA reports of values of Cs-137 deposition, and comparable to the total beta-gamma measurements reported previously by IAEA..' and mentioned on this blog.
This should be compared with the deposition level that triggered compulsory relocation in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident: the level set in 1990 by the Soviet Union was 1.48 MBq/sq. m. Thus, it is now abundantly clear that Japanese authorities were negligent in restricting the emergency evacuation zone to only 20 kilometers from the release site..."
NY Times: U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant
"...fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools above the reactors were blown 'up to one mile from the units,' and that pieces of highly radioactive material fell between two units and had to be 'bulldozed over,' presumably to protect workers at the site. The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed..."
Foreign Intervention:
Jeremy Scahill: The Changing US Tune on Yemen
CNN: (Video) Michael Scheuer Tells Truth About Libya Intervention
Everyone Is A Suspect:
Slashdot.org - New FBI System IDs People By Voice, Iris, More
2012 (Financial) Campaign Kickoff
I hope people realize how little of what he promised was even attempted.
Serve his Wall St. donors with meaningless FinReg and punish NOT one investment bank CEO for fraud? CHECK
Ignoring the constitution (Guantanamo)? CHECK
Bow to most GOP initiatives on the budget, tax cuts for the ueber-rich, regulation? CHECK
Raw Story: The Top 5 Campaign Promises Obama Left Behind
Robert Reich: Why We Must Raise Taxes on the Rich
David Michael Green: When Pigs Rule
Nukes:
Tom Burnett: 'Worse Than Chernobyl': When the Fukushima Meltdown Hits Groundwater
Union Of Concerned Scientists: IAEA Confirms Very High Levels Of Contamination
"...'The IAEA is reporting that measured soil concentrations of Cs-137
as far away as Iitate Village, 40 kilometers northwest of Fukushima-Dai-Ichi, correspond to deposition levels of up to 3.7 megabecquerels per square meter (MBq/sq. m). This is far higher than previous IAEA reports of values of Cs-137 deposition, and comparable to the total beta-gamma measurements reported previously by IAEA..' and mentioned on this blog.
This should be compared with the deposition level that triggered compulsory relocation in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident: the level set in 1990 by the Soviet Union was 1.48 MBq/sq. m. Thus, it is now abundantly clear that Japanese authorities were negligent in restricting the emergency evacuation zone to only 20 kilometers from the release site..."
NY Times: U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant
"...fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools above the reactors were blown 'up to one mile from the units,' and that pieces of highly radioactive material fell between two units and had to be 'bulldozed over,' presumably to protect workers at the site. The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed..."
Foreign Intervention:
Jeremy Scahill: The Changing US Tune on Yemen
CNN: (Video) Michael Scheuer Tells Truth About Libya Intervention
Everyone Is A Suspect:
Slashdot.org - New FBI System IDs People By Voice, Iris, More
2012 (Financial) Campaign Kickoff
I hope people realize how little of what he promised was even attempted.
Serve his Wall St. donors with meaningless FinReg and punish NOT one investment bank CEO for fraud? CHECK
Ignoring the constitution (Guantanamo)? CHECK
Bow to most GOP initiatives on the budget, tax cuts for the ueber-rich, regulation? CHECK
Raw Story: The Top 5 Campaign Promises Obama Left Behind
Monday, April 04, 2011
Economics:
This, from the House of Murdoch?
Paul B. Farrell: Tax the Super Rich now or face a revolution
"Revolutions build over long periods — to critical mass, a flash point. Then they ignite suddenly, unpredictably. Like Egypt, started on a young Google executive’s Facebook page. Then it goes viral, raging uncontrollably. Can’t be stopped. Here in America the set-up is our nation’s pervasive 'Super-Rich Delusion.'
We know the Super Rich don’t care. Not about you. Nor the American public. They can’t see. Can’t hear. Stay trapped in their Forbes-400 bubble. An echo chamber that isolates them. They see the public as faceless workers, customers, taxpayers. See GOP power on the ascent.
Reaganomics is back. Unions on the run. Clueless masses are easily manipulated.
Even Obama is secretly working with the GOP, will never touch his Super Rich donors. Yes, the Super-Rich Delusion is that powerful, infecting all America...
...Our top 1% honestly believe they’re immune, protected from the unintended consequences of beating down average Americans for three decades with the free-market, trickle-down Reaganomics doctrines that made them Super Rich.
They honestly believe those same doctrines will protect them in the next depression. Why? Because they have megabucks stashed away.
Provisions for the long haul. Live in gated compounds with mercenaries guarding them.
They believe they’ll continue living just fine in a depression. But you won’t. Nor will your retirement. Neither will the rest of America.
And still the Super Rich don’t care, 'except in the abstract, because they aren’t directly affected.'
Warning: The Super-Rich Delusion has pushed us to the edge of a great precipice: Remember the Roaring Twenties? The Crash of 1929? Great Depression? Just days before the crash one leading economist, Irving Fisher, predicted that stocks had 'reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.'
Yes, he was trapped in the 'Great Gatsby Syndrome,' an earlier version of today’s Super-Rich Delusion. It was so blinding in 1929 that the president, Wall Street, all America were sucked in … until the critical mass hit a mysterious flash point, triggering the crash.
Yes, we’re reliving that past — never learn, can’t hear. And oddly it’s not just the GOP’s overreach, the endlessly compromising Obama, too-greedy-to-fail Wall Street banksters, U.S. Chamber of Commerce billionaires and arrogant Forbes 400. America’s entire political, financial and economic psyche is infected, as if our DNA has been
rewired..."
Robert Reich: The Economic Truth That Nobody Will Admit: We're Heading Back Toward a Double-Dip
"Why aren't Americans being told the truth about the economy? We're heading in the direction of a double dip -- but you'd never know it if you listened to the upbeat messages coming out of Wall Street and Washington.
Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy, and consumer confidence is plummeting. It's weaker today on average than at the lowest point of the Great Recession.
The Reuters/University of Michigan survey shows a 10 point decline in March -- the tenth largest drop on record. Part of that drop is attributable to rising fuel and food prices. A separate Conference Board's index of consumer confidence, just released, shows consumer confidence at a five-month low -- and a large part is due to
expectations of fewer jobs and lower wages in the months ahead.
Pessimistic consumers buy less. And fewer sales spells economic trouble ahead...."
This, from the House of Murdoch?
Paul B. Farrell: Tax the Super Rich now or face a revolution
"Revolutions build over long periods — to critical mass, a flash point. Then they ignite suddenly, unpredictably. Like Egypt, started on a young Google executive’s Facebook page. Then it goes viral, raging uncontrollably. Can’t be stopped. Here in America the set-up is our nation’s pervasive 'Super-Rich Delusion.'
We know the Super Rich don’t care. Not about you. Nor the American public. They can’t see. Can’t hear. Stay trapped in their Forbes-400 bubble. An echo chamber that isolates them. They see the public as faceless workers, customers, taxpayers. See GOP power on the ascent.
Reaganomics is back. Unions on the run. Clueless masses are easily manipulated.
Even Obama is secretly working with the GOP, will never touch his Super Rich donors. Yes, the Super-Rich Delusion is that powerful, infecting all America...
...Our top 1% honestly believe they’re immune, protected from the unintended consequences of beating down average Americans for three decades with the free-market, trickle-down Reaganomics doctrines that made them Super Rich.
They honestly believe those same doctrines will protect them in the next depression. Why? Because they have megabucks stashed away.
Provisions for the long haul. Live in gated compounds with mercenaries guarding them.
They believe they’ll continue living just fine in a depression. But you won’t. Nor will your retirement. Neither will the rest of America.
And still the Super Rich don’t care, 'except in the abstract, because they aren’t directly affected.'
Warning: The Super-Rich Delusion has pushed us to the edge of a great precipice: Remember the Roaring Twenties? The Crash of 1929? Great Depression? Just days before the crash one leading economist, Irving Fisher, predicted that stocks had 'reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.'
Yes, he was trapped in the 'Great Gatsby Syndrome,' an earlier version of today’s Super-Rich Delusion. It was so blinding in 1929 that the president, Wall Street, all America were sucked in … until the critical mass hit a mysterious flash point, triggering the crash.
Yes, we’re reliving that past — never learn, can’t hear. And oddly it’s not just the GOP’s overreach, the endlessly compromising Obama, too-greedy-to-fail Wall Street banksters, U.S. Chamber of Commerce billionaires and arrogant Forbes 400. America’s entire political, financial and economic psyche is infected, as if our DNA has been
rewired..."
Robert Reich: The Economic Truth That Nobody Will Admit: We're Heading Back Toward a Double-Dip
"Why aren't Americans being told the truth about the economy? We're heading in the direction of a double dip -- but you'd never know it if you listened to the upbeat messages coming out of Wall Street and Washington.
Consumers are 70 percent of the American economy, and consumer confidence is plummeting. It's weaker today on average than at the lowest point of the Great Recession.
The Reuters/University of Michigan survey shows a 10 point decline in March -- the tenth largest drop on record. Part of that drop is attributable to rising fuel and food prices. A separate Conference Board's index of consumer confidence, just released, shows consumer confidence at a five-month low -- and a large part is due to
expectations of fewer jobs and lower wages in the months ahead.
Pessimistic consumers buy less. And fewer sales spells economic trouble ahead...."
