Rep. King: We are a force of good and we are using those drones to carry out the policy of righteousness and goodness

glenn...

Rep. King has another role: he’s one of President Obama’s most outspoken defenders and supporters when it comes to civil liberties and Terrorism. On CNN this morning, King offered his latest vigorous defense of a signature Obama policy:

House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-NY) on Sunday refused to confirm the existence of U.S. drone strikes in other countries, but later insisted that the unmanned flying machines were being used to “carry out the policies of righteousness and goodness” . . . .

“There’s evil people in the world. Drones aren’t evil, people are evil. We are a force of good and we are using those drones to carry out the policy of righteousness and goodness.”

Rep. King apparently sees the U.S. as the Justice League — a heroic “force of good” slaying the Evil Villains in pursuit of “righteousness and goodness” — so it’s unsurprising that he’s an enthusiastic supporter of Obama’s drone program, given that this is the Saturday morning cartoon mentality that drives it (yet again, here we find that the critic of Obama’s foreign policy conduct in a media debate is a progressive Democrat (Rep. Lynn Woolsey) while Obama’s stalwart defender is found on the far right).

"...the Saturday morning cartoon mentality..."

everything about the united states in 2012 is a cartoon... speaking as one with two grandsons, 13 and 10, who, with their friends, are either glued to cartoons (every day, not just saturday... they USED to be saturday and maybe an hour after school, but not any more) or deep into "shooter" video games (halo, call of duty, etc.), it's easy to see how somebody like rep. king comes by his chest-thumping rhetoric... (for the "adult" version of the super-hero cartoons, check out wwe...)

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The 5-year increase in speculative demand for oil is almost equal to the increase in Chinese demand for oil

i posted the other day on the possibility that speculators are purposely driving up oil prices...

here's mike whitney at ich...

“Speculative activity in commodity markets has grown 'enormously' over the past several years," the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said in a news release. It pointed out that in five years, from 2003 to 2008, investment in the index funds tied to commodities has grown by 20-fold -- to $260 billion from $13 billion.”

And here's a revealing clip from the testimony of Michael W. Masters of Masters Capital Management, LLC, who addressed the issue of “Commodities Speculation” before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs this week:

“Today, Index Speculators are pouring billions of dollars into the commodities futures markets, speculating that commodity prices will increase. ... In the popular press the explanation given most often for rising oil prices is the increased demand for oil from China. According to the DOE, annual Chinese demand for petroleum has increased over the last five years from 1.88 billion barrels to 2.8 billion barrels, an increase of 920 million barrels.8 Over the same five-year period, Index Speculatorsʼ demand for petroleum futures has increased by 848 million barrels. THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM INDEX SPECULATORS IS ALMOST EQUAL TO THE INCREASE IN DEMAND FROM CHINA.

Index Speculators have now stockpiled, via the futures market, the equivalent of 1.1 billion barrels of petroleum, effectively adding eight times as much oil to their own stockpile as the United States has added to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve over the last five years.

Today, in many commodities futures markets, they are the single largest force.15 The huge growth in their demand has gone virtually undetected by classically-trained economists who almost never analyze demand in futures markets.

As money pours into the markets, two things happen concurrently: the markets expand and prices rise. One particularly troubling aspect of Index Speculator demand is that it actually increases the more prices increase. This explains the accelerating rate at which commodity futures prices (and actual commodity prices) are increasing. The CFTC has taken deliberate steps to allow CERTAIN SPECULATORS VIRTUALLY UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE COMMODITIES FUTURES MARKETS. The CFTC has granted Wall Street banks an exemption from speculative position limits when these banks hedge over-the-counter swaps transactions. This has effectively opened a loophole for unlimited speculation. When Index Speculators enter into commodity index swaps, which 85-90% of them do, they face no speculative position limits. ... The result is a gross distortion in data that effectively hides the full impact of Index Speculation.” (Thanks to Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis; the one “indispensable” financial blog on the Internet)

ya know, i'm in no position to make any judgments on whether this is actually happening or not, but, i gotta say, do i believe it's POSSIBLE...? damn right...!

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Jane Harman is totally and completely full of shit

she finds out all about it in 2003, sucks up to bush, doesn't tell anybody shit about shit, and then comes out NOW and tries to tell us that she's one of the good guys... gimme a friggin' BREAK...!

Rep. Jane Harman said in an interview with MSNBC on Friday that she told the CIA not to destroy videotapes of the interrogation of Al Qaeda terrorist suspects.

"My view then and my view now is it was a bad idea to consider destroying any tapes, and it was a very bad idea to do it," said California Democrat Harman, who is the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee on Intelligence and Terrorism Risk Assessment. Harman said she wrote a "classified" letter to the CIA telling them of her opinion when she learned of the existence of these videotapes in 2003.

go directly to hell, jane harman...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments