SAR #10288

It's become all fraud, all the time.

Headline News: “Massive Trade Deficit Raises Prospect Of Disastrous Christmas If Shoppers Don't Come Through.” Six too many words.

Fair & Balanced: Here's a neat graph comparing the money spent (in 2007) on renewable energy development compared to that spent on oil Iraq.

Minority Report: DARPA, fresh from an afternoon matinee, hopes that by reading your emails and secretly friending you, they'll know whether you need arresting now for things you might do later.

Same Old Same Old: Afghans allege that abuse continues at secret US prisons. Surprise, surprise. Note that torture is still a war crime.

Only In America: The federal government, shocked to discover that insurance companies failed to live up to commitments made while negotiating health care reform, has turned to state governments urging them to force health insurers to sell coverage for children. In that health insurers don't live up to the contracts they write, why is it surprising they don't live up to handshake agreements that would cost them money?

Too Little, Far Too Late: Former Army Chief of Staff (1997-2001)Gen. Hugh Shelton now steps forward to say that Bush “got us enmeshed in Iraq based on extraordinarily poor intelligence and a series of lies,” that Rumsfeld was the worst Seckretary of Defense ever, and that John McCain “would break into erratic temper tantrums in the middle of a normal conversation."

Stop Me Before I Buy Again: American jingoists are calling for a crackdown on China's 'unfair' trading practices. They should stop sending their stuff over here and making us buy it. Same thing goes for those Latin American drug cartels.

Appropriate Punishment: If Californians elect Tea Party/GOP congressional candidate David Hamer, he promises to do away with public education. Which would certainly balance California's budget. Be careful what you wish for.

Police Action:  New York City has paid nearly $1 billion over the last decade to settle claims against NYC police by citizens – everything from shooting them to running over them with patrol cars. Protect and serve.

Tipping Point:  Someone's figured out that as the rich get richer, the rich get even richer, and so on in an “accelerating feedback loop”. In nature such loops bring about radical changes.

Again:  Unemployment claims went up again this week, as did the four-week moving average of initial claims. For some reason this sort of thing is still “a surprise”

Running on Fumes:   The continued weak or no growth in the use of diesel fuel indicates a continuing slowdown in the shipment of materials and merchandise. This in turn suggests....

Pelican:   Iraq, which last week invoked the gimmie clause and increased its reserves by 15% after promising to increase its production capacity from 2.4 mbd today to 12 mbd in 2017, has proudly announced it will take the first step next year with a 300,000 bd capacity increase. At that rate, 2017 might fall sometime about 2041.

Shell Game: The Philippines has fined Shell $567 million for   “misdeclaring and misclassifying 52 shipments” - what used to be called smuggling.

The End Is Near:  Chesapeake Energy CEO McClendon says the shale-gas party is over and that “By the end of 2011 there won't be any more” big finds. So you'd better bid up his shares...

Nanananana:  Iran has assumed the OPEC presidency.

Tag Sale:  Krugman says we need $8 to $10 trillion in new stimulus spending to prevent Bad Things from happening. We'll never know if he was right.

--> Surprising how well a net-book works balanced on my tummy.