Investors are currently asking: So, how is it that as the U.S. debt increases, bankrupt corporations get bailed out for billions, U.S. credit rating falls, growth declines, unemployment increases, and yet the U.S. dollar rises steadily?

We’ve been asking our Investment friends this question, and In simplest
terms, this is the answer we’re getting:

“It’s all manipulated.”

“Normally” in this environment of shrinking global growth, recession-level
numbers, and US bankruptcies, the US dollar would be sliding, and gold,
silver and commodity prices could be expected to rise dramatically, as they
were in the spring.

Meanwhile, global oil production remains flat, U.S. strategic reserves
shrink as the U.S. dips into this stash of oil, the Saudi’s just announced a
flow reduction, and with even 3.5% global economic growth and China still
attempting 10% growth, oil prices should be rising.

None of this is happening. Why?

Again, when we ask experienced day traders we hear simply: “A U.S.
election.” Read the complete Post.

PIOTR DUTKIEWICZ
From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
August 26, 2008 at 7:46 AM EDT
Original article

VPO note - this article is included not just because the recent mini-war in Russia may have simply been an attempt to diffuse the stigma or America’s war for oil in Iraq, but also because (like the war in Afghanistan) it’s likely to turn out to be as much about natural gas pipelines as anything else.

Some critics have pointed to the conflict in Georgia as another example of botched Bush administration foreign policy. But, in fact, America’s real strategy was brilliantly executed, and it achieved exactly the intended outcome. Unfortunately, it’s not an outcome that makes the world a safer place.

First, it’s important to note that this dispute is not about Georgia or South Ossetia, both victims of collateral damage in geopolitical manoeuvring. It is not about Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili miscalculating the Russian response to his attack or overestimating the amount of support he would get from the West - Mr. Saakashvili is really just a colourful bit player. Nor is this entirely a case of an emboldened Russia striking back at the West for its support of Kosovo independence, or the Orange Revolution, or the Eastern European missile-defence shield, though all of these things are factors.

Simply put, this was about the U.S. depositioning the only globally significant country that consistently challenges it on foreign policy issues, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was a successful but wrongheaded attempt to undermine Russia’s global status by setting a trap into which Russia had to fall. And it was about creating a villain for U.S. domestic political reasons. Read the complete Post.

By Timothy P. Carney
Examiner Columnist | 8/21/08 7:10 PM
Original article

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is about to make a killing by selling water he doesn’t own. As he does it, it will be praised as a planet-friendly wind project. After he pulls it off, the media will deride it as craven capitalism. In truth, it is one the most audacious examples of politics for profit, showing how big government helps the biggest business steal from the rest of us. The plotline behind Pickens’ water-and-wind scheme is almost too rich to believe. If it were a movie script, reviewers would dismiss it as over-the-top.

The basic story amounts to this: Pickens, thanks to favors from state lawmakers whose campaigns he funded, has created a new government whose only voters are two of his employers; this has empowered Pickens to more cheaply pump water from an aquifer and, by use of eminent domain, seize land across 11 counties in order to pipe the water to Dallas. To win environmentalist approval of this hardly “sustainable” practice, he has piggybacked this water project onto a windmill project pitched as an alternative to oil. Read the complete Post.

by Ellen Brown
Global Research, August 14, 2008
Original article

“I’m in show business, why come to me?”

“War is show business, that’s why we’re here.”
– “Wag the Dog” (1997 film)

Last week, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had just announced record losses, and so had most reporting corporations. Unemployment was mounting, the foreclosure crisis was deepening, state budgets were in shambles, and massive bailouts were everywhere. Investors had every reason to expect the dollar and the stock market to plummet, and gold and oil to shoot up. Strangely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 300 points, the dollar strengthened, and gold and oil were crushed. What happened? Read the complete Post.

Shell Oil and The Calgary Herald lead Oilsands Greenwashing campaign
From PR Watch

The UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled that a Shell ad describing Canada’s oilsands as “sustainable” was “misleading.” The advertising regulator noted the “considerable social and environmental impacts” of oilsands development, adding that Shell has not explained how it will manage “carbon emissions from its oilsands projects in order to limit climate change.”

The World Wildlife Fund filed a complaint accusing Shell of “greenwashing,” after the ad appeared in the Financial Times. Shell agreed not to run the ad again.

The UK Ad watchdog pointed out that oilsands development “uses enormous amounts of fresh water and natural gas and produces about three times as much greenhouse gas emissions as conventional oil output.” Read the complete Post.