With the UN report on global climate change out this week, we're somehow not surprised, but definitely bummed out about the tornado that killed 19 people in Florida on Friday. The UN report says climate change is likely to continue for centuries, and to my way of thinking that means more strange weather ahead.

Not that it's any comfort to mid Floridians, but NOAA on Thursday  unveiled the new "Enhanced Fujita Scale" for rating tornados, a quirky coincidence, it would seem.

Not that we're alone in weather woes.  Indonesia is trying to cope with 100,000 left homeless in the wake of flooding there.

Although the Washington Post headlines that "Humans Faulted for Global Warming" we have to note with climate change being noticed on other planets, there's probably also something else going on that MSS (mainstream science) hasn't fully explained to our satisfaction.

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Not all the news about the weather is bad, per se.  There's a new report saying there's plenty of wind blowing off the mid Atlantic coast of the US to power the region if harnessed with wind generators.  Shucks, golly, just think was a wind generator farm between the Capitol and the White House could do.

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Natural disasters, we're afraid to report, are just in the "wearm-up" phase if our friends at www.halfpashuman.com are right with their "see-into-the-future" linguistics analysis of web content are right.  While we build toward a crescendo of "pressure" in mid March, which will be followed by six months of "release events" (tensions, bombs, and pressures of all kinds being released) we are mindful that the time monks have warned that this year "terra intrudes".  So, when some sharp-eyed readers send us snips - like this one saying there's a high risk of a major earthquake in southern British Columbia this week - we take it quite seriously.

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Off topic, the time monks has torn themselves away from tuning up the web spiders for the next data run long enough to start a retooling of their web site, and I think you'll agree it's quite an improvement.  The next data run is forming up for a March 7 distribution of Part 1 of the 1207 series.  The data gathering will start on the 10th of this month. 

Also, the eBook "PreCog: Lessons in Future Viewing" will be out in April and I've been busily working on my part of it - the chronology of how I got into this strange position of being invited to view emotionally impacting bits of the future.  Should be a good read and who knows, maybe it will be picked up my a mainstream publisher? 

The reason for the ebook route though is that publishers have extremely long lead times - on the order of a couple of years, and frankly, the future is arriving at internet speed, and to put it as politely as I can, the future may be pretty well...er...over....in two years.

In our Odd Happenings Department, the bizz today is about the yellow snow that has been falling in parts of the Omsk region of Russia.  Whatever it is from, it has fallen over an area of 570-square miles, it's yellow, oily, and folks are being told not to use it for household chores and not to let animals graze through it.

Now the speculative part:  Maybe it is stuff falling from space.  There are, after all, pockets of dust, debris, ice, and so forth that rain down on earth all the time.  Another explanation?  Chemtrail spraying gone wrong.  Or, a huge inter-galactic farm animal in space has relieved itself.  OK, so none of these are likely to be the cause, still it's fun to watch and just too bad the report didn't surface when we could have passed it through the water cooler crowd to see what they might offer.

The National Intelligence Estimate says the situation is worse in Iraq than the Bush-backers are admitting to, and although grim, we'd suggest a read.  I realize that this suggestion won't play well with opinion-shaped sheeple, but since you're here, and exhibiting some of that dangerous "thinking for yourself" attitude, please help yourself to some brain food.

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Speaking of the administration, Dick Cheney gets a lambasting this morning from Scott Shuster who labels "Dick Cheney: The Pure Evil Behind the President."

The phamous rat says early spring. 

YouTube has been told by MTV to pull all of its content off the web of here come the lawyers. Am I the only guy on the web who honors the intellectual work of others?  Can't anyone else read the DMCA?

A former Coke employee has been convicted in a trade secrets case.  I know you're thinking "Aha!  It's the secret formula, right?"  Not hardly. Nope.  What's more valuable than how much glycerin or cinnamon?  Answer: Marketing plans.

So the unemployment rate rose a tiny bit in the report out Friday.  It's nothing compared to the 10% we expect before year's end.  Of course, that brings us to the question of whether such a hike in unemployment would ever be reported, politics being what it is and such.  And, we have to wonder further, with the Bush administration planning to install political hacks as gatekeepers of federal information, if that won't torpedo the remaining honest efforts of Department of Labor folks to report what is...even if it's not politically expedient.

OK, the price of gold dropped about $12 on Friday.  Big deal. Kitco shows 644.30 for last Friday's close and this week closed at 645.70.  Darn worry warts. Get a grip.

OK, the People's Economist offers his free public service project of the week.  For this to make sense, you need to know that employees of Harley Davidson are on strike, and that's making headlines as far away as South Africa.

OK, the advice.  Ready?

"Plan Future strikes to coincide with a) the opening of hunting season, b) the opening of fishing season, or particularly in Harley's case, c) when the weather is warm enough to get some good riding in while the strike's on."

Sheesh!  Who planned this one?

The propensity of new product designers to put chips in everything (I expect toilet paper to be RFID'ed soon) we notice that chip production is up 8.9% for the past year.

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I'm still waiting for the top-of-the-hype predictions of an internet connected toaster, or a refrigerator that scans and senses what you're eating so it can build a grocery list.  On the other hand, we are watching the LCD TV in the kitchen, so the chips are advancing.

So many people are getting ticked off about the intrusion of government into animal tagging and tracking - the make-work deal fro the RFID industry - that the USDA has installed an Opt-Out program for farmers who were automatically put into the system without their knowledge or consent.

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Here in Texas we're hearing the program will be "voluntary as long as there's 100% participation." yeah, sure, you betcha.  As long as we have our place as a tree farm, I figure it will be a while before the tagstopo comes out to chip each of our trees...

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While the anti-NAIS folks like the Liberty Ark Coalition seem to be making progress in the fight against government intrusion into farming on behalf of the corporate vote pimps who are itching to chip anything that moves, we're reminded government can outlast most issues groups.  Besides, one good case of  "food terror" (which we expect will occur) and we'll soon have to be checked out by the Feds or be placed on a "no tractor, no hoe list." And God help us if we try to buy ammonium nitrate for the fields..

Peoplenomics: Beyond the Working Group on Financial Markets

Something has been bothering me since I learned of Executive Order 12631, under which Ronald Reagan set up the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, known to savvy investors as the Plunge Protection Team. The "Working Group" is, at its core, a tactical operation. In other words, when a fire breaks out in financial markets, this is the group to call. What's been bothering me though is that if they are the tactical group, there might also be a strategic group, which would sit around gaming things out, and look at the Big Picture with a goal of trying to estimate in advance - and influence - what might happen next. If the postulate is true, it would explain why proactive moves like why the Fed put M-3 into hiding last year. If I could structure a meeting with such a hypothetical group, it might give us some interesting clues what to expect in the future. Shall we?

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Subscription Price Hike:  Deadline for ordering Peoplenomics for just $30 a year is February 1st.  Postmarks on and after that date will carry the new $40 per year price tag.  This is our first rate increase since 2001, except for a brief period when we tested a $50 rate.  Almost all of our subscribers tell us we should be charging more - lots more - for the reports.  But our goal is to share thoughts widely and have fun.  For $30/$40 I don't feel any remorse about excursions to the fringe of economic thought.  If I were charging $300 a year *(which some have suggested I should because of the value of the site) I would feel more "trapped" into mainstream thought.  We'll just pass on that...

Live on $10,000 a year

It's a $10 ebook at the www.peoplenomics.com bookstore.

Put in a Word For Us

With all of your friends - the more the merrier, unless it's our turn to buy a round, of course. Click here if you have Outlook or Outlook Express.

I found myself actually cheering for the market rally on Thursday, for reasons I couldn't quite put my finger on - and then it occurred to me:  As long as the stock market is healthy, as long as the illusion of growth can be maintained, the odds of going into an expanded war on terror (or Iran) seem, at least intuitively, fairly low.  On the other hand, if the broad market begins to falter, if people start pulling out what is left of their retirement funds off the high risk stocks which are touted as "growth opportunities" by the hucksters, and put them into purchasing-power preservation instruments and precious metals, then a case can be made that the clock would start ticking and we'd be down the road to Isfahan in almost no time at all.

And Isfahan is where?  Iran. Isfahan is one of the ancient centers of Persian rug making, and a hugely more intricate carpet when compared with other long-wearing carpets, such as those produced by the Berber people of Northwest Africa.  Stealth fighters are sometimes called magic carpets,incidentally.

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I think you've got the idea from reading this site for a while that my view of 9/11 is that it  was an almost too-perfect fit with the then declining stock market to pass as mere coincidence.  Not only did the events give rise to a huge economic stimulus - the so-called War on Terror - but it also reportedly destroyed evidence that had been accumulating in an investigation of naked short selling.  Oh, and the bonus was that it gave a pretext for a bait-and-switch of the American public's support for revenge into what has turned into the long running Iraq war.

Still, the news on Thursday didn't give me much reason for hope.  As we reported yesterday, the nation's savings rate has continued to fall, and the Toronto Star headlines "Savings rate lowest since 30's Depression."  However, absent the Second Depression, which would have unfolded sooner without the WOT and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and the accompanying kick-in-the-pants to the nation's economy, some writers are suggesting "Why a Negative Savings Rate Isn't All That Worrisome."

Well, it is - and it isn't.  As I read the tea leaves, as long as the economy keeps percolating, the standoff in Washington will continue between the administration and the newly arrived democorp majority.  But, should we see the economy falter - or a drop in confidence in the largest set of economic bubbles in history, then "Katie bar the door!"  The republicorps and the democorps will line up as orderly hawks to expand whatever war is convenient, and it's here that we get back to marching toward Isfahan.

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For now, lawmakers seem to be trying to restrain Bush on Iran, says the Asia Times Online. But how long that will last is called into question by reports out of Vienna today that Iran is working on an underground uranium enrichment plant - something that fits in with bomb building.

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There is also some fracturing of the foundations of corporate globalism going on - and of all the problems to keep an eye on, this subject area deserves the most attention because ultimately, it will be the underlying driver of our involvement in an Iran strike during what I'd reckon to be March.

Malaysia, for example, says it will end free trade with the US if we insist that they back out of a natural gas development deal with Iran. Needless to say, George Bush continues pushing the myth of "free trade" too because he knows that without free trade, corporate growth will falter because without the prospect of higher sales, higher earnings become a joke.  And then Wall Street tanks. And then Depression II becomes obvious, once again.

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What the "free trade" advocates conveniently leave out of their propaganda is a little economic side street called Purchasing Power Parity.  The way this works is simple.  If you live in a country where growing corporate exploitation is occurring (Nigeria, anyone?) you find that prevailing wages are dramatically lower than they are in a more developed country, such as the United States.

It's here that the "free tradists" and the "purchasing power" folks part ways.  The free tradists say that it's OK to pay someone in Nigeria a few dollars a day for 8-hours of work.  "It gives them economic growth" goes the argument.  The Purchasing Power Parity advocates, and I confess to being one of them, say "Yes, it certainly does.  BUT, the growth of Nigeria (or wherever) comes at the expense of people formerly employed making (whatevers) who live in the USA.  Thus, the two things globalism does are 1) moves the job from a higher wage country to a lower wage country (ostensibly this is efficient) and 2) allows the corporate greed gang to pocket the difference in market prices between labor rates as "profit."

The way to clean this up, suggest Purchasing Power believers, like me, is to tax all goods coming into the USA in order to bump the effective labor cost of foreign-made goods up to cost-parity with domestic goods.  Take the resulting money and use it to retrain or in other way compensate the US workers who are displaced by globalism.

"That's not fair to people of Nigeria!" the free tradists scream.  But, I'd look them dead in the eye and ask them since when are corporations not responsible first to the country that spawned them?  When we read about mass layoffs in America, such as have occurred in the textile industry which is all but gone from the US, having been shipped to placed like (not coincidentally) Malaysia and India where prevailing wages were low, the "profits" have gone into the masters of commerce who pocketed the wage-rate spreads and weren't taxed for thieving the jobs of people across America.

Needless to say, this is not a popular idea, at least among the corporatists who pocket the labor rate differentials, profits for the few being what "free trade" is effectively all about. 

What we get on the backside is a lifestyle based on continuously tariffed consumption. Monthly cell phone, cable bills, and a soon to be completed loss of food self sufficiency, under the guise of "food safety" and the intrusion of NAIS  and terminator seed programs to solve a non-problem, except that it's a chance for corporations to exact a further toll for food and other necessities of life. 

The Hegelian corporate profit dialectic goes like this:  If something is free, try to find a way to make money on it.  Even air - you know about the huge business in trading hypothetical air pollution credits, right?

The world has only gotten along since the dawn of humans without animal tagging bureaucrats and terminator seed pimping corporations desperately seeking growth, patenting life, and exploiting the poor on behalf of the rich, even if it kills people along the way. Splendid thing, this version of capitalism.  But I digress.

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If I were taking a wild shot at timing of what's ahead, it would be something like global economic shockwaves begin in mid February.  By the end of February, the economic instability becomes apparent to the war-helps-the-economy hawks, and we go "weapons free" in mid March.  Perhaps, propelled in that direction if there are too many thinking people about, by a false flag attack on what is now the biggest assembly of naval ships we've had in the Middle East.  Gulf of Tonkin worked, once, right?

While going to war with Iran doesn't seem to be that big a deal, as Douglas Herman points out in "Aftermath: Day 2 of the War with Iran" the fallout could be things like $10 gas and a breakdown of civil order here in the USA.

If you'd like to help avoid further war, about all you can do is keep pouring money into Wall Street, knowing that the 'strong hands" that sell to weak at market tops, have probably figured out that time is running out for globalism.  It's as Barry Lynn has pointed out, globalism is subject to the same expansion and contraction principles that apply to most everything else.  What goes up...

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Still, there's hope.  Wal-mart is talking about "going green" in packaging.  Too little?  Well, it's a start.  When a major corporate leader says "sustainability now mainstream" maybe its a turning point.  We can hope.

Our friends at www.halfpasthuman.com, while bummed about the prospects for the immediate future, have nevertheless agreed to do another data gathering run in early March - and the focus then will be on high immediacy value changes in the language which will come as more clear temporal markers as we transition from the 'pressure building" period we're in now to the "pressure release" period that will run from mid March to mid September - and once we get there, we are then treated to 72 very bad days.

Although the UN Climate report out today spells out a bleak outcome for humans over the longer haul, the time monks see that as being less of an issue than immediate earth change issues over the summer as "terra intrudes' into human events.

They also point to the flu-ranking system unveiled by CDC yesterday along with the increased government focus on the flu-preparedness web sit www.pandemicflu.gov and advised me not to worry too much about bird flu until January 2008.  There'll be plenty of opportunities not to be around to see the flu show up, they cautioned.

"Gee, that's a pretty bleak forecast, bummer by the sound of it..." I commented.  "You have no idea."

Still, bummed, or not, another run is in the works and we'll continue our personal preparedness planning, knowing that whatever happens, we will be as well prepared for whatever the Universe offers as we could reasonably be.  And we'll be keeping an eye on left field.

Gunmen stormed a prison in the Philippines to release about 50 suspected Muslim  rebels.  Give them a month or two of R&R and we'll be looking for terrorist increases in the Philippines in a month of two.

Pakistan is planning to fence part of its porous border with Afghanistan.  I wonder how much this one will cost us?  Pakistan also has problems in Waziristan where three people were gunned down.  Lemme see: Israel does fencing, Pakistan does fencing, the Berlin Wall was fencing and the Mexico border with the US has what?  This is laughable.

So, you thought "When the Levee breaks" was a Led Zeppelin song, did yah?  Well, OK, it is. But not to be confused with the latest government report that says 122 levees around the country are in danger of failing should waters rise too fast and too furious.

Good article in Forbes about how much money major oil companies made last year. Our continued advise is simple:  If you don't like high prices and want to do something positive, buy the highest mileage vehicle you can afford.  Vote with your wallet - it's the only thing corporations hear.

Don't know if you happened to catch Coast to Coast AM last night, but one of my favorite deep thinkers, Dr. Dean Radin was on - and one of the things he talked about was the connection between "intention" and food.  If you missed the interview, a short summary of it is here, but the long and short of it is that there may be a lot more truth to some of those old sayings and traditions about food than current science admits to - and what forward thinkers like Radin are discovering/rediscovering. 

While Radin's reported work dealt with meditations on chocolate, I recall there's an old saying that "Food cooked by angry hands is poison..." Likely something to all this, so a few moments of conscious thinking and some intentions laid on your food seems like a worthwhile thing to do.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

New figures out from the government this morning show the personal savings rate in December was -1.2% - which means Americans are still spending more than they make. Personal income was also up:

Personal income increased $60.6 billion, or 0.5 percent, and disposable personal income (DPI) increased $50.8 billion, or 0.5 percent, in December, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $67.1 billion, or 0.7 percent. In November, personal income increased $32.4 billion, or 0.3 percent, DPI increased $25.4 billion, or 0.3 percent, and PCE increased $51.1 billion, or 0.5 percent, based on revised estimates.

WHO: Secretary Mike Leavitt, Department of Health and Human Services (via satellite) Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director, CDC Dr. Marty Cetron, Director, CDC Division of Global Migration and Quarantine Dr. Paul E. Jarris, Executive Director, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)

WHAT: Release of two new initiatives to advance the nation's pandemic influenza preparedness efforts: 1) new PSAs designed to encourage people to learn more about pandemic flu and 2) New CDC guidelines for implementing public health measures and actions in response to a pandemic (i.e. non-pharmaceutical actions such as dismissing students from school, voluntary isolate of ill people, and social distancing measures like teleworking).

WHY: The impact of pandemic influenza extends well beyond health and medical communities into many segments of society. Developing a pandemic influenza vaccine could take several months, and this guidance describes strategies that may lessen the impact of pandemic influenza through the use of public health measures that don't involve vaccines or medications (also called non-pharmaceutical interventions).

For the first time, the new CDC guidelines illustrate how public health recommendations should or may vary depending on the projected severity of a pandemic.

WHEN: Thursday, February 1, 2007 2 PM, ET Brief remarks followed by Q&A

WHERE: CDC 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta Building 19, enter via CDC Parkway

I've been telling you for a long time that this ramp up is coming, and in particular, you need to be aware of the web site www.pandemicflu.gov.  When you go to this web site, you want to make damn sure to click the tab called "Individual Planning" because we've written about this till we're blue in the fingers, but we'll spell it out again because this obviously hasn't sunk into many heads yet.  Read about Social Impacts and Work Disruptions:

Overview

As you plan, it is important to think about the challenges that you might face, particularly if a pandemic is severe. It may take time to find the answers to these challenges. Below are some situations that could be caused by a severe pandemic and possible ways to address them. A checklist and fill-in sheets for family health information and emergency contact information have been prepared to help guide your planning and preparation.

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Social Disruption May Be Widespread

Plan for the possibility that usual services may be disrupted. These could include services provided by hospitals and other health care facilities, banks, stores, restaurants, government offices, and post offices. Prepare backup plans in case public gatherings, such as volunteer meetings and worship services, are canceled. Consider how to care for people with special needs in case the services they rely on are not available.

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Being Able to Work May Be Difficult or Impossible

Find out if you can work from home. Ask your employer about how business will continue during a pandemic. (A Business Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist is available at www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/business/businesschecklist.html. ) Plan for the possible reduction or loss of income if you are unable to work or your place of employment is closed. Check with your employer or union about leave policies.

There are plenty of implications of this - teachers out of schools, school closing, financial markets collapsing, just a who lot of ugliness.  You might want to be ready to go into lock-down at a moments notice as the bird flu shows up in North America.  And why might it?  Let's sample some headlines:

• "New Bird Flu outbreak in Ang thong" Thailand (Asia)

• "First human brid flu death confirmed in Nigeria" (Africa)

• "Indonesia called "Bird Flue: National Disaster"

• "Australian within six months of human flu vaccine stocks.

• "Bird flu returns to Hungary (Europe)

• Other strains of bird flu also deadly

• "Will masks stop bird flu?  Students experiment.

• Bulgaria tightens bird flu control

• New Bird Flu Cases Report in Russia

OK, here's what I think you need to do.  First, be aware of what is going on.  Secondly, we have positioned ourselves in such a way that we are armed, isolated, and stocked - you might want to consider the same.  Third, come up with a family plan.  How would you live if suddenly you couldn't go anywhere off your own property for 3-4-weeks?

I'm not being alarmist here - it is just there's a time to be prepared - and with our time-predictive friends seeing restrictions on travel and shortages, that just the same kind of thing that would naturally come with a bird flu outbreak. 

Oh yeah, one more thing.  Our daily chart of "shortages" (which we've been tracking since ammo shortages came to our attention in March of last year, just hit a new all-time high this morning.  If you're not stocking slowly and methodically, you flunk our reader IQ test.

January: Gone Already?

OK, serious up, time for our review of how the first month of 2007 has gone.  It's some good, some bad, and all interesting as heck.

To begin with, we will look at how the Dow did.  Yahoo Finance's historical price data (click here) shows the Dow close December 29th at 12,463.15.  Now, zipping to the top of the table, we note that the Wednesday close was 12,621.69.  That's a 1.272% gain for the month. Ain't euphoria grand?

Now, let's repeat the same exercise with gold. We click over to Kitco's web site and see that gold closed out 2006 at 636.  Yesterday's close was $652.30.  That's a 2.57% gain for gold - which to me is a sign that (duh) our choice of agricultural land and gold is off to a grand start, although I don't expect the real fun to start until later this month when the global financial markets are expected by our time-seeing friends to come down with the world's largest paper-overdose hangover.  Think the 13th to the 27th, suggests some of the data.  (A new data run is likely around the first of March, by the way, and no, there won't be a Part 7 to the 0907 data run because of data issues and the DOS attack.)

I happened to catch Dennis Gartman on Bloomberg this morning.  The author of the Gartman Letter told the TV interviewer that gold has historically gone as high as 28 to 1 versus oil, and it's waaaay below that now, so Gartman figures gold has a lot of room to move.  You might want to check into his newsletter if you already get our Peoplenomics newsletter.  He knows his stuff.

We have been telling you this for several years, but it's nice to see others who have come to the same conclusion - including Dr. Marc Faber and others.  Even if you take a reasonable 20-times multiplier for gold, and apply it to this morning's $57-58 a barrel range,  you still come up with $1,140 to $1,160 an ounce and a return to historical highs would place gold relative to $70 oil at $1,960.

The implications are pretty interesting for silver, too. The gold:silver ratio as I push bytes this morning is about 48.25: 1  and just continuing that ratio would lead to $24.04 silver if gold touches $1,160.  Some have suggested that historically, the ratio has been as low as 10:1, but while I'm not holding my breath for any such moves, I wouldn't be surprised by something like a 30 to 1 ratio on $2,000 gold - which could put silver at $66.67 an ounce.

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None of this is intended to be investment advice for you to act on.  That's between you and the forces of the Universe.  I'm just focused on it because it's the first of a new month and like the old Wall Street saying goes, "As goes January, so goes the rest of the year."  Not always, but enough so that I'm in a "bring it on then!" mood. Go read our disclaimer.

Problems of Power

We can't help but notice the "Secrets Revealed" meme is still running off the charts.  Tony Blair has been interviewed a second time in the case of campaign contributions for peerage (title) in the UK, although the police have requested a new blackout there.  Now why do you think they'd want that?

Then we have the Bush administration which is having its Rolaids moments with the Scooter Libby trial, where it looks like Libby's grand jury testimony may be entered by special prosecutor patrick Fitzgerald. Some reporting on the trial, and the notes of VP Dick Cheney suggest the trial is showing that impeachable offenses have occurred, but we see it as "all part of the dance."  Of course, it looks like Karl Rove has a little more to worry about.

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"How stupid do they think we are?" asked Elaine yesterday.  "We see Hillary calling out Bush on Iraq and yet at the same time, Poppy Bush and Bill Clinton seem to be friends and go to the same corporate deals," she continued.  "It just like it's a charade, or something." "Uh huh...no surprise, though, right?" I offered.

This is one reason I'm looking forward to the Thomas DeFrank book witeh Former President Gerald Ford due soon. Might fill in a few more lines of the libretto.

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Vlad Putin says he's not going to orchestrate his successor when Russian elections come up - and that he will simply announce his views during the campaign.  Yeah, sure, you betcha..

Chavez and the Slanted Press

While the US-centric press seems to be swallowing the spin without question that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is doing something wrong in ruling by decree, we read other reports which aren't so tainted with group-think.

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While you may not like what Chavez is doing, consider if you would for a moment, what is going on in the USA - Land of the Brave and Home of the formerly Free.  In case you haven't noticed the Decider is issuing decrees, under the heading "Executive Orders" - like the one this week packing federal agencies with political hacks to muzzle scientists, whistleblowers, and honest government employees - and yet that's somehow viewed as different what was Chavez is doing.

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Even House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is planning to ask the one question the republicorp CONgress didn't ask while pushing the corporate takeover of America: Where in the Constitution is it allowed for a President to use "signing statement?"  Not in any Framer's document's I'm familiar with.

So the grand opera continues with the mostly mindless mainstream reporting the pabulum, while the deeper agenda is to demonize Venezuela's Chavez for doing the very thing the Bush-Cheney cabal is

doing. 

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Meantime, between Chavez bashes, we read little headlines like "Congress will get details on domestic spying" and wonder further at the differences between the Capitol Gang and foreign leaders we're supposed to hate.  Land of the what?

Tweaking Iran

Meantime, the folks that we sent to Washington seem to have gone hard of hearing on things like the unlimited war, as we see the continuing hysteria building toward the March Iran Plan.  A headline in the Air Force Times reports this morning that "Iran tensions could trigger accidental war" and it seems plausible enough.

I quietly disagree with reports from "security experts" that Iran is 2-3 years away from building a nuclear weapon.  I reckon there are too many missing from the old Soviet stockpiles to make any such assumptions.

Nevertheless, editorials about the recent hard line stance of the administration make worrisome reading ion a certain light.

Daniel Radcliffe who starred as Harry Potter isa planning to  do an adult role.  E and I figure this is the transition to a more "hairy Potter," eh?

So there I was working on a client project in my old office last night and I heard more scratching noises from under my new office floor.  So I opened up the boards and under low light levels, a few moments later, a small skunk wandered off. 

About 3-minutes with a nail gun and it was all sealed up again, so back to work I went. 

But then, more scratching noises.  Could there be two skunks trying to live under the office?  A crowbar in hand, I opened up the crawlspace again, went back to my night watching, and sure enough, within 15 minutes another skunk, this one larger and likely the male, came wobbling out.

Another round with the nail gun and the crawlspace is again sealed and no more noises have been heard.  But the scary part is that Mr and Ms Skunk were probably planning to have a litter under the office.  Oh my, glad to have them out - although I do have some guilt pangs about evicting them into the wilds of East Texas.

One thing came into focus.  Our cats are useless.  Pusscilla just laid in her bed watching the stinkers stroll by.  Maybe her attitude would have been more gung ho if she was on half rations, but we won't go there.  She (and Tom, Tom, the cat outside) might be useful bird flu control devices at some point.

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Went up to Wills Point (east of Dallas) to pick up a landscape rake from Ted at Deen Implement Wednesday.  Saw snowflakes, some large.  Had fun telling the crew up there that we don't allow such weather extremes here in tropical Anderson County. Sleet a good part of the way home, though.

Wednesday January 31, 2007

"Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006, according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.0 percent.

The Bureau emphasized that the fourth-quarter "advance" estimates are based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 4). The fourth- quarter "preliminary" estimates, based on more comprehensive data, will be released on February 28, 2007.

The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, state and local government spending, and federal government spending that were partly offset by negative contributions from residential fixed investment and private inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.

The acceleration in real GDP growth in the fourth quarter primarily reflected a downturn in imports and accelerations in PCE for nondurable goods, in exports, in federal government spending, and in state and local government spending that were partly offset by downturns in private inventory investment and in equipment and software and a deceleration in nonresidential structures.

Final sales of computers contributed 0.25 percentage point to the fourth-quarter growth in real GDP after contributing 0.07 percentage point to the third-quarter growth. Motor vehicle output subtracted 1.17 percentage points from the fourth-quarter growth in real GDP after contributing 0.76 percentage point to the third-quarter growth. "

Wake Up - It's Fed Day

Not that you need much waking, but later today the Fed is widely expected to announce "no change" to the interest rates, and the course will be set for another month, or so.  In a parallel article, the International Herald Tribune reports that almost a year on the job now, Ben Bernanke still hasn't made much progress toward a publicly stated, explicit inflation goal. It's a good report and worth reading.

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A couple of personal notes about inflation.  First, our power bill from the local rural coop has gone up a LOT in the last year, up 19.8%, but our usage is up, too, 15.9%, so I can't really complain too loudly about much except heating some additional square footage and running another server, some motion sensing perimeter lights, that sort of thing.  Almost pleasantly, the power bill is within reason.

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On the other hand, our cost of agricultural inputs is up - about 20% - and this is for farmerly things like scratch (a mix of chicken delighting seeds and cracked cord), laying pellets or crumbles, cracked oyster shell - for calcium, and cracked corn itself. Still, the higher cost of inputs seems justified because of the quality of eggs we get.  You can't quite play golf with the eggs before they break, but the store-bought eggs are seriously wimpy in comparison and I know the inputs here are 100% organic.

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Globally, there are some inflationary pressures to watch.  The Reserve Bank of India has raises its rates and in Europe, consumer confidence is fairly high as it looks like inflation is in check there, as well..  The US business mood is relatively cheer because, as the Chicago Trib headlines "Rising wages lift consumer confidence."  A true enough statement, and it does.

Terror Bust

Biggest headline for mainstream this morning will likely be the 8 terror suspects arrested in England.  We'll be watching to see whether this is real or contrived.  No mass destruction plan, but a planned kidnapping is at the heart of it.

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Speaking of kidnappings, the CIA's "Covert Ooops Department" has a little problem with Germany.  The Berliners have issued warrants for 13 CIA operatives who kidnapped a German citizen, tossed him in a secret prison in Afghanistan for several months and then figured out they had the wrong person.

Pentagon Geniuses

...are stopping F-14 parts sales to Iran, reports MSNBC.  Right hand, meet left hand...oh boy...

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Iran tweaking continues with the administration claiming that Iranians are actively fighting in Iraq, but members of Congress are digging in their heels at an expanded war in the region.

LED There Be Light

Conventional incandescent light bulbs may be banned by California by 2012.  The Bernie Woodall Reuters story refers to the "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act."   Watt a sense of humor.

Climate Political

Henry Waxman is getting stalled when he asks the Bush White House for information on Global Warming.  Gee, look surprised.  Regardless of whether it's man-caused (not) or a natural occurrence as we zip through a particularly dusty and high energy part of space (raise you hand), if it's not good for corporate interests, it ain't gonna see daylight, Henry.

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Regardless, though, the one most under-reported headline that should have you checking out local topographic maps is the one that methane hydrates are already starting to bubble in the Beaufort Sea.  The thing to fear is what happens to divers who hold their breath too long - a paralysis of muscles when the CO2 levels get too high.  All of which will bake us like turkeys says one report.

Attention Southwest Readers

Speaking of climate, now that the Blue Kachina (Comet McNaught) is quickly going...going... one of my tipsters says Hopi Indians are starting to move to the tops of Southwest US mesas on the advice of Elders who know the Hopi prophesies.  So, if you are a reader and have direct knowledge in this area, drop me a note.  My tipster says they are even bringing boats, but it sounds far-fetched to me. Although the tipster points out the new Bush family property in the hinterlands of Paraguay is at several thousand feet of elevation, so the question might be worth asking.

Prince and the Pitchfork

An intruder has been arrested at Prince Charles home after breaking in armed with a pitchfork.  We wonder if they guards yelled "Hey!" when spotted.

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Want a title in England?  There's an investigation into whether big campaign donors were given peerage by #10. See how much simpler things are here in the Colonies?  You head up a Central Bank and become a knight, or you jet around the world playing golf, and then vote like you're told by the corporate influence peddlers. Simple.

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Speaking of influence peddling, the People's Daily reports today that drug companies can be blacklisted for their roles in a bribery cases.  China also reports 66 convictions in 2006 for criminal or commercial bribery while working for state owned enterprises in 2006.

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And an Iraq contractor has been sentenced over bribery. Chump change, compared to what's unaccounted for, we hear.

Buggy Bug Out Plans

An email worth sharing from a reader:

Brushing Up on Fluorides