Cheney and the Likud Party Might Put a Hit on Obama when he goes to Iraq?

Now there are some real crazy people on the left but this one has to win some sort of "Golden Straitjacket Award."

Darth Cheney has made repeated promises to both the Saudi royals and the Israeli Likudists (in my minds ear) that America will destroy the energy capabilities of Iran, but to date, Darth has not been able to manufacture the impetus for it. My conspiracy theory is that a false flag attack on Obama, would inspire the shock and anger of the American people to give the green light for the mass bombing of Iran, perhaps including nukes.

So Cheney and Likudists will collude to bump off Obama when he goes to Iraq and blame it on the Iranians? So then America gets so angry we will bomb Iran in retaliation? It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel or the new season of 24. The scary part is this person actually lives in a world were this kind of thing is possible. Scary stuff.

The Oil Bubble: Even More Evidence

This is another article siting the oil bubble and this demand figure is really interesting.

Hedge fund manager Michael Masters testified before Congress last week that while China’s demand for oil has increased by 920 million barrels in the past five years, demand for petroleum index futures has increased by 848 million barrels. This means the effect of speculators in just about as large at all the growth from China. This is amazing.

So according to Mr. Masters index futures have created almost as much demand for oil as all of China? Now that is a real eye opening figure I should think. I guess we can now blame oil index funds as a new cause of what Arjun Murti calles a "Superspike" in oil. I just want to see what event actually pops the bubble. I read that if oil goes below $120 then there will be a rush for the exits.

Xbox 360 Controller to Fly Predator Drones?

Now this is a very interesting article on how the gaming industry is influencing the military of the future.

I used the controls to perform a target lock on an unsuspecting civilian Fleet Week spectator, and as the rooftop turret followed the poor fellow around the area, I remarked to one of the ONR representatives how frighteningly similar the whole system was to a video game. He agreed, then showed me a military spec version of an Xbox 360 gamepad that was an alternate interface for the same machine. (It wasn't all that different from the one we thumbed to test drive the Army's robotic MULE vehicle from Lockheed Martin earlier this year.)

So yes your twitch skills may one day allow you to blast Al-Quida scum hiding in the hills around Jalalabad with the machine guns on a Predator Drone. I wonder if the Predator pilots of the future will be shouting "boom, headshot" over and over as they rack up the Frags? I would be willing to bet even money that eventually we will see Predator Pilot sponsored by the US Air Force out for the Xbox 360 in the next few years.

Obama Heeds My Advice and Might go to Iraq

It is nice to see that Obama actually agrees with something I said.

You know, what they're doing over there is separated from their families, giving for their country. It's truly, truly amazing, and I think we would want to go over there and talk to them and see what sort of difficulties they're facing and see how it is that we can begin to carefully remove them and carefully bring them back to their families and bring them back to the United States."

So are they really going to go to Iraq and say to the troops in the field and tell them that they will bring them home withing 16 months whether the country is stable or not? Will he look General Petraeus in the eye and tell him that he has failed in his mission and must start to draw down troops in 16 months no matter what the situation on the ground is? Will Obama actually gainsay a career military man with the direct responsibility of keeping a 300,000 US fighting men and women alive and an entire country of 27 million people from decending into chaos?

I think this Iraq visit is fraught with potential gaffs and may be Obama's moment to shine or an opportunity to look like an ass in front of the American people. If he has a "Dukakis in the tank helmet" moment that may spell the end of his campaign. Or he might look like an actual leader of men walking tall and hanging out with the men and women that he might be commander and chief of one day. It seems a little like putting the defendant on the witness stand. It is massive all-in gamble.

If I was of a Rovian mindset I would put operatives in place to make sure some anti-Obama soldiers are planted in a crowd to boo him or turn their backs on him or something. Maybe you could have one hold up a banner that says "we shall not have died in vain" or "Don't send us home before the job is done" or something to that effect. In any case this could be Jeremiah Wright times 100 or it could win it all for him.

Pulling the Rachael Ray Ad is a Reason Why Muslims Hate Us

I think this is Ad is case-in-point on why Muslims say that the US against them. Here is the ad:

That ugly scarf around her neck is supposed to look like a kaffiyeh which is now somehow tied to Muslim terror groups. Of course if Americans read a little history they would know that kaffiyeh is just a standard headscarf that Arab men wear to ward off the sun. It is about the same thing as a baseball cap is for an American.

How the thing is attached to the PLO is basically because of Yasser Arafat used to wear one. Of course he wore the thing on his head and not around his neck. Hell, it would have to be green and black to represent Hamas or yellow to represent Hezbollah. Even Al-Quida operatives usually wear all-white or all-black turbans and not kaffiyehs. I would understand the furor if Rachael Ray was wearing a black mask and had on a green headband with "Allah Akbar" written on it.

I think this is exactly what fuels Muslim hate against the US. Americans can't even accept something that looks vaguely like Arab headgear without seeing terrorists. Even if it is draped around the neck of a celebrity chef in an ad for Iced Lattes we still see a terror group.

It just proves their point when they say that Americans are stupid and reactionary and that they view Muslims and Arabs as just a bunch of terrorists living in the desert somewhere in the Middle East. Despite what Michelle Malkin says it is not the same symbol as a picture of Che Guevara or Mao Zedong on a T-shirt since they depict evil mass murderers. This is also not the same as a clan hood since that is not a signature garment of anyone other then the Spanish Inquisition. This is instead an everyday piece of clothing worn by millions of Arabs and Muslims that is used to keep your head from getting sunburned. It has been over-inflated into a "terror symbol" and Palestinian liberation fetish and we are taking the bait.

Maybe the terrorists are winning the war since they have us so scared that when we see a Latte ad we immediately see their "message." They want us to see terrorists under every rock or in every Internet banner ad. We see Rachael Ray in a scarf and we think "yup Palestinian terror." We are attacking Latte ads with questionable scarves when we should be attacking radical Madrasas, countering Wahabi thinking with the reason of the West, and trying to create an alternative to the Palestinian Death Cult.

More Evidence of Oil Demand Dropping

Well at least it is dropping in the US.

"There is a very limited demand for fuel oil in the U.S.," said Stephen Schork, editor of energy industry newsletter The Schork Report. "Consumers are responding to high prices, which makes the rapid rise in crude oil of the last few weeks hard to sell."

I guess Americans just aren't willing to drive a bunch of miles on $4 gas for pretty much no reason this past Memorial Day. Maybe this is a firm rebuke against all of those people talking about $6 gas. I would bet even money that there will be a lot more bus riders and people buying Honda Civics and selling their SUVs if gas was $6. There is just not enough demand to support gas over a certain price.

Obama Should go to Iraq

I think Obama should head to Iraq and see the soldiers and commanders that he said have "failed." The idea of him traveling with McCain to do it is very interesting and should not be dismissed out of hand.

John McCain on Wednesday repeated his challenge to Barack Obama to take a ride with him over to Iraq and see the situation on the ground before concluding that U.S. efforts have failed to get the war-torn nation back on track.

This is real canny gambit that McCain is playing. On one hand he is reaching out to Obama in a bipartisan manner saying "lets go together and see if there is any progress in Iraq." But McCain can hit Obama with the "he would rather meet with the Mullahs in Iran then with Gen. Petraeus" if he is rebuffed.

So now the Obama campaign is stuck wrongfooted. They look like they are rejecting bipartisanism but at the same time the idea that "Obama won't even see the boots on the ground after the Surge" is in play.

The Republican Days Since Obama has been to Iraq clock is also a stroke of genius idea as well. It shows that Obama just parrots "Bush's failed policies in Iraq" over and over again but has no facts to back up this assertion. Now McCain needs to head back to Iraq and Afghanistan again and extend a hand to Obama and watch the fireworks when he is rejected.

Super Investor Ken Heebner Likes the China Trade

It seems that this guy is betting big on Chinese demand for raw materials still staying up.

These days Heebner is keeping close tabs on the latest economic data out of China, because China is the key to his enormous bet on commodities. As of March, 64% of Focus's assets were invested in commodities-related stocks. His biggest stakes are in steel (ArcelorMittal, Nucor, and United States Steel) and in oil (Apache, Devon Energy, Petrobras, and Schlumberger). Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company that has announced two giant offshore oil discoveries, is his favorite. "Petrobras could become the biggest stock in the world," he says.

I like the steel stocks especially Nucor and I have seen multiple sources pushing Schlumberger so his shortlist looks like something worth checking up on.

OPEC Chief Blames Speculators

It seems that even the OPEC secretary-general is coming down on speculators.

Abdalla Salem El-Badri said speculation and the weak dollar are responsible for record crude prices — which topped US$135 (€85.70) a barrel on Thursday, up nearly 4 percent from US$130 (€82.50) on Tuesday.

"We are not very happy with the rise in oil prices... it has nothing to do with OPEC," El-Badri told reporters during a visit to Ecuador.

That guy has a cool Dungeons & Dragons name as well. My PC would be nicknamed Abdalla the Bald and would probably be a mage wearing a multihued Keffiyah and black robes.

Olympics Causes the Chinese to Switch from Coal to Oil

Hmm, I came across this tidbit while reading the transcript of the Frontline Q1 Earnings on this site. Frontline is a Tanker company and CEO Jens Jensen was talking about the Chinese shipping more crude before the Olympics.

Subsequently, we have seen the Chinese oil imports rising quite a lot, and the increased activities for the East.

We believe that China has been adding extra imports, maybe to build up some stocks before the Olympics should they decide to maybe, use a little bit less coal for pollution reasons.

That would dovetail nicely with the idea that the Chinese are increasing near-term oil demand and driving up prices. So they are planning on burning less coal for their power plants and more oil during the Olympics so we don't see Chinese stadiums wreathed in yellow smoke and marathoners coughing up black phloem.

I can see the Chinese paying any monetary price in order to make this Olympics go 100% perfect. After all they view it as their coming out party for the world. So as I see it oil prices will probably come back down to $100 a barrel or less by June or July. That is because Chinese oil purchases should go back to normal as they go back to using coal to feed their power plants.

Hmm, so we have Indian Subsidies and Chinese anti-pollution window dressing as a few new causes for this $135 spike in oil. I guess the price rise can't all be pinned on shady money-men and billion dollar hedge funds as the media would have us believe.

Hillary Brings up Bobby Kennedy's Assassination

I think she is just chronically unable to refrain from verbally abusing herself in this race.

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out.

When I first read this statement I got the correct inference that Kennedy still did not wrap up the nomination in June when he was assassinated. Too bad it will be spun to say that Hillary is staying in the race because Obama just might get shot by a deranged gunman while cutting through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel while on a campaign stop. I think she needs to spend less time answering the phone at 3AM and more time concentrating on getting a good nights sleep.

Yahoo Blinks: They Postponed Their Annual Meeting

It seems that Yahoo's board is running scared or are simply playing for time to work out a deal with Google or something in order to save their skins. The shareholder meeting has been moved from July 3 to sometime at the end of July. They should have taken that sweetened offer from MSFT since Yang and Co. might be out on their asses after that date.

The Internet media company also disclosed in a regulatory filing that shareholders other than billionaire investor Carl Icahn plan to nominate candidates to its board.

Two individual shareholders other than Icahn have informed the company they plan to nominate themselves to the board, and another shareholder has notified Yahoo of plans to nominate an alternate slate of nine directors, not including himself, according to a filing.

$130 Oil Bubble: Some Support from the Press

Just as I thought the media is now saying that $130 oil is starting to form a bubble.

"This thing has to turn around, it's insanity," said Peter Beutel, an oil analyst at the consultancy Cameron Hanover. "Ultimately we'll see a huge collapse in prices."

Beutel doesn't know when that collapse would come, but he predicts it will be within weeks or months, not years.

But he doesn't know just what might bring it about - perhaps the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates or a big drop in consumption as people worldwide can no longer afford to fuel their cars or heat their homes.

"If these prices stick, you may see whole neighborhoods where people abandon their homes," he said predicting that in the Northeast U.S. it will cost $5000 to heat a home unless prices fall.

We are already seeing all sorts of signs that demand is decreasing in the US and in Europe. China even seems to be slowing its demand to growth of only 4.7% according to the IEA. While Indian Oil Demand remains at 8-10% demand growth but seems to be mostly sustained by Indian Government intervention. The top Indian Refiner has losses on paper of $55 million per day and the Indian government will absorb 80-85% of that loss. This is of course with oil at $117 a barrel. If oil stays at $135 a barrel then you might see either retail prices rise and crimp Indian retail demand or the Indian Government pull back on the intervention.

People Drove 11 billion Miles Less in March

It was the first reduction in driving since 1979. This is good news as well.

Travel over the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend will fall for the first time since 2002, auto and travel group AAA said this month.

Some 37.87 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home for the holiday, which falls this year on May 26. That would be down 0.9 percent from 38.23 million last year, according to AAA's survey, which was conducted among more than 2,000 Americans.

I think high gas prices are finally changing the behavior of Americans. Also I wonder how many vacations will be spent staying at home instead of flying all over as well?

The Next Bubble: Alternate Energy?

First we had the .COM bubble then we had the housing bubble but this article points out what may well be the next one.

There is one industry that fits the bill: alternative energy, the development of more energy-efficient products, along with viable alternatives to oil, including wind, solar, and geothermal power, along with the use of nuclear energy to produce sustainable oil substitutes, such as liquefied hydrogen from water. Indeed, the next bubble is already being branded. Wired magazine, returning to its roots in boosterism, put ethanol on the cover of its October 2007 issue, advising its readers to forget oil; NBC had a “Green Week” in November 2007, with themed shows beating away at an ecological message and Al Gore making a guest appearance on the sitcom 30 Rock.

What is interesting is that each bubble that we have had in the 2000s might be able to be picked up by looking for so-called "bubble signs." The .COM bubble was supposed to be the triumph of the Internet economy and how it will "change our lives" with all its new economy vs. old economy BS. I think that when Pets.com paid millions for their SuperBowl ad when they had no revenue to speak of was a sure bubble sign. Or you could site Peapod.com's idea of delivering groceries (which which have always had a notoriously low margin) to your home as another bubble sign.

Then the housing bubble cam along and created the idea that your home is your best investment so you should buy multiple homes and "flip them and become a real estate millionaire." I site the rise of the Kiyosaki Method and the mania surrounding home flipping as a sure bubble sign. Also seeing a mortgage broker on every block is a sure tip off as well.

So this next bubble could very well be "alternative energy" bubble. This one is even more insidious because it is a get-rich-quick scheme like most bubbles mixed with a feel good message of helping the environment. That feel-good message will trap a lot of investors because they will be seen as preventing global warming when they invest in that switchgrass to ethanol company with no revenue that spends millions on advertising. The idea of promoting social consciousness will end up losing people alot of money when this bubble pops.

$133 Oil Is Based on Speculation?

It seems that everyone is going crazy about high oil prices but it seems that quite a bit of it has nothing to do with the supply demand picture. You can tell that much of the price is driven by speculators according to this article.

The nature of a crude oil's term structure tells you what the broad energy market thinks about the future state of oil supplies, according to Schork. Oil in backwardation indicates that the market is concerned about tight oil supplies, because buyers will pay a premium to assume ownership today rather than waiting for a better price later but risking that there might not be any oil to buy. Oil in contango signifies that demand for the commodity is less anxious, and that future supply constraints are not a major concern.

Oil in backwardation is when the near month contract costs more then the later month contracts. While contango is the opposite. So that means people were pouring money into oil futures in the near term contract and thus artificially creating these "record prices."

Supply and Demand dictates that when lots of money is chasing a finite resource like a futures contract then prices will go up. It seems that when both WTI and Brent futures are in contango (which this analyst stated will happen in the next few weeks) then the normal supply demand picture will again take shape. So all this bad weather in the Gulf of Mexico and Nigerian output fears and other nonsense is just buy-side propaganda made up just to keep inflating what some are calling an oil bubble.

Hillary Whips Obama in Kentucky

This time it isn't the so-called uneducated white guy vote going her way again. I think Jeremiah Wright has made it tough for Obama to win over a white America. The sad thing is I can see these same whites voting for Obama in large numbers if they weren't subjected to Wright's anti-American conspiracy theorizing.

With votes counted from 23 percent of the Kentucky precincts, Clinton was gaining 54 percent support, compared with 42 percent for Obama.

Interviews with Kentucky voters leaving their polling places showed Clinton's victory was roughly as sweeping as the rout she fashioned last week in West Virginia.

Almost nine in 10 ballots were cast by whites, and the former first lady was winning their support overwhelmingly. She defeated her rival among voters of all age groups and incomes, the college educated and non-college educated, self-described liberals, moderates and conservatives.

Teens Have Gas At the Top of their Shopping Lists

It seems the trend of using credit to pay for gas is really on the rise. This sounds like a good idea if you own Visa stock as long as these kids don't get in over their heads and can't pay it off. Imagine beings $1000s in debt and not even out of high school. That would be a tragedy.

In the most recent survey, about 69% of teens said they use credit cards for gas, up from 52% a year earlier and 46% in 2006. Gasoline now tops the list of things teens are charging, above "clothes," which had led the list in previous years.

Joleen Martis is one teen whose style has been crimped by surging fuel costs. She budgets $80 per week for gas to fill up her Honda(HMC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) Pilot SUV.

"It wasn't always that way -- I used to try to shop here and there but since gas prices are high, I don't really shop as much," she says. The 17-year-old Rahway, N.J., native has a part-time job at Best Buy and spends most of her cash on fuel and food, but keeps a side-stash in case of an emergency or necessary shopping spree.

The $175 Burger Looks Like Crap

Who would pay $175 for a burger that looked like this? It looks like a mutants head that has been blown apart by a shotgun. Also those greens to the left of the burger look like something you would see in a compost heap. Even the fries look unappetizing with some kind of possibly-fungal garnish sprouting from it. I think people at the Wall Street Burger Shoppe need to take some lessons in making their food look less like garbage.

The Case for BioFuels

A great rebuke to all those anti-Biofuel nuts that think food for fuel is hurting people in the long run. I really agree with this part:

Instead of financing terrorism, our energy dollars could be used to fund world development. Instead of selling control of our banks and media to Saudi princes, we could be selling tractors to Africa. Instead of buying arms for our enemies and chains for ourselves, we could be building a world of prosperity and freedom. Instead of paying for death, we could be helping to spread life.

I still hate the idea that whenever you fill up your car it goes into the pocket of a scumbag like Hugo Chavez, spreads Wahhabism, or funds the nuclear aspirations of Iran. If we don't buy what they are selling then we can finally get out of the Middle East game entirely.