BLOOD IN THE WATER

Sectarian warfare in Iraq continues unabated .....pandemic car bombs, obliterated marketplaces, a series of shot down choppers and the paralytic Iraqi government shut down by a bizarre rape case the US command will now bafflingly investigate-- On the home front the pecking order of demi presidential candidates is becoming a scene of internecine verbal sniping bare tooth and talons-- The hissing Red Queen of the former co-presidency is losing her head rather frequently these days now angered and chagrined as Obama bin surreptitiously slipped into Hollywood pilfering campaign cash from her former mogul-donors.... major player in the past not at all reticent in his critique of her notorious consuming ambition, cavalier untruthfulness and the ruthlessly stale and boring team surrounding her-- The very kind of invective the gossipy media loves elevating to a feastly frenzy at the expense of real issue coverage--

With this self defeating narcissism and self-absorbed candidate myopia engulfing the frenetic blathersphere few of The Worst Generation's ill-esteemed leaders have the wherewithal to confront the savage dismemberment occurring up and down the food chain in the swiftly debilitating housing market-- Sub-prime lenders issued risky loans to broad schools of economic minnows some of whom began defaulting the day the first monthly payment arrived due--NovaStar Financial, one such company confessed to a surprise loss of $14.4 million for the final quarter of '06 and stood slackjawed as their stock price plunged almost 43 percent capping off the optimism by warning investors not to expect a dividend payout for at least a quadrennium-- Deadends can be reached from the middle of the road but No politician wants to do a photo-op here!!!--

Knowing that many subprime lenders were not mandated by the tougher regulations covering commercial banks doesn't make the gloomy statistics of rampant default and upwardly spiking foreclosure rates any less appalling-- Significantly serious warnings about the precarious nature of the sub-prime market have dappled the Internet for months and have met with little or no change in the behavior of those throwing their excess liquidity at the dartboards of excessive risk-- Tribal hallucination???-- Does a rising tide lift all boats if the tide becomes tsunami by default??--

As housing prices spiral downward those still solvent enough to make their next payment were slapped in the face today as oil prices barreled through the technical support ceiling of $62/barrel due to, on one front, fears that George Bush's only hope of a rosy glow to the outcome of the US invasion of Iraq is radical bombardment of Iran who ratcheted up the tension by refusing to back down on their nuclear programs-- World Politics for $500, please, Alex-- The answer is...the only country in the world possessing nuclear weapons to ever be militarily invaded--..........The question is 'Who is Nobody?.....Correct, proceed!-- Thanks, Alex-- With this kind of guarantee, Israeli paranoia aside, who wouldn't pursue Nuclear???-- Saudi Arabia???? Egypt???? Louisiana????

Ominous rumors out of the Royal Saudi Kingdom indicate oil shortages are imminent for a bevy of reasons with industry gloomslayers mining every innuendo for its silver lining to fend off mounting evidence of trouble's unquenchable drumbeat-- Some oil experts not on per diem to Aramco's Kingdom believe Saudi oil reserves incapable of increased production-- Saudi oil production is apparently down neighborhood of a million barrels a day from about 9.5 million barrels a day in 2005. and the quality of the production has deteriorated-- Saudi cutbacks began when oil prices were relatively high and their drilling efforts described as frantic and frenzied-- The Kingdom has publicly admitted its underground interest in nuclear capability-- Oil revenues have kept the simmering Wahhabi dissent kingdom-wide to a minimum but once that hush money diminishes far enough in value..... look out!!!--

Couple this with considerable depletion at Mexico's Cantarell field (production down 14% in '06 a larger downdraft than '05) and troublesome guerrilla activity in Nigeria(20% of production halted) and the ongoing periodical interruptions of Russian gas and oil destined for Euroville and the nationalization of Hugo Chavez' ego along with Venezuela's oil resources, it becomes quite easy to see how middle income home buyers in the US now fret and despair about the availability and the cost of oil to heat the now excessive square footage of their castles and the rising cost of gasoline to fuel their excessive suburban commutes to and fro' all the while staying one step ahead of default and foreclosure themselves-- Economic despair permeates wide swathes of our country and it never makes the evening news-- The government's numbers are not telling or facing the truth--

US production glitches and refining infrastructure breakdowns and fires have leveled several hits against US supplies that survived extreme cold weather in the mid-west and the northeast-- Many Peak Oil experts have warned for years of Saudi oil fields reaching decline but not with enough credibility apparently to warrant any action from the ongoing congressional stupor much less common sense type life-style changes of the voluntary kind from the degrading middle class-- Flimsy promotional canards about ethanol solutions by an American president in search of polling boosts have not only furthered consumerist illusions about singular motorized mobility ad infinitum but also ramped up the price of corn to inflationary levels Fed Chairman Bernanke and his number-fudgers sit in apoplectic fear of ever being forced to mesh the volatile food and energy sectors into their fictional CPI-- Remember, the Feds have a vested interest in denying any inflationary pressures ever exist!!!!!--

Corn prices have almost doubled since August as the US, king of the world’s corn growers, lowered its crop estimates following a dry summer--Rumors are swirling in last year's dust another dry one's on the way-- On the Chicago Board of Trade corn for March delivery rose more than 10 cents on the day......... to a 10-year high of $4.26 a bushel-- Stockpile inventories of US corn are at 12 year lows in absolute terms and relative lows at the quarter century milepost-- There doesn't seem any way for beef prices to compete with gasoline prices for the consumers diminishing dollar unless credit card interest rates make their cup of tea-- Raising cattle and finishing them on feed-lot corn coupled with the ever increasing costs of shipping them to and from those lots to market is double jeopardy threatening the entire livestock industry and certainly acting as a drag on the suffering trucking industry-- Corn being a heavy nitrogen feeder has already had its fertilizer input costs skyrocket with the upward ride of oil prices-- The silver lining here might be a decline in American obesity--

The surge for corn profits bodes ill for beer drinkers-- Barley and hops plantings will most likely give way to more corn plantings driving up their prices due to planned shortages thereby driving up the cost of beer-- Vegan tofu aficionados and barbecued soyburger buffs won't dodge the cost increases either as soybean futures contacted $7.81 a bushel on the CBOT, their highest level since July 2004..... up almost 50% since September. CBOT soymeal futures also hit $232 a tonne the highest tally since July 2004 and soybean acreage will also fall this spring as farmers make way for more lucrative corn plantings-- Wheat also kicked up the price charts which is not so troubling for those with wheat allergies but whole wheat toast won't get any cheaper-- Burning topsoil in our internal combustion engines sounds like desperation--Two more commodities jumped big-time as Nickel notched another record high at $40,300 a ton on the London Metal Exchange, before receding later in the day and tin followed suit with its record-breaking run topping out at $13,900 a ton--

The automotive industry collapses in steady freefall shedding tens of thousands of jobs with Chrysler hoping for some Big Brother's help-- The specter of war in Iran following the fiasco in Iraq has unnerved the markets and destabilized the future hopes of America-- Attacks on oil facilities in Iran or Saudi Arabia or Iraq or all three will decimate globalization and usher in a leadening depression-- The great emergency is nearly upon us--

The demi-led US Senators fresh from the second failure to pass a non-binding resolution against the Bush's trojan horse surge into Baghdad have vowed a flurry of relentless "resolution after resolutuion, amendment after amendment...just like in the days of Vietnam"-- So said New York's Senator Schumer-- Right, Schoomer, just like 40 years ago heavy on the nostalgia minus the intestinal fortitude--America's foreign policy lies in tatters-- Our position in the world has hit bottom-- Your team has less of a plan than the Bush team had in Iraq and more and more people are dying as a result while all your self-enamored 'charismatics' grovel and whore for more excessive funding --

While your team ineffectually blusters, the war coming to Iran proceeds apace on your watch right under your noses-- You can't see it and you can't smell it and you can't hear it and you can't run from it and you can't hide from it--Twice irresolutely drubbed on the Senate floor (not counting the minimum wage debacle) tired demie leader Harry Reed sounds the defeatist charge "We're going to move on to other things"-- To what other things, Mr. Reed, irrelevance or retirement?????-- Helluva job, so far, Harry!!--