She wanted to celebrate her birthday amongst the vineyards in grape land.
Uploaded by Eva Marieville on 25 Sep '05, 1.15am PDT.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Disinformation :: What FEMA Could Learn From Wal-Mart
Disinformation :: What FEMA Could Learn From Wal-Mart
Blogger Thoughts: Not as sickening as it sounds.
Blogger Thoughts: Not as sickening as it sounds.
Congress Weighs Oil-Patch Aid
(Wall Street Journal Online subscription required)
Entergy Begins Rolling Blackouts
Entergy initiated rolling blackouts north of Houston as Rita and a series of tornadoes downed power lines and disabled plants.
Microsoft, Intel Back HD-DVD
Microsoft and Intel are throwing their support to a new data-storage format known as HD-DVD.
Judge Postpones Ellison Settlement
A California judge declined to approve an unusual settlement in an insider-trading case involving Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
Test Predicts Response to Cancer Drugs
Genzyme is launching a test that could help predict which patients will respond to targeted "smart drug" cancer treatments.
Guidant Draws Fire for Survey Payments
Guidant has offered money to doctors who fill out surveys about its heart devices, physicians on the firm's advisory board said.
UBS to Invest in Chinese Brokerage Firm
UBS is set to buy 20% of Beijing Securities, in what may be the first direct stake by a foreign company in a Chinese brokerage firm.
Al Qaeda Cell Leader Convicted
A Spanish court convicted a local al Qaeda leader and 17 others of aiding Sept. 11 plotters, but acquitted them of murder charges.
Overstock's Byrne Details Claims
Overstock's president says affidavits back up his claim that two firms are working to drive down his company's stock price.
Google Increases Its Search Capacity
Google says a recent upgrade allows it to search roughly three times as many Web pages as any other rival.
U.S. Stocks' Early Rally Wanes
The Dow industrials gained 24.04 to 10443.63 as U.S. stocks handed back most of the morning rally after crude-oil prices rebounded from a seven-week low.
TOP STORY Congress Weighs
Oil-Patch Aid,
Military's Role
Measures Aim to Increase
Nation's Refining Capacity,
Stimulate U.S. Production
By JOHN J. FIALKA and BHUSHAN BAHREE
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
With a nudge from President Bush, Republican leaders in Congress are moving bills to increase the nation's oil-refining capacity and to stimulate more domestic oil and natural-gas production, largely through regulatory relief for producers and refiners.
The effort, intended to cope with supply shortfalls exposed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to damp future price increases, is likely to turn into Energy Bill II -- a second act for the lengthy debates that produced the energy bill signed by President Bush in August. Democrats are likely to try to broaden the measure to push for tougher fuel-efficiency standards on cars and to impose a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies similar to one passed in the 1980s.
"The storms have shown how fragile the balance is between supply and demand in America," Mr. Bush said yesterday during an appearance at the Department of Energy. He pledged to push for incentives and to ease regulations -- steps to encourage companies to build new refineries or expand old ones.
Of course, if the efforts succeed, expanding refining capacity will take years. Even restoring refineries and oil production facilities to pre-Katrina and Rita levels of output will take months at the very least. That realization helped propel crude oil, gasoline, heating oil and natural-gas futures prices higher yesterday.
Yesterday, the U.S. Minerals and Management Service said 1.5 million barrels a day of oil production, or the entire output of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, remained shut down.
Natural-gas production was beginning to recover modestly with 78% of output shut in yesterday, compared with 81% shut in on Sunday. Meanwhile, three major pipelines transporting oil and petroleum products to the Midwest and Northeast were still operating at reduced capacity. They are expected to resume operations at full capacity in coming days. Several major refineries shuttered in advance of Rita, representing roughly a quarter of U.S. refining capacity, remained down or at less than full strength, though several were in the process of restarting. Jamal Qureshi, an analyst at PFC Energy in Washington, D.C., said by the end of the week, some 75 million barrels of refined petroleum product output will have been lost because of Katrina and Rita. "That's just blown a huge hole in the system and this hasn't registered in the market," Mr. Qureshi said.
On Capitol Hill, House and Senate committee chairmen released draft bills to increase refinery capacity. They say the measures would provide more flexibility to a system that pushed refiners to operate at 95% of capacity before the two storms struck the Gulf Coast, where nearly half of the nation's refinery capacity is located.
In addition, Chairman Richard Pombo of the House Resources Committee said his panel will meet this week on a bill to allow coastal states to waive federal moratoriums on offshore drilling for natural gas and lease promising areas to oil companies for exploration. The bill also includes a new effort to drill for oil on the coast of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Mr. Pombo also would reduce federal royalty payments from oil companies that produce oil from oil-shale formations and tar sands in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The measure is similar to Canadian incentives that have helped Canada's multibillion-dollar oil industry based on tar sands in Alberta.
Chairman Joe Barton of the House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled a measure that would encourage the construction of new refinery complexes on former military bases and waive some Clean Air Act requirements. It would order the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to give refiners the "maximum legal flexibility" to perform maintenance and modify their facilities without triggering rules that require state-of-the-art antipollution controls.
The Barton bill also would authorize the Energy Department to sell some crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation's emergency crude-oil stockpile, to finance new storage facilities needed to bring the 700 million barrel reserve to the one billion level that Congress recently approved. The reserve is stored in hollowed-out salt domes along the Gulf Coast. Also yesterday, President Bush reiterated the administration's willingness to open the nation's crude-oil stockpile if needed.
Chairman James Inhofe of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee also introduced an incentive bill for refiners that would ease federal permit restrictions. Sen. Pete Domenici, who heads the Senate Energy panel and who managed the earlier energy bill, had no specific suggestions for a new one. But he issued a statement noting that the two storms will allow Congress to "take the tough steps...that couldn't be taken before."
While they applauded the new moves, industry officials feared they would get lumped together into one large bill that could get jammed in the Senate. "Unfortunately, the thing about 'must do' bills is that they become the target of a lot of extraneous amendments," said Robert Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. "This needs to be kept focused on supply issues."
"It looks as though we're going to have to object to just about everything they're doing," said Kevin Curtis, senior vice president of the National Environmental Trust, an environmental group. "They seem to be taking advantage of Katrina and high gasoline prices to run through things that they weren't able to do in the five years they spent working on the energy bill."
Oil companies currently assessing the damage said it could take days or weeks before the full extent of destruction is known and even longer to set firm restoration timetables. Among the facilities damaged by Rita was Chevron Corp.'s Typhoon offshore production platform, which produces between 15,000 and 20,000 barrels of oil a day.
Industry officials said that repeated offers by the U.S., and by the International Energy Agency, the energy watchdog for the world's industrialized nations, to provide more oil from strategic stocks if needed were keeping price increases in check. Meanwhile, closely watched data on supply, demand and inventories are skewed and it may be weeks, at least, before a clearer picture of the energy situation emerges.
Entergy Begins Rolling Blackouts
Entergy initiated rolling blackouts north of Houston as Rita and a series of tornadoes downed power lines and disabled plants.
Microsoft, Intel Back HD-DVD
Microsoft and Intel are throwing their support to a new data-storage format known as HD-DVD.
Judge Postpones Ellison Settlement
A California judge declined to approve an unusual settlement in an insider-trading case involving Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.
Test Predicts Response to Cancer Drugs
Genzyme is launching a test that could help predict which patients will respond to targeted "smart drug" cancer treatments.
Guidant Draws Fire for Survey Payments
Guidant has offered money to doctors who fill out surveys about its heart devices, physicians on the firm's advisory board said.
UBS to Invest in Chinese Brokerage Firm
UBS is set to buy 20% of Beijing Securities, in what may be the first direct stake by a foreign company in a Chinese brokerage firm.
Al Qaeda Cell Leader Convicted
A Spanish court convicted a local al Qaeda leader and 17 others of aiding Sept. 11 plotters, but acquitted them of murder charges.
Overstock's Byrne Details Claims
Overstock's president says affidavits back up his claim that two firms are working to drive down his company's stock price.
Google Increases Its Search Capacity
Google says a recent upgrade allows it to search roughly three times as many Web pages as any other rival.
U.S. Stocks' Early Rally Wanes
The Dow industrials gained 24.04 to 10443.63 as U.S. stocks handed back most of the morning rally after crude-oil prices rebounded from a seven-week low.
TOP STORY Congress Weighs
Oil-Patch Aid,
Military's Role
Measures Aim to Increase
Nation's Refining Capacity,
Stimulate U.S. Production
By JOHN J. FIALKA and BHUSHAN BAHREE
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
With a nudge from President Bush, Republican leaders in Congress are moving bills to increase the nation's oil-refining capacity and to stimulate more domestic oil and natural-gas production, largely through regulatory relief for producers and refiners.
The effort, intended to cope with supply shortfalls exposed by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to damp future price increases, is likely to turn into Energy Bill II -- a second act for the lengthy debates that produced the energy bill signed by President Bush in August. Democrats are likely to try to broaden the measure to push for tougher fuel-efficiency standards on cars and to impose a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies similar to one passed in the 1980s.
"The storms have shown how fragile the balance is between supply and demand in America," Mr. Bush said yesterday during an appearance at the Department of Energy. He pledged to push for incentives and to ease regulations -- steps to encourage companies to build new refineries or expand old ones.
Of course, if the efforts succeed, expanding refining capacity will take years. Even restoring refineries and oil production facilities to pre-Katrina and Rita levels of output will take months at the very least. That realization helped propel crude oil, gasoline, heating oil and natural-gas futures prices higher yesterday.
Yesterday, the U.S. Minerals and Management Service said 1.5 million barrels a day of oil production, or the entire output of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, remained shut down.
Natural-gas production was beginning to recover modestly with 78% of output shut in yesterday, compared with 81% shut in on Sunday. Meanwhile, three major pipelines transporting oil and petroleum products to the Midwest and Northeast were still operating at reduced capacity. They are expected to resume operations at full capacity in coming days. Several major refineries shuttered in advance of Rita, representing roughly a quarter of U.S. refining capacity, remained down or at less than full strength, though several were in the process of restarting. Jamal Qureshi, an analyst at PFC Energy in Washington, D.C., said by the end of the week, some 75 million barrels of refined petroleum product output will have been lost because of Katrina and Rita. "That's just blown a huge hole in the system and this hasn't registered in the market," Mr. Qureshi said.
On Capitol Hill, House and Senate committee chairmen released draft bills to increase refinery capacity. They say the measures would provide more flexibility to a system that pushed refiners to operate at 95% of capacity before the two storms struck the Gulf Coast, where nearly half of the nation's refinery capacity is located.
In addition, Chairman Richard Pombo of the House Resources Committee said his panel will meet this week on a bill to allow coastal states to waive federal moratoriums on offshore drilling for natural gas and lease promising areas to oil companies for exploration. The bill also includes a new effort to drill for oil on the coast of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Mr. Pombo also would reduce federal royalty payments from oil companies that produce oil from oil-shale formations and tar sands in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. The measure is similar to Canadian incentives that have helped Canada's multibillion-dollar oil industry based on tar sands in Alberta.
Chairman Joe Barton of the House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled a measure that would encourage the construction of new refinery complexes on former military bases and waive some Clean Air Act requirements. It would order the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to give refiners the "maximum legal flexibility" to perform maintenance and modify their facilities without triggering rules that require state-of-the-art antipollution controls.
The Barton bill also would authorize the Energy Department to sell some crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation's emergency crude-oil stockpile, to finance new storage facilities needed to bring the 700 million barrel reserve to the one billion level that Congress recently approved. The reserve is stored in hollowed-out salt domes along the Gulf Coast. Also yesterday, President Bush reiterated the administration's willingness to open the nation's crude-oil stockpile if needed.
Chairman James Inhofe of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee also introduced an incentive bill for refiners that would ease federal permit restrictions. Sen. Pete Domenici, who heads the Senate Energy panel and who managed the earlier energy bill, had no specific suggestions for a new one. But he issued a statement noting that the two storms will allow Congress to "take the tough steps...that couldn't be taken before."
While they applauded the new moves, industry officials feared they would get lumped together into one large bill that could get jammed in the Senate. "Unfortunately, the thing about 'must do' bills is that they become the target of a lot of extraneous amendments," said Robert Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. "This needs to be kept focused on supply issues."
"It looks as though we're going to have to object to just about everything they're doing," said Kevin Curtis, senior vice president of the National Environmental Trust, an environmental group. "They seem to be taking advantage of Katrina and high gasoline prices to run through things that they weren't able to do in the five years they spent working on the energy bill."
Oil companies currently assessing the damage said it could take days or weeks before the full extent of destruction is known and even longer to set firm restoration timetables. Among the facilities damaged by Rita was Chevron Corp.'s Typhoon offshore production platform, which produces between 15,000 and 20,000 barrels of oil a day.
Industry officials said that repeated offers by the U.S., and by the International Energy Agency, the energy watchdog for the world's industrialized nations, to provide more oil from strategic stocks if needed were keeping price increases in check. Meanwhile, closely watched data on supply, demand and inventories are skewed and it may be weeks, at least, before a clearer picture of the energy situation emerges.
WSJ.com - Assessing a Wishlist for the Justice System
WSJ.com - Assessing a Wishlist for the Justice System
Blogger Thoughts: Makes my heart strings go zing to think about achieving Reagan era goals!
Blogger Thoughts: Makes my heart strings go zing to think about achieving Reagan era goals!
Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | Royal Ballet's latest too shocking for matinees
Guardian Unlimited | Arts news | Royal Ballet's latest too shocking for matinees
Blogger Thoughts: I may be wrong, but this seems like it enhances the 7/7 fearmonger plan.
Blogger Thoughts: I may be wrong, but this seems like it enhances the 7/7 fearmonger plan.
Aljazeera.Net - Spanish court jails 18 in al-Qaida trial
Aljazeera.Net - Spanish court jails 18 in al-Qaida trial
Blogger Thoughts: Alluni also sentenced to 7 years in jail.
Blogger Thoughts: Alluni also sentenced to 7 years in jail.
The Blog | Cindy Sheehan: My First Time | The Huffington Post
The Blog | Cindy Sheehan: My First Time | The Huffington Post
Blogger Thoughts: Blog post after arrest.
Blogger Thoughts: Blog post after arrest.
CNN.com - Bush eyes bigger�military role in disasters - Sep 26, 2005
CNN.com - Bush eyes bigger�military role in disasters - Sep 26, 2005
Blogger Thoughts: Must not comment, may lose it. Noted.
Blogger Thoughts: Must not comment, may lose it. Noted.
Bonfire of the Vanities: Are Prolifers to blame?
Bonfire of the Vanities: Are Prolifers to blame?
Blogger Thoughts: Blogging Priest and reference to M. Miranda = this blogger feelin' quite repulsed.
Blogger Thoughts: Blogging Priest and reference to M. Miranda = this blogger feelin' quite repulsed.
TCS: Tech Central Station - A Case for Immigration
TCS: Tech Central Station - A Case for Immigration
Blogger Thought: Thought I might agree with this post (TSC) from the title. Why should I even hope? More pure sick misguided false rhetoric: "Let all of the teachers, professors, journalists, celebrities and others who espouse disgust with America be encouraged to emigrate."
Blogger Thought: Thought I might agree with this post (TSC) from the title. Why should I even hope? More pure sick misguided false rhetoric: "Let all of the teachers, professors, journalists, celebrities and others who espouse disgust with America be encouraged to emigrate."
Hurricanes Prompt Saudis to Question Influence of Big Business on Bush
Hurricanes Prompt Saudis to Question Influence of Big Business on Bush
Blogger Thoughts: For your consideration...
Blogger Thoughts: For your consideration...
Did a Bribed U.S. Officer Allow bin Laden to Escape?
Did a Bribed U.S. Officer Allow bin Laden to Escape?
Blogger Thought: I thought bin Laden died of natural causes as reported a few months after 9/11. I have no further proof, of course.
Blogger Thought: I thought bin Laden died of natural causes as reported a few months after 9/11. I have no further proof, of course.
xymphora: Such a dastardly policy
xymphora: Such a dastardly policy
Blogger Thoughts: When will Juan Cole wake up and smell the coffee?
Blogger Thoughts: When will Juan Cole wake up and smell the coffee?
Newsweek is full of hooey!
Saudi Storms - Newsweek: International Editions - MSNBC.com
Blogger Thoughs: Fearmongering at its worst!
Blogger Thoughs: Fearmongering at its worst!
CLOAK EXCLUSIVE: Supreme Bribery?
CLOAK EXCLUSIVE
Coca-Cola, Disney, and CIA---Court Bribery Center
Homeland Security and FBI illegally blocked the U.S. Supreme Court from receiving our documents, showing five judges on the high court were corrupted in Bush vs Gore, 12/2000. In Coca-Cola's headquarters hometown, the Atlanta Federal Prosecutor, disregarded our documents in his possession, and cut short the Federal Grand Jury inquiry into massive book-cooking by Coke's top management, many of whom fled or quit.
Why? The Bushie Federal Gestapo evaded bringing out the details of Coke's overseas operations as a CIA proprietary. And, that Coke, jointly with CIA's other devil, Mickey Mouse, corrupted five high court judges to arbitrarily install George W. Bush as the occupant and resident of the White House.
And now, as to Coke's ad agency, Interpublic Group:
"Interpublic Group, in a sign that its accounting problems are more serious than previously understood, says an internal investigation has turned up instances of 'misapropriation of assets' and 'falsified books and records' that violated laws, mainly occurring at operations outside the U.S." Wall St.Journal, 9/16/5.
And now again, apparently implicated, are CIA/COCA-COLA/DISNEY as the Court bribery center. Another top Federal whitewash coming? Stay tuned.
Coca-Cola, Disney, and CIA---Court Bribery Center
Homeland Security and FBI illegally blocked the U.S. Supreme Court from receiving our documents, showing five judges on the high court were corrupted in Bush vs Gore, 12/2000. In Coca-Cola's headquarters hometown, the Atlanta Federal Prosecutor, disregarded our documents in his possession, and cut short the Federal Grand Jury inquiry into massive book-cooking by Coke's top management, many of whom fled or quit.
Why? The Bushie Federal Gestapo evaded bringing out the details of Coke's overseas operations as a CIA proprietary. And, that Coke, jointly with CIA's other devil, Mickey Mouse, corrupted five high court judges to arbitrarily install George W. Bush as the occupant and resident of the White House.
And now, as to Coke's ad agency, Interpublic Group:
"Interpublic Group, in a sign that its accounting problems are more serious than previously understood, says an internal investigation has turned up instances of 'misapropriation of assets' and 'falsified books and records' that violated laws, mainly occurring at operations outside the U.S." Wall St.Journal, 9/16/5.
And now again, apparently implicated, are CIA/COCA-COLA/DISNEY as the Court bribery center. Another top Federal whitewash coming? Stay tuned.
Althouse: "She was a follower, she was an individual who was smitten with Graner.... She just did whatever he wanted her to do."
Althouse: "She was a follower, she was an individual who was smitten with Graner.... She just did whatever he wanted her to do."
Blogger Thoughts: I wonder what Ms. Althouse would think should happen to all of the American people whose compliance has left the truth of 9/11 unreported and supported this mass murder the Bush Junta and MSM wants us to call a War.
Blogger Thoughts: I wonder what Ms. Althouse would think should happen to all of the American people whose compliance has left the truth of 9/11 unreported and supported this mass murder the Bush Junta and MSM wants us to call a War.
would face the political wrath of AIPAC
Wayne Madsen Report: "would face the political wrath of AIPAC"
Wayne Madsen Report: This and other first hand knowledge gems of American Middle East hypocrisy
Wayne Madsen Report: "This and other first hand knowledge gems of American Middle East hypocrisy"
lgf: Mama Moonbat and Her Multitudes
lgf: Mama Moonbat and Her Multitudes
Blogger Thought: Little Green Footballs lets wishful thinking get the best of him. Also, maybe he trusted "Confederate Yankee" a bit too much.
Blogger Thought: Little Green Footballs lets wishful thinking get the best of him. Also, maybe he trusted "Confederate Yankee" a bit too much.
Cold Fury � Justice served, piping hot
Cold Fury � Justice served, piping hot
Blogger Thoughts: Not sure why I look at Cold Fury. Here's a post most thoughtful people will find odious.
Blogger Thoughts: Not sure why I look at Cold Fury. Here's a post most thoughtful people will find odious.
Another Day in the Empire � Big Trouble for British Occupation of Southern Iraq
Another Day in the Empire � Big Trouble for British Occupation of Southern Iraq: "Big Trouble for British Occupation of Southern Iraq"
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