In God We Trust

Jesse Says:

5 May 2008 at 1:49 am.

Sorry Hank. Can’t help you. Monday comes for all of us the dirty rat.

So I am actually glad Barack is doing better now that he dumped the radical pastor. I don’t want him as president but he seems like a nice enough guy and that took guts.

Barack Obama gains after denouncing pastor: poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appears to be rebounding from sliding poll numbers in the wake the controversy over his former pastor, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll released on Sunday.

Among Democratic primary voters, the Illinois senator now leads opponent Hillary Clinton by 12 points — 50 percent to 38 percent — the poll found. Obama led the New York senator by 8 points in a CBS/New York Times poll released just a few days ago.

The latest poll was taken after Obama’s comments last week repudiating Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who repeated statements that the September 11 attacks were retribution for U.S. foreign policy and that the U.S. government had a hand in spreading AIDS to harm blacks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080505/pl_nm/usa_politics_democrats_poll_dc

Cameron Says:

5 May 2008 at 9:28 am.

Yahoo shares fall 17 pct after Microsoft withdraws bid

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo shares fell 17 percent in early trading Monday as hopes for the once-dominant search engine dimmed following Microsoft’s withdrawal of a $47.5 billion takeover bid.

Analysts believe Yahoo Inc.’s stock price will surrender most, perhaps all, of its 50 percent gain since Microsoft Corp. made its initial offer on Jan. 31 in an effort to challenge online advertising and search leader Google Inc. The anticipated sell-off would leave Yahoo’s market value hovering around $30 billion.

Last-ditch talks between Yahoo and Microsoft were fruitless, leading Microsoft to walk away from a deal Saturday.

In early Monday trading, Yahoo shares fell 17.2 percent to $23.73, below Friday’s close of $28.67, when investors were still hopeful about a deal.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080505/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_yahoo

Cameron Says:

5 May 2008 at 9:31 am.

This is a heart breaking tragedy for people who were already in sad conditions.

Cyclone death toll nears 4,000 in Myanmar, state radio says

YANGON, Myanmar - Almost 4,000 people were killed and nearly 3,000 others are unaccounted for after a devastating cyclone in Myanmar, a state radio station said Monday.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win told foreign diplomats at a briefing that the death toll could reach 10,000, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors.

Tropical Cyclone Nargis hit the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, early Saturday with winds of up to 120 mph, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080505/ap_on_re_as/myanmar_cyclone

Matt Says:

5 May 2008 at 10:22 am.

Pretty scary not to be able to feed your family. I feel bad for these people.

Mogadishu rocked by food demonstrations

“NOTHING TO EAT”

“The whole city is up in smoke,” protestor Hussein Abdikadir told Reuters while rolling a tire he said he intended to burn in the Buulahubey neighborhood of southern Mogadishu.

“Traders have refused to take old notes. Food prices are high and we have nothing to eat,” he said. “We will protest until the traders agree to take the notes and sell us food.”

Traders in the sprawling Bakara Market, which also houses a notorious open-air arms bazaar, blame the interim government and unscrupulous businessmen for the runaway inflation.

“Businessmen blame the government, which does not control the security and circulation of money. The problem is from Bakara market but I don’t know who is behind it and how,” moneychanger Abdirahman Omar told Reuters.

Somalia has been without any kind of real government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre by a coalition of warlords. Since then, the country’s agricultural bounty has withered to the point where Somalis rely on imports.

“The refusal of the old bank notes is an economic war which will automatically lead to violence and starvation,” Osman Buno, another shopkeeper, told Reuters.

The exchange rate is so bad Somalis must carry huge stacks of 1,000 Somali shilling notes just to buy daily necessities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080505/wl_nm/food_prices_somalia_dc_5;_ylt=AtPsZVnjflOO79wEyAwhylYE1vAI

Joy Bischoff Says:

5 May 2008 at 2:27 pm.

Peter Anderson sent me this article by Ron Paul, Texas Straight Talk. I like it a lot so I thought I would post it here.

Big Government Responsible for High Gas Prices

In the past few months, American workers, consumers, and businesses have experienced a sudden and dramatic rise in gasoline prices. In some parts of the country, gasoline costs as much as $4 per gallon. Some politicians claim that the way to reduce gas prices is by expanding the government’s power to regulate prices and control the supply of gasoline. For example, the House of Representatives has even passed legislation subjecting gas stations owners to criminal penalties if they charge more than a federal bureaucrat deems appropriate. Proponents of these measures must have forgotten the 1970s, when government controls on the oil industry resulted in gas lines and shortages. It was only after President Reagan lifted federal price controls that the gas lines disappeared.

Instead of imposing further restraints on the market, Congress should consider reforming the federal policies that raise gas prices. For example, federal and state taxes can account for as much as a third of what consumers’ pay at the pump. The Federal Government’s boom-and-bust monetary policy also makes consumers vulnerable to inflation and to constant fluctuations in the prices of essential goods such as oil. It is no coincidence that oil prices first became an issue shortly after President Nixon unilaterally severed the dollar’s last link to gold.

Basic economics says that when government restricts the supply of a good, the price will increase. Yet Congress continues to reject simple measures that could increase the supply of oil. For example, Congress refuses to allow reasonable, environmentally sensitive, offshore drilling. Congress also refuses to remove the numerous regulatory hurdles that add to the prohibitively expensive task of constructing new refineries. Building a new refinery requires billions of dollars in capital investment. It can take several years just to obtain the necessary federal permits. Even after the permits are obtained, construction of a refinery may still be delayed or even halted by frivolous lawsuits. It is no wonder that there has not been a new refinery constructed in the United States since 1976.

Last year, in order to provide the American people with relief from high oil prices, I introduced the Affordable Gas Price Act (HR 2415). This legislation protects the American people from gas price spikes by suspending the federal gas tax whenever the national average gas price exceeds $3.00 per gallon. The Affordable Gas Price Act also expands the supply of gasoline by repealing the federal moratorium on offshore drilling, including in the ANWR reserve in Alaska . HR 2415 also provides tax incentives and protection from nuisance lawsuits for those seeking to build new refineries. Finally, HR 2415 authorizes a federal study on the link between our nation’s monetary policy and the price of oil.

The free market can meet the American people’s demand for a reliable supply of gasoline as long as government does not distort the market through excessive taxation and regulation. Therefore, Congress should lower prices gas prices by pursuing an agenda of low taxes, regulatory relief, and sound money by passing legislation such as my Affordable Gas Act.

http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2008/tst050408.htm

Concerned American Says:

5 May 2008 at 11:26 pm.

Bernanke urges more action to stem home foreclosure crisis

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080506/ap_on_go_ot/bernanke_housing

WASHINGTON - A rising tide of late mortgage payments and home foreclosures poses considerable dangers to the national economy, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned anew Monday as he urged Congress to take additional steps to alleviate the problems.

“High rates of delinquency and foreclosure can have substantial spillover effects on the housing market, the financial markets and the broader economy,” Bernanke said in a dinner speech to Columbia Business School in New York. “Therefore, doing what we can to avoid preventable foreclosures is not just in the interest of lenders and borrowers. It’s in everybody’s interest,” he said.

Some 1.5 million U.S. homes entered into the foreclosure process last year, up 53 percent from 2006, Bernanke said. The rate of new foreclosures looks likely to be even higher this year, he said.

To provide more relief, Bernanke again called on Congress to give the Federal Housing Administration, which insures mortgages, more flexibility to help distressed borrowers at risk of losing their homes. He also again urged lawmakers to move ahead on legislation revamping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which finance mortgages. And, he called on the two mortgage giants to quickly raise new capital.