Another thougt is about what hapens to he emergency serivices in your area durin these events.
The police will stop some of their services as well as the fire department and trash pickup And possible your water, gas and electric if the event is big enough, that is wat these little aricles are about.
Gas Shortage In the South Creates Panic, Long LinesIf Drivers Can Fill Up, They Get Sticker Shock
By Steven MufsonWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, September 26, 2008; D01
Gasoline shortages hit towns across the southeastern United States this week, sparking panic buying, long lines and high prices at stations from the small towns of northeast Alabama to Charlotte in the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
In Atlanta, half of the gasoline stations were closed, according to AAA, which said the supply disruptions had taken place along two major petroleum product pipelines that have operated well below capacity since the hurricanes knocked offshore oil production and several refineries out of service along the Gulf of Mexico.
Drivers in Charlotte reported lines with as many as 60 cars waiting to fill up late Wednesday night, and a community college in Asheville, N.C., where most of the 25,000 students commute, canceled classes and closed down Wednesday afternoon for the rest of the week. Shortages also hit Nashville, Knoxville and Spartanburg, S.C., AAA said.
Terrance Bragg, a chef in Charlotte, made it to work only because his grandfather drove from a town an hour away with a 5-gallon plastic container of fuel for him. Three of his co-workers called and said they couldn't make it.
"I drove past nine or ten gasoline stations that were out of gas," Bragg said. "I had my GPS up looking for any gas in the area, from the mom-and-pop places to the corporate gas stations. Nothing. They were all taped off."
Liz Clasen-Kelly, associate director of a homeless assistance center in Charlotte, took the bus to work yesterday. On Wednesday night, she and her husband checked five stations that had no gas, passed a long line backed up onto the interstate highway and chose not to wait at an open gas station with 50 to 60 cars still lined up after 11 p.m.
"If we had waited in that line, our car wouldn't have made it," she said, adding that the gauge was pointing to empty. The bus yesterday took her 45 minutes longer than usual. "It makes you realize how addicted you are to convenience," she said.
In Atlanta, Jonathan Tyson, a Douglasville, Ga., resident who works for a company that does training for auto and RV franchise dealerships, ran out of fuel while waiting an hour in a line about 60 cars long to fill up his Land Rover. A man from the car behind helped push Tyson's vehicle down the road.
"It was crazy," Tyson said. "People were standing on side of road with gas cans saying they'd pay the person to run a [credit] card through just to get gas so they didn't run out before they got up to the pump themselves."
The city government, which uses 10,000 gallons a day, barred the public from two stations to make sure it could keep municipal vehicles running. On Wednesday night with his fuel gauge at empty, Al T. Nottage, a senior communications specialist in the Atlanta mayor's office, looked for fuel at six stations, all closed, then called AAA and said he had run out of gasoline. It brought him two gallons, enough to get to work yesterday.
AAA spokesman John Townsend said that Colonial Pipeline, a leading supplier in the region, and the smaller Plantation Pipeline, which belongs to Kinder Morgan, were functioning below capacity because of lingering refinery problems along the Gulf coast. A spokesman for Colonial, whose Web site displays a news release from Sept. 10 before Hurricane Ike hit, did not return calls for comment.
The Energy Department said that as of Wednesday 63 percent, or 800,000 barrels a day, of production in the Gulf of Mexico was still shut down as were five refineries with a combined capacity of 1.2 million barrels a day. The refineries produce a half-million barrels of gasoline a day, or about 5 percent of the nation's total supplies. Other refineries are still working at less than full capacity. Hurricane Gustav landed Sept. 1, and Ike hit Sept. 13.
"The production loss is similar to what was lost after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina," said Anne Peebles, a Shell Oil spokeswoman. "This time the physical damage [to oil facilities] was not as great, but the down time with the storms hitting back to back is similar." She said that "more fuel is coming" as facilities gradually ramp up again, but "we do think that production availability will normalize in the next several weeks."
Townsend said that the Colonial pipeline normally carries 100 million gallons a day, traveling about 2,500 miles from Texas, Louisiana and Alabama to 267 marketing terminals across the East and Southeast. Although nearly 15 percent of the gas stations in Virginia were reporting outages last week, the Washington region has been able to tap into supplies from areas such as New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which can more readily obtain supplies from tanker and other pipelines. Earlier supply problems in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Tallahassee also had eased, he said.
Other areas of the country were not so fortunate. An Atlanta Exxon dealer said that his station's allocation was only 40 percent of normal.
Mike Thornburgh, a spokesperson at QuikTrip, said that half of the gasoline retailer's 111 Atlanta area stations were open, up from a quarter last weekend. He said that QuikTrip was trying to keep stores open near commuters and schools. He said he didn't know when things would return to normal.
"I can't give a concrete answer because I don't believe anybody knows," he said.
Public officials appealed for calm as it appeared that panic buying might exacerbate supply problems if motorists try to keep more fuel than usual in their tanks. The Environmental Protection Agency suspended regulations for antipollution additives to help ease the supply situation.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue provoked some angry comments on the Atlanta Journal Constitution Web site, which quoted him as saying that "there is ample fuel in the city" and that some of the panic was "self-induced."
"Perdue says we got ample gas supplies," wrote one reader. "Then why is it that every gas station in my area is out of gas. Some have been out for over 4 days."
Prices were high in cities hurt by shortages, though not as high as they were immediately after the hurricanes. In Charlotte, price ranged from $3.84 to a high of $4.31 a gallon for regular gasoline. AAA's Townsend said that travelers to the affected areas should "be prepared for sticker shock, Southern style."
Staff writer Binyamin Appelbaum and special correspondent Melanie Lasoff Levs in Atlanta contributed to this article.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR2008092504159_pf.html
Police May Stop Responding To Some Crimes
Budget Crunch Forces Move To Be Considered
POSTED: 9:48 am EDT September 25, 2008
PALM BAY, Fla. -- A budget crunch in Palm Bay could mean city residents who forget to secure car doors or close garages will get only a case number and nothing in terms of a visit by patrol officers if something is stolen.
The possible policy revision is part of a wider cost-cutting look at the Palm Bay Police Department's $20 million annual budget, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.
"We're looking very seriously at the types of calls we would go to," Palm Bay Police Chief Bill Berger said. "Still, about 85 to 90 percent of the people who've had their cars broken into left the car doors open. But, obviously, if it's an actual break-in, we'll respond."
The potential move is seen as an unusual step.
Other surrounding agencies -- such as Melbourne Police Department -- continue to respond to similar vehicle break-in calls.
Berger, however, pointed out that his agency has been hit hard by higher fuel costs and a cut in revenue. Earlier this year, Berger implemented a number of cost-saving efforts, including a no-idling policy for patrol cars.
"Certainly, Amendment 1 had an impact," Berger said, referring to the sweeping, statewide property-tax ballot item voters approved earlier this year. "The big promise was that it wouldn't affect public safety, but it has."
The department likely will lose four police officer positions -- all held for officers either working or serving in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Those officers will have their jobs when they return, but we're having to keep those positions vacant," Berger said.
Also under review will be whether officers who take home marked patrol cars will need to pay for their own gas or reimburse the city about 50 cents for every mile driven away from work.
Berger said he also is working hard to keep the department's nontaxpayer-funded programs running, including its DNA database program that uses officers to collect blood, saliva and other biological evidence at crime scenes.
Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.
http://www.local6.com/news/17554307/detail.html
Lines at pumps continue
02:06 PM EDT on Friday, September 26, 2008
By NewsChannel 36 Staff E-mail Us: NEWS@WCNC.com
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Drivers talk about why they're waiting for gas
YORK, S.C. -- Many people are driving from Charlotte to South Carolina looking for gas, but they’re disappointed in what they’re finding. The situation there is the same as it is north of the border. According to AAA, the northern portion of South Carolina gets fuel from the same terminal as the Charlotte region.
Coastal cities in South Carolina are not being impacted by the gas shortages because fuel arrives via barges at the ports. Inland distributors are trying to take advantage of that fact. The South Carolina petroleum marketers association says its distributors are being sent to port cities to fill up their tankers and drive fuel back to the areas in need.
NewsChannel 36 checked with the York County school district to see how they’re dealing with the shortage. Everything is on track right now; South Carolina schools get their gas from the state and we’re told all South Carolina schools have about five more days of fuel on hand.
Early Friday morning, Mike Stolarik’s sky blue Buick sat next to a gas pump at the Citgo on Lawyers Road in Mint Hill.
"I’ve been here all night. Two hours ago I was over there, and now I’m here," he said.
The signs on the front door, windows and all the pumps read, "NO FUEL."
But that didn’t stop drivers from lining up, including Stolarik.
"I only got up here because all the other cars have left," he said. And he said he plans to wait it out.
More than 50 cars spent the night waiting for gas at the station mainly based on the hope that a shipment would arrive sometime.
"It’s sad," said Dennis Rice, his SUV also by a pump. "I would move but I’m on fumes so I’ve got no choice."
Many drivers said they heard gas would arrive by 1 a.m., then possibly 7 a.m. Now they, as well as the clerk, said they just don’t know.
The Charlotte-area gas shortage is expected come to a temporary end soon, with "a major shipment" of gas from the Gulf expected Friday afternoon.
Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory made that announcement Thursday afternoon and it couldn’t come soon enough.
“It cut off up there,” Wes Ponds said, pointing to his truck, “and I just rolled in. Praise God.”
Desperate for gas was an understatement for Ponds, and to make his story just a little more amazing, he was one of the last to get it at the Clanton Road Xpress Mart.
Faye Lynn thought the pump had run out on her. “Oh thank god,” she said as she got unleaded gas flowing. “Whatever it is, I'll take it. This is awful.”
“Now is not the time to panic and think that gas is running out,” McCrory said at his press conference, alongside Mecklenburg County Board Chairperson Jennifer Roberts.
McCrory said he spoke directly with a deputy director of the Department of Energy who assured him that the Colonial Pipeline would bring a major shipment from the Gulf. Additionally, the pipeline will be supplied from the north from Baltimore. Trucks will also carry a surplus from Wilmington, where the shortages are not serious.
Asheville and Spartanburg got their shipment Thursday. Gas lines had persisted there for even longer than in the Charlotte area.
Drivers line up for gas
Those shipments will not end the shortage and for that reason both McCrory and Roberts asked for conservation. They suggested carpooling, telecommuting, and canceling trips. CATS bus and Lynx service has been up substantially this week.
First-time bus riders like Rynne Ambrose were part of the solution, no matter what their motives. “I went to about 15 different pumps off 77,” Ambrose said. That’s why she decided to try CATS.
McCrory and Roberts also urged commuters not to use the gas unless they truly need it. Some were filling gas cans and topping off at the Clanton Road station NewsChannel 36 visited.
“If you’ve got a half a tank, there is no reason to wait in a long line,” Roberts said.
“And use a half a tank to do it,” McCrory added with a laugh.
They assure there will be a steady supply of fuel, but it may take some time.
Why the shortage?
Related blog: Is the media responsible for the gas panic?
It’s been about two weeks since Hurricane Ike struck the Gulf Coast and many gas stations are still running on empty. Part of the reason is because gas terminals where fuel trucks get their supply are running low.
"They're saying Colonial Pipeline is supposed to be back up and running full force tomorrow, but that's just hearsay. You know, you can't count on that. That's what they've been saying for two weeks,” said Mark Martin, a trucker.
About 85 percent of our fuel supply in Charlotte comes from the Gulf Coast. It travels through the Colonial and Plantation pipelines, but the pipelines aren’t the problem.
"The refineries are not up to speed yet. We have 22 of them that are pumping partially and then we have three that may be up and running full board this weekend. And we have 10 that are still out including the biggest one,” said Tom Crosby with AAA of the Carolinas.
But the problem doesn’t end with the refineries.
"Some people are more greedy than others and therefore creating the problem for the rest of us," said Crosby.
As for why some stations have gas and others don’t, Crosby said this, “They're doling it out a little at a time, trying to spread it out and consequently some people run out quicker than others."
(NewsChannel 36 reporters Beth Shayne and Richard DeVayne contributed to this story.)
http://www.wcnc.com/news/topstories/stories/wcnc-092508-krg-gaslines.ae402e52.html
Gas shortages: get ready for more
The long lines and closed pumps seen across the South this week are a warning: inventories are way too low.
By Brian O'Keefe, senior editor
Last Updated: September 27, 2008: 10:05 AM ET
Sign of the future? A Nashville gas station earlier this week had nothing left to pump.
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- While Congress and Bush administration officials have been working to complete a bailout plan and stem the financial contagion on Wall Street, a different kind of economic crisis emerged across the South this week: A severe, hurricane-related gasoline shortage has curtailed trucking from Atlanta to Asheville, N.C., and created a wave of panic buying among motorists.
The return of gas lines has largely flown under the radar of politicians who are usually keenly attuned, because their constituents are, to what's going on at the pump. But more of the Capitol gang should be paying attention to this.
That's because nationwide our gasoline inventory is shockingly low. Liquidity must be restored soon to this market, or we could be facing a crippling run on the gasoline bank. And if you think Americans are outraged about Wall Street, wait until their Main Street grocery store doesn't get the bread and milk delivery for a week or two.
Back to the '70s
The scenes over the past several days in places like Nashville, Tenn., Anniston, Ala., and western North Carolina looked like file footage from 1979 - with bags over empty gas pumps and quarter-mile long lines of cars waiting to fill up at stations that hadn't run out. AAA reported that drivers were so desperate that they were following tankers to gas stations to ensure a fill-up.
In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue got a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily allow stations to sell high-sulfur gasoline. (Correction: An earlier version of this story said Louisiana received the waiver and incorrectly named Perdue as that state's governor.) In Alabama, Gov. Bob Riley ordered a state of emergency to prevent price gouging by station owners that do have gas.
What's going on? The immediate answer is that the double whammy of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which swept through the Gulf of Mexico earlier this month, caused much of the Gulf's oil drilling and refinery production to be shut down. In particular Ike, which hit refinery-rich Southeastern Texas on Sept. 13, caused massive power outages in the Galveston and Houston areas.
As of this week, more than a dozen refineries around Texas City and Port Arthur were not operating at full capacity and, according to the Department of Energy, six refineries, with a combined capacity of 1.6 million barrels a day, were still not running at all.
A bigger problem
But while the current shortages can be traced directly to the two hurricanes, the severity of the problem points out a bigger issue: The U.S. has been operating for a while with razor-thin spare gasoline capacity.
In its most recent Weekly Oil Data Review, Barclays Capital pointed out that the U.S. gasoline inventory has reached its lowest level since August 1967, when demand was a little more than half its current level of 9.3 million barrels a day. At 178.7 million barrels, inventories are 21.6 million barrels below their five-year average.
None of this surprises industry watchers such as Matt Simmons, the chairman of Houston energy industry investment bank Simmons & Co. and chief spokesman for the Peak Oil movement. I recently wrote a profile of Simmons for Fortune ("The prophet of $500 oil") and I can report that he has been warning about the potential of gasoline shortages in the U.S. for months.
"Our system is so fragile," he told me recently. "All you need is a tiny change to go from 'Oh, we're in fine shape' to an unmitigated disaster."
Simmons points out that the gasoline weekly stock reports have been trending sharply downward since last winter (with a brief upturn in the spring), and that even before Gustav and Ike we were in "just in time" supply mode.
Getting back to a safer level of extra capacity isn't simple, either. Once the refineries get back up and running, they'll drain the already low crude oil inventories. Unless gasoline demand stays low, Simmons believes, we'll have a hard time clawing back to stability.
That's why he worries about a top-up catastrophe that could cripple the trucking industry and disrupt food deliveries.
As he told me the other day: "If we end up having gasoline shortages, the odds are about 90% that Americans will do what we always do: We'll top up our tanks. And in topping up our tanks, within three or four days we'll drain the pool dry and then within seven days we'll run out of food."
That sounds awfully dire. And it probably won't happen. But, then again, a couple of months ago hardly anybody would have predicted that AIG would collapse, Congress would be mulling a Wall Street bailout, and '70s-era gas lines would be back.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/26/news/economy/gasshortage_okeefe.fortune/index.htm?eref=ib_topstories
On another avenue, making the best of where you live and making a living at home feeding yourself and friends and family. Here is an interesting article that has four utube videos in it, has to do with aquaculture.
When we reported on the proposed Urban Aquaculture Center (UAC) last week, commenter Luke informed us of a video featuring UAC affiliates Growing Power – a collective of urban community farms experimenting with aquaponics, vermiculture, greenhouse salad crops and good, sustainable food growing in general. Surprised that we hadn’t come across these guys before, we did a little digging around – not only did we find the excellent, inspiring introductory video above, but we also came across a series produced by Outpost Natural Foods that provides a little more detail about the various aspects of Growing Power’s operations. Click below the fold for videos on aquaponics, vermiculture and urban greenhouse growing. And check out our previous post on urban aquaponics while you’re at it. As former professional basketball player and Growing Power founder Will Allen says, “food is at the basis, but really it’s about life.” Amen to that…
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/growing-power-urban-aquaponics.php
This following article is Government abuses in my opinion. I don't have any problemat all with racial profilling. With that said, i beleive this article is an abuse. Even if the Bush Adminstration does not abuse them one of the other ones will in the future. Once you start down this road, you lose your way and it is bad. This is a departure of what i consider racial profiling, you don't need a reason. It reminds me of the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)
When the Nazis came for the communists,I remained silent;I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,I remained silent;I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,I did not speak out;I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,I remained silent;I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,there was no one left to speak out.
Mueller Grilled Over Claims New FBI Powers Amounts to Racial Profiling, More Spying
By Robert ChlalaThe Public Record Friday, September 19, 2008
Published in : Nation/World
FBI Director Robert Mueller, who testified before the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees this week, said new Attorney General guidelines for the FBI would radically overhaul the agency’s investigation procedures towards an intelligence-focused approach. However, what the new framework Mueller described would actually do is allow agents to begin “assessments” and surveillance without first obtaining factual evidence. Additionally, the guidelines would permit agents to use race and ethnicity as a factor for triggering investigations. Despite the concerns raised during the hearings and pressure from civil rights groups, Attorney General Michael Mukasey plans on signing the guidelines into law on Oct. 1.These guidelines represent only some of a series of changes in law enforcement set in place the last year, increasing the power of federal, state and local authorities. Other new policies include the proposal to eliminate restrictions on local and state law enforcement intelligence gathering, the recruitment of over 15,000 new informants, and the creation of local-level “fusion centers” that gather and monitor masses of criminal and non-criminal information on individuals.
While the FBI guidelines have not been released to the general public, several members of Congress and key staffers from the Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate pressed and received limited access to the draft. Department of Justice briefings and a speech by Attorney General Michael Mukasey in August also shed light on the topic.The Return to Racial Profiling
The most significant changes in the FBI guidelines include lowering the standards necessary to begin “assessments,” eliminating the need for any clear basis for suspicion or “factual predication.” Instead, assessments could now be started based on profiles of national security threats or on anonymous tips. Investigators conducting these initial inquiries would have access to numerous surveillance techniquesAccording to a letter to the Attorney General from Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), the assessment techniques may include “long-term physical surveillance,” undercover or other interviews of neighbors or colleagues, recruitment of sources, and database searches. During Wednesday’s hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Co-chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted that the guidelines also impose “no time limit” for these assessments. The profiles that the FBI can use to trigger these assessment investigations would include race, ethnicity, and religion. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other civil rights group have labeled this as racial profiling, but the Department of Justice has claimed that race or ethnicity could not be the sole factor for opening an investigation and thus still comply with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) own 2003 guidance against profiling. “That one of the things that is most troubling to me,” said Michael German, ACLU Policy Counsel and a former FBI Special Agent. “The FBI, the Department of Justice, and state and local law enforcement have done a very good job over last 20 years convincing the rank and file through evidence that racial profiling is not effective and that it actually causes more problems than it solved. Rather than just imagining that it might work, we can actually look at the data.” German and Joseph Zogby, Chief Counsel for Sen. Durbin, were among the speakers at an American Constitution Society panel last week on the guidelines. Zogby noted that the racial profiling provisions would further hinder counter-terrorism by creating mistrust and alienating communities that could be critical to investigations. “If law enforcement focused on people who are actually threats as opposed to a 1.5 billion [Muslim] people, they would be much more effective,” German also said. The former Special Agent detailed his own experience tracking domestic terrorists and noted that focusing on people who have “actually committed violent acts” would mean “we will actually get the bad people, as opposed to those whose ideas we don’t like.” FBI: National Security or Law Enforcement? The data matching up with “threat” profiles for under the new guidelines would be garnered from the vast wealth of databases on the day-to-day activities of U.S. residents the FBI now has access to. With the creation of local intelligence “fusion centers” the past several years, there has been a radical expansion in the data available to agents; the information so far released indicated the guidelines would further eliminate barriers to information. This move is indicative of the overall shift in the FBI from a law enforcement body to “a national security organization, driven by intelligence,” FBI Director Mueller said in his prepared comments Wednesday. To facilitate this change, the new framework unifies the once-separate guidelines for five different FBI areas – criminal, national security, foreign intelligence, civil disorder and demonstrations. The Department of Justice has repeatedly claimed that this “harmonizing” process would, as Attorney General Mukasey said in a speech in August, “eliminate arbitrary differences in the standards” towards better intelligence gathering. But civil rights groups and members of Congress have raised concerns over whether this removes the barriers protecting civil rights across all areas. Each specific area has its own protections, German notes. The criminal side has stronger requirements for wiretaps, warrants and other surveillance, but as the recent Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and National Security Letter issues demonstrate, there is a much lower threshold of proof for the national security and foreign intelligence areas. The ultimate results of “harmonizing,” said German, is to “water down protections on each side.” Members of Congress also raised questions on this central move towards national security and away from traditional law enforcement. “This is still not a closed question,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) during the hearings. “If we don’t give the authority, then they shouldn’t be doing so.” “The definition of ‘foreign intelligence’ is broad,” said Sen. Feingold in his statements at Wednesday’s hearing. “We are concerned about the extent to which the FBI may be permitted to gather or use information about Americans under the rubric of foreign intelligence gathering when there is no suspicion of a crime, threat to national security, or any other wrongdoing.” Beyond the civil rights concerns raised, German also pointed out that the focus on broad intelligence gathering operations has consistently proven ineffective. “Where [intelligence methods] are so spread out collecting all sorts of information with out any reasonable cause, it’s easy to lose the pieces that are most effective,” he said. “What is known to be most effective criminal justice methods, which take you from logical lead to logical lead, known bad guy to known bad guy.” Questions of Timing and Secrecy The questions raised by members of Congress and civil rights group alike have been further complicated by the secrecy surrounding the new guidelines. The hearings in both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees were fraught with tense exchanges based on the lack of information. “You can’t run a government on separation of powers without good faith from the branches,” Senate Judiciary Committee Co-chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) told Mueller Wednesday. The initial Congressional inquiries into the guidelines were spurred by an Associated Press article by Lara Jakes Jordan that brought the Attorney General’s plans to light. In response, as noted in the August 20 letter from Sens. Feingold, Durbin, Kennedy and Whitehouse, the guidelines were “available to congressional staff for only a few hours at a time over the course of a week and a half – during the August congressional recess.” The House and Senate Judiciary members and staff were not allowed to copy the guidelines. Despite written requests from the chairs of both the House and Senate Committees the Attorney General refused to provide the guidelines outside of these supervised briefings. “I remember as a young man enjoying reading Joseph Heller's novel, Catch-22. I suspect the attorney general has read the same book, because his response is right out of Catch-22,” said Sen. Leahy during the hearings. “He's saying he can't give us copies of the proposed guidelines until they are finalized, but, of course, once they are finalized they are no longer proposed or subject to change.” Mueller defended the Bureau’s secrecy at the hearings, noting that the guidelines are still in draft form and that the FBI has been far more open to oversight and public comments than ever before. The two days of hearings also focused on numerous other related issues regarding FBI activities – including the anthrax investigation, mortgage fraud prosecution, and the use of National Security Letters to obtain journalists’ phone records. Both House and Senate members expressed frustration at being unable to fulfill the Committees’ mandate to oversee the FBI and skepticism of the Bureau’s ability to monitor its own compliance with constitutional standards. “This is a situation where the FBI must police itself and I’m not sure the guidelines provide adequate safeguards to prevent overreaching,” said Sen. Feingold. Despite the heated exchanges and pressure from both members of Congress and civil rights groups, the DOJ has not indicated any change in its plan to implement the guidelines October 1st. As Durbin’s Chief Counsel, Joseph Zogby noted during the ACS panel last week, the decision to implement these guidelines on October 1st - so close to the elections - has “raised some questions” but that his office did not receive a “persuasive answer as to why this has to be done now and not in the new administration.” “The Bush administration’s message once again is ‘trust us,’ ” said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. “After eight years of historic civil liberties abuses, the American people know better. From the U.S. attorney purges to the abuse of National Security Letters, the Department of Justice and the FBI have repeatedly shown they are incapable of policing themselves.”
Robert Chlala is a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles. He has worked for over 7 years in policy and communications with non-governmental organizations dealing with the Middle East, international law, immigration and other pressing issues. He can be reached at robert.chlala@gmail.com
http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/333.html?task=view
I almost feel guilty when i don't put something in the blog about the economy. It is so important and is going down so fast it is truely amazing. Anyway here is the economy post for the day, and for a number of reasons this bail out is a bad thing to do.
The Bailout Bill Since Congress has political risk if they take no action concerning the financial crisis, we can expect some form of a bailout package to pass in the coming days. Once something passes, we can expect a rally in stocks. The market's initial reaction to the bailout plan on September 18, 2008 was very positive. The reaction since then has been muted. We have come nowhere near the highs made in stocks on September 18, 2008. The market thinks the bailout will help, but is thus far not convinced it will solve all our problems. When something is passed, we should focus on how the market is acting in a few days or weeks, not a few hours.
After passage of a bailout bill, the market will ask:
How long will it take for the Feds to start buying toxic assets?
How will they decide what to buy first?
How much will they be willing to pay?
Will banks have to take more write-downs?
Will the program expose problems of greater magnitude than expected?
Will it work?
With housing still in a tailspin, will private capital migrate back to banks?
The fact that the questions above cannot currently be answered exposes the lack of detail and clarity in the poorly written and conceived bailout bill. Vague is the operative word. Two of the major problems with the credit markets are lack of trust between financial institutions and poor transparency. A vague bailout bill, which may alter accounting rules, will not provide immediate help on either front. Relaxing standards on mark-to-market accounting will create an environment with even less transparency and trust.
Government intervention will continue for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, this regulatory risk makes the markets very unpredictable and volatile. New announcements can come out of the blue, making it very difficult to stomach inverse investments or shorts. You can be right on the fundamentals and still experience significant short-term pain during a government-press-release-induced reversal in stocks. Money managers are spending as much time reading the Washington Post as the Wall Street Journal due to the excessive intervention into the “free” markets. Currently, the main driver of asset prices are changes in government policies, which does not inspire a lot of confidence for investors.
If the U.S. government were a publicly traded company, would you invest in it? Assuming the answer is no, then why would anyone believe the government can pull all the right economic strings to alter the course of natural events in a complex global economy?
Regardless of what bills are passed in Congress, the risks for the longer-term will remain elevated. Regardless of the market's direction in the coming weeks and months, problems in the financial system will remain. Alan Greenspan recently said this was a once in generation financial event. All will not be suddenly be right with the world after a stroke of President Bush's pen.
Economic Weakness Comes Into Focus Once some form of the bailout is passed, the market will shift its focus to the economy. As you might imagine, focusing on the economy will most likely curb buyer's enthusiasm for stocks. Based on the latest figures from Case-Schiller, we still have over 10 months of supply of homes on the market. As stated several times in the past, we cannot expect to see any real stability in home prices until we get down to at least 6 or 7 months of supply. Prices of homes will continue to be under pressure, which means more problems for financial institutions (or taxpayers if we begin to buy garbage assets from Wall Street – assets that the free market wants no part of).
Tuesday's bounce-back rally in stocks shows a significant speculative element remains in the financial markets. My guess is this speculative element must be reduced further before a meaningful bottom can be found. Bear markets end with extreme pessimism. Tuesday's buying does not look like extreme pessimism. Each time the markets make another new low, more speculators and everyday investors decide they have had enough. We made new lows Monday. A few more people permanently headed for the door.
If stocks make new lows again after a bailout bill is passed in Washington, the downside risks will become very high. Lower lows in stocks after a “rescue package” is in place could be the spark that sets off a serious and prolonged run for the exits. This bear market will most likely end when investors come to grips with the fact that policy makers and regulators cannot permanently alter the natural laws of supply and demand. All the government tinkering does is postpone the day of reckoning and/or prolong the time it takes to move to a recovery. If you disagree with that statement, I suggest you brush up on your financial history. It is possible more tinkering can keep the financial system propped up for a while longer, but not very likely. If the lows made Monday can hold, there is some hope for a decent rally in stocks.
The complex, global, and unregulated credit default swap (CDS) market still poses a significant risk to the financial system. If the average investor understood the CDS market, they would consider moving a higher percentage of their assets to cash for the short-run. The CDS market may continue to operate without major problems, but it is not likely.
Every morning, I review the charts of numerous markets, asset classes, and investments. While they show the potential for furious counter-trend rallies, their overall health is very poor. We have bear markets occurring simultaneously in numerous assets classes. This is very rare. This should not be ignored.
Gold: Not Time To Throw All Caution To The Wind Even gold, despite some recent strength, has not yet given the “all clear signal”. While there is no question gold still has very positive long-term prospects for a variety of reasons, risks remain in an environment where there is open trader talk of possible U.S. dollar intervention by global central bankers. Relatively small positions in gold are prudent. However, a “prove it to me” approach is still painted in the charts of gold, which could change in the coming days. I remain a long-term gold bull, but the metal has failed to make a new high since March 17, 2008 (almost seven months ago). Gold's lower lows and failure to make a new high during a very serious financial crisis, tells me the following:
For the moment, the markets are more concerned about economic weakness rather than inflation (the focus will change in the months and years ahead).
Dollar strength is curbing the demand for all commodities, including gold.
Central bankers and policy makers do not want to see high gold prices. High gold prices put a spotlight on excessive money creation and government intervention into the free markets (all related to debt and currency debasement). Central bankers and policy makers still carry a heavy hand in the financial markets. They can crush the little guy in the short run. They can alter markets in the short-run. Gold's 28% drop between July 15, 2008 and September 11, 2008 is a painful illustration of this concern.
From a possible small allocation to gold, I am willing to miss some of the next move up rather than expose significant amounts of capital to possible further declines in the yellow metal. The vast majority of investments and asset classes have lost money since July 15, 2008, including gold and weak-dollar investments. Gold remains over 15% below the March 2008 high even in the face of a serious global financial crisis.
If and when gold finds a strong and sustained bid again, there will be plenty of time to profit from what could be eye-popping gains. For the short-term, a patient and “prove it to me” approach remains prudent in terms of keeping allocation levels relatively low. This applies to all asset classes, not just gold.
A good technical analyst looks at all charts in an unbiased manner. If we push the favorable fundamentals aside, the chart of gold is not anything to get overly excited about (yet). Even with a subconscious bullish bias toward gold, I have trouble interpreting the chart as overly bullish. I don't make the charts, I just read them.
The long-term fundamentals for gold have not changed and remain very favorable. However in the current process of financial deleveraging, all asset prices (including gold) could remain under pressure. I remain confident gold will play a more significant role in portfolio construction sometime in the very near future. For those who have a very large exposure to gold, a reasonable stop-loss strategy should be considered to protect against renewed weakness, which may or may not occur. Gold is very close to giving some clearer buy signals. I am willing to wait, but ready to act. A good start would be for it to hold above the $895-900 range for more than a day at a time.
Inflation and Dollar Weakness Will Be Back Governments around the globe continue to flood the financial system with cash. Bailouts, which are funded with debt, add to already bloated deficits. These injections of cash will eventually lead to inflation. On the other side of this credit crisis, inflation will most likely begin to accelerate at alarming rates. While it is prudent to protect capital and remain conservative for the short-term, we cannot lose sight of the fundamental factors which continue to set the seeds for future price inflation, especially in food and energy. As a result, investors who make a decision to leave the financial markets for good could regret that decision when inflation begins to seriously erode their purchasing power. In a similar vein, risks to the U.S. dollar remain high in the long-run, something that cannot be counteracted with CDs, money markets, or a mattress. Currently, it is a time to protect principal and keep a watchful eye on signs of renewed inflation. Weak dollar investment strategies should not be put in the attic, but kept within an arm's reach. They will be very relevant in terms of wealth protection in the years ahead.
Reviewing Our Options
We are currently reviewing all our options, including individual stocks, bonds, ETFs, mutual funds, and dividend-paying instruments. Regardless of where we go from here, most investors should consider allocating a large percentage of their capital to cash and very short-term FDIC-insured CDs. The best thing for the time being is to remain patient – too many unknowns. At some point in the not too distant future, a few asset classes will begin to show some sustainable leadership. In the meantime, continue to read your Washington Post and watch C-SPAN.
By Chris Ciovacco Ciovacco Capital Management
Copyright (C) 2008 Ciovacco Capital Management, LLC All Rights Reserved.
Chris Ciovacco is the Chief Investment Officer for Ciovacco Capital Management, LLC. More on the web at www.ciovaccocapital.com
Ciovacco Capital Management, LLC is an independent money management firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. As a registered investment advisor, CCM helps individual investors, large & small; achieve improved investment results via independent research and globally diversified investment portfolios. Since we are a fee-based firm, our only objective is to help you protect and grow your assets. Our long-term, theme-oriented, buy-and-hold approach allows for portfolio rebalancing from time to time to adjust to new opportunities or changing market conditions. When looking at money managers in Atlanta, take a hard look at CCM.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article6591.html
Another Government abuse, it makes me sick, at the power they usurp
Lawsuit Claims ATF’s Unlawful Retaliation for Free Speech Federal Judge Gives Go-Ahead to ACLU Lawsuit Against ATF. Saturday October 4th, 2008PENSACOLA, Fla. – The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida received an early victory in Kilpatrick v. U.S. when Senior Federal Judge Lacey A. Collier denied the ATF’s motions for summary judgment in the case. The ACLU filed the case on April 18, 2006, on behalf of Karen J. Kilpatrick, who claimed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) violated her Free Speech rights. Kilpatrick was driving her blue van in Pensacola on April 19, 2004, with the slogans “Remember the Children of Waco” and “Boo ATF” written on some of the windows when she was pulled over by police for questioning by the ATF. The ACLU argues in the lawsuit that her First Amendment Rights to Free Speech and her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure were violated when officers detained her for an hour, searched her car without consent, and ordered her to remove the writing on the side of her van. “The ATF’s actions were unconstitutional and there was no legal justification to stop and question Ms. Kilpatrick. We believe that the ATF was trying to silence Ms. Kilpatrick and the 911 call substantiates this position,” said Bert Oram, ACLU cooperating counsel. “We are confident that we can win this case once the facts are demonstrated and we are pleased that we will be able to make our case in court.” Counsel for Kilpatrick v. The United States of America are Bert Oram, ACLU cooperating attorney; and Benjamin Stevenson, ACLU of Florida staff attorney in Pensacola. The MP3 file of the 911 call and a PDF copy of today’s Order on Summary Judgment can be viewed at: http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/Kilpatrick-SJ.pdfhttp://www.fosterfollynews.com/news/2008Oct2ACLU.php
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