Politico notes that Rep Roscoe Bartlett has given 48 Peak Oil speeches before Congress. The floor is usually empty, but his speeches do get broadcast on CSPAN.

“They don’t particularly like what I say, and so they ignore me,” he concedes — but he continues to say it anyway. “This ‘drill here, drill more, pay less’ is a great mantra, and it’s hurting the Democrats. But you need to finish that: ‘And screw your kids and your grandkids,’ because that’s what we’re doing.”
...

He doesn’t believe that his party has a real interest in that type of alternative energy. “They’re giving lip service to it,” he says. “The only thing they emphasize is drilling.”
...

“Every time I give a speech, members tell me they heard and say, ‘Boy, we have a problem, don’t we?’” Nothing happens, though, because of the “tyranny of the urgent. The urgent always pushes the important off the table.”
...

But it’ll take a crisis, Bartlett says, for Congress to move. “My hope is there’ll be a wake-up call, a teachable moment where not only is gas $5 a gallon but there isn’t any at the pump,” he says.

Until then, he has little faith his colleagues will be ready when the sky falls. “Ignorance is a harsh word,” he says. “Maybe innocence is better. They just don’t know.”

Also, Salon covers the Main Core story discussed in Radar back in May. Remember Ashcroft in the hospital, Comey, Gonzales, etc.? Salon sitepass or sub required

A prime area of inquiry for a sweeping new investigation would be the Bush administration's alleged use of a top-secret database to guide its domestic surveillance. Dating back to the 1980s and known to government insiders as "Main Core," the database reportedly collects and stores -- without warrants or court orders -- the names and detailed data of Americans considered to be threats to national security.

According to several former U.S. government officials with extensive knowledge of intelligence operations, Main Core in its current incarnation apparently contains a vast amount of personal data on Americans, including NSA intercepts of bank and credit card transactions and the results of surveillance efforts by the FBI, the CIA and other agencies. One former intelligence official described Main Core as "an emergency internal security database system" designed for use by the military in the event of a national catastrophe, a suspension of the Constitution or the imposition of martial law. Its name, he says, is derived from the fact that it contains "copies of the 'main core' or essence of each item of intelligence information on Americans produced by the FBI and the other agencies of the U.S. intelligence community."

Never Have So Many Short Sellers Made So Much Money

I wrote about short selling before, and responses were that short selling was bad for the investor, and only possible because of relaxing the uptick rule. Nevertheless, as Bloomberg reports, the smart money is selling short:

More than $1.4 trillion of equities worldwide are now on loan, about a third higher than at the start of 2007, data compiled by Spitalfields Advisors, the London-based firm specializing in securities lending, show. Almost all of that is being used to speculate that shares will fall, according to James Angel, a finance professor at Georgetown University who studies short selling. The global economic slowdown, $453 billion in bank losses and an explosion of funds that can profit from stock declines spurred the increase in short selling, helping send 22 of 23 countries in the MSCI World Index into bear markets.

No wonder Cramer wants Nascar fans to invest in the market. Everyone else is into commodities or selling short.

What did they say in The Sting - "No sense being a grifter if its the same as being a citizen."

Will Soaring Transport Costs Reverse Globalization?
pdf

I've posted some articles indicating that higher transportation costs have made some local manufacturing more competitive than sweatshops in Asia. According to this paper, however, sweatshops in Mexico might be the big winner. Paging Lou Dobbs.

Health Care for America Now!

Grassroots campaign to overhaul our impersonal health care system kicks off with a youtube video, "I call Insurance Rules!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVpX5fUvPlg

In these front and center Google news articles, Time and CBS actually question McCain's electability. They don't say he looks French, or criticize the color of his suits, or talk about his haircut - they simply list his missteps and gaffes. While I'm glad to see it, I can't quite believe it.

Is McCain a no-shot?

Emory University's Alan Abramowitz has concocted a formula that has predicted the popular vote winner in 14 of the last 15 elections; it missed 1968, but got the razor-thin margin right. His barometer uses three criteria: the approval rating of the incumbent president, the economic growth rate, and the "time-for-a-change" factor of whether the incumbent's party has controlled the White House for two terms. McCain's score is the worst since Jimmy Carter's in 1980. "History suggests that McCain is toast," Clive Crook wrote in the Financial Times.

But, in the same article:

It's also unwise to underestimate the hunger of the media for an exciting race.

And:

The media will try to preserve the illusion of a toss-up; you'll keep seeing "Obama Leads, But Voters Have Concerns" headlines.

Critics Pile On As McCain Gaffes Pile Up

 Just in the past three weeks, McCain has mixed up Iraq and Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan, and even football’s Packers and Steelers. Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise - foreign affairs.

from Wired :

A Libertarian-leaning Republican, Ron Paul formally ended his presidential run June 12, long after rival John McCain effectively secured the nomination. But Paul's army of online supporters, who've collectively contributed millions of dollars and thousands of hours of volunteering, are still out there, and they're now working to sway the direction of the party.

"One thing that should be emphasized is how the last eight years have not been Republican at all," writes Joshua, from Omaha, Nebraska. "Under George W. Bush we saw record government spending, the size of government increase, Fannie and Freddie are going through a crisis, and the Federal Reserve let the dollar inflate like  mad. If that isn't something for the Republicans to be ashamed of, I don't know what is."

Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel were welcome additions to the early debates, but I particularly enjoyed hearing Ron Paul remind a roomful of grumpy pols of just how far they had been led away from the traditional Republican Party values by neocons. I expect Paul's followers to make a splash in the election.

Bush Failures May Force McCain, Obama to Make Like FDR in 2009  

The next White House occupant will inherit the deepest housing recession in a generation, growing fears of bank failures, a sinking dollar, $4 gasoline and an economy bleeding jobs. He'll confront wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, mounting tensions with Iran and the U.S.'s flagging international reputation.

Historians say the economic and foreign policy crises in Bush's wake will present either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain with the biggest challenges to a new president since Herbert Hoover left office during the Great Depression.
...

The list of problems facing the nation means that campaign promises -- Obama's universal health care, middle-class tax cut and immigration overhaul, or McCain's corporate and individual tax reductions and energy-independence plan -- will likely be put on hold while the president focuses on more immediate concerns, especially the economy.