Friday, September 5, 2008

SAR #8249

Has a sitting president ever before been prohibited

from attending his party's convention?


The Question: Mercurius asked it: If Sarah were a Steve, could anyone claim, just on the facts, minus the gender, that he was a viable candidate for VP? The possible answers are (a) No, and (b) No way in hell.

You're Covered: Cops at the GOP convention are not restrained by common sense or their superiors, because the GOP took out insurance to cover damages and legal costs for police acts of brutality, misconduct and violations of civil rights. Everyone's having a good time.

Dividend Deceit: Wells Fargo, which lends money at 6%, increased its dividend 10%, but had to borrow $2 billion at 9.75% to do so. They'd have been better off borrowing the money from themselves.

See You, and Raise You One: It what is undoubtedly totally, absolutely, completely unrelated to South Ossetia and US adventures in the 'stans, Russian gas giant Gazprom has signed an exploration and production contract with Nigeria. The agreement covers exploration and production of oil and gas plus associated operations. Meanwhile, US VP Cheney is touring the Caucasus.

What's Good For General Motors... Ford's sales dropped 27% in August, GM 20%, Chrysler 34%. And vice-versa.

Here's the Door: JPMorgan will stop selling interest rate swaps. Accused of overcharging one customer by $100 million, seven 'former' JPMorgan employees are subjects of criminal investigations, which explains why the company has gotten out of the business. There's no one left at JPMorgan with any experience in them.

Negative Interest: National City Bank Corp doesn't want your business. They don't want it so badly that they'll pay you $200 to go away.

Future, Tense: The latest Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, finally says what scientists have known for the last 5 years: the longer CO2 emissions increase - since 2000 at 3% a year - the worse the future will be. The empty political rhetoric of cutting emissions by 50% by 2050 (from 1990 levels) to hold the temperature rise to 2ºC has no scientific basis. The longer we put off reducing carbon emissions, the more drastic actions will be needed later. We are on the path to a 650 ppm world and 4ºC in warming, and that is a global disaster.

A Bigger Truck: Hear the one about the guy who bought a load of watermellons for $1 each, drove them to market and sold them all in just 20 minutes at 79 cents each, then went in search of a larger truck? Bush is going to punish Russia for beating up on our Georgians.

Oil Independence: The US will end its dependency on foreign oil imports in about 20 years, because Mexico will cease exporting oil by about 2012, Norway and Russia by 2025, Venezuela before 2030 and the last Saudi exports will arrive about 2031.

Apple, Tree: When he ran Halliburton, Cheney appointed Albert Stanley to head KBR. Mr Stanley turned around and spent millions in bribes to obtain a $6 billion contract with Nigeria. Free Markets, Inc.

Porn O'Graph: Crude oil exports...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

At least Sarah is a Chief Executive of a state. What exactly are Obama's qualifications, and I love his pick of an old white male Washington insider who rips off other's writings for the VP slot. Go to opensecrets.org to see who owns Biden lock, stock and barrel.

Anonymous said...

Wells's dividend is not 10%. They raised it by 10%. Big difference.

Anonymous said...

To quote myself, Wells Fargo "increased its dividend 10%". Reading slowly may prevent leaping to conclusions. CKM3

walker said...

"Sarah" is a chief executive of a state with a populations smaller than south Chicago. Big Flipping Deal. Barry Goldwater would be appalled by the caliber of candidates that his party now considers qualified for Vice President.