This is what happens when spare capacity is eroded.”

Found this at NYT via Drudge.

It is a big deal.

~~~

Oil refineries across the country have been plagued by a record number of fires, power failures, leaks, spills and breakdowns this year, causing dozens of them to shut down temporarily or trim production. The disruptions are helping to drive gasoline prices to highs not seen since last summer’s records.

These mechanical breakdowns, which one analyst likened to an “invisible hurricane,” have created a bottleneck in domestic energy supplies, helping to push up gasoline prices 50 cents this year to well above $3 a gallon. A third of the country’s 150 refineries have reported disruptions to their operations since the beginning of the year, a record according to analysts.

There have been blazes at refineries in Louisiana, Texas, Indiana and California, some of them caused by lightning strikes. Plants have suffered power losses that disrupted operations; a midsize refinery in Kansas was flooded by torrential rains last month.

American refiners are running roughly 5 percent below their normal levels at this time of the year.

“You have a system that is taxed to the limit,” said Adam Robinson, an energy research analyst at Lehman Brothers. “This is what happens when spare capacity is eroded.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/22refine.html?ei=5065&en=652e82b4f396b467&ex=1185681600&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

Time to buy a motorcycle.

Hillary Wants To Be President

*

The Clinton's have never been able to garner any respect from the military. Hillary seems to be incapable of understanding why.

~~~

A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.

He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called Edelman's answer "at once outrageous and dangerous," and said the senator would respond to his boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Clinton has privately and publicly pushed Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace two months ago to begin drafting the plans for what she said will be a complicated withdrawal of troops, trucks and equipment.

"If we're not planning for it, it will be difficult to execute it in a safe and efficacious way," she said then.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070720/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_iraq

Infiltration

*
It seems that smuggling Iraqis over the Rio Grande is more lucrative than smuggling Mexicans.

~~~

The FBI is investigating an alleged human smuggling operation based in Chaparral, N.M., that agents say is bringing "Iraqis and other Middle Eastern" individuals across the Rio Grande from Mexico.

An FBI intelligence report distributed by the Washington, D.C. Joint Terrorism Task Force, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the illegal ring has been bringing Iraqis across the border illegally for more than a year.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/fbi-iraqis-bein.html

"The State Undermined The Church From Within"

*
A fascinating look at what may have facilitated Europe's falling away from its Christian roots.

~~~

Some scholars and Christian activists, however, are pushing a more controversial explanation: the laws of economics. As centuries-old churches long favored by the state lose their monopoly grip, Europe's highly regulated market for religion is opening up to leaner, more-aggressive religious "firms." The result, they say, is a supply-side stimulus to faith.

"Monopoly churches get lazy," says Eva Hamberg, a professor at Lund University's Centre for Theology and Religious Studies and co-author of academic articles that, based on Swedish data, suggest a correlation between an increase in religious competition and a rise in church-going. Europeans are deserting established churches, she says, "but this does not mean they are not religious."

Upstarts are now plugging new spiritual services across Europe, from U.S.-influenced evangelical churches to a Christian sect that uses a hallucinogenic herbal brew as a stand-in for sacramental wine. Niklas Piensoho, chief preacher at Stockholm's biggest Pentecostal church, says even sometimes oddball, quasi-religious fads "tell me you can sell spirituality." His own career suggests that a free market in faith is taking root. He was poached by the Pentecostals late last year after he boosted church attendance for a rival Protestant congregation.

Most scholars used to believe that modernization would extinguish religion in the long run. But that view always had trouble explaining why America, a nation in the vanguard of modernity, is so religious. The God-is-finished thesis came under more strain in the 1980s and 1990s after Iran, a rapidly modernizing Muslim nation, exploded with fundamentalist fervor and other fast-advancing countries in Latin America and Asia showed scant sign of ditching religion.

Now even Europe, the heartland of secularization, is raising questions about whether God really is dead. The enemy of faith, say the supply-siders, is not modernity but state-regulated markets that shield big, established churches from competition. In America, where church and state stand apart, more than 50% of the population worships at least once a month. In Europe, where the state has often supported -- but also controlled -- the church with money and favors, the rate in many countries is 20% or less.

"The state undermined the church from within," says Stefan Swärd, a leader of Sweden's small but growing evangelical movement.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118434936941966055.html

Trouble Is A Brewing

*
A third US Navy carrier is moving into the Middle-East.

~~~

The U.S. Navy said in a statement that the Enterprise would provide "navy power to counter the assertive, disruptive and coercive behaviour of some countries," and take part in anti-submarine, anti-surface, anti-mine, air and missile defence and air strike operations.

"These operations are not specifically aimed at Iran... We consider this time unprecedented in terms of the amount of insecurity and instability in the region," Navy spokeswoman Denise Garcia said, citing tensions in Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070710/tpl-uk-usnavy-carrier-9562ed3.html

A Syrian Summer War

*
Syria has invaded Lebanon.

~~~

Syrian troops on Thursday reportedly have penetrated three kilometers into Lebanese territories, taking up positions in the mountains near Yanta in east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
The daily Al Mustaqbal, citing sources who confirmed the cross-border penetration, did not say when the procedure in the Fahs Hill overlooking Deir al-Ashaer in the Rashaya province took place.

The sources said Syrian troops, backed by bulldozers, were fortifying positions "in more than one area" along the Lebanese border, erecting earth mounds and digging "hundreds" of trenches and individual bunkers.
http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&549222D25BBD134FC225730F001D7083

Syria is evacuating its citizens from Lebanon. July 15th is looking significant.

~~~

Syria has called on its citizens to leave Lebanon ahead of an expected "eruption" in that country, Arab and Iranian press reports have said.

The media reports were translated and made available by MEMRI in a special dispatch on Sunday.

"In the past few days, Arab and Iranian media reports have pointed to the possibility that Lebanon's current political crisis may become a violent conflict after July 15, 2007," the MEMRI dispatch said.

July 15 comes one day before a special UN Security Council meeting which is expected to discuss the possibility of stationing international experts on the Syria-Lebanon border, in order monitor the ongoing illegal cross border arms traffic to Hizbullah, thought to be originating from Iran and Syria.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3422565,00.html

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Is A Traitor To Science And To Reason

*
Robert F. Kennedy Jr proved himself a dangerous loon at the Gore hoax concerts this weekend.

~~~

However, Etheridge aside, it was nonmusicians at this concert who made the most passionate pleas about demanding action for the environment. "Get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington, who are nothing more than corporate toadies," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmentalist author, president of Waterkeeper Alliance and Robert F. Kennedy's son, who grew hoarse from shouting. "This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors."
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/ny-etliveus085286071jul08,0,180783,print.story?coll=ny-music-print

Jr's problem is that if anyone is a traitor, he is a traitor to science and to reason.

The problem that the Global Warming cult has is that their fantasy construct fails to account for or even convincingly explain the interglacial periods. They can't do it because to do so would prove that non-anthropogenic forces such as the sun are what rule terrestrial climate, not anthropogenic forces.

~~~

Early records of sunspots indicate that the Sun went through a period of inactivity in the late 17th century. Very few sunspots were seen on the Sun from about 1645 to 1715 (38 kb JPEG image). Although the observations were not as extensive as in later years, the Sun was in fact well observed during this time and this lack of sunspots is well documented. This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the "Little Ice Age" when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes. There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past. The connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research.
http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml

Al Qaeda Front Group in Iraq Threatens to Go to War With Iran

*
So much for the doctrine of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" that Iran has played with Al-Qaeda operatives using Iran as a safe haven for their cross border raids into Iraq.

CAIRO, Egypt — The leader of an Al Qaeda umbrella group in Iraq threatened to wage war against Iran unless it stops supporting Shiites in Iraq within two months, according to an audiotape.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the group Islamic State in Iraq , said his Sunni fighters have been preparing for four years to wage a battle against Shiite-dominated Iran.

"We are giving the Persians, and especially the rulers of Iran, a two-month period to end all kinds of support for the Iraqi Shiite government and to stop direct and indirect intervention ... otherwise a severe war is waiting for you," he said in the 50-minute audiotape released Sunday. The tape, which could not be independently verified, was posted on a Web site commonly used by insurgent groups.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288600,00.html

A Fatwa Against Liberals

*
Western "liberals" should take note. It is not safe to be a "liberal" Muslim.

RIYADH (Reuters) - A religious edict by a prominent Saudi cleric suggesting liberals are not real Muslims has enflamed debate over reforms in the conservative Islamic state, with self-professed liberals fearing they will be attacked.

Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries that rules by strict application of Islamic law, giving clerics a powerful position in society, but Islamists fear that liberal reformers are gaining ground under the rule of King Abdullah.

Responding to an online request for a religious edict, or fatwa, Sheikh Saleh al-Fozan said last month: "Calling oneself a liberal Muslim is a contradiction in terms ... one should repent before God for such ideas in order to be a real Muslim."

The fatwa said that liberal in this context meant "freedom which is not subject to the bounds of sharia (Islamic law) and which rejects sharia laws, especially concerning women…"

"He who wants freedom with only the controls of man-made law has rebelled against the law of God," it said.
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-07-08T175406Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-283731-1.xml&archived=False

Hat tip to The Religion of Peace

The Global Warming Hoax Concerts Are Over!

*

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - In a 24-hour music marathon spanning seven continents, everyone from aboriginal elders to famous scientists to country singers called on the world to turn interest in the Live Earth events into environmental activism.

"Put all of this energy in your heart and help us solve the climate crisis," said former Vice President Al Gore, appearing onstage at the end of the final concert, staged at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070708/D8Q85GPO1.html

Gag me with a spoon.

Proponents of Anthropogenic Global Warming have a bit of problem with explaining the interglacial periods. They can't do it and still claim that anthropogenic effects on the climate are in anyway significant when compared to non-anthropogenic influences. (Like the sun.)

I think that the best comment on the present Global Warming hysteria was made recently by Vaclav Klaus.

As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism. This ideology wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central (now global) planning.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f65e71aa-1a14-11dc-99c5-000b5df10621.html

Science itself is threatened by the hysteria of Global Warming. Science is supposed to be about verifiable reproducibility, not about orthodoxy or consensus.

In 1996, when you reported that changes in the sun’s activity could explain most or all of the recent rise in Earth’s temperature, the chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel called your announcement “extremely naive and irresponsible.” How did you react?

I was just stunned. I remember being shocked by how many thought what I was doing was terrible. I couldn’t understand it because when you are a physicist, you are trained that when you find something that cannot be explained, something that doesn’t fit, that is what you are excited about. If there is a possibility that you might have an explanation, that is something that everybody thinks is what you should pursue. Here was exactly the opposite reaction. It was as though people were saying to me, “This is something that you should not have done.” That was very strange for me, and it has been more or less like that ever since.
http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jul/the-discover-interview-henrik-svensmark

Now that the Gore concerts are over, I expect there to be a lull in the hype over Global Warming. I could be wrong on this, but with these concerts over, the subject will find itself off of the table after the concert stories have burned themselves out in the mass media. Just a lull mind you. Al Gore and others in the Global Warming cult won't stop. The next phase of their battle plan will most likely be legislateive.

Like the following:

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Reuters) - New Jersey became on Friday the first U.S. state to mandate sharp greenhouse gas reductions by 2050 to help fight climate change.

The law, signed by Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, makes New Jersey the latest state to bypass the Bush administration by setting mandatory regulations to fight emissions of gases that scientists link to global warming.

"We want to send a message to Washington. Wake up, get with the program and start doing something about greenhouse gases," Corzine told reporters at Giants Stadium on the eve of former Vice President Al Gore's international Live Earth concerts.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0619342520070707?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true

Sheehan Threatens To Run Against Pelosi

*
This is mildly amusing, but I wouldn't put too much stock in it.

"Democrats and Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic leadership," Sheehan told The Associated Press. "We hired them to bring an end to the war. I'm not too far from San Francisco, so it wouldn't be too big of a move for me. I would give her a run for her money."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070708/ap_on_re_us/cindy_sheehan_pelosi

I know from personal experience how electoral politics in the Bay Area work.

If Sheehan runs as an Independent, she won't stand a snowballs chance in hell of doing anything that could hurt Pelosi in the general election. As much as people in the Bay Area may deny it, they reliably vote party line tickets at the state and federal level. 3rd party candidates in San Francisco on the state and federal level are a farce.

If Sheehan were to run as a Democrat, well that would be a different story. Only by running as a Democrat could Sheehan pose a credible threat to Pelosi.

Chinese-Made Weapons In Iraq And Afghanistan

*
More support for the argument that Iran is aiding Al-Qaeda

~~~

The US has raised concerns with the Chinese government about the discovery of Chinese-made weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Richard Lawless, departing senior Pentagon official for Asia, on Friday said Washington had flagged the issue with Beijing. In recent months, the US has become increasingly alarmed that Chinese armour-piercing ammunition has been used by the Taliban in Afghanistan and insurgents in Iraq.

A senior US official recently told the FT that Iran appeared to be providing the Chinese-made weapons. He said Washington had no evidence that Beijing was complicit, but stressed that the US would like China to “do a better job of policing these sales”. Mr Lawless said the question of origin was less important than who was facilitating the transfer.

The concerns about Chinese weapons follow months of allegations from US officials that Iran is helping attack US troops in Iraq, and more recently Afghanistan, by providing technology for bombs that can destroy Humvees and other heavily armoured US vehicles.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/82ce0740-2c03-11dc-b498-000b5df10621.html

The Iranian Fear Of Decapitation

Enemy forces in Iraq appear to be using Iran as a base of operations. This increases the potential for open conflict between the US and Iran.

Some may discount the possibility of Iranian cooperation with a Al-Qaeda because of the doctrinal conflict between Shiia and Sunni, but this is folly. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is an ancient and tried and true foreign policy doctrine that permits such cooperation. Neither of the two need to like each other that much as long as they are both agreed that another is an enemy that they both want to hurt or destroy.

Alliances of these type are always very temporary yet they are also very real.

There is also the possibility that Iran is incapable of pushing Al-Qaeda off of their territories or just afraid to even try. They may fear that If they were to expel Al-Qaeda from Iran proper that they would find themselves fighting an enemy that would have the means and the will to decapitate them.

~~~

A senior US official said the information had produced different assessments. “The most conservative, cautious intelligence assessment is that [the Iranian authorities] are turning a blind eye. But there are a lot of doubts about that,” he said.

“They are benefiting from the mayhem that AQ is carrying out. They don’t have to deal with al-Qaeda to benefit.”

Yet while Tehran might be content with the pressure al-Qaeda is placing on the US occupation in Iraq, Iran, as a state based on Shia Islam surrounded by mainly Sunni countries, has long been wary of al-Qaeda’s fierce brand of Sunni Islam.

A former Iranian official said Iran feared al-Qaeda and did not want to distract it from Iraq, dismissing any idea that Iran was supplying it with weapons. “Our relationship with al-Qaeda, at an intelligence level, can be said to be successful as long as they are at a distance,” he said.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/9cc4d5f4-2be3-11dc-b498-000b5df10621.html