On into the dog days..!

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

Spain to cut speed limit in bid to reduce oil imports
By Graham Keeley, The Guardian

Spain has launched an ambitious plan to reduce energy consumption and save millions of euros on oil imports by cutting the speed limit to 50mph and handing out millions of low-energy use light bulbs.

With the introduction of a broad swathe of measures between now and 2014, Spain's socialist government hopes to reduce Spain's oil imports by 10% per year, cutting consumption by 44m barrels and saving €4.14bn (£3.25bn).

During the country's sweltering summers, air conditioning systems in public buildings will be set no lower than 26C (79F). In winter, Spaniards will be allowed to turn the heating no higher than 21C (70F), with hospitals being the only exception.

Street lighting is to be reduced by up to 50% and the metro system in many cities will stay open later at weekends to encourage people to leave the cars at home. The government is also to introduce a pilot project for the manufacture of 1m electric or hybrid cars.

All Spanish government vehicles are to meet at least 20% of their energy needs through biofuels.

And in an unprecedented move, commercial airlines will be able to use military air routes to make journeys 20% shorter. The comes after Ryanair and easyJet announced they are to cut routes to Spain, blaming rising fuel costs.

My modem died yesterday afternoon. I am impressed by the service of the provider. They send me a new one, even better model, without me having to pay anything for it, except for the express mail fee.

Sexual harassment okay as it ensures humans breed, Russian judge rules

^{A Russian advertising executive who sued her boss for sexual harassment lost her case after a judge ruled that employers were obliged to make passes at female staff to ensure the survival of the human race.}

By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow, The Telegraph

The unnamed executive, a 22-year-old from St Petersburg, had been hoping to become only the third woman in Russia's history to bring a successful sexual harassment action against a male employer.

She alleged she had been locked out of her office after she refused to have intimate relations with her 47-year-old boss.

"He always demanded that female workers signalled to him with their eyes that they desperately wanted to be laid on the boardroom table as soon as he gave the word," she earlier told the court. "I didn't realise at first that he wasn't speaking metaphorically."

The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

"If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled.

Since Soviet times, sexual harassment in Russia has become an accepted part of life in the office, work place and university lecture room.

[Torygraph Alert]

Turkey's ruling party escapes ban

Turkey's Constitutional Court has decided not to ban the ruling AK Party, accused of undermining the country's secular system.

But the judges did cut half the AKP's treasury funding for this year.

The AKP, which won a huge poll victory last year, denies it wants to create an Islamist state by stealth. It called the case an attack on democracy.

The powerful military sees itself as the guardian of the modern secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Court president Hasim Kilic said the financial sanctions imposed on the AKP were a "serious warning".

At least seven of the 11 court judges would need to vote in favour for the party to be banned. But six judges wanted a ban and five did not want to do so.

So a pretty close call...

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

So Gallup has apparently admitted that they were deliberately manipulating their likely-voter model -- the one used for polls commissioned by the right-wing USAToday -- to generate stronger performance for McCain.

Imagine that.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Israeli PM to quit in two months

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced he will stand down two months from now, as soon as his Kadima party chooses a new leader.

He defended his record in office, especially his work to strengthen the armed forces, when he spoke to reporters in Jerusalem.

Life should consist in at least fifty percent pure waste of time, and the rest doing what you please.

Republicans have opened up their expected attack line on Obama, as Josh Marshall writes.

Talking Points Memo | Keeping Track

I note with interest today, John McCain's new tactic of associating Barack Obama with oversexed and/or promiscuous young white women. (See today's new ad and this from yesterday.) Presumably, a la Harold Ford 2006, this will be one of those strategies that will be a matter of deep dispute during the campaign and later treated as transparent and obvious once the campaign is concluded.

My guess is that this backfires on McCain. As I wrote last January.

nanne:

I think it's highly likely that they're going to try to pin some sex scandal on Obama, probably related to porn and/or prostitution, possibly actual, possibly in his past, if they go all-out, related to an underage girl -- in a big, big way. The promiscuous black male image is very powerful in the US. That's how they sank Harold Ford's senate run in '06. Still, I don't see them doing this if McCain runs, or Huckabee, because those candidates will get a big dent in their image themselves if they or their surrogates go that sleazily negative.

Next up: Obama touched my daughter at the campaign rally, angry millworker says.

FOX news asks: Is Obama too tight with his teen fans?

Is anyone alive around here?  Where is everyone?  I have a question.  Can some brilliant person explain to me this stupid Mechel business?  It's annoying the hell out of me.  For people who have no idea what I am talking about, here's what happened:  There's a mining/steel company that Putin has accused of tax evasion/price fixing.  This gave everyone the Yukos heebeejeebees.  Moreover, the fellow running the company called in sick to this meeting with Putin, and Putin responded by saying, "if you're sick, you're sick.  But if you don't get well asap, I'm going to have to send in a doctor to take care of your problems."  Ok, it sounds a little godfathery.  Anyway, next thing, the Russian stock market practically crashes and everyone's running around like chickens with their heads chopped off.  Screaming "Yukos!" and deciding Russia's a terrible place to invest.  

First off, capitalism is a pretty effed up system when a market can almost crash on someone's interpretation of the words of one individual in regards to one company.  I mean, do you really want a stock market that could send the whole economy reeling because rich people who are probably bilking the little people get a case of the heebeejeebees?  Sounds rather moronic to me.  Isn't this a symptom of Anglo-disease or something?  Secondly, if someone's screwing up, why shouldn't they be called out on it?  The alternative seems to be  some situation in which everyone lets everyone get away with murder because targeting corruption might give people the heebeejeebees, causing the market to crash.  Is there some market that works to encourage accountability and reform, not that works against these things?  Hell, I really have no idea if Putin said that because he wants those taxes so he can feed the starving children of Tomsk or if he did so to signal some intention of a govt. takeover.  But who cares?  Maybe -here's a brilliant idea, if you really wanted to stand up to Putin, you could ignore him.  Thirdly, why would doing what was done to Yukos to Mechel be a bad thing for the country, for the Russian people?  I mean, from what I can tell, the average Russian is glad to have people like Misha behind bars.  Sick of the robber barons, but tolerant of those who at least bother to share the wealth.  Fourthly, why is this all Putin's fault and not the company that was probably screwing up on some level (all companies probably do until they get caught) or the guy who called in sick to the meeting in which Putin was going to take him to task?  No one saw this coming?  

Here's my terribly ill-informed opinion:  Free marketers are whiny freaking idiots.  That's right.  They reserve the right to behave with total lack of responsibility or accountability.  Any government interference is oppression.  YET, they expect, demand, that the government opperate with responsibility & accountability.  B.S.  It's not even an ideology, is it?  It's a game where the rules are, "the rules apply to everyone but me."  FWIW, that may be the official Kremlin ideology too - I don't know.  But you can't have it both ways, can you?  You can't declare yourself unbeholden to gov't regulation or meddling or audits or investigation or opinion or whatever, and then throw a fit when the gov't doesn't seem to be beholden to you!  You can't (supposedly) break anti-monopoly laws and then get all grave and moralizing when (supposedly) the gov't begins acting like a monopoly.  Hypocrisy.  Also, isn't it ridiculous to complain of authoritarianism and then base all your decisions on the actions of this authoritarian?  I mean, aren't you just feeding that fire?  If he says, "Don't even make me call the doctor" and you run off and sell all of your stocks out of fear, aren't you implicitly banking on this authoritarianism?  Kinda lame.  Did your mothers not teach you that business about sticks & stones?  Or are you selling stocks as some kind of threat?  "If you don't let us get away with this, we'll make your stock market crash."  "Don't make me call the Dr.!"  "Don't make me take my money elsewhere!"  I don't think any of this has to do with democracy ro human rights or authoritarianism as it does a buch of obscenely wealthy people acting like siblings in the backseat during a road trip.  "Mom!  He's on my side of the seat!"  "Mom!  She won't share the gummy bears!"  

Robert Amsterdam writes,

"We are dealing with some very fundamental questions of what happens when power is left unchecked by law, and then takes an interest in the markets."

Of course he's talking about governmental power.  When the power of private corporations is left unchecked by law, and then takes an interest in the markets, it's called a "free market."  Christ.

...

BTW, Great pic of VVP.

"This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."

McCain on Larry King (quoted from Crooks and Liars)

King asked McCain what he'd do, as president, if he learned that bin Laden was in Pakistan, and he had a choice to send in U.S. forces after him. McCain replied, "Larry, I'm not going to go there and here's why, because Pakistan is a sovereign nation.... But I want to assure you I will get Osama bin Laden as president of the United States and I will bring him to justice no matter what it takes."

Needless to say, Larry King did not ask him whether Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran are also sovereign nations.

The imagery is ... interesting

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes