A US government task force released its interim report Tueday that confirmed what I wrote last week; that speculators are not driving up oil prices significantly. Hopefully this will pour some cold water on Congressional efforts to pass laws against speculation instead of dealing with the real issues causing the spike in energy prices. A good first start would be eliminating or reducing the import tax on ethanol made from Brazilian cane sugar, as Fed Chairman Bernanke suggested the other day. This import tax is pure protectionism, an attempt to protect both the US sugar and corn ethanol industries, but actually has the effect of making fuel more costly for the American consumer.

The latest controversy over Obama's statements about the Iraq War confuse him. He says that if President, he will simply instruct his Chiefs of Staff to end the Iraq war. He says that he will do what it takes to safely withdraw the troops. He adds that what makes his policy different from GW Bush and McCain is that they are for this open ended commitment that can leave troops indefinitely in Iraq. Obama's politics has the Left mad because he won't announce an immediate withdrawal of troops regardless of conditions on the ground and the right who say he is vacillating somehow on his promises and previous statements.

Corn ethanol and biofuels production has driven global food prices up 75%, triggering a global food crisis according to a secret World Bank report revealed by the London Guardian. The report was apparently kept secret to protect the United States which is most responsible for the diversion of food to fuel. The World Bank, released a report on Wednesday, July 2, on the jump in food prices without specifying the cause (PDF).

Food prices have accelerated sharply in 2008. Grain prices have more than doubled since January 2006, with over 60% of the rise in food prices occurring since January 2008 (Figure 1). Individual grain staple prices have increased even more, with monthly average wheat prices doubling since January 2006. Rice prices more than tripled between January and May 2008.

As a general rule, we know that Democrats and progressives seek to end our addiction to oil, both for our environmental and economic health, and that Republicans want to push the fossil fuel syringe a little deeper. On Tuesday, Barack Obama and John McCain each unveiled their visions for a new energy future, and the two can't be any different.

I found a good breakdown of the differences, and will, in addition to linking my fellow Kossacks to it, wanted to share a part of Obama's inspiring speech:

Obama, McCain Debate Energy Future

Barack Obama has presented himself as the reform candidate out to challenge the special interests and change "politics as usual."  If only that were true, and if only we knew what we now know (and who knows what we’re left to learn) five months ago.

H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008, will provide approximately $18 billion of tax incentives for investment in renewable energy, carbon capture and sequestration demonstration projects, energy efficiency and conservation. The bill will also extends $27 billion of expiring temporary tax provisions, including the research and development credit, special rules for active financing income, the State and local sales tax deduction, the deduction for out-of-pocket expenses for teachers, and the deduction for qualified tuition expenses. In addition, the bill provides almost $10 billion of additional tax relief for individuals  through an expansion of the refundable child tax credit and a new standard deduction for property taxes. The bill would be primarily offset by closing a tax loophole that allows individuals that work for certain offshore corporations, such as hedge fund managers, to defer tax on their compensation and would delay the effective date of a tax benefit that has not yet taken effect for multinational corporations operating overseas.

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/...

Have you heard about the emergency proposal to redirect corn that has been contracted for ethanol so it can be put to other uses this year? I haven't, but I'm hoping this gets on the table quickly given our food predicament.

Given the global grain supply situation, which, going into this northern hemisphere growing season has basically no reserves or tolerance for diminished harvests, the dependence on the global system on our midwestern grain production, and the floods across the midwest that are an unmitigated disaster for farmers, it seems to me that we are in for a huge food supply problem starting right about now.

Amazon deforestation in the past 9 months, the wet season, has already exceeded last year's destruction, despoiling an area larger than Delaware. With cloud cover now clearing more deforestation will be revealed and the fire season will begin. The Brazilian government has proven impotent to stop rainforest destruction in the face of spiraling food prices.

Brazil's DETER real-time monitoring system found that more than 430 square miles of forest, an area a bit smaller than the city of Los Angeles, vanished in the month of April, while about 2,300 square miles, larger than the state of Delaware, were destroyed between last August and April.

Deforestation releases massive amounts of CO2, increasing global warming, drought and climate change.

For the past few weeks news sources have talked about the dangerous influence alternative fuels have on our cost of food.

"The recent rise in corn prices--almost 70 percent in the past six months--caused by the increased demand for ethanol biofuel has come much sooner than many agriculture economists had expected. . . And that increase, says Marshall Martin, an agriculture economist at Purdue University, "is the main driver behind the price increase for corn."

No disrespect to Marshall Martin, but the price of corn isn't quite a simple as blaming it all on biofuels.  

I spoke with Jim Martin (no relation to Marshall) who is on the Federal Technical Advisory Committee for Biomass Research and Development, and he confirmed that blaming it all on ethanol neglects a number of other factors that don't always fit into a 30 second analysis.

BRAZIL – THAT MUCH SMARTER THAN AMERICA?
Since 1975 Brazil A+ - America F.

Why is Brazil so much smarter than America ??  The robustly intelligent who frequent KOS will be instantly curious and want to at least explore this premise.  

Brazil is one of the largest Democracies in the world.  It operates the same way as the United States, as a republic.  Brazil’s 190 million residents now enjoy the very comfortable position of being OPEC-Free, or energy-independent.  (Notice how US politicians mouth that phrase as a distant, unachievable dream ... ?) Brazilians couldn’t care less what the Saudi Sheiks do with their oil production decisions:  increase drilling or decrease?  Brazilians don’t care.  Imported oil previously accounted for more than 70% of the country's oil needs, but Brazil became energy independent in 2006.

Hello Kossacks!
Although I've been haunting your site for a while now, This will be my first entry.
Most of the time, when I have news that seems to be breaking, someone here always posts it first, and out of respect for the rules against redundancy, I beg off. Today, however, I have a bit of news that I feel I should share with you, and due to your penchant for supporting local political races, I believe it will be accepted.

I'd like to introduce you (if you haven't yet had the pleasure of visiting Project for the Old American Century), to a man by the name of TJ Templeton. TJ's been wandering the tubes for years as a counter-spin activist, slayer of trolls, and progressive artist extraodinaire. I'm sure some have seen the "it's not fascism when we do it" graphic floating around, among others.
J recently moved to a rural Iowa district, where he realized that he was being represented at the state level by a republican who had run, unopposed, for the last 12 years. J, being the man he is, decided that this was undemocratic, toxic, and simply unacceptable. Now, he's decided to do something about it.

I may be naive, but ...

     - Obama's use of the term "sweetie" is not a measure of his ideological or political qualifications.

     - what possible justification can there be for millions of dollars in subsidies going to rich horse breeders who are in the Sport of Kings?

     - where were the hundreds of "big brains" in dozens of think tanks around Washington when it came to predicting $125 a barrel oil?

     - where is the bloated bureaucracy known as the United Nations when it comes to doing anything about the ongoing tragedy in Darfur?

     - why are we spending billions of dollars in high-tech fighter planes and battleships when the technology of the enemy we will fight is the turban on his head and the sandals on his feet?

     - why does the American public have to endure months and years of presidential campaigns when Britain accomplishes a much more rational process in a matter of weeks?  

Source: Digital Smack

The average household spends three times more on food than on gasoline.  Farmers, pressured by the rising cost of gas and labor, have also seen the price of fertilizer double from what it was three years ago and have been forced to raise crop prices.

The key crop is corn, used to produce that notorious high-fructose corn syrup in our processed foods, and more to the point, to feed our livestock.  The same livestock that is the source of our milk, eggs, and so forth, which rise accordingly.

First let me clarify the title by saying that this is not a Clinton would do better diary (she has as much chance of winning now as Kucinich), nor is this concern trolling, as I see this election as ours to lose and Obama has to be favored right now.  What I am going to write about though are a few of the reasons that will cause Obama to lose should they become (thanks to our beloved media) major campaign issues.

What?
yea, it is true, we have the means to provide free diesel, while still being able to grow food.

The biggest argument I hear about bio-fuels is that the corn we grow for biofuel isn't the stuff we eat anyway.

What Idiot came up with that reasoning? As far as i can tell, if i am a farmer and grow plants for fuel, then, i am not using my land to grow plants we can eat. to me, it is a land usage problem and not a "but we don't eat that plant anyway" problem.

But that is not the real issue. first, it takes (with current technology) more energy to make 1 gallon of corn based ethanol than that gallon of corn based ethanol can yield. there is a net loss in the production of ethanol using current technology.

so there are two strikes against ethanol. one, it take land away from food based products and two, it takes more energy to make than it can yield.

what about Biodiesel?
Biodiesel is wonderful, but it has the same issue as ethanol insofar that growing soybeans for fuel takes away land for food based crops like wheat.

so what do we do?

WASHINGTON: Prosperity in countries like India is "good" but it triggers increased demand for "better nutrition" which in turn leads to higher food prices, US President George W Bush said.  

The comments come close on the heels of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's controversial statement that "apparent improvement" in the diets of people in India and China and consequent food export caps is among the causes of the current global food crisis.

the full story can be found here

*excerpt from Times of India.

Cross-posted from

What can wine tell us about the world? Plenty, it turns out.  It is one of civilization's oldest products.  At one time it was a necessity, when food was served rotten and water was where you washed and evacuated.  Now it is enjoying a resurgence.  It is an agricultural product, and a unique one.  You see, vineyards have kept records of temperature, yield, and ripeness-dates for centuries, giving us incredibly precise records that tell us reams about the global environment. It is also a luxury item, particularly at the top end.  As such, its sale and purchase can tell us volumes about the global economy.

Today we look at Iowa, wine, and the "first in the nation" caucus.

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DUBYA: "PROBLEM IS, THEY'RE NOT STARVIN' IN INDIA"

ADMISSION AGAINST INTERESTS: INDIA SAYS, "YEAH, WE ARE"

U.S. "Family Values" Party Leader Tries To Blame Food Shortages On Hungry Asian Families

Another sterling example of your tax dollars at work: U.S. President George "Dubya" Bush has gone out of his way to infuriate and insult two billion people in China and India, in your name. It's not the voracious appetite for fuel, including biofuel, or the rapid globalization and corporatization of agriculture that is causing shortages, skyrocketing prices and food riots around the world. It's those pesky hungry people out there. Thank Gawd we all had Mr. Bush to represent our interests on this. [cont.]
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