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World Sugar Prices Up 30% -- Despite Surplus

Open your eyes and watch the world burn.

International sugar prices have risen 30.7 percent since November 2007 despite a second consecutive year of surplus supplies, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, as reported in CandyBusinessInsider, a candy industry newsletter.

This March, prices reached a 20-month high of $15.21 per pound, before falling slightly by the end of the month, according to the report published last week.

The FAO report acknowledges the influence other market fundamentals have on the sugar market, such as rising energy prices.

But, it stated, the market could tighten, given an anticipated 2008 drop in production. Estimated world sugar production for 2007/2008 now stands at 2 million tons more than the previous season.

Global sugar consumption in 2007/2008 is estimated to reach 158 million tons, driven partly by rising per capita income and population growth in developing countries.

The report also indicates there is expected to be a greater use of U.S. sugar in food and beverage processing worldwide. [link]

Impeachment is our only Hope -- Go Wexler Go!

This new evidence from Scott McClellan could be the tipping point – but we must move quickly. I will use the McClellan admissions to help convince my colleagues that we must hold impeachment hearings.

Regardless, I will continue to fight for progressive values and our Constitution. I will do everything I can to pursue accountability for criminal actions taken by this Administration and this Vice President. I will be a furious opponent to any expansion of this misguided war, and I will fight against the use of torture by our government and to protect our civil liberties here at home.

Most of all, I will continue my efforts to convince my fellow members of Congress and voters, that we should not be a party of passivity - but that we succeed when we present the public with stark choices that are based on the guarantees in our Constitution, and not on the politics of the moment.

I will continue - at every pass - to call for impeachment and accountability. While I wish more of my colleagues supported our movement, we must not let our discouragement lead to apathy and distraction in this important election year when we must break free from eight long years of illegalities, corporate handouts, and a tragic and devastating war.

We should not end the calls for impeachment. I will push against the crimes of the Bush Administration whenever I am provided the opportunity. I will use my role on the Judiciary Committee to take on Administration officials – like I have done with Condoleezza Rice, Attorney Generals Gonzalez and Mukasey, and FBI Director Mueller.

I have not given up our fight to hold this Administration accountable and neither can you. I am grateful for your patriotism and your support. I'll continue to keep you informed and part of the conversation.

Sincerely,

Congressman Robert Wexler

wexlerwantshearings.com

[via dailykos]

Czech President Klaus: environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms

Washington - Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Tuesday he is ready to debate Al Gore about global warming, as he presented the English version of his latest book that argues environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms. "I many times tried to talk to have a public exchange of views with him, and he's not too much willing to make such a conversation," Klaus said. "So I'm ready to do it."

Klaus was speaking a the National Press Building in Washington to present his new book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles - What Is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?, before meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday.

"My answer is it is our freedom and, I might add, and our prosperity," he said.

Gore a former US vice president who has become a leading international voice in the cause against global warming, was co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Gore's effort was highlighted by his Oscar winning documentary film An Inconvienent Truth.

Klaus, an economist, said he opposed the "climate alarmism" perpetuated by environmentalism trying to impose their ideals, comparing it to the decades of communist rule he experienced growing up in Soviet-dominated Czechoslovakia.

"Like their (communist) predecessors, they will be certain that they have the right to sacrifice man and his freedom to make their idea reality," he said.

"In the past, it was in the name of the Marxists or of the proletariat - this time, in the name of the planet," he added.

Klaus said a free market should be used to address environmental concerns and said he oppposed as unrealistic regulations or greenhouse gas capping systems designed to reduce the impact of climate change.

"It could be even true that we are now at a stage where mere facts, reason and truths are powerless in the face of the global warming propaganda," he said.

Klaus alleged that the global warming was being championed by scientists and other environmentalists whose careers and funding requires selling the public on global warming.

"It is in the hands of climatologists and other related scientists who are highly motivated to look in one direction only," Klaus said. [link]

Quebec Police admit to "Agent Provocateurs" at Anti-North American Union Rally


The quest of finding a solution to the problem is more daunting than just living with the problem

There are many writers and pundits that constantly compare the American people to sheep. Anyone that has read political articles on the internet or in magazines has heard of the word "sheeple". The word implies that the American people are led around like sheep, and that they are blissfully unaware of their surroundings, and like sheep, being led to slaughter, goes along peaceably to their doom. This is a great comparison, but like many other broad comparisons, it's far too simplistic and doesn't even come close to actually describing the mindset of the American people. The truth is that Americans do know what time it is, they do know what is being done in their name and they are very much aware of the erosion of individual liberties, they just don't want to acknowledge it.

I could stop right here and make a simplistic statement such as the American people are in denial, that it is easier to go along to get along, that ignorance is bliss and hundreds of other statements that say basically the same thing, that it's easier to deal with a problem if you refuse to admit there is a problem to begin with, if you don't have a problem, than you don't need a solution. This type of thinking is essentially the crux of the problem here in America. The simple truth is that many Americans simply don't want to hear the truth. The admission of a problem is the admission that we need to find a solution. The quest of finding a solution to the problem is more daunting than just living with the problem. [link]

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