January 10, 2010 3:52 am

Chavez devalues currency

Financial Times, “Venezuela devalues currency”
by Benedict Mander

Venezuela devalued its currency late on Friday, introducing a multi-tiered exchange rate regime in a surprise move aimed at kickstarting a stagnating economy but which risks fuelling already high inflation.

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president, announced that the official value of the dollar, which has remained at 2.15 bolivars since March 2005, will now be fixed at 2.6 bolivars, a rate which will be reserved for the import of essential goods. He also announced the introduction of the “oil dollar”, pegged at 4.3 bolivars, which will be made available for non-essential goods.

Mr Chavez also acknowledged the existence of a third floating rate – until now known as the parallel rate – that he said will be managed through central bank intervention to avoid excessive speculation.

“This is to boost the productive economy, to reduce imports that aren’t strictly necessary and to stimulate exports,” Mr Chavez said during a televised meeting with ministers. “We need to stop being a country that only exports oil.”

Financial Times article continues here.


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July 28, 2010 10:48 pm

Jan Brewer responds to judge’s ruling

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July 28, 2010 10:47 pm

WikiLeaks founder defends publication of war documents

WikiLeaks founder defends publication of war documents

Bloomberg,

Julian Assange, founder of the website that published more than 91,000 secret U.S. military reports from Afghanistan, says he’s revealing injustices. President Barack Obama says he’s concerned that disclosure of sensitive information may harm military operations.

Conceived as an electronic dead-drop for confidential documents, WikiLeaks.org receives material that governments and businesses seek to keep secret and publishes them so that they remain in the public domain forever.

“We want to produce positive reform,” Assange, a 39-year- old Australian, said in a telephone interview from London yesterday. “An efficient way to do that is to selectively go after material that organizations are trying to conceal.”

July 28, 2010 10:47 pm

BREAKING: Fed Judge blocks Arizona immigration law

<em>BREAKING</em>: Fed Judge blocks Arizona immigration law

Fox News,

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked some of the toughest provisions in the Arizona illegal immigration law, putting on hold the state’s attempt to have local police enforce federal immigration policy.

Though the rest of the law is still set to go into effect Thursday, the partial injunction on SB 1070 means Arizona, for the time being, will not be able to require police officers to determine the immigration status of anyone they stop or arrest.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton also struck down the section of law that makes it a crime not to carry immigration registration papers and the provision that makes it a crime for an illegal immigrant to seek or perform work.

July 28, 2010 10:47 pm

Iran snubs sanctions, will export gasoline

Iran snubs sanctions, will export gasoline

Press TV,

Iran’s oil minister has shrugged off sanctions against the country, saying the country will raise its daily gasoline output to 170 million liters in 4 years.

“Iran will not beg foreigners for undertaking its oil, gas and petrochemical projects,” Massoud Mirkazemi said on Wednesday at the inaugural ceremony of two new projects in Morvarid Petrochemical Complex and Pardis Petrochemical Company in the southern Iranian port city of Assalouyeh in Bushehr Province.

He added that Iran will turn into a gasoline exporter after its daily gasoline production reaches 170 million liters.

“Iran has currently the main know-how in petrochemical industries,” the Iranian minister said.

July 28, 2010 10:47 pm

Oil in gulf is degrading, becoming harder to find, NOAA head says

Oil in gulf is degrading, becoming harder to find, NOAA head says

The Washington Post,

Oil from the BP blowout is degrading rapidly in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and becoming increasingly difficult to find on the water surface, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.

“The light crude oil is biodegrading quickly,” NOAA director Jane Lubchenco said during the response team daily briefing. “We know that a significant amount of the oil has dispersed and been biodegraded by naturally occurring bacteria.”

Lubchenco said, however, that both the near- and long-term environmental effects of the release of several million barrels of oil remain serious and to some extent unpredictable.

July 28, 2010 10:46 pm

Paul Ryan: “By every objective measure… the stimulus has failed”

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July 28, 2010 10:45 pm

Government Motors enviro-car costs $41,000

Government Motors enviro-car costs $41,000

The Washington Post,

The long-anticipated Chevrolet Volt, General Motors’ electric car, will cost $41,000, the company announced Tuesday, leaving consumers to decide whether its environmental appeal is worth a price far above that of similarly sized conventional autos.

Electric-car technology has been around for years, but the high cost to make the vehicles has prevented automakers from producing them for the mass market. The price announcements for the Volt and its electric rival, the Nissan Leaf, have been highly anticipated as a result. Nissan, the only other major manufacturer expected to bring such a vehicle to market this year, said the Leaf will cost $32,780.

GM and Nissan are relying on a $7,500 federal tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles to offset some of the added cost, and they’re hoping that the allure of their novel power source will make up the rest.

July 28, 2010 10:45 pm

Mass. Legislature approves plan to bypass Electoral College

Mass. Legislature approves plan to bypass Electoral College

Boston,

The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.

“What we are submitting is the idea that the president should be selected by the majority of people in the United States of America,” Senator James B. Eldridge, an Acton Democrat, said before the Senate voted to enact the bill.

Under the new bill, he said, “Every vote will be of the same weight across the country.”

But Senate minority leader Richard Tisei said the state was meddling with a system that was “tried and true” since the founding of the country.

July 28, 2010 10:45 pm

Breitbart interview on Savage Nation

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July 28, 2010 10:45 pm

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July 28, 2010 10:44 pm

Doomsday shelters making a comeback

Doomsday shelters making a comeback

USA Today,

The Vivos network, which offers partial ownerships similar to a timeshare in underground shelter communities, is one of several ventures touting escape from a surface-level calamity.

Radius Engineering in Terrell, Texas, has built underground shelters for more than three decades, and business has never been better, says Walton McCarthy, company president.

The company sells fiberglass shelters that can accommodate 10 to 2,000 adults to live underground for one to five years with power, food, water and filtered air, McCarthy says.

The shelters range from $400,000 to a $41 million facility Radius built and installed underground that is suitable for 750 people, McCarthy says. He declined to disclose the client or location of the shelter.

July 27, 2010 1:05 am

Clean-up crews having trouble finding oil in the Gulf

Clean-up crews having trouble finding oil in the Gulf

ABC News,

The numbers don’t lie: two weeks ago, skimmers picked up about 25,000 barrels of oily water. Last Thursday, they gathered just 200 barrels.

Still, it doesn’t mean that all the oil that gushed for weeks is gone. Thousands of small oil patches remain below the surface, but experts say an astonishing amount has disappeared, reabsorbed into the environment.

“[It's] mother nature doing her job,” said Ed Overton, a professor of environmental studies at Louisiana State University.

July 27, 2010 1:04 am

Oliver Stone: ‘Jewish-dominated media’ prevents Hitler from being portrayed ‘in context’

Oliver Stone: 'Jewish-dominated media' prevents Hitler from being portrayed 'in context'

NewsBusters,

Director Oliver Stone belittled the Holocaust during a shocking interview with the Sunday Times today, claiming that America’s focus on the Jewish massacre was a product of the “Jewish domination of the media.”

The director also defended Hitler and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and railed against the “powerful lobby” of Jews in America.

Stone said that his upcoming Showtime documentary series “Secret History of America,” seeks to put Hitler and Communist dictator Joseph Stalin “in context.”

July 27, 2010 1:03 am

Howard Dean makes a fool of himself on Fox

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July 27, 2010 1:03 am

Obama says the first couple is “not that far removed from what most Americans are going through”

Obama says the first couple is "not that far removed from what most Americans are going through"

AP,

President Obama says he can relate to the plight of Americans striving in the struggling economy to pay bills while saving for their kids’ education.

He says he and first lady Michelle Obama took a hit like everybody else when the economy nearly collapsed, telling ABC that a college fund for daughters Malia and Sasha has gone “up and down” with the stock market.

Obama says the first couple is “not that far removed from what most Americans are going through.” He tells the network “it was just a few years ago that we had high credit card balances, we had two kids, thinking about college. We had our own retirement accounts, wondering if we were going to be able to get enough assets in there.”

July 27, 2010 1:02 am

Chris Christie interview with Jake Tapper

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