Day: May 3, 2008

Food: The Next Crisis?

Hopefully, you are informed that there iis a problem brewing with the world’s food supply.  Food riots, armed guards of food shipments, shortages, et al.  But some have asked me why this is?  It is fairly simple…..profit!

As inflation and shortages expose billions to hunger worldwide, agricultural giant Archer-Daniels-Midland Company revealed a 42 percent leap in quarterly profits. The announcement follows similarly skyrocketing earnings reports from half a dozen other agribusinesses and suppliers, as well as from major oil companies BP, Shell, and Exxon.

For the third fiscal quarter ending March 31, ADM reported $517 million in profit. In an April 29 conference call, executives attributed record earnings throughout all of the company’s operations to an enormous increase in speculative activity in commodities markets.

“Volatility in commodity markets presented unprecedented opportunities,” ADM chief executive Patricia Woertz told investor analysts in on the call. “Once again, our team leveraged our financial flexibility and global asset base to capture those opportunities to deliver shareholder value.”

There is your answer!  Shortages help the investors profits in the coompanies controlling the food supply.  Easy is it not?

American Axel UpDate #2

As I posted yesterday, it does not look good for the workers of the company and the UAW is about to cave on numerous, if not all points.

The United Auto Workers union is close to reaching an agreement with American Axle & Manufacturing that will accept company demands on every major issue, including cutting wages and closing at least two plants. More than 3,600 workers have been on strike at AAM for ten weeks.

Two forging plants would be closed—at Tonawanda, New York, and in Detroit, Michigan. A third plant in Three Rivers, Michigan could also be closed.

Shutting down the Detroit forge plant would mean the loss of hundreds more jobs in a city that has been devastated by the decline of the US auto industry and the outsourcing of labor to cheaper locations in the US and internationally.

The closure of the Tonawnada plant would likely mean the end of American Axle’s operations in the Buffalo, New York area, further devastating a region that, like Detroit, has been hit by the destruction of its manufacturing base. Tonawanda employs about 400 workers, and a companion finishing plant, whose future existence is also questionable, employs about 110. Last year, American Axle idled a plant in Buffalo that once employed over 2,000 workers.

The closure of these plants will leave only two remaining—the manufacturing facilities in Detroit and Three Rivers, provided that the latter remains open. Extremely significant is the proposal to break up the remaining plants into separate contracts. This framework, which has been adopted by the UAW at other auto parts suppliers, would serve to pit the different plants against each other in a competition for lower wages and benefits, under the threat of closure.

AAM is reportedly threatening to close Three Rivers in one year if the concessions are not high enough. The company is insisting on a clause that would allow it to shut the plant down if the company’s financial situation worsens.

Someone please explain how the UAW is working in the best interest of their membership?  Yes, I am a radical unionist and do not think that such devastating concessions should be heaped onto the workers.  I realize what a hardship that a lengthy strike has on the workers, but if we are to save the workers and their employment then we need to buck up and demand their fair share.

McCain: The Crawfish

Repub, John McCain has had to step back and explain his statement on numerous occasions.  The latest was a comment he made in Denver.

“My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East,” McCain said.

The expected GOP nominee sought to clarify his comments later, after his campaign plane landed in Phoenix. He said he didn’t mean the U.S. went to war in Iraq five years ago over oil.

“No, no, I was talking about that we had fought the Gulf War for several reasons,” McCain told reporters.

One reason was Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, he said. “But also we didn’t want him to have control over the oil, and that part of the world is critical to us because of our dependency on foreign oil, and it’s more important than any other part of the world,” he said.

There have been other occasions where he had to explain himself.  It was the second time in as many days that McCain had to clarify his comments. On Thursday, he backed off his assertion that pork-barrel spending led to last year’s deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

I think there will be much more he has to explain, but the problem is, will the Dems attack him for his screw ups?

Immigration: Virtual Border Fence

I know, I know everyone is screaming about those darn pesky illegal immigrants, especially at election, they are a convenient scapegoat for pandering to the people.  But any way, someone somewhere in the bowels of the INS came up with the idea of a virtual border fence, where cameras, radar and other such devices would be used to detect those entering the US illegally.

I believe it was Boeing that got the contract to build this wonder of modern technology.  Both President Bush and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff pledged to create such “high-tech” fences as part of the government’s ongoing attempts to catch foreigners who try to sneak into the country under its radar.

Boeing built this and installed this and the test showed it does not work…….I say again……test show it does not work.  A multi-dollar project will be scraped and another attempt will be made.  A 28 mile of border failure.

I ask does Boeing have to repay monies for a product that does not work?  If not, why?  If I buy a car and it does not work, the company will be held responsible why will Boeing not be held up to the same standards?  BTW, Boeing, will continue to bleed the system dry, they will get another whack at the “fence”.  I suggest they look for someone else to try this project, Boeing is a proven failure.  But sadly, since Boeing is part of the Military-Industrial Complex, they will continue to be a parasite on the taxpayer’s money.

American Axel UpDate

There has been rumors flying around the American Axel and UAW were close to a deal, but what kind of deal? Will the workers at Axel get the shaft as bad as the workers of the Big 3 automakers? While workers say they know any deal will lead to sacrifices, many have been struggling to survive financially as the work stoppage moves through its third month. The UAW also has resolved two local contracts involving General Motors Corp.

At American Axle, talks have been picking up steam, and details are emerging about the framework of a potential deal, which could include buyouts of $140,000, buydowns of $90,000 and wages of $14 to $25.50 an hour.

There also is discussion about closing forging plants in Detroit and Tonawanda, N.Y.

On Thursday, 96% of the hourly workers represented by UAW Local 724 that work at GM supplier Alliance Interiors in Delta Township approved a 42-month contract. Those workers had been on strike since April 15.

In addition, UAW Local 1005 workers on Wednesday narrowly approved a contract when they voted 550 for and 537 against a contract a GM plant in Parma, Ohio, according to that local’s Web site.

Still pending are UAW talks at GM plants in Warren and Wyoming, Michigan, Mansfield, Ohio and Kansas City, Kan. where five-day strike notices have expired without strikes and a plant in Delta Township where workers have been on strike since April 17.

The workers at Axel have shown excellent resolve and I hope that they are not betrayed by their Union bosses.

Anal-Ocity

The hits just keep coming! HA! McCain and the Repubs keep trying to force feed the public that the Dem proposals on health care are somehow “creeping socialism”. My friends(to quote McCain) that is pure bullsh*t. But this statement is very amusing.

“But before you decide to sign on to that kind of a program, go to Canada, or go to European countries that have government-run health care systems,” he continued. “My friends, they don’t work, they’re inefficient, and they end up in a two-tiered system where the wealthiest can afford to pay for their own health care and those with low income sometimes wait six or eight months for a routine kind of treatment. And that’s what I’m not going to let happen to the United States of America.” from a speech of McCain

And somewhere I missed the fact that the US does not a tier system of health care. That memo missed my desk completely. For that reason this statement will be in the running for the most anal statement of the year.

Political Quote Of The Week

Anyone that has read my writings will know that I am rabidly against war; let us just say I played that game and did not like it. This week’s quote is again from Thomas Paine, the forgotten American Founding Father.

He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
Thomas Paine

Does that quote sound familiar? If not, then you need to pay closer attention to what is going on around you.