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Purveyor's JournalExperts To Congress: Iran Sanctions Fuel High Gasoline Prices
Source: Dow Jones Newswires
By Tennille Tracy, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration joined a panel of energy experts Thursday in dismissing the idea that a "quick fix" could reduce U.S. gasoline prices, saying instead that rising demand for oil around the world and supply concerns stemming from Iran sanctions are driving prices at the pump.
EIA Acting Administrator Howard Gruenspecht, speaking at a Senate hearing on gasoline prices, said many experts believe these trends will continue "and that's really a combination that affecting the market."
Gruenspecht and a panel of other experts also downplayed the role of speculative trading in the oil markets--an issue that Democrats increasingly point to as a cause for crude-oil price spikes. Gruenspecht said it was unclear whether profit-driven oil traders were pushing up prices, while Barclays Capital Managing Director Paul Horsnell said they played no role at all.
The idea that speculative traders are making oil more expensive is a "minority view," Horsnell said. "And I think it's an incorrect view based on faulty analysis."
Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/experts-to-congress-iran-sanctions-fuel-high-gasoline-prices-20120329-01205
GOP Lawmakers Appeal To Obama To Negotiate With Congress To Avert Defense Cuts
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, March 29, 1:16 PM
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers are pleading with President Barack Obama to negotiate with Congress to avert automatic, across-the-board military cuts that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said would be devastating.
Seven senators warn that the $50 billion reductions that would kick in next January would mean thousands of jobs lost and hardship for the Pentagon. They told reporters Thursday that the issue can’t wait until a lame-duck congressional session in December.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/gop-lawmakers-appeal-to-obama-to-negotiate-with-congress-to-avert-defense-cuts/2012/03/29/gIQAs0JBjS_story.html
Gaza In The ‘Heart Of Darkness’: When Reality Outdoes Fiction
By Adel Zaanoun - GAZA CITY
In a small room in Gaza City, Lisa Masharawi reads by candlelight, dreaming of being able to study for her upcoming exams by the light that even a small generator could provide.
But for now, as Gaza struggles through the worst power crisis residents can remember, the flickering light of a candle is all that is available.
"The generator is noisy and the smoke it produces stinks, but it's a thousand times better than studying by candlelight," she says. "I hate the dark."
"How am I supposed to read by candlelight? How will I do well in my exams?"
MORE...
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=51457
Pentagon wants more money for Israel's Iron Dome
Source: Associated Press
(03-27) 10:57 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
The Pentagon says it will ask Congress for more money for Israel's anti-rocket system known as the "Iron Dome."
In a statement released Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary George Little said the system to defend against short-range rockets and mortar attacks has been critical in recent weeks when nearly 300 rockets were fired at southern Israel from Gaza. The Iron Dome system intercepted more than 80 percent of the targets.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/03/22/national/w123753D34.D
NYC Co-Op Plans Vote on Israeli Product Boycott
NEW YORK March 27, 2012 (AP)
A New York City food co-op will be voting on a proposed boycott against Israeli products to protest the Israeli's government's policies toward Palestinians.
The Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn is scheduled to take an initial vote on the matter on Tuesday.
The mayor and other politicians have denounced the proposed boycott.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday that New York should be doing more business with Israel, not less.
MORE...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/nyc-op-plans-vote-israeli-product-boycott-16009813#.T3HhudlgC04
Peretz: It Would Be Better If US Struck Iran
Source: Jerusalem Post
By JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 03/24/2012 17:26
Former defense minister Amir Peretz said on Saturday that a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities would be better if an outside actor such as the US carried it out instead of Israel.
"We should prefer an outside actor does it because Israel doesn't need to be confronted by the whole Muslim world," Peretz said.
"We know that a minute after an attack, it will be comfortable for the Western countries to point a blaming finger at Israel. If it's an American actor, the crisis will be smaller. We need to think about the day after."
Read more: http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=263207
Tension With Iran Adding $20-30 To Oil Prices: Obama
Source: Agence France-Presse
(AFP) – 2 hours ago
WASHINGTON — Tension with Iran and "uncertainty" in the region is adding a $20 or $30 premium to oil prices, pushing up gas prices for vehicle owners in the United States, President Barack Obama said.
"The key thing that is driving higher gas prices is actually the world's oil markets and uncertainty about what's going on in Iran and the Middle East, and that's adding a $20 or $30 premium to oil prices," Obama said in an interview with the American Automobile Association (AAA) published Friday.
Obama also said increasing demand for oil in China and India was driving prices.
"As more and more people around the world see their standards of living rising, they purchase cars, they have demand for oil, that creates a greater demand worldwide and that raises the price," Obama told AAA.
Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iromrVjCr0NFtRmfHLWJPI5we6Rg?docId=CNG.a052edb42ec06efab8b3a05902ed62aa.41
Thanks Israel...indeed!
Food Police? Mayor Bloomberg Bans Food Donations to Homeless Shelters
Apparently going without is more nutritious than having food that is not nutritionally perfect. At least in Michael Bloomberg's eyes it is. I will admit I will savor chips, cocktail weenies and sugary punches when I wandered the streets as I lacked cooking facilities to make proper food. I also dumpster dived to supplement my intake as I found those food choices lacking for the carbo and protein burning rigors of sleeping outdoors and carrying everything I owned on my back. Homeless and hungry tip-Trader Joe's has awesome noms from the dumpster.
The Bloomberg administration is now taking the term “food police” to new depths, blocking food donations to all government-run facilities that serve the city’s homeless.
In conjunction with a mayoral task force and the Health Department, the Department of Homeless Services recently started enforcing new nutritional rules for food served at city shelters. Since DHS can’t assess the nutritional content of donated food, shelters have to turn away good Samaritans...
...They’ve brought freshly cooked, nutrient-rich surplus foods from synagogue events to homeless facilities in the neighborhood. (Disclosure: I know the food is so tasty because I’ve eaten it — I’m an OZ member.) The practice of donating such surplus food to homeless shelters is common among houses of worship in the city.
I wonder how many Jewish Grandmothers will wake up today to find out what they have fed their families for generations is too unhealthy to feed starving people?
MORE...
http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/864964/food_police_mayor_bloomberg_bans_food_donations_to_homeless_shelters/
This Duck Is an Apartheid Duck
Apartheid. This word conjures up specific images and ideas: Mandela, Sharpeville, De Klerk, pariah status, divestment and perhaps most importantly, South Africa. Thus, discourse about Israel’s status as an Apartheid state devolves into discussions about the similarities and differences between Israel and South Africa.
Such debate is unhelpful and distracting. Apartheid, like genocide, has an internationally recognized legal definition. For genocide, the definition was institutionalized in the aftermath of World War II. Obviously genocides differ with respect to policies, severity, and method: compare the Rwandan genocide and the Nazi Holocaust, for example. But few would argue that what happened in Rwanda was not genocide because it looks different from other genocides.
And given the definition of Apartheid, Israel’s domination of the Palestinians fits the bill.
The 1998 Rome Statute to the International Criminal Court defines Apartheid as actions or policies “committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime” (Emphasis mine).
MORE...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/22/this-duck-is-an-apartheid-duck.html
US To OK Egypt Aid Despite Congressional Concerns
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(03-22) 12:37 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
A top Senate Democrat says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will use her waiver authority to release at least a portion of $1.5 billion in aid to Egypt.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, who wrote the section of the law imposing conditions on the aid, said he was disappointed in the decision, which he learned from the State Department on Thursday.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/03/22/national/w123753D34.DTL
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