Our friends - the French!

"The French government is offering Zacarias Moussaoui the consular protection he deserves as a French national, but so far the al-Qaida conspirator has not asked for it, the French Embassy said Wednesday. "

Hat Tip - The Corner via JP

Archer Daniels Midland Profit Rises 29%

WSJ.com:

"The Decatur, Ill., company reported profit of $347.8 million, or 53 cents a share, for the period ended March 31, up from $269.1 million, or 41 cents a share, a year ago. The prior-year results included a one-time gain of 11 cents a share, from the sale of a business."

Where's the outrage over these profits? Is it because ADM's revenue numbers aren't as big as Exxon?

Global biodiesel business continues to grow around the world, particularly in Europe and Asia, the company said. The business is just getting started in the U.S., but the company expects more government programs to bring biodiesel in line with ethanol. ADM will open its first biodiesel plant in October.

But of course they expect it. They wouldn't contribute to any politicians campaign if they didn't expect it!

A Solution to ALL Our Problems?

TCS Daily - No Money, No Problems:

"So, what really can be done about illegal immigration? Well, maybe we need to do what Time magazine said we should do about another problem -- global warming. The writers and editors there suggested at the end of their Global Warming Report: 'Maybe we can begin by living a bit more like the average Chinese or Indian -- before they start living like us.' There you have it: The only way to turn the corner on energy use, and thus greenhouse gas emissions, at least in the short run, is to make us all poorer - a lot poorer."

George Clooney's Darfur Dilemmas

"Hypocritical? Inexcusably hypocritical, but all too typical of the Hollywood left and their elite media pals. The parallels between Sudan and Iraq are striking and informative. Substitute Sudan's Darfurian tribes for Iraqi Shias and Kurds. The international forces in Darfur are hapless African Union peacekeepers, who spend their time trying to avoid ambushes. In Iraq, the United States and Great Britain tried to protect the Kurd north and Shia south with air patrols -- it didn't work. Saddam's terror contacts among secular and sectarian terrorists were numerous. Sudan harbored Osama bin Laden. As for the WMD, recall the Clinton administration's strike on the Khartoum pharmaceuticals plant suspected of producing nerve gas. Former Clinton SecDef Bill Cohen still defends the attack. He didn't want to run the risk that terrorists would acquire WMD from a rogue tyranny. The Bush administration didn't want to run that risk with Iraq."

Austin Bay via RealClearPolitics

Common sense and consistency mean nothing to left. It's all about how they feel today and whether their side gets credit. It has nothing to do with working together or cooperation - especially with the evil Bush.

WSJ.com - Mexican Wave

WSJ.com - Mexican Wave:

"What would happen to Mexico if we were to suddenly cut off the escape valve provided by immigration to the U.S.? Unemployment and underemployment, already major problems, would increase dramatically. Remissions from immigrants, which total some $18 billion per year and are the lifeblood of many rural communities, would dry up. The widespread frustration felt by the population caught between rising crime and diminished economic expectations -- which fuels the populist presidential campaign of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador -- would almost certainly become more acute. There is no scenario in which these developments would be positive for Mexican political and social stability. And there is no scenario in which a politically and socially unstable Mexico is in the interest of the U.S."

A bigger question than how we stop illegal immigration from Mexico may be, what pressure can be put on the governement of Mexico to join the 21st century and develop an economy for the masses, rather than the priveledged?

Hmmm?...

"President Bush says that it is 'unrealistic' to think that we can deport 12 million illegal immigrants. It is also unrealistic to think that we can catch all murderers, but does that mean that we should de-criminalize murder? Or turn loose the murderers we do catch?"

Thomas Sowell - Random Thoughts

Break up "Big Oil"?

This article in TCS Daily discusses - and refutes - the recent proposal by Sen. Schumer, et al to break up the "monopoly" of the big oil companies in the US:

"The problem with this way of thinking is that the oil majors are not as all-powerful as their critics assert. They certainly do not hold a monopoly position in the marketplace. Big Oil is indeed big -- ExxonMobil, for instance, is the 6th largest publicly traded company in the world, and enjoys the highest revenues -- but it is not that big when compared to the entire world petroleum market, which is gargantuan.

The real giants are the state-owned oil companies in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, and other OPEC nations. Compared to them, Big Oil seems like small fry. As Red Caveney of the American Petroleum Institute noted, 'Nearly 80 percent of the world's reserves are owned by these national oil companies and a mere 6 percent are controlled by investor-owned companies.'"

It's always hard to justify 'feel good solutions' when the facts get in the way!

I'm not happy about it, but...

This article addresses the under-reported fact why people aren't in a panic over higher gas prices. We're complaining - like we always do when we don't get what we want - but not panicking:

"According to the Bureau of Economic Affairs (see chart here), American consumer
spending on energy as a fraction of total personal consumption has declined considerably since 1980. Whereas 25 years ago, one in every ten consumer dollars
was spent on energy, today it's one in every sixteen bucks. In other words, what it takes to heat and cool our homes and drive to and from our jobs and vacation destinations is relatively less costly than it once was. "

Since there isn't a crisis, maybe we can address the fundamental problems this country faces with it's energy policy. Nah. That won't happen when there's political hay to harvest.