The increase could bring Saudi output to a production level of 10 million barrels a day, which, if sustained, would be the kingdom’s highest performance level in history. The move was seen as a sign that the Saudis are becoming increasingly nervous about both the political and economic effect of high oil prices. In recent weeks, soaring fuel costs have incited demonstrations and protests from Italy to Indonesia.

Saudi Arabia is currently pumping 9.45 million barrels a day, which is an increase of about 300,000 barrels from last month.

The Saudis are concerned that today’s record prices might eventually damp economic growth and lead to lower oil demand, as is already happening in the United States and other developed countries. The current prices are also making alternative fuels more viable, threatening the long-term prospects of the oil-based economy. The high prices have also made it profitable to stimulate mature oil wells in Texas and California. 

President Bush visited Saudi Arabia twice this year, pleading with King Abdullah to step up production. While the Saudis resisted the calls then, arguing that the markets were well supplied, they seem to have since concluded that they needed to disrupt the momentum that has been building in commodity markets, sending prices higher. That creates panic. There seems to be no end in sight. 

The Saudi plans were disclosed in interviews with several oil traders and analysts who said that Saudi oil officials had privately conveyed their production plans recently to some traders and companies in the United States. The analysts declined to be identified so as not to be cut off from future information from the Saudis.

Last week, King Abdullah also took the unprecedented step of arranging on short notice a major gathering of oil producers and consumers to address the causes of the price rally. The meeting will be held on June 22 in the Red Sea town of Jeddah.

Oil prices have gained 40 percent this year, rising to nearly $140 a barrel in recent days and driving gasoline costs above $4 a gallon. Some analysts have predicted that prices could reach $200 a barrel this year as oil consumption continues to rise rapidly while supplies lag.

The growing volatility of the markets, including a record one-day gain of $10.75 a barrel last week, has persuaded the Saudis that they need to step in, analysts said. The Saudis and Republicans are the only groups trying to lower the price of crude. But you won't read that in your mainstream newspaper on watch it on NBC. 

Did you know...

Until recently, only 35 percent of oil has been extracted from reservoirs. Oil resides in porous rock formations, it is not in the sate of underground pools as many consumers believe. Today, oil companies such as Chevron, Shell,  Halliburton and Schlumberger, have developed stimulation methods to revive mature wells. There are fracturing and perforating techniques, 3-D seismic methods to clearly see trapped reservers that have been missed by the original well. There are now, steerable drill bits that can capture those trapped oil reserves and pinpoint stimulation on targeted areas. 

--Mick Gregory

We feel that we have more than enough beautiful girls for that job right here; girls whose heart bleeds Red, White, and Blue.

But if you want to know why the NYC pol has recently become obsessed with re-populating our country with genetically flawless XX chromosomes, here's the reason: Meet Ms. Huma Abedin, the Congressman's new girlfriend.

Ms. Abedin is Sen. Clinton's multi-talented "body person" -- political speak for traveling, all purpose assistant.*

And though she looks "exotic" and is of Middle Eastern descent, Rep. Weiner needs to be reminded that Ms. Abedin is a homegrown head-turner, born free right here in the USA.

Meaningful Distraction is trying to get to the bottom of this story to determine whether Mr. Weiner's plans are to expand his personal dating options (likely), or poor salt on still-open wounds within the Democratic party ... but rest assured, we won't sleep until the motives behind effort are exposed.

It's simply too important to the body image issues of sweet American girls not to find out why one of our "leaders" is trying to oversaturate the market with even more skinny (foreign) chicks in their underwear.

*For more on the work of "body people" check out lark's blistering post on Reggie Love.

For more on the lovely Huma, check out "Hillary's Mystery Woman."

Hillary to Huma: if I catch you with him again he's gonna end up on the Clinton Body Count

The woman the British papers proclaimed Hillary Clinton's lesbian lover, Huma Abedin, is being courted by Congressman Weiner. Dude, you are so barking up the wrong tree.

As for Huma, poor girl! Really, you can do so much better than Hillary - like, for instance, a man (not you Bill). I know she comes across as a dude, but it's a chick, Huma! Don't let the mullet fool you.

Congressman Weiner to Huma: come back from the dark side, Huma. I put the man in congressman. (LOL)

Story found here

New York Daily News: Rep. Anthony Weiner, a likely 2009 mayoral candidate, is pouring his heart into Hillary Clinton's White House bid - literally.

Weiner, whose district includes parts of Queens and Brooklyn, finally 'fessed that he is romancing Clinton's glamorous "body woman," Huma Abedin.

Asked by The Associated Press about all the time he's spending on the road campaigning for Clinton, the 43-year-old bachelor said, "It's largely because I'm dating Huma."

The never ending death march to the Democratic nomination now has nothing better to do than focus on Huma Abedin and Reggie Love, who are Sen. Hillary Clinton's and Sen. Barack Obama's body people (a.k.a go-fers).

Huma's in the press for boning Rep. Anthony Weiner (weiner. tee hee) of New York. The New York Daily News reports

Asked by The Associated Pressabout all the time he's spending on the road campaigning for Clinton, the 43-year-old bachelor said, "It's largely because I'm dating Huma."

Reggie Love had a fluff piece written about him in the New York Times. Blah Blah Blah.

Anywho, let's get back to Huma. If she were a president, she would indeed be Baberaham Lincoln. I always kinda wondered who was getting in there when I'd see Ms. Abedin following Hillary around. Was it some studly intern? A tender yet masculine political blogger? Or was she like a major league baseball player who has ass in every town? Well, now we know. Tip of the hat to Rep. Weiner. You and your funny name are beating some delicious hole.

"You took over our advertising -- now are you going to take over our news?" -- a question from a San Francisco Chronicle journalist to Craig Newmark, founder and CEO of craigslist.org.

"We took a straw and drained your milkshake," from "There Will Be Blood."

Craigslist.org has dominated the classified advertising market with its free listings for everything from real estate -- to jobs -- to personals. Big city newspapers, like the SF Chronicle have been crippled by this new kid on the block.

How much traffic does craigslist get?
A: More than 10 billion page views per month

Q: How does that compare with other companies?
A: craigslist is #8 worldwide in terms of english-language page views

Q: How many people use craigslist?
A: More than 40 million each month, including more than 30 million in the US alone

Q: How many classified ads does craigslist receive?
A: craigslist users self-publish more than 30 million new classified ads each month

Q: How many job listings does craigslist receive?
A: More than 2 million new job listings each month

-- The Q&A is from Craigslist.org

The average user/reader spends so much time on the site--about five days a month, 20 minutes per day--the site ranks a startling seventh in terms of monthly page views. This is 4 billion page views per month. A billion here, a billion there, now we are talking about real readership numbers.

So how exactly does Craigslist make money?

By charging $25 for job postings in six of its largest U.S. markets and $75 for job listings in San Francisco and by assessing a $10 fee for brokered apartment listings in New York City, according to their website.

Classified advertising was the real money-maker for newspapers. Want ads, are the little ads placed by individuals. They were not only the most profitable for newspapers on a word-for-word basis, they also generated great readership numbers, a fact that was lost on ALL of the newsrooms in America. The editor-centric news "executives" had not bothered to do any research on the readership of the ads that paid their salaries. They mocked MBAs, IT and celebrated BAs from America's most liberal J-schools.

The arrogant editors who "manage" the entire newspaper enterprise, didn't have a clue. They thought that they called the shots. People were paying 25  cents to read the ads just and a few pages of news and entertainment.

This just in from the Washington Post:

Let's not bury the lead: This is a rough time for the newspaper business, a rough time for The Washington Post and a rough time for me.

No one need shed any tears for the people leaving this building. The more than 100 journalists who have just taken early-retirement packages are voluntarily accepting a generous offer as the company trims its payroll -- a situation far better than at newspapers that have resorted to layoffs.

With advertising revenue sinking and classified competition from the likes of Craigslist, newspaper market values are taking a hit. Avista Capital Partners, which bought the Minneapolis Star Tribune 14 months ago, recently had to write down 75 percent of its investment. The purchase price had been $530 million; the previous owner, McClatchy Newspapers, paid $1.2 billion for the paper in 1998.

That's just a few pieces to the puzzle of what went wrong. It's not unlike the fall of family-owned business, where the next generation of trust-fund brats drain the profits and only find interest in the fun, ivory tower aspects of the business.

In these sob stories of more layoffs, there isn't any mention of the marketing/advertising departments, because the editors have no interest in that aspect of the media.

If newspapers were run like real companies, there would have been "big picture" studies of trends and competition. How's this for an idea, cut out five top level editors and buy 100 servers, two webmasters and one internet marketing guy.

What a concept.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the "DC Madam" of the agency Pamela Martin, once said in public that suicide was cowardice. So, in the end, why did she end up hanging herself?

Questions that mainstream journalists are not asking: What percentage of women attempt suicide by hanging? A: Not so much. Less than 10 percent of female suicides are by tying a rope around your neck and strangling yourself to death. And what percentage of those "suicides" are really murder? No one knows. It is a quiet, much less messy way to take them out. If it were a gun, thee is the issue of when did the victim buy the gun, did they even own a gun? The sound of the shot. The possibility of witnesses who hear the shot and see people running from the scene. This was a professional hit.

Another strange coincidence, one of the top escorts at the Pamela Martin agency, Brandy Britton, was also found dead several months ago of an apparent suicide by hanging. 

That "accident" may have been performed to scare Palfrey into silence. It did, but then she was convicted of prostitution, and was awaiting sentencing in July. So she was ready to let loose some top names.

One has to wonder what Lloyds of London would put the odds of that happening to two high-priced call girls involved in a high profile court case?

These women who earned their pay on erotica and good looks, had access to drugs, a painless and more glamorous way to go. The way Marilyn Monroe went out. Hanging yourself? It doesn't add up.

First of all, in the United States, hanging is the least "popular" way to off yourself as a man or woman, of all female suicides very few are by hanging, it's been out of fashion for the past 100 years. The few people (again men) who commit suicide by hanging, jump from a chair or a ladder, choking to death slowly. Rarely is the neck broken. In order to break a neck, a drop of six feet or more is required, which rarely happens except in execution hanging.

Hanging, whether done with rope, an electrical cord or a belt, always leaves an inverted V bruise, and is easy to tell from ligature strangulation (murder), which leaves a straight-line bruise. Hanging compresses the veins, but arterial blood flow continues, causing small bleeding sites on the lips, inside the mouth and on the eyelids. As with ligature strangulation, the face and neck are congested with blood and become dark red.

Ligature strangulations are almost always homicide and the victims are almost always women. Often the murderer uses more force than necessary to kill the victim, causing deep bruises and abrasions around the neck. The victim will usually struggle, which results in damage to both the interior and exterior structures of the neck and throat. Hanging is a very good coverup for murder by strangulation.

After Madam Palfrey's conviction, it has been reported that she was going to name names or else. She hoped to get a payoff. She didn't realize how dangerous top politicians can be. 

The building manager, who did not want to show his face, talked with Palfrey Monday before she left for her mother's in Tarpon Springs. He strongly believes Palfrey's death was not a suicide.
"Jean Palfrey was a class act. She wore very good clothes. She was well educated. Her way out of this world certainly would not have been in an aluminum shed attached to a mobile home in Tarpon Springs, Florida," he said.
Palfrey was convicted of running a high-profile escort service for Washington's elite and faced a sentencing this summer that would likely lead to many years in prison. But she was found hanged Thursday at her mother's home and investigators said they have no doubt it was a suicide.
"A couple handwritten notes. At least one note was found inside residence indicating her intent to take her life," Capt. Jeffrey Young of the Tarpon Springs Police Department said of Palfrey's death.
Palfrey’s building manager said she often told him she believed she was being followed and he thinks there may have been some former clients of her escort service who wanted her dead.
"She insinuated that there is a contract out for her and I fully believe they succeeded," her building manager said.
Palfrey's Lexus is still parked in the Park Lake garage and the staff said on Monday, she asked about making sure her condo fees would continue to be paid during what Palfrey anticipated would be six years in prison.
They said she left that day with some suitcases and a box.
"She had one white paper file box that she told me had some important paper with her and then she just kind of raised her eyebrows like you're supposed to think oh yeah, that's all the information that she had on her business in Washington," her building manager said.
Palfrey never denied running an escort service for 13 years, but she did deny any knowledge that any illegal sexual activity was occurring. -- Ch. 2 News, Orlando.
 

Who could be in the little black book that would go to this extent to keep their name out of the media at this time?

When a former employee of Palfrey's, Brandy Britton, hanged herself before going to trial, Palfrey told the press, "I guess I'm made of something that Brandy Britton wasn't made of."

Who would benefit most by snuffing out these women? Who had the most to lose at election time? 

Is this is the May Day surprise; the blockbuster that will expose the Clinton machine for the power hungry monsters they appear to be?

What happens if she wins the Democrat primary in Indiana and comes close in North Carolina? She will still be behind in delegates, but the "big wigs" in the Democratic super delegate meetings will vote for the big Clinton machine. That's why Obama supporters should be concerned, very concerned.

Examples of murder covered up by suicide:
November 3, 2006
Independent Movie Actress Adrienne Shelley Found Dead
Adrienne Shelley, the actress of seminal independent movies Trust and The Unbelievable Truth, was found dead on Wednesday in her Greenwich Village office. Her husband Andrew Ostroy found her hanging from a shower rod in the bathroom in an Abingdon Square building. The Post reports that the police are "inclined" to beileve it was suicide (no signs of a struggle or forced entry at the door). The ME's office conducted an autopsy, but has not released the results.
Update: Three days later the suicide was changed to murder when medical examiner found defensive wounds on Shelley. Next the NYPD tracked down a construction worker who when confronted about being in Shelly's apartment, confessed to the murder that he set it up to look like suicide.

Do you have as much confidence in the Pinellas County Police of St. Petersburg Florida?

Once again, Spy Magazine was right. Of course, when they did this story over a decade ago IT WAS A PARODY.

The first media organization to run with the long rumored "Hillary-is-a-Dyke" story is The Enquirer. Well hey, if it's in The Enquirer IT MUST BE TRUE!

There have been rumors and whispers in the blogosphere for quite awhile that personal assistants don't get much more "personal" than Hillary's girl, Huma Abedin.

Never heard of her? Well here she is:

What is The Enquirer's proof for such an amazing allegation about a presidential candidate? Well actually, they don't have any. The publication simply says there are “reports” that Hillary is a lesbian. The Enquirer talks of “gay romps” between Hillary and "the sexy brunete" Abedin.

Oh, wait...

SEE ! A picture of Abedin walking behind Hillary Clinton and Ellen. That has to mean SOMETHING, right?

And it turns out Abedin's parents are both Muslims. Wow! talk about your vast Right Wing conspiracies.

It seems Barack Obama's Reverend Wright problems weren't so bad after all.

And if you don't think legitimate media will follow up on this, here's today's Times of London:

Just in time for Hillary's appearance with Bill O'Reilly tonight.

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i34411

Obama won by double digits in very white Wyoming and is about to win Mississippi.

So how can Hillary Rodham Clinton say she won Texas? Where is the real journalism?
Obama has won at least 31 delegates from the caucuses and Clinton has won at least 27, according to The Associated Press count. The remaining nine delegates will be awarded after the official results are announced at the end of the month.

The Texas Democratic Party gave up Monday on its effort to produce a public tally. What is so hard about reporting the vote? Is it because the outcome was not in line with the Democrat machine?

Ironically, only the Democrat allows delegates and super delegates do the voting that counts. Funny how they call themselves the Democratic party. What happened to the one man, one vote concept?

What about Larry Flynt's story on Hillary's lesbian affairs? That is the next shoe to drop.

Maybe not. It's just old hags who support Hillary now. Having the beautiful Huma Abediin scores points for Hillary.

The race baiting, white hating Obama backers will never vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Even though she can imitate a Southern black drawl.