Trumping on a Pipe Dream

[gotmilk]

Might need an All the Rage Umbrella #msg-7525585

[Rager]

WOW...eom

[gotmilk]

...another Long Term Capital type event in the making.

#reply-21644883

Gosh how many times can the sky fall and still be up there tomorrow?

[100lbStriper]

Actually there pretty cool, but I was talking about the gone fishing sign. Went and saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith tonight and enjoyed it alot more than I thought I would.

[Churak]

all those marching dudes give me a headache...

[100lbStriper]

Yes, I like the ibox.

[gotmilk]

phantom stock regulators #msg-7193953

[gotmilk]

Since the end of the Soviet Union...

Energy price hikes are a major problem for the Baltic states
- which could mean trouble for American investors as well.

RED STORM RISING
by Kevin Kerr

Since the end of the Soviet Union, the Russian government has scrambled to shore up its eroding power base. As a result, the surrounding Baltic states are being slapped with energy price hikes they simply can't afford. The situation is truly desperate... and that could mean trouble for you.

At first glance, there doesn't seem to be a lot of reason to care about what's happening in this corner of the world. The three countries that make up the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - don't produce any oil or gas. In fact, they depend on imports for much of their natural resource needs.

But these tiny nations do play a role in the global energy markets. They are home to ports that transport oil overseas.

In fact, up until 2002, there were only two Baltic ports connected to Russia's massive oil pipeline system - Ventspils in Latvia and Butinge in Lithuania. (Estonia's Tallinn port gets its oil by train.)

Ventspils was the largest port on the Baltic Sea, too, until Russia completed its Primorsk port in 2002. And that's when the trouble began.

At the heart of the problem is Transneft, a holdover from the Soviet Union that controls all of Russia's pipelines. After Primorsk was ready to start operations, the company saw no reason to keep pumping oil to Latvia's Ventspils port. It shut off the spigot.

Now if Latvia wants to ship oil, it needs to get it to port by train. Obviously, that's more expensive and less efficient than using a pipeline. The higher costs and loss of volume cut into the port's profit margins - and by extension, the country's wealth. Today, Ventspils is shipping only a third of the oil it used to.

The situation at Lithuania's Butinge port is a little less grim. The country has retained better relations with its Russian oil suppliers than Primorsk did. In fact, the port was able to ship more oil than its larger Latvian neighbor in 2003. But that amount is still tiny compared to the oil coming out of Primorsk. And Russia still holds the keys to the pipeline... so it could choose to shut off Butinge's supply of oil at any time.

How likely is that? Who knows? The fact is the region is a mess, and things can turn on a dime. Right now, Ukraine and Russia are in a struggle for control of the pipeline system. Meanwhile, a border dispute between Russia and Estonia has flared up again, just when it seemed like things were settled. And shutting off Latvia's oil pipeline hasn't helped relations there, either.

All the Baltic states are having problems working with Russia to secure borders and fair prices for energy supplies. And as if things weren't bad enough already, Russia recently fired another shot over the already struggling Baltic states...

In early June, Russia's gas monopoly, Gazprom, announced plans to raise the price of gas supplied to the Baltic states over the next three years.

Now, to be fair, the Baltic states were getting a pretty good deal before. Latvia was paying around $92-94 per thousand cubic meters of gas. Lithuania paid $85 and Estonia $90. Meanwhile, Western European customers pay about $150 per thousand cubic meters. Gazprom is saying that will be the new price for the Baltic states too.

It may seem like a common-sense move. But the truth is the company is probably raising rates just because it needs the money.

A Russian investment fund with a stake in Gazprom publishes a yearly audit noting the firm's shortcomings. The report states that Gazprom has at the very least stopped the wholesale looting of assets that it used to allow through the sale of gas reserves to joint-venture partners at knockdown prices.

But this company still has many, many problems. The report points to wasteful tax-payment schemes, seeming nonchalance about unpaid bills, disproportionately high wage costs and extremely costly pipeline projects. As a result, Gazprom's market value in relation to its reserves is miniscule compared with the likes of BP or Shell. And Gazprom's gas output in 2004 was no higher than in 1999.

So the rate hikes might help Gazprom, but they're not doing the Baltic states any favor. The average worker in the region earns between $400 and $600 a month. (My own mother-in-law is a doctor in Estonia and earns around $700 a month.) With such low wages and the region's notoriously cold winters, the next several months are going to be tough for the people. The Baltic states may truly discover the price of independence.

Of more concern to us, however, are the oil exports. On average, Russia's Primorsk port is iced in 155 days out of the year - putting a damper on exports. Higher prices could bring Ventsils' imports to a complete halt. And no one knows what effect prices and events will play on Lithuania's exports.

With a total of 1.5 billion barrels of oil per day on the line, investors will do well to pay close attention to this region.

Regards,

Kevin Kerr
for The Daily Reckoning http://www.dailyreckoning.com

Editor's Note: With 15 years of experience, Kevin Kerr is a true veteran of the commodities markets. A licensed commodities trader since 1989, he's worked the trading pits in Chicago and New York with legends like Paul Tudor Jones, and he's even traded commodity derivatives in London. Over Kevin Kerr's career he's dealt with everything from cotton to currencies to oil and natural gas.

Kevin Kerr's unparalleled expertise in futures and commodities has made him a regular contributor to news outlets like CNN fn, CNBC and Marketwatch, where he's been quoted in over 500 articles.

The above essay has been adapted from this month's issue of Outstanding Investments, for which Kevin is a regular contributor.

To read this month's full issue, see here:
http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/OST/WOSTF420

-end-

[BullNBear52]

Fed beige book: Business activity expands 56 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. business activity continued to grow in June and early July, and overall price pressures eased or were flat in most places despite higher energy and building costs, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

Only the New York district reported a slowing in the rate of economic growth, the Fed's "beige book" summary of economic conditions said.

Many districts reported substantial increases in the costs of energy, petroleum-based products, and building materials such as concrete and plywood, the Fed said. Despite those gains, price pressures either slackened slightly or were unchanged in most districts.

Labor markets generally continued to improve, although hiring in several districts was mixed, the Fed said. Wage pressures were moderate in nearly all districts.

At the same time, Dallas reported wage pressures in the accounting and energy professions, while Chicago noted pressures in some skilled professions.

Residential real estate activity remained robust overall but showed some signs of cooling in several districts, the Fed said. Housing activity in Massachusetts moved from hot to normal and eased in markets that had been especially hot, such as Washington, D.C., and Florida, the Fed said.

Most districts reported moderate-to-solid expansion in manufacturing activity.

Most regions experienced increases in retail sales, with vehicle sales in nearly all regions boosted by a fresh round of price discounts, the Fed said.

Commercial real estate activity improved in most districts, and Dallas reported that speculative office building had increased, the Fed said.

Loan demand increased or remained solid on increases in mortgage, home equity, and business borrowing in most districts, the Fed added.

Credit quality was generally strong, although there were concerns about loans to auto suppliers and farmers in the Chicago region, and loans for Florida condominium development.

The Fed issued its beige book summary of comments on the economy as officials prepared to meet Aug. 9. The Fed is widely expected raise its benchmark target for short-term interest rates for the tenth straight time by a quarter-point to 3.5 percent.

The beige book was prepared by the Kansas City Fed with data collected on or before July 18.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=4&u=/nm/20050727/bs_nm/economy_fed_beige...

[BOREALIS]

Oil industry awash in record levels of cash
But a smaller portion of profits is going to find new oil discoveries.

By John W. Schoen
Senior Producer
MSNBC
Updated: 9:12 a.m. ET July 21, 2005


When major oil companies report their quarterly profits next week, they're once again expected to post record numbers. With crude trading around $60 a barrel, the oil industry is enjoying one of the biggest windfalls in its history. But as the industry looks for places to put that cash, it's finding it harder and harder to put funds to work finding new deposits of oil and natural gas.

By just about any measure, the past three years have produced one of the biggest cash gushers in the oil industry’s history. Since January of 2002, the price of crude has tripled, leaving oil producers awash in profits. During that period, the top 10 major public oil companies have sold some $1.5 trillion worth of crude, pocketing profits of more than $125 billion.

“This is the mother of all booms,” said Oppenheimer & Co. oil analyst Fadel Gheit. “They have so much profit, it’s almost an embarrassment of riches. They don’t know what to do with it.


The reason for the boom is simple. Much of the investment in finding that oil -- and developing the wells and pipelines needed to produce it -- has already been made. So an oil field that was profitable with oil selling for $20 a barrel is much more profitable with oil trading around $60.

That’s left the industry with a happy problem -- what to do with enough cash to fill a supertanker. Many publicly traded oil companies have been busy buying back their own stock, which helps drive up the price of the rest of the shares left on the open market. Since January 2002, stocks of major oil companies have gained 88 percent; during that period the Standard and Poor’s 500 index has gained less than half as much.

Oil producers have also given investors a raise by gradually increasing the dividends paid out to shareholders. And they’ve paid down their debts to record low levels. ExxonMobil, for example, is virtually debt-free -– with a cash pile of more than $25 billion.

All of this industry good fortune has not escaped the notice of consumers, whose anger at higher gasoline prices has been rising in lock step with the price of crude. The energy bill recently enacted by both houses of Congress provides little relief for U.S. energy consumers. But a continued rise in prices could bring increased political pressure to find ways to lower the cost of energy, according to Tom Kloka at the Oil Price Information Service.

"This is something that Americans regard as their birth right," he said. "If gasoline prices are still north of $2.25 (a gallon) when we reach the midterm election, there's going to be an awful lot of outrage."

Even as their overall profits have soared, major oil companies are earning a relatively modest 8.7 percent profit margin -- the portion of the sale of each barrel that hits the bottom line. Major banks and drug makers, for example, enjoy profits margins that are twice as big.

Keeping the oil flowing
Not all of the proceeds from the surge in oil prices has gone straight to the industry’s bottom line. As oil prices rise, so do oil companies' costs. For starters, they pay royalties to governments that lease the rights to drill -– a payment that ranges as high as 18 percent in the U.S. Domestic oil producers also pay taxes of about 40 percent, according to Gheit. So as the price of oil rises, so does the bill for royalties and taxes.

Oil producers also have to spend money to keep oil flowing from aging fields, by drilling more holes in the ground to squeeze fewer and fewer barrels out of the same fields. The cost of these oilfield services, everything from drilling rigs to pipelines, has risen by as much as 50 percent over the past five years, according to Gheit. So the cost of maintaining existing levels of production is now consuming more than half of the industry’s annual capital outlays, most of which used to go to discovering new oil fields.

That means a smaller portion of oil industry profits are being put to work to find more oil. One big reason is that finding promising areas to develop new reserves has become increasingly difficult. In part, that's because the bulk of the world’s oil reserves sit in the ground controlled by authoritarian regimes. The higher the price of oil goes, the easier it is for those regimes to maintain power and the less they need to turn to outside oil companies for investment, said A.G. Edwards futures analyst Bill O’Grady.

“Foreign investment brings in foreigners and their ideas,” he said. “OPEC countries and Russia have worked vigorously not let that happen.”

Despite pledges to increase output, most OPEC countries are pumping at full capacity already. And if oil prices are headed higher, those countries with the ability to boost output now have little incentive to do so if they wait and get more money for the same oil in the future.

As a result, Western oil producers have been forced to look for new reserves by shopping for other oil companies that have already found and developed deposits of oil and natural gas. As oil prices have risen, so has the value of another oil company's reserves. The current bidding war between Chevron and China’s state-owned CNOOC is just the latest example.

But none of that investment in other oil companies is increasing the world’s supply of oil. And without new discoveries, the price of oil will likely continue to rise.

"Basically, it's musical chairs, and every time you have fewer and fewer companies,” said Gheit. “The people who are slicing pie among themselves -- the number is shrinking, but the pie itself is not growing. The pie is shrinking."

© 2005 MSNBC Interactive


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8646744/

[BOREALIS]

Survey Says RFID Is Red Hot

July 22, 2005 (6:09 PM EDT
By TechWeb News


Prospective RFID users are plunging ahead with wireless radio ID technology in the wake of retail and government mandates, a new report says.

AMR Research said 69 percent of the 500 companies it surveyed plan to evaluate, pilot or implement RFID this year. “RFID is still in its formative years,” said Dennis Gaughan, AMR Research’s research director, in a statement. “The market will be hotly contested across all technology segments from tags and readers through middleware and enterprise applications.”

The market research firm predicted healthy growth for RFID, too, forecasting the average corporate budget for the new technology will increase from $548, 000 to $771.000 by 2007. AMR said compliance issues are the key factor prompting most respondents to move towards RFID. And, many respondents cited concerns over attempting to justify RFID in terms of return on investment as an obstacle in moving to the emerging technology.

AMR noted that no single vendor has been able to establish a dominant position in RFID.

Although 69 percent of the surveyed companies plan to implement the technology this year, 18 percent said they have no plans at all to use RFID.

Early adopters already in full RFID deployment represent some 8 percent of the polled firms while another 23 percent are in pilot use, AMR said in the report.

http://www.techweb.com/wire/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=166401941

[Ken Scordo]

Rager, how's our Data Center, any problems? I haven't noticed it being down at all. Has it ever been down, has it been hanging up?

Anyone notice any problems we need to address?

[BullNBear52]

Lifting the Lid: U.S. Pink Sheets lure investors despite risks

Thu Jul 21, 2005 11:53 AM ET
By John Letzing

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - Cromwell Coulson is in an odd position, extolling the virtues of his increasingly popular Pink Sheets stock quoting service while acknowledging it can be a haven for fraud.

Companies listed on this poor cousin to the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq can sell for pennies per share, and are often not obligated to tell investors anything about their business -- including whether they really have a business.

"It's kind of like Las Vegas when the mob was still running around in it," said Coulson, chief executive officer of privately held New York-based Pink Sheets.

"There are a lot of legitimate companies in this space, but quite often they're overshadowed by the crooks," he said in an interview with Reuters.

Of 63 securities suspended from trading in 2004 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 58 were listed on the Pink Sheets.

Despite the risk, the chance to buy into the next big thing lures a growing number of investors to Pink Sheet shares.

From 2000 through 2004, the annual dollar volume on the Pink Sheets jumped to $51 billion from $29 billion, up 76 percent. Meanwhile, annual trading volume grew to 819 billion from 22 billion shares, an increase of 3,600 percent.

During that same period, annual trading volume on the NYSE grew 40 percent.

Coulson attributes increased Pink Sheets volume to more amateur day traders seeking future stars and hedge funds targeting distressed stocks.

PRETTY IN PINK?

Mike Ser, sales and marketing manager with online stock quotation service AlphaTrade, said that increasingly, people like "your mom and pop, or your grandma's friend" are investing in hopes that Pink Sheets companies are potential gold mines.

Lacking the extensive listing conditions of the major markets, the Pink Sheets are home to many companies in their embryonic state with the possibility of a tiny investment leaping in value from just cents per share.

The Pink Sheets originated in 1904 as stock quotations printed on pink paper by the National Quotation Bureau.

Veteran Wall Street traders remember the days when the "pink sheets," measuring about 15 inches long and 7 inches wide and about an inch-and-a-half thick, were delivered each day to brokerage offices in New York City.

In 1999, Coulson, who had bought the company two years earlier, transformed it into a Web-based information source for brokers, who spot each others' bids and offers and trade through a messaging service.

Coulson, 38, a former trader, has embraced the Pink Sheets' edgy reputation, moving its office into a space in the trendy SoHo area of Manhattan and painting the walls pink.

Yet, Coulson wants more SEC scrutiny.

"These are the poorer neighborhoods, and you need more police on the street," he said.

SEC spokesman John Nestor says Pink Sheets companies are monitored.

"We patrol all ends of the market," he said. "We don't want people to think they can fly under the radar."

BUYER BEWARE

But investors often can't check glowing company press releases and e-mails touting stocks against hard financial numbers. Firms listed on the Pink Sheets with less than $10 million in assets for the past three years and fewer than 500 shareholders are allowed to skip regular financial disclosures.

In February, the SEC said the former CEO of Pink Sheets-listed tool maker Spear & Jackson Inc. agreed to pay $6.1 million to settle charges he sold off company shares after hiring a firm to promote them.

The SEC charged that Dennis Crowley, of Highland Beach, Florida, had sold $3 million worth of the artificially inflated shares in what it termed a "pump-and-dump" scheme.

Michael Boone, a certified financial planner and president of MWBoone & Associates in Bellevue, Washington, cautions that Pink Sheets stocks should only be targeted by those with a large portfolio, and enough money to play with.

"If someone's willing to say, 'I don't want to spend the air fare to Vegas, that's great,'" Boone said. "But they (Pink Sheets) don't have the cheap drinks, and it's a lot less fun to sit at home and watch your money disappear."

Coulson is quick to point out that his system is not made up solely of the disingenuous or the untested.

Recognizable names also list here, often in the wake of disaster, like clinic operator HealthSouth Corp. (HLSH.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) , recovering from a $3.9 billion accounting fraud.

And 140-year-old Swiss-based Nestle SA (NSRGF.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) , the world's biggest food maker, lists its American depositary receipts on the system -- avoiding U.S. exchange filing rules.

But there are plenty of neophytes like MDM Group Inc. (MDDM.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) , which is developing an electrified bullet, and H3 Enterprises Inc. (HTRE.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) , developer of Hip Hop-themed restaurants with 50-Cent specials, named after the rapper 50 Cent.

Though it does not have any reported earnings, an investor who bought 100 shares of MDM Group on Feb. 2, 2004, at 4 cents a share could have theoretically flipped them on March 15, 2004, for $4.50, turning $4 into $450.

MDM shares were trading on Thursday at $1.20 a share, unchanged from Wednesday's close.

Coulson warns that investors should realize what they are getting into.

"Capitalism is rough," he said. "We're trying to fit into the regulatory system, but you're not going to change everything overnight."



http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh46416_2005-07-21_15-53-55_n21...

[BullNBear52]

Bid by Chevron in Big Oil Deal Thwarts China
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
and JAD MOUAWAD
Chevron sweetened its offer for Unocal late yesterday in an 11th-hour move to thwart a rival offer from Cnooc, a government backed Chinese oil company, executives close to the negotiations said.

Unocal's board voted to accept Chevron's increased offer worth $17 billion, or $63 a share in cash and stock, and rejected a still higher all-cash offer from Cnooc worth $67 a share as too politically risky, the executives said.

The decision by Unocal's board could end the takeover battle that has stirred significant debate in Washington about national security concerns and trade policies with China. Still, it is possible that Cnooc could return to the negotiating table with a higher bid.

For the past month, Chevron and Cnooc have been locked in a battle of nerves over who will end up controlling Unocal, a mid-sized independent oil company based in El Segundo, Calif. Both bidders are racing against an Aug. 10 deadline, when the shareholders of Unocal will get the opportunity to approve or reject the offer.

The battle has turned into a source of tension between the United States and China, with some American lawmakers saying they would seek to pass legislation blocking the Chinese takeover.

Last Thursday, Unocal's board, which met at the company's headquarters, instructed its management to keep negotiating with Cnooc, which had put $18.5 billion on the table in cash. While still endorsing Chevron's cash-and-stock proposal, the board of Unocal decided then that it would consider an offer from Cnooc if several conditions were met. They include financial guarantees if Cnooc walked away from a deal or if the offer was blocked.

Chevron is betting that the opposition to a takeover by a Chinese company will scare Unocal's board away from the Chinese offer, while Cnooc is convinced that, ultimately, Unocal will consider the financial benefits of its bid.

At the heart of the battle lie Unocal's oil and gas fields in Asia, mainly in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh, as well as a scattering of assets in North America, which hold a total of 1.7 billion barrels of proven oil and gas reserves.

Both companies see Unocal as an opportunity to raise their reserves and increase production at a time when access to oil and gas fields is getting increasingly difficult.

A Cnooc victory would bring the largest takeover by a Chinese company of a foreign company and the biggest step so far by one of China's three state-owned oil companies to break out of their country in the search for sources of energy. Chevron, meanwhile, is betting on Unocal's growth potential to help it increase production and add to its global reserves.

Unocal's shares have gained 9 percent since April 4, when the deal with Chevron was announced. They closed at $64.99 a share on Tuesday. Chevron closed at $57.30.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/20/international/asia/20unocal.html

[gotmilk]

Tattle Tales, Tattle Tail...

and whats a Pup Hedz?


Not a Tattle, but its a nice tail.


Whats a pup hed z ?


Why does Ken have a ZETES softball shirt on?


Little girl blondie Susie in da middle is a tattletale.


. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wiggles looks very different here
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Does Wiggles want to tell us something?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When a dog is gonna do a tattletale
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . their ears get very very long.

[cintrix]

Great minds think alike.

[Susie924]

Tattle tale (or is it tail?)

[Churak]

Ok...I am now 99.9% convinced that you & Susie are the same person & am going to ask MATTY to check the IP addresses.

[cintrix]

What's grub? lmao jk

[Susie924]

Nice grub Trixie!

[Chrisau]

I like the way it looks as is. My .02.

[az2820]

now that is a bunch of bull

[Susie924]

LOL!

[Mattu]

THAT'S THE TRIX I KNOW!!!

[cintrix]

She says "I don't know what the @#$##$# you guys are talking about"! How fiesty is that?

[Mattu]

Let's see what our favorite fiesty trader chica has to say.

[BullNBear52]

US consumer prices steady in June, defying forecasts
Thu Jul 14, 2005 08:31 AM ET
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices held steady in June as tumbling energy prices offset small gains in the cost of food and other items, according to a government report on Thursday showing little inflation pressure.
Energy prices fell 0.5 percent, while food costs edged up a mild 0.1 percent, the Labor Department said. Outside of those two volatile areas, the core consumer price index inched up 0.1 percent for a second straight month, suggesting underlying inflation may be waning.

The report was likely to bolster betting on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve may soon call a halt to its year-long campaign of interest-rate rises. Economists had expected consumer prices to move up 0.3 percent with core prices up 0.2 percent.

The unchanged reading in the overall CPI, which followed the first drop in 10 months in May, brought the year-on-year increase in consumer prices down to just 2.5 percent, well off the peak of 3.5 percent hit just two months ago. It was the lowest 12-month CPI reading since last September, before a big spike in oil prices.

Over the past 12 months, core inflation advanced 2 percent, the smallest year-on-year gain since October.

The drop in energy prices, the second straight monthly decrease, reflected a 1.2 percent plunge in gasoline prices and a 3.5 percent slide in the cost of natural gas.



http://yahoo.reuters.com/financeQuoteCompanyNewsArticle.jhtml?duid=mtfh94335_2005-07-14_12-31-30_n13...

[Rager]

Matt,
my thoughts are you have as wierd of hours as I do...lol

I like your concept
Though I do like the pictures with the stories, the advantage as I see it is trix being able to post lots more stories.

[Mattu]

Late night idear.

You know how we 'embed' the top boards on the Rage?

I bet you I could figure out a way to 'embed' a board, but customized just to show the message list, no header information or any of that crap...for the Breaking News Board(s).

Get my drift, brotha?

It'd be quite active and require no uploading for trix.

Downside is no graphics.

Thoughts?

[BullNBear52]

Unocal Bid Opens Up New Issues of Security
By STEVE LOHR
July 13, 2005

The fate of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation's bid for Unocal remains uncertain, but one thing is clear. The takeover offer has prompted a gathering groundswell in Congress to make sure oil is defined as a product vital to America's national security.

If the political push gains momentum, it will change the mandate and reach of a little-known, secretive body with representatives from 12 government agencies, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The outcome of Cnooc's bid for Unocal may rest in the hands of that committee.

One salvo came at the end of last month with a House resolution that declared that permitting the Chinese company to buy Unocal would "threaten to impair the national security of the United States." It passed 398 to 15.

Now the members of a bipartisan advisory group to Congress are urging representatives and senators to amend the law that controls the work of the foreign investment committee. The Congressional advisory group wants the law to specifically expand the definition of America's national security to include matters of economic security, like energy and oil supplies.

"Is energy security national security? We certainly think it is," said C. Richard D'Amato, chairman of the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission, which advises Congress.

Mr. D'Amato is scheduled to testify today at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the national security implications of the Chinese company's pending bid for Unocal, a midsize American oil company.

The $18.5 billion bid by Cnooc competes with one from Chevron, which is lower at $16.8 billion. But the Chevron offer came before the Cnooc bid surfaced, and Cnooc faces regulatory and political hurdles that Chevron does not. The Unocal board has approved the Chevron offer, but is now talking with Cnooc as well.

To treat oil, a globally traded commodity, as a national security product would represent a departure for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as Cfius (pronounced SIH-fee-us), created in 1988 to scrutinize foreign purchases of American companies for national security concerns. The committee, headed by the Treasury secretary, has representatives from 12 agencies including the State Department, Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, Commerce Department, Office of the United States Trade Representative and National Security Council. Its proceedings are secret.

Over the years, in both Republican and Democratic administrations, the investment committee has typically focused on the potential of a foreign takeover to transfer military-related technologies used in arms like fighter jets, precision bombs and nuclear submarines.

The committee, according to foreign trade specialists and former government officials, routinely looks for so-called dual-use technologies that have advanced industrial and military applications. To satisfy those security concerns, mergers have often been modified - to spin off a small but sensitive operation, for example, or restrict access to a plant to American employees. In some cases, bidders drop their offers when confronted with the committee review and its conditions.

Of more than 1,500 filings to the committee in 17 years, only about a dozen cases, trade experts say, have gone through a 30-day preliminary inquiry and a 45-day investigation, and then been referred to the president with a recommendation to approve or block the deal. Only one deal has been blocked on national security grounds: the 1990 sale of a airplane parts maker based in Seattle, Mamco Manufacturing, to the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation.

A Cnooc-Unocal deal, trade and security analysts say, could raise some traditional national security concerns that the investment committee would want to investigate. For example, the analysts said that Unocal had underwater terrain-mapping technology used for offshore oil exploration that might also be useful in navigation for the Chinese military's growing fleet of submarines.

"There could be national security issues in the Cnooc deal, but locking up oil is not one of them," said Kenneth G. Lieberthal, a former senior official on the National Security Council in the Clinton administration, who is a China expert at the University of Michigan.

Many economists and oil specialists are skeptical that owning oil is vital to national security. Controlling the oil and gas reserves in the ground, they say, does not increase a nation's energy security as long as there is a deep worldwide market for buying it by the barrel or tanker.

But the national security concern raised by members of Congress, their advisers and some oil experts is that the petroleum market may be changing because of tight supplies, rapidly rising demand from fast-growing nations like China and India, and the increasing strategy among state-owned oil companies to control reserves.

As a result, they warn, less oil will be bought and sold on the free market, while more will be locked up by national interests.

"I'm generally a free-trader, but I do think that we need to understand our security differently," explained Larry M. Wortzel, a former military attaché to the American Embassy in Beijing and a member of the Congressional United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Another member of the Congressional commission, Michael R. Wessel, said: "I think most people would agree that oil is a national security issue. What is still to be determined, of course, is what to do about it."

That would be a politically difficult call, if the Bush administration had to make one in the Cnooc case. Both the Chinese company and its critics in Congress have asked the foreign investment committee to review the Cnooc bid. The Chinese company made its lengthy voluntary filing to the committee on June 29.

"Everybody in Congress was calling for a national security review," observed Daniel L. Spiegel, a partner in the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which represents Cnooc. "We heard the calls and we moved forward. We made the filing."

The Cnooc side has heard nothing yet from the investment committee, which has apparently not begun a review. Cnooc contends that delay favors Chevron, and its own bid is hardly "hypothetical," as Treasury Secretary John W. Snow termed the Cnooc offer.

The Treasury Department position is that an inquiry will not start until "the committee has made a determination that a transaction is likely to be successful," said Tony Fratto, a department spokesman.

In the past, the foreign investment committee has conducted reviews of unsolicited takeover bids. It did so in 1990 when BTR of Britain bid for Norton, a producer of industrial abrasives whose products were used to make aircraft parts and missile domes. Later, when Saint-Gobain of France joined the contest, the foreign investment committee conducted the two reviews simultaneously. Saint-Gobain eventually won with a higher bid, and President George H. W. Bush approved the sale.

The administration, foreign policy specialists say, wants to put off a decision on Cnooc if it can. The United States, they note, faces a series of thorny issues with China on other fronts. Washington wants Beijing to put pressure on North Korea in coming nuclear disarmament talks; the United States is pressing China to restrain its digital pirates, who illegally copy movies, software and other goods; and there are the continuing tensions over China's huge trade surplus with the United States, manufacturing jobs lost to China and Washington's call for China to loosen its fixed-rate currency policy.

"The Bush administration would rather see the Cnooc bid and the issues surrounding it just go away somehow," said Mr. Lieberthal of the University of Michigan. "The administration is not anxious to put another issue - a potentially negative one - on the U.S.-China agenda."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/business/worldbusiness/13unocal.html

[Churak]

Never mind...I was able to get in

[occams_razor]

Paulie,

Those descriptions kill me.


Note to self, never make Paulie Cashews angry!

[az2820]

working ok for me rage
your getting better every day.

[BullNBear52]

You may have to flush out your temp files and cookies then reboot. It was pretty messy yesterday.

[Churak]

yup...working in Canada also; guess my email to my Member of Parliament worked!

[Rager]

Working fine for me also.

[cintrix]

That's what Chu was getting yesterday.

[Chrisau]

This is what I get;

The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please try the following:

Click the Refresh button, or try again later.

If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.

To check your connection settings, click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options. On the Connections tab, click Settings. The settings should match those provided by your local area network (LAN) administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).
If your Network Administrator has enabled it, Microsoft Windows can examine your network and automatically discover network connection settings.
If you would like Windows to try and discover them,
click Detect Network Settings
Some sites require 128-bit connection security. Click the Help menu and then click About Internet Explorer to determine what strength security you have installed.
If you are trying to reach a secure site, make sure your Security settings can support it. Click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Security section and check settings for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, PCT 1.0.
Click the Back button to try another link.



Cannot find server or DNS Error
Internet Explorer

[cintrix]

I just tried it and it is working for me.

[Chrisau]

News page won't open.

[cintrix]

lmao - congrats

[Churak]

I am now propogated...

[Mattu]

Everything appears totally updated and it looks like Rager/gang got everything updated on new site.

[The Original dpb5!]

Thanks for RE-explaining. He isn't that good at comprehension!

[Mattu]

Churak -

I explained what happened. It may take up to 24 hrs to propogate. Give it time.

The old site was showing up because I copied this all late last night when I was doing it and the Rage folks didn't have logins until this morning for the new site.

Has nothing to do with quality of servers or data center.

MB

[Susie924]

I think you should do that!

[Churak]

You may be onto something. First the OCS toll free (HAHAHAHAHA) number is not accessible to Canuckleheads and now the ATR News Site...Next thing you know, iHub will be hanging up on me. I'm contacting my Member of Parliament!

[Susie924]

I think it's a conspiracy against Canadians!

[Churak]

This is freaking ridiculous. This is what I get on my home puter when I try to get the NEWS SITE. Is this Ken's idea of a GOOD SERVER??? Huh...IS IT???:

The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please try the following:

Click the Refresh button, or try again later.

If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.

To check your connection settings, click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options. On the Connections tab, click Settings. The settings should match those provided by your local area network (LAN) administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).
If your Network Administrator has enabled it, Microsoft Windows can examine your network and automatically discover network connection settings.
If you would like Windows to try and discover them,
click Detect Network Settings
Some sites require 128-bit connection security. Click the Help menu and then click About Internet Explorer to determine what strength security you have installed.
If you are trying to reach a secure site, make sure your Security settings can support it. Click the Tools menu, and then click Internet Options. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Security section and check settings for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, PCT 1.0.
Click the Back button to try another link.



Cannot find server or DNS Error
Internet Explorer

[SkeBallLarry]

Now THAT tops it all ..... !!!!! . BEST one yet ... Your opener, that is ....