Sen. John McCain(R-AZ)

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is considered a front-runner for the 2008 race, but does McCain have the temperament to be president?

Experts Say Last Year's Record Low Sea Ice Was Not An Anomaly

Mary Lyon

  (World News Trust) -- All the blue and white “Unity” signs didn’t make nearly as vivid an impression as did the Lady in Gold on Night Number Two in Denver. Hillary Clinton Night at the Democratic Convention was actually the first night we’ve seen any real red meat served up in prime time. And no woman in there was a vegetarian on this night. Neither were the men present, of course, but Hillary Clinton’s message to many of her ardent devotees -- many of them women who were heartbroken that Obama and not she will be their nominee -- was as clear as could be. And hardly medium-rare.

  (Bloomberg) -- New-home sales in the U.S. improved in July from a 17-year low and construction cutbacks by builders reduced the glut of properties on the market by the most in almost five decades.

Russian T-80 Tanks

In commenting on the war in the Caucasus, most American analysts have tended to see it as a throwback to the past: as a continuation of centuries-old blood feud between Russians and Georgians, or, at best, as part of the unfinished business of the Cold War. 

Mary Lyon

  (World News Trust) -- What a great opening night! And what an historic journey the Democratic National Convention highlighted in its kickoff. It was a night of Great Democratic Bookends.

James Kunstler

  (World News Trust) -- As the political conventions descend like the soggy forces of nature they have become -- the tropical depressions of politics -- the Republican party will be seen, with growing clarity, as the party that wrecked America. So many shoes are about to drop, and so many dominoes lined up to fall 'out there' on the financial landscape that the thump and clatter of crashing institutions will sound like the percussion section of the renowned USC marching band as the nation tramps toward the general election.

The Beanie of Power

So there I was, in one of my more reflective moods, wondering where the site traffic went.

Dodge Hemi Challenger

Automakers plan to urge Congress to support funding up to $50 billion in low-interest loans over three years to help them modernize their assembly plants and develop next-generation fuel-efficient vehicles.

WASHINGTON -- Long before the mortgage crisis began rocking Main Street and Wall Street, a top FBI official made a chilling, if little-noticed,prediction: The booming mortgage business, fueled by low interest rates and soaring home values, was starting to attract shady operators and billions in losses were possible.

Mary Lyon

Joe Biden is already a pretty effective giant-killer, and he may just have killed another giant – a giant bummer among Democratic partisans concerned about the backbone of their party. Biden’s the guy who yanked the teeth and claws out of Rudy Giuliani last October 30th, during one of the Democratic primary debates. His now-famous and quite devastating remark, in a mere 15 words, shriveled Giuliani’s single biggest claim to fame and greatest perceived strength down into pathetic joke status:

“There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11.“

Eleven Emerging Challenges

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the RAND Corporation and to uphold its tradition of taking on the big issues of tomorrow, a call went out to all RAND staff around the world, inviting them to propose essays on “important policy issues not currently receiving the attention they deserve in the public debate” — issues, in other words, that might be on the back burner today but will likely become front-burner issues within the next five years.

The Lovely Ms. Alexandrovna

Some crazy stuff went down in Mississippi today that has lawyers in Mississippi up in arms. My friend Lotus over at Folo blog does a  good job summarizing the situation:

James Kunstler

The feeble American response to Russia's assertion of power in the Caucasus of Central Asia was appropriate, since our claims of influence in that part of the world are laughable.

We've all read that speculators are driving oil prices artificially high — a claim that gets more interesting in light of oil's recent fall below $115. But maybe we're looking at it from the wrong perspective. Suppose that major suppliers in the oil industry are these manipulative speculators.

Is it possible that oil prices are rigged? You bet. Here's how: 

Strategic Oil Reserve

While oil prices have declined somewhat of late, the volatility of the market and the political and religious unrest in major oil-producing countries has Americans worrying more than ever about energy security.

Regulators had long classified a private Swiss energy conglomerate called Vitol as a trader that primarily helped industrial firms that needed oil to run their businesses. 

Henry Blodget

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The legacy of Henry Blodget may haunt Merrill Lynch & Co Inc (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) as it negotiates a settlement with regulators for the way it sold auction rate securities to investors.

Mary Lyon

  (World News Trust) -- It’s amazing how much mud is flying in this presidential contest -- and not just that which is being flung nonstop at Barack Obama. Mudslinging is common during political campaigns, but sometimes that mud isn’t exactly a guided missile. There are moments when it’s splattered about with such zeal that it just gets all over everything -- not just the flingee. In the case of the weekend’s Saddleback Forum, one might well suspect that there was way more than a single flinger.

Homeland Secdurity Officers

I was recently stopped by Homeland Security as I was returning from a trip to Syria. What I saw in the hours that followed shocked and disturbed me.

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell a fourth day on signs of declining demand in the U.S., the biggest energy-consuming country, and as the dollar strengthened.

Paul B. Farrell

Pentagon can't find $2.3 trillion, wasting trillions on 'national defense'

A for sale sign sits out in front of a completed home in Forsyth, Georgia on Aug. 18, 2008. Photographer: Chris Rank/Bloomberg News

  (Bloomberg) -- Credit market turmoil has driven the United States into a recession and may topple some of the nation's biggest banks, said Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

  (Times Of Malta) -- The probability is growing that the global economy -- not just the United States -- will experience a serious recession. Recent developments suggest that all G7 economies are already in recession or close to tipping into one. Other advanced economies or emerging markets (the rest of the eurozone; New Zealand, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and some Southeast European economies) are also nearing a recessionary hard landing. When they reach it, there will be a sharp slowdown in the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and other emerging markets.

  (Speaking Truth To Power) -- The graph line of the global population explosion now goes upward almost vertically. The graph line of reserves of resources that fund that explosion falls precipitously. The point at which population crosses the food production line is the point of the beginning of the coming mass die-off of human population.

  The Future of Air Travel

  (Bloomberg) -- Investment advisers are more optimistic about U.S. markets than they were six months ago, according to an online survey by Charles Schwab Corp.

This is a satellite image of Tropical Storm Fay, released to the media on Monday, Aug. 18, 2008. Tropical Storm Fay strengthened as it plowed across Cuba, drenching the Caribbean island on a northward course that's forecast to take it to Florida, with the system strengthening into a hurricane on the way. Source: NOAA via Bloomberg News

  (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Fay made landfall over Key West, Florida, today after killing about a dozen people on its path through the Caribbean.

Plot of TS Fay's expected path

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil traded little changed as a storm near Cuba prompted evacuations from rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for about a fifth of U.S. production. 

  NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The U.S. Treasury is growing increasingly likely to recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the months ahead on the taxpayer's dime, Barron's reported in its Aug. 18 edition.