http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aTz.Cc_oSAno&refer=europe

May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Commodity shipping rates jumped to a record on
increasing Chinese demand for iron ore and may advance further as
rising finance costs curb growth in shipbuilding.

The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of costs to move everything from coal
to grain, gained 418 points, or 3.9 percent, to 11,067 points on the
Baltic Exchange in London.

Chinese steel production has expanded more than fourfold in a decade,
forcing the nation to step up imports of coal and iron ore from
Australia and Brazil to feed its furnaces. The country, the world's
most populous, is also the biggest consumer of metals including
copper, nickel, zinc, tin and aluminum.

``The main thing is iron ore coming out of Brazil and Australia,''
Peter Norfolk, an analyst at London-based shipbroker Simpson, Spence &
Young Ltd., said by phone today. ``Steel prices globally are very,
very high so steel production is very strong, particularly in China.''

http://www.afamreport.com/

The author sez: "That comment may be the last nail in her campaign's
coffin," a Kennedy relative said. "How can Hillary even use the
experience argument when she repeatedly pushes the wrong buttons in
her comments?"

Click on: ''News Stories' at the top, scroll to Kennedy Family
Outraged

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/movies/26cnd-pollack.html?hp

Sydney Pollack, Film Director, Dies at 73

By MICHAEL CIEPLY
Published: May 26, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay as director,
producer and sometime actor whose star-laden movies like “The Way We
Were,” “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa” were among the most successful of
the 1970s and Â’80s, died on Monday at his home in Los Angeles. He was
73.

The cause was cancer, said a representative of the family.

Mr. PollackÂ’s career defined an era in which big stars (Robert
Redford, Barbra Streisand, Warren Beatty) and the filmmakers who knew
how to wrangle them (Barry Levinson, Mike Nichols) retooled the
Hollywood system. Savvy operators, they played studio against studio,
staking their fortunes on pictures that served commerce without wholly
abandoning art.

Iran is a wealthy country because of its oil. But Iran is also
technologically way behind Israel in the region where they exist.

So, the argument that Iran is a threat to Israel's existence worthy of
total obliteration but unworthy for a US president to talk peace to is
totally absurd. Maybe it can fool some very uneducated people and
please some of the hawks for Israel's rightwing Likud politicians, but
it is bad for world peace and any action based on it would further
destablize the US economy, not to mention the global atmospheric
system.

McCain and Hillary (as well as Bill) Clinton are subservient to that
rightwing interest, which wants nothing less than to continue the Bush
war policy of the past 8 years, which has bankrupted our treasury.

Jimmy Carter tells it like it is, as he told it at a news conference
in Wales, this past week.

lo yeeOn
========

#BBC NEWS | Middle East Low Graphics
Page last updated at 20:26 GMT, Monday, 26 May 2008 21:26 UK
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Dead Troops Remembered By President Who Had Them Killed
By: Nicole Belle

Yes, that's a harsh headline for this piece.

But I'll ask you to forgive me because, as a Veteran, there isn't a day on
the calendar that causes my hatred - and I do indeed mean hatred - of George
W. Bush to bubble over the top more than Memorial Day.

"On Memorial Day, we honor the heroes who have laid down their lives in
the cause of freedom, resolve that they will forever be remembered by a
grateful Nation, and pray that our country may always prove worthy of the
sacrifices they have made," reads Bush's official Memorial Day proclamation,
issued by the White House on Thursday.

The Chickenhawk-in Chief says a lot of things that make this Vet's blood
boil but stuff like saying that he prays ".that our country may always prove
worthy of the sacrifices they have made" is almost vomit inducing.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Chickenhawk

I have no words that can adequately describe how this man that seems to
think war is great as long as he doesn't have to participate has dishonored
not just our fallen troops, but all members of the Military past and
present. When it was his turn to go, his daddy got him out of it, and he
cheered from the sanctuary of The National Guard with a cocktail, a coke
spoon and a joint.

Then as an illegally-appointed president Bush started a war on completely
false premises that continues to this day while his family and cronies
profiteer from this human tragedy.

The final straw is that he would deny the returning troops the VA benefits
that all veterans since WWII have gotten. George W Bush is not a only a
disgrace to the presidency, to the government and to our country but also a
disgrace to humanity. If there is any justice in this world, the new
President and Congress will prosecute W and the rest of the Chickenhawks for
their crimes.

Ask not at whom the Chimp smirks; he smirks at you.

Israel has '150 or more' nuclear weapons: Carter

Mon May 26, 3:55 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) - Israel has "150 or more" nuclear weapons, former US president
Jimmy Carter said at a press conference over the weekend, a spokesman for
the literary festival at which he was speaking confirmed.

Asked how a future US president should deal with the prospect of a
nuclear-armed Iran, the 83-year-old said: "The US has more than 12,000
nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union (sic) has about the same; Great Britain
and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more."

"We have a phalanx of enormous weaponry, not only of enormous weaponry, but
of rockets to deliver those missiles on a pinpoint accuracy target," he said
at a press conference in Hay-on-Wye, in Wales, on Sunday, according to a
spokesman for the Guardian Hay Festival.

Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East
but has a policy of neither confirming nor denying its arsenal.

At the same press conference, Carter described Israel's blockade of the Gaza
Strip as "one of the greatest human rights crimes now existing on Earth" and
the Nobel Peace Prize winner also said the European Union's failure to
support the Palestinian cause was "embarrassing".

McCain Defends GI Bill Opposition In Memorial Day Speech
WASHINGTON - John McCain on Monday defended his plan for veterans' college
benefits, as both the war hero and Democratic rival Barack Obama reached out
to veterans on the Memorial Day holiday.

The issue has become a point of contention between the Republican
presidential nominee-in-waiting and Obama, the Democratic frontrunner who
has slammed McCain for opposing a measure in the Senate. The two have
squared off from a distance in recent days, at times with heated words.

"I am running for the office of commander in chief. That is the highest
privilege in this country, and it imposes the greatest responsibilities. And
this is why I am committed to our bill, despite the support Senator Webb's
bill has received," McCain

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/26/mccain-defends-gi-bill-op_n_103594.html

I'm sick of hearing about McCain being a POW. I want to know what he's doing
to help those who were injured in this mistake and what he is doing for the
families of those killed? This isn't about him it is about we the people. If
he doesn't get it then he should lose.

Has McCain ever done anything for people other than himself? He's like
Bush. It would kill McCain to do something for others.

This little old man has no manners; I shall not listen to him or read
anything he has to say. If he is not ready to have a decent and respecatable
debate with the Democratic nominee, whoever he or she...