Last week Fox News ran a story about how things were going so well in Fallujah that they've opened their first KFC franchise to keep the locals hooked up with quality Fried Chicken...

So, after allowing our own textile and other manufacturing industries to be gutted in the almighty name of free trade, U.S. negotiators at the World Trade Organization (WTO) now have to report that one of our big exports, agricultural products, will now be priced out of the market where all those old factories were physically moved.

After conducting the requisite search, I didn't find another diary that put these together, so I'm going ahead with it. My apologies if it turns out my searching skills are deficient (or I've violated some other convention). Sure someone will let me know ...

Compare the following two political ads and tell me if you see any similarities.

Across the Triangle, bankruptcies are soaring as people and businesses, pulled down by bad luck and a bad economy, are giving up.

   ***

"The last time we had this many real-estate related bankruptcies was in the 1980s during the savings-and-loan crisis," said Marjorie Lynch, bankruptcy administrator for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Eastern District.

– Economic Woes force some businesses out, News & Observer, Raleigh, June 2, 2008.

When I first saw this article, one phrase immediately came to mind.

"There you go again." The sarcastic put-down line used to effect by Ronald Reagan against the then President, Jimmy Carter.

"Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided."

When, for the second time in 2 years, someone in the current administration throws out the above quote attributed to a U.S. Senator who died almost 70 years ago, it kind of makes you wonder just who the guy was and whether he really said something like that.

Thanks to some researchers at the University of California, we now know that people actually use more energy during Daylight Saving Time (DST).

Why do they call it a "mortgage product" when they're trying to market it to you, but then it somehow becomes "an interest in land created by written instrument providing security for the performance of a duty or the payment of a debt" when the papers get signed.

Just wondering.

The headline from this morning's NY Times business page, Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread. When representatives from the Greenlining Institute approached Alan Greenspan with their concerns about the danger of an adjustable rate mortgage crisis, the then Fed chairman "just wasn't interested".

From the BBC, Bangladesh makes fresh aid plea.

It's been five days since cyclone Sidr hit the southern coast of Bangladesh. Tens of thousands are still at risk in its aftermath and up to ten thousand are estimated dead.

From Raleigh's News and Observer comes this story:

Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

So last fall the Charlotte musician and guitar instructor spent $1,200 to convert his 1981 diesel Mercedes to run on vegetable oil. He bought soybean oil in 5-gallon jugs at Costco, spending about 30 percent more than diesel would cost.

His reward, from a state that heavily promotes alternative fuels: a $1,000 fine last month for not paying motor fuel taxes. He has been told to expect another $1,000 fine from the federal government.

To legally use veggie oil, state officials told him, he would have to first post a $2,500 bond.