From Bloomberg:

A 26-mile-long line of idled oil tankers, enough to blockade the English Channel, may signal a 25 percent slump in freight rates next year.

The ships will unload 26 percent of the crude and oil products they are storing in six months, adding to vessel supply and pushing rates for supertankers down to an average of $30,000 a day next year, compared with $40,212 now, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 15 analysts, traders and shipbrokers.

That’s below what Frontline Ltd., the biggest operator of the ships, says it needs to break even.

Traders booked a record number of ships for storage this year, seeking to profit from longer-dated energy futures trading at a premium to contracts for immediate delivery, according to SSY Consultancy & Research Ltd., a unit of the world’s second- largest shipbroker. Ships taken out of that trade would return to compete for cargoes just as deliveries from shipyards’ largest-ever order book swell the global fleet.

“The tanker market has been defying gravity,” said Martin Stopford, a London-based director at Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker. Stopford has covered shipping since 1971.

Outside of the coming crash in tanker lease rates there is the looming crash in oil prices. Think about it – that much oil and other petroleum products are sitting in tankers and thus clearly not actually needed in the day to day. Its all surplus product – its off the market, for now, because speculators have placed it there. And it gets worse – all this oil has been un-needed while OPEC has dialed back on production due to the global recession.

Once all that comes on the market, then the price for all oil products will drop. Unless, of course, the global economy not only recovers, but goes gangbusters in to boom times. The reality is that even a modest economic recovery won’t be on track prior to 2011 and that is if everything goes well (something I don’t expect due to the Chinese real estate and securities bubbles, as well as our own stock bubble).

I was wondering what was keeping oil prices as high as they are. I mean, I knew that speculators were pushing up the price, but I hadn’t known that they were pushing up the price and then just storing surplus production for later delivery. This is insane. And very likely a direct result of all that money we and everyone else has been printing – the world is flush with fiat cash, allowing jerk speculators to run wild.

2010 will be a looooong year.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

Over at Riehl World View:

This has to be the most perfunctory speech the orator in chief has ever given. It’s as if he resents being pulled away from his vacation to make it. Where’s the energy? The personal connection? It isn’t there. He’s literally reading a press release and it shows. Where is all that charisma we’ve heard so much about? It’s as if the issue doesn’t even interest him at all.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Mary Steyn also nails it:

Putting aside the stuff that was just plain wrong (this guy’s an “isolated extremist” – oh, yeah?), the President’s remarks had a horrible desiccated complacency. “Alleged…” “suspect…” “charged…” – because this is no different from a punk holding up a gas station, right? In all their alleged allegedness, this Administration has an allergy to the concept of war, and thus to the tools of war, including strategy and war aims. In essence, they’ve accepted a Fort Hood model for this challenge: every so often, something will happen and people will die, and we’ll seal off the crime scene and take the alleged suspect into alleged custody. But it’s reactive, and it cripples our ability to prevent the death of innocents.

Just amazing:

At ThreatsWatch.org, Steve Schippert and Clyde Middleton have dug up the bizarre and unsettling issuance of an executive order recently signed by President Barack Obama. Executive Order — Amending Executive Order 12425, signed December 16 and released a day later, grants the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) rights on American soil that place it beyond the reach of our own law enforcement agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Schippert and Middleton note that Obama’s order removes protections placed upon INTERPOL by President Reagan in 1983. Obama’s order gives the group the authority to avoid Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests — which means this foreign law enforcement organization can operate free of an important safeguard against governmental abuse. “Property and assets,” including the organization’s records, cannot be searched or seized. Their physical locations and records are now immune from U.S. legal or investigative authorities.

The order, itself, is entirely incomprehensible to anyone not an expert in US law. It doesn’t say what it is supposed to do and no explanation of why its done is offered. This order essentially allows a foreign police force to act with impunity in the United States.

Now, why would Obama do this? Three possibilities:

1. He just signs whatever his aides place in front of him.

2. He just didn’t understand what he was signing.

3. He thinks it a good idea to allow a foreign police force to operate outside American law within the borders of the United States.

Now, domestic and international leftists will be pleased with this – it might even allow Interpol to arrest Americans charged before that kangaroo court in the Hague (the ICC). While, technically, this could be used against President Bush and members of his Administration, the more likely use will be against US soldiers accused of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. And who would be accusing them? Terrorists. Terrorists sponsors. Terrorists apologists. Run-of-the-mill leftist anti-Americans. A rouge’s gallery, in other words.

If someone on the left wanted to spark off a massive revolt in the United States, there would be no surer method than the sight of foreigners arresting an American war hero on trumped up, enemy-inspired charges. President Obama needs to rethink this one very carefully.

And if you think I was being harsh with Obama:

Hey did you hear about the iconic African-American guy who plays golf, and whose relationship with the public is in a free-fall lately?

No, as a matter of fact – I’m not talking about Tiger Woods.

You know, I’ve really been trying not to write an article every other week about all the things I don’t like about Barack Obama.

But the little (expletive deleted) is making it very hard.

Say what you want, but I never called President Obama an (expletive deleted). Never will, either. He’s my President and as such I must show respect. That said, our linked liberal goes on…

…Like any good progressive, I’ve gone from admiration to hope to disappointment to anger when it comes to this president. Now I’m fast getting to rage.

How much rage? I find myself thinking that the thing I want most from the 2010 elections is for his party to get absolutely clobbered, even if that means a repeat of 1994. And that what I most want from 2012 is for him to be utterly humiliated, even if that means President Palin at the helm. That much rage.

Did this clown really say on national television that “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of you know, fat cat bankers on Wall Street”?!?!

Really, Barack? So, like, my question is: Then why the hell did you help out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street?!?! Why the hell did you surround yourself with nothing but Robert Rubin proteges in all the key economic positions in your government? Why did you allow them to open a Washington branch of Goldman Sachs in the West Wing? Why have your policies been tailored to helping Wall Street bankers, rather than the other 300 million of us, who just happen to be suffering badly right now?…

As I recall, quite a lot of conservatives in late 2005 were hoping for a GOP drubbing in 2006 in order to teach us a lesson. Lesson learned. Democrats, I guess, are yet to learn this. But that’s not all:

…Here’s a guy who was supposed to actually do something with his presidency, and he’s turned into the skinny little geek on Cell Block D who gets passed around like a rag doll for the pleasure of all the fellas with the tattoos there. He’s being punked by John Boehner, for chrisakes. He’s being rolled by the likes of Joe Lieberman. He calls a come-to-Jesus meeting with Wall Street bank CEOs, and half of them literally phone it in. Everyone from Bibi Netanyahu to the Japanese prime minister to sundry Iranian mullahs is stomping all over Mr. Happy.

And he doesn’t even seem to realize it…

And our liberal concludes:

…Change you can believe in?

More like (expletive deleted) you can take a bath in, if you ask me.

The article was written by David Michael Green, he of “Smirking Chimp”. Yes, that refers to President Bush. This isn’t a centrist Democrat getting angry.

It could get mighty interesting in 2010.

HAT TIP: Black and Right.

Oh, yes, indeed:

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive. – C. S. Lewis

The news story:

Tens of thousands of Iranian protesters clashed with security forces nationwide, as a major religious holiday was convulsed by what appeared to be the worst street violence since antigovernment demonstrations broke out more than six months ago.

In the capital of Tehran, security forces opened fire on crowds in the central neighborhood of College Square around 11:30 a.m., killing at least four protesters, according to opposition Web sites, eyewitness accounts and online videos. Opposition sites put the death toll as high as eight in Tehran by late Sunday.

It is to be hoped that President Obama will find it within him to speak up and defend these fighters for freedom. Whatever deal he hopes to make with the mullahs isn’t worth it at the price of innocent blood.

These demonstrations show that the Iranian government is weak. Weak, and led by cowardly bullies, in to the bargain. In other words, just the sort of people who will back down if confronted forcefully.

Now, if only someone in the Administration would show some force…

The news story:

Not even a full day after police found the body of an 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped, authorities say, by a registered sex offender, the Salisbury tragedy was spotlighted by Maryland activists who consider the state’s child protection laws inadequate.

Jerry Norton, who heads Citizens for Jessica’s Law in Maryland, a group that for years has fought to fortify laws against pedophiles, was calling lawmakers Saturday, underscoring his position…

…Police said the girl had been taken from her bedroom Tuesday night by a registered sex offender, Thomas James Leggs Jr., who has been held since Wednesday in the abduction…

…Leggs, 30, is listed in the Maryland registry because of a third-degree sex offense conviction in 1998.

In Delaware, he is listed as a “high-risk” sex offender in connection with the rape of a minor in 2001.

I don’t know what, exactly, constitutes a “third-degree sex offense” but it is my opinion that if a person sexually violates another physically, that person should never, ever be allowed of prison. And even things like peeping Tom and flasher crimes should earn stiff, 10 and 20 year sentences. If this latest case doesn’t teach us, then nothing will but the plain fact of the matter is that once a person heads down the route of sexual assault, we can never trust them in public, again.

This doesn’t mean we must be harsh in our treatment of such people. This doesn’t mean such a person cannot gain redemption. But as we cannot peer in to the souls of others and given that we have massive evidence of recidivism among sexual offenders, we just can’t take the chance. And a sex offender who is truly contrite will also not want to be let out of prison – someone who has faced such a crime and left off making excuses about it realizes that the crime is monstrous and he’s lucky he wasn’t executed but was, instead, mercifully given a chance to gain forgiveness.

We have to get serious about this. Without an ounce of vindictiveness in our hearts and, indeed, a level of mercy and love even towards the offenders, we must protect our women and children from such people.

No surprise in our Age of Lies:

It has been an interesting time around the Washington, D.C., area these last few weeks.

The District of Columbia City Council passed a law restricting the ability of Catholic Charities to continue its same level of social services to the city’s poor and homeless.

The Baltimore City Council passed a bill subjecting crisis pregnancy centers to a $150-a-day fine for not posting signs stating what services they do not offer.

Suburban Montgomery County Council is considering legislation to impose a $750-a-day fine (it is, after all, one of the richest areas in the United States) on pro-life pregnancy centers for not stating they do not provide medical advice or establish a doctor-patient relationship.

So far there’s no indication that Home Depot stores will be required to post signs that they do not perform brain surgery or that Pizza Hut franchises will be mandated to advise patrons they do not offer home loans.

Mandating that organizations must say what they do not do is ludicrous (if not unconstitutional).

What is happening here is an orchestrated plan on the left to either force everyone to agree to the left’s view of morality, or to legislate out of the public square any group which refuses. Its not so much that the left loves gay marriage or abortion but that they hate religion in general, Christianity in particular, and Catholicism in super-particular. The left, where it rules the roost, could easily write laws to give consideration to religious bodies who provide vital social services, if not all the services the left would prefer – but when faced with a choice between helping a poor, unwed mother or attacking the Catholic Church, the left doesn’t hesitate: attacking the Church takes priority over all else.

And, after all, the only people who suffer from these decisions are poor people – and poor people don’t register, as people, on the social radar of the left. Who cares if a poor girl in DC can’t get some help? She won’t be at the party’s in the swank sections of town. Heck, such a girl barely even registers as human to rich liberals – she’s kinda like a cow, to be taken care of, to be sure, but not at the price of being unfashionable on such issues as gay marriage.

When we battle the left, what we are ultimately doing is battling for basic, human decency. For the concept that each individual is valuable in and of themselves – not valued only as they fit in to a sociological or electoral calculus.

And, hey, if you think I’m being a bit harsh, I’ve got nothing on Mark Steyn:

Last week, during a bit of banter on Fox News, my colleague Jonah Goldberg reminded me of something I’d all but forgotten. Last September, during his address to Congress on health care, Barack Obama declared: “I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.”

Dream on. The monstrous mountain of toxic pustules sprouting from greasy boils metastasizing from malign carbuncles that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve is not the last word in “health” “care,” but the first. It ensures that this is all we’ll be talking about, now and forever.

Government can’t just annex “one-sixth of the U.S. economy” (i.e., the equivalent of annexing the entire British or French economy, or annexing the entire Indian economy twice over) and then just say: “Okay, what’s next? On to cap-and-trade . . . ” Nations that governmentalize health care soon find themselves talking about little else.

What has happened is astounding. First off because it is known that nationalized health care doesn’t work. First we were to emulate the Brits, until their national health service proved worthless. Then it was on to emulating Canadians, until they started flooding across the border to seek medical care. Now, from what I can tell, we’re to emulate the French as, to this point, the French health care system hasn’t proven itself a disaster. Of course, its running massively over budget year by year and wait times are rising…so, in a few years we’ll no longer be able to use France as an example. Of course, if the Democrats get their way, it won’t matter – we’ll be shackled to a failed system where only the rich and the politically connected get good care.

Secondly, there is all the corruption which has been used to advance this. Remember, this wouldn’t even have got off the ground had not the Democrats, upon the death of Ted Kennedy, corruptly changed a law they had corruptly changed a few years back to prevent even the faintest possibility of a Republican appointing a Senator in Massachusetts. This is the level of garbage we’re dealing with. Democrats in charge means that rank, nauseating corruption is the rule, not the exception. And it took the Democrats all the slime they could find just to grease the path of this dog of a bill.

And its a bill that only a tiny, out-of-touch, leftist minority even wants. And it doesn’t even do what its supposed to do – its supposed to provide care for all Americans, but it will still leave millions out of the system. To nutshell it – Democrats are passing a bill which will cost like heck, won’t do its job, no one wants it and massive bribery with taxpayer dollars has been used to get it through.

This has to be stopped – and once we do stop it, we’re going to have to reform our government root and branch.

Things really are changing:

Barack Obama is not used to being the guy not invited to a party. At the Copenhagen global warming conference, however, he found that not everyone wanted to hang with him. Our president can’t take a hint.

After Mr. Obama’s bilateral meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the Chinese began sending lower-level functionaries to the multilateral meetings. A frustrated Mr. Obama pressed for another bilateral meeting, which was scheduled for Friday at 6:15 p.m. Other leaders of the countries known as the “BASIC” bloc were harder to pin down.

The Obama team tried to schedule a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and was told he was at the airport readying to leave. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also was unavailable. South African President Jacob Zuma said there was no point meeting without India and Brazil. Then the Chinese pushed the bilateral meeting back to 7 p.m.

“We were told they were at the airport,” a senior administration official said. “We were told delegations were split up. We were told they weren’t going to meet.” So imagine Mr. Obama’s surprise when he arrived for the bilateral powwow and found all four leaders in the room already in deep discussion. “Are you ready for me?” he said with an “uncharacteristic edge” to his voice, according to a CBS News report.

Because they neither respect nor fear him. This, liberals, is an excellent demonstration of reality. You thought that because opinion polls showed Bush unpopular that the world didn’t respect the US. You thought that because of the absurd stories of abuse at Gitmo that the world didn’t respect the US. You thought that because we were fighting in Iraq that the world didn’t respect the US. You thought wrong. The reality was that behind all the rhetoric, the US was deeply respected by friends and greatly feared by foes while Bush was President. Everyone knew that not only would America fight in its interests, but would also support its allies and would never quit.

All of that – every last bit of it – has evaporated under Obama in less than a year. Even Clinton’s cut-and-run in Somalia in 1993 wasn’t as disastrous as Obama’s policies have been. Quit simply, the world is ever more convinced that Obama is in over his head and that American policy is in the hands of ignorant fools.

President Obama, please call President Bush and have a sit down with him about the ins and outs of foreign policy.