I heard Obama say it is up to Governor Rod Blagojevich. I hope that is the Truth. Obama has decisions to make about the new Administration, I hope he is focused on that… The Ballad of Obama Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nmuKR3H51M A brain waker-upper for today! http://www. humorsphere. com/fun/8787/colortest. swf Bet you can’t get 100% on the first try! But I’m rootin’ for ya. I tried to change my photo but to no avail…any hints on how to?

THE GREAT OIL HOAX What George Bush was told behind closed doors Discover the biggest lie of the last 30 years… …revealed by the investment newsletter rated No. 1 over a five-year period by the independent Hulbert Financial Digest Dear Reader, Those Saudi Arabians, you’ve gotta love ‘em. First, 15 out of 19 hijackers on Sept. 11 were Saudis, but Saudi Arabia had NOTHING to do with it, or so we’re told. They love us! Now Saudi Arabia is about to drop another bombshell on us, and this one will make Sept. 11 look like small potatoes. I never thought I’d say anything could make Sept. 11 look like small potatoes. But this does, at least when it comes to the economy. Sept. 11 shut the markets down for a few days. When the next crisis hits, you’ll wish the markets would shut down so you wouldn’t have to watch the carnage. What Bush learned behind closed doors If some well-informed experts are right, Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves are a fraction of what they’ve been telling us. Why does it matter? Because everyone has believed for decades that Saudi Arabia’s oil supply is virtually unlimited. That’s what the Saudis have said over and over again for more than 30 years. If an oil shortage threatens to cause a recession or a market crash, we can count on the Saudis to come through. So people think. But in a private briefing, one of America’s top oil experts told President George Bush exactly what I’m telling you. In fact, this same man was a consultant to the secretive task force that drew up Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy plan in 2001. In other words, the guy is a heavy hitter who knows the energy business. He warned Bush that the Saudis don’t have anything near the oil reserves they claim. They already pump less oil than most “experts” think, and here’s the real kicker… Saudi oil production is about to drop sharply. And it will keep going down for good. Other experts have analyzed the numbers and come to the same conclusions. If the charges are true — and I believe they are — we could be facing… Oil at $150 per barrel and gasoline at $8 a gallon or more The oil is running out. It’s as simple as that. But that’s not what you hear from so-called experts. If you ask government officials, our intelligence agencies and even powerful Wall Street financiers, they tell you the opposite. They say the Saudis could quickly double their oil production from the current level if they wanted to. And given a few years, they think the Saudis could produce four times as much oil as they do now. This is like the Iraqi WMDs all over again The intelligence agencies and the conventional “experts” are dead wrong. The oil isn’t there. Why should you pay attention to what I think? Let me give you a good reason, and then you decide. My name is Byron King, and I’m the co-editor of Outstanding Investments. My publication had the best track record over a five-year period of any investment newsletter in the country in 2005 and again in 2006. You can check it out at MarketWatch and its independent rating service, the Hulbert Financial Digest. Readers who followed Outstanding Investments are up an average 25% so far in 2008 and averaged 79% last year. What’s more, we did it all with stocks, not options, and I recommended very few trades. So it’s worth your time to spend a few minutes and let me tell you… Why 2007 was a year of crisis The oil and gas shortages we’ve seen lately are nothing compared with what’s on the way. When the truth comes out, it will send shock waves through the world economy. Everyone will find out too late — when gasoline soars to $5 or $6 or more per gallon. I’m writing today to give you a heads-up. The next few pages show you how to protect yourself and get rich off energy sources and technologies the world will scramble to buy at any price. Don’t be surprised if certain commodities and resource stocks soar three, five or even 10 times over. Here are a few things you’ll discover in the next few minutes… The most important fact — not an opinion, but a fact — that should guide your whole investment strategy. A “minor” sector of the energy market is set to grow 17 times over. I give you the best ways to play it. A “little” oil company owns reserves the size of Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay. It’s not even on your radar screen, yet the stock is already up 1,000%, and readers who listened to me are currently up about half that gain — 694%. Even bigger gains are on the way. The coal revolution is here. It’s always been cheap and plentiful. Now it’s going to be clean, and soon it will even be liquid. It’s also going to cause a massive shift in world power. Two American companies will profit big time. What car will you drive in 2015? Keep reading to discover a “secret play” on the winning car technology of the future. Hint: It may run on coal. MORE: Why the Prius will be a loser. And another surprise: The car makers are NOT the ones who will reap big profits from the super-car. Discover the fastest-growing energy source in the world. Also the cleanest and safest. America may miss out, but you can still profit. A natural gas company offers more income than CDs do. It will probably give you a 100% capital gain to boot. But you have to know about a hidden pitfall. Keep reading… Three wild cards could send oil well over $150 in one day. One of these events may have happened by the time you read this. I urge you to keep reading and at least consider the steps I recommend to protect yourself. Because you need to ask… Will Americans have to read by candlelight and bike to work? We will if the country dodges crucial energy choices — and time is running out. It may be too late to avoid a deep recession. It’s definitely too late to avoid $100 oil, thanks to… Saudi Secrets and Funny Math The cupboard is bare and nobody knows it Americans used to run Aramco, the huge oil company that manages the Saudi fields. But in 1979, the Saudis booted us out and took over. And then a funny thing happened… The Saudis started keeping everything a secret. No one knows for sure how much oil they’ve got in the ground, or how much they produce each year or how much they could produce if they wanted to push it to the max. It’s all secret. Experts try to figure out how much oil the Saudis sell by monitoring tanker traffic in and out of the world’s ports. That’s how little we know for sure. But wait, it gets worse! After the Saudis took over, an even funnier thing happened… Their figures for proven reserves kept going up and up and up — even though they didn’t find any major new oil fields! In 1979, the Saudis adjusted proven reserves upward by 50 billion barrels. Then eight years after that, their proven reserves magically grew by another 100 billion barrels. Their estimated reserves increased by 150% in nine years — to a total of 260 billion barrels. And they didn’t find a single major new oil field! And here’s the funniest thing of all… For the last 17 years, they’ve claimed they own 260 billion barrels of proven oil in the ground. The figure never goes down, even though they pumped out 46 billion barrels during that period. Let me see…260 minus 46 equals 260. Saudi math! Based on these bogus figures, the Saudis claim they can produce as much oil as the world wants for the next 50 years. As recently as 2004, they claimed their reserve estimates are actually conservative. That’s why most of the world’s governments and intelligence services believe the Saudis could pump 20 million barrels of oil a day if they wanted to. Trouble is, we’ve got no proof except their say-so. If it were true, we wouldn’t have a thing to worry about. But it’s not. It’s horse hockey Before Aramco’s American owners were shown the door in 1979, they told Congress that Saudi Arabia had proven reserves of 110 billion barrels. There have been no major new discoveries, so 110 billion barrels was probably about right. And since then, about half of that has been used up. So why do the Saudis insist everything is just fine and they have 260 billion barrels of reserves? One reason is they wanted to discourage non-OPEC nations from looking for more oil or switching to alternatives. It was a devious plan, and it worked perfectly. But that wasn’t the only reason the Saudis lied about their reserves. They did it because everyone does it! Everyone in OPEC, that is. The Biggest Lie of All: OPEC’s Imaginary Oil In the 1980s, OPEC’s claim of total reserves magically leaped from 353 to 643 billion barrels without a single major discovery. Industry experts call it the quota war. You see, OPEC had to limit how much oil each member could sell, because prices were too low. The quotas were based on… each member’s oil reserves! That’s right: The amount of oil OPEC would let a member pump depended on how much that member had in the ground. So it paid for OPEC members to claim the biggest reserves they could. And that’s what they did. The Saudis alone jacked up their estimate by about 100 billion. Kuwait added 50% to its reserves in one year, 1985. Venezuela doubled its reserves in 1987. Iraq and Iran doubled their estimates, too. What’s more, OPEC members did like the Saudis and kept their reserve estimates the same year after year, as if no oil were being pumped out and sold. Everyone claimed to have a bottomless well. Now, if you’re like me, you prefer to base your financial decisions on the real world, not on a fantasy. Let’s look at how much oil there really is… In the 1970s, when Western managers were still in charge, they believed for a time that Saudi output could reach 20 million barrels a day. But by the time the Americans lost control in 1979, they figured the peak would be 12 million. They also predicted that peak production would last only 15–20 years. 1979 plus 20 is 1999. We’re past the peak, if these men were right. But we already know they were too optimistic. The truth is that Saudi production never got to 12 million. “In all probability, output peaked in 1981 at an unsustainable level of about 10.5 million barrels per day,” according to Matthew R. Simmons, a leading oil industry authority. And yet the lies go on… In 2004, Saudi officials claimed they boosted production to 9.5 million barrels per day and maintained that level for five months. It’s almost sure they were lying. The International Energy Agency is the group that keeps an eye on these things for the developed, oil-importing countries. The IEA could find no sign the Saudis were selling more oil. As far as anyone can tell, they pump only around 5 million barrels a day, and that’s all they’ve pumped for years. It’s déjà vu all over again In spite of being lied to at least once, the IEA, the U.S. Department of Energy and other forecasters believe the Saudi claims. ALL their projections of our energy future ALWAYS assume the Saudis could produce 15–20 million barrels a day. The lies have worked. Not only do Western politicians believe them, but so do many oil industry experts and investors with huge amounts of money at stake. They’ve been had. You’ll get the full story in a FREE special investment report called Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch. It’s just one of four free special reports with my 10 best recommendations. The three picks in Crude Awakening are already moving up. In fact, one recommendation is up 75% since I recommended it. I’m telling readers to hang onto all three of them, because the profits have just begun. We went through three recessions from 1973–1983. Care for a repeat? Our whole economy is at risk. Your investments are at risk. Your retirement plans are at risk. America has been so prosperous the last couple of decades, a lot of people forget what the energy crisis of the ’70s was like. Let me remind you: The price of a barrel of oil shot up 400%. Long lines formed at gas stations practically overnight. Folks had to pay four times as much for a gallon of gas, and there came a week when one out of every five gas stations in the United States had no gas to sell at any price. The U.S. had three major recessions within 10 years after the first oil crisis in 1973. And those recessions were deep, with double-digit unemployment, double-digit interest rates and double-digit inflation. Think 10–12% unemployment. Think 15–18% mortgage rates. Got the picture? That was the ‘70s. Not fun. My take is that a similar crisis will rock the nation before we solve our problem with clean coal, liquefied natural gas, oil from tar sands, high-mileage cars and safe nuclear plants. More than likely, the politicians will quarrel for years before they do what has to be done. My picks are already way up, even though our energy problems so far are nothing compared with what’s on the way. At the risk of looking kind of cynical, the worse the crisis gets, the higher my recommended stocks will climb. So I urge you to send for the four free special investment reports, including Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch. Then buy the recommended stocks and hang onto them, because… Most of the rest of your investments will tank… You may lose your job… Gasoline could race beyond $8 a gallon… Houses, including yours, will lose value. It could be a paradise for bargain hunters, but not if you’re broke… Groceries and everything else you buy may cost a fortune… What’s more, you might need to buy a gun to protect yourself. The 10 energy investments you’ll get in Crude Awakening and three other free Special Investment Reports are the best insurance I’ve been able to come up with. I can’t guarantee you’ll make money. No responsible investment analyst will do that. But my newsletter had the best documented track record in the United States over a five-year period. In fact, we were one of the first newsletters to realize that the long-awaited promise of oil sands was becoming a reality. Since the late 1960s, geologists and scientists had searched for an economical way to separate usable oil from a giant pool of sand, water and clay in Canada. Some oil forecasters had been predicting giant profits from the project for almost as long. Outstanding Investments, however, didn’t see any compelling reason to jump in until just a few years ago. That’s when a scientific breakthrough sent processing costs plummeting… just as conventional oil prices were skyrocketing. It was clear to us that oil sands’ time had finally arrived… Not long after, the U.S. Department of Energy agreed, and for the first time it calculated Canada’s oil sands as reserves — putting it just behind Saudi Arabia. Since then, we’ve watched our pick go from a mere $12.69 to as high as $148.55. But you’re not too late; the fun has just begun. Join Outstanding Investments today, and you’ll see this one still listed as a buy. And inside the FREE reports you’ll receive, you’ll discover another hot buy: Operations in All the Right Places A Brand-New Oil & Gas Operation With Some Old Successful Faces Investors have already figured out most of the oil story. While there are few precious gems left, most of the best companies have already been discovered and overbought. However, in typical Wall Street fashion, some great secondary plays are still completely overlooked. Consider the case of natural gas. For over a decade, its price has moved more or less in tandem with oil. Just a few years back, in fact, investors used that fact to secure some pretty hefty gains. The memory didn’t seem to stick, however… because natural gas is ready to move again. Take a look at the chart below. To my eye, natural gas is undervalued… and that’s why I’m so excited about the relatively new stock I’ve uncovered… 20% by Next Year — Just for Starters! Once part of an energy giant, this company went off on its own late last year. But it took a pretty hefty chunk of real estate with it. This company now controls some of the most important natural gas pipelines in North America, able to send natural gas from Houston, Texas, all the way to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It has mining operations, transfer terminals and even storage facilities in all the right places. In short, it has the kind of infrastructure that would be nearly impossible for another company to create. As if that weren’t enough reason to love this gas play… just take a look at the numbers this company has racked up — even as natural gas prices have declined. The Numbers Speak for Themselves With a market cap of less than $20 billion, this company sports a profit margin of 12.4% — nearly unheard of in the gas industry. Several major institutions are predicting a steady influx of cash, too. In fact, one major analyst expects 9% earnings growth for the years to come. We think that might be a tad conservative. For one thing, gas prices are on the verge of breaking out. More importantly, this company has big plans for branching out. It’s already a pretty big player in Canada, and could benefit nicely from oil sands growth… not to mention any appreciation in the Canadian dollar. Obviously a play this fantastic won’t be overlooked for long. Once the mainstream catches on to what they’re missing, we could easily see results matching that oil sands play that has gone up nearly 7 times already. I’d hate for you to miss out. So send for your FREE copy of Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch. And here’s a recommendation you’ll find in another one of your free reports, Tailpipe Riches: The Race to Build the Car of the Future… A Secret Way to Invest in the Car of the Future The hybrid engine isn’t it. And the hydrogen car isn’t, either The race is on to design the car of the future. Every player in the industry is scrambling for the prize, and the winner will dominate the world car market for decades. The three big contenders are the hydrogen fuel cell, the electric hybrid vehicle and the diesel. You’re going to be surprised when I tell you the most likely winner. What’s more, I’ve identified a “secret play” on the winning technology, ready for your portfolio right now. Let’s take a look at the three cars in this race… The hydrogen fuel cell gets the most hype Detroit put all its chips on fuel cell technology, and it’s been telling us since the late 1990s that a breakthrough was just around the corner. In 1997, German-owned DaimlerChrysler actually predicted 100,000 fuel cell engines on the road by 2005. In 2001, General Motors projected about the same timeline. Even George Bush got into the act, declaring in his 2003 State of the Union message that “America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles.” It didn’t happen and it probably won’t The short explanation for Detroit’s failure is that the engineering problems were bigger than it thought. On top of that, the fuel cell engine costs 10 times as much as a conventional engine. Worse yet, there’s also the problem of building a national network of fuel stations where you can fill the tank with hydrogen. Hydrogen isn’t found in nature in a usable form, and it’s very expensive to produce. A national hydrogen rollout could cost $100 billion. There’s still hope that hydrogen will come through in the end, but the National Academy of Sciences believes the “hydrogen economy” is decades away. Meanwhile, electric hybrids roar ahead When Toyota announced a heavy investment in electric hybrids a few years back, Detroit snickered. To Detroit, it just seemed like a halfway solution on the way to the fuel cell car. Wrong. I don’t need to tell you that the electric hybrid Prius is a sensation, and Detroit is now rushing to play catch-up. It’ll come out with a number of hybrid models in the next few years, many of them using technology licensed from Toyota. What’s more, the electric hybrid is not just an underpowered small car. Toyota now offers a high-end SUV hybrid with better acceleration than the standard model! So hybrids are where it’s at, right? Wrong again. The Prius has problems. First off, the gas mileage on the Prius is not all it’s cracked up to be. Consumers have noticed, and some aren’t happy. What happened is that the EPA tests vehicles under ideal conditions on a flat surface. In the real world, it looks like Prius’ mileage is not so hot. Also, most of the hybrid’s big mileage gains occur in stop-and-start city traffic. On an open road, the conventional engine actually gets better gas mileage. When you look at the Prius’ true mileage, there are plenty of conventional vehicles that do as well or better. Add in the high extra cost of the hybrid engine, and some say you have to drive the car a hundred thousand miles to recoup the extra money you pay for the fancy technology. There’s a third alternative, a “sleeper” technology that’s going to surprise everyone… And the winner is… The humble old diesel engine — the third and final competitor for car of the future. How can that be? Diesels are loud, dirty and smelly. A pollution nightmare. You can hear a diesel truck from a mile away, see the soot from halfway down the block and smell the exhaust as it rolls by. Except — surprise! — those diesels you hear and smell are antiques. Thanks to new technology, diesels aren’t so dirty anymore, and the gas mileage is better than ever! Here’s what happened: Europeans have to pay heavy gasoline taxes and they worry about global warming, so they invested in the diesel engine as a stopgap, just in case the hydrogen car hit a snag. As you know, hydrogen DID hit a snag. Now the stopgap looks like the winner in the great auto race. You see, diesel gets about 30% more miles to the gallon than gasoline, and those savings are real, in any kind of driving conditions. What’s more, people who worry about global warming prefer diesel because it emits up to 20% less carbon dioxide. But wait, it gets even better… Diesels have a huge, surprise advantage Diesels now rival traditional gasoline engines for quiet, and European refineries have removed most of the pollutants from the fuel. The engines cost more, but the gas savings almost make up the difference. I’ll tell you a sleeper stock — it’s not a car company — that’s the best way to play the diesel revolution. But meanwhile, there’s an even better way to invest than the hardware under the hood. Diesel’s biggest edge is something you’d never expect… You don’t need crude oil to make diesel fuel You can make it from coal, plant matter or even cooking oil. (No kidding! A restaurant can invest in a cooking oil converter kit that lets you fry a batch of potatoes and later reuse the oil in your delivery truck.) In a few pages, I explain how liquefied coal is one of the big technologies of the future no matter what, whether the diesel engine wins or not. But if diesel wins the auto race, coal will be the biggest thing since folks traded in their horses for cars. King Crude may be dead, once and for all. How bad does the world need these new technologies? REAL bad. My readers have already profited, with one energy pick up 694% as this is written, and two others up 367% and 355%. We reaped those gains because, whatever the future holds, the oil crisis right now is bad enough… In India they make fuel from cow dung Every year and, indeed, every month the world will grow more desperate for the alternative fuels and technologies I’m talking about. India imports more than 75% of its crude oil. It’s so desperate for alternatives, it recently promoted cow dung as an important energy source. A new use for sacred cows! The problem is Asians these days are buying cars like… well, like Americans. The Chinese would have to buy 650 million vehicles to reach American levels of car ownership. That’s not likely. But a fraction of that figure will create an oil and pollution crisis big enough to finish us off. In the vast markets of India and China, a vehicle that runs without crude oil will be irresistible. But there’s still more to the diesel story… A hybrid diesel engine is the next step A combination of hybrid and diesel technology will take the fuel savings up a notch. Make that two notches. And it will happen soon. An MIT study predicts the diesel hybrid could outperform a hydrogen fuel cell engine on both gasoline mileage and carbon emissions — within 10 years. In other words, the hydrogen fuel cell car may never get to market. It’s dead in the cradle thanks to breakthroughs elsewhere. Is there a catch? And how can you make money? There is indeed a catch to all this, but the catch is where you’ll find the profit opportunity. The obvious play is to buy the big automakers like Toyota that own the leading hybrid or diesel technologies. Obvious, but wrong. The auto industry is on its way to becoming a replay of the airline industry. The competition is already cutthroat, with razor-thin margins. Now we’re going to see General Motors and Ford file for bankruptcy. When that happens, they’ll walk away from the pension and health care obligations that are killing them. Their plants are in political battleground states so the politicians will help them stay afloat. They’re “too big to fail.” Once they’re operating under Chapter 11, like the airlines, the automakers will launch profit-killing price wars that may last for decades. Emissions are the key to profits No, the way to profit from the diesel revolution is to buy the company that’s going to remove the last obstacle that stands in the way of diesel: pollutants. You see, the Europeans still haven’t been able to remove the last bit of filth from diesel exhaust. They’ve just put up with it for the sake of fuel economy and lower carbon emissions. Whoever comes up with the best diesel tailpipe solution stands to make a killing. And a high-tech American company has done exactly that. It’s come up with a diesel filter that’s far superior to what the Europeans now have. A very surprising angle will make you money Diesel tailpipes will be a billion-dollar market within two years — an increase of more than 80-fold from the year 2000. As the oil shortage deepens and the world scrambles for fuel mileage, the company I’m telling you about will be on every front page in the country. This company is a technology leader that created one of the most important inventions of the ’90s telecom boom — but I’m not talking about Microsoft or Intel or any of the obvious choices. The company I have in mind keeps a lower profile. Now it’s come up with ANOTHER breakthrough technology that few investors know about. My crystal ball says its technology is going to wind up in 200 million vehicles. I’ll tell you all about the stock in a FREE special investment report called Tailpipe Riches: The Race to Build the Car of the Future. It’s one of four free reports you get when you subscribe. Subscribe now and get your free copy. You’ll want to snap up this breakthrough technology before it’s too late. But meanwhile, you can also make a bundle off the liquefied coal story… The Great Coal Rush It’s clean, cheap and soon will be liquid While the oil runs out, there’s still plenty of coal. The world has enough coal to last for 300 years at current rates. Coal already accounts for more than half of our electricity. But coal is dirty, right? And there’s no way it can power cars, right? Wrong, and wrong again. Coal can be cleaned up AND it can power your SUV. However, it’s not cheap to do. It’s only worthwhile when a barrel of oil costs more than $30. Which means you’re in luck if you own stock in a coal company, as my readers do, because oil is way more than $30 a barrel, and it’s going to stay that way. Forever. As I write this, my readers sport an 255% gain on my coal recommendation. Coal is set to replace oil almost everywhere You’re now one of a handful of people who know about clean coal, and you’re going to make a fortune off it. I want to send you all the details in another FREE special investment report called Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead. It’s one of four reports I send to all new subscribers. Let’s look at how big the opportunity really is… The U.S. and China both have a growing problem with the price of oil and with the unstable countries they have to buy it from. Meanwhile, the U.S. and China both have HUGE reserves of coal. Add in Australia and Canada and you’ve got four countries that you could call the OPEC of coal. They own just about all the coal there is. The U.S. alone has 254 billion tons of proven coal reserves, or about 25% of the world total. Compare that to Saudi Arabia, with 24% of the world’s oil (if you believe it). Meanwhile, the Chinese economy is doubling every 10 years and has a lion’s appetite for electricity. The Chinese will have to give up that growth rate or build hundreds of new power plants, one or the other. They have no choice. China is starved for electricity…and we’re not doing so well ourselves! Electricity could be China’s biggest roadblock to growth. Already, blackouts and brownouts happen every day all over the country. Factories by the thousand are forced to shut down from time to time. Many are allowed to operate only during off-peak hours. Children in some cities do their homework by candlelight. With an economy that grows 8% or 9% every year, and electric usage soaring at the same rate, the Chinese have no choice but to build hundreds of new power plants. And most of those plants are going to run on coal. In the United States, we have a power crisis of our own. We’re at the limit of our generating capacity. We have our own brownouts during peak-demand times. We, too, need to build hundreds of new power plants. Yet the public still doesn’t want nuclear power. A coal boom is inevitable You do the math: We face a crude oil shortage… nuclear power gives people the willies…we’ve got plenty of coal in the ground…we’ve got a choice between more power plants or deep recession and unemployment. Everything points to coal. As this goes to press, my readers have gained 255% on my favorite coal investment. You’ll get details on the company in the free special investment report called Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead. The gains have just begun. We can thank ever-increasing demand for coal and ever-higher prices. All that’s left is to solve the pollution problem. And as you’ll see in the next few pages, that’s about to happen. I’ve got a way you can play the clean coal technology. A safe, conservative way to play the Great Coal Rush The safest way to profit is to own some coal and wait for the price to go up. It will. I’ve found a great, long-term stock that came on the market in 2004, as a spin-off from another company. Already, this new kid on the block is one of the five largest coal companies in the United States, with 13 mines in our richest coal regions, plus 100 electric power plants in 29 different states. This outfit has a staggering 1.8 billion tons of proven and probable coal reserves. That’s enough to last 28 years at current rates of production. The top execs have an average of 26 years of experience apiece. They employ the most advanced technology and achieve some of the highest levels of efficiency of any coal producer on the market. With an abundant, cheap replacement for oil, these guys just about can’t go wrong. Their coal is going to look better and better with oil at $100 and even $150 per barrel. You’ll receive all the details in Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead. A Coal Company That’s Proven To Sizzle Now, lets talk about a company that’s ready to skyrocket with increased demand for coal. One that’s based in the U.S. but stands to benefit from a worldwide demand in coal. In case you missed the memo, China is a huge player in the energy market. This includes the demand and need for energy sources to fire up their many coal-fired power plants. With new plants coming online almost every day China has been single handedly spurring the demand for coal. Prices are starting to rise, and the companies that own the coal in the ground stand to benefit. The company that I’ve told my readers about is just that… 255% Gains So Far! So far this company has shown my readers 255% in gains. That’s nothing to sniff at. This huge player in the market is ready to keep spiking up higher and here’s why… Simply put this is the largest private owner of coal east of the Mississippi. They have deep roots in the U.S., along with deep seeded logistics that help get their product through the rails, waterways, and roadways of America. As you can see, this is no fly-by-night coal company. And their long lasting logistics network has created competition amongst transport companies. This coal behemoth is large enough to make smaller companies scramble to give it better transport prices. But that’s not all this company has going for it… A Confident Company Poised For Growth This company is currently in the middle of a huge stock buyout of another energy player — something you like to see from a well managed company. Combine that with a 42% increase in their dividend in late 2007 and you can see that this company’s share price is poised for solid growth in the coming years. Now is still the time to buy — I’m looking at it as a long-term core holding that will pay for a big chunk of your retirement. But you’ll still want to act quickly, this stock has already shot up 255% and there is no sign of it slowing down. You’ll find all of the information, including this lucrative coal company’s name, in your special report Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead. You can receive this report FREE, plus… Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money Tailpipe Riches: The Race to Build the Car of the Future, and Crude Awakening: How to Survive the Total Global Energy Crunch. In fact, subscribe for two years — with a full refund guarantee — and you receive six special investment reports free. You’ll discover everything you need to know in the free special investment reports. You see, with the help of these special reports, you can… Profit from something few investors know The Chinese are turning their country into an open-air lab to develop new energy technologies. The new technologies that come out of their efforts will be exported all over the world. Later in this letter, I’ll tell you about their breakthrough in nuclear technology. The American company that’s helping China liquefy coal is doing the same thing in India, another giant country with almost no oil. It’s also got a stake in a big Philippine deal. In other words, this company is the technology leader in a fast-growing industry most investors don’t even know about. And if diesels powered by liquefied coal become the car of the future, there’s no telling how high my coal picks can go! While most investors wait for the price of oil to come down and for things to return to “normal,” you can position yourself to profit from the new, long-term energy crisis. Keep reading and discover… The fastest-growing energy source in the world. Also the cleanest and safest. But America may be sidelined. I tell you more in a few pages, and everything you need to know in one of your free reports, Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead. Goodbye global warming! A Chinese breakthrough may create cheap, safe, clean electric power for the whole world. I’ve got a safe angle to profit from China’s massive investment in electric-generating plants. A true alternative energy superstar! This dividend-paying company has a market cap of just $1.5 billion. Yet it provides essential components for one of the most popular types of alternative energy. It’s order backlog is a jaw-dropping $186.3 million — and growing by the day. The stock is already up 34% as I write this. A “minor” sector of the energy market is set to grow 17 times over. I’ll give you my best pick. But please act now. The crisis could hit overnight… Wild Cards How oil could go beyond $150 in 24 hours If you want to bury your head in the sand and pretend Saudi Arabia has plenty of oil, be my guest. But Outstanding Investments is for investors who want to face reality and be prepared. Every shred of evidence points to no Saudi buffer for world oil markets. And that’s a real problem because oil consumption soared from 52 million barrels a day to 82 million in the last 19 years, and it’s expected to grow to 120 million in the next 20… If the oil can be found. Very doubtful. High-priced oil is here to stay There are three ways oil could race past $150 a barrel: It may get there gradually…or on a faster pace of a year or two…or overnight, literally within 24 hours. Pick any one of the three. No matter how you look at it, it’s a sure thing the days of cheap oil are over. We’re never going to see $30 oil again, and we may never even see $70 oil. Oil in the $100s may very well be here to stay. “You never really run out of oil,” says a Houston energy consultant named Henry Groppe. “But many years ago we ran out of $2 a barrel oil, then we ran out of $25 oil, and now we’re running out of $40 oil.” That’s for sure. And that means you need to readjust your holdings. Outstanding Investments has a strategy that will profit handsomely from this inevitable trend. But our strategy could profit even more because… The disaster could hit very fast Saudi production could fall over a cliff almost overnight. There could be a deep, sharp reduction in Saudi oil production literally any day. It’s guesswork, but energy expert Matthew Simmons says, “It will take energy forecasters and policymakers by total surprise. Not a single serious energy plan devised in the past three decades has envisioned such a scenario.” He’s told interviewers that Saudi output could drop 30–40% from the already low level of just 5 million barrels. Simmons doesn’t claim to know for sure, but I believe he’s right. In the big oil crisis of 1973, oil went to $100 in current 2005 dollars. Back then, the problem was just political. Angered by U.S. support for Israel, the Arab oil producers cut our supply. After things calmed down, there was plenty of oil. This time the problem is real and there’s no quick fix. There’s a sword hanging over our heads, and most people don’t even know. Just consider this… Three quick disasters could send oil over $150 in 24 hours I’ve spotted three trends to watch that could crash markets and cause a recession. You already know that the 2005 hurricane season was the worst on record, and the one before that was almost as bad. In 2005, there were 27 tropical storms. Weather experts could hardly believe it, but the last one formed in December, a month after the “end” of the hurricane season. It’s not as weird as a blizzard in July. But it’s close. Worse, the storms are more powerful than ever before. It seems that a tropical storm is more likely now to become a deadly Category 4 or Category 5 hurricane. Two reasons for the monster storms The first reason is there’s a normal cycle of low hurricane activity followed by a period of high hurricane activity. Each phase can last for several decades. Clearly, we’re in the high phase, and it will probably go on for years. That’s bad enough, but it’s normal. But now you have to add… Wild card No. 1: The danger of climate change Bear in mind that climate change can be caused by either human activity or natural causes. And either way, the jury is still out. Despite what you may hear from the mainstream media, the case for global warming is far from closed. But global warming believers are already blaming the monster hurricanes on climate change. They may be right. The level of hurricane activity we’re seeing has no precedent in the hundred years or so that scientists have been counting and categorizing storms. Meanwhile, a big chunk of our energy industry is located in the worst possible place. Not in my backyard, and soon, nowhere at all Americans have largely banned oil and gas drilling and liquefied natural gas ports from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. They don’t like oil refineries, either. Plus, it’s well known that the Gulf of Mexico is energy rich. So America ended up with a huge part of its energy infrastructure located on the Gulf Coast. A lot of it was knocked out by Katrina and Rita. As I write this, the Gulf coast energy industry is still not back to normal. Gasoline, fuel oil and natural gas prices still remain at record levels. Just in time for the next hurricane season If there is a hurricane season like 2005, it could be the end of some 20% of America’s oil and gas industry. And it could all happen in 24 hours. It’s hard to picture that oil companies are going to keep on investing in a region where they get knocked out every year. And the onshore plants can’t be moved to Boston and San Francisco, where they’re not wanted anyway. We may be staring at a permanent loss of a large part of our energy industry. Wild Card No. 2: War and revolution at the chokepoints World oil supplies are so tight the price could go through the roof if we lose just a couple of million barrels of daily production out of the world total of 82 million. Production is running full tilt and consumers snap up every barrel that comes out of the ground. There’s no buffer (despite what the Saudis claim). A sudden leap to $150 a barrel, not to mention $150+, could tip us over the edge — and into a deeper recession. The immediate cause could be war or revolution in an oil-producing country. Toss in another bad hurricane season at the same time and it could be the end of our way of life. Saudi Arabia itself is a prime candidate for revolution. You might think al-Qaida’s main target is the United States, but in fact the main target all along has been control of Saudi Arabia. The World Trade Center was just a stop on the road to Riyadh, as al-Qaida sees it. But my own pick for disaster is Nigeria. This African country is the world’s No. 12 oil producer, and a big supplier to the United States. The Nigerian wild card The country is seething with revolution. The government — if you want to call it a government — admits that thieves steal as much as 200,000 barrels of oil a day and sell it on the black market. Off the record, experts put the bootleg oil as high as 650,000 barrels a day. That kind of oil generates huge sums of cash, and a lot of the money is plowed into arms for the rebels. There’s no shortage of poor, hopeless young men willing to use the weapons. Three Nigerians out of five live in poverty. Caught in the middle of all this are big oil companies like Shell and Chevron. In some parts of the country their facilities have been shut down and they’ve been kicked out. If you want to get punched in Nigeria, just tell a native you work for Shell. Wild Card No. 3: Terrorism You won’t be surprised to learn terrorism is the third wild card that could create an instant crisis. In fact, a former CIA director recently joined some former oil executives and government experts in a risk-analysis exercise. They forecast three very likely events that could bring the roof down on our heads. One of them was civil war in Nigeria. The other two were both terror incidents. Intelligence agencies know the terrorists have especially targeted oil facilities and infrastructure. It’s an international game of cat and mouse in which the terrorists are looking for a weak point day and night, high and low, while we try to find them and stop them in time. It’s only a matter of time until they succeed. It’s like a thief checking every door in the neighborhood every night. One night, he’ll find a door that’s not locked. Are you getting the picture? The good scenario is that the oil price will merely hover around $150 over the next few years. The worst scenario is that it will go there — then much higher — next week, or next month or next year. Either way, you can gain anywhere from 100–1,000% on the investments I recommend. The only question is HOW MUCH MONEY YOU’LL MAKE and HOW FAST YOU’LL MAKE IT. The investments I reveal in your four FREE special reports are your ticket to survival, and even wealth, in the midst of recession and chaos. You receive full details on all 10 recommendations as soon as you subscribe to Outstanding Investments. The Natural Gas Bottleneck A market set to multiply 17 times, according to government figures When oil started getting pricey during the 1970s, America switched to natural gas in a big way. Natural gas now supplies about 24% of our total energy needs, including a big chunk of our electricity. The move made sense. We had plenty of natural gas, and what’s more, it’s a clean-burning fuel that cuts down on pollution. But like any kind of fossil fuel, there’s only so much of it. Now we’re running out. After the big hurricanes of 2005, everyone can see the U.S. is vulnerable. We didn’t have the gas supplies we needed when we needed them. That was a cold, expensive winter for a lot of Americans. The gas shortage will be hard to solve America has placed vast areas off limits to drilling. Not only millions of acres of federal lands, but also most of the offshore areas on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. These gas-rich regions are off-limits even though natural gas doesn’t create spills. If there’s an accident, it just escapes into the air. And drilling rigs are mostly out of sight of the resort properties on the beach. The regulations have left only the Gulf of Mexico, aka hurricane alley, for offshore drilling and natural gas production. But we’ve painted ourselves into a corner… The rest of the world burns up natural gas to get rid of it! If you saw your heating bills shoot up this winter, you’ll be frustrated to learn there’s plenty of gas worldwide. It’s a byproduct of oil wells, and if an oil field isn’t close to a big population center or a pipeline, the gas is just flared off. The rest of the world burns off as much as 2.5 trillion cubic feet of what is called “stranded” natural gas. That’s equivalent to 1.7 billion barrels of oil totally wasted every year! The problem is that gas, unlike oil, is hard to transport. You can’t build pipelines across oceans. And big oceans separate North America from the cheap gas that’s now going to waste. This energy bottleneck is your chance to multiply your money up to 17 times. Because of the bottleneck problem, the price of natural gas is much higher in North America than in the countries that are swimming in the stuff. It’s a huge opportunity, and I’ve prepared a free special investment report to help you profit. I call it Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money. Take a look at the free report’s best play on natural gas… An easy answer to the gas shortage, with a 45-year safety record There’s an easy solution to our natural gas shortage, and it’s been around for years. It’s called liquefied natural gas, or LNG. If you turn natural gas into a liquid by supercooling it, you can transport 600 times as much gas in the same space. One LNG tanker can carry as much as 600 ships hauling natural gas in vapor form. And despite what you may have heard, LNG is safe. With 40,000 LNG tanker voyages spanning the last 45 years and crossing 60 million miles of ocean, there hasn’t been a single major accident. Not one. No explosions, no fireballs, no gruesome casualties. Sorry, Hollywood. You’ll learn everything you need to know in Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money, devoted just to this topic. I’ll rush you a free copy when you try my newsletter, Outstanding Investments. A market set to multiply up to 17 times As things stand now, the U.S. gets only 1% of its natural gas in the form of LNG, but with the energy crunch, things are going to change. The government’s Energy Information Agency believes LNG will provide from 14–17% of our total gas supply by 2025. That means a 14- to 17-fold increase in LNG. Better yet, that’s going to be a higher percentage of a bigger market, too. The EIA projects total gas consumption — LNG and vapor combined — will boom 30% in the next 10 years. And meanwhile, a fierce bidding war has broken out among Europe, Asia and the U.S. for every available ounce of LNG. Would you to like to sprint from a 1% market share to a 17% market share in a growth industry? I would! Destined to dominate The boom was actually under way before the current energy crunch hit. LNG trade soared 55% in the 10 years ending in 2004. This little market is growing like crazy. Some analysts even predict LNG will surpass King Crude to dominate the world’s energy markets. The CEO of Shell says within 10 years, gas will be a bigger part of the company’s business than oil. Please join me and the happy, increasingly rich readers of Outstanding Investments. As I write these words, we’re up 109% on my first pick… The Best Play on Natural Gas Finding the right investment in the booming natural gas market is not as easy as it sounds. For example Exxon Mobil is so large that buying it as a play on natural gas would be like buying a ranch to own a steer. We need a pure natural gas producer that can grow 200%, 300%, or even more. And I found it! Readers have already had the chance to make 65%, and I think we may see this stock double, and then double again. Make Several Times Your Money in Natural Gas My top pick sports a $31 billion market cap. It’s one of the top 3 independent natural gas producers, but in the energy business it qualifies as a small, nimble player. This company is a natural gas powerhouse based in the U.S. It owes its success to active property acquisition and consistent drilling. This isn’t a new strategy, but this company is doing it on a large scale in the right market. This company is a master in every facet of the natural gas business. I’m not the only one who thinks this company is about to skyrocket… What’s one indicator that great investors have always used to predict upward movements in a stock price? Insider buying. Who knows the business better than the management of a company? No one. If company execs are putting large chunks of their hard earned dollars into the stock, you know that they believe the price will go up. This company’s CEO has been stocking up on shares. For the past couple years the CEO has been filing SEC form-4’s — the forms you have to fill out if you are an insider buying your own company’s shares. Do you think this CEO would be sinking his hard earned money into something that he didn’t believe in? No way. He knows what I know about natural gas. And right now it’s at a great time to buy. The Worldwide Natural Gas Boom This company is in a great position to profit, but they are in an even better market. Natural gas is quickly becoming the energy of choice internationally. As oil prices increase, natural gas demand will also become a cheaper and more viable energy source. And this company will stand to make money. And here is the kicker… Alone this natural gas producer is a strong candidate for growth, but it may be an even stronger candidate for a buyout. With a company this well positioned it may just be a matter of time before one of the big guys buys them out… You’ll learn all about it in your free special investment report, Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money. You receive this report and three more to boot when you subscribe to my newsletter. Meanwhile, here’s another way to profit… Earn a 6% Dividend and Double Your Capital, Too! LNG is a possible grand slam homer in natural gas. But you can also profit from North American companies that don’t need to ship their gas across an ocean. And if you’re fed up with the pitiful interest rates you get on bank accounts and CDs, I’ve got the best news you’ve heard this year. Your free copy of Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money recommends a Canadian gas company that pays a 6% dividend as I write these words. The company is an energy trust, also known as a royalty or resource trust. The idea is that a group of investors pool their resources to buy a cash-generating asset that provides long-term income. You’re probably familiar with the income trust idea from REITs (real estate investment trusts). Same basic concept: A REIT receives and distributes income from a portfolio of real estate properties, while an energy trust pays income from a collection of oil or gas properties. If the assets appreciate, you can also reap a handsome capital gain. But you have to watch out for this deadly pitfall All of this comes with a warning: There’s a difference between a real estate trust and a gas trust. Real estate doesn’t get used up. Gas does. That means it’s unwise to invest in any old energy income trust. Some of them are just selling off their treasure trove of natural gas and distributing the profits. Eventually, the gas will run out, and your share of the deal may become worthless. If you look into it, you’ll find Canadian energy trusts that pay dividends of 10% or even 12%. Sounds great, until you realize they’re paying out all the cash and the business will eventually die. Buy a gas trust that’s in it for the long term Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money reveals a trust that solves the problem. At about 6%, its dividend is a bit lower, but it retains cash and extends the life of the trust through acquisitions and exploration. It pays out only about half its cash flow. This trust invests the rest in finding new, long-life, high-quality gas projects. What’s more, it’s darn good at it. It’s been finding $4 worth of new gas for every $1 it invests That means you can enjoy the best of both worlds — income and capital appreciation. What’s more, the potential for long-term gains is eye-popping. Just with its current reserves, this trust can keep paying out dividends for another 20 years, compared with 10 years for its competitors. But given its success in finding new gas, and with prices headed up, there’s a good chance the dividend will increase and the reserves will too! You’ll be collecting the dividend AND building your assets. The more you learn, the better this company gets. Best of all, the insiders have been consistent, long-term buyers of the stock. When directors and senior officers put their own money on the line, it’s a very good sign they believe in the company. You’ll learn more about this dynamite investment in your free copy of Riding the Natural Gas Boom to Triple Your Money. Read it and reap! Profit From a Nuclear Breakthrough Keep reading if you’d like to discover a new technology that sounds like a miracle, even though every word is true. What’s more, this breakthrough can fatten your personal bank account. If things play out the way I expect, fossil fuel power plants will join wood-burning stoves on history’s dustheap. You’ll learn all the details in one of your free reports, Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead. It’s the No. 1 way to profit from… The worldwide boom in nuclear power After a couple of freak accidents several decades ago, Americans decided they wanted nothing to do with nuclear power ever, anywhere. The accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island killed nuclear power in the United States. We’re just about the only people with that attitude. The rest of the world took a look at the safety problems, solved them and forged ahead. France now gets 77% of its electric power from nuclear plants. Japan and South Korea get 39% — and the two of them have more than 20 new plants on the way. Belgium, Sweden, Finland…they’ve all gone nuclear. It seems like everyone but us is building nukes. China plans to boost its nuclear power capacity by 500%. In fact, for the past 40 years, nuclear has been the fastest-growing power source in the world. And now it’s really taking off. What’s more, all the hundreds of plants worldwide have logged thousands of reactor years without a single accident. You see, Asians and Europeans have discovered something Americans refuse to see: Nuclear power beats fossil fuels hands down. Nuclear is safer, cheaper and cleaner. In Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead, you’ll find out how the worldwide boom in nuclear power has sent the price of uranium through the roof. Uranium doubled in the last three years, and it will probably double again in the next two. Turning on the Juice reveals my best pick among the uranium stocks. The company has huge uranium reserves, plus ready access to China and its massive nuclear program. Best of all, this company controls a production bottleneck the U.S. nuclear industry can’t do without. But exciting as that is, it’s nothing compared with my best play on the worldwide nuclear power boom… Nuclear power plants will roll off an assembly line The Chinese are charging ahead with a new type of nuclear power plant. I predict utilities will build hundreds, and maybe thousands, of these new plants all over the globe. Electricity will become super-cheap. And eventually we’ll see an economic boom worldwide like we’ve never seen before: The new plants will be walk-away safe. A meltdown is not just unlikely, it’s impossible There’s no danger of radioactivity venting into air or water There’s no chain reaction involved No need for huge cooling towers or water. No billion-dollar pressure dome Almost no waste, and what waste there is can be stored safely on the premises No need to fear a terrorist attack. You’ll learn all the details in your free special investment report, Turning on the Juice: Power Plays for the Electricity Crisis Ahead. The technology uses an alternative way to harvest the energy of the atom — a way that Americans discovered and then rejected decades ago. The Chinese plan to mass-produce the reactors. The plants will be modular and factory made, built to last 40 years, ready to ship anywhere in the world and assembled like Legos.

I would be shocked to hear that Obama has not given Blagojevich a recommendation of who he would like as his replacement in the Senate. However, I am sure he has gone no further than that and is leaving the final decision, as per Illinois law, to the governor. From what I have read about Valerie Jarrett, she has been a close friend and confidante of Obama for years, was very much a part of his campaign and is highly qualified for the position of Senator of Illinois. I’ve been hoping it would be a woman taking the position and have also heard Jan Schakowski and Lisa Madigan mentioned as potential replacements, either of which would be a great choice.

My God! What happened to this thread! I feel like I’ve just been fillibustered by Sarah Palin’s energy advisor. Can we talk about Barack Obama’s senate seat?

Deb. Thanks for the info about Valerie Jarret and others in line for Obama’s senate seat.