Never mind Obama versus Clinton. Tonight was all about Donna Brazile (an “undeclared” Super Delegate) and Paul Begala (an advisor to the Clinton campaign) and their knockdown brawl on CNN that in its wake only served to further expose the deep fissures in the Democratic Party. If Donna Brazile’s intent was conciliatory, it appears to have had the opposite effect. In the middle of the heated exchange, a visibily agitated Donna Brazile started calling everyone in sight “baby.” Oh Donna, where did our love go? Don’t you want me no more?

Here’s the transcript:

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ExxonMobil reported profits of nearly $11 billion on April 29th for its 1Q08, outpacing their first quarter earnings from 2007 and putting the oil giant on pace for the largest annual profits in history. Exxon’s first quarter profits for 2008 exceeded by $1 billion the $9.3 billion profits the company made in the first quarter of 2007, pacing the company towards easily topping the record $40.6 billion in profits the company made last year.

After posting $123 billion in combined profits last year among the top 5 oil companies, the oil giants spent $50 billion last year on stock buybacks. At the rate of current stock buybacks, Exxon will have no publicly held stock within 15 years. In fact, they are all likely to be privately held by 2030. In 2007 ConocoPhillips, the third-biggest U.S. oil producer, announced plans to buy back as much as $15 billion of its shares through 2009. Over the next three years, Chevron also plans to re-invest $15 billion in itself through a stock buyback program.

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Nargis formed into a tropical cyclone on April 27, 2008, in the central Bay of Bengal about 360 miles off of the southeast coast of India. On May 1st, it was clear the category one tropical storm was veering in a north-northeast direction heading for Myanmar. Unfortunately for the Burmese people, its government said little about the impending danger. It slammed into Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta, once the rice basket of the world, on May 3rd as a category three cyclone packing winds of over 120 miles an hour or 190 km an hour.

I have been to Burma and it is a beautiful country with a warm and friendly people governed by a corrupt military clique whose interests are limited to their own pockets. There are two bridges that span the Irrawaddy. Two bridges over a river that is about 1350 miles or 2170 km long. Two bridges to connect a country across a river that dissects the country in two. One bridge was built by the British in 1934. During their tenure of 45 years, the generals have managed to build one more span just south of Mandalay.

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May is National Masturbation Month (like anybody needs an excuse) but in honour of this event, here is Jackson Browne with Rosie.

Here is Tuesday’s edition of interesting reads from the around the world.

Kuwait: Too Much Democracy?
The Emirate of Kuwait struggles to adjust to democratic goverance in this story from the New York Times.

Japan’s Butter Meltdown
Japan faces a butter shortage and finds that it isn’t immune to the growing worldwide food crisis. The butter crisis is another series of events from a bureaucracy run amok. The butter shortage results from a chain of events. When the country suffered an overproduction of milk in 2006, the government ordered about 1,000 tonnes of raw milk poured down the drain and dairy cows slaughtered to prop up prices and defend local milk farmers. Dairy prices were then managed to retain their advantage to imported milk and butter, whose prices were inflated by tariffs. To protect domestic butter, the tax on imported butter went up twice last year. There is a nearly 30% tariff on butter imports. Denmark and New Zealand can meet Japanese demand if Japanese bureaucrats would allow it. Japan’s food crisis so far is an artificial one, the rest of the world’s a very real one. The full story from Time Magazine.

Japan’s Birthrate Falls for 27th Consecutive Year
The Japanese government said Monday the number of children in Japan has fallen for the 27th straight year to hit a new low. More from Agence France Presse.

New Zealand Considering Contraception Move to Stem Teen Aged Pregancies
Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) is considering a proposal to provide free access to the emergency contraceptive pill, or morning after pill, at local pharmacies to teen-age girls in order to stem pregancies. The story from Stuff New Zealand.

Inside the CPI
The New York Times has a great graphical and interactive slideshow on what is inside the CPI, the Consumer Price Index, and which parts are moving up or down and by how much. Energy prices are up the most with home heating oil up a stunning 48.4% y-o-y and gasoline is up 26.0% y-o-y. If it is any consolation, televisions sets are down -18.3% and computer prices are down -12.0%.

Merkel to Call for Missile Defence Shield
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to unveil a new foreign policy platform this week that would have as its centerpiece the goal of creating a missile shield to protect Europe from a nuclear attack, as well as provisions for extended missions by the German military abroad. More from Germany’s Der Spiegel.

Egypt Raises Fuel Prices
The Egyptian economy remains largely state-run. Yesterday the Egyptian parliament suddenly voted in favour of a package of price hikes and tax surges in order to pay a recently-announced 30% wage raise. More from the Los Angeles Times.

Nicaragua Faces the Global Food Crisis
Again from the Los Angeles Times a report on the global rise in prices for fuel and food is affecting Nicaragua.

Somali Food Riots Leave Two Dead
Troops opened fire and killed at least two people among tens of thousands of people rioting over high food prices in Somalia’s capital Monday. More coverage from the Washington Post and the New York Times.

FAO: Biofuels Responsible for Global Food Crisis
A new report by the United Nations’ FAO (Food & Agricultural Organization) based in Rome finds that rising demand for biofuels is a culprit in the global food crisis. More from the Business Standard.