Oil at $144 a Barrel

[FOTD]

quote:Originally posted by we vs us

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588


I chalk it up to simple bumbling and incompetence. I mean, it's par for the course with this bunch.

I'm with you to a degree, but there has to come a point where the piles of circumstantial evidence start pointing to intent rather than sheer negligence.

I guess what I'm saying is, there's a surprisingly straight line from Cheney's secret energy task force of 2001 through till today's divvying up of no-bid contracts to the oil majors.  That doesn't also preclude a hefty serving of Bush-style cronyism and incompetence, but there's some strong evidence of planning as well.

Just for the record, I'm not happy that I'm starting to see this as feasible.  I'd much rather leave this to my tin-foil loving brethren on the more hysterical blogs.

"I'd much rather leave this to my tin-foil loving brethren on the more hysterical blogs."

Leave the devil to his own disciples......this can't mean FOTD for he is not your brethren nor are his posts based on hysteria. Seek the truth and you will be set free.....

[we vs us]

quote:
"I'd much rather leave this to my tin-foil loving brethren on the more hysterical blogs."

Leave the devil to his own disciples......this can't mean FOTD for he is not your brethren nor are his posts based on hysteria. Seek the truth and you will be set free.....

Don't take this personally, FOTD. I wasn't talking about you in quote above.  Many of our fellow liberals, IMO, like to imagine conspiracies of staggering proportion, and whose tentacles reach deep into every part of the government.  By and large I think that's hogwash, and am more inclined to believe that the simplest answer is probably the correct answer.  And the simplest answer in most cases so far with the Bush Administration is sheer incompetence by dint of cronyism, ideological blindness, and individual venality.

Though, as I said upthread, the data points for most of the Iraqi mess are indicating something a little more sinister than I'd like to believe.

But in the way of a peace offering, I bring you Presidents Bush and Putin, together again, for one last dance.

[FOTD]

That lasted 30 seconds wevus.....

Here, Happy Independance Day:
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=/Nation/archive/200807/NAT20080703a.html


Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices
By Allison Aldrich and Keriann Hopkins
CNSNews.com Correspondents
July 03, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - As the price of oil continues to rise, some are turning to God and prayer for an answer to their financial troubles.

The Pray at the Pump Movement, founded by Rocky Twyman, has been holding prayer vigils at gas stations across the country. On Monday, Twyman decided to take his movement from Exxon and Shell stations straight to the steps of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage the oil-rich country to raise the amount of barrels they release each day from 200,000 to 1.2 million.

Twyman, who is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, spent the afternoon outside of the embassy praying and asking passersby to sign his petition for the release of more oil, which he hopes to deliver to the Saudi oil minister.

"Our people are really suffering through this crisis," Twyman told Cybercast News Service. "We need the Saudis to release at least 1.2 [million] barrels of oil per day for about the next six months until we can get everything settled in America ... (I)f they can just do that for us, than this will help us get through this crisis."

Twyman, who prompted the first national campaign aimed at getting African Americans to become bone marrow donors, has moved on to more active participation to lower gas prices than eliciting the help of God through prayer.

"I think we have just entered a new phase. We were in the prayerful phase, but now we're going into a more activist phase, because we feel that whole faith without works is dead," Twyman told reporters.

Prayer aside, some argue that there is very little the average consumer can do to influence gas prices. John Neurohr from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, has a different approach to managing the high gas prices.

"There is little, if anything, the average person can do to reduce gas prices generally," Neurohr told Cybercast News Service. "What they can do is reduce their personal dependence on gasoline by carpooling and utilizing public transportation."

Whether consumers decide to pray more or pump less, it is likely that the big changes will result from incremental steps towards more consumer-friendly oil policies."


WHAT DAY IS CODEPENDANCE DAY?!?!

[Friendly Bear]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

quote:Originally posted by FOTD

Don't be so stupid to think their intentions did not get outa hand.....like mad men, they thought the war would be easy and they were wrong. Dead wrong.

True.  Well, actually... the war was easy.  The occupation phase is the part we screwed up and/or didn't plan for (I have some great cribs from Sun Tso that clearly no one at the pentagon read).  But the statement is true in spirit.

Either way, that does not support your conspiracy theory.  If they thought the war was going to go easy, that would have benefited oil prices as the region would be more stable and the Iraqi embargo would have been lifted.  Your theory depends on them starting a protracted war in the region to destabilize commodity prices and reduce Iraq's contribution to global supply.

The conspiracy also used to include a "war for oil" in which US oil companies extracted the reserves for our own use.  As much as I wish a variant of that was happening to pay us back for our efforts, it's not.  

The occupation was poorly planned.  The result has had a negative effect on oil prices.  Which, in turn, has been horrible for the economy and most American's pocket books.  The administration response in energy policy has been negligible.  No arguments there.

After the initial military success in our defeat of the Taliban, I suspect that Bush and Cheney saw an opportunity to get the Iraq oil OFF the market.

Yes, OFF the market.

Why?

They wanted to create more scarcity, and higher prices for the oil producers and multinational oil companies.

And, it worked beyond their wildest dreams.

Five years plus after the invasion, the level of oil production is just now reported at back to pre-war levels.



[}:)]