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To CNN's "In the Money" Gang, Falling Gas Prices a GOP Conspiracy
Business & Media Institute (businessandmedia.org) ^ | Sept. 5, 2006 | Ken Shepherd

Posted on 09/05/2006 12:21:04 PM PDT by freemarket_kenshepherd

Maybe it could be called “The Conspiracy Hour with Jack Cafferty.” On the September 2 “In the Money,” the program’s host recycled his theory that gas prices are dropping because of scheming oil companies.

“You know, if you were a real cynic, you could also wonder if the oil companies might not be pulling the price of gas down to help the Republicans get re-elected in the midterm elections a couple of months away,” Cafferty suggested just a few days earlier on the August 30 “Situation Room.”

“In the Money” contributor Jennifer Westhoven reminded Cafferty of his August 30 comments and suggested he rehash his “cynicism about the election” for the “In the Money” audience.

“Certainly the thought had crossed my mind. I mean, the oil companies have a vested interest in seeing that the Republicans remain in control of the federal government,” Cafferty answered Westhoven, before adding facetiously, “They wouldn't pull prices down before the mid-terms now, would they?” he added over laughter from his fellow panelists.

Later on, Cafferty returned to actual supply and demand considerations driving the price, which prompted contributor and Fortune magazine editor Andy Serwer to offer a gloomy prediction. Suggesting the price drop was only a “blip,” Serwer warned that political crises stemming from Iran, Venezuela, or Nigeria “could erupt or turn bad or anything at any point” or that the hurricane season might take a turn for the worse.

At no point in their look at gas prices did the “In the Money” crew seek the opinion of oil analysts, although Serwer confidently pointed to “the folks at the Chrysler Corporation” who “seem to be suggesting” gas prices will “stay up for a while.” Serwer also scoffed at others who “think they’re going back to $2,” adding, “I’m not one of them.”

While the “American Morning” business contributor didn’t name names on the $2 prediction, he appears to be misquoting oil experts.

“We'll be closer to $2 than $3 come Thanksgiving,” reporter James Healey quoted the Oil Price Information Service’s (OPIS) Fred Rozell in the August 30 paper. That would suggest gas price averaging below $2.50, not necessarily at or near the $2-a-gallon mark.

A September 5 article by Associated Press reporter Brad Foss similarly noted that “most analysts” believe achieving $2-a-gallon prices “is unlikely and would entail a major slowdown in the economy, if not a downright recession” but that it’s more likely “that retail gasoline prices will slide to about $2.50 a gallon by winter – and then head higher again early next year.” The average per gallon price for gasoline has dropped 30 cents in the past month, to $2.73.

The Business & Media Institute has varying coverage of price drops by other media outlets. On the August 31 “Early Show,” CBS’s Harry Smith remarked that the media months ago were “screaming with our hair on fire” about then-rising gas prices while a day earlier, NBC’s Kevin Tibbles shrugged off the downward trend, focusing his August 30 report on Chrysler’s “wake-up” call from CEO Tom LaSorda who is planning for gas prices in the “$3-to$4-a-gallon” range.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2006; bigoil; buffoonery; cnn; conspiracytheory; elections; gasprices; gop; jackcafferty; midtermelections; midterms; oilprices; republicans; tinfoil
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1 posted on 09/05/2006 12:21:06 PM PDT by freemarket_kenshepherd
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Karl Rove takes time out from his busy schedule manipulating his hurricane machine to pull the "lower fuel prices" lever on his petrochemical control machine.


2 posted on 09/05/2006 12:23:45 PM PDT by airborne (Fecal matter is en route to fan! Contact is imminent!)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Cafferty is too senile to remember the gas price slide October-November last year, just before the elections-- well NJ and VA governors.


3 posted on 09/05/2006 12:24:14 PM PDT by gusopol3
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Oil prices never fall as rapidly as they went down. So when the price falls below $33 per barrel, then it's time to celebrate and not before.


4 posted on 09/05/2006 12:25:08 PM PDT by lilylangtree
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To: lilylangtree

That is: Oil prices never fall as rapidly as they went up.


5 posted on 09/05/2006 12:25:38 PM PDT by lilylangtree
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To: airborne

I remember back in 38 when Karl Rove successfully reverse engineered the summer vacation hike/back to school lessening of demand.


6 posted on 09/05/2006 12:26:05 PM PDT by kinghorse (I calls them like I sees them)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

First Bush didn't care about the 'little guy', so he let prices rise. Now that prices are falling it's a Bush conspiracy. LMAO, the left makes a better comedy team than Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, Hope and Crosby and a pastle of others all rolled into one.


7 posted on 09/05/2006 12:26:30 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Bring your press credentials to Qana, for the world's most convincing terrorist street theater.)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Heh heh heh...

(evil sneer)


8 posted on 09/05/2006 12:27:10 PM PDT by Paloma_55 (I may be a hateful bigot, but I still love you)
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To: gusopol3

It's funny how $2.50 a gallon is now considered cheap...We have been assimilated.


9 posted on 09/05/2006 12:28:12 PM PDT by Wristpin ("The Yankees announce plan to buy every player in Baseball....")
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To: airborne

Hope the conspiracy can lower the cost of gas another50 cents.


10 posted on 09/05/2006 12:28:31 PM PDT by bybybill (`IF TH E RATS WIN, WE LOSE)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

I hear that one of the big oil companies just announced that they had found a HUGE oil reserve somewhere in the Gulf that is going to be as big as anything in Alaska.

They probably did that to piss off the Dems too.


11 posted on 09/05/2006 12:28:40 PM PDT by Paloma_55 (I may be a hateful bigot, but I still love you)
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To: gusopol3
Cafferty.....isn't he that drunk who ran over a guy on a bike in NYC? And then ran?
12 posted on 09/05/2006 12:29:10 PM PDT by roses of sharon
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

the wild price swings come from the hedge funds and the speculators.


13 posted on 09/05/2006 12:29:30 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: Wristpin

14 posted on 09/05/2006 12:30:11 PM PDT by RockinRight (She rocks my world, and I rock her world.)
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To: bybybill

$2.65 here in PA.


15 posted on 09/05/2006 12:31:40 PM PDT by airborne (Fecal matter is en route to fan! Contact is imminent!)
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To: Wristpin

I actually was surprised to see $2.39 this morning on I-40.


16 posted on 09/05/2006 12:32:22 PM PDT by eyedigress
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To: lilylangtree

I remember paying $2.79 a gallon a year and half ago. Then it went up over three dollars and even hit $3.69 here in New York. It stayed up over three bucks for a long time, but has plunged in the last two weeks. This morning I paid $2.59 ($2.89 for premium) on Long Island with most stations priced at around $2.79. It's not scientific, but it seems to me that the prices came down a lot faster than it took for them to rise.

Any opinions from people who know more than I?


17 posted on 09/05/2006 12:32:54 PM PDT by joeystoy
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To: eyedigress

CNN is nothing but the voice of the DNC. Don't watch them.


18 posted on 09/05/2006 12:34:54 PM PDT by kjo
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To: joeystoy

Here are the charts that tell the story. The facts speak for themselves....

http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx?time=24


19 posted on 09/05/2006 12:35:10 PM PDT by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Yep.

This is Bush's fault.

Infact, I'll let the Dems in on a secret.

This year's "October Surprise" the GOP, orchestrated by Rove of course, is going to unveil it's secret weapon to re-election. If they get 300 House seats and 65 Senate seat the American people will be guarenteed 10 cent gas so long as they retain the new majority.

Don't say you weren't warned Dems...


20 posted on 09/05/2006 12:36:21 PM PDT by Soul Seeker (Kobach: Amnesty is going from an illegal to a legal position, without imposing the original penalty.)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd
“You know, if you were a real cynic, you could also wonder if the oil companies might not be pulling the price of gas down to help the Republicans get re-elected in the midterm elections a couple of months away,”

Does he mean unlike how Clinton released oil from the strategic petroleum reserve in 2000 just before the election while Gore was blaming Big Oil?

As I recall, the contracts for that oil went to African-American companies that weren't qualified (one had to rescind the contract), and most of the oil ended up exported to Europe where prices were higher.

-PJ

21 posted on 09/05/2006 12:36:26 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (It's still not safe to vote Democrat.)
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To: Paloma_55

Rush stated today that this find could top 50% of our oil usage. IF IT PANS OUT, that means "screw" the ragheads!!!!!

LLS


22 posted on 09/05/2006 12:36:47 PM PDT by LibLieSlayer (Preserve America... kill terrorists... destroy dims!)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

This is not the first tiem I ahve heard this kook theory.


23 posted on 09/05/2006 12:36:49 PM PDT by Hydroshock ( (Proverbs 22:7). The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.)
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To: joeystoy

Yesterday, I filled up at $2.94 in northern ID.


24 posted on 09/05/2006 12:36:57 PM PDT by lilylangtree
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To: eyedigress

It definitely makes a big difference per fill up. $Trillions have been extracted out of our A$$es by the speculators.


25 posted on 09/05/2006 12:37:25 PM PDT by Wristpin ("The Yankees announce plan to buy every player in Baseball....")
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

$2.58 retail here.. still $1 per gallon minimal of speculative greed in there.


26 posted on 09/05/2006 12:37:54 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: roses of sharon
Cafferty.....isn't he that drunk who ran over a guy on a bike in NYC? And then ran?

Speaking of conspiracies, if it wasn't for gas Jack wouldn't have driven the car that hit the bike....

27 posted on 09/05/2006 12:38:03 PM PDT by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: DoughtyOne
Yup, and there aren't enough of these to go around so each leftist can have one. Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
28 posted on 09/05/2006 12:38:28 PM PDT by tuvals (America First - Support Our Troops!)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Gas prices, barring any real emergency, should be about $2.25 per gal soon.


29 posted on 09/05/2006 12:38:52 PM PDT by Perdogg (My friends say I should act my age - What's my age again?)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd
Some of CNN's "experts" seem to be potheads -- contributing to much short term memory loss and delusional paranoia.
30 posted on 09/05/2006 12:39:18 PM PDT by BenLurkin ("The entire remedy is with the people." - W. H. Harrison)
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To: kjo

I'm not watching them.


31 posted on 09/05/2006 12:39:50 PM PDT by eyedigress
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Gas prices $3.10 a gallon GOP loses 25
$3.00 a gallon GOP loses 20
$2.75 a gallon GOP loses 15
$2.50 a gallon GOP loses 10
$2.25 a gallon GOP loses 5
$2.10 a gallon is a psychological relief point and GOP will actually gain 5

Based on national average.


32 posted on 09/05/2006 12:40:10 PM PDT by tobyhill (The War on Terrorism is not for the weak.)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Jack Cafferty and Don Imus stranded on a desert island together.

:)


33 posted on 09/05/2006 12:40:15 PM PDT by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestu s globus, inflammare animos)
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To: airborne

$2.55 in the York (PA) area.


34 posted on 09/05/2006 12:40:54 PM PDT by Tallguy (The problem with this war is the name... You don't wage war against a tactic.)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd
Falling Gas Prices a GOP Conspiracy

A "slow, slightly dimwitted" GOP President can successfully micromanage the world economy, while a "once-in-a-lifetime, exceptionally well-educated, Rhodes scholar" of a Dimocrat can't successfully define the word "is".....

Hmmmmmmm....which party do I want to have controlling the government?

35 posted on 09/05/2006 12:41:08 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (* Sarcasm tag ALWAYS required. For some Freepers, sarcasm can NEVER be obvious enough.)
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To: airborne
Karl Rove takes time out from his busy schedule manipulating his hurricane machine to pull the "lower fuel prices" lever on his petrochemical control machine.

I think he's got it all in a point-and-click interface on his laptop, through a browser, kind of like "My Yahoo."

36 posted on 09/05/2006 12:41:41 PM PDT by BeHoldAPaleHorse ( ~()):~)>)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

A certain Republican state senator said to a small group of us that gas was going back to 3 bucks on November 8th and I was to agog to tell him not to even joke about that.


37 posted on 09/05/2006 12:42:49 PM PDT by NeoCaveman (http://blackwellvstrickland.blogspot.com "Go Blackwell, defeat Taxin Ted ")
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

There may be more bad news for the medai libs in the future:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060905/major_oil_discovery.html?.v=16


Start your engines!


38 posted on 09/05/2006 12:43:09 PM PDT by rightinthemiddle (Without the Media, the Left and Islamofacists are Nothing.)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Can't these a-h##$%s ever take good news and just run with it?


39 posted on 09/05/2006 12:43:29 PM PDT by freeperfromnj
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To: rightinthemiddle
Time to cut off Venezuela.
40 posted on 09/05/2006 12:44:10 PM PDT by tobyhill (The War on Terrorism is not for the weak.)
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To: All

NYMEX gasoline @ $1.6450 as we speak...


41 posted on 09/05/2006 12:44:12 PM PDT by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

BTW...$2.27 in Springfield, MO, today.


42 posted on 09/05/2006 12:44:17 PM PDT by rightinthemiddle (Without the Media, the Left and Islamofacists are Nothing.)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd
Yeah, the GOP controls world commodity prices. Could it POSSIBLY be the fact that oil is dropping on the world commodity markets that's causing these price drops and the fact that US inventories are high, and not that Karl Rove the evil genius somehow is able to manipulate the world's investors into doing what he wants? And if he could, why wouldn't he have done this months ago before the political damage to the president could take hold?

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

43 posted on 09/05/2006 12:45:46 PM PDT by MikeA (Not voting out of anger in November is a vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House)
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To: DoughtyOne
the left makes a better comedy team than Laurel and Hardy

Ya think?


44 posted on 09/05/2006 12:46:27 PM PDT by Cobra64 (All we get are lame ideas from Republicans and lame criticism from dems about those lame ideas.)
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To: airborne

$2.36 in Spring,TX


45 posted on 09/05/2006 12:46:42 PM PDT by bybybill (`IF TH E RATS WIN, WE LOSE)
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd
$2.299 in Dayton, Ohio, yesterday.
46 posted on 09/05/2006 12:47:00 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (Dems - Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet few of you have heart enough to join them.)
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To: rightinthemiddle

$2.46 in Denton, TX (last night)...regular.


47 posted on 09/05/2006 12:47:12 PM PDT by Night Hides Not (Closing in on 3000 posts, of which maybe 50 were worthwhile!)
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To: RockinRight

What's with all these Tripod postings? Are you an agent for them selling their services?


48 posted on 09/05/2006 12:48:23 PM PDT by Cobra64 (All we get are lame ideas from Republicans and lame criticism from dems about those lame ideas.)
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To: HamiltonJay

And how much per gallon in taxes?


49 posted on 09/05/2006 12:49:40 PM PDT by outofsalt ("If History teaches us anything it's that history rarely teaches us anything")
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To: freemarket_kenshepherd

Bought gas at Wal-Mart in Mineral Wells, Texas yesterday.
87 Octane was going for $2.29/gal.


50 posted on 09/05/2006 12:50:18 PM PDT by TEXASPROUD
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