Posted on 04/21/2008 2:29:36 AM PDT by dawn53
Oil prices have spiked to a record of $117.40 a barrel after a Japanese oil tanker was attacked in the Middle East, off the east coast of Yemen.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The tanker's operator says it was attacked by unidentified ship Monday off the east coast of Yemen as it was heading for Saudi Arabia. There were no injuries. But a report from Kyodo News agency said the vessel was leaking fuel after it was fired on by a rocket launcher from a small boat.
Anybody want to bet on what country's behind this?
The Congress and the Administration are sitting on their hands with deaf ears to the economy.
They are all trying to figure out how not to get caught like Spitzer and whose going to be in their pockets prior come Nov. w/ respect political contributions they get to keep when they leave office.
Iran sees the economic gains from controlling Iraq's wealth if the US pulls out. Then they'd have more oil than the Saudis.
The Dem controlled Congress is foaming at the mouth wanting to raise our taxes but are hesitant at this time because of the upcoming election.
In the meantime, Congress does absolutely nothing to ease the red tape to drill in ANWR or off our coasts. The Libs do not understand (nor will they even mentally entertain the thought) the best way to help the economy at this time is to cut spending, cut wasteful federal programs, balance the budget and put more money back into the hands of the people and small business.
The fact that the GOP is not beating the RATS/Libs blood raw over the price of gasoline and their historical and continuing blocking all efforts to drill, build refineries, etc., shows why they are the gutless/stupid party!
No Kidding.
If there ever was a time to get public approval and demand for drilling , this is the time.
The dims are loving every minute of this economic downturn and oil 'shortage'.
They've helped orchestrate it and the timing couldn't be better for them.
If you don't believe me, research the history of the southern fence on our borders and exactly its progress to this point.
Not only is the gov squelching info on this, they are purposely not building it at this time. My question is why?
I cannot believe there are not regulations in the financial sectors and real estate sector to disallow anything like the sub-prime fiasco to occur and all the CDO, etc. crap to have occurred.
That in of itself speaks as to what the government within our government has on its agenda. Still the states (especially NC) do nothing but suck up to the illegal aliens and support them with yours and mine tax dollars.
I think the politicoho's were banking on the economy growing on the allowed flood of illegals.
Yes, we can spend billions to beef up the Dept. of Homeland Security, however, we cant build 1100 miles of double fence with anti-vehicle crossing structures.
In WWII, it only took the US 9 months to dig and build a double 2ft diameter pipeline to supply crude from Texas to New Jersey with the technology back then.....the federal government is pi$$ing in our face when it comes to the southern border fence and the flood of illegal aliens and enforcing their own laws.
In NC, crime is skyrocketing with respect to the housing bust and the illegal alien labor force now out of work, but not willing to leave. 35% of Wake County's jail population is Hispanic.
Who is Iran?
I'll take "Troublemakers" for $600, Alex.
Yep, that’d be my guess too, especially since they seem to have been practicing for this sort of stunt using our naval ships as targets.
WW3 ... the hot shooting one... comin’ right up.
Bookmark.
That's happening on both sides of the aisle. Look at what happened when the 'Pubbies controlled both houses of Congress and the Whitehouse. Federal spending damn near doubled and we were "treated" to a host of new gubmint agencies and give-a-ways such as the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA and the ever costly Medicare prescription drug give-a-way. Meanwhile, other gubmint agencies (read boondoggles), such as Social (in)Security and Medicare continue their slide into bankruptcy just as millions of baby boomers reach retirement age and are expecting their bennies. Add to that the fact that either a Marxist Socialist (Hillary or Obama) or a Country Club Republicrat (McCain) will be the next occupant of the Whitehouse and the result is we're all screwed.....better batten down the hatches, mate. We're in for a very bumpy ride......
However, Iran won’t be able to enjoy the high prices too long, since their oil infrastructure is crumbling.
Good point, but I believe that Iran will be able to call on the expertise of Sr. Hugo Chavez and company for oil industry infrastructure support. That should solve the problem. :)
LLS
Thought you might like to read the following:
About one and a half years ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%
Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.25 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value
evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!
Remember it’s Congress that makes law not the President.
LLS
IMO, the spiraling price of oil and the Bush Administration’s lack of an effective energy policy (other than environmentally-devastating biofuels support) amounts to an intangible tax increase on our reliance on government to solve all our issues.
Biofuels are having a devastating impact on world food markets and even the UN is admonishing all nations to eat food, not drive vehicles with it!! Much as I hate to agree with the UN, current studies of biofuels suggests that they are a bigger environmental disaster than burning fossil fuels.
As the cost of oil spirals out of control, the price of everything is going through the roof. So, while Rome burns, Nero (AKA Jorge Bush) fiddles. We are taking his administration’s (and Congress’) lack of action on this issue in the shorts and in the pocktbook. Bush got a lot of positive press from conservatives when he pushed to drill in ANWR but, when Congress pushed back and proved intransigent, he backed down. This is NOT leadership and it isn’t much different than Clinton’s leadership-by-focus-group.
At the current pace in his last term, Bush will rival Jimmuh Cahter as being one of the worst presidents in recent memory.
Personally, I'd rather see Duncan Hunter running or Fred Thompson, but that's not the case.
Oil tankers are a political and military target. Everyone of them should be outfitted with heavy weapons and a crew to operate them.
The only person I know that has dedicated considerable time to these issues is Lou Dobbs.
He was accurately calling the shots with respect to illegal alien invasion and government spending 5 years ago.
Still, we hear nothing from the spineless politicians nor decisive wise policy changes.
On The Hill, 80% of the GOP is nuttin' but whoring RINOS.
Our Congress consists of idiots to the left and chickensh1ts to the right.
Oh please! McCain can't be blamed for what the other several thousand GOP politicans are NOT doing.
What are they going to say? One of the justifications for the Iraq invasion was that oil was too important to our economy to let a nut like Saddam Hussein drive the price up every time he got delusions of glory - well, the price of oil has tripled since then. There is nothing the GOP can say about oil prices that won't get them three times as much grief right back from all quarters, and deservedly so, given the failures of the GOP Congress through 2006.
So they seem to be shutting up and hoping it will all go away.
No, not crazy, but if you review the Constitution, specifically Article II, Section I, you will see that the popular vote in the Presidential election is meaningless. It's up to the electors in the Electoral College to select the next President. The time to elect a conservative nominee for President has long since passed. The next POTUS will be either Hillary, Obama or McCain and there ain't squat we can do about it.
The focus at this point should be on getting as many conservative congresscritters elected as possible to counteract the damage that will undoubtedly be done by Hil-bama or McCain. Similarly, we should melt the phone lines to the Capital and the Whitehouse every time anything remotely resembling Socialism or amnesty comes up for vote. We should also spend some time trying to figure out what makes otherwise seemingly conservative congresscritters turn into constitutionally blind spending swine whenever they go inside the beltway.....
Yeah... I actually consider The Cold War to have been WW3 - Thanks, President Reagan!
That’s why I said “the hot, shootin’ one”, as you of course realize.
You’re right, but he isn’t helping much. He voted against drilling in ANWR. I’m going to vote for him, but he could be doing more.
CORRECT!!!
They turn because they have the opportunity to keep their re-election war chests and not have to give the money back to their party.
Therefore, lobbyists of all kinds are able to buy votes. That's the problem in a nutshell.
Also, our Constitution needs to have the balanced budget ammendment and the POTUS needs the power of the line item veto.
Sorry. It needed more description.
Those of us who were part of the Cold War, at least those privy to Top Secret briefings, realize that it was a real war, and global in scope. Many have stories that can not be told even today. When historians finally are able to give a true review of that period of time, reputations of Presidents Reagan, Nixon and Kennedy, at least, will be greatly elevated. The general public has no concept of much of what occurred, believing that (for example) “James Bond”, “Top Gun”, and Clancy’s movies were entertainment with no basis in reality.
Those were closer to reality than people realize. Presidents age faster than most Americans for a good reason... and that reason is why I never criticized President Clinton’s military decisions, though I may have questioned their timing. Presidents have far more information at their disposal than almost anybody realizes, and they don’t have the luxury of dithering.
They'll set their own selves on fire.
Only if they fire into the deck.
One of the best stories I can tell is a guy I worked for was a rear seater in the Navy. While in the Med the Russians brought their first carrier out (I think the one they sold the Chi-coms). Since he was rear seat they for the Squadron Commander and went up to get a look at the Russkies sun bathing. He said all of the sudden the SC went to .95 Mach turned upside down and flew stern to bow over the Russians at about 20 feet over the deck. They had not seen them coming. He said it was hysterical took them about five minutes to get a weapon trained one them. I called BS and he brought in pictures of the event. Not sure how he got them out but it was clear they did it.
I had a high TS clearance. Saw the President’s daily intel briefings by necessity, some times. I didn’t need to see more than I did: I was convinced. Participated in some of the briefed “activities”. Your uncle’s “things” are likely to be true. Decades later, now, I still have not told anybody most of what I saw/heard... suspect much is still classified. “mass panic” - yes - people really don’t need to know this stuff. I absolutely honor President Bush and his administration for the way classified has been handled. Is is amazing to me that despite the press continuing to attempt to get and to publish classified, that much clearly still remains secret - thank God.
As far as my Uncle goes I believe him because some of the things tied in with news stories that in retrospect were pure propaganda. He was the first to tell me what the Glomar Explorer was really doing when I went to house and showed him the article in PS on magnesium nodules. He snorted and said BS. Well before it was public knowledge.
One of my buddies was in the AF in the late 60's and served in the SAC underground at Offutt. He was in communications as a repair tech. Man has he got some good stories. Everyday EVERY "incident" in the AF was reviewed in the open and discussed by AF brass. He says some days he was so embarrassed he just wanted to shut the place and go home. He thinks it is truly a miracle that we never accidentally tripped the nuclear threshold with some of the serious screw ups.
I've told this story a few time here previously, but another round won't hurt.
A good friend of mine was pursued and hired by the Bush Administration to act as a lobbyist for Bush's "No Child Left Behind" Act. He was a former State Legislator (2 terms) and his specialty is education. He worked the job for a bit over a year and resigned in disgust after what he saw happening in congresscritter's offices. He described it as if they had bales of $100 bills blowing in their doors from lobbyists every single day. He says they don't even particularly try to hide the bribery that is going on, even to the point where certain congresscritters actually told him he would have to pay for their vote. He tells me it is far, far worse than any of us imagine. He has since completely given up on politics and has gone back to running his business selling playground equipment and other backyard goodies.
I don't know what it is going to take to turn this around, assuming it can be turned around, but I think tar and feathering should come back into vogue.....and fast.....
I've known for quite some time the corruption that exists in DC.
Therefore, US citizens need to demand the change in the law with respect to re-election coffers to eliminate vote buying.
Also, a law should be on the books that no US Senator can ever work as a lobbyists after leaving office and US Representatives must wait a minimum of 8 years before taking such a job. Period!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.