The Right State

As if we did not see this one coming. According to CNN.com, Valerie Plame has signed a low seven figure contract with Crown Publishing Group to write her memoirs. The book is to be called, “Fair Game” after Carl Rove supposedly said she was fair game after her husband, Joe Wilson, released the inaccurate statement saying that Saddam Hussein was not trying to obtain yellow cake uranium from Niger. So now we have yet another book about how Bush lied and people died. If these people could just get their stories straight, they might be a political force. As it is, no one except for the far left believes them.

I will make sure that when my local library buys this book, they put it in the fiction section along with Hillary Clinton’s book. If Plame is anything like her husband, we will not be able to believe anything she says. We were told at first that Vice President Dick Cheney sent Joe Wilson to Niger. When the truth finally came out, we realized that his wife has really sent him on this mission. And in fact Wilson did find evidence of cooperation between Iraq and Niger in spite of his comments to the contrary. The Op-Ed piece in April 6 issue of the Washington Times sums it up the best.

But the fact is that Mr. Wilson has little credibility left, as his charges against the Bush administration were eviscerated by the Senate Intelligence Committee in its July 2004 report on prewar intelligence. Here’s the way Susan Schmidt of The Washington Post (in a story buried on page A9) described the report on July 10, 2004: “Wilson’s assertions — both about what he did in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information — were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report. The panel found that Wilson’s report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts.”

So what are we supposed to believe, the Valerie Plame who sent her husband on a fake mission or Valerie Plame the career agent? The bad part is there may not be any difference with neither one being able to tell the truth. Either way, a lot of partisan Democrats and suckers are going to buy, read, and believe everything she says. Buying this book would be a waste of money.

Tags: Books, Culture, Iraq, Politics, War by Chuck
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I am no big fan of USA Today, but today I am.  Brad Foss of the Associated Press, has an excellent article on what is driving gas prices, supply and demand.  The worldwide demand for oil is up, particularly with the growing economies of India and China.  Add in the trouble spots of Nigeria, Iraq, and Iran, and you have a higher demand for oil and an  unstable supply. The result is higher oil prices.  As oil prices go up, so do gas prices.  It is that simple.

The most pressing source of anxiety in the market stems from the possibility that Iran, a key oil exporter, could cut supplies because of international pressure to modify its nuclear program. Unrest in Nigeria, war in Iraq and rising resource nationalism in South America have added to oil-market worries.

Some 500,000 barrels per day of Nigerian production, most of it operated by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, remains off-line as a result of violence there, and more than 300,000 barrels per day remains shut down in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Katrina smacked offshore platforms.

Strong global demand and a limited supply cushion magnify the significance of these events, while a surge of investors betting on oil and other commodities has also lifted prices.

Lately, inventories are creeping up.  Under our supply and demand model, prices go down with a larger supply of oil.  And guess what, they have been going down.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery fell $2.83 to $69.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had plunged $2.33 Wednesday after the Energy Department released its weekly report showing a supply rise as refineries boost output and demand flattens.

It is a shame lawmakers are turning this issue into partisan politics.  Of course, it may be that the average congressman is just not smart enough to make the connection between the price the oil companies pay for a barrel of oil and the price of a gallon of gas at the pump, but I don’t think so.  I believe they are playing pure partisan politics.  Unfortunately, the Republicans are falling for the game the Democrats are playing.

Gas prices aren’t just angering consumers. They’re also fueling political fallout. It’s a source of heated debate that’s sure to become an election issue.

And unfortunately, it will be a political issue.  But is a sense, maybe it should.  It was the Democrats who have blocked drilling in ANWR, who have blocked the building of new refineries, who have blocked drilling for oil off the coasts of the east and the west and the Gulf of Mexico.  It is because of the Democrats that the US has an inferior supply of oil.

One of those politicians who continually show they are totally out of touch with reality is Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

“People are actually going into their change jars to go to the gas station to be able to pay for the increased costs of gas,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

These people don’t have a clue.  If Kucinich truly believes people have to rob their piggy banks to buy gas, he is crazy, unless he has a larger bank than I do.  Gas prices are high.  And until we find a new source of oil, a new source of energy, or use less oil, we are going to have high gas prices.  And anything you get out of a piggy bank is not going to buy much gas.

The solution to these high prices is so simple, few will think of it.  Do NOTHING.  The market will correct itself.  The only other solution is to increase the supply of oil like drilling or alternative energy sources.  I really like the ideas of Kevin Hasset of the American Enterprise Institute.

“Republicans are capitulating to pressures to do something, even if they would be doing things that make no sense,” said Kevin A. Hassett, a senior economist at the American Enterprise Institute. “The proper course is to let the remedy for high prices be high prices. If it turns out that biofuels are more economical, then you don’t need government subsidies.”

In the end, the market works everything out.  Why is that so hard for all of these politicians to figure out?  I can understand the Democrat’s reaction, even though they are wrong.  The Dems never saw a new law they didn’t like.  It is a typical knee jerk reaction to fix everything, even the economy.  Note to Democrats, trying to regulate the economy does not work.  It stymies competition and leads to less produce, which lead to higher prices .  If you leave the economy alone, it will work itself out.

What I can not understand is the reaction of the Republicans.  They know the unwritten law of supply and demand.  They know that trying to fix the economy does not work.  The only conclusion is, the Republican Party is scared.  They are afraid the American people will not understand how the market works and will blame the party in power for their economic woes.  If past history is any account, they are right.  The average American Joe does not understand how gas prices work and who is responsible.  George H.W. Bush lost the election of 1992 to Bill Clinton because people did not understand how the economy worked.  But there is good news.  Recent polls suggest people are blaming the oil companies for the high price of gas.

Yet the Republicans in Congress still does not get it.  Note to Republicans, do not play the game the Democrats are playing.  It is a losing hand.  Right now the Republicans are folding with a pat hand.  What the Republicans need to do is to educate the American people on supply and demand, explaining why gas prices are so high.

Telling the truth often is the only way to win.

Tags: Culture, Politics by Chuck
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The United States is being grilled by the United Nations on whether the Bush administration engaged in torture in such places as Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.  CNN is reporting the members are also asking about the ‘secret prisons.’ Come on!  I guess we will soon be finding out the warden of the prisons is none other than Carl Rove.

It is interesting that at least two of the members of the Committee Against Torture, China and Egypt, have long records of human rights abuses.  And they are asking the US questions on torture.  These countries need to clean their own house before they start focusing on ours.  Other members of the committee include Senegal, the US, Chile, Spain, Cyprus, Ecuador, Denmark, and the Russian Federation.

US State Department lawyer, John B. Bellinger III, is leading a delegation to the body to answer their questions.  One of his statements gets straight to the point.

“While I am acutely aware of the innumerable allegations … about various U.S. actions, I would ask you not to believe every allegation that you’ve heard. Allegations about U.S. military or intelligence activities have become so hyperbolic as to be absurd,” Bellinger said. (CNN)

It was also noted at the meeting that of all the detainees held in both Iraq and Cuba, only 120 have died in Abu Ghraib and none in Gitmo.  Most of the deaths in Iraq came about from natural causes, battlefield injuries, or attacks from other detainees.

The Committee seemed to have a real problem with secret prisons.  During the meetings, the US delegation would neither confirm nor deny the existence of the prisons, but that did not hinder the committee from assuming torture was taking place.

But the committee cautioned that enforced disappearances of suspects “can be considered a form of torture” and asked for details on the U.S. policy of “Extraordinary Rendition,” a euphemism for transporting suspects to third party countries where they could face torture.
U.S. officials have acknowledged flying up to 150 of the most serious terror suspects from one country to another, but said they receive “diplomatic assurances” from authorities that they won’t use torture on the detainees they receive.(CNN)

Apparently the flap over the torture came about because of a protest lodged by Amnesty International which I noted here.

It should also be noted the US gave the UN permission to come to Gitmo and see for themselves how the prisoners were treated, but the UN Commission refused citing they were not allowed to interview the prisoners.  Why would they need to interview the prisoners?  I would imagine every one of them would say they had been tortured.  They hate the United States.  Considering the UN is not exactly a friend of this country would cause me to question the motives of those wanting to interview the detainees.  This issue is agenda driven, pure and simple.

Tags: Iraq, Politics, War by Chuck
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