Posted on 10/18/2006 9:03:11 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1720277/posts
Why Gas Prices Dropped money.cnn.com ^ | October 16 2006 | Nelson D. Schwartz
Posted on 10/16/2006 10:31:49 AM CDT by kellynla
(Fortune Magazine) -- If the recent plunge in gas prices is the result of a conspiracy by President George W. Bush to help the Republicans retain control of Congress, as 42 percent of Americans believe, according to one Gallup poll, a lot of Wall Streeters wish they'd been in on the plot.
So what really drove prices down - if not an Oliver Stone-worthy scenario involving the Commander-in-Chief, the House of Saud and Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson cajoling his cronies at Goldman Sachs to sink the crude market?
By late summer, hedge funds and other investors had poured billions into long positions in oil, gasoline, natural gas and the rest of what traders call the "energy complex," all betting on a replay of the severe 2005 hurricane season that sent prices soaring in the wake of Katrina and Rita. But one day after oil reached a monthly high of $76.98 a barrel on Aug. 7, government meteorologists downgraded their hurricane forecast and cautioned that a repeat of 2005 was "unlikely."
That announcement, combined with the end of the summer driving season and a recalibration of the Goldman Sachs (Charts) commodity index that reduced the weighting of gasoline, prompted speculators to head for the exits even faster than they'd piled in.
The switch in Goldman's basket of commodities had been previously announced by the firm, but that didn't stop the conspiracy theorists.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Yes it's amazing how liberals constantly say contradictory things, that Bush is so stupid and lame, but at the same time, he's got so much power and does so much they don't like. How can be do so many things they don't like and be so stupid at the same time? Facsinating.
What show was that on?
The Mistake of the Miers Withdrawal
11-01-05
Harriet Miers has now withdrawn her nomination and Samuel Alito has been nominated in her stead. Although Judge Alito is an excellent conservative choice, and the style of nominee that the conservative right clamored for, not allowing Miers a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee was a mistake.
In "borking" Miers, the conservative movement has shot itself in the foot. No longer do the claims of giving a nominee a hearing on their merits carry any weight. It is now evident that conservative or liberal, Supreme Court nominations are purely an ideological and political event.
The scrutiny given to Miers, in order for the conservatives to prove that she was not conservative enough, looked for all the world the same as a liberal witch hunt. Obscure documents, decades old speeches, business related donations were all used to trash her. George Bush was ridiculed and insulted daily on the most conservative web logs, in order to prove to others that he could not be trusted to nominate a conservative. Comments that Miers would be a good secretary or should be limited to getting coffee were as sexist as I have seen in recent memory. George Bush was called a liberal, a traitor to conservatives, ignorant, etc. Ann Coulter had maybe the worst cheap shot of all claiming George Bush had gone back to drinking. Even Laura Bush was trashed, accused of making the pick for the President and then claiming that sexism could be part of the negative response to the pick ( a passing comment made in answer to a question from an interviewer).
As a strong supporter of the President, I was appalled at this response from a group of people that should know better than to use the same arguments that they defended this President from when the comments came from the left. The effect is that now the public knows that there is no difference politically in the left and the right.
The damage is not only to the image of the President but also the conservative movement in general. Whether far right conservatives like it or not, George Bush is the face of conservatism in the country, and he is reviled daily for the conservative stands he takes. When he is referred to as a liberal by other conservatives, the non political public can easily see that those conservatives are off the reservation. When the far right of the conservative movement can dictate an already conservative President’s Supreme Court nomination, it sends a chilling message to moderates. The moderate swing vote determines who is elected in this nation, and a fight like we have seen over Harriet Miers will alienate them.
Another cost is that the brutal and often unfounded criticism of the President not being limited to his liberal opponents allows these unsubstantiated charges to be leveled at the President in every forum. The rhetoric used on the conservative side against the President and Harriet Miers will be used as a weapon against Republicans in the next election. Statements by leading conservative pundits and politicians will be parroted by the left, and there is no response available that will not paint these conservatives as hypocrites.
The Harriet Miers nomination was, at the heart of the matter, a debate on the trust our President deserves. Not understanding the reasons behind the nomination of Miers, the consensus from the right was that he could not be trusted. That destroys the footing that has given the Republican Party gains in all areas for the last three election cycles. The Republican Party and conservatives in general have made a terrible mistake, and we will pay for it in the next election.
She can phone that in. That fat slob lawyer who committed treason has already be sentenced.
Couldn't they find another judge to fill in ?
Slick willie and his corrupt Treasury Secretary were responsible for the dot bomb. Nothing admirable about it at all. Rubin ought to be in jail!
I don't know. I got it off YouTube.
Guess not. I just wish the hell Montana wasn't in the 9th Circuit.
That is great! The kid's got spunk.
It sure is one of the biggest reasons I'm voting and getting active and volunteering. The military does NOT deserve a gutless Democrat Congress that will force them to leave yet another war without winning. Democrat Congresses have a habit of cutting our military off at the knees and then blaming them for the loss. UNACCEPTABLE!!! The miltiary will NOT take the blame agian for a war that was lost by a weak corrupt gutless Democrat led Congress!!! That will NOT HAPPEN!!! The GOP will hold the House and Senate, the miltiary will continue doing their great job in Iraq and Afghanisan, and in a few years when both countries are stable Democracies, forcing Islamo-fascists to retreat to Sudan and Somalia, the Democrats will be proved to be as wrong as wrong can get on the war on terror. Freedom and liberty is not the problem, it's the solution. Democrats don't understand that.
We need one or two resident "punching bags" to laugh at and let others see how a deranged mind thinks.
:-) excellent!
LLS
If you think that's a good thing, they you are uninformed about the FACTS.
Too many jumped on the deal with absolutely NO information at all and will never have the decency to admit they were WRONG.
That was great!
Illinois is just too corrupted from Chicago and all the corrupt Daily types have done to it. Wisconsin has the potantial to turn red though, if you're not too far from there, that migration might bee worth it. :) A strong Conservative migration from Illinois to Winconsin could have a huge impact. :) But you're still welcome in Texas. I have BBQ for you. ;)
No longer do the claims of giving a nominee a hearing on their merits carry any weight. It is now evident that conservative or liberal, Supreme Court nominations are purely an ideological and political event.
IMHO, they never carried any weight, at least not since the 1960s when the politicization of the judiciary began to take full effect. This was highlighted by the mother of all rulings (RvW) in 1973 and the string of Anti-American rulings that have followed.
The liberals realized this long before we did. The only chance of it ever changing is by getting five strict constructionists (i.e. people who read and interpret the actual text of the Constitution, rather than making it up ourt of whole cloth as they go along) on there. Liberals will always hate and oppose strict constructionists. Once we realize that, we can skip the pretense and accept the unpleasant fact that the SC has been completely politicized, and our only choice is to win.
Right on!!! Reid is in desperate need of being Daschle v2.0 in 2008. This bogus tax free land deal and his cover up will TOTALLY bite him in a couple years. :) A strong Republican needs to come forward to challenge him for that seat.
I suspect there is a shortage of qualified judges and she agreed to fill in for a short period of time. I forget the number of cases but I believe it was less than a dozen.
I would love Texas.
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.