August 20, 2004

Pump watch

From Reuters: Oil prices raced to fresh highs on Friday, carrying U.S. crude over $49 a barrel, driven by escalating violence in Iraq and unabated demand growth from China and India. U.S. light crude set a record $49.27 a barrel, up 57 cents and has risen $12 a barrel, more than 30 percent, since the end of June. Prices have set records in all but one of the last 16 trading sessions. Expect higher gasoline prices shortly. Oil prices are nowhere near the $80 per barrel level (adjusted for inflation) they reached in the early 1980s. But they could get there. And in the longer run, the increased energy demands of the developing world – not the endemic violence in the Middle East – will spell the end, forever, to cheap oil. This is going to come as a profound shock to Americans, and it could happen rather quickly. I plan to write more on this soon. Until then, here's a piece that outlines what's going on in China.

Posted by tbrown at 01:22 PM

Torpedoed

Last week, conservatives were clamoring for the mainstream media to pay attention to the allegations in the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush, er, Truth ad. Now that they have, they're whining about that, too. The truth? They can't handle the truth. From today's New York Times (free site registration may be required): A series of interviews and a review of documents show a web of connections to the Bush family, high-profile Texas political figures and President Bush's chief political aide, Karl Rove. … … on close examination, the accounts of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth prove to be riddled with inconsistencies. In many cases, material offered as proof by these veterans is undercut by official Navy records and the men's own statements. Several of those now declaring Mr. Kerry "unfit" had lavished praise on him, some as recently as last year. In an unpublished interview in March 2003 with Mr. Kerry's authorized biographer, Douglas Brinkley, provided by Mr. Brinkley to The New York Times, Roy F. Hoffmann, a retired rear admiral and a leader of the group, allowed that he had disagreed with Mr. Kerry's antiwar positions but said, "I am not going to say anything negative about him." He added, "He's a good man." In a profile of the candidate that ran in The Boston Globe in June 2003, Mr. Hoffmann approvingly recalled the actions that led to Mr. Kerry's Silver Star: "It took guts, and I admire that." George Elliott, one of the Vietnam veterans in the group, flew from his home in Delaware to Boston in 1996 to stand up for Mr. Kerry during a tough re-election fight, declaring at a news conference that the action that won Mr. Kerry a Silver Star was "an act of courage." At that same event, Adrian L. Lonsdale, another Vietnam veteran now speaking out against Mr. Kerry, supported him with a statement about the "bravado and courage of the young officers that ran the Swift boats." "Senator Kerry was no exception," Mr. Lonsdale told the reporters and cameras assembled at the Charlestown Navy Yard. "He was among the finest of those Swift boat drivers." Those comments echoed the official record. In an evaluation of Mr. Kerry in 1969, Mr. Elliott, who was one of his commanders, ranked him as "not exceeded" in 11 categories, including moral courage, judgment and decisiveness, and "one of the top few" - the second-highest distinction - in the remaining five. In written comments, he called Mr. Kerry "unsurpassed," "beyond reproach" and "the acknowledged leader in his peer group." Then last night, there was Chris Matthews' "Hardball," whose shouting heads usually put me in a stupor. Not this time. Watching Matthews demolish Larry Thurlow's tissue of fabrications – particularly his bizarre assertion that Kerry had a "plan" to win medals so he could go home a hero (which for the Purple Heart requires a wound, and for the Bronze and Silver stars requires exceptional courage) – reminded me that once in a while TV still manages to do something right. MATTHEWS: Can you honestly tell me now, sir, that you could swear in open court that you know that John Kerry, when he was a lieutenant JG in the same theater you were in had some plan for winning medals? Do you know that for a fact? THURLOW: OK. In other words, present evidence that he had this plan? MATTHEWS: Yes. THURLOW: Of course, I couldn‘t. But he'll keep saying it as long as anyone will listen. Read the transcript. It's interesting.

Posted by tbrown at 01:19 PM