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Oil: More Demand, Higher Prices

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What about Iraq? What's the timeline there for getting that oil pumping?
I can give you the Talmudic answer by answering a question with a question. You tell me when the political situation will be clarified and an oil law will be passed and I'll tell you when production will go up. One of the things that must happen is the passage of an oil law over who would control the oil contracts and the oil revenues. And the problem has been that they haven't been able to reach a level of agreement between the different factions in that country. This is as central to Iraq as the issue of slavery was in the U.S. This is a fundamental issue in terms of the economic structure of the country.

Could high prices and stretched production capabilities lead to new domestic drilling in places like Alaska or offshore near Florida and California?
It should. The United States is the only country in the world that has large swaths of highly prospective acreage that is off limits. Everyone talks about Alaska, but the industry is much more interested in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. What the politicians are always trying to do is find painless solutions. Energy policy in the U.S. in the last 25 years had encouraged consumption and discouraged production, which doesn't make a great deal of sense. And instead what we try to do is keep fuel as cheap as possible in the transportation and residential sectors. Those are the two sectors of the U.S. economy that are very inefficient from an energy standpoint.

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A blogger named Edson writes "Did the word Democrat really come from democracy?"

Here is a derivation of the words "Democrat" and "Republican."

The United States of America is a republic, that is to say, a Federal government in which the people are represented by elected officials from the various states. Before we were a republic, we were a democracy made up of 13 individual states that were not united. A democracy is a form of government where the individual citizens have the right to speak their minds and influence the political discourse. Democracy was named after Demosthenes, a citizen of ancient Greece with a speech impediment who practiced talking with his mouth full of pebbles to overcome his disability. Demosthenes later became a great political orator. This is where the Democrats derive their name.

The original Republicans were in favor of the states joining to form a republic (which is how that party got it's name). The original Democrats were opposed to this idea, they represented the individual states and were worried that the republic could gain too much power over the states, and through the exercise of tyranny, deny individuals their freedom. Trust me, people were pretty passionate about their liberty in those days, having just fought for independence from England. The Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were all hammered out by serious-minded men who sought to balance the need for individual freedom with our shared common cause, the needs for united strength and social order. Balancing the rights of the individual against the rights of the whole society is what America is all about. This is not only a great achievement for our nation, it is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. And we have, by and large, been true to our ideals over the past 227 years. The system of government we initially established, although needing occasional revisions, has stood the test of time.

Let's not forget where we started from, that impulse towards equality and freedom.

America is, with all it's faults, a meritocracy. Most of our founding fathers would never have had a voice in the 18th century English government they rebelled against, a monarchy where you had to be born into power. In America it was different. If you had intelligence, passion, ambition, drive, talent and a little luck, you could change the world.

This is the real secret to Obama's popularity, his ability to touch this archetype in our souls. This is why a white, conservative middle-aged female Republican like me wants to vote for him. He's got that blend of intelligence, passion, ambition, drive and talent. I'm giving him my vote to proffer him the last ingredient, a little luck, so I can watch our Republican Democracy in action, and once again change the world.

IN GOD WE TRUST

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Posted By: sirhc @ 04/05/2008 7:43:48 PM

THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS VERY REAL. I TRIED TO DENY IT BUT WHEN YOU HAVE AL SHARPTON MAKING COMMERCIALS WITH PAT ROBERTSON AND NEWT GINGRINCH DOING COMMERCIALS WITH ANNCY PELOSI ALL FOR THIS-THEN THAT'S A LOUD AND CLEAR SIGNAL. Go to www.dakshidin.com for the environment uptick on other energy source(mainly air and wind-I saw on Glen Beck about the air powered car-HOPE SO!)and www.greenglobeint.com for the companies that specialize in tourism and traveling in the most green way because traveling is very, very much a pollutant as people discard and tarvel more frivilous than when they are home.
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Posted By: david-fahey @ 03/19/2008 12:25:40 PM

question. with the present falling dollar, what would be the cost of a bbl. of oil today in, let's say, 1999 dollars? the ones bush found in the bank when he became prez. bush says he was an effective manager of the economy what do you say?
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Posted By: Nins @ 03/13/2008 9:26:23 PM

A blogger named Edson writes "Did the word Democrat really come from democracy?"

Here is a derivation of the words "Democrat" and "Republican."

The United States of America is a republic, that is to say, a Federal government in which the people are represented by elected officials from the various states. Before we were a republic, we were a democracy made up of 13 individual states that were not united. A democracy is a form of government where the individual citizens have the right to speak their minds and influence the political discourse. Democracy was named after Demosthenes, a citizen of ancient Greece with a speech impediment who practiced talking with his mouth full of pebbles to overcome his disability. Demosthenes later became a great political orator. This is where the Democrats derive their name.

The original Republicans were in favor of the states joining to form a republic (which is how that party got it's name). The original Democrats were opposed to this idea, they represented the individual states and were worried that the republic could gain too much power over the states, and through the exercise of tyranny, deny individuals their freedom. Trust me, people were pretty passionate about their liberty in those days, having just fought for independence from England. The Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were all hammered out by serious-minded men who sought to balance the need for individual freedom with our shared common cause, the needs for united strength and social order. Balancing the rights of the individual against the rights of the whole society is what America is all about. This is not only a great achievement for our nation, it is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. And we have, by and large, been true to our ideals over the past 227 years. The system of government we initially established, although needing occasional revisions, has stood the test of time.

Let's not forget where we started from, that impulse towards equality and freedom.

America is, with all it's faults, a meritocracy. Most of our founding fathers would never have had a voice in the 18th century English government they rebelled against, a monarchy where you had to be born into power. In America it was different. If you had intelligence, passion, ambition, drive, talent and a little luck, you could change the world.

This is the real secret to Obama's popularity, his ability to touch this archetype in our souls. This is why a white, conservative middle-aged female Republican like me wants to vote for him. He's got that blend of intelligence, passion, ambition, drive and talent. I'm giving him my vote to proffer him the last ingredient, a little luck, so I can watch our Republican Democracy in action, and once again change the world.

IN GOD WE TRUST