The Media is going to cost us this election

John McCain runs an ad completely distorting Obama’s vote on sex education for children and the media runs the news with the headline “Obama aide questions John McCain’s honour“. Are you freaking kidding me? Have they completely lost their mind? How about saying what is true “John McCain has sold his soul to win this election” or ”John McCain takes a chapter from George Bush’s book”. The same Karl Rovian tactics that brought down John McCain’s campaign in South Carolina in 2000 are now being used by John McCain himself against Barack Obama.

When will the media start playing an impartial role and start reporting the news based on its merits. When they are not completely fawning over Barack Obama, they are reporting half truths and lies about the other campaign.

After going for months how he would run a clean campaign and how he is different from George Bush, McCain has even stopped keeping up the pretenses. He is milking his POW status, everytime he opens his mouth and now with Sarah Palin on the ticket any kind of criticism is either questioning his patriotism or being sexist.

The Senator should hope that Sarah Palin will deliver him the Presidency, because, the way he has run his campaign, he has completely lost respect among independent minded people. I not only question his honour, I also question his judgement.

This is the same John McCain who introduced an immigration reform bill but then buckled under pressure from the right wing of his party. He wants to lead the country but only wants to listen to right wing.

This is the same John McCain who wanted to reform the electoral process but now has the same people run his campaign that he tried to shut down in 2000.

This is the same John McCain who wants to do something about climate change but then goes out and selects as VP, somebody who questions whether human beings are even responsible for climate change.

This is the same John McCain who wants America to have a comprehensive energy policy, but the only policy he can come up with is the slogan “Drill, baby drill”. Let me ask the Senator – Would this oil production be controlled by the government i.e nationalised or be sold on the free market? If it goes on the free market how on earth does this solve our energy needs, as whoever pays the highest price gets the oil, which is no different from what we have today. This does nothing to alleviate our energy needs as it is no different from what we have today. You can increase the supply of oil all you want, all it does is increase the demand for oil. Like I wrote earlier drilling in ANWR only means cheaper oil for the Chinese.

Senator do you really take us for fuckin’ fools?

Three things that will bring down Oil Prices

All the current talk about drilling for oil in ANWR and wind fall taxes on oil companies to encourage alternative fuels will not have any effect on oil prices in the short term, so I made a list that I feel should have an immediate effect on oil prices -

Save the Dollar - Raising the federal interest rates will have an immediate effect on the price of oil per barrel because it will strenghten the US Dollar.

In case people havn’t noticed while the price of crude oil has doubled  over the last two years in absolute dollar terms for US consumers, the prices have only increased 60-75% for other countries due to the increase in the value of their currencies as compared to the dollar. The same barrel of oil that was costing the Chinese RMB560 two years ago when oil was at USD 70.00 is now costing them RMB960 when oil is closer to USD140.00/barrel a 72% increase as compared to a 100% increase for Americans. Same goes for the Indians as well as Brazil which are now demanding an increasing share of the oil

No wonder they don’t feel the need to cut back on consumption like we do.

Tell them to Just shut up: If only we could stop people like these

 

from opening their mouth – Oil shot up almost 10 dollars once news of these comments hit the wires

or things like these from happening - once again price of oil shot up that day

A lot of experts believe that at least 20-30% of oil price today includes a premium for geo-political tensions then just regualr supply and demand economics.

Limit Speculation: While not proven there are a lot of theories out their that believe that the recent run-up in prices is due to vast amounts of money chasing profits in commodities. A lot of this money is borrowed on margin. If they increase the margin limits a whole lot of speculative money chasing quick profits would be out of the market allowing oil prices to stabilize.

Alas in the political enviornment prevailing today, it is more important for our leaders to score political points then find actual solutions to our problems.

 

Why drilling in ANWR only means cheaper oil for the Chinese

In midst of the recent drumbeat to lift restrictions on offshore drilling as well as ANWR, I feel an important point is being missed. If we do lift the restrictions, the parties that will benefit the most, apart from the oil companies will be the Indians and Chinese.

I say this because by even the most optimistic accounts the increased production, however big or small that may be, is not expected to come online for at least another 5 years. Americans facing the increased prices of gas at the pump are already making changes to their lifestyle to adjust to this new world – opting for smaller cars or adopting hybrids, changing their driving habits, using public transport or by simply walking more. This is leading to a reduction in demand for oil in the United States and this reduced demand will stay in place(one can always hope) for the long term as all these changes will become habits for this generation.

On the other hand by all accounts the consumption is not even close to peaking in China and India. Most experts believe these two countries have reached only about half their potential. This only means increased demand for more oil that no amount of increased drilling will be able to meet.Accustomed to subsidised oil the populations of these countries are making no effort to reduce consumption and will continue to demand more oil as more people are able to afford cars fueled by increased economic prosperity.

By the time the increased production from ANWR and offshore drilling comes online, Americans will not benefit from it because it will only be enough to satisfy the increased demand from the Chinese and Indians so we will basically be hearing the same argument from the government of that time that we need to increase production to meet demand, only their would be no more ANWR to drill.

What is needed at this time is not increased production but demand destruction? Americans have always been used to cheaper gasoline and have always consumed it as a limitless resource but the increased prices which is still cheaper then many other parts of the world is finally forcing people to make adjustments. Nobody needs an SUV to drive oneself to work everyday. The market forces are already making alternative forms of energy more viable which had always been an excuse not to act in the past. It is absolutely amazing that having lived through this in the seventies we have not made any efforts to wean ourselves of oil in the past and are willing to go down that road again. For all the talk about American entrepreneurship and innovation this has to be the most shortsighted ideas one has seen emanate from our leadership. For people demanding that drilling be allowed in ANWR are only putting off the inevitable and will only weaken us for the future when we still haven’t found any alternatives for our energy needs and their is no more oil to drill.