Katie Couric has been on the job at the "CBS Evening News for little more than a week, but changes are already being made on her show a doctor with ties to Couric has been hired as medical correspondent, replacing veteran Elizabeth Kaledin.
The new face is Dr. Jonathan LaPook, a Manhattan gastroenterologist who helped arrange an on-camera colonoscopy for Couric on the "Today show in 2000. Kaledin had covered the network beat for CBS since 1996.
"The thing Id feel most comfortable saying, which is the truth, is that I am heartbroken by the loss of my job and have spent 20 years working to get to this point, only to be replaced by someone with no journalistic experience only because hes a doctor, she told Rebecca Dana of the New York Observer.
"I have worked incredibly hard from the smallest markets in TV to get to this point . . . My reporting career is unblemished. Im well liked. I work hard. Ive been loyal to CBS.
But Dr. LaPook is close to Couric, whose husband Jay Monahan died of colon cancer and who founded the Jay Monahan Cancer Center. LaPook is a member of the faculty at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, and the Monahan Center is affiliated with his department there.
"His insights and his ability to clearly explain and inform will resonate very well with our viewers and will help us set the standard for reporting on this important subject, CBS News President Sean McManus said in announcing the decision to hire Dr. LaPook.
Rome Hartman, executive producer of the "CBS Evening News, acknowledged to the Observer: "Thats not to say you cant have a terrific medical reporter whos not a doctor.
As for the journalist he is replacing, he said, "I really dont want to comment on that, other than to say that Ive had nothing but really positive dealings with Elizabeth.
Dr. LaPook is the son-in-law of Norman Lear, creator of CBS hits "All in the Family and "Maude, and has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates.
#2
"Dr. LaPook is the son-in-law of Norman Lear, creator of CBS hits "All in the Family and "Maude, and has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates."
Of course he has....
Posted by: Mark E. ||
09/13/2006 15:34 Comments ||
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#3
Dr. LaPook is the son-in-law of Norman Lear, creator of CBS hits "All in the Family and "Maude, and has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates.
Gee. What a surprise.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/13/2006 15:37 Comments ||
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#4
Hey, new doc's done something almost all of us would like to do. Jam something up Katie's ass...
tu3031, I was going to insert a comment along the lines of "that musta been one helluva colonoscopy" when I posted the story, but decorum restrained me. Thanks for taking point.
#7
I have an acquaintance who is still very good friends with Couric going back to their days in college (they were sorority sisters, apparently). My acquaintance is about as far left as you can get without being labeled a "left wing nut", though it seems these days that the distance between them is getting harder and harder to ascertain.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/13/2006 21:26 Comments ||
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#14
Mickey Kaus:
As Katie Couric's newscast sinks back into third place, here's a thought: Maybe CBS isn't disappointed. Maybe the hiring of Couric had nothing to do with boosting the ratings for the CBS Evening News...Maybe Couric was hired by CBS solely to screw NBC's highly-profitable Today Show!... CBS's Les Moonves could somehow get his network back into the lucrative morning-show game--by depriving the dominant competitor of its star--wouldn't that mean a lot more to CBS' bottom line than whether it gets an extra point or two in the shrinking evening news market? ... Wait and see how the Couric-less Today does before you decide whether she was worth $15 million to CBS.
A passenger tried to open the exit door of a jet during a cross-country flight on Tuesday night, airline and federal officials said. United Airlines Flight 890 from Los Angeles landed as scheduled at Washington Dulles International Airport at 8:35 p.m., said Amy Kudwa, Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman. No one was injured.
The passenger became unruly about 3 1/2 hours into the flight from Los Angeles and was subdued by other passengers and federal air marshals, said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy. "After the passenger was restrained, the pilot decided to land at Dulles," McCarthy said. "It wasn't an emergency landing."
Airport police and FBI agents met the flight and were interviewing the passenger, said FBI spokeswoman Debbie Wierman. There were 138 passengers and six crew members on board, McCarthy said. Gosh, what ethnicity was this person? Guess we'll have to wait for the police report.
#5
The passenger became unruly... and was subdued by other passengers and federal air marshals
Hope they got plenty of boots in.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/13/2006 5:25 Comments ||
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#6
I often wonder if these incidents aren't just 'tests' by those who wish to kill us. How do we (as passengers, crews & air marshall) react in such occasions? Much could be learned and added to 'future plans' by these killers.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
09/13/2006 8:47 Comments ||
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#7
"Wolfenberger said the man was held down and had the ever living shit kicked out of him punched by other passengers as he grabbed the man's leg. Air marshals then came and kicked the ever living shit out of him some more took custody of the man."
#9
The a**hole tries to open the exit door, is taken down by passengers, and survives to answer questions for the FBI? How? why? Perhaps it's more difficult to kill someone with your bare hands than I thought.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
09/13/2006 10:06 Comments ||
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#10
Nope. It's easy. Just gotta know where to strike. I could teach a 9 year old girl to do it.
#11
Even I know how, Mark Z -- Mr. Wife taught me back when we were doing his Kung Fu blackbelt forms together. It just gives me nightmares even to remember that. I shan't sleep well tonight.
#12
Most likely a nut who in the old days would have never set foot outside a looney bin.
Posted by: ed ||
09/13/2006 10:39 Comments ||
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#13
I like this article because it shows that things have changed after 9/11. Instead of sitting back and waiting for someone to do something the passengers subdued the idiot and then the Air Marshall took over. Note to aspiring Jihadis: Dont try the same thing again, it wont work.
"Any time you hear a flight attendant shout 'please help,' you worry that something pretty bad is going to happen," he said.
I, too, am amazed that this person is still breathing. As far as I am concerned, anyone trying to hijack or bring down a flight in progress has forfeited their life on the spot. You don't just subdue one of these freaks, you disable them, permanently if that's what seems like the right thing to do.
I wrote about this on the net when I got home from work on 9-11-2001. I called it a "Revised Airflight Passenger Protocol". The worst irony of all is that I used to fly with both a folding hunter and Swiss army knife* in my possession. Had I been on one of the 9-11 flights, there would have been a dead terrorist or three.
* I heard an interesting statistic that, in the event of a wilderness plane crash, if you are carrying even a small blade, your chances of survival go up 50%.
At least 51 people were killed and 238 were injured on Tuesday, a Yemeni official said, after a stampede in a Yemeni stadium where President Ali Abdullah Saleh was holding a pre-election rally. Another official, who declined to be named, said people were crushed after the president left the rally and the crowd rushed to get out of the stadium in the southern province of Ibb.
A Reuters reporter at the scene said the stadium was very crowded, with people standing on the ground as well as in the stands. Some 150,000 people were inside the building and an even larger number had thronged the streets surrounding it. He saw ambulances and police cars rushing the injured to hospital. "The president promised to compensate the families who lost a relative today. They will receive monthly salaries," said the official, who said 42 had died and more than 80 had been hurt. The other official said later 51 people had been killed and 238 injured.
In Taiz province, 250 km (155 miles) southwest of the capital Sanaa, at least four people were killed and 10 injured on Monday in a stampede at a similar election rally, government officials told Reuters without giving further details. Ibb, which is both the name of the town and the province, is
Posted by: Fred ||
09/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"The president promised to compensate the families who lost a relative today. They will receive monthly salaries," .....and FEMA trailers.
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that its plausible that the US government was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. Chavez did not specifically accuse the US government of having a hand in the Sept. 11 attacks, but rather suggested that theories of US involvement bear examination.
Borrowed that line from Cynthia McKinney, did he?
The Venezuelan leader was reacting to a television report investigating a theory the Twin Towers were brought down with explosives after hijacked airplanes crashed into them in 2001. 'The hypothesis is not absurd ... that those towers could have been dynamited, Chavez said in a speech to supporters. A building never collapses like that, unless its with an implosion.
He's an expert building engineer just like his friend Kimmie ...
'The hypothesis that is gaining strength ... is that it was the same US imperial power that planned and carried out this terrible terrorist attack or act against its own people and against citizens of all over the world, Chavez said. Why? To justify the aggressions that immediately were unleashed on Afghanistan, on Iraq.'
And the people around him eat it up, of course.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#4
Ya know what? Hugo's right up there with the philosophy prof from U of Minn. - experts in my field. (Full disclosure: I am a civil engineer, but not a building structural engineer.)
Did any of them look at the collapse? Did our 'operatives' plant the explosives on the exact floor where the plane crashed? Now that's precision flying!
The collapse (effect)started where the fire (cause)was.
If the collapse had started on the first floor, then I would have been suspicious.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/13/2006 6:30 Comments ||
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"the ongoing process by which the world's multiple idiocies are becoming one giant, useless force."
1. The alliance between the radical Left and extremist Islamists is an example of Blair's Law.
2. The fact that white supremicists like David Duke supported 'Mother' Sheehan's sit-in at Crawford, TX is an example of Blair's law.
NEW YORK (AP) - Attorneys for a man accused of fraud say he was charged at the behest of presidential adviser Karl Rove in retaliation for a flood of spam e-mails sent to a campaign Web site. A federal prosecutor says the claim is "idiotic""stoopid" "absurd."
Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Siegal urged U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain on Monday to reject arguments that Rove caused the criminal investigation that led to charges against Robert McAllister. Siegal said lawyers for McAllister made the "patently absurd argument that the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District is a shill for Karl Rove and has arrested and indicted their client in some sort of vindictive retaliation."
McAllister's lawyer Gerald L. Shargel said Monday he plans to try to call Rove as a witness, if the court allows it.
"I mean, I gotta do something for my client!"
McAllister, of Jupiter, Fla., is accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud while he was chief executive officer and president of Millennium National Events Inc., an events promotion company. He was arrested in August 2005. The government says McAllister and Millennium tried to inflate the price of the company's stock by "spreading false and misleading information" about the company via unsolicited e-mails, or spam, to potential investors. McAllister could face up to five years in prison if convicted.
Too bad he can't get the death penalty for spamming, he deserves it ...
Shargel said McAllister's efforts to grow his company were "thwarted by the wrongful conduct of stock promoters," one of whom sent e-mails to a presidential Web site, georgewbush.com. That Web address currently connects automatically to the Republican National Committee. "Mr. Rove used his power and influence at the White House to seek quick punishment of Millennium, and therefore also Robert McAllister, for daring to spam the president's personal Web site," Shargel said.
Attaboy Karl, I would have done the same.
The Daily News reported Sunday that e-mails, phone records and transcripts of phone conversations indicate Rove contacted McAllister and at least three stock promoters.
"Youse guys better lay off the spam or yer gonna git it!"
The newspaper reported that White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Rove "vaguely remembered" the e-mail onslaught but could not recall whether he or any other White House worker contacted the Department of Justice.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
LOL. Is this the first official use of BDS as a defense in court? It won't be the last.
"And how do you plead?"
"Not Guilty, yer honor! I'm the victim of a Rovian Plot!"
"Well okaaaaay, then. Bailiff, is the special room ready?"
"Not quite your honor, we're still cleaning up after the last 'Truther'."
"I see. Well, better call Bellvue then."
In a setback for women's rights in Pakistan, the ruling party in Islamabad has caved in to religious conservatives by dropping its plans to reform rape laws.
Perv always caves in. Always.
When you're riding the tiger and the tiger goes left, you go left.
Especially if you're part of the tiger.
The Hudood Ordinances require a female rape victim to produce four male witnesses to corroborate her account, or she risks facing a new charge of adultery. The ruling party had hoped the new Protection of Women Bill would place the crime of rape within the country's secular penal code, which works in tandem with sharia. But the government said rape would remain a crime punished by Islamic law yesterday after the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), threatened to walk out of parliament in protest if the government pushed ahead with reforms. "If there are four witnesses it will be tried under [Islamic law], if there are not, it will be tried under the penal code," said Law Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar. "In the case of both adultery and rape, the judge will decide how to try the case."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/13/2006 00:00 ||
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It's time to isolate people who think like this. We don't need them.
The Pakistani-American bikini girl, Mariyah Moten, who recently entered a beauty contest claiming to represent the Islamic Republic, appeared to have extended her fan base on Tuesday to include several members of the National Assembly (MNAs), who, it seems, were so mesmerised by the sirens appearance that they forgot to debate the controversy. MNA Farid Piracha of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), speaking on a point of order, said that he had moved an adjournment motion to debate how the girl had come to claim to represent Pakistan, a move that had humiliated the entire country.
"Oh, Mahmoud! I'm so humiliated!"
"Me, too, Ahmed."
"We should throw acid in her face."
Passing around a news report on the incident, he questioned what kind of soft image of Pakistan Ms Motens actions would promote.
Home of comely young maidens? Oh, that wouldn't do.
To push his point home, Piracha then proceeded to pass a picture of the bikini-clad 22-year-old to several of his colleagues.
"Aaaaiiiieeee! My turban has unravelled!"
"Point of order, Mr. Speaker! Mr. Chaudry has prematurely shot off!"
First in the queue were Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNAs Pervez Malik and Raja Nadir Pervez. Piracha and Malik were then seen smiling at the picture before exchanging comments.
"Hubba!"
"Hubba!"
Then came the turn of MMA MNA Hakim Qari Gul Rehman, who took the picture from Piracaha. After drinking in Ms Motens sexy pose, he then let treasury member Rehana Aleem Mashehdi have a look, which she did, but only after donning her spectacles. Rehana passed the picture on to MNA Amjad Warraich, who was sitting next to her. He then passed it back to Qari Gul Rehman, who returned it to Piracha. And that, it seems, was the extent of the mass debate.
#5
Besides, I'm sure Moderate Muslims could find a way to accept and embrace bikini girls, if just a simple islamic cultural addition was made. Then, it would be a true paradigm shift, and the oumma really would come to terms with modernity, and learn to live in a truly western (californian) way :
I've been a drag racer on LSD
And I rode bare-assed on top o' the sphinx
I even had a gorilla on the slopes of kismet
And man, that was fun for a while you bet, but...
Bikini girls with machine-guns
Bikini girls with machine-guns
This stuff 'll kill ya
It's loaded with fun
Bikini girls with machine-guns
Well, I savored many foreign kind of delicacy
Intoxicated 'till I can't tell the hell I can see
Had all the violence and liquor within close reach
But the bars, pills and freeways lead me back to the
Beach and...
Bikini girls with machine-guns
Bikini girls with machine-guns
This stuff 'll kill ya
It's loaded with fun
Bikini girls with machine-guns
Now they say that virtue is its own reward
But when that surf comes in I'm gonna get my board
Got my own idea about the righteous kick
You can keep the reward... I'd just as soon stay sick
Bikini girls with machine-guns
Bikini girls with machine-guns
This stuff 'll kill ya
It's loaded with fun
Bikini girls with machine-guns
#6
Sniff, sniff, you know even the CHICOMS are at risk of IMPLOSION = NEEDING TISSUES when proper PLA Warriors/Comrades of the Motherland start putting up calendars of sexy slinky Chinese bikinis - alomost naked babes wid guns.
#10
There's definitely truth in that idea, gorb. And I have the links to prove it, lol. I'll gladly share them with MuzzyMooks (no Imams, lol) if they stop filtering at the firewall...
#11
When they searched the living quarters of the 9/11 hijackers, scoured the computers, papers, effects, etc. that they left behind, they found quite a bit of porn.
Kinda like the old joke:
Q:Why do you take two muslims with you when you go fishing?
A: If you take only one, he'll drink all your beer.
#18
he questioned what kind of soft image of Pakistan Ms Motens actions would promote.
Sounds like Farid is not into girls. Only "boys handsome as well guarded pearls" will do.
While we are waxing poetic, 'Perfumed Garden' by Abu Nuwas:
O the joy of sodomy!
So now be sodomites, you Arabs.
Turn not away from it--
therein is wondrous pleasure.
Take some coy lad with kiss-curls
twisting on his temple
and ride as he stands like some gazelle
standing to her mate.
A lad whom all can see girt with sword
and belt not like your whore who has
to go veiled.
Make for smooth-faced boys and do your
very best to mount them, for women are
the mounts of the devils
Posted by: ed ||
09/13/2006 11:52 Comments ||
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#2
It would really smart if someone sent them a snarky letter accusing them of being racist and ignorant for thinking that all Moslems are so childlike and unsophisticated that they have to be patronized.
It could continue by pointing out that many Moslems hold advanced degrees is serious studies from universities far more prestigious than UVA, and sneer at their sensibilities, thinking of them as little more than crude burgeoisie with pretensions to journalism as an easy degree, purchased with their parents' money.
It could conclude by pointing out that their hypocrisy of sneering at Jesus is equally offensive to Moslems, who see Jesus as a prophet; and also shows their general ignorance and lack of respect for both religions.
#3
"I don't think at this point they would run a cartoon mocking Mohammed the way they did," she said, "putting Jesus up on a cross and saying the blessed Mary has [a] venereal disease."
A classic case of:
Just because you have the right to do something, doesn't make it the right thing to do.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil extended losses for the seventh consecutive session on Tuesday, retreating to under $64 a barrel after Iran sounded a softer note on its atomic program and OPEC agreed to keep production steady for now. U.S. light crude for October delivery settled $1.85 lower at $63.76 a barrel, the lowest level since March 22, and the longest losing streak in nearly three years. London Brent crude fell $1.56 to $62.99.
"There is potential that this could go a long way, since pure supply and demand would dictate a price in the low $50s. But the geopolitical element remains," said Mike Fitzpatrick, vice president at Fimat USA.
Oil has fallen 20 percent in two months, raising questions within the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries about whether to make its first formal output cut in 2-1/2 years.
Many analysts say the extent of the decline depends on OPEC deciding what price it is ready to defend. "Fundamentally, there's more downside to go, probably to the point where OPEC decides to cut supply," said Mike Coleman, a partner with Singapore-based hedge fund Aisling Analytics.
Iran's oil minister said he wanted to see OPEC's basket of crudes holding above $60 a barrel, about $64 for U.S. crude, while other officials have in the past mooted a $50-$60 range.
OPEC, which has avoided naming a new target price, decided on Monday to maintain production limits at 28 million barrels per day (bpd), but said it could meet again before the end of the year to review the situation.
Good. Let them cut production. We can handle $55 a barrel oil. Can they handle the revenue loss? Or will they, as usual, cheat?
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Ya, but what will the Mullahs use to buy the Hezbos new toyz
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/13/2006 0:48 Comments ||
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#2
The Mullahs and Emirs are screwed in the long run, and in their saner moments they know it. When the price of oil goes up, market economies react by restructuring themselves to use less of it. When the price goes down, many of those efficiencies remain in place. The result, as we've seen over the last thirty or so years is that oil represents a shrinking percentage of the economy.
Meanwhile, the states of of the mid-East continue to buy what social cohesion they have with payouts from their johnny-one-note economies. They have nowhere to go, no plan B. Rationalizing their economies, like their politics, will be a monumental undertaking.
One of the smartest things I have heard from a Saudi was an oil minister who observed that the stone age did not end because we ran out of stones. At one time, sitting on a pile of flint would have made you rich and powerful. Now its just a rock.
Posted by: Baba Tutu ||
09/13/2006 3:46 Comments ||
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#3
Excellent summation, Baba Tutu. *kudos*
The loudly ticking demographic time bomb will make the Saudi Minister's realization, or whatever the context was, a mere confirmation of the reason for their particular demise: classic greed and stupidity. The "boom" there is coming, visible to anyone who's paying attention. They, all of the oil-tick "states", will probably dissolve into "instability", LOL. The UN and the Arab League and the OIC and the GCC and all of the other wanky wonk clusters of thieves will be beside themselves, hold lots of pointless hand-wringing conferences, assign blame to everyone but themselves, and keep the MSM busy reporting their "brave" attempts to figure out how to relieve the pressure before it consumes them all. It will be low comedy.
The only mitigating factor, IMO, will be the fact that Saudi Arabia and Iran, fracturing for differing reasons, represent such a huge percentage of the oil export business that the others will actually amount to little more than a footnote.
If we fear (or whatever level of discomfort we wish to assign) the economic effect of kicking the shit out of Iran will have on the world, we need only recognize this looming Muzzy BSOD (LOL) will be equally "destabilizing", and should consider how we will protect ourselves. If that means taking their goodies away from them, then so be it. If we can't accept that brazen act without getting all squishy about it (LOL), then we can put the assets "in trust" - just not allow any of the UN-type schemers to have anything to do with administering it, of course. We'll steal it fair and square, we should administer it. This, alone, is sufficient reason, IMO, to go ahead and cut our ties with the UN.
To paraphrase, "Something ass-kickingly wicked, this way comes." :)
#4
High oil prices result in more exploration, which leads to more production and lower prices. Plants to convert Canadian tar sands in Alberta are on-line and production is growing. The tar sands represent more oil than the reserves of Saudi-occupied Arabia. And conversion is economic above $20 / barrel. Imagine what would happen to prices if we got off our collective butts and started to drill in ANWR and off the east / west coasts.
#5
The result, as we've seen over the last thirty or so years is that oil represents a shrinking percentage of the economy.
But that may be over. Thirty years ago we generated electricity from oil. Oil has been removed from every non-transportation use possible, except extruded plastic lawn chairs, and transportation.
And there's plenty of folks willing to drive bigger vehicles farther more often, especially the farther down the international economic ladder one goes. People will buy the un-economic Prius for now to feel good, but when battery replacement time comes, along with $20 per barrel oil, they'll be happy to pick up an SUV.
DMFD has identified the critical steps neceaasry to deflate OPEC. The key is keeping the price high enough to reward the capitalists willing to make the large investments necessary to bring these sources to market. An oil import fee that keeps the price stable and high enough to stimulate supply.
#8
...$2.10 a gallon for regular at some of the independent stations here in Georgetown SC, topping out at around $2.29 at the major chains - and they say by the weekend they may have no choice but to be down around $2.10 or even $2.00.
Somewhere, Adam Smith smiles.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/13/2006 8:49 Comments ||
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#9
$2.34 at the Sunoco in Prince William County, VA, 25 miles south of the White House. $2.45 on the PW Parkway, half a mile from the Sunoco, however, and some still over $3.00 in DC, according to the radio.
Adam Smith, indeed.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/13/2006 9:13 Comments ||
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#10
I hold wall Street and the oil speculators partially to blame for this. They ride and inflame the market allowing every burp in the middle east to equate to a 50 cent per gallon increase. I hope they are choking on their losses.
I hope the oil companies, in light of the dropping prices, continue with the jack wells in the Gulf of Mexico and with the canadian projects. Then we could close the US market to Arab oil. I would be happy to pay 3 buck a gallon if we are free of using Arab oil. Send these OPEC countries and leaders back to living in tents.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/13/2006 9:16 Comments ||
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#11
Gasoline is still around $2.75/gallon for regular in Anchorage, Alaska. Some gasoline is refined in North Pole and in Nikiski, but the majors are still barging it up from the west coast. Hopefully, there will be just a time delay and we will see a price decrease. When I was in NW Alaska last August, the price of gasoline at the Shungnak Native Store was $8.00 per gallon. High crude prices, coupled with large surcharges in barge rates, plus once-a-year deliveries on a river barge, after being lightered from offshore, make the costs astronomical. Heating oil was $5.00 per gallon up there.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/13/2006 10:06 Comments ||
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#12
Still $2.80 - $2.95 in Chicago, home of Da Mayor and high taxes ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/13/2006 11:08 Comments ||
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#13
An oil import fee that keeps the price stable and high enough to stimulate supply.
Oil import fees were a dumb idea in the 70s and they are an even dumber idea now.
Only supply keeps prices stable. An oil import fee would not stop an overproduction by OPEC nor will it stop OPEC from constricting production for the kind of prices they want.
Remember Port Arthur Texas? Bringing oil into Port Arthur to be reexported to Mexico only to be reimported into the US all to escape an oil import duty.
Do you realy think that an oil import fee would do anything other than to raise costs for everyone and to raise revenue for the one element in the economy that doesn't need more money, the government?
#16
Pandering whores, yes, but how far-seeing! They predicited W would cut the price of gas in time for his re-election. But Rove knew it would be better to wait until the mid-term election, when the war was nearly lost. Cheney, of course, wanted no reduction in gas, ever, since his Halliburton shares, and other secret holdings, depend on screwing the average American that only the Democrats can save....
Whew! Paranoia's not that hard.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/13/2006 12:56 Comments ||
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#17
Do you realy think that an oil import fee would do anything other than to raise costs for everyone and to raise revenue for the one element in the economy that doesn't need more money, the government?
It would induce more investment to be made in the extraction of domestic supplies using capital intense methods, it would reduce price volitility, it would reduce expenditure of taxes on defense forces to protect Arab regimes and it could be made to be revenue neutral to the government.
How was our country able to prosper for 125 years on only import fees but suddenly they're evil incarnate?
#18
O.K. Here's Bobby's plan, a sure-fire way to never hold public office:
Pass the law that says the tax on gas will go up ten cents a gallon, for the next twenty years.
Folks get a chance to plan for higher costs and slowly get away form S.U.V.'s
All the tax has to go to rapid transit, energy independence, wind farms off Cape Cod, and related topics.
In the event of an embargo, the tax could be temporarily reduced to steeady the price.
Brilliant.
Simple.
Impossible.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/13/2006 13:02 Comments ||
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#19
Last I looked (a few days ago), $2.27 at Wa-Wa and Sheetz in Chesterfield County, VA (outside Richmond). The Exxon I pass each morning on my way to work has come down a few cents since then, so I suspect the Wa-Wa is below $2.27 now.
I'll find out when I fill up this weekend, :-D
Yesterday I heard on the radio about a price war between 2 stations in Norfolk (VA) - $1.78/1.79.
Woo-hoo!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/13/2006 13:08 Comments ||
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#20
It would induce more investment to be made in the extraction of domestic supplies using capital intense methods, it would reduce price volitility, it would reduce expenditure of taxes on defense forces to protect Arab regimes and it could be made to be revenue neutral to the government.
Thanks you for proving my point. The oil import fee would essentially make domestic oil prices rise to meet the increased cost of imported oil; this the fee would be a subsidy for the "domestic" oil industry. And once oil oversupply takes, place, which it will, guess where the investment money goes?
Does it go to the higher return / low cost imported oil or to the lower return / higher cost domestic oil?
Nothing kills investment in any industry faster than a govenrment subsidy, especially when everyone knows the oil industry doesn't need a subsidy, they need tax reductions.
Only supply or market supported substitutes reduces price volitility of an inherently volitile commodity such as oil.
Ronald Magnus was right: government isn't the solution. Government is the problem.
Wanna ensure stable oil supply? Kill all federal and state taxes at the pump and at the wellhead, as well as any duties and let the marlet sort it out.
As it is, it appears that some just want to high prices to continue for domestic producers, but an oil import fee will keep prices high for everyone, but the producers.
I'll give you time to check it out how successful oil import fees were in controlling price and supply.
#22
Do you realy think that an oil import fee would do anything other than to raise costs for everyone and to raise revenue for the one element in the economy that doesn't need more money, the government?
Increase the gasoline tax. Oil production from new, risky sources such as shale oil or tar sands could be measured and the tax could be directly rebated to those producers. Over time decrease the rebate. This would have a secondary affect of indirectly paying for the military cost of securing supply lines and sources and the environmental cost of fossil fuel use.
There would be a GDP depressing affect due to increased fuel cost but that might be balanced by more of the fuel costs being spent in the US.
Cutting off petro dollars going to ME countries might make raising gas taxes politically feasible.
#23
$2.44 per Gallon here on the Gulf Coast (Mobile Alabama)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/13/2006 20:07 Comments ||
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#24
CA's is high enough, tyvm. We're paying $2.78/gal at the cheapest unleaded
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/13/2006 20:37 Comments ||
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#25
$2.31/gal here in Atlanta metro (can be had for $2.29/gal at Wal Mart too). AND, Friday is the day we switch to that lovely "winter blend" and away from the botique blends for the Air regulations, which many speculate will drop it another $.10-$.15/gal by this weekend....YIPEE!
Posted by: BA ||
09/13/2006 23:38 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
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