Oil Continues Free-fall

[Mean Green Matt]

The same could be said for 98% of all politicians including his opponent.

While we're straying into 3rd, 4th, and 5th party candies, Nader is probably in the 2%. I think he's lost it in his older age, but he's not afraid say what he believes no matter how unpopular it may be with the masses. I gotta respect it.

I never said Obama was the only one. I personally like Ron Paul...another guy who says what he believes regardless of poplularity.

[FirefightnRick]

I heard a speech from Obama that discussed this issue. He basically said that he still was not in favor of offshore drilling, but would vote for it if that was what it took in order to get an energy plan that had other features that he felt where important. So I wouldn't say it's so much of a changing a tune as it is agreeing to a compromise to get stuff done.

I don't think the guy knows today what he would vote for and what he wouldn't? Yesterday he accused McCain of supporting big oil tax breaks, forgetting that he himself voted for them and McCain voted against them. And now he's changed his mind on off shore drilling... as a last resort? Why as a last resort? What's wrong with it that it would be ok, but only as a last resort? I'm starting to understand his CHANGE policy. Maybe it's just me and my bad memory but I don't believe I have ever seen a candidate CHANGE positions on so many things during the year and a half leading up to an election for president? He's friends with terrorists, now he's not. He changed his mind on campaign funding. He has a personal relationship with a hate monger racist church for 20 years but he doesn't support their message and has since thrown his beloved pastor friend under the bus? His wife wasn't proud of her country, but now she is? He's really starting to sound like a joke. I may write in Hayden Fry as my vote instead.

HAYDEN FRY FOR PRESIDENT!

Rick

[meangreenacct]

I don't think the guy knows today what he would vote for and what he wouldn't? Yesterday he accused McCain of supporting big oil tax breaks, forgetting that he himself voted for them and McCain voted against them. And now he's changed his mind on off shore drilling... as a last resort? Why as a last resort? What's wrong with it that it would be ok, but only as a last resort? I'm starting to understand his CHANGE policy. Maybe it's just me and my bad memory but I don't believe I have ever seen a candidate CHANGE positions on so many things during the year and a half leading up to an election for president? He's friends with terrorists, now he's not. He changed his mind on campaign funding. He has a personal relationship with a hate monger racist church for 20 years but he doesn't support their message and has since thrown his beloved pastor friend under the bus? His wife wasn't proud of her country, but now she is? He's really starting to sound like a joke. I may write in Hayden Fry as my vote instead.

HAYDEN FRY FOR PRESIDENT!

Rick

That's funny, ask Mccain a year and a half ago and he was against offshore drilling. He also proposed an immigration bill, but then didn't vote for it. Don't kid yourself if you think Obama is the only one who refines his position. Also, I don't recall Obama ever saying "I'm friends with terrorists", so you can get off that talking point.

[untbowler]

That's funny, ask Mccain a year and a half ago and he was against offshore drilling. He also proposed an immigration bill, but then didn't vote for it. Don't kid yourself if you think Obama is the only one who refines his position. Also, I don't recall Obama ever saying "I'm friends with terrorists", so you can get off that talking point.

your right he only sought out the terrorist to support his senate election in IL and sat on a board with him. Yep he is certainly not friendly with him. Just like Cheney has no stake in Haliburton and most the Liberal Democrats have never invested and gotten rich off of the big oil they so hate.

[meangreenacct]

your right he only sought out the terrorist to support his senate election in IL and sat on a board with him. Yep he is certainly not friendly with him. Just like Cheney has no stake in Haliburton and most the Liberal Democrats have never invested and gotten rich off of the big oil they so hate.

I've read up on the reference you are talking about - and could find nothing about him "seeking". They both sat on a Board that they were separately appointed to by the Mayor of Chicago, hardly Barack Obama seeking terrorist affiliation.

[BeanCounterGrad'03]

Ron Paul...another guy who says what he believes regardless of poplularity.

I would agree with that statement.

[yyz28]

I've read up on the reference you are talking about - and could find nothing about him "seeking". They both sat on a Board that they were separately appointed to by the Mayor of Chicago, hardly Barack Obama seeking terrorist affiliation.

Sorry, but you need to look further. Character counts, it just does.

...ESPECIALLY with someone like this who has nothing but his good judgement to run on. He has little to no track record, and his stands on major issues are moving on a minute by minute basis.

This guy's background and associations would keep him from getting security clearance for most jobs that would require such a background check.

Tony Rezko

Rev. Wright

William Ayers

Bernadine Dohrn

Sam Graham-Felsen

Frank Marshall Davis

Alice Palmer

James Meeks

Rashid Khalid

Nadhami Auchi

Now, politics aside, I simply couldn't vote for someone who has this list of associations even if he was parroting my political views. I'm sure he didn't know that any of these people were criminals, anti-americans, terrorists or communitst at the time. (which seems to always be his defense) ...but if he's not lying and REALLY DIDN'T KNOW what these people were all about, then his Judgement SUCKS. See, no matter how you spin these associations, they are a MASSIVE PROBLEM...

...either he knows what all these people are about and is OK with it...

OR

...is such a bad judge of character that his judgement MUST be called into question.

[Censored by Laurie]

Sorry, but you need to look further. Character counts, it just does.

...ESPECIALLY with someone like this who has nothing but his good judgement to run on. He has little to no track record, and his stands on major issues are moving on a minute by minute basis.

This guy's background and associations would keep him from getting security clearance for most jobs that would require such a background check.

Tony Rezko

Rev. Wright

William Ayers

Bernadine Dohrn

Sam Graham-Felsen

Frank Marshall Davis

Alice Palmer

James Meeks

Rashid Khalid

Nadhami Auchi

Now, politics aside, I simply couldn't vote for someone who has this list of associations even if he was parroting my political views. I'm sure he didn't know that any of these people were criminals, anti-americans, terrorists or communitst at the time. (which seems to always be his defense) ...but if he's not lying and REALLY DIDN'T KNOW what these people were all about, then his Judgement SUCKS. See, no matter how you spin these associations, they are a MASSIVE PROBLEM...

...either he knows what all these people are about and is OK with it...

OR

...is such a bad judge of character that his judgement MUST be called into question.

Rezko - just a boring mobster who threw money towards winning sides in hopes of garniering political favors. Helped raise millions for President Bush

Wright & Meeks - two very outspoken religous leaders who share the same belief of millions in the U.S. that there is still significant racism in America and who use the pulpit as their soapbox. Their views are no more radical than Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell

Ayers & Dohrn - professors at two of the most well-respected schools in the country (UC and N'Western) who are both still very active and prominant in the Chicago area. Obama spoke out against Ayers' involvment with the the Weathermen. I would love to take a class from either

Graham-Felsen - his Harvard grad blogger? Really? Why? He's read Marx? He was in France for the student riots? Have you actually read the "blog?" There is no opinion, no commentary...its a menu of what Obama did that day with some cut and paste of his speeches and if you're lucky the occassional youtube video embedded.

Davis - author and poet who knew Obama when he was 10? Oh, but he was brought up on charges by HUAC? Well...I heard John McCain used to watch Lucy...and his favorite book is the Crucible. Burn Him!

Palmer - Obama's predecessor who hand picked Obama to run against Jesse Jackson Jr. (figured most of you would be on board with this). She backed Clinton in the primaries.

Khalidi - a Columbia professor with Palestinian sympathies who helped broker the peace (it was fleeting) btwn Israel and Palestine. Really...more of you need to read up on the history of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict before you blindly choose sides

Auchi - If you're going to lump Auchi and Obama...you may as well go ahead and throw Kevin Bacon on your list. Auchi was solicited by Rezko and Illinois's governor to invest some of his billions into Chicago and Illinois. He was Baath party before Saddam took power and since has lived in London.

Go to town...

[UNTLifer]

Wright & Meeks - two very outspoken religous leaders who share the same belief of millions in the U.S. that there is still significant racism in America and who use the pulpit as their soapbox. Their views are no more radical than Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell

Pretty bold statement including Graham in this sentence unless you think the Bible is radical.

[Guest JohnDenver]

Pretty bold statement including Graham in this sentence unless you think the Bible is radical.

I think that is his point. His views aren't any more radical than Graham (just a normal religious dude, well followed) to Falwell (pretty extreme, well followed religious dude).

[JesseMartin]

Wow, CBL got game!

I was a big McCain fan in 2000 and for quite a while after that. Lately he seems like he's just trying to sound like a lot of other R's.

I agree with the "Kevin Bacon" statement...and I'm not a fan of all of Obama's policy stuff, but he sounds a lot like me. I'm curious to see what he could do for the country if given the chance. Hopefully more than airing up tires heheh...

And as for Ron Paul...I'd heard that he wouldn't take a 3rd party nom if offered. Has there been a change? Does anyone know what's up with the independent parties lately? Maybe someone could start an issue-based party just about the oil issue

[yyz28]

Rezko - just a boring mobster who threw money towards winning sides in hopes of garniering political favors. Helped raise millions for President Bush

Wright & Meeks - two very outspoken religous leaders who share the same belief of millions in the U.S. that there is still significant racism in America and who use the pulpit as their soapbox. Their views are no more radical than Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell

Ayers & Dohrn - professors at two of the most well-respected schools in the country (UC and N'Western) who are both still very active and prominant in the Chicago area. Obama spoke out against Ayers' involvment with the the Weathermen. I would love to take a class from either

Graham-Felsen - his Harvard grad blogger? Really? Why? He's read Marx? He was in France for the student riots? Have you actually read the "blog?" There is no opinion, no commentary...its a menu of what Obama did that day with some cut and paste of his speeches and if you're lucky the occassional youtube video embedded.

Davis - author and poet who knew Obama when he was 10? Oh, but he was brought up on charges by HUAC? Well...I heard John McCain used to watch Lucy...and his favorite book is the Crucible. Burn Him!

Palmer - Obama's predecessor who hand picked Obama to run against Jesse Jackson Jr. (figured most of you would be on board with this). She backed Clinton in the primaries.

Khalidi - a Columbia professor with Palestinian sympathies who helped broker the peace (it was fleeting) btwn Israel and Palestine. Really...more of you need to read up on the history of the Israeli - Palestinian conflict before you blindly choose sides

Auchi - If you're going to lump Auchi and Obama...you may as well go ahead and throw Kevin Bacon on your list. Auchi was solicited by Rezko and Illinois's governor to invest some of his billions into Chicago and Illinois. He was Baath party before Saddam took power and since has lived in London.

Go to town...

ROTFLMAO!!! I rest my case. You support the man's politics, so to you the associations don't mean anything. No big deal...

Obama himself sites Davis as one of the major influences in his life.

He didn't speak out against Ayers & Dohrn until his association with them was politically damaging, and he certainly has more of a relationship than you pretend they do in your response.

Sen. Barack Obama's official campaign blogger was a self-proclaimed student of Karl Marx as an undergraduate at Harvard who proudly displayed a Soviet communist flag in his dorm room. Sam Graham-Felsen, after graduating from Harvard in 2003, published an article in an avowedly socialist magazine that expressed sympathy for the 2006 Paris street riots, which he observed in person. He has posted dozens of comments and articles on the blog of the leftist publication The Nation. Behind the bar in his Quincy House suite at Harvard, Graham-Felsen hung a Communist Party flag that he and a roommate brought back from Russia, according to an article published in the Harvard Crimson when he was a senior. The Crimson article also noted Graham-Felsen's bookcase in the Quincy house dorm included titles by Karl Marx and Howard Zinn, the socialist political science professor at Boston University known for his anti-American history texts and his extreme anti-war protest activity.

Wright & Meeks are both anti-American and blame the US for 9/11 and preach hate. You pass it off as a non-issue, but Barack Obama himself has disavowed the preachers - but only after it was politically damaging.

Rezko's relationship with him is a HELL of a lot deeper than you indicate. Here are the facts of the Rezko-Obama relationship as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times:

1. They met in 1990. Obama was a student at Harvard Law School and got an unsolicited job offer from Rezko, then a low-income housing developer in Chicago. Obama turned it down.

2. Obama took a job in 1993 with a small Chicago law firm, Davis Miner Barnhill, that represents developers -- primarily not-for-profit groups -- building low-income housing with government funds.

3. One of the firm's not-for-profit clients -- the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corp., co-founded by Obama's then-boss Allison Davis -- was partners with Rezko's company in a 1995 deal to convert an abandoned nursing home at 61st and Drexel into low-income apartments. Altogether, Obama spent 32 hours on the project, according to the firm. Only five hours of that came after Rezko and WPIC became partners, the firm says. The rest of the future senator's time was helping WPIC strike the deal with Rezko. Rezko's company, Rezmar Corp., also partnered with the firm's clients in four later deals -- none of which involved Obama, according to the firm. In each deal, Rezmar "made the decisions for the joint venture," says William Miceli, an attorney with the firm.

4. In 1995, Obama began campaigning for a seat in the Illinois Senate. Among his earliest supporters: Rezko. Two Rezko companies donated a total of $2,000. Obama was elected in 1996 -- representing a district that included 11 of Rezko's 30 low-income housing projects.

5. Rezko's low-income housing empire began crumbling in 2001, when his company stopped making mortgage payments on the old nursing home that had been converted into apartments. The state foreclosed on the building -- which was in Obama's Illinois Senate district.

6. In 2003, Obama announced he was running for the U.S. Senate, and Rezko -- a member of his campaign finance committee -- held a lavish fund-raiser June 27, 2003, at his Wilmette mansion.

7. A few months after Obama became a U.S. senator, he and Rezko's wife, Rita, bought adjacent pieces of property from a doctor in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood -- a deal that has dogged Obama the last two years. The doctor sold the mansion to Obama for $1.65 million -- $300,000 below the asking price. Rezko's wife paid full price -- $625,000 -- for the adjacent vacant lot. The deals closed in June 2005. Six months later, Obama paid Rezko's wife $104,500 for a strip of her land, so he could have a bigger yard. At the time, it had been widely reported that Tony Rezko was under federal investigation. Questioned later about the timing of the Rezko deal, Obama called it "boneheaded" because people might think the Rezkos had done him a favor.

8. Eight months later -- in October 2006 -- Rezko was indicted on charges he solicited kickbacks from companies seeking state pension business under his friend Gov. Blagojevich. Federal prosecutors maintain that $10,000 from the alleged kickback scheme was donated to Obama's run for the U.S. Senate. Obama has given the money to charity.

...so, you can excuse these relationships and they can all be "no big deal" to you, if these are the kind of relationships you want the next leader of the country to have. That's your right. I support your right to choose and vote for Obama 100%. ...but let's not pretend that these aren't REAL relationships.

Edited August 6, 2008 by yyz28

[JesseMartin]

You gotz da skillz too, yo!

Seriously, though...in a life like Obama's, how many people has he encountered? There are good and bad things in most of the people we meet...and people change, too. Obama probably didn't think, in 1990, that he'd be a contender for Pres. He was probably just looking for people who seemed interesting. I've met a lot of people who are very different from myself who I found interesting, and I pursued their input in order to be well-rounded and make sure I was thinking about things from all angles. If he's as much like me as I hope to think, I can't fault him for looking for input from people...I think it speaks to his unity message more than anything. I still haven't made up my mind 100%, but again, I'm really curious to see if he's as awesome as he comes across, regardless of whether he knew people who had weird stances and opinions.

[BeanCounterGrad'03]

Famed (or infamous) Gainsville reporter and UNT journalism alum Andy Hogue was an aquaintence of mine back in college.

Therefore, the logic follows that I should be an anti-football, bible-thumping, ultra-conservative, prayer warrior.

[JesseMartin]

Same here. People are usually surprised to know we're friends. He even officiated my wedding. Good example. Heheh he also told me about the back-and-forth between him and the Ticket guys. I told him he should write them and they should keep going at each other for publicity's sake. Andy is hilarious, but yeah, about as different from a lot of people I'm involved with that one can be.

[Coffee and TV]

Wright & Meeks are both anti-American and blame the US for 9/11 and preach hate. You pass it off as a non-issue, but Barack Obama himself has disavowed the preachers - but only after it was politically damaging.

Damn anti-American Veterans. They're everywhere!

Meanwhile, back in realityland...

This is why there's no vote on offshore drilling.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/05/energy.debate/?iref=

[BeanCounterGrad'03]

This is why there's no vote on offshore drilling.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/05/energy.debate/?iref=

Sounds good...hope it passes when they start up again.

[UNTLifer]

Sounds good...hope it passes when they start up again.

That is typical political B.S. The candidates want to be careful, because it could make them look bad. I would like to see a politician make a decision that is best for the people he/she serves, not in the best interest of themselves.

[UNTflyer]

$3.53 a gallon in Corinth, at the QT on the I-35 access road. That's $.46 less than it was on 4th of July weekend.

[Coffee and TV]

$3.53 a gallon in Corinth, at the QT on the I-35 access road. That's $.46 less than it was on 4th of July weekend.

Get it while it lasts. It'll be $4 again by New Years.

[forevereagle]

Get it while it lasts. It'll be $4 again by New Years.

And you're basing this on...

[untbowler]

depending on who wins in November the price could either decrease or increase depending on which policy will be put into place.

Take that for what it is worth.

[Coffee and TV]

And you're basing this on...

Just a few weeks ago there was a story about how Americans are driving a billion less miles at this time than they normally would. The more gas prices drop, the more consumers will revert back to their old driving habits and demand more gas. So I guess New Years isn't a great estimate, but certainly by next Spring when oil companies move back to their summer blends and refining capacity is overwhelmed prices will shoot back up.

There will not be, however any difference in the price of gas this time next year because of whoever is elected in November. If you believe that then you're only kidding yourself, unless you're talking about August of 2012.

Edited August 7, 2008 by Coffee and TV

[UNTflyer]

Coffee,

So you base your assumption that global supply is flat, and the demand of the rest of the world is static, that our driving habits and economy are the primary drivers of global market prices?

[yyz28]

Meanwhile, back in realityland...

Detroit mayor (and Barack Obama Supporter) arrives at jail

...associations matter. When you lie with dogs, you're bound to get fleas.

It's typical not to actually address or deny the connections, but just pretend like they are irrelevant. ...I'm happy they are for you, but they aren't for many.