Hillary and OPEC... Energy Vampires

What do Hillary Clinton and oil sheiks have in common?

Energy.

Hillary is sucking the energy out of the Democratic nominating contest.

And, energy prices are sucking our economy dry.

Hillary, the monster energy-rabbit.... is evidently determined to beat her "popular vote" drum into Denver, drowning out Barack Obama's voice as John McCain's marches to the White House.

Jonathan Alter explains this in "Popular Vote Poison... How Hillary's latest math hurts the party." (Newsweek) "Clinton has continued with one claim that could have a pernicious effect on the Democats' chances in November. While she knows that the nomination is determined by delegates, Hillary insists on saying at every opportunity that she is winning the popular vote."

Alter says "popular-vote pandering is poison for Democrats..." after the experience of 2000, "this argument is sure to make it harder to unite and put bitter feelings aside.

"Oh, and it's not true."

Regardless of the destructive effect of her popular-vote drumbeat, the "shorthand many Clinton supporters are already taking into the summer is that she won the popular vote but had the nomination 'taken away' (as Joy Behar said on 'The View') by a man."

Voters wilting under Hillary's constant and distorting thrumming are also being thrashed at the gas pump as "Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts." (WaPo) Everyone blames someone else.... oil executives blame financial speculators, speculators blame supply and demand, Congress looks to OPEC but they blame everyone including wasteful U.S. consumers.

Really? Experts don't have a clue?

Could it be because oilmen Cheney and Bush DIDN'T PUT IN PLACE AN ENERGY POLICY... except to give their oil buddies tax breaks without insisting on the development of production capacity.

"Whatever the causes, one of the most dizzying runs in the history of oil prices picked up pace yesterday - again - as crude oil prices jumped to settle at more than $133 a barrel, up $4.19 in one day...."

Whatever the causes? How about when The Decider invaded Iraq the price for a barrel of oil was $25. And, the Bush administration policy of giving manufacturers tax incentives to ship manufacturing abroad.... leading to China gorging on our economy, fueling China's growing appetite for oil.

China is now binging on oil as the result of it's "need for extra fuel to run generators to compensate for disruptions in coal deliveries and hydropower resulting from the recent earthquake."

Energy.... it's in short supply.

Sit down Hillary.

And, no more useless begging trips to Saudi Arabia for The Decider. No more closed-door confabs with energy tycoons for Cheney. No more finger-pointing by profit-bloated OPEC.

Patience is also running on empty.

The Dollar is Teetering....

Why are we worrying about Iran getting nukes.... they don't need them. They can destroy our county from within.... through our Bush-decimated economy.... and are making moves in that direction.

The first paragraph, in "Saudi minister warns of dollar collapse" in the current issue of London's The Business Magazine, is chilling.... "The dollar could collapse if Opec officially admits considering changing the pricing of oil into alternative currencies such as the euro, the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned."

He didn't mean to warn.... but Prince Saud Al-Faisal's microphone was accidentally left on during a private meeting at an oil cartel conference in Riyadh.

What he said in part was... "My feeling is that the mere mention that the Opec countries are studying the issue of the dollar is itself going to have an impact that endangers the interests of the countries.... we don't want the dollar to collapse instead of doing something good for Opec."

Besides the dire warning, it's instructive to hear that The Decider's good Saudi friends interest in our well being is simply self-serving good business, not in our survival as a nation.

Opec members Iran and Venezuela are the ones pushing for oil to be denominated against a "basket of currencies."

Meanwhile, the dollar and the British pound continue to weaken. Bush's monstrous policies have led us to the precipice....