Beyond Petroleum

Well, not that far beyond… crude oil prices spiked to close at a record $61 and change today, part of the pot pourri of events that included the death of Saudi King Fahd, concerns over refinery capacity and fears about Iran’s nuclear program. Given the President’s close ties with the House of Saud, and of course, the oil industry, one might think that the policies which have continued to drive oil prices higher– the Iraq war helping keep the world’s second largest reserves unavailable to world markets, an America committed to wasting ever more energy, and no efforts whatsoever to develop alternative forms of energy, all while denying that there are environmental consequences to the use of oil– were… designed to get us higher oil prices. And yet, even while trips that last summer cost $20 or so (say, the cost of a typical tank of gas) now cost $30 (that same tank of gas this summer), there seems little evidence that Americans will adjust their habits in any way. Needless to say, the President’s policies (whatever they are!) would seem to be working…
I guess we’ll also be improving our standing in the world, since our new diplomatic standardbearer at the United Nations will be none other than John Bolton, via a recess appointment. Bush is persistent: he would not take no for an answer on Bolton, even when senators from his own party bolted on Bolton, concluding that he simply lacked the character and wherewithal for a job requiring some level of… diplomacy. While many will be pissed at the President for “going around the senate”, my view is that Bush gets to have his team, barring, say, something like a criminal conviction, or something truly outrageous. So what if he wants to have a guy who is clearly not the least bit diplomatic as a diplomat? The Constitution gives the President that call… in this case, I think “advise and consent” is… siilliness. I’m sorry… but I would much rather see some genuine battles about things like bankruptcy repeal, the environment, the minimum wage, universal health insurance, cost efficient (and not intrinsically corrupt) national defense, actual taxation of rich people, and that sort of thing… judges are interesting, but frankly, less important. And fights over cabinet officials… well, I just don’t think they’re very important at all compared to some of the things I’ve just rattled off… obviously, the Democratic Party leadership disagrees with me.
Finally, following up on a story I relayed from Pravda a month or two ago, not surprisingly, our friends in Uzbekistan decided to serve an eviction notice on an American air-base there. This is a tough one… it appears that our actual quiet efforts to enhance democracy in places like Georgia and Ukraine may have caught the notice of more autocratic places like… Uzbekistan (and certainly Russia)… interestingly, our efforts in those places involved helping the locals help themselves… as opposed to attempting to impose democracy by force (remind anyone of someplace somewhere?) Also, we have rightly been questioning last May’s massacres in Andijan by Uzbek forces, and continued to demand an investigation. While this may appear to be a set-back in our management of the never-ending Afghan campaign, its actually a sign that maybe we have our priorities in order somewhere.
And on that positive note…