Throwing Crude Oil On A Fire
Jonah Goldberg on the "gas price crisis":
At a time when a) the second-largest oil producer in the world — Iran — is engulfed in nuclear messianic nationalism; b) Iraq is, shall we say, a somewhat unstable oil producer; c) we have few oil refineries, and many of them are undergoing maintenance that was postponed because of Hurricane Katrina; and d) China's economy grew at an oil-sucking 10% in the first quarter while our own grew at an astounding 4.8%, the brain trust in Washington is stunned, stunned, that gas prices are going up. It must be a conspiracy!
No doubt we can soon expect a major investigation into the disturbing reports that bears are using our woodlands as a toilet.
Look at the bright side, lefties; the "crisis" will do what thirty years of caterwaulilng about government initiatives and CAFE standards couldn't; get Americans serious about alternative fuels. When you hear the red meat, Budweiser and football crowd on the KSTP Morning Show talking approvingly about hybrid cars, you know you're approaching a tipping point.
All of this brings to mind T.S. Eliot's observation that no causes are truly lost because no causes are ever truly won. Although poverty is the natural human condition whose only proven remedy is the market, whenever enough voters get mad at the market, politicians can be counted on to play up popular paranoia about powerful "unseen forces" exploiting ordinary folk.
Why, this week, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) even conjured the specter of those old devils, the "robber barons." "Sadly," she declared with barely suppressed glee, "we are now living in a new era of robber barons." Pelosi, who is more of a student of polls and left-wing blogs than history, probably doesn't much care that the modern stereotype of the robber baron as rapacious economic predator is more a product of the collectivist spirit of the New Deal than of the 19th century. "The Robber Barons," an error-filled 1934 tract written by a socialist named Matthew Josephson, was intended to pump up Depression-plagued readers with bile about "economic royalists" blocking social progress. Josephson was inspired by Honore de Balzac's witticism that "behind every great fortune lies a great crime." The statist playbook, it seems, is never out of print.
Question: Who are the "robber barons" profiting most from oil prices?
Hugh Chavez, Ahmadinejad, and the dictators of the other eight of the 14 top oil-producing nations.
Note to Nancy Pelosi: Hold some hearings on that, k?
Posted by Mitch at
May 4, 2006 12:21 PM
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I have seen this from the right quite often, but how is Hugo Chavez a dictator? Granted, he has made some strong handed moves for a populist...but why does the right protray him as such?
Fulcrum
Posted by: Fulcrum at May 4, 2006 02:23 PMYou're known by the company you keep. If you're best buddies with Castro, it's going to tarnish your image with everyone except Hollywood.
Posted by: Kermit at May 4, 2006 02:28 PMChavez is a South American Mugabe.
In 1999 Chavez backed a referendum to reform the Venezuelan constitution. When the referendum passed, Chavez' new 'constitutional connission' forbid the the sitting bicameral National Assembly from passing laws. The new constitution made the National Assembly unicameral and weakened its powers, while enhancing those of the president; for example under the new constitution the president can dissolve the National Assembly.
Posted by: Terry at May 4, 2006 03:25 PMChavez and his coalition won the 2000 election, but international observers refused to ratify the results. After being sworn in Chavez pushed a law through 'his' National Assembly that let him rule by decree for one year.
Chavez is in the process of creating an armed militia loyal to his ideology.
I'm not certain that he can be called a dictator without controversy. He seems to have the support of the poorest 60% of venezuelans and is acting in their interest by despoiling the wealthier 40%. If he's not yet a dictator, he aspires to be one.
Hey Mitch-
Posted by: Terry at May 4, 2006 03:28 PMYour filter doesn't like the combo "a1 com" (substitute a 'l' for the '1'). this makes it hard to include the words 'constitutiona1 commission' in a comment.
Kermit said, "You're known by the company you keep."
Made me laugh b/c it reminded me of that picture of Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein shaking hands.
And thanks terry, i know a little about Chavez, and I agree that he is making dictatorship like moves, but Mugabe (late 90s to present day) he is not.
Fulcrum
Posted by: Fulcrum at May 4, 2006 03:47 PM"Made me laugh b/c it reminded me of that picture of Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein shaking hands."
*From the Peoples Daily, dateline Tuesday, October 24, 2000:
Albright Meets Kim Jong Il, Presents Clinton's Letter
Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong Il, on Monday held historic talks in Pyongyang with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the two are expected to meet again on Tuesday.
"The secretary and Kim Jong Il met for three hours. The conversations were substantial; we found them useful," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters in Pyongyang.
Boucher said that during the meeting, Albright gave Kim a letter from President Bill Clinton dealing with Clinton's expectations of how to further develop relations between the two countries.
He said Kim and Albright were expected to meet again on Tuesday because "they have more to talk about."
During their meeting Monday afternoon, Kim and Albright focused their discussions on issues of how to improve ties between the two countries and Clinton's possible visit to Pyongyang in the near future.
The meeting was substantial and beneficial since Kim and Albright discussed issues such as nuclear weapons, according to a U.S. official who is in company with Albright in Pyongyang.*
Substantial and beneficial indeed. I'm laughing too.
Posted by: Kermit at May 4, 2006 04:21 PMBig differnce between our support of Hussein in the 80s and trying to work to improve relations with Kim Jong Il in the 90s, doncha think...oh that's right, I forgot Kermit only spews partisan rhetoric.
Fulcrum
Posted by: Fulcrum at May 4, 2006 04:48 PMYeah, helping the Chinese and North Korean communists obtain nuclear reactors and missile guidance systems sure worked out well, ay?
Chavez -- walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, but he's really a swan!
Amazing.
Posted by: Eracus at May 4, 2006 07:07 PM"I forgot Kermit only spews partisan rhetoric.
Fulcrum"
Doug, is that you?
Posted by: Kermit at May 5, 2006 07:49 AM