Reuters reports that crude oil hit an all-time peak over $102 a barrel Thursday, nearly doubling prices from a year ago amid a surge in speculative investment.

The president remarked “That creates a lot of uncertainty,” Bush said. “If you’re out there wondering what your life is going to be like and you’re looking at $4 a gallon, that’s uncertain.”

The grim outlook for pump prices comes even as weakening U.S. fuel consumption and robust domestic production boosts gasoline inventories to their highest levels since 1994, when a gallon went for less than a dollar.

“Right now, it’s not about gasoline supplies, because gasoline supplies are high. It’s all about the oil,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Tra

$$$

Well, if it’s not gasoline supplies, it’s oil. If it’s not about oil, then it’s about supplies. When are we going to wake up and figure out it’s about greed. Legitimate supply and demand has given way to speculation, greed and manipulation. The oil futures traders have now completely taken over the oil and gasoline pricing mechanism. No doubt in my mind that they are in some kind of conspiracy with the oil companies.

Fear – One day it’s terrorism,the next it’s hurricanes. Anything to keep driving the prices higher.

Uncertainty – China is the big user one week, the next week it’s not so bad. How can demand forecasts change so frequently with the scale we are dealing with here?

Doubt – The next event is right around the corner, so the traders say, we just don’t know what’s going to happen.

The Washington Post  writes today that ”A supporter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) ridiculed Sen. Barack Obama(D-Ill.) in an introductory speech at a McCain rally here this morning, repeatedly using Obama’s middle name, Hussein, and deriding him as a terrorist sympathizer. ”

Talk-show host Bill Cunningham, was referred to as an “extremely important” part of McCain’s presidential campaign by former Ohio congressman and former Bush administration official Rob Portman .

###

OK, new name for extremists on the right – c0-conservatives.

Rush Limbaugh has been performing the same act on his show too. “Can’t we refer to people by their full names?” he says. Since it seems that we are now officially back in high school, taunting people about their names, let’s see how these fit:

When I google Bob Portman, most of the hits come back as Natalie Portman. Does that mean Bob is really a transvestite? Maybe he should check with Senator Larry Craig on that one.

Rush Limpbaugh? After taking all that Oxycotin, it’s a wonder he can even stand up.

Bill Cunningham – Well, he does make a living out of making fun of dead black men. Hey Bill, hoist another one of the White Castle burgers, will ya!

According to Rush’s mother, “he flunked everything in college”, even a modern ballroom dancing class! Tutu bad for Rush.

Fear – These idiots in the media trying to link Obama to terrorists and by extension Muslims (or maybe the other way around) should really be called out by all of us.

Uncertainty – This kind of fear mongering does reach many people, and lots of them will question the truth and some will believe this garbage.

Doubt – The blind faith of the converatives leaves no room for doubt – destroy the other side at all costs.

CNN reports that Pakistan has blocked access to YouTube, and that action disrupted access to YouTube world wide on Sunday.

“Governments also have sought to regulate user-supplied Internet content to stymie allegations that they abuse human rights, the group said.

A few months ago, YouTube took down videos posted by an award-winning Egyptian human rights advocate that showed what he described as police abuse. YouTube subsequently restored his account and let him continue posting videos.

In Pakistan, a committee made up of representatives from various government ministries ordered the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority to block YouTube access, Mehmood said.

The authority sent a letter to Internet service providers on Friday evening ordering them to prevent people in Pakistan from visiting YouTube, she said.

The decision has received mixed reactions.”

###

Mixed reactions to be sure.  Those in power certainly don’t want uncensored access to the masses, those not in power do. Age old struggle to prevent the flow of information.

Fear – That the masses will use the information to start a revolution.

Uncertainty – How much information is needed to fuel the fire. That’s what these governments don’t have a clear guage of, so they just shut it all down.

Doubt – That this information flow is against their religious principles.  What about oppression, starvation and murder? I guess that kind of religious sponsored activity is OK?

Reuters reports that General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz is having to defend remarks he made dismissing global warming as a “total crock of s—,” saying his views had no bearing on GM’s commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles.

“Lutz, GM’s outspoken product development chief, has been under fire from Internet bloggers since last month when he was quoted as making the remark to reporters in Texas.

In a posting on his GM blog on Thursday, Lutz said those “spewing virtual vitriol” at him for minimizing the threat of climate change were “missing the big picture.”"

###

Missing the big picture indeed. Just imagine what would happen if we could increase fuel efficiency another 20%, and all of us (that could, financially) put up solar panels. That would not solve all the problems, but if we could get to the point of true energy conservation and independence, that in and of itself would take the economy and the environment to new (positive) heights.

Lutz is full of FUD…

Fear – Again, spreading word that global warming is not our “fault”. Who’s fault then?

Uncertainty – This kind of talk sure seems to explain why the auto companies are still stuck where they are with respect to fuel mileage, and new engine technology.

Doubt – They keep putting bad press out there for electric, hydrogen fuel cells, hybrids etc. that they are not ready for prime time.

One of these days, technology will win this battle as the brain trust for automotive design moves from Detroit to Silicon Valley. Watch out Detroit…here comes Google…

MSNBC has an article from the Washington Post.com discussing the upcoming Senate vote on rewriting the law relating to bankruptcy and home mortgages:

“The nation’s largest lending institutions are lobbying hard to block a proposal in Congress that would give bankruptcy judges greater latitude to rewrite mortgages held by financially strapped homeowners.”

“This provision is incredibly counterproductive,” said Edward L. Yingling, president of the America Bankers Association. “We will lobby very, very strongly against it.”

###

It’s pretty certain that they will do just that. Currently, 1st mortgages can’t be changed or modified by the bankruptcy court. This proposed change in the law would give judges some latitude there. The “squeeze every last nickel out of the consumer” mentality is presenting itself with the FUD response from the banks.

Fear – Banks say they would pass along the added risk to borrowers in the form of higher interest rates, larger down payments or increased closing costs. Gives those 1st time homebuyers a warm and fuzzy feeling, doesn’t it?

Uncertainty – A consortium of financial groups wrote that the legislation would “have a very negative impact in the financial markets, which are struggling in part because of difficulties in valuing the mortgages that underlay securities [and] would greatly increase the uncertainty that already exists.” Hmm…let’s see, what motivated this problem in the 1st place? Oh yeah, “squeeze every last nickel out of the consumer”.

Doubt – Will the average Joe ever be able to get a decent mortgage any longer?

The New York Times, in its infinite wisdom, has resurrected an 8 year old story about innuendos of a romantic relationship with a (thankfully, female) lobbyist.

“Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers. A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity. ”

###

While the article goes on to outline other various potential ethics issues (travel on corporate jets, founding the nonprofit Reform Institute, etc.), it seems that they just couldn’t resist introducing sex, because as we all know, sex sells. What is the relevancy of a perceived relationship (apparently only suspected) to the litany of ethics issues the article enumerates? Well, sex sells.

Anonymous sources are always the most reliable, aren’t they?

Fear – Know that every move you’ve ever made, any friend you’ve ever had, any place you’ve ever been, will be scrutinized like never before. If you aspire to political office, know that there is someone out there looking to take you down, for any reason.

Uncertainty – Never knowing who is out there that may assist in the take down. Old “friends” can turn up as anonymous sources.

Doubt – What is the truth? Well, let’s put it out there (on the New York Times no less) and see if it sticks. Proof is seemingly no longer a requirement for the media.

Fox News will have the complete analysis at 10, dropping the crawl banner no doubt to make sure the pictures of Ms. Iseman get “full exposure”

Chez Pazienza, formerly a CNN producer, was summarily fired after his personal blogging efforts were discovered by the “HR Department”. He writes about the whole experience here…

Of course, in an at will employment situation, anyone can be fired for any reason, except those reasons that are illegal. That being said, being fired because “my name was “attached to some, uh, ‘opinionated’ blog posts” circulating around the internet.” smells a bit Orwellian to me, no?

Let’s define opinionated, shall we? Well, that would take too long, so let’s summarize:

Fear – Time Warner says, by way of its actions, do anything on the Internet we don’t like, and we will fire you. Fear of losing your job as a motivator to keep employees in line is a long held tradition for companies, especially large ones like Time Warner for keeping the masses in line.

Uncertainty – The Employee Handbook is sufficiently vague enough to have, in this case, any public writing subject to review by the blog police network’s standards and practices department:

“…a single line in the CNN employee handbook which states that any writing done for a “non-CNN outlet” must be run through the network’s standards and practices department.”

Doubt – Where does it end? what if, in a rage against those who use plastic grocery bags, a grocery store employee blogs about saving the earth, will they go the way of the “silenced instigators”.

Come on CNN…

Washington Post.com reports that:

“Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has sponsored an unusual provision at the urging of the nation’s banks granting them immunity against an active patent lawsuit, potentially saving them billions of dollars.

Adopted with little fanfare, the amendment would prevent a small Texas company called DataTreasury from collecting damages from banks for infringing on its patented method for digitally scanning, sending and archiving checks. The patents were upheld last summer by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office after they were challenged.”

Banks process more than 40 billion checks each year.

The federal government would have to pay $1 billion to DataTreasury over 10 years as compensation for taking its property under the amendment, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.

 ###

OK, let’s do the math here. 40 billion checks a year * .02 per check = $800,000,000 per year. Instead, DataTreasury would get $1 billion over 10 years.  Yep, sounds like a great deal…for the banks. So here we have Congress intervening on the banks behalf to screw DataTreasury out of royalties for a patent they own and that has been upheld by the USPTO.

The article spells out the  financial ties between the financial industry PAC and Senator Sessions.

Stephen Boyd, a spokesman for Sessions, said the provision “is designed to protect banking institutions complying with post-9/11 security requirements from the abusive practices of patent trolling trial lawyers seeking personal enrichment, which ultimately will be paid for by checking account customers across America.”

Fear – Man, those Republicans are invoking 9/11 for everything these days.

Uncertainty – Leaving valid patent holders queasy about that which they own and provides income to them…their patent!

Doubt – This is having the effect of leaving the small inventors out in the cold. If the big boys don’t want to play by the rules,  just get Congress to  give them a free pass. Patent infringement just doesn’t sound as sexy as winning the war on terror.

CNN reports that Oil prices rose slightly Monday, gaining after further hints that OPEC may cut production if global supplies continue to rise.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has trimmed its forecasts for demand this year by 100,000 barrels a day, but it has also hinted it may cut production if global supplies of crude continue to rise, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

###

Wow…supply fears and a cut in production. The oil industry has both sides of the story down pat don’t they. Out of one side of the mouth is too much consumption, uncertainty in the consistency of supply. Out of the other side, reduced forecast of demand.

How can it be both? It can’t. It’s pure FUD.

Fear – That the world demand is outstripping supplies. We have heard this for 30 years, and we are still pumping massive amounts of oil out of the ground and the reserves are still going strong.

Uncertainty – The oil producing nations have us pegged now. Throw a little volatility in the equation, and surprise, oil gets back to the magic $100 per barrel range.

Doubt – Keeping the forecasts muddy keeps the traders worried, thereby keeping prices artificially high.

We don’t need to solve all the green issues here. We just need to figure out a way to drop our consumption by 5%. The markets would go nuts and oil would be at$50 a barrel in a heartbeat.

USA Today reports that:

“President Bush said Friday that “our country is in more danger of an attack” because of Congress’ failure to extend a law that makes it easier for the government to spy on foreign phone calls and e-mails that pass through the United States.”

…”By blocking this piece of legislation, our country is more in danger of an attack,” he said.

Bush argues that without the extension, the intelligence community will not have the tools they need to protect the nation from terrorism. Democrats, equally adamant, accuse the president of fear-mongering and say he has the authority he needs to intercept terrorist communications, even if the law expires.

###

Exactly the point…fear mongering. What the administration wants and is spreading FUD to get is the ability to keep secret spying secret. Oversight is what they want to avoid at all costs.

Fear – That we will not be able to move quick enough to thwart an imminent terrorist attack. Not true..Law enforcement has long had that ability. They just need to properly report it to the court afterwards if they feel they need to act first.

Uncertainty – Bush says that “By blocking this piece of legislation, our country is more in danger of an attack.” Mother Fudding at its best.

Doubt – Will we get attacked without this bill? Who knows for sure. Nothing is for sure these days, but what we do know is a government initiative without oversight is not a good thing.