"About that capital you were planning to spend..."

[TexasTiger 12,996]

You're operating in a deficit there, too.

The last month has not been a good one for President Bush and the Republicans. Most people have opposed the President’s proposals for reforming Social Security and most were unhappy with the positions taken by Republicans in the Terri Schiavo case. The result is that the president’s job ratings have fallen to 44 percent positive, 56 percent negative, the worst numbers of his presidency, and a drop from 48 percent positive, 51 percent negative in February (and 50% positive, 49% negative last November).

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_po...dex.asp?PID=557

[Piglet 0]

He needs to roll out another terror alert. That ought to do the trick.

BTW, if he's so buddy-buddy with the Saudis, like Michael Moore says, how come he doesn't just call in a favor and get them to lower the oil prices? Enquiring minds want to know!

[AURaptor 1,126]

.

BTW, if he's so buddy-buddy with the Saudis, like Michael Moore says, how come he doesn't just call in a favor and get them to lower the oil prices? Enquiring minds want to know!

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Because he can't call up the Chi-Comms and tell them to stop expanding THEIR economy. Oh well, another Michael Moore 'story' put to rest.

[TexasTiger 12,996]

.

BTW, if he's so buddy-buddy with the Saudis, like Michael Moore says, how come he doesn't just call in a favor and get them to lower the oil prices? Enquiring minds want to know!

156236[/snapback]

Because he can't call up the Chi-Comms and tell them to stop expanding THEIR economy. Oh well, another Michael Moore 'story' put to rest.

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Not just a Michael Moore story, but the Bush's last election is history now, so what do they care? They got what they wanted.

Saudis pledged oil price cut before US vote-report

Reuters, 04.18.04, 4:33 PM ET

Job Title: 

State: 

Change Country 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day, journalist Bob Woodward said in a television interview Sunday.

In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" about his new book "Plan of Attack" on the Bush administration's preparations for the Iraq war, Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, said Prince Bandar pledged the Saudi's would try to fine-tune oil prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move they understood would favor Bush's re-election.

Questioned about his assertion at a time when oil prices are nearing a 13-year high, Woodward responded:

"They're high. And they could go down very quickly. That's the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer or as we get closer to the election they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly."

It was not clear from the interview precisely when Prince Bandar's pledge was allegedly made.

Bush has been under attack from Democrats in recent weeks for failing to halt rising domestic gasoline prices which have hit a record of $1.80 per gallon, according to the U.S. motorists group AAA.

The spike in gasoline prices resulted from a sharp cut in crude oil production this month by members of the Organization of Petroleum Export

ing Countries. Oil futures in New York closed Friday at $37.74 a barrel for U.S. light crude.

Prince Bandar has been the Saudi envoy to the United States for 20 years and is part of the Saudi royal family, which has had a close relationship with the Bush family for years.

Earlier this month Bandar reassured Bush that the kingdom would not allow oil shortages to hurt world economic growth after Saudi Arabia led a push by OPEC to cut output by 1 million barrels a day from April.

"Saudi Arabia's policy is consistent. Number one: we will not allow any shortages in the market," Bandar told reporters on April 1 after delivering his message to Bush from Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah.

Rising oil prices have threatened to revive tensions between the United States and Saudi Arabia, despite decades of close ties which were severely strained by the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were Saudis.

[Piglet 0]

Right. Silly me, I forgot there's no election soon. Well, we'll just see if they don't "lower" the gas prices all the way back to a mere two bucks a gallon in time for November 2006....the thing about these conspiracy theories is, there has to be a way to test them, or you're just talikn' road apples.

If the machine is so fascistic and all-powerful, how come things are so screwed up? I thought fascists were supposed to get the trains running on time, in return for grinding the faces of the masses?

[TexasTiger 12,996]

Right. Silly me, I forgot there's no election soon.  Well, we'll just see if they don't "lower" the gas prices all the way back to a mere two bucks a gallon in time for November 2006....the thing about these conspiracy theories is, there has to be a way to test them, or you're just talikn' road apples.

If the machine is so fascistic and all-powerful, how come things are so screwed up? I thought fascists were supposed to get the trains running on time, in return for grinding the faces of the masses?

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You do have a silly side, but it is best illustrated by how you mischaracterized what I posted. I was addressing a straightforward and simple point. There was evidence well beyond Michael Moore that Saudi Arabia was sensitive to the effect of high gas prices and was perhaps the only Arab leadership strongly supporting a Bush victory. I didn't state any grand conspiracy. I believe the Saudi's only control about 8% of the oil so their power is hardly all-encompassing. In your zeal to seem above it all, you can oversimplify and overstate.

[AURaptor 1,126]

I give piglet credit for at least asking basic questions that challenge the standard propaganda that spews from the Left.

[TexasTiger 12,996]

I give piglet  credit for at least asking basic questions that challenge the standard propaganda that spews from the Left.

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Sometimes, yes. The particular response that I was responding to was not one of those times.