Full Spectrum Dominance

The Saudis and US airlines both say that much of the high price of petroleum is due to speculation. The airlines are asking Congress to pass legislation to slow the bubble down. The Saudis have started to pump more and promise still more production. Their actions have not yet made much of a dent in oil prices.

There continue to be uncertainties regarding not only Iraqi production but Nigerian too.
Interesting all the hubub that was generated against the government of Myanmar turns out to have been so much hokum, way exagerated.

"YANGON, Myanmar — More than six weeks have passed since Cyclone Nargis swept through the Irrawaddy Delta in southern Myanmar, leaving a trail of flattened villages and broken lives and arousing international sympathy that turned to anguish as the military government obstructed foreign aid.

Now doctors and aid workers returning from remote areas of the delta are offering a less pessimistic picture of the human cost of the delay in reaching survivors.
They say they have seen no signs of starvation or widespread outbreaks of disease. While it is estimated that the cyclone may have killed 130,000 people, the number of lives lost specifically because of the junta’s slow response to the disaster appears to have been smaller than expected."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/world/asia/18myanmar.html?ex=1214539200&en=036d069abf9c9a83&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Well, there is a reason the US was so desperate to get it's "aid workers" and military, and CIA into Myanmar. Myanmar is very strategic to the energy game. It's rich in natural gas and it borders China. It faces Arabia and Sudan and allows China to avoid the choke point at the Straight of Malacca. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choke_point
US "Full Spectrum Dominance" doctrine http://www.uwsp.edu/history/WIPCS/JSPC2004/Smith2.pdf
is about what it names itself, domination of the world, and that means among other things control over petroleum access.

Iis also apparent that Israel's interests figure into this mix. Israel is well represented in the US Congress, academia, media, and all aspects. Israel is active in Iraqi Kurdistan, an oil rich region that is virtually seceded from Iraq already and there is the little matter of the Haifa pipeline, and the destruction of the only single Arab force that could even begin to challenge Israel.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4DMUS_enUS271US272&q=haifa+pipeline

Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry: Lies are Truth

This post originally appeared in the PeacePalestine blog.

The people in the press staff of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry are talented science fiction writers. Almost nothing that they write has any bearing on reality, and it seems that they use Orwell’s 1984 as a guidebook for news dispatches. All that they need to do is look at the facts on the ground (terminology that was invented by the hasbara commission, more than likely, because it is something different than reality...

Gas Prices Are Out of This World

$4.31.9! That's what a gallon of regular cost me at a Harlem, New York gas station Tuesday night. That's a lot of cake, a big slice of my gross intake for a twelve hour shift behind the wheel of a New York yellow taxi cab.

Not that I should worry about it. New York City's Commissioner of Taxis and Limousines, Matthew Daus says that taxi drivers earn almost $15.00 an hour and that's a living wage, says he, in New York City with zero days off, zero sick days, zero medical insurance, etc. For those who don't like it "go buy a hybrid" says Daus. Well, I would if I could but I can't so I guess I won't. And they are notoriously finicky, given to expensive repairs and maintenance. I drive for a company that runs over a hundred taxis double shifted. As is when a Crown Victoria has a problem we drivers can rest assured we'll be at the repair shop two, three, four times till whatever is wrong gets righted.

They run around four of these new hybrids. The Ford Hybrid is uncomfortable, difficult for disabled people to get in and out of and the driver safety partition is a nightmare design. The driver cannot open the partition and talk with the passengers, has to yell to get the passenger's attention and the slip for taking cash is directly behind the driver. Now, I'm 62 years old and suffered injury to my right shoulder in a car accident. Every time I make change in a hybrid it hurts so I don't ask to be assigned one.

About these prices, though. OPEC and the US Airlines say they are being hyped by shady speculators and the airlines are asking Congress to do something about it.

I remember Hugo Chavez once suggested oil be pegged at fifty dollars a barrel, saying that would make it viable to extract the heavy crude that is Venezuela's main petroleum reserve, and much of the world's. Now he seems quite reasonable, doesn't he?

How long can this craziness go on?