"3 Ways to Lower Gas Prices" from Newt
 

This sounds like a reasonable approach from a very smart man, IMO.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UOpcPfAarjY&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UOpcPfAarjY&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

Makes sense to me.

I agree, Newt is a very smart man. He lead the last decent house of Congress in the late '90s, that was the last, best hope for the U.S. When the battles with Clinton, and the resulting gov't shutdown blew it all up, it was pretty much over for us.

We were put on an irreversible course, which has lead to the Reid/Pelosi Congress (certainly the worst Congress ever), and now likely will lead to Obama to round it out. The size, scope, intrusiveness and cost of govt will explode in ways never imagined in the US.

Newt is waaayyy too smart to be a poltical leader and his personal baggage almost rivals that of the Clintons. I've hung out with him many times and never miss a chance to go see him speak. I love the guy. But he'll never be more than a Fox News commentator again.

I have to admit he sounds good there. I don't know how one extracts oil from shale (pretty damn energy-intensive process as I understand it) but I suppose worth looking into.

Shame that the guy lost all credibility when he decided to pursue impeachment over a stained blue dress. Because of that, as smart as the guy can be at times, he has absolutely zero credibility as a leader anymore. He's just another partisan hack.

That's certainly an opinion. :)

I think it's a shame that someone whose posts are usually as intelligent as yours thinks Clinton's impeachment was over a stained blue dress as opposed to perjury and obstruction of justice by someone who was the very guilty target of a sexual harassment suit.

Exactly. It's like a flashing red light that proclaims "this guy doesn't actually pay much attention to national politics."

Well, let's not leave Newt off the hook either. He was carrying on an affair all while going on tv every night and blasting Bubba. But Newt was never sued for sexual harassment. So his mistress, whom he later married, was never subpoenaed and so he never had to ask her to lie to cover anything up. Personal ethics aside, Newt is still 10x the thinker Clinton ever was. As Newt once said, he is the true visionary and his opponents were the true reactionaries. Love him or hate him, he is a man of ideas. And he's just about always worth a good listen.

It's hypothetical, but I'd guess if Newt was questioned about his affair under oath, he would have told the truth.

How about those three ideas, messenger aside?

In theory, his suggestions might work. I have a big problem, though, with using the strategic reserves to manipulate markets and make examples out of villified speculators. Speculators have very legitimate reasons for buying oil futures and also for believing it's a lot cheaper now than it will be in a year or two. Why shouldn't, say, an airline be free to buy oil futures at a price higher than today's, but way lower than what they think it will be in a year? Maybe they should have to front 50% of the money instead of having no real skin in the game. But it makes perfect business sense to be able to lock in the price of a lifeblood supply for your industry when you have no reason to believe our political leaders are serious about increasing the supply of and reducing the demand for oil. If Newt really wants to stop speculators, seems to me, a far more beneficial idea would be for us to get serious about tapping all the resources we currently have at our disposal. Simply announcing that we're finally gonna start getting serious would drop the price of oil overnight.

No, it was about partisan bickering that wasted countless millions of dollars of the taxpayers' money and many hours of time. There was no legitimate reason to blow it out of proportion the way it got other than to try and smear Clinton, because the Repubs were frustrated with his constantly getting the upper hand on them. It was a dirty, sleazy, muckraking political charade - nothing more. The only good thing that came out of it was that it kept Congress and Clinton from actually compromising on things and enacting more laws and legislation. It effectively parylized the legislative process, which I see as generally a good thing.

Was it REALLY worth the time/effort/expense involved? Was it REALLY worth ruining a young girl's life forever by making her a household joke? Was it REALLY worth making "blowjob" a household word and having every five-year-old in America asking what a "BJ" was? Not even remotely close. It was a simple partisan smear tactic and that's it.

Gingrich is just a partisan stooge - he proved it. Shame too, because if he wasn't so blinded with partisan hatred he might be a good, reasonably intelligent guy and a potential source of forward-thinking in this country (something that is desperately needed right now).

FWIW I followed the entire incident pretty closely. I even have (to this day) several VHS tapes with key segments of testimony and the House impeachment proceedings as part of my records. I dare say I probably took a keener interest in this than many of you guys who are so dismissive of my opinion of Gingrich because I don't happen to see it the same way you do. I'd have expected quite a bit more from the party claiming the moral high ground than to simply use that as a mask for more of the "same old" partisan B.S. that's done nothing productive - only divide this country. Do I think Clinton was a saint? Certainly not. A lot of his politics I really detest to this day (NAFTA in particular). What have the Republicans done with their "moral high ground" and promises in 1999/2000 to "restore dignity to the White House", hmm? I'd hardly point to Bush and Dick as examples of moral leadership. Bush is FAR more deserving of impeachment than Clinton ever was, much as Clinton did some intensely dislikeable things.

Gingrich has no credibility whatsoever anymore. None.

Just shout "stained blue dress!" and feel better though. Or just blame all the world's problems on Carter if you find blaming Clinton too tiresome. That's about the level of intellect I'd expect from some of you based on your posts.

You said it better than I ever could Jeff...but I agree completely.

1. What is wrong in his speech?

2. So what did Bush do that is worse than Clinton covering for his Loral Corp buddies selling top secret missile technology to the red Chinese?

The strategic reserve 'idea' is amusing at most. Just don't think about it to long or it all falls apart.

I think his math is off on the Brazilian 'find'. That number changes ever time I hear it. Is it 33 brazilion, or 50 brazilion or 90 brazilion barrels?

Time to put solar panels back on the WHITE house and wear sweaters. Either that or freeze military oil consumption for a few months. Thats 350,000 barrels a day right there.

Jeff, you are leaving out a ton of stuff that started the whole impeachment thing and had nothing to do with Newt. First of all, Newt was a backbench minority leader in the House when Clinton tried to make his sexual harassment suit by Paula Jones go away. Newt was also still a nobody when Clinton's own AG (Johnny Reno) named Robert Fiske as independent counsel to investigate what started with Whitewater and the WH travel office firings and grew into a hydra of other Clinton scandals. Fiske eventually got sick of Clinton stalling and litigating everything and quit. That's when Ken Starr got appointed. Again, it had nothing to do with Newt and it was all a result of Clinton's own behavior.

Yes, Starr spent a lot of money. But he only did so, again, because, despite Clinton's promises of cooperation and full-disclosure, his lawyers litigated and stalled on every issue. In fact, the only time Clinton did not lose in court was on the posthumous atty-client privilege of Vince Foster's suicide note. And since Starr got something like 25 convictions or plea bargains out of the investigation(s), they probably weren't fishing expeditions.

Now, if you were Ken Starr, investigating all that stuff and then got wind Clinton's having had a(nother) affair with a(nother) subordinate (sexual harassment in the workplace anyone?), told that subordinate to sign a false affidavit denying the affair and a host of other official actions designed to cover up his behavior, well, wouldn't you look into that? No one ever accused Ken Starr of being lazy or unthorough.

Again, none of this had anything to do with Newt. Once it got referred to the House for impeachment, Newt perhaps could have squelched it. But why should he have? Clinton really did everything he was accused of doing, which were very much federal crimes. What would you think of Newt had he just swept it under the rug and told everyone it was just sex and the POTUS is allowed to suborn perjury and obstruct justice to cover his tracks? What would you say to that?

The ENTIRE impeachment scandal was 100% a result of Clinton's own behavior, both his piss-poor judgment and his fantasy that he could talk or litigate his way out of anything, never having to face consequences for his own actions. He was and is a sexual predator, narcissitic liar and ego-maniac. I'm glad he was taken down a notch.

That's a great idea. Makes about as much sense as those bumper stickers that suggest the Air Force hold bake sales to afford their bombers.

"Sandy Berger's Skivvys"! ...remember to use that one too Mule (as your predecessor (Mul) was so apt to do) along with the crying baby...makes for a great combo :). Bush has sold a huge "IOU" (somebody had to pay for our Iraq fiasco) to the same folks. Not defending Clinton...irrelevent at this point, but both parties are sucking left hind tit if you know what I mean.

I forgot the Green. :)

How about some 'fuel cell' uav's flying all over the place with hellfires or whatever the latest thing is for small stuff and then fire off an ICBM when we need to take out something big. Much smaller supply line and carbon footprint?

I would still insist that the blue angels come to chicago for the air show every other year. If they could somehow fuel that with processed boomer biofat, even better.

That's the problem that I was having. I just couldn't get past the short-term thinking behind releasing 1/3 of the SPR. The numbers don't work.

The current SPR inventory is 705.9 million bbls. IF we were to release 1/3 of the reserve, that would be 235.3 million bbls. Now, all of that oil would not come flooding into the market all at once. The maximum total withdrawal capability from the SPR is only 4.4 million barrels per day. That would only offset about 36% of the 12 million bbls. of oil that we import daily.

So, we may have some short-term relief for the 54 days it would take to release that oil into the market. However, during that time we would also need to start spending money replace/replenish the oil in the reserve. Iin two months we are back to where we started.

That's the problem that I was having. I just couldn't get past the short-term thinking behind releasing 1/3 of the SPR. The numbers don't work.

The current SPR inventory is 705.9 million bbls. IF we were to release 1/3 of the reserve, that would be 235.3 million bbls. Now, all of that oil would not come flooding into the market all at once. The maximum total withdrawal capability from the SPR is only 4.4 million barrels per day. That would only offset about 36% of the 12 million bbls. of oil that we import daily.

So, we may have some short-term relief for the 54 days it would take to release that oil into the market. However, during that time we would also need to start spending money to replace/replenish the oil in the reserve. Iin two months we are back to where we started.

Rick:

The suggestion of raising the margin requirements for investors/speculators on oil futures contracts is a good idea, IMO.

I think only around 7% cash is required now.

I also agree that such contracts are important to businesses; look no further than Southwest Airlines' now very wise forward bets on fuel.

I am surprised that this thread meandered away from it's intended topic. :D

Newt's reasons for tapping into the SPR have nothing to do with wanting to give Americans a quick-fix, but rather put a hard stop to the speculation, which is driving up prices every day. I know the result would probably be the same, but I can accept Newt's reasoning a lot better than I can just throwing a bone to folks who think the gov't. should give us short-term relief, putting the real pain off until later.

Besides, refilling the SPR would cost a lot more in the future than the oil released cost originally. Only the government would think of selling something for less than the cost to replace it. Not a good idea.

Exactly, real men don't commit perjury and obstruction of justice. When you lie and obfuscate, some people become curious about it. You can get mad at Ken Starr for being overzealous I suppose, but what is Mr Gingrich supposed to do with it?

Not bad ideas, don't like the monkeying around with strategic petroleum reserve much.

My dad declined the position of Mr Gingrich's chief of staff when he ran for Congress.

The speculaltion would just be delayed to October futures. Delayed gratification, but much sweeter.

Yes, but only if we continued to do absolutely nothing about increasing supply and lowering demand in the meantime. And I'm not saying that's not exactly what would happen.

Makes perfect sense to me so I wrote my congressmen and asked them to push for flooding the market with oil from the strategic reserve to punish the speculators. I even forwarded Newt's speech.
Even if it doesn't happen it will tell the speculators that their posistion is on shaky ground and they will back off. if they played by the rules I wouldn't condone government meddling but IMO wall street has done everything but play by the rules and deserves a bit of a spanking.

We are always buying oil to put into the reserve. Even when it's at $140 a barrel.
If the government offers up several billion barrels or so for sale. they will only have to actually sell a few hundred million barrels, and even then at probably a higher price than they originally paid for it. Suppose they bought it at an average price of $40 a barrel, which is probably pretty close. They can offer it up for sale and get $120 at first, then $100, then $90 and so on. We already have access to all the oil we need so they wouldn't have to sell very much to affect the market. After the price gets back down to reasonable they withdraw the remaining sale offers.
They replace it with oil bought at around $70 which is where it should be. They make enough money on the equity of the oil they sell that they can slowly replace the oil and still be financially ahead, as long as the speculators are kept in check.

You guys really think that drilling for oil will reduce the price of gasoline? This is sort of an intelligence test, in a way.

That is my way of thinking too. IMO, the "threat" will have more impact on the speculators (Bob as I like to call them - "Bush's oil buddies" :)) who have ridden this administration to untold wealth at the expense of the American people. The actual impact upon supply is not as significant as the threat of a release. I still recall (back when oil was around $60) when of Bush's top guys (forget his name) stated the the price of a barrel was really irrelevant upon the economy...total bs, but it sure set the climate for what has happened since imo.

Yes, let's find out who believes in that whole Supply/Demand nonsense. :rolleyes:

C'mon Supe. You're smarter than that.

From some conservative blog...
http://rightsideva.blogspot.com/2007/11/hillarys-strategic-energy-plansolution.html

Potential Democratic Party presidential nominee and possible(?) 44th President of the United States Hillary Clinton called on actual President Bush to release oil from the strategic reserve to “ease concerns about low crude stocks”.
"I urge the President to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Northeast Heating Oil Reserve to send a signal to the market and ease concerns about low crude oil stocks that are driving prices higher,"
Unfortunately it appears the possible(?) next President does not understand that the reason for the strategic reserve is to provide valuable crude during major supply disruptions and would rather use it to get valuable votes for a primary election. Like her Hubby and prior co-president “Slick Willie”, Hillary would use our strategic reserves to appear she is providing relief to Americans who are paying high fuel prices when in fact she is ignoring the real problem.
“Former President Bill Clinton ordered the release of up to 30 million barrels from the crude oil reserve in September 2000 to boost available heating fuel supplies heading into the winter.”

Like I said, there is already enough oil to go around. Having excess creates a bidding war with the buyers having the advantage. that lowers the price.
Imagine you are selling some product on e-bay and getting $100 for it. next thing you know, 4 other guys are selling the exact same thing. Ending bid price is going to go lower.

just the threat of a big additional excess inventory being available would probably be enough to chase away the vulture speculators and send the price back down to $70 or $75 where it belongs. They played with gold last year and tripled it's price, this year it's oil, I say it's time to send them onto some commodity that doesn't kill our economy. We can't maintain the current quality of life with oil getting as expensive as it is and the price just isn't justified by the fundamentals. Or burn their greedy butts and send them to the poor house. That would work too.

In case anyone has forgotten, In 1998 the price of crude oil was $18 per barrel and gas was well under $2 a gallon.

Other affairs aside here, Newt is saying what needs to happen. Period.

Rick, hung out like , had a couple of beers with him ?? Very cool!!!
this country really needs a hero like he was last time he made the "contract with America"

Back in the Republican Revolution days, I worked at the RNC and Newt was often the star at a lot of fundraisers. A few times I had to sort of escort him around and show him where to go. For a guy as busy as he was in those days, he always made it a point to stick around and pose for photos with staff once he was done with official duties. I also got him to sign his book for my dad. If I weren't so lazy, I'd scan some of the 8x10's I have of us together. He really was a cool guy to staffers. Best time was after a giant fundraiser when they closed down the back room of the Capital Grille for all of us. Newt and Haley Barbour, John Boehner, John Kasich, Tom DeLay, the whole crew, hung out smoking cigars and downing Maker's Mark with just the staffers. Very cool time. I swear, there were days when I was at an event with Newt until midnight, saw him on CNN in the morning while I was getting ready for work and then ran into him at the office when I got to work. The guy was like Clinton in that he never slept.