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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (296330)	9/12/2002 11:31:35 PM
From: d.taggart	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Patty don`t you ever quit flowing?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (296330)	9/12/2002 11:33:51 PM
From: Krowbar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Stop Fueling the Terrorists – former CIA Director James Woolsey says if the Bush administration wants to win the war on terrorism, the United States must become independent of Middle East oil WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 11, 2002 – The Bush administration must urgently rethink its energy policy if it is to succeed in the war on terrorism, former CIA director James Woolsey said today. Speaking on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon at the independent energy and environmental research center, Resources for the Future, Woolsey called on the president to reduce U.S. dependence on Middle East oil by: encouraging the use of more fuel-efficient hybrid cars; generating ethanol from biomass or waste; beefing up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 1 billion barrels; and increasing Russian oil production by 50 per cent. “I have not been pleased with the president’s energy policy, to put it mildly,” Woolsey said. “I admire President Bush’s effort in the fight against terror, but his energy policy goes against what he is trying to accomplish in that war.” Woolsey said people in the Middle East have some justification in thinking the United States has but one interest in the region: “They think we want to use it as a gas station, that we have no interest in the people. They perceive that America is in bed with their own oppressive regimes and believe our lack of willingness to stand up for human rights in their countries is based on our thirst for oil.” While the terrorists of al Qaeda are motivated by hatred of our freedoms and envy of our success, Woolsey said oil wealth in the Middle East is fueling terrorism. “They understand the leverage they hold has a lot to do with our own behavior, and we must start to understand that as well.” Woolsey, drawing on his extensive experience in counter-terrorism and international affairs, outlined a four-point domestic energy plan as what he called “the oil component of the U.S. war strategy”. He said the United States must undermine the tactical short-term weapon possessed by Saudi Arabia, whose oil reserve capacity of 3 billion barrels a day functions as the “energy equivalent of a nuclear weapon” that could destroy western economies. Woolsey said the United States must take urgent steps to increase our own Strategic Petroleum Reserve to at least one billion barrels, and encourage our allies to stockpile oil. “With instant access to 2 billion barrels, we would take away that Saudi weapon.” He also called on the Bush administration to take steps to double Russian oil-producing capacity from its current 6.9 million barrels a day. This, he said, would involve convincing Russia to privatize its pipelines and ports. “For all the problems Russia has in its move to democracy, it is far more likely to develop into a reasonable democratic country than Saudi Arabia,” he said. Critical of both the administration and Congress for rejecting plans to tighten fuel economy standards, Woolsey said the move to highly fuel-efficient hybrid cars must be strongly encouraged. “We have five-passenger hybrid cars in the dealerships now. They get 50 miles per the gallon compared to the average SUV’s 10 to 15 mpg. There should be as many incentives as possible to scrap older cars and move to hybrids.” Woolsey added that rather than concentrate on fuel cells and other new technologies that would not be available for some time into the future, the urgency of the war on terror requires solutions with existing technologies that can be adopted now. “We have to focus on what we have now, what technology we have now, what can be incentivized now, what’s in dealer showrooms now.” Once such idea, he said, was the use of biomass or waste with genetically modified biocatalysts to produce ethanol. Relying on biomass rather than corn to produce ethanol would mean that cars – without much adaptation – could be as much as 85 per cent fueled by ethanol. rff.org Right on the money. Del

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (296330)	9/12/2002 11:34:02 PM
From: rich4eagle	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

They always do, that is why I will never consider that party. It is a bunch of country club members blaming all the problems on govt and labor and praising the idiots who carry their banner

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (296330)	9/12/2002 11:34:46 PM
From: steve dietrich	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

You nailed it! There for a while the Republicans were trying to float the idea that it was Reagan's VooDoo economics for the longest expansion the country's ever had, that was a real hoot! If the democrats and the U.N. can delay until after congress recesses, the urgency of attacking Iraq will most likely be moot (election politics). Clinton made a good point today, it would probably only take two to three weeks to oust Saddam, and he knows that, so what is the probability that if he had weapons of mass destruction, he would use them; or worse give them to people he knows who will in terrorist attacks for years to come.

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (296330)	9/12/2002 11:39:18 PM
From: D.Austin	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

CLinton administration kept fixing the problems and forced the economy back up into a rebound. Huh ! Wait til the debt bubble occurs...in sheer dollar terms, debt has ballooned. Household debt, including mortgages, has more than doubled since 1991, reaching nearly $7.9 trillion at the end of the first quarter, according to the most recent Fed data. Corporate debt has mushroomed almost as fast, topping $4.8 trillion. Add the debt from other businesses and nearly $10 trillion in debt from the financial sector, and the total exceeds $24 trillion. That, of course, is more than twice the annual gross domestic product of roughly $10.3 trillion, and dwarfs the ever-popular federal debt, which checked in at a paltry $3.4 trillion at the end of the first quarter. But debt is a double-edged sword. Companies, for example, have a tax incentive to fund expansion with debt - investments that, of course, can pay for themselves many times over and promote economic growth. The issue, then, is not necessarily the absolute size of the debt, but how much it strains the borrower. And by many of those measures, the situation is much less ominous, although hardly ideal. To assess overall debt levels, the Fed, for example, tracks the debt of nonfinancial companies as a percentage of their net worth. Although it has ticked up slightly since the mid-1990s, it has plateaued at roughly 75 percent over the last four quarters, and is well below the levels of the early `90s, when it topped 90 percent. Greenspan got in the way of a true economic cycle. Walking on water is not easy.