Shell and BP post record earnings. With oil prices continuing to rise, expect this trend to continue.
OPEC representatives say oil could hit $200 a barrel.
While the price goes up, the supply does not. Here is an explanation as to why.
The bottom line? Demand continues to increase due to the growing economies in places like China and India. Combined with the weakness of the dollar, it seems as if the era of high oil prices is likely to stay with us for some time.
Most newspapers suffer declines in circulation, some worse than others.
Jeremiah Wright's visit to the National Press Club was, in part, arranged by a Clinton supporter. That leads one New York columnist to speculate that it might be a political dirty trick.
George Will believes Wright is relevant to the campaign.
Bob Herbert recognizes that Wright's increased visibility darkens the path to the White House for Obama. Meanwhile, Obama tries to distance himself from Wright.
Andrew Sullivan, after reviewing what Wright actually said at the Press Club, now thinks Obama needs to completely repudiate him.
As I have written before, the significance of Wright's sermons, and his subsequent remarks, is that Barack Obama has sat in his church for almost twenty years, has described Wright as his spiritual mentor, was married by him, had his children baptised by him. It is simply unreasonable to believe that Wright's most racist and anti-Semitic views are of recent origin. it is simply unreasonable to believe that Barack Obama did not know of those views. Therefore, either Obama agrees with some or all of those views, is tolerant of those views as reasonable, or sat in that pew as a purely political act, despite his understanding of the virulent, hateful and, in some instances, the downright lunatic nature of some of those views. Whole segments of the American voting public are being written off by this association unless Obama completely repudiates it. Even then, the damage may already be irreparable.
David Brooks has some thoughts on how our current political divisions are being driven by demography.
Could Chris Mathews run for U.S. Senate?
The Supreme Court upholds a law requiring a photo ID to vote.
One doctor explains why health insurance is hurting primary medical care.
One Brit describes how America, a place awash in guns, is so much more peaceful than his native England, which has some of the toughest gun control laws in the world.
posted by Dan Pierce @ 9:21 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Both the Pope and Wright (I am trying not making any direct comparisons) do wonderful things but they also say and believe things that not everyone who attends their churches believe in.
Many Catholics do not believe in the Pope's injunction against wearing condoms, yet they continue to go to church and do not repudiate him. What is the difference here?
The most important differences are that the Pope (to my knowledge) does not believe that the government of the United States created the AIDS virus to commit genocide against Black people. Also, while there are, of course, Catholic politicians, none (to my knowledge), have a long-time, close, personal friendship with him. At least some of Rev. Wright's beliefs go beyond the typical and understandable doctrinal differences of opinion between faiths (like your example of the prohibition against certain kinds of birth control, or even more controversial issues like abortion) and into the realm of a highly charged form of Black Nationalism closer to that of the Nation of Islam. While most voters can accept the fact that a politician might be a member of a church which teaches views that they disagree with, and not hold it against said politician, it seems to me that many more voters are going to have a harder time with a politician whose personal pastor holds (and has held) views that are highly politicized, racially charged, and in some instances, well into the arena of lunatic conspiracy theories. This is Obama's problem.
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