BEFORE THE STORM

Despite OPEC's unappreciative response to the downward trend of recent oil prices, the decline may reflect commodity traders' hopes that the new 'discovery' off Mexico will solve our supply problems or it may reflect that in combination with the ratcheting down of tension in The Middle East as the cease fire temporarily holds and Israel shows some slightly uncertain willingness to speak with some Palestininian representatives if not the kidnapped Hamas leadership it intended to release from its custody midweek but was forced to renege on as the army filed an appeal-- Plans for attacking Iraq must have also receded to the back burner-- Cheney with Russert seemed less than gung ho for such attacks in the near future at least but craven electoral motives might apply here also-- Perhaps, true production worries aside(they have not gone away), the fear bubble motivating so many oil traders could no longer sustain the upward spike but my guess is big oil insiders have gotten wind that no military attack of Iran is in the short term pipeline unless they see profit from some put options but speculation can run any which way and back very quickly these days-- Now certain fantasists are prognosticating oil cascading to $15/barrel-- Thursday natural gas prices floored at two year lows-- Gasoline prices dropped to the $2.85/gal range and no commuters complain--Time will tell if the oil spike-up was just another bubble supported by rumors-of-war sky-is-falling hyperbole and the Peak Oil phenomenon just propaganda re-honed from the Millenium computer bug hysteria as some of the optimists claim-- With multiple bubbles from commodities to housing lining up in front of the nail gun, if I had a ranch I wouldn't ante-up--

After a brief time-out for the media to wallow in the depression of self-pity and the over-done maudlin 9-11 5-year anniversary memorials the midterm elections resume focusing everyone's(in D.C.) attention toward political survival and away from national and world problems-- The administration exhorts its political troops to portray the demmies as less than patriotic terrorism-symps wimps and general losers but the bluster-deficient demmies answer the charges with pointed reminders of a failed campaign in Iraq--a campaign most of the little d.'s voted to support-- Moderate republican Chaffee wins his primary somewhat at least one would assume to the chagrin of the White House possibly impelling a future uptick in more strident countercharges-- The Iraq War is the primary issue from Field Commander Rove's political point of view ordering his boss to stay on message but it is obvious no other issue seems to interest or resonate for them-- The demmies flail with lackluster sound and semi-fury about the failures of the opposition offering no competing national agenda essentially seeking to win by default-- There is no platform to fix the blooming pension crises, the illegal immigration crisis, the punctured housing bubble, the imminent collapse of the automotive industry, the interminable oil supply problems, the elephantine health care issue, the open and pervasive fraud practiced nationally and abroad in many sectors of our finance, the even more gargantuan debt/deficit economic superstorm forming in the gulf of globalist delusion-- More, ... the ongoing contagion of mayhem and the utter inefficacy of force as a solution in Iraq and the so-called absence of any optimum alternatives or options as failure demands of head-in-the-sand politicians some kind of tactical/political end-game beyond the current 'stay the course' charade--

The American way of life by necessity will have to change (dramatically if the Peak Oilers are even partially correct) and these imperative changes will be very difficult if not made even more so because the cowardly congress refuses to step up-- Mega-perks in exchange for bureaucratic shuffling and siphoning unaffordable pork for the home district obscures the larger picture-- Most of the incumbents appear unaware of how soon and severe these problems might shortly materialize-- The extravagant nature of re-election demands ever larger blocks of time be committed not to leadership issues but to fundraising while the complicit media (the beneficiary of campaign contributions that pay for all that noxious non-cheap electoral advertising) devotes ever more of its time/space away from the serious issues facing America supplanting the serious element with gobs of blather surrounding the horse racing aspects of most elections in which more and more Americans refuse to participate -- Gallingly newspaper editors have the temerity to ask in idiocy "What Happened to Newspapers??'-- 'Are Newspapers Dead??'-- 'Can the Newspaper Be Saved??'-- Headlines to which print copy itself supply no positive answers-- Sooner or later the piper submits his billing and those disabused feign shock--