Hey, Bush voters! Let's do some TIME TRAVELING together!!!

[Bluebear]

TODAY:


Now let's time travel back one year. (Kindly imagine some magical sound effects...harps and chimes and whirling noises... and oh yeah, a ticking clock. You get the idea!)








April 19, 2004
WASHINGTON - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. has promised President George W. Bush the Saudis will reduce oil prices before this November's election to help the U.S. economy, according to Bob Woodward, author of a new book about the Iraq war.

Oil prices are ``high, and they could go down very quickly,'' Woodward said last night in an interview on CBS's ``60 Minutes.''

Bush chums around with Saudi Arabia's "Bandar Bush"

``That's the Saudi pledge,'' said Woodward. ``Certainly over the summer or as we get closer to the election they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly.''

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0419-01.htm


Don't cry, "W"!! They bought it hook, line and sinker!

Suckers.

[coloradodem2005]

1. Those motherfuckers can burn in hell for all I care.

[Bluebear]

2. Hey the voters had plenty of things to consider

But noooooooo, it was more important that those homos can't marry. Now they look at gas prices surging and can't make the connection between the Bush clan and their Saudi buddies.

[BlueManDude]

3. How about summer 2000 when Bush was making hay against Gore

for "high" gas prices at $1.60 gallon.

[beyurslf]

4. I remember that.... when he was saying it bad judgment not to open the

strategic reserves to help lower the cost of fuel.... that we should repeal the national gas tax....

And now look.... 50 cents a gallon higher and he does nothing!

[Bluebear]

6. It's all coming back to me

I remember now about the 'strategeric' oil reserve issue. And it's a piece higher than 50 cents more a gallon now around here!

[BlueManDude]

11. remember he said he knew the "oil bidness" and would...

be able to "jawbone" opec.

[Bluebear]

16. Roger on the "bidness" thing

When he still bothered to put on a phony Texas accent.

[Old and In the Way]

5. Indeed.

Who'd have thought the Executive Branch, bought and paid for by Big Oil, would make the price of oil cheaper? Not only that, but they've made sure not to invest in alternate energy technologies by giving taxcuts to the rich and giving the MIC the rest of our money. We could have made a different, more prosperous future for our children if Big Oil hadn't stolen the Presidency in 2000.

Suckers indeed.

[Jazzgirl]

7. Thanks for pointing this out again Bluebear.

I've been waiting to see if anybody remembered that Prince Bandar promised that oil prices wouldn't go up before the election. Yup...hook, line, and sinker!

[Abelman]

8. I'm glad I don't need a car

It's a vicious cycle. I bet people would love to buy a newer, more fuel-efficient car, but they can't afford one because gas is too high.

[stevedeshazer]

9. *ding* May 18, 2004: "Jawboning" OPEC

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/05/20040518-7.html

Here's Li'l Snotty McClellan:

Q The Democrats are out there today saying that the high gasoline prices, high oil prices are having an effect on everything from the airlines -- which have to spend an extra $180 million a day for every penny the price of fuel goes up; consumers are feeling the pinch, as well. Does the President accept the Democrats' argument that high gas prices are having a detrimental effect on the economy?

MR. McCLELLAN: <blahblahblah> John, I think the American people deserve more than cheap political rhetoric. The American people deserve leadership and action. This President has led and acted. This President, when he came into office, worked to develop a comprehensive energy plan that would reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy. He has led and acted, and he has called on Congress to act.

Unfortunately, Senate Democrats have held up moving forward on a comprehensive energy plan. They have obstructed the process. So we continue to find ourselves in the same situation year after year. The reason we are in this situation is because we are dependent upon foreign sources of energy. The reason we are in this situation is because there has been years of inaction. This President has acted. This President has put forward a plan. And this President has called on Congress to act, and that's what Congress needs to do, so that we don't continue to go through this issue year after year. <blahblahblah>

<snip>

Q Scott, the Democrats do like to keep reminding the President of what he said as a candidate in 2000 about the jaw-boning of his -- people in the oil industry and the oil business, or whatever. Has the President done any particular jawboning himself regarding this matter?

MR. McCLELLAN: He stays in touch with -- he meets with world leaders all the time, and these are issues he raises in those meetings.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/05/20040518-7.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Translation: RECORD OIL COMPANY PROFITS

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0322-31.htm

Data released annually at this time by the major oil companies on their prior-year performances rarely generates much interest outside the business world. With oil prices at an all-time high and Big Oil reporting record profits, however, this year has been exceptional. Many media outlets covered the announcement of mammoth profits garnered by ExxonMobil, the nation's wealthiest public corporation, and other large firms. Exxon's fourth-quarter earnings, at $8.42 billion, represented the highest quarterly income ever reported by an American firm.



"This is the most profitable company in the world," declared Nick Raich, research director of Zacks Investment Research in Chicago.

[Bluebear]

10. Oh, Scotty, you make me laugh!

"This President, when he came into office, worked to develop a comprehensive energy plan that would reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy. He has led and acted."

[Art_from_Ark]

15. Yeah, he has "led" and "acted", all right

He has led us into a quagmire, and acted like a complete jackass

[Bluebear]

17. True dat!

[greenbriar]

12. I hate that

no good mother fu@#$r

[VOX]

13. Ready once more? And how much would the invasion of Iraq cost? **whoosh**

It is now 2003....

Press Secretary Ari Fleischer: “Well, the reconstruction costs remain a very -- an issue for the future. And Iraq, unlike Afghanistan, is a rather wealthy country. Iraq has tremendous resources that belong to the Iraqi people. And so there are a variety of means that Iraq has to be able to shoulder much of the burden for their own reconstruction.”

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz: "There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money, and it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people…and on a rough recollection, the oil revenues of that country could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: "I don't believe that the United States has the responsibility for reconstruction, in a sense… funds can come from those various sources I mentioned: frozen assets, oil revenues and a variety of other things, including the Oil for Food, which has a very substantial number of billions of dollars in it."
- - - - - - - -
Now, forward to 2004 -- **whoosh**

Iraq War Topping $5.8 Billion A Month
United Press International
November 18, 2004
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is spending more than $5.8 billion a month on the war in Iraq, according to the military's top generals.
That is nearly a 50 percent increase above the $4 billion-a-month benchmark the Pentagon has used to estimate the cost of the war so far.
<snip>
Increase in War Funding Sought
Bush to Request $70 Billion More
By Jonathan Weisman and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 26, 2004; Page A01
The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday.
<snip>
Now, forward to 2005 -- **whoosh**
Sat, Mar. 19, 2005
Two years later, Iraq war's cost hits home
By Tammerlin Drummond
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Operation Iraqi Freedom was supposed to have been quick and simple. That, at least, was the plot in the Pentagon script.
<snip>
More than 1,500 soldiers have been killed. Estimates of the Iraqi dead run into the tens of thousands. The cost of war is approaching a whopping $200 billion -- and continues to climb.
<snip>
- - - - -

I'm sorry, * voters -- it just didn't turn out like you were told -- or even promised -- it would. And all this is from the good folks who want to "save" your Social Security.

Hey, would they LIE? :evilfrown:

[Bluebear]

14. An excellent time capsule as well!

:toast: