Sarah Palin: Dollar’s Troubles Show Need for Energy Independence
Two days ago the British newspaper The Independent published a rather dubious report by Robert Fisk claiming that oil-producing Arab states along with China, Russia, Japan and France were conspiring on a plan to dump the dollar for oil trading, a move which would seriously weaken our currency and influence abroad.
The Arab states named in the report have issued denials… there may still be a grain of truth in the report though as both Russia and China have been very vocal in their calls to end the Dollar’s reign in international trading:
Leaving aside the viability of the unified GCC currency – Oman and the Emirates have made clear they don’t want to play – the story has a ring of truth about it.
Russia and China have both been vocal in their call to end the hegemony of the greenback in international trade. The single GCC currency, if and when it happens, would be more likely to use a currency basket than a direct dollar peg. With the possibility of intervention now back in its arsenal Japan will clearly do what it feels necessary to protect its deflationary economy from an over-strong currency. France, of course, would take any opportunity to give Washington one in the eye.
In that light it is no surprise that the dollar has taken a bit of a beating since the news broke. It has lost one euro cent and half a yen overnight, adding to the losses it had already made on Monday in the absence of any helpful comment from G7.
Regardless The Independent’s report should server as a stark reminder to our elected leaders of need for sound fiscal policy, a strong stable dollar and real energy independence.
Sarah Palin makes the case on her Facebook page:
All of this is a result of our out-of-control debt. This is why we need to rein in spending, and this is also why we need energy independence. A weakened dollar means higher commodity prices. This will make it more difficult to pay our bills – including the bill to import oil.
In his book Architects of Ruin, Peter Schweizer points out that the Obama administration is focusing primarily on “green energy,” while ignoring our need to develop our domestic conventional energy resources.[5] We’re ignoring the looming crisis caused by our dependence on foreign oil. Because we’re dependent on foreign nations for our oil, we’re also at their mercy if they decide to dump the dollar as their trade currency. We can’t allow ourselves to be so vulnerable to the whims of foreign nations. That’s why we must develop our own domestic supplies of oil and gas.
Though the chant of “Drill, baby, drill” was much derided, it expressed the need to confront this issue head-on before it reaches a crisis point.
Bottom line: let’s stop digging ourselves into debt and start drilling for energy independence.
Gas prices have dropped considerably since the last oil shock made energy independence a front burner issue in the minds of most Americans… The coming debate on Cap and Trade may help bring the issue of energy independence back to the forefront but I suspect it’ll be lost in amongst the debates on the new taxes, costs, and mandates Cap and Trade create.
Whether we like it or not our economy is powered by oil and natural gas… and there is simple no reason not to tap into a significant domestic reserves of both.
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Mikheil Saakashvili: Georgia Acted in Self-Defense
There’s always two sides to every story and unfortunately, for the most part the western new media has only told half story about the Russian invasion of Georgia. If you haven’t read Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s excellent Op Ed in today’s Wall Street Journal you should.
Georgia Acted in Self-Defense
Some people seem to misunderstand which country was invaded.
By Mikheil Saakashvili, Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2008
Since Russia invaded Georgia last August, the international community seems stuck on one question about how the war started: Did the Georgian military act irresponsibly to take control of Tskhinvali in the South Ossetia region of Georgia?
This question has been pushed to the center in large degree by a fierce, multimillion-dollar Russian PR campaign that hinges on leaked, very partial, and misleading reports from a military observer from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that claimed Georgia responded militarily in South Ossetia without sufficient provocation by Russia. Judging from recent media coverage, this campaign has been successful.
Focusing on this question distracts from Russia’s intense, blatant policy of regime change that has long aimed to destabilize Georgia through ethnic manipulation, and thus thwart our democracy while stopping NATO’s expansion. Furthermore, it has never been in dispute whether our forces entered South Ossetia. I have always openly acknowledged that I ordered military action in South Ossetia — as any responsible democratic leader would have done, and as the Georgian Constitution required me to do in defense of the country.
I made this decision after being confronted by two facts. First, Russia had massed hundreds of tanks and thousands of soldiers on the border between Russian and Georgia in the area of South Ossetia. We had firm intelligence that they were crossing into Georgia, a fact later confirmed by telephone intercepts verified by the New York Times and others — and a fact never substantially denied by Russia. (We had alerted the international community both about the military deployment and an inflow of mercenaries early on Aug. 7.)
Second, for a week Russian forces and their proxies engaged in a series of deadly provocations, shelling Georgian villages that were under my government’s control — with much of the artillery located in Tskhinvali, often within sites controlled by Russian peacekeepers. Then, on Aug. 7, Russia and its proxies killed several Georgian peacekeepers. Russian peacekeepers and OSCE observers admitted that they were incapable of preventing the lethal attacks. In fact, the OSCE had proven impotent in preventing the Russians from building two illegal military bases inside South Ossetia during the preceding year. Read the rest…
Michael Totten: The Truth About Russia in Georgia
I linked to this previously but Michael Totten’s “The Truth About Russia in Georgia” is the most comprehensive report I’ve seen on the conflict – it’s a must read for anyone who wants to know what really happened – and it deserves much greater prominence than I gave it earlier.
The Truth About Russia in Georgia
By Michael J. Totten, August 26, 2008
TBILISI, GEORGIA – Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.
Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn’t start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before
Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war.
Russian Aggression
If you haven’t read the Op-Ed by by Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman in today’s Wall Street Journal you should. I don’t agree with Graham or Lieberman often but they’re spot-on here.
Russia’s Aggression Is a Challenge to World Order
By Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2008; Page A21In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Georgia, the United States and its trans-Atlantic allies have rightly focused on two urgent and immediate tasks: getting Russian soldiers out, and humanitarian aid in.
But having just returned from Georgia, Ukraine and Poland, where we met with leaders of these countries, we believe it is imperative for the West to look beyond the day-to-day management of this crisis. The longer-term strategic consequences, some of which are already being felt far beyond the Caucasus, have to be addressed.
Russia’s aggression is not just a threat to a tiny democracy on the edge of Europe. It is a challenge to the political order and values at the heart of the continent. Read the rest…
A couple of other must reads:
First is Bret Stephens Global View column also in today’s Wall Street Journal:
Russia Is Dangerous But Weak
By Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2008; Page A19‘In Russia,” wrote the great scholar of Russian imperialism Dietrich Geyer many years ago, “expansion was an expression of economic weakness, not exuberant strength.”
Keep this observation in mind as Vladimir Putin and his minions bask in the glow of Western magazine cover stories about Russia’s “resurgence” following its splendid little war against plucky little Georgia. The Kremlin is certainly confident these days, buoyed by years of rising commodity prices and a bullying foreign policy that mistakes fear for respect — the very combination that made the Soviet Union seem invincible in the 1970s.
But the Soviet Union wasn’t invincible. And here’s a crazy thought: The same laws of social, economic and geopolitical gravity that applied in Brezhnev’s U.S.S.R. apply equally in Mr. Putin’s KGB state. Read the rest…
The Second is J.R. Dunn’s “Rollback Russian Expansionism” at Americanthinker.com
Rollback Russian Expansionism
By J.R. Dunn, American Thinker.com, August 26, 2008The only thing novel about the humiliation of Georgia is that the entity that carried it out is called “Russia” instead of the “Soviet Union”.
It has happened many times before. In Czechoslovakia in 1948. In Berlin the same year. In Poland and East Germany in 1953. In Hungary in 1956. In Czechoslovakia again in 1968. In Afghanistan in 1979.
We have a lot of experience in dealing with this kind of outlaw behavior. We know what works and what does not. There is no mystery here, and no secrets. To learn how to deal with a newly belligerent Russia, we need only look at the Cold War. Read the rest…
Update: Don’t miss the must read of all must reads… Michael Totten’s “The Truth About Russia in Georgia”.
TBILISI, GEORGIA – Virtually everyone believes Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili foolishly provoked a Russian invasion on August 7, 2008, when he sent troops into the breakaway district of South Ossetia. “The warfare began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched a barrage targeting South Ossetia,” the Associated Press reported over the weekend in typical fashion.
Virtually everyone is wrong. Georgia didn’t start it on August 7, nor on any other date. The South Ossetian militia started it on August 6 when its fighters fired on Georgian peacekeepers and Georgian villages with weapons banned by the agreement hammered out between the two sides in 1994. At the same time, the Russian military sent its invasion force bearing down on Georgia from the north side of the Caucasus Mountains on the Russian side of the border through the Roki tunnel and into Georgia. This happened before Saakashvili sent additional troops to South Ossetia and allegedly started the war. Read the rest…
Ho-hum Redux
I really should write something… Unfortunately, most of what’s in the news at the moment bores me to tears. I couldn’t care less about the Olympics and I’m sick of the presidential campaign… Cassandra at Villainous Company pretty much sums up my mood here.
I am deeply concerned about Russia’s assault on Georgia… I’m not expert on the region however and I’m not going to try and play one on the internet, I’ll leave to commentary and analysis on Georgia to C. Blake Powers (Laughing Wolf) at Blackfive and Michael J. Totten. If you haven’t read what they’ve written on the Georgian crisis you should.
That’s it for now.
Georgia On My Mind…
I’m deeply troubled by the news out of Georgia, I’m not a expert on the region and I’m not going to try and play one on the internet. What I am doing to do to point you to two excellent posts by C. Blake Powers at Blackfive.net.
The first is titled “No, It’s Not Good At All“, the second is “The Devil Went To Georgia“. There’s also an excellent OpEd by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in today’s Wall Street Journal.
The War in Georgia
Is a War for the West
By Mikheil Saakashvili, August 11, 2008; Page A15Tbilisi, Georgia
As I write, Russia is waging war on my country.
On Friday, hundreds of Russian tanks crossed into Georgian territory, and Russian air force jets bombed Georgian airports, bases, ports and public markets. Many are dead, many more wounded. This invasion, which echoes Afghanistan in 1979 and the Prague Spring of 1968, threatens to undermine the stability of the international security system. Read the rest…
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