It must be considered a faux pas these days to actually write a diary that doesn't throw shit through the fan at Clinton and Obama.
While people fight about nonsense such as "negative ad makes Obama look spookier!" or yet another "I won't vote for Hillary/Obama if s/he is the nominee" the world keeps spinning and important things are being ignored.
There is a crisis between Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela at the moment with Chavez threatening to start a war by sending tanks to the border with Colombia. This news, in combination with an unexpected fall in oil inventories in the US, more record lows for the dollar, plus the OPEC cartel giving Bush the middle finger by refusing to increase crude production has caused oil prices to skyrocket almost 5% to an all-time record of $104.25. Not just an all-time record, but an inflation adjusted record surpassing the previous one of $103.76 in April of 1980.
OPEC rebuffed its top consumer, arguing that the world was well supplied with oil and blaming financial speculators and mismanagement of the United States economy for the current high prices.
But the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was not completely oblivious to the political and economic impact of $100 oil. The sharp surge in prices recently has deterred the group’s ministers from cutting their production, a move they seriously contemplated a few weeks ago to offset a seasonal slowdown in global oil demand in the second quarter.
There are no signs of prices coming down any time soon; spring is on the way meaning warmer weather which brings the more expensive gasoline blend and summer driving season, while the dollar keeps plumetting to record lows every other day pushing to commodities markets higher.
We will be seeing $4 per gallon in parts of the country. Hell, right here in New York it's almost $3.50 for regular. Even worse for those us unlucky enough to be stuck with a car that only takes premium!
Instead of squabbling on nonsense, why don't we focus instead on DEMANDING that both candidates address at full lenght how they will deal with this never-ending spiral of out of control energy prices and their plans on alternative sources of fuel.
I know the horse race and trading verbal jabs at each other is more fun, but this a real world concern that is affecting everyone and what is consuming people here is trivial bullshit instead of the issues.