The Impeachment Hearing Room

July 03, 2008 News Clips and Oil Slicks: Oil Iran, McBush and More Oil…always Oil

But…You good folks in North Dakota; If you see helicopters swarming in the air and tanks and Hummers rolling down the roads; ruin like Hell because it will mean Cheney has decided to “Nationalize” your oil finds….

Iran says any attack would provoke fierce reaction AP

Hersh: Cheney Trying To Create Casus Belli For War With Iran
By JonathanSchwarz
According to the new Seymour Hersh article, the Bush administration has ramped up covert action inside Iran, and has notified the congressional leadership that it's planing to spend up to $400 million on it. ...
AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach... - http://www.afterdowningstreet.org

Resolution calls for embargo against Iran : Gareth Porter says that US House Res. 362 suggests the use of force with new bill

WeAreCHANGE Ohio Confronts John McCain about Impeachment

McCain doesn't want to impeach Bush

David Edwards and Nick Juliano
Raw Story
Published: Thursday June 26, 2008

Republican presidential candidate John McCain was asked Thursday his opinion of an attempt to impeach President Bush. His answer shouldn't surprise anyone.

If nothing else, the fact that a question was even asked shows that McCain's campaign doesn't do as rigorous a job as President Bush's handlers do in weeding out unfriendly questioners from town hall meetings.

"I appreciate this opportunity, Mr. McCain, to ask you a question," said a man attending the town hall meeting at Xavier University in Ohio. "Part one is in regards to the articles of impeachment brought up by Kucinich for Bush. What your stance is on that as far as manipulated intelligence to form the policy. And then the second is Professor Gadsby from Arizona was outside your office for sixteen days and didn't eat solid foods. I was wondering if you agreed to meet with him for the two hours he requested or does he have to be a corporate owner with multi-million dollars to meet with you."

The Republican senator laughed.

"I do not agree with quote 'articles of impeachment,'" McCain said, in reference to a resolution introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

The second question was about an Arizona professor and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who staged a hunger strike outside McCain's office requesting a meeting with the senator. McCain said the professor ended his strike although he was refused an audience.

"I did not" meet with him, McCain said. "Because I don't take well to threats."

MADRID, Spain - With Middle East tensions building, Iran's oil minister warned Wednesday that an attack on his country would provoke an unimaginably fierce response.

Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said, however, that Tehran would not cut oil deliveries and would continue supplying the market even if struck by Israel or the United States.

Tehran "is not going to be quiet," if attacked, Nozari told reporters. It's "going to react fiercely, and nobody can imagine what would be the reaction of Iran," he added.

Over the weekend, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned that Tehran would respond to an attack by barraging Israel with missiles and could seize control of a key oil passageway in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz.

But a senior U.S. military commander said Wednesday that Washington would not allow that to happen.

Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the 5th Fleet spoke to reporters after talks with naval commanders of Gulf countries in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi. The one-day meeting was to focus on the security of the region's maritime and trade routes and the threat of terrorism.

The 5th Fleet is based in Bahrain, across the Gulf from Iran. Cosgriff said that if Iran choked off the Strait of Hormuz, it would be "saying to the world that 40 percent of oil is now held hostage by a single country."

"We will not allow Iran to close it," he told reporters.

With Biofuel, a Supply That Can Follow the Rains at The New York Times

The record storms and floods that swept through the Midwest last month struck at the heart of America’s corn region, drowning fields and dashing hopes of a bumper crop.

They also brought into sharp relief a new economic hazard. As America grows more reliant on corn for its fuel supply, it is becoming vulnerable to the many hazards that can damage crops, ranging from droughts to plagues to storms.

The floods have helped send the price of ethanol up 19 percent in a month. They appear to have had little effect on the price of gasoline at the pump, as ethanol represents only about 6 percent of the nation’s transport fuel today.

But that share is expected to rise to at least 20 percent in coming decades. Experts fear that a future crop failure could take so much fuel out of the market that it would send prices soaring at the pump. Eventually, the cost of filling Americans’ gas tanks could be influenced as much by hail in Iowa as by the bombing of an oil pipeline in Nigeria.

“We are holding ourselves hostage to the weather,” said John M. Reilly, a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an ethanol expert. “Agricultural markets are subject to wide variability and big price spikes, just like oil markets.”

Gas prices change views on energy AP

WASHINGTON - High gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans' views on energy and the environment with more people now viewing oil drilling and new power plants as a greater priority than energy conservation than they did five months ago, according to a new survey.

The poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center shows nearly half of those surveyed — or 47 percent — now rate energy exploration, drilling and building new power plants as the top priority, compared with 35 percent who believed that five months ago.

The Pew poll, conducted in late June, showed the number of people who consider energy conservation as more important declined by 10 percentage points since February from a clear majority to 45 percent. People are now about evenly split on which is more important.

The number of people who said they considered increasing energy supplies more important than protecting the environment increased from 54 percent in February to 60 percent and the number of people who favor oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge also increased.

"This shows the real impact of higher gas prices on the public," said Carroll Doherty, associate director for the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, which commissioned the telephone survey of 2,004 adults from June 18 to June 29. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, slightly larger for subgroups.

Since February, gasoline prices have soared from just over $3 to a national average of $4.08 a gallon, according to the Energy Department.

The shift toward embracing more energy production was seen across different age and political groups, reflecting a change in attitudes among Democrats, independents, women, and young people — all groups that in the past have generally championed conservation over energy development.

Saudi Arabia says no more crude production at CNN.com

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ruled out further increases in crude production following its June 23 announcement that it would pump an extra half-million barrels a day.

In an interview with CNN, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said he was troubled by the current high levels of petroleum prices, but added, "We have nothing to do with prices where they are today."

He denied the problem is one of immediate oil supply.

Asked whether Saudi Arabia, OPEC's leading producer, would open its taps to its reported maximum capacity of 11 million barrels a day, al-Naimi did not dispute the figure but asked rhetorically, "Where is the buyer?"

Al-Naimi was speaking to CNN on the sidelines of the four-day World Petroleum Congress in Madrid, Spain, where leaders of the oil industry from around the world are meeting. They include government ministers, national oil company leaders, and international oil company bosses.

Al-Naimi ruled out an option advanced by some oil-watchers: to make more Saudi Arabia heavy crude available, but at a discount in order to bring prices down.

Watchdog cuts oil supply forecast at BBC

Global oil supplies will grow more slowly than expected over the next five years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has predicted.

Spare capacity in the world system would fall to "minimal levels" in 2013 amid rising demand from developing countries and supply problems, it said.

As a result the IEA cut its supply forecast by 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd) to 95.33 million bpd.

US crude rose following the report and closed at $140.97 a barrel in New York.

Prices rose as high as $143.33 a barrel Tuesday, before settling at a record $140.97.

In London, Brent crude futures rose 34 cents to $141.01 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Shum said prices were being supported by an International Energy Agency report Tuesday saying it expects global supply to remain pinched despite near-record prices and falling demand in the U.S. and Europe.

The IEA report said demand would rise most in developing countries, with Asia, the Middle East and Latin America accounting for nearly 90 percent of demand growth over the next five years.

IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said the world is experiencing "the third oil price shock," comparing the effects of today's prices with the oil crises that began with the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the 1979 revolution in Iran.

On The Brighter Side of Oil News…But…You good folks in North Dakota; If you see helicopters swarming in the air and tanks and Hummers rolling down the roads; ruin like Hell because it will mean Cheney has decided to “Nationalize” your oil finds!

Oil is making millionaires in North Dakota

By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press Writer

BEULAH, N.D. - Oscar Stohler was raised in a sod house in western North Dakota and ranched there for nearly seven decades. He never gave much thought to what lay below the grass that fattened his cattle.

When oilmen wanted to drill there last year, Stohler, 83, doubted oil would be found two miles underground on his property. He even joked about it.

"I told them if they hit oil, I was going to buy a Cadillac convertible and put those big horns on the front and wear a 10-gallon hat," Stohler recalled.

He still drives his old pickup and wears a mesh farm cap — but it's by choice.

In less than a year, Stohler and his wife, Lorene, 82, have become millionaires from the production of one well on their land near Dunn Center, a mile or so from the sod home where Oscar grew up. A second well has begun producing on their property and another is being drilled — all aimed at the Bakken shale formation, a rich deposit that the U.S. Geological Survey calls the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed.

Landowners in western North Dakota have a much better chance of striking it rich from oil than they do playing the lottery, say the Stohlers. Some of their neighbors in the town of about 120, from bar tenders to Tupperware salespeople, have become "overnight millionaires" from oil royalty payments.

"It's the easiest money we've ever made," said Lorene Stohler, who worked for decades as a sales clerk at a small department store.

State and industry officials say North Dakota is on pace to set a state oil-production record this year, surpassing the 52.6 million barrels produced in 1984. A record number of drill rigs are piercing the prairie and North Dakota has nearly 4,000 active oil wells.

The drilling frenzy has led companies to search for oil using horizontal drilling beneath Parshall, a town of about 980 in Mountrail County, and under Lake Sakakawea, 180-mile-long reservoir on the Missouri River.

"I have heard, anecdotally, that there is a millionaire a day being created in North Dakota," said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council.

Kathy Strombeck, a state Tax Department analyst, said the number of "income millionaires" in North Dakota is rising.

The number of taxpayers reporting adjusted gross income of more than $1 million in North Dakota rose from 266 in 2005 to 388 in 2006, Strombeck said. The 2007 numbers won't be known until October, she said.

Bruce Gjovig, director of the University of North Dakota's Center for Innovation, said his informal survey estimates the number of new millionaires in Mountrail County, one of the biggest drilling areas of the Bakken, may be as many as 2,000 — or nearly a third of the county's population — in the next three to five years.

North Dakota's per capita income in 2007 was $36,846, ranking the state 30th in the nation and up from 42nd in 1997, said Richard Rathge, the state Data Center director and North Dakota demographer.

"The two main drivers are energy and agriculture income," Rathge said. The increasing wealth in the state from oil should push the average annual wage in North Dakota, he said.

The oil boom has spurred several "Jed Clampett-like" tales of ordinary folks getting rich, said Tom Rolfstad, the economic development director for the city of Williston.

Rolfstad said he hasn't spotted any Ferraris or Rolls Royces in town, though several people can afford them now.

"I'm seeing a lot more big, shiny gas-guzzling pickups," he said.

Several homes that cost more than a million dollars also are being built in Williston, he said. The community of about 12,500 people is perhaps best known as the hometown of NBA coach Phil Jackson.

Most people "don't want people to know how much money they got and they don't want to be tagged with being wealthy — they want to be themselves," Rolfstad said.

Oscar and Lorene Stohler said their newly found wealth hasn't changed them.

"We still know what tough times are," Oscar said. "We grew up in the Dirty '30s."

"We put our kids through college without that oil money," Lorene said.

The couple moved a few miles east to Beulah and paid cash for their new home, the first one they have owned. They have established trust accounts for their four children.

Lorene said the only thriftless purchase was an automatic sprinkler system for her flowers that surround the couple's new home. And Oscar bought a $1,000 ring for his wife to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary.

"We got enough now to buy new stuff," Lorene said, "but we like our old stuff."

A message from Ramsey Clark:

If we let Bush be the "decider," he'll decide on war

We will learn from the tragic mistakes of the past, criminal aggressions with tragic human consequences, or President Bush will attack Iran with potentially far more disastrous human consequences.

Seymour Hersh, who told us of the Ma Lai Massacre some thirty years ago and scores of criminal acts since, reports in the July 7-14 Issue of the New Yorker, that President Bush has enacted a "major escalation of covert operations against Iran for which he "sought up to four hundred million dollars," designed to destabilize Iran's "religious leadership... focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and 'regime change.'"

This is conditioning for the missile attacks on Iran's nuclear site, some going back to the days of the Shah, which both Bush and Cheney passionately espouse.

There are four major reasons impelling Bush and Cheney to take this new military action in the waning months of their disastrous terms of office.

1. Oil. To keep control of Iraqi oil with Exxon, Chevron, and other major western oil companies, a major purpose of their invasion of Iraq, now forced on the Iraqi government they created.

2. Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq. With Iran retaliating, the U.S. military presence and large diplomatic/economic mission in Baghdad will be assorted to protect U.S. interests in Iraq, its oil, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.

3. The Presidential Election. The best chance Senator McCain has to win the November elections is a major escalation in the war on terrorism, the terrorist threat becoming the greatest concern of voters in the November elections. Striking against Iran's nuclear sites in September could accomplish this. McCain's grandfather and father, both full Admirals, the first and only father-son to attain that rank, guided McCain to the Naval Academy and military career, backing for Rear Admiral, before political ambition diverted his career track to the rank of Commander-in-Chief. Obama has no military experience.

4. Bush's legacy. Bush is faced with a failed Presidency. He needs for however short a time to appear as the president who prevented a member of the "axis of evil," from obtaining nuclear weapons, as he proclaimed before. His celebration of some agreement with North Korea is designed to avoid recognition of the fact that it acquired and possesses nuclear weapons on his watch - and that leaves Iran alone on the firing line.

The human disaster and effect on the United States may be beyond all we have experienced so far. The way to prevent nuclear arms proliferation is not by threatening and attacking selected nations, but providing leadership and responsibility to carry out the affirmative obligations on existing nuclear powers, according to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This would require the few nations that possess nuclear weapons to systematically and openly destroy them while the many nations that do not possess them to abstain from doing so, accompanied by vigorous international inspections and oversight to assure compliance.

For now, the only sure way to prevent President Bush from attacking Iran is impeachment. He believes he is the 'decider' and has told us his decision. For We, the People, impeachment is our highest for life and the Constitution.

To support the critical work of the impeachment movement, click this link and make a contribution right now. Ramsey Clark July 2, 2008

From Rassmussen…..

Voters Want Right to Approve All Taxes

Most Americans do not believe the U.S. government needs more tax revenue and well over half say all tax increases should be subject to voter approval.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Obama leads 61% to 33% among those who focus on the economy while McCain leads 62% to 34% among national security voters.

Democrats Retain Huge Advantage in Partisan ID

15% Say Economy Good or Excellent

48% Say Lower Gas Prices Key to Economy

Another Month, Another Record Low for Bush Approval

Massachusetts Presidential Election

Massachusetts Senate Election

http://www.wearechange.org/index.html

WeAreChangeLA Confronts Scott McClellan

“A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.”

Mohandas Gandhi