Category Archives: News

Our old Saudi Friends.

Below is the long and fruitless effort for information that the White House Press Corps had this morning. Here are my observations:

1. Why was the Bin Laden family permitted to leave the nation the days following 9/11 without being asked a single question while no american was permitted to fly?

2. When the 9/11 report was published why was the only part ‘blacked-out’ about Saudi Arabia, when the majority of the hijacker’s where from Saudi Arabia?

3. Why is the Saudi Ambassador in on the secret planning of war with Iraq when the US. Secretary of State was not involved?

4. Why is the Saudi Ambassador promising to drop Oil prices to help out his old Texas friend?

QUESTION: Can you describe conversations between the White House and Prince Bandar about his essential promise to lower oil prices before the election?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think you heard from Prince Bandar a few weeks ago about —

QUESTION: He didn’t talk specifically about the election.

MR. McCLELLAN: — the most recent conversation that we had with him regarding oil prices. And he expressed his views out at the stakeout to you all that Saudi Arabia is committed to making sure prices remained in a range, I believe it’s $22 to $28 price per barrel of oil, and that they don’t want to do anything that would harm our consumers or harm our economy. So he made those comments at the stakeout and we’ve made our views very clear that prices should be determined by market forces, and that we are always in close contact with producers around the world on these issues to make sure that actions aren’t taken that harm our consumers or harm our economy.

QUESTION: There were no conversations specifically about the President’s reelection?

MR. McCLELLAN: You can ask Prince Bandar to —

QUESTION: But from the point — I mean, conversations are obviously two ways.

MR. McCLELLAN: — what his comments were. But the conversations we have are related to our long-held views that we have stated repeatedly publicly, that market forces should determine prices.

QUESTION: To follow up on that then, I would gather that the White House view is one of expectation that the Saudis would increase oil production between now and November.

MR. McCLELLAN: Our views are very well-known to Saudi Arabia. Prince Bandar made a commitment at the stakeout that I will let speak for itself. You all should look back to those remarks.

QUESTION: We’re missing the allegation here, which is that Prince Bandar and the Saudis have made a commitment to lower oil prices to help the President politically. Is that your —

MR. McCLELLAN: I’m not going to speak for Prince Bandar. You can direct those comments to him. I can tell you that what our views are and what he said at the stakeout is what we know his views are, as well.

QUESTION: Does the White House have any knowledge of such a commitment?

MR. McCLELLAN: I’m sorry?

QUESTION: Does the White House have any knowledge of such a commitment?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, I’m not going to speak for Prince Bandar. You can direct those questions —

QUESTION: Is there a deal?

MR. McCLELLAN: — I wouldn’t speculate one way or the other.

You can direct those questions to him, but I’m telling you —

QUESTION: I’m not asking you to speculate either. Do you have knowledge of such a commitment?

MR. McCLELLAN: I’m telling you what our views are and what we’ve stated, and I’m telling you what I do know, which is that our position is very clear when it comes to oil prices and what our views are. And Prince Bandar spoke to you all just a few weeks ago out at the stakeout after meeting with some White House officials and expressed —

QUESTION: So you have no knowledge of such a commitment?

MR. McCLELLAN: — and expressed their view. I’m not going to try to speak for Prince Bandar. You can direct those questions to him.

QUESTION: The President is confident that the American elections are not being manipulated by the world’s largest oil producer?

MR. McCLELLAN: Our view is that the markets should determine —

QUESTION: The market doesn’t. It’s a cartel.

MR. McCLELLAN: But our view is that that’s what — that the markets should determine prices. And that’s the view we make very clear to producers around the world, including our friends in OPEC.

POW!

Colin Powell said yesterday his speech last February to the UN Security Council was not based on solid intelligence. A lot of things with the Bush Administration lately aren’t based on solid intelligence.Here’s Powell’s statement to the UN in February of 2003:

“Every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence.”

-Colin Powell to the UN Security Council, February 2003.

I guess there’s no reason to believe Mr. Powell any more.

File Swapping Doesn't Hurt, Record Companies Just Suck.

Scientists actually look into the numbers of file sharing and record sales.

John Schwartz writes in the New York Times today that File Swapping has no connection to lagging record sales:

Using complex mathematical formulas, they determined that spikes in downloading had almost no discernible effect on sales. Even under their worst-case example, “it would take 5,000 downloads to reduce the sales of an album by one copy,” they wrote. “After annualizing, this would imply a yearly sales loss of two million albums, which is virtually rounding error” given that 803 million records were sold in 2002. Sales dropped by 139 million albums from 2000 to 2002.

“While downloads occur on a vast scale, most users are likely individuals who would not have bought the album even in the absence of file sharing,” the professors wrote.

In an interview, Professor Oberholzer-Gee said that previous research assumed that every download could be thought of as a lost sale. In fact, he said, most downloaders were drawn to free music and were unlikely to spend $18 on a CD.

“Say I offer you a free flight to Florida,” he asks. “How likely is it that you will go to Florida? It is very likely, because the price is free.” If there were no free ticket, that trip to Florida would be much less likely, he said. Similarly, free music might draw all kinds of people, but “it doesn’t mean that these people would buy CD’s at $18,” he said.