Bush admin. backs off promise to reduce Mideast oil imports (surprise!)

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/nation/13767738.htm?source=rss&channel=krwashington_nation

Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports
By Kevin G. Hall
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the greatest oil supplies are.

...more...

[WI_DEM]

1. Oh, that's what the fruitcake meant

He "misspoke" once again. Tough having an idiot as president.

[Cocoa]

2. that didn't take long

[GOPisEvil]

3. Less than 24 hours. Is that some sort of record?

But, the headline was "addicted to oil". This story won't get as much play. Damned liebrul media.

[rucky]

14. Not if you count the lies he tells after the fact...

Like the education budget. There he reneged in negative-3 months.

[LisaLynne]

4. Dang, that was fast! nt

[mom cat]

5. Flipity, flipity flip flop. ..... Boy, that was quick!

[carolinalady]

6. From what I heard we only get about 25percent of our oil from

there anyways. I think I heard the majority comes from Canada and South America, but I could be and probably am wrong.

[Seen the light]

7. Wow, why am I not surprised? nt

[Beetwasher]

8. As Long As He Keeps His Promise to Ban Human-Animal Hybrids

I'm ok w/ this.

BAT BOY MUST DIE!

[OneBlueSky]

9. this isn't a flip-flop . . . he out and out lied . . .

to the American people and to the world . . . and you can bet your boots this wasn't the only statement in the SOTU that was an out and out lie . . . it's what Bush does best . . .

and the media, of course, never calls him on it . . . because the five or so conglomerates that control 90% of the US media are firmly in the BushCo camp . . . and what gets reported is only what they want reported -- nothing more, nothing less -- and truth and accuracy are irrelevant . . . in other times, this was called propaganda . . .

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. The Prince must have called him up over night

and threatened not to come to Crawford for his annual frolic among the Bluebonnets this year.

[Sydnie]

11. they are just back to "clarifying" what he said

Remember, not so long ago, every time he spoke there would be someone out there within 24 hours to tell us what he really meant? I remember that very clearly.

It's pretty bad when you have to spin the spin, isn't it? :shrug:

[salinen]

12. Whew! That's a relief

Those humanitarians at Exxon-Mobil can start shopping for 16th century chateaux now.

[Tigress DEM]

13. Wamm, bamm, thank you Betsy.

Geeze, talk about pResidentile dysfunction.

Still, I think of every time he gets a photo op and how sad it is for anyone in that photo with him, because they are so screwed once he's gotten what he needs from them.

[highnooner]

15. Now, we know why....

He quickly bowed to pressure from Saudi Arabia.

The president's tone was so changed, in fact, that some analysts said he sounded like a Democrat. Dan W. Reicher, who served in the Energy Department during the Clinton administration, said Mr. Bush's ideas showed "an uncanny resemblance" to some Clinton efforts. :rofl:

<snip>

The administration's more immediate international brushfire after the president's address was Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil supplie. Analysts said they were startled that Mr. Bush had singled out the Middle East with implicit criticism, and on the very day that the Saudis provided important support for American interests at a meeting in Vienna of ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

At the meeting, Saudi Arabia blocked an effort by Venezuela and Iran to reduce the group's oil production.

In Washington, Prince Turki, the Saudi ambassador, said he was puzzled by Mr. Bush's words in the speech. He said he wanted to know if reducing American dependence on foreign oil also applied to other suppliers to the United States. "Is that a declaration that the U.S. is going to work to be independent of Canadian oil, Mexican oil and Venezuelan oil?" he asked, adding, "I see no threat from America from receiving its oil from the Middle East."

http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10004741.shtml

[BlueEyedSon]

16. I thought he meant ANNEX IRAQ so its oil would be domestic, and open ANWR