One Day

After interviewing every investor in commodity futures today, the AP concluded:

Oil prices fell heavily on Monday, taking U.S. crude below $50 on speculation that a U.S. election win for Senator John Kerry could ease the geopolitical friction that helped fuel this year's record-breaking rally.

What a ridiculous statement! Perhaps crude oil futures came down in price because they were--what's the phrase--too high. Where in the world does the AP get off making a business story into a political statement? To conclude that speculators are betting on a Kerry win is just stupid. Perhaps if the reporter really believed this he could could sell oil futures and buy Bush election futures over a Tradesports and make riskless profit. Tradesports has Bush and Kerry at 55-45. If you had to put your own money on that conclusion, it doesn't sound so valid does it?

Base10 is just about fed up!

Must read column of the day is Brendan Miniter of the Opinion Journal. There's nothing more to say. This election is about confronting terrorism with democracy. It is possibly the most important election of our time.

On the lighter side, the Opinion Journal also has this: top ten reasons not to vote for Bush with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Terrific MTV interview with Kerry (via Drudge).

On catching OBL:

Yago: On Friday, the first tape in 35 months has come out from Osama bin Laden. He has been public enemy number one for the last three years. It is your first day in the White House. What do you do to catch him?

Kerry: Well, there are a lot of things I'm going to do long before day one to begin to lay the groundwork to run a more effective war on terror. We have to rebuild our intelligence structure and we have to have much better cooperation with other countries. That's the key to good intelligence, and that's the key to catching Osama bin Laden.

Wow. Why didn't Bush do any of these things? Base10 wonders why Kerry appeals to young voters when he talks to them like they're idiots. How about this concerning rapper Eminem:

Yago: Last time we talked, in March, you said that it's important to listen to hip-hop because it gives you a sense of what's going on in the street. Have you heard the new Eminem song that's been out?

Kerry: You know, I heard Eminem on "Saturday Night Live" last night. I heard the song that he did. I don't know if that's part of his new [album] or not. I liked it. But that's the only thing that I've heard in the last weeks. I'm on the trail. I'm campaigning every day.

Base10 can almost picture the bumper sticker: Violent Misoginistic Homophobes for Kerry.

Maybe there's two must reads today. In the WSJ, General Tommy Franks explains why Bush must be re-elected. It's a shame this is a subscriber site. People need to read this article.

The decision we make tomorrow will have a greater impact on the security of our country than any presidential election in my memory. America is at war on a scale unmatched in scope and importance since World War II. The threat today isn't monolithic like Hitler's Germany or Hirohito's Japan -- or bin Laden's al Qaeda of the '90s. But it's just as deadly, with diverse cells in 60 countries, linked by ideology and hatred. The war is global, complex and lethal, and the fundamental choice we must make is whether we fight that war offensively, by pursing the terrorists relentlessly around the world, or defensively, by waiting for them to strike again on American soil. There's no third choice. We cannot play for a tie. America did not create terrorism, terrorists did. And now we must wage war until we win -- no half measures, no equivocation, no "global test."

The general also weighs in on Tora Bora and al Qaqaa (and he seems pissed).

President Bush's leadership has come under attack by Sen. Kerry, who accuses the president of "incompetence" in pursuing the war on terror. With the release of the latest Osama bin Laden tape, Sen. Kerry has once again attempted to capitalize on Americans' most urgent security concerns. The notion that we "outsourced" our mission at Tora Bora is completely wrong. The Afghan forces at Tora Bora were working in concert with the best fighting forces America has to offer. In addition, the Afghan troops had a long history of opposing the Taliban and fighting for freedom in their own country.

This past week we also saw Sen. Kerry pounce on news stories about the Al Qaqaa facility in Iraq. Those stories first said 380 tons of high explosives were missing, presumed taken after our soldiers were on the scene. Now it turns out the story is more complicated. We don't know how many munitions were stored there when the war began. And we don't know when the munitions that are gone were taken. What we do know is that our forces have seized or destroyed more than 400,000 tons of munitions and explosives -- weapons that Saddam Hussein controlled. If Sen. Kerry's view had prevailed, we wouldn't be arguing about 380 tons of munitions; Saddam would still be in control of all 400,000 -- and potentially much more.

Base10 is getting his spleen worked up for tomorrow. See you at the races!
- posted by Base10 @ 2:29 PM