Joe Conason has what is quite possibly the single dumbest "It’s all about OOOIILLLLL!" conspiracy tale ever, and that’s saying quite a lot.
Why is President Bush proposing an expedition to Mars? It’s all about OOOOIILLLLL!
Yes, the firm once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney — fabled beneficiary of no-bid multibillion-dollar military contracts and high-priced provider of Kuwaiti oil — is determined to drill on Mars and the moon. Surely this scheme has nothing to do with the Bush space initiative. But somehow, no matter what worthy motivations lie behind the president’s policies, he and Cheney always appear to be shilling for their corporate clientele. . . .
Dreams about drilling on Mars date back several years at least. In 1998, a handful of top firms, including Halliburton, Shell and Schlumberger, showed up for a NASA “workshop” at Los Alamos, N.M., to discuss the prospects. Research seems to have intensified since 2001, with Halliburton and other firms engaged in proprietary research on such advanced technologies as laser-powered drills.
I’m trying to figure out if Conason is being facetious or not. The fact that it’s hard to tell is in itself telling. I’d Fisk the article, but what’s the point? Besides, Instapundit’s already torn it to shreds.
This is what the left has been reduced to… and it isn’t pretty.
Um, there’s no oil on either the moon or Mars. This has to be a joke. Oil on the moon? Christ, where do these guys think oil comes from? Why do you think they call it “fossil fuels”?
Jay didn’t explored this possibility any longer as he was so proud to show how dumb the left is!!!
Jay didn’t explored this possibility any longer as he was so proud to show how dumb the left is!!!
The big difference between Conason’s “Bush wants Martian oil” and Reagan’s “trees cause more pollution than cars do” is that one of them was being serious.
Is that what the right had been reduced to in 1980…nominating a man with so little knowledge about the world that he thought trees were pollutants?
Well, now I look dumb, and your post looks dumber: Conason isn’t talking about OOOOOOILLLLLLL, as you seem to desperately wish he were. He’s talking about drilling for water, which is actually a necessary step of Mars exploration.
I’ll forgive you and Insty for screwing that part up, though–it took me a while to figure out that this wasn’t a joke about OOOOOOIIIIIIILLLLLLL, but a rather interesting piece on the joys of space exploration contracting.
I don’t know, I read the piece a couple of times, and he either was talking about oil, or wanted to make it looks very much like he was. Instapundit’s readers come to the same conclusion.
Either way Conason’s piece is just pathetic. If you were going to build a drill to drill core samples on another planet, and the world’s largest drilling company was a couple miles down the road wouldn’t you use their expertise?
Jeez, Jay, you can’t draw a line between Cheney’s firm being involved in discussions as to what technologies would be necessary for exploration of Mars, then Cheney’s administration announcing that those technologies will be used in upcoming missions to Mars? The implication is that Cheney had information during the Clinton years as to the direction of Mars exploration, then had his firm develop the necessary technologies, and now is helping them by prodding the administration to restart manned space exploration so that those technologies can be bought through substantial government contracts.
Personally, I don’t really care as much as Conason seems to. But it’s not oil drilling that he’s discussing, and just because you misunderstood that point doesn’t give you a pass to continue misrepresenting the piece. You should post an update with a suitable correction.
Two more days, and a correction to your erroneous post seems about as forthcoming as Osama bin Laden in chains.
There no correction because the context of the article makes it clear what Conason was talking about. Furthermore, even the insinuation you referred to is equally untrue, unless one is prone to see Halliburton/Cheney/The Trilateral Commission/Beta Reticulan Greys/Zombie Elvis/etc as behind every policy move.
As for putting OBL in chains, they’d have to be very small chains, as I don’t think we have chains currently capable of wrapping around a splatter on a cave wall.