Linda Chavez noted in that national column carried by major newspapers nationwide, that by 2042, the United States transforms from a majority nation to a minority dominated nation. She said, “Hispanics, Asians and blacks will outnumber whites by 32 million…but so what?”
Continue Reading Add comment September 4th, 2008
A question for today’s class: in the history of television advertising, has any private citizen ever ponyed up $50 million-plus for the greater good of the American people, with no strings attached?
The answer, of course, is no—not ever—maybe because it’s just not the American way. There’s always an angle to be had, most especially when we’re talking about oil.
This just in: as the chief bottle-washer at both a radio talk show and blog called “Con Games,” I consider it my particular duty in our unprecedented republic to keep a close eye out for the con, especially when it arrives right here in my adopted hometown of Aspen, where I keep my first, second, and third homes.
Thus T, Boone Pickens, the billionaire oil man who has now turned his attention to the Pickens Plan (pickensplan.com), an energy revamp that will accelerate our wing-flapping when it comes to wind—ramping it up to 20 percent or so starting with Sweetwater, Texas, and then points north—and cleverly deploying the freed-up capacity to replace imported oil with natural gas in the transportation sector. The goal, as he said in Aspen last week: to fix “our $700 billion problem”—the $700 billion in imported oil that we need per annum to keep the economy pumping like, well, like an oil well in Texas. The Pickens Plan includes spending $58 million of his own T. Boone coin on advertising to get the point across.
Continue Reading Add comment August 18th, 2008
Aspen, CO, August 11, 2008 –– The Aspen Institute will host a special event featuring T. Boone Pickens, chairman and CEO of BP Capital Management, on Friday, August 15, 2008. The event will take place at 2:30pm at the Paepcke Auditorium on the Institute's Aspen Meadows Campus. Tickets ($10) will go on sale beginning August 11th at the Wheeler Box Office.
T. Boone Pickens, founder and chairman of BP Capital Management, is principally responsible for the formulation of the energy futures investment strategy of the BP Capital Commodity Fund and the BP Capital Equity Fund. With more than $4 billion under management, BP Capital manages one of the nation’s most successful energy-oriented investment funds. Pickens frequently utilizes his wealth of experience in the oil and gas industry in the evaluation of potential equity investments and energy sector themes. He has not been shy in predicting oil and gas prices and — more often than not — has been uncannily accurate.
Continue Reading Add comment August 11th, 2008
If you think America suffers an energy crisis, you haven't seen anything yet. Shall we drill offshore? In Alaska? Should we continue with as John Denver sang, "More scars upon the land"? When will we pull our heads out of our proverbial armpits? Sooner rather later! As T. Boone Pickens said, “It's time to jump to solar and wind power!”
In this week’s dueling op-ed in U.S. News and World Report, Joseph Romm and Robinson West battled via words to catch readers' ears. Their theme: energy and our oil price crisis! Romm demanded an end to our oil addiction. West countered with a reality check: it ain't gonna' happen!
They're both encouraged to remember Einstein's prophetic words, "The problems in the world today are so enormous they cannot be solved with the level of thinking that created them."
Continue Reading Add comment July 18th, 2008
Thomas Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of The New York Times, was officially christened as king of the world over the weekend in Aspen—and why the hell not?
He wore the mantle lightly at the Aspen Ideas Festival, in part because he married into the gazillionaire Buxbaum family, who have so far given tens of millions of dollars to the town, with the latest dollop a $25 million downpayment for a spanky campus at the Aspen Music Festival and School. But Friedman’s wallop at the podium has all but nothing to do with Bucksbaum bucks, and everything to do with his prescient ability to package the zeitgeist with the tidiness of a juice box—the kind that comes with its own self-piercing straw.
Continue Reading 7 comments July 7th, 2008
The Con Man addresses a subject close to his heart--talk show hosts forced to eat their words--and then segues into free speech of all kinds. Also: can we drill our way out of the energy problem?
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Tuesday June 24, 2008.
Add comment June 25th, 2008
We all know the neoconservatives would stop at nothing—war, famine, pestilence—to have their way in the Middle East based on a philosophy resistant to any and all strains of common sense. Nuclear weapons are not only on the table: neocons are busy sharpening the silverware.
But conservatives remain hopelessly out to lunch when it comes to energy and the environment, shackled to the slavish and self-defeating notion that Ready, Drill, Aim represents a roadmap for the future. With an historical abhorrence of alternative energy—hydro, solar, and wind are for liberal windbags—conservatives of all kinds have been haplessly, helplessly, hopelessly looking for a way to at least appear as if they have a plan for energy sustenance wherein oil and natural gas are nothing more than side dishes.
Continue Reading Add comment June 16th, 2008
I cannot help noticing lately how the prices on gasoline are up (WAY up!) and the usual political election year rhetoric is again escalating on how the other side is responsible for what's going on, including more major Bush-bashing. I have never been a Bush fan, but it's just getting more and more ridiculous as time goes on to the point of being ad nauseum.
Continue Reading Add comment June 11th, 2008
Last week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a drought in California, “Water is like gold! We have to treat it like that.”
Jennifer Steinhauer, correspondent for the New York Times, said, “The drought declaration — the first for the state since 1991 — includes orders to transfer water from less dry areas to those that are dangerously dry. Mr. Schwarzenegger also said he would ask the federal government for aid to farmers and press water districts, cities and local water agencies to accelerate conservation. Drought conditions have hampered farming, increased water rates throughout California and created potentially dangerous conditions in areas prone to wildfires.
Continue Reading Add comment June 10th, 2008
The Con Man explores breaking news--the Senate's debate of a cap-and-trade carbon system, and the Bush Administration's decision to formally introduce a proposal to bring nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain. Finally, in the final half hour of the show, he interviews Dr. Larry McLeary, author of "The Brain Trust," about his upcoming appearance at the Aspen Center for Integral Health (ACIH).
Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Tuesday June 3, 2008.
Add comment June 3rd, 2008
