Finally President Obama Utters That Freighted Oil-Drenched Word "SPECULATION"

At a press conference on March 6th when 'lo and behold,' while ruminating on the sky-high price of gasoline and the price of its core and price determinant raw material, crude oil, President Obama uttered that freighted word "speculation," as in:

So we're going to look at a whole range of measures -- including, by the way, making sure that my Attorney General is paying attention to potential speculation in the oil markets. I've asked him to reconstitute a task force that's examining that.

This surprising aside while sermonizing us with the usual exculpatory rhetoric emanating from the White House that "...what I've said about gas prices is that there is no silver bullet ..." to high, ever higher gasoline prices other than better mileage standards for new cars reaching 55 miles per gallon by 2025 and and 'we're going develop clean energy technologies that allow us to continue to use less oil.'

All well and good, but it is the aside referring to "speculation" that holds the most immediate promise. But then again, vesting Attorney General Eric Holder with that responsibility is perhaps not much better than letting the speculation-appeasing Commodity Futures Trading Commission check into the matter. Back in April 2011, Attorney General Holder was given the mandate to form the "The Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group." To date no report, no findings, no indictments and as far as the public can tell, no follow up.

If only President Obama would hoist the banner of that stalwart purveyor of bullets from our folk history and go after the oil boys and their speculator co-conspirators the way they went after the bad guys in 'his' day, "faster than a speeding bullet...."