Gas Tax Post Mortem

The media is deciphering how the gas tax issue played to Obama's advantage. Popular theory - Obama benefited from having Clinton take the same position as McCain. Fair point. Of course, the media never bothered to point out that Obama was taking the same position as Bush. The gas tax was defined by the non-stop condemnation it took from the national media. Not a single economist supports this plan. Are these the same economists who say inflation is only 3%? Read more!

Matthews losing it again

Chris Matthews says last night's result in North Carolina shows that North Carolina is a "more forward looking state than Pennsylvania." This is utter rubbish if MSNBC's exit polls are to be believed. According to their exit polls, Obama got 91% of the African-American vote in North Carolina and 90% of the African-American vote in Pennsylvania. Obama received 37% of the white vote in both states. There was absolutely no difference between the two states in the white vote according to their exit polls. The difference in the result was that in North Carolina 34% of the voters were African-American versus 15% in Pennsylvania.

Matthews then gushed about North Carolina's universities explaining why North Carolina is so "forward looking." For the record, Matthews, one of the few counties Obama carried was Centre County - home to Penn State - in lilly-white central Pennsylvania.

Matthews is sadly little more than an old drunk's collection of anecdotes, prejudices and axes to grind. Read more!

Transformatives: Now on PPV

What exactly is it that Obama Nation loves so much about Obama? His fierce convictions that no one can identify, or his refusal to sink the old politics?

Sullivan cites a perceptive comment by Jennifer Rubin:

Second, Obama is a fast learner. His speech last night included a heavy dose of heartfelt appreciation for America, reverence for the land of opportunity and lots of empathy for working class voters. Like a vacuum cleaner, he is sucking up the Clintonian message to blue collar voters and absorbing the rhetoric which has successfully lured a coalition of working class whites, seniors and women. Don’t expect any more Snobgate slip-ups.

So the beauty of Obama is that he can talk just like the woman Obama Nation now hates? After all, she will say or do anything to be elected. What do you call transforming yourself into her? Is that what they mean by "transformative"? Read more!

Gary, Gary, Gary

The reports coming out of Lake County, Indiana sounded vaguely familiar. I remembered Hunter S. Thompson's account 36 years ago in the Ohio primary.

...All he needed to carry the state, now - along with the 38 convention delegates reserved for the statewide winner - was a half-respectable statewide showing from the twenty-first, the heatland of the black vote, a crowded urban fiefdom bossed by Congressman Louis Stokes.

Ten seconds after he picked up the phone Himmelman was screaming: "What? Jesus Christ! No! That can't be right!" (pause . . . ) Then: "Aw shit! That's impossible!"

He turned to Mankiewicz: "It's all over. Listen to this . . ." He turned back to the phone: "Give that to me again. . . okay, yeah, I'm ready." He waited until Mankiewicz got a pencil, then began reading the figures. A hundred and nine to one! A hundred and twenty seven to three! . . . Jesus!"

Manciewicz, flinched, then wrote down the numbers. Cadell slumped back in his chair and shook both fists at the ceiling. Himmelman kept croaking out the figures: a fantastic beating, ubelievable, the twenty-first district was a total wipeout.... "Say, how many votes do they have to count up there?"

"As many as they need," Mankiewicz muttered.

Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72, pages 189-190, Warner Books, 1973
Deja

Mayor Rudy Clay came to his headquarters in Gary Tuesday night with a list of voting results showing overwhelming margins for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton.
Many of the districts had Obama with triple digit totals and Clinton with totals in the single digits or teens. One district had a result of 126-4
Clay was one of only two Northwest Indiana mayors to endorse Obama.

Vu

With Hillary Clinton’s statewide lead under 40,000, the pending results from Lake County loom large.
While Clinton reportedly led voting in cities like Hammond, Whiting and East Chicago, Gary Mayor Rudy Clay is indicating a huge margin in favor of Obama in his city.
It’s very lopsided,” Clay said, pointing to a hand-written list of precinct results.
According to his numbers, in most districts Clinton’s turnout in the city of Gary was near non-existent. One precinct saw 126 voters turn out for Obama, while only four voted for Clinton.
Clay said the election is seeing a record turnout in the city.
“We’re used to having maybe a 22, 23 percent turnout for a primary. We’re seeing numbers as high as 85 to 95 percent,” Clay said. “The Gary people took care of business.”

Read more!

What would the story be?

If 91% of North Carolina whites voted for Hillary Clinton? Read more!

Carny Barker Matthews unrelentless

He's now on the Hillary GED comment into double figures and embarrassing anyone who gets within shouting distance of him.

He's also trying to discredit any Hillary victory in Indiana because of Rush's Operation Chaos despite the fact that when Obama was pulling Republicans and Independents, it was a sign of his electability. Of course, that was before the Rev. Wright. Now Independents and Republicans are a push.

As for the power of Rush Limbaugh, isn't John McCain the GOP nominee? Read more!

Meet the Walkens

A little comedy relief for a long night



"By the way, we finally saw the Deer Hunter. That movie was hilarious!" Read more!

Am I the only one who gives a fuck about the rules?

Chris Matthews and Eugene Robinson were on MSNBC pining for the rules. Matthews threw out his "Clintons want mulligans" line to self contented laughter. They then lit into this notion of allowing two of the biggest states in the nation to have some role in choosing a nominee because they dared to annoy New Hampshire. The conversation turned to them how the Clintons are totally indifferent to the rules. At the same time, Matthews kept chirping, how can anyone not give the nomination to the person with the most pledged delegates?

Well Chris, as you were saying about rules, the rules say that you need half of the delegates to receive the nomination. He then said that no one ever has half the delegates. Interesting trivia there but why bother Matthews with history. The superdelegates are free to cast their ballots however they want. Those are the rules. Remember the rules? Read more!

Hold the Pulitzer - New Vitale Book

ESPN's human bullhorn was at breakfast this morning on Siesta Key discussing his latest book, a retrospective on his career at ESPN and the Top 50 college players he has seen during that time. Promising to have all of the creativity of a Larry King's dot dot dot column, the book which could be finished by lunch presuming Vitale started it this morning has all of the complexity of a Page 2 column on espn.com. The book is particularly narcissistic since the book will only players during Vitale's tenure at ESPN.

Technically, I don't feel like I was eavesdropping since I was sitting in my car 20 feet away with the windows up. Seriously, five more feet and he would be in violation of Sarasota's new loud stereo law. That's a bit nitpicking but so close to the water, you have to be concerned about his voice's effect on the fertility of sea turtle eggs. Read more!

Ed Schultz is a Moron!

Why is this radio buffoon on national cable television? Now Schultz isn't alone in this sentiment, but he is the loudest. They are now attacking the gas tax holiday proposal because Bush will never sign the windfall tax on the oil companies.

Let me say this once.

SO WHAT!?!?!? MAKE HIM VETO IT. MAKE JOHN McCAIN GO TO THE SENATE AND VOTE AGAINST IT!!! AND THEN DESTROY THEM!!!

If Bush vetoes it, make everyone vote again to overturn it.

This is a classic case of the pollyannish Obama crusade. All of these leftists are counting on Obama to remake Washington. How? Is he going to smile at them and everyone's going to forget everything they have ever stood for and follow him.

There is one way to be bipartisan. Compromise. Negotiate and compromise. That's what Clinton did for six years and the leftists in the Democratic Party hated him for it.

Go back. Read the Constitution. Those are the rules of how you govern. Electing Obama is not going to change how a bill becomes a law. Read more!

Colbert Flashback

As always, brilliant.

Read more!

Whistling past the graveyard

Read a pro-Obama blog like Sullivan or the DailyKos, or even listen to Obama himself, mocking and ridiculing the discussion of "lapel pins" and "preachers." It's the same conversation Democrats always have when we're in the process of losing national elections. Read more!

New York Times Poll

The New York Times is featuring a bit of a dodgy survey. For a national survey, it's sample is painfully small - only 601 registered voters (671 overall) and 281 Democratic primary voters. The poll was also conducted on Thursday, Friday and Saturday which is prone to aberrant results due to weekend volatility.

Regardless, they decided to put it on the front page of the national paper so let's take a look. I found two series of questions particularly interesting.

46. If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, how much will the Reverend Wright issue matter to you in deciding who to vote for in November - a lot, some, not much or not at all?

47. What about most people you know? If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, how much will the Reverend Wright issue matter to them in deciding who to vote for in November - a lot, some, not much or not at all?

In the first question, 24% said that Wright would be a factor with 11% saying "a lot." This only drops to 23% among Democratic primary voters with 9% saying "a lot." Considering, he's not picking up voters from Obama, a quarter of the electorate is rather disturbing.

It gets worse. The Times poll does one thing right. They ask the question about your people you know. Because no one is a racist or thinks about these things racially, but your neighbor, your r co-worker, your cousin, well that's a different story. And the numbers tell that story.

When asked about your most people you know, 44% of all respondents and 41% of Democratic primary voters said that Wright would be a factor. So depending on how well people know their neighbors and how well they know or how much they want to tell the truth about themselves, a quarter to almost half of the electorate could be casting their vote in some part based on Rev. Wright.

Obama's numbers are holding up in the polling. That does not bode well, however. Polls don't pick Presidents and respondents know that. Read more!

The Malkinization of Andrew Sullivan

Back when Andrew Sullivan used the full portion of his brain, he would hand out Malkin Awards for offensively hyperbolized comments on the blogosphere. Sadly, his blog has become all Malkin, all the time. I wonder if he has any shame left. After this entry, the answer is sadly no.

A reader writes:

I have to share your Dissent of the Day's sentiment, though for different reasons. I'd given some thought to the possibility you propose, but then I began imagining the liberties our current Vice President has taken with regard to the powers of his office--terrible, and disturbing, precedents. I know you'd agree. I'm not and have never been among those spouting the she-had-Vince-Foster-murdered meme, but we've all been witnesses to the Clintons' hunger for power, their sense of entitlement--remember the "inevitability" meme? Why feed that by granting her the vice-presidency? To put her a step away from the Presidency, though it would certainly be a magnanimous gesture on Obama's part, would be, I fear, far too much temptation. She--both directly and through those closest to her--has shown herself to be far less magnanimous, especially toward those whom she feels "owe" her and her husband.
She's willing to be destructive in the quest for power;

Sullivan takes the cowardly route of letting another person make this horrible accusation, but he chooses to reprint an accusation that is to the point that Hillary Clinton is so evil that if she were Vice-President, she might plot to kill Obama evoking the memory of Vince Foster in the process.

Good Lord, Andrew. You have the audacity to any time Hillary does something conservative (forget your champagne flute clinking over your fellow Etonian conservative Boris the Lout) to compare her to Rove. Yet here you are not channeling the spirit of Rove but Dan Burton.

Pathetic. Truly pathetic.

One thing is obvious between this and Andrew's hysterical pre-war support for the war. Once Andrew commits his heart, he's absolutely useless. Read more!

The Saudi Arabia of Coal

Let's watch the green Obama-philes spin this: (NBC/Meet the Press)

You know, I've said the same thing about coal. I have a aggressive goal of reducing carbon emissions, and coal is a dirty fuel right now. But if we can figure out how to sequester carbon and burn clean coal, we're the Saudi Arabia of coal, and I don't think that we can dismiss out of hand the use of coal as part of our energy mix. Here is the beginning of my post.

Read more!

McCain to outsource VP?

Andrew Sullivan reports that Bobby Jindal might be on McCain's shortlist.

Louisana Governor Bobby Jindal addresses the National Press Club May 2, 2008 in Washington, DC. Political observers have been speculating about Jindal, the first Indian-American elected governor of Louisana, being a possible vice presidential running mate for GOP candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Jindal lead McCain on a tour of about a dozen blocks of the Lower Ninth Ward during a campaign stop in New Orleans last week. By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

Read more!

Obama's commitment to the Church

On NBC's Meet the Press with quizmaster Tim Russert, Obama stated repeatedly his "commitment" to Trinity Church. He said this in response to queries establishing his early recognition that Wright was a poisonous political force. While it is good that at least someone close to Obama recognized that Wright was political and socially toxic, the question has to be raised - If Obama is so committed to Trinity Church why did he not seek Wright's removal? Read more!

Steelers release KR Dorien Bryant

The details of this should be interesting, if not very disappointing.

The Steelers released their first rookie, one of their most promising undrafted players.

Dorien Bryant, a punt returner from Purdue, failed his physical. The Steelers likely will sign someone to replace him. They did not say why he failed.

Read more!

It's Official - Boris is Mayor

This does not bode well for moose and squirrel. And kudo's to Anna Prickard at the Guardian. Her liveblogging throughout the past twelve hours has been absolutely hilarious and addictive. She couldn't go home and I couldn't stop reading.

11.51pm. In the evening. Nearly midnight.

Full results. TOTAL FIRST PREFERENCE VOTES
BNP 69,710
UKIP 22,422
Sian Berry/Green 77,374
Christian Choice: 39,249
Left List: 16,796
BORIS JOHNSON/Con 1,043,761
KEN LIVINGSTONE/Labour 893,877
Winston McKenzie (ind): 5389
Matt O'Connor (English Democrats): 10,695
BRIAN PADDICK/libdem: 236,685

Because there was no one person with over 50% of the total vote, the two with the most (Ken and Bozza) went to second preference votes.

FINAL FINAL TOTAL:

Boris: 1,168,738
Ken: 1,028,966

So there we have it.

Boris Johnson is the next mayor of London.

He'd like to thank his wife, and his brilliant campaign team, and the many Conservative activists that made this all possible. He'd like to thank the police. He would like to tell Ken that he thinks he has been 'a very considerable public servant', and then says nice things about him. Ken smiles, stiffly.

He's Boris. And he's now your mayor, London. Enjoy.
The rest of us will sit here and watch.

And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Where's Katherine Harris when you need her?

I'm feeling better about our electoral system. It's now after 10 in Britain and they're still counting the votes in yesterday's election for mayor. This is just one city. And they only had 45% turnout and that was an almost 25% improvement over the last election. They're incompetent and apathetic. We are indeed two countries separated by a common language. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Clean-up Aisle 5

The DC Madame has committed suicide. Dan Burton must be relieved that Republicans not Bill Clinton were involved in this. Do you know how tough it would be simulate a hanging with a watermelon? Read more!

Suck it Cleveland! 30 Rock Line of the Night

"There was actually a tornado in Cleveland last week. Destroyed an entire city block. 3 bowling alleys, a liquor store, and the liquor store museum."

Runner-up:

"I'd rather work for an American car company than jump on that sinking ship." - Jack Donaghy on taking a job from his "friends in the Bush Administration."

We later learn - . "MSNBC has confirmed that former GE executive Jack Donaghy will be named by President Bush the new Homeland Security Director of Crisis and Weather Management." Read more!

Electability

Colbert and Carell's Even Stephven was easily the most reliably hilarious segment of The Daily Show. Carell is far out of Comedy Central's price range, so Colbert has downsized the debate by one. Once again, he is the men for the job.



The"If you think his preacher hates America, you should hear his Imam" line has to be a favorite to make one of the FoxNews funnies on either Hume's Friday show or Wallace's Sunday show? Read more!

Red Ken Death Watch

As of 5:00 GMT, the Guardian is reporting;

5pm: Five hours of waiting and the closest we've got to hard fact-based information is the fact that it was raining in London. May still be, I wouldn't know, but will keep you updated on the matter if the BBC political correspondents mention it.

They are warning that anything concrete could still be a few hours away.

There is nothing to confirm the rumour that Livingstone has spent the day on the phone with Robert Mugabe. Read more!

Beware of Environmental Overreach

Polling in Britain indicate strong opposition to increased taxes to combat global climate change. Government efforts to increase revenues in the form of environmental tariffs no doubt played a key role in Labour's humiliating third place finish in yesterday's council elections. Among the casualties appear to London's controversial Mayor Ken Livingstone, also known as Red Ken for his leftist bent and most recently his London Congestion Tax (see Top Gear clip earlier in the week).

Greedy governments and overeager greenies do a disservice to their cause to check corporate excess which is indeed an important one. The extreme environmentalist utopia of a pre-industrialized society is a farcical as it was when conservatives and agrarian socialists teetered on romantically about the loss of pastoral England and other rubbish. Likewise, energy companies and corporations have proven themselves time and time again willing to pollute our air and water until they choke they very life out of us. In case we have forgotten, China and India are there to remind us.

Is it too much for either side to approach us honestly and responsibly? Read more!

Car buyers take matters into their own hands

Detroit fiercely lobbied Congress to not impose stricter mileage standards on their fleets. However, consumers may not be as cooperative as Congress. In record numbers, they are turning to smaller, more fuel efficient cars and largely imports like the Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris. Stop me if this sounds familiar. Detroit put all of their hopes into continued SUV sales. The cheap to build, expensive to sell truck-based platforms brought in equally large profits. However, $3.50-$4.00 gas may have put these dinosaurs on the endangered species list. Where will that leave Detroit?

Detroit has access to quality small car designs which they offer in Europe where mileage standards are stricter, but they have been reluctant to bring these models to the states. Ford has been somewhat different. Their Focus has strong European bloodlines and is a domestic success.

With federal fuel-economy regulations increasing to 31.6 miles per gallon by 2015, car companies have another incentive to speed development of smaller vehicles.

If Detroit expects to remain competitive, they will need to hit those fuel numbers much sooner. Read more!

Rangers into the UEFA Finals (0-0) (4-2 pens)

After a frustrating two hours of football in Florence's Stadio Artemio Franchi, Nacho Novo buried his penalty past Sebestien Frey to finally defeat Fiorentina. Walter Smith refused to commit to an attack with only one striker on the pitch throughout most of the match and Rangers were plagued by Belgian referee Frank De Bleeckere who was content to reward the Italians for their incessant enhancement while ignoring their repeated cheap shots. All four yellows and one red went against the tourists.

Fiorentina brought Vieri off the bench at 79th minute. Smith countered with Novo at 81. Novo was the only sign of a Rangers attack while Vieri failed to convert on several opportunities. Novo's coupling with Rangers' solitary striker was negated when Daniel Cousins saw red for a second yellow in the second half of extra time after being provoked by Fiorentina captain Liverani.

After 210 minutes of goalless footy, prospects for that to change looked good but bleak for Rangers. Sebastien Frey is France's future keeper while Neil Alexander isn't even Walter Smith's first choice. It showed on the first volley, Frey made a smart save on Barry Ferguson while Alexander was unable to stop Kuzmanovic despite guessing right. Whittaker buried his shot to get Rangers on the scoreboard, but Montivello made Alexander look silly putting Rangers down 1-2. Bleak just became bleaker. Walter isn't taking chances on any more islanders. Papac levels and then hope! Alexander blocks Liverani. Hemdani puts his shot into the back of the net. Up comes Vieri who puts the ball over the crossbar. The Old Man has Failed! Exultation as Ranger fans across the world exhale two quiet syllables. No-Vo. Up comes the Spaniards and Rangers are going to to Manchester! Read more!

Walter Smith is God!

This should have been obvious after what Walter Smith did with the Scottish national team. Smith inherited a shell of a team ater disastrous reign of Bernie Vogt, the least popular German to land in Scotland since Hess. Smith instantly restored respectability to close out the World Cup qualifiers. He then nearly took the team through a true "Group of Death" in the European qualifiers going up against the likes of Italy, France, Ukraine, and Georgia.

Scotland was leading the group when Walter Smith took on another rescue operation. This time it was his old club Rangers who were in chaos after the Paul LeGuen era. In PLG's first year, Hearts broke through the Old Firms lock on Scotland's two Champions League slots finishing third in the SPL. Midseason into his second year, it looked no better and Sir David Murray pulled the plug and called in Walter Smith. Smith rallied the team to a second place finish in the SPL. So far this year, Smith has won the CIS Cup, is in the finals for the Scottish Cup and is currently within 5 points of winning the SPL with three games in hand.

But Smith's greatest creation has been Rangers' European saga. He deftly led Rangers through the group stage and into seeming disaster being drawn against three league champions - Lyon, Barcelona, and Stuttgart. Off the mark, Rangers beat Lyon in France, Stuttgart in Glasgow and drew Barcelona in Glasgow. The gas ran out against Lyon at Ibrox and Rangers sputtered to a third place finish. Still this was good enough to land Rangers into the UEFA Cup group stage.

Rangers started of by knocking out Panathinaikos on away goals. Werder Bremen, Sporting Lisbon fell in succession and today Rangers took down Fiorentina in penalties. They will play Zenit St. Petersburg in the finals at City of Manchester Stadium in Manchester, England. Only a fool would underestimate Zenit after they thoroughly took apart Bayern Munich earlier today, but only a fool would underestimate Walter Smith. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Congratulations to Andrew Sullivan

The Telegraph has rated him as the 17th most influential pundit in the United States. Of course, he's six behind Steven Colbert at 11 who is playing a character. And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Roethlisberger gives cold shoulder to new weapons

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger did not show the joy one would expect from a quarterback who had just been given the second highest ranked running back in the draft and one of the highest rated wide receivers - a receiver who meets specifically the criteria that he was on record requesting earlier in the spring.

As leader of the team, Big Ben has an obligation to respect those around him and he has played this game very well in the past to the point of praising the offensive line's objectively abysmal performance. In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Roethlisberger spoke of the people on he team already and how the new guys would have to find ways to fit into the team.

"We have guys. It's not like we don't have a running back. We have a couple great ones. Same with wide receiver. We got guys. There's no real rush to push anybody into a starting spot.

"If they develop into it, I guess they develop into it. We've seen it too many times on any team with any player in the league -- anybody can be good, anybody can be bad...."

"I've got my guys out there. I've got my receivers who I've been working with, Limas will have to work his way in. For the first day or so [of minicamp] I won't be throwing too many passes to him unless they work him with the first group."

I believe this will be correctly read as Ben being diplomatic towards the team's veteran although it will be interesting to see if the new players take it that way. Ben was less diplomatic discussing receiver earlier this year.

"I'm always going to ask for a tall receiver," Roethlisberger said. "That's just me. Our receivers are unbelievable, but our tallest guy might be Hines? Or Santonio? Hines is going to say he's 6 foot, but he's 5-11, now."

"It's nice to have a bailout guy, you know when you're in trouble and you just kind of throw it up. In the red zone its nice to have a guy like that. Obviously, we have a guy like Nate who can jump out of this world. He can jump so high. It's nice to have that.

"But to have a big guy who can create mismatches -- the same thing happened when Plax was here. So much presence went to Plax's side just because he's a big, good receiver, that Hines was always open or Antwaan [Randle El]. I just think it would open stuff up for us a lot more."

Pro Bowl wide receiver and all-time Steeler reception leader Hines Ward came under fire two years ago when he was allegedly unwilling to take first round draft pick wide receiver Santonio Holmes under his wing for saying,""Somebody who wants help, I'll try and help him." This blew up on talk radio and the internet with Ward being depicted as arrogantly making Holmes come to him for help.

This was despite reports that Ward was working with Holmes extensively after practice.

Holmes, though, has been getting some good tutelage. Ward stays after practice almost every day and works with the rookie receiver, sometimes pretending to a defensive back and showing Holmes how to use his arms to protect the ball. After meetings, Ward will go over the playbook with Holmes.

It will be interesting to see how much of a tempest blows up from this. It's not likely there would have been much as Ben hasn't the enemies that Hines Ward has in the talk radio community. Still, he's very fortunate the Penguins are one game away from a second consecutive sweep and advancing to the Eastern Conference finals and are sucking all of the oxygen out of the tent. Read more!

Pump up the Volume

The Washington Post points to a "slew of economists" critical of the Clinton and McCain proposals to impose a gas tax holiday throughout the summer

However, the economist can't seem to agree on the why. Some claim that the gas tax suspension does little to change the bottom line while others say that increasing demand we drive prices higher and worsen global warming. 

Obama belittles the savings as only  "30 cents a day, which is less than you can buy a cup of coffee for at 7-Eleven." Or in Obama's case, you would need to save for over two weeks to afford just one venti latte.

Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw:

"What you learn in Economics 101 is that if producers can't produce much more, when you cut the tax on that good the tax is kept . . . by the suppliers and is not passed on to consumers," he said.

The Brooking Institution's Leonard Burman:

"Every summer, the refiners are running full out. If the price fell, people would want to drive more and there would be shortages," he said. "It's a basic economic principle that if the supply is fixed, the price is going to be determined by demand."

House Whip Steny Hoyer:

"The oil companies would just raise their prices."

The non-attributed economists, according to The Post:

They argue that cutting the tax would drive up demand for gas at a time when the supply is tight, which would mean that the price at the pump would drop by much less than 18 cents per gallon.

Here's the problem. Mankiw, Burman, and Hoyer have all said there will not be any savings either due to corporate greed or natural economic forces. Where is the increased demand coming from then? You simply cannot say there will be increased demand without recognizing a drop in prices.

The core of their argument and seemingly Obama's is that higher gas prices are good. Now that's as bad politics as Clinton's argument is good politics. 

However, Obama isn't to be left behind in the pander derby.

Obama is proposing to reduce the cost of driving by suspending purchases for the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

This would lower the cost of gas by increasing the supply of oil. But wait? Wouldn't lowering gas prices increase the demand just like removing the sales tax? Wouldn't that in turn put more co2 into the atmosphere. Wouldn't it also jeopardize oil stocks if needed in the future? This is not pandering?

Obama is also a firm supporter of ethanol which is popular in the midwest but has been driving up food costs as more land is dedicated to ethanol production than food production. So with ethanol we continue to see high fuel prices and high food prices.

Read more!

Things are tough all over

Exxon/Mobil is declaring only a $10.9 billion dollar profit. Let's all take a moment to reflect on their suffering.

Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that its first-quarter net income rose 17 percent, boosted by surging oil prices.

But even as it posted the second-most profitable quarter in its history, Exxon’s earnings managed to disappoint investors because of a drop in oil production. Shares were down more than 3 percent Thursday after the company missed earnings estimates by a dime a share.

Read more!

The Horrors of Nipple Chafing

This first came to the world's attention when it struck Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) in the first Michael Scott's Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrities Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run For the Cure. Andy is in yellow with the telltale nipple bleeding.


Now it is affecting celebrities such as Amy Smart seen here filming Crank 2, a new film with Jeremy Stratham. Thanks to London's The Sun. Read more!