LALARRY

What Could Be More Pathetic ...

... than the politicans of both parties who have done jack about an energy policy for decades, scrambling to do something as people bitch about gas prices and proposing:

$100 tax rebate to consumers (repubs) -- at least make it a $100 tax credit for documented use of public transportation

and

"windfall profit tax and irs investigation" of oli cos. (dems).

In other words develop energy sources, invest in infrastructure, suffer losses in the periods when oil prices (set by the world mkt, not you), but pay extra taxes when you make more money.

Now THAT is guaranteed to encourage them to invest in alternative energy so that when they start to make money on that they get extra taxes slapped on them.

Brilliant, we are truly in bizarro world: let's start policies that will reduce supplies, increase demand and while we're at it do nothing among emissions.

And I love the American people: bitch, bitch, bitch and hold Oiliver Stonelike views of why gas is higher.

  And Chevy Tahoe sales are up 27%  (officially 15 mpg city/21 highway, although you know it will never get that) Over $80 to fill up at current prices

At least Tom Friedman in the NYT is talking some sense. The Economist magazine has been advocating this policy: higher gasoline taxes to drive people away from high gas consumption and use of the tax proceeds to pay down the deficit and fund alternative energy research.

It Only Took 6 Years and A 33% Approval Rating

Bush Backs Raising
Cars' Fuel-Economy Standards

By JOHN J. FIALKA and RUSSELL GOLD
April 28, 2006

Responding to public anger over gasoline prices, the White House and Senate Republican leaders backed new measures to shift the burden to car makers and oil companies.

Both President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist yesterday urged Congress to pave the way for higher passenger-car fuel-economy standards, a measure Detroit has long resisted. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said a rise would "save jobs, save lives and save fuel." Mr. Bush said during a visit to a Mississippi gasoline station that he would ask Congress for clearer authority to raise the levels, and Mr. Frist, as part of a new energy bill, offered to give it.

and not that this one is shameless pre election pandering but....(CNN)

from the guy that gave you the diagnosis of Terry Schiavo based on a 5 minute videotape (and unlike economics, that was his area of professional expertise):

Our plan would give taxpayers a hundred dollar gas tax holiday rebate check to help ease the pain that they're feeling at the pump," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced Thursday.

and of course the traditional Republican bashing of big business:

"It also includes strong federal anti-price gouging protection to protect consumers against anti-competitive behavior by oil companies or other suppliers of gasoline. Our free market system works, but it works best when there's full accountability and full transparency."

Frist said the rebates would go to single taxpayers making less than $125,000 per year, and couples making less than $150,000.

How about this....if you're going to give a $100 rebate, make it a dollar for dollar rebate for documented use of public transportation ?

Don't Bet on This One

Tony Snow to fellow Foxie on the guidelines for how he will handle the new job:

"you never shade the truth"

Isn't that the #1 job of the press secretary ?

If The Gas Price is Above $3 a Gallon You Know Its Time To Blame The Oil Companies and Gas Station Owners

Yes, politicians and media talking heads of the right and left are back to show their total ignorance of he most basic laws of economics. I particularly love O'reilly who thinks the oil companies shouldn't be allowed to make "so much money "( you know like someone that shoots his mouth of on TV shouldn't be allowed to make more than say $5 million a year and $40,000 for a 30 minute boilerplate speech).

And our fearless leader, you know, the one that declared in his January State of the Union Address that America is addicted to foreign oil and he was going to do something to change that....well I haven't seen much in the policy area. But the other day he said the administration will be looking into whether there are any "price gougers." and he sympathizes with people that have to pay higher gas prices.

It's all too ridiculous to respond to other than to say: don't like the price of gas? take the freakin' bus or train or carpool and complain to your freakin' politicians that haven't made mass transit available to you. Then trade in that massive SUV for something that's more fuel efficient. In other words don't like the price of gas ? look in the mirror !

And btw there is no wild profiteering or price gouging. It's called supply and demand and a market reacting to the possible cutting off of some of the supply (iran, nigeria and venezuela come to mind). And then there's that little (sic) matter of Chinese demand for oil, this chart from the NYT tells the tale: Chinese energy consumption has doubled in the last 5 years to 6 million barrels a day and is expected to rise another 50% in the next five years, while their domestic production will be essentially flat. US consumption is 20 million barrels a day.

Based on those numbers alone, even if you dropped econ 101 after the first hour of the first class you would know enough to figure out that without some big changes on the demand side, oil prices in the long term are going nowhere but up.

So as I have written several times before (this is not intended as investment advice or recommendation of any particular investment vehicle), you fight find it interesting to learn about exchange traded funds for oil, energy companies and oil services. And you may want to review your commuting habits and choice of vehicle.

Multiple Choice Test

Who said this:

"About 15 years before the Civil War, much of the American West was northern Mexico," . "The people who lived there weren't called Latinos or Hispanics. They were Mexican citizens, until all that land became part of the United States.

After that, many of them were treated as foreigners in their own land,"

A. Speaker at the 500,000 person rally against more stringent legislation against illegal immigrants.

B. Howard Dean

C.. George W. Bush in a 2000 campaign video

yes it's C

oh and as the LAT reports:

The video includes images that would probably rile those who today are calling for the most restrictive immigration laws. At one point, Bush is shown waving a Mexican flag. The footage was shot, Sosa said, during a Mexican Independence Day parade in San Antonio in 1998, when Bush was running for reelection as governor.

No Comment Necessary

From the Pew Research Center's most recent survey

Business as Usual Moment

CNN's Andrea Koppel reports: "The Dubai-based company at the center of a controversy over the management of six U.S. seaports has hired former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to lobby on its behalf against bipartisan criticism of the deal, a Dole aide said Wednesday.

"The 1996 Republican presidential candidate was "engaged" by Dubai Ports World shortly after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle began expressing their strong opposition to the deal, said Mike Galloway, an aide to the retired senator

npr reports former Senate Majority Leader Daschle (DEM) is an employee at the same law firm, Alston and Bird.

Michael Moore Moment

• Secy of Tresury Snow was head of CSX Corporation before joining the cabinet.
• One year after he left office CSX sold its port operations to Dubai Ports Company
• Snow headed the government committee that approved the Dubai Ports contract to manage US ports.

   

Dick Is A Man's Man...Just Ask Charles Krauthammer

from media matters:

On the February 14 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, nationally syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer said that Vice President Dick Cheney "did the manly thing" in withholding information from the public concerning his accidental shooting of lawyer Harry Whittington during a hunting excursion in Texas on February 11. Krauthammer said that, in withholding the information, Cheney had decided, "I'll take the heat, but I'm going to give my host and my friend, who just got shot, a half a day of reprieve." .

He's such a manly man that, after holing himself up for 4 days, he has decided to tell the public his version of events in a comfy chair with Brit Hume of Fox News getting the sole opportunity to lob questions at him. Think the questions in a full fledged press briefing might have been a little tougher ?

Sorry, my head is spinning

Who Was Dick Spending His Hunting Weekend With

Those around the VP are stating that he was on a private trip thus he left it to his host to disseminate information on his shooting trip.

His private trip was spent with:

Among the people with him at the Armstrong Ranch in South Texas was his host Katharine Armstrong, a lobbyist and longtime friend of Mr. Cheney. Her lobbying clients include several that do business with the federal government, though Ms. Armstrong said she did not believe that she had ever lobbied Mr. Cheney.

In an interview, Ms. Armstrong said that it did not occur to anyone in the hunting party to make news of the shooting public immediately, but that no one, including Mr. Cheney, had called for holding it back. She said Mr. Cheney participated in discussions on Sunday morning about disclosing the incident, agreeing that it should be made public but deferring to the Armstrong family on how to do so.

I guess he had a lot of trust in Mrs. Armstrong because of their long friendship. Now she would have never called on her friendship to help her in her career of course

According to Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog organization, Ms. Armstrong first registered as a lobbyist in 2003. She registered in 2004 as a lobbyist for Parsons, an engineering and construction firm that has done extensive work in Iraq, and listed the contract size at more than $100,000, according to lobbying records from the Texas Ethics Commission provided by Texans for Public Justice.

Ms. Armstrong's business partner, Karen Johnson, spent several years lobbying for Parsons, including procuring contracts with the State Department, the Department of Transportation and the United States Agency for International Development, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks federal lobbying. Ms. Johnson also lobbies for major corporations, including Lockheed Martin, and has been one of Mr. Bush's leading fund-raisers.

Ms. Armstrong has a relatively limited list of lobbying clients in Texas and in Washington. Public records show that she has worked for Baker Botts, the law firm; Prionics AG, a biotechnology company; Trajen, a firm that performs aviation technical support for the United States military; and the King Ranch, the property next to her family's ranch.

Records in Texas indicate that she has lobbied at the state level for three companies: Avex Group, the Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation and Ecocreto USA.

Ms. Armstrong played down her role as a lobbyist and suggested that she had not brought up business during Mr. Cheney's visit. She was appointed to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in 1999 by Mr. Bush, who was then the Texas governor.

"You need to understand that the Cheneys are our friends maybe for a couple of decades, maybe 30 years," Ms. Armstrong said, adding that she did not personally represent Parsons. "I represent a couple of Texas companies, not a large lobbying practice," she said.

Ms. Armstrong said she did more public relations and consulting work than lobbying, but she declined to disclose her clients. She said none were involved in Iraq "that I know of."

(NYT)

I found this on the Dannenbaum Engineering website:

    When the United States Department of Defense decided to upgrade U.S. military facilities and installations, they selected Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation as a design contractor. Our assignment called for a unique training ground for armor and cavalry divisions at Fort Bliss, Texas; Fort Pickett, Virginia; Fort Polk, Louisiana; and Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.

      These facilities represent automated combat ranges that simulate battle conditions. The Army sends its latest laser-equipped M-1 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, and cavalry divisions to the facilities for training and testing. In addition to the sophisticated facility itself, other projects at the sites included roads, parking areas, storage facilities, maintenance buildings, control towers, and mess facilities.

      In addition to military civil engineering assignments, we also have the capability to handle a variety of civil works projects for the Department of Defense.

so let's assume the unspecified civil works projects are not in Iraq. It would reasonable to conclude that the challenging assignment of building  a training facility for desert warfare would not have existed without a war in Iraq.