Here We Go Again with the UN

If you were here yesterday you’ll recall I spoke about the UN and a food shortage, and their response to it. In short, they begged for money and formed a comittee.

Well, now via Fox news, we’re hearing that despite their usual cries of poverty, they were sitting on at least $1.22 BUSD That’s over a Billion dollars, kids.

Just weeks before it announced the onset of a global food crisis and the urgent need for donors to provide at least $775 million in additional funding, the World Food Program was sitting on a cash and near-cash stockpile of more than $1.22 billion.

The startling figure is contained in the latest audited statements of the WFP, which were endorsed by the WFP’s executive director, Josette Sheeran, on March 31, just a month before Sheeran announced at an international aid conference on April 22 that a “silent tsunami” in rising food prices demanded the huge infusion of cash for the WFP’s latest budget.

This is why I ran the story in the first place, gang. When the UN starts screaming for money, I start wondering about ‘Oil For Food” and them still not having told us where all that money went.

Here again, the UN exposes itself as corrupted beyond repair. It’s time to call in an airstrike on Turtle Bay and start over.

Addendum: ( Davld L)

Welcome Real Clear Politics readers.

Same entry point, Bits makes his point and  I make mine.  Congressmen will never take action to lower the price of gasoline as long as the taxpayer is paying for their gasoline.   The Breck Girl is right.   There are two Americas.   We have the America which works, Bill Vlasic, New York Times

DETROIT — Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede.

In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.

And then we have the America which governs, WCBS-TV:

:NEW YORK (CBS) ? You may not realize it, but members of the House of Representatives can lease a car and have it paid for by you — the taxpayer. And it’s not just the car, but gas, registration, insurance … the works.

And as CBS 2 HD found out, there’s no limit on how much they can spend.

Congressman Charles Rangel was recently seen getting out of his Cadillac DeVille, which he leases for $774 per month.

I  too could drive a Cadillac, if you,  the taxpayer, were paying for it.    As long as Charlie, and his ilk,  is having you pay for his gas, he simply will not care how much is costs you.  Demand better.

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The New York Times, this morning, as well as Breitbart are pushing the line about how small car sales are through the roof.  But not really.

Bruce notes the Times link and says:

Apparently this qualifies as news.

Well, yeah, to the Times, and that should be your first clue, Bruce.  He makes the rather obvious predction (If the unpopular one among the left):

The dollar strengthens, the economy expands, gas prices drop and SUVs will again rule the roads.

I tell him in comments:

They still DO rule the roads, this nonsense not withstanding, Bruce.

Consider; the numbers I’m seeing, that all these breathless reports of small car sales are based on, suggest that only one unit in five is a small car. Drudge’s headlines confirm my read of the numbers, this morning.

Stampede to buy smaller cars; 1 in 5 sold now a compact…

Most are still either full sizers (including xovers), pickups or SUV’s. Sales of the latter are off, but sales of cars are off across the board, as they would be duing any economic slowdown.

It becomes clear to me that the purpose of the story is to encouage sales of smaller units. What basied press?

Don’t be fooled, people. They’re trying to create their own reality, here.

Politico’s Mike Allen:

The nation’s top Democrats are suddenly rushing to appear on the Fox News Channel, which they once had shunned as enemy territory as the nemesis of liberal bloggers.

The detente with Fox has provoked a backlash from progressive bloggers, who contend the party’s leaders are turning their backs on the base — and lending credibility and legitimacy to the network liberals love to hate â€” in a quest for a few swing votes.

In a span of eight days, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY.) and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean are all taking their seats with the network that calls itself “fair and balanced” but is widely viewed as skewing conservative.

The important part:

The Democratic leaders’ new openness to Fox reflects the liberal left’s diminishing power, at least at this point in the political cycle. Once feared by the Democratic candidates, these activists are now viewed at least in part as an impediment to winning the broad swatch of support needed to clinch the nomination.

Well, not only the nomination, but the general. the problem, of course is that the nutroots incorrectly believe themselves at the political center of America. A look at FNC’s ratings should put that into perspective. Despite years of calling for a boycott of Fox, the fact is that Fox still draws more viewers than any other cable news network. That trend is true even among Democrats as a subgroup, thus showing the importantcy of the nutroots, insofar as the majority of Americans are concerned. Arguably, it also shows how far out of touch the nutroots are with the majority of Americans.

The myth of the power of the Nutroots is broken.

Addendum:(Bit)

Sister Toldjah notes the same link and wonders:

Don’t these clueless wonders realize that in the end, the desire to appeal to every last voter you can trumps “principle”?

I think, Sis, you’ve answered your own question, when you put “principle” in quotes, frankly. THey never WERE rooted there, just in the power to dictate to others. This one demonstrates they’ve lost that ability.. and that the mythical power of the nutroots has been exposed as a myth. They may very well be the force behind the really whacko left, but nobody else.

Hume, last night:

There are strong indications that much the world may soon experience a decrease in surface temperatures. A report by German scientists in Thursday’s issue of the journal ‘Nature’ says shifting Atlantic Ocean currents will cool parts of North America and Europe over the next decade. The results are similar to those of a NASA study of Pacific Ocean currents released last month, and they mean that predicted increase in overall global temperature over the next decade may not happen.

So, does this cool any of the current alarm over concerning man-made global warming? Apparently not. Study co-author Noel Kennlyside says it’s a temporary reprieve adding, “We thought a lot about the way to present this because we don’t want it to be turned around in the wrong way. I hope it doesn’t become a message of Exxon Mobil and other skeptics.”

You can understand his position. After all, he’s trying to prevent losing his one source of power over the rest of us. Gotta keep the myth of global warming going in spite of any fact.

But look; We’ve been saying for years that the sun was the source of global temp variations.  Ask any HAM radio operator; Sunspot cycles tend to move in 11 year cycles. So how long is the cooling period supposed to last, again?  10 years, give or take, they’re saying. Gee… nothing to THAT link, is there?

And did you note the way Kennlyside worded his response?  If the truth leaks out about the myth of global warming, it’s all Exxon-Mobil, not science. But THe myth pushers are not trying to propagandize us, right?

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You can do it.  We can not help:

May 1 (Bloomberg) — Home Depot Inc., the world’s biggest home-improvement retailer, will eliminate 1,300 jobs, close 15 stores and scrap plans for 50 more as the U.S. housing slump cripples sales.

 Sixty-four more virgins needed:

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — U.S. missiles destroyed the house of the man identified by the U.S. military as the top al-Qaida commander in Somalia, killing him and 10 others Thursday in a pre-dawn attack that analysts warned could torpedo peace talks.

 Where is Gladys Kravitz when you really need her:

AMSTETTEN, Austria (AP) — Carefree children in alpine costumes danced around a maypole, and parents crowded a churchyard to snap photos of sons and daughters making their first communion.

But an unmistakable melancholy settled Thursday over this town where police say Josef Fritzl imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and fathered seven children with her in a windowless warren of soundproofed cellar rooms.

Mrs. Clinton mends fences, Herald-Tribute:

TEHRAN: Iran has lodged a formal protest at the United Nations about comments by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton that the United States would “totally obliterate” Iran if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Thursday.

So who well undo the damage to our foreign relations done by Mrs. Clinton?

Hey BO, Spike can do the right thing, Guardian (UK)

Director Spike Lee has waded into the ongoing controversy surrounding Jeremiah Wright, the Chicago pastor whose provocative statements have proved a thorn in the side of Democrat frontrunner Barack Obama. Lee advises the preacher to do the right thing and keep quiet. “The more he opens his mouth, the more damage he does,” he told the Guardian yesterday.

BO doing the right thing is easy, if you but have courage.

Putting moose ahead of people, KTVU:

[Mrs.] Pelosi rejected the idea of a gas tax holiday and Bush’s call for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

 She said there’s no energy scenario she can foresee that would convince her drilling in ANWR is a good idea. Instead, she wants Bush to stop fueling the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve and provide more incentives for renewable energy.

 She said the high gas prices present an “intolerable situation,” and that “it’s hard for President Bush to understand because he doesn’t identify with middle income people, or those who aspire to be middle income people.”

Alas if botox were but a petroleum by product.

See Cindy run, Luke Thomas, City Journal:

Peace Mom Cindy Sheehan filed papers Friday at the San Francisco Department of Elections formally declaring her intent to challenge Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the 8th Congressional District seat.

Sheehan, 50, is required to gather 10,198 signatures by August 28 for her name to appear on the November ballot as an independent candidate.

“I think even if you don’t agree with me and you’re not going to vote for me,” Sheehan told Fog City Journal, “it helps democracy to support as many candidates as possible to get on the ballot.”

Do the math: Shanelle Matthews, WeNews:

Less than 1 percent of the adult population is transgender, according to the Washington-based National Center for Transgender Equality, although there are no reliable statistics. Most transgender people face intense discrimination because their outward appearance is not consistent with gender stereotypes.

Common sense ( which rare in the media)( tells us that given a choice between making one person in a hundred uncmfortaable or making ninty-nine uncomfortable, it it better to cater to the ninety-nine and not the one.

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A Clive man drew gasps from fellow audience members at today’s presidential candidate forum by using a four-letter word in a question to Sen. John McCain.

A member of the audience, identified as Marty Parrish of Clive, asked McCain during the event at the Polk County Convention Complex about a rumor that McCain had once used a profane word referencing female genitalia to describe his wife.

A book, “The Real McCain” by Cliff Schecter, accuses McCain of using the word in an exchange with his wife, Cindy, in 1992.

So reports the DesMoines Register, this monring. They’ve got video, if you’re interested, though I’ve no idea why you would be.

Ya know, I’ve sat back and watched as Obama’s links to hard left socialists and black racists has been labeled ‘diversions’ by Obama supporters.  What do you want to bet that Obama supporters call this a very important question the press should have been asking, long ago?

Paul Duggan and Allison Klein, Washington Post

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, convicted last month of running a high-end prostitution service in Washington, hanged herself today in a shed outside her mother’s mobile home in Florida, officials said.

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• Sorry to see Billy isn’t feeling so well. It’s shameful I’ve not been to see a Coots gig, but our financial situation is getting a bit better, now,so perhaps I’ll get the time and the money this summer to run down there.
• And Billy; we agree. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that Democrats only start hollering about partisanship when they’re on the losing end. And the charge of ‘racism’ is a far easier charge to toss around when they’re in that situation, than is ‘partisan‘. Racism, you see, is the one charge in their lexicon that need not be actually proven, aside from that of causing global warming. It’s also a bigger hammer. But here again, we come to it; This entire deal about Obama vs Rodham, is racism vs sexism, which is in reality all this cycle’s Democrat primary was ever about. Democrats have gotten the support of both wings because the two ‘values’ have never been in a serious faceoff before. Well, they are now, and it’s costly for them, the wings are going their own separate ways…and amusing for me. And, I suspect, you.
• Oh, speaking of race, et al, I find it interesting, that one of the things that is starting to be talked about and openly reassessed as a result of this Democrat grudge match, is the burden of White Guilt. I can’t imagine that the race huxters are going to come out in a more powerful position as a result of any serious reexamination of this kind. And yes, the term Race Huxters, I dare ascribe to Obama.
• It strikes me that the Louis Renault act put on by Barrack Obama the other day has an awful lot of similarity to the theoretical event of Hillary Clinton suddenly fiing for a a divorce, because she’s shocked, just shocked, to fnd out Bill’s been fooling around on her. Both are believable only if you understand that each has been turning a blind eye to the faults of Bubba and Wright because of the political advantages of their respective relationships with each. Where would Hillary Clinton be, sans Bubba? Likely, she’d be working a small claims court in the southern district of Chicago. Where would Obama be without a history of skating around on Wright’s racially charged coat tails?  Likely, he’d still be helping the Chicago city council screw up the city. In each case, these people constituted a meal ticket. Now, once Wright became more of a liability than an advantage, he got his butt tossed under the bus. Which makes one wonder how long Bubba;’s going to remain married, doesn’t it?
• Read this and explain to me why we’re still dealing with the Chinese.
• McQ reports that one of the subject of a recent Project Hero post is going to be given a medal shortly.

HMM: “I think it is obvious that the superdelegates will pick Obama. They have their own self-interest to consider, not to mention the long-term interest of the party. The choice for Obama is clear  and it would be clear even if they knew Clinton would win and Obama will lose.”

So notes InstaGlenn.

He’s right of course, and taht means there’s going to be a split among Democrats come November, that will cripple their chances. For the first time in my lifetime black voters are waking up to the idea that democrats are not their freinds.

I’ll say this again, though; Assuming Obama gets pushed out of this nomination, particualrly if it’s obviously done in a back room somewhere, we’re going to have the big cities with race riots. That won’t help the democrats either, because they’ll get he blame for it.

Professional demagogues, that to say, politicians, say the disproportionate number of blacks involved in the criminal justice system shows that the system is racist.  That is, we only lock-up a disproportionately high number of blacks for crimes say murder because the system is racist.  Heather Mac Donald, City Journal, refutes the myths, lies and distortions:

Racial activists usually remain assiduously silent about that problem. But in 2005, the black homicide rate was over seven times higher than that of whites and Hispanics combined, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. From 1976 to 2005, blacks committed over 52 percent of all murders in America. In 2006, the black arrest rate for most crimes was two to nearly three times blacks’ representation in the population. Blacks constituted 39.3 percent of all violent-crime arrests, including 56.3 percent of all robbery and 34.5 percent of all aggravated-assault arrests, and 29.4 percent of all property-crime arrests.

Simply put, there are more blacks in jail, because blacks commit more crimes.  Do the crime, do the time.

It is hard to fathom from just where the rubble, the ilk of Al Sharpton, are coming.  The primary victims of black crime, are blacks.  Less law enforcement means more black crime victims, more dead blacks.

MANHATTAN, Kan. —(AP) CIA Director Michael Hayden said Wednesday that Iranian policy, at the highest government level, is to help kill Americans in Iraq, the boldest pronouncement of Iranian involvement by a U.S. official to date.

Hayden made the statement in response to a student question while delivering the Landon Lecture at Kansas State University.

“It is my opinion, it is the policy of the Iranian government, approved to highest level of that government, to facilitate the killing of Americans in Iraq,” Hayden said. “Just make sure there’s clarity on that.”

In recent weeks, U.S. officials have ratcheted up their complaints that Iran is increasing its efforts to supply weapons and training to militants in Iraq.

This of course should be news to… well… nobody. We’ve always known Iran was at or near the root of the problems. I said at the time of our original invasion of Iraq, that Iraq was a first logical step in eliminating Iran as a terrorism source, and that the latter would be impossible without the former.

I think I’ve just figured out why the world wide food crisis: The UN is working it.

Of course, they want not more food, but more money.

BERN, Switzerland — The U.N. will set up a top-level task force to tackle the global food crisis, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.

Ban, who will lead the task force, said he agreed with U.N. agency chiefs on a series of measures for the medium and long term, with the first priority meeting the $755 million shortfall in funding for the World Food Program.

“We anticipate that additional funding will be required,” he told reporters in the Swiss capital Bern where the U.N. agency chiefs have been meeting.

The UN, after all, is so adept at fixing problems. They’ve always managed to come through before. (/snark)
Why are we still attached to this farce in Turtle Bay?

It’s been a while since I’ve done any single issue Nightly Ramble. A couple months, I believe. This won’t be one of them, but… let’s try it this way, just once and see how the format works. A longer subject at the lead, followed by some shorter ones. I just want to see how this looks.

I noticed something a couple of days ago that I think labels the Democrat attitude on taxes very well indeed. Gasoline taxes.

* I note with interest the continuing argument between the presidential candidates, as regards the question of whether or not we should suspend the federal gasoline tax, for the duration of this high price period. The Democrats, of course, being a tax-and-spend types they are, are totally against the idea of giving the little guy a break on taxes, with prices being so high at the pump. Families are struggling to make it by to keep both gasoline and the tank and food on the table just now. The Democrats, the party of the little guy, supposedly, aren’t interested in giving said little guy a break. To her credit, while she didn’t come up with the idea herself, at least Hillary Clinton has visibly been open to the idea, though the truth of that little ploy is that she plans to tax the oil companies to make up the difference, (Calling it windfall profits) instead of encouraging them to use the money to find and drill more oil, which in reality is the only way to solve the issue.  It figures … a typical Clintonian move.  Claim you’re doing something for the little guy, while you’re reaching around for his wallet.  Where does she think those taxes on the oil companies are going to come from?

One of the stated objections I’ve seen floating around on the web the last 48 hours is that gas consumption will go up as prices drop.I’ll grant you that it might have a tendency to raise the amount of gasoline consumption some when the price goes down. However, since we are only talking about $.20 or so per gallon. I for one cannot imagine there being that great a difference in gasoline consumption on a price difference of that amount. I can’t help but think that that’s a rather fragile argument to be offering in support of a tax.

One of the other arguments I’ve seen floating about all of this, is the idea that those taxes are supposed to be used to maintain the roads. While that is technically true, let’s be honest enough to point out that those taxes a been used for everything but, particularly of that bridge up on 35W in Minneapolis is any indication.

Bruce McQuain notes that Robert Byrd calls such a tax relief plan dangerous. He notes correctly that what’s really dangerous in Byrd’s view is the idea of actually being able to step away from a tax and having the public noting that the government doesn’t fall in on itself under those conditions. I should also make note of the fact that Obama is basically echoing Robert Byrd.

(An aside; personally, I would be very happy if Obama was out of the running utterly for several reasons… one of them just now is the idea that there isn’t a speech to text program around that can properly handle his name!…. at least, not without screwing up other parts of the vocabulary on record. Sigh)

Let’s remember too that Mr. Obama has been running rather loudly on one of his first priorities been to rescind the Bush tax cuts, thereby creating the largest tax hike in history. this seems to me of a piece with his insistence that gasoline taxes not be cut just now.

I’ll also point out that similar proposals have been floated up here in the vampire state. The reactions are similar; The State Democrats are dead set against it, saying it’ll throw their budget out of whack. Of course the possibility of spending less on govenmental largess to people who never pay into the system, never enters their heads.  Like, it’s STARTED out of whack, which is exactly why the New York Budgets are famous for being months late, every stinking year.

If this affection for a tax-and-spend doesn’t label the Democrats as what they are, and cause some serious repercussions for them at the polls, I do not know what will.

Does it strike anybody is strange that we never hear any presidential candidate offer no new governmental program, no new level of tax-and-spend, no new 20 point plan, and no reaching into our pockets? Wherever such a candidate comes from, it clearly isn’t going to be coming from the Democrats anytime soon. Nor, alas, is it going to be coming from the Republicans in this cycle.

Speaking of which let’s deal with other matters.

• Yes, Patrick Hynes, I got your e-mail, and I know you’re sorry I feel that way. Sorry, though means it won’t happen again, and I have to tell you, the chances of McCain not pissing off the base again seem between rather slim and invisible to me.  Look around you, buddy, and you may notice that most of the people your guy, McCain, is claiming as friends are ready to take a bite out of his backside over this North Carolina ad thing. Michelle, Mary Kate, and any of a couple dozen major conservative voices screaming about this. I’m a fairly small timer, but I’ve been screaming about this one for days, now. My problem is this; McCain had a chance to some out swinging for the truth of the matter, and he backed down. I do not trust someone who places politics over truth. It’s that simple. Not many conservatives will, and that’s something you’re going to need to deal with.  Does McCain actually care about the base, past some manipulation to keep himself in the running? You’d not be able to convince us based on this move.  And yes, I know you’re reading here, just in case you thnk my trackers can’t follow this stuff and we can be ignored.
• Alex, do you really think John Cole lends any credibility to your argument? Trust me, he doesn’t. Your argument was lightweight enough as it was, it didn’t need the help.
• I make you a prediction should Obama ever attain the White House:. You may recall Jimmy Carter? I tell you now… Obama will make Carter look like a walk in the park.The blowback from the electorate will be commensurate with his performance. This has nothing to do with race, but with his marxist views, which seem to stand a fair chance of making it into his policy. Like Carter, the result will be landslides for Republicans for the next three cycles at least, I suspect that there will be those who will look askance at the candidacy of any black for quite a while by that same token. And that part’s sad, really. There’s a few blacks I’d like to see in that role. Doctor Sowell, for one. And yes, I know I’m opening myself up for charges that I’m racist, now. But look again, folks. I’m suggesting that an Obama Candidacy will not help the cause of advancing the plight of anyone at all, and blacks and other minorities particularly. A quick look at what happened under Carter, and what is happening under Crazy Uncle Hugo just now should be your clue on what I’m talking about.  Robert Mugabe. Everywhere socialism has been advanced under the guise of helping the Black population, the exact opposite has occurred. Those who don’t learn from history, are Democrats.
• I do wonder how many people are going to find Barrack Obama’s imitation of Claude Raines… “I am Shocked.. SHOCKED… to find that Reverend Wright is such a screaming racist” a credible one. Remember, these are people who would like very much for us to give Obama the benefit of the doubt… but frankly to do that I have to igniore all the evidence in front of me.  The people who want me to ignore this evdience were the very same, who as Boortz points out today, weren’t too interested in giving Fuzzy Zoeller the benefit of the doubt not long ago… or come to think of it, Trent Lott before that, and Thurmond before him… yet swallow the line of Robert Byrd that he’s no longer a racist.  The bottom line is that nothing that Wright said at the National Press Club the other day has revealed anything new. There is, therefore, only one believable reason for the change in the senator’s attitude toward Reverend Wright and that is that the senator finds himself in trouble.  He’s found himself in a position where he needs to toss someone under the bus. Since the guy he called his freind, his mentor, and his spiritual advisor stood between himself and political power, guess which he chose?  You take that as you will, but the way I get it figured there’s no way in the world that Obama could possibly have not known that Wright was the way he is.  He’s been preaching that nonsense for 20 years now, because that’s what he was taught to preach at the feet of one James Cone. If we are to take the Senator at his earlier word, we must accept the idea that he’s been sitting in the pews for the last 20 years, and enabling this racist, and believing what he says.  Frankly, that doesn’t strike me as an overly attractive presidential candidate.  Then again, I’m not a Marxist, either.  Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air raises the question as to whether or not Obama’s repudiation of Jeremiah Wright has lanced that particular boil.  Obviously my answer is no it has not. Even assuming that the act of his was credible to enough people to sway the electorate as a whole, there’s simply not enough time to make it work.  He’s got two more primaries, and he’s got to play to them within the next week, neither one of which he’s doing well in, and believe me when I tell you that numbers drop off a lot faster than they go up.  A fair enough example of numbers dropping rapidly via stupid actions on the part of the candidate would be Howard Dean, Mike Dukakis.  And yes, the aforementioned Jimmy Carter.
• I mentioned the other day about how Al Franken owes a lot in back taxes and in workers comp bills.  Apparently the Minneapolis Star Tribune has been doing some further research on the subject and they now say that he owes something on the order of $70,000 in back taxes in 17 states.  Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t strike me as overly attractive senatorial candidate.  Nor, frankly, does it strike me as even remotely credible when he talks about how we’re supposed to be spending tax dollars, when he refuses to contribute to the system. But then what do I know, he’s just a comedian, after all. Isn’t that what he’s been saying about Limbaugh? Now, you watch. Franken will claim it’s all just an accounting error, and unintentional. (Update: Confirmed. Apparently, Franken has his Willie Nelson imitation down pat. )
• Oh, speaking of Limbaugh… I can’t get a show at work, (Who designed this place to be RF tight?) but I did notice some chatter on the wires about how he had called an operational pollens in Operation Chaos. Frankly, I’m loving this stuff.  There is a reason that the foulmouthed, weak minded crowd over at air America doesn’t try this, They couldn’t alter the course of an election if they tried. Trust me, they’d ahve tried if they thought they could do it.  They simply don’t have the listenership. Well, perhaps that’s not fair.  Limbaugh after all isn’t altering the course of an election, he’s altering the course of a primary, which is a substantially different item.  It’s interesting, though, that so many that were waving the flag over open primaries, are now suddenly mute on the subject.  I will guarantee you that as a result of operation Chaos, there will be a great number of calls over the next four years for closing those primaries in the various states, and much in the way of legislation moving in that direction.  Laws, and ideas, are only valid in the eyes of the Democrat, when they help the Democrat party.

Hillary Clinton has now joined John McCain in proposing the most irresponsible policy idea of the year—an idea that actually could aid the terrorists. What’s worse, both of them know that suspending the federal gas tax this summer is a terrible pander, and yet they’re pushing it anyway for crass political advantage.

So moans Jonathan Alter, who never met a government giveaway he didn’t like, at least before now.

And what is his biggest objection? It’s not socialist enough.

It’s a direct transfer of money from motorists to oil companies, which are getting ready this week to again report record obscene profits

Profit, of course, is a dirty word. Yet, two points of the many Alter misses, are;

1: Where is the money for exploration of more oil, and other energy to come from, if not from their profits, Jon?

2: In terms of percentage, the oil companies are actually making a far smaller profit on their product than is just about any other company grouping in the world.

Would you like to try for the bonus round, Jon? It’s an extension on item 2, actually…

3: The refining companies make about three cents per gallon on the deal with John and Jane Motorist. What’s the government making?

According to CNN Money, Exxon total “profits” if you don’t count exploration costs, were $40BUSD, in 2007. Their taxes, however, were $100BUSD.

(Oh…Actualy, that’s only federal taxes and the pre-pump federal taxes, at that, since the states add more, but I digress)

The real story here is that the federal government is taking far more profit in taxes, than the oil folks… you remember them… they’re the ones who actually produce the stuff… are making. And that’s added to the end cost long before it gets to the pump, and is thereby hidden from the consumer. Now add the at the pump taxes which is the only part they’re planning on putting on hold, and you begin to see the reality of the situation. Taxes, and regulatory costs are in fact, already the lion’s share of energy costs, even assuming you’re talking just the federal government. Add the state government, whose tax take is usually even higher, and tell me again, who is making “obscene profits” off the sale of gasoline, Jon… the oil companies, or the government.

 And as far as the ‘pandering’ charge goes…. Lame, Jon, very lame.  Giving a break on taxes to Joe and Jane average, you call pandering. But government provided healthcare isn’t pandering? How’s THAT work, Jon?