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POPSThe Democrats' Fairy Tale
And the improvements in Anbar could never have been sustained without aggressive American military efforts — efforts that were more effective in 2007 than they had been in 2006, due in part to the addition of the surge forces. Last year’s success, in Anbar and elsewhere, was made possible by confidence among Iraqis that U.S. troops would stay and help protect them, that the U.S. would not abandon them to their enemies. Because the U.S. sent more troops instead of withdrawing — because, in other words, President Bush won his battles in 2007 with the Democratic Congress — we have been able to turn around the situation in Iraq. And now Iraq’s Parliament has passed a de-Baathification law — one of the so-called benchmarks Congress established for political reconciliation. For much of 2007, Democrats were able to deprecate the military progress and political reconciliation taking place on the ground by harping on the failure of the Iraqi government to pass the benchmark legislation
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POPSWall Street Likes The Bailout Plus Drill, Drill, Drill But my thought is that a Senate victory might just blow Pelosi out of the water and open the floodgates to Democratic defections in the House. If a drilling bill ever passes Congress, oil prices will keep on plunging — perhaps all the way to $75 a barrel, which is the profitable break-even point for lifting the extra barrel of oil. That would drive the Dow to somewhere between 15,000 and 16,000, and it would have a huge tax-cut effect on the economy. And, of course, it could completely change the November election outlook in a highly favorable way for the GOP. The conventional wisdom says Republicans are gonna get clobbered again this fall. But drill, drill, drill would overturn that wisdom. More drilling today would have the potency of the Reagan tax cuts 28 years ago in the 1980 landslide race. But the GOP has got to make the case. And deregulating oil, which is great policy, would offset much of the bad policy pain coming out of the Fannie-Freddie housing bailout.
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POPSLawmakers Could Consider Gas Tax Hike Just three years ago, that trust fund enjoyed a surplus of $10 billion. Even without a tax freeze, the fund is projected to finish 2009 with a deficit of $3 billion. That that could grow as Americans drive less and buy less gas because of higher pump prices. The consequence is that only about $27 billion in federal money will be available next year to states and local governments for new infrastructure investment even though the current highway act calls for spending $41 billion a year. For many, the solution is to raise rather than suspend or cut federal fuel taxes, which haven't changed since 1993. The Transportation Construction Coalition, a group of industry companies and unions, said that if Congress does not do something about the shortfall, states will lose about one-third of their road and bridge money in the budget year starting Oct. 1. That would put 485,000 more jobs at risk.
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POPSPelosi: The Power Of One "In the House, the power rests in the speaker, the power of recognition, of setting the agenda. . . . Very different rules," Pelosi said. Acknowledging her ability to influence decision-making, Pelosi said in the CNN interview that she gets to operate differently than her Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Reid must reach out to Republicans to muster 60 votes — enough to stop a filibuster — to get anything done. It's an example of the vast power placed in the office of the speaker, who sets the agenda for the 435-member House. Members can force a vote if enough of them sign a petition, but that's a rarity because it requires rank-and-file Democrats to line up against their boss. In this case, Pelosi is going against a rising tide of public opinion. Faced with rapidly increasing gasoline prices, 73 percent of Americans now favor offshore drilling, according to a poll conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corp.
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POPSThe Group Of Eights' Empty Rhetoric With rising gas costs, Americans in a variety of polls have shown by a majority they now want to explore offshore drilling, so this move will be popular among that majority and John McCain has been pushing for it as well. Reported on June 26, 2008, the InsiderAdvantage/Poll, asks "Do you favor or oppose increased exploration and production of oil and natural gas off the coasts of Florida?” Favor (61%) Oppose (32%) No opinion (7%) Rasmussen- June 17, 2008: "67% Support Offshore Drilling, 64% Expect it Will Lower Prices." Zogby- June 26, 2008: "74 percent support offshore oil drilling in U.S."
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POPSNelson Rolihlahla Mandela Turns 90 Today Nelson Mandela spent 27 years as a political prisoner in South Africa before becoming the country's first black president. Mandela was a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC), which opposed South Africa's white minority government and its policy of racial separation, known as apartheid. The government outlawed the ANC in 1960. Mandela was captured and jailed in 1962, and in 1964 he was convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison. Instead of disappearing from view, Mandela became a prison-bound martyr and worldwide symbol of resistance to racism. South African President F.W. de Klerk finally lifted the ban on the ANC and released Mandela in 1990. Mandela used his stature to help dismantle apartheid and form a new multi-racial democracy, and he and de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Mandela was elected the country's president in 1994. He served until 1999, when he was succeeded by his deputy Thabo Mbeki.
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POPSEmail Congress: Help Us Lower Energy Prices! Some in Congress are offering a nonsensical energy policy that would do nothing to bring down the price of fuel. This week Congress will be taking up an anti-energy package that would actually do more to increase the price of gas by imposing restrictions on leases held by energy companies as well as on Alaskan oil exportation. This legislative package misses the mark for providing our country with real energy security and its misguided policy actually does more harm than good.
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POPSBravo For Bush And Bravo For The Traders Well, if Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That’s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime. The congressional ban on offshore drilling expires September 30, so that becomes a key date. A new report from Wall Street research house Sanford C. Bernstein says that California actually could start producing new oil within one year if the moratorium were lifted. The California oil is under shallow water and already has been explored. Drilling platforms have been in place since before the moratorium. They’re talking about 10 billion barrels worth off the coast of California. There’s also a “gang of 10” in the Senate, five Republicans and five Democrats, that is trying to work a compromise deal on lifting the moratorium. So it’s possible a lot of action on this front could occur much sooner than people seem to think. Deregulate, decontrol, and unleash the American energy industry.
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POPSMarkey (D-Mass) Global Warming Led To ‘Black Hawk Down’ Markey was speaking to 25 students from the World Wildlife Fund's Allianz Southeast Climate Witness Program. The students had come to the Capitol to brief members of Congress on the risks of global warming. The students were from the Gulf States. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, also equated the drive for global warming legislation with the drive for women’s suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “Yes, that part of the world is subject to drought at times, but it has very little to do with global warming,” said Ebell. (Myron Ebell, director of Energy and Global Warming Policy at CEI) “It is subject to drought whether the global average temperature is going up, down, or staying the same. To say you know the conflict was caused by global warming is to show how really ignorant you are of the scientific issues involved.”
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POPSFeckless To Reckless, Pelosi Should Resign But she's not fooling anyone. In playing politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the speaker has moved beyond the incompetence and irresponsibility that have characterized her leadership to date. President Bush, however, isn't about to be suckered into releasing the reserves just long enough for pump prices to fall by Election Day, thereby saving Democrats' skins so they can carry on their drill-nothingism for an additional two years. The president needs to do two things with Pelosi's proposal: First, tell her "no," unless she comes up with a plan to open up more drilling. Second, expose it for what it is — a bid to paint Bush as the problem to distract from her own sorry record. borders on recklessness, something we cannot tolerate in such dangerous times.
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POPSCongress Should Be Winding Fannie and Freddie Down receivership and restructure them. This could take place without Congress having to pass a resolution explicitly guaranteeing all $5 trillion of the GSEs’ liabilities. That dreaded scenario would double the size of the public debt and drive the dollar to new lows. This episode demonstrates how stupid and dangerous it is to allow any company to operate under the assumption that it keeps the profits while the taxpayers take the losses. For now, the U.S. has to make clear that it is standing behind Fannie and Freddie and will not allow them to fail. But to prevent an even worse catastrophe in the future, Fannie and Freddie should be broken up or dramatically downsized. It may sound strange for conservatives to back a government takeover of any company, but a takeover aimed at restructuring, downsizing, and eventually reprivatizating the GSEs might be the least bad option if a run on them actually materializes.
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POPSHolding Liberals Accountable For Energy Woes In essence, an artificial “monopoly” has been created among the member nations, whereby they can unilaterally determine what the rest of the world will pay for its energy needs. But for this monopoly to survive and thrive, it requires the defacto cooperation of all other parties involved. Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of this situation is that such “cooperation” is effectively coming from the Democrat controlled Congress of the United States. In a sinister sense, America is officially refusing to increase the world production of oil, thus strengthening the OPEC monopoly and its ability to deliberately inflate the price of crude oil. By stubbornly refusing any consideration of exploring, drilling, and thus expanding American oil production, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-CA) and Senate Majority Harry Reid (D.-NV) along with their Democrat political machine in Washington, are effectively forcing the entire American oil industry into the role of collaborating OPEC members.
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POPSReid: Spending Bills Will Likely Wait Until Bush Is Gone Reid’s statement, while not unexpected, adds a note of finality to speculation that the Senate would act on the 12 annual appropriation bills. He also said that he doesn’t expect Congress to return for a post-election, lame-duck session. Under that scenario, Congress would only be in session for another six weeks this year.
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POPSWind-Subsidy Land: T. Boone-Doggle's Plan Will Pickens' plan reduce our dependence on foreign oil? Doubtful. Even if the fleet of natural gas-powered vehicles is enlarged, the bulk of existing and new vehicles will continue to depend for the foreseeable future on gasoline. Americans currently own about 260 million vehicles, a total that grows by more than 3 million new vehicles every year. Turnover is low as about 60 percent are owned for more than seven years. But all is not well in Wind Subsidy-land. Since Congress didn't renew the wind subsidy as part of the 2007 energy bill, it will expire at the end of this year unless reauthorized. Subsidies are perhaps more important to the wind industry that wind itself. Without them, wind can't compete against fossil fuel-generated power. As pointed out by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (July 9), "In 1999, 2001 and 2003, when Congress temporarily killed the credits, the number of new turbines dropped dramatically."
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POPSThe 'Idle' Oil Field Fallacy or that there is not enough to justify the tremendous investment required to bring it to the surface – the company cuts its losses by moving on to more promising leases. Yet it continues to pay rent on the lease, atop a leasing bonus fee. Our companies have made tremendous strides in developing cutting-edge exploration technology. But they are not magicians. They cannot produce oil or natural gas where it does not exist. In reality, a lease is simply a block on a map, with no guarantee that it contains any resources. If all of them did, one could simply pay for the lease, haul in equipment and start pumping oil. But that only happens in fiction. Today's short-term need was yesterday's long-term opportunity. If Congress had acted on that opportunity years ago, America would not be in the energy bind it finds itself in today. Working with industry, Congress now has the opportunity to help secure America's energy future. It should not miss the chance again.
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POPSThe Fed And Investment Banks That is why large commercial banks, which have open account obligations to thousands of other banks, creditors and counterparties, can be said to be too big to fail. Applying the too-big-to-fail label to investment banks reflects a serious misunderstanding of how their business model differs from that of a commercial bank. In order to sign their agreement, the Fed and the SEC had to ignore a request by two powerful senators – Christopher Dodd and Richard Shelby, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate banking committee – who asked the two agencies in a letter last week to respect the prerogative of Congress to assign responsibilities to regulatory agencies. Instead, the two agencies have created a fait accompli that takes the question out of the hands of Congress. If Congress wants to have anything important to say about the regulation of the financial markets and the liabilities to be borne by the taxpayers, it should step in now to nullify this agreement or limit it
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POPSSenators Up For Re-election, Six Weeks To Campaign Senate agrees to Sept. 26 adjournment date As Election Day nears, however, it has become clear that Democratic leaders have little desire to keep their members away from the campaign trail during what some analysts predict could be a windfall election for their party. However, Democrats may have to sacrifice progress on various legislative priorities to give themselves a full six weeks to campaign.
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POPSVoters Give Congress Nine-Percent Approval Rating Last month, 11% of voters gave the legislature good or excellent ratings. Congress has not received higher than a 15% approval rating since the beginning of 2008. The percentage of Democrats who give Congress positive ratings fell from 17% last month to 13% this month. The number of Democrats who give Congress a poor rating remained unchanged. Among Republicans, 8% give Congress good or excellent ratings, up just a point from last month. Sixty-five percent (65%) of GOP voters say Congress is doing a poor job, down a single point from last month. Voters not affiliated with either party are the most critical of Congressional performance. Just 3% of those voters give Congress positive ratings, down from 6% last month. Sixty-three percent (63%) believe Congress is doing a poor job, up from 57% last month. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/congressional_performance/congressional_performance
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POPSJack Murtha Steps In It Again And, Murtha still has not apologized to the 7 innocent Haditha Marines he accused of cold-blooded murder last time. UPDATE: Murtha's opponent this year for Congress is Lt. Colonel William Russell a decorated combat veteran who has served in Desert Storm, the Iraq War, and the Pentagon on 9/11. You can donate to his campaign HERE. A WilleyBCoyote Video. Murtha Makes An Outrageous Allegation http://newsbusters.org/node/5410
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POPSAngelo Mozilo's Bedfellows For the sake of its shareholders and the taxpayers who are ultimately on the hook, Fannie should immediately launch an internal investigation into the terms offered to Countrywide, and exactly what role Messrs. Johnson and Raines played in the negotiation of these terms. Did these men exert any pressure on Fannie employees to do business with Countrywide? Congress also needs a full accounting of the contacts between Countrywide and the politicians receiving favors from the lender. Did Countrywide ask for and receive assistance from the Friends of Angelo? Meanwhile, until it is clear how much Countrywide will benefit from Senator Dodd's proposed $300 billion mortgage rescue – and exactly how Mr. Dodd came to do business with Countrywide – Congress should call a halt to legislating bailouts. Taxpayers deserve no less. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121357125417575867.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
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POPSBen Franklin Took The Parisian Salons By Storm Franklin's miracle was that, armed only with his canny personal charm and assisted by his international reputation as a scientist and philosopher, he was able to cajole a wary French government into lending the fledgling American nation an enormous fortune. Not only did Franklin help seal the French alliance with a formal treaty in 1778 and keep it alive throughout the war; he was instrumental, as well, in negotiating the peace with Britain. By the time Franklin sailed back to Philadelphia in 1785, he had proved himself "the most indispensable leader of the American Revolution next to George Washington," says Dull. The enduring image of Franklin in Paris tends to be that of a flirtatious old man, too busy visiting the city's fashionable salons to pursue affairs of state as rigorously as John Adams. The French consistently asked the Continental Congress to retain Franklin as America's chief spokesman.
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POPSPut A Stop To Cut-Rate Gas: International Monetary Fund Governments that try to create a false economy for oil are not revealing the truth to their people. About half of humanity, from India to Chile, now benefits from cut-rate petroleum prices. In 2008, these countries will account for all the growth in world oil demand, or an additional one million barrels a day, according to Deutsche Bank. Their consumption will be the highest in eight years. In China, oil demand is estimated to rise 5 to 10 percent this year, but the government has resisted calls to end price controls. A few other countries – Chile and South Korea – are now moving toward subsidies to appease political pressures. In Congress, bills to combat global warming would raise costs for oil users, even possibly adding a dollar to gasoline prices. But proposals by lawmakers to relieve those costs with subsidies to consumers would only defeat the purpose of reducing oil demand.
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POPSObama Pro Quo Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who also chairs a subcommittee that oversees taxation and IRS oversight, had to donate $10,700 in loan savings from Countrywide when his deal came to light. Obama's veep vetter James Johnson quit after his Countrywide arrangement became known. Yet another Democrat's sweetheart mortgage deal is exposed — and this time it's the party's standard bearer. What could Sen. Barack Obama do for a lender in exchange for more than $100,000? Plenty. If Obama is animated by high ideals for the future, why are we finding so many lowdown deals in his past?
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POPSHow George Washington's Savvy Won The Day Fighting force. Washington's vision was vindicated in the winter of 1776-77, as his Army, often working with militias, scored quick-hitting successes at Trenton, Princeton, and other parts of New Jersey. Washington even made the best of a painful setback after the British conquest of the nation's capital, Philadelphia. Settling in for a hard winter at Valley Forge, Pa., Washington built a distinctively American fighting force even while exercising political skills that allowed him to overcome insubordinate rivals in the Army and to mollify critics in the Continental Congress. Just as important, he had won the lasting support of America's civilian authorities, to whom he returned all power at war's end. Hearing of that gesture, Britain's King George III said that Washington would be the greatest man in history if it was true.
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POPSCongress Blinds The FBI These predictive models get better as the quality of the information going into them improves. As more terrorists are captured and interrogated, and their computers and data is translated, the predictions become more accurate. No one harasses researchers for using data mining, or makes fun of building supercomputers with graphics processors (often the same ones found in video game consoles, making super-fast computers cheap enough to be used in a combat zone to make life saving predictions), when it saves troops from getting killed. The FBI has been unable to make this point to Congress, mainly because some key legislators are ideologically opposed to data mining, and refuse to acknowledge the widespread success of the technique in civilians and military sectors.
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POPSOn Suing The Enemy “It bears repeating that our opinion does not address the content of the law that governs petitioners’ detention. That is a matter yet to be determined.” Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who is nothing if not plain-spoken, was his usual clear and precise self on this occasion, “The game of bait-and-switch that today’s opinion plays upon the Nation’s Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.” And not just Americans, if Mr. Justice Scalia proves as prescient as he is plain. Already prisoners at Guantanamo who have had to be released have returned to attacking American troops and/or civilian targets, and had to be recaptured. Having again entered the maw of the American judicial system, who knows if they will ever face justice? That question, too, remains Yet To Be Determined.
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POPSDemand The U.S. House Censure Rep. Delahunt NOW! Also, more action alerts include: Tell YOUR Rep. to Co-Sponsor the "Affordable Gas Price Act" As usual, the government doesn't have a solution to the problem -- the government IS the problem! House bill H.R. 2415, short-titled the "Affordable Gas Price Act," was introduced on May 21, 2007. The official title of the bill states its purpose: "To reduce the price of gasoline by allowing for offshore drilling, eliminating Federal obstacles to constructing refineries and providing incentives for investment in refineries, suspending Federal fuel taxes when gasoline prices reach a benchmark amount, and promoting free trade." So for over a year now, Congress has had available to them legislation that reduces gas prices by reforming government polices that artificially inflate the price of gas. And not one of them has even had the guts to sign on as a co-sponsor.
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POPSDelahunt Is Glad Addington Is Al-Qaida Target Congressman Delahunt's response was, "I'm glad they finally have a chance to see you." Mr. Delahunt now denies he meant what he said. But what he clearly said was "I'm glad they finally have a chance to see you." Al Qaeda now knows the face of one of the men who relentlessly pursues its henchmen and deals with their interrogations. Mr. Addington volunteered for public service, not a death sentence with Congressional encouragement. Delahunt is both a vile liar and a cowardly lion willing to roar down at Mr. Addington while encouraging terrorists to do his dirty work in a war he has been ineffective at stopping. Congressman Delahunt's email address is william.delahunt@mail.house.gov. Congressman Delahunt can be reached at 202-225-3111 and by fax at 202-225-5658 Or, you can ask Barack Obama yourself at (866) 675-2008 http://youtube.com/watch?v=AEDR7ghl7AU
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POPSFlorida Gov.Crist Calls For End To Feds Moratorium On Drilling Public opinion started to move in favor of oil drilling off Florida after Hurricane Jeanne in 2004 forced many Floridians to wait in long lines for gas, said David Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, a lobbying group. Jeanne and other powerful hurricanes that battered Florida in 2004 and 2005 left millions of Floridians struggling to fill their gas tanks because of a lack of electricity to pump the fuel and difficulties getting fresh supplies into Florida. A business group that supports oil drilling release a survey on Thursday saying 61 percent of Florida respondents support increased exploration and production of oil and natural gas off the Florida coasts. "Public opinion is supportive .... t's time to give it a try (drilling) and watch it very closely,'" Mica said. Environment Florida, an anti-drilling advocacy group, said it got an unprecedented response from supporters to a write-in campaign after Crist changed his position.
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POPS Dubai's Favorite Senators Senator Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) has been threatening to hold up appointments to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission until the CFTC increases regulation of oil trading. According to the Almanac of American Politics, "successfully worked the phones" in 2005 to round up enough colleagues to block drilling in the Alaskan wilderness. Her counterpart in the House is Michigan's Bart Stupak, who claims special credit for a permanent ban on drilling in the Great Lakes and has also cast votes against exploration in Alaska and off the California coast. Then there's New York Senator Chuck Schumer, another staunch opponent of new domestic oil supplies. Mr. Schumer has egged on the Federal Reserve's rate-cutting binge that has contributed so much to the oil price spike.
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POPSRights Commission Dismisses "Hate Speech" Complaint The ruling means the CHRC does not believe there is evidence to support a complaint that the Steyn article was "likely to expose" Muslims to hatred or contempt. Announcing the decision (the CHRC does not publicize dismissals of complaints), Maclean's said in a statement that it "is in keeping with our long-standing position that the article in question, "The Future Belongs to Islam," an excerpt from Mark Steyn's best-selling book America Alone, was a worthy piece of commentary on important geopolitical issues, entirely within the bounds of normal journalistic practice."
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POPSEthanol: The Fuel To Nowhere Farm belt support for reducing or eliminating the corn ethanol mandate was higher once respondents were informed that two studies, one from Princeton University and another from the University of Minnesota, found that ethanol contributes more greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than does conventional gasoline. It does so, in part, because it encourages the clearing of so-called carbon sinks, such as rain forests, which absorb carbon dioxide, to produce crops for ethanol production. "We shouldn't sacrifice food for fuel, nor should we sacrifice carbon sinks for fuel," said Ridenour. "Ethanol is costing us as taxpayers, it is costing us as consumers, and it is costing us important environmental resources while providing little-to-no benefit for most of us in return. Ethanol is the fuel to nowhere. Like the infamous 'bridge to nowhere' earmark, ethanol mandates mean we all pay enormous costs so a few can benefit."
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POPSStop The Pelosi Anti-Energy Package! The most common-sense energy solution in the short term is to increase domestic oil production in the United States by allowing more exploration and drilling. Currently, there is a Congressional moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) that has been in place for 27 years. This moratorium translates into roughly 85% of the OCS that Congress has declared off-limits for oil exploration and drilling. It simply does not make sense for the United States to allow its domestic oil resources to sit unused and depend on other nations in unstable regions of the world for its energy needs.
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POPSPyongyang Submits Nuclear Declaration The action, one step along the road to getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, comes after the U.S. and four other nations softened their demands on what North Korean leader Kim Jong Il had to declare, and waited an additional six months to see it. Those seeking a tougher stance on the hard-line regime, which has lied about its nuclear past before, are expected to view the latest declaration as part of a high-stakes diplomatic game. Others will label it a victory for the Bush administration, saying the declaration is a good step forward in getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
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POPSYou Can't Fool All of the People All of the Time Instead of Drill! Drill! Drill!, their motto could be: Kill! Kill! Kill! In response to skyrocketing gas prices, liberals say, practically in unison, "We can't drill our way out of this crisis." What does it mean? Finding more oil isn't going to increase the supply of oil? It is the typical Democratic strategy to babble meaningless slogans, as if they have a plan. Their plan is: the permanent twilight of the human race. Liberals complain that -- as Obama put it -- there's "no way that allowing offshore drilling would lower gas prices right now. At best you are looking at five years or more down the road."This is as opposed to airplanes that run on woodchips, which should be up and running any moment now. Clinton proposed a 26-cent tax on gas. John Kerry said it should be 50 cents. Gore endorsed the Malthusian proposal of Paul and Anne Ehrlich in "The Population Explosion" hat taxes gas gradually
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