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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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POPSNASA: 70% of climate change due to Pacific oscillations, not CO2 What this means is no matter how much you change your CO2 footprint, how much you try to be CO2 green, no matter how much liberal governments tax you - you cannot save the planet from its natural cycles. Say they reduced the CO2 25%. Say the CO2 is the driver for the remaining 30% of Global Warming (which it cannot be, but let’s just be only half as ridiculous as the IPCC), then all that effort would only impact 7.5% of the forces driving the global climate. The other 92.5% would roll on, impervious to the effort. And since CO2 is not 100% of the remaining 30% of the equation (more like 10%), a more realistic expectation is that all the suffering that would go into dropping CO2 levels by 25% would result in a less than 1% change in the forces driving our climate.
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POPSAre Facts Obsolete? Thomas Sowell now that he has gotten their votes in the Democratic primaries and needs the votes of others in the coming general election. The question of how to raise more revenue may be the economic issue but the political issue is whether socking it to “the rich” in the name of “fairness” gains more votes. What matters politically is the image of coming out on the side of “the people” against “the privileged.” When ABC's Charles Gibson reminded him of the well-documented fact that lower tax rates on capital gains had produced more actual revenue collected from that tax than the higher tax rates had, Obama was unmoved.
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POPSThe Global Warming Bubble Finally, there's the global-cooling spell. The world hasn't been warming since 1998, and an article in the journal Nature says warming won't pick up again until 2015. Since global warming is a long-term trend, a decade-long or more stall in temperatures doesn't mean much -- except that environmentalists have banked so much politically on whipping up hysteria based on imminent catastrophe. The stall in temperatures shows how little we know about global warming. No matter what the price of gas is, the most sensible policy in the U.S. is to avoid costly schemes to fight global warming. If our economy keeps growing, we will be better positioned -- richer, and more technologically proficient -- to help others mitigate its effects decades from now. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid huffs that global warming is "the most critical issue of our time." Really? More critical than energy prices? Than health care? Than wages? Than terrorism? Than nuclear proliferation?
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POPSVolcano Releases One Trillion Cow Farts Into Atmosphere
"It takes more than a volcano to stop our opposition to the threat presented by industrial production and free markets to the ideas of global government and central planning," said Mr. Pachauri. "If we don't act soon, my children may never be able to chair an intergovernmental panel, control the economy, and distribute production quotas. The hardest hit will be Third-World dictatorships that are contributing disproportionately more money to our members and their families.The stand against economic development and free enterprise has become an urgent global issue - a moral issue if you will - that affects the survival of all endangered intergovernmental agencies." A separate chapter calls for a volcano tax on the worst offenders starting with Chile - with a footnote explaining that if the Chileans hadn't disposed of the Marxist regime of Salvatore Allende in 1971, the whole issue could've been avoided because they wouldn't be anywhere near the list of developed nations today.
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POPSA Conservative Crisis Of Followership: David Frum
So, 2008 is not 1988. The problems are different and so must the solutions be. The Reagan themes do not carry the power they once did. The conservative voting majority is not a majority any more. To compete and win this year Republicans have to adapt and change, not revert and revive. The country has changed since 1988. Polls capture a shift to the left on economic issues. The once decisive tax issue has faded altogether, and no wonder: 80 per cent of Americans now pay more in payroll taxes than in federal income taxes. Americans care less about taxes than healthcare and fuel prices, issues where Republicans offer few solutions and speak with something less than passionate urgency. Americans are expressing a new pessimism about upward mobility and their children’s chances of leading a better life – an understandable reaction to the stagnation of median wages since 2000. Even on the signature issue of the war on terror, Americans are turning away from Republican ideas.
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POPSNo Gas Price Relief In Sight Global demand will continue to increase, not just through the summer, but forever. The only answer is to increase supply (domestically if we can't get it on the global market) while continuing investments in research and development and upgrades to our aging infrastructure.
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POPSThe Equal Rights Party It's been nearly 128 years, and still no woman has made it to the White House. No person of color has even made it to the Vice Presidency. Money is still a major obstacle for candidates. The private lives of public figures are still an issue. Victoria Woodhull and Frederick Douglass are two very key figures in our nation's history, sadly, not many people know about them. They are both very interesting people who lived extraordinary lives, click the links and read about them, I have included links for both.
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POPSPelosi To President Bush On Gas Prices
Your support is the more critical as your Administration has failed to persuade OPEC to increase their oil production, despite your influence with OPEC nations. The New Direction Congress is providing forward-looking leadership that will fuel America’s energy future, save Americans’ money, create good jobs, improve our national security, and preserve our planet for our children. This critical issue needs Presidential leadership and I urge you to please join us to address the skyrocketing price at the pump. best regards, NANCY PELOSI House GOP challenges Pelosi for gas price plan House Republican leaders on Tuesday challenged Nancy Pelosi to release a plan to lower gas prices that they say Democrats touted when they were in the minority. (Press release dated April 24, 2006, Pelosi said, “Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices.....) http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-gop-challenges-pelosi-for-gas-price-plan-2008-04-22.html
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POPSSubsidies And High Crop Prices
Dooley says the net impact is bad for the food producers he represents. "For most American farmers, they're producing commodities—they're seeing their best years ever. But for farmers that have to feed grains and corn to livestock, they're seeing very tough times.... The policy is having a significant adverse impact on a significant sector of our agriculture, while I admit it is helping some farmers." These higher costs are also seen in consumers' grocery bills, and that has made ethanol subsidies an issue in Washington. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York this month proposed legislation that would end the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff* as a way to stop a spike in milk prices. "There are a lot more milk consumers than ethanol producers in New York. He's hearing an earful from his constituents," Griswold says of Schumer. *The federal government gives preferential treatment to domestic, corn-based ethanol in the form of a 54-cent tax on imported Brazilian ethanol.
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POPSCitizen Petition To Stop Al Gore Tax & Climate Alarmism By my signature below I hereby join the growing number of scientists and informed citizens deeply concerned by the dire predictions and proposed solutions of Climate Alarmists. Fears that mankind has created a ‘planetary emergency’ are scientifically unfounded, and as such the doomsday predictions of Climate Alarmists are irresponsible and dangerous. Also, the solutions proposed by Climate Alarmists would have a harmful and possibly devastating impact on our economy, without any detectable climatic impact let alone benefit. http://www.grassfire.org/106/petition.asp?PID=16245502
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POPSTime Magazine Sells Out To Global Alarmists $1.2 Trillion Al Gore Tax coming before summer! Gore and the radical Climate Alarmists are using unfounded science and the willing spin of the media elites to push a massive, $1.2 Trillion Global Warming Tax. We have less than two months to stop the new tax. But the fact is, as this TIME article shows, the entire political, entertainment and media establishments are lining up to push this oppressive new Carbon Tax down our throats. answer your questions about global warming.
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POPSA Maverick Climate Policy
For example, in Phase I of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme, which started three years ago, a huge misallocation of emissions quotas led to a collapse in the price of carbon from $40 to 40 cents. At that price, there was no incentive to reduce emissions, which is why Phase I was an abject failure. Even a functioning cap could have only a limited effect on emissions. Energy-intensive industries would have every incentive to move their operations to countries without carbon controls, like China. As a result, McCain's plan would cause a net reduction not of greenhouse gas emissions, but of American jobs. The Arizona senator's plan might not shrink emissions, but it will surely grow government. (and raise billions of dollars) McCain does not offset this increase in government revenue with tax cuts elsewhere in the budget, so government would get bigger. He has said that he wants to promote "green jobs," and indeed he would be doing so, by adding green bureaucrats.
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POPSWhat's The Plan? I see many comments by Hillary, but no real plan, other than spend the money somewhere else! This does not solve the issue of our deflating dollar!
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POPSAre we Better Off Today Than 8 yrs. Ago FactCheck: Said--then denied--he needed economics education. Russert claimed that McCain had repeatedly said, "I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." McCain responded, "Actually, I don't know where you got that quote from. I'm very well-versed in economics."Russert's quote comes from a 2005 interview with the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 26, 2005: "I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." The Chicago Tribune quoted McCain talking to reporters on Dec. 18, 2007: "The issue of economics is something that I've really never understood as well as I should. I understand the basics, the fundamentals, the vision, all that kind of stuff." ...obviously!
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POPSSen Jim DeMint (R-SC) Introduces His Stop The Raid Amendment
Every year, Congress votes to raid the Social Security Fund. Some in Congress have made a living redistributing tax dollars from working families to special interests. They believe that your money is best spent on a rain forest project in Iowa or the Charlie Rangel Center for Public Service in Harlem. Instead of allowing private donations or investments to pay for such projects, some members of Congress have decided that you, the taxpayer, should foot the bill. The Senate will have its chance to do just that when Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduces his Stop the Raid amendment. Each Senator will have to take a stand on an important issue. By looking at how each Senator votes we will know who is serious about stopping the raid of the Social Security Trust Fund. Senator Barack Obama, for example, has floated the idea of increasing taxes to make up future shortfalls in the Social Security system. Meanwhile, he is only too happy to take earmarks that benefit him politically.
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POPSWhat a Novel Idea This, as I experienced for 20+ years, has come to fruition. Wow. Give the ladies and supporters a break. Then, maybe, retention might improve. I applaud this author.
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POPSCayman Islands Bank Gets Wikileaks Taken Offline in US The Julius Baer Bank, a Swiss bank with a division in the Cayman Islands, took issue with documents that were published on Wikileaks by an unidentified whistleblower, whom the bank claims is the former vice president of its Cayman Islands operation, Rudolf Elmer. The documents purport to provide evidence that the Cayman Islands bank helps customers hide assets and wash funds.
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POPSJapanese Whalers on the Ropes Financially continuing... "We must continuously hound them, we need to constantly nip on their heels and harass them, blockade them, worry them and annoy them," said Captain Paul Watson. "We will never rest, never retreat and never surrender to their illegal acts of cetacide. We intend to be in their face, up close and personal until we vanquish those vicious harpoons from the waters of the Southern Ocean forever. We will make whaling into the most expensive and embarrassing issue for Japan that we can." The Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin is presently heading south towards the coast of Antarctica in search of the Japanese whaling fleet in round two of Operation Migaloo. Once the fleet is located, the Steve Irwin will once again intervene and harass the Japanese whaling fleet with the objective of shutting down all whaling activity
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POPSReefer Madness Revisited Interesting progress made in the Medical marijuana laws. I stopped partaking years ago but support anyone who needs the magical herb to ease the pain of a disease AND for Sacramental purposes in spiritual pursuits.
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POPS Hillary Clinton's Massive Conflict Of Interest And it is for exactly this kind of situation that the Clintons should be required to divulge the extent of their involvement with foreign interests and exactly how much money their personal bank accounts and their Library/Foundation have received. Hillary and Bill have also refused to release their income tax returns, despite the fact that Bill willingly released his when he was running for president. Why hasn’t Barack Obama or John Edwards even mentioned this issue? Their attacks on Hillary’s links to lobbyists and other special interes ts are usually painted with a broad brush. But the journey of America’s banks abroad in search of a bailout makes this specific conflict a key question of policy and highly relevant to their campaigns. What better illustration could one have of Hillary’s conflicts of interest than this one?