The Clinton pander machine

My (Oregon) ballot is sitting on the counter -- unopened. I have until May 20 to get it in. I was wobbling back and forth between Clinton and Obama. This latest pander is probably going to push me firmly to his side.

Thanx for the video clip. Haven't heard the song for almost 40 years, but the words came back to me.

Mark Udall, "We do need to provide immediate relief for families hard-hit by spiraling gas prices, and we can do that by demanding the President stop adding to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This will ease the production crunch that is causing these skyrocketing gas prices..."

Oh, I do love when politicians act like politicians as opposed to PR Spinners -- onya Mr Udall for pointing out other factors at play in the issue of rising gas prices pushing the cost of living up and really hurting working families...

so what are talking about here on Mr. Udall's suggestion, 1/2 cent a gallon or less?

We also need the fed to stop making dollars worth less than toilet paper, but don't look for that any time soon. The less a dollar is worth, the more oil costs. And the more oil companies can jack up the prices at the pumps and drag in those $19+ Billion profits.

so G I need to get this straight; dollars are worth less than toilet paper, yet you begrudge the oil companies for making 19 billion of those worth less than toilet paper dollars.

Actually, if you go back this is a repeat in history. When the UK and US canceled the treat of Bretton woods is when the Arabs got really pissed. They had been for a long time getting gold for their oil if presenting silver or gold certificates and that hadda go. They were emptying out the UK and US gold supply. Some of you might remember that there was a bunch of assertions that there was no gold in Ft. Knox after this.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/bwi-wto/2001/braithwa.htm

The US running deficits allows for the world to achieve moderate stability because it is all based on OUR stability. Hence the reason things have been so unstable as the Fed tried to raise interest rates for the year leading up to the housing debacle. Its not the FRB's fault that people just cant read and write any longer and God forbid that they would think that they were in the right when they took ARM loans.

But why are we here? Take the price of oil right now, the dollar is about 48 cents of what it used to be. So if we can even get it up to 60 or 70 cents, the price of oil as G sets out would fall and hard. Me, I think we ought to raise the price on food that is EXPORTED. That would let the Middle East know we mean business. Indiana, Illinois, Iowa....How about a food embargo? Food doesnt get on the boat unless the oil arrives at a lower price. We have never used food as a weapon, it might be getting down to that now.

But here is my rub with what G. wrote. Since when is it illegal to make money in the US? They tax it as windfall profits and then what? You and I never see any of that money...ever. It doesnt drop our taxes but it gives the tax and spenders the reason to raise our taxes when the oil companies (and any other industry) dont do so hot and they got a mandated program they have to fund.

Hillary talking about just "taking" the oil companies money is pure horsecrap. Do you think that they would stop at the oil people? Not going to happen. This is pure rhetorical pandering. Obama is no different. His usual line? Its time we made a change...without specifying what that change is. Taxing an oil company is like taxing yourself as they'll happily turn that around and pass that on to you and me.

Pandering is open warfare political payoffs and anyone with a third grade educaton can figure it out. I would just tell Hillary to shut up and Obama to get to his "big idea" out so we can take it apart and dissect it.

But, Obama to his credit is right about one thing.... We are going to see a savings for four months if we take the federal out of it of about 72 bucks across the summer per vehicle if you fill it up once a week. 16 weeks x .18 fedtax x 25 gallon tank.

I have a much better idea... Make the current Bushy tax cuts permanent and get rid of the AMT. I have said it before... You cannot have high taxes and high interest rates at the same time else you kill your economy. So thats the reason G. that we have to ride this out for a bit. Supply and demand, basic economics.

Allow the truckers that deliver our food and necessary basics the tax cut, federal and state.

MRK, it's really NOT supply and demand, It's Demand and Supply.

Same tax rate Lea. Not a big difference after all things are considered. Those federal taxes were supposed to produce new energy sources via the Energy Dept. I have been waiting for 30 years now for that energy to show up. All I have ever seen is a burgeoning bureaucracy with nothing productive. It so far hasnt produced anything except regulations.

Supply and demand is how you look at it. Or as my aviation economics professor in avecon 404 put it. Need gravitates towards supply, supply gravitates towards need. If either goes inverse you have either prices falling or prices rising.

The classic case of the chicken before the egg. We didnt have a need for gasoline until we built the engines. So now the we and the engines have a need for gasoline. Hydrogen wont do it for right now, cant pack enough power into it. But it sure could assist as a hybrid. Does 72 bucks flip my skirt? No. It wouldnt be that much either for a trucker. We dont need a 1974 tax to cut demand for foreign fuel. We should just let it free float and keep the politics out of it. They put it in and it absolutely flattened the economy of the US and loads of people went out of work. I do so like HR Clintons plan to just take it from the oil companies. Just reach out and take it. Windfall profits have happened before, they will again. But this is legalized stealing what she proposes. We will just make a law that makes it legal to steal from a corporation that has done well, no matter what it is.

If someone turned around and found a new fuel source and they made a gazillion dollar would you want them to pony up when you think they made too much money? Didnt see that kind of control on Enron when there should have been....Seems that happened on Clinton 1 and 2. Just like WorldCom. Talk about pandering.... How many corporations in America fail to file their income tax reports..... Answer? Only the ones that donate heavily to the Clinton campaign.

G in INdiana: you may find this interesting.
http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Financial_Tsunami/Oil_Speculation…

PERHAPS 60% OF TODAY'S OIL PRICE IS PURE SPECULATION
By F. William Engdahl, 2 May 2008

The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. Its controlled by an elaborate financial market system as well as by the four major Anglo-American oil companies. As much as 60% of todays crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. How?
First, the role of the international oil exchanges in London and New York is crucial to the game. Nymex in New York and the ICE Futures in London today control global benchmark oil prices which in turn set most of the freely traded oil cargo. They do so via oil futures contracts on two grades of crude oil―West Texas Intermediate and North Sea Brent.

(read the rest at the link)

what is this? Tom Lehrer week?

It is now almost certain that the US of A will sleep walk in to another nightmare lasting at least a further four years.

All because Bill Clinton "doesn't inhale"? Or is it that Bill likes his cigars to be marinated before smoking them?

How does that take any thing away from one of the most successful women of our time?

What did she do?

I mean, other than not letting any event in her personal or public life bring her down.

what did she do?

I know. She is not black. That must be it.
So America elects another novice who is still wa\iting for the President of Canada to speak to him.

Like Bush he will, I am told, have the best people to guide him.

These "best people" will be guiding the new President through a most crucial time for the world, when China and Russia are rapidly moving in to a cold war posture, not to mention the problems in Iran in Pakistan (hope he will NOT bomb them there) and in the caves in Afghanistan!

This is hardly the time to take chances.

I had recently written a post about WORD-JACKING by Bush and by Obama.

It has now been turned in to a video by some one who apparently can also see through the all pervasive fog of National guilt and political opportunism.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4tzfpSUzQ8

Never thought that after the disasters of the last eight years, I would be supporting a Republican candidate for the post of the next president!