Kimberley Strassel of the Wall Street Journal has done a good job with her Obama's Magic opinion piece in today's Journal.

There will be a lot of "magic" required to accomplish all that he has promised us, but we're accustomed to 'rude awakenings' following  Presidential campaigns.

The story of five school districts that invested borrowed money in an attempt to earn larger returns is back in the news as the result of their court case against the two organizations that sold them the deal.

This is an up close and personal portrayal of the rather esoteric things referred to as CDOs...Collateralized Debt Obligations.  The CDOs that were purchased contained some of the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac garbage that blew up a short time ago.  So, bad mortgage deals that some politicians wanted made so that their constituency would continue to vote for them have come home to roost in five school districts in Wisconsin.

Up until recently, we've listened to news and watched hearings on television and been somewhat removed from the whole discussion.  Now we watch the stock market lose something on the order of thirty percent of its value even after the "bailout" plan was enacted.  Those who have investments see their hopes being delayed, if not dashed.  People thinking of retiring within the next year to five years are probably re-thinking if they counted on their investments as part of the money they'd live on in their 'golden years'.

All that is bad enough, but now we learn that these school districts were owners of some of the 'crap' mortgages.  The districts have tried to portray themselves as 'innocents' but news articles today appear to destroy that position.  They were apparently told about the 'risk' but chose to ignore it for a greater return than otherwise available.

They seem to have known that they could lose their entire investment if the default rate rose above 4.95% but would remain whole if the default rate stayed beneath 3.95%.  They were also told, apparently, that the "highest historical default rate in the past 23 years" was 1.85%, so where was the risk?

The risk was in the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac garbage loans that were a part of these 'great deals', and the default rate did exceed the 23 year high.  And some of our (the nation's) elected officials were pushing for even more.  100% mortgage loans to questionable credit risks is simply stupid.  These politicians wouldn't have lent their money in that manner, but they were really anxious to get our money into those deals!

This video collage is most informative as to the sub-prime problems we are dealing with today. 

It seems that there were attempts to rein these two quasi public/private entities in over the years but one party seemed to stand in the way.

You can watch it for yourself and form your own conclusions.

Our news is dominated by talk about the "bailout" that has been prompted by the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage market.  Even at its current value, the bailout supposedly carries a cost of nearly $2,400 for every man, woman and child in the country.

This hits us in the last 45 days or so of the race for the presidency of our country.  It hits when we face the election of those who will represent us in the House of Representatives for another two years. It is, as so much has been, being used as the proverbial "political football".  It also threatens to become the largest single "pork-barrel" conveyance we've seen in recent history.

Many will argue where the blame lies, but, at the moment, I am more concerned with how this 'package' will look when it finally emerges from the 'back rooms' on Capitol Hill.  Actually, I am more concerned with what will be included and obscured by political double-speak.

I must confess that I have little faith in too many of the politicians that will participate in this decision-making process to make me at all comfortable that we'll be best-served, as a nation, with the outcome.

I see the results of past such situations.  I see that, when the dust settles, we find too many gifts to too many people of our hard-earned money cloaked in fine language but smarmy nonetheless.  Our politcos cannot seem to help themselves when there is so much opportunity to grab so many dollars dangled in front of their eyes.  And, too many of those dollars may find their way back into the pockets of these decision-makers in the form of sweetheart deals.  It is too easy for the recipients of multi-million dollar 'gifts' to give a few hundred thousand of those dollars back to those who made it all possible.

I marvel at the millionaires that have been made on Capitol Hill.  I look back at a congressman who had taught grade school, was elected and served in congress, the vice-presidency and the presidency and who, somehow, ended up with ownership of a chain of television and radio stations.  I see a man elected to and serving as majority leader of the Senate who somehow managed to buy up property that sits perfectly in Nevada so as to now be worth many times the original price.

I suspect that Lyndon Johnson, were he alive, and Harry Reid, if pressed, could give answers to their respective 'breaks' that would seem proper...and that might, in fact, be true.  But, there just seems to be too much of this kind of thing to permit me to be other than suspicious.

Those are just two stories.  There must be hundreds or thousands of such stories.  These are people who were thought to be honorable servants of the people.  These were people to whom voters gave their trust only to learn years down the road that they had misplaced that trust.

Add to this, the recent revelations of favored mortgage deals that none of we mere taxpayers were ever given the opportunity to receive.  These deals were in the news only several weeks ago, and those people are now making the 'back room' deals using our money.  The news of tax payments not having been made by an official in charge of tax law was just in the headlines a week or so ago, and that man is playing in the big leagues of 'deal making' a few days later.

They make these deals as easily as we would make deals in a game of Monopoly...but they use real money...if there is such a thing.  And that real money comes from us...the 'us' who pay income taxes.  They make deals that protect them and that protect their large campaign donors.  They make deals that will attract even bigger donations in the future.

I dislike sounding like such a skeptic...but I am.  And, I don't think it is entirely my fault that I'm a skeptic; I've had a lot of help over the years from a lot of politicians.

So...Bailout or Boondoggle?  What's your guess?

Lincoln's 200th birthday will see new 2009 pennies issued.  That raises the question as to why we still have pennies.  Is it to weigh down a lady's purse or cause a man's pocket to bulge and jingle?  Is it to fill all those glass jars in which people collect their unused pennies?

A Cox News Service article by Chris Megerian discussed some of the facts regarding pennies.

In answer to the question posed in the headline, a penny minted in 2007 cost 1.7 cents but the U.S. Mint has gotten that cost down to about 1.4 cents today.

A penny in 1857 had the buying power that a quarter has today.  I've not seen anything in recent memory that could be purchased for a penny, and I probably wouldn't want it if it were only a penny.  On the other hand, I used to covet pennies because, as a kid, I could buy all kinds of candy at the corner grocery store with a few pennies!

It seems to me that we have outlived the usefulness of the penny.  It should be eliminated and we should simply re-price things and round up or down to the nearer nickel.  There used to be a half-penny but that was eliminated in 1857.  We really ought to 'get with it' and make this happen.

There have been attempts in Congress in both 2002 and in 2006 to eliminate the penny, but both attempts failed.  The U.S. Mint produced 7.4 billion pennies last year.  At a cost of 1.4 cents each, that comes to over $103 Million if my long-hand math hasn't been lost completely.

I know that doesn't sound like much to our members of Congress, but it sounds like a whole lot to me!  Especially for a coin that we simply don't have to have.

I listened to Senator Joe Biden telling me and the rest of the country that those of us who pay income taxes needed to pay more.  He went on to tell me how patriotic that would make me feel.

Given that some 48% of Americans do not pay any income tax today, I guess they are being deprived of the patriotic feeling.

Given that some 5% of Americans pay 80% of the income taxes paid in America today, I can only imagine how patriotic they must feel every day as they awake to the knowledge that they'll be paying even more taxes.

Senator Biden has served more than three decades in the Senate, and has probably made nearly every gaffe possible over the course of those thirty-some years.  I don't know that this statement was a gaffe so much as it was testimony to the fact that he and many more of our politicians are so out of touch as to be laughable...if it didn't hurt so much when I laugh.

It was this ruling elite that aided and abetted those who led Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  It was this ruling elite that made it possible for those who had no business buying homes to become homeowners...for a few months until it caught up with them...so we all could bail them out without having learned a life lesson that most of us have come to understand.

Our scheme of income taxation began a long time ago.  It was well-intended then but has grown out of control.  Our tax laws today represent a gigantic tumor sucking the very lifeblood from the economy.

But...we'll all feel more patriotic if we'll just send a few more dollars on to Washington so that the grand old "income redistribution" scheme called the tax code can continue to dole out money to earn votes for those doing the doling.

And, contrary to the current elitist mantra, taxes are too high, and those taxes threaten our very existence.  Government does nothing to earn any money, but it is capable of spending ours as if there is no tomorrow.  And, they may succeed at the rate they're going...maybe there will someday be no tomorrow.

Interestingly enough, none of the elitists appear to be at all worried about where their next free meal is coming from. 

Even Rep. Charlie Rangel, head of the committee that oversees tax code, has to pay taxes...except he doesn't seem able to understand that as well as he ought.  But, that's okay.  He has hired a forensic tax accountant to help him obfuscate even further so that he can maintain his office and his appointment and thereby continue to devise new schemes to take more of our money from us to be given to those who haven't yet learned that we're all expected to work and contribute.

On the other hand, maybe they're the smart ones.

You and me are really great people.  Why is that?  Well, we seem to help bail out just about everything that bangs on Washington's door.

A short time ago, the sub-prime mortgage companies received their bail out; likely the first of their bail outs since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still in the throes of that mess.

Now the automobile industry is in the queue for what yesterday was about $25 billion and today has already climbed to $40 billion according to the press.

Is this a proper use for the tax dollars that are extracted from each of us?  Should we be funding these bail outs for industries that essentially have gone bad because of their own doing?  If you or me were responsible for these 'disasters', we'd probably step up to the plate and take what was coming to us.  But we didn't force people to be too gullible and let people sell them homes they couldn't afford.  We didn't cause the oil price jump because we didn't approve new refineries for thirty years or drill for new fields of oil?

If any of us should be paying 'the price', it seems that the finger of blame needs to be pointed at Washington and the people we send there to represent us.  That group has caused these issues to surface through favors to those putting money into their campaign accounts.  That group has caved in to the environmental groups that are fanatical to the extreme in their pursuit of the ultimate goal they espouse.

Oh, that's right.  We are to blame because we continue to return the same people to Washington in spite of what they do and don't do.  We don't require any 'reparations' for their actions.

Maybe we all need to get a little more involved and a little more vocal starting with our upcoming local elections.  Too may of us simply shake our heads and fume; we really need to be more active in our precincts and districts and villages or cities, and in our counties and states.

I saw a quote in the past few days that went along these lines:  "Too many people have died for our freedoms for us to not vote."

Cigarette Taxes...

The state raised cigarette taxes to $1.77 per pack and promptly budgeted/spent all the new money that would bring in.  The only problem is that this 230% increase in the tax rate only generated a 48% increase in the tax money received!  Now, we're stuck with a lot of people circumventing the tax entirely by buying cigarettes out-of-state or over the Internet.  And, we have added to an already staggering budget shortfall.

Makes a lot sense, huh?

~~~~~

Clean Air Act Gone Wild...

One of my favorite agencies, the EPA, has decided that it now has free rein over so-called greenhouse gases.  This came to pass as the result of a 'namby-pamby' U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that didn't go quite far enough to ward off this rampant agency.  EPA has now released its Advanced Notice of Proposed Rule-making, an ANPR in the jargon, and this is astonishing.  EPA would regulate airplanes, trains, ships, boats, tractors, farm and mining equipment, lawn mowers, garden equipment, portable power generators, fork lift trucks, construction equipment and logging equipment.

EPA estimates that more than 500,000 new permits will be required.  Among the supposed new requirements are these:

• Lawn mower standards:  "...each application could require a different unit of measure tied to the machine's mission or output-such as grams per kilogram of cuttings from a 'standard' lawn for lawn mowers."
• Truck speed standards:  "Speed limiters are generally available on new trucks or as a low cost retro-fit..."
• Single family homes become polluters:  "...we believe that small commercial establishments...and indeed, a large single-family residence could exceed this [CO2 pollution] threshold."

All of this means that our taxes go up exponentially since the EPA will be forced to grow staff and facilities to handle this new found mission.  And, it means that we'll all pay more for products and services.

And, none of this was ever the intent of Congress nor has it had the opportunity to inject itself to this point.

~~~~~

Compact Fluorescent Bulbs...

Regular, nice old incandescent light bulbs (starting with 100 watt bulbs) become illegal to manufacture in 2012.  The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) points out that this means we can forget about spending 20 cents or so for the old bulb while buying the new CFLs for something on the order of $3.00+ (remember that these are usually subsidized today).

While CFLs save energy, they have costs associated with them that make all this really questionable:

• The average lifetime is not 10,000 hours, but "up to 10,000 hours"
• The energy savings and lifetime of CFLs has been exaggerated in some applications
• The CFL only achieves the claimed efficiency if burned continuously for long periods
• If left on for only 5 minute periods, the CFL will burn out just as fast as an incandescent bulb
• CFLs dim over their lifetime and do not deliver what is promised

And, we're adding mercury to the environment which supposedly will be handled by proper disposal.  Yeah, sure!  How many of us has disposed of a burned out CFL improperly already?  How is that ever going to be policed?

~~~~~

Clean Water Restoration Act...

The EPA is back again.  The original Clean Water Act of 1972 had gotten to be very broadly interpreted under various EPA rulings.  "Navigable waters" had morphed into isolated wetlands, dry lake beds and drainage ditches, for example.  Now, two Democrat members of Congress have introduced the bill named in the title.  It would replace the phrase "navigable waters" with the phrase "waters of the United States"  This means "all waters subject to ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds and all impoundments of the foregoing".  Reason magazine, August/September 2008

If this bill were to pass in its current state, it would very likely result in massive new regulations for boaters, fishermen, hunters, and even conservationists.  This act would leave it to the courts to decide what constitutes "waters of the United States".

Thanks to Ronald Bailey for writing the article "Feds in a Fishbowl" in Reason.

~~~~~

Anti-Meat Campaign...

Finally, from the Heartland Institute, this on global warming activists' latest efforts.  They are launching new efforts to restrict meat production and consumption, building on prior efforts to restrict various agriculture activities that supposedly would reduce 'greenhouse gases'.

More on this can be found on the worldchanging.org website.

If we continue to have a ban on drilling more oil, we won't be able to buy meat anyway, so maybe this isn't as bad as I first thought.

Maybe we really do have too many crackpots in Congress...or too many people are being paid through campaign contributions and don't have the commonsense necessary to sort out the good from the crazy.

The 'virtual fence' that was approved by Congress to extend across hundreds of miles of the border between the United States and Mexico has been been put on hold indefinitely.

Why?  Well, it seems that the Interior Department has not signed off on the use of its lands.  These officials have refused to accept an environmental assessment that the towers, cameras, etc. would have no appreciable effect on the lands.

Even though the Department of Homeland Security has the authority to waive environmental laws for border security projects, it apparently does not extend to the virtual fence projects.  Sounds like the typical governmental bull!

An employee of a Florida hospital testified recently about the costs of treating illegal immigrants in one hospital.  You can watch the testimony by clicking here.

The citizens of this country finally prevailed on border controls, and yet the government continues to thwart this solution.  It seems like someone is a bit confused on just how this country works.  The people in these various departments are employed because we pay taxes to support their employment.  I am tiring of those within the system who pervert it to their own will.

Is 'perversion' too strong a term?  I don't think so.

The EPA has turned down attempts by the State of Wisconsin to relax the ill-conceived S.E. Wisconsin requirement for 'reformulated' gasoline even as we are virtually in full attainment.  That was probably dwarfed by comparison to the decision it announced that it was denying the State of Texas' request for a cutback on the amount of ethanol required to be blended with gasoline.

There is a radio commercial playing in our market that is sponsored by the ethanol lobby that makes the case, in essence, that we, who question the use of corn to make ethanol, are over-reacting and need to check our facts.  I am angered every time I hear that commercial, including this morning as it played while I was shaving...with a blade.  That could've hurt!

The simple facts are being ignored by the EPA, Congress and the President.  And, these aren't stupid people.  This is intentional ignorance.  Our food prices are going up, and it is caused in part by the insistence that ethanol be blended with gasoline even as us taxpayers pay the price for the ethanol support being paid on every gallon.  The other part of the increase is obviously that caused by the fact that Democrats have so far refused to relax their stance against oil drilling here and now.

Back to ethanol.  It is causing many cattle ranchers to reduce their herd size because they can't afford the feed to grow them for market.  The prices for chicken and beef are rising at a rapid pace.  I looked at flank steak a few days ago since it always used to be a relatively lower priced cut of meat.  That is a thing of the past.  I bought chicken breasts a few days ago and was astounded at the prices I saw on the packages.

I know that my mileage with reformulated gas is less than it was before that edict; about 10% worse.  I know that ethanol is much less efficient in terms of the energy it generates than is gasoline.  So, I am burning more and getting less.  A double-whammy in our part of Wisconsin.

The EPA stated that there was "no compelling evidence" that the mandate for ethanol is causing "severe economic harm".  That had to have been spoken by a federal employee who is reimbursed for his or her mileage...from our tax dollars  These people simply have no contact with reality, or manage to suppress the lessons they really learn in order to be a "dutiful servant of the people".

As if all this isn't enough to put me into a deep funk, I am confronted with the idiocy that is called political campaigning where people talk about wind power, sun power, and bio-fuels while not mentioning oil or coal or nuclear power.  How in the world are we supposed to leap forward a decade or more when technology is not yet even available to soften our landing?

We are in real danger of becoming a third world nation if the current policies are not changed and changed quickly!  Our economy simply cannot withstand the political assault it is under.  And this is not a political assault from another country...it comes from within.

So, I don't think calling the EPA the Environmental Perversion Agency is much of a reach. 

And I, for one, am very, very tired of the elected people we all put into office forgetting who it is they represent, and what it is we want.

Barack Obama has now decided that he needs to promise another round of stimulus checks that are discussed as being in the range of $1,000 for every family and $500 for individuals.  Now, of course, even in the federal government, money does not grow on trees.  This 'reward' for electing Obama and the Democrats has to be paid for.  After all, they apparently hold to the approach that all things done within the government must be "revenue neutral".  So, if money is going to be given to one person, it must be taken from somewhere else.

The 'somewhere else' in this instance is destined today to be a take-away from "big oil" through what is artfully called a "windfall profit tax".  A Wall Street Journal editorial today takes an intriguing look at the concept of such taxes including some individuals that seem to have benefited from windfall profits.. 

There is a certain arbitrariness to all this posturing. 

First, from whom or what will such money be taken?  Well, why not target those nasty "big oil" companies.  They are, after all, socking money away at record levels.

Second, what is it that constitutes a "windfall" profit?  Well, this one seems to differ with the magnitude of "big oil's" profit, so it really becomes whatever the Congress thinks it is...and it can be different when applied to different entities and/or at different times.

Third, doesn't this become very much a form of nationalizing parts of companies?  How does this differ from Hugo Chavez' approach in Venezuela other than in degrees?  Chavez decrees that the company will be 'nationalized' and seizes whatever assets exist for which he doesn't feel obligated to pay stockholders.  So if, for example, "big oil" earns a combined $10 billion, and if government decrees that it should've only earned $5 billion, the windfall profit tax levied is essentially consuming half the industry.  

Fourth, from whom is this "windfall profit" being taken?  Why, from the stockholders of the companies...and those stockholders are individuals, mutual funds, pension funds and so on.  Too many people are seemingly unable to work through this.  This money comes from them, goes to Congress and is re-distributed to other 'thems' after, of course, a few dollars are siphoned off to go to this or that pet project that gets tacked on to the legislation as it wends it way through the voting process.

Fifth, the oil companies simply pass the lost profit on to their customers in the form of increased prices to cover this unanticipated 'cost' that was levied against them.  You and me pay this at the pumps, and when we turn on our lights and heat our homes and buy food and other necessities since virtually everything is dependent upon oil at one or another stage in the process.

Could it be that there really is nothing to which we can refer as a federal give-away?  The federal government doesn't earn dollar one; it only takes from you and me.  If it doesn't have any money of its own, then it really is only re-distributing our money like an inefficient Robin Hood.  Robin didn't have the need for large sums from his takings such as Congress seems to have.

This sure sounds very much like socialism doesn't it?

A week ago, I Blogged about Chrysler ending its leasing operations, and suggested that GM and Ford were close to the same decision.  All this due in major part to the declining residual value of the trucks on lease.

GM announced a major hit in the last quarter with the loss of over $15 billion.  It is very near the precipice, in my opinion, where it will need to actively consider bankruptcy.  It has a market value today that is a mere shadow of what it was just a year or two ago.

And now, foreign auto makers are facing similar pressures although certainly not yet to the degree that U.S. auto manufacturers are confronting.  BMW announced that it will raise prices and reduce production to stave off the problems faced by others.  Nissan has begun to show signs of problems.

Our worldwide vehicle companies are in the throes of a major set of problems that could very likely result in fire sales or outright closures of some old-line companies.

A significant part of these problems can be traced back to fuel prices that have impacted our economy and those of other countries around the world.  The costs of fuel have driven down auto and truck sales.  This drain on spendable dollars has also taken a huge toll on the rest of our economy.

And, against that backdrop, what has Congress done about these problems?  Through the stalling tactics employed by the Democrat-controlled House and Senate, NOTHING has been accomplished.  They continue to say NO to oil, NO to nuclear, NO to coal.  They feel that we need to suffer to the point that we'll roll over and let them take us where they have intended to take us for years.

We are facing some of the most serious economic issues of several generations and our government thinks this is the 'medicine' we need to get our heads more properly attuned to their 'vision' of what the U.S. and the world needs to look like in the coming half-century.

If there is any 'good news' coming from Washington, it is the fact that the law-makers have gone on their August 'vacation'.  The bad news is that our government will remain paralyzed until after the new government is sworn in in 2009.

We cannot afford to simply sit back and watch this mess play out.  We need to drill here and drill now!  That signal will further depress the price of crude oil on the world market and begin the process of our economic recovery in a big, big way!  As a pundit said in the last day or two, it is really hard to install a wind generator on your personal vehicle.  It is really hard to wean our country from its primary source of vehicle fuel overnight...and it is absolutely a crime to force us into the coming series of bankruptcies to try to prove some point that is unsupported by science.

I cannot fathom what goes on in the minds of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  I cannot believe that normal human beings have the kind of disregard for their brothers and sisters that these two seem to evidence.  I know that politics is referred to as a "blood sport", and I don't necessarily mind them spilling their own...

But I really have to draw the line when they metaphorically spill yours and mine and never even blink in the process.

Have I lost my mind?  I hope not.

My concern is this:  With gas prices dropping and now at the mid $3.80s per gallon, will we lose our impetus to keep the pressure on our elected officials to get more drilling going and to relax the myriad rules on new refineries?

We are a strange group, we humans.  We got used to paying $4.20 per gallon for regular for a week or two and now we're "saving" nearly $.40 a gallon.  We forget very quickly that only a year or so ago we were paying a dollar or more less for our gas.

We seem to forget that we were upset over ethanol and its impact on our mileage and on our food prices.

We seem to forget that reformulated gas is costing us more and causing lower miles per gallon.

Are we going to meekly go about our daily business now until prices go back up?  Are we going to give our politicians a 'free pass'? 

Are we going to let the presidential candidates avoid dealing with this issue...even though they'll make promises that'll probably be forgotten in a week or two?

Are we going to demand that our state representatives push hard to get the ethanol lobby off our backs?

Nancy Pelosi continues to amaze though I shouldn't be amazed by her any longer.  She is really a proven quantity by this time.  She has made up her mind that we'll simply not have any more oil because it is not good for us and she knows best what is and isn't good for you and me.  She maintains that more drilling will do nothing to lower the price of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel, but she derides President Bush for not having already agreed to release some of our strategic oil reserves that would be a mere tiny blip on the radar scope of fuel prices and would do nothing to cause a decrease in futures prices.

She has led, and continues to lead, the effort in the House of Representatives to castigate the greedy oil companies, to threaten to take away their leases on the 68 million acres that have already been searched and determined to hold little that could be drilled economically, and to apply tax surcharges just to teach them a lesson.

Every action such as these does nothing but exacerbate the real problem and cost us money; it costs us more and more tax dollars and it costs us more and more as companies push their tax bills down to the consumer where all tax bills go to be paid.

More than two-thirds of the people in the United States (across all racial and political and economic strata) have told Congress to open up drilling and reduce taxes, but they won't do it because they know better.  We miserable Neanderthals called voters just need to pay whenever and whatever asked (told in reality) and trust that Congress will take care of us.

* * * * * * * * * *

Al Gore delivered yet another pronouncement to the politicos, the press and the masses yesterday, as well.  Jay Weber made, I thought, an excellent point on today's show on WISN 1130AM when he said that so much of Gore's emphasis on reducing our need for oil seems to hinge on electric power...none of which is generated by the use of oil.  Some is generated using gas to fire the gas turbine generators, some is generated by solar and some by wind power.  But, the vast majority is generated using coal-fired plants.

The idea that we should spend $3 trillion dollars in the next decade, scrap all the electric generating facilities we have now, string the power transmission lines necessary to get solar and wind-generated power to the point of use from the middle of nowhere, etc. simply defies imagination.  He maintains that we need to 'green' the world through our efforts and through our example.  China told us again within the past few days that it is not going to play that game.  China is going to continue its economic development as is India.  Yet the United States is expected to go 'green' at the expense of its own economic well-being when that will have no significant lasting impact on the global environment.  The $3 trillion doesn't begin to address the debt-service we're still going to be paying on all the facilities that we've ceased to use.

So, we are being told that we need to bankrupt our economy while we're abdicating our position of power in the world community...and we're to take Al Gore's word for it that this is the way of the future.  Reminds me of the old tune with the lines: Don't Worry, Be Happy.

Out of touch & out of control!

The mainstream media has taken up the fight now that Hillary and Barack have gotten their 'thing' settled; at least until the gathering in Denver. 

The learned political scientists on our college campuses have nearly unanimously opined that Obama is incapable of being defeated.  They have preordained that this election will be among the most lopsided victories for the left that we have witnessed in the entire history of our country.  Polls show Obama up by double digits over McCain.  It is all over but for the voting.

The election of Barack Obama as our next president is, apparently, inevitable.

So...there you go.  We conservatives can simply suck it up, pack it in, and decide how we're going to survive the coming four or eight years.  It is divined: Barack Obama is the next President of the United States...and will create a veto-proof majority for Democrats in both houses of our congress.

But wait.  Is it really inevitable?  Is the smugness of the left such that it will determine the course of history?  Is it really time for undefined change simply for the sake of change?  Are we in such dire straits that we will anoint Obama without so much as a discussion about that inevitable future?  Will the influx of young voters automatically accrue to the benefit of Obama?  Have the liberal professors that dominate our college campuses (98% + and counting) so indoctrinated the student body that inevitability is the only outcome imaginable?

Are 'we the people' so enamored of this man of change as to be taken with his oratorical skills in spite of the lack of depth of our knowledge of the details?  It is commonly discussed in political circles that the 'devil is in the detail', and yet, so far, there is very little flesh to be found on the skeleton of change. 

Will it remain the rule that any question of Obama's positions is akin to unfairly characterizing the man?  We smear him when we reflect upon the pastor that he followed willingly for twenty years.  We smear him when we talk about his very limited experience in politics, let alone on the national scene.  We smear him when we criticize his broadly-brushed position papers.  We smear him when he is forced to restate previous statements, sometimes more than once, to 'clarify' what he originally meant to say.

Obama has created a bubble that seems to surround him.  It is a protective bubble that keeps the hounds at bay.  One is to accept his speeches at face value.  One must not question the lack of substance.  One must not ask from where the money will come (although we know if we but listen to the tax increase rhetoric).  One must not ask which of the ladies in waiting the public would prefer in the White House.

Obama has created a protective bubble with the willing assistance of the liberal media.  Will that media be silent as well when we wake up to the second term of Jimmy Carter?  Will that media be silent when we throw away victory in the war on terror so that foreign governments will profess to like us better?  Will that media be silent when terrorists again begin to strike us in our homeland? 

Is it really Obama the Inevitable?  Or was the only inevitable thing about all this that the liberal media would fall into lockstep?

We have, it appears, survived the presidential primary campaign season. 

During this season just passed, we witnessed the significant defeat of the Clintons.  Yes, of both Clintons, not just Hillary.  There is no 'just Hillary'.  With her comes the other, Bill.  With her comes the remembrances of all that was the Clintonian presidency; the innuendo, the smears, the lost billing records, the huge trading gains, the eleventh-hour pardons and on and on and on.  It wasn't a significant defeat in terms of numbers of votes, but it was significant in terms of the name and the legacy.

During this season just passed, we saw the emergence of a first-term senator from Illinois who is now the Democrat candidate for President of the United States of America.  He is biracial, and that means that a historic 'barrier' appears to have been overcome.  He is inexperienced as compared to the typical candidate for our highest elected position, but he has an eloquence about him that seems to enthrall those to whom he speaks.  He is Barack Obama.  Of that we can be sure.  But, beyond that we are unsure.  There is much about him and his beliefs that needs to be fleshed out between now and November

During this season just passed, we saw the Republicans settle on an elder member of the senate who will be nearly 72 if and when he takes office.  The word 'settle' was chosen intentionally.  The conservative members of the Republican party were forced to 'settle' for John McCain.  They may take up the banner and charge ahead, or they may hold back, contribute little and vote begrudgingly.  We know that he has been bloodied in battle, and that is reality and not simply an expression.  We know the mettle of the man.

So, Hillary is expected to finally make her amends to Barack Obama today by suspending her campaign.  That means that she is still trying to finagle something more for herself.  It might be that promise of a nomination to become a member of the Supreme Court, or it might be the payment of her $20 million campaign shortfall that came from the Clintons' pocket, or it might be the selection as the vice presidential candidate.  We don't know, and we may not come to know anytime soon; but we do know the Clintons and we do know that there will be some price extracted by them.  That is the way it is with them.

And the rest of us are left to make a monumentally important decision as to whom we desire as our next titular head.  I use the word 'titular' intentionally, as well.  The President of the United States influences but seldom decides policy.  The President lives in a world of 'checks and balances' that sometimes seems to be unchecked and imbalanced.  Congress will be very important as it always is.  That is frightening when one steps back and observes the ofttimes childish machinations that come from this body.

As it stands today, we would choose between an elder about whom we know a good deal and a junior about whom we know virtually nothing.  I am reminded of the phrase that refers to the 'devil we know versus the devil we don't know'.  I don't use that phrase in a derogatory manner.  This election is, to my thinking, a classic 'lesser of evils' election.  The campaign will be waged between one who is so far only a passable speaker but whom we know, and between the other who is as eloquent a speaker as any politician in my lifetime but about whom we know next to nothing.

And I confess to great concern since us voters tend to be swayed by eloquence more than substance far too often...and we often pay a dear price as the result.

We are, by all signs, involved in an oil cost run-up driven by demand being greater than supply.  It is exacerbated for us Americans because our monetary policy has seen an intentional softening of the dollar (our money is worth less than other peoples' money, so it takes more of it to buy a barrel of crude oil).  I paid $4.20 per gallon yesterday with the price of crude oil standing at about $130 +/- per barrel.  Predictions of crude oil prices of $150 per barrel or more are seen or heard regularly now.  And, the cost of oil could well be higher than that by year-end.

How did we get to this point?  We got there by congressional law making, by presidents rolling over and signing those bills, and by our country's increasing needs/demand for gasoline and diesel fuel.  Why would we permit ourselves to become part of such a quagmire?

Politics!  Politics played by those on both sides of the aisle.  Conservatives seem to have lost their voices.  Liberals never seem to lose their voices.

Laws were re-written more than thirty years ago to make it nearly impossible for a new refinery to be built.  Those were the result of congress being rolled by the environmentalists and presidents either believing the rhetoric of the day or fearing the backlash should they stand up to the rhetoric.  This has continued to this very day.  We are forbidden from drilling within 200 miles of the California and Florida coastlines but the Chinese are already doing so as we sit on our thumbs.  We are unable to pursue the shale oil deposits that span our northern plains and southwestern states.  We have ample untapped resources that are readily available but our laws don't permit us to make use of those resources.

We see the 'global warming' group and the 'environmentalist group' driving our economy into the ground...and we have not found the moral outrage/courage to stand up to them and say "no more"!  We could easily build new refineries in any number of locations around our country but we're not permitted to do so.  We know how to drill and refine today without ruining our world.  It takes from 6 to 10 years to bring a new refinery on-line so the time to have declared a moratorium on the rules that made it impossible to build new refining capacity has come and gone.  But, the typical congressional response of "that will take ten years" should remind us that if we don't roll back those silly laws today, it'll take ten years from whenever we do roll back those silly laws.  The time to begin is now, not next week or next month.

We witnessed the ridiculous 'hearings' held by congress in the past few weeks.  We watched as Sen. Herb Kohl embarrassed himself by chiding the 'big bad oil companies' for making a profit.  He is a former businessman who certainly understands that profit must be derived in order for businesses to exist and grow.  He knew how that worked when he ran Kohl's Food Stores.  He certainly must have some comprehension as the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.  His statement to the oil company executives that their profits didn't seem fair gives one a lot of insight.  He knows better but he will play/pander to the crowd he favors.  He 'feels' as do most liberals.  He doesn't necessarily reason.  He has his millions, so he can set out to control everyone else who aspires to similar success.

Sen. Kohl is but one of the 535 members of congress.  Too many of those men and women are too intent on keeping their offices to actually vote the way they probably know they should.  You have probably heard the old phrase that states you must "go along to get along".  That should be inscribed over the doorways leading to the House and the Senate chambers since it is the rule that is followed by the vast majority of people who walk through those portals.  That is true on the national stage, the state stage and the local stage.

The people who go to Washington and who do not give in and play by the Washingtonian rules are few and very far between.

Whose fault is this dilemma in the final analysis?  Yours and mine. 

We're the men and women who have permitted this to happen.  We don't vote in the House or the Senate, but we do elect those who do...and we do not seem to unelect people very often once they've gotten into office.  Rep. Steve Kagen (D) from the Appleton area stands for re-election this November.  He is at his most defeatable point historically.  If he survives the first re-election campaign and keeps his seat, he is likely to be in that seat for so long as he desires without regard to how he votes or doesn't vote.

We're so unconcerned about our vote, it seems, that we don't even think voting is sacrosanct enough to require valid photo identification before we're permitted to cast a ballot. 

So, all this angst has been brought to us by us.  Remember that the next time you buy gasoline or diesel fuel.  Remember that the next time you go to the grocery store and try to make your food budget stretch.  Remember that when you ponder whether or not you'll be able to take a vacation this year, or buy new school clothing for your children, or go out for a fish fry.  Remember that when you try to stretch your retirement income to cover your basic needs.

And, when you've gotten yourself all 'cranked up', if that happens, make a resolution to get involved and stay involved and to talk with your elected representatives at every level of government and let them know what you think and what you want them to do on your behalf.  And, if they fail you, fire them with your vote at the polling place.

Had you and I done that two decades ago instead of simply going with the flow, maybe we'd not be in the situation we find ourselves in today.

The benchmark oil prices closed at just under $122 per barrel yesterday due to unrest in Nigeria and slumps in Russia's production.  'Experts' predict that prices for crude oil could go as high as $150 this year.  And, that would translate to about $4.50 per gallon prices at our pumps.

What to do, what to do?

A bright young Congressman has some ideas.  He is Representative Paul Ryan who was born and raised in Janesville and who has seen the impact of gas prices on the GM plant there that builds Tahoes among other vehicles.  You have probably heard that GM is laying off 750 employees due to poor sales.  The 'ripple effect' has already begun taking other suppliers' jobs out of the market with an announcement by one that it would lay off 132 employees.  Those layoffs will continue.

Ryan issued a press release on Monday with some simple and straight-forward language (which is not always the case for government press releases).  He recognizes that Congress has had a big hand in creating the mess we find ourselves contending with today.  And, he has five examples of what can be done to alleviate these problems:

One:  Drill for oil.  There are reportedly some 10.4 billion barrels of crude to be found beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWAR).  Instead of begging the other oil producing nations to increase their production, we could solve our own problems and handle this nasty 'supply and demand' thing.  We could keep all the oil we produce from our land mass.

Two:  Build more refineries.  Congress can streamline the process for building new refineries.  More than thirty years has passed since a new refinery was built in the U.S.  Instead, we have gone offshore for refining capacity.  That not only increases our costs but it actually could be a very poor strategic move in case one of the other large countries in the world decided to take us out economically rather than militarily.  Can you spell C-H-I-N-A?

Three:  Streamline fuel blends.  Congress could end the mandates for so-called 'boutique fuels' such as that we burn in SE Wisconsin.  Those boutique fuels actually cost more and perform more poorly.  Then, when ethanol is added to that mix, the power production is further reduced and the cost to consumers is increased.

Four:  Don't rely on food for fuel.  Congress just passed an energy bill that quintupled the ethanol mandate.  The average grocery bill for Americans is reported to have risen by $70 per week in the last year as the result of the ethanol mandate.  Recall that I said a few days ago that Congress had played with the marketplace and had broken it?  This is an example of the dastardly 'unintended consequences' that we all know too well.

Five:  Stop stoking inflation.  The added impact of Federal Reserve actions to drastically reduce the interest rates has softened the dollar to the point that we pay far more for crude oil than other countries.  It takes more dollars than euros to buy a barrel of crude.  It takes more dollars than yen to buy a barrel of crude oil.

Rep. Ryan's final paragraph is an important one:

"The flaws and failures of Congress have done much to contribute to our current energy crisis.  There are concrete steps that Congress can take that will move us toward a coherent approach to a sustainable energy policy and put immediate downward pressure on energy prices.  The American people have rejected gas price pandering and finger-pointing; you deserve responsible leadership and must demand it." 

There are some moves going on today in Congress that need citizens' boosts.  An Ethanol reduction act is winding its way and has about twenty-four sponsors.  If you and I put enough pressure on our elected officials, we can make a difference and get some of these things moving more rapidly.  If you and I demand that our presidential candidates 'get real' about these issues, we can cause some movement.

On the other hand, if we expect the other person to do the heavy lifting, then we'll get what we deserve.  Each of us is but a small voice.  But we all know what a choir of a hundred small voices sounds like.  We all know what the cheers of 50,000 small voices sounds like.  You can call, write and email your representatives.  And you can do it over and over again.  You can encourage friends and relatives who are represented by other officials to do the same.  This is called a 'grass roots' movement and many, many politicians find themselves in office today because of grass roots movements.

It may not seem to you that elected officials listen to you, but they do if they're intelligent.  They especially listen when they hear the same thing in differing words from many people.  The words don't need to be fancy.  They do need to be heartfelt  Our Congressional representative is Jim Sensenbrenner and he is one of the originators of the Ethanol reduction act that I mentioned earlier.  Tell him you're behind him, too.

We are experiencing a significant increase in costs for two 'staples' in our lives, food and fuel.  Rice purchases are being limited in some stores because people have begun to hoard this basic food item.  Gasoline and diesel fuel are both at all time highs and are moving higher.  Grocery costs are escalating rapidly.

How is it that this can be happening?  What is driving this rapid cost escalation?  Is it the Republicans having been in office for the past seven plus years?  Will a Democrat president change all this?

We are seeing the results of years of marketplace interference.  Our government (both parties are guilty) has created the gasoline and diesel fuel situation through its stubborn refusal to approve the construction of new refining capacity and through its equally stubborn refusal to permit drilling for oil where there are known fields that could take care of our needs for many decades to come.

We are seeing the result of farm programs that cause farmers to do things that are encouraged by financial incentives.  We are seeing the results of corporate farm programs that reward the very wealthy people who own large pieces of land.  We're seeing the result of legislation that favors the ADMs of the world.  We are seeing the results of political interference in the areas of 'bio-fuels' (ethanol) that have begun consuming bigger and bigger amounts of corn, which has caused the prices of other substitute grains to rise accordingly.

Ethanol is a very poor fuel additive.  It does not burn as efficiently, it is difficult to carry over distances, it has a government subsidy that is just being reduced to $.45 cents per gallon from the original $.51 per gallon.  So, we put one of our basic food stocks into our gas tank because of government meddling and wonder why we're seeing the food and fuel price increases that we're seeing.  We get poorer mileage, pay more for the gas that gives us that poorer mileage and we wouldn't buy the ethanol-laced gasoline if it were priced at its true market price.

Our food costs are rising due to supply and demand.  Substitute grains cause flour prices to escalate.  There is a shortage of soy products due to the move from soy beans to corn because the price of corn has been artificially manipulated.  Fuel costs affect the cost of food transportation.  Livestock is being fed with more and more expensive grains.

Beyond all this in our own country, we have seen the economies of both India and China expand at significant rates.  That has made them able to be larger consumers of the things we're paying more for today.  More people in India and China have automobiles, more can afford to buy clothing made from synthetic materials that are produced from fossil fuels, and both countries have tens of millions of newly empowered consumers.

The long and short, from my perspective is this:  politicians have played around with the marketplace and they broke it; the movement to force 'green' into our lives has cost us refining capacity and crude oil to refine if we had the capacity; we're burning 'food' in our cars that is driving up the cost of edible food from a raw materials perspective and a transportation perspective.

This will not be a problem we solve overnight.  Refineries require nearly a decade to build...if they were able to gain approval from the politicians who don't want more refineries.  We import crude oil when we could be drilling and extracting it from our own fields.  We import gasoline because of the lack of refinery capacity.  People are trying to hoard basic food stuff because they fear where all this is going.

And finally, we are in the midst of a presidential campaign and I don't believe I've heard one peep out of any of the candidates about this issue.  They must see this as a net losing subject or they'd be all over it with their promises to resolve the 'crisis'.  They'd certainly not get the votes from agricultural states.  They'd not get the huge contributions that flow to them because groups think they're going to favor the members of those groups.

How will this issue get resolved if we cannot even include it in the presidential campaign discussions?  How will this issue get resolved if the economic drivers created by Congress continue to exist as they currently do?  They are all too eager to side with those who 'know' that global warming is upon us.  They are only too happy to jump aboard the Al Gore bandwagon even though his 'research' has never been proved out in the scientific community.

I am tired of the disingenuousness of way too many of our politicians, from both parties, who are in office because it is a nice cushy job with great 'perks'.  I'm tired of those politicians who sit in a handful of staged hearings and emerge as the expert on any given issue.

And, I'm tired of ethanol in my fuel that raises the cost and reduces the mileage rate.  And, I'm tired of seeing our grocery bills climb weekly when I know that it is caused by artificially-induced government policies.  And, I wonder if I'm alone?

Nearly all of us are bombarded with information tidbits from the time we awake until we retire at the end of our day.  We live in the world of 24 hour news cycles unlike our forefathers.  We have electronic access virtually no matter where we find ourselves.  We are truly the 'plugged in' generations...and I submit we may well be too 'plugged in'.

If you're old enough, you may remember Mad magazine and the caricature character who graced its cover...Alfred E. Neumann.  The caption that accompanied the picture was..."What?  Me Worry?"  This was published before we became so well connected, back when print was more the primary conveyance for information.  I sometimes think back to Alfred E. Neumann and wonder if he would've been the happiest person on earth today, or if he would've also succumbed to what I've chosen to call "Subliminal Self-Fulfillment".

Again, if you're old enough, the term 'brainwashing' may carry memories.  This was supposedly a technique of erasing certain memories and replacing those with new memories.  It often involved the steady bombardment of the senses over many months and years.  Prisoners of war returning from the Korean 'Conflict' (thank goodness it wasn't a real war) were sometimes thought to have been the victims of brainwashing.

You, me and most everyone else in our world are subjected to a steady stream of messages that cannot help but be absorbed by most of us.  For example, 'Global Warming' has become "fact" even without scientific evidence confirming the theory.  That has largely occurred as the result of constant hammering by the press and the rest of the disciples for that movement.  For example, we seem to have talked ourselves into an economic 'recession' even though it very closely resembles an economic 'slowdown'.  For example, we feel the need to reward people who made bad home-buying decisions by bailing out Wall Street bankers that knew better but also knew that Uncle Sam would most likely bail them out...and they were right.

We seem to now believe that 'ethanol' is the savior for our country's appetite for gasoline to power our vehicles even though it is costing us a tremendous increase in the cost of our food stocks as well as costing us in the decreasing 'miles per gallon' arena.  Even though this product is being subsidized by our tax dollars and mandates since none of us would likely be inclined to pay more for something that delivers less than we were accustomed to receiving.

On top of all this 'noise', we find ourselves in that cycle of presidential campaigning...and there can be absolutely nothing good achieved by the administration currently in office no matter the political party involved.  It seems that we no longer have three years 'off' in between presidential elections.  Almost as soon as the President is sworn in, the opposition mounts the proverbial loudspeakers on the trucks and begins parading up and down the streets in our neighborhoods with the 'gloom and doom' message they desire to have implanted on our collective psyche.

This is what I choose to label 'subliminal self-fulfillment'.  We have become like the sheep following the 'bellwether'.  We have become like Pavlov's dogs.  Are we now nearing the point where we give up thinking for ourselves and simply let whatever others will to happen because we simply don't want to be involved?

Have we neared the point of becoming a nation of Alfred E. Neumanns?  Have we crossed over the mid-point?