No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for September 16th, 2008

Paul Ryan on H.R. 6899

by @ 16:13. Filed under Energy, Politics - National.

This just came into my inbox from the staff of my Congressman, Paul Ryan (R-WI):

WASHINGTON – Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan condemned the latest election year energy stunt by the House Majority prior to today’s vote on H.R. 6899. Dubbed the "Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act," H.R. 6899 consists of a patchwork of previously rejected provisions, along with tax hikes, fees, and regulations that fail address our need for more American-made energy.

While Ryan and his fellow House Republicans have been petitioning for a comprehensive energy bill since the second week of May, H.R. 6899 was drafted in Speaker Pelosi’s office late last night and brought to the floor for a vote today. For an issue of such significance for the American people, the Speaker allowed for no amendments, no substitutes, and no opportunity for compromise. Shortly before the House voted on H.R. 6899, Ryan issued the following statement:

"The only energy to come out of this bill is the hot air from Congress. This sham energy bill is nothing more than a dry hole. The House Majority’s bill would permanently lock up the majority of American energy off of our coasts. The so-called drilling provisions are an attempt to hoodwink the American people and would do nothing to expand American energy production. States can choose to "˜opt-in’ to allow drilling within a narrow strip off their coasts, but without revenue sharing provisions, states have no incentive to "˜opt-in.’ What’s worse, this bill does nothing to address the excessive lawsuits by radical special interests that have held up existing leases for oil exploration. Simply put: this bill is a hoax.

"The House Majority has refused to adopt a bipartisan, all-of-the-above approach to tackle our energy crisis – one of the greatest problems we face as a nation today. By continuing to send $1.5 billion a day to hostile nations, today’s rejection of real energy solutions has only fueled our dependence on foreign oil and the threat to our national security. With mass layoffs and painful price spikes, Wisconsinites have been hit particularly hard by our energy crisis. Those I serve in Wisconsin’s First District deserve better.

"We must expand and diversify our supply of American-made energy. We must allow for more environmentally-sound drilling here in America. We must streamline the permitting process for new refineries. We must encourage nuclear power, clean coal, and more. Incentives for greater conservation efforts and a commitment to renewable energy are critical to this all-of-the-above approach. Rather than results, today we got more hot air from Congress."

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Drill Here, Drill Now Tuesdays – 9/16/2008

by @ 15:47. Filed under Energy.

This idea was started by Jessi at Wake Up America. It will appear here every Tuesday (whether I’m here or not; the only difference is I won’t be able to update the current gas price while on vacation) until Congress wakes up and allows a lot more domestic drilling (I’m not talking about just ANWR, or just off the Florida coast where Cuba, Red China and Brazil are preparing to drink our milkshake, or just the shale fields in the Rockies).

My Gas Price (south suburban Milwaukee County, Wisconsin): $4.199/gallon

I would have taken the tack of previous Drill Here, Drill Now Tuesdays, but there’s a few fresh developments:

Doubleplusundead is reporting that The Gang of 10 16 that want to drill just in the hurricane-prone portions of the eastern Gulf and southeast Altantic is now the Gang of 20. That, combined with the rest of the ‘Rats opposed to plentiful energy independence, is enough to shove through a horrid “compromise”.

In case you haven’t noticed, even as the price of crude has fallen, the price of gasoline has exploded because almost all of the production is concentrated in a hurricane-prone area. To allow drilling only in an area that suffers from the same deficiency, sometimes at the same time, as the western Gulf of Mexico is beyond idiotic.

– The House of Representatives is working on a bill that is even worse than the Gang of 10 16 20. I missed most of the “debate”, but Shoebox e-mailed me with news that, despite earlier claims that the ‘Rat House leadership would allow an introduction of a serious drilling alternative, they rammed their no-drill plan through with no allowed changes.

The Institute for Energy Research (with a hat-tip to the gang at National Review Online) outlines just how bad this is: a permanent ban on drilling out to 50 miles including a fresh ban off of Alaska’s coast (which locks up most of the known reserves), no drilling at all in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (after all, the ‘Rats have to continue to allow their Communist allies to drink our Florida milkshake), a state right of refusal out to 100 miles with no revenue sharing that might sway a state to allow drilling at that distance, and a further socialistic meddling in the energy market. In exchange, it allows drilling beyond 100 miles, where there is no existing infrastructure (after all, the ‘Rats have to keep their promise of no relief for 10 years) and somewhere between 2 billion and 4 billion barrels of recoverable oil (when a full lifting of the offshore ban would bring 18 billion barrels of recoverable oil to market).

Given that, if nothing is done in the next 15 days, the entirety of the offshore drilling ban expires, it is time to urge the Senate to do nothing with regards to drilling. That’s right; I want gridlock. Tell your Senators and Congressmen, GRIDLOCK!

Revisions/extensions (3:56 pm 9/16/2008) – Corrected the current status of the House No-Drill bill.

Hey Abboo ooott!

by @ 11:25. Filed under Politics - National.

Like the classic comedy team of Abbott and Costello in their famous “Who’s on First” routine, Barack Obama and Joe Biden now are talking past one another when discussing economic and tax policy.

Joe Biden was on the “Today Show” this morning. at 1:31 of the following clip comes this exchange:

Meredith: Meanwhile Senator, you and Senator Obama are calling for increased taxes on the wealthy and there are many economists who say that would hurt the economy even more….
Biden: I don’t know any economists who are saying that!

Yesterday, Barack Obama said the McCain was living in denial over the economic challenges. If that’s true, than Biden is living in ignorance! Joe, can I give you just one, of the many I could find with about 1 minute of Google search, of the economists who say tax increases are bad…especially in a down economy; J.D. Foster, Ph.D. The summary paragraph from this paper:

The evidence is persuasive that the tax increase probably slowed the economy compared to the growth it would have achieved and that the subsequent tax cuts of 1997, not the tax increases, were the source of the acceleration in real growth in the latter half of the decade. As taxes are now above their historical average as a share of the economy, and are rising, Congress should look to enact additional tax relief to keep the economy strong.

Geez Joe, no economists? Not even you can be that naive, can you? Worse yet Joe, the man you’re running with understands the very concept that you say “No economists” agree on. As I showed you here, even Barack Obama is backing off of his tax increase plans due to the weak economy:
When Barack Obama was asked:

What about increasing taxes on the wealthy?

Obama replied:

“I think we’ve got to take a look and see where the economy is. I mean, the economy is weak right now,” Obama said on “This Week” on ABC. “The news with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, I think, along with the unemployment numbers, indicates that we’re fragile.”

With Obama and Biden we don’t know “Who’s on first” or “What’s on second.” It’s obvious though that “I don’t know” is running for VP!

Senator – what economy are you talking about?

by @ 9:33. Filed under Politics - National.

From Barack Obama’s speech, yesterday in Grand Junction, CO

It’s not that I think John McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of most Americans. I just think doesn’t know. He doesn’t get what’s happening between the mountain in Sedona where he lives and the corridors of Washington where he works. Why else would he say that we’ve made great progress economically under George Bush? Why else would he say that the economy isn’t something he understands as well as he should? Why else would he say, today, of all days – just a few hours ago – that the fundamentals of the economy are still strong?

After chiding McCain for his lack of sympathy and pathos for the “Average American,” Barack Obama stepped off the stage now equipped with his traveling telepromter, and headed to Beverly Hills! In Beverly Hills, Barack Obama will hold a fundraiser where the entry fee is $28,500 PER PLATE!

Nothing says “Average America” like Beverly Hills!

Two weeks ago, the Republican convention was in a tizzy about appearing too happy and enthusiastic while hurricane Gustav went through New Orleans. There was concern that if the Republicans appeared giddy while folks were hurting in New Orleans it would be seen as uncaring and out of touch with the realities of the Nation. There was a lot of discussion, especially amongst pundits, about whether the Republicans really needed to “tone it down.” In fact, was at least one very opinionated local pundit and occasional radio personality who called another respected pundit “stupid” when the latter suggested that giving up a whole day of the convention was unnecessary.

Republicans were worried about how they looked if they kept their convention going in the face of possible harm to American families. They were so worried that they used part of their convention activities to raise funds for those impacted by Gustav. Apparently, that same thought has not occurred to Barack Obama.

In the modified words of Telly Savalas, “Who REALLY loves you baby?”

No, But It Is a River in Africa!

by @ 5:52. Filed under Politics - National.

Over at the HuffandPuff Post, Nancy Pelosi has this headline up on her blog:

Denial is Not An Economic Recovery Plan

(by the way, before we go any further, isn’t Nancy one of those who was attempting to shut down House members posting on blog sites? Anyone up for leading by example?)
I won’t bore you with much of her blog other than to tell you that her topic was the continual unwinding of excess credit in the financial markets which was most recently manifested by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the purchase of Merrill Lynch.

Nancy tries to use a series of quotes by President Bush and John McCain.   Quotes where if she used them in context, she would find them expressing concern about current situations and them expressing their ongoing optimism that the US economy remains on fundamental underpinnings.   She wraps these around the line that has become her mantra since becoming Speaker:

President Bush, Senator McCain, and their Republican Party are out of touch…

(then she ties it to her lament of the day)

and apparently ill-equipped to get our economy back on track.

As has become her practice, Pelosi avoids any responsibility Congress has in this issue and continues to blame all of society’s ills on President Bush, and now by association, John McCain:

Eight years of weakened regulation of our nation’s financial system — including a failure to regulate risky, and often predatory, lending practices — by the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress have led us to this point, and could further erode our nation’s economic health.

As she moved to head the “Do Nothing Congress,” Nancy told the world that she was now in charge when she said “it takes a woman to clean the House.” That was nearly two years ago.  I guess what Nancy is really saying is that while Buuuuuuuuuush has worked to tear down the nation for eight years, she has been completely incapable of catching up with the person Nancy would describe as the linguistically challenged frat boy. How smart does that make you Nancy?

For the past two years Nancy has become the greatest Monday morning quaterback since the guy who said “knew it all along,” the day after SuperBowl III. Nancy knows that Buuuuuuuuuush created the energy shortage to make incredible profits for the oil companies. Nancy knows that Buuuuuuuuuush created the housing mortgage problem. Nancy knows that Buuuuuuuuush allowed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to issue millions and millions of risky loans. Nancy knows that Buuuuuuuuuush has now allowed several large, venerable Wall Street firms to either implode or be bought on the verge of implosion. And, Nancy knows that Buuuuuuuuush should have been stepping up regulation in all of these areas.

Now, before you jump up and down about all the things the government coulda, shoulda, woulda done to avoid our current issues, I’ll say 1. I agree with that, 2. Remember, the FED is not controlled by the administration, 3. Remember your Constitution, Congress has oversight responsibility.

If Nancy knew all the things that Buuuuuuuuush was doing on the day events ocurred, if she’s really that smart, why didn’t she see it coming? If Nancy is so smart, why hasn’t her House passed one bill in two years, dealing with any of these issues until AFTER they occurred?

The only denial I see, if you believe Nancy Pelosi’s view of the world, is that the President she called “a total failure” has managed to out smart her every step of the way and setting her up to head the Congress with the lowest approval level ever!   Who’s a “total Failure” now Nancy?

If you put politics aside, which is what Nancy should have done but is completely incapable of doing under any circumstance, we would say that we have seen once again why a “little” government is nearly as bad as a “lot of” government. Government, outside of the military, has never been good at anything but reacting. Unfortunately, the “good” that government could do in the current situation is to do nothing and let the markets settle themselves out. Also unfortunately, I doubt that is what they will end up doing.

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