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POPSPolar Bear Melodrama The greatest danger is that this ruling will be distorted by the courts, where it is inevitably headed. On the other hand, not listing the polar bear would have proceeded to litigation too, with potentially worse consequences. Climate-change lawsuits have already deformed the Clean Air Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and others. The most pernicious element in the polar bear melodrama is the way the law is being run off the rails, and even a duly elected White House can't seem to throw on the brakes. If Congress wants to enact global-warming legislation, then so be it – but the costs and benefits should be argued in the open. This fly-by-night policy making is not only unscientific. It's undemocratic.
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POPSWho Will Pay For The Politicians Promises? Because of onerous regulations, it has been 30-plus years since a new refinery has been built. Similar regulations also explain why the U.S. nuclear energy production is a fraction of what it might be. Congress' solution to our energy supply problems is not to relax supply restrictions, but to enact the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that mandates that oil companies increase the amount of ethanol mixed with gasoline. Anyone with an ounce of brains would have realized that diverting crops from food to fuel use would raise the prices of a host of corn-related foods, such as corn-fed meat and dairy products. Wheat and soybeans prices have also risen as a result of fewer acres being planted in favor of corn. Congress' proposed "solutions" to the energy and food mess it has created include a windfall profits tax on oil companies, food stamps, etc. These measures will not solve the problem, but will create new problems.
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POPSFREE EMAIL S2284 THE SENATE VOTE FOR DOMESTIC ENERGY PRODUCTION What the McConnell amendment would do: •Produce up to 24 billion barrels of oil when fully enacted—enough oil to keep America running for 5 years with no foreign imports. •Allow petitions for leasing activities on the Outer Continental Shelf—an area with 14 billion barrels of known recoverable oil. •As no new refineries have been built in the U.S. in 30 years, give the EPA authority to expedite permits for refineries •Establish a competitive oil and gas leasing program for ANWR •Repeal the $4000 fee for new permit applications to drill. •Repeal the 2007 provision that reduces mineral leasing revenue payments to the states. •Repeal the moratorium on funds to encourage the commercial leasing of oil shale. Isn’t it time Congress came to its senses and voted for U.S. domestic energy production?
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POPSOppose Climate Alarmist Gore: Sign Free Petition Worried about high food prices, Congress tries to push the biofuel industry to use nonfood crops. Chicago - America's love affair with corn-based ethanol is cooling – at least in Washington. Some legislators blame the rising use of corn as a biofuel as a key factor behind high food prices. Others want to freeze the federal mandate on biofuels production at current levels, reversing legislation passed just a few months ago that increases it through 2022. Still others are pushing to shift tax incentives away from corn-based to cellulose-based ethanol in the nearly completed farm bill. These moves represent a dramatic backlash against corn ethanol, which until a few months ago was widely viewed as a boon for both farmers and consumers. Many experts worry that Washington's new skepticism will undo important progress the US has made in replacing foreign oil with domestic energy alternatives. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0501/p03s03-usec.html
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POPSOil Prices Require More Than Congressional Accusations He was correct to remind Americans that if we want to lower the cost of energy we must be willing to use our own resources, whether they are natural or those we can build, rather than rely upon others to provide for our needs. After all, isn’t self-reliance part of the American spirit. We should not recontributely on foreign governments, many of which are volatile, to supply our energy needs, nor should our large farmers rely on Federal Government handouts to prop up their financially lucrative businesses. President Bush was correct to note that Congressional support for farm subsidies will do little other than contribute to the rising prices of food. He was correct to remind Americans that if we want to lower the cost of energy we must be willing to use our own resources, whether they are natural or those we can build, rather than rely upon others to provide for our needs.
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POPSOil-Rich States Starve the World Food Program The OPEC total amounts to roughly one minute and 10 seconds worth of the organization’s estimated $674 billion in annual oil revenues in 2007 — revenues that will be vastly exceeded in 2008 with the continuing spiral in world oil prices. This year, the U.S. had contributed $362.7 million to WFP just through May 4, according to the website. That figure does not include another $250 million above the planned yearly contribution that was promised by President George W. Bush in the wake of WFP’s April warning that a “silent tsunami” of rising food costs would add dramatically to the world population living in hunger. Nor does it include another $770 million in food aid that President Bush has asked Congress to provide as soon as possible. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, with oil revenues last year of $164 billion, does not even appear on the website donor list for 2008.
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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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POPSIs Four Months+Three Weeks Enough Experience? In contrast, John McCain's 26 years in Congress, 22 years of military service including 1,966 days in captivity as a POW in Hanoi now seem more impressive than ever. At 71, John McCain may just be hitting his stride.
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POPSGOP Plans to Unveil Tough New Immigration Bills Democrats also have begun embracing a tougher stance on immigration as well. Democrats have focused on offering opportunity to immigrants, but the study by two think tanks urged them to begin speaking in terms of "requiring" illegal immigrants to become legal and about what's best for the United States. Many House Democrats have gone a step further, endorsing an enforcement-only bill by freshman Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina that would bolster border security and require employers to verify their workers' legal status with an electronic verification system. The SAVE Act has drawn 140 co-sponsors, 48 of whom are Democrats, many of them vulnerable freshman who won seats from Republicans. The Democratic leadership dislikes Shuler's bill. Republican leaders are considering collecting signatures for a special petition that requires House leaders to bring a bill up for debate if 218 members sign.
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POPSFeds Urge Leniency For Homeowners Only under the temporary 'hothouse' conditions in mortgage markets did they seem to qualify. Second, people who have no equity in their homes cannot meaningfully be said to be owners. When times turn tough, they will walk away. They were effectively renters, not homeowners. "The crisis will end when housing markets hit bottom and the prices of mortgage securities stabilize. Banks also need to unwind their positions in exotic financial derivatives. The Fed needs to understand it is facing a capital crisis, not a liquidity crisis. The very low interest rates on safe assets show there is ample liquidity in financial markets. The Fed should not supply capital. That is the job of markets, and they are doing it."
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POPSRepublicans Assail Ethanol Production But Mr. McCain and others said those rules should be suspended to put more corn back into the food supply for animal feed, and to encourage farmers to plant other crops.
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POPSCongress Considers Cellulose Ethanol In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Wishful Thinking on Cellulosic Ethanol," Indur Goklany, author of the Cato book The Improving State of the World, writes: "If cellulosic ethanol proves to be as profitable as its backers hope, farmers will divert even more land and water to producing the cellulose instead of food. All this means we'll be more or less back to where we were. Food will once again be competing with fuel. And land and water will be diverted from the rest of nature to meet the human demand for fuel.
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POPSPlease Send More Complaints Otherwise how will our taxpayer-funded hate police manage to keep their cozy sinecure? Happily, beginning on July 1, under Ontario's "human rights" reforms, Commissar Hall will have far greater powers to initiate prosecutions. Under the new proposals, " 'hate incident' means any act or omission, whether criminal or not, that expresses bias, prejudice, bigotry or contempt toward a vulnerable or disadvantaged community or its members." "Act or omission"? Of course. The act of not acting in an insufficiently non-hateful way can itself be hateful. Whether or not the incident is a non-incident is incidental. I quote from "Concepts Of Race And Racism And Implications For OHRC Policy" as published on the OHRC website: "The denial of racism used by so many whites in positions of authority ranging from the supervisor in a work place to the chief of Police and ministers of government must be understood for what it is: an example of White hegemonic power over those considered 'other.' "
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POPSHawaiian Activists End Protest At Iolani Palace "While we respect the freedom of Hawaiian groups to hold an opinion on the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, we believe that blocking access to Iolani Palace is certainly detrimental to our mission to share the palace and its history with our residents, keiki and visitors." "As a matter of historical record, we wish to point out that the original seat of government of the Hawaiian Kingdom was NOT Iolani Palace. The Palace was the royal RESIDENCE. Government activities were carried out in the original Courthouse, then later in Aliiolani Hale." The palace and the grounds briefly were occupied in June 2006 by a group calling itself Hui Pu. About two dozen native Hawaiian activists chanted, sang and hung banners and upside-down state flags from the second floor of Iolani Palace. The leader of the group, Ikaika Hussey, said that Hui Pu represented a coalition of native Hawaiians opposed to the federal recognition bill pending in Congress.
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POPS Angry Renter. com: Sign The Petition To Congress Unfortunately, renters aren't as good at politics as the small minority of homeowners (and their bankers) who are in trouble. We don't have lobbyists in Washington, DC. We don't get a tax deduction for our rent and we don't get sweetheart government loans. WHEREAS: Most Americans rent or own their home outright, and the vast majority of homes (98%) are not in foreclosure. WHEREAS: Both banks and borrowers should be reponsible for their actions, and the government should not reward reckless behavior. WHEREAS: It is wrong to force all taxpayers-- including renters who are already subsidizing home owners through the tax code-- to pay for additional bailouts for big banks and home flippers. BE IT RESOLVED: That Congress should not pass any bailout programs that reward risky borrowing and lending. Let the free market sort it out! Sign the Petition : We Will Deliver the Next Batch to Congress on May 1st 19,353 People Have Signed So Far
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POPSStart Drilling On environmental grounds, the alternatives to more drilling are usually worse. Subsidies to ethanol made from corn have increased food prices and used scarce water, with few benefits. If oil is imported, it's vulnerable to tanker spills. By contrast, local production is probably safer. There were 4,000 platforms operating in the Gulf of Mexico when hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit. Despite extensive damage, there were no major spills, says Robbie Diamond of Securing America's Future Energy, an advocacy group. Perhaps oil prices will drop when some long-delayed projects begin production or if demand slackens. But the basic problem will remain. Though dependent on foreign oil, we might conceivably curb the power of foreign producers. But this is not a task of a month or a year. It is a task of decades; new production projects take that long. If we don't start now, our future dependence and its dangers will grow. Count on it.
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POPSBIOFUELS – A MAN MADE DISASTER BIOFUEL DISASTER_THANK CONGRESS AND GREENIES! Contrary to popular belief, the production of biofuels is extremely unfriendly to the environment. The increased use of fertilizer needed in the growing corn crop has resulted in additional soil and water pollution. The National Academy of Sciences recently reported that the 15% food to fuel mandate will increase the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone by 10 to 19% as a result of water pollution caused by fertilizer runoff. The production of ethanol requires copious amounts of water, thereby draining local water tables. Congress never learns. Manipulating the market with subsidies and taxation can have disastrous, deadly results. If ethanol is such a great product, then it will thrive in the free market. How many people will have to starve before Congress and the do-gooder environmentalist lobby admit that our biofuel policy is a complete disaster and a potential threat to our economy and global stability.
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POPSUndoing America's Ethanol Mistake Expanding biofuels while refusing to take other measures, such as lifting the ban on oil and natural gas production in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf, is counterproductive. We should be tapping into a broad portfolio of energy options, including clean coal, nuclear power and wave energy. By taking these measures, we can enable biofuels to be part of the energy solution, instead of contributing to the energy problem. Restraining the dangerous effects of artificially inflated demand for ethanol should be an issue that unites both conservatives and progressives. As a recent Time cover story pointed out, biofuel mandates increase greenhouse gasses and create incentives for global deforestation. In the Amazon basin, huge swaths of forest are being cleared to meet the growing hunger for biofuels. In addition, relief organizations are facing gaping shortfalls as the cost of food outpaces their ability to provide aid for the 800 million people who lack food security.
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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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POPSPresidential Bid By Georgia Ex-Congressman Instead of siphoning votes from Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.), Barr said that his support would come from “disaffected Republican voters, Ron Paul supporters and independent voters and Democratic voters who believe in a strong message of civil liberties.” To him, both the Republican McCain and Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) fail to offer “a real choice” in November, especially on his No. 1 issue, reducing the size of government. Of course, there’s the chance that Barr’s campaign won’t make much of an impact. “I can’t imagine Bob Barr or any other Libertarian candidate making any difference in this election,” said Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report. “This is likely to be a massive-turnout election, which will wash out the impact of fringe candidates on either end of the spectrum.”
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POPSTime Running Out For Farm Bill (continued)_Over the last 20 years, the opportunity cost to American consumers and taxpayers of supporting agricultural producers has totaled over $1.7 trillion. The harm to agricultural producers abroad, including many developing countries, does not help U.S. foreign policy. American intransigence over reducing farm subsidies is a significant impediment to a successful conclusion to the Doha round of world trade talks. It is time for the government to get out of the business of managing agricultural markets and supporting the incomes of farmers, many of whom are relatively well-to-do."
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POPSOur Thorny Oil Energy Policy "Valero believes there will never be another refinery built in the U.S.," spokesman Bill Day told IBD. He cited costs, environmental regulations, neighborhood activism and lawsuits. "For a new refinery, it would take five years for a permit and five years for construction, and it's very expensive. A company would have to know it would pay off." Given these conditions, is it any wonder companies such as Valero are looking for friendlier climes? The laws by which Congress hamstrings energy producers have had the lethal effect of slowing down the economy while driving up prices. It's high time for measures that do just the opposite.
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POPSSupport Victory In Iraq: Sign Our Petition Please show solidarity behind General Petraeus and our heroic military. Make our voices of hope and support louder and stronger than those of the radical anti-war groups. We must illustrate that the efforts of the military in this successful surge have not gone unnoticed. We must proclaim that it would be undeniably disastrous for our national security to retreat and inhumane to leave the Iraqi people in the hands of the brutal and violent Islamic jihadists.
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POPSUphold Our Founding Fathers' Intent And TheTenth Amendment Force Congress to Cite Constitutional Authority for Bills! John Shadegg (R-AZ) has reintroduced H.R. 1359, the "Enumerated Powers Act", a bill that highlights the importance of the Tenth Amendment and forces a continual reexamination of the role of the federal government. As Barry Goldwater wrote in "The Conscience of a Conservative": "I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for......................."
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POPSCongress Is Full Of Bold-Faced Liars What’s the only thing worse than Republicans on a spending spree? Democrats on a spending spree. Or maybe Republicans on a spending spree when they know the Democrats are going to take the heat. Either way, your representatives in Washington D.C. are a bunch of dirty filthy liars. Take the time today, right now, to write to your representatives and let them know how you feel about what they are doing. They still need our votes to get elected, so what you say really does matter to them. How can the people who are supposed to be running the country on our behalf do such a crappy job and lie about it when the facts are so obvious. In 2004 the Democrats took control of congress promising to fix the earmark problem. Instead of fixing it, they are doing their best to outdo the spending of the Republican controlled congress before them. This isn’t a partisan problem, it’s a problem all Americans need to be aware of, and take action to fix.
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POPSBig Taxing, Big Earmarking, Big Congress Grills Big Oil (continued) will Rep. Walden agitate for lower tax rates? What about Walden’s earmarks of over $46 million? Will he think about lowering his earmarks, in light of the federal government’s record profits? * * * * * As Ronald Bailey of Reason writes: “Finally, if Congress wants to blame someone for high oil prices, blame the benighted oil producing countries that have underinvested in oil production for at least a decade. But Congressional grandstanders can’t haul the likes of Venezuela’s Chavez, Russia’s Putin, and Iran’s Ahmadinejad to their hearing rooms.” The spectacle of the House blaming the oil companies in a free market for high prices would be bizarre, if it didn’t happen so often.
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POPSSubstance Abuse The e-mail inflates Obama's numbers by counting his cosponsored bills, but Sarah Binder, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on legislative politics, tells FactCheck.org that often "cosponsorship does not require a commitment of time, energy or resources – let alone the political or policy ingenuity that might generate a bill idea in the first place." Tallying sponsored bills, says Binder, is "a better metric of a senator's agenda, efforts and interests." Clinton has been in the Senate a little more than seven years; Obama, a little more than three. Using the numbers above, we calculate that Clinton has been the sole sponsor of a few more bills and resolutions per year – 51, to Obama's 43. And she has steered twice as many through the Senate and almost four times as many into law per year, on average, as Obama has. from THOMAS.gov, the Library of Congress' database of legislative information
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POPSEco-Activist Google Will Help Flood Capitol Switchboard Rogers said her group is finalizing talks with Internet giant Google to coordinate online advertisements and other publicity measures in support of the calls. Details of the arrangement are still being worked out and are scheduled to be released on April 14.
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POPSTen Days That Changed Capitalism In the days that followed, the Republican Treasury secretary leaned on two shareholder-owned, though government chartered, companies-Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-to raise capital that their boards didn't want to raise. In exchange, their government regulator allowed them to increase their leverage so they can buy about $200 billion more in mortgage-backed securities. So Fannie and Freddie will get bigger, a welcome development when mortgage markets are in trouble......But everyone knows that if Fannie or Freddie stumble, taxpayers will get stuck with the tab. Wednesday's previously planned auction in which the Fed is trading Treasurys for mortgage-backed securities, is aimed at increasing demand for those securities to drive down mortgage rates. A capitalist economy lets prices-those of homes, mortgage-backed securities and stocks-to fall to the point where the big-bucks crowd rushes in, hoping to make a killing. But if the big money remains on the sidelines, unpersuaded that th
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POPSDon't Let Congress Blow-Up Aerial Refueling Tankers Deal As your constituent, I'm writing today to let you know that I support the competitive vetting process that the U.S. Air Force followed in awarding the contract for its next generation of aerial refueling tankers. This process is a vast improvement over the originally proposed tanker lease deal with Boeing, which was crafted by members of Congress behind closed doors without any competitive review or debate in order to subsidize Boeing's 767 production line. The original tanker deal was nothing more than a corporate welfare giveaway to one well-heeled, politically influential company. Then-Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas) called it the worst pork-barrel handout he had seen in his 22 years on Capitol Hill. The Air Force ranked each bid on five criteria and Northrop Grumman won over Boeing on four out of the five and tied in one category. The tanker will be built by American workers and outfitted with sensitive technology right here at home in Mobile, Alabama.
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POPSLamar Alexander R-Tenn Sees Chance To Nix Real ID Act “Congress created Real ID, and they can do away with Real ID,” said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute and the author of a book on identification laws and technology. “Not a single state is going to be in compliance with the law by May, and the program has been failing from the start.” Citing the law’s unfunded costs and big-government approach, Alexander told Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at a March 4 subcommittee meeting about his plans for the amendment. Like many critics, one of Alexander’s biggest concerns is cost. He points out that while some estimates of the implementation of Real ID come to $4 billion, federal officials have appropriated only $60 million and distributed only $6 million. At least 19 states have passed measures stating their opposition. “If you pass a bill without hearings, you’re going to miss stuff. And the authors of Real ID missed a lot,” Harper, of the Cato Institute said.
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POPSStop Congress From Raising Gas Taxes! ALERT: With gasoline now hitting over $3.00 per gallon, what do you think Congress will do about this powerful punch to American wallets and pocketbooks? If you guessed, "They'll raise taxes, of course" -- you're right! We're not kidding. According to recent news reports, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) "wants to put a 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline to try to cut back on Americans' consumption."
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POPSUS Supremes To Bush "Don't Mess With Texas" President George W. Bush urged that Medellin be allowed new hearings and sentencing. The President's decision came after an international consulate determined that Medellin was improperly denied access to his consulate before his original prosecution, which is a violation of a treaty signed by the United States during the 1963 Vienna Convention. The 6-3 vote means the pending execution of Medellin can proceed. He faces lethal injection for two slayings. Chief Justice John Roberts voted for the execution. Roberts was supported in his position by Justices John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito. Justice Stephen Breyer, Justices David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg voted in the negative At age 18, Medellin participated in the June 1993 gang rape and murder of two Harris County, Texas, girls: Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16. He was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death. He has been on death row in Texas ever sin
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POPSHow McCain Can Win the Base Mr. Jindal, who was elected to Rep. David Vitter's seat when Mr. Vitter ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, was re-elected for a second term with 88% of the vote. That's not enough experience? It's as much experience in Congress as Barack Obama has to show for his three years. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Jindal, in his last term, had an American Conservative Union rating of 100, with 96 for both terms. In addition he has consistently taken the No New Taxes pledge proposed by Americans for Tax Reform. In 1991 he was a young Hill staffer working for Rep. Jim McCrery. One day Mr. McCrery asked him to look over some Medicare plans being proposed in committee. A couple of days later, he brought back to the boss a totally revised system that was so impressive that Mr. McCrery remembered him and in 1995 introduced him to Gov.-elect Murphy J. Foster Jr. Mr. Jindal, at the age of 24, was appointed secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.
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POPSThe Washington Post-er Child For Climate Bias It’s quite possible that if Eilperin and the many other members of the mainstream media who so far have been in the tank for global warming started reporting on the very real debate about climate model validity rather than simply regurgitating what the agenda-driven modelers tell them, then we could avert the looming national economic disaster that Congress is preparing for the next president to sign into law.
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POPSListening To The Enemy Privacy concerns are not trivial. The Constitution protects against "unreasonable" searches. But even with law enforcement, where the main function is ex post prosecution, there are numerous exceptions to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement. Yet Congress insists still on micromanaging the president — and he, by failing to assert his authority early on, is now reduced to bargaining with Congress over minutia that will soon be as obsolete and dangerous as the underlying act is today. John Locke, put it well when he observed that the foreign affairs power "is much less capable to be directed by antecedent, standing, positive Laws, than the Executive." The Federalist's authors, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, all agreed. The remedy for executive incompetence or recklessness in foreign affairs is political — not legislative, much less legal. Congress, to say nothing of the courts, can no more manage such affairs than it can the economy.
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POPSPetition Your Senators "Stop New Taxes On Energy" Taxes on energy production actually work against energy security and increase imports, as domestically produced energy becomes more expensive than imported supplies. Policies that act as disincentives for oil and natural gas production will ultimately hurt businesses and consumers by driving supply down and prices up. Increasing taxes on U.S. companies will effectively ensure that they will have less money available to reinvest in exploration, new technology and refining improvements that will help to meet more of our present and future energy needs with domestic energy supplies. If Congress places additional taxes on domestically-produced energy, the net effect will be the creation of a subsidy for foreign competitors. Congress should be taking steps to help make American businesses more viable in the world market - not less.
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POPSAs Good As Cash, Until It’s Not "The Federal Reserve is taking bigger steps to ease the nation's credit crisis, including increasing the amount of loans it plans to make available to banks this month to $100 billion," the Associated Press reports. The auctions serve as short-term loans to get banks the cash they need to keep lending to their customers."
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POPSCongress Punishes American Oil.............by Steve Forbes continued>>by putting a handful companies at the mercy of competitors across the globe. Even more outrageous, foreign oil companies, including Citgo, owned by the government of Venezuela, will not lose the deduction. In other words, foreign oil companies with US production will actually pay a lower tax rate than American companies. How can members of Congress support legislation that will reward companies such as Citgo, while placing U.S. companies at a competitive disadvantage? In their zeal to punish "big oil" members of Congress have made a mockery of our energy policy. What few in Congress have talked about is that millions in subsidies will go to large and successful companies. These companies have been at the forefront of the lobbying campaign for this legislation. So despite all the talk of promoting renewable and alternatives, it's nothing more than another congressional debacle to transfer wealth to favored interest. Revisiting the mistakes of the 1970's..........
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POPSTake Action:Email:The Senate To Stop Big Media Research shows that media consolidation means fewer perspectives and less of the news our communities need. This is especially troubling in an election year when citizens depend on our media for the information they need to make fundamental choices about the future of our country.
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