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POPSBush Pushes for More Police Power (cont.)Four Democratic senators - with the lamentable absence of their leader, Harry Reid - also have reminded the attorney general of his oath to protect the Constitution. Russ Feingold, Richard Durbin, Edward Kennedy and Sheldon Whitehouse warn not only Mukasey but also the rest of us that the new rules "might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities." As Lara Jakes Jordan of The Associated Press (Aug. 18) pointed out: "The new policy, law enforcement officials said, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence (including tips from informants) to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious." There would be no evidence of criminal activity.
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POPSWelcome To A Preview Of The Economy Killers energy-efficient appliances and home upgrades to "save" the environment and what remains of your bank account. Of course, this may not be an issue for you. You may not mind adjusting to newer, smaller vehicles that cost more and can do less. You might think that the increased taxes are worth it. You may have extra money in your home budget that you would otherwise waste on frivolous things if not required to use them to pay for necessities like natural gas and electricity. I'm thrilled for you. Really. I am.
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POPSA compromise? Drilling for alternative energy tax credits Seems like an interesting possibility here. Give the Republicans what they want (more drilling) in exchange for what the Democrats want (extension of tax credits for wind, solar, etc.). You would think that this combination would show that the U.S. government is truly committed to doing whatever it takes to bring down our reliance on foreign oil.
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POPSWill Reid Bring A Vote To Open New Areas For Exploration
“Some people are just scared of the accusation that not leasing more acres has an impact on oil prices,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, a senior Democrat from Oregon. “It just doesn’t.” Democratic lawmakers say the Reid-Bingaman proposal seems to be gaining momentum, though these same sources questioned whether Pelosi would schedule it for a vote in the House. But Pelosi has balked at scheduling any drilling legislation for a regular floor vote because that would give Republicans an opportunity to force vulnerable Democratic incumbents to vote on difficult amendments. Votes against expanded drilling would open Democrats to accusations that they had blocked efforts to lower record gas prices. Votes for Republican amendments to encourage more drilling, however, would anger environmental activists. Republicans are demanding votes on several amendments and have pledged to block Democrats from moving to other issues until drilling receives floor votes.
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POPSCrude Senatorial Loggerheads Part of what's confusing Reid and his ilk is the distinction between speculation and manipulation. Speculation isn't a bad thing. Indeed, it's a very good thing. Without speculators, you'd only have natural hedgers participating in commodity futures markets. Prices would be much less stable and market participants with unwanted inherent exposure to those prices (including farmers, airlines, manufacturers, retailers, and shareholders and customers of the whole lot) would have a much harder time offloading that undue risk. In short, speculators are a crucial part of a robust marketplace that moves us toward a more optimal allocation of risk. Without them, the liquidity and efficiency of the marketplace suffers and so does every participant in that market (which definitely includes you) Market manipulation involves deceptive and distortive practices intended to take unfair advantage of other market participants.
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POPSSenate Moves Closer To Energy Vote Deal McConnell said he has not discussed with President Bush the possibility of calling on Congress to cut short its August recess to reopen the energy bill debate, “but if he does, I’ll be happy to be here.” Democrats last week failed to pass a bill to crack down on speculation in the oil futures market, after Republicans insisted that Reid allow a more open amendment process. The GOP is pushing for an amendment that would allow them to vote on lifting the congressional moratorium on offshore oil drilling. McConnell hedged when asked Monday if he could produce enough votes for a drilling amendment. Assuming all 49 Republican senators vote for such an amendment, McConnell would still need 11 more votes to reach the necessary threshold of 60.
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POPSGOP And Bipartisan Effort To Force Democrats To Lift A Drilling Ban Washington - As Congress heads into its last week before August recess and political conventions, there's one big item on the must-do list: Action to ease energy costs for American families. ongressional leaders are increasingly deadlocked over what to do. In response, frustrated rank-and-file members on both sides of the aisle are stepping up efforts to find common ground. Rep. Nick Lampson (D) of Texas is now pursuing his own version of an offshore drilling bill that would dedicate all $2.6 trillion in expected royalties to research on alternative energy. Last week, Republicans blocked three Democratic bills in as many days: On Thursday, the House rejected a measure that would have released about 70 million barrels of oil from the nation's SPR. On Friday, Senate Republicans blocked a move that would stop excessive speculation in energy markets. On Saturday, the GOP opposed taking up a $5.1 billion Senate measure to help low-income Americans pay utility bills this year.
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POPS‘Hook’ Imam Denied Extradition Appeal: To Stand Trial In U.S. They also say he assisted extremists who kidnapped 16 foreign tourists in Yemen in 1998. Three British tourists and one Australian visitor were killed in a shootout between Yemeni security forces and the captors. Al-Masri also is accused of facilitating terrorist training in Afghanistan. The former imam at London’s Finsbury Park Mosque, al-Masri is one of Britain’s best-known Islamist radicals. The Egyptian-born preacher is blind in one eye and has hooks in place of the hands he says he lost fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Under his leadership the Finsbury Park mosque became a magnet for extremists. Its worshippers included Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.
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POPSThe Democrats' Fairy Tale And the improvements in Anbar could never have been sustained without aggressive American military efforts — efforts that were more effective in 2007 than they had been in 2006, due in part to the addition of the surge forces. Last year’s success, in Anbar and elsewhere, was made possible by confidence among Iraqis that U.S. troops would stay and help protect them, that the U.S. would not abandon them to their enemies. Because the U.S. sent more troops instead of withdrawing — because, in other words, President Bush won his battles in 2007 with the Democratic Congress — we have been able to turn around the situation in Iraq. And now Iraq’s Parliament has passed a de-Baathification law — one of the so-called benchmarks Congress established for political reconciliation. For much of 2007, Democrats were able to deprecate the military progress and political reconciliation taking place on the ground by harping on the failure of the Iraqi government to pass the benchmark legislation
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POPSPelosi: The Power Of One "In the House, the power rests in the speaker, the power of recognition, of setting the agenda. . . . Very different rules," Pelosi said. Acknowledging her ability to influence decision-making, Pelosi said in the CNN interview that she gets to operate differently than her Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Reid must reach out to Republicans to muster 60 votes — enough to stop a filibuster — to get anything done. It's an example of the vast power placed in the office of the speaker, who sets the agenda for the 435-member House. Members can force a vote if enough of them sign a petition, but that's a rarity because it requires rank-and-file Democrats to line up against their boss. In this case, Pelosi is going against a rising tide of public opinion. Faced with rapidly increasing gasoline prices, 73 percent of Americans now favor offshore drilling, according to a poll conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corp.
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POPSDemocrats And Gasoline that they must have some gall to criticize creationism when they in fact subscribe to its economic equivalent. But as I wrote last week, I don't really think they are this ignorant. They're providing a rhetorical distraction to the fact that they want high gas prices, probably higher ones than we have right now. Meanwhile, in order to deflect and even harness consumer anger in the political arena, they can send out Chuck Schumer to put on this dog-and-pony show about the phantoms that are secretly directing the economy from behind closed doors. It's a smokescreen. As an energy consumer, you should be a lot more concerned about what Democrats are doing in the open Senate chamber. The gas crisis finally hit Capitol Hill with full fury this week, and Senate Democrats have launched a plan that sounds ambitious: Take on Wall Street speculators, OPEC, price gougers and Big Oil. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9967.html
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POPSCongress ratings plunge in poll Reid's comment speak volumes!! The Dems have completely refused to co-operate with the President whenever possible...they preferred to investigate and undermine the Administration. Talk about a 'do-nothing Congress'! Rasmussen had the percentage at 9.
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POPSBravo For Bush And Bravo For The Traders Well, if Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That’s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime. The congressional ban on offshore drilling expires September 30, so that becomes a key date. A new report from Wall Street research house Sanford C. Bernstein says that California actually could start producing new oil within one year if the moratorium were lifted. The California oil is under shallow water and already has been explored. Drilling platforms have been in place since before the moratorium. They’re talking about 10 billion barrels worth off the coast of California. There’s also a “gang of 10” in the Senate, five Republicans and five Democrats, that is trying to work a compromise deal on lifting the moratorium. So it’s possible a lot of action on this front could occur much sooner than people seem to think. Deregulate, decontrol, and unleash the American energy industry.
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POPSReid rejects Bush call to lift drilling moratorium No surprise here; same ol' , same ol'. What surprises me is Markey's comments. What hubris! "Drill, drill, drill...." hasn't happened!!!!! Of course, Reid, Markey, and such will not have problems filling their gas tanks, fueling their homes, feeding their families....
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POPSHolding Liberals Accountable For Energy Woes In essence, an artificial “monopoly” has been created among the member nations, whereby they can unilaterally determine what the rest of the world will pay for its energy needs. But for this monopoly to survive and thrive, it requires the defacto cooperation of all other parties involved. Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of this situation is that such “cooperation” is effectively coming from the Democrat controlled Congress of the United States. In a sinister sense, America is officially refusing to increase the world production of oil, thus strengthening the OPEC monopoly and its ability to deliberately inflate the price of crude oil. By stubbornly refusing any consideration of exploring, drilling, and thus expanding American oil production, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-CA) and Senate Majority Harry Reid (D.-NV) along with their Democrat political machine in Washington, are effectively forcing the entire American oil industry into the role of collaborating OPEC members.
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POPSReid: Spending Bills Will Likely Wait Until Bush Is Gone Reid’s statement, while not unexpected, adds a note of finality to speculation that the Senate would act on the 12 annual appropriation bills. He also said that he doesn’t expect Congress to return for a post-election, lame-duck session. Under that scenario, Congress would only be in session for another six weeks this year.
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POPSPelosi: Drilling In Protected Areas ‘A Hoax’ Democrats would not say when these bills would be ready for floor consideration. House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) took to the floor to again criticize Democrats for dodging votes on energy bills, charging that Democrats are avoiding votes on the opening up of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge and the OCS. Hoyer soon followed to retort, saying he and Democratic leaders have for weeks been urging for drilling on approved acres, only to have those efforts blocked by Republicans. He blamed Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney – the “two oil men in the White House” – and Republicans for setting an energy policy that has driven up gas prices and steered record profits to the energy companies. “As every serious person who has studied this issue knows, the proposals that Democrats are producing are shams and hoaxes designed to provide political cover and not to produce more American energy and lower gas prices,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said.
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