by Alex Gimarc                                Mon., April 7, 2008

Interesting Items 4/07 -

Howdy all, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy -

In this issue:

1. Senate
2. Oil
3. Polar Bear
4. Harassers
5. Hugo

1. Senate. The current senate breakdown is 51-49 democrat / democrat leaning / Republican. Chuck Schumer, (D, NY) who is leading the campaign effort to elect more democrats into the senate this year claims to be on track to elect another 6 democrats, jacking up their numbers to 57. He has raised a boatload of money to do it. As of today, things at the senate level defending those seats looks pretty bleak. Conservatives are all but guaranteed to lose the Virginia Senate seat currently held by John Warner (R, VA) who announced his retirement. The best conservative pickup opportunity appears to be Mary Landrieu (D, LA) who won two very close, very hotly contested elections via suspected massive voter fraud in New Orleans, typically out of the now non-existent Ninth Ward. As a result of hurricane Katrina, that democrat vote manufacturing machine no longer exists. Other open seats are analyzed as follows. All of this is from John Miller at NRO, dated March 6:

• Alaska – Ted Stevens ought to do well unless indicted. Likely Republican Retention
• Arkansas – Mark Pryor is running unopposed. Good job, Republicans. Democrat Retention
• Colorado – Open Republican Seat. Udall has twice the money of the Republican. Toss-up.
• Kentucky – Mitch McConnell is expected to win a close race. Likely Republican Retention
• Maine – RINO Susan Collins is running well. Leaning Republican Retention
• Minnesota – Incumbent Norm Coleman against Al Franken – Toss Up
• Mississippi – Replacing retired Trent Lott – likely Republican Retention
• New Hampshire – incumbent John Sununu running as much as 10% behind. Toss-up.
• New Jersey – Incumbent Frank Lautenberg is highly unpopular, but democrats always appear to be able to win in NJ. Likely democrat retention
• New Mexico – Open Republican seat. Toss-up
• Oregon – Incumbent RINO Gordon Smith is what they want. Leaning Republican Retention
• South Dakota – Incumbent democrat Tim Johnson suffered a massive stroke a couple years ago and is still mostly incapacitated. Democrat voters elected a dead candidate in Missouri in 2000. They are expected to do well with the sympathy vote in SD this year. Likely Democrat retention.
  

2. Oil. The House Select Committee on Energy Independence dragged oil company executives in front of them last week and demanded to know why gasoline prices were so high. The executives told them one reason was that 85% of the offshore oil fields were closed to exploration. They should have told them that it was because the congressional majority opposed drilling in ANWR – taking a volume of oil equal to that which we import from Saudi Arabia off the table. They should have told them that the failure to support refinery modernization, expansion, and simplification has all contributed to increased gasoline prices. Finally, they should have pointed out that the reason gasoline prices are so high is because congress has jacked up federal taxes on gasoline. Cut the taxes, and the prices decrease. Move away from designer blends of gasoline for clean air purposes and the prices go down. St art drilling offshore and the prices go down. Drill in ANWR and the prices go down. This isn’t all that difficult. Every single decision made by the environmentalist-friendly idiots in congress has served to increase the per gallon price of gasoline. Renewables such as corn-based ethanol will increase costs also.

3. Polar Bear. Barbara Boxer (D, CA), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee, demanded that Dirk Kempthorne, Interior Secretary, appear before the committee and explain why the polar bear had not been instantly listed as an endangered species. Kempthorne did not appear, instead sending a letter that explained they were reviewing all information before making a decision. Listing the polar bear for something predicted to happen in 50 years would be the worst decision possible. Some p art of me hopes they do it, for that decision would quickly be shown to be one of the most idiotic, faith-based decision possible and further serve to completely undermine the Endangered Species Act, leading to its final destruction. The problem with that is that the greens and courts and a friendly democrat majority in congress could do an incredible amount of damage to the national economy while the politics moves forward. One only needs to look at the destruction of logging in the Pacific Northwest following the listing of the Northern Spotted Owl in the early 1990s – a listing that was fundamentally based on fraudulent numbers. It is always better to never give the feds or the greens any more power or control over our daily lives than they already have. The greens have overplayed their hands on the global warming hoax. Listing the polar bear as endangered is simply another facet of that hoax. If you believe, as I do that things are going to get pretty cold over the next few decades, the very weather seen on a daily basis will convince the general public that global warming was a fraud and a hoax. What they do about it is up to us.

4. Harassers. Latest and greatest out of the Kafka-esque world of pubic education is turning little boys into sexual harassers – complete with calling in the police, arrests, and public listing. Captain Ed in Hot Air Friday reported of an elementary school in Woodbridge, MD that called the police and arrested a six year old boy for hitting a little girl on the butt. He was labeled a sexual deviant, arrested, and inserted into the system as a pervert. According to Captain Ed:

In Maryland alone, 166 elementary-school students got suspended for sexual harassment last year. Those figures include 22 first-graders, 16 kinderg artners, and three pre-schoolers. In Virginia, ABC News reports, 255 elementary-school children got suspended last year for the same reasons.

The government schools have gone completely off the deep end in this nation. They are too expensive. They no longer educate. They instruct in sexual deviancy. And their use and abuse of zero tolerance rules turn thousands of youngsters who are doing nothing more than playing into criminals. This has to end and has to end soon.

5. Hugo. Socialist and Castro wannabee Hugo Chavez nationalized yet another segment of the Venezuelan economy last week. This one was cement, guaranteeing that everything constructed in Venezuela from now on will be more expensive and of lower quality than before. Note to Hugo and the democrats in congress that are doing everything possible to emulate him: the marketplace always works. State control never does. Hot Air, Sat.

More later –

           - AG

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.