There are so many to choose from, that I have a hard time calling it the worst. It may have been the most offensive and maddening performance I've ever witnessed though. With her stubborn refusal to answer a simple question, she came off as either stupid, crazy, incompetent, or just plain corrupt. Maybe all of the above.

I can only conclude that the Dems have two reasons for the stand they've taken against drilling. First, they're beholden to the environmentalist lobby. And secondly, they're betting on the American people being so ignorant and uninformed(courtesy of the Drive-bys) that they blame this on Bush and the GOP.

In other words, they're screwing over the American people for political reasons which is unconscionable. My only hope is that with 3 months til the election and the GOP finally standing up to the Dems, that this ploy will backfire spectacularly on Pelosi, Reid, and Co. and costs them bigtime at the polls.

This performance shows a person totally out-of-touch with mainstream America and pushing an agenda that has nothing in it for the average American.  How is tapping the SOR going to lower gas prices?  There's 58 days of oil there.  She proposing taking ten days worth.  Are we going to leave it depleted after we tap it. or are we going to refill to capacity?  Refilling it will put the government in competition with refineries to purchase oil.  Competition drives up prices.  No gain.  How are all these alternative, proposed energy sources going to get to market any sooner the additional domestic oil produced by drilling here and drilling now?  Why will it take ten years to get that oil into the supply pipeline?  ANWR is only a few miles from an actual existing pipeline.  You tow a rig offshore, flood the legs, level the platform and start drilling.  How will waiting to start drilling shorten the delivery process?  The Democrats want you at home, poor, and dependent on them.    

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."  - Sir Winston Churchill

Yesterday, Pelosi again referred to proposing a "Use it or lose it" policy on leases to increase the oil companies' interest in drilling on those leases (as if they need an enticement at the current prices).

It's already the law! Shouldn't the Speaker (chief House lawmaker) know this?  

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw, 1944

I have been following AGW blogs quite a bit lately due to the attack on Noel a few weeks ago on the Real Climate site. In my travels I came across the following words this morning...

"...we have an obligation to act before we know"

If this is now going to be their argument to support Al Gores fearmongering, then things are going to get very interesting.

45 Communist Goals for America http://www.nationmakers.com/com_goals.htm

...that as we speak the RNC is putting together the mother of all Congressional campaign ads showing the cluelessness of the Queen Bee and the need to put the GOP back in charge.

But I'm not holding my breath.

.

The GOP revolt in the House has been going on now for roughly three hours. Any sign of McCain?

I was reading Time Mag this AM in the doctor's office, and came upon this oxymoronic (for lack of a better word) survey.

Apparently:

80% of the people surveyed thought that individuals were responsible for their own financial security.

However:

77% thought that the government should offer subsidies to help people buy health insurance.

67% thought that there should be more paid maternity and family leave.

And 70% thought that government should subsidize child care.

Several weeks back I asked for some help on touring DC. My wife and I went over the 4th of July weekend and I got some decent pictures, although the overcast skies stole some of my thunder.

I have posted them on Flickr if anyone is interested.

Thanks again to everyone that assisted. It was a great experience.

You trying to say Jesus Christ can't hit a curveball?

 Adios fellow NewsBusters for now, I live in Galveston's Westend. I'm fixing to head to my son's house, his home is a little more elevated than mine...lol. Besides, it's too durn hot here when we lose power. I'll get back with you when everything clears..have a good week!

Somebody dropped the ball.

Link

What is wrong with this site?

It keeps going back to a couple of hour old comments in the comment section posts...I have had log in access denied a couple of times already...but this repeated returning to old posts, especially if you click on a comment to the Seton Motley/Hilton blog.

...anybody else having problems?

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

But tiny libertarian groups, which don't have a pervasive antilibertarian bias problem, will.
JMR

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

Quote of the Day:

"We make money the old fashioned way. We print it."
-- Art Rolnick, former Chief Economist, Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank

Subject: How big is the money supply?

The value of your money depends on the amount of money in circulation.
Is it possible for you, as a layman, to learn and understand how large
the money supply is, and whether it's growing or shrinking?

Probably not. There are many measurements of the money supply, and
there seems to be no consensus about which measurements are best. These
measurements go by the names M-zero, M1, M2, M3, and MZM. There's even
something called the "True Money Supply," devised by Murray Rothbard,
and reported at the website of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

The "True Money Supply" page will also give you numbers for M1, M2, M3,
and MZM, but the numbers are only updated through April, and the M1
measurement, for some reason, is only current through February of 2006.

Well, you could try the Federal Reserve instead. They ought to know,
right? Well, there are problems there too. The Fed doesn't report M3
anymore, which some people think is the best measurement. The Fed also
provides two different numbers for M1 and M2, one seasonally adjusted,
and one not, without explaining what the seasonal adjustment entails.
Worse still . . .

If you look for reports on M-zero (the narrowest definition of money),
or MZM on the Fed site, you may have difficulty. I did. I couldn't find
summary reports for these measurements, though presumably they could be
constructed from the raw data that's available in various places on the
Fed website.

You could try a site called
EconoMagic.com, which aggregates all sorts of economic data, but if you
compare the numbers you'll find there with the numbers the Fed reports
for M1 and M2, they're different.

The numbers for M1 and M2 reported at the "True Money Supply" site are
also different from both the Fed site and the EconoMagic site. And
we would bet that if you paid the money to subscribe to the
ShadowStatistics site you would find yet another set of totally
different numbers.

Well, if you really wanted to understand what's going on, perhaps you
could consult an expert. That seems reasonable until you stop to think
about it. All of the money supply numbers found in various places are
all concocted by experts, and they all disagree. Do you need another
expert to tell you which experts are providing the best money supply
measurements?

It gets worse.

As we understand it, most of the various money supply measurements are
actually a mixture of two things: the number of monetary units
(dollars), and the amount of credit available. Basic monetary expansion
happens when new dollars are created by the Fed. Credit expansion
happens when you deposit money in a bank. The bank lends some of this
money to others, while keeping some as a reserve. This creates a
default risk. If too many people try to withdraw their money at the
same time, the bank won't be able to pay.

Essentially, banks create competing claims to money. You can withdraw
money from your checking or savings account at any time, even though
much of this money is being used by the people who borrowed it from the
bank. If too many people try to withdraw too much money at the same
time the Fed will have to ride to the rescue, perhaps by creating new
money to keep the banks solvent.

What this means is that some parts of the various money supply numbers
are actually measuring the size of competing claims to money. The way
we understand it the basic money supply and the size of the competing
claims to money (credit) both have an impact on prices, but not in the
same way. Expanding the basic money supply can cause a general rise in
prices, while expanding credit (creating competing claims to money)
tends to bid up prices in certain economic sectors, such as
manufacturing or housing. Credit expansion is especially dangerous in
terms of causing booms and busts.

So where can you go to find distinct measurements of money and credit?

Well, Murray Rothbard was trying to address this question by creating
the "True Money Supply." His approach, as we understand it, weeds out
much of the credit aspects of the various measurements, but if you want
to figure out what's going on with the credit situation you'll have to
get out your calculator and dive into the raw data provided by the Fed.
Good luck.

This whole subject is a complete mess. It's an indictment of both the
government and the economics profession. It's also frustrating to us
here at Downsize DC. We like to find ways to present you with clear and
simple information, eliminating jargon and confusing detail. But when
it comes to the supply of money and credit, we just can't do that for
you, yet.

So what do we do when we want you to communicate with Congress about
the Federal Reserve's manipulations of money and credit? How do we
define what those manipulations are, so that you can use the
information in your messages to Congress? The best we can do is to use
the Fed's own numbers, even though they conflate money and credit as if
they were the same thing.

The Fed has just issued its report for June.

Here again, there is confusion. The seasonally adjusted numbers show an
$18.5 billion increase in M1 in June, while there was a $1 billion
decrease in M2. The non-adjusted numbers show an $11.7 billion increase
in M1, and a $17.4 billion increase in M2.

What are we to make of this? The money supply and credit are probably
both expanding. This means higher prices, devalued savings, and more
risks of booms and busts and credit defaults.

What can be done about this? Congressman Ron Paul probably has the best
answer. Removing the tangles between the Federal Reserve and the
banking system would be very complex, but making Federal Reserve Notes
(dollars) compete with free market forms of money, such as gold, would
not be complex. Competition would serve to limit the Fed's power to
manipulate the supply of money and credit.

Congressman Paul has two bills designed to make this happen: HR 2756,
the "Honest Money Act," and HR 4683, the "Free Competition in Currency
Act." Please ask your elected representatives to co-sponsor both of
these bills. You could mention the M1 and M2 numbers provided above in
your personal comments. You can send your message here.

Please also consider making a contribution to further our work. You can do so here.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC army.

Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

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-- 

The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.