Jon told you about the “Enron Loophole,” a provision created by the Gas & Oil Party (GOP) for the company in 2000 to allow manipulation of energy prices in the industry’s favor.
A movement to close the loophole is gaining support from both parties. There is even a web site called CloseLoophole.org where you can join a self-proclaimed “viral marketing campaign” to do just that.
Note: Don’t let the Bill O’Reilly quote on the home page put you off, as it did us. We think the site’s designers are just sending a signal that all — even the most feeble-brained — are welcome.
The way Republicans tell it, the minute we start drilling off the coasts of California, Florida and elsewhere, the price of gas will go down. In fact, it would take five years after the ban on offshore drilling was lifted for oil production to start, and, if it were lifted right now, in 22 years domestic oil production would have increased by only 7 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration. Even so, because oil prices are determined on the international market, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant. (Source:Center for American Progress.) Republicans have shifted blame for high gas prices from Bush to the Democrats and their opposition to offshore drilling, and all it cost them was the credibility of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
On the other hand, Congress and George Bush could take a step tomorrow that would create a drop in oil prices of between 25 and 50 percent overnight, simply by closing the Enron Loophole.
This is according to testimony before a Senate Committee two weeks ago by Michael Greenberger, the former director of Trading & Markets for the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), the government board that oversees commodities markets:
“Yes, overnight [closing the Enron Loophole] will bring down the price of crude oil to get at least a 25 percent drop in the cost of oil and a corresponding drop in the cost of gasoline. Some people estimate 50 percent.”
Greenberger’s testimony was brought to light by an investigation into the Enron Loophole by Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s “Countdown” last week. (A transcript of Olbermann’s report follows.)
The Enron Loophole is the nickname for a provision written into the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000 that was drafted by lobbyists for Enron and inserted in the bill by then Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) that deregulated an aspect of the market Enron sought to exploit with its “Enron On-Line” trading program, the first Internet-based commodities transaction system. Phil Gramm is now a key economic adviser for the John McCain campaign.
While it was a technical success, Enron On-Line was based on a flawed business model that drained corporate revenues — even while the company was manipulating the rates consumers paid for electricity in California. Enron On-Line eventually drove the company into bankruptcy, and the cooking of the books to hide its losses led to charges of conspiracy and fraud against Enron executives.
The Republicans’ sudden rollout of the campaign to lift the ban on offshore drilling is really meant to shift the blame from Bush and the GOP to the Democrats and their opposition to offshore drilling. To their credit, they have done a masterful job — and it has only cost them the credibility of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who broke tradition in the state and came out in favor of lifting the ban. (It also sapped whatever meager credibility Crist’s predecessor, Jeb Bush, had left. Bush opposed lifting the ban when he was in office but came out wholeheartedly in favor of lifting it this weekend.)
[Barack] Obama campaign’s said today that he plans to ease the impact of rising gas prices by cracking down on excessive energy speculation through closing the so-called “Enron Loophole.”
It’s fun to learn new words, kiddies. Let’s have some fun today!
biddable: an adjective describing one who is meekly ready to accept and follow instructions; docile and obedient
Let’s use our new word in a sentence, just so we’ll be sure we know it.
“John McCain has been accused by many over the years as having been quite biddable to the North Vietnamese as a prisoner of war. He is even alleged to have garnered the nickname, “Songbird” for his willingness to provide information to enemy strategists.”
Very good. How about one more?
“Although a new ad from the John McCain campaign claims he is a maverick in his positions on energy, he showed great biddability when he announced in Houston before oil executives that he supports the Bush proposal to drill along the nation’s shorelines.”
O.K., kids, I think you’ve got it. Just remember, when trying to descibe John McCain, the word to keep in mind is “biddable.”
Your assignment, Pensito Reviewers, is to take a quick bathroom break, grab the beverage of your choice, and then settle in and read “Loving John McCain” by Eric Alterman and George Zornick in its entirety.
Until you do, you won’t understand the media’s treatment of McCain, and the damage this love affair could do to our country if it causes us to elect another dumb, affable, incompetent, corrupt, jellyfish puppet with malevolent advisers in the shadows.
The authors first explain the startling banal reasons reporters love McCain.
Media love for John McCain manifests itself in myriad ways; sometimes it involves inventing facts, other times simply ignoring inconvenient ones
In his book Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News, Tucker Carlson explains the source of many journalists’ attraction to the Arizona senator: “McCain ran an entire presidential campaign aimed primarily at journalists…To a greater degree than any candidate in thirty years, McCain offered reporters the three things they want most: total access all the time, an endless stream of amusing quotes, and vast quantities of free booze.” Ryan Lizza, reporting for The New Yorker from the current Straight Talk, notes the dichotomy of McCain’s press-friendly campaign style and that of his opponents: “The Democratic candidates rarely speak to the traveling press. McCain not only packs his bus with reporters (whom he often greets with an affectionate ‘Hello, jerks!’) but talks until the room is filled with the awkward silence of journalists with no more questions.”
…McCain flatters the press in other ways as well. For instance, he is particularly adept at embracing reporters’ romantic notions of themselves as tough-minded, hard-charging opponents of power, particularly conservative power.
Yes folks, it’s that easy to get reporters eating out of your hand. And well worth it, too.
“I don’t exactly approve of a lot of the things [Barack Obama] stands for and I’m not sure we know enough about him … He’s got some bad connections, and he may be terrorist connected for all I can tell. It sounds kind of like he may be.”
Who said this? Was it a) Tom DeLay, b) Karl Rove, c) Dick Cheney or c) a member of the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party? “So, yeah, Nation, please believe that there are some people down here in Tennessee who would like to elect progressive, smart, transformative leaders. It just seems to be a Sisyphean battle at times. But we’ll keep at it.” — Alice at 10,000 Monkeys & a Camera
Sadly, the answer is d, Fred Hobbs, who in addition to sitting on the party’s executive committee is a supporter and constituent of Rep. Lincoln Davis, a “Blue Dog” Democrat, who represents Tennessee’s 4th District, which is mostly rural and white, and which Obama lost to Hillary Clinton 23 percent to 68 percent, according to Nashville City Paper.
Hobbs made this outrageous statement when asked why Rep. Davis, who reportedly hopes (hoped?) to run for governor in 2010, had not yet endorsed Obama.
These goomers dug their hole deeper when Rep. Davis’ chief of staff Beecher Frasier was asked for a response by City Paper and said that he didn’t know for sure if Obama is “terrorist connected” but assumed he was not.
Later, the Tennessee Democratic Party issued a clarification in which it attempted to blame Hobbs’ outrageous remarks on the fact that he is so stupid he actually believed Republican smears about Obama:
“The Tennessee Democratic Party is united behind our party’s nominee, Senator Barack Obama. Mr. Hobbs is obviously misinformed, and his statement highlights the perpetual efforts of the Republican Party, especially here in Tennessee, to turn Internet smears and highly offensive gossip into their party’s message against Senator Barack Obama as we head into the general election.
Instead of debating the issues, the Tennessee Republican Party continues to rely upon slanderous and salacious tall tales. They are borrowing from the playbook first written by Richard Nixon and employed in the race against Congressman Harold Ford Jr. Tennesseans of every political persuasion are tired of these tactics.”
This was followed by a clarification from Beecher Frasier, the chief of staff for Rep. Davis:
“No one in their right mind, including me, believes Senator Obama has ties to terrorism. It is truly ridiculous for anyone to try to make hay out of these comments.”
Alice at Chattanooga-based 10,000 Monkeys & a Camera spoke for thousands of sane Tennesseans when she wrote:
Has … Fred Hobbs gone completely around the bend? I have no idea what he could have been thinking when he made comments implying that Barack Obama is “terrorist-connected,” but he’s certainly an embarrassment to our state and should resign from the committee. I wish I knew why only our state’s idiots manage to get national attention.
This controversy has been roiling for a week now, and I’m not seeing anyone attempt to contain the damage that’s being done to our state’s and party’s reputation. Hobbs has since apologized, but he won’t go away, and Lincoln Davis has been annoyingly quiet through it all — if he really wants us to elect him to lead this state, it would have been a good idea for him to get out in front of this and act like a leader.
Alice followed up with a note that Rep. Davis finally condemned Hobb’s comments — even though Davis has still not endorsed Obama!
“I have no idea what happened to the state Democratic Party’s leadership on this — they seem to be satisfied to quietly sit back and watch this performance of the Keystone Cops,” Alice wrote. “Anyway, with Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?!? We’re really going to need a lot of help come November.
“So, yeah, Nation, please believe that there are some people down here in Tennessee who would like to elect progressive, smart, transformative leaders. It just seems to be a Sisyphean battle at times. But we’ll keep at it.”
Miami Herald: “Gov. Charlie Crist’s stunning reversal of his position on drilling for oil and gas off the Florida coastline is all about politics and political ambition”
It should go down as one of the more mercenary flip-flops in the state’s history. With his eyes on John McCain’s ticket as a running mate, Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday fell behind McCain’s push for ending the moratorium on oil drilling along Florida’s coastline after years of favoring the ban without conditions. McCain was himself capitulating to the oil and gas industry, having backed the ban previously.
…Drilling for oil, which can’t happen for years, isn’t likely to affect consumers’ gas prices nearly as much as it will profit oil companies’ windfalls, which is what’s powering McCain’s switch. The oil and gas industry ranks 12th among his biggest donors. (The industry doesn’t appear on Barack Obama’s top-20 biggest industry donors.)
Florida suddenly seems on the verge of abandoning a firm bipartisan consensus against offshore drilling that has governed this state for decades. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, says we ought to do it — citing, yes, gas prices and “energy independence.” The current president says so, too. So now Florida’s governor, Charlie Crist, has weakened his own long-term opposition, presto, change-o!
Gov. Charlie Crist’s decision to abandon the once nearly universal, bipartisan opposition to oil and gas drilling in coastal waters off Florida has led some people to wonder whether he is attempting to kiss up to Sen. John McCain in hopes of landing a spot on the national ticket.
Prompting the frenzy of speculation: McCain’s proposal Tuesday to lift the ban on oil and gas production off Florida and other environmentally sensitive areas, which was immediately backed by Crist only a week after he had said he opposed coastal drilling.
“He seems to be willing to do anything to help the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain. He has shown that he’s willing to backtrack against his promises,” said Daniel Smith, associate professor of political science at the University of Florida…
Gov. Charlie Crist’s stunning reversal of his position on drilling for oil and gas off the Florida coastline is all about politics and political ambition…Gov. Crist announced his change of policy on Tuesday, fast on the heels of similar declarations by Sen. John McCain and President Bush. They now support lifting a federal ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along the U.S. coastline. Coincidence? Not a chance.
The president, governor and senator have made a political calculation that Americans are so upset about runaway gas prices and so fearful of what the future holds that they will buy into any scheme to bring some relief — no matter how unlikely the prospects are for meaningful change…
None of these valid concerns about offshore drilling has changed. What has changed now, though, is that Sen. McCain is looking for a vice-presidential running mate, Gov. Crist is more than flattered to be considered for the job, and President Bush is looking for anything to distract from a failed war, raging deficits and a collapsing economy.
When the choice is between doing what’s best for Florida and what’s best for John McCain/Charlie Crist, the governor on Tuesday let it be known that he’s going to make the call based on political ambition.
…soaring gasoline prices have given Republicans and their presidential candidate a severe image problem. The party, with two oil men at the top, is cozy with the oil giants who are earning record profits while the rest of America sweats it out at the pump…the Republican solution is to give the oil companies the plum they have been seeking so long, the right to drill in environmentally sensitive areas.
Vice presidential candidate Charlie Crist, formerly Florida’s environmental governor, showed on Tuesday what drives him. Polls, he said, show that “people are much more favorably inclined” these days to expand offshore drilling to help ease their pain at the gas pump. Polls and an overwhelming desire to actually become presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate.
Updating Trish’s story from Thursday, “The Hot Item at the Texas Republican Convention,” the Texas Republican Party has moved to distance itself from a vendor who sold buttons at the party’s state convention that bore a racist message about Barack Obama: “If Obama is president … will we still call it The White House?”
According to The Conservative Voice, the Texas GOP says it will donate $1,500 in rent paid by the vendor, Republicanmarket.com, to victims of the flooding in the Midwest.
Said Texas GOP spokesman Hans Klingle, “This vendor need not apply to another Texas GOP state convention. We will neither tolerate nor profit from bigotry.”
How conservative is the Texas GOP? The Conservative Voice notes that in “1998, the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest organization of gay Republicans, was denied a booth at the GOP state convention in Fort Worth and likened to the Ku Klux Klan by a Texas Republican Party spokesman. “We don’t allow pedophiles, transvestites or cross-dressers, either,” then-GOP spokesman Robert Black said at the time.
The fact that the Texas GOP has shifted to the left on an issue like this backs up assertions by Arianna Huffington and others that liberal positions are increasingly becoming mainstream.
Maybe it’s all part of his ongoing effort to appear more macho — you know, “Oil Rigger Charlie” — but Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s about-face on drilling for oil off Florida’s coasts took most of us by surprise this week. See, it was just a year ago that Crist called his first climate control summit here in Miami. Pensito Review blogged live from the conference, and you can review our coverage here.
The timing of his announcement this week that he’ll do anything to be vice president … oh wait, I mean his announcement that he backs John McCain’s crazy plan to open our national coastline to the oil companies is odd. See, the guv’s second climate change summit is slated for next week — Tuesday and Wednesday, June 25-26. Pensito Review will be there again, live blogging and looking for interesting stories like “Bike Guy.”
Here’s the wording of the first press release for the 2008 event:
Building on the foundation for Florida’s energy future began at last year’s summit, the 2008 summit will focus on stimulating economic development in clean technologies as well as “greening†Florida’s business community.
“Florida’s businesses continue to demonstrate that there is gold in green, and climate-friendly energy sources – like ethanol and solar energy – are bringing new prospects for our state,†said Governor Charlie Crist. “Encouraging companies to do business the green way as well as building a strong market in renewable energy technologies in the Sunshine State will strengthen our energy and economic future and protect our natural environment for generations to come.â€
Whoa, how things have changed since April 29, when the governor’s office issued the release. Here’s some more insights into Crist’s former position on the environment:
Building on the policy framework of the executive orders signed at the 2007 summit, this year’s summit focuses on developing Florida’s renewable and alternative energy industries. By encouraging companies to invest in our state’s energy future, Florida will transform its energy marketplace to enhance fuel diversity, lessen dependence on foreign sources of oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The 2008 summit will bring together industry leaders, policy makers, academics, scientists, environmentalists and the business community to explore opportunities for expanding Florida’s renewable and alternative energy marketplace and greening our business community.
Since last year’s summit, Florida’s “green†economy has grown significantly. Progress Energy along with Biomass Gas & Electric of Atlanta recently announced a partnership to build in North Florida the largest waste-wood biomass plant in the nation, converting waste wood to electricity. FPL Group, one of the largest utilities in the country, has a number of solar and wind energy projects across Florida, including a $2.4 billion investment in a 300 megawatt solar facility. Also, during the Governor’s trade mission to Brazil last year, a $183 million agreement was signed between Renewable Fuels of Tallahassee LLC and Controlsud International Group to build a system that converts trash into energy in Tallahassee.
I suppose Crist’s new position, let’s call it Willing to Be Drilling, does fit into his old position, which we’ll call Hell No, You Can’t Drill, in that it reduces our dependence on foreign fuel sources. And I guess scrapping his old position would provide more trash fuel for that energy plant in Tallahassee.
So, when Crist sits up in front of the media attending the summit next week, what can we expect? Tough questioning, probing for the truth behind Charlie’s conversion, hostility from the Fourth Estate?
I live about 100 yards from West Hollywood City Hall so when the first marriage licenses were issued to gay people there on Tuesday, it was a big day for news helicopters overhead. I, of course, watched the festivities as reported by CNN’s Thelma Gutierrez, via satellite feed to Atlanta, routed back to me 3,000 miles across the country by cable. What a whacky world.
She was not alone. According to WeHo News, our local online-only newspaper, media outlets on the scene also included Tokyo Broadcasting Corporation, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Wall Street Journal, NY Times and the Washington Post.
Here’s how WeHo News described the first minutes of the gold-ring rush:
Beginning at 8:30 am, the affair had all the pomp and circumstance the City and County could provide, complete with a ribbon cutting and formal announcements and speeches, half a dozen marriage tents, balloons, floral arrangements and Hollywood stars.
Giving Hollywood flavor to the proceedings (explaining the larger than usual media presence), George Takei, the actor who played the character “Sulu” on the original Star Trek, now 71 years old, and his beau Brad Altman, 54, became the first couple duly licensed by the County at the West Hollywood temporary licensing branch at WeHo Park Auditorium.
In his public remarks, Mr. Takei declared his excitement, saying, “it’s going to be the only day like this in our lives and it is the only day like this in the history of America.”
Finishing with the Vulcan split finger hand sign, he declared, “Let equality live long and prosper!â€
And some statistics:
Across the state, at least 2386 licenses were issued, up from 460 on an average day.
The LA County Registrar/Recorder reported that 648 licenses issued in the county compared to 133 normally – an increase of 415, or almost three times.
In West Hollywood, 204 couples got licenses and 114 ceremonies made honest men and women out of 228 people.
Interestingly, WeHo News only spotted three protesters at City Hall, and only one of them carried a sign.
Relatedly, fully 48 hours after gay people began marrying, there has been no noticeable disintegration in heterosexual marriage in California, nor has there been word of the wrath of God — no floods, famine, pestilence, plagues of locust or the rest.
So much for the gnashing of teeth and rending of clothing from the Christian right about John McCain earlier this year: Message from McCain to Christian Nationalists: “I’m just not that into you.”
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week found McCain collecting about 68 percent of the white evangelical vote, compared to Barack Obama’s 22 percent. That number is very similar to level of support President Bush received in June 2004, when he led then Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry 65 to 30 among white evangelicals. And it’s essentially unchanged from polls in March, despite the Arizona senator’s distancing of himself from evangelical pastors Rod Parsley and John Hagee last month.
In November 2004, Bush won 78 percent of evangelical voters and inspired a strong turnout among them in key states like Ohio, suggesting that McCain can still grow his level of support among this key GOP voting block.
The message here is that McCain can take these voters for granted, as he moves leftward to the center in the fall. Right?
The recent news out of Kentucky was just awful,
They found the senator unconscious and horizontal.
And since his hospitalization,
There’s been little news about his condition,
But now everybody’s having a 20-minute conversation with Mitch McConnell.
“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”
An Associated Press-NORC survey found that 44% of American Jews hold a favorable opinion of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, compared with 39% who view him unfavorably. By contrast, just 32% of respondents said they have a favorable opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while 59% said they have a negative view.
“Their New Deal is socialism for the super-rich (and their own enrichment) even if it means increasing poverty, inequality, and illness at home and around the world. They also want to rewrite history to ignore and outright deny our past flaws while banning books that say otherwise from our libraries. And they select even our military leaders based on their version of political correctness over ability.”
— Former President Bill Clinton, quoted by Deadline, in his July 4th message.
President Donald Trump is asking for $1,500,000 million for the military for next year. That’s close to $600 billion (adjusted for inflation) more than we were spending on the military in fiscal year 2025, before Trump took office, Alternet reports. This increase is huge by any measure. It comes to around $4,600 per household. It is around 8% of the total budget.
A new Emerson College survey of likely 2026 voters finds the Democrats with an 11-point advantage over the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, leading 53% to 42%. President Trump holds a 39% job approval rating, consistent with the past two months, whereas his disapproval increased another point, to 57%.
A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.
Wall Street Journal: “Around 40% of voters in the 2024 election said the economy was their top issue, far outstripping any other matter. And those voters favored Donald Trump by 60% to 38%. Many say they were moved by his pledges to tame inflation, rebuild U.S. infrastructure, cut red tape and trim government waste. … About a year and a half later, more voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy than approve, 61% to 35%, an average of polls by the Cook Political Report found this month.”
A Reuters analysis of Trump’s public comments from June 23 through July 6 (13 days) — when a string of left-wing Democratic candidates won their party’s primaries in New York — found he invoked communism 81 times.
Updating Trish’s story from Thursday, “
Maybe it’s all part of his ongoing effort to appear more macho — you know, “Oil Rigger Charlie” — but Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s 
