The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[scaeagles]

Not trying to spin it, just playing along. Like I said, it's stupid no matter how you look at it. But I think it's stupid for a different reason. I don't think this is the responsibility of government. Politically, if they want to do something, take off the gas taxes for a while. Eliminate special and geographically mandated fuel blends. So many practical things they could do, but they'd rather try to sound good.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Not trying to spin it, just playing along. Like I said, it's stupid no matter how you look at it. But I think it's stupid for a different reason. I don't think this is the responsibility of government. Politically, if they want to do something, take off the gas taxes for a while. Eliminate special and geographically mandated fuel blends. So many practical things they could do, but they'd rather try to sound good.

That was the Dems' proposal...suspend the gas tax for 6 months or so.

[scaeagles]

If so, great. I support it wholeheartedly. I have not read that, though.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

If so, great. I support it wholeheartedly. I have not read that, though.

I heard it yesterday...I think it's gotten burried because it was proposed before the $100 proposal and that's gotten all the press.

[innerSpaceman]

Suspension of the tax, I'm in favor of. Suspension of requirements for less polluting and unhealthy blends, I'm not. Get ready for plenty of gas shortages and really expensive petrol prices for ... um, the rest of our lives. Now that we've finally had the good sense to ban MTBE (or whatever the acronym is for that toxic chemical), should we just turn around and re-pollute all our ground water because gasoline isn't artificially cheap any more?

Though it's debatable, we either have passed Peak production or soon will. After that, prices go up and up and up until all the gooey black stuff is gone.


It's 2006. We may not have our flying cars, but don't be fooled into thinking that the future never happens.

[Nephythys]

Durbin was just on Cavuto saying no to getting rid of the tax...

I would need better sources.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Nephythys

Durbin was just on Cavuto saying no to getting rid of the tax...

I would need better sources.

That interview neither confirms nor denies what I heard. Like I said, I herad it once yesterday as a proposal (don't even know that it was Durbin who proposed it), and it was quickly overshadowed by the $100 rebate talk. It was a 6 month suspension of the federal per-gallon gasoline tax, it wasn't about taxing oil company profits/windfalls, which is what was discussed in that interview. I'm still looking for details, though. It seems that they quickly gave up on the concept.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Found one source

[Gemini Cricket]

Talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh surrendered to authorities Friday on a charge of committing fraud to obtain prescription drugs, concluding an investigation that for more than two years has hovered over the law-and-order conservative.

Source

Moral compass of talk radio gets arrested for committing fraud. I picked the wrong day to go on a media diet.

[scaeagles]

Hmmm....another quote from that article -

The agreement is not an admission of guilt to the charge, which was fraud by concealing information to obtain a prescription.

A spokesman for the state's attorney's office, Mike Edmondson, said the agreement dropping the charge is "standard for first-time offenders who admit their addiction."

So it is standard operating procedure to investigate first time offenders for 2 years? That's funny.