Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Wondering what $100 plus per barrel oil means to you?  Here's your chart of the day from Zero Hedge.




Bottom line, on average every $10 rise in the price of oil costs Americans $185 per year, per car.

The price of oil has jumped $15 a barrel since the unrest in Libya started late last week. For the average two-car family, that's about $50 in disposable income per month that will vanish starting now. If oil goes back up to the record nominal price of $135 a barrel where it was in July 2008, that $50 a month becomes $163 a month in additional gas expenses for a two car family (which would quickly make it a one-car family again.)

This is just the gasoline impact. This chart doesn't even begin to factor in the additional cost of items trucked into stores and food grown with petroleum-based pesticides. The total additional cost to the average family would be even higher.

If we saw $150 a barrel oil and $5 a gallon gas, you would see a massive social change in the country. If truckers went on strike to protest $5+ per gallon diesel, all bets would be off where you live.

A $10 to $15 per barrel spike in oil is not a good thing for our economy. Any higher than $100 and we're looking at a trip back into Recessionville. At $150 that becomes Depression City.

Food for thought.

All Oiled Up, Bend Over

As oil prices continue to rise and the Obama administration considers dropping subsidies to an industry that made tens of billions in profits in 2010, Big Oil would like to remind you just who the hell is in charge here:  the American Petroleum Institute.

API President and CEO Jack Gerard sharply criticized President Obama proposal to cut billions in subsidies to energy companies, saying it would eliminate thousands of new jobs.

"It’s no surprise the administration is proposing yet again to raise taxes on the U.S. oil and natural gas industry," he said. "But it’s still a bad idea and comes at one of the worst times in our economic history."

In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for investments into clean energy, declaring they should be paid for in part by cutting federal subsidies and tax breaks for the oil industry.

Obama said the United States should get 80 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2035, though he included nuclear power, "clean coal," and natural gas as part of that standard, in addition to wind and solar.

On Thursday, Richard Ranger, a senior policy adviser at API, called on President Obama to lift drilling restrictions on Alaska's outer continental shelf.

In July 2010, Greenpeace obtained an internal memo from the API that showed the institute funded and developed a fake grassroots campaign to attack environmental legislation.

"API will provide the up-front resources," the email said. "This includes contracting with a highly experienced events management company that has produced successful rallies for presidential campaigns."

Remember, Big Oil gets tax breaks of $4 billion plus a year. Exxon Mobil, by itself, made $30 billion in profit last year.

But ending these subsidies will cost "thousands of jobs".  Meanwhile, we have to cut teachers and firefighters and bridges and cops and public safety because "we can't afford it."

Insert StupidiFilter(tm)

(CNN) -- An Indiana deputy attorney general lost his job Wednesday after commenting online that authorities should use "live ammunition" to run off the throngs of protesters railing over union collective bargaining rights two states away in Wisconsin.

This isn't the worst thing I've heard all year.  But it's among the dumbest.  In the age of the Internet, where our stupidity can be captured and stored for eternity, don't Tweet or Facebook without thinking it over.  Seriously.

Iowa Wonder What The Hell Is In That Corn, Anyway

It so happens that in Northwood, Iowa, there is a major porn distributor hidden quietly above a flower shop.  What was thought to be an unused office is a mailing and storage house for adult films.  Considering Iowa is miles from tolerant, this is amusing.  But the best thing of all is the article itself.  And one hilarious quote.  Oh yes, I have to share this with you in full:

"Oh, Lordy," Hickle [the flower shop owner] said. "I had no idea. I am not OK with this. I don't believe in pornography, and, oh, my, I just don't see Northwood as the sex capital of the world. We have all these Norwegians here. Can you imagine that?"

You can't make up stuff like this. Coming soon: Iowa believe I'll stay the hell away from those crazy corn-loving folks.

The Real Deal On Repeal

We now see the fallout of the Village's coverage of the GOP efforts to repeal the bill and all the attention given to Florida federal judge Roger Vinson's decision.

In a new Kaiser Health poll, just 52% of Americans knew that the health care reform bill signed into law by President Obama is still in place. Meanwhile, one fifth -- 22% -- of all Americans believe that the law has been overturned, while another 26% aren't sure what's up with the law.

Barely half of Americans believe the PPACA is still in effect.  The other half thinks it's gone or aren't sure if it's still in effect.  The Village has made no effort to correct this misconception, either.

Boy, that liberal media sure does lean left.

Making A Killing In The Cornhusker State

Well, if you thought South Dakota's bill that could have potentially made killing an abortion provider justifiable homicide in defense of a fetus was a legal misunderstanding, please note the version of the bill put forth by Nebraska GOP state Sen. Mark Christensen removes the "potentially" part completely.

The legislation, LB 232, was introduced by state Sen. Mark Christensen, a devout Christian and die-hard abortion foe who is opposed to the prodedure even in the case of rape. Unlike its South Dakota counterpart, which would have allowed only a pregnant woman, her husband, her parents, or her children to commit "justifiable homicide" in defense of her fetus, the Nebraska bill would apply to any third party.

"In short, this bill authorizes and protects vigilantes, and that's something that's unprecedented in our society," Melissa Grant of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland told the Nebraska legislature's judiciary committee on Wednesday. Specifically, she warned, it could be used to target Planned Parenthood's patients and personnel. Also testifying in oppostion to the bill was David Baker, the deputy chief executive officer of the Omaha police department, who said, "We share the same fears...that this could be used to incite violence against abortion providers."

Baker's concern is well-grounded: Abortion providers are frequent targets of violent attacks. Eight doctors have been murdered by anti-abortion extremists since 1993, and another 17 have been victims of murder attempts. Some of the perpetrators of those crimes, including Scott Roeder, the murderer of Wichita, Kansas, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, have attempted to use the justifiable homicide defense at their trials. Several of the witnesses at Wednesday's hearing cited Tiller's murder as a case where a law like the one Christensen introduced could have come into play.

For his part, Christensen insisted that his measure is not intended to target abortion providers. Like Jensen, Christensen claimed that his bill is merely meant to allow pregnant women to defend their unborn children without fear of prosecution. "LB 232," he said, "is really nothing more than an attempt to make sure a pregnant woman is not unnecessarily charged with a crime for using force to protect her unborn child from someone who means to bring harm to her unborn children."

But, as other lawmakers pointed out during the hearing, Christensen's bill, as currently written, would not only apply to pregnant women but to anyone who attempted to prevent harm to a fetus. "I think it opens the door to something unintended," said state Sen. Steve Lathrop. "I don't think you came in here intending to make those who provide abortions a target of the use of force," he told Christensen, "but I think it may unintentionally do that or at least provide somebody with an argument that they were justified in that."

All pretense has been removed of self-defense in this bill, and Republicans in the state know it.   None of this "but a crime has to be committed" crap either, the bill is specifically written to give anyone a "put a bullet in the abortionist free" card to stop anyone who "causes harm to a fetus".

Best part?

"I don't know how anyone knows my intent," Christensen fired back in an interview with Mother Jones.

Yeah, nobody can possibly know what the intent of this bill is.

Dead Bang Situation

What, you thought with Libya and Egypt and post-Tuscon that this kind of crap went away in America?

At Rep. Paul Broun’s town hall meeting on Tuesday, the Athens congressman asked who had driven the farthest to be there and let the winner ask the first question.

We couldn’t hear the question in the back of the packed Oglethorpe County Commission chamber, but whatever it was, it got a big laugh.

Oh?  What's so funny there?

According to an outraged commenter on the article, the question was, when is someone going to shoot Obama?

Yeah, that's hysterically funny, especially since the Giffords shooting.  That couldn't have actually happened, right?

Broun’s press secretary, Jessica Morris, confirmed that the question was indeed, who is going to shoot Obama? “Obviously, the question was inappropriate, so Congressman Broun moved on,” she said.

But everyone had a good laugh over it.

[UPDATE]  Anyone still think the guy wasn't deadly serious with insanity like this flying around the internets?

Fortunately, this diabolical plan has been exposed by an American-born Israeli named Avi Lipkin, who says he once was a translator for the Israeli government, and an outfit called Special Guests, which books conservative commentators and advocates on popular television and radio talk shows. Lipkin's website claims that since 1990 he has lectured on various topics—including the threat of Islam and Israel—in over 1000 churches and synagogues in the United Sates, Canada, England, Greece, Israel, and other countries. His bio notes that he heads the Judeo-Christian Bible Bloc party in Israel. (The party's Facebook page listed 103 members yesterday.)

This week, Lipkin and Special Guests sent an email to television and radio bookers pitching the biggest story of all time:

According to Arabic language broadcasts intercepted and interpreted by Lipkin and his team, "The Moslem world is saying that President Obama wants amnesty for the current Hispanic 12 million illegal immigrants in the US in order to pave the way for the next wave of tens of millions of illegals from the Middle East to the United States, leading to 50 to 100 million Muslims living in the US before the end of Obama’s second term, which will be brought forth by these new US citizens voting for their savior, Obama."

Lipkin, who also goes by the name Victor Mordechai, claims to have "a source with a senior United Nations official" (whatever that means) who says that the United States "will be a Muslim country by the end of Obama's second term." This grand plan is so organized that it even has three parts. Phase One: Obama foments unrest in "each Middle East country" so that these regimes are toppled and replaced by "fanatic" Sunni Mulsims, who go on to "overthrow the competing Shiite regime in Iran without involving American troops." Phase Two: A massive exodus of Muslims heads toward Europe, Canada, and the Unites States, turning all of these Western nations into Muslim countries. Phase Three: The nations now controlled by Islamic extremists "march on Israel in an effort to destroy it" and Obama "keeps his promise…to destroy Israel."

But everyone had a good laugh over it.

StupidiNews!

• The UN Human Rights Council has condemned the bloodshed in Libya as the civil war continues between Qaddafi loyalists and rebels in the east.
• Wisconsin's GOP-controlled State Assembly has passed Gov. Scott Walker's bill to strip state workers of most collective bargaining rights, the battle now heads to the State Senate.
• Boeing has finally beat out European manufacturer EADS for the contract for the Air Force's new tanker plane.
• Irish voters are expected to overwhelming approve a new government in elections today as the ruling Fianna Fail party will almost certainly suffer massive defeat.
• Scientists say nowhere near enough Helium-3 is being produced for science purposes as it's all going to detect radiation in national security applications.

Last Call

Goldman Sachs says straight up that the GOP's planned budget cuts will wreck the economy and cut GDP growth in half.  Suddenly Republicans have a new enemy in their sights, and I'm laughing my ass off.

A spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio said the Goldman Sachs report represented "the same outdated Washington mind-set," comparing it to the thinking behind the 2009 Recovery Act that released federal funds to counter the effects of the recession.

But Democrats seized on the report as a validation of their arguments against the Republican cuts.

"Just as the economy is beginning to pick up a little steam, the Republican budget would snuff out any chance of recovery," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Congressional Democrats and Republicans are near deadlock on the spending issue, with their positions hardening this week.

Democrats have rejected the $61 billion in reductions, which would affect every state and virtually every domestic aspect of federal government operations, as too severe. Instead, they have proposed a temporary spending freeze as they negotiate deeper cuts.

Congress must pass a spending bill by March 4, when a stop-gap funding measure expires, to avoid a shutdown. But House Republican leaders are under pressure from their conservative base not to give in.

And it's Orange Julius's lack of leadership that Jonathan Bernstein says will assure a long-term government shutdown.

But, when it comes to the policy fights over health care reform, environmental regulations, Planned Parenthood, and other issues, there aren’t partial victories available. Democrats won’t give in, and House Republicans won’t either, at least not easily. To take just one example: If you’re a Republican congressman, once you’ve said that allowing funds to go to Planned Parenthood is basically just funding abortion (even if it’s not), how do you reconcile a “yes” vote on a compromise bill that allows funding for that organization? (Indeed, will strongly pro-life members of Congress even be willing to vote for a two-week extension if it fails to prohibit Planned Parenthood funding?)

Boehner had the chance to make this battle about just spending levels. In that case, a shutdown could still have happened. But, instead, the speaker allowed the fight to become about so many policy issues that it’s hard to keep track of them all. He can neither win nor abandon the amendments he let pass, meaning an ugly shutdown is all but certain.

Republicans are literally willing to wreck the country in order to "win".   And come a week from tomorrow, we'll all be losers.

Rhode Island's School Of Hard Knocks

Providence, RI officials don't know how many teachers they'll have to cut at the end of the school year, so just be safe they're notifying every single one of them that they could be fired.

Each one of the 1,926 teachers working for the Providence School Department was sent a dismissal notice this week, in a move officials say was necessary to deal with a projected deficit of almost $40 million next year.

According to The Providence Journal, "[s]chool and city leaders said they were forced to issue the mass dismissal notices because of a state law that says teachers must be notified about possible layoffs or terminations by March 1." In a statement, Mayor Angel Taveras said that because the deadline for informing teachers about employment changes came before the budget for next year could be determined, the move was necessary.

"Providence faces significant challenges in getting its financial house in order," Taveras said in the statement. "Spending reductions are inevitable. It is also inevitable that some portion of cuts will come from the school budget. This is why we faced the difficult decision of sending letters to all teachers: we do not yet know what actions will be required and believe it was only fair to let all teachers know about the severity of the situation."

Taveras told the Journal that there would be fewer schools open, and fewer teachers teaching, in Providence next year -- he just couldn't yet say how many.

"To be clear about what this means," Superintendent Tom Brady wrote in an email to teachers, "this action gives the School Board the right to dismiss teachers as necessary, but not all teachers will actually be dismissed at the end of the school year."

Not all of them, of course.  Just enough that it was safer to threaten all 1,926 of them with pink slips.

If even a hard blue union state like Rhode Island is saying "screw it" and serving up public employees on a platter to satisfy voters, then there's really not too much hope left in this country.

Didn't you know taxes are unconstitutional?

From Badgers To Buckeyes

Wisconsin's public employees continue to fight the good fight with Wisconsin Dems continuing their 24/7 filibuster of the bill to strip most public employees of most bargaining rights.  A bill in Indiana to do the same has been defeated, but Ohio now faces a similar measure.  When faced with protesters, Ohio Republicans locked the people out.

Yesterday I was in Columbus to join in the rally against SB 5, the Ohio GOP’s implementation of the assault on collective bargaining. Even before we got there it was clear Republicans were trying to discourage attendance: as the bus approached Columbus we were told the doors to the Senate building had been locked.

The trooper presence was overwhelming; far beyond what public safety required. There was a riot truck, canine, and a couple troopers were actually wearing full riot gear.

Since our trip was sponsored by the county Democratic party our trip coordinator was in contact with a few of the state senators. Getting inside from the front was not going to happen, so we were directed to the parking garage. Once we got there we were turned away by state troopers. Phone calls ensued; we were told to go to the rear of the building for admittance.

We slowly started up the stairs, and as the first of our group got to the top we were greeted by security. This was in an outdoor area; it was on the way from the parking garage to the outdoor entrance of the building. Yet we were stopped on a single flight of outdoor concrete steps and told we would have to turn back. When we got to the top of the stairs there was another delay as troopers told us no one was allowed to go in. More phone calls, this time around fifteen minutes.

Finally State Representative Teresa Fedor, the most fabulous person in the world, showed up, opened the doors, and told the troopers “This is the people’s house. Lobbyists use this door. Arrest me if you want.”

Republicans are doing everything they can to break Democratic party power for good.  They know they can do whatever they want to if there's no organized opposition against them.  It doesn't matter if they burn the country to the ground if there's only one party to run.

GOP Misogyny For You And Me

Our friend Georgia Republican state Rep. Bobby Franklin (who already thinks drivers licenses are too much of a government imposition) is back, this time with a bill so terribly written that under the legislation a woman who has a miscarriage could face the death penalty.

As Bon would say, I kid you not.  MoJo's Jen Phillips:

Under Rep. Franklin's bill, HB 1, women who miscarry could become felons if they cannot prove that there was "no human involvement whatsoever in the causation" of their miscarriage. There is no clarification of what "human involvement" means, and this is hugely problematic as medical doctors do not know exactly what causes miscarriages. Miscarriages are estimated to terminate up to a quarter of all pregnancies and the Mayo Clinic says that "the actual number is probably much higher because many miscarriages occur so early in pregnancy that a woman doesn't even know she's pregnant. Most miscarriages occur because the fetus isn't developing normally."


Holding women criminally liable for a totally natural, common biological process is cruel and non-sensical. Even more ridiculous, the bill holds women responsible for protecting their fetuses from "the moment of conception," despite the fact that pregnancy tests aren't accurate until at least 3 weeks after conception. Unless Franklin (who is not a health professional) invents a revolutionary intrauterine conception alarm system, it's unclear how exactly the state of Georgia would enforce that rule other than holding all possibly-pregnant women under lock and key.

It's crazy.  This bill shows complete disregard for logic, medicine, and more importantly a complete disregard for women as anything more than birthing tanks, a bill that simultaneously says "We must do everything we can to protect our precious fetuses" and then treats women as potentially faulty equipment that must be repurposed if they fail at their only duty of reproduction.

Pro-life (because all abortions are murder and murder is bad) and the death penalty (because a miscarriage is a sin and you must pay with your life) in the same bill, folks....plus a healthy dose of tenth amendment nullification nonsense!

The bill contends that Georgia is exempt from upholding Supreme Court decisions like Roe v. Wade because the Constitution's Article I only governs five crimes: counterfeiting, piracy, high seas felonies, offenses against the law of nations, and treason. According to the bill, since murder is not one of those five crimes, it should be solely governed by the state.

It's the perfect wingnut bill.   Perfectly insane, that is.

Local Celebrities Huffin' And Puffin'

Sometimes, it's fun to do this job.  While looking up another topic, I became familiar with Patrick Tribett.  This man is a regular with the cops, and his record for arrests for huffing fumes is a legacy that will forever remain on the WTOV Channel 9 website.

Parents (or if you know parents) who want to scare their kids should click that link.  Don't be that guy.  This public service message was brought to you by ZVTS.

Follow Up: About That Kidney...

In a Last Call a while back, I posted about two sisters who were released from jail for an $11 robbery on the condition that one sister donate a kidney to her sister.  It's a pretty cool story, click here to refresh your memory.

MSNBC has updated the story, explaining that the sisters have to lose a combined 160 pounds and one sister must quit smoking before they will be considered as candidates for the surgery.  The judge doesn't seem to be concerned.  Even though he gave a year's deadline for the transplant, he acknowledges this is a medical call and discussion of a return to jail is "purely hypothetical" for the sisters.  Meanwhile, the two women are by all accounts turning their life around and appreciating the second chance they've been given.  Illness has hindered one sister, but at least they are together, and with family.

All at once, now.  Awwwww.

Anarchy On Your TV Screen, Part 3

Yesterday's article by Townhall blowhard Terry Jeffrey called public employee unions and in particular teacher's unions "parasitic" and that Wisconsin citizens should demand the firing of all unionized teachers because of lousy test scores.

Well, if Jeffrey is right, then states without unionized teachers should have much better test scores.  Luckily, there are five states where teachers are denied collective bargaining rights:  NC, SC, VA, TX and GA.  So, if we take a standardized national test like, say, the SATs and ACTs and compare those scores, these non-union teacher states should come out on top.

Only...reality is a harsh mistress.

Those states and their ACT/SAT rankings are as follows:

South Carolina – 50th

North Carolina – 49th

Georgia – 48th

Texas – 47th

Virginia – 44th

Oh, well certainly Wisconsin is down there with its evil teacher's union, right?  I mean clearly Scott Walker is fighting to break unions in Wisconsin because of their terrible national scores.

If you are wondering, Wisconsin, with its collective bargaining for teachers, is ranked 2nd in the country.

Gosh, you mean the states without collective bargaining for teachers are the states with the worst ACT/SAT scores, including all 4 bottom states.  Yeah I know correlation does not equal causation, but damn that's a pretty crushing argument against removing collective bargaining for Wisconsin teachers, is it not?

Class dismissed.