The “Cash for Clunkers” program may be the most creative policy initiative we have seen come from government in a long time. The effect is dynamic and the implementation is simple. For there to be opposition to this bill is mind boggling. In 2003 we saw Bush and his Republican allies pass a tax break (between $75,000 and $100,000) for businesses who purchased a vehicle that weighed 6000 pounds or more. I’m sure a lot of these vehicles are being traded in for the current “Cash for Clunkers” program. The two mindsets are diametrically in opposition and represent the backward thinking of conservatives and the forward imagination of liberals. This 2003 bill encouraged American automobile manufacturers (or at least reinforced their misguided production strategies) to crank out big gas guzzling vehicles. The collusion between the two ended up being a Faustian bargain that would ultimately cripple the American automobile sector.

America’s addiction to foreign oil is unpatriotic. Think of the nations in the world who have oil as the centerpiece of their economy. Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran and Russia are just some of these petroleum dominated authoritarian states. As the price of oil has risen these nations have become less democratic. The money derived from the production of oil has made the governments of these states less dependent on taxation from its citizens. If a government does not have to rely on public excises to run its nation, it is less likely to grant its citizenry representation. This is happening across the board in these states. And these countries interests are becoming more in opposition to our own.

The United States makes up about 3% of the world’s population but we use 25% of the world’s energy. We are a bloated energy hog. The fact that we use such a significant amount of fuel creates a dilemma as South and East Asia emerge from their slumber. It makes it harder for the US to restrain the energy needs of India and China when all they are doing is attempting to become us.

Sending a signal to those outside our country is just a byproduct of this program. The car initiative does so many things at the same time. It brings gas guzzlers off the road and replaces them with energy efficient cars. This not only reduces the amount of gas we use but also reduces our carbon footprint. It also serves two purposes in regard to the automobile industry. It obviously boosts sales but it also helps validate the need of these companies to produce cars that get better gas mileage. But perhaps the greatest thing the “Cash for Clunkers” does that isn’t talked about is the psychological dimension. Everyone is aware of the rationale for the program and clear thinking Americans are seeing that the nation is moving away from large cars. It is rare when government positively alters the imagination of the nation and rarer still when government comes up with a program that does so much for a relatively small amount of money.

Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Liberal, it doesn’t matter. On a day when oil prices rocketed to $140 a barrel based purely on speculation of future oil prices it is time to let your Congressmen know how you feel about this issue. You can guarantee I will be sending out some letters tonight.

From Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch

Last update: 4:24 p.m. EDT June 23, 2008

Gas could fall to $2 if Congress acts, analysts say

Limiting speculation would push prices to fundamental level, lawmakers told

By Rex Nutting & Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The price of retail gasoline could fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy-futures markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday.

Testifying to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management said that the price of oil would quickly drop closer to its marginal cost of around $65 to $75 a barrel, about half the current $135.

Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co., Edward Krapels of Energy Security Analysis and Roger Diwan of PFC Energy Consultants agreed with Masters’ assessment at a hearing on proposed legislation to limit speculation in futures markets.

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There is a wind these days and it is coming straight out of the garbage dump. Everyone reading this has smelled this retched odor. Gas hovers at or above $4.00 a gallon, depending on where you live and what does the right wing do? They exploit the misery. You could smell it coming. Drill ANWR and drill offshore. Even John McCain, Mr. Global Warming, has gotten into the act. The oil companies are making record profits at the expense of the American people and what do these representatives want to do? Hand them their fantasy scenario on a platter. We all know the recent rise in gas prices are not caused by supply and demand but by speculation. Experts claim as much as 70% of current prices are driven by oil speculators.

Hey, if supply was the issue and drilling was the answer then there would be no debate from here. But drilling only extends the debate into the future. This is why the Bush Administration is calling for it. It allows the current prices to continue and allows the oil companies to drill with impunity, a win-win for big oil and a lose-lose for America. It does nothing to change the playing field. The answer is to change the entire nature of energy in this country and then if we need to tweak our oil reserves we do so from strength.

The issue of drilling has become the leading talking point for Republicans. President Bush stuck his head out of the White House today and pressed the issue. All the Right Wing mouthpieces on radio and TV are touting the message and then you have this character. This should show you more than anything how much big oil has its tentacles around the GOP. As Rep. Issa politicizes the death of Tim Russert, this will leave you shaking your head:

The credit for the following belongs greatly to my old man.

As Bush spoke in front of the Knesset this week he invoked the preface to WW II. I have thought a lot the past few days about the idiotic comments of perhaps America’s most idiotic president and would like to set the record straight for a man who most likely doesn’t read a lot of history.

When Chamberlain met with Hitler in 1938, Britain was trying desperately not to be plunged into another war; a war they were in no way prepared for nor had the stomach to initiate. WW I was still fresh on their minds and the bad taste the Great War left in their mouths made them less powerful. As the Prime Minister of Britain met with the Chancellor of Germany it was from a position of weakness. The British military (navy excluded) had been downsized in the decades following 1918 and the army they did have was spread all over their empire. By 1938 the Germans had long since defied the Versailles Treaty and were on a war economy. These two powers were going in separate directions. Germany was meeting from a position of strength and Britain was meeting from a position of weakness.

If Obama or McCain sits down with Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Hamas or any other two bit dictator they will not be Chamberlain. The US spends well over $400 billion a year on its military. In 2005 the US military budget was nearly as much as the rest of the world COMBINED and eight times larger than China’s defense spending. This just shows you how much of an idiot Bush is for making that same old sad WW II analogy of appeasement. To make matters worse, this same President proceeds to Saudi Arabia, a country who requires our military technology to keep their people in line, and begs them if they could do us a favor and up the oil production. Our allies in the Gulf merely brush the President of the free world aside like a bum on the curb with a tin cup. Most conservatives would tell the bum to go get a job. Well I’m telling the bum to get working on an energy policy where we don’t have to be beholden to any dictator. Who is the true appeaser?

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My new bumper sticker for the week:

Purge your Sins, Conservatives. Vote Obama

These days, a true patriot drives a small car. Current gas prices are now making this not just an option but a necessity.

"I don’t need this much space," McHugh said of his SUV. "It just seems ridiculous."

——Did it take a spike in gas prices to realize this?

Frustrated Owners Try to Unload Their Guzzlers

—Boston Globe—

After paying $75 to fill his black Dodge Ram pickup truck for the third time in a week, Douglas Chrystall couldn’t take it anymore.

Feeling pinched at the pump, and guilty as well, Chrystall, a 39-year-old father from Wellesley, is putting ads online to sell the truck, and the family’s other gas-guzzler, a Jeep Grand Cherokee. He knows it will be tough to unload them because he is one of a growing number of consumers downsizing to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.

Americans are turning away from the boxy, four-wheel-drive vehicles that have for years dominated the nation’s highways. Sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks – symbols of Americans’ obsession with horsepower, size, and status – are falling out of favor as consumers rich and poor encounter sticker shock at the pump, paying upward of $80 to fill gas tanks.

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