Monday, June 28, 2010

Is EPA biased against ethanol?

On a conference call with media last week, U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, raised the possibility that the Obama Administration's EPA may be biased against ethanol. He thinks the EPA is taking its cue from the Department of Energy and says officials with the latter are on record as believing ethanol is a dying fuel.

Then today, the AP reports the following from a South Dakota congresswoman:

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota says she and other members of Congress want to find out why federal officials have delayed a decision on allowing higher concentrations of ethanol in gasoline.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced it will wait until fall to decide whether to increase the maximum blend from 10 to 15 percent. The agency said the delay would allow more testing of the higher blend in vehicles.

Senator Robert Byrd passes



Here are some links to stories to the passing of the longest-serving member in the history of Congress:

New York Times:


Robert C. Byrd, who used his record tenure as a United States senator to fight for the primacy of the legislative branch of government and to build a modern West Virginia with vast amounts of federal money, died early Monday. He was 92.


MSNBC:

In the middle of the night, West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd (D) -- the longest serving member of Congress (from 1953-2010) -- passed away. He was 92. And much like Ted Kennedy's death nearly a year ago, Byrd's passing complicates the math for Democrats in the Senate, at least temporarily. Democrats now have a 58-41 majority in the chamber, so two votes shy of the 60 needed to break a filibuster. That could make passing the financial reform legislation -- which seemed more than likely this week, with President Obama hoping to sign it into law before July 4 -- a bit more difficult

CAMPBELL CALLS FOR APOLOGY

Sioux City, IA -- Matt Campbell, Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress in Iowa’s 5th District has called on Rep. Steve King to apologize for his remarks last week which claimed President Obama "has a default mechanism in him that breaks down the side of race that favors the black person.”

Campbell said that King owes an apology to the President and the people of Iowa.

“King has had time to reflect on his comments, and it’s time he apologized or retracted the statement. He owes an apology to both the President and to Iowa” Campbell said.

Campbell is also concerned with King’s follow-on comments.

“I’m particularly disturbed by King’s follow-on comments this past week to his initial statement. Rather than apologize for suggesting the President and administration acts in a racist manner, he has more stridently made the charge” Campbell said.

“When Steve King makes comments like these, he jeopardizes the important progress the American people have made over decades in civil rights.”

“King's has made clear that he thinks the President and administration acts in a racist manner in instances, and has explicitly made the charge in interviews he’s given since,” Campbell said.”

King justified his remarks by saying he was ‘standing-up’ against racism.

"I'm standing up against something that is or could become racism," King had said.

“It’s important that Iowa’s GOP leadership condemn King’s remarks to protect the important progress we’ve made in America in race relations and equal rights,” Campbell said.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Romney leading British betting parlor odds as Obama challenger in 2012



The British betting site Ladbrokes as of June 25 had the following odds for winning the 2012 presidential election. Obama is now under even odds -- meaning if you bet $100 on Obama and he wins you win $110. In horse-racing parlance there is something known as a "good price" -- which is horse that is not expected to win but has a thinking man's shot at doing so with some good odds. Romney qualifies on that score at 8 to 1. A little riskier bet with longer odds but reasonable chances is Mitch Daniels, the Indiana Republican governor at 25 to 1. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 33 to 1 is worth a look in the Ladbrokes context.

Here are the Ladbrokes odds:


Barack Obama 10/11

Mitt Romney 8/1
Sarah Palin 16/1
Mike Huckabee 20/1
Tim Pawlenty 20/1
Hillary Clinton 25/1
Bobby Jindal 25/1
Newt Gingrich 25/1
Haley Barbour 25/1
Jon Thune 25/1
Mitch Daniels 25/1
Joe Biden 33/1
Michael Bloomberg 33/1
David Petraeus 33/1
Jeb Bush 33/1
Jon Huntsman 33/1
Mike Pence 33/1
Scott Brown 33/1
Charlie Crist 40/1
Rick Perry 50/1
Rudy Giuliani 66/1
Eric Cantor 66/1
Tom Ridge 66/1
Rand Paul 66/1
Mark Warner 100/1
John McCain 100/1
Al Gore 100/1
Rob Portman 100/1
Kay Bailey Hutchison 100/1
Sam Brownback 100/1
Rick Santorum 100/1
Gary Johnson 100/1
Stanley McChrystal 100/1
Tom Coburn 100/1
Fred Thompson 125/1
Dirk Kempthorne 125/1
Ron Paul 150/1
Brian Schweitzer 150/1
Michele Bachmann 150/1
Dick Cheney 150/1
Paul Ryan 150/1
Mark Sanford 200/1
Lou Dobbs 200/1

Congressman King still our employee, not a shock jock yet

In evaluating employees one of the more important measures is time management.

And it is in this way that we should judge Congressman Steve King’s cheap charge Monday that President Obama has a “default mechanism” that favors “the black person.”

King offered no evidence of this suggestion of presidential racism other than Obama’s ill-considered entry into what’s now a year-old dispute between a Harvard professor and a white cop in Cambridge, Mass., that led to a brief national discussion about law enforcement and race — and that laughable White House “Beer Summit.”

Indeed, Obama has come under criticism from African-American leaders for not having a “black” agenda, for being a product of elite Ivy schools. He’s more Wall Street than street, say some of his critics.

King, who gets testy when others challenge his motivations on racial matters, had no problems doing just that with Obama on Monday on the talk show of Watergate alum G. Gordon Liddy. Our congressman also spent the week doing a number of other interviews in which he defended, amplified and elaborated on the statements.

Read the full column in the Carroll Daily Times Herald ...

King once made a great point in challenging some of my work. We can’t divine what is in the hearts of others on race, went King’s line of reasoning. King asked me to respect that in evaluating his remarks with race, but he fails to apply the same standard to himself in commenting on the commander in chief.


We can debate whether King is accurate with his portrayal of Obama as a closet black militant. But, really, is this the sort of business we want Mr. King, our $174,000-a-year employee, doing for us on the job?

BP blame debate alive in western Iowa race



U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, took to the national airwaves this week to attack President Obama for pressuring British Petroleum to create a $20 billion escrow fund to pay for damages related to the two-month-old oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, King’s Democratic opponent in the fall, Matt Campbell of Manning, strongly criticized the western Iowa Republican’s defense of Texas Congressman Joe Barton’s characterization of Obama’s meeting with BP officials as a “shakedown.”

Read the rest of the story in the Carroll Daily Times Herald ....