SOUTH DAKOTA STRAIGHT TALK

A different sort of drifter came hat in hand to the Sioux Falls City Council at Monday’s “Informational”.

Monday, Minnehaha County Government came with their hand out seeking a financial partnership with the City of Sioux Falls to provide not only what they believe will help address the homeless problems in Sioux Falls but also provide permanent housing for perhaps up to thirty five homeless persons.

As reported in Monday’s “Argus Leader”, County Human Services Director, Hugh Grogan, was seeking municipal government support saying, "My perspective would be, we need to know from the city that they are committed to the idea of providing permanent housing as a possible solution to the homeless issue, and to the idea of jointly funding that solution,"

County Commissioners, Carol Twedt and Jeff Barth also spoke to the need to deal with the Homeless and more specifically a program technique referred to as “Housing First.” While the County Officials emphasized they were not locked into any specific proposal they seemed anxious to have the City pursue owning the current Army and Navy Reserve Center on Russell Avenue and using it for essentially an apartment building for the (my term) most chronically homeless. The permanent housing was described as a Hospice for the Homeless. It was suggested that such a permanent solution thus was usually a last stop for many. It was stated that have a permanent home then gave social workers an opportunity to make real progress on other problems the client had. It was noted that these chronic homeless were in generally in failing health and their life expectancy was poor.

The County Officials were adroit in using a common negotiating strategy of arguing about details while just assuming that the City would be their financial partner.

From the discussion of the six City Councilors (Beninga and Costello as well as the Mayor were not present) they all seemed open to discussion and listening to the Q and A, watching their body language, and reading today’s press report probably are divided on their feelings and support on this issue.

Homelessness is an issue in our Community and is an important issue that should be dealt with. Answers are not easy as the problem has many facets, social, economic, mental health and substance abuse among others. Without question the City Council and the Citizens of Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County want to deal with this problem.

A Few Observations

Generally the State has designated the County responsible for welfare and social services. This is not a City Government responsibility.

City Government has its own obligations and challenges that they are responsible for. What would County Government be expected to do if they were approached by the City and asked to pay for street maintenance or water and sewer?

County Government is financially challenged perhaps more so than the City because Counties have growing responsibilities with recently rapidly escalating costs (Law Enforcement, Courts and Welfare) without the smorgasbord of revenue options that City Government has (property tax, sales tax, fees, and revenue funds).

The City of Sioux Falls however has plenty of its own demands at the moment. Obviously Lewis & Clark Water System is #1, the need to fund the Levee upgrades, Street repairs and maintenance, and even the so called quality of life issues (libraries, parks, and sports fields) for a growing City, For example, making the choice of using funds for a Library for West Sioux Falls or apartments for homeless, the money spent on a library (a City responsibility) will positively effect many and by waiting even two or three years actually impacts many more people.In the case of young people not having ready access to a library can be a missed opportunity to nurture learning that is of lifetime benefit.

As I often postulate, when you subsidize something it gets bigger – in this case putting the chronic in permanent housing (that does perhaps solve the immediate problem) will in my judgment by its existence create the need for even more permanent housing.

Finally if the County or the City and County do decide to proceed with the Reserve Center or another property – they should consider partnering with non profits such as Habitat for Humanity, Salvation Army, other non profits and Churches. I would also employ Convicts to help with construction tasks as was done when our Schools were wired and the State Fairgrounds renovated.

We ask a lot from our Government, sometimes too much, but at the end of the day Citizens must insist that Government stay prioritized and on task.

Straight Talk Commentary – The Washington Post article below dramatically suggests that Americans have once again fallen into what President Jimmy Carter suggested was a Malaise.

Sidebar – For a recent look at history perhaps repeating itself take look at Carter’s 1979 Malaise speech. The facts Carter recites demonstrate in particular Governments dramatic failure in dealing in dealing with issues, particularly energy independence.

As the WaPo article says, with all the issues and problems that seem to be overwhelming America, Americans feel little sense of hope that there is little chance of anything getting better.

If this article is on the mark and I believe it is - Restoring Hope is the marquis issue for the 2008 Presidential Campaign.

Hope will overshadow Change that eclipses the Economy and the War Against Terrorism. Like the elections of 1932 (Franklin D. Roosevelt) or 1980 (Ronald Reagan), Americans want a Leader who restores our Confidence.

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control

By: Alan Fram and Eileen Putman

WashingtonPost.com

June 22, 2008

WASHINGTON - Is everything spinning out of control?

Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.

Horatio Alger, twist in your grave.

The can-do, bootstrap approach embedded in the American psyche is under assault. Eroding it is a dour powerlessness that is chipping away at the country's sturdy conviction that destiny can be commanded with sheer courage and perseverance.

The sense of helplessness is even reflected in this year's presidential election. Each contender offers a sense of order — and hope. Republican John McCain promises an experienced hand in a frightening time. Democrat Barack Obama promises bright and shiny change, and his large crowds believe his exhortation, "Yes, we can."

Even so, a battered public seems discouraged by the onslaught of dispiriting things. An Associated Press-Ipsos poll says a barrel-scraping 17 percent of people surveyed believe the country is moving in the right direction. That is the lowest reading since the survey began in 2003.

An ABC News-Washington Post survey put that figure at 14 percent, tying the low in more than three decades of taking soundings on the national mood.

"It is pretty scary," said Charles Truxal, 64, a retired corporate manager in Rochester, Minn. "People are thinking things are going to get better, and they haven't been. And then you go hide in your basement because tornadoes are coming through. If you think about things, you have very little power to make it change."

Recent natural disasters around the world dwarf anything afflicting the U.S. Consider that more than 69,000 people died in the China earthquake, and that 78,000 were killed and 56,000 missing from the Myanmar cyclone.

Americans need do no more than check the weather, look in their wallets or turn on the news for their daily reality check on a world gone haywire.

Floods engulf Midwestern river towns. Is it global warming, the gradual degradation of a planet's weather that man seems powerless to stop or just a freakish late-spring deluge?

It hardly matters to those in the path. Just ask the people of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina. They are living in a city where, 1,000 days after the storm, entire neighborhoods remain abandoned, a national embarrassment that evokes disbelief from visitors.

Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive on a worldwide scale, due to increased consumption in growing countries such as China and India and rising fuel costs. That can-do solution to energy needs — turning corn into fuel — is sapping fields of plenty once devoted to crops that people need to eat. Shortages have sparked riots. In the U.S., rice prices tripled and some stores rationed the staple.

Residents of the nation's capital and its suburbs repeatedly lose power for extended periods as mere thunderstorms rumble through. In California, leaders warn people to use less water in the unrelenting drought.

Want to get away from it all? The weak U.S. dollar makes travel abroad forbiddingly expensive. To add insult to injury, some airlines now charge to check luggage.

Want to escape on the couch? A writers' strike halted favorite TV shows for half a season. The newspaper on the table may soon be a relic of the Internet age. Just as video stores are falling by the wayside as people get their movies online or in the mail.

But there's always sports, right?

The moorings seem to be coming loose here, too.

Baseball stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens stand accused of enhancing their heroics with drugs. Basketball referees are suspected of cheating.

Stay tuned for less than pristine tales from the drug-addled Tour de France and who knows what from the Summer Olympics.

It's not the first time Americans have felt a loss of control.

Alger, the dime-novel author whose heroes overcame adversity to gain riches and fame, played to similar anxieties when the U.S. was becoming an industrial society in the late 1800s.

American University historian Allan J. Lichtman notes that the U.S. has endured comparable periods and worse, including the economic stagflation (stagnant growth combined with inflation) and Iran hostage crisis of 1980; the dawn of the Cold War, the Korean War and the hysterical hunts for domestic Communists in the late 1940s and early 1950s; and the Depression of the 1930s.

"All those periods were followed by much more optimistic periods in which the American people had their confidence restored," he said. "Of course, that doesn't mean it will happen again."

Each period also was followed by a change in the party controlling the White House.

This period has seen intense interest in the presidential primaries, especially the Democrats' five-month duel between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Records were shattered by voters showing up at polling places, yearning for a voice in who will next guide the country as it confronts the uncontrollable.

Never mind that their views of their current leaders are near rock bottom, reflecting a frustration with Washington's inability to solve anything. President Bush barely gets the approval of three in 10 people, and it's even worse for the Democratic-led Congress.

Why the vulnerability? After all, this is the 21st century, not a more primitive past when little in life was assured. Surely people know how to fix problems now.

Maybe. And maybe this is what the 21st century will be about — a great unraveling of some things long taken for granted.

(Straight Talk continues)

Endbar – For a look at the long term issues our Presidential Candidates are not talking about look at “Big Issues for the Next President” at Issuesandanswers.info

                           Picture Credit to Kevin Woster

I asked the following questions to Rob Skjonsberg, Vice President of Government Affairs at Poet.

Rob served as Chief of Staff to Governor Mike Rounds for five years and prior to that he was Vice President and Community Development Representative for Wells Fargo in Pierre.

Q. What is Governor Mike Rounds single most important accomplishment?

A. As governor, without question, the transfer of the Homestake gold mine from Barrick Gold Corporation to the State of South Dakota and the National Science Foundation’s designation as the nation’s site for the Deep Underground Science & Engineering Laboratory.

Elected leaders before him certainly deserve great credit. And, our delegation’s support will be critical as the site moves forward. But, Mike Rounds was the guy that got it over the hump and frankly, kept it alive. I was in the room when that project could have been declared dead on several different occasions. The governor just wouldn’t give up on it. We always found a way to move forward.

A big part of that success was top-shelf people. Guys like Dave Snyder, Dave Bozied, Casey Petersen, Jason Dilges and others – they all played critical roles. We forget about the workers sometimes – but without them turning the wrenches, it never would have happened.

Those days will always be embroidered in my mind, as the most exciting, challenging, game-changing moments during my tenure in government. It’s very similar – I suspect - to the types of discussions that took place when Citibank came to South Dakota. Those opportunities don’t come along very often – maybe once or twice in a lifetime. So it’s important to have people in place that can close the deal.

Today, we can’t even fathom the magnitude of this project. It has the potential to improve the quality of life in every corner of our state and region. I look forward to the day I can take my sons to Lead and tell them the story of how it all came together.

Q. Part of your responsibilities at Poet is to lobby Government. When you were with the Governor’s Office you were on the receiving end of lobbyists’ efforts, are there any similarities in these jobs?

A. Public policy is public policy. Whether you’re an elected official, government employee, private citizen or industry representative – good government should be the goal. The process can get a bit messy and conversations can be fierce – but at the end of the day positive things will happen if those involved start and end with that basic principle. I think most of us involved in the process have that as a common viewpoint.

Q. The tax credits and subsidies for ethanol and ethanol plants were established when crude petroleum was $20 per barrel or less. Today oil prices are north of $130, setting aside the energy independence argument, with petroleum at these historic high prices how do you justify Government support of ethanol?

A. I’ve always been intrigued by this argument. Let me put it this way; if ethanol ceased to exist oil would be north of $150 and gas would be 60 cents more per gallon. Not only should those original lawmakers be commended for their vision when oil was $20 per barrel – current policy makers should be doing everything they can to strengthen the renewable fuels movement. Ethanol is the only immediate alternative to high oil prices. The country’s return on investment has been and will remain phenomenal as long as good policies are in place.

But, I think it’s important to understand the overall tax structure and how it really applies from an economic standpoint.

For example, South Dakota’s fuel tax code has numerous tax rates for different fuels. Jet fuel, off-road diesel, off-road gas, aviation gasoline, compressed natural gas, liquid petroleum gas, and E10 & E85 all have a different tax rate than unleaded gasoline. I don’t consider off-road diesel to get a “subsidy” because it’s not taxed the same as unleaded gasoline. Simply put, I don’t consider it a “subsidy” if the tax is different than a comparable, in this case unleaded fuel.

Actually, South Dakota has a myriad of tax rates, tax refunds, and tax exemptions for almost everything. Take residential, commercial and agricultural land for instance. If we tax residential property less than what we tax commercial property – should we abolish the “subsidy” for residential home owners and hike up everyone’s taxes across the board in order to achieve tax parity? Of course not, because it doesn’t make sense. That’s not good policy.

I’d rather just have the real discussion. If someone wants to make a case that unleaded fuel and ethanol blended fuel should be taxed the same – they should just say that and call it a tax increase on consumers at the pump. That’s a more reasonable approach and helps facilitate an honest dialog about the intent. I’ll gladly have that debate.

Secondly, as it relates to tax credits, at the federal level the blender currently receives a 51 cent per gallon tax credit. The ethanol and corn producer don’t receive that credit. And actually, the recent farm bill reduces that blender’s credit to 45 cents.

Lastly, as it relates to taxation I have a very simple philosophy. We don’t tax chewing gum and chewing tobacco the same, we shouldn’t tax foreign oil and homegrown, clean, renewable ethanol the same either. One costs Americans nearly $2 billion a day and one is reducing the price of gas by 60 cents per gallon. Again, good tax policy takes all things into account.

Q. The Chief Operations Officer of Smithfield Foods (owner’s of John Morrell and Company) recently blamed Smithfield’s extreme drop in profitability (profits plunged 94%) on the consumption of corn for ethanol saying ethanol “is having a substantially adverse effect on our business… and it’s going to cause food prices in this country to go up.” How do you respond to the growing claims that corn should be used for feedstuffs and not energy?

A. I empathize with ranchers who are paying the same prices that we are for corn and we’re constantly looking at partnership opportunities from that standpoint. I have less empathy for folks like the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association that have yet to actually defend their stance. When Senator Grassley attempted to meet with them to discuss their position only one CEO agreed to meet. To me, that speaks volumes about their weak position.

Let’s talk about the facts. The President’s Council of Economic Advisors has stated that ethanol accounts for between 2 and 3 percent of the overall increase in food prices. That means 97% of the inflationary factor is being caused by something else. If this gives you additional insight, in 1947 a bushel of corn and a barrel of oil were priced the same at $2.16. It’s not that hard to figure out what’s driving price increases.

A farmer receives less than 20 percent of the total food costs paid by consumers. More than 4 out of every 5 cents of the cost of food, including transportation, processing, packaging, marketing, distribution and retailing are added to the commodity after it leaves the farm.

That’s why, in an 18 ounce box of cereal priced at $4.95 the farmer gets about 16 cents. In a one pound sirloin priced at $7.99 the farmer gets about 85 cents. Somebody is making money at those prices and it surely isn’t the farmer.

Ethanol has been blamed for everything from the increased price of gummi bears to male pattern baldness. And, I’m only half joking. Saying that ethanol is primarily responsible for increasing food prices, is ludicrous.

Q. Several years ago you were mentioned as a possible candidate for public office, is that something that could still be in your future?

A. I was humbled by the suggestion. But, it just wasn’t practical at the time – I’m pretty sure I’d have lost the popular vote in my own home.

Right now, my hands are full with two young boys, a new career and a new community. Once I’ve mastered those priorities, I’ll worry about the next chapter.

I’ll always be involved to some extent – I imagine.

Q. What would we be surprised to know about you?

A. My mother is a Sisseton-Wahpeton tribal member. With a name like mine – most people are surprised to know that. As unoriginal as it sounds, my family literally has deep ties to this state and I just can’t imagine being anywhere else.

“Forbes Magazine” reported earlier this month that Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods are number 1 and 2 on their list of the 100 most powerful and high paid celebrities.

Beyond fame and fortune both Oprah and Tiger are among the most widely admired Americans.

Sidebar – like Rudy, Hillary, and now Barack, Oprah and Tiger are on a first name basis with the World. In the World of Public Opinion that’s powerful, although it did not seem to help Hillary and Rudy.

Oprah and Tiger were certainly inspirational this past weekend.

Tiger’s historic 91 hole overtime win of the U S Open is already widely known. His 2008 Open Championship win is memorable and one for the history books. Despite his knee and playing in pain, Tiger showed his skill and more importantly the focus and will to win of a true Champion. Thomas Boswell's beautifully written article in today’s “Washington Post” details Tiger’s conquest of Torrey Pines. Truly Inspirational!

While Tiger was busy on the links on Sunday, Oprah was giving the Commencement Address at Stanford. Among her other remarks it was reported, "Money is pretty nice," she said, drawing knowing laughter from the crowd. "I like money. It's good for buying things. But having a lot of money does not automatically make one a successful person.” In her address Oprah also inspired her audience of 25,000 packed into Stanford Stadium including the 4000 graduates.

What does this have to do with the politics?

Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods have a life of accomplishment yet both are endorsing Barack Obama.

Like the two celebrities Barack is inspirational (he gives a great speech) and despite his Harvard Education and his election to the U S Senate (generally agreed without a real opponent), Barack has little record of real accomplishment.

Barack Obama started out as “the man of the people” when he won the Iowa Caucus. Through the rest of the primary and caucus season he changed his voting constituency and was victorious claiming the “McGovern Coalition. He won with a Democratic coalition of Anti War Liberals, Students, Intellectuals, the Wealthy and overwhelming African Americans. He ceded elderly men and women and the working class to Hillary who received very close to more or less than 50% of the popular vote (depending on whose spin you want to believe and which candidate you prefer).

Obama tapped into the Change theme that was easily exploited with the young that the Government is Broken and Does Not Work. Through the use of social networking that youth so easily employ, his campaign was almost naturally if not seamlessly ready made for the Inspirational Candidate.

The winds of change are a tail wind for Barack Obama.

While the winds of change and the Inspirational Zeitgeist seem to be in favor of Obama, the 2008 Presidential Election has been unpredictable. Ever since the 2006 elections (that the GOP lost in a blowout) it has been well known is that the bar would be set very high for Republicans in 2008.

In John McCain, Republicans have chosen the best possible nominee to run on the Change issue, McCain actually has a record of being a change agent. More importantly though McCain has lived a life of that is in fact Inspirational.

It is often said in Politics perception is reality. On November 4th we will see if Americans choose the Perception or the Reality.

Straight Talk Commentary – As Americans celebrate Father’s Day, Juan Williams speaks again to the failure of American Socialism.

No government can love anyone. Many social programs, perhaps while well meaning have failed as Williams’ statistics and arguments demonstrate. Social programs as with economics and taxes – the axiom is correct – when you tax something it gets smaller; when you subsidize something it gets bigger (read here assistance to unwed mothers or TANF).

Single working parent homes can work but nothing replaces a Mom and a Dad.

The Tragedy of America's Disappearing Fathers

By Juan Williams

The Wall Street Journal

June 14, 2008

Walter Dean Myers, a best-selling author of books for teenagers, sometimes visits juvenile detention centers in his home state of New Jersey to hold writing workshops and listen for stories about the lives of young Americans.

One day, in a juvenile facility near his home in Jersey City, a 15-year-old black boy pulled him aside for a whispered question: Why did he write in "Somewhere in the Darkness" about a boy not meeting his father because the father was in jail? Mr. Myers, a 70-year-old black man, did not answer. He waited. And sure enough, the boy, eyes down, mumbled that he had yet to meet his own father, who was in jail.

As we celebrate Father's Day tomorrow, we should reflect upon a sad fact: It is now common to meet young people in our big city schools, foster-care homes and juvenile centers who do not know their dads. Most of those children have come face-to-face with their father at some point; but most have little regular contact with the man, or have any faith that he loves or cares about them.

When fatherless young people are encouraged to write about their lives, they tell heartbreaking stories about feeling like "throwaway people." In the privacy of the written page, their hard, emotional shells crack open to reveal the uncertainty that comes from not knowing if their father has any interest in them. The stories are like letters to unknown dads – some filled with imaginary scenes about what it might be like to have a dad who comes home and puts his arm around you or plays with you.

They feel like they've been thrown away, Mr. Myers says, because "they don't have a father to push them, discipline them, and they give up trying to succeed . . . they don't see themselves as wanted." A regular theme of their stories is that they feel safer in a foster care home or juvenile detention center than on the outside, because they have no father to hold together the family. There is no one at home.

The extent of the problem is clear. The nation's out-of-wedlock birth rate is 38%. Among white children, 28% are now born to a single mother; among Hispanic children it is 50% and reaches a chilling, disorienting peak of 71% for black children. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly a quarter of America's white children (22%) do not have any male in their homes; nearly a third (31%) of Hispanic children and over half of black children (56%) are fatherless.

This represents a dramatic shift in American life. In the early 1960s, only 2.3% of white children and 24% of black children were born to a single mom. Having a dad, in short, is now a privilege, a ticket to middle-class status on par with getting into a good college.

The odds increase for a child's success with the psychological and financial stability rooted in having two parents. Having two parents means there is a greater likelihood that someone will read to a child as a preschooler, support him through school, and prevent him from dropping out, as well as teaching him how to compete, win and lose and get up to try again, in academics, athletics and the arts. Maybe most important of all is that having a dad at home is almost a certain ticket out of poverty; because about 40% of single-mother families are in poverty.

"If you are concerned about reducing child poverty then you have to focus on missing fathers," says Roland Warren, president of the National Fatherhood Initiative, based in Gaithersburg, Md. This organization works to encourage more men to be involved fathers.

The odds are higher that a child without a dad will have more contact with the drug culture, the police and jail. Even in kindergarten, children living with single parents are more likely to trail children with two parents when it comes to health, cognitive skills and their emotional maturity. They are in the back of the bus before the bus – their life – even gets going.

A study of black families 10 years ago, when the out-of-wedlock birthrate was not as high as today, found that single moms reported only 20% of the "baby's daddy" spent time with the child or took a "lot" of interest in the baby. That is quite a contrast to the married black mothers who told researchers that 88% of married black men, or men living with the mother, regularly spent time with the child and took responsibility for the child's well-being.

In his fictional books, Walter Dean Myers has found that the key to reaching young readers is to connect with their "internal life of insecurities and doubts." These doubts and insecurities involve answers to painful questions such as, "do you feel loved, do you ever feel lonely?" These are feelings that are hard to share with a teacher, a coach or even a friend.

More so today than in the past, reaching the heart of insecurity among young people means writing about the hurt of life without a dad. It also means writing about being young and black or brown in the midst of the flood of negative images in rap videos without a positive male role model. These young people see so many others just like them standing on street corners, unconnected to family life and failing at school and work and threatening violence – and in so many cases just like them, without an adult male to guide them.

When these children see Barack Obama, Colin Powell or Condoleezza Rice, they tell Walter Dean Myers that those black people must be "special; they are not like me, they don't have the background that I have."

In his own life, Mr. Myers often looked down on the man in his house: his stepfather, who worked as a janitor and was illiterate. He felt this man had little to teach him.

Then his own son complained one day that he, Myers, "sounded just like granddad" when he told the boy to pick up after himself, to work harder and show respect to people.

"I didn't know it at the time," says Mr. Myers of his stepfather, "but just having him around meant I was picking up his discipline, his pride, his work ethic. . ." He adds: "Until I heard it from my son I never understood it."

Mr. Williams is a political analyst for National Public Radio and Fox News.

Sad News – National Broadcasting Company broadcast journalist Tim Russert passed away this afternoon.

Russert was a probing journalist that transcended the talking head. He was the last in the N B C tradition of Lawrence Spivak. As Russert said each Sunday, “If it is Sunday, it must be Meet The Press.” Meet The Press generally stays on issues and above the partisan fray. In recent years Russert added a feature of having candidates from high profile U S Senate campaigns on the program before the general election. The Thune Daschle race in 2004 was one of the first, if not the first.

Tom Brokaw would be the natural replacement for Russert, certainly through the November election. Brokaw left the Nightly News because of the daily demands. Brokaw returning would be in the tradition of David Brinkley return to work in his golden years on This Week (on A B C) and would be good for NBC and certainly for viewers and perhaps (speculating here) for Tom Brokaw.

With so many irresponsible journalists out there Tim Russert will be missed.

There is probably no more hot button political issue than Gasoline Prices.

Two years ago when gasoline prices hit 3 bucks a gallon, I wrote the post that follows on politicians getting all lathered with their outrage over high prices. What I said then is just as true today.

As we enter the Presidential Campaign season our pols are still posturing and pontificating but not really working to solve the problem. The problem is a supply and demand problem. The increase in Demand is coming from industrialization in China, India and other developing nations – Without any significant increase in Supply.

To further politicize this issue and use their votes in the November election Democrats dusted off their old Windfall Profits Tax on the Major Oil Companies. The bill also would have eliminated the tax credits that oil exploration companies receive. Admittedly with huge profits currently reflecting high petroleum prices the Oil Companies an attractive target. Generally Republicans in the U S Senate blocked the bill from debate. You will hear much more about this vote in the upcoming election.

Consider that the proposed Windfall Profits Tax would not have lowered prices. The profits then instead of going to the Oil Companies would simply have gone to the politicians.

Very Partisan Sidebar – It almost goes without saying that the Democrats just cannot help themselves that the solution to most every problem is a tax increase.

Also consider that when the drilling incentives were put in place the price of oil was at the $15 a barrel level and the cost of exploration was something like $20 a barrel. With current high prices and income it may be time to remove the tax credits because with $130 a barrel oil there is no need for an exploration incentive. The market will take care of it.

Price Supply and Demand is an economic fact. Another political and economic fact is: When you tax something it gets smaller and when you subsidize something it gets bigger.

What our Government needs to do is put policies in place to increase supply and reduce demand. Currently there is universal agreement that we need energy independence. Our politicians also agree on renewable fuels and finding alternative sources of energy. For the moment I will not venture into calling names or discussing policy but only to say that many Democrats seem opposed to employing known resources at sea or in the Alaskan Wilderness. We also should very aggressively be working on finding solutions to make Coal clean and of using Nuclear Power.

It is getting to be an old theme with me but the Washington Crowd needs to stop talking and start doing.

Gas Pains

Nothing gets the public and politicians excited like high-energy prices. Energy prices like taxes are one of the ultimate pocket book issues.

Consumers are reluctant to acknowledge it but they have been spoiled by relatively inexpensive energy. Higher prices cause pain to consumers and the economy. The public wants affordable energy and a higher price reduces discretionary spending and raises the cost of many goods.

Elected officials react to the outrage of higher prices with outrage of their own, they blame producers and distributors and come forward with quick fixes and salve but no real long-term solutions. Our Politicians try to find quick fixes to keep prices low (i.e. demand release of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) or concoct schemes like the $100 rebate idea to act like they care and are dealing with the problem.

Of course they just want to deal with the next election. To work toward solutions causes pain, not something elected officials and politicians want to be associated with. In fairness except for minor tweaking not much has been done since our first “Energy Crisis” – The Arab Oil Embargo, thirty-five years ago. Yes we have CAFÉ standards for automobiles (although trucks and SUVs are exempt or have their own special rules) and yes we have made some very limited progress on renewable fuels (whose debates have been about special interest politics not solving problems). And standards for insulation and energy efficiency have been mandated in construction.

For more specifics on Inaction and possible approaches see the previous post Why Wait.

On energy and demagoguery Republicans are equally to blame as Democrats. I prefer free market approaches (generally favored by Republicans) but Government action (favored by Democrats) is also necessary.

The problem is one of Supply and Demand . We have done almost nothing to deal with them. We need more supply and relatively less demand or more efficient use of energy to solve the crisis. Giving rebates or taxing so called windfall profits will not create any more energy or reduce usage.

Mandating ethanol is just a small part of any solution. Ethanol is a step in the right direction but will not solve in a significant way shortages. Farm constituencies and ethanol plant owners love their Representatives, Senators, Governors and Presidents for championing it. But we need more than helping our agricultural constituency to solve this problem.

My generations of political activists have failed our children. We are less well off today on the energy front than when we were coming of age and when our children were our age.

The political pandering should stop and Statesmen should deal constructively with energy.

Fixing the problem takes political courage. Continuing to fail to do so simply mean that prices over time will continue to rise and our standard of living and national security will be diminished.

Straight Talk Commentary – “The World Is Flat” Tom Friedman wrote the following very instructive piece today on democracy, capitalism, and free enterprise. Friedman’s presentation is instructive – it puts our world into perspective.

Without question for America to compete, we must invest more in our schools and in future generations. More money for schools is necessary but it is not the sole investment. Parents must invest more time to their children and take prime responsibility for their education. Citizens and School Districts need to invest in a longer school year.

With the increased investment we must require more accountability and results.

People vs. Dinosaurs

By Thomas L Friedman

The New York Times

June 8, 2008

Tefen Industrial Park, Israel

Question: What do America’s premier investor, Warren Buffett, and Iran’s toxic president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have in common? Answer: They’ve both made a bet about Israel’s future.

Ahmadinejad declared on Monday that Israel “has reached its final phase and will soon be wiped out from the geographic scene.”

By coincidence, I heard the Iranian leader’s statement on Israel Radio just as I was leaving the headquarters of Iscar, Israel’s famous precision tool company, headquartered in the Western Galilee, near the Lebanon border. Iscar is known for many things, most of all for being the first enterprise that Buffett bought overseas for his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway.

Buffett paid $4 billion for 80 percent of Iscar and the deal just happened to close a few days before Hezbollah, a key part of Iran’s holding company, attacked Israel in July 2006, triggering a monthlong war. I asked Iscar’s chairman, Eitan Wertheimer, what was Buffett’s reaction when he found out that he had just paid $4 billion for an Israeli company and a few days later Hezbollah rockets were landing outside its parking lot.

Buffett just brushed it off with a wave, recalled Wertheimer: “He said, ‘I’m not interested in the next quarter. I’m interested in the next 20 years.’ ” Wertheimer repaid that confidence by telling half his employees to stay home during the war and using the other half to keep the factory from not missing a day of work and setting a production record for the month. It helps when many of your “employees” are robots that move around the buildings, beeping humans out of the way.

So who would you put your money on? Buffett or Ahmadinejad? I’d short Ahmadinejad and go long Warren Buffett.

Why? From outside, Israel looks as if it’s in turmoil, largely because the entire political leadership seems to be under investigation. But Israel is a weak state with a strong civil society. The economy is exploding from the bottom up. Israel’s currency, the shekel, has appreciated nearly 30 percent against the dollar since the start of 2007.

The reason? Israel is a country that is hard-wired to compete in a flat world. It has a population drawn from 100 different countries, speaking 100 different languages, with a business culture that strongly encourages individual imagination and adaptation and where being a nonconformist is the norm. While you were sleeping, Israel has gone from oranges to software, or as they say around here, from Jaffa to Java.

The day I visited the Iscar campus, one of its theaters was filled with industrialists from the Czech Republic, who were getting a lecture — in Czech — from Iscar experts. The Czechs came all the way to the Israel-Lebanon border region to learn about the latest innovations in precision tool-making. Wertheimer is famous for staying close to his customers and the latest technologies. “If you sleep on the floor,” he likes to say, “you never have to worry about falling out of bed.”

That kind of hunger explains why, in the first quarter of 2008, the top four economies after America in attracting venture capital for start-ups were: Europe $1.53 billion, China $719 million, Israel $572 million and India $99 million, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Israel, with 7 million people, attracted almost as much as China, with 1.3 billion.

Boaz Golany, who heads engineering at the Technion, Israel’s M.I.T., told me: “In the last eight months, we have had delegations from I.B.M., General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart visiting our campus. They are all looking to develop R & D centers in Israel.”

Ahmadinejad professes not to care about such things. He was — to put it in American baseball terms — born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. Because oil prices have gone up to nearly $140 a barrel, he feels relaxed predicting that Israel will disappear, while Iran maintains a welfare state — with more than 10 percent unemployment.

Iran has invented nothing of importance since the Islamic Revolution, which is a shame. Historically, Iranians have been a dynamic and inventive people — one only need look at the richness of Persian civilization to see that. But the Islamic regime there today does not trust its people and will not empower them as individuals.

Of course, oil wealth can buy all the software and nuclear technology you want, or can’t develop yourself. This is not an argument that we shouldn’t worry about Iran. Ahmadinejad should, though.

Iran’s economic and military clout today is largely dependent on extracting oil from the ground. Israel’s economic and military power today is entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people. Israel’s economic power is endlessly renewable. Iran’s is a dwindling resource based on fossil fuels made from dead dinosaurs.

So who will be here in 20 years? I’m with Buffett: I’ll bet on the people who bet on their people — not the people who bet on dead dinosaurs.

Pinning her to the mat isn’t good enough to win; he is going to have to throw her out of the ring.

Barack Obama has been declared the winner of the Democrat nomination however there is just one problem. He does not have a majority of the legally committed delegates required for nomination. Those pesky super delegates, who say they are for Obama, legally have the right to change their mind. Until the roll is called, the votes are cast, the results announced and the gavel falls, there is at least the remotest possibility that Hillary could pull this off.

Tonight Hillary Clinton did not concede nor did she say she was leaving the ring. She said talk to me.

Hillary received by her claim more popular votes than Barack Obama and won more States including the largest ones and the swing states. With over 1900 delegate, the majority of many states and her filing notice of a possible credentials challenge of the Florida and Michigan delegations she has plenty of bargaining power and there are still almost three months until the Denver Nominating Convention.

Perhaps she is waiting for another remark about bitter people in rural areas clinging to God and Guns or another Major Rev. Wright debacle to unfold. Or perhaps she is just bargaining to get her debts paid or a place on the ticket.

Time will tell – and it is precious time for Barack Obama but for tonight the Fat Lady who was thought to be warming up has retreated for another day.

Good politicians like good salesman accentuate the positive and never speak of the negative. Barack Obama has proven to be a great salesman.

Elected officials often target their remarks when speaking to interest groups and that can border on pandering, and the soon Presumptive Democrat nominee like most politicians deserves some leeway.

The weekend news that the Illinois Senator is quitting his church after twenty years is just the latest edition of the Obama Continuous Reinvention Machine. It has only been a short two and one-half months (March 18th) in his “A More Perfect Union Speech” when he said, "I can no more disown [Rev. Wright] than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother.” Since then he disowned Wright and now the Church.

Then there was his gaff about meeting hostile foreign leaders without any preconditions – but reinvention interceded.

But consider his difficulty with the facts when he spoke last year in Selma, Alabama. As reported on his Obama08 campaign website - from a “Washington Post” news article –

“During his speech he said “ "Something stirred across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks were willing to march across a bridge," Obama said, explaining that, as a result, his parents "got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born." Earlier in the day at a prayer breakfast, the Illinois Democrat said: "If it hadn't been for Selma, I wouldn't be here."

"This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor," Obama told an audience of civil rights movement veterans. "When people ask me if I've been to Selma before, I tell them I'm coming home."

Obama’s truth and revision problem here is that he was born about four years before the Selma march. When confronted with this rather large inconsistency – the WaPo article continues, “ An aide later said the senator did not mean to imply that his birth was a literal result of the Selma marches but rather of the movement overall.”

Suggesting as Obama did that his birth was a result of his parents getting together in Selma is a biographical fact and not something that is subject to revision.

I do give it to him – he makes a great speech and is mega charismatic!

Beyond my issue that Senator Obama continually revises and extends his remarks and re invents himself - he is an empty suit (he has little experience, has no legislative accomplishments, no administrative accomplishments and a little understanding of economics or foreign policy).

Barack Obama appears to be on the brink of becoming the Democrat’s presumptive nominee, but what you see in June will not be what you see in November.

Endbar – For a look at what’s next from the Clinton Camp, see what their mega spin master, Lanny Davis has to say. Check it out at South Dakota Straight Talk’s issuesandanswers.info.