Another survivor rescued from the rubble.

The men and women who work to save lives are deserving of our utmost respect.

Just a thought on Tuesday from a moron.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 01:00 PM | Add Comment
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This is from the Nation, but worth reading. Not only is this specific program an absurd boondoggle, but it illustrates the unintended consequences of trying to dictate people's economic decisions generally.

Thanks to an obscure tax provision, the United States government stands to pay out as much as $8 billion this year to the ten largest paper companies. And get this: even though the money comes from a transportation bill whose manifest intent was to reduce dependence on fossil fuel, paper mills are adding diesel fuel to a process that requires none in order to qualify for the tax credit. In other words, we are paying the industry--handsomely--to use more fossil fuel. "Which is," as a Goldman Sachs report archly noted, the "opposite of what lawmakers likely had in mind when the tax credit was established."

The massive tax subsidy has barely been reported in the press, but it's caused a stir in the paper industry, which is struggling to stay profitable in the teeth of the recession. "Everybody's talking about it," paper industry analyst Brian McClay told me. "In the US and elsewhere in the world--in Canada and Brazil and Chile and Europe."

On March 24 International Paper (IP) announced it had received its first check from the IRS for a one-month period this past fall. The total? A whopping $71.6 million. "It's probably close to a billion a year of cash," McClay said. "If you look at the economics of this business, to make that kind of money today you'd have to be on another planet." IP's stock rose 12 per-
cent on the news.

The origins of the credit are innocent enough. In 2005 Congress passed, and George W. Bush signed, the $244 billion transportation bill. It included a variety of tax credits for alternative fuels such as ethanol and biomass. But it also included a fifty-cent-a-gallon credit for the use of fuel mixtures that combined "alternative fuel" with a "taxable fuel" such as diesel or gasoline.

Here's the thing: You don't need much outside fuel to produce paper. The process of pulping up wood produces a burnable liquid called "black liquor," which has traditionally then used by the paper company to burn for its energy. In other words, just pulping the paper produces, as a bonus byproduct, enough "black liquor" to fuel the rest of the process. Or rather 73% if the process -- 27% you have to ship in.

By adding diesel fuel to the black liquor, paper companies produce a mixture that qualifies for the mixed-fuel tax credit, allowing them to burn "black liquor into gold," as a JPMorgan report put it. It's unclear who first came up with the idea--Wrobleski told me it was "outside consultants"--but at some point last fall IP and Verso, another paper company, formerly a part of IP, began adding diesel to its black liquor and applied to the IRS for the credit. (Verso nabbed $29.7 million at just one of its mills in the final quarter of 2008 for its use of mixed fuel.)

Despite the obvious contrivance of the procedure, Wrobleski is unapologetic: "The credit is supposed to encourage the use of green fuel." Sure, I said, but isn't it a bit weird you're now adding diesel fuel to the process in order to take advantage of it? "It is what it is," she said.

Others are less charitable. "You use the toilet every day," said one hedge fund analyst who's been closely following the issue. "Imagine if you could start pouring a little gasoline into the bowl and get fifty cents a gallon every time you flushed."

Great idea. Count me in.

Bonus: The fed will soon be paying more to produce excess paper than the paper companies actually receive in sales:

In fact, the money to be gained from exploiting the tax credit so dwarfs the money to be made in making paper--IP lost $452 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone--that the ultimate result of the credit will likely be to push paper prices down as mills churn at full capacity in order to grab as much money from the IRS as it can.

Thanks to JCP.

Posted by: Ace at 11:04 AM | Add Comment
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Closing Velocity thinks the head suspiciously resembles the narrow tip of a missile designed to carry a nuclear bomb, rather than a satellite.

But that's just silly. If that were the case, Obama would be taking it more seriously, rather than attempting to ignore the issue and lull the public into a false sense of security.

Posted by: Ace at 10:47 AM | Comments (1)
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GOP House Whip and noted Jeeeeewwwww Eric Cantor has a team of Republicans who are baiting Democrats on the floor during debates in the hopes of getting some of them to say or do something stupid.

Peril awaits any first-term lawmaker who ventures to the House floor unprepared for a duel, but Ohio Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy had a particularly rough go of it the other day.

Kilroy took the floor to support an amendment to a popular public-service bill — only to face an ambush from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who hit her hard for her vote on an unrelated American International Group measure.

It wasnÂ’t an accident.

Foxx is part of a team of Republican members that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has put together to create embarrassing, YouTube-worthy moments for vulnerable Democratic freshmen.

CantorÂ’s floor staff has created a photo album to help identify the 42 most vulnerable Democrats. The aides send daily e-mails to the members of the attack team and alert lawmakers when these targeted members are speaking on the floor. They even draft quick scripts to help focus the questioning.

The tactic seems to be working.

Heh.

It's a bit of political theater and it isn't going to work forever, in fact Democrats have already caught on and are fighting back. Still it's good to see Republicans thinking out of the box and aggressively.

These tactics are reminiscent of Newt's Special Order speeches from the '90s where he would rail against Democrats and challenge them to fight back but they never did because the House was empty. At the time CSPAN cameras were only allowed to show the member who had the floor so viewers and news stories didn't see he was basically alone.

I know pining for the old days of Newt or Reagan isn't going to win anything back but it's good to see the current GOP minority looking to Gingrich and not Bob Michel as their model.

Now to craft a policy platform....

(via The Corner)

Posted by: DrewM at 10:26 AM | Add Comment
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Subhed: Hamas Gunners Die of Acute Technological Incompetence and Stinger Missiles, But Mostly... A Little From Column A and a Little From Column B.

Hamas attempted to target Israeli-owned American-built Apache helicopters during last year's war. But the Stingers recognized the Apaches as friendly targets, and refused to target them.

One Stinger found a new target:

Another Hamas source said gunners deployed Stinger along with heavy machine guns in attacks on Israeli helicopters during the war in the Gaza Strip. The source said one Stinger surface-to-air missile was launched, but the projectile veered off course and struck a Hamas gunner squad.

"The Stinger was drawn by the heat of our guns rather than the engines of the Israeli helicopters," the source said. "At that point, we stopped using this weapon."

File it under "Stung."

They're buying Russian now.

Thanks to CraigC.

Posted by: Ace at 09:52 AM | Comments (10)
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Brown Line writes to say that voting is light in his polling station. Anecdotal, sure, but we're actually running a Republican worth voting for there. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:25 AM | Comments (2)
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Libertarian Jim used the xtranormal software to animate the Paul Anka dressing-down.

Part 1 and Part 2.

Again, it's more odd than actually funny.

Posted by: Ace at 09:17 AM | Comments (1)
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He continues to believe that he can avoid making actual commitments and continue speaking in vague cant meaning nothing at all.

Candidate Obama made a video in response to Caucus4Priorities [a liberal advocacy group]. "I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems," Obama said. "I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systemsÂ…"

To Democrats on the left side of the spectrum, "unproven missile defense systems" had a specific meaning. "Our position would have been that, at least at the time, any kind of missile defense system was unproven," Peggy Huppert, who was Iowa state director for Caucus4Priorities, told me. "We thought it should be discontinued, that it was not a fiscally responsible program -- ineffective, not proven, too expensive." Therefore, when Obama told Democrats that he would stop "unproven missile defense systems," he was saying he would stop all missile defense systems.

...

Now Obama is president and faces two problems for which missile defense is a possible solution. The first is North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile which might someday carry a nuclear warhead. The second is Iran's continuing effort to build a nuclear weapon. With that in the news, Obama pledged in the Czech Republic that, "as long as the threat from Iran persists," the U.S. "will go forward with a missile defense system that is cost-effective and proven."

In light of Obama's history on the subject, what was he saying? Why would he go out of his way to tell an audience in the Czech Republic that a missile defense system must be cost effective? And since he said that he will go forward, but only with a system that is "cost-effective and proven," was he saying that such a system exists today?

I posed the question to the White House, and a spokesman was as artful with words as his boss. "There is a provision in the defense authorization law for the last two years that establishes a process whereby such technology will be 'proven' technologically capable," he said. What the White House left unsaid is that the missile defense system to be installed in Europe has not been established to be "proven."

He seems to be procrastinating in his already-made decision to kill missile defense entirely, but who the hell knows with this guy.

Posted by: Ace at 09:13 AM | Add Comment
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Wow.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said the misconduct was the most serious he has ever seen in nearly 25 years on the bench. He appointed attorney Henry Schulke (Shul-KEE) as special prosecutor to investigate the Justice Department team for possible criminal contempt charges.

Sullivan made the unusual move Tuesday shortly before dismissing corruption charges against Stevens. Stevens was convicted in October of seven counts of lying about gifts he received from wealthy friends.

"In nearly 25 years on the bench, I've never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I've seen in this case," U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said in the opening moments of a hearing.

Sullivan read a stinging summary of the many times the government withheld evidence or mishandled witnesses in the case.

While I'm not sure if this is the right way to go about this, Andy McCarthy argued over the weekend it wasn't, but if these charges are borne out someone or some group needs to pay. Not only did they deprive Steven's of his rights but they mostly likely materially effected the Senate election in Alaska.

BTW- for the idiotic lefties of the world who complained that the Bush DoJ was hopelessly politicized, you would do well to note that Bush and Stevens are Republicans. More importantly, the charges were leveled against career prosecutors.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:16 AM | Comments (2)
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After leaving Turkey, Obama headed to Baghdad to meet with military leaders, Iraqi officials and the troops.

From the pool report...

Obama: "Thanks to all of you."

"I am so honored." (Someone calls out love you...) "I love you back."

"I'm not going to talk long because I want to shake as many hands as I can."

Three points:

First, thanks. You face strain, sacrifice, controversy, difficulty, politics. Turning
Iraq into fledgling democracy is an "extraordinary achievement."

Second, next 18 months "could be a critical period...it is time for us to transfer to the Iraqis. They need to take responsibility for their country."
Our role is to train Iraqis to take control of their own country so "we can start bringing our folks home."

Third, know this is hard on you, multiple rotations, away from families, injuries, deaths. Many hear from spouses re their sacrifices. "Michelle and myself are with you every day."

We will support families, increases coming in my budget, commitment to veterans.

"As long as I'm in the White House, you are going to get the support that you need...."

Good for him for doing this.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:59 AM | Add Comment
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