My BA is from the University of California, at a time it was rated the best university in the country. I still think the degree was a clerical error, but I'm not giving it back. That was 40 years ago. Yes, I have daughters, and sons, and grandchildren. I'm sure none of that is in your barren future; it would get in the way of mindless acquisitiveness and relentless self interest. Buy things. Surround yourself with trinkets and sycophants. All that pretense and ego bloat must be hard to carry around. Have your personal trainer help you with that. May your materialism bring you exactly what it brings anyone with that view of life: a big bankroll and and empty soul.

The manos may be a smartass

But he sure ain't no knave

I'm not some kind of giddy little twit

Who'd do a dumb dance on a fresh grave.

Now I know there are some

Who'll attempt to make others smart

And proceed to rub it in

But that is neither too wise or well advised

If they expect at all in the end to win.

"This is powerful criticism because it resonates with a long-standing talking point against Clinton -- that she is a political phony willing to do anything to get elected." Powerful criticism, and looking true. You just KNOW she's as aware as the rest of us that it's a gimmick, but she does it anyway. Flag-burning redux.

This article is quite absurd. A gas tax holiday IS a political gimmick. The sources of high gas prices come from major structural problems, including, obviously, the fact that we, and the world, consume far more petroleum than we can produce. Furthermore, we ought to be enacting measures to radically reduce the amount of petroleum we are consuming. Another obvious source of our problem is the collapsing dollar, fueled to a large degree by our massive deficit and low interest rates which we keep in place to stave off a recession, caused to a large extent by our abysmal management of the economy. If anything we ought to be looking to INCREASE the gas tax, or at the very least leave it in place. Even if eliminating the gas tax would result in a tiny drop in the price of gas, this will have little impact on the typical family and do NOTHING to address the serious structural problems we face. It's nothing more than political pandering that will not address the real issue whatsoever.

The market is signaling a rise in commodity prices in general, with energy products being hammered on because they are the easiest to manipulate. These are futures markets, remember? The long-term trend in commodities is definitely upwards because of the increasing wealth of Chinese, Indian, Russian, Brazilian consumers, etc., which leads to greater demand for more upscale goods and food. Commodities in the world market are still priced in US dollars, so the weakness of our currency compounds the problem.

The US -- as a whole -- has no choice but to move towards drastically improved energy efficiency to survive in the new globalized economy. This is a given. How we move towards that goal is the question. I believe that it will take a major restructuring of the whole productive system -- as well as a major change in our cultural mindset -- to even just take the first step towards that goal.

But these changes cannot be implemented by government planners for one simple reason: the environment is constantly changing. By the time the planners have completed the details of their plan it will have become obsolete. The government has to trust the individual to do the right thing. And for this to happen the government has to stop manipulating the environment in which the individual is making his choices.

An example of this manipulation is the government subsidy for hybrid cars. At first glance it is a great idea, but it is inherently unfair for the rural population because hybrid cars are only more efficient than pure gasoline cars during stop-and-go traffic. On a long highway drive at steady speed the pure gasoline car is actually more energy efficient than the hybrid. So, in essence, the (poor) highway-driving rural population is subsidizing the purchase of hybrids for the (rich) stop-and-go driving urban population.

The main point of my argument is there are innumerable facets towards actually fixing this system. And a great many "progressives" will find, to their dismay, that if it is actually fixed they may not like what they see.

Ohhhhh, that's right, you're "married" with many daughters too! Was it you who had the MBA from Princeton or Ben Dover? I forget...

And manos, my reaction is two points:

(1) Okay. Well, then, show us you can win. And if you lose, you're going to look like a fool.

(2) If people thought sexism against hillary was bad now, it's going to be so much worse when everyone's dancing on her grave.

Is there anybody out there who believes that George Bush would sign a windfall profits tax on the oil companies? Whatever the merits of whether prices are elastic or not - there is not a shred of doubt that there would be a windfall profit tax. That is fundamentally dishonest- to propose something that you know has no chance of becoming law.

How today's news

It must grieve her.

But don't bang your head

until it rings cruel with pain

There's always the warm alternative

To vote for MCcain.

Online: Everybody is a doctor/professor/lawyer/soldier and nobody voted Bush.

Real world: A person who claims to be a doctor/professor/laywer/soldier and a non Bush supporter online, probably voted Bush and lives in a trailer.

Title your article with a lie and you'll get the most reads. kind of a mini-cosmos of the entire Corporate media world. Let's hope all of Salon doesn't continue in this manner.

Trying something like this is completely different at the state level, compared to the federal. The feds maintain a highway trust fund fed by gasoline taxes collected in every state, and typically grant moneys to states on a 90-10 basis or so, for new construction of transportation projects. States add gas taxes generally to fill coffers of specific, dedicated infrastructure projects or for road maintenance. If a state suspends a gas tax the temporal operations may suffer or an interchange may be delayed; if the federal tax is suspended the hole in the trust fund can never be made up, and the federal share of projects already committed is likely to be irretrievably abrogated. Think of braking a car versus shutting off the engine. The state situation is akin to the former. Obama is right to oppose this grandstand play, which was originated by John McCain's campaign. Typical. Too bad Joe Six-Pack seems to fall for these flights of fancy so often.