Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Long ago I complained that Obama wanted to prop up the Big 3. John McCain, not to be out-schilled, has finally jumped on the bandwagon.

“It is time to get our auto industry back on its feet. It’s time for a new generation of cars and for loans to build the facilities that will make them.”

McCain’s support of the auto industry on Wednesday contrasts with his position last month when he visited the GM Tech Center in Warren and said he wasn’t inclined to support loans for the auto industry.

Thanks, John, thanks.

The news gets better though.

McCain, who also did not vote on the energy bill creating the loan program in December 2007, said then through his campaign that his proposals — a $5,000 tax credit for consumers to buy more efficient models and a $300-million prize for battery technology — would accomplish the same goals as the loan program.

The “prize” is a joke to everyone with more than 3 remaining brain cells. It’s a stupid fucking idea that only a chain-smoking lottery-addict could love. The tax credit, of course, wouldn’t do what the loan program would do because it’s almost certain that the majority of cars bought would be Toyotas or Hondas.

Obama has backed up to $50 billion in loans for automakers.

Whoa. Up to 50 BILLION? In May, ’07, he was proposing an already outrageous 3 BILLION.

Fuck both these ass hats! (Yes, I put them both in the exact same class with John Fucking Edwards.)

Some of you will remember the podcast with Mike Munger on price gouging. Obviously with hurricanes flying through the country, gouging is in the news a lot. Anyway, Munger comments on some of the various anti-gouging pieces of legislation throughout the country; the descriptions are frequently so vague as to be unintentionally hilarious. The word “unconscionable” is thrown around a lot, but the real gist of the laws is that gouging is hard to define but that the government will know it when it sees it.

Virginia, it turns out, is not immune to this. I ran across the following hilarity last night when I found the VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES PRICE GOUGING COMPLAINT FORM.

• The Anti-Price Gouging Act prohibits a “supplier” from charging unconscionable prices for “necessary goods and services” within the affected area during the thirty (30) day period following a declared state of emergency.

So there’s the “unconscionable” part. But what does that even mean?

• The basic test for determining if a price is unconscionable is whether the post-disaster price charged by a “supplier” for a “necessary good or service” grossly exceeds the price charged for the same or similar goods or services either by the same supplier, or within the same trade area, during the ten (10) days immediately prior to the disaster.

So “unconscionable” means “gross.” Thanks, Richmond, that really clears things up.

Regarding speculators:

Speculators who don’t take delivery (and we know today’s aren’t because oil inventory numbers are going down and not up) have no more control over oil prices than traders in weather futures have over wind speeds.

Recently, I have been intending to write something similar. Except I was going to compare oil speculators to those who bet on athletics.

And as a funny, yet somewhat scary anecdote, let me recall a conversation I had with an older fellow in Missouri. He said that to lower oil prices we should open the strategic reserves. The beauty of the plan, he argued, was that once prices got lower, we could just buy back all the oil we released at lower prices! I countered that if selling a whole bunch of oil will lower prices, then one should probably assume that buying a while bunch of oil would raise prices. He remained unswayed and emphasized that it was an easy proposition so long as young, smart people tried really hard to make it happen.

So there you have it, the solution to our energy price problems; young people working for the government figuring out how to hide the purchase of tens of millions of barrels of oil. Easy.

Thanks, Fark.

I happened to catch a McCain/Palin commercial last night. Until the end I was sure if it was an Obama ad making fun of the competition or just a confusing McCain ad.

Anyway, at the end the commercial refers to McCain and Palin as “real mavericks” who will bring “real change.”

For some reason, it brought to mind Spinal Tap.

Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest): “And then, we looked at each other and said…”
David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean): “Said, look, why not?”
Nigel: “…we might as well join up. You know?”
David: “So, we became the Originals.”
Nigel: “Right.”
David: “And, uh, we had to change our name, actually.”
Nigel: “Well, there was another group, in the east end, called the Originals and we had to rename ourselves.”
David: “the New Originals.”
Nigel: “the New Originals.”
David: “Yeah.”
Nigel: “And they became…”
David: “…the Regulars. They changed their name back to the Regulars. And we thought we could go back to the Originals, but what’s the point?”

This morning, on the radio on the way to work, a helpful tip for seasonal allergy sufferers was provided by some national association of Chiropractors.

The tip? Stay inside.

Gee thanks Chiros. I now take you guys seriously.