“Some 75,000 unionists, farmers, and leftists — (laughing) — marched to protest price increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas, a direct challenge to the new Mexican president’s market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for widening the gulf between rich and poor. Since taking office December 1st after a disputed election, President Felipe Calderón has drawn his greatest criticism for failing to control the largest price increase in tortillas in decades. I shouldn’t be laughing. The only reason I’m laughing is because I called it. I called it, and this is all because of ethanol, this is all of because of us and our obsession with alternative fuels so that we don’t leave a big carbon footprint and destroy the planet. We are now in the process, we are doing once what the rest of the world has always accused us of doing and that is stealing the world’s resources. I know we grow our own corn, but we are denying our own corn at cheap market prices from the poor, the deranged, the thirsty, the hungry, and the bored world over.
The average weekly salary in Mexico’s four bucks, and a tortilla costs three now, and that’s why they’re rioting down there. National uproar has put the new president in an uncomfortable position between the poor and some agribusiness industries hoping to profit from the surge in international corn prices. See? It happens everywhere, folks, big business. Did you see the Exxon profit? Oh, this is great. This is great news. Makes me feel proud to be an American. Makes me love capitalism. ExxonMobil reported the largest annual profit in US history, $39.5 billion dollars. Yes! Despite a 4% decline in fourth-quarter profit, Exxon posted fourth-quarter net income of $10.25 billion, or $1.76 a share on revenue of $90.3 billion. The oil and gas giant said that its latest results reflect lower natural gas realizations and refining margins partly offset by higher crude realizations and improved chemical market. Well, I don’t know what that means, but I love seeing it, I love hearing it. Record US profit.
Over in the House Congressional Hispanic Caucus, California Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez has quit the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, accusing its chairman, fellow Democrat Joe Baca, of calling her a whore. Sanchez was insulted when she found out that Baca had made the disparaging remark about her to California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and other lawmakers last year, Rep. Sanchez told The Politico. Nunez is a friend of mine, an angry Sanchez said. Did he think he wouldn’t tell me? Sanchez also cited concerns regarding the legality of Baca’s election to the chairman post in November, and about his attitude toward female legislators. Baca denied making the comment. He told The Politico that Sanchez has decided to resign from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and has chosen to air baseless statements. Again, I don’t see what’s so bad about this. I mean, these people can say what they want. What’s the big problem if this Bacca guy called her a whore? Don’t most of you think most congressmen are whores anyway? It’s probably not unique in this regard whatsoever.
US blacks, “Young U.S. blacks believe in politics,” according to a new study. “Many young U.S. blacks are as confident,” and we’re talking about the clean ones here, folks, I must stipulate this — young clean US blacks believe in politics. Many young U.S. blacks are as confident as their white and Hispanic peers that they can use politics to make things better, but a majority of young blacks feel alienated from today’s government. Why would that be? Government’s been taking care of them their whole lives. Why would they feel alienated? Maybe today’s government means the Bush administration. “There’s good news and bad news when it comes to politics,” said Cathy Cohen, a political science professor who headed the project at the University of Chicago. This research, by the way, covered a wide range of social issues from sex to entertainment also found young blacks think rap music and videos are riddled with too much sex and mistreatment of women, even though they are the biggest consumers of that entertainment. Nearly 80 percent of young blacks, whites and Hispanics think that they can make a difference by getting involved in politics and large numbers of them feel they have the skills to do so. The headline says, Young US blacks, but blacks, whites, and Hispanics, everybody thinks they can get involved in politics. No big shake there.
The polar bears are going to put the kibosh on Alaska oil development. Until now, the Alaskan oil industry and polar bears have coexisted peacefully, but proposals by the U.S. government to list polar bears as endangered by global warming have cast a shadow on oil development on Alaska’s North Slope. A ‘threatened’ listing for the struggling bears, proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, could bring new regulatory hurdles for future exploration and drilling, industry advocates say. Listing the bears as threatened ‘has the potential to damage Alaska’s and the nation’s economy without any benefit to polar bear numbers or their habitat,’ Gov. Sarah Palin wrote in a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that argued against the listing and its protections.
So here we go, this would be the Bush administration, US Fish and Wildlife Service. This is a renegade agency, we have to point out. These people have their own little fiefdom. But here we go. We’ve got this ongoing argument over energy independence and so forth and now here we go with the polar bear business and we’re just clamping down on ourselves, unable to go and drill and explore, bring out of the ground our own native sources of oil. The hypocrisy behind this is not surprising, but it’s just so glaring for these people to constantly complain and moan about our dependence on foreign oil, and then stop any effort whatsoever with stupid things like this. Everybody worried about the caribou with the Alaska pipeline, and it ended up expanding the population because it produced heat and they hung around the pipeline and they felt more comfortable and they got cohabitating out there with a whole lot more caribou.
Look at the problem with the moose up in Anchorage. We told you about this yesterday, so much snow, more snow than they can deal with, despite global warming, that the moose have migrated into Anchorage but there’s so much more snow in Anchorage than there usually is that the moose are taking up space on roads and sidewalks and plowed pathways and this kind of thing. It’s just nonsense. At any rate, we’ll come back, we’ll get started. Joe Biden, the audio sound bites, lots of stuff on the plate today, folks. Looking forward to all of it, as always. Oh, this is a great headline. This is a great slug line here from our old buddy Tom Raum at the Associated Press. Bush, Dems Have Different Economic Views. Now, this is a great illustration of what’s wrong with the Drive-By Media. How can you have differing economic views? The economy is what it is. The US is going to be borrowing less for the first time in a long time because revenue is pouring in because of the Bush tax cuts and economic growth. The two are related. So you’re just going to report what the Dems say the economy is and what the Republicans say the economy is and then side with the Democrats?
The economy is what it is. The booming economy that President Bush paints is a far cry from the worrisome one increasingly portrayed by Democratic presidential candidates and party leaders, and the Drive-By Media. To them, there are worker insecurities, stagnant wage growth and soaring costs for health care and college. Yep, soup line America. The vision of rival economies already is a main issue for the 2008 presidential and congressional races. Economists say both sides are right and wrong. Well, that’s helpful. Both sides are right and wrong. It just depends on what numbers that you summon. Okay, fine. Can’t even get to the point of proclaiming what a strong economy is robust and strong, and this is precisely done by the Drive-Bys to aid and abet the contentions of the Democrat presidential nominees. That’s it, pure and simple.