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You may not have noticed it, but gas prices are incredible these days. During a trip down to Texas last month, I saw prices higher than $3 in Dallas and around $2.79 outside of Dallas. And of course this is happening while ExxonMobil (headquarters in DFW) rakes in profits of $8 billion in the first 3 months of 2006. Possibly I have it wrong, and someone please correct me if so, but the price of gas seems higher than would seem appropriate given increased demand and higher crude prices if profits are rising so dramatically for oil companies.

Our friends in the Congress are hard at work trying to appear hard-at-work doing something about gas and energy prices and their solution, at least the Senate’s one is to rebate what they estimate each person would pay in federal gas taxes for 10 months. How they figured 10 months, I have no clue, but they did. This comes to $11 per month or $99, which they rounded to $100 because it sounds better I guess.

Lame, ladies and gentlemen. Lame.

One hundred dollars per person regardless of car ownership to about 100 million people, would cost the government $10 billion — or about $2 billion more than what ExxonMobil made in the last 3 months. And as a bonus, it will give about two or three tanks worth of relief to recipients. Wait wait, there’s more — it won’t do a damn thing to temper demand the demand for gas, which is the only way to force gas prices back down.

Now here’s a novel ideal that’s been circulating that would force down gas prices by decreasing demand — raise the federal gas tax to $2 per gallon. Normally, being a Republican, I would oppose an increased tax, especially one designed to manipulate the market the way this would. However, in this case increasing the tax is a pragmatic solution to a problem that isn’t going to fix itself. The best part about this tax would be in its encouragement to drivers to drive less and buy more fuel efficient automobiles, and increases interests in alternative fuels like ethanol by making them more cost-effective in the short-term. Beyond that it reduces our dependence on foreign sources of oil, which has been a big part of President Bush’s rhetoric in the last five years, and something I agree with, but it avoid having to open up places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to do so.

I myself don’t want to pay $5 for a gallon of gas, but I recognize the overwhelming benefits to America if I am required to do so. Lucky for me I have public transportation in New York, but if I moved back to Texas and needed a car I would get myself a Honda Civic Hybrid, which is rated at 50 mpg combined city and highway. That’s probably more than twice what most cars get, effectively cutting my fuel bill in half. I get to drive twice as much as everyone else for the same capital and environmental costs.

With what seems like every retired general who can draw breath coming forward to dump on Donald Rumsfeld, it hardly seems necessary or fair for me to t o add to the chorus of dissent. Of course, I’ve never let that stop me in the past so why start changing now?

At the a press conference Gen. Peter Pace defended the Secretary of Defense by saying:

“Nobody, nobody works harder than he does to take care of the P.F.C.’s and lance corporals and lieutenants and the captains. He does his homework. He works weekends, he works nights.

“People can question my judgment or his judgment,” he continued, “but they should never question the dedication, the patriotism and the work ethic of Secretary Rumsfeld.”

It is very likely that Donald Rumsfeld, the president, and the rest of the government and military are all very patriotic Americans. But is it right to argue that we should not ask for more than patriotism and dedication and long weekends? Those traits are no substitute for good judgement and correct choices, no matter how noble. If the military command was and is being ignored and Rumsfeld, as is obvious to me, cannot improve the situation through his decisions, then it is time for him to go.

Things in Iraq have been bungled and mismanaged, according to at least six retired generals. They use words like “casualness”, “swagger”, “wrongheaded”, and “arrogant” to describe Rumsfeld and the prosecution of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. I don’t see evidence to cause em to disagree. What I do see is a president unwilling to admit he was wrong and to take every conceivable step necessary to correct his mistake. What I see is a president who says we must support our troops, and then denies them the leadership that may prove more valuable and efficacious than all the body armor in the world.

Donald Rumsfeld, et al. may be a patriot, but the rest of us patriots want someone who is more than talk and swagger.

There is an article in the NY Times today that talks about the effects No Child Left Behind’s testing requirements are having on many school districts around the US. Schools are reducing the time students are spending in classes other than math and reading—often dramatically or completely—in order to increase class time for the two subjects that are tested under NCLB. What I found particularly interesting, other than the obvious overemphasis on math and reading to the detriment of everything else, is that gym class in all cases seems to escape the axe. Can someone please explain to me why gym class should ever be considered more important than any actual academic subject when we are supposedly trying to reemphasize our commitment to education?

Does anyone else find it interesting that four years after the fact President Bush decides to tell us about a plot to destroy a building in Los Angeles? It seems awfully well-timed to make his unfortunately revealed domestic spying operation seem legit or at least effective. Not to mention it’s nice to be able to pull these things out of your hat when the public’s fright of terrorism might appear to be waning, at least in its effectiveness as a political tool.

ExxonMobile announced profits for the fourth quarter 2005 of $10.71 billion, that a makes a $36.13 billion profit for the year. But your gas should still cost $3 per gallon.

Over the past three days I have walked no less than 320 blocks, which is 5 trips to and from work (minus 30 blocks in a van this morning) which does not include the 70 blocks for tonight. From where I am sitting this strike struck out and the TWU realizes it overplayed its hand, lost the support of regular New Yorkers, and earned the ire of the the state and the courts. And rightly so, if you ask me (which you did by reading my website).

The union revealed itself to be unreasonable and unrealistic by letting the issue of retirement and pensions muck up the whole negotiations. MTA employees under the just-expired contract are eligible for retirement at age 55. Who retires at 55? No one. So the MTA said, sure you can retire at 55, but you have to help us pay for the 10 extra years you get to enjoy your RV while we continue to slave away at work.

Majority employer-funded pensions can’t work anymore, because frankly people don’t die fast enough anymore. It’s time for everyone to take some responsibility for their own retirement through investments, more contributions to employer programs, etc. It is hard, but it’s better than the alternative, which is higher taxes for everyone and lower take-home pay in the end.

According to Bruce Schneier of Wired Magazine, “exactly two things have made airline travel safer since 9/11: reinforcement of cockpit doors, and passengers who now know that they may have to fight back. Everything else…is security theater.”

One of the best points I read regards CAPS and Secure Flight, the programs designed to prevent “dangerous” people from flying. The people on these lists are “too dangerous to be allowed to fly under any circumstance, yet so innocent that they cannot be arrested, even under the draconian provisions of the Patriot Act.”

The Senate Democrats seem to have relocated their backbone, at least for long enough to call a closed session of the Senate to investigate the justifications behind the Iraq war. It’s about time guys. I agree with the war, but the president should have been straight with us about why he was going to do what he did and — big surprise — he wasn’t. It’s time to pay the piper. But don’t worry if you disagree, he won’t have to because this will come to nothing.

The Republicans in the Senate are in quite the kerfluffle about the dastardly Dems. My favorite quip about the session comes from Trent Lott, R-Miss. He says the Dems are making “some sort of stink about Scooter Libby and the CIA leak.” Which isn’t really what they said they were making a “stink” about at all. But could he possibly be more dismissive?

This winter brings us an ice skating rink in Bryant Park. How fun — the line is going to be out of control.

Oops, I spoke to early — President Bush says it’s not a struggle, it’s still a war. But now it’s a war against violent extremism, not a war just against terror. This sounds good… we don’t like violent extremism, it’s nasty and dangerous. Does that mean that non-violent extremism is okay? Probably not, but it is an interesting thought as the US moves towards the extremes on both ends of the political spectrum and farther from centrism and bi-partisanship (even though I hate that word because it has become utterly meaningless in our current political environment).