As the late Senator Everett Dirksen [R-Illinois] said: “a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you are talking about real money.”

Over at Facing South they are wondering if anyone will ask Rumsfeld about the over one trillion dollars that the Department of Defense can’t account for in its records.

When the Republicans said they were going to run the government like a business, they apparently meant Enron.

A terabyte of money, $ 1,000,000,000,000 – that’s real money, and Congress isn’t holding hearings.

The Shrubbery doesn’t has a problem with Dubai buying Doncasters, the British company that makes parts for the engines used in Abrams tanks.

He gets to retire in less than 1000 days, so why should he care?

Via All Hat, No Cattle, Rush Limbaugh was arrested on one count of fraudulently obtaining prescription medication [doctor shopping], but he isn’t going to trial or prison.

In New York we called the process ACD [adjournment in contemplation of dismissal]. He spends 18 months in a rehabilitation program, pays for the cost of the investigation, keeps his nose clean, and everything disappears. No record of anything.

Some poor kid with a couple of marijuana cigarettes caught within 1000 feet of a convenience store would be facing years in prison, but wealthy white Republicans walk away with their voting rights intact.

The effort to canonize Ronald Reagan never ends. No matter how much history has to be twisted, the “miracles” never stop.

Tonight on All Things Considered, Benjamin Zycher explains how Ronnie saved the world during the last energy crisis without a nasty windfall profits tax.

Ben’s version omits the real actions that left us in better shape than we had been in some time. Jimmy Carter explained the problem and proposed a solution in a 1977 speech.

A series of things begun by Carter [55mph speed limit, Energy Star appliances, tax credits for renewable energy, and energy conservation] pulled us back from the brink and help to reduce the consumption of oil which brought down the price. If Reagan and the Bushies had continued the programs, we wouldn’t be hurting like we are.

A point I would like to make absolutely clear is that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries [OPEC] is a cartel, and they significantly influence the oil market, i.e. it is not a free market, so free market solutions don’t work.

If the oil companies find new sources of oil, the price of crude oil drops. If the oil companies build new refineries, the profits on refined products drop. Where is the economic reason for oil companies to spend money to reduce their profit margins?

Update: Mustang Bobby corrected me, it was “Tricky Dick” Nixon who imposed the “double nickel” on the US. Nixon was also behind the Department of Energy and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

AtTax Time

What were we doing?

[Editor: I’m minding my own business when Ringo starts muttering [Korats don’t meow, they chirp or mutter] and breaks into a cat fit, sweeping the tax book to the floor, and then attacks Sox. I turn around and take the picture as they decide to sleep instead. My cats are weird.

Friday Ark