Bill Foster befuddled by Gas Prices

Foster quoted from Kane County Chronicle's Foster, Durbin cry foul over gas prices

The lawmakers said they supported stepping up efforts in Congress and by the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether fuel suppliers are “gouging” customers or colluding to fix prices artificially high.

Foster noted that while crude oil – the raw material needed to create gasoline, diesel and other forms of fuel – costs more than ever, the companies that manufacture the fuel are reporting record profits.

“As a businessman, this mystifies me,” Foster said.

He said this mystery furthers his suspicion that the marketplace for petroleum and its byproducts is not functioning.

Restore the market, he said, and prices should drop.

Foster should start demystifying the market by checking Durbin's Website for the joint letter signed by Durbin and Obama protesting cheap ethanol from Brazil. Then Foster should have paid attention to Conoco Phillips's VP John Lowe as quoted by Miss Kelly blog,

The executive vp of Conoco Phillips John Lowe advanced some novel (sic) ideas for Congress to consider in addition to lifting the ban on drilling, like how about adopting a balanced energy policy? Do more to encourage alternative energy sources (offshore wind farms, for example), promote energy conservation, cut regulations that are preventing the construction of refineries -- and, oh yes, remove the tariff on ethanol. Congress slapped a 54 cents-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol, thus blocking the import of low price ethanol from Brazil that would help lower gas prices for America’s beleaguered drivers. Dropping the tariff is one action that could provide some near-term relief.

To end this courageous presentation by the energy companies, ConocoPhillips’ Lowe calmly concluded, "U.S. oil companies should be viewed not as scapegoats, but as assets. We must work together to find a real solution."

American industry as an asset for the American People a notion beyond Scientist and Businessman Foster.

He's just another Illinois Rezko-Democrat milking the politics while the citzens of Illinois get milked for the ethanol lobby.

Ken Silverstein back in Harpers in 2006, Barack Obama Inc.:
The birth of a Washington machine

And indeed Obama has delivered for his constituents—for social activists, but also for business groups whose demands are invariably more costly. Although this is not the place to review the full history of ethanol, it’s beyond dispute that it survives only because members of Congress from farm states, whether liberal or conservative, have for decades managed to win billions of dollars in federal subsidies to underwrite its production. It is not, of course, family farmers who primarily benefit from the program but rather the agribusiness giants such as Illinois-based Aventine Renewable Energy and Archer Daniels Midland (for which ethanol accounts for just 5 percent of its sales but an estimated 23 percent of its profits). Ethanol production, as Tad Patzek of UC Berkeley’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering wrote in a report this year, is based on “the massive transfer of money from the collective pocket of the U.S. taxpayers to the transnational agricultural cartel.”

That should clear the mystry for you Bill. If Congress will only restore the market prices will drop.

Update: In response to anon's comment, I won't be able to cast a protest vote either: Three Green Party candidates removed from ballot

Patrick Kelly, Illinois Green Party media committee chairman, said: "We've come to expect this type of thing from the Democrats who, despite their names, are out to end democracy in Illinois. They'll never stop until they can win every election without competition, apparently."

Candidates remaining on the ballot for the districts in question are Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean and Republican challenger Steve Greenberg in the 8th; Republican incumbent Mark Kirk and Democratic challenger Dan Seals in the 10th; and Democratic incumbent Bill Foster and GOP challenger Jim Oberweis in the 14th.

I remember George Meany on Face the Nation saying this: Labor Decides to Mugwump It,

In a tone as matter-of-fact as if he were discussing the pros and cons of a pipe fitting, the onetime plumber said he doubted that "McGovern is good material. We don't think he would be in the best interest of labor. My interests would be if we could find some way to defeat both of them." He reminisced about the perennial Socialist candidate for the presidency who died in 1968: "If only Norman Thomas were alive today."

I feel like Mugwumping a Foster Oberweis contest too but I just know some good people who risked it all so I could vote.

Stay tuned... I'll commit later.



xp Bill Baar's West Side

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Will the 18th District go Democratic like the 14th?

The answer: Maybe. But if it does, it won't be for the same reasons.

For those Peorians who don't follow state politics (thanks in no small part to the local media's general disinterest in the subject) were was some huge news Saturday. Democrat Bill Foster, a political unknown, defeated millionaire GOP foe Jim Oberweis in a special election to replace Dennis Hastert as Congressman from the 14th District.

Foster will serve the remainder of Hastert's term, and will have to face re-election in the November general election. His foe then will likely be Oberweis again. Which, in my opinion, is good news for Foster.

Consider the implications o the win. The far-west suburban district has been considered a Republican stronghold. But changing demographics and a general dissatisfaction with the GOP has tilted the district more Democratic.

There's speculation that this might mean trouble for another Congressional district that's traditionally been a sure win for the GOP -- the 18th District. After all, incumbent Congressman Ray LaHood is retiring.

My advice to the Dems is to not get cocky. A lot of factors played out in the 14th that don't affect the 18th.

First, I doubt that 18th's demographics have changed all that much since last election. Maybe there's some data bearing this out. There's been a lot of overall growth in that district as working class folks from Chicago are moving in. Not so much here in central Illinois.

Second, Aaron Schock is no Jim Oberweis. Love him or hate him, Schock has proven himself capable of winning elections. Oberweis has proven nothing, except that voters don't like him. The millionaire dairyman has been able to buy his way past the primaries a couple of times, but in the end has been rejected by voters four times in the last six years.

For reasons I have expressed before, I don't think Schock is as strong as his supporters think he is. And I also do not think opponent Colleen Callahan is a weak candidate in the least. And I agree that if Barack Obama heads the ticket, Callahan is is really good shape in November.

The importance of Foster's victory in the 14th is that it's red meat to the troops. The last Democrat who came close to winning was G. Douglas Stephens back when he first ran against Bob Michael. And he did it with the support of rank-and-file Democrats who felt tossed to the side of the road by the economy. They didn't get a lot of help from the national party, and I would advise them to not count on any help this time around, either.

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