HOW TO SOLVE THIS ATLANTA GAS SHORTAGE

(This is the draft of a column that appears today on Townhall.com)

First ... If you're not from Atlanta or any other area where about one out of five gas stations is open and the lines are 90 minutes and more, read this story. After you've finished with that story ... go here to read about how nearly 200 gas stations in Atlanta are being investigated for price gouging. Price gouging is exactly what we need! It should be encouraged, not investigated.

OK ... now that you've finished your reading assignments, I shall tell you how to solve this problem QUICKLY. Not painlessly .. but fast.

The real problem now is panic buying. People will run their tanks down by about one-third and then rush off to a gas station. The supplies are coming back up, but as long as people insist on keeping every car they own filled to the top and then filling a few gas cans to boot, we're going to have these outages and these absurd lines.

So, how do you stop the panic buying? Easy. You let the market do what the market does best, control demand and supply through the price structure. The demand for gas outstrips the supply right now, so allow gas stations respond by raising the price of gas .. raise it as much as they want. I'm serious here. The governor should hold a press conference and announce that effective immediately there is no limit on what gas stations can charge for gas. I heard that there was some gas station in Cobb County charging $8.00 a gallon. Great! That's what they all should be doing. Right now the price of gasoline in Atlanta is artificially low and being held down by government. That's exacerbating the problem, not helping it. Demand is not being squelched by price.

As the prices rise the point will be reached where people will say "I'm fed up with this. I'll ride with a friend, take the bus or just sit home before I'll bay this for a gallon of gas." Once the price of a gallon starts to evoke that kind of reaction, we're on our way to solving the problem. When gas costs, say, $8.00 people aren't going to fill their tanks. They also aren't going to rush home to get their second car and make sure it is filled up either ... and you can forget them filling those portable gas cans they have in the trunk. Some people will only be able to afford maybe five gallons! Fine! That leaves gas in the tanks for more motorists. Bottom line here is that people aren't going to rush out to fill up their half-empty tanks with $8.00 gas. Instead they'll buy only what gas is absolutely necessary, and then wait for the prices to come down.

As the price drives people away from the pumps, the tanker trucks will have the opportunity to fill every underground tank at every gas station in the area. Then, when the tanks are all full again, the gas station operators will start looking around wondering where in the world their customers are. One by one they'll start lowering the price of a gallon in order to attract customers back to the pumps. Yup .. it will be time for a good old fashioned gas war. As the prices fall people will come out of their garages and find that they can fill up without waiting and without the station running out. Once they feel that the shortage is gone they'll resume normal behavior and the prices will come down to pre-shortage levels.

Oh, sure. People will yell and scream about the so-called "price gouging" on the part of the stations. Pundits ... especially those on the left ... will start blathering about "greed" and demanding regulations. Pelosi will probably emit a screech or two about windfall profits taxes. There is nothing inherently wrong with the free market responding to these shortages with the best device known to man for allocating scarce resources. Prices.

Politicians can do all the grandstanding they want ... and work for face time on the television decrying those evil people trying to make a profit off of a scarce resource. That seems to suit them just fine. But if they really want to end this nonsense they'll turn the marketplace loose and get the hell out of the way.

A WALL STREET TAX?

We read yesterday that Nancy Pelosi wants a tax on Wall Street if this bailout ends up costing the taxpayers any money. Wow! What a surprise! Who would have ever guessed that the Democrats would include some new taxes as a part of their bailout plan! I don't know about you ... but I'm just stunned, I tell you! Stunned!

Note, please, that Pelosi is continuing with this asinine charade of acting as if our government – and the Democrats on Capitol Hill – had nothing at all to do with this mess.

THE BAILOUT PLAN

Listen to the Democrats talk about the economy. Let's take Rahm Emanuel yesterday afternoon for instance. I listened to him rattle on for about 10 minutes talking about how the free market failed and it is time for more government. Admittedly, if I had an anti-capitalist Marxist leading my party's ticket in the election I'd be ranting against the free market also.

Now some of you are going to take what I say here and mutter "yeah, yeah, yeah" under your breath. You're just absolutely sure I'm dead wrong. But perhaps you might just give it a little study on your own. Maybe I can just cause some of you who are buying the Democrat party line with a newspaper article. This is from The New York Times dated September 30, 1999. The headline is "Fannie Mae Eases Credit to Aid Mortgage Lending." If you're just to stubborn to click on the link and read the story ... let me just share the first two paragraphs with you:

"In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring."

Fannie Mae, as you may know, is not a purely private sector enterprise. Its' called a GSE ... a Government Sponsored Entity. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were doing all they could to back up the banks and lending institutions who were making these subprime, almost worthless loans. No lender is going to make a loan that they feel is a mistake unless there is someone out there to back them up. The entities backing them up were Fannie and Freddie – and they were doing so on instructions from their controllers on Capitol Hill.

Remember, too, that John McCain tried in 2005 to enact a bill that would bring some oversight to Fannie and Freddie. Again – you're going to give me that "yeah, right" response ... but that bill was stopped cold by a Democrat solid party line vote. Again ... do your own research. But here we have Rahm Emanuel blaming the free market for our current problems --- completely ignoring the government role in enabling the bad mortgages and blocking reform. Funny how we don't read much about this in the mainstream media.

WATCH THIS!

I must have received 100 emails over the weekend alerting me to an amazing YouTube video. Watch this .. it's fun. It goes a bit fast so you may want to use the pause button to freeze it from time to time to read the headlines. When you're through you can read some more about the Community Reinvestment Act by clicking here.

Voting on the Plan Just so you know, our "representatives" in Washington may be voting on this huge bailout plan today .. and most of them will not have read the bill.

HERE ARE THE DETAILS WE KNOW ABOUT THIS BAILOUT BILL

The plan has emerged from the backdoors of Washington, and this is what we have found so far. Oh by the way, it is being called the "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008."

• The Democrats wanted a new Wall Street tax, which would essentially set a fee on securities transactions, in order to recover the potential costs for the taxpayers. The fee would be assessed after five years if the Congressional Budget Office determined that the taxpayers lost money in this bailout. In the end, the Democrats didn't get their way. Instead, the next president will be responsible for proposing to Congress his plan to pay the taxpayers for any loses. Can you imagine what this plan will look like if Obama wins?
• The $700 billion will be allocated in stages. $250 will be available immediately, $100 billion available "upon report to Congress," and $350 billion "available only upon Congressional action."
• The good news ... it seems as though Republicans have managed to kill the proposal to devote 20% of any potential profits to community organizations like ACORN
• There will be new executive compensation requirements including "no multi-million dollar golden parachutes"
• The bill contains some provisions to help families avoid foreclosures by creating a plan to "encourage services of mortgages to modify loans"
• It will expand the range of firms that can sell troubled assets to the government to include pension plans, local governments and community banks serving "low- and middle-income families."

There's a lot to comb over folks ... but here in the text, in case you are brave. Or bored. After all ... it is your money they're talking about

SO FAR we haven't found some of those provisions that were being proposed by Democrats to take a portion of any profits from the bailout and give them to "community groups" to be used to create even more of the type of loans that are causing us problems.

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE DEBATE

• John McCain doesn't care about the "middle class" or "working people" because he didn't refer to them during the debate. Oh yeah ... our country just revolves around the poor, doesn't it. Without them all would be lost ... especially if you depend on pandering to them for votes.
• John McCain can't say the word "Ahmadinejad" Just use the words "dangerous fool" instead.
• Barack Obama doesn't understand what it means to set preconditions on talks. Hey .. this idiotic stance is working for the Obama-bots, so why change it?
• Barack Obama believes that if the oil companies get a tax cut, this means somebody else won't get them. In other words, Obama believes that size of the economic pie cannot change .. and if someone gets a bigger slice someone else must get a smaller one. He's never understood the concept of simply baking a bigger pie.
• Obama somehow seems to forget to tell Americans that McCain's "tax cut for oil companies" is merely a cut in ALL corporate taxes.
• John McCain "thinks that the free market can solve everything," at least according to Barack Obama. Obama believes that the answer to all our woes is government.
• Barack Obama gives absolutely no credit whatsoever to the free market for improving the lives of all Americans.
• Barack Obama's position on the troop surge is a problem for him, because he was wrong and he can't admit it
• Barack Obama believes that US businesses actually pay "one of the lowest tax rates in the world"
• Everyone wants some of what Obama is smoking.
• Neither candidate has or had a definite plan on how to solve the financial crisis. That would be because they don't want to go out on a limb. I wonder if anyone has told Obama he can't vote "present" when he's president.
• Both candidates wear bracelets from soldiers (we'll get to this one in a minute). Moral exhibitionism or true feelings? One for one guy, the other for the other.
• John McCain is "absolutely right" on many issues; at least according to Barack Obama

THE BRACELET MOMENT

There is one particular moment that stuck out during the debate for a lot of people. When John McCain told the story of the bracelet he wears in memory of a soldier who died in Iraq in 2006, Barack Obama's retort was basically "I wear a bracelet too." But then he couldn't quite remember the name of the soldier.

After the debate, it became known that the parents of the soldier who Barack Obama named are upset that their son is being used for political gain. In fact, they had previously asked Barack Obama to stop wearing the bracelet and mentioning their son's name.

Hey people, with no disrespect to veterans or soldiers ... there are bigger fish to fry than whether or not Obama is supposed to be wearing a bracelet.

OBAMA TRUTH SQUAD

This is the latest attempt of the Obama campaign to target ads that Obama, well, doesn't like. The Obama campaign is asking law enforcement in Missouri to target anyone who "lies or runs a misleading TV ad" during the campaign. Prosecutors and sheriffs, at the request of the Obama campaign, are jumping on board to "keep the truth" and remind people that Obama is a Christian who wants to cut taxes for everyone making under $250,000 a year. But they will also "respond" to any statements that violate Missouri ethics laws.

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt has responded to Barack Obama's "abusive use of Missouri law enforcement." Here's a quote from the governor:

"This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson's thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose of Messrs. McCulloch, Obama and the others is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election."

Appealing to the Justice Department? Sending threatening letters to station managers who air controversial ads? And now getting law enforcement to "respond" to statements on behalf of the campaign. Just stop and think for a moment what things will be like when this menace occupies the White House.

"CAPITALISM CAUSED THE RUIN"

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez says that the United States needs a new Constitution. He says, "I think the United States should start a constituent process to create a constituent assembly, a new truly democratic model." Just remember folks that the United States is not a democracy and I'd prefer to keep it that way. Remember also that our founding fathers thought of the idea of democracy, "... the term "democrat" originated as an epithet and referred to 'one who panders to the crude and mindless whims of the masses.'"

Chavez, not to my surprise, also says that it was [greedy] capitalism that caused this financial crisis.

OH THIS JUST MAKES MY DAY

Bruce Springsteen is going to perform at the Super Bowl. Wow! I'm so thrilled. Now nothing can ruin my day after such stunning news.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

This is a must-see video that describes how we got ourselves into this financial crisis thanks to these subprime mortgages.

The president of Brazil says that our financial bailout plan is "unfair to poor people."

Has Barack Obama flip-flopped on his position on missile defense systems?

It looks like a $25 billion bailout for the auto industry is pretty close to official.

How is this financial crisis going to affect life in Manhattan?

Yet another one of these columns, this one from the Chicago Sun Times ... the only reason Barack Obama will lose the election is racism.

Did you know that homeless people have the "right to vote" according to a CNN video, Reaching homeless voters? Why are people so fixated on this "right to vote" nonsense when our own Supreme Court has ruled that it just ain't so?

The taxpayers of California have spent $220,000 this year to pay for gas for their state lawmakers ... California, by the way, has a $15.2 billion deficit.

The BBC is being investigated for misleading people on the views of Lord Monckton, a leading climate change skeptic.

A man erects a flagpole in his front yard ... the homeowners association has something to say about that. No surprise there. I know someone in Orlando who was fined $1000 because a weed grew out of a crack in her driveway.

You will no longer get a special license plate frame if you donate big bucks to the California Highway Patrol because it creates the perception that these people get better treatment by CHP officers.

A man loses his house in a foreclosure and then stalks the new homeowners to the point where they actually move out.

Gender neutral bathrooms at a British university ... you know it's bad when even the students say the signs are "too PC."

Voteforthemilf.com domain owned by John McCain? 

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