Dan Lovallo

     In one of her many softball radio interviews the other day, Governor M. Jodi Rell expressed dismay over anticipated high heating fuel costs come winter, but not to worry, she was working on a plan.    What the Governor failed to mention, was that her policies have helped to contribute to the high prices, from her refusal to support Broadwater - the liquified natural gas project in Long island Sound - to her wholehearted support of the wacked out manmade global warming theory.    Don't expect to her to be asked about these issues by her media "interogators" anytime soon.
     The concocted global warming crisis, manufactured by the far left and embraced by environmentalists everywhere, as a means of exerting even more government control over our daily lives, has the particular interest of our Governor.    Along with nine other northeastern states, she enrolled Connecticut into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or RGGI..   That means power generating plants will be limited to the amount of carbon dioxide emissions, coming from their facilities.    But what if they exceed that limit?   Well, come September 10, those same plants will be forced to participate in a "cap-and-trade" program, whereby, they purchase from the state at a cost of $3 to $5 a ton, "allowances" that would enable them to exceed the limit.    The state would then use the money to create more "energy efficient" programs.
     At the time this "initiative" was announced, we knew this would eventually lead to higher utility costs, and it didn't take a course in economics 101 to reach that conclusion.   Now, the Governor and other liberals supportive of RGGI, are afraid the costs of buying these "allowances" from the state will be passed along to consumers by the power companies.
Duh?   We said that months ago.
    The "Queen of Public Service Announcements" and other liberals, such as former Canton state representative Jessie Stratton, deputy director of a left leaning environmental group, are proposing that consumers be insulated from rate hikes specific to the "cap-and-trade" program.    There's just one problem.   Under what's left of our free market system, such an insulation plan may be illegal    So Ma Rell has turned to our illustrious attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, for a ruling.
    My hunch is, our eternal general, the best friend of the environmental crowd, will use his usual voodoo jurisprudence, to rule against capitalism and say costs can't be passed along to the consumer.    And per usual, the power generators will eventually seek another rate hike and the DPUC will approve it.
    Here's the bottom line.   The Governor's support of RGGI is another tax on the people and another revenue maker for the state.   And this promise to take the money from the sale of "allowances" to invest in more efficient energy?   The only energy that will be produced is what it takes to create another layer of state government.    And that's one area of pollution that should be capped without a trade.

Dan Lovallo

     I could be wrong about this, but I believe, when you pick up your Hartford Courant in October, it may look more like the New York Daily News than your favorite liberal newspaper.   
     The newspaper business, as a whole, is in trouble these days.   Ad revenue is down in all sectors, from national advertisements to classifieds.   But I believe the Courant's woes are deeper than the national trend, because the paper, much like the city of Hartford, has never been comfortable in its own skin.    One minute, it's trying to be the New York Times.   The next minute, it's attempting to be your neighborhood corner newspaper.   
     No better example of the paper's identity crisis is the sports section, where some of the Courant's most talented writers reside.    One minute, it's attempting to be the Times, sending its own writers on the beat to cover the Red Sox and Yankees in addition to having its own national baseball writer.   The next minute, they pull one of its best writers off the Yankees' beat, dump the national baseball journalist and keep the Red Sox beat writer.  Meanwhile, they stop covering this area's only pro baseball club on a regular basis, the New Britain Rock Cats.   How confusing is that to the reader.?
    Better the Courant have a writer at every Rock Cats game and cover the Sox, Yanks and Mets with wire services.  More local sports coverage, with front page attention to the Rock Cats, Wolfpack, and Hartford Hawks, instead of giving the big leaguers and UConn all the top coverage, would also help.
    The news front is another issue.   For years, the newspaper has taken a liberal stance, from how it covers stories, to its placement in the paper - if it appeals to the liberals, it leads - to an editorial stance that sometimes is left of Karl Marx.   Tossing in a token conservative columnist is not enough to appease those, who want more balanced coverage, especially those who list themselves as unaffiliated voters, Connecticut's largest voting bloc.
    This always liberal approach has cost the newspaper dearly.   The paper is continuously beaten by smaller publications, such as the Hartford Business Journal and Manchester Journal-Inquirer, on major stories, because of its liberal focus.
    As has been noted, the industry is in trouble, as people look to talkradio and the internet for their information.   But it can still succeed.   No better example is the Waterbury-based Republican American, which knows its identity, offers a balanced package, with a conservative editorial slant, and doesn't break the bank with a daily price of 50 cents.
    However, the thought here is that the Courant, facing deep problems in a one newspaper town, will never betray its liberal roots.   That's why, in the wake of this latest announcement that the paper is undergoing major staff cuts, and will have a huge makeover in presentation come the fall, my prediction is the paper will go tabloid.   When newspaper honchos announce sweeping changes in presentation, that's usually the next step.    They might also want to consider content, as well, if they hope to survive.

Dan Lovallo

So our beloved Senator Christopher Dodd (D) received not one but two mortgage rates at under 5 percent, without any points or other attached costs?   Doesn't everybody?    Not really.    And that's why this growing scandal is resonating with more than just political junkies.    Especially since the Senator just happens to be chairman of one of the Congress' most powerful committees, the Senate Banking Committee.    And apparently, he's not the only Democrat to have received the "VIP" treatment from Countrywide Financial.

     At issue is Countrywide's approval of the refinancing of two of Dodd's residences in 2003, his Washington, D.C. townhouse and his Connecticut home at the sweatheart rates of 4.25% and 4.5% respectively.   Throw in the fact that Countrywide, now in dire straits because of the subprime mortgage fiasco, didn't charge Dodd for points or closing costs and it's estimated he's received a $75,000 break from Countrywide.    And did we mention that a non-partisian group lists Dodd as the Senate's number one recipient of campaign contributions from Countrywide over the last 20 years.   

    The Senator was a ranking member of the banking committee at the time of the refinancing.   Now, as chairman of the panel, he's proposing that taxpayers pony up 300 billion dollars to shore up the sagging mortgage mess.  And among those, who would benefit from the bailout?   You guessed it.   Countrywide.

    The amusing part of the entire story is Dodd's defense.    If this were a Republican, who engaged in a quarter of Dodd's antics in this case, he would be the first to call for that Senator's resignation.   Now he scrambles to defend his actions, reminiscent of Nixon, when people started poking around the edges of his administration, only to uncover some meaty stuff.

    First Dodd said the rates he received were "competitive" with the market place at the time.    Except, most working class people, refinancing back then, couldn't get below 5%, no matter how they tried.    Then, of course, there was that little matter of no points and no closing costs.    The "VIP" treatment, according to Countrywide.     Who really believes Dodd, when he said he didn't ask about the perks being tossed in his direction?    The future head of the Senate Banking Committee, didn't think to ask about the "VIP" treatment?    Either he's ignorant for not asking such a basic question - which means he doesn't belong as the panel's chairman - or he's not telling the truth.    You can't get anymore Nixonian than that.

    But the bottom line - something this Senator was obviously concerned about, no matter how he got there - is that the public is paying attention on this one, because they can relate to refinancing, closing costs, and points.    That will make it increasingly difficult for the Democrats to sweep this one under the rug, especially since they hold a narrow margin in the Senate, with the swing vote, non other than Dodd's former Connecticut Senate pal Joseph Lieberman.    When it comes to scandal, it doesn't get any more delicious than this, especially since it involves one of that body's haughtiest members.

    Dodd's approval ratings nosedived, after he moved to Iowa to run for president.    When a campaign, that was going nowhere from the outset, fizzled, he unabashadly pushed for a spot on the ticket, as VP, with his willing accomplice, the Hartford Courant.    Now, he may not even get dog catcher in an Obama administration - if there is one - with this latest scandal.    In fact, Dodd becomes vulnerable in a Senate reelection bid in 2010, if he isn't forced out of office sooner.

    Meanwhile, Connecticut's congressional delegation, mostly Democrats, and State Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy DiNardo, who trip over themselves, issuing press releases, if a Republican jaywalks, have apparently come down with lockjaw.   Not a peep out of these party hacks.    But the public is paying attention, in addition to paying higher mortgage rates than their senator.    Even O'Reilly is on the case, raking Dodd over the coals on a recent O'Reilly Factor.   

    So the questions now become, who did Senator Dodd know and why didn't he ask some basic questions,  that the everyday citizen would ask, when told of the VIP treatment?   A state and nation await his answer.   Until then, presumably, he is "not a crook" and has "earned everything he's got.."    Just like the last Washington politician, who fed us that script.    And we all know what happened to him.

Dan Lovallo

   There it was for all to see.   Regular gasoline selling for $4.17 a gallon, entering the Memorial Day weekend.   If I wasn't awake, before I went to the convenience store to gas up, I was afterward.   These days, just to top off your tank costs $25, and there appears to be no end in sight.
   Michael J. Fox, the executive director of the Connecticut Automobile and Gasoline Dealers Association, predicts we'll be paying more than $5 a gallon by the third week in July.   But many of the people, who make a "living" in the industry, say don't blame the oil companies, including Walter Dethier, the owner and operator of the Berkshire General Store in Cornwall.
    On my program this week, Dethier said, "I've been a leading critic of the oil companies, but you can't blame the price hike on them.   It's the speculators, who are driving up the price.   They need to close the Enron loophole.   If the oil companies operated at zero profit, it would only drop the price by 13 cents a gallon.   The only reason their profits are high is because of volume."
    Ah, the famous Enron loophole.   When the conversation turns to high energy prices, it usually reverts to the most famous loophole, this side of a tax deduction.   Back in 2000 - when Bill Clinton was President and Republicans ran the Congress - apparently in the dead of night in the waning hours of the 106th Congress, our lawmakers voted to allow these energy futures to be traded electronically - read that to mean computers -  by speculators, without government oversight.    Prior to that, our energy futures could only be traded on exchanges, such as the New York Mercantile Exchange, with U.S. government oversight.   But with the now defunct Enron, awash in money back then, buying off politicians left and right, the infamous loophole was sewn, at the behest of the energy behemoth.    The rest is history, which is what could also happen to our economy, if this thing doesn't turn around fast.
    For the most part, Congress has turned a deaf ear to the problem, although Eugene Guilford, executive director of the Independent Connecticut Petroleum Association, claims the Connecticut congressional delegation ranks the surge in energy prices right up there with Iraq.   At least that's the impression he received, after visiting with our "esteemed" delegation last week in Washington.  
   Repealing the Enron loophole was an amendment to the multibillion dollar farm bill, submitted by the Congress to the President this week, except, the wrong bill was sent to his desk.     That means the entire process has to start all over again.   Guilford thinks our Congress was just its usual bumbling self.   Fox is more sceptacle, claiming on my program, that the wrong bill was submitted "on purpose."  
   "I used to be a lobbyist in Washington, " he said.   "I see how these people work.   They hold a dog and pony show, calling up the oil company bosses to appear before a committee, then everybody gets in a room, behind closed doors in the middle of the night, and writes a bill to their liking."
   Meanwhile, Dethier says we haven't seen leadership from our politicians in years, blaming Governor M. Jodi Rell, the state legislature and the Congress for inaction.    He also agrees with Fox, $5 a gallon is on the way, unless the loophole is closed.  As for truckers, he says, they're paying more than $5 a gallon for diesel, with many of them going out of business.
   And what about the consumers?   We're mad.   Dethier says we should boycott and not drive our cars for a week, even if it means not going to work, not shopping and not gassing up.   He says the situation would be turned around in a week.
   I'm not so sure.   But I think we could at least tell our "leaders," we're mad as hell and not going to take it any more, by posting signs in our cars.    In fact, some listeners have already suggested what those signs could read:
 
   "Vote 'em out"
   "Forget the gas, give me a gas X"
   "I'm fuming, how are you?"
   "What kind of fuel am I?"
   "GAStronomical"
   "Environmentalism, my gas"
 
and my favorite, "Kiss my gas,"  because, if something isn't done soon, we could be kissing life as we know it,  good bye.

      Just when you think the General Assembly can't outdo itself with inane legislation - see clotheslines and witches - this "deliberative body" has reached new depths, with word our esteemed elected officials are considering a bill that would outlaw the idling of your car for more than three straight minutes.      
     And if you think the poster child of all stupid laws doesn't have legs, then check the vote count.   The bill, which would lead to a $90 fine, has passed three committees by a combined vote of 74-9.   Even Republicans are supporting it.    A recent transportation committee vote on SB-123, "An Act Prohibiting The Idling of Motor Vehicles," found six GOP members, joining 22 Democrats in supporting the measure.    Three Republicans had the common sense to oppose it, 74th District Rep. Selim Noujaim, 61 District Rep. Ruth Fahrbach and 44th District Rep. Michael Caron.
     Naugatuck Rep. Kevin DelGobbo, a Republican, voted against the measure in the Public Safety and Security Committee, summing it up best, "Talk about the ridiculous things that the General Assembly is deciding it needs to legislate."
     But the most ridiculous statement may have come from fellow Republican, 71st District State Rep. Anthony D'Amelio.    The Waterbury representative said on my afternoon program, even though he would oppose the bill in a full floor vote, he supported it as a Transportation Committee member, because some of his constituants were in favor of the bill, and it deserved to be voted out of committee.   Furthurmore, he added,  "neighbors have told him, trucks are idling for considerable time at truck stops, polluting the air, and cars are making loud noise and polluting the air, while standing idle in parking lots, contributing to the asthma problem in Waterbury."
    Who knew we were facing such a crisis?   Trucks idling at a truck stop.   What's next?  Road races at a racetrack?    Baseball games in a ballpark?   People might be skiing down mountains, if we don't watch out.
    Besides, aren't there already state laws and town ordinances on the books to protect the public against extensive idling, if a car is making too much noise, disturbing the neighbors?   Yes, there is.   But this isn't about noise.    This is about the liberal agenda.   And when Republicans support it, as six did on the Transportation Committee, they contribute to the dispair, which marks the Connecticut GOP.  Voters want a choice, and Rep. D'Amelio and his ilk are not providing one.
    Do you think that the co-chairs of the Judiciary committee, Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven and Sen. Andrew McDonald, D-Stamford, cared about any constituents, who supported "three strikes and your out," when they prevented it from being voted out of committee?   They made sure the bill wouldn't see the light of day.
   That the idling bill is already on the books, but can only be enforced by the Department of Environmental Protection, is itself disconcerting.   SB-123, would transfer authority of enforcing the law to state and local police.   As if they don't have enough to do.   Lawmakers should be talking about wiping the law off the books, not expanding its enforcement.   Naturally, government-owned vehicles would be exempt from the new law.
    And make no mistake, the global warming crowd is behind this latest effort to abridge our freedoms.    If successful, they'll come after your snowblower and lawn mower next.   So while homes are being invaded, lives being lost, and illegal immigrants are overrunning our state, the liberal-controlled legislature is worried about motors idling for more than three minutes, clotheslines and witches.   The only thing that deserves to be rendered idle, is our own state legislature.   And it should be longer than three minutes.