Why the Gas Tax Holiday is Stupid

A ‘gas tax holiday‘ is stupid because it won’t do anything. The federal tax on regular unleaded gas is 18.4 cents/gallon. That’s less than 5% of a $3.75 gallon of gas. If you drive a car with a 25 gallon tank (that’s a pretty big tank) it will save you exactly $4.60 on a full tank. If you fill up once a week for the 15 weeks of the proposed holiday, you will save $69. That’s an approximate monthly savings of $23. If $23 dollars a month is making a big difference in you budget then you have bigger problems than paying the taxes that pay for the roads you travel.

I used to have a lot more respect for John McCain. But this is an example of the same old Washington DC ‘look like you’re actually doing something‘ play. By his campaigns own estimates it will reduce transportation funding by $6.8 billion. Isn’t transportation infrastructure underfunded as it is? Didn’t we have a BRIDGE COLLAPSE in Minnesota last year? I’m glad that Obama opposes this. At least one politician is being intellectually honest about the costs and benefits of this. It’s pandering of the worst kind: claiming to help ‘working families’ while not putting enough money in their pockets to even buy lunch. I’m not surprised at that Hillary Clinton has joined McCain in this endeavor. If they really wanted help ‘working families’, how about cutting the ethanol subsidies that are helping to drive food prices through the roof?

Finally Some Outdoor Climbing

This weekend the weather and my health finally decided to cooperate with each other, which means that I spent my weekend outside for the first time since last fall.

Some Saturday reconnaissance of Exit 38 (Far Side and Deception) revealed that the rock is dry, with a couple of exceptions at Gun Show, Winter Block, (both Far Side) and Nevermind (Deception). Also: NO CROWDS. Plenty of open routes at all areas surveyed. (And the discovery that I’m not as out-of-hiking-shape as I was afraid.)

Sunday was the day to put the information to good use, Megan and I met up with some people and got a good day in at Deception. Moving from Substation to Write-Off to We Did Rock we got a good variety of climbs. There were 8 of us, including 3 lead climbers. That meant that Matt and I were setting most all the routes (also Carsten led some as well). It was nice to actually get outside, and to find that my winter spent climbing in the gym was not in vain. Some routes that had been very tough for me in the past were much easier. I ended up climbing 7 different routes, including 3 leads, by far my most extensive day of climbing outdoors.

There are no photos yet as Megan and I BOTH forgot our cameras, but as soon as I can get the shots from Nina I’ll post some. For now I’m just grateful the season has begun.

Mark Penn Should Resign After Columbian Meeting

UPDATE: It appears Mark Penn has finally resigned, but will continue to advise the Clinton campaign, which seems to me not much like resigned at all. Anyone found any further clarification on this? </UPDATE>

When the self-described chief strategist for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is making mistakes that even George W. Bush knew to avoid he should probably realize that he’s hurting his candidate more than helping her. Last week Mark Penn met with the Columbian Ambassador to discuss a free-trade pact that his candidate has opposes. This is just the latest in a series of missteps from Mark Penn that are doing significant harm to Hillary Clinton’s chances for the democratic nomination.

I am happy that at least one member of the Clinton campaign is breaking from the democratic party line of ‘Trade BAD! Protectionism GOOD!’ it is tempered by the fact that this is the most blatant conflict of interest imaginable: the top strategist for a presidential campaign lobbying on behalf of a foreign government for a trade pact that his candidate opposes. If Mark Penn does not resign from Hillary’s campaign soon he should be fired. If he manages to stay on with the campaign after this I would view it as yet another failure of judgment on the part of Hillary Clinton. In 2000 Bush insisted that Karl Rove resign his other positions to avoid something just like this. Even after the damage has been done, what happens internally in the Clinton campaign will speak to whether these obvious problems are being taken seriously.