http://news.yahoo.com/…

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

“This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities,” said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation.

The lawmaker said Americans “are at the mercy” of OPEC for how much they pay for gasoline, which this week hit a record average of $3.79 a gallon.

The White House opposes the bill, saying that targeting OPEC investment in the United States as a source for damage awards “would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners.”

The administration said less oil going to refineries would limit available gasoline supplies and raise fuel prices.

Foreign investment in U.S. oil infrastructure has declined in the last decade. But the state-owned oil companies of several OPEC nations are owners of U.S. refineries, and those investments could be affected if the legislation becomes law, said Arlington, Virginia-based FBR Capital Markets Corp.

The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office to carryout a study on the effects of prior oil company mergers on energy prices.

The Senate would still have to approve the House measure.

The Senate previously approved similar legislation as part of a broad energy bill. However, the OPEC-suing provision was removed after White House opposition in order to get the underlying energy legislation signed into law.

Speculation is an essential knowledge source for the market. Just like any other source it’s important for the market to function optimally. The speculation is wild because some group of jackasses in Congress and the executive branch of the USA government are waging wars on people who did us no harm. Because they are screwing up the value of the currency and attempting to carve the path for future energy sources. No bill can guarantee prices. They will likely cause shortages like the late 1970’s. As Mises said when the government interferes and screws things up… they know nothing else but to continue to interfere and to screw up.

I’m not sure how the hell they can enforce anything like this, I’ve not read the bill yet, but this sounds to me to be a declaration or war or at least an aggressive act.

If the government wants prices to drop stop the intervention. Leave the market alone. Leave the people and governments of the oil producing nations alone. Leave domestic energy production alone. Let them build refineries, let them drill for new oil sources, let them build nuke plants. Then will the costs normalize.

(If this article surprises anyone, then you just haven’t been paying attention… to anything. Ever.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Federal employees used government credit cards to pay for lingerie, gambling, iPods, Internet dating services, and a $13,000 steak-and-liquor dinner, according to a new audit from the Government Accountability Office, which found widespread abuses in a purchasing program meant to improve bureaucratic efficiency. The study, released by Senate lawmakers yesterday, found that nearly half the “purchase card” transactions it examined were improper, either because they were not authorized correctly or because they did not meet requirements for the cards’ use. The overall rate of problems “is unacceptably high,” the audit found.

The GAO also found that agencies could not account for nearly $2 million worth of items identified in the audit — including laptop computers, digital cameras and, at the Army, more than a dozen computer servers worth $100,000 each.

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who requested the study along with Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), said that money “intended to pay for critical infrastructure, education and homeland security is instead being spent on iPods, lingerie and socializing.”

“Too many government employees have viewed purchase cards as their personal line of credit,” Coleman said. “It’s time to cut up their cards and start over.”

I was delighted at how easy this was to stumble upon: A Practical Guide for Reviewing Government Purchase Card Programs A nice little pdf pamphlet that kindly goes over the processes of government purchase cards with fun Microsoft Word clip-art. Fancy.

Why not just cut up the cards and be done with it? Why bother to “start over”?
I suppose, while there’s still tax dollars coming in, why the hell not?!
Oh, yea, and throw in some proposed legislation while you’re at it: The Government Credit Card Abuse Prevention Act.

(All fixed!)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

Government auditors issued a scathing review yesterday of dozens of the Pentagon’s biggest weapons systems, saying ships, aircraft and satellites are billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.The Government Accountability Office found that 95 major systems have exceeded their original budgets by a total of $295 billion, bringing their total cost to $1.6 trillion, and are delivered almost two years late on average. In addition, none of the systems that the GAO looked at had met all of the standards for best management practices during their development stages.

Auditors said the Defense Department showed few signs of improvement since the GAO began issuing its annual assessments of selected weapons systems six years ago. “It’s not getting any better by any means,” said Michael Sullivan, director of the GAO’s acquisition and sourcing team. “It’s taking longer and costing more.”

Chris Isleib, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a written statement, “We’d like to look at what GAO has said, and then at the appropriate time make an informed comment.”

What do you expect from a system without real competition or limit on spending? Besides not needing the weapons to kill more brown people at all, I’m sure that $295m could have been better spent by the taxpayers who are currently having a hard time paying for inflated subsidized food and war induced high gasoline prices.

http://www.forbes.com/…

Here’s a fact that supporters of the Farm Bill might want to consider as the legislation is deliberated on the House floor this week: Between 1999 and 2005, the U.S Department of Agriculture paid $1.1 billion in farm payments to nearly 173,000 people who weren’t alive.

Nothing illegal–just Washington business as usual. Under certain conditions, estates can receive farm payments for up to two years after a recipient’s death. But according to a study released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office, 40% of the deceased who received payments from 1999 to 2005 had been dead for at least three years. In one instance, someone who died in 1995 got $400,000.

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns says that “it’s an enticing headline to read [the report] and say, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me–they’re paying money to dead people.’” But the reality, he says, is that the USDA makes its farm payments to farming operations, which are tied to land, and it has no control over who works that land.

If they got rid of these bogus subsidies altogether we’d save money and not have these ‘enticing headline’ possibilities. There are no reasons to be giving these millionaire farmers public money. As for the others who are unable to compete otherwise… too bad. Raise prices or get out of the business. The public shouldn’t have to be supporting their failed businesses.

• H.R. 3053: Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2007. To protect private property rights. This sounds reasonable but it looks as if a state is not responsible for the ‘political subdivision.’ Since the federal withholding appears to apply only to the division which is exercising the eminent domain this bill has little strength.
  
• H.R. 2980: Internet Police Protection Act of 2007. To amend title 18, United States Code, to protect individuals performing certain Federal and federally assisted functions, and for other purposes. Why are these public officials any different than any other person? Public officials shouldn’t have their personal information outed anymore than anyone else.
  
• H.R. 2983: Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2007. To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide middle class tax relief, impose a surtax for families with incomes over $1,000,000, and for other purposes. Instead of this wealth redistribution why don’t we just get rid of the Federal Reserve, the IRS and our feit money. Give the people back their money and property.
  
• H.R. 2958: To direct the Federal Trade Commission to review the video game ratings of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and to direct the Government Accountability Office to study the impact of video games on children and young adults. Videogames are the new heavy metal. Even though the ESRB has done a very good job of rating games… it is completely ignored because parents are too stupid and/or lazy. Another attempt by both those lazy parents and the government to place the burden of raising our children on the big brother nanny state.
  
• H.R. 2967: Campaign Taxpayer Reimbursement Act of 2007. To prohibit the use of Federal funds in support of any travel undertaken by the President, Vice President, or certain other executive branch officials which includes the attendance by the official at any political campaign or fundraising event unless the sponsor of the event reimburses the Federal government for the actual costs incurred in support of the travel, and for other purposes. This works but should cover all politicians. They shouldn’t be using public money for effectively private activities.
  
• H.R. 2993: Genuine American Flag Act. To prohibit the importation for sale of foreign-made flags of the United States of America. This is amazingly retarded. Stopping the import of fabric with a particular pattern on it?