In Dreams

Drilling Down
Mr. Obama yesterday also repeated his proposal that now is the time to raise taxes on oil and gas companies, as if doing so will make them more likely to drill. He must not believe the economic truism that when you tax something you get less of it, including fewer of the new jobs they've created. (WSJ, 2/23/2012)


Does President Obama actually think that levying higher taxes on oil companies is going to LOWER gas prices at the pump? Republicans say DRILL DRILL DRILL and our Liberal friends reflexively say that even if you starting drilling today, prices are not going to come down tomorrow. But, in fact, they might. Market sentiment drives prices as well as immediate supply and demand issues. What do Liberals think would happen to Middle East oil prices if the U.S. announced that 1000 new drilling permits were issued today? The Arabs would flood the market with cheap oil in order to provide a disincentive to the U.S. drillers. In fact, there is NO downside to more U.S. drilling...prices would fall in the short term and in the long term the U.S. would be less dependent on Middle East oil. But, of course, absent the political considerations, Obama prefers - as he has said - higher gas prices. He believes that this is the wedge needed in the U.S. to transform the country toward his green energy fantasies. This is our president: secretly wishing for higher gas prices. 


Of course, Liberals could claim the moral high ground by giving up their cars en masse and taking the bus or train. But in their world, the sacrifices are never ones that they would make.


Teach Your Children
The New York City Education Department will release the ratings of thousands of teachers on Friday, ending a nearly year-and-a-half-long legal battle by the teachers’ union to keep the names confidential. 
...
The union, the United Federation of Teachers, is responding to the release with a $100,000-plus newspaper advertising campaign starting on Friday. 
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The union had sued to stop the reports’ release, arguing that it would violate teachers’ privacy rights and that the reports were exempt from public-disclosure rules because they were subjective and often inaccurate. A judge rejected the argument, ruling that the union had failed to prove that the city’s decision to release the names was “arbitrary and capricious,” the prerequisite for preventing their release under state disclosure laws, and that the information was of general public interest. The union’s appeals were unsuccessful.(NYT, 2/23/2012)


Once again, teachers unions fight for LESS accountability...and they are willing to pay big bucks to discredit anything that has accountability as its objective. Not happy with the methodology? Why don't they propose an alternative. One thing is certain...they will continue to clamor that we need to invest more in education.