Tom Harkin, who himself has issues regarding his representation of his “Vietnam-era” service–which helped sink his candidacy against Clinton way back when–is exercised about Rush Limbaugh’s “phony soldier” reference, covered by Darleen this weekend here. Senator Harkin’s tenure in Iowa has been marked by one major issue: the ethanol boondoggle. Thanks to Harkin’s porkbarrelling on behalf of Monsanto, Conoco and Archer-Daniels, among others, consumers in the larger Midwestern markets have been socked with disproportionate gasoline prices due to the blending requirements that have been enacted for them, whist food prices have risen nationwide and internationally due to the legislation.
It is time to get this bum out of office. And to that end, I’d like to try and gather information about the ethanol lobby, and which legislators have an investment in big biofuel. Any help is appreciated.
ADM was caught “laundering” French wine to use in ethanol while still collecting the subsidies for corn, this was a couple of years ago. Sorry, I can’t remember where I read this or heard it. This isn’t exactly what you are looking for, but maybe it can help.
Don’t tell anyone, but corn-based biofuels have a more negative effect on greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. You don’t see the Gorezilla for Nobel Prize crowd talking about that every day now do you? Let’s keep it a dirty little secret, so to speak.
It is time to get this bum out of office. And to that end, I’d like to try and gather information about the ethanol lobby, and which legislators have an investment in big biofuel. Any help is appreciated.
excellent idea.
I say ethanol is a boondoggle, boondoggle, boondoggle
moonbats got’em hoppin’ on a boondoggle, boondoggle, boondoggle
and if I ever get this car
Flyon bacon,
Drive real far
I won’t have to walk no more
and if I ever get cheap fuel
The poor can have their milk and gruel
And I’ll eat steak and fight the Gorn,
And the Mullahs will be forlorn.
Charles Grassley has served his country well and he needs to be thanked and sent on his way.
‘Tom Harkin, who himself has issues regarding his representation of his “Vietnam-era†service’– There are no issues on Harkin, he’s a lying POS and everyone knows it.
It takes more energy to produce a gallon of corn based ethanol than a gallon of gasolene. Yes it’s a boondogle. hydrogen as motor fuel is a boondogle.A change in fuel won’t change the amount of fuel consumed. A change in how that fuel is utilized, will. A different engine is required.
Sorry. What were you saying?
Did you see that car I linked? (via insty, BTW) it doesn’t fly or anythings, but it seems strides are being made.
Rusty, hydrogen isn’t ready for prime time, and it doesn’t have to be “less fuel” than gasoline to be a world-changing thing. Cheaper and easier to get, and not having the unintended side effects of stealing all the corn, would be an improvement over gasoline and ethanol.
“and yet” not just “and”
I was in a meeting about the construction of an ethanol facility recently (non-corn-based) and mentioned that the one thing ethanol was good at generating was a subsidy. The owner of the place looked at me and said, “You are absolutely right,” and launched into a 20-minute lecture of carbon exchange reactions that boggled my mind.
You’re talking about ethanol distorting the corn market? You’re kidding, right?
Pinky Reid was never in the military was he? Or am I mistaken?
He excoriates Limbaugh for commenting on military matters without ever serving yet fails to heed his own standard. Libs come standard with at least two standards, so I guess this makes sense to some.
You know Harkin had to know that this would come back to bite him. I mean, does he really think we all have the attention span of children or was it just his turn or something?
yours/
peter.
Wow. The right wing blogs are going to unseat Tom Harkin on the issue of corn subsidies? That’s brilliant! While you’re at it you should attack Max Baucus of Montana for his excessive support of the coal industry and Mark Pryor of Arkansas for being too sympathetic to Walmart!
I suggest you run your attack ads on Wednesday, November 5th 2008 for maximum effectiveness.
How about YOU do that? I’m busy with other stuff, genius.
[…] A bleg from our ol’ bud Dan, related to the shameless bum Harkin’s bonehead hypocrisy noted below. Help him out if you can. […]
That jackass Harkin’s my senator and much as I hate to defend him on anything, blending’s not why gas prices are so high in the Midwest. Gas in the Midwest is higher than average simply because most states in the midwest have higher than average gas taxes. That’s on the mostly Republican state legislatures, not Harkin.
I’m not sure if there’s an easier way to find out who supports biofuels, but most congressmen aren’t shy about saying so on their sites. Every Iowa congressman Harkin, Grassley, King, Loesback, Braley, Latham, and Boswell all are big biofuels supporters. I can’t find a good link for Boswell because his site sucks, but you can just search his site for “energy” and see.
You aren’t going to get anywhere going after Harkin on ethanol though, Dan. Nearly everyone in the state of Iowa wants more federal support for ethanol not less. We grow more corn than any other state in the country. Steve King’s as Republican as they come and he supports biofuels at least as much as Harkin. No politician can possibly get elected in Iowa running against ethanol. You couldn’t even win a primary in either party.
I’m a libertarian, I know it’s making food more expensive for the world’s poor, and I know corn-based ethanol in particular can’t possibly put even a dent in gasoline demand. Having said all that even I won’t vote for someone who doesn’t support ethanol. It’s a national-level waste of money and resources, but that national-level waste of money and resources is an big net gain to my state’s economy. If that’s how libertarians in Iowa feel there’s not a chance farm lovey Republicans and greeny Democrats won’t support it.
Damn, screwed up the King link.
Isnt it amazing the creeps that the dems put in office. What a bunch of jerks. Harkin being one of the biggest. They are all scared hypocrites. They are so scared of Rush they will tell bold faced lies to try to take him out.
1) Hydrogen is neither cheaper nor easier to get than gasoline. Simpler to get, but not easier.
2) That’s funny, Sean H is a “LINO.” You don’t hear that one too often!
3) This is why most of the energy spent on this subject is wasted. Gasoline will be replaced as a fuel precisely when it becomes too expensive to justify using it as fuel. The “most” part comes in when you have a powerful lobby, like the ethanol concern, which can foist a lesser alternative on the public through government mandate.
Heck, if you want to sell more corn, sell more corn. People like corn.
Sean,
Hey, a guy can dream, can’t he? But the most important thing for Iowa, in the long run, is can the state invest its windfall . . . because when push comes to shove, corn ethanol’s going to go away.
Neither Tom Harkin nor The (not so) Great HairReed has any moral authority.
It’s hysterical to observe their phony indignation.
(they’re phony indignants, worse than being a phony soldier)
John Murtha (ABSCAM) has no moral authority, either.
Where do these kinds of people get off pontificating about anyone else ?
I wouldn’t support yet another economic boondoggle even if “my state” profited as long as it lasted.
So now “they” are trying to figure out how to use the corn leaves as well as the corn itself.
It seems like there is no genuine substitute for oil, despite all the fancy TV ads and all the verbiage.
And that “things” will get dicier and dicier as A’jad and Oogoe use their resources to squeeze the infidel and China grows more automobiles and manufacturing and will buy all the world’s oil it can.
…which is exactly why I’m in favor of sand price supports, because that would be a huge gain to MY state’s economy.
Kidding, really, but this sort of reasoning is exactly why we’re in the big fucking tangled furball of price supports, tariffs, and whatever other market buggery you can come up with. Because it’s sure a good idea to take taxpayer dollars and give it to people who vote it for themselves, isn’t it?
No argument there, Dan. Corn ethanol’s just a totally unworkable idea and I’d love to see all of Iowa’s current congressmen voted out. While I’m dreaming, I’d like to see the entire sitting congress go.
I also tend to worry that the windfall’s going to do states like Iowa more harm in the long run than good. In Iowa and Nebraska at least, what our economies really need is for people, both left and right, to get away from their ridiculous populist attitudes. If we could just quit being two of the worst states in the country to run a business in the resulting economic growth would make this ethanol boom look like chump change.
Iowa and Nebraska have huge comparative advantages being centrally located, having so much space, neutral accents, and our schools being so much better than average. Then we throw it all away by having such a poor business environment that hardly any companies want to come here. The ethanol money’s better than nothing, but not if it delays changing things to bring in business. If that happens then in the end we’ll just be left falling behind the rest of the country as more and more of our well-educated young folks keep moving out of state. Heck, I’d be moving out with them if my wife wasn’t so set on living near her family.
Good for you. I’m not a conservative and the “L” in my libertarian label is very lower case. Like this: “l”. I’d rather the government wasn’t pissing away money on ethanol at all, but nationally we’re insanely determined to spend a truckload of money on a stupid idea. That being the case, my guys damn well better make sure as much of that stupid spending as possible gets done in Iowa or we’ll give some other crook a chance to play bigshot.
So long as you permit politicians to buy votes with tax money, you get boondoggles. All social and economic programs are either current or future boondoggles.
Harkin is one of the worst, he never found a program to buy votes with public funds he didn’t like. But that’s worked for him. Apparently Iowans want to be bought. I can’t really complain as California has a pair of Senators that can make Harkin look relatively moderate.Ethanol won’t sink Harkin. The only hope I can see is to emphasize his support for the far left attack on Limbaugh. Posters and ads all over Iowa with pictures of Harkin and Jesse McBeth might retire another phony soldier.
As I read this thread, I remember reading in my local paper the other day that Georgia comes in dead last in federal pork. Behind all other states and the District of Columbia.
Eat your hearts out.
Hydrogen in the future will be the ideal answer to the lack of gasoline. However,it is now made from natural gas which is very costly. A lot of research is going on, and as
soon as it is both safe and reasonabley priced. Every one will be happy.
That’ s important, because regardless of what you may be implying, we are not burning all our food. Rather, we are simply raising the possible markets for food. Don’ t believe me? As I’ m sure you know, the US is the largest consumer and producer of biofuels, and is one of only two countries in which a significant amount of biofuels are consumed. So if biofuels are squeezing world food supply, it should be seen here first above all else, right?