Chicago Daily Observer

“There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy. Making sure your tires are properly inflated – simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling – if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You’d actually save just as much!” Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)

Estimated Impact:
90 Million Barrels of Oil savings annually with proper tire inflation.

There are:
10 Billion Barrels of Oil in ANWR
18 Billion Barrels of Oil in the Outer Shelf
1 Trillion Barrels in Oil Shale in the USA

In ANWR alone Sen. Obama is off by a factor of 100. In a time of high energy prices, perhaps we could both use proper inflation and drill for more oil. There is no convincing evidence that conservation and increased production are mutually exclusive.

Read More...

Sorry to be graphic but the indictment of Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens by a federal grand jury is necessary medicine to provide a much needed purgative to the infected body politic. Let them now turn the spigot and proceed with the full flushing. The purification will recompense partly for far more than the making of alleged false statements to conceal gifts and home renovations.

Such physic would blast out the moral debris accumulated long ago, by his arrogant defense of the status quo when the late Henry J. Hyde brought charges of Bill Clinton impeachment to the Senate. Meeting with hollow man Republican “leader” Trent Lott and others, Stevens told Hyde and House Judiciary chief counsel David Schippers:

“I don’t care if you prove that [Clinton] raped a woman and then stood up and shot her dead-you are not going to get sixty-seven votes.”

The meaning was clear to ... Read More...

The approach of August means that it is time to begin making plans for the start of another school year. Back to school sales will be widely advertised in coming weeks. For those of you who have not made a vacation trip this year, there is time to do so before Labor Day. August is also the time to make plans to attend the Illinois State Fair. This year’s fair opens on August 7th and concludes on the 17th.

Attending the State Fair means making a trip to Springfield, which is still the state capital after all.

Judging from Rod Blagojevich’s chronic absenteeism one would never know that to be the case. Prior to the ratification of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, our governors were actually required to reside in the state capital.

The current constitution states that the governor be a resident of Springfield during his or her term ... Read More...

High exports, booming consumer spending, and a retreat in gasoline purchases added up to a doubling of US Economic Growth in the second quarter of 2008.

For the quarter ending June 30, economic growth was measured at a 1.9% annual rate, marking over 17 consecutive years without the United States being in recession.

U.S. exports rose by 9.2%. Imports decreased 6.6%, marking a historic shift in US Trade balance.

Contrasting the economic results with the media coverage:

ABC, CBS and NBC hyped similarities to the Great Depression more than 70 times in the first six months of 2008.

Jeannie Aversa at the AP tells us in the Tribune that the Economic rebound not as energetic as hoped in spring.

“We’re in a recession,’’ Allen Sinai, chief economist at Decision Economics Inc. in New York, said in a Bloomberg ... Read More...

The Tribune is shocked, shocked that some realtors on the north shore are fighting back against the nanny-state mentality that is eroding our freedom as homeowners:

The wealthy North Shore has become ground zero for a well-funded Realtors group that has launched campaigns to fight everything from the creation of historic districts to sprinkler requirements for new homes.

Using techniques normally associated with well-heeled political campaigns, the North Shore-Barrington Association of Realtors (NSBAR) has launched Web sites, sent out slick mailings, placed automated telephone calls, conducted opinion polls and used other tools to rally support for the group’s position on issues loosely grouped under the umbrella of homeowners’ rights.

If the Trib reporter thinks the proponents of the nanny state aren’t slick or politically connected,Read More...

The city of Chicago is fighting the Federal Emergency Management Agency over a nearly $6-million tab for snow removal.

FEMA obviously doesn’t remember how hard it was for the Federal Aviation Administration to collect several million in fines from Chicago after Mayor Richard M. Daley one midnight bulldozed the federally subsidized, lakefront airport known as Meigs Field

Read More...