Below The Beltway

Some Democratic Members of Congress are calling for nationalization of oil refineries in response to rising gas prices:
House Democrats responded to President’s Bush’s call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.
Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so [...]

I generally don’t have a high opinion of the relative intelligence of the political class, but even I can’t believe that Texas Republicans were dumb enough to let this happen:
While a number of speakers — such as Railroad Commission chairman Michael Williams and Mike Huckabee — have praised the advance of Barack Obama and what [...]

One of Barack Obama’s top foreign policy advisers, and a man who many believe could become National Security Adviser in an Obama Administration, apparently gets most of his ideas from children’s literature:
Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told [...]

At least that’s the only conclusion that I can draw from this Rasmussen poll:
A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 29% of voters favor nationalizing the oil industry. Just 47% are opposed and 24% are not sure.
The survey found that a plurality of Democrats (37%) believe the oil industry should be nationalized. Just 32% [...]

A delegate to the Texas Republican Convention opines on the latest threat to the Republic:
HOUSTON – Robert Hurt went to Washington and didn’t like what he saw – nudity in the nation’s capital.
“Nude women, sculptured women,” he told the state Republican platform committee, which sat in rapt attention.
Of all the evils in Washington that the [...]

Considering that he most likely lost his bid for the Republican nomination in the 8th District because of Mark Ellmore’s fabrications about his associations with Ron Paul, Amit Singh isn’t getting any love from Lew Rockwell, the High Priest of the Church Of Paul:
I do not join those mourning the loss of Amit Singh in [...]

I’m sure this one has OPEC shaking in it’s sandals:
A Miami lawyer is suing OPEC over the skyrocketing price of oil.
Attorney Larry Klayman claims in the lawsuit filed Monday that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is violating U.S. antitrust laws by fixing oil prices. Klayman wants a Miami federal judge to stop that from [...]

The Washington Post takes up above-the-fold space on today’s front page to inform us that it’s really, really hot out there:
A second day of oppressive weather blanketed the Washington region yesterday, pushing the heat index to 103 degrees in some areas as thousands of households remained without power from last week’s storms and residents hungered [...]

It’s gonna be hard to top the outright insanity of this guy:
Barack Obama isn’t really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.
(…)
Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us [...]

Would people turn being lazy into a national movement:
(CNN) — Edgar S. Cahn is fighting for your right to be lazy.
Other activists might devote their time to reversing global warming or saving the whales. But the 73-year-old attorney is battling to preserve a commodity that he says is more fragile than the environment and more [...]