Hampton Finally Admits...

That he doesn't understand basic economics:

I support a windfall profits tax. I don't know if it would help the price of gas or not. It would just make me feel better as I watch that pump ring up another outrageous gas bill.

The answer, Davy: IT WON'T HELP AT ALL. Gas companies make 4 cents profit on a gallon of gas. The government, which did very little if anything to get the oil out, refine it, and get it to the pump, gets about 15 cents. In laymans terms, gasoline profits went up 89% last year; gasoline tax revenues went up 178%. So when you get your wish and get your 'obscene profit tax' added in, and gas is $8 a gallon, remember that you got what you wished for.

Hampton actually mentioned what has run up the price of oil in the last couple of years: Speculation. If we're going to regulate, remember that a recent estimate said that about $70 a barrel is added on due to speculation. All the money that went into speculating on real estate (and before that, tech companies) is being put into oil now. Either that, or artificially inflate the price of gas to make people conserve and get more fuel efficient vehicles.

But adding taxes never works. Corporations don't pay taxes; they raise prices. They say if you can remember the 60s you didn't live through them; apparently, Hampton forgets about the 70s as well.

And while we're on the Hampton subject, he's chided us about the way we might deride the Obamessiah. Of course, he's not made any statement about the Dems bringing up McCain's age, or the liberal bloggers who've made fun of his disability (he can't raise his arms above his shoulders thanks to an Enlightened Communist in Vietnam), the accusations-two by US Senators Harkin and Rockefeller-that McCain is crazy and cold-hearted and spent too much time in the military and thus unfit for the presidency. He's said nothing about the e-mails about Laura Bush, or any of the billion nutty things said about George W. Bush.

Then again, they are not the One We've Been Waiting For. They will not feed the hungry, give jobs to the jobless, and make the oceans not rise and heal the planet. Only the Obamessiah can do that.