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Yepsen:  "... when did you start working the Mormon network?"

Romney Iowa leader:  "It works itself."

Upon the assumption of her role as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated,

“Bills should be developed following full hearings and open subcommittee and committee markups, with appropriate referrals to other committees. Members should have at least 24 hours to examine a bill prior to consideration at the subcommittee level. Bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full, and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the Minority the right to offer its alternatives, including a substitute. Members should have at least 24 hours to examine bill and conference report text prior to floor consideration. Rules governing floor debate must be reported before 10 p.m. for a bill to be considered the following day.” 

Today Speaker Pelosi brought forth an energy bill. No one had seen it before then. It has some good things, some OK things and some bad things. I will vote against it because I believe the bad outweighed the good. But the point here is that we need an energy bill to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and petroleum in general. But this bill, although it will pass the House, will not pass the Senate and if it did, the President has said he would veto it.

Again there was an opportunity to accomplish a lot in this area in which there is agreement. I certainly wouldn't get all I wanted, but I would get some. The Speaker and the President would also get some but not all of what they wanted. There is clear common ground.

It seems that the Democrat House leadership is more interested in making political statements than accomplishing anything.

Maybe the Senate can fix the bill.

"one viewer caution...sensitive souls may want to click off and come back in five minutes."

“By getting every candidate to go on the record, we'll be able to be smart voters as we head to the polls, and no matter whose elected in 2008, we'll be able to hold the next president of the United States accountable to his or her plan.”

Each candidate is compared on issues such as AIDS, eradicating malaria, child and maternal health, universal primary education, and food and clean water.

The comparison helps educate voters on the candidates' stances.  For example, don't expect the compassionate conservative Mike Huckabee to cut spending on this issue -- or to differ too much from George W. Bush on the issue of AIDS:

I support reauthorization of PEPFAR and President Bush's proposal to double our commitment from $15 billion to $30 over the next five years.

While the ONE Campaign was kind enough to give me a sneak-peek, the videos will be posted later today for all to see.  Check them out.

Note:  I'm told Mike Huckabee will be recording videos for this campaign on Friday.  Hopefully the candidates who have not yet gone on the record will also submit their plans ...

"It is important to recognize that while differences in theology exist between the churches in America, we share a common creed of moral convictions. And where the affairs of our nation are concerned, it's usually a sound rule to focus on the latter – on the great moral principles that urge us all on a common course. Whether it was the cause of abolition, or civil rights, or the right to life itself, no movement of conscience can succeed in America that cannot speak to the convictions of religious people.

"We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good reason. No religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere with the free practice of religion. But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong."

These American values, this great moral heritage, is shared and lived in my religion as it is in yours. I was taught in my home to honor God and love my neighbor. I saw my father march with Martin Luther King. I saw my parents provide compassionate care to others, in personal ways to people nearby, and in just as consequential ways in leading national volunteer movements. I am moved by the Lord’s words: ‘For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me...’

My faith is grounded on these truths. You can witness them in Ann and my marriage and in our family. We are a long way from perfect and we have surely stumbled along the way, but our aspirations, our values, are the self-same as those from the other faiths that stand upon this common foundation. And these convictions will indeed inform my presidency.

Bob Novak begins his column today with this:

Two weeks ago it was settled policy within Mitt Romney's campaign that his speech dealing with his Mormon faith would be delivered much later -- if at all -- and only after primary election victories.  Romney suddenly overruled his advisers to undertake that risky venture today [Thursday] in College Station, Texas, for one reason: Mike Huckabee's ascent in Iowa.

... Wrong.  Way back on October 16, I wrote:

Columnist Bob Novak recently reported that a speech would likely happen after Iowa -- but before the New Hampshire primary.  According to my sources, Novak is probably right about the speech, but probably wrong about the timing ...

"It's likely to happen sooner rather than later," one senior Republican aide allied with Romney confides in me. 

The reason?  There will most likely be only a short period of time -- possibly only a few days -- between the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary.  That would leave little time to get a message out, and zero time to do crisis control if a message delivery were botched.

As you can see, it was far from "settled policy" that the speech would occur later ("after primary election victories").  In addition, while I have no doubt that the advisor Novak spoke to told him this, the senior Romney advisor I spoke to was actually urging Romney to give the speech weeks ago -- before Huckabee over-took him in the polls.

My main point here is that it truly fascinates me that an obscure blogger (yours truly) had more accurate information regarding this major campaign speech, than did The Prince of Darkness, whom I really do revere and admire.

This, of course, demonstrates the fact that the establishment media is often wrong, while blogosphere is often more correct.  Yet the MSM story is treated as more reliable and credible.

Of course, having been a top-notch journalist for forty years, Bob Novak has certainly earned his credibility.  Still, I can't help but see this as an example of how the establishment media -- though slow and often inaccurate -- continues to be better respected than the red-haired step-child known as the blogosphere...

Two recent events, involving new media outlets, really drove this home to me ... 

First, the CNN/YouTube debate used bloggers for publicity, but when it came to who they trusted to analyse the debates, they turned to the same old establishment types. 

More recently, MySpace/MTV invited bloggers to cover a John McCain event they were hosting.  While they invited bloggers to attend, the moderator was Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post.  (In fairness, Cillizza does have a blog, the FIx, at the WaPost).  But why couldn't one of the conservative bloggers they invited also be asked to help moderate?

If anyone were to take bloggers seriously, you would think it would be YouTube or MySpace. 

It's time for so-called mainstream outlets to start taking bloggers as professionals and equals, rather than merely using us as props to generate PR for them ...

1.      Build the Fence

 Ensure that an interlocking surveillance camera system is installed along the border by July 1, 2010.

Ensure that the border fence construction is completed by July 1, 2010. 
Read More...

Excerpts Of Governor Romney's Remarks (As Prepared For Delivery):

"There are some who may feel that religion is not a matter to be seriously considered in the context of the weighty threats that face us.  If so, they are at odds with the nation's founders, for they, when our nation faced its greatest peril, sought the blessings of the Creator.  And further, they discovered the essential connection between the survival of a free land and the protection of religious freedom.  In John Adam's words: 'We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion... Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people.' 

"Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God.  Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone." 

"When I place my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God.  If I am fortunate to become your president, I will serve no one religion, no one group, no one cause, and no one interest.  A President must serve only the common cause of the people of the United States." 
Read More...

House Democrats are busy scurrying around the halls trying to drum up support for their new Energy bill.  Their new Energy bill has 31 new tax provisions that create new winners and new losers in the energy industry.  Here are some of the included tax provisions:

Winners:

Fringe Benefit for bicycle commuters.  The bill allows employers to provide employees that commute to work using a bicycle limited fringe benefits to offset the costs of such commuting (e.g. bicycle storage).  This proposal is estimated to cost $10 million over 10 years.

Income averaging for Exxon Valdez litigation amounts.  The bill would allow commercial fisherman and other individuals whose livelihoods were negatively impacted by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill to average any settlement or judgment-related income that they receive in connection with pending litigation in the federal courts over three years for federal tax purposes.  The bill would also allow these funds to make contributions to retirement accounts.  This proposal is estimated to cost $215 million over 10 years.

Long-term extension and modification of renewable energy production tax credit.  The bill extends the place-in-service date for four years for qualifying facilities: wind; closed-loop biomass; open-loop biomass; geothermal; small irrigation hydropower; landfill gas; and trash combustion facilities.  It also includes a new category of qualifying facilities—facilitates the generate electricity from marine renewables  The bill would cap the aggregate amount of tax credits that can be earned for qualifying facilities place in service after December, 31, 2008 to an amount that has a present value equal to 35% of the facility’s cost.  This proposal is estimated to cost $6.626 billion over 10 years.

Losers:

Denial of section 199 benefits for certain major integrated oil companies (freeze current benefits at 6%)  The bill excludes gross receipts derived from the sale, exchange or other disposition of oil, natural gas, or any primary product thereof from the domestic production deduction for large integrated oil companies.  The bill would freeze the domestic production deduction for income of other taxpayers that is with respect to oil, natural gas, or any primary product thereof at 6%.  This is estimated to raise $9.992 billion over 10 years.

7-year amortization of geological and geophysical expenditures for certain major integrated oil companies.  The bill increase the amortization period for geological and geophysical expenditures(G&G costs) from 5 years to 7 years for large integrated oil companies.  Estimate to raise $103 million over 10 years.

Clarification of foreign oil and gas extraction income.  The tax code limits the ability of oil and gas companies to claim foreign tax credits with respect to foreign oil and gas extraction income.  Because of this limitation, there is a potential for oil and gas companies to manipulate their extraction income in order to achieve beneficial result under U.S. foreign tax credit rules.  This bill eliminates this potential, and would expand the present-law foreign oil and gas extraction income rules to apply to all foreign income from production and other activity related to the sale of oil and gas.  Estimated to raise $3.187 billion over 10 years.

Giuliani and Huckabee are the ying and yang of the GOP field. One is strong on fiscal issues and weak on social ones. The other is... the opposite. Unlike discerning minute differences in the shades of gray between Clinton and Obama, a Giuliani-Huckabee final would give Republican voters a real choice about the future direction of the party. (emphasis mine)