Follow The Oil

Federalism rears its magnificent head today in the form of a veto -- President Obama is said to be ready to announce he will veto the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, because he is forced to decide now in order for the payroll tax entension to go through. The pipe is being rerouted and as of today, no one can say where the pipe will be.

So there are two things now that the Republicans are willing to throw under the bus for the sake of their oil company buddies. The first was a payroll tax extension - normally they wouldn't even consider blocking a tax cut but they used the occasion to force Obama to agree to this oil pipeline, and once he did the bill went through. Now they are also up in arms because the President isn't FORCING STATES TO ALLOW CONTRUCTION of a pipelene across them.

If only there was a way to get oil from Canada across the states without using a pipeline! This will destroy our economy.

Sunken War Chest

In even more news about the inevitable Republican wave that will crash over Congress this fall:

The Republican National Committee failed to report more than $7 million in debt to the Federal Election Commission in recent months - a move that made its bottom line appear healthier than it is heading into the midterm elections and that also raises the prospect of a hefty fine.

In a memo to RNC budget committee members, RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen on Tuesday accused Chairman Michael S. Steele and his chief of staff, Michael Leavitt, of trying to conceal the information from him by ordering staff not to communicate with the treasurer - a charge RNC officials deny.

Mr. Pullen told the members that he had discovered $3.3 million in debt from April and $3.8 million from May, which he said had led him to file erroneous reports with the FEC. He amended the FEC filings Tuesday.

Campaign-finance analysts said that simply misreporting fundraising numbers to the FEC can lead to millions of dollars in fines and that criminal charges can be levied if the actions are suspected to be intentional.

"This is significant because the civil penalties could mean big fines that take a significant bite out of the RNC's finances close to the November congressional elections, when state parties need the RNC's financial help for their 'victory' programs," said former FEC Commissioner Hans A. von Spakovsky.

Of course it's kind of a moot point because the shadow RNC is making tons more money than the real one. Incidentally, the head of the shadow RNC is t also the head of the real one, but whatever. Point is, the X-Files version doesn't have Micheal Steele as a figurehead. And I bet they STILL don't fire him. Hey, it's only 7 million! Who doesn't make bookkeeping errors that size now and then?

As a sign that the right really really REALLY wishes they would fire Steele, this story is coming from the Washington Times, perhaps the most right-leaning dead-tree news source in the country.

Surreal Estate

The housing market is said to finally be making that correction that everyone predicted. In most places anyway. We bought our West Valley home in 1997 for 200k and when we refi-ed near the end of last year it appraised at 670k. Today, according to the good people at zillow.com it's worth 631k. Even with the correction, it's a 300% increase in value over 10 years. If I could get my retirement fund to do that, well, I'd retire today and spend my hours rolling naked on a pile of cash, snorting cocaine like it was Nasonex.

I've got to admit that I've been weirdly lucky with money. I grew up kind of poor (as disadvantaged as a white kid in Santa Cruz could get, I guess) but in the early nineties a rich relative I had never heard of died, leaving me some money. First of all, who the hell has rich relatives they had never heard of? This guy, whom I am named after, was apparently a bit anti-social.

Oh hell, here's the story. He was my grandfather. In the thirties he had attempted to sell my dad, a baby at the time, for a keg of beer. This prompted my grandmother to divorce him and the family never spoke of him after. And remember my grandmother was a strict catholic. Anyway, he probably wasn't going to drink the beer (though given my gene pool's substance abuse problems, it's possible) but instead trade it for something else at a profit. Grandaddy died in Arizona, an ostracized millionaire, with a nurse as his only company. And of course no will.

Anyway, as a direct heir I picked up a nice little bundle of cash from the hateful bastard, and invested a lot of it in mutual funds. In the early nineties. Furthermore I took most of it back out in the late nineties to make the down payment on the house, just a couple of years before the stock market crashed. By the time that ship sank I was already on my own houseboat.

So lucky, yes? I'm not rich of course but there is an awfully big yard between my door and the wolf, who is sniffing around outside the gate. I don't normally go in for big yards, but this one isn't so bad. And considering how little money I make at my job, this is quite a nice buffer to have. Screw the wolf!

That last sentence is an example of the kind of thing I'd be wise not to say. My financial security is based, as you can see, entirely on the winds of fate. All it will take is one good tremor and I'm back to sleeping in an open field, surrounded by wolves. Good wolf. Stay.

Oh man, I'm sorry I brought it up. I got NOTHIN'. I'm doomed. I might as well just sell my wardrobe now so there is more room in the abandoned shopping cart for my iMac. I see me eating Chap-Stic stubs by the end of next week.

THIS is why I don't usually write about money.