UPDATE

By Mick Gregory



UPDATE: Sept. 21, 2008; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry and more than 50 other members of Congress, Bloomberg reports.

Pelosi, in her most recent financial disclosure form, reported that her husband owned between $250,000 and $500,000 of stock in AIG, which ceded majority control to the U.S. government this week in exchange for $85 billion of loans.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, disclosed that his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had more than $2 million of AIG stock at the end of 2007, when shares were worth $58.30. AIG has fallen 85 percent this week to close yesterday at $2.69. The lawmakers’ aides didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.

Did you know that the Obama family had their own private chef for years? Journalists didn’t bother to report that at any time during the past two years. Do you wonder why?

Sam Kass, who cooked for the Obamas in Chicago will now move onto the government payroll as a White House chef. (Ever wary of annoying the feminist base, the Obamas are not firing the very first woman to hold the Chief Chef job, chosen by Laura Bush. They’re just pushing her out of the way.)

Who knew? I believed all that stuff about how Michelle was an overburdened modern working mother, rushing from school dropoff to her high-paying, demanding work at the hospital, to dress fittings, to whatever it was she needed to do to support her husband’s political aspirations, back home to take care of her daughters. Call me naive, but that model usually includes making dinner. And squeezing in a weekly grocery shopping trip. Especially for those fresh, whole foods that don’t keep so long. Now I have to wonder who did the laundry, and the vaccuuming. Sure, granny helped—but I doubt she was the maid. Who was?

In fact, I don’t actually care who did the cooking (or cleaning) in the Obama household. And Chef Sam is fine with me. The orchestrated deception—the pretense that this family did it all themselves, living a low-key life just like most upper middle class Americans, working hard and taking care of the necessary, sometimes tedious requirements of home life as well as they seemed to have done—is a little more troubling. To be sure, a University of Chicago-educated private chef seems a little more indulgent than a nanny who broils the chicken or chops up the broccoli. But that’s their call.

Didn’t the women at Slate, among others, complain that there was something offensive about Sarah Palin’s apparent ability to raise 5 children, run the state of Alaska, run marathons, and cook those mooseburgers—because it set the bar too high for ordinary women? But they were willing to believe that Michelle could do it all, and keep it all organic and healthy at that—because she has a law degree from Harvard?

This is one of the great gifts that comes with being a Democrat who is so beloved of the media. Instead of the inevitable carping and cries of hypocrisy and elitism, the New York Times food writer just gushes at what a master stroke this appointment is—bringing sustainable food to the White House and inevitable gardens to the grounds.

When you run for president as a community organizer, and a writer, or even a professor of constitutional law, perhaps it’s politic to hide a few salient details about your actual lifestyle that might mess up the “savior of the downtrodden” narrative. It’s important to keep up the fiction that only spoiled, indifferent, wealthy Republicans have personal servants. — Lisa Schiffren

Did you know? CNN’s Democrat cheerleader Anderson Cooper is the son of billionaire heiress Gloria Vanderbilt.

This new tax on oil is not unlike Chavez taking over control of private industries. Even liberal Californians voted down an identical energy tax just last November. So what does Pelosi do? She pushes through a more expensive energy tax in the first 100 hours without debate. This is similar to Hugo Chavez’s progressive politics. You think? What’s the difference?

The millions of dollars that Democrat supporters spent to pass Proposition 87 to promote an increase in the extraction tax on crude pumped from California oil wells wasn’t enough to win over the state’s voters last November.

The hotly contested ballot measure, which proposed to impose a new tax on oil production to fund a range of alternative energy programs, was backed by 45% of the voters, while 55% opposed it, according official returns.

Opponents of the initiative campaigned heavily, arguing the tax would be borne by consumers, who would end up paying even more at the pump.

The proposed Clean Alternative Energy Act sought to raise $4 billion over 10 years through an oil-extraction tax. The funds would be used to sponsor research and projects in alternative energy, including ethanol, solar and wind power.

The initiative, which sought to cut the use of petroleum by 25% over the next decade, drew a massive response from the oil industry and pulled in endorsements from political heavyweights such as former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

Both sides spent millions of dollars on their campaigns.

Hollywood producer Stephen Bing provided major funding in favor of the measure by pledging about $49 million to the campaign. Other backers include Google Inc. (GOOG

Energy companies calculated the impact of the potential new tax would range from 1.5% to 6%, depending on the price of oil. During its third-quarter earnings conference call, Chevron Chief Financial Officer Steve Crowe said the company could take a $200 million pretax hit on its annual earnings from the proposition.

Nancy Pelosi‘s socialist political views are exactly what have kept her elected in San Francisco, along with the flow of union campaign money. The staunch “union supporter” Pelosi has even received the Cesar Chavez Award from the United Farm Workers Union. But her $25 million Napa vineyards and winery, she and her husband own are non-union shops. The extra profit she earns is more than she gets from labor unions. But I don’t think she wants the rank and file to know this. Do you?

The hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. Pelosi has received more money from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees unions than any other member of Congress in recent election cycles.

The multi-millionaire investors own a large stake in an exclusive resort hotel in Wine Country, the Napa Valley Auberge Du Soleil Resort. It has more than 250 employees. But none of them are in a union, according to Peter Schweizer, author of “Do As I Say, (Not As I Do) – The Hypocrisy of Democrats” and a regular contributor to the New York Times.

Pelosi is also partners in a restaurant chain called Piatti, which has 900 employees. The chain is – you might have guessed — a non-union shop. It is a very high-end restaurant group with locations in Carmel, Sonoma and Danville to name just the locations I dined at. Hardwood-fired ovens, exhibition kitchens, Napa wines, a very nice experience. I did notice some Hispanic kitchen help and busboys. I’m wondering if they are illegal alliens? No, the Speaker of the House wouldn’t hire illegals, would she?

I’m sure The Chronicle’s Herb Caen gave Piatti a big plug every so often.

The 67-68 (?) year-old Pelosi has spent more money on facelifts, cosmetic enhancements, and Armani suits than every one of her union supporters combined, don’t you think?

I heard Chris Mathews of “Hardball” say “what a knockout Pelosi is, “I can’t wait to see her sitting behind President Bush at the next State of the Union speech.”

Mathews actually worked at the The Chronicle and Examiner in San Francisco before his show “Hard Ball” on MSNBC, and before that he was a ‘gofer’ and occasional writer for the Democrat Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill.

I believe that Mathews wasn’t as kind to Kathryn Harris who is young enough to be Pelosi’s daughter and quite attractive without expensive plastic surgery.

No one is taking away Peolosi’s ability to make money, ($55 million) after all her father was a public servant in Balitimore and even became mayor back in the ’40s. You know, the kind of neighborhoods where the Sapranos do business.

But Ms. Pelosi believes we are complete saps. She actually said in a recent interview that she did not have a facelift. Where did you get those eyelids done? At a taxidermist?

I live about eight blocks from Nancy Pelosi in SF and a bit over a year ago, I was buying a sandwich at the corner market… I saw a large government SUV outside, and I saw this vaguely familiar person who looked like a cross between the Joker and my Congresswoman, followed closely by an assistant. I quickly realized that Nancy had recently had a rather severe face lift.

So if she did more recently have her eyes done, I’d be surprised. Because you could have gently set a quarter on that face and it still would have bounced ten feet up in the air. — Wonkette

She lies about her facelifts and her inability to blink. What do you think she means by saying she is a moderate?

She has served on the executive committee of the Progressive Caucus, a socialist organization that, until 1999, was hosted by the Democratic Socialists Of America. They were asked to hide their connection after reviewing focus groups that show Americans still have negative feelings about Socialists. The Democrat leadership distanced themselves on paper to help the Democrats appear mainstream and elect Albert Gore.

In an address she delivered in 2002, she remarked, “We must stand together in a bipartisan way to fight the war against terrorism.” Though she supported the Clinton Administration’s military actions and massive civilian deaths in Haiti, Kosovo, and Bosnia, she has denounced both the 1991-02 and 2004-06 wars in Iraq. Pelosi has also opposed President George W. Bush on most issues of Homeland Security, and has most recently joined the ACLU’s crusade to limit the powers of the Patriot Act.

In 2005 Pelosi voted against barring the issuance of driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and against a requirement that businesses use an electronic system to verify whether new hires have the legal right to work in the U.S.

Nor has Pelosi been a fan of employer sanctions against the hiring of illegal aliens. In 2003, she accused immigration officers of conducting “terrorizing raids” on Wal-Mart stores that led to the arrest of more than 300 illegal aliens.

Loraine Stewart, a farmworker advocate with Napa Valley Community Housing, in a 2004 San Francisco Chronicle article estimated that half of the migrant labor force in the valley consisted of undocumented workers, without whom “not one bottle of wine would get made here.”

–This nice little fact was picked up by Investors Business Daily.

But The Chronicle article didn’t connect the dots to Ms. Pelosi, her holdings, her voting record, or her employment practices.

Ms. Pelosi’s Voting History

Cutting Intelligence $500 million FOR

$87 billion for Iraq and

Afghanistan operations AGAINST

Patriot Act AGAINST

Bush Income Tax Cuts AGAINST

Eliminating Marriage Penalty AGAINST

Capital Gains and

Dividends Tax Cuts AGAINST

Permanent Increased

Child Tax Credit AGAINST

Abolishing the Death Tax AGAINST

Clinton Energy Tax FOR

Allowing New Oil Refineries AGAINST

Oil Drilling in ANWR AGAINST

Partial-Birth Abortion Ban AGAINST

Arming Pilots Against Terrorism Act AGAINST

Federal Marriage Amendment AGAINST

Limiting Federal Courts’

Jurisdiction on Defense of

Marriage Act AGAINST

Sensenbrenner Border Protection

and Illegal Immigration Bill AGAINST

700 Miles of Fence on

Mexican Border AGAINST

Source: Human Events.

Now that Pelosi’s first 100 hours are almost over, (funny it takes the Democrats three weeks to work 100 hours), she pushed through a punishing bill to U.S. oil companies that take away incentives for off shore research and development and charges a hefty tax on Gulf of Mexico production.

The Democrat-controlled House rolled back exploring incentives on only U.S. oil companies Thursday in what left-wing supporters hailed as a new direction in energy policy toward more renewable fuels. Economists said the action would reduce domestic oil production and increase reliance on imports.

The energy legislation was the last of six high-priority issues that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, had pledged to push through during the first 100 hours of Democratic control. The bill passed with the new Democrat majority.

The bill’s prospects are uncertain the Senate, where Democrats hold a narrow majority of just one vote.

The top Republican on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, said the bill was “another pig in the poke” that targets incentives necessary to promote domestic drilling and rewards OPEC oil such as Citgo.

The legislation would impose a “conservation fee” (that means tax to American Idol rejects) on oil and gas taken from deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico; scrap nearly $6 billion worth of oil industry tax break incentives enacted by Congress in recent years; and seek to recoup royalties lost to the government because of an Interior Department error in leases issued in the late 1990s.

“The oil industry doesn’t need the taxpayers’ help. … There is not an American that goes to a gas pump that doesn’t know that,” said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (news, bio, voting record), D-Md. Pump prices topped $3 per gallon last year as the oil industry earned record profits.

The bill’s opponents accused the Democratic majority of grandstanding and said the legislation was unnecessary.

“We do not need a tax on domestic energy production and development,” said Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., the former House speaker. “Increasing taxes on our nation’s energy industry means one thing — more reliance on foreign oil and gasoline.”

Added Rep. Don Young (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska: “If you want to do things right, let’s tax foreign oil.”

Young, who had on a bright red shirt, made reference to it when he said, “It’s the color of this bill we’re debating — Communist red.” The legislation “amounts to a taking of private property” by forcing oil companies to renegotiate leases they view as valid contracts, he said.

The bill would bar companies from future lease sales unless they agree to renegotiate flawed leases issued in 1998-99 for deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

The White House said it strongly opposes the new production fees and future lease bans. Those steps could reduce domestic production, according to the administration. It views the repeal of the tax break for oil companies as unfairly singling out a vital U.S. industry.

That break, aimed at helping U.S. manufacturers compete against imports such as those coming from Marxist Hugo Chavez-owned Citgo.