&ltp&gtI know I am a frequent basher of Fox News's &lta href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Fudd"&gtSean Hannity. But it's so easy to point out this nitwit's stupidity and hubris.&ltp&gtToday, Hannity rants against Barack Obama for suggesting that tune-ups and proper tire inflation in cars will save consumers more money immediately than offshore drilling will a decade from now.&ltp>&lta href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wombat"&gtHannity &ltp&gtAccording to &lta href="http://www.fueleconomy.gov"&gtwww.fueleconomy.gov, the gas savings of having a properly tuned car is 16 cents a gallon, compared with a car that's not properly tuned. The savings from properly inflated tires versus improperly inflated tires baries, but the site says 1% of fuel economy is lost for every 2 psi the tires are underinflated.&ltp&gtAs ana example, students at Carnegie Mellon University in 2005 studied cars on the campus. Checking air pressure of 81 cars, they found the tires of only one vehicle in 81 properly inflated. The others were under-inflated by an average of 20%. At the time, gas was $3.00 per gallon, so the students worked it out that drivers would save $432 per year based on typical driving.&ltp&gtStatistics vary, but more than half of the vehicles on the road today are believed, from periodic spot checking, to be under-inflated.&ltp&gtHannity and others keep pressuring for more offshore oil drilling.&ltbr />The U.S. government’s own Energy Information Administration says that removing restrictions on offshore drilling wouldn’t lead to any additional domestic oil production until 2017, and that even at its peak the extra production would have an “insignificant” impact on oil prices.&ltp&gtHmmmmmmm. Hannity called Obama a "liar" for making the point that looking after tires and cars TODAY would yield more savings for most drivers than increasing offshore drilling. He even made a point of calling Obama a "liar" on his daily radio show. Yet...readily available statistics seem to be indicate the Democratic candidate is correct, and that Hannity is oh so wrong...as usual.&ltp&gtThe evidence Hannity used to back up his point: Hannity said that after three, I believe he said, Cadillac Escalades, he can't remember when the last time was that he opened the hood. He says that modern vehicles don't even need to be tuned up. I suppose it's true that some new vehicles don't get tuned up in the traditional sense. But the U.S. car park is full of tens of millions of cars and trucks that do need tune-ups.&ltp&gtOf course, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich also called Obama's "silly" and "factually untrue."&ltp&gtAnd yet...the facts are easily obtainable.&ltp&gtHannity said several times during the rant that he is "all for wind."&ltp&gtI'll say.&ltp>&lta href="http://rss.businessweek.com/~a/bw_rss/autobeata=ooD3JT">&ltimg src="http://rss.businessweek.com/~a/bw_rss/autobeati=ooD3JT" border="0">&ltimg src="http://rss.businessweek.com/~r/bw_rss/autobeat/~4/352946668" height="1" />