65 percent of Americans want drilling. Pelosi is a bad politician who should not be Speaker of the House. She's too late. The Republicans own the issue.
Posted by Dhyana at September 12, 2008 09:43 AMAttacking McCain & the Republicans for being "attached to the Big Oil companies" won't work, Turkana.
Americans KNOW that it was Barak Obama who voted FOR the Bush/Cheney Energy Policy giving big tax breaks and subsidies to the big oil companies.
McCain & Clinton voted AGAINST it, saying the bill was too full of pork.
Pelosi is an idiot if she assumes American voters don't know that.
Posted by Mary at September 12, 2008 10:21 AMI've got an idea. Big oil exports 1.6 million barrels a day of American pumped oil. More than you can get from offshore and ANWR combined. Best yet, you don't have to drill for it. You just keep it here.
Or, you could make sure your gas cap is tight and save 800,000 bbl/d of oil.
Pelosi? Puh-leeze. Absolutely worthless.
Posted by phidipides at September 12, 2008 10:43 AMAs the speculation-related oil price hike abates, Dems should have pointed out it was free market abusers that caused the price spike. And they should have said they would commence hearings on the benefits/costs of changing our almost 30 year old national offshore drilling policy.
The Hearings could have focused on the actual facts, what areas are open, what's not, and how much oil is "predicted" to be where. They could also have focused on size of American and world oil consumption, and likelihood that drilling would mean squat on world prices. And they could have focused on the BigOil leases currently outstanding and how they aren't being used (for some reason).
But it's easier just to cave to Repub "demands" and rush to change a 30 year old policy without making the slightest effort to explain why it even existed for three decades.
She (and her advisors I guess) are afraid of the Blue Dogs. It should be the other way around.
Posted by euzoius at September 12, 2008 10:44 AMIsn't she supposedly calling their bluff by offering a bill that has what the dems want in it that the republicans will probably vote against?
Off topic(sorry), did anyone see Obama on that service forum last night? Now John McCain's service to the country isn't just honorable and heroic, it's legendary and he's able to inspire a whole new generation to serve. And not only that, he doesn't belittle Palin's time as mayor. Mayor's have really tough jobs. The legislatures can just talk and babble on but mayors actually have to get things done. Yes, that's what he said. I'll look for a transcript. Is he trying to lose. Good grief.
Posted by CG at September 12, 2008 10:53 AMMayor's have really tough jobs.
Palin's job as mayor was so tough she couldn't do it so they hired a city administrator.
Posted by phidipides at September 12, 2008 11:02 AMHere are the excerpts from the interview:
OBAMA:
Senator McCain’s service is legendary. And one of the wonderful things about this campaign, I think, is his ability to share that story and himself inspire a whole generation of young people to model what he did for this country.
snip
STENGEL: We asked Senator McCain the same question about Governor Palin’s belittling being a community organizer. Did the Democrats in return belittle being a small-town mayor? Was she being unfair or was it hypocritical because Republicans actually say, hey, what people do in their private life is more important than public service?
OBAMA: Well, listen, we had an awful lot of small-town mayors at the Democratic Convention, I assure you. I meet them all the time. And I have — the mayors have some of the toughest jobs in the country, because that’s where the rubber hits the road. We yak in the Senate. They actually have to fill potholes and trim trees and make sure the garbage is taken away.
Posted by CG at September 12, 2008 11:02 AMOff topic(sorry), did anyone see Obama on that service forum last night?
Yep, and I thought it was a good answer from Obama, which made it obvious that McCain/Palin are nasty, mean spirited assholes while Obama took the high road. He did get in a good dig, though, saying something like McCain's campaign makes it possible to get "his story" out to millions of people. Funny. And really, isn't it true that there's more to presidenting than spewing out babies and filling potholes and being the earmark queen while bribing the people to vote for her with oil subsidies?
Posted by iamcoyote at September 12, 2008 11:09 AMAnd really, isn't it true that there's more to presidenting than spewing out babies and filling potholes and being the earmark queen while bribing the people to vote for her with oil subsidies?
Indeed. There's also more to presidenting than having been shot down and captured.
Senator McCain’s service is legendary.
And there's a fine line between the "high road" and "sucking McCain's cock and then carrying him over the threshold of the White House's front door."
I think Obama's high road ways are getting him in big trouble. He's gambling on the presumed intellect of the voting public.
In other words, if Obama calls Songbird a fucking hero one more time, it's gonna be over. Because that's all the terrified lemmings will remember.
As the Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, said, it is easy to deceive a people. You just tell them they have been attacked and wave the flag.
Well, we saw the 9/11 death-porn video at the RNC. We've been told every day since that it can and probably will happen again. And who better to protect us than a "legendary" war hero?
And there goes your election.
"Legendary". What is he, Achilles? He crashed like seven planes, was shot down, and gave up everything he knew, from the flight patterns and altitudes of U.S. bombers all the way back to stink-fingering Mary Ann Rottencrotch back in the 9th grade past kerfew.
Enjoy the high road, Messiah. But the fight is down here.
Euz, did you ever think that those "free market abusers that caused the price spike," may be Democrats, or mostly Democrats? That to point those people out may harm the brand even more? She's not dumb, misguided sure, but dumb, no way. I'd have to see the fine print.
Leadersheep you can count on! That's why we need 'change' in Congress, vote Republican!
Posted by peter at September 12, 2008 01:09 PMYeah, "Dems" like Goldman Sachs prez Hank Paulson. No Repubs on Wall Street, no way. You and your baseless arguments.
You cleared out for Tsunami Ike yet?
Posted by euzoius at September 12, 2008 01:16 PMand gave up everything he knew, from the flight patterns and altitudes of U.S. bombers all the way back to stink-fingering Mary Ann Rottencrotch back in the 9th grade past kerfew.
And according to current U.S. policy, he just gave it up. He wasn't even tortured or anything. TRAITOR! There. I said it. John McCain as well as all republi-cons are traitors.
Posted by phidipides at September 12, 2008 01:19 PMTRAITOR! There. I said it.
Yeah, he also (allegedly) recorded 30-some anti-American propaganda tapes for the V.C. to play to the other POWs.
And that business about him staying when he had the option to leave? Because he wanted the guys who had been there longer to leave first?
That's standard military protocol. First one captured is the first one out, and so on. If Songbird had taken the option, his military career would be ruined, not to mention the career of his Admiral father.
It wasn't bravery. It was a career move. Besides, he had girls, smokes, coffee, and his own room. Why leave?
Posted by MaskedVigilante at September 12, 2008 01:26 PMI hate McCain. Not voting for him.
And yet it's really hard to make a case that the Democrats deserve to be in leadership positions because they never LEAD. How hard is it to come up with a coordinated media strategy to push back against drilling? Hold house hearings on price manipulation. Send people out with the same talking points on all the news shows, emphasizing the hearings. It's fucking politics 101 and yet it is either beyond the Democrats' abilities or they actually want drilling, but don't want to admit they want drilling. So their either incompetent or corrupt. Or, actually, my bet - both.
I remember in the primary when Hillary proposed her gas tax rebate and Pelosi said it was DOA. Setting aside debate over whether it would work, it was smart politics because it gave the Dems a policy proposal aimed at cutting gas prices and would make it harder for the GOP to vote against a windfall tax credit. Whether or not it was good policy, it was good politics. Now, the Dems had no easy to talk about ideas aimed at immediately lowering gas prices, leaving a vaccuum that "drilling" was able to fill.
But, of course, unlike Clinton's tax proposal, no GOP idea is ever pronounced DOA by Nancy Pelosi. Because that would be divisive. Just like forcing a SCHIP vote would be.
The Democratic leadership are truly awful. They don't deserve to run a boy scout troop much less any branch of the United States Government. That McCain and the GOP are worse is cold comfort in these difficult times.
Posted by BDBlue at September 12, 2008 01:26 PMThey're and not their incompetent. Good grammar (and typing) costs nothing. Ugh!
Posted by BDBlue at September 12, 2008 01:28 PMAlso, you meant to write, "The Democratic leadership IS truly awful," not "are".
And yet it's really hard to make a case that the Democrats deserve to be in leadership positions because they never LEAD.
Nor do they fight.
Posted by MaskedVigilante at September 12, 2008 01:39 PMIsn't Paulson in the Cabinet?
Miles and miles away Euz, thanks for asking. It'll be a trop storm by the time it gets to me. They're projecting it's central path about 25 miles away from the house. Galveston is getting it's ass pounded already with lots of water over the sea wall! Then there's Texas City's refinery, right on the water! Looks very bad for the area.
***
House Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WVA) also acknowledged that Democrats don’t have the votes to pass a continuing resolution that would retain the offshore drilling ban. Rahall said that if it expired, drilling would be allowed as close as three miles to shore.
Posted by peter at September 12, 2008 01:47 PMAccording to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Pelosi has up to $100,000 invested in T Boone Pickens company. She opposes having a vote on new oil drilling because it could affect her stock price.
Posted by Muck at September 12, 2008 03:14 PM"Using the public information compiled on the Web site of the non-partisan group Legistorm, Murdock concludes that, on average, women in McCain's office are paid more than the men in McCain's office -- $1.04 for every dollar a man makes. Men in Obama's office make more than women do; female employees make 83 cents for every dollar made by male employees.
Murdock frames this as an issue of pay equity, but it's not really -- if anything, it's more a matter of a "glass ceiling."
(Or, at least, that's what feminist groups would likely be saying if the situations were reversed.)
Only one of Obama's five best-paid Senate staffers is a woman. Of McCain's five best-paid Senate staffers, three are women.
Of Obama's top 20 salaried Senate staffers, seven are women. Of McCain's top 20 salaried Senate staffers, 13 are women.
The Obama campaign does not dispute Murdock's figures (and neither does the McCain campaign), but Obama campaign spox Ben LaBolt argues that it's a much different situation on Obama's presidential campaign." ABC
Posted by peter at September 12, 2008 03:55 PM