John Hawkins at RightWingNews is urging folks to grab onto the political dynamics of the domestic drilling ban set to expire in October. This is an important issue to the Dems, my post below on the Burr conference call suggests that. They don't want to get caught out on this issue. The ramifications for that could be disastrous for them. Unfortunately, some of McCain's positions make it a mixed blessing, which causes me to wonder how willing Republicans will be to play the card that forcefully.
Republicans, including most importantly, John McCain, should refuse to support ANY legislation that extends the drilling ban. That means they should speak out against it, they should vote against it, and George Bush should veto it if it comes across his desk.
Barry and the Democratic leadership have completly painted themselves into a corner with their opposition to removing the ban. This goes along with his comments about "airing up the tires" and his lack of support for nuclear energy to set the stage for a major confrontation that the Democrats can't win.
The American people want their elected officials to drop the partisan politics and work together to implement an energy independance plan. The crack up is that Barry has No history of working with the other side while McCain is an expert at it. Who do you think the American people will want leading the effort once the issue is defined?
While wind, geothermal and all of the other renewable ideas should be part of the package Americans realize that unless we increase domestic oil production we are destined to suck the Middle Eastern teet for many years to come.
Posted by: SacTownMan | Friday, August 01, 2008 at 01:11 PM
"-- Barry and the Democratic leadership have completly painted themselves into a corner with their opposition to removing the ban. --"
Well, shit. If you say so. I guess the $1000 / household tax credit Obama is proposing will never make it passed the iron-clad logic of drilling a bunch of new wells off the coast of swing-state Florida ("Hey Florida, we're going to fuck over all your beach-front property, vote for us!") so we can save ourselves a few cents / gallon in five years.
Besides, we don't have an oil shortage. We have a refinery shortage. At least, that's what Dan said.
Posted by: IslamoLlama | Friday, August 01, 2008 at 01:50 PM
" ("Hey Florida, we're going to fuck over all your beach-front property,..."
Oh hardly, Lama. Where oh where do you come up with this stuff...the world would like to know.
Posted by: Philip McDaniel | Friday, August 01, 2008 at 01:59 PM
No drilling, no peace. Philip writes: "Oh hardly, Lama. Where oh where do you come up with this stuff...the world would like to know."
Speaking for the world, Philip, no we wouldn't.
Posted by: Fred Beloit | Friday, August 01, 2008 at 03:59 PM
"Speaking for the world, Philip, no we wouldn't."
LOL. I agree, Fred...I was being facetious. Interesting events in Congress by the way.
Posted by: Philip McDaniel | Saturday, August 02, 2008 at 08:22 AM
LLama: Is english your second language?
Posted by: WAHOO WILLIE | Saturday, August 02, 2008 at 12:26 PM
"Interesting events in Congress by the way."
I see that a handful of congress folk have banded together to discuss a bi-partisan plan to get us out of this mess (against the wishes of their parties) Damn, imagine that. Representatives trying to represent DaPeeples just like a representative republic.......COOL IDEA!!!
Posted by: WAHOO WILLIE | Saturday, August 02, 2008 at 12:28 PM
Wahoo: "LLama: Is English your second language?"
It is his second language, Wahoo. His first is a predecessor to English, Anglo-Saxon. This language has a lot of short, four-letter words in it.
Posted by: Fred Beloit | Saturday, August 02, 2008 at 01:38 PM