UPDATE From Michelle Malkin:
From: Stipicevic, John
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 11:39 AM
Subject: WHIP FLOOR UPDATEAlthough, this Democrat Majority just Adjourned for the Democrat 5-Week Vacation, House Republicans are continuing to fight on the House Floor. Although the lights, mics and C-SPAN camera’s have been turned off, House Republicans are on the Floor speaking to the taxpayers in the gallery who, not surprisingly, agree with Republican Energy proposals.
All Republicans who are in town are encouraged to come to the House Floor.
End update
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For the first time since the 1950s, Members will skip town today for the August recess without either chamber having passed a single appropriations bill. Then again, Democrats appear ready to sacrifice their whole agenda, even spending, rather than allow new domestic energy production.
Or even a mere debate about energy. The Democratic leadership is stonewalling any measure that might possibly relax the Congressional ban on offshore drilling. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid know that they would lose if a vote ever came to the floor, and they’re desperate to suppress an insurrection among those Democrats who are pragmatic about one of the top economic issues. Behind this whatever-it-takes obstructionism is an ideological commitment to high energy prices. The rulers of the Democratic Party want prices to keep rising. :
Normally, the spending hiatus would be a useful byproduct of Congressional bickering. But in this case the shutdown is malign neglect. Surging energy prices act like a huge tax increase on the economy, since energy demand is relatively fixed over the short term. The price spike is imposing genuine hardships on middle-income and working-class voters across the country.
The Democratic leadership isn’t oblivious to this man-at-the-pump reality. But Al Gore’s vision of the apocalyptic tides of climate change perfectly expresses their mentality: Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid see soaring prices as a public good ” the mechanism that will force energy enlightenment on the U.S. If anything, they think the price of gas is too low. As recently as June, the Senate debated a multitrillion-dollar carbon tax-and-regulation scheme that was designed to boost energy costs. A new version will be a priority in the next Administration.
See this video
Ed has this to say:
Democrats want to maximize the pain felt at the pump and at the grocery store in order to make Americans mad enough to support their vision of nationalized energy production and energy rationing. However, the Democrats apparently didn’t count on the rise being as rapid or as enlightening as it became. While Reid and Pelosi demonized oil companies, Americans quickly understood who the real villains are ” the Democrats who have blocked domestic oil production for more than a generation.
Reid and Pelosi didn’t block these votes because they’re winning; they blocked them because they’ve lost. The adjournment is a retreat, an attempt to get around the fact that they belong to shrinking minority of Cassandras who shriek about global warming as a cover for their true designs on energy. If Americans continue awakening from their slumber, it could be their last retreat.
Obama risks voter ire by opposing new oil drilling
“Instead of offering any real plan to lower gas prices, Sen. McCain touts his support for George Bush’s plan for offshore oil drilling,” Obama said Thursday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “But even the Bush administration acknowledges that offshore oil drilling will have little impact on prices. It won’t lower prices today. It won’t lower prices during the next administration. In fact, we won’t see a drop of oil from this drilling for almost 10 years.”
Adding their own take on the debate are the Sierra Club and MoveOn.org, which announced Thursday that they will air ads criticizing McCain’s call for expanded oil drilling and tax proposals that would benefit oil companies. The MoveOn.org ad depicts a man speaking to the camera complaining that McCain’s proposal to lift a moratorium on energy exploration on coastal waters won’t produce oil for years. “That’s not a solution Mr. McCain, that’s a gimmick,” he says.
Gimmick or not, I am paying 30-35 cents a gallon less than I did a month ago!
Good for them. This is really great news for americans because it shows the audacity of arrogance the democrats hold on our purse strings. Maybe this issue will be big enough to catch the average americans attention enough to vote Republican this fall.
Go McCain!
I’ve been blogging on this point for several weeks now, but we need to harass and annoy our representatives who don’t represent us, and support and encourage the ones that do.
Please, people, I’m down on one knee actually BEGGING you for this. Call your Republican Congressmen and thank them for staying in session. Tell them you support them and appreciate what they are doing. Encourage them to stay in session as long as it takes until they break San Fran Nan and Harry Balzack Reid’s will to keep destroying the American economy.
Call Minority Whip Roy Blunt at this number: (202) 225-0197
Call Minority Leader John Boehner at this number: (202)225-6205
Call your own congressmen and ask if they are in session. If not, demand as a constituent that they get their asses to the floor and do their jobs. If they are, thank them for their efforts and let them know that you support them.
I’m also begging you to do this as well:
Please post everything between the “*****”below into the comments of as many different blogs and into as many different message boards as you can find. Tell the posters and commentators there to keep posting it elsewhere. Spread it over the Internet. Don’t mention me, this isn’t an advertisement, it’s an organization.
*****
Can you all please, for me, take three minutes today, call this number: (202) 225-0100 and leave the following message:
Ms. Pelosi, I am calling today to express my extreme disappointment with the way you are ignoring the American people you claim to represent. The American public does not want the Strategic Oil Reserve broken into because we understand that the oil in the SOR is specifically earmarked for military use to protect our country. We ask you to stop playing political games with our wallets and approve legislation to drill in American territory, including off our coasts and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We have 700 billion barrels of oil in our lands. It is ridiculous of you to pretend that seventy million barrels will reduce our costs at the pump while still claiming that drilling for that bounty will not.
Moreover, I find it extremely offensive that you blame President Bush for the policies that have kept us 70% dependent on foreign oil, and even more offensive that you have time to write and market a book instead of acting as a Representative of the three quarters of the American people that are calling for drilling in ANWR and off the American coasts. It disgusts me that you blocked a house vote on oil drilling and then ran away from your responsibilities to take a nice summer vacation while Americans are still paying four and a half bucks at the pump due to your ineptitude.
It’s your JOB, Madam Speaker. Start doing it.
Your actions and how they affect our country will be remembered at the next election. I strongly suggest that you make better decisions in the future if you wish to continue to hold public office in this country.
*****
Please folks. Work with me. Americans shut down the switchboard at the Capitol building last year over the Amnesty bill. This is just as important. Make the calls, support the Republicans and pester the democrats who have caused this morass.
Thank you.
Angry D.
Angry D. Thank you for your post. I agree with you 100% and I have called, emailed, written and in a couple of cases spoken with members of our legislative body about the issues.
I’m not sure how successful those of us who care will be in getting those that don’t to call or even vote but this country has got to wake up.
The internet makes things so easy folks. Phone numbers, voting records, email addresses. Everything is there for the taking. Use it.
While Ed skips down the path with his 35 cents in hand, I’d like to see some substance as yet. All I see is gimicks on both sides. Republicans staying their Learjets for a few more days so they can say they were still in session doesn’t do it for me.
NY-David
I have been borderline harassing our two useless idiot “Senators” (Boxer and Feinstein) with email demands they actually represent us (what a notion, right?) and do what the majority want NOW and that is energy independence.
But these pos’s are actually militant in their refusal to represent us. So next time either one of their Plutocrats is up for election, I am VOLUNTEERING for their opponent-to-be-named.
BonBon: I agree with you, but the football coach in me says that you lose 100% of the games you don’t play. We have to TRY to get these representatives to represent us.
Our society is predicated on the idea of voting for change. Somewhere along the way the idea sprung up that it was easier to protest. There were people, I’m sure, who didn’t think we should have gone to war in 1941. They didn’t hold signs on street corners; they voted.
I think that’s where voter apathy came from. Why vote? Why talk to your representatives? If someone gets voted in that you don’t agree with, just “protest” what they do.
Robert: I’m doing the same thing, actually. Believe it or not, there’s a DEMOCRAT running for office in my district that I support. He’s a Blue Dog, and I’ve read his website and spoken with him personally. There is only ONE issue that we don’t see eye to eye on. (Kyoto). I support him over the incumbent RINO (Dave Reichert) who is NOT in DC working on this issue, and who does NOT support drilling in ANWR. (My last blog has more about Jim Vaughn if you’re interested.)
It takes time and money and effort, but we CAN get true conservative values back into the majority in this country.
Angry D.
We either keep the pressure on, or roll over and give up and just become like the former Soviet Union (or worse). I see no choice there…