Slashdot Mirror
House Dems Turn Out the Lights On the GOP
Politico is reporting that while GOP leaders opposed a motion to adjourn the House, the Democrats have closed up shop and even turned out the lights. While the lights and microphones have since been turned back on, it makes for an amusing mental image and possibly even a few dark YouTube video spoofs. "Only about a half-dozen Republicans were on the floor when this began, but the crowd has grown to about 20 now, according to Patrick O'Connor. 'This is the people's House,' Rep, Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) said. 'This is not Pelosi's politiburo.' Democratic aides were furious at the GOP stunt, and reporters were kicked out of the Speaker's Lobby, the space next to the House floor where they normally interview lawmakers."
I'm missing the story other than Boehner and gang are trying to make a fuss about nothing.
The motion to adjourn passed, so the Speaker banged the gavel and they went home. Am I supposed to think that the Democrats are somehow disregarding the rules of the House and refusing to let Republicans speak?
What actually happened, of course, was that the House adjourned for its August recess. As scheduled. Just like it does every year. Presumably it was scheduled months in advance. Everyone knew it.
Except this time the minority party refused to, you know, leave. Though the government is not in session, the Republicans insist on hanging around anyway.
Why? Not to get any work done. They're sticking around in the hopes of getting some press simply for being stupid.
It may work. If the Democrats did this, the media would be happy to portray them as whiny little losers who didn't know when to go home. (Which would basically be accurate.)
But since it's Republicans doing it, the media -- including Slashdot, in this case -- will find amusement in what the Dems "did" to the GOP. Politico, which is generally an organ of the Republican Party, is true to form by calling Democrats "furious" and "complaing" [sic]. Slashdot says the Dems "turned out the lights on" them and giggles that the Democrats left even though "GOP leaders opposed a motion to adjourn." (It doesn't matter what "GOP leaders" wanted. The motion to adjourn passed. So the House adjourned. Learn 2 parliamentary procedure, noobs.)
Calling the House a "politburo" (meaning "the policymaking committee of a Communist party") because it adjourned on schedule is -- and here I have to agree with the Democrat who was quoted -- moronic.
And the issue the GOP is demagoguing is gasoline prices and offshore drilling. This pushes today's stunt from ridiculous to pathetic. The Department of Energy's official projection is that if offshore drilling were legalized immediately, "any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant" -- even in 2030.
And that's an inflated stat, since its numbers include hypothetical drilling off the coast of California. The GOP is pushing to allow states to allow OCS drilling if they choose -- "states' rights," as the slogan goes. And California's politicians, including its Republican governor, have made it clear the state will not allow more drilling off its coast. So the actual benefit of the current GOP proposal would be about 2/3 of the DoE's hypothetical. In 2030 :)
It's hard to believe that the Republicans would hang around a vacated government building after everyone's gone home, and yell into a bullhorn about how Congress needs to debate lower gas prices right now -- not in September! -- when Bush's own Department of Energy admits any changes would have zero effect on oil prices for 9 years and "insignificant" effect after that.
The GOP's twitter feed indicates their dogma du jour is: "drill here drill now to get us through the next 10 to 15 years." Again, the DoE's projections indicate zero effect on oil production or prices for the next 9 years, and "insignificant" effect after that.
It's unbelievable how pathetic our national politics has become. This embarrassment is why we need the grownups back in charge. And every media outlet that fails to make clear why the stunt is pathetic is part of the problem. Sadly, I include Slashdot in this.
Yawn...."Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders opposed the motion to adjourn the House, arguing that Pelosi's refusal to schedule a vote allowing offshore drilling is hurting the American economy. They have refused to leave the floor after the adjournment motion passed at 11:23 a.m. and are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess."
What a load. Even if the offshore drilling is allowed it will be many years before we see any benefit from it (assuming that prices actually go down) More corporate welfare from the Repubs.
Even if the offshore drilling is allowed it will be many years before we see any benefit from it...
And you guys have been saying that for many years. That's why we couldn't fix the problem back then too. Now, many years later, it is not fixed.
More corporate welfare from the Repubs.
Translation: "Americans can't have cheaper gas because some corporation might make some money. It's worth it to have poor people suffer just so you can stick it to those nasty corporations."
Save that it wasn't the liberals that were doing this silly stunt...it's the ones that claim to be conservatives. The House adjourned for vacation. The Republican's chose to act like little kids and try to press for oil drilling that won't make a drop in the sea's worth of real change and call it an "Energy Policy".
Shameful, really.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Yesterday Exxon-Mobil announced they made $11 billion dollars in profit last quarter, the largest profit of any company in American history. Today, Republicans are making a huge fuss about giving drilling rights, above and beyond the used and unused leases the oil companies currently have.
There's a connection here, but I'm not smart enough to see it.
Oh wait, maybe it's that the GOP is in the pockets of the oil companies, and know that if they make a concerted enough effort that the talk-radio listening drones will join in the cacophony.
Morons. This fake sanctimony just makes them look weak.
Somehow I expected better from /. though.
Oh well...
you must be new here.
all it is is flames in both directions. we have more important things to discuss. like, for instance, goatse.cx
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
This may have been a "stunt", but it's politics. You act like this stuff never happens. The whole thing was done to protest the Democrats' plan of adjourning the Congress so that there would be no more calls on the House floor to open up oil expoloration, something that, despite your opinion on the matter, the public overwhelmingly supports. Pelosi's idea was, no session, no cameras, no problem. She figures the issue will hurt Democrats less if no one actually speaking about it in Congress. And be honest, it's smart politics, and if the positions were reversed, and it were Democrats running this protest, you'd be screaming like a banshee about how fascist the GOP was for "cutting off debate".
The motion to adjourn passed? Of course it did. Right along party lines. The GOP wants to keep this issue in the press, because it's popular and it helps them. The Democrats are hoping this issue goes away, because it hurts them. What's the approval rating of Congress now? 9 percent?
By the way, "Dogma Du Jour". Good, lets have more, because the US could be an energy exporter if it wanted to be. Hell yes, drill more. Use every option we have. You want to get political? Fine. The Democrats "Dogma Du Jour" is you people are just going to have to do with less and pay more for it. I'll take our position over yours all day long.
I think liberal Slashdotters protest too much...
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Oil prices are high because speculators think future supply will be low. If we drill, speculators may think future supply will be higher. This will lower current prices even though the oil won't be immediately available.
You are assuming that everyone is going to go hang out at their own 1000 acre ranch.
Congress adjourns BECAUSE we are a representative democracy. Most congressmen go to their home districts and then spend all their time meeting with the people (YOU) to better understand what you want and represent you better.
This is congress doing their job.
What really tells is how active Congress is when they are in session. This Congress has been very active even though all the important legislation has been vetoed. Personally I am looking forward to meeting with my representative (Jim Marshal D-Ga) without having to fly to Washington.
The "liberals" are not the ones literally throwing a tantrum here. Both parties need to f***ing grow up.
Actually, it is both sides acting childish.
Democrats for taking their ball and going home. Republicans staying around whining like a 4 year old.
Those people who think one side or the other is acting properly while the other side isn't, is just ... well stupid.
They get paid for working full time, I suggest that they work like the rest of us "regular" people and take only two weeks per year vacation.
I know, silly me to expect the public servants to act like servants rather than bosses.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
News for Nerds... er, ok.. how is this?
Were the lights turned off by robot running linux?
Seriously editors, the best way to compete with Digg is not to compete with Digg. People will come.
Elected representatives are supposed to remain in touch with the districts they represent. Having them remain in Washington, D.C. 11 and 1/2 months a year makes it difficult to do that.
Not, of course, that every representative uses his or her vacation time to keep in touch with his or her constituents, mind you. But that's part of the point, at least.
Sean Daugherty "I have walked in Eternity -- and Eternity weeps."
The value of crude oil has gone up considerably in the last 10 years. All the oil that was not pumped out of the ground under the U.S. and burned in the last decade is now much more valuable, and if you can avoid pumping and burning it for another 10 years then it will be still more valuable.
Given that Americans are handing huge bills to future generations, including a $10 trillion debt and another $80 trillion in unfunded liabilities (Medicare, Social Security), it is nice that some valuable resources can be passed on too. It is unfortunate that many Americans seem to think "If we don't drill and burn this crude oil now, *I* won't benefit from it! Drill Drill Drill, Burn Burn Burn! It's MY crude oil and I want to BURN it NOW!"
Why the flying fuck are any of our "concerned" leaders taking a fucking vacation when according to so many of them our country is on the road to hell? Why aren't they working their assess off to make the country, so many of them "love", a better place?
Could it be that few if any of them actually give a fuck about us? Could it be that maybe they do this for themselves, and themselves alone, regardless of their political alignment.
Wake up folks, they don't care, they don't love you, they don't want to make the world better for you, or anyone else. They want to mold the world to be the way they see it.
Bush, McCain, Clinton, Pelosi, Obama, Cheney. It goes for all of them. There may be a few good folks left up there, but they are completely outnumbered.
You mad
Republicans in Congress had ~160 hours of hearings into allegations that the Clinton administration vandalized the White House before turning it over to Bush. (They failed to find a single instance of vandalism) They spent ~12 hours investigating the 9/11 attacks. That's why they are now in the minority - because they cannot govern worth a damn. Today's stunt - ignoring the rules of procedure to grandstand for environmentally damaging policies that won't make a difference in gas prices for decades if ever - shows they have not learned their lesson.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Actually, the House moved to Adjourn at the scheduled time- because what was being proposed wasn't actually pressing business (Like a WAR...). That's not taking their ball and going home- that's just doing what ends up happening each and every year since the beginnings of the current form of Government we have in the US. It's far from the same thing as the antics going on right now from the Republicans.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant
zero effect on oil production or prices for the next 9 years
It's ths kind of thinking, or lack of it, that got us into this problem in the first place. You folks can't think 6 inches in front of your dicks. IF it does take that long to get production started, then GET THE FUCK STARTED ON IT!
And despite the drugs you are on, if the situation was reversed, then ABCCBSNBCMSNBCCNN would have folks up there covering it like flys on horse crap.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
A lot of real people are in a world of hurt with these high gas prices. America simply announcing there will be plenty of oil by its commitment to drill will drop prices over night. But Pelosi's summer vacation and politics trump the less advantaged. Par for the course for Democrats.
Headline: Nancy Pelosi is trying to save the world: Women and minorities hardest hit.
Politics is mostly theater, faux outrage, and pandering. Why would a stunt like this cause the average Slashdot reader's blood to boil?
Because it's the GOP pulling the stunt. I don't recall much scoffing at Dennis Kucinich's attempt to hold impeachment hearings on President Bush. No, I guess that was all about a righteous avenger shining a spotlight on The Greatest Evil Our Planet Has Ever Known.
These kinds of stunts get the media's attention and some coverage for issues one party or the other thinks is important. The fact that the Democrats didn't even hold a vote on domestic drilling despite overwhelming public support is something that ought to be mocked.
Good heavens Miss Sakamoto - you're beautiful!
What? You think *talk* of drilling brought oil down $20? Really? You mean it wasn't the fact that the economy is falling like a rock, unemployment is up and that for the first time in memory americans actually drove less?
It was talk about drilling?
That is, and I'd hope you agree, completely irrational.
If you were an oil trader and knew that if we started drilling today and that oil wouldn't get used for another 10 years, why in God's name would that affect your bidding on contracts for September delivery?
Well, unfortunately, these people are REPRESENTING a certain portion of our population. Its not mature, no, but this is the behavior certain groups of people have chosen to reward.
Its simply a reflection of the place this country has become. Somehow, that when everything doesnt go exactly the way you want it, the only available option is to complain and point at the other guy for being 'at fault'.
Take a situation for example, of a company who is involved in quite a few small claims, and arbitration cases. A third party then publishes the information that is made available on the local county court website regarding this(PUBLIC INFO). What does the company do? Caton Commercial decided to send a Cease and Desist letter claiming that publishing this information was libel. And now what happens? When typing in their company name 'Caton Commercial' into google, the second entry is for the link to the courthouse webiste listing all the case schedules.
The point being, that sometimes drawing attention to yourself in such extremely overboard displays, sometimes has whats best known as 'unintended consequences'. Granted, logically thinking through such a response would have prevented this company, or the republicans, from looking like children. But thats rarely the case when a damaged ego is looking for retribution.
"The point is that more drilling isn't a fix. More drilling in the US will provide a relatively small amount of oil which will delay our energy problems for months, maybe a few years at best."
More drilling alone isn't a fix by itself, but it's patently stupid and dishonest to say that more oil in the supply line won't help prices.
"The Republicans are putting on a show today because it looks good to the unwashed masses, but getting their drilling won't solve our energy problems."
I notice that, to liberals, when the issue is liberal and popular with Americans, then they're a great and wise people, righteous in their anger at the Republicans. But when the issue is conservative and supported by Americans, they're stupid unwashed masses.
If you were really concerned about us solving our energy problems, you'd actually let us solve them. We've got plenty of ways to do it... more drilling, more shale, more coal to gasoline, more nuclear... liberals just don't like those options. What you're really mad about is that we won't do it your way... with nothing but biofuels and electric cars.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
While I agree the stunt is a little immature I commend them for drawing attention to such an important issue- Nancy Pelosi. She has refused to allow the house to vote on offshore drilling.
First and foremost, unless the issue involves human rights: such as legalizing rape or murder, the house has a right to vote on it. The people of this country have a right to vote on subjects- that's what makes a democratic republic.
Second, I am one who feels the price of oil would drop with offshore drilling. It's a simple supply and demand problem. The supply is scarce so the cost rises. This allows oil speculators to raise the price even higher. Oil industry experts believe that oil could reach the market in 3 years; don't believe the 7-15 year nonsense. See 1980s oil glut for how supply and demand effect oil prices.
Third, I truly believe moving away from oil as a fuel source is the ultimate solution. This will not happen today, tomorrow, or 10 years from now. The correct action today is to unburden the lower class and the economy with the cost of gasoline by increasing oil supply.
Fourth, anyone who believes that Exxon makes excessive profits is a moron. 11.68 billion on 138.07 billion of revenue- 8.45% profit. That's considered an average profit in the business world.
So the energy and oil crisis isn't pressing? Then let the Democrats explicitly say so, and give the (R) campaign fodder for the Nov elections.
I'm not defending the (R) either. They do the same sort of crap all the time too. I'm sick of both parties.
Vote Third Party in November.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Which just shows what this is about — not solutions, not governance, not RESCUING THE ECONOMY THEY DESTROYED...politics.
Politics is how you get things done. Politics is nothing but action from a set of ideas. Everytime the Democrats "get things done", they're engaging in politics too. As for the economy "they destroyed"... who? Which party has been in control of Congress when gas prices shot up and the economy downturned?
And a downturn (not even a recession... we know that now) is "destroyed"? Are you kidding me?
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
"If you were an oil trader and knew that if we started drilling today and that oil wouldn't get used for another 10 years, why in God's name would that affect your bidding on contracts for September delivery?"
Economics is the flip side of politics, and politics is mostly psychology. So yes, perception of the future is often as important as facts.
See also; self-fulfilling prophecy.
If the Republicans cut off debate on the Democrats and went home for vacation, I can guarantee you that this story would have been about the Republicans censoring the Democrats.
A trillion? Really? Most sources I see online put the total proven reserves under U.S. jurisdiction at 21 billion barrels total. Adding on some speculative fields, it's still nowwhere near 100 billion, let alone a trillion barrels.
As for your emotion based argument on your little girl's shoes, it is fairly clear that *nothing* the U.S. could do right now would have a measurable longterm impact on gas/diesel prices in the next 5 years, let alone before your daughter outgrows her current pair of shoes.
Sometimes the world changes. Cheap gas was a fluke. Raging about how unfair it is won't solve anything. Find ways to use less gas. Economize on the things you can, and saving $50 (or whatever children's shoes cost nowadays) is not that hard. I just saved myself about $20/month in electric bills by buying a new $400 fridge. Pays for itself inside of two years and works better too. Sell an SUV, buy a lightly used Civic, the price of gas doesn't matter as much anymore. The world doesn't owe you cheap gas, and shooting the messenger gets you nowhere.
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
Increased capacity down the line might move oil producers to increase their production now (because of the decreased future profits from keeping it in the ground). 20-40$ per barrel is of course a stupid amount of money to account for that.
The market doesn't speculate based on fundamentals though, the market speculates on based on what they perceive the market will speculate on based on what they perceive the market will speculate on based on what they perceive the market will speculate on .... based on the fundamentals. Pumping up bubbles is a completely rational thing to do when leverage is available (and the collapse of the housing markets have made a lot of capital available for oil speculation). Or at least it's rational as long as you think you are smarter than everyone else, better able to find the percentage advantages needed to make the most of the leverage and smart enough to see when to get out.
It's not so much that the announcement of drilling would change the fundamentals, but everyone expects it to be the pin prick which will burst the bubble (which thus becomes a self fulfilling prophecy). Don't be the one left holding the bag ;)
So people aren't rational utility maximizers? There goes a good deal of free market theory.
Maybe those people that I elect and pay shouldn't be on vacation while I'm looking for second job so I can pay for the gas to get to my first job!
If you really want your elected representatives to spend all of their time in DC, I'm sure some of them would be perfectly fine with that. Sure, you can call being out of session and returning to the districts they actually represent a 'vacation'... but most of the time, I wouldn't.
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
Tell people you are drilling and yeah, the oil won't enter the stream for 10, 15 years but the speculative properties alone will drop crude by another $20 or $40, easy.
Actually by most industry estimates there will be a noticeable increase in oil production in just 5 years. Yes it will take 10 years or so to get the full benefit but any increase in production will help in the meantime.
Another thing to note is that 10 years ago Bill Clinton vetoed offshore drilling. If he had not done this then we would be reaping the full benefits of offshore drilling TODAY. For the Democrats to NOW use the excuse "you won't get the benefit for 10 years"...well that's just patently ridiculous.
Sapere aude!
Want to know something... Humanity is stupid!
Read Taleb's book, fooled by randomness and black swan. He says that humans never get ready for things because the costs associated with getting ready outweigh the results.
His example was 9/11. One of the things he said that would have avoided the horrific act are bolted doors. Now imagine going back in time and saying, "I want to avoid a horrific act that will save much much much grief. And one of the ways to do this is to bolt the pilot doors."
The first answer would be no because of the involved costs. But imagine for the moment that they did do that. And imagine waiting for 9/11, and nothing happened. Imagine the reaction. It would be, "oh we just wasted all this money to stop a horrific act that did not happen?"
The thing is that it did stop the horrific act and it did stop the grief, but people would not appreciate it. That's why humans never prepare for things... Sad, but very very true...
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
What laws did they put in effect that are causing you to go broke? I'm not going broke driving to work, maybe your budget problems aren't actually congress' fault, you ever think of that?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
So, this Oil Shale you keep talking about. How much of it is located offshore?
Oh wait, it's in Colorado. And Utah. And Wyoming. How much of your precious oil shale will this "critical Energy Policy shift" drill up? Exactly zero barrels.
The "price of oil" you read about in the papers is the price of a futures contract with delivery in one month. Your claim is -- that the highly-unlikely possibility of oil supply increasing by 0.2% and thus the price dropping insignificantly (the Bush DoE's word) 18 years from now has in substantive part caused the one-month futures contract price to fall by 20%.
When Bush lifted the presidential ban on drilling, oil prices dropped $9 in a day. Now you are telling me following through won't do anything? You obviously are not familiar with the market forces in play. It's not just supply and demand and what percent we can produce, it's the fact we are producing. Read my other posts in this thread.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/09/news/economy/oil_cuba/index.htm
US companies didn't bother to submit a bid because legally they couldn't drill that close to US shore. China has no such limitation.
I think they didn't submit bids because they didn't want to go to prison for violating trade sanctions against Cuba.
Really? Just read in the news that 10 (of 13) of the major budget bills haven't been passed yet. They're due in a month, as I recall.
If it's not pressing business to pass a budget on time, why was there so much howling when it was the Republicans not passing a budget bill on time when Clinton was President?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
I'd start watching CSPAN at that point.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Two things: first, as another poster pointed out, fewer people favored the drilling in July than in June. And secondofly, if we assume that sampling is working as intended, half the people who support drilling believe that it will have an immediate effect on prices. That is, some may favor drilling regardless of short term effect, and some may oppose drilling on some other basis. But if we took the 35% from July and explained that drilling wouldn't affect prices in the short term, I wonder how they would respond.
When the axe came to the forest, the trees said, "Look out - the handle was once one of us."
""There are 20-plus million acres that are currently leased by the oil companies which have either been drilled and then capped or never drilled at all."
Those lands might have oil. In places we know there's oil... off the coasts and in ANWR... oil companies have been forbidden to drill for purely political reasons. So blaming the oil companies for wanting to prioritize drilling on places other than their current leased lands is hypocritical... they leased them because that was the only alternative after liberals forbade them from drilling in the places that they knew had oil.
What Democrats are doing here is just a stalling tactic, and people see right through it.
"Oil is more than halfway to being used up."
Even if that were true (and there's a lot of dispute on that), that's existing fields. It certainly isn't true for the massive fields we haven't even touched yet, including the arctic, the US coasts, and of of Brazil's coast. There's almost certainly more fields we haven't found yet. And that's not including all of the massive amounts of other sources that could be converted to gasoline, like shale and coal. This "peak"... this "scarcity"... is artificially induced.
"Mark my words: it may be forced on us by the rest of the world community, but at some point down the line, George Bush and Dick Cheney will have to face what Pinochet faced."
Only in your fevered fantasies. And there are affordable treatment options for that kind of thing now.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
It's always congresses fault when the wealthy or conservatives go broke.
contrawise
When democrats, the poor, or liberals are having issues, it's due to our lack of personal responsibility.
Didn't you get the Memo?
---------- Pug
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
They've only taken this break at this time during my entire adult life.
Honestly though, if the GOP hadn't used technicalities and so on to completely undermine any Democratic party involvement in making the law from 2000-2006, they would have a lot more room to ask for a change from the norm on something they cared about.
As it stands, they've treated everyone else like shit for six years, and now they want special privileges? I'm kinda leaning towards "Fuck'em" myself.
Pug
An Invisible Entity of Vast Power whose existence must be taken on faith alone: Liberal Media
And assholes like you are the reason this country is in such bad shape, assholes like Bush who can't admit when they're wrong.
t0rkm3 provided you with information that proved you didn't have all the facts in the matter and when given that opportunity, instead of using that opportunity to reassess your position (because, in case you didn't realize it, you were irrefutably wrong) you reply to t0rkm3 with "Please try to do basic sanity checks on what you quote, to see if it actually supports your premise."
Guess what asshole? It did. YOU created the "fact" that "there's a little over a year's worth of readily accessible oil in Bakken, not the 174 hundred billion barrels you originally claimed." Read the god damned link. It does not say what you claim there, it says
. That in no way resembles your statement, made immediately after you were proven wrong.
So, instead of intelligently assessing the argument and admitting you were factually wrong about a major point in your post, you lie, attack the person who proved you wrong, and then pretend you were right all along.
How do you have time to post of Slashdot when you're running the country Mr. Bush?
Maybe you're not aware of it, but from the mid 90s to 2006, there's all kinds of shut-out stories of precisely the kind you're talking about -- the Republican party didn't episodically decide to shut the Dems out, there was a concerted effort and plan for marginalizing them as fully as possible. Take a listen to Act III of This American Life's Houses of Ill Repute episode if you're interested in some perspective.
Personally, I don't recall stories during that time period about how the Republicans were censoring the Democrats, but perhaps, since you have *guaranteed* that it would be covered in that manner, you can put up some examples.
Tweet, tweet.
Yes, but the Republicans know that the people are tired of high oil prices and the Republicans want Congress to stop prohibiting oil exploration in most of our seas.
And the Democrats know that oil exploration won't have any immediate effect on oil price, and the correct long term solution is to decrease dependance on oil and oil usage, not increase it. I'm surprised people bother to entertain the Republicans after all the ridiculous stunts they pull, especially here, where I thought people would actually inform themselves of the matters.
My sig will be released in 2015 third quarter. Rating pending.
It depends on what it costs to pick that money up.
The liberals, when they're not whining about oil company profits (since apparently this is a zero-sum economy?), hint that both drilling and usage, might cause environmental damage. If the drilling makes gasoline cost $.02 per gallon less, but then I have to pay an extra $.06 per gallon in taxes to 1) replant forests in Alaska and clean up oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and 2) buy carbon credits to offset what I'm burning, then yeah, I say leave the money on the ground.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Your math is wrong.
... Well you get the picture.
The cost of drilling in ANWR would be more like this:
(Environmental Damage in remote part of world) - (Jobs Created * Happy People with Jobs) - (Cost Saving per Gallon * Gallons)
and that would alone would demonstrate the cost of Oil went down from what it would otherwise be, but you then have to factor in (People who get jobs at flower shops * Small Business Florists who can afford to higher new employees with cost savings) + (People who get jobs in Bakeries
With math like yours I bet you believe in Carbon Offsets.
Respect the Constitution
Well maybe those House folks who we seem to be so happy to have go on vacation could spend the time, oh I don't know, repealing a stupid and obsolete embargo?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife