Atlas Shrugs

FLYING PIG MOMENT: DEMOCRATS LET DRILLING BAN EXPIRE

The Democrat political elites decided to have mercy on the little people. They have destroyed our financial system, our public education system, our legal system,  our ability to use our own energy resources, the Democrats have expanded fought for terrorists rights, child rapist rights ................ today it all came down around the heads of American people and so the oppressors let up ... a bit

Democrats to let offshore drilling ban expire hat tip Van

WASHINGTON - Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.

Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.

WAIT! Dems are pigs ..... Clyde point out: "One little thingy buried in the news article about this is the bill that will go forward MINUS the ban WILL contain $25,000,000,000 (billion) dollars in loans to Detroit automakers who are having a "hard time". Woe is  them. I hope Congress makes it as hard for these inept businessmen to get the loan as the businessmen make it for most people to buy a car.

Thanks to three Democrat American senators, China will be pumping Iraqi oil

Read it and weep. No Oil for Blood by Frederick W. Kagan. We have been thoughly infiltrated and route. If Obama snatches the White House ........... it's over. Over at the Weekly Standard (hat tip ejo)

One would have thought that leading Democratic senators who claim to be interested in finding other sources of funding to replace American dollars in Iraq, in helping Iraq spend its own money on its own people, and in lowering the price of gasoline for American citizens, would have been all for it. Instead, Senators Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, and Claire McCaskill wrote a letter to Secretary of State Rice asking her "to persuade the GOI [Government of Iraq] to refrain from signing contracts with multinational oil companies until a hydrocarbon law is in effect in Iraq." The Bush administration wisely refused to do so, but the resulting media hooraw in Iraq led to the cancellation of the contracts, and helps to explain why Iraq is doing oil deals instead with China.

Senators Schumer, McCaskill, and Kerry claimed to be acting from the purest of motives: "It is our fear that this action by the Iraqi government could further deepen political tensions in Iraq and put our service members in even great danger." For that reason, presumably, Schumer went so far as to ask the senior vice president of Exxon "if his company would agree to wait until the GOI produced a fair, equitable, and transparent hydrocarbon revenue sharing law before it signed any long-term agreement with the GOI." Exxon naturally refused, but Schumer managed to get the deal killed anyway. But the ostensible premise of the senators' objections was false--Iraq may not have a hydrocarbons law, but the central government has been sharing oil revenues equitably and there is no reason at all to imagine that signing the deals would have generated increased violence (and this was certainly not the view of American civilian and military officials on the ground in Iraq at the time). It is certain that killing the deals has delayed the maturation of Iraq's oil industry without producing the desired hydrocarbons legislation.

Nor is it entirely clear what the senators' motivations were. Their release (available along with their letter to Secretary Rice at the New York Observer quoted Senator McCaskill as follows: "'It's bad enough that we have no-bid contracts being awarded for work in Iraq. It's bad enough that the big oil companies continue to receive government handouts while they post record breaking profits. But now the most profitable companies in the universe--America's biggest oil companies--stand to reap the rewards of this no-bid contract on top of it all,' McCaskill said. 'It doesn't take a rocket scientist to connect these dots--big oil is running Washington and now they're running Baghdad. There is no reason under the sun not to halt these agreements until we get revenue sharing in place,' McCaskill said." So was this about what's best for Iraq and American interests there or about nailing "big oil" in an election year?

Either way, like Barack Obama's asking the Iraqi foreign minister to hold off on a strategic framework agreement until after the American election, it was nothing but harmful to American interests and our prospects in Iraq.

DEMOCRAT POLITICAL DRILL STUNT: FIDDLING WHILE AMERICANS BURN

The Democrats pulled another fast one. Last night's energy bill was yet another insult to our intelligence. Under the guise of a drill bill,  the Democrats, serving their enviro-industrial masters, passed an "energy" bill that bans offshore drilling within 50 miles of the coastline - in other words, where the oil is.

The whole bill stinks.

The House, on a 236-189 vote, on Tuesday approved a bill to allow oil drilling off the nation's Atlantic and Pacific coasts if states agree — but only 50 or more miles out. Republicans called the bill a ruse, saying that's well beyond where most of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil is located.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure marked "a new direction in energy policy" because of its emphasis on alternative energy.

The White House threatened a veto, saying the bill doesn't go far enough to generate new domestic supplies of oil and natural gas. The bill's prospects in the Senate are unclear.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the measure marked "a new direction in energy policy" because of its emphasis on alternative energy. (more here)

She is disgusting, waiting for her next photo - op of her kissing the ass of Assad.

Drilling is the answer. Listen to this man, he ought to know!

Imagine what a wonderful world it would be - more jobs! more oil! more wealth creation!

In the largest transfer of wealth, 700 billion leaves the U.S. economy every year and goes straight into the hands of the jihad.

Kbliss writes,

It is billed as an offshore energy bill.  It is not.  It is a Prius being sold as a Porsche (see my posting on this today at .) They cannot be allowed to get away with this lie.  While reporters seem intent on probing ad infinitum whether Palin and McCain are lying about the "bridge to nowhere", I suggest themedia probe the callous and insincere stunt the Democrats pulled last night in passing an "offshore bill".  It will amount to almost no additional offshore resources.  It will, however, tax oil companies giving them less dollars to invest in domestic prodcution.  It's all so stupid and short-sighted.  It's a political stunt designed only to shore up their credentials on an issue they were losing just a few weeks ago.  We can't them get away with a lie.  The American people need to understand that they're being sold a bill of goods on this.  The Democrats have still not addressed domestic production in any worthwhile way.  America needs its domestic oil and natural gas.  It is a national security issue of the highest importance.

TAKE BACK AMERICA! VOTE OUT THE DEMS AND DRILL BABY DRILL!

GET FED UP. The Dems gotta go. Done, finished, cooked. Basta! The world is on fire and they have shackled our ability to use our own natural rescources. The Dems ...... hate America

“Despite $4 gasoline, record-high natural gas and home heating oil prices and rising rates for gas-fired utilities, government policies have led to only 91.5 million acres being leased for energy exploration and production. More than 2.3 billion acres are not even being looked at for energy. In total, that’s an amount of land larger than China or Brazil.  So while opponents domestic energy production clamor about “68 million acres” and point fingers at each other, ask yourself who’s doing more to help bring down energy prices -- companies that are producing oil and natural gas at record-high 25% success rate, or your government, which refuses to establish policies that contribute any more than 3.7 percent of your land to help lower prices.” (hat tip Kennedy)

Who's Hoarding America's Oil? Human Events

From Newt:

...make all or part of the offshore drilling ban permanent. Now is the time to let the federal government know we need full and unfettered access to America's offshore energy resources.

Take immediate action by clicking here. Let your voice be heard in favor of expanding American offshore energy production.

• The OCS contains 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. However, 85% of the OCS surrounding the lower 48 states is off-limits to energy exploration and production.
  
  
• Increasing access to these offshore resources is critical to America's economic and energy security.

As taxpayers, American citizens own these offshore federal lands and the energy resources that lie beneath them.

I urge you to click here for a quick and easy way to register your support for expanded offshore drilling.

FREE AMERICA FROM THE SHACKLES OF JIHAD OIL

The only "hoax" being perpetrated on the American people is Nancy Pelosi's fallacious argument. Republicans,  serving the interests of the American people, are furiously trying to get legislation passed to drill our oil reserves. Do not falter my good men and women. We must break the shackles of fascist party. I don't care how long it takes, we need to start NOW. Whose interest does Pelosi serve? Her own: Nancy Pelosi Invests In Energy Scheme and Water Grab.

And Atlas readers, write Lindsey Graham and his gang of tools, to back off and STU!

BTW, big oil's interest are the same as mine. Check out ANWR: Atlas Shrugs: ANWR, THE DEMOCRATS AND THE BIG LIE.

Jan put some links together for us and fisks Obama's "energy policy".

The only reason that we have to import any oil is Congress not letting us use our own.  Here are the reserves as I found them on the Internet:

200 BBL (billion barrels): Bakken Oil Formation: link here

1.5 TBL (Trillion barrels): Shale oil: link here.

75 BBL: Tar Sands: link here.

100 BBN: Outer continental shelf: link here

10 BBN ANWAR: link here.

Just these fields add up to 1.885 trillion barrels of oil.  At 20 million barrels a day usage, that comes out to 94,250 day or 258 years.  Of course, they are worth nothing if Congress says we can't use them.

On the other hand, if we do use them (and we the people will give congress no choice), we accomplish a few things:  

1. we could stop sending other countries $750 billion a year.

2. we could counter Russia’s attempt to wrap their oil fingers around Western Europe's throat  

3. we could have a source of revenue to finance basic research into better batteries and solar cells

4. It gives us time to build the infrastructure required to support electric or hydrogen cars

5. It gives us time on how to deal with waste from nuclear power plants

Obamessiah: Turning water into wine and nothing into energy

By Jan Poller

The election is boiling down to two main issues: the economy – which is focused on energy and energy costs and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Energy is now front and center. Obama and the Democrats, McCain and the Republicans are now focused on energy.  There is more to their differences than first meets the eye.

listened to Obama’s energy policy speech and read the http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-romm/obama-delivers-a-real-ene_b_116751.html  comments on it.  I was appalled at the apparent ignorance of the speech writers, the researchers, the commenters and, above all, Obama his own self.

Maybe having a degree in math and physics and a life-long love of fast cars makes me not understand the change of vision the Obamessiah is attempting to bring to us.  Perhaps, I can bring a little bit of reality to people who do not have the technical background that I (and millions of others) have. I hate to bore you with technical details, but it is necessary to put them in to show that Obama’s statements are strictly political, designed to mislead people and are at odds with reality.

Obama says that electric cars will save us from oil and fossil fuel. Electric cars are not a viable alternative to the current fleet of cars.  Everyone knows this, which is why Obama is making his call for massive investment in electric car research.  Never mind that private industry is investing far more than Obama is saying he will invest. 

There are approximately 600 million cars in the world of which 243 million are in the United States.  Think about that when it comes to pollution and the use of resources.  Also think about it as an industry that employees millions of people.

oday, we have a really good comparison of a state-of-the-art electric car and a conventional car.  The electric car is the Tesla Roadster which is based on the Lotus Elise SC sports car and is built in the same factory.    Both cars are based on the same aluminum frame with composite bodies.  I am boring you with the specifications to make the point that electric cars are not feasible replacements for today’s cars.  Basic physics: the more anything weighs the more energy it takes to move it around.

 

Parameter	Lotus Elise SC	Tesla Roadster	Note
Base Price	$55,425	$109,000
Weight LBS	2,028	2,690	Taking out the engine, cooling system and fuel tank, adding in 6,800 batteries and electronics increases the weight by 662 lbs.
Engine type	4 cylinder 1796 CC supercharged Toyota, aluminum	Electric, 3 phase, 4 pole, liquid cooled Regenerative engine braking
Power	218 HP @ 8000 RPM	248 HP@13,000 RPM
Torque	156 LB FT @ 5100 RPM	211 FT lbs @ 1 RPM
Transmission	6 speed manual	1 speed reduction gear
Acceleration 0-60 MPH	4.4 seconds	3.9 seconds
Top speed MPH	150	125
MPG	26
Range		227 EPA cycle
Battery pack		6,800 Lithium-Ion commercially available batteries
Battery Life		100,000 Miles
Replacement cost		$21,000 - $30,000
Fuel/Battery Cost for 100,000 miles with gas at $4.00 gallon	$15,384	$21,000	No figures for electrical recharge cost.  Tesla doesn’t need oil changes.
Refill/recharge time	5 minutes	As low as 3.5 hours
Time to drive 400 miles @ 60 MPH plus refill/recharge	Time: 6:45 Average Speed: 59.25	Time: 10:10Average Average Speed: 39.34	Don’t forget the cost of additional hotel nights on long distance trips.

 

Elise source:  link here

Tesla source:     http://www.teslamotors.com/display_data/teslaroadster_specsheet.pdf
http://auto-specs.zercustoms.com/t/tesla/2007-tesla-roadster-specifications.html
http://autos.yahoo.com/tesla_roadster_convertible-specs/

Electric car information is available.  Obama and the Democrats studiously ignore exact information and just give us “feel good” platitudes.

Obama is going to mandate that we develop technology in a year or two that we haven’t been able to develop in 150 years.  He compares his plan to the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bomb in just a few years.  What he doesn’t realize is that the atomic bomb had a hundred years of physics behind it including knowledge of radioactivity and chain reactions.  We do not have the same physics to produce a battery suitable for mass production to power a car.

When you look at energy saving articles and comments on pro-Obama web sites like www.huffingtonpost.com you find huge support that putting a little more air in your tires is going to reduce our oil consumption enough to affect the price of gas.  You also find energy saving tips like “turn off your computers when you aren’t using them”.  Well, a typical laptop computer as the equivalent of 6 batteries as used in the Tesla.  The Tesla Roadster with its 6800 batteries is equivalent to plugging in 1133 laptop computers!  You can make your own comparison on that.

Even if we invent the technology tomorrow, Obama has no clue how long it takes to put a new model car into production.  Once a car is designed, it has to be tested, the tooling produced and the factories modified.  It costs at least $one billion to make the tooling and set up the factory. It took General Motors from 2006 to 2008 to take the new Chevrolet Camaro from concept to production using existing platforms, engines, suspensions and other components.

Obama is forecasting one million electric cars a year by 2015.  That is not a lot of cars.  In the United States, we have a fleet of 243 million cars and we purchase about 16 million a year.  One million is 4/10%.  They will have no meaningful effect on fuel usage for many, many years.

Obamessiah talks about creating new jobs in Michigan.  He is also talking about putting the oil companies and their hundreds of thousands of employees out of business.  He wants to take all of their profits as a tax and give it to “the people”.  So, besides putting them out of the oil business, he wants to make sure that they don’t have funds to get into a new business.

The added weight of the batteries over the gas engine version of cars requires more energy to move the car.  If transportation uses 20 million barrels of fuel today, switching to electric will require the energy equivalent plus the additional amount for the additional weight.  Where is this energy going to come from?  Nuclear is ruled out.  Wind off Cape Cod is a No No.  We can’t use coal, either.

All this energy is going to come from things not yet invented.  Obama will need to have congress repeal or change the laws of physics to accomplish his implied goals.

Buy it if you want, but not a single implied goal of his can be met even if we have a battery life breakthrough tomorrow.

Last night, I watched an episode of “Ice Road Truckers” on the History Channel.  This show is about blue collar truck drivers delivering supplies and equipment of frozen lakes, rivers and Barents Sea.  Our “liberal” and “progressive” intellectuals take pride in not watching such shows on TV because they aren’t intellectually stimulating,  they aren’t Meet the Press or Chris Mathews.

There is much to learn from this show and what we learn is the self-imposed ignorance the hard left and extreme Greenies.  These truckers are Canadian.  They are hauling supplies and equipment to the far north of Canada to support energy companies and diamond mines.  They haul out waste.  They haul out dirty snow.  They leave a site as clean as when they got there.

Last night’s episode showed scientists camped out on ice over open water researching the capture of methane from sea-floor methane hydrates.  They showed that it works.  In that part of the arctic, there are over a trillion cubic feet of methane.

We Americans are not allowed to do this research.  The Canadians and the rest of the world can.  We Americans are not allowed to drill for oil in the frozen north.  The Canadians and the rest of the world can. We Americans are not allowed to drill far off the coasts.  The Norwegians and English are free to drill in the North Sea.  We, in Virginia, are not allowed to study uranium deposits – despite having the 7^th largest know deposit at 110 million pounds.  Africans, Canadian and Australians are free to do so.  We Americans are not allowed to build new nuclear power plants.  The rest of the world is.

Do we hear any of the Environmentalists complain about what any other country is doing?  Absolutely not!  The same people who decry American nuclear power plants, who stop us from building more are the very same people who strongly support Iran’s nuclear power program.

What is going on here?

Obama and the Democrats keep saying, “We can’t drill our way out of the problem”.  That is true when you realize what they think the problem is.  It isn’t high energy prices: they want us to pay even more.  Obama has said so himself.

No, “The Problem” is that Americans live too well and use to much of the worlds resources. 

How do we solve “The Problem”? We solve it by restricting the use of energy and raw materials.  We reduce our standard of living to that of, say, Europe.  This is not about per capita GDP.  This is about how we actually live.  Watch “International House Hunting” on HG-TV (House and Garden TV – another non-intellectual show that isn’t watched by the hard left intellectuals).  See what housing is like in London, Glasgow, Paris, Portugal, Italy and Buenos Aires and compare it to our housing.  Compare kitchens and bathrooms.  Compare our 15 CU FT refrigerators and Freezers to an under-counter refrigerator.

The hard left wants us to be a less powerful, less industrialized poorer nation.  They want us to give up our cars for busses. They want us to wash our dishes by hand and dry our clothes in the wind.  They want US, not them.  Al Gore isn’t giving up his big house, his SUV, his private airplane flights, his new boat to live the way he wants US to live.

Obama wants to take Exxon-Mobile’s profits and give them away.  Has he set an example by giving away his riches?

The lefties of the world want to diminish the power of the United States.  Then they want to destroy the power of Western civilization.  They want to destroy Capitalism.  They want absolute equality for all.  Except for the leaders, of course...  Just like Communist China and Communist Russia.

CALL BACK CONGRESS!

UPDATED: WATCH WHAT HAPPENED IN PELOSI'S POLITBURO (aka the Congress). The American people must see this. (hat tip Allen)

GO HERE NOW SIGN NOW! (This is from Cantor on the very short list for McCain VP.

Looks like a rectal thermometer (childhood nightmare)

Actually a rectal thermometer would be a good symbol for what Obama is going to do to this country.

GO REPUBLICANS! House Republicans to Resume Floor Protest on American Energy Monday

WRITE YOUR SENATORS! YOUR CONGRESSMAN! This is a defining moment, a moment to show the American people what the Democrats really are and who they represent - their special interests. 
This is the defining election issue that is easy for the American people to understand - the media has blacked out Obama's lack of character, content, background, ties, lies, Rezko blah blah blah BUT Americans know they are being given the shaft on oil. They go to the pumps everyday.

This is not just about the White House - we have so many seats up for grabs in the House and Senate this November - it's frightening. Imagine the socialists, commies, and Islamists in control of all three. The nomination of Obama is the triumph of the dumbing down of the American mind.

The end of America (as we know it).

CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN! MAKE THIS HAPPEN. THIS IS A GIFT! Let's get off the jihad oil - lets top sending the petrol dollars over to that insane, culturally backward part of the world. Stop funding our executioners. NOW.

John Boehner emailed me this:

House Republicans to Resume Floor Protest on American Energy Monday

WASHINGTON, DC – House Republicans will be back on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives again Monday to continue the unprecedented protest that began last Friday, when dozens of Republicans joined hundreds of American citizens on the House floor to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) decision to send Congress home for the rest of the summer without a vote on legislation to lower gas prices and move America toward energy independence.

In an urgent memo sent to GOP Members and staff Saturday (“A Call to Action on American Energy”), Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) hailed Friday’s action, which was led by Reps. Mike Pence (R-IN), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Tom Price (R-GA), and others, and encouraged House Republicans to return to the Capitol beginning Monday morning to help keep the historic effort going.  

“It’s not a request we make lightly.  But the American people are suffering,” Boehner and Blunt said in the memo.  “The consequences of continued congressional inaction on gas prices are unacceptable.  We’ve called on the Speaker to call Congress back into an emergency session this month and schedule a vote on the American Energy Act.  We must continue to make a stand until the Speaker complies.”  

“We realize not everyone can be in Washington next week.  But if you can be, we ask that you come to the Capitol, join our colleagues, and lend your voice, beginning this Monday at 10:00 am,” the GOP leaders wrote.  “If you can’t be in Washington, we ask that you contribute to the cause in other ways – such as spreading the word among your constituents, writing an op-ed for your local newspaper, or taking our ‘all of the above’ energy message to your local airwaves.”

“Republicans stand with the American people.  We share their passion and determination for energy independence, and we’ve pledged to fight boldly until Congress heeds their will,” Boehner and Blunt concluded.

UPDATE: I looooooooove what msd suggested in the comment section of this post, "McCain - no matter who Obama picks, you need to start calling it the Obama-Pelosi ticket with Harry in waiting"

How right you are. The Obambots have no compunction about calling it the Bush McCain ticket (which is hilarious considering how they differ on any number of issues except the surge - which worked!). Obama Pelosi is puuuuuuuuuuuuuurfect.

UPDATE: This is from Pence: PENCE TO RETURN TO CAPITOL MONDAY TO DEMAND A VOTE ON DOMESTIC DRILLING Congressman To Challenge the Democrat Leadership "Bring this Congress back and give the American people a vote to lessen our dependence on foreign oil”

"The American people are hurting from the high price of gasoline and I commend Minority Leader John Boehner, Minority Whip Roy Blunt and all the Republicans in Congress who took to the House floor last week to fight for a vote on an energy bill that includes more domestic supply.

“It was simply wrong for Congress to take a five-week paid vacation without ever taking a vote on giving the American people more access to American oil.

“I look forward to joining our leaders and my fellow Republicans returning to Congress this week. This is not a revolt, this is democracy in action. The American people want Congress to address the new energy crisis with comprehensive reform that includes more domestic drilling.

“The American people will see that House Republicans are going to continue to challenge the Democrat leadership to bring this Congress back and give the American people a vote to lessen our dependence on foreign oil.”

Obama: Energy Genius

Did you see the 29 July 2008 Obama speech in Missouri where he said, "There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy.   Making sure your tires are properly inflated – simple thing.  But we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling if everybody was just inflating their tires.  And getting regular tune-ups.  You'd actually save just as much!"

Watch the video here (please!). I was ...... dumbfounded. So too apparently were many Atlas readers. The best email was Richards (he suggests the ingenius that the tire gauge should be Obama's new symbol -- replacing his presumptive presidential seal). Stogie, start photoshopping:

That Obama insight or amazing solution for our energy problems should have brought the audience to its feet with wild applause.  This should have been the lead story on all the network news shows and headlined all the newspapers the next day.  No need to drill for more oil - just put some more air in your car's tires.

Of course the television news shows and newspapers covered up Obama's ignorance by not reporting.

But more interesting was the total lack of response from the people sitting behind Obama.  Why didn't they applaud?  I think everyone listening knew, even as the words came out, that Obama was wrong and that if they started to applaud they would reveal to their friends and neighbors sitting beside them what ignorant fools they were.  Anyone applauding would have suffered a huge loss of face.  Support for Obama could become evidence of stupidity in the supporter.  "If my friends know I favor Obama, they will think I am not very intelligent."

Where did Obama get this information?  Did he dream it?  Did he get it from one of his advisers?  Did he over-hear it from someone?  Is this information common knowledge among his advisers?  He seemed to believe what he said.

The tire pressure gauge needs to become the symbol of the Obama campaign and the Democratic party.

  That speech should be played over and over until the first thing people associate with Obama is the line "We could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling if everybody was just inflating their tires.", followed by a knowing smile.  Support for Obama should become synonymous with an admission of stupidity.

Conversely, the electric drill should become the symbol of McCain and the Republicans.  Drill in Alaska.  Drill along the coast.  Drill in the national parks and forests.  Drill in my back yard.  Drill in my teeth.  Drill in front of the White House.  Drill by the Washington Monument.  President Bush could put an oil drilling rig in front of the White House to show his support for drilling.  He must own a drilling rig, after all, he is an oil man.  People should bring electric drills to political rallies, demonstrations, and candidate appearances.

Al Gore made a slide show about global warming and received a Nobel Peace Prize.  Obama could make a slide show about how to read a tire pressure gauge and how to put air in tires - perhaps he too would be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.  If that's not enough then like Jimmy Carter building houses, Obama could do volunteer work in gas stations checking the tire pressure on the customer's cars.

John Kerry threw away his medals to protest the Vietnam war.  Any demonstrations favoring more drilling, nuclear power or coal plants should include people throwing away their tire gauges.  Demonstrations at the Capital and the Democratic Convention should include people tossing their tire gauges.

Perhaps you could use an electric drill as a prop in a video about energy, oil drilling, or gas prices.  Drill.  Drill.  Drill.  Go to the beach and drill in the sand.

lol. So great.

UPDATE: I heard this live .............it was WILD

House Dems turn out the lights but GOP keeps talking hat tip Van

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House, turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.

Minority Leader John A. 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 they are busy bashing Pelosi and her fellow Democrats for leaving town for the August recess.

Update: The Capitol Police are now trying to kick reporters out of the press gallery above the floor, meaning we can't watch the Republicans anymore. CONTD...

Pelosi blocks offshore drilling vote GOP wants

Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau Friday, August 1, 2008

For weeks, pressure has been mounting in Congress to approve more domestic oil drilling, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has held the line, using her power to block a vote on offshore drilling. President Bush has made almost daily calls for Democratic leaders to take action. House GOP leaders, citing a new poll showing that a slim majority of Californians now favor offshore drilling, issued a release Thursday saying "even (Pelosi's) own California neighbors oppose her efforts to block new drilling far off American coasts." GOP lawmakers are so disgruntled they're urging Bush to deny Congress its August break by calling a special session on energy. CONTD...

UPDATE: Obama shifts, says he may back offshore drilling

By MIKE GLOVER, Associated Press Writer

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.

He was against it before he was for it (I think)

"Like all compromises, it also includes steps that I haven't always
supported," Obama conceded. "I remain skeptical that new offshore
drilling will bring down gas prices in the short-term or
significantly reduce our oil dependence in the long-term, though I
do welcome the establishment of a process that will allow us to make
future drilling decisions based on science and fact."

UPDATE: Stogie photoshops!

Pump it Up!

Mark Levin gave Atlas reader Andy an idea. Because gas prices are so high, Levin wondered aloud if there was a way to get information out to the people at the pumps as to who's to blame for the high prices. This gave Andy an idea.

UPDATE: Clueless, insane dems propose raising gas tax

PRESIDENT BUSH TO LIFT EXECUTIVE BAN ON OFFSHORE OIL EXPLORATION

BREAKING NEWS:  SET AMERICA FREE! Of course Obama is against this move, he hates anything that puts us in control of our sovereignty. He rejected lifting the drilling moratorium (of course). He propaganized:

"This is not something that's going to give consumers short-term relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems with fossil fuels generally and oil in particular," said Obama. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, lumping Bush with McCain, accused them of staging a "cynical campaign ploy" that won't help lower energy prices.

"Despite what President Bush, John McCain and their friends in the oil industry claim, we cannot drill our way out of this problem," Reid said. "The math is simple: America has just three percent of the world's oil reserves, but Americans use a quarter of its oil."

And what did Obama's friends and internationalists say about it - Rezko, Auchi, Soros, Ayers, Dohrn, Wright, Odinga -- I wouldn't bring up friends. It is Obama's achilles heel. He is guilty by association.

The thought of us getting relief runs counter to the narrative of unhappiness that defines the Democrats.  I am so sick and tired of that lame excuse that drilling will not help us today -- well, he's right. It took more than a day for the Dems to get us into this crisis - no drilling, no ANWR, no nuclear power, no refineries, NO NO NO. And it will take us years to get out of their mess. We must start now. We must start correcting the woefully wrongheaded and destructive energy policies the Democrats have rammed down our throats for decades. We have more oil rich resources than the whole of the Middle East. We must stop funding the jihad and these barbaric cultures whose main export is human misery.

Fuel choice in the transportation sector can strip oil of its strategic value, deny our adversaries the wherewithal they use to harm us, and help protect our quality of life and economy against the effects of cuts in foreign energy supplies and the rising costs of oil.

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How sick are these folks? They will torture the American people until the very idea of America is dead and buried.

Pelosi Statement on President Bush Lifting the Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling (hat tip Van)

WASHINGTON  Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on President Bush's announcement lifting the executive ban on drilling in protected coastal areas:

"Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil.

Uh, wrong. The President in the White House is echoing the demands of the American people.

"The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas. CONTD...

The left hates Americans, foe shizzle

Reader Rockman on the Pelosi:

When Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House nearly two years ago, Gas prices were $3.07 a gallon. Our Botox-injected, coiffed hair dolly said this is intolerable and said she and the Democratic Congress would bring gas prices down.

Over a year and a half later, gas prices are over $4.20, $4.25 and higher (around $4.09 in Phoenix) and where is Pelosi? where is Harry Reid? and where is Sleaze Boy? Sleaze boy claims Bush gave tax cuts to the rich, well I presume he meant Pelosi and all the rich cats in Hollyweirdo like Spielberg, Burkle, Henley, Geffen and the rest of the crooks who host the big donor parties in Malibu.

Maybe it is high time each of us wrote Pelosi - even if we're not her constituents and demand that she, and prune-face Harry do something about the energy crisis instead of saying no drilling, wringing their hands, and increasing our dependence on THEIR friends, the Saudis.

Remind too, the Neo-Nazis over at MoveOn.Org, the Daily Kostroite, and Puff Ho that they've screamed Halliburton = Cheney too long, and that their idols are in bed with King Abdullah and with Ahmedinejedad, since they won't drill.

Remind all that there are at least four shales within the continental U.S.A. and offshore that can produce enough fuel to run 60 million cars and heat 160 million homes for the next 60 years, but our cowards and crooks Pelosi, Reid and Sleaze won't lift a finger to help America. They'd rather keep us dependent on their Islamofascist allies.

Write a note too, to Boehner and McConnell and ask them why aren't they being more forceful, why aren't they taking out airtime and presenting this to the American people - if they are truly a Republican Congress you wouldn't know it by their silence in the face of the open stupidity and greed of Harry Reid.

Time to take action. I've done it, so should you. Remind the Botoxed 'Ho that while its easy for a rich, silver spoon g irl like her to fill her tank, there's the American people to consider - and she and Prune Face have done NOTHING. Remind her of the promise now.

DRILL DRILL DRILL - and less prices at the pump. Either Pelosi gets it, or we vote in Republicans who will. We beat them on the ILLEGAL issue, we can do it with this as well.