I’m an independent who thinks both candidates are flawed.

I too am a registered Independent and think both candidates are flawed. We have a Marxist and a Democrat to choose from. If I had my way the American people would tar and feather all politicians in DC and run them out of town and begin again.

energy prices shoot up almost 300%

And since 2006 when the Democrats took majority control of Congress the price of energy has gone up how much? You don’t even have to leave this site to research that.

Once again, do we want to discuss PAC money bundling and lobbyists for Obama?

Though it might be for you, leaving a country worth living in for my kids, is no game.

I have a long rant that I can go into here but I will spare the readers the agony. I am happy for your children, I will even gladly pay my share to help school them. I do not wish to pay to babysit them, feed them, indoctrinate them, provide them condoms or teach them in Spanish. They can earn their way into college but that does not entitle them to a job when they get out. I have given enough of my pie already.

Games? I don’t have time for them and you have nothing to bet with.

I’m an independent who thinks both candidates are flawed. But, as I stated earlier, with lobbyist on McCain’s campaign who were responsible for helping energy prices shoot up almost 300% in less then seven years, republicans whining about fuel prices is an oxymoron.

Though it might be for you, leaving a country worth living in for my kids, is no game. So please, save your partisan punches for the mental toddlers at both FOX and MSNBC.

The House version was HR 5660, introduced the day before and referred to the House Judiciary.

Both bills died, and it was instead consolidated in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2001 (HR 4577). The Senate had passed this bill back in June. Per GovTrack records of the legislation:

On Dec 15, 2000: After passing both the Senate and House, a conference committee is created to work out differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill. A conference report resolving those differences passed in the House of Representatives, paving the way for enactment of the bill, by roll call vote. The totals were 292 Ayes, 60 Nays, 80 Present/Not Voting

The Senate passed it 52-43 in the prior June, with 5 not voting. Oddly enuf, Gramm voted against the original version of the bill in the previous June. However the conference committees resolved the differences with amendments added in House over Senate’s prior version.

I’m curious as to where the Texas Observer obtains it’s historical record. They certainly do not provide links to the Congressional record they mention. But it’s obvious as to their political bent. Their headline subtitle is :

The GOP presidential nominee is relying on the ex-senator who helped bring you the mortgage crisis and Rick Perry.

That might more honestly be said about BHO himself, rather than about Mac’s associates. Afterall it is His Messiahship that garners the big campaign bucks from banking and investments… a lobby and industry far more wealthy than “evil big oil”. It is BHO who employed ex Countrywide head honchos. It is the DNC who are getting the banking “VIP” mortgage breaks.

I suggest you and the Texas Observer obscure the facts in comfortable speculation.

Shall I also jump up and down like a liberal and shout “guilt by association”?

It’s funny how Keating is brought out but it was found that McCain was innocent of these charges. Bob Bennett investigated and recommended the charges be dropped. The Democrats couldn’t allow that to happen though because the other 4 involved were Democrats.

Do we want to discuss surrogates of the campaigns? I’ll play your game.

(ed. Added Bennet info)

In the early evening of Friday, December 15, 2000, with Christmas break only hours away, the U.S. Senate rushed to pass an essential, 11,000-page government reauthorization bill. In what one legal textbook would later call “a stunning departure from normal legislative practice,” the Senate tacked on a complex, 262-page amendment at the urging of Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.

There was little debate on the floor. According to the Congressional Record, Gramm promised that the amendment—also known as the Commodity Futures Modernization Act—along with other landmark legislation he had authored, would usher in a new era for the U.S. financial services industry.
…
Gramm might be interested in downplaying his role with the McCain campaign because, while the alliance might help with conservatives, it’s at odds with the maverick image McCain has worked so hard to project. Gramm is more closely aligned with the kind of influence-peddling represented by the Keating Five scandal, in which McCain intervened with federal regulators on behalf of a campaign contributor with a failing savings and loan. The scandal shredded McCain’s reputation and convinced him of the efficacy of reform.

And who is Gramm, a lobbyist for energy companies on McCain’s campaign staff.

John McCain’s Gramm Gamble
While we’re posting quotes…

McCain campaign fires back
McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds sent an email that pointed to McCain’s support for closing the “Enron Loophole,” noting that he was “one of only three Republicans” to support an amendment to do so. Corzine, then a US senator, voted with McCain for the amendment, his campaign said.

“The truth is Barack Obama is following John McCain’s lead to close a Wall Street loophole that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton,” Bounds said. “John McCain has supported bipartisan efforts to close this loophole and will work to address abuses in oil speculation. Barack Obama has voted the party line for Democrats who claim the loophole is fixed. The fact that Barack Obama is attacking John McCain, despite McCain’s leadership on the issue, shows that Barack Obama is driven by the partisan attacks that Americans are tired of.”

OBAMA CALLS FOR CLOSING ‘ENRON LOOPHOLE’

I will see if I can find the Congressional record.

McCain Defends ‘Enron Loophole’
http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2008/051908Leopold.shtml

Closing Enron Loophole Would Drop Oil Prices 25% – 50% Overnight
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2008/06/22/closing-enron-loophole-would-drop-oil-prices/

McCain Defends ‘Enron Loophole’
http://www.countercurrents.org/leopold20058.htm

If you need more pacification of your laziness, please let me know.

I won’t do your research for you.

You’re the one trying to make a point, not me.

Some links to support your claims would make you so much more credible.

It’s clear from the Democrat obstruction to nearly all forms of energy production, an obstruction that has been ongoing for DECADES, that the only answer they have is conservation and some pie in the sky promise of alternatives which will take twice as long to get online as any new oil production from drilling.

We could fund a Manhattan style alternative energy program with the taxes and royalties from domestic production of newfound petroleum resources but the Democrats would block that too.

Meanwhile, all lower income groups will pay an increasingly disproportionate share of the burden as price hikes impact them hardest.

The very groups of people Democrats claim to care about are put at greatest disadvantage by the backdoor schemes of Democrats and their radical/extremist environmental masters.

Is this the “change” Obama promises?

As with the current campaign to revive the “Fairness doctrine”, the advocacy of less speech as a solution to effective speech relieves the proponents of restricted speech of the burden of defending their ideas against others.

Those who cannot, or will not, defend their ideas to the satisfaction of the American people, do not deserve the trust of the American people.

LOL, thank you so much, DW! I thought of that later, but wasn’t at my computer all day in order to make the correction, but somehow I just knew you’d pick up on that…ironically, I found these definitions of “pretense” as well:

2. unwarranted claim: a claim, especially one with few facts to support it.

or, this one:

3. make-believe: make-believe or things imagined.

Guess it still sort of fits my point, eh?