Pelosi shuts down lights/microphones to stop vote on oil drilling
GOP stays on floor in loud protest

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CSPAN Video: John Culbertson on GOP House protest

Latest video after the uproar from the gallery from CSPAN above.

For the lead up to this moment in time, see Curt’s post, Shocking “Do Nothing” Congress

And for the print version of the “power outage” story, see Wordsmith’s Political theater I can believe in.

More groundwork from the path leading to today’s uproar… from yesterday’s Union Leader op-ed page:

Outrageously and indefensibly, the Democratic majority in Congress callously plays politics while the people burn their paychecks on $4-a-gallon gasoline.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid are desperate to avoid a vote on oil drilling before the November elections. They know they will lose such a vote, and they fear Republicans will get credit for taking action to lower oil and gas prices.

So to prevent that electoral nightmare, they simply refuse to allow a floor vote on offshore drilling, which is now supported by more than two-thirds of the American people. Instead, they propose tighter regulations on commodities speculators. In both the Senate and the House, Democratic leaders called for votes this week and last on bills to further regulate oil speculators. They did so after the Commodities Futures Trading Commission issued a report concluding that speculators were not driving up the price of oil and gas.

Yesterday, the House voted to adjourn for its August recess and leave the oil issue unresolved. The vote was 213-212.

Both of New Hamsphire’s representatives, Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, had the power to keep the House in session until oil and gas prices were addressed. They chose to go home without holding a vote on the most pressing economic problem in recent memory. They will be home for the next five weeks. You might take this opportunity to tell them what you think about their decision to head off for vacation while the average price of gas in New Hampshire sits at $3.90 a gallon.

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Can the Republicans stay with it? If they do, it could very well accomplish the opposite of what the Dems thought, and embarrass the Dems and their MSM water-carriers, and even more importantly, alert the voters to who the real trouble makers are.

err, Is this some republican propaganda site =/ ? Anyways, being more independent with our oil will be great for about 10-20 years… But after we use that all up won’t we be in the same spot we are now? Also, I am pretty sure that gas prices are a lot higher in other countries than they are here. If we continue to rely on ANY OPEC oil at all, the prices are still going to be going up. What do we do after we run out of our own oil, and HAVE to rely on foreign oil. We should probably push for other energy sources to use.

I love it. If the Republicans stick with it, if they camp out in the House chamber, and stay there for the entire recess (as some have said they would, it would be a very potent symbol to young voters, who tend to like the left for their propensity for anti-establishment protest.

All of a sudden, Nancy Pelosi is “The Man” and her radical environmentalism obstructing economic relief can finally be as unpopular as it deserves to be.

Jeff, we have enough recoverable oil for a lot longer than that. 397 billion barrels in recoverable oil (50+ years worth if we replace 100% of imports) and up to another 1 trillion barrels in Shale Oil. Add about 1.5 trillion barrels in recoverable oil sands in Canada, and we have enough in North America for 200+ years, assuming no new discoveries, and ZERO imports.

Granted, we don’t have the infrastructure to shift our sources so radically (whose fault is that?), but the excuse that our reserves are so minimal as to be irrelevant, or that the announcement that we would use those resources would not have a rapid impact on the price of oil (which are determined by the futures market), is pure, unadultrated bullcr&p.

Something tells me Jeff is a driveby commenter, but I’ll give it a go just in case:

Dude: We have enough oil to fuel our country with NO imports for decades. It’s not going to run out anytime soon.

And if we buy AMERICAN oil, the money to pay for it and the taxes and royalties paid can fund the oil free future.

If we strangle the U.S. economy by continuing down the dead end energy road Democrats are on we will not have the money necessary to fund that future.

NOW, to the larger issue: What will happen when the Congressional offshore drilling moratorium expires at the end of September? My guess is that Dems will put the measure into a continuing resolution or omnibus spending bill (they haven’t done that work either and the end of the fiscal year is Sept. 30).

When they do they will dare President Bush to veto it and shut down the government.

Then their buds in the “news” media will run all those stories about how badly the government shutdown is impacting the poor, the sick, blah, blah, blah.

It will all be lies, but it works if we don’t place the blame where it belongs.

You know it’s not just that drilling will cause lower prices because of supply, but the high paying jobs that will be created. Not only in the drilling, but also in the refining and pipeline construction, truck drivers, so many “trickle down jobs, wheres the Unions on this. In all my 60 plus years I thought I seen it all. This stupidity takes the grand prize.

Want to lower energy prices and rev up domestic energy jobs?

Vote for a Dem Free House and Senate in November.

Darn.

Priceless footage of Boehner in tears (yet again) at the sheer injustice of it all, lost forever.

Or had John begun his vacation?

For those of you that think this incident is about oil you are an idiot!!!!!!!
If the dems that you elected stayed to vote then they would have voted against it and that would be the end.
The issue is about what is called (if you heard about it) FREEDOM OF SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
This is what happened in all of the countries that are now dictatorships without the freedom that you can say what you want.
Go ahead and re-elect these democrat idiots so they can shut you up. Because your freedoms as you know them today will be gone forever.

Please don’t forget to mention that it is a 5 week PAID vacation for them. So they will be getting paid for doing nothing about this problem.

i think this shows how lacking in brains and respect that pelosi is. i watched the nightly news (nbc) lastnight to see if they picked this up, they didn’t. i saw it on drudge a around 4 i think. i didn’t see a thing on this on any news channel, only online. makes you get a little paranoid about what is and isn’t reported. sorts makes the msm no better than the communtist media outlets of the coldwar.

Granted, we don’t have the infrastructure to shift our sources so radically (whose fault is “that?), …”

Maybe you can blame the scientists and engineers who don’t even know yet what the technology might look like IF it exists. And don’t think they haven’t been looking for it. Also, besides oil there is coal and in the midwest, where the sun shines a lot more than where Lefties heads usually are, sun powered steam plants can be built to supply a lot of power, and more nuke plants need to be built.

The “fault” that the technology isn’t in place is that it doesn’t exist, and what does is still so dependent on other froms of energy that it’s not a solution.

That’s just a sloppy attempt to deflect the real blame from the Dems who have suppressed any and all but the most ridiculous, expensive, unreliable and unworkable schemes.

What Stoner and the other usless idiots don’t realize…

When Leftists come to power, there is always a “purge.” And who are some of the first to go? The useless idiots. Why? Because they are the trouble makers, and once the Left is in power it doesn’t want any trouble with keeping it. That is part of why the term “idiot” is used. поймите?

What Stoner and the other usless idiots don’t realize…

When Leftists come to power, there is always a “purge.”

I lost my Wingnut Manual, yonason, so I’m going to need a refresher. In its result, how is a purge different from what Monica Goodling was doing in the DOJ? The idea is to get rid of dissenters or possible dissenters, right?

Maybe we could call what she did a Preemptive Purge.

Dems leaving town with their tails between their legs…love it! Now if we can only convince the GOP and their mantle bearer to keep it up…

THE POINT IS, WD-40, THAT THEY ARE HAPPILY WORKING FOR THEIR OWN DEMISE.

I’m calling them s – t – u – p – i – d. Just spelling it out for you, since you don’t seem to be smart enough to pick up on that yourself.

THE POINT IS, WD-40, THAT THEY ARE HAPPILY WORKING FOR THEIR OWN DEMISE.

I’m calling them s – t – u – p – i – d. Just spelling it out for you, since you don’t seem to be smart enough to pick up on that yourself.

How little you know! When the Lefties come to power, you people are being herded off to re-education camps, where you’ll be waterboarded and force-fed tofu. I am in possession of The Memo that outlines the whole plan.

Our own demise? Heh. You’re seeing the foundation of a Permanent Liberal Majority. Also: the dwindling numbers of wingnuts will be inversely proportional to the upsurge in sales of Soylent Green Cheetohs, which will be eaten by what remains of the Fighting 101st Keyboarders.

THE LUBAVITCHER REBBE SAID…
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112861/jewish/Energy.htm

“…when this country needs oil it is forced to listen to others — even to concede matters that are the opposite of justice, fairness, and goodness.
. . . . .
since [America] has the mission of bringing about true peace in the world, and may not disturb justice and fairness — including also the justice that the “eternal inheritance” belongs to the “eternal nation,” as a result of the “eternal covenant” that was made by the “eternal G-d” — obviously there is something that people can do. After all, IT ISN’T POSSIBLE THAT THE NATION THAT IS CHARGED WITH SUCH A MISSIOIN SHOULD BE ‘ENSLAVED’ AND DEPENDENT UPON A LOWLY NATION, JUST BECAUSE THEIR COUNTRY HAPPENS TO HAVE OIL!
. . . .
this is for America’s own good. It is not a request for a favor or kindness for others, for some “patient”; it is to this country’s benefit to free itself of its subjugation to the oil-producing countries, a subjugation which is completely unjust, and that stems only from those countries’ ingratitude.
. . . . .
When the U.S. achieves its freedom from this subjugation, it will be able to assert itself with greater force. The truth is that no “force” will even be needed; the very fact that everyone will know that there is no longer any dependency will break the pressure, since there will no longer be anything with which to threaten, as they will see that no attention is being paid to those who tried to block this.”

In the Rebbe’s name, may the advocates of America’s energy independence succeed, and it’s opponents fade into oblivion.

“…I should have left that pile o’ BS in the spam filter.” — M.H.

It’s best to see them at their worst, projecting their own infantile paranoid fantasies on us; in this case a pathetic attempt at satire? (I’m giving WD-40 the benefit of the doubt, here)

We get our information about what they want from what they say and do. They get their information about what we “want” from their own paranoid fantasies. They think we will be shocked when they “reveal” what they believe is in our hearts, but is not. Instead of being shocked, we are puzzled at where such vile imaginings come from, until we realize that they are representative not of their target, but of their source.

Ah yes… those mighty warriors of non-violent civil war – the Soylent Green Cheetohs and the Fighting 101st Keyboarders. Waging the propaganda war in the US to achieve the utopian socialist/Marxist harmonious nation of mediocrity, and welcoming the absence of personal and professional excellence.

I take it that you are not familiar with all Internet traditions.

Get with the meme. 101st Fighting Keyboarders:

Refers to weblog authors who are ‘very enthusiastic about war, provided someone else fights it’. Originally coined by blogger TBogg in this post. May also be refered to as ‘101st Keyboarders’, ‘101st Keyboarders Brigade’, etc. (Also see chickenhawk, warblogger.)

Also here:

The 101st Keyboarding Brigade is a derogatory term used for people on the Internet who support the recent occupation of Iraq but are unwilling to join the military to participate in the occupation. Markos Zúniga, the author of the Daily Kos blog, coined the term.
“The 101st Keyboarding Brigade know that the Internet is serious business!”

It has since been expanded to included all the Adam Yoshidas and Mike’s Americas of the world, typing furiously away in defense of the indefensible Reich Wing. Cheetohs and Mountain Dew are the preferred repast of the 101st.

I love my BLOG F.A., most of the time I observe the SMART one coming with amples knowledge
so well display, for anyone to learn , without paying a fee, such wonder of the smart brain;
some other times here come the dumb one, but they dont know they are dumb, because
nobody never told them, such misery of the dumb brain