Yes, we CAN drill our way out of this

You must have seen or heard it. It’s been repeated ad nauseum by Democrats on floors of both houses of Congress, before TV cameras and radio microphones and at recent campaign events. “We can’t drill our way out of this.” The donkey party’s latest mantra has been hammered home by the usual suspects from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to Barack Obama. Like most Democrat talking points, it’s a falsehood.

Yes we CAN drill our way out of this. Just the announcement of our intention to drill in any one of the Big Three Forbidden Zones (off the Continental Shelf, in the Baaken or in ANWR) would have a considerable impact on the speculators who have been driving the price of oil ever skyward for the past several months. Hugh Hewitt makes the point:

No one wants to get caught holding the contract for high priced oil when new reserves are discovered.

In fact, the speculation which has driven up the price of oil is only made possible because we have tied our hands to prevent ourselves from exploiting our own considerable domestic supplies:

In the current oil market unreasonable speculation is simply a symptom of the problem. That problem being the lack of a stable supply of crude oil.
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Current oil production levels are virtually identical to demand with very little excess capacity available in the event of an interruption. Political instability, weather hazards, refinery breakdowns, terror attacks, kidnapping/attacks on oil platforms and hostage taking, and other interruptions in production increase the risk that oil supply will not be able to meet the demand in the future.
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That is where the market comes in. If you are a large consumer of oil you purchase futures contracts, offering to buy oil in the future, at a set price that the seller has to deliver at that price — no matter what interruptions occur between now and then. In order to make a profit traders have to build in a premium in the cost of oil to offset that ever increasing risk.
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Increasing domestic production — Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less — would greatly reduce much of the speculation by mitigating many of the uncertainties. From the list above, if you developed domestic supply in various regions of the US (Both coasts, Rocky Mountains, Alaska, Plains) you would mitigate the major effects of weather, political instability, terror attacks, attacks on platforms, and many other interruptions because there would be additional supplies from the remaining stable US regions. Increasing refining capacity would help mitigate the effects of refinery breakdowns.
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This fundamental misunderstanding of the oil markets and the refusal of the Democrats to allow increased energy production has empowered the speculators in ways not seen since the markets began trading, resulting in a direct increase in the price of gasoline. The Democrat’s tactic of deflecting blame to the oil companies only serves to increase the speculation as additional restrictions and increased taxes on domestic oil producers historically leads to reduced domestic production.

But no one that I know of is claiming that all we should do is drill for oil to try to make ourselves more energy independent. Most advocates for increased domestic drilling see it as just one tactic in a compresehsive strategic energy policy which also encourages building more nuclear reactors, synthesizing liquid fuels from coal and waste celluloic stock, continuing the refinement of hybrid electric vehicles and developing hydrogen as a motor fuel, just for starters. We think that it’s really cool that used cooking oil can be easily made into something that diesel engines can burn. We see clean burning natural gas and propane as the logical alternative fuels for buses and fleet vehicles.

Nor are we only talking about the supply side here. Many of us have little or no problem with increasing the fuel efficiency of our vehicles, our homes and our workplaces. As conservatives, we have long argued that higher prices will help to drive down demand, and we are seeing that happen in the real world right here and right now.

The truth is that Democrats are so beholden to the environmental special interests that they’ve painted themselves into a corner on energy matters. The donkeys are trying to swim against an increasing tide:

Most voters favor the resumption of offshore drilling in the United States and expect it to lower prices at the pump, even as John McCain has announced his support for states that want to explore for oil and gas off their coasts.
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A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey—conducted before McCain announced his intentions on the issue–finds that 67% of voters believe that drilling should be allowed off the coasts of California, Florida and other states. Only 18% disagree and 15% are undecided. Conservative and moderate voters strongly support this approach, while liberals are more evenly divided (46% of liberals favor drilling, 37% oppose).
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Sixty-four percent (64%) of voters believe it is at least somewhat likely that gas prices will go down if offshore oil drilling is allowed, although 27% don’t believe it. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of conservatives say offshore drilling is at least somewhat likely to drive prices down. That view is shared by 57% of moderates and 50% of liberal voters.
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Nearly all voters are worried about rising gas and energy prices, with 79% very concerned and 16% somewhat concerned.

Yes, it’s still “the economy, stupid” and especially pump prices for gasoline and diesel, not to mention the high costs the airlines are incurring for jet fuel. The GOP seems to be waking up to what conservatives already knew. Make energy your number one issue and offer doable solutions to the problems of energy security and high prices.

The Democrats, meanwhile, have sentenced themselves to doing hard time in Al Gore’s lockbox, and they’ve entrusted the key to the Sierra Club. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch of people, one which has consistently put its own selfish political interests ahead of America’s security and her citizens’ bank accounts.

- JP

It’s the Oil Stupid!

Senate Democrats, unquestionably the least intelligent being walking the Earth today, have decided that American’s aren’t paying enough for gas.  With the price over $4 per gallon these mental midgets in the Senate want to institute a windfall profits tax on oil companies where congress will set what it thinks is an acceptable profit and then tax anything over that by 25%.  We’ve been down this road before and it failed miserably but Democrats, never willing to admit socialism a failure, won’t let that get in the way.

None of these Democrats have ever run a successful business so they are the last people on the planet who should determine what is acceptable profit for any business.  Aside from that they want to throw all the money from this boondoggle away more alternative energy failures like wind and solar.  I know many believe that wind and solar are great but the reality is that we have thrown away billions of dollars in the last thirty years trying to make this technology viable and it’s not.  The bottom line is that we need to increase supply and we need to increase refining capacity.

This plan, probably not even constitutional, will do nothing but increase the price at the pump because this is a cost of doing business and those costs will be passed on.  Why is it that Democrats refuse to learn from their failures, most people make mistakes, learn from them and move on.  Not so for congressional Democrats, they’re just not that intelligent.

Howard the Dean to the rescue

Proving yet again that they are all about power and not at all about democracy, the powers that be in the Democratic Party today came up with a great “compromise” basically deciding that Hillary should lose delegates that she rightfully won and Obama should get delegates in a state that didn’t even vote for him. 

Obama winds up taking 59 delegates in Michigan even though he wasn’t on the ballot there and wasn’t entitled to any delegates.  This infuriated the Hillary supporters and for good reason, I thought this was the party of “count every vote”.  No the Democrat party is proving to Democrats what conservatives and most Republicans have known all along, that they are the party obsessed with power and will screw any group they have to in order to obtain it.

For what it is worth Hillary seems ready to take this fight to the convention, which is a good thing.  She has almost no chance of getting the nomination from it but she can make sure that Obama doesn’t get it either.  She has done enough damage to Obama that he will certainly lose in November to McCain even though McCain is weaker today than Bob Dole was in 1996.  No for the sake of the party they will look to someone who has not been in this fight, someone recognizable but who has been above all this at least to this point.

When the convention rolls around I submit that it will be Howard Dean who emerges victorious in Denver.  Why Dean, well he pulls all the strings, he has the most to gain, he knows when it comes to Florida Hillary needs those delegates seated, but with Michigan he also knows there is no way Hillary will stand by and let Dean give Obama 59 delegates that he didn’t win.  Dean knows that Hillary will fight this to the convention, he knows that this will create such a mess that he can come in and be the savior.  He will make the case to the super delegates that both these candidates are so damaged by the primary process that neither can win in November. 

This is true, but his claim will be that he is the only person who can save them from this looming disaster.  Will this be true, could Dean save this party from itself, I doubt it.  More than likely he will hand his party a crushing defeat in November, but at the end of the day it’s all about the thirst for power and they will gladly step on each other in their quest for it.

More empty threats from Hollywood

After listening to Alec Baldwin threaten to move to Canada if Bush was elected or re-elected, or whatever, I have no stomach to listen to the likes of Susan Sarandon threaten to move to Italy or Canada if McCain gets elected.  If it were true then that alone would be a valid reason for voting for McCain but like all the other Hollywood socialists and the Democratic Party leadership they have no intention of keeping their word…

Racist church trumps scathing memoir

Just when the Democrats figured it was safe to come out of the Chicago churchhouse, Pfather Pfleger rose… er, sank to the occasion. Now the Dems and their pfrontrunner for the party’s presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama, can’t seem to get pfree pfrom the quagmire that is Trinity United Church of Christ.

They thought that had found the perfect “get out of manure free” card. What could be better to get the shamlessly racist church Obama has chosen to attend for over two decades out of the headlines than some new scandal-mongering aimed squarely at the object of the left’s obsessive derangement - Chimpy McBushitler? Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, nouveau riche with thirty pieces of silver from the book deal he had cut with a publishing house connected to leftist sugar daddy George Soros, had just started making the round of television talk shows to publicize his “scathing memoir” just chock full o’ “explosive” revelations about the Bush Administration. Hot on his heels was an army of Dem footsoldiers who, in a stretch which would impress even the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards, were trying to use the flap the media was sure to generate over McClellan’s book to taint the campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

If this sounds to you like a scheme worthy of a Roadrunner cartoon script, you’re right on target. Wyle E. Coyote, the perpetually hapless Dem, was yet again let down by what seemed to be a sure-fire solution from big brains at Acme Inc. And things seemed to be going so well, too. Both people and press were growing tired of hearing about Jeremiah Wright, and the Obama connection to unrepentant domestic terrorists William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn never sparked true outrage in any sector beyond the patriotic right. Obama’s daily gaffes didn’t seem to be hurting him much, either. So the Dems thought they had found a big story with legs which was a great twofer - it would give them a fresh club to beat President George W. Bush with, and they would use those of McClellan’s charges which were related to the Iraq war against McCain. Ah, but it only lasted about a day and a half. Along came Pfather Pfleger to cut the legs out from under the McClellan story, steal Scotty’s thunder and drag Obama’s First Church of Hatred kicking and screaming back into the limelight.

Fr. Michael Pfleger, ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1975, has pastored the mostly African American Saint Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood since 1981. His social activism has put him in league with Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Blogger Sultan Knish calls Pfleger “the white Rev. Jeremiah Wright.” The good Pfather says that he’s known Obama for 20 years.

Indeed, it was at White’s Trinity United Church where Pfleger stepped into the limelight (not to mention the manure) of the presidential campaign.

Can you say “racist”? I knew you could.

After this bizarre display by the radical priest, the Obama campaign, professing “disappointment,” was forced to remove Pleger’s endorsement of Obama from the “faith” page of the Obama website. There’s been a lot of “cleaning up” on that website over the past weeks…

No, the lackluster McClellan just can’t compete with the likes of Pfather Pfleger, a true rock star. But Scotty’s story would have probably collapsed under its own weight, even without the antics of a pathologically progressive priest to help push it to the back pages. After all, Scott McClellan didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was just another disgruntled former employee:

He reveals that he was pushed to leave earlier than he had planned, and he displays some bitterness about that as well as about being sometimes kept out of the loop on key decision-making sessions.

Also, the connection between McClellan’s publisher and George Soros leaves little doubt that Scotty and his book are just teeth on a cog in a much broader agenda. And if anyone still has any doubts, here’s what McLellan had to say about the 2008 presidential race:

Scott McClellan, making the media rounds to promote his book and push back against the ferocious counter-attack by Bush loyalists, declined to come out tonight for John McCain and said he liked what he had heard from Barack Obama.

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“I haven’t made a decision,” McClellan told Katie Couric on CBS’s “Evening News,” when asked if he was backing the Arizona senator. McClellan paid homage to McCain, saying that the Republican nominee had “governed from the center, and that’s where I am.”

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But without prompting, he said he was “intrigued by Sen. Obama’s message.”

Oh, well. Back to the Acme catalog. There’s just got to be something in there that will work next time…

- JP

Sounds like a plan…

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) has a plan. RSC is a caucus of more than 100 of the U.S. House of Representatives’ most conservative Republicans, and their Action Plan for GOP members of the House was announced two days ago. You probably haven’t heard about it before this posting, because the media is unilaterally ignoring it.

Here’s a summary:

1) THE END OF PORK-BARREL SPENDING
House Republicans are committed to ending pork-barrel spending. We will not wait on the Democrat Majority to end “Bridges to Nowhere” and “Monuments to Me”— we declare an immediate earmark moratorium and pledge to reform the system. We also pledge to uphold any future veto of a spending bill that is pork laden and does not lead to a balanced budget.
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2) LIMITING WASHINGTON TAXES AND SPENDING TO WHAT MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES CAN AFFORD
House Republicans are committed to eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax and preventing the scheduled tax increases in 2010 from taking more from the paychecks of hard-working, middle class families. We are also committed to amending the U.S. Constitution to limit the growth of federal spending to the level at which middle class Americans can afford. Except in time of war or national emergency, our spending limit amendment would prohibit federal spending from growing faster than the economy.
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3) A FAIR, SIMPLE TAX CODE THAT AMERICANS CAN UNDERSTAND AND HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPECT
House Republicans are committed to ending a tax code that is too long, too complex and too unfair. Specifically, our legislation would provide comprehensive, individual income tax reform by providing individuals an alternative, two-tier flat tax system that can be filed on one page. Taxpayers can choose the new, simplified system or stay with the current tax code—whichever option suits them.
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4) A FAMILY-FOCUSED, PATIENT-CENTERED HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
House Republicans will reform and improve our current health care system, by 1) providing a refundable health care tax credit to every American to purchase affordable health care coverage, and 2) broadening the array of choices for health insurance plans, by allowing individuals to purchase plans available in other states. These measures will allow Americans who like their current health plan to keep it, while encouraging all individuals to own and control a personal and portable health insurance policy.
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5) AMERICAN ENERGY INDEPENDENCE THROUGH INCREASED EXPLORATION
House Republicans are committed to increasing American energy supplies to lower prices and reduce dependence on Middle Eastern Oil by incentivizing conservation and allowing energy exploration in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf, as well as the development of cleaner coal technologies and alternative fuels.
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6) A LEGAL FRAMEWORK THAT ALLOWS US TO PREVENT TERRORIST ATTACKS
House Republicans are committed to preventing terrorists from attacking America. House Republicans will empower our intelligence agencies to intercept terrorist communications with sources outside of the United States without the lengthy process of getting a warrant that could jeopardize the ability to thwart an attack.
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7) A MORAL APPROACH FOR PARENTS TO PROTECT AND EDUCATE THEIR CHILDREN
House Republicans are committed to supporting parental rights, by 1) ensuring that a child cannot be transported across a state border for an abortion without the consent of a parent or legal guardian, and 2) empowering parents to maintain control over their family’s personal education decisions.
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8.) A WELFARE SAFETY NET THAT FOSTERS MARRIAGE AND WORK
House Republicans are committed to extending many of the current welfare work requirements to other programs — namely food stamps and housing—so that those who are not old, young, or disabled are either working in the private sector or serving in their community. Such reforms will ensure a more stable environment for low-income children by encouraging their parents to marry and raise them in two-parent homes.

With many less-than-conservative House Republicans joining their Dem colleages to vote down domestic drilling and override President Bush’s veto of the disgraceful farm bill this week, the RSC Action Plan is welcome news for Reagan conservatives. It’s about time that conservatives started to show some genuine leadership in their party and in the U.S. House. New ideas have been few and far between from the right lately, and this effort by the RSC breaks the drought.

The plan is timely in that it addresses issues that are key concerns to most Americans today. But it is also timeless in that it builds on a solid foundation of conservative principles which were formulated and refined over many years and stated so well by Ronald Reagan and more recently by former Sen. Fred Thompson. The need for connection to those principles was expressed by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) in an op ed published on National Review Online the same day RSC’s plan was announced:

There was a time when the Republican party was rightly seen as the party of ideas. Under Reagan in the Eighties and the congressional revolutionaries of the mid 1990s, ideas were free flowing as our leaders focused first on American principles as the foundation for their policies. Somewhere along the way we lost this and began replacing principled convictions and forward-looking policies with nostalgia for policies and politicians of past eras. When that happened we stopped connecting with the American people.
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Given the choice between policies that spring forth from American principles and those that do not, the American people will chose the former every time. These are the principles that are engrained in the American character. Our fellow citizens agree that principles like liberty, economic opportunity, self-government, equal rights, and the rule of law should form the bedrock of public policy.
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Now, if we can just get the politicians to agree.

I suggest, Senator, that one way to get politicians to agree is for rank and file conservatives to use the RSC plan as a bull whip to bring into line those House and Senate Repuplicans who shamelessly work against conservative principles and the good of the nation by voting for bad legislation such as the recent farm bill and the measure which prevents new domestic drilling at a time when Americans are seeing their food and fuel costs rising through the roof.

We need to contact our GOP Congress Critters to let them know that if they don’t sign on to the RSC Action plan, we won’t sign on to their bids for re-election. We need to also offer some positive reinforcement to RSC chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) and his conservative House brethern, who are standing up for principle at a time when others are sitting down on theirs. Please send them your thanks.

- JP

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