The Republicans intend to continue their silliness in Congress today, in an attempt to fool the American people into thinking that high gas prices are the Democrat’s fault and that there is anything that can really be done about it:
Having thoroughly enjoyed their revival-style meeting on the House floor Friday, a group of Republican lawmakers plan to return to the chamber today to deliver more speeches on why they believe Congress should come back from its August break to vote on allowing more domestic and offshore oil drilling.
The first thing to note here is that Capitol Briefing is going to keep calling this spectacle “The Phantom Session,” in hopes that the phrase catches on so he can trademark it, print T-shirts, cash in and retire to an island where no one cares about gasoline prices because we can walk from our villas to the beach.
Fortunately, my crack research staff already has obtained this videotape, which will give you a preview of the proceedings from the GOP:
Election year stunts.
harlana pepper
Yo comments section is effed up, dearie. Comments are running off the screen.
nightjar
Just heard Larry Kudlow on Morning Joe claim that the untapped oil off the coast of California was so abundant it was seeping from the Ocean floor and spoiling the beaches. His remedy for this phenomenon was immediate drilling to lap up this excess of oil seep, before it pollutes the Ocean.
El Cid
The only problem with the video is that in the video, the ex-porn star / wrestler / President actually backs the guy with the real, scientific plan (“Water? Like, from the toilet?”). If it really were the GOP, they’d mainly be concentrating on listening to the leading lights of the Plant Water Skepticism Movement and making fun of Mr. Big IQ for being all smart & elitist & sh*t.
harlana pepper
I have no idea what that was, don’t really care but it’s lol good. Very apropos, sans the biceps, of course.
harlana pepper
El Cid: Also, I noticed the guy was promised a pardon afterwards IF he did his job RIGHT. Smells too much like accountability for republican tastes.
Dennis - SGMM
Anyone care to guess how many Americans believe that all they have to do is drill offshore and connect a hose to the gas station?
Anyone else want to hold your breath until our media makes mention of the military’s 40 million barrel a year consumption of oil in Iraq? How about the DOD’s 144 million barrel total annual consumption?
Jake
OT, but Greenwald’s piece on the implications of the latest antrhax attack news, and the complicity of ABC News in fostering national hysteria around the connection to Iraq, is a must read.
The Grand Panjandrum
I thought we were supposed to go shopping to save our country. Now we need to drill offshore to save the ocean. What next? Outdoor trench urinals to unsure our future water supply? Or will the melting polar ice caps make Albuquerque beach front property?
Zifnab
This won’t fly, because oil prices will still be high in November. Republicans can play this card now in an attempt to drum up support for their failed policies, but they are still riding on failed policies.
And I’m convinced this is going to cause them more pain in Florida, the southeast and the gulf coast than they gain. The Republicans who care about their beach front property aren’t going to take kindly to oil drilling off the coast of their million dollar seaside villas. Rich people still don’t care about $4 gas. They do care about massive drops in property values.
Crusty Dem
I always thought the republicans in congress were more like this.
But major props for the idiocracy. I can’t believe that movie got buried like that.
Walker
And they have just as much control over this as they do oil prices. Property values in Florida are already toast.
AkaDad
It’s shocking to see the Republicans support a policy that does nothing to lower gas prices or get us off oil. This is so atypical of them.
joe
And also, GET THESE F*CKING BUGS OFF OF ME!
libarbarian
what the hell was that?
toujoursdan
It’s sad to see political expediency win out over facing the real challenge of rising oil prices. The U.S. Government’s own Energy Information Agency says that drilling offshore will have an “insignificant” effect on oil prices.
Impacts of Increased Access to Oil and Natural Gas Resources in the Lower 48 Federal Outer Continental Shelf
More and more mainstream analysts believe the world may have reached peak oil production and will start down the downslope over the next couple decades. New oil discoveries will not keep up with declining production from mature oil fields. Instead of looking at feel-good measures, we need someone to take some kind of real leadership on this issue, acknowledge our way of life is about to change and look for ways to mitigate some of the worst of it coming down the pipeline.
This was all predicted in 2005 in a report for the US Department of Energy, but 3 years later, no one is talking about it.
Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management (PDF)
cain
I’m fairly sure that people in California, Oregon, and Washington would be pretty pissed off having oil rigs being built off their shores. It’s all public property along the cost. Not exactly the kind of scenery you want to see and it’s not going to help people now.
Govt needs to start ramping up public transport. There are soem awesome technology to invest in. I know that we could really get some awesome interstate commerce if we had a high speed corridor between LA/SF/Portland/Seattle/Vancover. No vision…
cain
John S.
Check the polls on this. Our fellow Americans fell for this nonsense hook, line and sinker.
BRAWNDOOFFSHORE OIL! It’s got whatplantscars crave –ELECTROLYTESFOSSIL FUELS!Welcome to the idiocracy, my friends.
Zifnab
Property values will bounce back. The land hasn’t become worthless in and of itself. People just don’t have the money to buy into it.
Now sink a bunch of wells up and down the coast and pollute the water with a few million gallons of gasoline and we can talk about property values being toast.
mellowjohn
better solution to kudlow’s drilling idea: great big rolls of paper towels!
btw, for those of you wondering, the clip is from a movie called “idiocracy.” it’s pretty funny and a very prescient look at were we could be headed with more gop rule.
John S.
A minor quibble, but they will be REALLY far off the shore.
Federal leasable waters begin at 3 miles from the coastline everywhere except the Gulf Coast where it begins at 8 miles, and extends outward for up to 200 miles. The state can lease the land inside the federal zone (they have jurisdiction), but it is highly unlikely that they would.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
Sadly, no:
Florida Voters Warm to Offshore Drilling
John S.
Nah. Gah. Hapn.
Even Charlie Crist isn’t gonna stick a rig anywhere inside the 8 mile coastal boundary he has control over.
Of course the bigger issue (short term) is the property values themselves. My HELOC was frozen b/c according to the bank my house devalued 45% in one year and now they demand a Shylockian 60% LTV (Chase, go fuck yourself).
The Other Steve
US oil exports at all time high
I believe we’ve found the reason for gas prices being so high. We’re exporting our refined product out of the country.
Exports increased a dramatic 30% from 2007 to early 2008.
Supposedly we have tight refinery capacity, but somehow we’re able to export this stuff?
Crusty Dem
Technically true, John S, but the drilling will always start close to shore, where it’s cheapest.. And some people take their concern about coastal views to unbelievable extremes. People are notoriously NIMBY (seriously, check out the terrible “destruction” of their view, it’s just ridiculous).
John S.
We’re cashing in, too!
Gus
And won’t it be shocking to watch Joe Sixpack lap this bullshit up like it’s Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey? Christ, the average American voter is fucking stupid.
KRK
If it weren’t oil drilling, it would be something else necessitating a Playskool(R) Congress.
There’s no way these Republicans want to have to use the August recess for its usual purpose — going home to talk to constitutents. They might actually get asked a substantive question. Can’t have that.
Walker
Then it does not have that value. Inflation of the money supply so that people do have the money does not restore the value of the land. It just destroys the value of the dollar so that the nominal price of the land is the same. But the buying power of the selling price of the land is actually much less.
Notorious P.A.T.
That movie is so awesome. We’re halfway there already. Anyone who hasn’t seen it is missing out.