Offtopic Drilling
An interesting topic has come up in the House of Representatives; Offshore Drilling. In the midst of mind-boggling high prices, America begged for a scapegoat, and the conservative talk show hosts were more than willing to oblige. The problem is that we don’t drill enough off of the US coasts! Forget the fact that refineries are already working at capacity, so shoving more oil into them won’t help. Not that the democratic plan of “Shut your eyes, spin around 3 times, and hope it goes away” is working much better either.
Anyway, the Republicans decided that perhaps the Democrats did know a thing or two about the public opinion involved in drilling in National Wildlife Rescues, so they pulled a magnificent feat of political expediency. They needed a good way to look like they cared enough to act, without risking any action being taken. This happens very frequently in Congress, and both parties are so good at it that nothing ever gets done. The republicans planned to call for a vote on lifting the Off-shore drilling ban about a week ago. However, they waited until Friday, August 1. Why? Because that’s when Congress was scheduled to take its Scheduled Summer Work Break. So, the Repubs call for it right before Congress is supposed to leave for a month. They can look like they tried, but in a month the public won’t remember this at all. Quite brilliant, really. It’s akin to going into your parent’s room at 2 am on christmas morning and trying to change what you wanted for Christmas.
So, Pelosi, being the bitter woman she is, called for a motion to adjourn the Congress for the break. You can find the results of the vote here:
http://www.opencongress.org/roll_call/show/4967
The most interesting thing to notice here is that it required a 50% “ayes” to pass, and they only got 49%, but the House still adjourned. Either dishonest or bad math, I’m unsure.
Either way, Pelosi got played like a cheap violin. If she had thought it was a dumb idea, the democrats would have voted the idea down. However, if she adjourned early because she thought it would have passed, then that just seems dishonest.
Another fantastic political manuever designed to get absolutely nothing accomplished in the longest possible amount of time.
The republicans stayed in the chambers to protest the adjourning. So pelosi had CSPAN removed from the chambers and shut off the lights and the mics. Like throwing a temper tantrum. The republicans replied in childish kind by drawing pictures of the democrats energy plan in a mocking fashion, and then marching around the aisles (yes this really happened). Of course nothing happened in the end, but it sure was funny.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I’m so tired of this argument. What people don’t know is that offshore drilling won’t lower the price of oil, even if it came out of the ground refined. This is just another push by oil companies to stockpile leases and make more money.
Even if someone else with the capital to actually do this drilling came along and thought, “Hey, an outmoded energy source!” and tried to compete, it would take years just to create the infrastructure to use the oil they would be hypothetically drilling. And in another decade or two, we won’t be driving cars that burn gasoline.
But, by all means, kill all the Caribou. Caribou are fuckers!