Congress Approves Drilling Off Coasts

WASHINGTON - The House voted late Tuesday to open waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling but only 50 or more miles out to sea and only if a state agrees to energy development off its shore.

Democratic leaders called it a step toward energy independence, but Republicans labeled it a "sham" because most of the estimated 18 billion barrels of oil believed to lie below off-limits coastal waters are within 50 miles of land and will remain out of bounds.  Yahoo

   Do you hear those Republican oil barons crying in their soup because they did not get what they wanted out of this deal? How about ExxonMobile?

   The thing with this deal is that the GOP will cry and kick and scream for a bit and then the Democrats will decide to come to some sort of compromise tp quiet them down. The Dems will give in and change those 50 miles limits to something closer to the Republicans ( oil company's ) liking. We've seen this kind of crap from the Democrats to many times to believe that they will actually hold their ground on anything important to you and I.

  Even before the House vote, the White House said President Bush was prepared to veto the measure should it reach his desk. An administration statement said the bill would "stifle development" of offshore energy resources by essentially making permanent drilling bans within the 50-mile coastal buffer, while imposing new taxes on the largest oil companies.

  New taxes on the largest oil companies? WTF? They already get some $18 billion in tax breaks. Bush must be worried that those extra taxes will cut into his kickbacks or free vacations.

Technorati Tags: congress,offshore drilling,democrats,republicans,george bush,john mccain,oil

Obama Returns Fire At McCain

Obama saw it coming

by free speech zone @ DKos  Tue Sep 16, 2008

Obama this morning threw down the gauntlet  on McCain. He called McCain out for his lack of leadership on the current economic crisis. he skewers McCain with his own words.

He is on fire!

Today in the battleground state of Colorado, Obama turned up the heat on McCain. Obama reminded us that in Febuary of 2006 he introduced legislation to stop mortgage transactions that promote fraud risk and abuse.

If you want to understand the difference between how Senator McCain and I would govern as President, you can start by taking a look at how we've responded to this crisis. Because Senator McCain's approach was the same as the Bush Administration's: support ideological policies that made the crisis more likely; do nothing as the crisis hits; and then scramble as the whole thing collapses. My approach has been to try to prevent this turmoil. In February of 2006, I introduced legislation to stop mortgage transactions that promoted fraud, risk or abuse. A year later, before the crisis hit, I warned Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke about the risks of mounting foreclosures and urged them to bring together all the stakeholders to find solutions to the subprime mortgage meltdown. Senator McCain did nothing.

Once again Obama shows he was on the right side of the issue. Like Iraq he shows he has the judgment to lead this country. He continues:

Last September, I stood up at NASDAQ and said it's time to realize that we are in this together -- that there is no dividing line between Wall Street and Main Street -- and warned of a growing loss of trust in our capital markets. Months later, Senator McCain told a newspaper that he'd love to give them a solution to the mortgage crisis, "but" -- he said -- "I don't know one."

Obama then turns McCains own words against him. These quotes need to be made into some devastating ads.

This March, in the wake of the Bear Stearns bailout, I called for a new, 21st century regulatory framework to restore accountability, transparency, and trust in our financial markets. Just a few weeks earlier, Senator McCain made it clear where he stands: "I'm always for less regulation," he said, and referred to himself as "fundamentally a deregulator."

The video of his comments are worth a look. There is some damaging info here and if enough people see the hypocrisy that the McCain camp is currently displaying, we can do some serious damage. Le us hope this is a sign of things to come.

Good bye lipstick, hello economy. If this keeps up McCain is in some serious trouble. Start your engines!

Technorati Tags: economy,Barack Obama,John McCain,2008 election