Republicans Playing More Games On House Floor
By Nicole Belle Sunday Aug 03, 2008 4:00pmOh those silly Republicans, trying to show how seriously they take their job to represent their oil lobbyist buddies constituents by repeating the shenanigans of Friday. We've got Roy Blunt castigating the 110th Congress for not passing an appropriations bill, and yet here Congress is, trying to get a veterans' appropriations bill passed and there goes the Republicans, playing games.
The Republicans' unsuccessful attempt to derail the veterans bill comes after President Bush threatened to veto the legislation over excessive spending on veterans and our troops and after Senate Republicans blocked the National Defense Authorization Act in the Senate over the same issue. The House did pass the FY 2009 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill, H.R. 6599 despite the Republican obstruction. This bill provides another much-needed funding increase for veterans' care (11 percent more than last year and $2.9 billion more than the President's request) - building on last year's largest ever increase in the 77-year history of the Veterans' Administration. All of the major veterans groups endorse the measure.
As Chairman Edwards explained, Veterans' organizations also called for its swift passage: "we urge that no impediments are put in its way and that its passage can come quickly and smoothly. The issues in this bill ...are not controversial, and they have broad bipartisan support. Attaching non-germane issues to the veterans funding bill that serve to delay or block passage would truly be wrong." [VFW, 7/25/08] Nonetheless, Republicans attempted to derail the bill by attaching drilling provisions that would destroy some of the nations most pristine areas forever in exchange for savings of only pennies per gallon more than 15 years from now, according to President Bush's own Energy Department. The provisions, however, would provide billions of dollars in profits for the oil industry.
Josh Nelson breaks down exactly how far $2,228,995 goes with some members of Congress.
I don't know how long it will last, but there's a YouTube up of their shenanigans on Friday.
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Interesting, calling for off shore drilling and oil prices dropped again, today along with other commodities. Seems like more drilling isn't needed after all.
Up or down vote, there they go again. Why doesn't Pelosy have a presser every day detailing the republicans obstructionist tactics? Where is the Nuclear option? Fight back for fucks sake!!!!
More drilling contracts only means more oil to be sent to Japan. The US oil companies don't sell to Americans. We aren't willing to pay top dollar. So more off shore drilling will NOT lessen our dependence on foreign oil.
These Republicans are fools and only foolish people support them.
Reich-wingers had the majority in the house and senate for 10 years and NOW they want to do something? Dolts.
That oil is heading straight for Japan, not the US.
Some Very Large peace signs here:
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2008/07/some-very-large-peace-signs.html
I got my hands on some used billboard vinyl...
This is what the GOP has been praying for. Once gas exceeded $4 a gallon, they made their move. Starting with Chimpy and quickly moving on down through Congress.
The GOP will finally get their precious off-shore drilling. This is the moment they have all waited for. Congrat-u-fucking-lations. Believe me, this will happen. Just like with the "weak on security" tag that Dems ran away from...those same spineless Dems will pull a hamstring running away from the label "weak on energy."
Do Americans honestly believe gas prices will instantly drop? Are they that stupid? I guess so.
And what if, by some miracle, gas prices did drop? Then what? Would all those fat ass Americans waddle back to their monster SUVs and resume their energy wasting ways? I'm sure they would. Once again proving how damn dumb Americans are.
Mike @ 2:
You're forgetting. GOP vs. Dems is an unfair fight. It's like men fighting little boys.
If the republican's spent as much time running the country rather than politicking and filling their pockets the US would be in a much better state...
I have this on Roy Blunt Throws Down The Gauntlet thread
159 ysbaddaden Says:
I became nauseated after 30 seconds of this tripe. Gimme a break. Who exactly are they trying to fool.
Wow, the oil companies must have threatened no more political contributions to the repubs at election time if they don't get this job done. What else could cause them to make such fools of themselves?
http://www.house.gov/pelosi/contact/contact.html
Let Nancy Pelosi know that you're sick of a weak Democratic Congress.
Why didn't they drill for oil when they were in power? There trying to strong arm the democrats into doing this so they can take credit for the gas prices coming down. Sure the rest of the country seems to be o.k. with off shore drilling but if you ask people from the coastal states only, then you will get a whole different story.
The Truth Hurts @ 8:
oh, yah .... I forgot.
Republicans Playing More Games On House Floor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sG8y38jvF0
Democrats are above all this.
Democrats are going to lose because of it.
*sigh*
I guess I'll type it one more time. Pelosi could shut this crap off immediately by adding a provision to any drilling bill that all oil recovered by said drilling could ONLY be sold and used in the US. Citizens would be happy with that addition but the oil companies would have a fit but that would be the end of it.
Stupid and foolish. It will probably work. Either America has a death wish or it is just plain dumb.
The humorous aspect here is that even fewer GOPtards are taking part in their squawking today as opposed to Friday's gab/snoozefest, 20 today, about 48 Friday.
Oh, and I guess W's not out to help his own party, he's not calling the House back into session, even though it would probbly help McCain's campaign for at least one 24 hour news cycle.
Good job Repubs, can't even get a majority of your own members to bash the Dems.
What utter mindless bollocks ........... does anyone in that country even understand what critical thinking is ?
These blowhards make me sick! Can't the American people see them for what they are? Are the people that damned dumb? The repugs in congress think so. Or else they would not even be bringing this up if they thought the American people were smart enough to see through the theatrics. Where have these guys been for the last eight years? They wait til the Democrats get the majority and then throw a tantrum. Good job repugs. I hate what our government has become and afraid we ain't seen nothin' yet!
Teapot-Dome never ended. It's just more of the same from a very powerful lobby whose product SHOULD be obsolete. In any case, they're running out of product. So they are going to grab as much power as they can before they become irrelevant.
Millions for oil companies and Halliburton and zero for our deserving veterans. Support the troops my ass. They are only expendable pawns in a desperate attempt to validate the philosophy of a morally bankrupt party.
[Deleted. Off topic. Site Monitor]
Got to disagree on this one. Remaining dependent on foreign oil is the height of idiocy. We drill at home and we save money, grow our economy, avoid silly wars, prevent troop casualties, and reduce the flow of money to the very Arab terrorists that are trying to kill us. Obama and Pelosi are wrong on this one.
Ironically, Bush's Administration admits it will be 10 years before this even makes an impact....while their supporters think it will be instant. Somehow, the memo didn't quite filter down to the cubicle-dwellers...
Anyone want to start a pool on how long it will take for the Democrats to cave on this?
Bush Cabal is setting the oil downside up so McCain takes credit.
Next year we'll see $200 per barrel.
The Truth Hurts @ 7:
Face it, Peak Oil's coming whether or not we like it. Eventually oil's gonna be so expensive only the Bill Gates will be able to afford it, and by that time, it will be meaningless, due to the rest of the common folks like me not being able to afford it...
J.C. @ 28:
Or pass a bill thats even worse then the one the Republicans proposed?
CMINCA @ 11:
The voters.
liberAL @ 22:
I really really would like to think there is another option, though it seems not to be the case.
Republicans are good whores ..... they stay bought.
General_Rennenkampf @ 30:
I saw a post the other day where a person said wear a lettuce leaf under your cap to stay cool. I guess it was a great depression survival tactic.
Obama makes a shift, says tap oil reserves
Reuters - 1 hour, 23 minutes ago
I think he meant tap the Bush Private Reserve.
Why are not the Democrats making the debate about the 68,000,000 acres that the oil companies are not drilling on right now? Why? Pelosi even said that there are another 20,000,000 acres in Alaska they are not drilling on. Turn this debate around and get it on track.
If they do pass some bill there better be something that says that every drop of oil they pump goes to the U.S. market only. Not one drop to Japan or China.
Captain Bitter Whiner Husein Kangaroo @ 37:
Their on vacation for the rest of the month.
F*ck the repub thugs. Pushing "energy plans" that will save us a whole nickel a gallon in 10 years, brilliant. Time for an energy plan that doesn't involve crude oil at all, we have to stop being addicted to energy that we cannot replenish.
Captain Bitter Whiner Husein Kangaroo @ 38:
They'll sell it to the highest bidder. Doesn't matter if it's some tyrant somewhere overseas we're irrelevant. The bankers don't care if the U.S. crumbles. They want their money and with interest.
L.A. Confidential @ 39:
They have had months to pounce on this.
Clinton. (Oil Per Barrel) 1998 11.61
No wonder Big Oil hated Clinton.
L.A. Confidential @ 41:
The congress can write it into a bill. U.S. oil stays in the U.S.
Captain Bitter Whiner Husein Kangaroo @ 38:
It will go to the highest bidder, the US campaigned for "open markets" that it could subsidise then manipulate, now it's time for the world to get it's own back and the US cannot "afford" to not do what China says at the moment, you chose that route as a country,
linkster @ 26 No, sorry; you are wrong here. If drilling is permitted wherever the oil Corporations wish it will not lower the price for Americans because they will sell much of it abroad. Not only that; there is no failsafe way of offshore drilling. Seaboard states will find their tourism trade ruined on a regular basis, especially after the recent giveaway to Petroleum Corporations by the SCOTUS.
Captain Bitter Whiner Husein Kangaroo @ 42:
Yeah. Just like they we're going to end the Iraq Mess in 07.
Captain Bitter Whiner Husein Kangaroo @ 44:
Bush will just strike it from the bill. Like he always has with everything else he didn't like.
L.A. Confidential @ 47:
Point well made!!
Well later sitting around complaining and being cynical isn't going to accomplish anything.
L.A. Confidential @ 48:
Nothing he has stricken from any bill has been tested in court. It is illegal for him to do it even though he has done it. If it is tested in court he will lose.
We need WAAAAY more of these amateur videos being shit in secret backroom meetings between members of congress. Maybe have someone get elected and fit them with a hidden camera, have them do tons of blackwater deals with other congressmen and senators and then turn it all over to the FBI on condition of immunity. Or if they won't give it, the BBC who isn't pressed by american law not to broadcast it.
The reserve oil is your oil.
You paid for it.
Anyhoo, the dems will cave when they get their big oil checks.
Business as usual.
When will that change?
Off topic a little bit but I just had an idea. An Obama ad showing McShame with one foot in the grave. The whole ad takes place in a cemetery and there is McGrandpa with one foot in the grave.
Sorry I find that funny especially after McBush said his Paris Hilton ad was suppose to be funny.
All I can hope is that there are some Democratic challengers for these House seats paying attention and taking notes. Fill these House seats with people who want to work for real solutions instead of playing games like these.
Kinda' reminds me of high school student council elections!! Seriously, if we were smart about this oil stuff - we'd buy up all hte foreign oil (or steal it like in Iraq), and when all the rest is depleted, we'd still have our own stuff on our own coast left to drill.
The best part was looking right up Mike Pence's nose - I can now confirm, there is no actual brain in his head!!
The Repugs have one problem. The White House is not backing them. Bush could force their hand, but he isn't. Who knows, maybe Bush is hanging out in Crawford. I just can't wait for him to finally leave.
the rethuglicans just make me so angry
with their outrageous tactics of deceit
that i really am sorry that the guillotine
is not a remedy to this disgusting display
of bastards who only support the corporate
sector and not the American people.
WTF does oil drilling have to do with Defense Appropriations?
L.A. Confidential @ 35:
No...they're just stupid. People in the days of the Depression stayed cool by staying outside, as AC and some of the other creature comforts of today didn't exist. That's assuming they had the time to stay cool, as opposed to standing in breadlines or hopping rails or fleeing the Dust Bowl or any of the other nastiness of that era. Lest we forget, FDR was the only thing standing (oops, bad pun, please forgive) between the US and either a fascist or communist revolution.
Che's Lounge @ 59:
They are the two groups that run the US, the US has everything to do with both of them, everything else is the glossy lining of a lie that is the americon dream, wake up.
Illegal?
Aren't cameras on the House floor illegal? I thought only C-Span and press-passed journalists were allowed, and no one with a press pass would take credit for this ugly shooting...
Youtube-licans, happy to grind down the poor as long as they get to indulge various perversions, both consitutional and otherwise.
If by chance any Democratic member(s) of the Congress is reading this I'd like to introduce this word into your vernacular....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intestinal_fortitude
What a waste. All that hot air could power the country for decades at least.
Cal damage
I think that it's illegal when the House is in session. This appears to be an after hours event- which makes me wonder aloud: how often are political rallies like this one held on the floor of the House chambers?
w is going to the Olympics.
Priorities people.
The dems are going too so the gop are on their own.
Didn't I hear that the refineries are running at full capacity and a new one hasn't been built in 30 years or so? The Republicans haven't mentioned that, as far as I know.
Drill for oil now and get 4 cents off in 2017....what a deal.
RENT SOME BALLS.... it is time to put CLASS WARFARE to the test !!!!!
I have a SERIOUS question. Has anyone asked a CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER (not Pelosi, she doesn't know the law)
How is it legal for the Republicans to stay on the house floor when the house is closed and use it for party business
and to get on C-span to boot?
Isn't this illegal?
Okay...let's count. The Republican Party had majority control of Congress for almost a decade. And they've held the White House for 20 out of the last 28 years. Good thing for them that Americans are so disengaged from reality.
Chet Edwards is a class act. Honoring his opponent but saying he was disagreeing with him on this point. A Republican would be assailing Chet Edward's patriotism and attacking him personally.
After the next election cycle there will be less of these bastards. Just gotta hang on a little while longer...
Besides the cheap theatrics that make me wanna puke, and the hanging question of why they are SO eager help out the "stuggling" oil companies, one overriding thought just sticks in my mind:
You'd think this problem just magically materialized last week. It's not like we didn't see this coming down the pike for the 6 years they controlled Congress and gas prices soared off the charts, where the F*** were they then with all this rhetoric of "desperately wanting to help out the consumer"???
Just how many issues did Dennis Hastert when he was the Republican speaker stop from getting a debate on the house floor?
Gas prices have already come down without additional off shore drilling give aways and without a gasoline tax holiday. These Republics are full of shit.
I call on everyone to bring down the rating of the Connie video and give 5 stars to the Edwards one.
It's not much but it's a nice start
L.A. Confidential @ 35:
Was it a tin foil cap?
When the adults are away, the republicans will play.
The GOP has to tie up the vote on Veterans' Appropriations because this is the one bill Bush apparently said he would not veto according article Fred Barnes (Republican operative writer for The Weekly Standard) wrote.
"An Unusually Effective Minority"
Bush and the congressional GOP embarrass the Democrats.
"Bush and Republicans have formed a kind of mutual encouragement society. On spending bills, House Republicans organized enough votes to ensure that Bush vetoes of spending bills would be sustained. And the president has promised to veto all of them except the appropriations for veterans."
.
Q U E S T I O N:
Were Republicans and Dino Dem's protecting AMERICANS when they voted to take away individual inalienable Rights to pursue Justice?
.
OMG...this is beyond appalling....this is infuriating! What a dysfunctional screwed up legislative body this has become. It's to the point of absurdity when Jerry Lewis R-Ca can stand up there at the podium in all his arrogant glory and declare that those veterans need cheap gas too! WTF....we are talking about healing their wounds, providing them with physical therapy and medication and all other health care needs. And this J*ck*ss is bringing OIL into the bill? We are so screwed in this nation because people like him are taking a system of government, corrupting it, and at the same time trashing civility! This guy needs to be taken out to woodshed! These are the most unpatriotic, un-American, arrogant, con-men who pull this sh*t! All I can say to the youth of this country, is by God, don't give this slime bunch of rat bastards one ounce of your blood because this is how they will repay you when you come back from Iraq broken for life. It's a damn shame this passes for statesmanship in the US Congress today!
Absolutely disgusted!
.
Q U E S T I O N:
How much will the price of gas be in 7-10 years when and if this resource arrives at the pump... $8.00/gal?
How will this affect the price of food at the market?
A loaf of bread... $8.00?
A pound of strawberries... $10.00?
A gallon of milk... $12.00?
And will I still be making $7.25/hour in 2016?
Will my rent be double by then?
Realities no one dares confront because it is so ugly.
Beware America, the great depression will look like a LOTTO jackpot...
.
The thing to remember about Republicans is that they prey on the simple minded. They do the bidding of Big Business and are 100% marketing.
I take great umbrage with everyone criticizing the GOP for this tactic. It's not like they had any time in the 12 years they controlled the show to get anything about energy done. I mean they had to focus on priorities, like brain dead chicks in Florida, dudes marrying dudes, sweeping failures under the rug (the rug finally got so much crap underneath it reached the ceiling), and scaring folks senseless about all those liberals. But people are hurting now. Sure, they were hurting before with no health care, but providing health care would be socialism. Handouts aren't for people, they are for oil companies! So the GOP has to do something now, before anyone notices what a train wreck McCain is and how totally screwed we are as a party in November.
Why is it that the Democrats stand up for veterans, yet military personnel vote overwhelmingly for Republicans? Can't people understand their own interests?
Why are the Democrats allowing Republicans to insinuate the "socialization" of America's oil?
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