August recess: Allen says go, Collins says stay

Let's see... hmmm... Republicans in the majority for seven years, Republicans in power for six of the last nine administrations. Two "oil men" in the White House the last eight years. Probably 90% of the "economic stimulus" checks Presidunt Bush gave us, at least in ME anyway, went right into ExxonMobil's bank account. Any oil wells dug because of the lifting of the ban on drilling in the US will not show up in your gas tank for another decade.

And all this is the Democratic Congress's fault.

And a black man running for president is compared to two dumb blond white female celebrities.

Only in Republican America could this insanity prevail....

But wait, just wait:

George Bush has taken the entire month of August off every year while he's been president, despite our nation being at war.

He did give up golf, at least - except he didn't.

And John McCain hasn't actually cast a vote in how long now? Susan Collins, co-chair of McCain's campaign in Maine, is going to criticize Tom Allen when McCain has missed over half the votes since Jan 2007?

What is unfortunate is that this theatre is being presented as news.

In your rush to blame all on Republicans you've seem to forgotten, or neglected, or just outright lied on a couple points.

You missed Jeffords defection in 2001 giving us Senate Majority leader Daschle - that would be a Dem.

You appear to have missed the Democrats sweep to power in 2006.

And you seem to want to forget that Democrats blocked more drilling 8 years ago - drilling then would have the oil on the market now.

Funny how folks like you want to not drill now because it won't help for years but tend to neglect that those that you support blocked all efforts when it was needed to have the oil here now.

minor facts getting in the way of your otherwise decent rant.

...where did I make a mistake? Laid out the facts. Since you didn't refute the lack of GOP control these last 7 years I'll just take that as you acknowledge the GOP hasn't had control the whole time.

Who'd I blame? No one. I pointed out that using the argument that oil won't be here for years when the people you support blocked drilling years ago is more than a little disingenuous.

Glad to see you acknowledge that the price is because of supply and demand. Given that other countries have built and are building more refineries, whether we build one or not is irrelevant to supply/demand side of refined product. Question there is who gets the money for it? US, Saudi's, Venezuela or Mexico? Makes no sense to eliminate foreign crude imports if we're just trading that for foreign refined product imports.

beats me why they want more leases. I never made that point - you did to make a strawman. Have fun with it.

So, just where was it that I was wrong? Some fantasy land on the Kennebec unless I miss my guess.

I like you. You're sincere in your beliefs. I have to ask though....where did I advocate off shore drilling here?

The first comment made claims that simply weren't true. I pointed out the facts of the matter. I also pointed out that using the argument that more drilling won't bring oil to market for 8 years or so when the person making that argument supports politicians that blocked drilling 8 years ago is a bit on the silly side of things.

That isn't an endorsement of offshore drilling. You and the anonymous guy can argue offshore drilling or just plain ol' expanded drilling all you want but its nothing I brought into the conversation.

Cheers.

I see. So we should all just let untruthful statements go? Nice position you have there.

So tell me, how do you defend telling lies? Oh, I know, by making things up about the guy telling the truth.

I'm not the one that presented provable lies in this discussion. Just because people don't agree doesn't mean that we should allow lies to be told about them.

But I guess you and I can disagree about that point as well.

Cheers!

Seriously?

I corrected Caleb on his facts and commented that it's a bit silly to use the argument that drilling now won't help for 8 years when 8 years ago the people Caleb supports used that same argument.

You jumped in and said I was mistaken. I asked you where I was mistaken - you've said nothing on the matter. Instead you claim that speaking the truth is being an apologist and now your demanding I play the part of the apologist.

Again, are you drunk or just stupid?

That Carol Andrews and the rest of the Tom Allen campaign consistently make poor decisions on what they are saying, releasing and where they are telling Allen to be?

Tom Allen is going to get destroyed (so none of this banter here is relevant anyway) and it is mostly because he has perhaps the worst campaign staff in Maine electoral history.

...there are some people who don't understand how Congress works who have been taken in by the Democratic propaganda on the vote. Like you, GW.

The vote to adjourn was not meaningless; the pro forma sessions are not ones that actually give an opportunity to legislate. That's what pro forma means. The only chance to have solved the energy crisis before the election just passed us by, and Democrats showed they don't care. That they don't even want to talk about it.

Regardless of parliamentary terms, the Senate is in recess. There are not daily votes, or daily committee hearings, or any of the normal activities that take places when the Senate is in session. They voted to adjourn, so they are in recess. The pro forma sessions to which you refer have no bearing on this issue. They are simply Democrat's way of subverting the Constitution.

Ok, so we reform speculation in the American markets. How do you propose to keep speculators from just moving to London? Hong Kong? Beijing? Madrid?

The bill to end speculation makes it a crime for American speculators to trade in oil and energy futures outside the United States.
The Republicans lied about Iraq. What makes any of you think they aren't lying about drilling.
The Department of Energy says that if leases were issued today the production (and the price) of oil would not be affected for 22 years. Oil Companies aren't going to drill $3 billion wells if they don't think they are going to recover a great deal more than $3 billion in Oil. The Atlantic and Pacific Coasts have not be explored. No one knows if they contain one drop of oil. The Oil Companies need the price of oil in the $150 range to just explore for oil in these areas.
We need an immediate solution to the oil price bubble. Release 100 million barrels from the strategic reserve; release the home heating oil reserve. Pass the speculators bill which the Republicans are obstructing and close the Enron loophole. Then deal with the long term problems - the trade deficit and its result the falling dollar, the oil companies failure to invest in oil production, the millions of acres sitting idle.
We can have $60 oil by Christmas if the Republicans want to deal with the crisis. If they don't and it appears they don't given their threat to shutdown the Federal Government unless we surrender to their extortion well then the people should blame them.

"...the argument that drilling now won't help for 8 years when 8 years ago the people Caleb supports used that same argument...". We need to recognize this statement for what it is - propaganda.
This is a classic half truth. 8 years ago gasoline sold for $.96 today it over $3.90. Oil was selling between $20-$30 today just under $120. Oil Companies were not drilling anywhere 8 years ago. And if we had leased offshore areas, the Federal Government would have had to give the leases away. 8 years ago there was absolutely no reason to open up offshore resources to very risky drilling. But that was before the Bush devaluation of the dollar and the Bush occupation of Iraq which took 2 million barrels of Oil off the market per day.
The situation has radically changed so any comparison to 8 years ago is an illogical and phony argument.

...how you'll keep the speculators from moving operations overseas. Your whole plan falls apart without preventing that. Problem is, it can't be prevented.