Bad Cops here.

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

yeah, I am sorry she didn't go for impeachment, but it would have looked like she was trying to take the White House by stealth. I am really really sorry that she didn't do the right thing on FISA.

But she did the right thing on Social Security, Medicare, and now off show oil drilling. Maybe we should take some joy in our victories.

Thanks Cindy Sheehan for polling well enough that Speaker Pelosi has to throw the Bay area a bone on this off shore drilling issue.

and then, somehow, we didn't. I applaud Pelosi for doing this, I just don't believe it will last.

The most important part of Obama's statement on offshore drilling was this one - "I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done" - get used to it, it's going to be said repeatedly on just about every issue.

This time it's probably good politics (which is why, unlike Social Security, I don't think Pelosi's stand will hold or that it's even intended to do so permanently). Thanks to the need to trash Hillary's gas tax rebate, the Dems have no policy to lower gas prices. No catchy idea that they can use to reassure the masses they feel their pain. The Dems are reduced to telling people to inflate their tires and improve efficiency. Which is great, but isn't exactly going to get rid of the pain for those who've done all they can to reduce their consumption but still have to pay more than they can afford for gas.

The GOP has been excellent at seizing this issue and running with offshore drilling. Sure, it won't lower prices, but at least it makes it sound like the Government is doing something. People want the Government to do something. If you don't propose anything, then the vaccuum created gets filled with really awful ideas.

It seems that even now the GOP is still the party of ideas and the Dems are playing catch up. We're compromising with them because we don't have proposals of our own or, when we do, we do a lousy job of selling them. Not that "see my website" isn't a very persuasive policy argument.

As Lewis Black observed:

Allow me to explain how our federal government works. To begin with, by the federal government I mean Democrats and Republicans working together. And the only thing dumber than a Democrat and a Republican is when those pricks work together.

You see, in our two-party system, the Democrats are the party of no ideas and the Republicans are the party of bad ideas. It usually goes something like this.

A Replubican will stand up in Congress and say, "I've got a really bad idea."

And a Democrat will immediately jump to his feet and declare, "And I'm gonna make it shittier."

Instead of trying to explain or argue why the GOP ideas are bad, the Dems are perfectly happy to try to make it less bad. Because, you know, they don't want to be so rigid as to not enact awful Republican policies. Oh, excuse me, they're enacting slightly less awful Republican policies.

Until the U.S. opens its offshore waters to oil drilling, it will be seen as the world’s worst energy hypocrite.

http://www.american.com/archive/2008/jul...

So much for improving the world's image of Americans.

And what of the Obama and his venture taking oil moneys in Houston. The gang of 10 in the senate, what's to become of that?

Talking about health care. Did anybody see what the governator is up to in California?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-...

A Republican governor has been trying to get this done for two years with Democrats telling him it's too expensive!

From overseas...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2496902/...

This isn't aimed at Obama only, its everyone: can pols start saying we need to stop being dependent on oil, PERIOD?

A few years ago, the "foreign oil" thing was useful because gas wasn't so bad and people didn't want to destroy the earth. Also, "mid east oil" was code for supporting terrorism. Today, gas is killing families and they are now more willing to drill anywhere even though it won't help much. Instead of going after the fundamental enemy--oil--we are only talking about "foreign" oil. Yeah, most oil is foreign, but focusing on that misses the fundamental problem.

"The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017. Total domestic production of crude oil from 2012 through 2030 in the OCS access case is projected to be 1.6 percent higher than in the reference case, and 3 percent higher in 2030 alone, at 5.6 million barrels per day. Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant."

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/otherana...

bottomline: offshore drilling is effectively useless and is little more than a handout to the oil companies.

does not mean Pelosi will cave.

that we cannot see good work when we see it?

I don't hate the woman. I just think she and all of her fellow Gang of Eight members belong in front of a tribunal in the Hague.

I for one am grateful to Pelosi for doing the right thing. Period.

she is the only one in the leadership who opposed the war.

That's nice.