Posted by
Douglas V. Gibbs on Saturday, August 02, 2008 2:47:03 AM

A
five week August recess is upon the United States Congress. House
speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the Democrats turned out the lights
and killed the microphones, adjourning while Republicans were still on
the floor talking about gas prices, and how to bring those prices down.
Minority
Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and his fellow GOP leaders opposed the
motion to adjourn the House of Representatives, claiming that voting on
allowing off-shore oil drilling is more important than a vacation, and
is hurting the American economy by being left unsettled. The
Republicans called their actions the new Boston Tea Party, and refused
to leave the floor after the adjournment motion at 11:23 AM, and
remained until right at the stroke of 5:00 PM, when Georgia
Representative Tom Price announced that House Republicans were stopping
their impromptu protest on the floor of the chamber. They ended the
five-plus-hour uprising with a singing of "God Bless America."
During
the five hour GOP Uprising, the Republicans continued their argument
that Congress needs to take up new energy legislation.
The
protesting conservatives gave impromptu speeches, and nearly filled the
seats of the chamber with staffers, Boy Scouts and tourists in an
attempt to pressure Democrats to hold a vote on offshore oil drilling
and other GOP energy ideas.
Republicans are now saying that in the end about 45 congressmen took part.
When
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats departed they made sure that all sound
systems had been turned off, but it is being reported that the noise
was easy to hear from outside the chamber.
The crowd on the
floor chanted, "Vote! Vote! Vote!" after Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), called
for more action on energy and urged each person to tell 10 others to
join the cause.
Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX) said he was on
a plane ready to take off for Texas when he heard his GOP colleagues
were still on the floor. He immediately headed back to the Capitol to
participate in this historic event.
On the floor Representative Thaddeus McCotter proclaimed, "This is the people's House, this is not Pelosi’s politiburo."
The
assembled tourists, aides and members in the chamber gave the GOP a
standing ovation, shouting "USA! USA! USA!" as they departed when it
ended.
Democratic aides were furious at the GOP stunt, kicking
reporters out of the Speaker's Lobby, the space next to the House floor
where they normally interview lawmakers.
"You're not covering
this, are you?" complained one senior Democratic aide. Another called
the Republicans "morons" for staying on the floor.
At 11:00 PM
here in California while surfing all of the news networks and broadcast
networks, the only ones talking about this event at all was Fox News.
One
of the tourists that attended, a self-described Republican that
supported the effort, said, "The fact that Democrats left before
getting their work done is highly disappointing."
Republicans
have been demanding a vote on this issue of drilling domestically for a
few days now, and the Democrats have avoided it all the way up to
adjourning and running off on vacation.
Will the Republicans
carry this into Monday? I suggest that we demand that it does! After
all, they are there to serve the public. The U.S. Constitution begins
"We The People," and I suggest we remind our Congress exactly what that
means. Contact your Congressional Representatives and demand that they
depart from their home in their respective districts and return to
Washington D.C. to complete their duties! They have dropped the ball,
so we cannot drop the ball on this too. This is too important. The GOP
has put the Democrats on notice, and the American people need to make
sure we demand that all of them (including the Dems) return to the
House and vote on the issues regarding energy. Watching as this story
has developed, it has become obvious to me which party cares and gives
a care about the American people, and it is certainly not the Democrats.
These
Republicans that have staged this modern day Boston Tea Party, however,
must follow through. They must finish what they started. I expect to
see them still in Washington on Monday - otherwise, it will be
painfully obvious that they have not "grown a pair" after all.
Read more about this on A Newt One, CNN, Hot Air, and Politico.

Barack
Obama's shifts in his positions on issues are becoming the stuff of
legend. Many opponents of Barack Obama call him the ultimate
flip-flopper. The Obama-churian candidate is never called on his
flip-flops, however, because he is one that wears a teflon shield
powered by the mainstream media's love affair with him.
The Democrat's Presidential Nominee's flip-flopping is so bad, that BothWaysBarack.com
says that Obama actually is not a flip-flop candidate - he's much
worse! According to the site, Obama is not a flip-flopper at all
because flip-floppers only hold one position at a time. Senator Obama
is different, according to their TV ad - Obama holds two positions at
the same time! In the ad they go through some of Obama's more legendary
"changes of position," beginning with the ban on handguns, where he is
on record for being both for, and against, banning handguns; then both
ways on public financing; both ways on withdrawing from Iraq (pull out
now? Or in 16 months after January 2009?). This, the ad claims, is
worse than being a flip-flopper.
Obama's changes in position are nothing new, however. Last February the Washington Post did an article on the "Top Obama Flip-Flops,"
detailing five of Barack's changes in position up to that point. In the
article, they specifically zeroed in on his changing positions on
Special interests, public financing, the Cuba embargo, Illegal
immigration, and the decriminalization of marijuana.
Now, as the
annointed one realizes that his position may not be very popular on yet
another issue, Obama has changed his position again! This time, his
change of position on an issue is in regards to off-shore oil drilling.
Obama said today that he would be willing to support limited additional
offshore oil drilling if that's what it takes to enact a comprehensive
policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy
sources.
When McCain dropped his opposition to off-shore oil
drilling the Democrats and the media jumped all over it, accusing
McCain of being a flip-flopper (though his changes are rare and far
between). In fact, the Democrats "Ripped McCain" for his oil drilling "flip-flop."
Will they do the same for Obama? Will they rip into Obama for his
change of position on this issue? Of course not. He is a habitual
flip-flopper (or both-ways politician), and they have yet to call him
on any of them!
Goes back to that teflon shielding.
What
is even more fascinating, by the way, is that this change in position
happened in the same day as him voicing an opposing view. Earlier in
the day, Obama pushed for a windfall profits tax to fund $1,000
emergency rebate checks for consumers besieged by high energy costs, a
counter to McCain's call for more offshore drilling.
And as an
added note, how stupid is the idea of a windfall profit tax? Is there a
limit to the profit a company is allowed to make in a "free" market
economy? History shows that such taxes don't bring in the revenue expected, such taxes reduce domestic production (making
the U.S. even more reliant upon foreign oil - which means what the
Democrats want to do actually yields the opposite results of what they
claim they desire), and places more stress on the job market and our
economy because:
Our free-market economy is built on profit.
Higher profits mean more jobs, higher incomes, more investment in
equipment and people, higher standards of living. Yes, profits are the
engine for all of this — and that includes the profits of "Big Oil."
What this means is that the Democratically controlled Congress (you know, the one with a 9% approval rating)
is really the obstacle standing in the way of lowering fuel prices. At
least 20 billion barrels of oil sits under Alaska, and another 30
billion barrels lie offshore. The Democrats in Congress are demanding that these sources remain untapped -
because they are placing limited effects on the environment, and an
unproven and false theory of man-made global warming, over the "fact"
of our energy crisis and its affect on our economy. Besides, the
Democrats are thrilled that gas prices are high - because it is their
goal to force Americans into using less efficient means of energy like
wind and solar power before technology has figured out a way to make
such means of energy as efficient as oil, coal, and nuclear power - and
they feel if it become too expensive for you to drive your car, you
will be begging for alternative sources of fuel.
Of course, this
is not to say I am against alternative sources - but let's be smart
about it. Let's continue to use oil, of which we have plenty of right
here in the good ol' U.S.A., and allow private organizations to develop
methods of providing energy we need, rather than government mandates
for it, and government taxation as a punishment for success, and
regulations so steep that smaller companies find it not profitable to
pursue new sources of fuel and energy.