The Quiet Conservative August 8, 2008
Temperature Check
It is almost the middle of August and there is no report of the body count on polar bears drowning
in the open arctic oceans. (I say body count instead of carcass count, because polar bears are
elevated to human status in the minds of the left.) Last year we were told due to capitalism the arctic
had melted as never before and the polar bears were doomed. By placing all of our energy resources
off limits and crashing our economy we might, just might, be able to save those adorable meat eating
predators that are more numerous than ever.
Notice the lack of stories in the press this summer about the arctic ice melt? It’s because it didn't.
Now that is darned inconvenient to the posers of global warming/climate change. What few papers
you can find on the web about the ice grumpily admit that the ice hasn't melted, but the ice that is
there isn't good ice. The arctic ice that covers the ocean is only one year old. Perennial ice is more
than two or three years old. That is good ice. So even though there is ice covering the arctic, it
doesn't have seniority. Therefore, even though the ice didn't melt, capitalism is still bad and the
government still needs to run your life.
Meanwhile Canada, which has a lot of polar bears, still allows hunters to shoot 500 of them every
year just to keep the booming polar bear population under control. Alaska, which also has seen a
bear or two, is suing the Federal Government (solidly controlled by leftists) about placing polar bears
on the threatened species list. In Alaska they have both bears and oil and have more experience with
both. They were a bit incensed after people in the South, i.e. Washington D.C, decided they knew
more about the bears than the people who had to watch out for them when they went out for their
morning paper. Alaska is also having a record cold summer which might be putting them in a bad
mood about global warming in general. Adding insult to injury the University of Washington has
found the snow pack on the Cascade Mountain range is as big as ever. Global warming's failure to
make the temperature in the air or oceans rise is proving frustrating for socialists who don't quite
control all the media.
Speaking of our Federal Government, located in what was once a southern swamp, Congress
adjourned after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) adamantly refused to permit any vote on whether to allow
expanded domestic drilling. When Republicans revolted she had the chamber lights shut off, the
microphones shut off, and sent the Capital Police to clear the visitor and press galleries. There was a
general lack of sympathy from liberals about the protests by Republicans. It seems dissent is only
patriotic when dissent is about hurting the United States. Otherwise, dissent is to be crushed.
Speaker Pelosi has gone on to a book tour during her vacation. You have to have your priorities
right. When asked why she would not allow a vote on drilling she replied, “I’m trying to save the
planet.” Saving the planet is far too important to allow voting by representatives of you, the people.
Representative Democracy is held in only slightly less contempt than capitalism in the eyes of
liberals. As Republican Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) stated on the darkened floor of the House “This
is the Peoples House. This is not Pelosi’s Politburo.” The jury is still out on that.
With President Bush’s announcement of the end of the executive moratorium on off shore drilling
prices seem to be dropping for a barrel of oil. This has translated to a sight cooling off of the prices
at the pump. Did you ever think you would be thrilled to see gas at $3.67? Speculators have seen
the signs of future increases in supply. The smaller players are getting out with their loot. But to see
a larger drop our government will have to take action to allow an increase in domestic supply. Or, in
an odd twist of reality they have to endorse inaction. The Federal Moratorium on drilling must be
renewed every year. The moratorium expires September 30th. The Democratic controlled Congress
must vote to renew the ban or otherwise October 1st drilling can commence. If the Congress does
vote to continue our dependence on foreign oil with the moratorium, it will go to the President and he
will have to sign it into law. Since President Bush has already rescinded the executive ban that seems
unlikely. Therefore there is a good chance we can begin developing our own resources.
But wait! Ever eager to snatch defeat out of the mouths of victory comes the Gang of Ten. These
are five Democrats: Mary Landrieu, Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson, Mark Prior, and Blanche Lincoln,
and five Republicans who want to be Democrats: Saxby Chanbliss, John Thune, Lindsey Graham,
Johnny Isakson, and Bob Corker. They cobbled together an energy plan that could have been
written at a PETA/Sierra Club orgy. It is so bad it met the approval of Harry Reid, the Tom Riddle
of the Senate.
The plan effectively eliminates the possibility of offshore drilling. It states drilling must take place
fifty miles off shore and gives the decision to drill to those states on the coast. Sounds reasonable,
doesn't it? Well, states only have authority out to twelve miles off shore. That could be a problem.
How does a state regulate where it has no authority? It doesn't. So the states could not approve of
drilling. Even if they could, why do those states get to have a stranglehold on the other forty six?
National resources are a national issue, not a state issue where the local state senate race could set
gas prices nationwide. It is a recipe for complete disaster. Which is what is intended. It takes the
heat off of liberal congress and shifts the blame to nameless faceless others. You don’t get any more
supply. You don’t get any relief at the pump. You don’t have an energy policy. But the Democratic
Party which is anti coal, anti oil, anti nuclear can say “It wasn't us!” They stop drilling while saying
they didn't.
The plan does take 84 billion dollars of your money and gives it to liberal alternative energy
‘research’. So not only do you not have any more energy than you did before, not only do you not
have an increase in domestic supply in a world that is only going to use more, you don’t have 84
billion dollars. Statements in the press indicate the gang of ten plans to get a lot of that 84 billion
from the oil companies. Is there anyone, anyone, who believes that cost won’t be passed along to
the everyday person at the pump? That congressional money is going to go to earmarks, payoffs,
scams and well connected people. America has already spent over 50 billion dollars on alternative
energy research and has achieved bupkiss- other than greater food prices and less efficient biofuels
pushed by the corn industry.
Presently on the floor of the closed House a group of maverick Republicans are actually acting like
Republicans. (That is where the 'maverick' part comes in.) They are protesting the refusal of the
Democratic leadership to allow a vote on drilling and sensible energy. Perhaps these few are the
future leaders of the party that has exchanged the tusk of the elephant for the horn of the rino.
How this drilling contest plays out will be seen October 1st. Then it will be seen if it is still the
People’s House, or is it Pelosi’s Politburo. Then it will be time to see if the temperature of the
average voter continues to rise in the voting booth in November while the planet's temperature
continues to cool.