Democrats blocking offshore drilling vote: UPDATED

Let me be real clear: The Democrats have no practical energy plan. Just today, Barack Obama proposed a $1,000 tax rebate for middle class and low income Americans. The rebate would be financed by a windfall profits tax.

The last time there was an oil windfall profits tax, Jimmy Carter was president--he signed the legislation into law--and the results were disastrous.

I have an idea for Obama--why not work towards allowing additional offshore drilling? Then energy prices will go down, and there will be less of a need--or no need at all--for a windfall profits tax to offset high energy costs.

The Democrats control both houses of Congress. As I write this, Republicans in the House of Representatives are meeting on the floor of their chamber demanding that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi call for a vote a bill to rescind Congress' ban on offshore drilling. At one time this afternoon, the microphones and the lights in the House were turned off. The Republicans kept at it, though.

Think about all of this the next time you fill up your car's gas tank--and it costs you $50.

Drill offshore. Drill onshore. Drill.

UPDATE 8:00PM Obama Time (Also known as Central Time): Do we have another Obama flip flop in the air? AP is calling it a "shift." It appears that Obama is reading his declining poll numbers and just might consider allowing offshore drilling! It's a step in the right direction, but his positions on more nuclear plants (Obama is against them), coal (against it, unless it's ethereal "clean" coal) is in contrast to what most Americans favor.

As Rob from Illinois Reason (Hey, I linked to you) pointed out, the picture is not of two offshore oil rigs. It's a picture from my 2007 Kansas trip. Here's some Obama trivia for you all--One of Obama's maternal great-granfathers managed an oil lease for Standard Oil in Kansas. So I guess there is oil in Obama's blood.

Good judgement? That's another matter.

Oh, I am aware that John McCain is a recent convert to expanding offhore drilling. However, circumstances have changed--gas has tripled in price in the years since McCain first expressed his opposition to rigs in the briney.

Technorati tags: Obama Barack Obama politics election energy Republican Drill here, drill now Congress Pelosi

New McCain ad: "The One"

"We are the ones we've been waiting for." Yep, Barack Obama said that. That quote, from an Obama hootenanny, is among several juicy pronouncements the latest John McCain replays.

Here's another: "I have become a symbol of America returning to our best traditions."

Man is he full of himself. I have to keep asking: How many of Obama's bills have become law since he became a US Senator three-and-a-half years ago? But his campaign created its own presidential seal.

The ad is here...and it's hard to believe, but the late Charlton Heston, as Moses, makes an appearance.

Forward the ad on to your friends.

Is Obama ready to lead?

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Election Democrats John McCain McCain Republican entertainment Cult of Change Charlton Heston

The silence of Obama on his sweetheart mortgage continues

One month ago tomorrow, The Washington Post published a story titled "Obama Got Discount Home Loan."

The Obama family's purchase of their South Side Chicago mansion had already been steeped in controversy when the Post story broke. Two mysterious vacant lot purchases in 2005 by Rita Rezko--strips of land adjoing the south end of the Obamas property--including one made on the same day the Democrats' first family closed on their Georgian-style home, continue to raise questions about the judgement of the junior senator of Illinois. Rezko is the wife of lontime Barack Obama friend and political contributer--and recently convicted felon--Antoin "Tony" Rezko.

Naturally the Obama campaign office denies that the Obamas received a sweetheart deal on their mortgage. The lender was Northern Trust, a large Chicago bank. About the loan, The Washington Post in that article that the mortgage was "below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago."

Obama spokesman Ben LeBolt spoke to Fox News Channel's Major Garrett on the day the Post story broke:

LaBolt says the Obama family was flush with cash at the time they were loan shopping and that the bank in question, Northern Trust, sought their business by offering a lower mortgage rate and to respond to a competitive mortgage rate offered by another lender. LaBolt would not identify the lender "at this time."

Not at this time...LeBolt said that on July 2, today is August 1.

When will the Obama campaign--or better yet, Obama himself--have the audacity to tell the electorate who the other lender was?

By the way, it wasn't Alexi Giannoulias' Broadway Bank, was it?

Related posts:

Obama's "sweetheart" mortgage: Was the competing lender Broadway Bank?

Obama, Alexi, and Broadway Bank

Judicial Watch files complaints against Obama over mansion mortgage

Rita Rezko's contribution to America's worst government, Cook County

Obama's state treasurer pal needs a memory upgrade

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Election Democrats Illinois Politics cronyism Tony Rezko corruption mortgages banking Alexi Giannoulias real estate

Coming in less than an hour: Republican National Convention lunchtime chat

At 12pm Noon Central, you'll be able to find me in the chat room for today's Republican National Convention's lunchtime chat with Matt Burns, the RNC's Director of Communications.

Technorati tags: RNC elections republicans Minnesota minneapolis GOP politics St. Paul twin cities

Obama compared himself to Paris Hilton before McCain did

My source for these telling quotes is Lisa Rogak's Barack Obama In His Own Words.

"Andy Warhol said we all get our fifteen minutes of fame. I've already had an hour and a half. I'm so overexposed. I'm making Paris Hilton look like a recluse." Sunday Times Magazine, November 5, 2006.

"I have always been suspicious of our celebrity culture. And now I find myself in this odd position where I am a part of it, and to some degree a beneficiary of it. We cycle through the new and the novel, and stack story after story on top of individuals, until we lose track of who we're talking about. And if you get absorbed in that, you lose track of who you're talking about." New Yorker, October 30, 2006.

"I'm the flavor of the month. This is a celebrity culture, and that culture has to be fed." San Francisco Chronicle, October 26, 2006.

"I've got a celebrity that's undeserved and a little overgrown to the actual power I have in this city." All Things Considered, March 10, 2005.

Okay, there you have it. Not only did Obama compare himself to Paris Hilton before the John McCain campaign did, he admitted that he was part of the celebrity culture.

The McCain "celebrity" advertisement just confirms the facts--Obama's facts.

By the way, in regards to the celebrity senator from my state: Just how many of his bills have been enacted into law?

Technorati tags: Obama politics Barack Obama Election Democrats John McCain McCain Republican entertainment media Cult of Change Paris Hilton celebrities