There's just no pleasing some people. President Obama proposes to open up much of the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the North coast of Alaska to offshore oil and gas drilling and what is the response of Rep. John Boehner (R-Darque Tan)? It's not enough:
"President Barack Obama's plan to allow expanded offshore oil and gas exploration won rebuke from the top House Republican on Wednesday.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) dismissed the president's plan as not going far enough in opening up U.S. waters for exploration.
Obama's decision "continues to defy the will of the American people," Boehner said in a statement, pointing to the president's decision to open Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters, while leaving Pacific and many Alaskan waters largely closed to exploration."
Personally, I think the Orangeman is still steamed over the tanning salon tax in the health care bill.
OK, fair enough, but my point was that I can see a half million barrels of production in this one little corner of the gulf.
You’re right, oil is not going to solve everything, but this move is going to put a lot of people back to work and maybe even create some new jobs. I know it makes me pretty petty to feel like this, but I think I’m most excited that the Gulf side of Florida might finally open up. I’ll enjoy every moment of Floridian's whining.
Whatever amount of oil we can get into the worldwide supply will buy us more time so we can develop engines that will run on banana peels and old Sprite cans. (From "Back to the Future")
Most of us here on the Hurricane will not be around when the planet runs out of fossile fuels. Right now, we can't get by without it. Is there a good reason to leave any of it "in the ground"????
Not to nitpick but I mentioned a million barrels a day, and you countered with half a million. Implying it was more.
Look, and please don't take this the wrong way. Oil is NOT the solution to our energy needs. I am sorry but the numbers simply DO NOT add up.
We consume 20 million barrels of oil a DAY... We only produce 8.5 (roughly) million barrels ourselves. Even if we magically doubled our production it still would fall just under our consumption.
Bottom line, oil will never meet our energy needs. It is a finite resource, which we don't even have enough of throughout the world to begin with...
Besides, I will say it again and again. We will never see that oil first... It will go straight on the world open market. I mean come on! When can we all start being honest with each other.
It's so obvious what burr the GOP has up its ass on this.
They oppose it because they didn't have the balls to do it themselves during the last 20 years.
"The will of American people"?
Leading involves making decisions that are not always popular. This is Not American Idol!
I even sent off an email to Senator Madoff (heh, heh!) and invited her to run in Texas the next time!
It also occurred to me that our Democratic Party is so diverse at this point that we really don't need another party in the mix! We just have to decide which wing our party to be associated with, vote accordingly, and take care of "bidness"!!!
A definite pattern seems to be emerging from the Administration at this point, and it involves tossing all of the Republican "hot potatoes" right back at them and forcing them to catch and keep. This will clear the ramps for the next election as all of the talking (and screaming) slogans will have disappeared in the form of new legislation, and the Republicans will be forced to try and explain why they don't have any more ideas. It will not be good enough for them to try and take credit for anything since they all voted "No" on everything (to a man!).
The End of the Republican Scourge is finally at hand - so rejoice!!!
I’m not trying to nitpick here FantasyLand, but the areas that President Obama plans to open will bring in a lot more than a million barrels a day. I can literally see four facilities from where I am now that are producing over a half million barrels per day combined. Granted, it will probably be more natural gas than oil off the east coast but I’ll take what I can get.
President Obama has made a move to help reduce our dependency on foreign oil. It will also increase profits for the oil companies and create a lot of jobs (or put people back to work, however we want to say it). But, just like Desperado mentioned in his earlier comment, because it was President Obama that did it, it’s just not good enough for the likes of John Boehner.
I get so tired of these CONservatives saying stuff like... "continues to defy the will of the American people,"
This guy doesn't speak for me. He is speaking for the oil industry. How the hell is THAT the American people.
Bush/Cheney made it their hobby to actually defy the REAL will of the American people. Where was this guy when all that was going on? Drinking the cool-aide perhaps?
He is just mad because they didn't get to do it. Same thing they do EVERY TIME. They bitch moan and groan about something, then the second they have the chance they do it themselves.
Besides, what will this help if they do find oil? An extra million barrels a day if we are lucky? WOOHOO that will bring our total production to 10 million barrels a day. Maybe half of our daily consumption will be met by our own... Of course, we all know that oil will go straight to the open market anyways.
What he meant to say was "the president continues to defy the will of the fat cat international oil companies..."
John Boehner couldn’t be more transparent if he were trying. The only thing that bugs me is that there are people who will actually believe this bullchit.
“The Senate is expected to take up a climate bill in the next few weeks — the last chance to enact such legislation before midterm election concerns take over.”
As if election concerns haven’t been the #1 priority since the day each and every one of them were elected.
I'm beginning to think Congressman "Orange Julius" Boehner is living is some sort of Bizarro America...The president says "black", he says "white"...
On the other hand, he does have a nice, healthy glow about him, don't he?
Boehner....Boehner???
That's..German, isn't it???
Perhaps we should check to see which side his daddy fought on. Just checkin'
Boehner....Boehner???
That's..German, isn't it???
Perhaps we should check to see which side his daddy fought on. Just checkin'
It's a tough fight trying to be the biggest prick in the republican party. Pretty stiff competition. There's that dick Cheney fella. Helluva competetitor he is. There's that scrot Mitch McConnell. Granted he comes off more as a dweeb than anything else. 'Course, you gotta include Rush, always vying for #1. And, considering they "may not" qualify in this particular category, Ann Coulter and Michelle Bachmann. Not sure if you can BE one WITHOUT one. I'll have to consult with the rules committee and get back with you.
I can't remember another House member maintaining such a high profile as an asshole since our dearly indicted Tom DeLay. It is disouraging that as soon as we get rid of one despicable character, another one takes his place. One thing you can about the GOP...they gotta helluva a bench.
I like this comment I read at Firedoglake:
“Obama could propose cutting taxes to zero, deporting everyone who can’t speak English, and renaming the country “Jesusland”…doesn’t matter. The GOP answer will always be the same.”
Shake 'n' Bake Boehner needs to sit down and shut up. He's just making a bigger ass of himself now.
I'm about as surprised by this as i was to hear that Ricky Martin is gay.....
These dorks are nothing if not preDICtable...
Ole "Orange Glow" will never approve of anything President Obama does. He always looks like he really needs a drink or has already had several too many.
You know, the Rs have gotten a lot of press about their skillful use of catch phrases and deft framing of topics.
How can it be that they can't hear how ridiculous they sound now: "We're united in opposition to this because it's what we always said we wanted?"
[rollin' my eyes]
he's ridiculous!