The Respectfully Republican Conversation

Just my take but I'm starting to wonder---Johnny Cochran, Teddy Kennedy, Bob Novak---Are we starting to see the effects of heavy cell phone usage?  These guys had to live on cell phones.  Do we really know the effects of longterm heavy usage?

I just heard that McCain has asked Obama to go back to D.C. with him and work on the energy bill (not the exact words).  HAHA!  doubt that will happen. 

From George Stephanopoules" interview with Pelosi (if you can stomach her):

Link if you care to watch it.  I did and I wanted to smash in my monitor!  Just who does she think she is?

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5504708

STEPHANOPOULOS: But why not allow votes on all that? When you came in as "Speaker you promised in your commitment book "A New Direction for America," let me show our viewers, you said that "Bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full, fair debate consisting of full amendment process that grants the Minority the right to offer its alternatives." If they want to offer a drilling proposal, why can't they have a vote?

PELOSI: They'll have to use their imagination as to how they can get a vote and then they may get a vote."

From Bobby Eberle:

http://www.gopusa.com/theloft/wp-print.php?p=754

"The same things apply to the gas situation and "big oil." I am a fan of sports cars, so when I travel, I often pick up a magazine such as Car and Driver. In this month's issue, the Editor-in-Chief Csaba Csere, wrote an interesting article pointing out some of the facts and figures that the liberals conveniently fail to mention."

"A barrel of crude oil contains 42 gallons and currently costs (at time of publishing) about $130. That means the raw material (think lemons) costs $3.10 a gallon. For finding the oil, getting it out of the ground, transporting it to a refinery, turning it into gasoline, and distributing that gasoline, ExxonMobil cleared about 58 cents per gallon in 2007, based on figures in its annual report. Of that 58 cents, Exxon paid about 25 cents in federal income tax. The feds also collected 18.4 cents of excise tax per gallon. Meanwhile, the state of Michigan collects 19.875 cents per gallon of "excise and environmental" taxes, along with 24 cents of sales tax (at $4 per gallon). So, ExxonMobil nets 33 cents per gallon, while our federal and state governments take 87 cents per gallon."

"So, who profits more from high oil prices? Big oil or big government?"

There are places on the link that you can click onto to tell Congress to come back from their vacation that many of us cannot afford.

Shirley

Another BIG flip by Obama and this was just a couple of weeks ago.  He is the master of CHANGE alright!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JklRAVIKjk

Only 143 days of Senate experience---This I did not know.  Hillary must be pulling her hair out.

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/08/04/oops-democrat-on-vp-shortlist-underscores-obamas-inexperience/

I might just have some hope for my dd yet.  I talked to her tonight about the candidates.  She doesn't have a great deal of time to watch or read about politics.  She's an attorney and she and her other buddy recently started their own firm and are swamped.  She said she's not impressed with Obama.  She was a Hillary supporter.  And she's a liberal.  And, she's certainly not in favor of redistribution which I think Obama is in favor of.  She's waiting for the debates. 

I can only hope and pray.

Shirley 

Here is an interesting one from hotair regarding Obama's energy proposals.

------------------------------------------------------------

Did Obama endorse rolling blackouts?
posted at 1:30 pm on August 5, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

Barack Obama repeated his call for a 15% reduction in electrical demand in Youngstown, Ohio, and held California up as a model for the rest of the nation to follow. Claiming that the Golden State made great strides towards efficiency, Obama apparently forgot the travails California went through:

    Finally, I will call on businesses, government, and the American people to meet the goal of reducing our demand for electricity 15% by the end of the next decade. This is by far the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to reduce our energy consumption – and it will save us $130 billion on our energy bills. One report found that right here in Ohio, improvements in energy efficiency can help save homes and businesses $1.5 billion in energy costs by 2020.

    The state of California has implemented such a successful efficiency strategy that while electricity consumption grew 60% in this country over the last three decades, it didn’t grow at all in California. There is no reason we can’t do the same thing all across America.

Let’s emulate California?  First, California didn’t cut their demand; they only kept it from increasing.  Next, people may remember how well California’s energy policy worked over the last two decades.  The aging infrastructure, price mandates, and botched privatization led the state into years of rolling blackouts, where utilities simply cut off supply in order to compensate for an inability to meet demand.  Governor Gray Davis got recalled from office over the issue, but the blackouts continued for years afterward.

And again, California never did reduce demand, not even by 5%, let alone 15%.  I’m not sure Californians would feel like a great example of an energy policy that worked, and I doubt the rest of the nation feels differently.  And Obama once again repeated his pledge to get a million more plug-hybrids (at 150 mpg!) on the road while cutting electrical demand, a neat trick that Obama still hasn’t explained.

Obama also talked about jobs, but for some reason didn’t mention the jobs that would get created through a responsible energy policy:

    The payoff from these investments in renewable energy sources will be renewable energy jobs across Ohio and across America.  Now, I know that over the past eight years, you’ve lost more 236,000 manufacturing jobs in this state. But I also know that Ohio has the second highest potential of all fifty states to create new wind energy manufacturing jobs – and investing in wind power could increase workers’ wages in Ohio by more than $3.5 billion through the year 2020.  I also know that with the right investments, this state could save $24 billion a year that you spend importing energy, and instead, power two million homes using wind power.

Eventually, when mass-production sources of energy are found, it will result in jobs.  Those will come much later than even Obama’s pessimistic predictions of oil production from domestic drilling, at least ten years out and maybe more than that.  Domestic drilling, however, would create jobs now.  ANWR alone would create 750,000 jobs, and deep-sea drilling more than that.  It would create American jobs at home as investments increased in our own resources — and could easily be done at the same time and in parallel to work developing energy sources of the future.

Why not do both?  Obama never explains that, just as he never explains how we’ll cut 15% of our electrical demand while transferring vehicles to electricity.
 

Pelosi will take the heat when it comes to the dems appeasing their constituents on drilling.  ARRRGGHHHH!

Ok so Osama bin Laden's driver is found guilty read what the news said:

.." The military accused him of transporting missiles for al-Qaida and helping bin Laden escape U.S. retribution following the Sept. 11 attacks by driving him around Afghanistan. Defense attorneys said he was merely a low-level bin Laden employee."

hello???  Only a low level guy?  This needs to be broadcast:  IF YOU ARE EMPLOYED BY A TERRORIST, YOU ARE A TERRORIST.

Didn't their mothers tell them that if you go shopping with a friend and they steal, that you both get in trouble?  

Lessons I learned in Kindergarten!!!!!! 

Our yurt:

Thankfully, we went before the fires, so the weather was clear for the most part. There were some fires and one day was a little hazy ..... but after we left the fires got a lot closer, we lucked out! We had so much fun and want to go again some day. 

Rocktobermom, you pictures are just beautiful!  And you daughter looks so cute in the "Hollywood" sunglasses.  Looks like ya'll had loads of fun!

Linda, I believe it was Susie who posted on the Hillary thread that California used to use "rolling blackouts."  Soooo, you're idea of  "power outages" isn't too far off track.  I can't remember how much it saved them..you'd have to go over there and read.

We used to be on well water and which used a pump.  Then we had to spend thousands to hooke up the country water and sewer.  I hated when a hurricane came along and POOF there goes the power.  However, we did have time to prepare...fill the tubs to flush toilets.  Yep, ya gotta flush them once in a while.  We do have a small generator which I think we could use if everything else was turned off.  The good thing about the pump...didn't cost of anything to water.  And, my dh never called out someone to see if they could hook it up to the outside for watering. 

I love your new slogan!

Shirley

Shirley--Very good find. Hooray Newt!  McCain's commercials should be focusing on oil drilling as a national security issue.  The longer we put off drilling the longer we will be dependent on the Middle East for oil and dictators worldwide. 

I think that along with the need to be self sufficient we limit the money we are literally GIVING to foreign nations that don't agree with our ideology.  I mean, I personally, do avoid purchasing from disreputable businesses and warn others about them. Why don't we do this as a nation!!!??  It's like Cuba, we don't give them money, look at them! They are not a threat to us.

McCain seems to only be airing this on the web.  Do you think it would be a problem to be aired on TV or that conservatives would understand?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSpcxkKlEFA