Pain at the pump might pay dividends for the GOP.  With gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon, obstructing offshore drilling is downright suicidal.  But Democrats would rather side with the Sierra Club than do anything constructive for US consumers.

And judging by Rasmussen’s latest poll, the public is not amused.  McCain took his first lead over Obama with more people trusting McCain on energy policy.  It seems visions of Nancy Pelosi as our planetary savior aren’t so comforting after a fill up empties your wallet.

But don’t shed tears for Nancy.  She’s got a personal energy plan.  While Republicans continue calls for Democratic action, she’s hawking books at the JFK Library.  You have to hand it to Nancy.  She’s always doing the people’s business.

The bestower of all things worthy, her Grand Benevolence, The Poobah of Propane, The Imparter of Gas, Madame Pelosi declared, that on July 4, 2007, this country would be free of Middle East oil shackles.

War has been waged; congressional and journalist jihadists attacked Big Oil, successfully opposing new domestic exploration and extraction, unleashing the feared WMD ethanol. It worked out well didn’t it.

As Democrats solidified their control of Congress in early 2007, the newly empowered leadership pledged to “truly declare our energy independence” by July 4, 2007.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) announced she would create a panel on energy independence, “accelerate the implementation of existing clean, energy-efficient technologies,” invest in domestic alternatives and “send our energy dollars to the Midwest not the Middle East.”

The broadcast networks – ABC, CBS and NBC – have mentioned “energy independence” more than 60 times since Pelosi first made her “Energy Independence Day” pledge in January 2007.

They haven’t declared success yet, why I don’t know. After all this is an election year.

Truthfully, I haven’t seen success on a scale like this since Khrushchev’s Five Year Plans.

I don’t think we can survive more Pelosi success ideas.

I received this in my email. Not sure of the original source.

(Click the image to see full size)

Full size chart (regularly updated) available here.

If you have any money left after filling your gas tank, you can donate to the Democratic convention in Denver.  But before you buy Democrats champagne bottles and bacon wrapped scallops, ask yourself why they won’t let us build nuclear power plants, drill for offshore oil, build more refineries, or drill in ANWAR.  Hell, I’d donate $25 if they’d end their obstructionism toward sensible intermediate energy policies.

And don’t talk to me about alternative energy sources.  That’s the long-term policy.  Why aren’t Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi doing anything in the short to intermediate terms to alleviate the energy crunch?  Those “big hearted” liberals won’t even back a gas tax holiday.  Since they aren’t lifting a finger to address our energy needs, they’ll live with 1 big party in Denver.

Blood for Oil

The body of a truck driver lies on the road after he was killed by a van while he manned a picket line at the entrance to a wholesale market during a strike over high fuel prices in Granada, Spain on June 10. Another lorry driver was killed on the same day in Portugal during a separate incident at a picket line near Lisbon. (AFP/Jose Luis Sanudo)

I wonder what these environmental cretins have to say about this blood for oil.

The Democrat Party, that is. But first, conservatives are deluded if they believe, as Sean Hannity claims, that domestic drilling and “energy independence” are the path to less expensive gasoline. Crude oil is a commodity, subject to commodities speculation. Engine fuel prices that are lower than world market prices result from government controls, such as in Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, where you fill your tanks with a wink and smile.

Government control is the only conclusion one can draw from Hannity’s leap from domestic exploration to lower prices at the pump. Increased supply wouldn’t account for a large reduction in price with consumption growing in India, China and other developing countries. Government control is not a conservative viewpoint (If there’s something I’ve missed, I’d welcome a comment) There are other reasons to develop domestic energy sources.

It’s a complicated issue, nevertheless. THIS from Powerline illustrates the party divide on domestic energy development, but how much of the price increase is due to restrictions? I don’t know. Does anyone?

Looks like Barack Obama was a model student at the Jimmy Carter school of Energy Policy. We all know how well those policies worked out.

Obama yesterday:

“You can’t drive your SUVs, eat what you want, and heat your homes to 72 degrees and expect other countries to just say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.”

Carter on July 15, 1979:

“And I’m asking you for your good and for your nation’s security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel”

Hat Tip to Francis Cianfrocca at Redstate who summed it up nicely:

If nothing else, he’s now made completely clear his view that the answer to the global energy problem is for Americans to net-reduce our usage of energy, even before more efficient technologies become available. To Obama, this is leadership. He may suppose that everyone else will say “if you do that, we’ll do it too.” Their actual response is more likely to be: ”Thanks for the cheaper energy, suckers.

This is going to hurt, and it will hurt more before this idiocy subsides. Life is nothing but risks, now these nanny state swells, “cushion me from everything, no bumps in the night” will find the pain of government cuddling coddling.

 Global sell-off spreads through Canada and Latin America

8:41p ET January 21, 2008 (MarketWatch)

SAN FRANCISCO — The global-market sell-off spread Monday as indexes in Canada and Latin America plunged, following routs in Europe and Asia, and setting the stage for sharp declines when the U.S. reopens on Tuesday.

“It is no longer a question of avoiding recession in the U.S. any more. It is a case of damage limitation because the damage has already been done,” said Andrew Clarke, a sales trader at SG Securities in Hong Kong. The U.S. authorities “now have to get on and act fast.” [snip]

If any one thinks I’ve posted the past three items as a comment on economics, wake up. These are about our Congress, our imperial poobah, Dubya and the greed of the states for federal money with no attendant risk.

These are exemplars of a socialist Xanadu, or more to the truth, a mental meltdown. I have a serious problem with the GOP in this untidiness, they are up to their eyeballs in it. Anyone believing the Progressives will fix this financial anarchy, needs institutionalizing immediately.

Kicking over the anthill in a hurricane will get you get a lot of activity; the colony fills up with water and drowns anyway.

Three minutes until the markets open in the U.S.

She says she will make the petroleum producers stop raising prices.

Anyone that will lie to voters in such a blatant way (Clinton’s normal venue) needs to be placed in stocks then pelted with cabbages.

Single trader behind oil record

The man behind the record rise in oil prices to $100 a barrel was a lone trader, seeking bragging rights and a minute of fame, market watchers say.

A single trader bid up the price by buying a modest lot and then sold it immediately at a loss, they claim. [snip]

For the rest of the barking moonbats, at least a 201 course level needs mandating so they can get the facts wrong via stupidity, not ignorance.
However, this assumes there is something other than studding and cat bracing preventing the skull from sagging.

I have no conflicting knowledge that the prior statement is true.