I don’t expect to actually read the legislative language, because reading the legislative language is among the more confusing things I’ve ever read in my life. . . . When you get into the legislative language, Sen. Conrad actually read some of it, several pages of it, the other day, and I don’t think anybody had a clue, including people who had served on this committee for decades, what he was talking about.

My goodness. We’re doomed . . .

Elections have consequences! Next year we get a change to clean up this mess. Grab a broom and a mop — and better get the bleach ’cause mere soap ain’t a gonna cut it!

More legalistic-type insights over at Patterico’s.

Technorati Tags: legislative language, Sen. Conrad

. . . ‘Cause we’re not going to take it anymore!

[Update] Michelle Malkin is showcasing today’s Tea Party protests nationwide — with pics!

[H/t: Ed Morrissey & Michelle Malkin]

John McCain is finally punching back at the Barack Obama lies about the financial crisis and Barack’s assertion that finance deregulation, not the Democrats’ pushing of loans to unqualified borrowers, put us in this current pit of despair. From remarks that McCain will deliver today, and hopefully face to face with the Chosen One during the debate tomorrow.

Our current economic crisis is a good case in point. What was his actual record in the years before the great economic crisis of our lifetimes?

This crisis started in our housing market in the form of subprime loans that were pushed on people who could not afford them. Bad mortgages were being backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and it was only a matter of time before a contagion of unsustainable debt began to spread. This corruption was encouraged by Democrats in Congress, and abetted by Senator Obama.

Senator Obama has accused me of opposing regulation to avert this crisis. I guess he believes if a lie is big enough and repeated often enough it will be believed. But the truth is I was the one who called at the time for tighter restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could have helped prevent this crisis from happening in the first place.

Senator Obama was silent on the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and his Democratic allies in Congress opposed every effort to rein them in. As recently as September of last year he said that subprime loans had been, quote, “a good idea.” Well, Senator Obama, that “good idea” has now plunged this country into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

To hear him talk now, you’d think he’d always opposed the dangerous practices at these institutions. But there is absolutely nothing in his record to suggest he did. He was surely familiar with the people who were creating this problem. The executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have advised him, and he has taken their money for his campaign. He has received more money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than any other senator in history, with the exception of the chairman of the committee overseeing them.

Did he ever talk to the executives at Fannie and Freddie about these reckless loans? Did he ever discuss with them the stronger oversight I proposed? If Senator Obama is such a champion of financial regulation, why didn’t he support these regulations that could have prevented this crisis in the first place? He won’t tell you, but you deserve an answer.

If you’re in a forensics mood and want deep background on the whys and wherefores of this crisis, Wolf Howling has that and more. For good measure, here are the top 20 recipients of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac monies.

All Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008

Name	Office	State	Party	Grand Total	Total from PACs	Total from Individuals
Dodd, Christopher J	S	CT	D	$165,400	$48,500	$116,900
Obama, Barack	S	IL	D	$126,349	$6,000	$120,349
Kerry, John	S	MA	D	$111,000	$2,000	$109,000
Bennett, Robert F	S	UT	R	$107,999	$71,499	$36,500
Bachus, Spencer	H	AL	R	$103,300	$70,500	$32,800
Blunt, Roy	H	MO	R	$96,950	$78,500	$18,450
Kanjorski, Paul E	H	PA	D	$96,000	$57,500	$38,500
Bond, Christopher S ‘Kit’	S	MO	R	$95,400	$64,000	$31,400
Shelby, Richard C	S	AL	R	$80,000	$23,000	$57,000
Reed, Jack	S	RI	D	$78,250	$43,500	$34,750
Reid, Harry	S	NV	D	$77,000	$60,500	$16,500
Clinton, Hillary	S	NY	D	$76,050	$8,000	$68,050
Davis, Tom	H	VA	R	$75,499	$13,999	$61,500
Boehner, John	H	OH	R	$67,750	$60,500	$7,250
Conrad, Kent	S	ND	D	$64,491	$22,000	$42,491
Reynolds, Tom	H	NY	R	$62,200	$53,000	$9,200
Johnson, Tim	S	SD	D	$61,000	$20,000	$41,000
Pelosi, Nancy	H	CA	D	$56,250	$47,000	$9,250
Carper, Tom	S	DE	D	$55,889	$31,350	$24,539
Hoyer, Steny H	H	MD	D	$55,500	$51,500	$4,000

Did John McCain get any money from Fannie/Freddie — sure, a bit. Actually he got a total of $21,550, all from individuals with none coming from the PAC. Contrast that with Obama way up there at Number 2, with $126,349.

Keep pounding these guys John. Sic the Pit Bull on it, too!

Technorati Tags: John McCain, Barack Obama, subprime loans, Democrats in Congress, Senator Obama, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

Good ol’ Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank — Keep those smilin’ mugs in mind as you contemplate that the Dow has dropped over 500 points off its low this AM — where it will be by day’s end we’ll have to wait and see. The Brits’ market is tanking! From the Telegraph.co.UK:

We face extreme danger. Unless there is immediate intervention on every front by all the major powers acting in concert, we risk a disintegration of global finance within days. Nobody will be spared, unless they own gold bars.

Asian markets, too. Now, even the Pope is weighing in.

Who’s really to blame for all this? If you read the LA Times, the NY Times, watch CNN or other television news besides Fox — it must be George Bush’s fault. The administration never warned the Congress about the Fanny/Freddie problem. Congressional leaders never said it was all good. Really? Think again . . .

Now watch this next one — it explains a lot!

Hopefully McCain will bring up the Fanny/Freddie meltdown in tomorrow’s debate. He was dead right about it years ago while the Congressional Dems were getting big bucks in donations from those entities and blocking all measures for more oversight. Hit ‘em John — go for the knockout punch!

Technorati Tags: Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, McCain

Watch as Senator Mitch McConnell, (R) Kentucky, proposes that allowance for off-shore drilling be triggered at $4.50, $5, $7.50 and finally at $10 per gallon price of gasoline — and the Democrats objections overriding his requests.

Hey America, even if you have to fork over 10 George Washingtons (nope, doesn’t look like Obama by the way) for a gallon of go juice for the family jalopy, those “I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet” congressional Dem-wits don’t want to give you any relief. But, is their stance even a little bit sound, even on an environmental level? Nope, Nada, Ain’t NO way Jose! — Charles Krauthammer elaborates:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi opposes lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and on the Outer Continental Shelf. She won’t even allow it to come to a vote. With $4 gas having massively shifted public opinion in favor of domestic production, she wants to protect her Democratic members from having to cast an anti-drilling election-year vote. Moreover, given the public mood, she might even lose. This cannot be permitted. Why? Because as she explained to Politico: “I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet.”

A lovely sentiment. But has Pelosi actually thought through the moratorium’s actual effects on the planet?

Consider: 25 years ago, nearly 60 percent of U.S. petroleum was produced domestically. Today it’s 25 percent. From its peak in 1970, U.S. production has declined a staggering 47 percent. The world consumes 86 million barrels a day; the United States, roughly 20 million. We need the stuff to run our cars and planes and economy. Where does it come from?

Places like Nigeria where chronic corruption, environmental neglect and resulting unrest and instability lead to pipeline explosions, oil spills, and illegal siphoning by the poverty-stricken population — which leads to more spills and explosions. Just this week, two Royal Dutch Shell pipelines had to be shut down because bombings by local militants were causing leaks into the ground.

Compare the Niger Delta to the Gulf of Mexico, where deep-sea U.S. oil rigs withstood Hurricanes Katrina and Rita without a single undersea well suffering a significant spill.

The United States has the highest technology to ensure the safest drilling. Today, directional drilling — essentially drilling down, then sideways — allows access to oil that in 1970 would have required a surface footprint more than three times as large. Additionally, the U.S. has one of the most extensive and least corrupt regulatory systems on the planet.

Does Pelosi imagine that with so much of America declared off-limits, the planet is less injured as drilling shifts to Kazakhstan and Venezuela and Equatorial Guinea? That Russia will be more environmentally scrupulous than we in drilling in its Arctic?

The net environmental effect of Pelosi’s no-drilling willfulness is negative. Outsourcing U.S. oil production does nothing to lessen worldwide environmental despoliation. It simply exports it to more corrupt, less efficient, more unstable parts of the world — thereby increasing net planetary damage.

{…}

They [the Dem-wit Democrats] seem blissfully unaware that the argument for their drill-there-not-here policy collapses on its own environmental terms. [Emph. mine]

[h/t: Michelle Malkin]The Democrats are sure good at NIMBY. Remember RFK and his uncle Teddy Kennedy and the fight to keep wind turbines out of their precious beach-front sight lines, even though you couldn’t even see ‘em from his compound? Yeah, let’s save good ol’ Gaia, at least that part o’ her that we can see from the windows at Tiffany’s. Oh ya betcha! That’s some hard-core environmental hair-growin’ and planet-savin’ going on — sho’ ‘nuf. But, forget these schmoes — Hugh Hewitt has a plan:

Shut down the government by blocking the appropriation’s bill, which will no undoubtedly contain a continuation of the off-shore drilling ban and let the public know how those Dem-wits really feel!

John Hawkins correctly notes that the ban on offshore drilling on the outer continental shelf expires at the end of the fiscal year. If the GOP refuses to allow an appropriations bill with the ban through the Congress, the ban will expire even as the government shuts down.
{…}
Obama opposes outer continental shelf drilling. Pelosi opposes outer continental shelf drilling. Reid opposes outer continental shelf drilling.

But majorities in both houses of Congress and John McCain support outer continental shelf drilling, as do large majorities of Americans.

After the war and judges, energy is the most important issue in the fall, and the GOP should keep a clear focus on the Democrats indifference to the pain at the pump spreading throughout the country.
{…}
But if the plans are laid now and explanations given over and over again of why a showdown and a shutdown are coming –because we have to bring new domestic supllies of oit to market– the GOP can win this confrontation and get the drilling ban lifted.

In the meantime, the Department of the Interior should prepare to start issuing leases for the newly opened areas the moment the ban is off. Secretary Kempthorne hemmed and hawed when I asked him about this, but President Bush and his team should direct DOI to be ready to go.[Emph. mine]

As Michell Malkin notes, even Californians (yeah, us nut jobs out here on the Left Coast!) are beginning to see the big picture.

See what happens when you lead?

It took the Beltway GOP long enough to get in front of the issue, but now it’s paying off.

No need for “rebranding” or “re-imaging” or moving to the left. Just moving ahead in the Right direction.

Still, as gasoline and heating oil prices continue to hover at $4 per gallon or rise further, and with food prices skyrocketing from increasing transportation costs, let all the up-for-a-vote Representatives and Senators that are against drilling have to face the music back home.

“Gee, we sure are sorry that lil’ Jimmy and lil’ Suzie aren’t gettin’ three squares a day because you have to pay for fuel to drive to work, or that their lil’ fingers and toes have turned that funky blue-black color — you ever heard of turning up the heat? — oh, sorry ’bout those heating oil and natural gas prices, but hey you know, we gotta concentrate on what’s really important here!”

[We're] trying to save the planet; [T]rying to save the planet.”

Yeah — right! Gaia don’t vote! Tell that to someone who cares . . .

Technorati Tags: Senator Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, anti-drilling, off-shore drilling ban, outer continental shelf drilling