“…this is what inaction is getting us, the fact that the liberal elites in DC are controlling each house of Congress and not allowing these votes to come forward. The [price] increase has taken place primarily over the last couple of years.”

Someone might want to remind partisan hack Congresswoman Blackburn that she should refrain from using clichéd partisan-slurs to describe people who disagree with her when trying to present an issue as non-partisan. Just sayin’.

Oh and she also might want to check her claim that oil and gas price increases have increased “primarily over the last couple of years” and her explanation of why (three guesses whose fault…).

It’s easy to place blame for partisan reasons and Blackburn sure is good at it. But for the intellectually honesty of it all, let’s list some other reasons why we might be experiencing record high gas prices: increased consumption, production disruptions, turmoil in the middle east, the destabilization of Iraq, corporate greed, Iranian and U.S. saber-rattling, and whatever back-room shenanigans that go on between the Bushies and the Saudis (to name just a few). To lay blame at the feet of one of America’s political party for the global problem? Ridiculous. To lay blame at the feet of the leader of the free world’s administration whose policies encouraged global turmoil? Sounds about right.

And speaking of honesty, she and her friends standing in the dark in the House chamber might want to stop claiming that off-shore drilling will give us immediate relief from high gas prices. ‘Cause it won’t. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) – that’s the United States Energy Information Administration – “access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017.”

Not sure about the good Congresswoman, but I don’t think the rest of us can wait until 2030.

Listen to Blackburn and Woods on Gill

UPDATE: NY Times’ favorite economist, Paul Krugman (aka FOL* Dr. Beardy), weighs in this morning on a party who believes that “that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise.” Paging, Congressman Blackburn.

In the case of oil, this takes the form of pretending that more drilling would produce fast relief at the gas pump. In fact, earlier this week Republicans in Congress actually claimed credit for the recent fall in oil prices: “The market is responding to the fact that we are here talking,” said Representative John Shadegg.

What about the experts at the Department of Energy who say that it would take years before offshore drilling would yield any oil at all, and that even then the effect on prices at the pump would be “insignificant”? Presumably they’re just a bunch of wimps, probably Democrats. And the Democrats, as Representative Michele Bachmann assures us, “want Americans to move to the urban core, live in tenements, take light rail to their government jobs.”

Is this political pitch too dumb to succeed? Don’t count on it.

Oy.

*Friend of Liberadio(!)

• Part 1 – We have a very specific delegate count question for a Senator Clinton supporter… Anyone…? Anyone…? Bueller…?. (21:02 33.7MB)
• Interview with Congressman Jim Cooper – There’s so much to talk about – Lawrence Lessig’s Change Congress initiative, earmarks, FISA, his Inspector General bill, election integrity – that we make the congressman late for class. Oops. Our bad. (12:19 19.8MB)
• Part 3 – Hundreds of thousands dead, maimed and psychologically scared, millions displaced from their homes, $700 billion dollars in the hole – and we’re right back where we started. (06:46 10.8MB)

• Media Matters for America Smackdown! – The North Carolina GOP gets tons of free airtime courtesy of cable news. Lucky ducks (that “ducks” with a “d”). (14:05 22.6MB)
• Part 5 – Did we mention that hundreds of thousands are dead, maimed and psychologically scared, millions are displaced from their homes, and we’re $700 billion dollars in the hole, yet we’re right back where we started? And if 27% of Republicans went to the polls and didn’t vote for John McCain, then who did they vote for? Hint: It wasn’t Clinton or Obama. (11:53 19MB)

“…the Administration opposes the bill’s authorization of excessive spending for reimbursement to States for the costs of obtaining paper ballot voting systems and conducting audits or hand counting of election results….”

Excessive spending? Really?!? How much is too much to have verifiable elections in this country? Please add this to my list of bitter-worthy Bush administration manufactured realities. Rep. Holt responsed, “I note that many people who opposed this legislation supported spending almost $330 million in recent years to provide election assistance in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I would have hoped those who supported efforts to export democracy abroad would be equally committed to strengthening democracy here at home.”

You can hope, Mr. Holt, but remember, these are the same bunch who believe that supporting the troops means preventing wounded ex-soldiers living in VA facilities from registering to vote because “voter registration is a ‘partisan distraction’ that would detract VA staff from their mission of caring for sick ex-soldiers.” Actually, it’s who you vote for that’s partisan. And secret. Allowing those who served their country to register to vote is the most non-partisan, and the very least, we can do.

Luckily, we have at least one presidential candidate who has not only called out the new VA Secretary, General James Peake, on his bizarre anti-participatory democracy, anti-American rationalization but has also demanded, in tandem, a full accounting of “wounded, injured and medically evacuated troops when discussing the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Not sure why, though, we expect them to count the votes of our wounded vets when we can’t even get them to count as one of the terrible costs of war. Blood and treasure, indeed.

“President Bush announced tonight that he believes in democracy and that democracy can exist in Iraq. They can have a strong economy, they can have a good health care plan, and they can have a free and fair voting. Iraq? We can’t even get this in Florida.” — Jay Leno