So Joe, How much did Democrats get Joe?

CALL THE DEMS TO ACTION -- WYDEN FILIBUSTERING THE SENATE R I G H T N O W ! ! !

This is politics at its best -- get your act together and have folks calling their Senators right now to support Wyden's efforts to end royalty relief to Big Oil with a per barrel price trigger!

Come on, DNC. This is when you can call your grassroots to action. Do it. Now.

Bush Republicans Covered in Oil

80 percent of oil and gas political contributions go to Republicans

With the price of a barrel of oil hovering at around $70 and a lot of pissed off voters paying more than three bucks a gallon at the pump, President Bush and his fellow Republicans are practically stumbling over each other as they seek to look tough on big oil and act to bring gas prices down before the November election.

But scramble as they may, there is no denying that the Republican majority and the Bush energy plan are bought and paid for by the Oil and Gas industry. According to data published by the Center for Responsive Politics, since 1990, the oil and gas industry has donated $140,870,847 to Republican candidates including the President and leading members of Congress. In the 2000 elections alone, in which George W. Bush was elected President, oil and gas companies gave more than $26 million to Bush and his fellow Republicans. A full 80 percent of oil and gas contributions, more than $20 million, went to Republicans during the 2004 election cycle.

It is these same oil and gas companies that are now reaping record profits. Exxon Mobil reported profits of $36.1 billion in 2005 -- the largest-ever annual profit for a U.S. firm. And numerous news reports say that the nation’s three largest oil and gas companies are expected to report combined 2006 first-quarter profits in excess of $16 billion, an increase of almost 20 percent from last year. These three companies, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp., and Chevron Corp. have already given Republican candidates $390,000 to date in the 2006 election cycle.

So excuse me if I chuckle a little when I hear Rep. Joe Barton, Republican of Texas, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee say “ we may need hearings to determine how oil companies invest their profits,” as was reported by the Associated Press. Barton has received $109,450 to date in oil and gas contributions for his current re-election campaign and more than $879,000 in oil and gas contributions since 1994. Barton by the way is the guy who carried the water on the Energy Bill provisions providing oil companies with what the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates as about $10 billion in tax breaks that gas and oil companies will receive over the next five years.

I also don’t hold out much hope for rumors of a windfall profits tax being floated by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. and others. According the GOP website, President Bush is already on record saying that he would veto a tax on windfall oil profits. Bush, by the way, received more than $2.5 million in oil and gas contributions during his 2004 re-election campaign.

Meanwhile, any meaningful reforms such as increasing mileage standards for vehicles which the Union for Concerned scientists has said is the “single most effective way to curb oil use” has gotten no support from the Bush administration and was stripped from the recent Energy bill.

Instead Republican leaders apparently plan to use the current gas price crisis to ease restrictions on oil companies, open protected wilderness areas and circumvent environmental protections safeguarding air and water quality. Their first step is to blame Democrats for failing to vote to open the Alaskan Artic Wilderness refuge to oil drilling and to introduce new legislation to do just that. According to “The Hill” Republican leaders have scheduled a press conference Thursday at which House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) will introduce a legislative package that would include drilling in the refuge. Pombo by the way has received $66,200 in political contributions to date in 2006 from oil and gas interests in support of his current re-election campaign and more than $180,000 since 2000.

Never mind that oil analysts say that a shortage of crude oil is not the problem. The effort to tie gas prices to the need to drill in the Alaskan Wilderness Refuge first surfaced in a research-strategy memo developed by the Council of Republican Environmental Advocates (CREA) suggesting that the Bush administration use higher gas prices to promote increased drilling and open the Alaskan National Wilderness Area to oil exploration. CREA is a pseudo environmental front group funded by oil, gas and other energy companies that the organization Republicans for Environmental Protections says has a Steering Committee that includes lobbyists for Amoco, Texaco, Shell Oil, Total Petroleum, Lion Oil and others. The research memo was paid for in part by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff who provided $250,000 in funds from his Indian tribe clients in support of the project. The memo was developed for the Department of Interior, then headed by CREA founder Gale Norton, and somehow apparently wound up in materials collected for Vice President Dick Cheney’s secretive energy policy planning process. Imagine that.

But don’t worry, I hear that Senate Republicans are going to introduce legislation providing consumers with $100 tax rebates to help them deal with rising fuel prices. Let’s see, $100 for consumers, billions for oil companies. Sounds fair. As for me, I’m going to give my $100 to a Democrat.

House of Saud; House of Bush: Read the book that discusses Bush I and his old man and the Oil Drenched Saudis BEFORE Dub came along with his carnival.

No hundred buck gas "rebate". Stupid.

No moratorium on gas tax. Stupid.

Windfall profit taxes and monopoly busting: Just and right and timely.

Make the OIL COMPANIES be good citizen, too!

I am livid over what is going on. The lying repug talk show hosts also blame the Democrats.

Our beloved country has again been taken over by the robber barons. When is this interminable Bush/Repug crap going to end.

On top of all this, I heard yesterday on the New York CBS telelvision feed that "boy, you suckers are going to be hit with higher electric bills this summer, haha". Today they just said to fill up your gas tank because tomorrow the price is going up 14 cents a gallon, haha. The bastard television networks are really enjoying the fact that we are being screwed by Bush and his gang of criminals.

On top of all this, Bush is probably going to nuke Iran tomorrow if they don't give in to his tantrum.

IMPEACH BUSH, CHENEY AND ALL REPUG MEMBERS OF CONGRESS NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TOMORROW WILL BE TOO LATE.

Let's not get too carried away. I'm sure there are many Democratic Senators and Representatives who wouldn't turn down money from oil companies if it was offered and they were in power.

Let's face it...many of our elected officials are for sale. What does that make them?

Does Tom Delay drink 15 gallons of milk per week?

I'm glad to see the company I work for is not on the list... I work for Hess Oil. We made about $700+ million in quarter 1. A lot of money, to be sure. But since I do not see them on the list I can only assume bacause they are not based in Texas, but NJ and NY, they need to be careful how much they support Republicans in blue states... Also, we have no interests in the middle east. A good thing...

All About Petroleum - by Veep Daddy
(sing to the tune of All About The Benjamins)

It's all about petroleum.
It's all about petroleum! Yeah!

Now... What y'all wanna do?
Wanna be drillers? Big spillers?
Shillers - Who be lobbyin' the heck out of Hill-ers
On a loan from my gig at Halliburton
Goin' to land big contracts I'm certain

Click for more

big oil's top 20 in Congress are all repub.

The Republicans took control of Congress in 1994. They've had 12 years to take control of the energy problem. Instead they let the oil companies buy their out.

We have no one to blame but the Republican Congress who powered and engineered this train wreak. Bush was nominated by these same Republicans five years ago, because he was an oil man who swore he could handle the problem. They were all wrong.

Funny how they dress him up as a cowboy or a fighter pilot when the only clothes he'd really feels comfortable wearing are J.R. Ewing's. Although he far more resembles the younger Ewing brother with the drinking problem who could never do anything right.

The Republicans Culture of Corruption doesn't stop there.....

Did ya'll know the F.B.I has lauched a fuller investigation seeking Congress members who got their lobbiests to purchase (PROSTITUTES) for them? It's being called Sex for Votes and it's a FELONY!!!! Yep,Duke Cunningham's two little lobby pals, one of which is believed to have the little Black Book,has purchased little (*****) for the "Saintifed Senators" and "Holy House of Reps" while they are out doing the American Peoples business.It was reported on Scarborough Country tonight and it's going to be the big story all next week so Democrats......

LETS'S ATTACK! :D

How are us citizens addicted to oil? We don't make the cars. We don't control any of the oil industries. If the government would and automobile companies would make a differant source of fuel we would use it. We DO NOT have an addiction we NEED gas. To get us to work, or to school, or to see family! They are EXTORTING US! I say the goverment does something quick before America Revolts. This country should be ashamed of itself! We sit around all day doing NOTHING! It's our fault as well. Maybe the prices of gas are not our fault, but we do need to take a stand!

One way we are addicted to oil.
bottle water
Fossil fuels also are used in the packaging. The most commonly used plastic for making water bottles is polyethylene terephthalate, PET, made from oil. It takes an estimated 1.5 million barrels of oil annually to make the plastic for bottled water, enough to fuel about 100,000 U.S. cars for a year, Wells said.

It also takes more water to make a plastic bottle than will fit in the bottle.

Then there's the trash. The Container Recycling Institute says 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the U.S. become garbage or litter and are not recycled.

And here we are only talking about water bottles. Add up the soft drinks and sport drinks and all the other stuff.

Now beer is mostly glass and can. Good for the environment, good for me ;-) just kidding.

Read 'the Lonely Professor' and his solution for the oil crisis: Bring our oil companies home and 'nationalize' them. Convert them to a massive 'energy department' who sole mission is to transform America's addiction to fossil fuel to a reliance on alternative technologies and fuel sources. Bring our oil companies home and most of our military will also come home. Let the developing world have what remains of the world's oil. Compared to the technology and alternative fuel sources available today, our oil companies and fossil fuels are 'dinosaurs'. We need to start transforming our country 'now', before its too late! Down with Bush! Down with Cheney! Down with the 7 Sisters. Nationalize our oil companies NOW! Anything less at this point will only be a compromise that will benefit those who have been profiteering all along at the expense of the American people, not to speak of the lies we have been told to hide their motives.

'The interests of big oil and the interests of the American people (national security) are not the same thing.'

This fact should have been made apparent with the Administration's attempt to farm out some of our most strategic ports to an Arab company in Dubai.

Read 'the Lonely Professor's' thoughts on these topics. Take some time to 'connect all the dots'.

BUSH IS NOT ON THE SIDE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!

LOYALTY TO TEXAS IS NOT THE SAME AS LOYALTY TO THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

Wake up, wake up, wake up.

tLP

tLP

Read 'the Lonely Professor' on what we ought to be doing with our oil companies:

http://thelonelyprofessor5.blogspot.com/

This makes me sick just reading it, I can't believe that our leaders could become so corrupt so easily. You flash a few million their way and they will quickly spend billions of my hard earned money that is supposed to be going to education, retirement, and social programs. What is the big deal?! How can they get away with this and what system of checks and balances can we put into action to prevent it from happening again in the future?

DON'T FORGET APRIL 29, 50-STATE CANVASS.

This is a great opportunity to encourage everyone to buy gas from CITGO, the Venezuelan oil company. Instead of spending its money lobbying for bad energy policy and supporting Republican campaigns, Citgo is subsidizing home heating oil for low-income people in South America and the US.

By making a big deal about Republican corruption and how the government should act to lower gas prices, the Democratic party is again choosing to do what is politically expediant rather than what is in the best interest of the country in the long-term.

The fact that America's addiction to oil destroys the environment and makes America dependent on despotic regimes throughout the world is not open to debate. Sadly though, fears about global warming or political disruptions throughout the world are not enough to force either the American public OR our government to make changes a disasterous energy policy that no U.S. President since Carter has made a sincere attempt to reform. The only thing that will force the necessary reforms is higher gas prices, and I, for one, am hoping for $5 per gallon by July.

Perhaps the saddest part of this whole crisis, however, is that, in this particular case, and, it seems, with every other major political issue for the last six years, the Democratic Party has chosen again to snipe at the Republicans and George Bush rather than articulating a clear alternative vision for America.

By refusing to take a principled stand in regards to the economic and environmental issues that threaten our country now and in the future, the Democratic Party has become dangerously close to utter irrelevance.

Posted by AlexWood on April 28, 2006 at 01:53 PM

Yesterday, Sen Ron Wyden D-Or submitted an amendment to eliminate the royalty relief subsidary program for the oil companies if the price of oil is above $55.00 per barrel. Sen Pete Dominci R-New Mexico tried to get Wyden to withdraw the amendment - his contention was that is would not help the taxpayers. Wyden insisted it will and that the repugs had expanded the program "in the middle of the night". With no support from either Dems or Repugs, he finally withdrew the amendment....the tale is not over yet, you can write your senator and ask him/her why they didn't support the Wyden amendment!

I think it is time for a boycott. While we have little control over the creation of new energy technologies we do have control over our consumption of current energy sources.

hey everyone, open thread where everyone debating come on over

There is no doubt in my mind that there has been gas price gouging, certain gas stations all over the country are jacking up the prices more than others which is why Americans need to take action and report those stations that are doing it. See link below:

http://gaswatch.energy.gov

The problem is that no one in either party is doing a damned thing to stop big oil corps. from making these huge political party payoffs. You notice they're all blowing smoke to get you to subscribe to this old supply and demand crap.

It's about time someone had the guts to introduce legislation to make the big oil companies subject to the same laws as the big power companies and all other utilities. That is the only way to limit their profits and control them.

Will we every see oil at $50.00 a barrell

Michael Moore hinted at this in Fahrenheit 911, but the Bush / Saudi connections are just too much of a coincidence. The people making out the most from the Iraq war and the Iran scare is everyone else, particularly the Saudis. It is as if Bush was eliminating their competition for them. It's one hell of a conspiracy theory. In light of events, I'll just presume Bush guilty until he can prove himself innocent.

Yeah, a lot of plastics are made out of petroleum. TL: That's why some people are talking about landfill reclamation mining. There's a lot of aluminum in there too.
Interesting that the Republicans didn't say anything about biodiesel or methanol until ConAgra and Monsanto started talking about it.
But you won't find much support for recycling or conservation among the Bushies, and the rest of the Greed 'R Us bunch. They have spent too many years and too much money on lying, cheating, and buying people to let go without a fight. The only way they will voluntarily drop oil, is if they see more money in something else. We need to keep our alternative energy sources out of the hands of the multi-national mega-corporations. It ain't going to be easy.

Posted by BriannaME on April 28, 2006 at 02:55 PM

Brianna, the CEO of Enron ^H^H^H^H^H^HExxon went to Congress and publically testified that we needed to use less product before the price can fall. Your idea of a boycott has merit; I'm not moping around the house waiting for someone else to "fix this problem" - instead I can be out, doing something positive. Since President Bush does not use God given government powers to ferret out the inefficiencies or downright lies in the oil industry, maybe simple Americans can help.

Read how "Exxon Mobil chief urges conservation during Capitol Hill visit" on the CNN Website

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/02/tuesday/index.html

What about using ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson's idea in a novel way: Stop using Exxon until their financial efficiencies improve and gasoline drops back to around $2.25. That's nowhere near the $1.99 it was last year, and still a healty profit for everyone.

Help ExxonMobil conserve gas. Stop using Exxon! Heck, the weekly DNC Radio Address can include ExxonMobil Watch: Exxon Gas Prices changed $X.XX at the pump of whomever is speaking that Saturday.