TYLER - The price of oil swelled to another record high Monday morning - before dropping back. It almost hit $140 a barrel - but then fell 25 cents. It appears - a recent increase in oil output from Saudi Arabia -- is not driving down crude prices. Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who started a bipartisan group called "American Solutions for Winning the Future" held little back at the Texas Republican Convention. He wants to use American solutions to change to the U.S. energy policy.
Simply put - he's fed up with Congress: "The problem is not big oil or the foreigners," said Speaker Gingrich. "The problem is not the Saudis. The problem is getting Congress to do it's job." And that job, he says, is to start using the energy we have. "Congress outlaws every conceivable energy source," said Speaker Gingrich. Gingrich is making his case for domestic drilling by launching a campaign with Actor Chuck Norris, with the slogan: "Drill here, Drill now, Pay less." The campaign is urging Congress to do something now to bring down gas prices. Speaker Gingrich also has thoughts on speculators. "It's people who are betting the U.S. is too dumb to produce (its own oil)."
He sides with East Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert -- when it comes to speculators and drilling. "If you began selling off two million barrels a day...we can pump out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It would immediately bring down the price of oil." Speaker Gingrich proposes selling off half of the reserve - now. "Do it suddenly..without telling anybody in advance and punish every speculator."The very speculators, he says, that are betting against America."
GO TO WWW.AMERICANSOLUTIONS.COM AND SIGN THE PETITION !!!
- 1
- 2
Fixing the Vote
Email To A Friend
Please fill in the following information and we'll email this link.
Whatever method we decide upon, Election Day registration should be a part of the plan in every state. Already, eight states allow citizens to register when they vote. The system boosts turnout by five to seven points, reduces confusion, and makes it possible for "people power" to overturn the political establishment.
A change like universal voter registration would help create a fully modern and participatory election system. Even more, such democracy reforms make other reforms possible. If politicians knew that tens of millions more voters would go to the polls, they might be more likely to act with alacrity on pocketbook issues such as health care. If campaign funding laws are changed so that K Street no longer provides the bulk of funding for members of Congress, complex measures like climate change legislation might come unstuck. If we want to solve our problems, we'd better fix our systems.
The next president should not regard the increase in voter turnout as a personal achievement but rather as a signal that it is time to rebuild the structures of American democracy. The 2008 election will definitely be historic. But it can also be the election that forever changes the way Americans participate in politics.
Michael Waldman is executive director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and the author of "Return to Common Sense: Seven Bold Ways to Revitalize Democracy" (SourceBooks, June 2008). He was chief White House speechwriter for Bill Clinton.
© 2008
- 1
- 2
Discuss