Patterico's Pontifications

8/1/2008

Turn Out the Lights …

Filed under: Government,Politics — DRJ @ 1:39 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

WLS already posted on Leader Pelosi’s blackout of Republicans in Congress today but I want to highlight this comment by Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole:

“Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the dimly lit chamber is a “vision of the future by the Democrat Party: The lights are out, there’s no power, and the air conditioning is gonna go off soon.

In other energy news, the United Nations implemented today a new policy of raising the thermostats in the UN building from 72 to 77 degrees to save energy. To publicize this effort, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon invited the press to visit his office as he worked in shirt sleeves.

I saw a Fox News reporter interview UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon earlier today about the temperature change. I can’t find a link but the reporter asked why the Secretary-General’s adjacent conference room was substantially cooler than his office. Ki-Moon replied [I’m paraphrasing]: ‘I can’t work in here because the sun coming in the window makes it too hot. I work in the conference room.’

A UN spokesman later clarified the Secretary-General’s remarks by noting that the UN building is old and some rooms are cooler than others.

Some Leaders are more worried about energy than others.

— DRJ

17 Responses to “Turn Out the Lights …”

  1. If this gets any play in the press today, and then becomes a subject of conversation on the weekend talk shows, it may well represent a turning point in GOP fortunes in the upcoming congressional elections.

    Remember, it was the revelations about ex-Rep. Foley’s email and text messages to former Congressional pages that really set the fire that burned down the Rep. House in 2006. It wasn’t a great environment for the GOP before that, but no one was predicting Dem gains so large that they would take back the House.

    The Dems have now abandoned the field with their tails between their legs, hunkered down and hoping that no one will notice until they can get through their convention. That gives them 5 weeks to come up with a game plan to deal with this problem when they return in Sept.

    They will not get away with more of the same. If Baracky remains locked in a dead-heat with McCain, it’ll be clear that there will be no coat-tails to protect incumbents in a Congress with 10% approval rating.

    If the Dems have the high gas prices hung like an albatross around their nexts for the 10 weeks leading up to the election, you might very well see many of those freshman Dems who won in districts carried by Bush in 2000 and 2004 suddenly become hugely vulnerable.

    WLS (26b1e5)

  2. “Rep. Tom Cole (Okla.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the dimly lit chamber is a “vision of the future by the Democrat Party: The lights are out, there’s no power, and the air conditioning is gonna go off soon.“

    That’s OK with Time mag’s Joe Klein, who wrote a piece called “Kill Your Air Conditioner”:

    I love warm weather, even when it slouches toward humidity. I detest the harsh, slightly metallic quality of the air forced through even the fanciest AC systems. The only air conditioner I own sits, unused, in my car; my home is happily unrefrigerated. But given the energy mess we’re in, I can now gild my personal preference with a patina of high-mindedness: air-conditioning is bad for the planet, and for national security, and for our balance-of-payments deficit.

    L.N. Smithee (0931d2)

  3. Rep. Cole’s statement should be a campaign ad! I just saw the new McCain ad where they use BO’s words against him. Very effective, espically where they had “Moses” parting the Red Sea.

    lynndh (66e68f)

  4. LN Smithee — that brings to mind a comment I heard a few months ago on a local radio station about taking certain “good” practices to the extreme.

    There is a large public works project under consideration where I live, to be funded entirely by taxpayer dollars. One supporter of the project called into the radio show and commented on the fact that the project would be good for the local economy because it would provide good jobs at good wages for local construction workers.

    The host first tried to point out that the project needed to be good for reasons other than that because that justification was nothing more than a transfer of wealth from taxpayers to construction workers.

    To drive the point home, the host said — “If that’s your justification, then the specs for the project should provide that no mechanical equipment can be used in the construction of the project. Imagine how many more people could be employed if shovels had to be used instead of tractors.”

    So, to Joe I say — lets get back to candles and horse-drawn buggies. After all, their good for the planet, good for national security, and good for our balance-of-payments deficit.

    WLS (26b1e5)

  5. That should be “they’re good for…” Oops.

    WLS (26b1e5)

  6. WLS wrote: To drive the point home, the host said — “If that’s your justification, then the specs for the project should provide that no mechanical equipment can be used in the construction of the project. Imagine how many more people could be employed if shovels had to be used instead of tractors.”

    So, to Joe I say — lets get back to candles and horse-drawn buggies. After all, their good for the planet, good for national security, and good for our balance-of-payments deficit.

    If we should come to the point where government spurs the phasing out of the internal combustion engine, we’ll have to deal with the animal rights nutsies if want to go back to horses and buggies.

    L.N. Smithee (d1de1b)

  7. The ultimate goal of some on the extremist enviro realm is the total absence of humanity – too many oppressive insults that we put onto Mother Gaia.

    Dmac (416471)

  8. “Blow out the candles, Laura.”

    David Ehrenstein (21c975)

  9. Mitch McConnell’s speech on the resolution for drilling on the CS was also very well done. The guy who kept objecting was Salazar from Colorado who ran as a conservative Democrat ! This is good theater and they should keep it up until November. They only need two seats to take back the Senate.

    The Democrats must really be under the thumb of the Moveon folks if they are playing it this dumb. Anybody remember the Tom Clancy novel “Rainbow Six ?” The plot was a plan to kill everyone on earth except a small group of radical greenies to save the planet. Clancy was also the first one to write about crashing a wide body jetliner into the Capital in a suicide mission. That was the end of “Debt of Honor.” He sure has a way of imagining stuff that becomes timely later on.

    MIke K (2cf494)

  10. True, Mike K. Clancy’s book was one of the first things I thought of on 9/11.

    DRJ (68f27b)

  11. Turn Out the Lights…

    …the party’s over…

    Paul (2ae585)

  12. I’m a big Dandy Don fan.

    DRJ (68f27b)

  13. I knew you’d get that reference, DRJ.

    Paul (2ae585)

  14. SanFranGranNan pulls this crap and then has the audacity to say that she’s proud of everything the Congress accomplished this session? Proud of “Beverly Hills” Waxman’s non-stop investigations into anything and everything, resulting in no substantive action whatsoever? Proud of a 9% approval rating from the American people? Proud of declaring — on the day she took over as speaker — to do something about energy prices and then pulling this shit today? Sounds like the same type of pride (read: arrogance) that led Obama to declare “my committee” and “I passed legislation”; and we all know what pride goeths before. . . .

    Icy Truth (31efee)

  15. He failed to mention that the microphones were turned off and the media was not allowed in.

    Amphipolis (e6b868)

  16. Amphipolis,

    Perhaps because Rep. Cole knows that those will be the last 2 things to go if the Democrats are in power.

    DRJ (9d1be2)

  17. Surprise! The Dog Trainer (online edition) makes no mention of the House Democrats’ lights out ploy.

    Stu707 (adbb5a)


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