Certain Republicans, including President George W. Bush and presidential candidate John McCain, who are obviously on the political dole of big oil, now want the American public to believe, wildly, that dumping a decades-old moratorium on drilling for oil off the inshore coastlines of some of the world’s most beautiful beaches will someone bring down the price of gasoline in the short term.

Glynn Wilson

A gas well in sight of the beach on the Fort Morgan Peninsula on Alabama’s Gulf Coast… Now they want oil wells too?

I was there covering the story in the late 1980s when some of the first big public hearings took place in Florida, when an activist public and tourism-related industries fought off big oil and set a 100-mile limit inside which no oil wells could be anchored.

Considering the hutzpa of big oil after having the run of the White House for the past seven-and-a-half years, this move is no surprise.

But even a safe conservative family newspaper like USA Today recognizes the unreality of it all.

As gasoline soars beyond $4 a gallon, the paper reported recently, President Bush and his would-be Republican successor, John McCain, see a viable source of domestic production along the coasts of America. Democrat Barack Obama and the nation’s environmentalists see a threat to pristine waters and beaches — and little help at the pump from offshore drilling.

Worth the risk? Debate on offshore drilling heats up

Of course that’s one of those two-sided, so-called objective treatments American newspapers have become famous for, funded as they are by big corporate advertising dollars. But the truth is, we are not going to stand by and watch big oil grab the nation’s coastlines and muck them up forever for a few more months worth of oil. It just ain’t gonna happen.

And if Obama tries backtracking on the issue and hints at a compromise with big oil by changing his position, that will be the second major campaign promise he’s broken since becoming the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president. His vote for the FISA bill is not forgotten…

Obama Shifts, Says He MAY Back Offshore Drilling

Some Alabama Bloggers Waste Bandwidth

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat, demanded in a letter this week that Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and other subpoenad White House aides comply with a federal judge’s order and appear “immediately” before the committee to testify under oath – or face criminal contempt charges from the full House.

The “precise legal issue” raised by Mr. Rove’s claim of immunity from our subpoena as a former White House official was before Judge Bates in Committee on the Judiciary v. Miers, Conyers wrote. The decision in that case provides an unequivocal answer. . . In his letter to me of July 29, 2008, Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith also noted the pendency of the District Court case and stated that ‘Mr. Rove assuredly will abide by the court’s decision when it issues.’ I trust that this is correct and that there will be no further need to enforce the subpoena through contempt proceedings in the full House, and have directed my staff to contact you immediately so that we can make arrangements for Mr. Rove to testify in September.

House Judiciary Committee press release

Letter to Rove’s lawyer Robert Luskin

Letter to Fred Fielding

Meanwhile, there are other Alabama bloggers who are still relying on the Newhouse press view of the world who still can’t get their heads around the FACT that the Bush White House, including disgraced former political aide Karl Rove, manipulated justice for political reasons – even in little old Alabama.

One of the biggest dumbasses of them all has now even questioned the sanity of Roger Shuler, who was fired from his job of 19 years at UAB for blogging about the conflict of interest and incompetence of U.S. Attorney Alice Martin and the Siegelman case.

One of these bloggers, an Auburn engineer, likes to think he is some kind of an authority on blogging. Along with his little friend GOP girl — better known as Flip by her former colleagues at Auburn where she failed to get tenure and doesn’t even teach anymore — they pollute the discussion of substantive issues in this state and waste bandwidth in their attempt to be somebody, even as they mostly blog under anonymous identities and hide from real information.

In the true tradition of the First Amendment, bloggers such as Roger Shuler and myself are trying to get good information out to the good people of Alabama – as well as inform people around the country and the world – about a series of serious injustices that are taking place here.

They would rather call people crazy and attack the credibility of credentialed journalists than to do the heavy reading to find out what’s really going on in the world outside the Heart of Dixie.

For more information, here are a few AP, Washington Post and Locust Fork Journal stories from the past few days if you need to catch up on the action.

Pelosi Says Rove Contempt Citation Possible
Judge Rules Bush Aides Not Immune From Subpoena
WP: Judge Rules Bush Aides Must Obey Subpoenas
NYT: Democrats Call for Contempt Charges Against Rove
Jill Simpson Calls on Pelosi to Find Rove in Contempt
House Judiciary Committee Holds Karl Rove in Contempt