Moveon.org sent around an email today claiming that McCain, despite his "get to work!" huffing and puffing, missed some key energy votes.  You know, not having gone to work in the first place.  

Which votes?  I decided to go digging.  Thanks to CAP, I didn't have to dig much.

From the department of things that make you go hmmmm....

The Obama campaign yesterday announced it will run its "National Priorities" spot — an attack on McCain for his ties to the oil industry — on Gas Station TV, which airs at ... gas stations.

Now — in the sort of flap a campaign welcomes — Obama's camp says Gas Station TV won't air it.

"As Gas Station TV informed the campaign this afternoon, the company will not run ads that are damaging to oil companies," says a release from the Obama campaign.

Within days of McSame's decision to endorse offshore oil drilling, oil industry money started to pour into his campaign.  Big oil was so eager to get as much money as possible to McCain that they broke the law to do so by funnelling money through employees in order to evade campaign finance limits.

This happens all the time, right?  Not this way, where thousands of dollars are given to people to donate in their own name.  In the most egregious case, an office manager at one of the nation's five biggest auto companies gave over $61,000 to McCain within days of his decision to endorse offshore oil drilling.

(Details after the jump)

This is my first diary and I'll keep it short.  I just want to draw attention to a story written by Washington Post staff writer Matthew Mosk that is apparently slated to appear on Page A01 of the August 6th edition of the Washington Post.

The article doesn't come right out and say it but there is a clear implication that campaign contributions, possibly from foreign citizens, were being illegally funneled to John McCain, among others, by a man with strong ties to both big oil and Florida governor Charlie Crist.  

More details after the jump.

Arguments for the McCain/Bush offshore drilling plan are nonesense. The plan has no chance of passing congress or state legislatures. If new drilling is that important, the oil companies should concentrate on the 68 million acres they already hold.

Why is John McCain treating our national security, literally, as a joke?

This week, Senator John McCain made clear that you shouldn't try to combat the rising cost of gas by checking your car's tire pressure, so your car gets more per gallon (something everyone from Al Gore to President Bush, from Joe Lieberman to Barack Obama, from NASCAR to environmental groups say you should do). He's even mocking the idea by handing out "joke" tire pressure gauges, and has a new childish web video out making a joke out of it.

But this is no joke.

In fact, it's so serious that I'd ask everyone to buy tire pressure gauges - available at sites like this -- because ultimately this is about our national security and our troops. Maybe John McCain wants to mock those things, but I sure don't.

Ever notice when energy prices get high the same oilmen sing (to the tune of "Barbara Ann") "Drill drill drill drill drill Offshore?"

Of course they do that. It works well for them! They get more money and power, and we get to keep them in charge and rich beyond belief. (Exxon's second quarter 2008 profit was $1,485.55 per second). Big Oil isn't America's friend. It's our master. And they want to keep it that way!

Let me pre-clarify my take on drilling.  The way this issue has been pawned off on the semi imformed masses is beyond shameful.  The next time McCain spouts off about the dire threat of global warming we need to remind the masses that he is pushing the interests of big oil.  McCain's pro drilling push will enrich the oil pimps while adding to the greenhouse gasses which he himself claims is a global threat.  Remember when McCain stooped to the low of proclaiming that Obama is willing to lose a war to win an election?  It certainly seems to be the case that McCain is willing to lose the entire freaking habitable Earth in order to win an election.  

The notion that the American public wants to open the coasts to drilling is a sad commentary on the short sighted outlook which dominates modern politics from my perspective.  I wish each and every time a person filled their tank, when they paid their $80 to the cashier that they were told to thank big oil for the highway robbery they just experienced, and then were reminded that offshore drilling is just another way for big oil to further enrich themselves at the cost of the environment.  If big oil is ripping us off it doesn't make much sense to reward them for doing it!

So I'm hardly pro drilling...  

TPM Election Central is reporting that a middle class couple from Flushing, Queens contributed the maximum donation to the McCain combination.  So what?  The woman works for Hess and was  among several Hess employees (she's an office manager) to donate the maximum to the McCain campaign shortly after he reversed his position on off-shore drilling.

Whereas the offshore coastal areas of the United States of America are a priceless national treasure owned by the People of said United States and are held in permanent trust for the benefit of said people by the duly elected government, and

Whereas certain private Corporations individually and in concert seek drilling rights to the offshore coastal areas of the nation and have firmly established the desirability and value of such coastal areas through multi-million dollar campaign contributions to individual members of the Congress of the United States and through multi-million dollar advertising purchases,

... and lifting the Congressional moratorium on offshore drilling would increase the oil companies' debt to American citizens to $60 billion over the life of those leases.

It’s a scam, folks; plain and simple. From 1995 on, Exxon-Mobile and other oil companies have been freeloading at the expense of all Americans. In short, a bureaucratic oversight ploy has enabled a total of 24 oil companies to avoid paying more than $1.3 billion in royalties to the American people for the privilege of drilling oil and natural gas from the Gulf of Mexico alone.

And, that’s only the beginning.

If Congress repeals the moratorium on Outer Continental Shelf (OCS)drilling that has existed since 1982, these freeloading oil companies will be eligible to bid on new leases, providing them with even more record profits while American families are left holding the bag. These 24 companies have posted a combined $365 billion in profits since 2006.

Like millions of my fellow Democrats across this great nation of ours, I have always regarded George W. Bush as a complete imbecile. I felt he was the spoiled-rotten black sheep of an elitist, possibly neo-facist family, that used his daddy's money, and his name to over-achieve, and get in over his head. I never thought there would even be a prayer of him being elected in 2000, and again in 2004 because I felt his luck would eventually run out.

(cross-posted over at NMFBIhop.com. NMFBIhop and Democracy for New Mexico are raising money for all the NM Candidates, so you can show some love here.)

So, I am sure you've already heard (either from LP or at our place), but Steve Pearce wants big oil to tell him what to do about gas prices. Probably has something to do with the $648,324 he's gotten in contributions from them...

Anyway, we want him to listen to YOU.

Just text SP and your message to MyTOM (#69866) and we'll  have them displaying online (and get them to him in hardcopy). You can see everybody's messages at TomUdall.com/Make_Pearce_listen.

(we tried to embed the display here... no luck... :)

Thanks!
Steve

Let's start with a quiz. C'mon, it'll be fun. Ready? What phrase is nowhere to be found in Rep. Thelma Drake's statement on House Republican's bill to let Big Oil drill wherever they want in America's public lands and water?

If you said "oil drilling," you win! For a prize, go have a guilt-free second cup of coffee.

OK, let's do another one. What percent of Rep. Drake's money raised comes from PACs, mostly out-of-district?

The correct answer would be "nearly half." Challenger Glenn Nye, on the other hand, gets just one out of six contribution dollars from PACs. The overwhelming majority of his donations come from people like you.

Last one. Who is the one group Rep. Drake thinks should not be asked to sacrifice to ease this energy crisis?

  The Federal deficit - even as estimated by a Bush confidante:http://www.cbsnews.com/... is going to register an all time high.

 Meanwhile, as a result of trying to estimate the amount of welfare - errrr - taxpayer backed assistance to Fanny and Freddy,  the Congress will have to lift the National Debt Ceiling to somewhere in the neighborhood of 11 Trillion Dollars:  http://www.politico.com/...

 What these numbers ineluctably demonstrate is that all the sleight of hand of Bush apologists can no longer obscure the collapse of any rationale for allowing Republican economic "thought" to be given serious weight in any rational discussion of economic theory - by any measure, by their own measure, they are failures, utter, complete and absolute.  More below.

For all the speeches, the photo-ops, the superior organization, and the surge in first-time voter registrations.... it's all starting to smell very familiar. And frankly, it scares me...

In this 2008 political cycle, candidates are quick to propose expedient solutions to lower the price of gasoline. Few seem to recognize or admit that the primary function of markets is to forecast supply and demand. The energy and food markets are telling us that we must change our methods of production. Doctors say that pain is a friend since it is a symptom of what’s wrong and it motivates patients to seek solutions. Hopefully, the high cost of energy and food will likewise motivate us.

Some blame speculators for the high price of energy and food. It is true that traders can manipulate short-term markets, but they cannot buck fundamental supply and demand. We stand at the threshold of the largest industrial revolution in history. The energy demands of China, India and other developing nations are growing exponentially. The price of food and many other commodities are rising as a result of the energy needed to produce and transport them.

Jake Stump of the Charleston Daily Mail got it wrong about Big Oil's favorite West Virginian, the ineffective Bush Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito in today's paper:

On Wednesday, the Barth campaign attacked Capito for taking contributions from big oil companies like Exxon and Marathon in previous years, though Exxon has not given to her campaign this election cycle.

"These are very powerful and controversial special interest groups that have hiked up our gas prices and exploited working families," said Barth spokesman Mark Ferrell. "This campaign will not take money from big oil."

Oh really?

Exxon Mobil Corp. PAC
5959 Las Colinas Boulevard
Irving, Texas 75039
06/29/2008 1000.00