Crossposted from Flopping Aces

Excellent visual aid put together by Doug Ross on who is at fault for the rise in gas prices:

So, in summary, House Republicans have voted to increase production of American made gas while the Democrats have voted against increasing that production.

Gateway Pundit puts it well:

Democrats have blocked the development of new sources of petroleum.
Democrats have blocked drilling in ANWR.
Democrats have blocked drilling off the coast of Florida.
Democrats have blocked drilling off of the east coast.
Democrats have blocked drilling off of the west coast.
Democrats have blocked drilling off the Alaskan coast.
Democrats have blocked building oil refineries.
Democrats have blocked clean nuclear energy production.
Democrats have blocked clean coal production.

And people wonder why we pay so much at the pumps. We have so much oil under our own feet on our own soil. Will they now, finally, allow us to go get that oil after the record close of the price of a barrel? Is this what will finally wake up the left that finding alternative fuels is a worthy endeavor but preventing our country from being held hostage by those who CAN get the oil under their feet is THE priority. Will we be allowed to go get this oil?

A study by the Rand Corporation estimates the sedimentary rock in the corner where Utah borders Colorado and Wyoming holds about 800 billion barrels. That’s three times the size of Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves.

America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.

In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion
barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.

If the environmentalists and Democrats stay out of the way these new fields may bring us some kind of fuel independence. BUT….how will we refine it any quicker? Since 1976 not one new refinery has been built. One may finally be built 32 years later but it won’t be enough by a long shot.

But whats the rush? As John Hinderaker points out, the blame for the high price of gas is being misplaced:

For several decades, the Democratic Party has pursued policies designed to drive up the cost of petroleum, and therefore gas at the pump. Remarkably, the Democrats don’t seem to have taken much of a political hit from the current spike in gas prices. Probably that’s because most people don’t realize how different the two parties’ energy policies have been.

Redplanet:

also:

Politically Correct School Board Spikes Controversial Report

From the Liberals Hurt Our Kids File.

Via the Washington Post.

Fairfax County School Board members said they are likely to abandon a staff report that showed racial and ethnic gaps in some measures of student behavior, including in the demonstration of “sound moral character and ethical judgment.”

The board had delayed an April vote to approve the report after concerns were raised that findings were based on subjective measures, such as elementary report card data, and that they would fuel negative stereotypes.

~~~

The school system’s report was an early attempt to measure progress on a host of goals the board considers “essential” for success in the workplace. It identified disparities among groups of students in several skills, including the ability to contribute effectively in a group, resolve conflicts and make healthy choices, and in the demonstration of moral character and ethical judgment.

Such a target-rich environment.

The School Board asked for the report, which was paid for by the taxpayers. When normal people ask for a report measuring student behavior, they are usually interested in, well, measuring student behavior. If they already knew the answers, they wouldn’t waste the time or money on the study. Democrats (who run Fairfax County) request a study and apparently demand that the outcome comport with their liberal world-view, which should never be confused with reality. If they don’t like the results, the report goes right into the shredder.

So rather than addressing the problem (the purpose of the study), they attack it as flawed. They are concerned “that findings were based on subjective measures, such as elementary report card data, and that they would fuel negative stereotypes.” So now the teachers, whose judgment we are supposed to trust (they are members of the vaunted NEA), are suspect because their assessments are too subjective (they are, of course, subjective by definition). I guess those subjective assessments were what? Racist? Stereotypical?

But while any kid can get a bad teacher who dislikes him more than other teachers, the sum total of all of the teachers’ evaluations over the years, turns one subjective assessment into an objective picture of the student. The School Board had objective findings and chose to define them as subjective in order to torpedo the report.

But the board’s real issue is the second one: the results might fuel negative stereotypes. And that is Political Correctness. The actual results must be ignored, to the detriment of the very students they were studying, because somebody might be offended.

Here is the offended guy.

The staff report on student behavior recently drew criticism from the chairman of the Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee.

In a letter to School Board Chairman Daniel G. Storck (Mount Vernon) last month, Ralph Cooper wrote that the report and some recent school system budget decisions had “damaged any credibility [the School Board] may have had in improving minority student achievement.”

Umm, wasn’t the purpose of the report to see if students needed help in reaching these “goals the board considers ‘essential’ for success in the workplace.”

Then we have this substantive and logical critique by one of the geniuses on the board.

Board member Martina A. Hone (At Large) said that the original report is “fatally flawed” and that it doesn’t make sense “to work on fixing it.” She said she is pleased with the way the board is rethinking it. “I think we have come out a stronger school board,” she said.

Translation from the Liberal Dictionary: The results offend us and are, therefore, fatally flawed. Since you can’t “fix” results, don’t bother trying. By burying this offensive report and taking no action to help the students, we can feel better about ourselves because we protected the students from being offended. After all, nothing must come in the way of the goal of phony, unearned student self-esteem.

Unfortunately for the kids, the real world couldn’t give a rat’s rear-end about their self-esteem. What the real world cares about are “the ability to contribute effectively in a group, resolve conflicts and make healthy choices, and in the demonstration of moral character and ethical judgment,” the very attributes with which the Fairfax County School Board has declined to help them.

Also find Bill Dupray at The Patriot Room