Archive for July 16th, 2008

It is Joe Donnelly’s record on energy issues that is under scrutiny, but as you look at that record it becomes quite obvious that consistent votes against opening up domestic oil resources comprise a record of lethergy on an issue many Americans are concerned about.  The Luke Puckett campaign issued a hard-hitting press release today drawing attention to Donnelly’s consistent record (his rhetoric changes, but his record doesn’t) of anti-domestic drilling votes.

Here is the Release:

Fairbanks, AK-Today Congressional candidate Luke Puckett declared that he is the only candidate running for Congress in Indiana’s 2nd District who supports lowering gas prices for Hoosiers by expanding access to large domestic oil reserves like the ones in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the oil shale deposits of Colorado and Utah.

“From January of 2007 to today, Joe Donnelly has never voted for a bill that would expand domestic oil exploration and drilling. I find it unconscionable that Mr. Donnelly would repeatedly vote to block our access to domestic oil reserves and effectively vote to hold Hoosiers hostage to foreign oil and high gas prices,” Puckett remarked.

Puckett believes that Joe Donnelly has failed to be a leader in Washington on the single biggest issue people across the district care about. The rising gas prices affect everyone from blue collar workers to white collar business owners, from soccer moms to farmers. These people were not helped when Donnelly chose to co-sponsor an obscure energy bill that will probably never see a floor vote while opposing a floor debate and vote on an energy bill that was co-sponsored by 177 members of Congress.

(Read more below the Fold) (more…)

Tony Bennett issued this press release today.

Bennett Criticizes Long Thompson’s stance on ISTEP Republican State Superintendent candidate says standard of accountability is needed   (Jeffersonville) Republican candidate for Indiana State Superintendent Tony Bennett criticized Democrat gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson’s stance on the ISTEP test Wednesday, noting that standardized testing provides a measure of progress being made in Indiana classrooms.   “How she can say she is against the ISTEP test in particular, and against standardized testing in general is beyond me,” said Bennett. “In an era of our state’s history when it’s clear voters want to see more accountability and clearly defined progress, for her to say she is against measuring success in education is unthinkable.”   Bennett’s comments came in response to a story in the Evansville Courier-Press about Long Thompson and running mate Dennie Oxley, which pointed out that “they don’t agree with ISTEP and standardized testing.”   “Governor Daniels and Dr. Suellen Reed have done a great job at making our schools better, and moving the ISTEP test to the spring as they have done will provide an even better metric for accountability in the classroom,” said Bennett. “It’s one thing to say we have work to do to make our schools the best in the nation-which we clearly do-but to completely undo so much of the work that has been done by eliminating a useful measuring tool as Jill Long Thompson wants to do is an irrational and irresponsible thing to do for our children.”

Ten years ago we were told that it would take ten years to get the oil out of ANWR and onto the market. Today we’re told that drilling for oil in ANWR is not really much of a solution because-you probably guessed it-it will take ten years for that oil to reach the market. This argument is rather handy for opponents of domestic drilling because it allows them to eliminate a solution that they don’t like simply by inserting an amount of time between the discussion at hand at when the proposed solution is expected to take affect. In part they are relying on you to forget ten years later when the problem is still around that you mentioned the same solution before-ten years ago.

But does it really take ten years before that oil can reach us and provide us with the relief that we need? Luke Puckett wanted to find out, and here’s what he learned:

More videos and updates will be available over on the Puckett campaign blog. For those of you who use Twitter you can follow Luke Puckett here.

Yup.

Pat “The Hair” Bauer (our current and soon-to-be-former Speaker of the House) is having a fundraiser in Washington D.C.

According to Indiana Legislative Insight, the event will be hosted by Baron Hill’s former lobbyist employer mCapitol Management and will be “co-hosted” by Evan Bayh and Indiana’s five Democrat members of Congress.

You, too, can go to the distant District of Columbia to honor The Hair. Attending the event is $500 per person, $1,000 to be an “event sponsor,” and $2,500 to be an “election sponsor.”

The “election sponsor” title might just have real meaning in certain parts of northern Indiana, where votes are quite literally bought. (more…)

As many of you know, Luke Puckett, candidate for Congress in District 2, is leading a group of Drill-Here-Drill-Now-Pay-Less-supporting congressional candidates on a trip the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this week. Throughout the trip Luke is doing short video clips talking about where he’s at, what he’s doing, and what he’s learning about the enormous potential for drilling for the estimated 16 billion barrels of American-not foreign-oil that lies below the coastal plain of ANWR.

Here is Luke heading to the airport on Monday:

We’ll continue to update Hoosier Access readers on the trip, but you can also follow the trip on “LukeTube” and the Puckett Blog. You can also learn the background of the trip by going here.

It’s always worth it to keep the presidential race in mind, especially since Barack Obama is making a guest appearance at my alma mater today.  So in that spirit….

Bless you Jib Jab.

Wow.

From The Campaign Spot:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, complained the government’s $600 economic stimulus check was only enough to buy “a pair of earrings” while stumping for her husband.

“You’re getting $600 - what can you do with that?” Mrs. Obama said in Pontiac, Michigan last week. “Not to be ungrateful or anything, but maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn’t pay down every bill every month. The short-term quick fix kinda stuff sounds good, and it may even feel good that first month when you get that check, and then you go out and you buy a pair of earrings.”

She made these remarks at a “working women’s roundtable discussion.”

I knew she was crazy and rather, shall we say, distant from reality at times, but dang.

Memo to the Luddite liberals and the Obamassiah campaign:

Most Americans are putting their stimulus checks into their gas tanks, because gas prices are so high because you’re not willing to let us drill for oil. (more…)