YOUR COMMENTS

Due to the disastrous lack of leadership shown by Hodes and Shea-Porter, the citizens of NH are going to send them both on permanent vacation very soon...and the attempts by the left to rehabilitate Carter are hilarious!
- Tom, Campton

Guy, if you are going to use quotations then you should actually quote what I wrote. No where do I call them "big bad oil companies" nor do I "claim they are making too much in profits".

Your claim of having it "both ways" is incorrect as your attribution of oil companies making too much money to me is not a view I hold or stated.

Corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to make money for their share holders. That's what they do and that is what they should do. If not then why do I buy all those stocks?

Oil companies have no desire to lower costs as they have no additional supply at current rates. Americans are not entitled to gasoline. It is a privilege and if some cannot afford it then that is the way capitalism works. If Americans with less money cannot afford the product I can assure you that someone else will buy it. China and India both subsidize gas for their citizens. Perhaps future trade deals should force these nations to end these subsidies.

It has not occurred to me that they have drilled in those areas because they haven't. Those acres are currently unused and held in long term leases.

I'll ask it again because no one seems to have an answer. How will any additional supply of crude be refined into gasoline given the current refining capabilities?
- John R, Keene, NH

Pat Findlen, Jimmy Carter looks "prophetic"? No, he looks like a failed president who has gone so far over the edge that he was just laying flowers at the tomb of a terorrist.

You Dems have strange heroes. Do you were a Che shirt, too?
- John Singleton, Derry

John R. of Keene: You people have to make up your minds about the "big bad oil companies". First, you claim they're making too much money in profits and next you say they're sitting on 68 million acres of leases that they don't actually want to drill on." Can't you see how illogical your position is? You can't have it both ways!

If the only purpose in life of the oil companies is to make money, why would they be sitting on all that land without drilling? Has it ever occurred to you people that maybe, just maybe, the oil companies have already drilled in those areas and have determined that it's not worth their time, effort and money to drill where the prospects of financial sucess are non-existent?
- Guy P., Manchester

Robert in Deerfield, I expected your leftist whining here, I am not surprised.

Keep in mind that they said the same thing about drilling TEN YEARS AGO! And look where we are today, thanks to your MORONS you worship!
- Mike R., Bedford

Something needs to happen now. People say that gas prices won't go down for years to come, but what about the past week. Just a rumor of drilling dropped oil prices. What will happen when congress decides to drill? I don't think anyone knows for sure but going by this last week I would think its going to go down. I think democrats and republicans are the blame for this problem and its time to fix it. Clinton could have done something ten years ago or bush could have done something six years ago. Oh well its time to drill and come up with alternatives. Too easy if you ask me.
- surber, panama city, fl.

I am just curious as to the the timing of the GOP plan for offshore drilling. Why did the president wait until now to lift the ban? Why didn't the GOP pass this legislation when they controlled Congress for 6 years with a Repub president?

And lastly, how do these "experts" plan to refine the oil they drill for? And why don't the oil companies use the 68 million acres of land they currently have the rights for? They only want the rights. They don't actually want to drill. The supply is right where they want it as the 12 billion dollars worth of profit would suggest.
- John R., Keene, NH

This editorial unfortunately perpetuates a myth put forth by Senator McCain and the oil companies that a vote to allow offshore drilling for oil will have any material impact on high gas prices. If Congress allowed it today it will have no absolutely impact on those $3.90 gas prices you evoke for years to come. Moreover, objective and knowledgeable experts in the industry, in the media, and even the government’s own energy information arm agree that the impact would be years away and not very significant when eventually realized. This is a red herring issue played for cheap political gains, as was the proposed summer gas tax cut, and it fails to connect the dots between historically high profits for the oil companies, the high percentage of land already permitted for drilling and not being used, and the fact that oil men have ruled the country for seven years. Shame on a newspaper that uses Daniel Webster’s axiom “There is Nothing So Powerful as Truth” as a guiding principle.

Jimmy Carter was much maligned for calling on us to conserve and reduce our dependency on oil, but his calls now look prophetic and the party that has ruled the White House and the Congress for so long deserve blame for our lack of an effective energy policy and for persuading poorly informed voters that this vote would in any way address their real and deep suffering.
- Pat Findlen, Manchester, NH

Candidate Blevens, when you read about a 213-212 vote, does it occur to you that the vote was not taken in the 100-person chamber to which you seek election?
- Spike, Brentwood NH

Wow,Steve(Nashua),I honestly didn't see your post until after I hit the submit button for mine.
It's either a case of great minds thinking alike,or it is so painfully obvious that these clowns need to go.
Good luck with that though. :o(
- Mike P., Manchester

Looking on the bright side.
At least, while on vacation,these hacks can't do any further damage.
It would be nice if,every now and again,they would undo the damage they have already done.
- Mike P., Manchester

Politics as usual ... and we continue to pay their salaries while they make of mess that the next batch has to work with.
- R, Raymond

As much as I agree with this story I will not forget that we owe our new Congress to the fact when we had Republicans holding all major branches of government they did not act and do much for the average person like myself. I saw the perfect opportunity for Republicans to lower taxes rather than give us back our own money in what I viewed as an attempt at welfare for votes. They could have found the waste in government and disposed of it and did not. They could have done many things that fit into conservative thinking and the GOP charter and did not. But I also remember one democrat filibuster after another at any attempt of implementing conservative values. I kept asking myself why Republicans did not fight back and address the people with the same fire the radical left seems to posses and it never came to be. They just sat there like a punching bag and became what I now call Republicrats dropping the values for a perceived need for votes in the next election, when all that was really needed was for them to enforce the values they were put into power for. Some straight honest talk to the American people combined with the actions to back up the words could have meant some real change in this country away from the radical liberal left who has brought us to this point in our history.

I blame both Democrats and Republicans for our current situation and rightly so. I know what I am going to get from the Democrat party. More taxes and bigger government, along with more politically correct laws stripping me of my freedom to choose, and at least they live up to my expectations of their views. I expect the exact opposite from the Republican party but did not receive it in deeds done when they had the power to do so. As a conservative minded independent voter I feel I have little to no representation today in government and as far as I'm concerned the Republican Party can not blame Democrats for that. This is exactly why I am a independent and will never join one party or the other.

Yes we need oil. The whole world for now depends on it until other solutions can be developed. The question is are we going to let private industry bring us there or are we going to let government bring us there with higher taxes on lower middle class people like myself? Republicans best learn to fight back, point out the flaws in the radical left ideology, and back it with action if they expect me to take them seriously any more. Bring back the concept of common sense before we get our very own Hugo Chavez.

Sorry for the long rant but I'm tired of all the bickering and finger pointing.
- Deb, Derry

Yes one right vote would have made the difference.
Question would Senator Shaheen have voted to adjourn for the August recess and leave the oil issue unresolved. The vote was 213-212 Once again the choice for U.S. Senate in November is between the lesser of two evils as in 2002 or Libertarian Ken Blevens.
- Libertarian Ken Blevens, Bow

How about thinking of this as a time out like you do with any other child who is ranting and not thinking clearly so as to let rationality return? Just like a five year old, Republicans know that drilling will make no difference in supply for ten years, there is no way to indemnify against environmental damage, our addiction to oil must be stopped not fed, oil companies have lots of places to drill and lots of money to drill but are so greedy that they want everything now. So have your tantrum. Your shreiking and endless gotchas have given me a headache.
- Robert, Deerfield

Look at the bright side: While they are on vacation they can't do any further damage...
- Steve, nashua

We need to drill for more oil in our country and build more refineries.

The federal government and state governments need to spend more money on buses within cities and buses between cities. The less money people have to spend on gas the more money they have to spend on other things. The less often people have to drive their cars the less air pollution caused by cars that use gasoline. Air pollution harms people who have asthma and others as well. Air pollution caused by cars that use gasoline contributes to emergency room visits and hospital stays. I have had asthma since I was a child.

If Manchester's Mayor and Aldermen want to help people save money on gas, they should not be decreasing the budget of the Manchester Transit Authority. The federal government may match the 20 percent plus cut. The federal government pays 80 percent of the cost of a new bus. I hope Manchester will have evening bus service and Sunday bus service. I hope it will be easier for people to get to and from their jobs. I hope downtown businesses and other businesses in Manchester will be busier. I hope downtown will have fewer empty buildings. I hope Manchester attracts more tourists who do not drive cars.

I have been using the buses for more than 15 years.
- Ken Stremsky, Manchester, NH

This is totally ridiculous, taking a 5 WEEK Vacation with such an important Bill on their Desks! I am a totally disabled veteran, living on the bare minimum with a wife that has been fighting Cancer for the last 14 months, in Boston, MA! We must commute almost daily from New Hampshire to Boston and back to NH again, all in one day, everyday! Just the cost of fuel & Parking cost me near $800.-- a month, with both myself and my wife NOT working and these people that are using OUR Tax dollars to travel everyday, go on Vacation??? I am very afraid of what may happen to my wife and we have been doing this since last summer. I just can not afford this, but have to borrow money to make this commute just to keep my wife alive! The people of this great country want to vote a Democrat into the Oval Office, when they tried to vote Congress to have both Houses under Democratic Rule and THAT did not work either! Why not give the Democrats the keys to our Houses and allow them to have at it, this is totally ridiculous and unreasonable! I can not even afford a vacation, even if I could I would not be able to take it due to my wife's frequent visits to Boston for treatment and hopefully a cure to this dreaded disease! NO VACATIONS for either the Democrats or the Republicans until they deal with this disastrous problem of fuel for our Homes and vehicles!
- Roland H. Archambault Jr., Danville, NH

Goes to show this Congress has been about as useless as silly putty.
- Stephen Hugli, Derry

Did anyone expect anything else from a Democratic Congress whose only item on its agenda is to find ways to stick it to a Republican president that they loathe?

The president should call them back from recess and insist that they deal with the energy crisis. He can't win for trying, so why not turn around and give them more ammunition to use against him? That's what they expect from him, so he should give it to them. Besides, I love to hear the Democrats moan and groan.
- Guy P., Manchester NH