If there's anyone out there who STILL doesn't believe that modern liberalism and socialism (*coff*robfranco*coff-coff*) are one and the same, then the remarks of Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) should remove all doubt.  During the House Judiciary Committee investigation of competition in the oil industry last Thursday, Representative Waters was questioning John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil.  Part of the transcript follows:

REP. WATERS: Can you guarantee the American people that the price of oil will go down if oil companies are allowed to drill wherever they want to off US shores?

MR. HOFMEISTER: I can guarantee to the American people, because of the inaction of the United States Congress, ever increasing prices, unless the demand comes down, and the five dollars will look like a very low price in the years to come if we are prohibited from finding new reserves, new opportunities to increase supplies.

REP. WATERS: And guess what this liberal would be all about? This liberal would be all about socialize -- uh, uh, (long pause) --would be about basically taking over and the government running all of your companies.

Let's see...we've got plenty of our own oil, but we can't get to it because government policies won't let us.  Those same policies also keep us from building any new infrastructure, and her answer is a government takeover of the oil companies!

Let's all keep pulling that Democrat lever, gang!