Conservative confusion over oil spills and hurricanes
For a while, Republicans were defending their call for coastal drilling by claiming that the Chinese were drilling in Cuban waters. This proved to be false (though many on the right repeat the claim anyway).
So, conservatives have moved onto a new talking point: coastal drilling is safe for the environment, because recent hurricanes didn’t lead to oil spills. It leads to rhetoric like this from Nancy Pfotenhauer, John McCain’s senior energy adviser, who appeared on MSNBC the other day.
John McCain made the same claim a month ago: “As for offshore drilling, it’s safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.) said the same thing over the weekend: “I think people are reassured that not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita. Those rigs in the Gulf, there was not a single incident of spillage that anyone reported.”
Bill O’Reilly is sticking to the Republican script, telling his radio audience the other day, “Remember when Katrina hit, none of the oil rigs spilled in Louisiana.”
Even Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who presumably would know better, told Fox News a couple of weeks ago, “[T]hat’s one of the great unwritten success stories, after Katrina and Rita, these awful storms, no major spills.”
George Will, Dick Morris, Robert Samuelson, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page have all repeated the claim.
And they’re all wrong.
How do you know a rethug is lying? Easy, their lips are moving.
Here's the next talking point (I just picked it up on a right wing YouTube comment)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXAFY9d_MpU&feature=email
"It could have a lot worse (sic) that it was. Oil is not difficult to contain and recover in the water because it floats."
Don't mistake an outright lie for confussion. These people know of the spillage caused by Rita and Katrina, they just are hoping you don't know about it!
And for most conservative voters, this tactic will work!
And they’re all wrong.
Of course they are. But that's the point: to purposefully spread a lie in a short, sustained and fully coordinated way in order to give the lie "truthiness". They do it over and over and for many people out there who don't have the time to check these things out it works.
I wrote a letter to the editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about this after some wingnut parroted the claim in the editorial section last week. Not surprisingly, I haven't heard from the paper about whether they plan to print it (they usually call to confirm authorship).
Here’s the next talking point (I just picked it up on a right wing YouTube comment)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....ture=email
"Drill Here...Drill Now.."
Can we start with Newt's head?
Well, if all those brilliant people in positions of public trust and visibility say it's true, then it must be true. I for one never would doubt them. I'm sure that the photo I've seen of the hundreds of spills in the Gulf of Mexico must have been just a figment of my imagination.
The Zone Die-It, Gulf dead zone likely to be more gigantic than ever - http://www.grist.org/news/2008/07/15/dead_zone/
Why if you're in favor of 'offshore drilling' you have a choice to make, seafood/clean water or Oil, because you can't have both...
Of course if you're 'in favor of offshore drilling' than you have problems the world can't fix...
Oil spill? What oil spill? There's nothing to see here...
Guess lease on 68 million acres just isn't enough for these greedy bastards. They want it all. I hope some of these thieves get caught in the "tax evasion" investigation.
Many of the spills were visible on the weather satellites.
I have no idea why people are shocked when the GOP machine gets on message. The veracity is irrelevant, the message discipline must be maintained. Within a few days that will be the new truth, kind of like we're winning the "war".
What I want to see is selling the first oil spill as a natural occurrence, nothing to do with the drilling.
Doc @ 5:
Wouldn't hold your breath....Cox Communications = as right wingnutty a corporation as there is...
The AJC is a rag...I haven't read it in 10 years, my wife still reads it, all of my information, I'm proud to say comes from the 'series of tubes' called the 'Internets', where I can 'do the google'....
The lies don't matter because no one is holding them accountable - not the media, not Congress, not a stunned and compliant American public.
Somehow, we've gone from being raised to value honesty and excluding liars from our company ... to a world where the liars are the 'experts' and 'straight talkers' with radio shows and books.
That's not an oil spill! Why, it's Black Gold -- Texas Tea!
Ann Coulter thinks that the oil slicks from Katrina were from all the dirty poor people in the water...like a bathtub ring.
oh you mean these guys are lying again?
But but they've said it three times now.
That makes it true.
How about a series of billboards, all with pictures of things that have happened on their watch, with the lie that was told and the words in big red letters on the bottom REPUBLICANS ARE LIARS.
Jebus.......
SO wrong... and we have to find out the truth like this?
You know what. Screw this. I'm cancelling my cable. It's useless.
problem is GOP world of bumpersticker logic....
and the public has no taste for logic and discussion.....
i think fox and friends this morning were throwing russia into the mix as well...i may have been a little groggy waking up, but i could swear one of the hosts said (perhaps doocy) that "and now we have russia drilling out there as well" referencing china off of the florida coast.
Sad. People's lives are affected adversely. Any ecosystem doesn't respond to political speech, but it's diversity is affected when large, destructive events like oil spills occur. One might be tempted to spin this one way or another. I urge the facts to come out. Conservatives have lost all credibility with regards to the market, the environment, labor, terrorism, anything related to the living. In addition to delaying the inevitable reckoning (environmental, financial, human, etc), I am really no longer preoccupied by the follies of the right, as all they touch turns to death.
Cheers,
k
Uh.. that's not confusion. That's called a lie.
buck_fush @ 21:
Puhleeze! Russia and China drilling off the Florida coast? News from Fox and Friends? Isn't that just gossip?
For a conservative an oil spill is when their bathroom sink has more Vitalis in it that what's left of their hair.
They also fail to mention the fact that many studies indicate that hurricanes are becoming much more frequent and much more powerful. Some estimates state that future hurricanes will be more powerful than Katrina could ever hope to be.
OK, let me understand here. The gas prices are high because the democraps won't let the Repulipigs drill off our coast. At the same time the oil rigs that are actually drilling off our coast didnt leak any oil into our coastal waters during the most recent hurricans. So then because no oil spilled from the oil rigs that are drilling of the coast, means that its safe to drill off the coast so why don't the democrats just let them republipigs drill off the coast..............
Yeah, That's it. Drill offshore .
Stupid fucks.
When will they ever learn?
Lying about it makes it worse. Just wait till there's a huge spill and millions of sea creatures are coated with oil and dead all over their TV screens.
They'll just shake their heads and say, Oh Well. We need the oil.
Stupid fucks.
WRONG!!!
44 OIL SPILLS --
"More than 500 specialists are working to clean up 44 oil spills ranging from several hundred gallons to nearly 4 million gallons, the U.S. Coast Guard said in an assessment that goes far beyond initial reports of just two significant spills.
The report comes nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, and reflects the fact that the Coast Guard and other agencies are able to only now tackle environmental problems since the search and rescue effort is winding down.
The Coast Guard estimates more than 7 million gallons of oil were spilled from industrial plants, storage depots and other facilities around southeast Louisiana."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9365607/
LIARS.
"Damage to oil facilities from Hurricane Katrina caused four medium spills (more than 10,000 gallons) and 134 minor spills, in which 8 million gallons of oil leaked onto the ground and into waterways from Louisiana to Alabama. The largest single spill was at the Bass Enterprises Production Company site in Cox Bay, La., where 3.78 million gallons of oil spilled. Another large spill was at the Chevron Empire oil terminal in Buras, La., where the roof of one storage tank was ripped off and the foundation of another ripped out, leaking 1.4 million gallons of oil. "
http://www.geotimes.org/feb06/feature_oilspill.html
LIARS.
PHOTOS OF OIL SPILLS FROM KATRINA, RITA
http://www.katrinadestruction.com/images/v/damaged+energy+facilities/
Don't let them lie.
LIARS.
mudshark @ 28:
Then theres the cost of the clean up.
" But we Need the Oil."
Stupid fucks, Just invest all that money in alternative energy sources already.
Gotta start somewhere.
" But We NEED That OIL."
I saw on the noooz, that some guy in Montana was vehemently against drilling for oil, in his back yard. But it's ok in mine.
stupid fuck.
I apologize for being a grammer PITA but the abbreviation for Kentucky has pretty much ALWAYS been KY rather than "Ken."
These same pundits explained the first oil price increases, post-Katrina, as due to the damage to drilling platforms & refineries in the Gulf area. Do they ever try to honestly get the story right?
lilorphant @ 29:
Also Wikipedia reports on Katrina:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_Oil_Spill_%28Chalmette%2C_Louisiana%29
To call this confusion on their part is ridiculous. They know damn well that few, if any, "journalists" are going to call them on it. By the time the truth catches up, enough people believe the lie.
It's in their playbook. They use constantly. Call it what it is.
BD@34: Right on, the MSM is NOT going to report truth and facts as to oil spills
caused by either Rita or Katrina when, as we know, BIG Business owns/controls
90 percent of the media. Pooooor Oil/Gas Industy...only making profits exceeding
27 percent last year...Greed is the name of the game and to hell w/the citizens.
Only drilling Democrats approved is Bill drilling Monica in the Oval Office...
even THEN there was issues with the Clean-up
SOLAR POWER will be cheap and invented... just as soon as ARCO discovers how to package the sun
dakine01 @ 31:
ALWAYS for someone under fifty. Some of us remember when the KY abbreviation was not used at all. It was implemented by the Post Office in the 1960s.
if limbaugh and hannity say it, it's true
Fucking hell.
On Hardball yesterday Sens. Barbra Boxer and Kit Bond were on. The Repug scum brought up this very newest "big lie" of theirs; Boxer made a face like she was going to say something, but he filliblustered her and Tweety called time and didn't let here say anything more. Make no mistake the corporate owned m$m is in on it to, Mathews knew exactly what he did. Fucking infuriating.
As for Boxer and anyother Dem for that matter, I'm sorry but you are not on the Senate floor, you are on a talking headshow; the time for niceties is over! Fuck parlimentary proceedure and don't be bullied, jump in their and say- liar!
We need to step up and spread the truth about the oil spills from Rita and Katrina. We need to start making our own email forwards, based in truth lilorphant@29's post was great, spread that around. It won't earn you any campaign points, but it just might help to keep our oceans and planet a little clearer. Write Obama, write your Sens and Reps and Govs. Write your paper and TV news. Fight back.
welcome one and all to the republican's 2008 election manufactured issue. once again based on lies.
Oh yeah, spread this link too:
http://skytruth.mediatools.org/node/19981
No major oil spills? Yeah, how about the ones viewed from outer-fucking-space?
I think it is time that we start to consider that these people are a waste to humanity. We need to excise them from society.
edgarallenpoe @ 37:
I'm a 56 year old native of Kentucky and the abbreviation used by the state going back generations has been KY. It just made it more well known when the post office adopted what had been used by the state previously.
I guess in some sort of technical way, when O'Reilly says there were no spills "in Louisiana", he could be right, since the oil that was spilled came from oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico (which is not Louisiana). But we all know he's splitting hairs on this story.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/06/23/fox-news-chris-wallace-blatantl...
Conservatives aren't known for planning and thinking things through. However, they're real good at getting all the sheep and the MSM to support their bad ideas. And of course, it's followed by complete and utter failure (and fox news gig!!)
"Damage to oil facilities from Hurricane Katrina caused four medium spills (more than 10,000 gallons) and 134 minor spills, in which 8 million gallons of oil leaked onto the ground and into waterways from Louisiana to Alabama. The largest single spill was at the Bass Enterprises Production Company site in Cox Bay, La., where 3.78 million gallons of oil spilled. Another large spill was at the Chevron Empire oil terminal in Buras, La., where the roof of one storage tank was ripped off and the foundation of another ripped out, leaking 1.4 million gallons of oil. ”
Just got to the blog and read this, I need to understand something. If I do the math corrrectly the geotimes.com is saying that 134 minor spills caused 8 million gallons of oil to leak into our waterways of La. and Al. that calculates to 59,701.49 gallons of oil per spill. If i'm doing the math correctly (someone tell me what I'm missing here.) 8,000,000 divided by 134 right? I would argue that those 134 spills would be considered "major." They are on point with the talking point regarding the spill but blantant lies like this should be called out by the media. Sadly until their is a resergence in responsible reporting without trampling 1st amendment rights there is the intertubes.
oops, without trampling 1st amendment rights there is the intertubes. THANK GOODNESS!
Not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina, and that's why gas prices shot up almost 25 cents per litre (90 cents per gallon for my non-metric friends)
Nope. No spills there.
I don't believe for a moment that the oil industry is really intent on new production offshore. They hold thousands of acres of leased federal land which requires much less effort and expense to develop. Yet we seem to have a full-court press here by the Oil multi-nationals and their enablers to hurry this through (can you say Iraq War, Medicare Part D, bankruptcy bill). I am looking for some other source of profit for big oil that is at this point undisclosed.
there is no confusion, just more
bullshit deception and lies.
they won't accept responsibility for
their incompetence that has ruined
the economy of this once great country.
as long as they can steal from the
national treasure, they are happy.
The Executive Summary of this report states:
DNV evaluated the available failure reports and industry practices and has concluded that the vast majority of GOM offshore pipelines performed well during the passage of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Public and personnel safety experience with respect to the offshore pipeline operations has been excellent. Evacuations of non-essential personnel, and other operational precautions taken prior to hurricane events, including training, planning, spill response exercises, and industry alliances provided results that have protected life as the first priority. The impact to the environment has been minimal in hurricane events, primarily due to the design features, and industry practices intended for protection of life that are also focused on minimizing releases to the environment through planning, preparedness and response. The most significant impacts appear to have been the disruption of the oil and gas supply, and financial losses from the oil and gas infrastructure damage. While these are not desirable outcomes, the overall goal of prioritizing protection of life and the environment is clear in the demonstrated performance of the industry, meeting two of the major goals of the MMS for personal and environmental safety.
Probably more environmental damage was caused by the flooding of vehicles and other storage facilities ON SHORE than by these offshore facilities. Can we please start drilling now and keep our dollars at home instead of sending it to the Middle East?!
“As for offshore drilling, it’s safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston.”
McCain
Then WHY did prices SKYROCKET overnight sir? PLEASE do explain or shut your lying mouth!
“I think people are reassured that not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita. Those rigs in the Gulf, there was not a single incident of spillage that anyone reported.”
McConnell (R-Ken.)
Wtf justified the instant mega leap in prices then sir? Your kind lied about Iraq. Lied about spreading democracy. Lied about "it ain't about the oil".
I seriously feel your kind has been the very source of the very serious threat to the United States of America. Your kind has caused very serious harm to this nation, has hurt it's people, it's taxpaying citizens, in every way that it possibly can, calling the constant failures and mayhem "mere coincidences" after every disaster, manmade or natural.
Your kind, your associates, and your vested interests, ALWAYS seem to rake in record PROFIT in someway from EVERY single one these disasters, but, yeah I know, you ALWAYS SAY, it's just ...."mere coincidence".
"Good job,...", pats on the back, DESPITE repeated, utter, and complete failure.
Were not under attack from over there as your kind keep repeating INCESSENTLY.
Were under attack from "the" very direct MONEY HANDLERS,... RIGHT HERE!
Give them ANY kind of disaster, and THEY'LL TURN IT INTO ...RECORD PROFITS, while the taxpayers SUFFER, ...EVERYTIME! That's guaranteed!
Republicans should be tried as terrorists, because they are the ones creating the terror, as per their own Patriot Act.
Oh CRAP on the Republicans already!
They'll just call it turdblossoms!
However they want to define it or lie about what the definition of "spill" is...
Just tell me HOW MUCH FRICKIN OIL WENT INTO THE WATER ???!!!
ANd talking about GALLONS is preferable, since who the hell even knows how much is in a barrel? Might as well be a five gallon bucket.
So there it is.... read it and weep, you denialist rethugs.
Why the hell does ANYBODY want to associate with these lying saks of shite???
Because Faux Noise decided not to report the spillage stories, the conservatives conclude there was no spillage. God forbid they stay informed by getting their information from more than one source. You'd think Faux viewers were afraid to read unfiltered news . . . .
Damn those pesky facts!
Okay, and i have another question for these retards. Just as we rebuild the coast, get on our feet, who the hell will insure the billions of dollars of other industry, commercial, and residential property against oil spillage? So Just as we got the casinoes moved in and rebuilt, a few malls, the fishing industry is back on it's feet, the Ports of Gulfport and New Orleans, what sort of disaster pool will will be needed to insure against the inevitable nightmare of oil spillage on the coastline, because drilling "offshore" means within the 12 mile zone. It's a lot different when it's a mere couple miles than a few hundred miles offshore, and even Jeb Bush wouldn't budge on this issue. Watch your coastline tourism dry up in less than a year if you cannot insure your assets.
was eisenhower the last honest republican to be pres? from johnson to gw everyone republican has been a liar.
I guess the Murphy Oil Refinery oil spill that covered and contaminated my hometown of Chalmette, LA during Katrina didn't really happened.
My town and the memory have been wiped away...
Buh Bye
Who cares
Confusion? They aren't confused, they are lying.
Jaf @ 51...
You are correct. All Bush is trying to do is cash in one more time by attempting to lift the ban on offshore drilling. The oil companies aren't the least bit interested in drilling or lowering the price of gasoline. The oil companies are attempting to stockpile the leases to all this land. It is all about CONTROL over the oil supply allowing them to turn the supply on and off whenever they choose. Price fixing at its finest.
Any legislation that would hurt the oil companies and lobbyists had been blocked by the Republicans in the Senate. Democrats have certainly contributed to many other issues facing the sad state of affairs we all face, but the energy issues we are facing are at the hands of the GOP crooks and criminals getting filling their pockets during Bush's occupation of the White House.
What a bunch of worthless diatribe here that shows why any compromise will not be reached. You know the truth as much as the lying republicans you obviously hate. I'm not a stalwart republican, they have not been lying but rather clear on admitting the oil spillage from Katrina. The statements were actually about how well new technology helped in controlling those spills and averting a much bigger disaster. By the way, the oil that was spilled was there for loading oil into the refining system, not from drilling our own oil. Basically, whether we drill our own oil or not, the same risk has been there every day since the start of the automotive era. So why not help ourselves out and drill? We already have to deal with the risk of a spillage one way or another. Also the reports and comments made by everyone has been clear. Cuba is in negotiations with China about drilling in an area near the U.S. The mistake in remarks made has simply been talking in a tense that gives the appearance of it already happening. Imparting some conspiracy about lying republicans assumes all people are to stupid to understand the news and not just some folks that don't hear everything or can't see beyond their own world view. Try not to give so much creedance to news snips that don't have all the information.
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