Louisiana Governor Jindal Unaware Katrina Caused ‘Major’ Oil Spills In His Own State

Louisiana Governor Jindal Unaware Katrina Caused ‘Major’ Oil Spills In His Own State

Jindal is clueless about the reality in his own state. As noted in the Wonk Room, the Hurricanes caused offshore oil spills so large that they could be seen from space (check out a picture here.) The Minerals Management Service reported that 113 oil platforms were “totally destroyed” — a total of 124 offshore spills.

In fact, oil seeped onshore into southeast Louisiana, which saw 44 onshore and offshore oil spills. The EPA called the spills “worse than the worst-case scenario.” Even oil industry representatives admitted: “nature can always topple you.”

Dobson falsely suggested Obama accused Dobson of "want[ing] to expel people who are not Christians" from the U.S.

Dobson falsely suggested Obama accused Dobson of "want[ing] to expel people who are not Christians" from the U.S.

During the June 24 broadcast of his radio show, Focus on the Family founder and chairman James C. Dobson falsely suggested that Sen. Barack Obama claimed Dobson "wants to expel people who are not Christians" from the United States. Dobson was referring to a speech Obama gave in 2006 in which Obama actually asked: "And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would it be James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's?" After airing that statement, Dobson responded: "I don't want to be defensive here. Obviously, that is offensive to me. I mean, who wants to expel people who are not Christians? Expel them from what? From the country? Deprive them of constitutional rights? Is that what he thinks I want to do? Why'd this man jump on me? I haven't said anything anywhere near that."

From Obama's June 28, 2006, speech before the Call to Renewal organization:

OBAMA: And moreover, given the increasing diversity of America's populations, the dangers of sectarianism are greater than ever. Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.

And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would it be James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's? Which passages of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith. Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount -- a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application? We -- so, before we get carried away, let's read our Bibles now. Folks haven't been reading their Bible.

Progressive Women for McCain All Five of Them

Feminists for McCain? Not So Much

Are there feminist Hillary supporters who hate Obama so much they'll vote for McCain just to show the Democratic Party how ticked off they are? Yes, and I get e-mails from all five of them. Seriously, I'm sure there are female Hillary Clinton voters who will go for John McCain in the general election, but I don't think too many of them will be feminists. Because to vote for McCain, a feminist would have to be insane. Let me rephrase that: she would have to believe that the chief--indeed the only--goal of the women's movement is to elect Clinton, not to promote women's rights. A vote for McCain would be the ultimate face-spiting nose-cutoff. Take that, women's equality!

- His record on contraception and sex education is just as bad. He voted against a 2005 budget amendment, sponsored by Senator Hillary Clinton, that would have allotted $100 million to reduce teen pregnancy by means of education and birth control. He voted to require parental consent for birth control for teenage girls and to abolish Title X, which funds birth control and gynecological care for the poor. He voted against requiring insurance companies to pay for prescription contraception, when they pay for other prescription drugs--like, um, Viagra. The beat goes on, and on. With a handful of minor exceptions (he voted to confirm prochoice Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher after voting against prochoice Dr. Joycelyn Elders), he has a just about perfect antichoice record, including votes to confirm the Supreme Court nominations of Thomas, Roberts and Alito.

Bush's Chief of Staff Told McCellan To Lie

Administration 'Has Chosen to Conceal' Truth

Speaking of Libby, who in 2007 was convicted of perjury, lying to federal investigators and obstruction of justice with regard to his involvement with the plot to out Plame Wilson, McClellan said: "He assured me in unequivocal terms that he was not (involved), meaning the leaking of Valerie Plame's identity to any reporters, and then I contacted reporters to let them know about that information."

"But," the former spokesman continued, "it was Andy Card that had directed me to do that, at the request of the president and vice president."

If that sounds like a contradiction -- McClellan first suggests Bush had no knowledge of the initiative and then says that he peddled false information at the behest of the President -- it may be. Then again, it is possible that Bush was lied to, as well.

McCain Sells Out Values Offers False Hope

McCain on Offshore Drilling — a Sad (and Costly?) Saga

The easiest point to make about John McCain's recently declared support for offshore drilling is that it is a flip-flop. When McCain ran for president in 1999, he supported the current moratorium on offshore drilling, slated to last until 2012. But speaking in the Washington area on Monday, McCain said, "There are areas off our coasts that should be open to exploration and exploitation, and I hope we can take the first step by lifting the moratoria." McCain added that drilling "would be very helpful in the short term in resolving our energy crisis."

It's hard to blame anyone for changing his or her positions on energy issues over the past eight years — markets have changed, America's energy needs have changed, and prices have certainly changed. Even many Democrats have altered their positions on energy; most are much more supportive of climate change legislation than they once were.

You can blame McCain, however, for switching to the wrong position. Controversy over offshore drilling originated in the United States in 1969, when a cracked sea floor created a huge oil spill near Santa Barbara, California. The danger of a reoccurrence still exists, as do risks associated with having oil tankers routinely servicing offshore rigs. More important, offshore drilling is a band-aid. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, lifting the offshore drilling moratorium would have a minor impact on production and prices:

Mean estimates from the [Minerals Management Service] indicate that technically recoverable resources currently off limits in the lower 48 OCS (Outer Continental Shelf) total 18 billion barrels of crude oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas....

The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017. Total domestic production of crude oil from 2012 through 2030 in the OCS access case is projected to be 1.6 percent higher than in the reference case, and 3 percent higher in 2030 alone, at 5.6 million barrels per day. For the lower 48 OCS, annual crude oil production in 2030 is projected to be 7 percent higher—2.4 million barrels per day in the OCS access case compared with 2.2 million barrels per day in the reference case (Figure 20). Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.

At America's current consumption rates (20.8 million barrels of oil per day), the oil resources made available from lifting the moratorium would last this country less than two and a half years.

John McCain Fabricates Media Looks the Other Way

John McCain Makes Stuff Up

For years now, the U.S. political press corps has traveled with John McCain on his “Straight Talk Express,” buying into his image as a paragon of truth-telling. But the real truth is that McCain routinely makes stuff up, as he did on June 11 in lying about Barack Obama’s “bitter” comment.

During a political talk in Philadelphia, McCain claimed that Obama had described “bitter” small-town voters as clinging to religion or “the Constitution” – when the second item in Obama’s comment actually was “guns.”

But the Arizona senator didn’t stop with a simple word substitution. He added that he will tell these voters that “they have trust and support the Constitution of the United States because they have optimism and hope. … That’s what America’s all about.”

In other words, McCain didn’t just make a slip of the tongue. He willfully accused Obama of disparaging the U.S. Constitution, a very serious point that, if true, might cause millions of Americans to reject Obama’s candidacy.

Still, when some of the U.S. broadcast networks – including NBC evening news – played the clip of McCain lashing out at Obama’s purported dissing of the Constitution, they didn’t correct McCain's falsehood.

That fits with a long-standing pattern of the political press corps giving McCain a break when he makes statements at variance with the truth. Even in the rare moments when he is caught in an inaccuracy – such as accusing Shiite-ruled Iran of training Sunni extremists in al-Qaeda – the falsehood is minimized as an unintentional gaffe.

However, McCain actually seems to be following a trail blazed by George W. Bush, saying what’s useful at the time even if it’s not true and then counting on the U.S. press corps to timidly look the other way.

Through all his misstatements, McCain’s “straight-talk” reputation survives.

Sweeping Denials

In another instructive case, McCain got away with sweeping denials in his reaction to a New York Times article on Feb. 21. The story led with unsubstantiated suspicions among some McCain staffers that their boss had gotten too cozy with female lobbyist Vicky Iseman, but McCain went beyond simply denying any sexual improprieties.

He put out a statement declaring that in his quarter-century congressional career, he “has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists.” But that simply isn’t true.

As the Times story already had recalled, McCain helped one of his early financial backers, wheeler-dealer Charles Keating, frustrate oversight from federal banking regulators who were examining Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan Association.

At Keating's urging, McCain wrote letters, introduced bills and pushed a Keating associate for a job on a banking regulatory board. In 1987, McCain joined several other senators in two private meetings with federal banking regulators on Keating’s behalf.

Two years later, Lincoln collapsed, costing the U.S. taxpayers $3.4 billion. Keating eventually went to prison and three other senators from the so-called Keating Five saw their political careers ruined.

McCain drew a Senate reprimand for his involvement and later lamented his faulty judgment. “Why didn’t I fully grasp the unusual appearance of such a meeting?” he wrote in his 2002 memoir, Worth the Fighting For.

But some people close to the case thought McCain got off too easy.

Not only was McCain taking donations from Keating and his business circle, getting free rides on Keating’s corporate jet and enjoying joint vacations in the Bahamas – McCain’s second wife, the beer fortune heiress Cindy Hensley, had invested with Keating in an Arizona shopping mall.

In the years that followed, however, McCain not only got out from under the shadow of the Keating Five scandal but found a silver lining in the cloud, transforming the case into a lessons-learned chapter of his personal narrative.

Obama Debunks Right-wing Smears On New Web Site

Obama rebuts rumors on new Web site

After trying for months to bat down a swirl of wild rumors in more conventional ways, the presidential campaign of Barack Obama started a Web site Thursday intended to quash such reports - though by doing so it might have given the rumors even broader exposure.

Obama, the presumptive Democratic candidate, reportedly took the politically risky step after growing increasingly angry about reports that his wife, Michelle, had used the racial epithet "whitey" in what was described as a "rant" in Trinity United Church of Christ, the Obamas' former place of worship in Chicago.

"The Obama campaign isn't going to let dishonest smears spread across the Internet unanswered," Tommy Vietor, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. "Whenever challenged with these lies, we will aggressively push back with the truth."

The unusual move underscores the incendiary way in which rumors borne by the Internet, cable television or broadcast talk shows can throw even a well-run campaign off balance. The matter is particularly sensitive for Obama as he seeks to become the first nonwhite U.S. president: Most of the attacks seem designed to portray him as less than a full American, of questionable national origin, of divided loyalties and radical beliefs.

"There is a line between scurrilous nonsense and serious discussion, that laps over, especially in this day and age, when you've got all this electronic media and these blogs and this kind of fanatical impulse to bring down the opposing candidate," said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian.

But while the political impulse was once to ignore the more extravagant rumors, candidates may no longer have that luxury.

"You never know what's going to take hold," Dallek said.

The site, FightTheSmears.com, lists - and seeks to explode - these rumors:

That Obama is a Muslim, along with the assertions that he attended a madrasa in Indonesia and used a Koran when taking the oath of office in Chicago. The site responds: "Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim and is a committed Christian." It provides a link to a CNN report showing the ordinary-looking elementary school he attended.

That Obama's two books contain racially incendiary remarks. The site says that quotes being circulated were altered, manipulated or even fabricated.

That Obama refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance or place his hand over his heart when the national anthem is played. The site responds with a video from June 21, 2007, that shows Obama leading the U.S. Senate in the pledge, his hand clearly over his heart.

The rumor about Michelle Obama was that she had used the word "whitey" sometime in mid-2004 at a conference at Trinity of the civil rights coalition RainbowPUSH. The site says the report was advanced by the conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and the "proven GOP sleazemeister Roger Stone."

The site calls the report a lie, noting that "Michelle Obama was not on a panel, and the RainbowPUSH conference was at the Sheraton." No videotape has surfaced, and Time magazine reported in breaking the story that Michelle Obama had repeatedly denied that she would use such language.

The Obamas quit Trinity this year, partly because of controversy over comments by its pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Dallek, the historian, said it was not surprising to see the latest swirl of political rumor and innuendo.

"There have always been rumors," he said: "That Andrew Jackson was a polygamist, that Grover Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child, that James G. Blaine was a corruptionist."

Some claims - such as those in 1960 that John F. Kennedy was a womanizer - were even true, he added.

The Obama site encourages supporters to help it police the rumor mill and e-mail the site's rebuttals to friends.