Good Question

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asks this question at today's Senate Energy Policy Forum:

WHITEHOUSE: Gentlemen, we’re in the middle of a near total mortgage system meltdown in this country. We have a health care system that burns 16 percent of our GDP, in which the Medicare liability alone has been estimated at $34 trillion. We’re burning $10 billion a month in Iraq.

This administration has run up $7.7 trillion in national debt, by our calculation. And there is worsening evidence every day of global warming, with worsening environmental and national security ramifications. In light of those conditions, do any of you seriously contend that drilling for more oil is the number one issue facing the American people today?

(Long silent pause during which nobody answers.)

WHITEHOUSE: No, it doesn’t seem so.

Now that would make a powerful ad.

We Tried Offshore Drilling, and Oil Prices Doubled

wikipedia: Oil Platform
A typical offshore Oil/Gas platform.

HuffPo: We Tried Offshore Drilling and Oil Prices Doubled

At the end of 2006, the Republican Congress and the president enacted "The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act," which opened for drilling 8 million acres of the Outer Continental shelf estimated to contain more than 40 billion barrels of oil. Oil prices were only $60 a barrel then. In the two years since, prices have more than have doubled.

Doesn't that prove that legislation to permit offshore drilling increases oil prices? That seems to be the "logic" of John McCain and the Republicans. Late last month, "Republican John McCain on Wednesday credited the recent $10-a-barrel drop in the price of oil to President Bush's lifting of a presidential ban on offshore drilling."

That's right, the man who wants to be the next President of the United States believes that doing absolutely nothing -- which is what Bush did when he reversed his father's ban, since the congressional ban is still in place -- dropped oil prices $10.

Off Day

John McCain & his $520 Ferragamo loafers feel Exxon's pain.

Tired today, won't be posting much as trying to get some work done.

Here's some stuff to read:

Exxon had the largest corporate profit in history. And their shares fell. WTF?

The St. Petersburg(FL) Times is not impressed by McCain's campaign, especially now that the Karl Rove minions are running the show into the gutter: From 'straight talk' to smear campaign

Glenn Greenwald collects some of the media's obedient recitation of the Karl Rove "arrogant" and "presumptuous" attacks on Obama. (Or in the racist term that preceded them, Uppity. Presumptuous and arrogant are racist dogwhistles (must read post by Digby); you can't say uppity anymore, just like you couldn't say nigger but you could talk about state's rights if you were Reagan and all the racists knew what you were talking about.) The guy running McCain's campaign now, Steve Schmidt, is famous for these gutter tactics. (another Digby gem)

Joe Posnanski's list of foods you loved as kids that are horrible when you eat them as adults. (He calls them Pixifoods, like Pixie Sticks, which I loved as a kid and haven't eaten in 35 years.)

The story of Kermit Washington's remarkable redemption.

The trail of Republican hypocrisy leads to Las Vegas, where "Family Values" Texas Congressman Jeff Sessions held a fundraiser in a strip club: more like g-string values than family values, it seems.

John McCain Raking In Big Oil Bucks

Since John McSame changed his position to George W. Bush's position: in favor of off-shore oil drilling, the oil companies gave him over $750,000. Big Oil will profit if off-shore drilling is allowed, not American consumers.

Another flipflip by McCain, this one for the cold, hard cash.

John McCain: Four more years of Bush. Bush has tripled gas prices during his term. Want $12/gallon gas? Vote for John McCain.

WaPo: Industry Gushed Money After Reversal on Drilling

Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.

Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month -- three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.

Just For Laughs

Arizona Tea

I think we'll have to start calling McCain "Jed" or "Jethro" when he talks about drilling.

hat tip to Climate Progress.

Big Oil/Republican Lie of the Day: "Not A Drop of Oil Was Spilled"

National Geographic:
Near New Orleans a small oil-slickened dog was seen wandering in Chalmette, Louisiana, as cleanup crews recovered oil from a ruptured refinery tank on September 6, 2005. Tens of thousands of barrels of oil had spilled and mixed with receding floodwater from Hurricane Katrina.

Republicans and Big Oil, who want to open up the oceans, the wildlife sanctuaries -- basically the world -- to drilling, are putting out this zombie lie: Not a drop of oil was spilled during Hurricane Katrina.

The truth:

Actually, there were at least 146 reported spills in Federal waters after Katrina and Rita, totaling over 700,000 gallons, the equivalent of seven "MAJOR" spills. Here are 43 satellite pictures of giant oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico after Katrina, stretching for scores of miles.

Worse, EIGHT MILLION gallons spilled out of Louisiana oil facilities after the storms. (The famous Exxon Valdez spill totaled 11 million.)

How is this not causing "a single oil spill"?

Watch the video below to see the zombie lie spread on cable TV, and pictures of the oil-slicked devastation left after the hurricane.

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hat tip to First Draft, which I saw on Newsfare