2010

One of the popular talking points from the wingnut noise machine is that the Obama administration is doing little or nothing in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon Response site provides news and information about the facts of the response efforts. These facts quickly put the lie to the right-wing meme.

Let’s take a look at a few of the relevant facts:

• The Small Business Administration has approved 121 economic injury assistance loans to date. These total more than $8 million for small businesses in the Gulf Coast.


• The deployment of more than 17,000 National Guard troops from Gulf Coast states has been authorized by the Obama Administration. As of June 28, 1,675 were active. (Note that National Guard troops are activated at the request of state governors. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican and a harsh critic of the Obama administration, has activated less than 20% of the National Guard troops that have been made available to him. Some of those that he has activated were deployed specifically to block media access to spill cleanup efforts.


• More than 28.2 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.


• The Obama Administration has accepted offers of help from Canada, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization and the European Union’s Monitoring and Information Centre.


• More than 7,200 vessels are currently involved in the response efforts.

The next time some smarmy, ignorant tea-partying dipshit tells you that the Obama Administration is doing nothing — NOTHING AT ALL, I TELL YOU!! — to clean up the spill, suggest that they follow this simple two-step plan:

1. Get the facts.


2. Shut the fuck up until you do.

In a post on the wingnut Andrew Breitbart’s cesspool, some asshat calling himself Todd Thurman makes the following complaint against the Obama administration:

They failed to get rid of the horribly outdated Jones Act that forbids foreign vessels from helping us clean up the gulf.

As usual, Breitbart’s site is the place to go to get the latest noise from the right-wing liar’s club. The facts show clearly that the Jones Act has not impeded the cleanup efforts in the Gulf at all:

In reality, the Jones Act has yet to be an issue in the response efforts. The Deepwater Horizon response team reported in a June 15 press release that there are 15 foreign flagged ships currently participating in the oil spill cleanup. None of them needed a waiver because the Jones Act does not apply. The Jones Act is a trade and commerce law that was enacted in 1920 as part of a larger Marine Merchant Act. It requires all trade delivered between U.S. ports to be carried in U.S. flagged vessels constructed in the United States and owned by American citizens.

…

[I]nternational assistance has been accepted. To date, 25 countries and four international organizations have offered support in the form of skimming vessels, containment and fire boom, technical assistance and response solutions, among others. A chart provided by the State Department shows that as of June 23 five offers had been accepted and 50 were under consideration — including multiple offers from a single country or entity.

The lies and disinformation spewed daily by the far right in the United States is poisoning our national discourse and making real progress towards a better future in this country utterly impossible. Such so-called “Americans” should be exposed and ridiculed whenever and wherever possible.

Allan Rock, President of the University of Ottawa:

Ann Coulter is a mean-spirited, small-minded, foul-mouthed poltroon. She is ‘the loud mouth that bespeaks the vacant mind.’

She is an ill-informed and deeply offensive shill for a profoundly shallow and ignorant view of the world. She is a malignancy on the body politic. She is a disgrace to the broadcasting industry and a leading example of the dramatic decline in the quality of public discourse in recent times.

DarkSyde at Daily Kos:

Let me see if I have this straight: in the last few days members of the GOP have savagely screwed the unemployed, protected the bankstas, trashed Thurgood Marshall, implied rape and incest is part of God’s plan, defended BP, threatened to either end social security or screw over 20 million plus people who have paid into the system for at least 20 years by making them wait until age 70 to see their benefits, and screwed homeless veterans with children. That about it, or is there more?

Quoted in its entirety, because it is a gem of absolute perfection.

White supremacist Robert Stacy McCain demonstrates his moral superiority by exulting in the death of a man who was — unlike McCain — a decent human being:

[Recently deceased Senator Robert Byrd] just became the best kind of Democrat…

Note that jumping for joy every time someone he hates has died seems to be one of McCain’s hobbies. McCain and his kind are a stain upon the face of America.

(hat tip: INSTAPUTZ)

Shorter Vox Day:

• Women are mean, nasty, brutish, amoral bitches who are waging unceasing war on us kind, gentle, entirely honorable men. Now can someone explain to me why the hell I can’t get a date?

‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard, and shamelessly pilfered from Sadly, No.

Here’s how the lying denialists like Porter Good do their thing:

• Every mention of snow is used as absolute disproof of global warming.
• However, contrary facts, such as the record global heat wave this year, are simply ignored. If it doesn’t support their pre-conceived, ideologically motivated lies, it’s not worth discussing.

Denialists and liars like Porter Good simply decide to invent their own reality, plugging their ears and chanting LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA in a loud voice when they don’t like the facts.

Sticker Robot is giving away free stickers urging the prosecution of BP. I’m sending away for mine tomorrow.

(hat tip: BoingBoing)