Mr. Elbow Care lies about offshore oil drilling safety

How do you know Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is lying? When his mouth is moving (and he isn't chewing bubble gum).

Mitch the Glitch has introduced a new right-wing bill that would gut the moratorium against the ecologically damaging practice of offshore oil drilling. The bill would allow drilling 50 miles from the shore - even though that's unmistakably in international waters.

In voicing his support for offshore drilling, McConnell told an outright lie. He told that Washington Post that "there was not a single incident of spillage that anyone reported" during hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

In the immortal words of Speak & Spell: Wrong! Try again!

The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service reported 5 spills between 1,000 and 2,000 barrels each. A total of 125 spills added up to spillage that was nearly one-fourth the size of the disastrous 1969 Santa Barbara spill.

Do we really need offshore drilling? Of course not. If the government would regulate oil prices, split up the Big Oil robber barons, or nationalize the industry, that would bring costs down more than offshore drilling will. In fact, it will be another 8 to 10 years before we can even use any oil we might get from ocean drilling.

In summary, Mitch McConnell is an out-of-touch liar.

(Source: http://www.bluegrassreport.org/bluegrass_politics/2008/07/shock-mcconnell.html)