Archive for the ‘Mel Martinez’ Category
China is not drilling for oil off Cuba
“A lie can run around the world six times while the truth is still trying to put on its pants”
Mark Twain
This famous quote sums up the Republican position on drilling for oil off Florida’s beaches and in the Gulf of Mexico. The lie goes something like this:
We should drill for oil off Florida’s coast because China is drilling for oil off Cuba and only 50 miles from the Florida Keys
And it’s a lie that was debunked two years ago, but it’s still circulating in right-wing circles. I see it on the message boards, I heard it last weekend from my brother in law. Who knows where he heard it, he was just repeating it because conservatives always take the side of big oil.
So let’s set the record straight.
China is not drilling for oil off Cuba
The lie was started by George Will who wrote in a June 2008 column “drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.”
The lie was then repeated by Dick Cheney during a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce a week later. Then John Boehner, George Radanovich, Michael Steele and every other conservative crazy just repeats the lie without ever checking their facts.
Even Republican stalwart Florida Senator Mel Martinez knows it’s a lie, he said “China is not drilling off the coast of Cuba,” “Reports to the contrary are simply false. They’re rumors, akin to urban legend.”
Sources:
FactCheck.org
McClatchy
Mother Jones
Tampa Bay Online
Senate Bill Permits Travel to Cuba for US Citizens – S 428
Today Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D introduced Senate Bill 428 identical to HR 874-Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act. From AP:
The Dorgan bill — co-sponsored by Richard Lugar, top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee; Mike Enzi, ranking Republican on the Health Committee; and Banking Committee chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. — would prevent the president from stopping travel to Cuba except in cases of war, imminent danger to public health or threats to the physical safety of U.S. travelers.
FL Senator Mel Martinez, a Cuban born dissenter said “This is the time to support pro-democracy activists in Cuba, not provide the Castro regime with a resource windfall.”
Senator Martinez should support freedom for Cubans in the same proven way communism was defeated in China and Russia, with American influence from travel and trade. Senator Martinez should also do what’s in the best interest of Florida’s economy by ending the Cuban embargo.
Speaking of ending the embargo, Travel is a great place to start, but lifting the embargo is what makes sense, according to Daniel Erikson, author of The Cuba Wars:
“So you would have American tourists traveling to Cuba driving around on Chinese buses, staying at Spanish hotels, eating Canadian food,” Erikson said, adding, “The only McDonald’s I’ve ever seen in Cuba is at the military base at Guantanamo Bay.”