ANOTHER WINGNUT MEME GOES "POOF!"

The amount of recent agit-prop about drilling for oil from the wingnuts is astounding. They have dragged in a new "foe," Communist China, in one of their favorite lies. They try to argue that since China is drilling within 50 or 60 miles from the coast of Florida, we should be able to do the same. The villains in this story include the usual suspects, Democrats and liberals, with the addition of environmentalists.

Once again, McClatchy straightens this out. (I also like the upfront headline.) Note that noted pundit George Will made this claim last week:

"Drilling is underway 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."

GOP claim about Chinese oil drilling off Cuba is untrue
By Erika Bolstad and Kevin G. Hall McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008

"China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period," said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.

Western diplomats in Havana tell McClatchy that to the best of their knowledge, there is no Chinese drilling in or around Cuba.

"I've never heard anything about this," said one diplomat from a country in the hemisphere.