Heads in the sand representatives

[Dominoes]

You are obviously willing to believe oil industry propaganda over less biased sources of information. The bill Ms. Coley voted for would have allowed drilling from 3-10 miles off the coast. The industry makes reference to underwater platforms to reassure us of minimum impact--but there are no waters in the 3-10 mile zone with with sufficient depth (as off the coast of Africa) to use submersible platforms. The industry also assures us that platforms can be as small as one acre and only 220 feet high -- so they would be clearly visible from the shore.

The bill Ms. Coley vote for also would have allowed the BCC to lease for oil drilling between the shore and the three mile limit. Additionally, it would have given the oilmen easements to the shore and across the beaches.

The gulf coasts of Texas and Louisiana were not always ugly. I'd encourage you to look at some of the works of Fonville Winans to develop an appreciation of what Louisiana and Texas lost to the oil industry. There aren't a lot of Obagi and Botox consuming patients in Port Fourchon, doctor. While I always respect someone willing vote against their own self-interest, I don't understand why someone would vote against the interests of the whole community.

I am hearing you and I think your points are good. We are just in different camps on the sides of this debate. I can tell you I have not read any oil industry propaganda, but tend to read conservative leaning magazines online. I will be the first to admit my info is biased and I hope you will agree to admit the same. I personally believe that we would not allow development that impeded our military or our tourism. I do think we have to consider the possibility of offshore drilling and believe we have the technology to do it in an environmentally responsible way.

On a bipartisan note, I am really excited to see the President's stated commitment to nuclear energy. I would love to see 50 more nuclear reactors scattered about less populous regions of the country over the next 20 years. Despite the environmentalists distortions of the dangers of nuclear power, science prevails and we can make as clean a source of energy as we currently can mass produce. Sorry, we just aren't there with wind or solar. It took this energy crunch to open up nuclear as an option, think of all the cheap energy this nation missed out on in the last 40 years due to nuclear alarmists.

Unfortunately, I do think the Hands Across the Sand crowd and those alike will lead to a backing off of this issue. Maybe I am wrong, but when $6 a gallon gas comes, I think everyone will wish we had begun some exploration and drilling years earlier.

 

[Matt J]

I can be done in a minimally invasive manner, but I guess some folks would rather stick their heads in the sand.

Mistype or Freudian slip?

Unfortunately, I do think the Hands Across the Sand crowd and those alike will lead to a backing off of this issue. Maybe I am wrong, but when $6 a gallon gas comes, I think everyone will wish we had begun some exploration and drilling years earlier.

Ah yes the lie that is cheaper gas. Here's a list of states:

Texas
Louisiana
Georgia
Florida

Now, guess which one doesn't have any drilling whatsoever and also enjoys the lowest gas prices of the four. If you guessed Georgia you're right.

 

[Dominoes]

Mistype or Freudian slip?



Ah yes the lie that is cheaper gas. Here's a list of states:

Texas
Louisiana
Georgia
Florida

Now, guess which one doesn't have any drilling whatsoever and also enjoys the lowest gas prices of the four. If you guessed Georgia you're right.

Very witty...

No one is arguing that lack of drilling is causing FL gas prices to be higher. Drilling could lead to better state revenues...

 

[Matt J]

Very witty...

No one is arguing that lack of drilling is causing FL gas prices to be higher. Drilling could lead to better state revenues...

Yep, at upwards of 2-3 billion, theoretically. Of course once the oils gone so are the revenues. Then what are we going to do? Aren't conservatives supposed to plan for the long term and not short term?

 

[Matt J]

Wow, and to think I thought this was a political forum where we could openly discuss candidates and issues. I don't think it is in our interests to have another trial attorney as a candidate, but you are free to have a different opinion.

Yes it is, but other than stating that he's a trial lawyer and that he plans on passing laws making it easier for trial lawyers in the state without any proof you aren't adding to the discussion. I have heard Mr. Pleat speak on several occasions and not once has he stated any intention of the accusations you are making.

Further if I follow your logic then I'm to assume that Rep. Coley will be introducing legislation that will shut down private schools since she was previously a public school teacher?

 

[John R]

...they are ready to represent the citizens of Florida in a way that expands our tax base.

Based on you inability to answer any of my questions above, could you focus on the one you mention? How will Florida's tax base be expanded? Panama City cannot handle any oil industry, imo.

 

[Mango]

I am hearing you and I think your points are good. We are just in different camps on the sides of this debate. I can tell you I have not read any oil industry propaganda, but tend to read conservative leaning magazines online. I will be the first to admit my info is biased and I hope you will agree to admit the same. I personally believe that we would not allow development that impeded our military or our tourism. I do think we have to consider the possibility of offshore drilling and believe we have the technology to do it in an environmentally responsible way.

Unfortunately, I do think the Hands Across the Sand crowd and those alike will lead to a backing off of this issue. Maybe I am wrong, but when $6 a gallon gas comes, I think everyone will wish we had begun some exploration and drilling years earlier.

In case you are not aware, or Marti Coley has her head in the sand, the Commanders of all the military bases have stated that drilling offshore would greatly impede their flight testing and missile firing exercises over the Gulf. The drones have to fall somewhere. If the military is as important to her as she claims, she would be wise to listen to them.

By looking at Marti Coley's website, which to me seemed very academic and could have been designed by a middle school student, it appears she has no grasp whatsoever of the issues surrounding drilling. If she does, why not include this on your web site? This is a major issue. There are two sentences about protecting the environment under issues and more about wanting the word theory added to Evolution Studies in schools. Sorry, but to me it is much more important to be proactive about being a good steward of the environment and truly understanding the breadth of drilling off our shores for future generations so they do not evolve into tar ball gila monsters.

I could care less what the cost of oil is if I have to sit on it on the beach, along with dead sea life, mourning what was.

 

[Matt J]

Based on you inability to answer any of my questions above, could you focus on the one you mention? How will Florida's tax base be expanded? Panama City cannot handle any oil industry, imo.

Sure it can, you just need to move the current industry out of the Port to accommodate it. Of course one of those is the shipping portion of a plant located on 231 that employees folks from Rep. Coley's district. Hopefully they don't mind losing their green jobs for oil.

 

[Dominoes]

Yes it is, but other than stating that he's a trial lawyer and that he plans on passing laws making it easier for trial lawyers in the state without any proof you aren't adding to the discussion. I have heard Mr. Pleat speak on several occasions and not once has he stated any intention of the accusations you are making.

Further if I follow your logic then I'm to assume that Rep. Coley will be introducing legislation that will shut down private schools since she was previously a public school teacher?

Much like pro-drill candidates probably won't highlight that as part of their resume, it is not particularly popular to highlight a pro-trial bar record. The lions share of his donations are from trial attorneys, so using your logic on Ms. Coley he is much more in the pocket for trial attorneys than he is for drilling.

Thank you for getting me fired up to support Ms. Coley, I am going to be doubling my donation to her and will for now say goodbye. My next politics post will wait until Nov. when I can gloat over the fresh defeat of Mr. Pleat and the seating of House Majority leader John Boehner. You guys can keep telling yourselves that every one else agrees with you or is stupid. Lets see how that works out for you.

 

[GoodWitch58]

Again, Leonard Pitts, has focused in on a huge problem in today's world: people are too often willing to only hear what reinforces their own opinion, which all too often is formed, not from indepth research and thinking, but from 10 second soundbites repeated over and over.
Somehow, the facts seem never to enter the equation:

Leonard Pitts: Facts are stubborn things, but they are still facts | tallahassee.com | Tallahassee Democrat

To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper's online message board, is to realize that increasingly, we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth. We admit no ideas that do not confirm us, hear no voices that do not echo us, sift out all information that does not validate what we wish to believe.

I submit that any people thus handicapped sow the seeds of their own decline; they respond to the world as they wish it were rather to the world as it is. That's the story of the Iraq War.

But objective reality does not change because you refuse to accept it. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge a wall does not change the fact that it's a wall.

And you shouldn't have to hit it to find that out.