Congressman Fred Upton: Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire!!!

While making my exhaustively long morning commute from bedroom to in-home office today, I listened to Lansing, Michigan's WJIM 1240AM radio morning comedian and pseudo non-partisan talk show host Mike Shiels (aka Lansing, Michigan's version of Star Jones) interview Congressman Fred Upton.







First, just a little background on Freddy. Congressman Upton, the multi-millionaire grandson/heir to Whirlpool Corporation co-founder Frederick Upton, is an unabashed supporter of Socialist/Fascist Presidential candidate John McCain. Upton is a good foot-soldier for the GOP: he can be counted on to show up for virtually every vote, voted with a majority of his Republican colleagues 90.3% of the time during the current Congress, and favors big-business over individuals 93% of the time. Congressman Upton spent this past Friday with John McCain touring GM plants in the Detroit area and drooling over the too-little, too-late Chevy Volt.

This morning, the discussion focused on the topic of energy. Congressman Upton favors putting windmills in Lake Michigan and a nuclear power plant in the 6th Congressional District. Fred also favors the expansion of offshore drilling saying "...if we can start looking at, uh, a real movement towards allowing for offshore drilling--remember, we haven't had an oil spill in more than 40 years. Uh, these rigs survived Katrina, they survived Rita, big hurricane before that. No spillage there." Oops! I guess Fred didn't get the memo from headquarters that the "no spillage there" line was found to be a lie.

As a matter of fact, there have been more than a few spills involving offshore drilling rigs in the last 40 years. Like the one that happened on January 26, 1969 off the coast of Santa Barbara, California involving 200,000 gallons of crude oil that eventually spread out over 800 square miles and killed numerous birds, seals, dolphins and other marine life. How about a little recent history, Fred? Like Katrina and Rita where--according to United States Minerals Management Service (MMS)--"the number of pipelines damaged was 457, and the number of offshore platforms destroyed was 113, with a total of 146 oil spills recorded." A study of environmental impacts written for MMS by Det Norske Veritas and Company and published March 22, 2007 told an even more detailed story. "As a result of both storms, a total volume of 17,652 barrels (or roughly three-quarters of a million gallons) of total petroleum products, of which 13,137 barrels were crude oil and condensate, was spilled from platforms, rigs and pipelines. 4,514 barrels were refined products from platforms and rigs."

Only 750,000 gallons of oil and petroleum products spilled due to Katrina and Rita, Fred.

Maybe Congressman Upton needs a better research staff.

Or maybe Congressman Upton should learn to represent those whom he was elected to represent, not just big-business.

Or maybe Congressman Upton is like John McCain in that he doesn't know how to use a computer or access the Internet and therefore is unable to stay up-to-date with the news.

Or maybe he just missed the memo.

Or maybe Congressman Upton should learn the difference between a lie and the truth...