REPUBLICANS - THE PARTY OF SPILL

News Item: Bush Lifts Offshore Drilling Ban

News Item: Bush Administration Relaxed Off Shore Oil Drilling Safety Standards

News Item: BP oil spill crisis far worse than Exxon Valdez incident

News Item: Huge Underwater Oil Plumes Found in Gulf of Mexico

News Item: Spill Is Now Estimated At One Million Gallons of Oil Per Day...47 Million Gallons and Counting

Live Spill Cam

News Item: Fox News Host Scoffs At Gulf Spill: 'Where Is The Oil?'

I guess Brit can't believe his own lying eyes.

News Item: As Six West Coast Senators Propose Banning Offshore Drilling, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C.) announces his support for continued - and additional - offshore oil drilling.

As oil continues to spew into the Gulf of Mexico at an unprecedented rate, and attempts to stop the flow fail, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) reaffirmed his support for continued - and additional - offshore oil drilling. In a press statement issued late last week, Senator Graham said, "I remain committed to safely expanding offshore drilling because I know oil will be part of our nation's energy plan for years to come."

Safely huh? As in when he supported Bush's weakening of safety standards for offshore oil drilling? Or perhaps it was when he supported Bush's choice of a longtime oil industry lobbyist to be the chief regulator of drilling safety.

Of course, as we are seeing now, it only takes one spill to severely damage our environment, perhaps irreparably. Visit this site to learn more about the scope of the disaster.

Speaking of for years to come:

News Item: Oil Spill Shuts Down 19 Percent of Gulf Fishing As much as 40 percent of America's commercial seafood is harvested from the Gulf of Mexico, and the oil spill is already hurting the industry.
News Item: Seafood testing could last years - The spill "will affect the Gulf, and possibly the entire North American region, for maybe years, if not decades," said Rowan Gould, acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. More pessimistic was Harry "Chu Chu" Cheramie, 59, a Louisiana trawler: "That's going to kill our fishing grounds forever."

Comparing the effects of the spill to Katrina, Randy Adams, 48, a construction worker from Grand Isle Louisiana said: "This is worse than a hurricane. We can leave from a hurricane. This we can't leave from."

So, who will pay the enormous costs in clean up and lost business associated with this disastorous spill? Well, if Republicans have their way, it won't be BP and their big oil brethren.

News Item: Republicans Block Democratic Efforts to Raise Oil Spill Liability Cap

Republicans for the second time blocked legislation that would increase oil companies' liability for oil spill damages, setting off criticism from Democrats seeking to make BP pay for the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

News Item: Heavy Sludge Oozes into Marshes of Louisiana

News Item: Oil Spill's Economic Impact Spans Country

News Item: Gulf Oil Spill Heads For Florida Beaches & Florida Tourism Begins To Feel The Pain

Government by, for and of big business is not in the public interest. As I have said many times previously, pick an issue and the Republicans are on the wrong side of it as respects what is actually good for our country. The environment is no exception. Republican's have been voting against protecting the environment for at least the last 50 years.

When you take a few steps back and consider the entirety of the situation, Republicans have either facilitated, excused or denied the enormity of the spill.

Indeed they have well earned the title... THE PARTY OF SPILL.

And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse....

News Item: Researchers Ponder a Hurricane Hitting the Oil-Slicked Gulf of Mexico

You don't even want to imagine.