Cheney Acknowledges He Lied About China Drilling ‘60 Miles Off The Coast Of Florida’
Cheney Acknowledges He Lied About China Drilling ‘60 Miles Off The Coast Of Florida’
On Wednesday, Vice President Dick Cheney gave a speech to the Chamber of Commerce in which he claimed that China, in cooperation with the Cuban government, is drilling for oil “60 miles off the coast of Florida.” “Even the communists have figured out” that drilling for oil is the solution to the energy crisis, Cheney argued.
It’s a talking point favored by the right wing. Cheney was quoting conservative columnist Geroge Will, who wrote on June 6 that China is drilling “60 miles off Florida,” “closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.” The same day Cheney spoke, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) wrote that Castro was allowing drilling “45 miles from the Florida keys.” Rep. George Radanovich (R-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) have also raised the specter of Chinese drilling just off U.S. shores.
The problem, of course, is that the claim is completely false. After his claim was thoroughly debunked in the press, Cheney acknowledged that he had, in fact, lied in his speech, though his statement today offered no apology and issued only a half-hearted backtrack of his original claim:
It is our understanding that, although Cuba has leased out exploration blocks 60 miles off the coast of southern Florida, which is closer than American firms are allowed to operate in that area, no Chinese firm is drilling there.
Cheney’s comments were so egregiously false that a member of his own party took to the Senate floor to correct the record. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) decried claims of “some fabricated Cuba/China connection,” saying they have “no merit.”
Peddling stories of false connections that have no merit is hardly a new practice for Cheney. But being called out by his own party — and having to admit error — is certainly an uncommon occurence for him.
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What a disgusting, despicable man he is. Good grief. He should be in prison.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:24 pmI’m sorry, but this is a seriously misleading headline. Cheney hasn’t admitted he lied and you will never get him to use that language to describe his behavior.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:26 pmMean Jean Schmidt lied about the same thing yesterday. Those GOP thugs sure know how to catapult the propoganda. If their lips are moving, it is a good bet they are lying.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:26 pmI can’t tell if he is working as the VP of the US or still as CEO of Halliburton (The Pride of Dubai).
Either way he is one evil AssKlown! But still has 19% od this country fooled.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:26 pmCheney: “So?”
June 13th, 2008 at 5:31 pmgummitch Says:
I’m sorry, but this is a seriously misleading headline. Cheney hasn’t admitted he lied and you will never get him to use that language to describe his behavior.
No way Cheney would even admit to being human. He never admitted to shooting his friend in the face; the friend wanted to taste those thousands of bb’s. As Bart Simpson says: “I didn’t do it, you didn’t see me, and you can’t prove a thing.” That’s our VP….
June 13th, 2008 at 5:31 pm.
Yes…
Richard B. Cheney is a LIAR…
… What’s new about that?
Got WMD’s…?
Got SMOKING GUNS…?
Got IMMINENT THREATS…?
Got SADDAM’S TIES TO OBL…?
Got RADIOLOGICAL and NUCLEAR MATERIALS…?
Got NOT OUTING A CIA UNDERCOVER OPERATIVE…?
CHENEY = LIAR!
.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:32 pmStratRat Says:
Mean Jean Schmidt lied about the same thing yesterday. Those GOP thugs sure know how to catapult the propoganda. If their lips are moving, it is a good bet they are lying.
I think Mean Jean must make the sheeple of her District in S. Ohio SOOOO proud! She is the Katheryn Harris of Ohio.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:33 pm5 deferments Dick is a liar, every sentence coming out of his mouth is a lie.
Now I could say the same thing about Bush, but I would have to replace “sentence” with “word”, seems how he can’t put together a coherent sentence.
Dead eye Dick trying to strike fear in the hearts of the uninformed.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:42 pmHas anyone seen pmavrck. I would really like his informed take on this…
June 13th, 2008 at 5:43 pmI think Mean Jean must make the sheeple of her District in S. Ohio SOOOO proud! She is the Katheryn Harris of Ohio.
Hopefully she’ll get caught outdoors during daylight hours and we’ll be done with her. That chick is whacked!
June 13th, 2008 at 5:45 pmWould it be improper to tell Cheney to go Cheney himself?
June 13th, 2008 at 5:46 pmUm, and what if George Will got his information from Cheney?
Why isn’t anyone chasing down George Will to have him reveal his source. Since we now know it’s not true, then he should have no reason to protect this person. Right?
June 13th, 2008 at 5:47 pmWhen will Cheney’s fellow Republicans take to the Senate floor to endorse Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment against both Cheney and Bush?
June 13th, 2008 at 5:48 pmSince he’s lying about this, what else could he have possibly lied about? I wonder….
/snark off
June 13th, 2008 at 5:48 pmbeing called out by his own party — and having to admit error — is certainly an uncommon occurence for him.
This was the first thought that crossed my mind when I read the headline.
People in this administration lie like they breathe; it comes naturally to them. Cheney having to admit that he lied is the real news here.
I couldn’t help but to notice, however, that even in his “apology” Cheney had to repeat his talking point: “which is closer than American firms are allowed to operate in that area”.
The obvious question is: So?. These are Cuban territorial waters. But then again, the Bush administration doesn’t “do” sovereignty.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:48 pmeric72 Says:
—-
Wouldn’t have been the first time. Yoo hoo! Judith Miller! Call on line one. It’s Scooter Libby.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:49 pmThis conspiracy theory has been swirling around the streaked conservative bowl since 2006.
Its about time this turd was sucked into the maelstrom.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:50 pmDAMN! Where are all our trolls defending their Covent Master, Darth?
This would have been fun!
June 13th, 2008 at 5:51 pmCheney hasn’t admitted he lied
~gummitch
Well, not with those words.
He simply issued a statement that invalidates a previous one.
I guess his apologists could argue he “misspoke”.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:54 pm“It is our understanding…”
translation: having pulled something out of my ass, it turns out that a whole bunch of other people pulled something out of my ass, or out of their asses…anywhoo…its all top secret so “va’ te faire enculer” as the cheese-eating surrender monkeys would say!
OH, and KNEEL BEFORE ZOD! (nee’ Cheney).
June 13th, 2008 at 5:56 pmHeh. Mean Jean was probably wearing her gaudy American flag sweater while she was lying to all of us…that batchit crazy broad needs another close encounter with vomit in the Capitol ladies room.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:57 pmAnother little crack in the neocon facade. They remind me of the worms who get caught by daylight on wet pavement.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:57 pmI keep telling myself “Only 7 more months” but that seems like an eternity when Darth and Dubya are in the public eye and keep reminding me of how Cheneyed up they have made this country and the world.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:59 pmLeftside,
Maybe whe had on the “No Cut and Run” sweater AND those f’ing pink gloves she wears when she touches Dubya.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:01 pmOf course he lied. This man is a damn criminal who has no respect for the people he’s sworn to serve, much less quaint principles such as honesty or integrity.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
June 13th, 2008 at 6:16 pmOK, everybody, all together now!
He’s a…
Lying sack of shit,
a lying sack of shit,
Chorus, now everybody!
Darth the VEEP is a LYING SACK OF SHIT!
June 13th, 2008 at 6:21 pmrogerSuckEggs, hopefully, by the time the drilling is producing, we won’t need any more supply of oil, as we’ll have converted to renewable energy sources.
The oil will still be a valuable lubricant, and you can have all you need for your personal use..
June 13th, 2008 at 6:22 pmrogerse
June 13th, 2008 at 6:24 pmSo are you suggesting Cheney is lying about lying or that the “Weekly Reader” of newspapers is lying or what? Please explain. Thanks
Gee whiz, the ethereal fourth branch of the federal government condescends to actually speak to us? We are honored, kind sire.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:26 pmdbadass Says:
rogerse
So are you suggesting Cheney is lying about lying or that the “Weekly Reader” of newspapers is lying or what? Please explain. Thanks
db,
I hear you! If it wasn’t for all the free copies slipped under the doors of the hotel rooms, the USA Today subscription rate would be about 73.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:30 pmRog,rog,rog.
Less than 100 does not equal less than 60. However you wish to characterize this statement, Cheney is boastful and dishonest.
And? Despite any concerns we may have, what Cuba does is their own business.
Cue, “there would be plenty of oil if not for those damn tree-huggers” in 3, 2…
June 13th, 2008 at 6:33 pmRogers,
One way to look at this, is if we didn’t have the stoo-pid Cuban embargo, we could be sharing in the drilling leases there, which would make it a Hell of a lot easier to transport to our Gulf Coast refineries than from the f’ing ANWR.
(Also, I could get my Cuban cigars without having to go to Canada or Central America.)
June 13th, 2008 at 6:44 pmliar, liar, pants(and ass) on fire.
I read this morning the thread from last night about Cheney being kicked out of kindergarden. One more piece of evidence that Amerika’s top leaders Bush/Cheney are evil, malevolent psychopathic monsters.
Germany had Hitler/Goering, we have Bush/Cheney.
seig heil!
June 13th, 2008 at 6:44 pmrogerse Says:
dbadass Says:
are you suggesting the source could be wrong?.
As usual, roger2 has cherry-picked the article for a few juicy paragraphs and left out scores of other paragraphs that paint a very different picture of the issues, including problems for Cuba in exploiting these resources, and other problems that could be resolved if the US simply relaxed the stupid embargo of Cuban goods. No one who has observed roger2’s tactics will be surprised to learn that the article in no way supports Cheney (or roger2).
June 13th, 2008 at 6:46 pmEvening db. How’s things?
The source and accuracy of roger’s post is irrelevant. Unless USA Today made an error like, failing to spot Chinese drilling platforms within 60 miles of Florida? That’s the picture we would need to prove that Dick isn’t LYING.
June 13th, 2008 at 6:48 pmGee. A whole 25 minutes? I’m losing my touch.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:01 pmpmavrk Says:
Whether Cheney lied or not, let us not be distracted from the reality of our dependence on foreign oil. This fact still remains…
The democrats are guilty of continually voting to prevent our companies from drilling for oil in our own country and surrounding oceanic areas. Until the democrats break the chains of the environmentalist wack jobs, we will be slaves to the Saudi’s and one day, end up in a war for oil with China and other emerging countries.
To all you Democrats — be happy that you are only paying $4.00 a gallon right now. Unless your anti-corporation party can rid itself of the environmentalist radicals, as well as it’s tax happy socialists, you will soon be paying $8.00 per gallong. Long gone will be the days of 2.00 per gallon.
Let’s see ……Gas was how much a gallon in 2000? What is it now?
What was the dollar worth in 2000? And now?
What was the National Debt in 2000? Oops we had a $250 Billion surplus. Never mind, you get the picture.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:07 pmAside from the fact that it’s completely off topic, blaming environmentalists for the deepening energy crisis is silly. The energy industry can afford the votes and investment to produce more domestic energy and all the soccer moms, movie stars and hippies, on the planet couldn’t stop them.
We import oil because, until now, importing has had a higher profit margin than domestic production. And, there would be more domestic production today if they had followed existing regulations and been open to more safeguards like inflatable spill containment systems. So long as it’s cheaper to ravage the resources of other lands, we will not begin the responsible exploitation of our own.
BTW. We get less than 20% of our oil from Saudi Arabia. They are key in fixing prices but we are less a “slave” to them than to Canada, Mexico or Venezuela.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:18 pmSo what, Dick?
June 13th, 2008 at 7:19 pmYou’ve plunked your oily ass down smack in the middle of what was once a sovereign country.
What’s worse, the Cubans leasing drilling rights to the Chinese in their territory, or you going into another country and taking their oil?
Cheney is the epitome of evil in our time.
He may not be able to match the rhetoric of Ahmedimijahd (sp) or Chavez, but his actions are far more deadly.
Pete,
And don’t forget, we have had only 1 new refinery built in the US in over 20 years. That has a big impact on the availability of gas which drives up the prices even more.
So where is all that record profits and tax breaks going? Not into refineries! Just into the Executives’ collective pockets.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:22 pm“p-maverick”: “Until the democrats break the chains of the environmentalist wack jobs, we will be slaves to the Saudi’s and one day, end up in a war for oil with China and other emerging countries.”
“To all you Democrats — be happy that you are only paying $4.00 a gallon right now. Unless your anti-corporation party can rid itself of the environmentalist radicals, as well as it’s tax happy socialists, you will soon be paying $8.00 per gallong. Long gone will be the days of 2.00 per gallon.”
LOL
You’re not really paying a lot of attention to reality, are you?
June 13th, 2008 at 7:24 pmSince there are some stupid right-wingers that insist on blaming the Democrats for these absurdly high oil and gasoline prices, I will have to again straighten them out with some truth:
the massive electronic gaming of oil futures has more than doubled the price of oil (and thus gasoline):
We’re being ENRONed again: this time by oil futures contracts speculators who are unnecessarily and very profitably driving up the price of crude oil and hence retail gasoline prices. Curious as to why you are suddenly paying over four dollars a gallon for gasoline? No, it’s not due to “supply-and-demand,” no, it’s not due to “OPEC,” nor is it due to “peak oil.” It’s due to totally unregulated electronic oil futures trading in world markets. Check out the very lucid article that explains the unseen financial machinations in oil futures markets written by F. W. Engdahl on May 2, 2008, entitled, “Perhaps 60% of Today’s Oil Price is Pure Speculation.” It may be viewed at .
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/engdahl/2008/0502.html
In a nutshell, he suggests that the Bush Administration dropped the ball in January 2006, when they allowed totally unregulated electronic trading of oil futures contracts in New York. Previously these electronic trades had been made at the London Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures Market. With that decision by the Bush Administration, all of the world’s oil prices were then opened to upward pressure from speculative futures contracts. In essence, oil futures contracts made by speculators, banks, hedge funds and pension funds all competed with real demand on the spot markets and had the effect of driving up both wholesale oil prices and retail gasoline prices. Speculators have made billions of dollars on their trading of oil futures contracts. All of their profits come right out of our pockets.
Even with a stable oil supply, there is a slow worldwide increase in demand for oil, which creates a long-term upward pressure on oil prices. However, with the relentless saber-rattling and war-mongering by Bush and Cheney in the last several years, and the more recent war talks by McCain and the Israelis, the oil futures markets are rife with speculation and paranoia. This war talk keeps ratcheting up the prices on the oil futures contracts and hence the wholesale spot market prices. It is an endless spiral of greed and paranoia.
As long as there is no tough and effective oversight of the electronic oil futures markets by the Bush Administration, the oil prices will climb endlessly. These oil prices will be quickly followed by hikes in the retail gasoline prices at the pump. The 60% speculation share of the $4.25/gallon gasoline price, is about $2.55/gallon, which is what we consumers are paying to these oil speculators as a “service fee.” Not a bad “fee,” since the speculators produce no usable goods or services…Just a few large greedy oil futures traders helping themselves to your gas money.
Without this added-on oil futures “service fee,” you would be paying about $1.75/gallon for gasoline. Write, call or smoke-signal your Representatives and Senators today and suggest that they read the June 2006 report by The U. S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations entitled, “The Role of Market Speculation in Rising Oil and Gas Prices.” Then demand that they investigate and then force the Bush Administration to firmly regulate the computerized oil futures contracts trading in New York, London and Dubai.
This electronic oil price futures scandal is costing US drivers about $969,000,000.00 per day! That number is based on 60% speculation fee of a gasoline price of $4.25/gallon and on US 2004 consumption of 380,000,000 gallons/day. Tell you Senators and Congresspersons to simply shut down this unregulated electronic oil futures contract trading market. Then the price of gasoline will slowly drop to about $1.75/gallon…The only way that oil price futures contracts make money is if the price of oil goes up in the future, say, 30, 60 or 90 days later. This futures market serves no social need. It is just for corporate greed. The corporate speculators are probably also gaming/ENRONing the wheat and corn futures markets the same way.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:24 pmGee only lying at least he wasn’t shooting someone or bombing babies Wednesday
June 13th, 2008 at 7:24 pm“p-maverick”: “Until the democrats break the chains of the environmentalist wack jobs, we will be slaves to the Saudi’s and one day, end up in a war for oil with China and other emerging countries.”
We are slaves to the Saudi’s, and we are in a war for oil with the Chinese and other emerging countries…
June 13th, 2008 at 7:27 pmTry to keep pace with current events, please.
What happened to pmavrck?
Did his mama call him up from the basement for dinner?
June 13th, 2008 at 7:27 pmThese “new” trolls don’t even seem to try. I can’t say I blame them.
June 13th, 2008 at 7:47 pmPete,
Gotta suck to always be on the GOP Washington Nationals team when playing the DEM Globetrotters of 2008.
Heh Heh
June 13th, 2008 at 7:50 pmWhen confronted with the fct that his lie had been exposed, Cheney’s first remark was, “So?”
June 13th, 2008 at 8:15 pmAfter all these years, no one should be taken in by anything emanating from the crooked lips of this corrupt and rotten individual.
upside99 Says:
Pete,
Gotta suck to always be on the GOP Washington Nationals team when playing the DEM Globetrotters of 2008.
Heh Heh
June 13th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Could you imagine being one of Today’s College Republicans? Lots of heads will explode when their heroes start going down.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:20 pmThe communists will be planning cell phone attack ahead of the mushroom cloud. Darth Vader predicts.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:23 pmpete Says:
Could you imagine being one of Today’s College Republicans? Lots of heads will explode when their heroes start going down.
Like Mark Foley or Larry Craig or Jeff Gannon or Ted Haggard?
Sorry Pete, couldn’t resist that opening!
June 13th, 2008 at 8:32 pmThey’re making a huge artificial pond for War-Profiteer and Sex-Toy-Enthusiast “Beluga Whale” Cheney
A.K.A. Dick “Strap-On” Cheney
for a LIMITED TIME you’ll get a chance to see this beluga whale perform her favorite tricks!
June 14th, 2008 at 12:30 amTheme park fun awaits in Iraq!
June 14th, 2008 at 12:31 amSo, in the possibility that these news were true:
It is bad and dangerous that one country decides how to exploit its sources (within their sovereign territory) and which company should do it, but putting soldiers on a foreign land violating international law, killing thousands and displacing millions, is somewhat… good?
Got it.
June 14th, 2008 at 1:14 amWell if you are not a slave of the Saudis why did you post…
June 14th, 2008 at 2:35 am“Until the democrats break the chains of the environmentalist wack jobs, we will be slaves to the Saudi’s” I suppose this will depend on the definition of “until”
Dick Cheney = The United States’ nightmare from hell.
June 14th, 2008 at 6:05 am>One day soon — possibly before the end of this year
possibly? come on dude.. “one day, this will possibly be less close to being an outright lie than it is now”..
June 14th, 2008 at 6:19 amP-maverick: “Anything else I can help you with Nevar?”
Sure, I’ve got a creative writing assignment due on Monday, so far it’s precise, concise, and to the point. It’s only one paragraph though, and it’s supposed to be two pages (the instructor is a law student).
Since you seem to be quite adept at rambling on without really saying much, could you help me out with some filler?
June 14th, 2008 at 7:50 ampmavrk: “Perhaps another choice of a word would have been better than “until” but given the responses from Nevar and upside99 I don’t think they even caught that little tidbit.”
I guess you missed the bold lettering in my post.
June 14th, 2008 at 8:07 amSilly question – what’s wrong with Cuba drilling 60 miles from Florida?
Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone extends 200 nautical miles from its coastline. A point 60 miles from Florida would be only 30 miles from Cuba, well within this zone.
June 14th, 2008 at 10:01 amWhats extremely disturbing is how easily the right wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Sean hannity pick up false rumours like this and spread it around in the media (without even checking it)…now a large portion of the American population thinks the Chinese are drilling off the coast of Florida.
There is no accountability, no journalist integrity, and no honesty….in the end it is just pure propaganda and this is how these crooks get elected to run our country.
June 14th, 2008 at 11:22 amI agree with the lack of honesty and accountability but I have to give these clowns a pass on the journalistic integrity issue. They are not journalists. Instead they are just the tools of a business plan that markets a weird brand of thought and misguided fear and anger
June 14th, 2008 at 11:49 ampmaverick,
Tell me again why the price of gas in 2000 vs, today is the Dems fault? Maybe, just maybe, the invasion of Iraq may have contributed to that, as in the removal of 4 million barrels of production?
And your comments about Dubya and BushCo spending money, weren’t your “conservative republic party members” supporting him every step of the way?
And who has run up the debt to China over the past 7 1/2 years? Maybe BushCo’s illegal ego invasion and occupation of Iraq may have contributed?
NAW! When a republic party member can’t stand the truth about themselves, they just blame it on the Dems.
And, what BushCo has done over their reign of terror makes whatever Clinton did look like the moral difference between Mother Theresa and a convicted Catholic priest. (with BushCo NOT being Mother Theresa).
June 14th, 2008 at 1:30 pmI used to live in Texas. The gulf coast beaches at Galveston would have black patches of an oil-like substance every so often on the sand. As you go south along the gulf coast, the water does get somewhat cleaner, but even as far south as South Padre Island, the beaches are nowhere near as pristine as they are on the Florida coastlines.
The Republicans have demolished environmental regulations for logging, air emissions, corporate polluting, etc., etc., etc. They denied global warming exists for so many years, yet are now just starting to acknowledge that problem after years of major hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding.
Now the Republicans want to destroy the Florida beaches where I now spend a lot of my time.
Stop the lies and stupidity. Vote against the Republicans. That is the only way to save the planet and to have decent places to live.
June 14th, 2008 at 2:29 pmJune 14th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I heard fox news repeating this same lie again today.
June 14th, 2008 at 8:03 pmThe best way to have an immediate impact on the current gas prices is by consuming less. Essentially, that is the basics of it. If we start drilling in sensitive environmental areas right now, we won’t see any of the results until 5-10 years down the road and thats if we see any effect at all, considering the rate of demand from China and India. Really, by drilling for more oil…we are just prolonging the problem and not actually dealing with it. Eventually we will have to face up to the fact that oil is a limited resource.
The solution exists right now in current technology, it’s just up to the average American to take advantage of the technology and the knowledge that is out there.
June 15th, 2008 at 12:14 amcan anyone point to anything chenny has not lied about?
June 15th, 2008 at 10:39 amCheney lies, stop the presses!
Geez, it might be news if he ever actually told a truth!
June 15th, 2008 at 11:31 am