{"id":4153,"date":"2010-06-07T10:17:29","date_gmt":"2010-06-07T14:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=4153"},"modified":"2010-06-07T10:21:22","modified_gmt":"2010-06-07T14:21:22","slug":"the-coast-is-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2010\/06\/07\/the-coast-is-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"the coast is clear…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n

\n
Haley Barbour: Oil? <\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n
What Oil? Press Should Stop Scaring Tourists<\/a><\/strong>
Huffington Post<\/font><\/strong>
June 6, 2010 <\/div>\n

The biggest problem facing Mississippi in the wake of a massive oil spill in the Gulf isn’t tarred beaches or ecological waste, the state’s governor Haley Barbour said on Sunday. It’s the national press corps, which, he asserted, is inflating the disaster’s current impact and, as a result, decimating the state’s tourism industry. In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, the Mississippi Republican veered as close as any elected politician could to insisting that the biggest oil spill in the history of this country had been overblown – at least when it comes to his state.<\/p>\n

"The truth is," he said, "we have had virtually no oil. If you were on the Mississippi Gulf coast anytime in the last 48 days you didn’t see any oil at all. We have had a few tar balls but we have had tar balls every year, as a natural product of the Gulf of Mexico. 250,000 to 750,000 barrels of oil seep into the Gulf of Mexico through the floor every year. So, tar balls are no big deal. In fact, I read that Pensacola or the Florida beaches when they have tar balls yesterday didn’t even close. They just sent people out to pick them up and throw them in the bag." <\/p>\n

"The biggest negative impact for us has been the news coverage<\/font><\/strong>," Barbour added. "There has been no distinction between Grand Isle and Venice and all the places in Louisiana that we feel so terrible for that have had oil washing up on them. But to the average viewer [of] this show thinks that the whole coast from Florida to Texas is ankle-deep in oil. And of course, it’s very, very bad for our tourist season. That is the real economic damage. Our first closure of fisheries in Mississippi waters came just earlier this week after about 45 days. So it may be hard for the viewer to understand, but the worst thing for us has been how our tourist season has been hurt by the misperception of what is going on down here<\/font><\/strong>. The Mississippi gulf coast is beautiful. As I tell people, the coast is clear. Come on down!"<\/p>\n

Barbour has been one of the most defiant skeptics about the impact of the crisis in the Gulf, comparing the spill, early on, to the sheen commonly found around ski boats. Perhaps it’s because Mississippi, so far, has yet to feel the spill’s direct affects. The first signs of oil on the state’s shores came four days ago. Barbour, meanwhile, said that there have been only two cases of oil washing up on shore. And yet, his lack of caution or concern is notable. On Sunday, Barbour joined a growing chorus of Republican lawmakers to criticize the president for putting a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf<\/font><\/strong>…<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
"The biggest negative impact for us has been the news coverage<\/font><\/strong>." I guess, in a way, what he says is true. If we didn’t know about the oil spill, it wouldn’t affect our plans for visiting the Mississippi Coast this year. And, I suppose one could view Barbour’s comments as simply those of a Governor standing up for Mississippi’s tourist industry. But we all know that it’s more than that. It’s part of a general denial of the reality that the ramifications of Bush Administration’s shutting down of the oversight function of our government continue to ripple through our lives is everyday ways. The irresponsible hurry up oil drilling in the Gulf, the megadisaster of the derivative driven housing bubble, the escalation of the national debt by borrowing from China to pay for foreign wars while cutting taxes, and so on, and so on.<\/div>\n

Barbour’s tone is familiar. We heard it day after day for eight years. "Oh, you people are just alarmists." "Global Warming is a hoax." "The economy’s fundamentals are sound." "The Liberal Media is …" The enemy is the reporting, not the facts they report. Even Barbour’s home town paper, the Clarion Ledger<\/strong> is making fun of him:<\/p>\n

\n
Oil spill: Officials are laying it on thin<\/a>
Clarion Ledger <\/strong>
by Gary Pettus
June 6, 2010 <\/div>\n
\n
    \n
  • Most of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is "a very, very thin layer of oil residue …" – Gov. Haley Barbour<\/li>\n
  • "The message from the Mississippi Gulf Coast that I’m trying to help convey is that now is a great time to visit the Coast, and we need to let Mississippians and tourists from other states know that our Gulf Coast is open for business," – Lt. Gov Phil Bryant<\/li>\n
  • "This is not Katrina." – U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n

    You have to wonder what their response to the world’s other historically significant disasters – man-made and natural – would have been had they been around to manage or dilute news reports with their titanic optimism. Speaking of which:<\/p>\n

      \n
      Big ship! Big hole! Big deal!
      April 16, 1912<\/strong><\/div>\n

      The maiden voyage of the new White Star liner RMS Titanic ended with good news yesterday morning, officials report, as more than 700 passengers survived off the coast of Newfoundland.<\/p>\n

      The grateful travelers were picked up from the picturesque waters of the North Atlantic after their giant vessel sideswiped a flake of ice.<\/p>\n

      The lesson to be learned from this incident, officials said, is that cruise ships remain a reliable, safe and profitable mode of travel.<\/p>\n

      None of the other 1,500 or so passengers could be reached for comment…<\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Haley Barbour: Oil? What Oil? Press Should Stop Scaring Tourists Huffington Post June 6, 2010 The biggest problem facing Mississippi in the wake of a massive oil spill in the Gulf isn’t tarred beaches or ecological waste, the state’s governor Haley Barbour said on Sunday. It’s the national press corps, which, he asserted, is inflating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}