Posted on 08/31/2005 5:57:57 PM PDT by wagglebee
I am impatient and fed up with the notion that fossil fuels are a poison. Fossil fuels are as much a part of nature as you and I are. Fossil fuels are as much a part of nature as mosquitoes are. They are here for a reason. If we didn't do with oil what we do with it, what would we do with it? It's there. What would we do with it? Nail salons? What would we do with it? It's there, folks. It's there for a reason. It has a purpose. Its use has been responsible. There is a massive propaganda campaign that's been underway for decades to try to persuade people that fossil fuels are the root of our destruction. The root of our destruction are people on the left, militant environmentalists, who are doing everything they can to retard our progress, and I'm telling you -- I said this in the first hour, and I want to say this again. You know, I look for opportunities in things. I'm an optimist, and I'm not an optimist at the expense of reality. I see the reality, and I'm moved by it, and I'm... (sigh) Like everybody else, I'm just numbed when you look at these pictures. But there's an opportunity here, because you look at these pictures, and what do you see? In addition to the devastation and the displacement, the death and so forth, the destruction, you see, as a natural part of the cycle, rebuilding. You see recycling. You see a return to normalcy for these people. How is this going to happen? We're not going to do this with hybrids. We're not going to do this with an alternative fuel source. We're not going to do this, we're not going to get anywhere to where these people need to be or where we all want them to be relying on the left. That's why I see a golden opportunity.
It is my contention that bureaucracies and courts and so forth have been the architects of energy policy: forty different formulations of gasoline which causes not a supply problem, but a distribution problem. No refineries in the last 15 or 20 years. We can't drill anywhere else in this country. We're dependent on foreign sources. We've got plenty of supply of oil underneath the water bodies that surround the country. We can get it. But there are people that refuse to let us. You can't do it. It's anti-progress. It's pollution. It leads to global warming. "We need alternative fuel sources!" Well, we are in an emergency. We are in a dire emergency, and there are people who have been profoundly affected by it in ways that they never dreamed. There are people who are say they look at these pictures and they see a Third World country. Well, let me tell you something: America is not a Third World country, and the American citizen does not want to live in a Third World country and the American citizen is not going to put up with it, and when these people get past the shock of all this, they are going to want to rebuild and they're going to want to return home and they're going to want to return to normalcy, and these cities are going to want to rebuild, and everything that was there is going to want to go back in one form or another, and who's going to stand in the way of the progress? The militant left. The environmentalists are going to oppose anything we need to speed this up. They're going to oppose the drilling for more oil. They're going to oppose the building of more refineries -- and in the process they will illustrate for us that it is they who are the obstacles. It is they who are the obstacles, not just to progress, they are the obstacles to replacement. They are the obstacles to simply getting back to where we were. It's not just progress they are against. They are against a return to normalcy, and you know damn well that they will provide obstacles that they will oppose. The president could do a number of things. The president...
I wish he hadn't released the strategic reserve. I wish instead what the president would do, would by executive order temporarily suspend all these environmental regulations that retard development and retard drilling and retard distribution, such as these 40 different formulations of gasoline and all these other things and let the oil companies that want to drill, drill, and let the refinery owners that want to build and expand, build and expand, and let the pipeline builders who want to build more pipelines, build the pipelines, and let's get this going -- and let's also temporarily rescind all the taxes on fuel and gasoline. If we're worried here about people not having enough, there are ways we can do this. The strategic oil reserve is a PR move, but that oil is going to have to be replaced. That oil that's in the strategic reserve now was bought at $35 a barrel or $30 a barrel. It's now going to have to be replaced at a price twice that. It's not necessary. We don't have a supply problem. We do not have a supply problem. The problem with the release of the reserve is that we've got plenty of oil; we've got plenty of gasoline. We don't have a way to get it anywhere especially since the Port of New Orleans is now not functioning and the whole Gulf Coast -- which is not a resort area, it is a working coast. Do you know that one-third or two-thirds of the grain produced in this country goes down the Mississippi River on barges to the Port of New Orleans for its distribution elsewhere? Not only in this country but the around the world. The costs of distributing that grain are going to have to be found, or the methods are going to have to be found in other ways and the costs are going to skyrocket.
There's going to be a domino effect of this, and it's not going to just affect the Gulf Coast. It's going to affect all of us at some point, some way, somehow -- and when that begins to happen, people are going to say, "It's not necessary. There are things that we can do to alleviate the situation -- production, distribution -- and there will be people who will oppose this," and in the process of opposing it they will show themselves as who they are: The obstacles of progress. They will demonstrate they are the real problems, not fossil fuels, and not the oil companies, and not the refineries, and not the shipping and the tanker owners who ship this stuff around the world. It's not the Saudis, and it's not OPEC. The biggest problem we have to plentiful energy supplies and distribution can be found right here in the American militant economic left, and there's no greater opportunity for this to be displayed to all the people of this country than right now, and it wouldn't take much for the president to do it. As I say, just temporarily, by executive order, rescind some of these onerous regulations and restrictions to free up the natural movement of supply that we already have and the natural distribution, because you wait and see. You know, there's a story in the Atlanta paper today that there's a shortage, potential shortage of jet fuel and gasoline in the Atlanta area because a pipeline that comes from the Gulf Coast has been affected by this, so they're going to have to find alternate ways in. I don't know that you can bring enough jet fuel in by tanker trunk every day to keep all the airplanes coming in and out of the Hartsfield on schedule. That's all that they would have to allow on the highways is tanker trucks of jet fuel coming in and out of there just to keep airplanes. And you wait 'til this starts affecting people that don't live in that area and you'll see the domino effect of this, and you'll find out that it's not. They're going to call it a shortage of fuel, by the way, but it won't be. It's a distribution problem that we're going to have. The internet, by the way. I have a little site that takes me on the Internet that shows the routes all over the country and the route from Atlanta to Houston yesterday was shut down because it runs right through where you know where, right through this area that got hit. So the Internet, if you were sluggish yesterday it was because a whole leg of it nationwide was inoperable. It's going to take awhile to get that back up. You just wait and see, folks, this is not a supply problem here, and it need not be. It's one of distribution, and there's any another ways of dealing with this that will have an added benefit for the future.
Just to carry out a theme, folks, that I have established recently, "the people who make this country work." When you turn on your television and you look at the people rebuilding New Orleans and Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, those are not going to be environmentalists. You won't see the Robert F. Kennedy, Jrs., or any of these others from these well heeled nonprofit groups rebuilding New Orleans in Gulfport and Biloxi. Do you know who it's going to be? It's going to be the military. It will be construction companies and their employees. It will be hotels and restaurants and grocery stores and the like. It will be the very capitalists that make this country work; it will be the very people that make this country work. It will not be the environmentalists who detest these people. It'll be the Wal-Marts of the world. It'll be the Anheuser-Busches. It will be the Ford Motor Company. All of these institutions the left despises, that's who you'll see rebuilding these cities. You won't see one person from the Sierra Club there. You will not see one person from the Environmental Resources Defense Fund there. You wouldn't see any environmentalist there. You'll see them on TV, whining and moaning about things and complaining like they always do.
What Rush didn't say is that the left doesn't want America to be great.
I heard this today. Rush is right on and the eternal optimist. God bless him and our country.
Of course we'll rebuild and the city of New Orleans will be better and safer than ever.
Rush is right!
Reminds me of Michael Crichton's "State of Fear."
I heard this part today and it was heartening. Time to roll up our sleeves folks.
Right on Rush!
Agreed. I heard him, too. Rush was right on the money today. :)
All the environmentalists have to sell is fear. No one in in New Orleans is buying fear right now. They have had their fill of it.
They want everything we all need. Food, Shelter, Transportation to places where they can get food and shelter.
JOBS! WORK!
Enviroweenies can't provide anything but fear. The market of fear is overstocked right now. Noone is buying.
Capitalists are giving food (WalMart) and will give jobs (work, INCOME) after.
I have not heard from the socialists what they will give. I expect they will just rant about how evil the right is.
America will come out stronger. God speed.
I heard this "editorial" today and I thought Rush is brilliant.
Of course, "we'll" means Federal Tax dollars.
Will "we" rebuild it below sea level?
I was hoping that Bush would suspend the ridiculous federal gasoline tax.
and let's also temporarily rescind all the taxes on fuel and gasoline.
Washington state liberals would go insane! Wait a minute........
True man of the age. He is a real statesman. Few can say it as clearly as he does.
No politician will even mention cutting gas taxes. The States and the Fed rely to much on the gas tax.
"Will "we" rebuild it below sea level?"
Will "we" use eminant domain to seize land to build it and all related infrastructure elswhere?"
Thinking that the city will simply be deserted is Al Gores wet dream. If we're going to play that game we should raze New York, Seattle, Boston, San Fransico, and LA. We'll relocate them to a central location and call it Nebraska.
What's your dream?
Are you will to pay for it?
Of course not.
Rebuilding NO offers something for everybody. People looking for work will find a plethora of good paying construction jobs with plenty of apprenticeship opportunities. Bureaucrats can create new empires to help the helpless. Leftist intellectuals can criticize everything. Politicians get an opportunity to stage gaudy public ceremonies to take credit.
Weather you want to rebuild the city or not, there HAS to be a gigantic port, the most complex levy system the world has ever seen, and TONS of commerce.
Those kind of things generally tend to grow 'towns' and even 'cities'.
The lesson IMO is Catagory5 levys, since it seems to be the majority of dmg was caused by flooding and less by the actual winds.
"The Mississippi River system arguably provides the cheapest transportation within the wealthiest nation on earth."
Very good point. The Great Lakes ports are good but they become ice bound for a while every year. Also there is a great deal of maintnance costs for locks between the Atlantic and Duluth.
While we're at it let's re-institute the windfall profits tax on gas and oil to stop gouging.
Today, the Port of New Orleans is at the center of the world’s busiest port complex — Louisiana’s Lower Mississippi River. Its proximity to the American Midwest via a 14,500-mile inland waterway system makes New Orleans the port of choice for the movement of cargoes such as steel, grain, containers and manufactured goods.
The Port of New Orleans is the only deepwater port in the United States served by six class one railroads. This gives port users direct and economical rail service to or from anywhere in the country.
New Orleans is one of America’s leading general cargo ports. A productive and efficient private maritime industry has help produce impressive results, including the USA’s top market share for import steel, natural rubber, plywood and coffee.
In the last 10 years, the Port of New Orleans has invested more than $400 million in new state-of-the-art facilities. Improved breakbulk and container terminals feature new multipurpose cranes, expanded marshalling yards and a new roadway to handle truck traffic.
As we open the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal, the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans is committed to building a port, which will serve the needs of the global marketplace well into the new century.
MISSION
The Board’s mission is to maximize the flow of foreign and domestic waterborne commerce throughout the Port of New Orleans.
GOVERNANCE
The Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans governs the Port of New Orleans. The Board sets policies and regulates traffic and commerce of the Port.
The Board is made up of seven commissioners. They are unsalaried and serve five-year staggered terms. The governor of Louisiana appoints board members from a list of three nominees submitted by 19 local business, civic, labor, education and maritime groups.
The seven-person board reflects the three-parish (county) jurisdiction of the Board. Four members are selected from Orleans Parish, two from Jefferson Parish and one from St. Bernard Parish.
FACILITIES
The Port’s facilities include 22 million square feet of cargo handling area and more than 6 million square feet of covered storage area.
VESSEL CALLS
The Port’s facilities accommodate an average of 2,000 vessel calls each year.
ORIGIN/DESTINATION OF CARGO * American Midwest (via inland waterway system) * Latin America * Asia * Europe * Africa COMMODITIES * Steel * Coffee * Forest Products * Rubber * Containerized Cargo * Copper q q q q q
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7/25/03
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our necessities but of their advantages." [The Wealth of Nations]
"It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers, to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense, either by sumptuary laws, or by prohibiting the importation of foreign luxuries. " [The Wealth of Nations]
"Man was made for action, and to promote by the exertion of his faculties such changes in the external circumstances both of himself and others, as may seem most favourable to the happiness of all."
[The Theory of Moral Sentiments] "Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition." [The Wealth of Nations]
"What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable." [The Wealth of Nations]
"Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally indeed neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. ... He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. ... By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good." [An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, vol. I, bk. IV, ch. 2.]
"All systems either of preference or of restraint, therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system of natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord. Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest his own way, and to bring both his industry and capital into competition with those of any other man or order of men." [An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, vol. II, bk. IV, ch. 9.]
Ahh...like a breath of fresh air...
The construction industry is about to explode, the billions appropriated to help the gulf states and N.O. goes right back into the economy. Economic indicators are up up up!
Thanks for posting this and yes, Rush is pure American gold...
This is why Rush is still #1 in conservative talk and has no fear of competition. Nobody can come close to his intellect, optimism and wit.
W may not have temporarily rescinded the taxes on fuel and gasoline, but he did say today that they were stopping the special formulations of fuel for the time being. It's time consuming and costly for the refineries to have to make special fuels for California only. In fact I heard today that OUR refineries in Washington State would be starting to make special formulations for California. Actually, make that Washington State, too, since Queen Christine and her court are giving us California air pollution standards.
I agree. I've been listening to all of the gloom and doomers talking about the economy the past few days who seem to think this will cause an economic downturn. The opposite is true, billions and billions of federal dollars that would have just been lost in the mire of the federal bureaucracy will go directly into the economy. On top of that, it looks like the Federal Reserve is going to quit raising interest rates. There are well over a million people who will now need new homes and many of them will probably decide to leave the Gulf region, so this notion of a housing bubble has now lost a lot of its merit.
Much of New Orleans was a cesspool to start with, the portions of the city that you saw in movies and on TV represented just a couple of blocks. Other than these "showplaces" N.O. was the closest thing you could find in the U.S. to a third world city. I have visited there a few times and every time I left I thought there is some fun stuff to do and some really good food, but I wouldn't live there for anything.
What they will need to figure out (and I'm not an engineer, so I have no idea what they can do) is a way to fortify the levees but still maintain the silt levels. Evidently, when the city was first built centuries ago, it was slightly above sea level due to the silt build up and various floods would wash more silt in; however, with the levees it appears to be sinking at a faster rate.
How much money has Peta donated? (did they even show up to help?)
How much did the Siera Club donate?
Also, the drilling for fresh water within the city contributed to the sinking process that has occurred.
Actually, Rush is wrong. Oil is actually more valuable for petrochemical use. We ought to be getting our energy from nuclear plants, as God intended.
Of course, the environwackos are to blame for failure to deploy that technology.
Nope. Google "broken window fallacy" to discover the error of this "logic".
But when $20 million Malibu mansions collapse (even though they were built hanging over cliffs in such away that insurance companies wouldn't even consider coverage) the limosine liberals are out screaming that the goverment should pay for them to rebuild.
Rush's analysis and insight are right on the money. Thank GOD we have him. If he were a ball player, he would be hitting home runs every time at bat.
"The troll known as RepublicanThugs probably pooped on the thread trying to get a spanking from Diana in Wisconsin because it wants to be her pet."
LOL! I'm pretty selective on who I choose to spank. Anyone that uses the term "Koolaid Drinker" to describe an Army vet hasn't done his research and ain't worth the effort. :)
(Besides, it really p*sses off trolls if you ignore them. It's akin to laughing at liberals...)
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