Hurrican Rita

Just a word of warning:

Hurricane Rita is headed straight for what is left of America's petroleum and gas fields. Further, it could conceivably strike the shipping and ports that are essential to the U.S. Economy. With New Orleans down and out, this means that Hurricane Rita will be a National Catastrophe. My advice, get in a six month supply of food and water. You will be thankful that you did.

The effects of Hurricane Rita could be catastrophic. If she hits as hard as a category 4 storm can, look for shortages and long lines at gas stations. Price will be over $5.00 a gallon and will not be coming down. There will be rationing of fuel. Most importantly, if Diesal fuel is disrupted, everything in America will stop. That's right. Everything. This is because trucks haul everything that we buy. The groceries, the crops, the gasoline, the clothing, the pet food, you name it. If it is on the shelf, it was brought by a truck. Every place in America is only 36 hours from having no food on the grocery shelves. That is a fact. STop the trucks due to outages of fuel and you stop groceries. The Shelves will be empty in three days.

Lastly, the American economy despite the bullshit you hear from Bush and the news media is tottering. EVery single day we need NEW INVESTMENTS to buy our Bonds of many millions of dollars. These bond buyers are almost exclusively from foriegn governments. The only reason they buy the bonds is because they still pay off better than any other monetary instrument, and if the U.S. economy collapses, so will most of the world. Therefore, they will keep buying bonds, for awhile. When they stop, we stop.

George W. Bush, the conservative people who voted him in, and the vainglorious neocons who wrote his agenda have trapped America in a economic LaBrea Tar Pit.

Get some beans and rice....

Rita may be 'national disaster': oil CEO

"SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Greehey said Hurricane Rita's impact on U.S. crude oil production and refining could be a "national disaster."

"If it hits the refineries, and we're short refining capacity, you're going to see gasoline prices well over $3.00 a gallon at the pump," Greehey said in a Tuesday night interview..."

"... A Bloomberg article today contains a quotation from a Wall Street energy expert as saying, “‘Rita is developing into our worst-case scenario,’ said John Kilduff, vice president of risk management at Fimat USA in New York. ‘This is headed right into our other major refining center just after all the damage done to facilities in Louisiana. From an energy perspective it doesn't get any worse than this.’”..."

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Refineries and Rigs Shut Down for Storm

By VIKAS BAJAJ

Published: September 22, 2005

"Energy companies stepped up evacuations of offshore operations and rushed to secure refineries on the Texas coast yesterday as they prepared for Hurricane Rita, which was upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane packing winds up to 165 miles an hour. The storm appeared to be headed for the heart of the nation's oil industry..."

Yeah, I know, I sound Apocolyptic at times...still, the reality is that we live in an interdependent world. Significantly so. What effects New Orleans and Houston effects all of us, and not just on an emotional level. The facts, as spoken by numerous geological experts, are that there is just not enough petroleum to go around. When the U.S. loses petroleum pumping capability, storage capability, and refinery operations, there is no other source to pick up the slack. There just isn't any. Saudia Arabia cannot pump more oil as they are maxed out, and even if they could, how could they transport it, store it, and refine it? Can't, unable to, won't work.

Folks, the facts are that a large share of the entire American supply of raw petroleum, plus refined diesal and gasoline, and home heating oils, come from the Texas and Lousiana area. Hurrican Katrina, and now Hurricane Rita have and are doing tremendous damage to these operations.

"...The storm could also have serious economic and environmental consequences for chemical manufacturers on the Texas coast. More than 160 plants in Texas are in the potential path of the storm, according to the American Chemistry Council. Roughly half the nation's chemical-production capacity is in the region.

Texas is home to 26 refineries, representing more than a quarter of the nation's crude oil processing capacity. Of those refineries, 17 are in cities along the coast.

By comparison, Katrina initially disabled about 10 refineries in Louisiana and Mississippi, accounting for 10 percent of the nation's capacity. Roughly half of that output remains out of service..."(Refineries and Rigs shut down for the Storm. Vihas Bajaj. NY Times)

At minimum, we will see significantly higher gasoline and diesal and heating oil prices through 2006. At Minimum. Also, even if the Petroleum industry skates on this one, the clean up for this massive storm, added to Hurricane Katrina is going to be enormous. The cost astronomical. How long do you really think that bloody little tyrant in the White House can keep shoveling U.S.tax dollars into the bloated wallets of his friends, before we are absolutely bankrupt. The United States has a major expensive war to pay for, one of the worst Hurricanes in American History, and now followed by another potential disaster, plus the trillions of pork projects these assholes in WAshington have dreamed up. Economically, I really don't see how this country is going to survive the sum total of these disasters coupled to the blind ideology of idiots. A worst case scenario I will leave for later.

Let me throw in something too. the United States Government does not even know how much the Iraq and Afganistan wars are costing.

"PENTAGON -- ANYBODY GOT A CALCULATOR?: How much are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan costing the United States? No one knows. That's the conclusion of a new report by the Government Accountability Office. The Washington Post reports, "The Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the fight against terrorism, limiting Congress's ability to oversee spending." The Defense Department claims it has spent $191 billion since 9/11 to fight terrorism and conduct the two wars. The GAO investigation, however, "found many inaccuracies totaling billions of dollars." The report shows "Neither DOD nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details of how appropriated funds are being spent." .." (American Progress Action Fund)

So when you hear any government official telling you that economically the U.S. is just fine, the staggering deficits do not matter and that we can afford to do anything we want...that sucker is lying through his teeth. There is no reputable economist in this world that can tell us the American Economy is sound because they cannot account for the trillions in money spent on this war. It would be like you and I balancing our check book, but leaving out an unknown amount of thousand dollar expenses. I don't give a shit how fucked up the federal accounting system is, you cannot say anything about an economy that fails to account for trillions of missing dollars. And the Bush Administration hasn't a clue how much we are spending.

Remember one last bit, the U.S. Government will NOT tell you that we are in serious economic struggles because of these storms. The U.S. Government will not admit how badly they have handled the entire mess. They will not tell you until it is far too late and the economy is already down. Too late for you to take steps to protect yourself as much as possible. Meanwhile, Bush and his cohorts will skate free with trillions of American tax dollars filling their private accounts. Believe it!

Get the rice and beans....and buy a warm dog, you will need him for the winter months.