Thank Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Prager and Savage for Rising Gasoline Prices

Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Savage and Prager (clockwise from top left)

Originally Published December 28, 2010

High profile talkers go pro-OPEC to attract the ‘most buck for their bang’

By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL

The only reason that oil and gasoline prices are rising again is because there is no serious competition to oil-gasoline. It's not that there aren't legitimate alternative fuels that could compete, which of course there are; it’s that the oil-gasoline industry has done such a masterful job in buying politicians and big media, that they have kept the alternatives off the starting line.

On the political side supporting oil-gasoline you have Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Liberals, Communists, and Libertarians; they're all there. Because if there's one thing that can be said about politicians it's that they can be bought. It's irrelevant whether they've spent their lives fighting for the concept of open free markets, or in pursuit of a glorious socialist wet-dream; if there's a dollar bill to be had and they can get it, just slap a sold sticker on their forehead.

* Editor's Note: Every U.S. President and every combined U.S. Congress since WWI has dropped the ball on energy independence and been guilty of allowing the oil industry to con the American people

Big media is the same. It doesn't matter if the publication or broadcast outlet is supposed to be on the right or the left, they are "pro-green." Not "pro-green" as in the green environmental movement, they are pro-green as in pro-greenbacks. The bean-counters who are responsible for making the decisions in the media, and the mouthpieces that they retain to present their position are only concerned with where they can get the most buck for their bang.

Let me give you some examples of the above:

We all know there are politicians on the right who want to do away with subsidies, because they claim that subsidies are wasteful. So how can you explain Diane Feinstein, the powerful liberal senior senator from California? Feinstein can typically vote in favor of anything that gives taxpayer money away. Recently, however, she opposed the continuation of subsidies for ethanol production. Who'd ever have thought that she would come down on the same side of a spending issue as Rush Limbaugh? Incidentally, she has received no money from the ethanol lobby - did she vote against because she received no money?

Then we have the vast liberal media, with their stalwart icon of environmental and socialist agenda: PBS.

David Blume's book

If there's a bug to be saved from extinction, a human condition to be championed, PBS is your boy (or girl or non-gender-specific advocate). So how do you explain what happened to the television series that San Francisco's PBS station produced with David Blume about ethanol (Blume is probably the most knowledgable person in the world on ethanol and the author of the exhaustive book "Alcohol Can Be A Gas"). After just one episode the series was cancelled. The entire series was shot and in the can, ready to go. The series was cancelled because the oil-gasoline contributor to the PBS station threatened to withdraw funding of the station if the show continued. This oil-gasoline company, by the way, is one of the advertisers we see on TV or in print promoting their support of finding alternative fuels and energy solutions. In other words, PBS only supports social issues if the gasoline companies say it's okay.

And then we have the self-anointed guardians of America's sovereignty and moral values: Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Dennis Prager and Michael Savage (there are others that can be included in this list, but it would be too long). They want to do away with out-sourcing jobs; they want to strengthen our borders; they want to reduce the level of imported products, and they want hip-hoppers to pull their pants up around their waists. But when it comes to oil and gasoline, anything goes: Sudenly, there's nothing we can't do to aid our brothers in Saudi Arabia, etc., you know, the same place where terrorist funding and all those naughty terrorists come from.

Yo, waz up wid dat, my wiggas? Y’all need to pull up your moral trousers!

Rush Limbaugh has actually referred to the oil-gasoline companies as "our gasoline companies." But we, if he means America, don't have any gasoline companies. Sure, there are gasoline companies that may have offices here in America, with American sounding brand names; and they might even pay taxes. But these aren't "American" companies; they are global companies that participate in a global oil economy that is controlled by regimes that are enemies of America. When was the last time that you heard of an "American" gasoline company refusing to follow the dictates of OPEC's pricing - even for gasoline that they refined from "American" petroleum oil? How about NEVER!

Increased drilling for oil on American property will have no mitigating effect on the energy situation until and unless guarantees are put in place to insure that the oil/gasoline won't be sold to other countries and that the price at the pump will reward Americans for permitting our natural resource to be used by the oil companies.

Additionally, if subsidies are no good, then why do the radio-templars support all the subsidies that are given to the oil-gasoline industry, a highly profitable industry that requires no financial help?

If Rush, Glenn, Sean, Dennis, Michael and the others followed the principles that they endorse they would speak out against gasoline and in support of domestically produced alternative fuels. They would stop repeating and spreading the lies about ethanol, CNG and propane that were fabricated by the gasoline companies. They would stop pretending as if there was a division between "American" oil companies and foreign oil companies. If they hate the idea that "American" jobs and money has gone out of the country, they should hate that any money goes out of the U.S. to prop up the oil-producing foreign companies. The patriotic position to take is to support domestically produced, domestically priced alternative engine fuels. Since their voices are the loudest to be heard speaking for America, they ought to be championing America. If you stand for America, then stand up for America.

NOTE #1: I actually like listening to these guys and have done so for years, except Hannity, he's just a Limbaugh clone (why eat margarine when you can have butter). I agree with many of their positions, but by comparison to them I'm a true patriot.

NOTE #2: I haven't let Obama off the hook for also being responsible for this mess; I just feel it's not worth wasting any more time on him. He's proven to be as incompetent as even his severest critics feared; he lied about everything he said in his energy policy speech in August 2008; and at the worst, we’ll be done with him in six years. Some or all of these radio guys could be with us for decades.