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RUSH: ‘In Florida — a state accustomed to tracking the minutia of impending hurricanes — forecasting is everything. But recent forecasts coming from those planning to protect Florida’s coast from another potential disaster, the oil relentlessly spewing from the wreck of the Deepwater Horizon, are much different than the forecasts from scientists and environmentalists [wackos] who study and guard the coast.

‘The state’s emergency responders downplayed the threat to Florida in a briefing for Senate President Jeff Atwater on Wednesday. South Floridians can expect an occasional tar ball to wash ashore,’ which happens every day, happens all the time, ‘but they probably will never see oil from the recent spill lapping onto beaches,’ this according to Florida Emergency Management Director David Halstead. So the environmentalist wackos and the doomsayers are saying, ‘Look out, Florida, when it gets into the Florida straits! It’s going to get up there to the panhandle and the East Coast. It may get in the Gulf Stream, it’s going to be horrible! If a hurricane comes up, look out.’ But David Halstead, Florida Emergency Management director, said, ‘If we look at two weeks in the Florida sun, most of that is going to be evaporated. There is a possibility you’ll see very little of any sheen ever even make it down all the way to the Keys.’

It’s all going to evaporate. Remember, they’re looking for ‘missing’ oil out there. As I mentioned yesterday, this is light crude, the stuff that gasoline and kerosene are refined from; and you know if you’ve ever spilled gasoline on your yard or at the pump, it evaporates pretty quickly. Light crude does, too. So here you have a Florida local guy saying, ‘Ah, we may not going to see much here. Most of it’s gonna evaporate.’ ‘Even if the oil sheen was caught in the Loop Current, environmental damage in South Florida would be ‘minimal,’ Doug Darling, the Florida Environmental Preservation Department chief of staff told Atwater. ‘If dolphins or manatees swim through it and come up to surface for air, they’re going to get a slight coating,’ Darling said.’

So Florida emergency management people are saying: ‘Hey, no biggie,’ the same thing that I have been saying before I even heard from these guys — and of course I have been excoriated and continue to be excoriated and raked over the coals. In fact, let’s see if I can find the sound bites. Hang with me, Mike, because I’m now totally outta order. Here we are. Number four. Number four and number five. Last night on Hardball with Chris Matthews, they spoke with the Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune (he might pronounce it ‘Brune-y’) about the Gulf oil spill and me. So they bring the Sierra Club on to respond but they never ask the pertinent question, which is: ‘If the Sierra Club hadn’t pushed drilling further and further out to sea, would this catastrophe have occurred?’ We drill far out and we have to drill down deep because wackos like the Sierra Club refuse to allow (and they put political pressure on cowardly politicians) drilling domestically, or any new drilling, or even close to the shore. So the question from Matthews: ‘Rush Limbaugh seems to be, as of this moment, still the recognized head of the Republican Party on matters everywhere. What do you do make of him blaming you for the oil spill.’

BRUNE: You know, Rush Limbaugh’s always good for a good belly laugh. Uh, you know, we think that — that the issue here isn’t what BP is saying. It just shows that their recklessness doesn’t extend — extends well beyond their oil drilling. I was down in the Gulf, and pollution that we’re seeing there, this — the — the oil plume that’s just on the surface goes for miles and miles and miles, and it is a disaster through and through.

RUSH: Well, who are we supposed to believe, here? We’ve got the CEO of BP (who is a geologist, he’s a Ph.D.) who he has said that the majority of this is going to evaporate and be emulsified. He has said that compared to the entire water volume of the Gulf of Mexico, we’ve about poured the equivalent of a thimble full of oil in there — and we have these two Florida emergency management guys saying, ‘Ah, there’s not going to be much of a sheen here. Fish swimming a hundred feet below are not going to see anything. The manatees and the dolphins surfacing for air, yeah, they might have a light coating, but we’re not going to see anything in Florida other than tar balls and it’s all gonna evaporate.’

Well, who are we supposed to believe, those people, or an environmentalist wacko from the Sierra Club who is part of a group of people who wants a disaster? They love this disaster! It’s a political opportunity. They politicize everything. This disaster, the better for them the worse it is. Because they can point fingers of blame at Big Oil, at capitalism, all of their enemies — and anybody who tries to explain this rationally then becomes a target of ridicule as well. They love the disaster. They are sad. Remember yesterday all of the anticipation, all of the reports, ‘Oh, boy, tar balls in the Florida Keys! Yaaaay! All right!’

And then the authorities said, ‘Naw, different kind of oil. These tar balls are not from the oil spill.’

‘Aw, damn it! Are you sure? Check again.’

‘No, we’ve checked. The oil is not from the oil spill.’

‘Ah, damn. What a bunch of bad luck.’ They want the disaster, folks. They want the tumult and the chaos that’s going on down in Arizona. They are willing to destroy (or stand by and watch) the private sector of this country be destroyed if it will lead to more further power for themselves. Make no mistake about it. So after that bite, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, Limbaugh is good for a good belly laugh. The issue here is what BP is saying, recklessness extends well beyond the oil drilling,’ Matthews then says, ‘Do you think that they’re doing a good job out there, the BP people? I mean, I don’t sense they’re operating as if this is an extreme problem. They’re sort of doing their best, I suppose, but they’re not doing it.’

BRUNE: No, they’re not doing it. But to be fair, there are workers for BP and for others right now who are working around the clock to try to fix this. The reality is that you just — you can’t contain a mess of this size. It’s very difficult because it’s never been done before. And that’s why the Sierra Club has been arguing for decades that offshore oil drilling in shallow or deep water is highly risky and we can’t drill our way to energy independence, and so we need to be focusing on a real solution to America’s oil addiction and, hopefully, that will come as a result of this disaster.

RUSH: That is utter nonsense, utter political pap. ‘We’ve been arguing for decades, offshore oil drilling in shallow or deep water is highly risky. The reality is you can’t contain a mess of this side. Very difficult because it’s never been done before.’ There was an oil spill larger than this in Mexico. And the sea turtles survived. They were damaged in the process, but we’re back to normal from it. Things happen. This is not the first and it’s by no means the largest. But here come the doomsayers, the environmentalist wackos who see an opportunity here to convince you, ‘Let’s just stop drilling.’ Can you believe the idiocy, the illogic of saying, ‘We cannot drill our way to energy independence’? That’s just sophistry, stupidity. It’s the only way we’re going to have energy independence!

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