Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Every action has consequences...

PARENTHETICAL PRE-RANT THOUGHT: I know some of you would rather see pictures, kittycats and nice stories here. So would I. But some of the things that trouble me deeply aren't getting much play anywhere else, so I feel the need to rant. If enough of us banded together to remove the corrupt elements from our government, we could all write about nice days and post pretty pictures..

...that no one thinks about. Take, for example, one of Jorge Bush's gifts to his corrupt amigos in Mexico, the lifting of restrictions on Mexican truckers driving into the USA. We know what the costs will be in lower wages and lost jobs for Americans, we know the dangers of poorly-maintained trucks and incompetent drivers to everyone else on the road, and we know of the likelihood that illegal cargoes -- humans, drugs, etc. -- will make it across the border with greater ease.

According to reports from several media outlets not bought-and-paid-for by the open-borders crowd, the California Air Resources Board is issuing a report on yet another consequence of Jorge's lunacy:

The CARB estimates some 17,500 Mexican trucks will be on California's roads each day. Since the majority will be more than 10 years old -- and a sizable number will be more than 30 years old -- they will add 50 tons of pollutants daily to the air here.

That's the equivalent of putting an additional 2.2 million cars on our roads.

Note that CARB's figures refer to California only. Trucks from Mexico will be free to go anywhere, to any state....

Thanks to you, Jorge, we lose jobs, pay more in taxes, breathe putrid air and have to worry about worn-out, possibly uninsured trucks with amateur drivers and a greater flow of illegal drugs and humans.

But your amigos in Mexico City are happy.

Good going, Jorge.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scribbler, you just keep writing whatever you are driven to write about -- and because i rarely ever watch the news, I rely on people like you to give me an overview of where we stand (or die).

I can't read all your political entries (time constrictions), but when i do: I always feel outraged.

I am with you 100%.
NOTHING "Jorge" does makes sense at all. NOT AT ALL.

Hugs & AlooooHa!

John0 Juanderlust said...

Another bi-partisan effort pretending to be free trade.
Jorge has completely run amok south of the border. And he fired the wrong prosecutors.
Jorge--code name Ricardito Cabeza

MrScribbler said...

john -- Amazingly, the global-warming fanatics haven't let out a peep about this yet. Maybe they are too busy lining up a big pile of "pollution credits" for Mexico....

Anonymous said...

Dear old Jorge. He sure likes it south of the border. I wonder why he doesn't just go live there? He was in KC today, and you couldn't get up on the highway. They had it blocked off.
Roz

Anonymous said...

I still say all politicians are crooks...:-/

Anonymous said...

I've spent quite a lot of time travelling in Mexico (something I am not inclined to do at this point), and have seen the trucks they drive over there. Much of it is pure garbage. I mean, you see new trucks sprinkled in here and there, but most of it is stuff that looks like it is falling apart - mainly because it IS falling apart. Perhaps these trucks are going to be allowed into the country, but I doubt the DOT is going to just wave at them and let them pass through certain weigh stations that are doing truck inspections.

You know, the kind of inspection where they get on floor creepers and roll underneath the truck, get under the hood, check everything from the front of the tractor to the rear of the trailer. I just went through one of those recently and they actually found something wrong with a truck that had less than 10,000 miles on it.

In other words, as long as they don't have some kind of "diplomatic immunity" concerning their trucks, then these trucks will be being put out of service all over the place. DOT has the authority (and frequently uses that authority, btw) to stop a truck from driving another inch on it's own capacity. If it's put out of service, you either have to have it towed to a repair facility or you have to have a mobile repair unit come to you.

In the case of many of these trucks I have seen over there, no amount of repairs would EVER fix them. They are, undoubtedly, American rejects, trucks that aren't fit for American roads.

But who knows, I'm just basing it on my past observations. I still believe that the American Truck Driver - the guys that are over-the-road, owner operators and company drivers alike aren't going to stand for this crap for very long....
bb

MrScribbler said...

Ben -- I'm glad you, who know more about trucking than I, have commented. If I was a truck driver, I'd be furious, to say the least.

Wait...I AM furious.

But do you really think the DOT will be allowed to do its job any more than the Border Patrol is?

Anonymous said...

Scribbs: I will believe that if the DOT doesn't do it's job, the AMERICAN truck driver will do it for them. The public outcry SHOULD be total and unanimous regardless of political preference if Americans (and tell me those junk trucks aren't going to start causing horrific accidents) start getting killed on our highways.

I believe the American truck driver will do whatever needs to be done, anyway. But just think about a truck that has bad brakes, leaking air systems and can't stop in time to run that family of 5 in their PT Cruiser over? What's going to happen then?

The consequences of these drivers and their junk trucks goes far beyond pollutants.
bb