[Vision2020] Pests Want Roads Blocked

[Tom Hansen]

"But there are those noisy few who place a higher value on their own
vanity and sanctimony than they do on other people's right to earn a
living."

Rumor has it that ITD Director (and regional Rep for ConocoPhillips) Ness
is having this quote added to his business card.

Courtesy of today's (February 5, 2011) Lewiston Tribune.

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Pests want roads blocked
By Michael Costello for the Tribune

America is becoming less of a democracy than a pestocracy. A pestocracy is
a society paralyzed by a tiny minority of nuisances who make it their
business to obstruct everybody else's business. The latest eruption of
pestocrats are those who have done all they can to prevent the movement of
so-called "megaloads" over Lolo Pass on U.S. Highway 12.

The proximity of U.S. 12 to the Port of Lewiston has presented the
Lewiston-Clarkston Valley with a unique economic development opportunity -
to help supply large oil exploration, development and refining equipment
to Montana and beyond. Unlike the faux jobs "created or saved" by
politically driven stimulus packages, these jobs create genuine wealth
that will multiply itself many times in the community.

But there are those noisy few who place a higher value on their own vanity
and sanctimony than they do on other people's right to earn a living.

There are more than 200 megaloads planned for U.S. 12. And contrary to the
shrill shrieks of the pestocrats, aside from the economic gains that will
accrue to the community, few will notice.

The disruption that the megaloads will inflict upon U.S. 12 travelers will
be similar to that often encountered during summer road construction and
maintenance season. The megaloads' transporters have made every reasonable
effort to minimize the inconvenience. The loads will only travel between
10 p.m. and 4 a.m. The loads will move off the road regularly to permit
the few cars that do get held up by the loads room to pass.

And contrary to the claims of pestocrats that megaloads will despoil the
highway's scenic beauty, I can reliably inform you all that during those
hours, U.S. 12 looks like just about every other road. It's dark.

The Lewiston-Clarkston area's geography has granted it a unique economic
advantage that it would be foolish to cast aside. Shippers can transport
large loads hundreds of miles inland on the Columbia and Snake rivers. The
absence of overpasses on U.S. 12 allows for megaloads to cross the
mountains. This happy coincidence gives manufacturers and suppliers of
petroleum extraction and refining equipment access to Montana refineries
and to the Alberta, Canada, tar sands. It might someday provide the most
convenient route to the massive Bakken oil fields of North Dakota and
possibly to Colorado oil shale deposits.

We have a great deal of oil in this country. It's just that pestocrats
would rather deny us access to it.

According to the New York Times, the mere existence of Canada's oil sands
and Colorado's oil shale is helping to keep domestic oil prices down. And
considering that the current regime in Washington, D.C., has stalled Gulf
of Mexico oil exploration, that's a good thing. American refiners are
paying about $90 per barrel, while the rest of the world is paying about
$100. It is easy to envision the economical catastrophe that would follow
a pestocratic success.

The pestocrats' real agenda has already seeped out: They are simply
against oil development and extraction, citing global warming as their
real boogeyman. In doing so, they are following the civil disobedience
instructions given to them by St. Albert Gore. A little more than two
years ago, Gore encouraged his minions to engage in civil disobedience to
reduce carbon emissions.

It seems not to bother anyone in the pestocratic universe that Gore issues
his anti-capitalist environmental fatwas while traveling among his four
mansions in private jets.

Pestocrats managed to postpone for years the construction of a Walmart
supercenter in Pullman. And the pestocrats have driven Walmart out of
Moscow and Latah County. Pestocrats have so far prevented construction by
Hawkins Companies of a 700,000-square-foot shopping mall in Whitman County
on the Moscow-Pullman highway. And now pestocrats seek to prevent the Port
of Lewiston from serving new, deep-pocketed customers who are eager to
share their jingle with the valley.

The millions of jobs "created or saved" by the 2009 Porkulus package still
elude detection. The difference between promise and reality now stands at
about 11 million jobs. It's easier to count jobs destroyed by pestocrats.
Tens of thousands of oil exploration and related jobs have been destroyed
along the Gulf Coast. Ditto for the coal mining regions of West Virginia.

Moscow wishes it had those Walmart jobs back. We know what pestocracy
brings. We can no longer afford the luxury of listening to them. Let's try
productivity.

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Mr. Costello can be contacted by email at:

kozmocostello at hotmail.com

or

michael_costello at wsu.edu

Email Mr. Costello and let hm know just how much you appreciate his insight.

Catcha on the flip-flop, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Spokane, Washington.

"This is the 'Mouse that Roared,' 'David and Goliath' and 'Avatar' all
rolled into one.  We must remember that the thousands of citizens involved
in this effort to protect their personal and family safety, their
businesses and their lifestyles are confronting some of the largest
international corporations in the world."

- Linwood Laughy, much appreciated Idaho Pestocrat


- Unknown