OK, this is getting ridiculous:

• It was a natural disaster, thus caused by no individual, political party, group, or nation
• People were told to leave the area
• Many people had no means of leaving the area
• New Orleans was not so intelligently founded by locating it below sea level, thus making it so vulnerable to storm surge
• A person is smart. People are stupid and this is where the looting and eventual "shoot to kill" order for looters came from.

I can't comment on the political state of the recovery because I haven't been closely following the situation (news is so ridiculously infused with bias and emotion instead of factual information that I don't bother anymore) and I do not debate politics online.

Broadly agree. I think it is irresponsible for some groups to attempt to make political capital out of this sad natural disaster.

Hell yea. They should stop making petroleum jelly (vaseline) its a derivitive from oil.

so in other words you are calling me a liar. You don't believe that my family directly involved in this situation. Believe me - it is true. The wal-mart opened their doors, and they are even establishing outpost "mini-walmart's" all along the region to give away stuff to people that need it. But, I suppose I am making that up also :ermm: There is no need in debating FACT. Call up wal-mart and ask them yourself if what I am saying is not true.

There is no news report to back up this claim? They really invited people to come and pick up their free TV's, Sony Playstations and Grand Theft Auto games? :D

I'm not calling you a liar - I don't know you personally. But I also can't take everything you say as gospel truth. That would be naive.

Actually it's plastics where we'll be eventually be screwed over, but being the second-highest oil consumer in the world, much of that gasoline, isn't helping.

(Canada is the highest, in case you were wondering)

sidenote, since we are on the subject of OIL: if companies/people would switch over to biodiesel then we could lessen our dependence on dino-fuel. Biodiesel is not flammable, it is non-toxic, and it lets your engine run cooler. It is a better lubricant than dino-based fuels, and it is renewable. Using soy or rapeseed oil, or some other high-yield oil you can produce biodiesel for about 1/2 the current cost of dino-fuel. Germany has been running on 100% biodiesel for awhile, due to laws/mandates, and they are going to be in a much better situation when the crunch happens, as a result.

Does it burn (or whatever) cleaner than gasoline, or at the least, clean enough to meet EPA regulations? Is it a powerful enough substitute for gasoline?

That's the problem with current gasoline alternatives (not counting hybrids) such as pure electrics, natural gas, or hydrogen: there is no infrastructure set up. It's a deadlock situation, because there's no incentive to set up the infrastructure because nobody owns the cars because there's no infrastructure.

While bio diesel burns cleaner, the total energy cost to create it is higher.

yea...........thats really what people are worring about at that time in there lifes, when there home is gone, there lifes have been totally devested,and they possibly havnt had food/water in days.<sarcasm>Oh, but i forgot thats all people careabout is videogames...</sarcasm>