Mark Tapscott Editorial: How American Industry Aided the Chilean Rescue

Watching the rescue late into the first night and seeing how flawless the rescue was going, made me remark -- "I bet it was Yankee ingenuity" that is behind this. Now that the truth is out, it turns out to be true as pointed out by Mark Tapscott in his Washington Examiner Editorial today.

When the Chilean President Sebastián Piñera was thanking people for their help  noticed he thanked Americans but did not thank Obama which was very telling. He replaced a woman in the spring from the Socialist Party who had been President of Chili for four years which is all they can serve. The people of Chile ousted the Socialist Party to elect Sebastián Piñera who was educated in America. Would bet the former socialist President would not have reached out to any other country except her friends like Chavez who would have been no help.

The spirit of ingenuity and willingness to help solve problems is missing in a socialist government and the main reason that the Democrats are in so much trouble this year -- they have tried to take America socialist and the vast majority of American people are saying 'NO WAY!' The Government is not there to run our lives no matter how much Obama, Pelosi, and Reid want to say they know more than we do on what is best for us. To that we reply "Bravo Sierra!"

Extremely impressed with the President and First Lady who greeted the miners with hugs. When they sang the Chilean National Anthem you could see the President with his eyes closed fighting back the tears. It was an overwhelming sight. He never wavered that they were going to get those men out. Whatever resources it took, he was going to provide them.

The people who produce our energy have a job most of us would not do -- scared to death of closed in spaces and cannot fathom being out in the Gulf on an oil platform or even out in a remote area drilling. To put together a rescue like what was accomplished in Chile was the result of countries working together and shows what can be done when people don't care about who gets the credit. The rescue went off without a hitch once they started bringing miners to the surface.

Mark Tapscott has it right about this President's photo op and his failure to acknowledge all of the American assistance except NASA who is run by his 'buddy' he wants to use it as an outreach to the Muslim community. Wonder who gave NASA the permission to help or did they offer assistance on their own? Doewsn't seem like something the 'community organizer' would want them involved. His 'photo op' from the White House in the middle of the rescue was absolutely disgusting and reminded me of someone saying "Look at me, look at me -- I am still here!" Obama's arrogance knows no bounds.

November 2nd cannot come soon enough! Looking forward to Obama telling the new Speaker that he will do what he (Obama) says -- no meeting halfway. Do not believe that Obama knows what he is dealing with in John Boehner, Mike Pence, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, Kevin, McCarthy, Steve King, Marsha Blackburn and others who are representing the American people not the agenda of Barack Obama.  Obama's days as dictator in his own mind are coming to close whether he recognizes it or not. 

Examiner Editorial: How American industry aided the Chilean rescue
Examiner Editorial
October 15, 2010

Jeff Hart operates heavy machinery
 to lower steel pipes into the escape shaft
 to free the 33 trapped miners at the San Jose
 mine in Chile. (Government of Chile/AP photo)

Television viewers around the world were stirred by images of families reunited and hope reborn as the 33 Chilean miners were brought from more than half a mile below the surface to rejoin the land of the living. The millions who watched should know that it was mainly American ingenuity and technological prowess that made the rescue possible. Unfortunately, President Obama is apparently so invested in demonizing American free enterprise that it never occurred to him to give credit where it's due.

To be sure, Obama acknowledged the role of NASA in designing the escape capsule, the U.S. companies that "manufactured and delivered parts of the rescue drill," and "the American engineer who flew in from Afghanistan to operate the drill." But that hardly begins to describe the crucial importance of the American role and says nothing at all about the economic system that enabled it.

The escape capsule was designed by a team of engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia led by Clinton Cragg. The Cragg team was a remarkable concentration of highly advanced technological know-how and sophisticated engineering talent honed in their work in the U.S. space program. For all of its ups and downs, the U.S. space program has perhaps been the finest illustration possible of what can be achieved by a government-industry partnership in which profit-driven private-sector firms provide by far most of the brains and muscle in attaining a national goal.

Then there was the work of two Pennsylvania firms previously known to few outside the energy industry, Center Rock Inc. of Berlin, Pa., and Schramm Inc. of West Chester, Pa. The former designed and built the 28-inch-wide canisters containing four drills and air hammers that, in conjunction with the T-130 bit designed by Schramm's Jeff Hart, actually dug the rescue hole. Despite their invisibility to the general public, oil and natural gas companies everywhere depend on these two companies because their products are the standard for the industry.

Meanwhile, Obama has appointed a NASA administrator who thinks his first duty is to tell the world about Muslims' historic role in science. Even worse, the president and his political allies in Congress and the Big Green environmental movement rarely miss an opportunity to criticize the American energy industry for a lengthy litany of supposed evils. As Texas corporate executive Bill Whitefield wrote this week in the Houston Chronicle: "The U.S. drilling industry's continually improving safety and environmental standards set the bar for operations worldwide. Though revered abroad, the industry's amazing track record is overshadowed at home by relentless vilification by slick politicians and green lobbies." This is because, as The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger correctly noted, "the U.S. has a government led by a mindset obsessed with 250K-a-year 'millionaires' and given to mocking 'our blind faith in the market.' "

If the polls are right, that will change Nov. 2.

Read more from Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner: Washington Examiner