7 posts tagged “gas”

Was I hearing things or did I see a clip of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah telling the world, particularly the United States that we need to better control our oil consumption? 

Is he serious?  That seems a bit like a crack dealer trying to tell a user that he wants to help him learn how to quit smoking crack but he needs to smoke less crack in the first place.  The solution of course, when using this flawed logic, is to produce and sell more crack.

How is this even a sensible discussion much less a part of a sensible solution?  The more I hear different political figures from all over the world trying to solve this oil problem the more I begin to feel that I am being hustled from all sides.

This weekend the King of crack…oops I mean oil producers; King Abdullah held a meeting with the other dealers to figure out how they could help us with our crack… I mean oil problems.  In other words, this was a meeting to see what they can do to make less money.  (Do we all see how ridiculous this all is)

To make this even more ridiculous, where we are in terms of popularity in the world view, particularly with the major oil producing nations, makes it even less likely that any nation that produces oil will truly want to help.

The summit that was help by King Abdullah only produced one nation that has agreed to step up oil production ever so slightly, the king’s own country of Saudi Arabia.

Am I the only one that feels like the king is simply going through the motions with no sincerity?  Then this person has the nerve to start to tell us that the real problem is that we use too much of the product he sells and that’s why the price is so high.  To top off his nonsense he passed some of the blame off to speculators because of how they invest.  (Economists have publicly disagreed with this statement)

It seems that everyone in oil right now is making a fortune at record levels and yet blaming the high prices on someone else.  How do these people keep raising prices, making record profits in our faces, and yet telling us there is no connection the problem with the price has to do with something or someone else?

The truth of the matter is that unless our relations with major oil producing nations (or should I say oil cartels or possibly oil mafia) changes dramatically heavy dependence on oil products is one of the most foolish things that happen to us.   

President George Bush is pushing congress to allow the big oil companies to drill more in places that are protected from drilling currently.  When I hear proposals to allow major oil companies to do more of something from a politician that has much of his wealth and support coming from the oil industry I am a bit skeptical. 

In truth I do not agree with much of the bad press that we are forced to endure about the current president, but it is illogical to think that oil and gas prices would be his strength. 

To me seeing President Bush tell me how to solve the oil problems we are now having is a bit like having Osama Bin Laden on video telling me how to catch Al Qaeda troops. 

The other problem with his proposal for more drilling is when this would help us.  Every solution I seem to see for the oil crises and in reality from my perspective gas prices is a long term solution that will take seven to ten years to begin to see any results. 

As an average person I have one bottom line question:  If the congress allowed all of this drilling, when would the gas prices change?  In thinking this proposal through, I am not sure the prices would change if this is the only factor.

The truth about all of this is that if the oil companies can continue to charge more for gas and other oil products, why should they charge less?  In other words, if the United States produced more oil, what guarantee is there that the prices would go down a whole lot? 

To bee honest, the only guaranteed positive from more drilling on our soil that I can see is less dependence on foreign oil.  We seem to depend on too many countries that either doesn’t like us or that there is evidence that they secretly don’t like us.

The fact that this proposal has President George Bush as it’s face man does not help the cause for me because his family, his state, and his support base seems to gain the most from this and seem to possibly be the ones that may be gaining the most now.

I see the need for some more drilling here, but it seems obvious to me that more, less, or the same amount of drilling here will not effect me at the pump at all and the people who are standing to gain from this are trying to tell me it will. 

Why is the president or anyone spending more time on solutions for right now rather than on solutions for the distant future that will have minimal effect if any at all?  I suppose I should just wait for ten to twenty years and see if we get the alternative fuels worked out so that something is a reasonable alternative while hoping that somewhere there is a level off point to the price of gasoline and it does not just keep rising all of that time.

As for the president speaking on solving an oil crisis, I think this president should have a spokesperson, possibly an economist of some form, speak for him as it would be a little more believable to me.

What is going on in the presidential race?  Democratic Senator Barack Obama went at republican Senator John McCain with both guns blazing in discussing the economy and I began to think:  “Finally, we will get to the real issues.” 

Boy oh boy was I mistaken.  I was all ready for Senator McCain (who is now known for being weak on matters of the economy at the worst time ever for that to be the case) to get with his advisors and start devising strong solutions for our economic woes.  Then I pictured this huge back and forth campaigning where two different plans that would both make some sense would be brought before the American people and we would all be thinking; “Wow, what great candidates.”

This however, was not what happened.  Senator McCain went back to that absolutely stupid “Gas Tax Holiday” idiocy that helped us all understand economy was not his strength.  Then Senator Hillary Clinton supported it also and some of the cooties of being economically illiterate seemed to get on her and her campaign.

I thought; “That’s it?  All of those campaign strategists and speechwriters and whoever else in his political entourage and that is it?”

But, no it was not.  Then he went back to this town hall meeting idea.  I admit it is a pretty cool idea, but seriously, one candidate is just going to dictate how another candidate is going to campaign for the entire summer and this other candidate is expected to just agree and go along with this?  (Is this one of those places where people on the internet us the letters “LOL?”

I personally believe that both candidates that are left from the two major parties have these gaping holes in their qualifications for president (particularly saying lots of things that neither of their voting records support), but if this is the best Senator McCain can come up with against a person with a gift for speaking and a charisma that attracts so many, Senator McCain will be reduced to a straw man for Senator Obama to knock over.

If there are any advisors to Senator McCain reading this, please gather some experts on the economy and draw up something substantial that will appeal to the public. Then spend some time educating Senator McCain on this plan.  Once that is done release him on the public with these fresh new ideas and a solution to a real problem in the here and now.  That will make him a solid candidate and definitely make the race more interesting.

I suppose Senator McCain may have such plans and be keeping them hidden is his grand plan to unleash this weapon of mass destruction on Senator Obama during these town hall meetings, but let’s face it, that is not going to happen.  An I am not sure if it were to happen that the results would be what Senator McCain expects.  I remember a debate between the Republicans that was televised on CNN that had an approval meter that was on the screen the whole time.  The relevant fact here is that almost every time Senator McCain spoke the meter shot down.  That went double when he got excited or agitated.

I think to win, Senator McCain better come up with more than the stuff he has put out there so far.

If Senator McCain does not retool his message, this will be one of those really boring elections where one candidate just sinks fast as soon as the votes start to be cast.  Today I was aghast at his lack of anything to say and found his whole message just plain boring.  

Our government is caught up in elections, partisan politics, and all other kinds of political blah, blah, blah.  The problem is that there are no plans to help American Citizens with the troubles we are having now and our government on all sides is caught up in ridiculous distractions that do absolutely nothing for what is going on with American citizens here and now.

President George Bush did his best with the stimulus package, but by the time the checks are getting to people gas is well over four dollars a gallon and the massive amount of people that are unemployed or in fear of soon being unemployed cannot afford to spend their stimulus checks shopping on frivolous knick-knacks simply to stimulate our economy.  This stimulus package was not a great idea and many of us knew it wouldn’t work the way that was planned, but at least it was some attempt at doing something.

President Bush today placed the blame for no other plans squarely on the shoulders of the “Democratic Congress” for not passing his other ideas such as making his tax cuts permanent.

The problem is that the parties are too busy with, ending primaries, preparing for presidential elections, global warming, fuel alternatives that will not be feasible for the average American citizen for five or six years, and so to be worried about such trivial matters as all of us loosing our jobs, spending every dime we have buying gasoline, and loosing our healthcare benefits.

This week we discovered that wealthy people who had good loans (as opposed to a sub-prime loan) were loosing their homes now also (the poster child for this is Ed McMahon of Publishers Sweepstakes and Tonight Show fame), unemployment is again breaking records (at 5.5% according to the Labor Department), the Dow Jones dropped over four-hundred points today, the NASDAQ dropped more than seventy-five points, oil prices broke the one hundred and thirty-seven dollar barrier but is now expected to go over one hundred and fifty dollars a barrel by the Fourth of July, houses are being foreclosed at record levels, the U.S. dollar is hardly worth the paper it is printed on and on and on.

I think I have figured it out, if everybody looses their houses and cannot afford to drive their cars, global warming will be reduced at record levels.  The American Public as a whole will be homeless and angry but at least Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize will not have gone to waste.

Our government officials don’t have time to be worrying about what “drama-queen” Hillary Clinton is going to do.  We are all eagerly awaiting the moment that she informs us that she has lost a race that we all know she has already lost (all except her and her advisors). 

There is endless partisan bickering and finger pointing.

The Democrats are spending all of their time on global warming and trying to prove that the Bush regime did all kinds of secret evils.  If he did or didn’t how is that going to help the economy or price of gasoline.  The guy is in his last few months, the country is going to a place very close to hell (I suppose partially due to global warming) and more than half of our government is focused on being a lynch mob.

The Republicans are busy having President Bush blame the rest of the government for not pushing through his half-baked ideas (but I have to admit, at least there are some ideas) and the rest of the party is busy separating themselves from the President to try to get Senator John McCain elected. 

Senator McCain first said that we should do nothing to help anyone, then he said to do mostly the same stuff that we are doing.  Then his party comes out and says; “Well, the economy is not his strength.”

It is beginning to cost more to go to work than people are making, and after these people loose their homes and file bankruptcy, there will really be no need to spend more getting to work than you make when you get there and these people are going to start quitting and looking for government assistance (and unemployment that will be charges to the people they were working for).  What then. 

I don’t care for or about the parties.  I do not care which one of these lackluster candidates becomes president.  I don’t care quite as much about what is going to happen five or ten years from now when I have to be concerned if my family and I will survive this year. 

I guess in Washington we are simply numbers and statistics unless you are a person running for office.  When that is the case we get attention (in the form of lip service) for a few months and then we are again reduced to pawns in a huge game of numbers.

Both of the main candidates are Senators.  I think the real race is to see which one can come up with something that can be done now (before that person is elected president or not) to help the American people.

Iraq is a war and clearly is not going anywhere in the next few months.  Global warming is the evil to end all evils; I get it!  But, it is going to be much more evil for me and my family if as the planet warms I am homeless.  I understand that we want to preserve the wilderness and the beautiful places and protect these places from all of the evils of drilling.  What is going to happen as the state and federal governments begin to loose funding to protect and maintain these areas because the gasoline is to expensive for their vehicles and they lay off the employees that didn’t already quit because it cost too much to get to work. 

All of the stuff they are worrying about are lower on the priority scale and both the Democrats and the Republicans area doing nothing.  The Democrats keep saying the Republicans are doing nothing about the economy, while they are doing nothing also.  The Republicans are finger pointing because their harebrained ideas are being held up by the Democrats. 

It doesn’t matter who is to blame, the question is who is going to actually do something sensible about what is going on here and now.

Imagine a person on a treadmill in workout clothes with a towel around his or her neck.  That person has on fancy designer running shoes and has a fancy pants MP3 player.  The only problem noticeable when the person is about to turn the treadmill on is that the person is facing the wrong direction reaching backwards to turn the thing on.  What is going to happen?

The big oil company rhetoric has ramped up over the weekend.  As usual the party lines are drawn and nothing is going to get accomplished.  The Democrats want more tax money and blood from the big oil companies and the Republicans say it is just how business works and good for our 401k retirement plans. 

Watching what is going on capitol hill is like watching people on P.C.P. trying to fly or people taking acid trying to fight with the air.  Lots of strange activity, but no real accomplishment except when they hurt themselves.

I have to admit however, in hearing both sides of the argument, that both sides were partially right, but the truth is that again partisan politics overrides simple reason. 

First off, making record profits by the destruction of our economy and whole industries (such as the airline industry that will be completely destroyed if the price of gas does not go down) is never okay and I am not sure that a tax break or giving such organizations more money for research is not rewarding those that are damaging our great nation.

I am not convinced however that public flogging is the answer, but some sort of limitation on what profit margins can look like might be in order.  Look, you are free to do pretty much whatever you want to do in this country until you start to abuse the privilege or severely damage others.  At that point you become the enemy of every American. 

As a person who is severely opposed to our current party system, I have to say that I was put off by the rhetoric of both sides on this one.  But, the argument that I have heard several times of the past few days that it is okay because many of our 401k plans benefit from the profits of the big oil companies is flat out stupid. 

How does five or ten dollars a month in interest into my retirement balance out doubling what is costs to put gas in my car every fill up?  How does that compensate the truck drivers who have doubled what they pay in gas (or more)?  How does that compensate the rising cost of things that are shipped by truck?  What does that do for those who don’t have a 401k plan (maybe he or she is one of those statistics we keep hearing denoting the jobless)?   

It is sort of like dividing the country into classes and saying it is okay to steal from those at the bottom and some of those in the middle to help those at the top with all of the big investments. 

I live in an area where most people have long commutes and most people can barely afford to live here even though when compared with other parts of the country incomes are higher (everything simply costs more).  In my area, gas is already over the four dollar a gallon mark which means that there has been a huge cut in our individual economies.

I am not saying that there may not be some good explanation for why the price of gasoline is so high (it rose a lot faster than the price of barrels of oil did), what I am saying is that this explanation is stupid and an insult to the intelligence of everyone on the planet.

On the other hand, where I do agree with the Republicans, is that we need to drill in our own oil fertile areas and stop protesting, filibustering, or anything else to oppose such measures.  When the price of gas was a dollar and some change we had such a luxury.  Right now, the price of gas and the other factors that are influencing this bad economy are going to strangle those in poverty, those at the bottom levels of our income brackets, and a bunch of those considered currently to be “middleclass.” 

The idea that we are sitting on huge solutions to our problem and a large segment of our society wants to fight those perceived to be causing the problem while fighting against the obvious solution is ridiculous. 

The plan in the works is to invent cars that will not be available to the public for 4 years or more, that will run on these new fuels that you will not be able to get anywhere.

I agree that something needs to change, but first the partisan hogwash has to be done away with.  There is an old saying in my family:  “If you are not a part of the solution you are probably part of the problem.”  I don’t know if all of the folks on capitol hill have noticed their approval rating lately, but the American people are convinced that they are a part of the problem along with all of their rhetoric. 

I am middle class.  I have a retirement plan.  I pay taxes.  I served my country honorably in the Marine Corps along with three prior generations of serviceman.  I work and contribute to my society and to charity.  I commute to work and fill the tank in my tiny commuter car at least once or twice week (my 12 gallon tank now takes almost fifty dollars to fill).  I am also one of the victims of the record profits that I am supposed to think is okay because I will get something like fifty cents more income monthly toward my retirement. 

I am old enough to remember the last time something like this happened.  The siphoning of gas (which has started again), the fights at the gas stations as people went to gas stations on alternating days depending on if the first number on their license plate was odd or even, etc.  This is worse as there are several other contributing factors that are taking us down fast.  I do not think that allowing large segments f the population to suffer to bolster some political stand is acceptable from either party and I am angered by this whole thing.

Yesterday Senator Hillary Clinton lost in one primary and barely squeezed out a win in another.  What this means is that her winning the popular vote just moved from incredibly impossible to a little more incredibly impossible.  This also moved her chances of winning over the remaining super-delegates highly unlikely.  Why are we still seeing all of this again?

Can we put an end to this finally.  I am ready to see Senator Obama limp into his contest with the lost Senator McCain.  I say Sen. Obama is limping (and probably bloody in a metaphoric sense) because of the terrible fight he has been in.  I say Sen. McCain is missing because, well, he’s missing.  He has been hiding out most of this time occasionally surfacing to say stupid things (I suppose Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama had plenty of friends, family, and supporters to handle that for them)

Senator Clinton was deep in the rhetoric over the past few days and not quite as deep in the money.  I think she is in deep trouble as of this weeks events.

Of course this vote took place on the same day all the economists teamed up to say the “Gas Tax Holiday” that her and Sen. McCain have been pushing is a stupid idea.  That means it probably did not have much time to settle in with yesterday’s voters, but by next week it will be deep in the psyche of all of us who own televisions or read newspapers.

Sen. Clinton has vowed to go on, like a good captain, strong, teary eyed, and holding the wheel as the ship sinks. 

Now, more statistics are starting to show up that clearly show that if Sen. Clinton does not win the popular vote and cannot get the super-delegates to vote her in as the candidate of choice they will refuse to vote for Sen. Obama, and may even vote for Sen. McCain.

Here’s a newsflash Hillary Clinton supporters:  It is so close to impossible for her to win at this point that I think Sen. Obama could shoot several of the super-delegates that are supporting in front of the media and still squeeze out a victory over Sen. Clinton.

But, from the standpoint of a spectator who does not belong to either party this is great.  The two Democratic gladiators are going to pummel each other before the winner gets thrown to the lions.  What could possibly be as exciting?

Then you have Rush Limbaugh who has been rallying Republicans to come together and vote in the Democrat’s primaries just to cause chaos.  Add this all to the chaos of any appearances of Former President Bill Clinton and the sheer excitement of an appearance of a certain Mr. Wright and you have excellent reality television.  What greater pursuit is there than sitting and watching other individuals go through excruciating and taxing circumstances just for our entertainment.

This is all fine and dandy until we come back to reality and realize we are all going to be stuck with one of these three for the next four years.  Then suddenly we realize that  we are all the next cast of the reality show that will be for the rest of the world to watch.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Today several respected economists came out publicly in opposition to the Gas Tax holiday proposed By Senator John McCain and later used by Senator Hillary Clinton to boost her campaign against Senator Barack Obama who opposes the idea.

Presidential hopefuls Senator John McCain and Senator Hillary Clinton have been pushing this Gas Tax Holiday in theory giving the American public a few month reprise from the High gasoline prices.  The plan involves eliminating the approximately nineteen cent federal gas tax and the approximately twenty-five cent diesel tax beginning Memorial Day all the way to Labor Day.

You may remember that when this idea was first proposed I posted a blog where I stated it was a bad idea.  I mention this because my view was not based on being an economist (because I am not one) but on simple common sense.  The truth is that if we come up with any idea that takes millions, billions, or trillions of dollars out of the national budget, the money has to come from somewhere to replace it (in this case we are talking about somewhere in the area of ten-billion dollars).  Nineteen cents is not worth some huge debt that shows up later to be paid for by taxing us.  The two dollars I would personally save a week is not enough for me to be willing to create a ten-billion dollar hole in the budget.

Today two-hundred top economists, four of which are Nobel prize winners, signed a letter completely rejecting this ridiculous idea.  This is the kiss of death for this stupid idea. 

Hillary Clinton has been trying to say she was the candidate most likely to turn the economy around and the polls have been growing in her favor in this area.  When I first heard her endorsement of this idea, I immediately knew she was not the economist she has been trying to sell herself as.  When she decided to put her stamp of approval on an idea about the economy that came from a candidate that states clearly that the economy is his weak point I realized she was capable of being just as ignorant as Senator Barack Obama was in associating with a certain Mr. Wright. 

Senator McCain has stated repeatedly that he is terrible with the economy (How can we take you seriously as a candidate at this point in history if this is the case?) so this is no surprise.  The surprise for me is that Sen. McCain and his campaign would decide that the place for him to come out of hiding and make his big stand was going to be on the battlefield of the economy.  I have to ask myself:  “Who though this would turn out well?”

Sen. McCain seems to end up in trouble every time he speaks publicly and the Republican party is sinking fast because of how unpopular the current presidency is.  If McCain is the current captain of the sinking Titanic why would Sen. Clinton jump on board the sinking ship. 

I do not give Sen. Obama as much credit as it would seem he should get for opposing the idea.  It would normally give us the idea that he is better in touch with the economy, but that is not the case. 

The truth is, the reason for his knowing this was a bad idea was because in the state that he represents currently, Illinois, they tried a similar idea and it failed miserably.  He simply knew it would fail because he was there the last time it failed. 

Again I say that I think that none of the three of these candidates is in fact a “good” choice.  I feel it is simply a matter of which one is the lesser of the evils.  In the case of the “Gas Tax Holiday” I score it this way:

Senator John McCain  -  Minus one-half point (only a half because I already knew he was terrible in terms of the economy)

Senator Hillary Clinton – Minus two points (this was such a stupid move on her part for so many reasons I think only taking two points away is being generous in trying to be fair)

Senator Barack Obama – Plus a half point - (he didn’t have any knowledge either way about the economy, he just got lucky)

As a side note, the Democrats, as a party, are working on drafting a proposal to help individual American’s at the pump without being such a stupid idea.