Tag: Gas Prices

So You Want Solutions?

A very much appreciated reader of Info Ink is Terrance or Sibboleth Nation (go to blogroll and visit his site for a different perspective and go often) and I have been exchanging views about the high price of gas and what to do about it………

Everybody, whether left of right, has been bitching that they want solutions to the banking fiasco and for the price of high gas prices…..but are they really serious about the solutions?  Or are they willing to put up with the solutions?  Read on, McDuff!

During this circus we call an election cycle we keep hearing that all Americans want solutions to the problems that the country is experiencing…….a couple of the gas off the top of my head….Gas prices and banking…….these came to mind because I was watching an interview with Nevada’s babbling brook, Sharon Angel…..she was talking about the problems of her state and the country and as usual the housing, gas prices and lack of jobs is all Obama’s doing…..a typical BS answer for those with little brains and no logical thinking processes……

I tweeted that she should be asked to give how Obama was at fault for high gas prices…….of course not being one of the boys in the MSM, my question was not asked……I am positive that her answer would have been domestic drilling……….to begin with Oil Companies set the prices not the president….I will concede that banks are still stealing us blind is a bit of the Prez fault….Dodd-Frank was a toothless python……but the problems with Freddie/Fannie Mac is NOT the president’s fault…jobs… by now we all know whose fault that is……

Now let me say that if you want solutions to high gas prices and the banks there is only one answer for both problems…..and the answer will send the Right into convulsions………Nationalization!

Let’s start with gas prices………Mitt has said that one his first day of his presidency gas would be $2 a gallon….if you believe that then by all means vote for a liar….the only way for gas to come down is eliminate the profit margin and the only way to eliminate the profit margin is to nationalize the industry….any other solution is pure BS and will NEVER happen…..no matter who tells you it will.

The banking fiasco……again the only way to eliminate the boom and busts of the industry is for the government to control the industry…..and again that would be nationalization of the industry…eliminate the profits and you can eliminate the cycles of boom and bust……more regulations will not do it and less regulations will definitely NOT do it…….

The ONLY way to make good on campaign promises of cheap gas and less banking fiascoes is nationalization…..like it or not…….with out it gas prices will continue upward and banks will continue to gamble and get government money to pay their debts….bitching about it will NOT help….only one answer to make it so…..NATIONALIZATION!  Yes, the other “N” word!

My Take On ‘Drill Baby Drill’

Gas prices are on the rise and the president will be taking hits from his political opponents…..and as predictable as the sun will rise is the bumper sticker attacks and answers….like Drill Baby Drill…….before one can use the bumper sticker solutions they need to be aware of what is involved with the politics of oil……

First, let us look at the tax incentives for oil companies that the GOP is trying hard to protect….

Theodore Seto, a professor of tax law and policy at Loyola Law School Los Angeles, notes the distortion in the tax code toward investment in oil exploration with “the U.S. tax rate on profits from petroleum and natural gas structures … the lowest imposed on any type of corporate capital asset”:

Why Oil Companies Don’t Drill, Understanding Tax: U.S. oil companies are pushing hard to get Congress to allow the current Administration to issue more oil leases before its term expires. In response, skeptics have noted that three-quarters of the 90 million-plus acres of federal land already leased for oil drilling are not being worked. Oil companies deny this. Regardless of who is right, the number of operating oil rigs in North America declined across the course of 2007.

In the meantime, OPEC has raised its quotas by only 20% since 1998 – a measly 2% per year. World GDP grew by about 85% over the same period. The International Energy Agency reports that non-OPEC oil countries are also underproducing and predicts that they will continue to do so.

Everyone seems to be holding back. … So what to do?

On the tax side, Congress has done almost all it can do to stimulate U.S. production.

A 2005 Congressional Budget Office study concluded that the effective 2002 U.S. tax rate on profits from petroleum and natural gas structures was the lowest imposed on any type of corporate capital asset: 9.2%. Profits from computers, by contrast, were taxed at an effective rate of 36.9%.

A 2000 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded that in 1998, of all U.S. industries, petroleum and pipeline companies were taxed at the lowest effective rates: 5.7%. Health care companies, by contrast, were taxed at an effective rate of 32%.

If tax incentives were going to induce U.S. oil companies to drill, they probably would have done so by now. Interestingly, Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama both propose to eliminate oil production tax incentives. After all, if oil companies are not responding by increasing production, those breaks are just gifts from you and me to Exxon. …

Remember that prices are a measure of value. If oil prices are going to be much higher 10 years from now, that means oil will be more valuable then than it is now. Valuable to us.

If so, should it really be our policy to drain U.S. reserves as quickly as possible? Or should our policy be to save at least some of those reserves for the day when gas is $10/gallon?

More domestic drilling will lower gas prices here in the US…….is that true?  From CNN Money…….

The problem is this: While increased oil and gas drilling in the United States may create good-paying jobs, reduce reliance on foreign oil and lower the trade deficit, it will have hardly any impact on gas and oil prices.

That’s because the amount of extra oil that could be produced from more drilling in this country is tiny compared to what the world consumes.

Plus, any extra oil the country did produce would likely be quickly offset by a cut in OPEC production.

“This drill drill drill thing is tired,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, which calculates gas prices for the motorist organization AAA. “It’s a simplistic way of looking for a solution that doesn’t exist.”

After OPEC got done adjusting its production to reflect the increased American output, gas prices might drop a whopping 3 cents a gallon, the study said.

“More production from anywhere would tend to lower prices,” said Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank. “But the amount that we’re talking about domestically, it wouldn’t move gas prices from $4 a gallon to $3.”

In fact, more domestic oil is just what we’ve been seeing and gasoline prices are still going up.

The next talking point that the GOP and its spokespeople use is that most of the domestic oil production in the US is on private land and the oil companies want public lands open to drilling……why?

My thought is that it would be more expensive for the oil companies on private land and that they could have their friends n Congress see that they get a free ride while drilling on public land….but could this be the case, really?

The magazine, Economist is reporting……

The main problem is that Congress obviously doesn’t want to be handing out royalty-free drilling leases on sites that would be commercially attractive even at the going rate. That’s just handing out taxpayer money to a few corporations for no good reason; among other things, it’s not fair to other drillers who have to pay for their leases. And when the price of crude goes above a certain level, those tough-to-develop deepwater wells become commercially attractive even without the free leases. So Congress sensibly instructed the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to award these free leases only when the price of oil was at a level low enough that they wouldn’t otherwise be profitable to exploit.Whoops! We all remember the MMS, right? So apparently, in 1998-99, the folks at the MMS were too busy flirting with each other, or accepting private-jet rides to college football games, or whatever, to notice that the price of oil had gotten pretty high and they shouldn’t be handing out free leases anymore. As a result, 24 companies got free leases they shouldn’t have gotten. And ever since, they’ve been making extra money that they really ought to be returning in the form of leases on public property to the American taxpayer. As of 2008, the bill came to $1.3 billion; this year, the losses will be $1.5 billion. Over the decades-long lifetime of the wells it’ll add up to a lot more. According to the Government Accountability Office it’ll come to $53 billion over the next 25 years. Last week, representative Ed Markey and a few other Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee offered an amendment to the Republican budget bill to make those oil producers pay the standard amount in the future on the royalty-free leases they mistakenly received due to bureaucratic error. The amendment was voted down, 251-174

Oh, one more thing. Some years back, Shell, BP, and two other oil companies that also mistakenly received royalty-free leases signed agreements with the federal government to voluntarily pay the normal lease on their wells from that date on. They probably did so less out of any concern for fairness to the American taxpayer than out of a desire to avoid the possibility that the government would try to retroactively recover leases for prior years. Nonetheless, voluntarily agreeing to pay the royalties going forward was the right thing to do. So, in the spirit of encouraging good behaviour: Shell and BP, good show. Chevron and the other guys, you need to go sit in the corner for a while and think about what behaviour this situation calls for.

It now is making more sense!  Public land drilling would make the companies more profits with less overhead….and that is what capitalism is all about, right?  Keeping capitalism in mind….would the price of gas come down?  My guess would be ….NO!

I hope this post will help those that think ‘Drill Baby Drill’ is the answer to all our oil and gas problems…..the solutions that are used in these political times will only benefit the oil companies and you and your Hummer will still be using and buying high price gas.

If you really want lower gas prices then focus on…..speculation…..control that and you can somewhat control prices.

Drill Baby Drill is a slogan, a bumper sticker not a viable policy….

Pain At The Pump

We all have heard the rhetoric about the price of gas….it is Obama’s fault…..we need to drill more…..American oil will bring the prices down…sorry, sports fans but NONE of that is true!  At best it is just electioneering bumper stickers….but the American people are always falling for bullsh*t and why would this be any different, if anything it will get more traction because it effects most Americans daily…….

Let’s look at a few facts…….by 2006, the US was the 3rd leading oil producer in the world…..we are drilling so much that we have become an oil exporter for the first time since 1949 and oil production is up 10% since Obama is been the president….and NONE of that has brought the cost of gas down…..and now they want me to believe that more drilling will do that which it has not done in at least 5 years…..sorry asshats… I am NOT that gullible!

Gasomics 101:  Drilling does not affect gas prices at the pump despite rhetoric
Gas prices are not a function of how much oil is drilled in the US versus how much is drilled in the world. Oil prices are set on a global level. Gas prices are the result of three factors:  global price of a barrel of oil, state and federal taxes, and gas supplies coming out of refineries.
Impact of the price of crude oil
Since the US imports over 64% of its oil, the amount of oil produced domestically would have to double to the levels of 1970 which was1.2 million BPD to make any difference at all. It took nearly 40 years to decline to the levels under Bush. If it were even possible to produce that much oil in the US again, it would take years to ramp up production.
The cost of extracting a barrel of oil today according to the CEO of Exxon, the nation’s largest oil company, is about $60-$70 dollars a barrel or $0.65 cents a gallon. Oil is trading on the markets at over $100 a barrel—a 30% to 35% gross markup.  Oil companies make a profit of 2-3 cents a gallon. Where does the rest go? A large portion goes to Wall Street oil speculators.  Industry experts have estimated oil speculators increase the cost of gasoline by $0.75 a gallon.
Sometimes the price of crude oil increases due to production levels set by OPEC. Other times, it is affected by a disruption in oil supply. That was the case with the spikes in the 70’s. Neither of these are the case with this current increase.  The Arab spring uprisings were the excuse for speculators driving up prices, but no disruption in oil production or shipping has actually occurred. This is an artificial increase in gas prices designed to put profits in speculator’s pockets.
Impact of gas taxes and taxes on oil companies

The federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents a gallon—the same as under George Bush. States add taxes ranging from a low of 8 cents a gallon in Alaska to 31.9 cents a gallon in New York.  Gas taxes do not move with the price of oil or the price of gas.
Oil companies and their apologists blame taxes for high prices. Truth is, oil companies have so many write offs and subsidies, they actually pay almost no federal tax.
Impact of refineries

A very large portion of the cost difference between crude oil, and price of gas is the cost of refining it. Previous increases were the result of a reduction in refining capacity. Hurricane Katrina damaged oil refineries in the gulf reducing capacity. Fires at refineries also cut capacity.  None of that is occurring now.  Gas supplies are normal.

Are the President’s policies to blame for current gas prices?
The actual answer is that gasoline prices are not really affected by any policy of the Obama administration.  Domestic production is increasing, not decreasing.
After a short moratorium on drilling in the Gulf after the BP disaster, permits for new deep water oil wells are being issued. The recent Exxon discovery was from a well permitted after the BP moratorium was lifted. The President announced a week ago new policies to speed up domestic oil production even more.
It is an election year, and Americans are hurting from high gas prices. It creates a convenient opportunity to blame the public’s misery on the President to win votes. The facts do not support this rhetoric, but in political speeches, facts seldom come into play. Production declined under every Republican President and Republican Congress since Nixon.
Speculation, my friends!  There is your culprit, not anything any president has done or said.  But by all means, vote for the biggest liar and your gas will be $2.50 a gallon as soon as he/she is elected……..and by the way, as long as you are buying bullsh*t…..I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you……
You want to spend less on gas?  Here is an idea……..STOP buying and driving gas guzzling monstrosities just to impress your neighbors….mindless consumerism is just as guilty of raising gas prices as anything…..

What About Those Gas Prices?

The GOP is reeling from the mass of bad PR they have gotten from the candidates unrealistic stances on contraception….so how do you change the subject?  GAS PRICES!

Gas prices are going up and up and of course it is election time and the opposition will make it all the president’s fault…..Mitt has promised two dollar a gallon gas when he is elected president….now sports fans….HE IS LYING!

For one, the president has little control over then price of gas……think Exxon at this point……will they give up profit to make Mitt happy?  And then there is the promise of more drilling domestically….good plan and it will take at least 5 years for that to take effect and there is NO guarantee that it will lessen the price of gas at US pumps……now at this point think Chevron……will they give up profits because the oil came from the US soil?

Let us not forget about speculation which has more to do with the price of oil than who is president….or who promises something they could NEVER deliver short of nationalization….now there is something to think about….

Could the price of gas come down?  Sure when the price of oil does.

But with all that in your head think about something else…..from USAToday:

Looking at your heating bills or gas prices, you may find it surprising that the United States is enjoying a mini oil boom. It’s producing more crude oil and, for the first time in decades, has become a net exporter of petroleum products such as jet fuel, heating oil and gasoline.

The U.S. exported more oil-based fuels than it imported in the first nine months of this year, making it likely that 2011 will be the first time since 1949 that the nation is a net exporter of such goods, primarily diesel.

That’s not all. The U.S. has reversed another decades-long trend. It began producing more crude oil in 2008 than the year before and accelerated that upswing 3% in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period in 2010. That production has helped reduce U.S. imports of crude oil by about 10% since 2006.

Read it!  The US has exported more oil than it imported!  Could that exported oil be used here in the good old US of A to keep the price of gas down?  At this point think Texaco…….profits are the common denominator……profits will lead the way and as long as that is the motivation there will be NO way to bring the price of gas down…..

Would War Really Be The Answer?

Happy Mardi Gras!

Inkwell Institute

Subject:  Middle East

We all have heard the chest thumping from the oversexed gorillas….the Israelis, the GOP, the Neocons…..all the bolster of those hawks in this country about Iran, Syria, et al…..

Before I begin let me point out a couple of factoids……it estimated that Israel has 200-500 nukes and has never signed the the NPT……and that events that are spiraling out of control in the Middle East could have devastating results on your wallet…

Source: RawStory

Oil prices could soar to as high as $160 a barrel if tension over an Iranian oil embargo persists or in the event of conflict, a top Kuwaiti oil executive said in remarks published on Monday.

“If the embargo on Iranian oil persists, or in case of a military move over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices are expected to soar to around $150 to $160,” Kuwait Petroleum Corporation board member Ali al-Hajeri told Al-Seyassah daily.

Hajeri said such a price would not last long, however, and would return to “normal levels” once the reasons for the rise disappear.

The European Union has slapped an embargo on Iranian oil imports, and Tehran has repeatedly threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway for Gulf oil exports, if it was not allowed to export its crude.

Hajeri called the current price of between $100-105 “fair and acceptable to producers and consumers,” and said any higher price would be counterproductive to the global economy.

Read More…

With all the chest thumping how can we know what would happen…….Michael Synder of BLN.com has listed what to look for in the near future…….

#1 The United States has just imposed tough new sanctions on Iran.  Some of the new sanctions are specifically targeted at the central bank of Iran.  Stronger sanctions have been a prelude to war in the past, and the Obama administration surely wants to argue that “all other alternatives have been exhausted” before going to war.

#2 The EU has announced that all imports of crude oil from Iran will be bannedstarting in July.

#3 The U.S. embassy in Syria has been shut down and the Obama administration has once again called for Syrian President Bashar Assad to resign.

#4 The U.S. has also removed all diplomats from Syria.

#5 In speaking of the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Barack Obamais making it very clear what he believes the final result will be….

“This is not going to be a matter of if, it’s going to be a matter of when.”

This is very reminiscent of the language that Obama used to describe the removal of Gadhafi before the U.S. launched airstrikes in Libya.

#6 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is calling for “an international coalition” to support the opposition fighters in Syria.

#7 Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says that Iran is moving their uranium enrichment facilities into recently constructed underground bunkers and that the point of no return is rapidly approaching….

“The world has no doubt that Iran’s nuclear program is steadily nearing readiness and is about to enter an immunity zone”

#8 There are indications that Israel may consider launching an attack against Iran without even notifying the United States.  Aaron David Miller, a Mideast peace negotiator during the Clinton administration, recently made the following statement….

“There’s a growing concern — more than a concern — that the Israelis, in order to protect themselves, might launch a strike without approval, warning or even foreknowledge”

#9 The Washington Post is reporting that U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes that Israel will strike Iran at some point during the months of April, May or June.

#10 Former IDF chief of staff Moshe Yaalon insists that an attack on Iran could be successful….

“It’s possible to strike all Iran’s facilities, and I say that out of my experience as IDF chief of staff”

#11 U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner says that the Obama administration “is absolutely committed to preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons“.

#12 Barack Obama underscored his policy toward Iran in a speech just the other day….

“I’ve been very clear — we’re going to do everything we can to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and creating a nuclear arms race in a volatile region”

#13 According to Debka, thousands of U.S. troops have been heading to “two strategic islands within reach of Iran”.

#14 Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei is speaking as if the coming war is a foregone conclusion….

“The war itself will be 10 times as detrimental to the U.S.”

#15 Khamenei also seems to think that the outcome of the coming war is a foregone conclusion as well….

“In light of the realization of the divine promise by almighty God, the Zionists and the Great Satan (America) will soon be defeated”

#16 Khamenei also has declared that Israel is a “cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut“.

#17 According to one estimate, there are currently 200,000 missiles aimed at the nation of Israel.

#18 Some Israeli officials claim that Iran is trying to develop a long-range missile capable of reaching the United States.

#19 The death toll from the conflict inside of Syria continues to rise.  Accordingto Debka, “a continuous Syrian bombardment beginning early Saturday, Feb. 4, is estimated to have left a record 350 dead and up to 1,300 wounded in the Homs district of Khaldiyeh.”

#20 According to the United Nations, a total of approximately 6,000 peoplehave been killed since the conflict in Syria began.

#21 The city of Homs is one giant war zone at this point.  The following comes from a recent article in the Telegraph….

“We can’t count all the bodies from the streets and the collapsed buildings. Anyone who tries to go on the street might be killed – there are snipers,” said Abu Abdu al-Homsi, spokesman for the Syrian Revolutionary Council, an opposition group, in Homs. “An old woman – her son was shot and killed in the street, she went to get his body and was shot dead too.”

#22 The Russians appear to be very serious about supporting the Assad regime in Syria.  According to Debka, “the Russians backed their hard line against the West by putting Rapid Reaction Force (aka Spetsnaz) units in Black Sea bases on the ready to set out for Syria and defend Damascus.”

#23 It is being reported that a Hezbollah official has indicated that Hezbollah will attack Israel if Syria is attacked.

#24 There are even signs that Saudi Arabia is busy preparing for a coming war.  The following comes from a recent Debka article….

“Our military sources report that the Saudis this week wound up their own intensive preparations for war. Large forces are now deployed around Saudi oil fields, pipelines and export facilities in the eastern provinces opposite the Persian Gulf, backed by anti-missile Patriot PAC-3 batteries. American, British and French fighter-bombers have been landing at Saudi air bases to safeguard the capital, Riyadh.”

Now you have the points to watch….but if it does not matter to you….then may I suggest Mudcats on the history channel…..a show about the morons that hand fish for catfish……this will help you to remain ignore and controllable……peace out!

2011 Anal-Ocity #23

It has been a long time since I found a quote that I considered one of the most anal statement made by a politician or pundit or…….since most of their statements are either anal or just outright lies….but I have found another to go into the list for the year to be voted on later this year as the most anal of statements (watch for the nominees post coming in December)……

This time an old friend of Info Ink  Michele Bachmann gets the nod this time…..to be truthful it was going to be her quote made during her last Iowa swing when she said, ” I am NOT a politician” and everyone applauded……shows the total lack of information that her supporters are working form…..but like I said…..I found another one more anal…..

Bachmann has made a promise that she CANNOT keep….but is anyone noticing?

“Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again,” Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in South Carolina. “That will happen.”

I sure this will play well with the stupid…….does she or any of her supporters realize that the government has very little to do with the price of gas….it is called capitalism….Exxon controls the price….NOT the president.  And domestic drilling will NOT lower the price of gas!  About the only way that gas would ever go back to $2 a gallon is if the industry were to be nationalized….and we know what that is called, don’t we?

Pain At The Pump

A lot of lip flapping going on and We all suffer from pain at the pump….we bitch and we moan and we drive down the driveway to pick up the morning paper……we are a country of addicts…..gas addicts!

one of my pages describes this…..lobotero.wordpress.com/will-the-addic… …..I wrote this about 4 years ago and it is all repeating itself as it has time after time…..

And then when things are offered up the attack machine goes into full swing….like to end all subsidies to oil companies…..

Obama has proposed eliminating subsidies to oil and gas companies, which the administration pegs at $4 billion. Republicans have argued that they are necessary to keep the energy industry competitive and encourage domestic oil exploration.

A Boehner spokesman quickly shot down the possibility that the speaker was moving closer to the president’s proposal.

“The speaker wants to increase the supply of American energy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and he is only interested in reforms that actually lower energy costs and create American jobs,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. “Unfortunately, what the president has suggested so far would simply raise taxes and increase the price at the pump.”

Oil prices are controlled by speculation and there is an answer to that problem also…..

The Wall Street reform law enacted last year required the commission to impose so-called position limits, which would restrict the amount of oil that speculators could trade in the energy futures market. The law called for the tough new regulations to take effect by Jan. 22. The commission balked. Now, three months later, the price of gasoline has gone up 80-cents a gallon because of the commission’s hands-off approach to the markets it is supposed to regulate.

Only two of the five sitting commissioners support strong limits that the new Wall Street law envisioned. It takes three commissioners to adopt a new rule. The president, Sanders said, should insist that the law be enforced and demand the immediate resignation of commissioners who refuse to do their job.

You may not appreciate the financial reform bill that was signed into law last year, but there is a way to control the price of gas and to blame Obama ‘s war on subsidies as the reason for raising gas prices is just plain WRONG!

Even Goldman-Sachs has reported that the rise in gas prices is caused by speculators…..and to allow it to continue will bring any economic recovery to a grinding halt…..so to oppose any effort to get these speculators to cool down is NOT in the best interests of the country….

But a economist with  Platts and energy information group has said and he should know….

The tax breaks on oil are part of the endless discussion about how to tax an economic activity. Do you tax it at 0%? Do you tax it 100%? Or do you tax it in between? You want to tax it at the rate that provides the most money for the government while not inhibiting economic activity.

But that is not a subsidy. My demand for oil isn’t going to change one iota because of the changes that are under consideration, and therefore it won’t change the price of gasoline.

Oil companies will argue that the changes in the tax rate could change supply.  Now you could build some theoretical model that says, if the tax rate is changed, it MIGHT inhibit production, and therefore down the road, supplies would be less than they would be otherwise. Therefore, the price could be higher and my demand might be less. This is not as crazy as it sounds. If the rate on these forms of exploration went to 100%, obviously, no company would produce that oil, the overall market would tighten, and the price could go up. But that’s not in question; the administration is not proposing a 100% tax rate.

There you are…..we have an answer….now just DO IT!  You want to cut spending….then start here and prove that you Repubs are not anti middle class….just a thought!

Stop Whining!

OMG!  Gas has gone up to $3.54 a gallon the world as we know it is ending!

All the crises in the Middle East is driving speculation on the oil and supply of oil and as they speculate we are paying more and more for the black life’s blood of the US…how can we continue with such a drag on the economy?

First of all….shut up!  Stop the damn whining!

Second, just how short is your memories?  All this played out3 years ago when oil price hit in the neighborhood of $150 a barrel…..and all of you were just as wimpy as now….but NO one called for the use of the Strategic Reserves at that time…..but now your panic is calling for such a lame idea….Lame?  Yes, lame!  Three years ago after the speculators had a good week or so, the market stabilzed and all went back to pretty much normal….

Listen, if a camel farts in the Middle East it will effect the price of oil…this is something that pampered little shits will just have to accept…..and if you people would forgo the status symbols such as the vehicles that get 2 gallons to the mile, then you would Not be as freaky as you are now……use your mind and shut bellowing like a wounded buffalo every time the price of gas goes up….If you must have these beasts call luxury then by God just buck up and take responsibility for your action…..for your egocentric behavior…..

A simple economics lesson for you slow witted……oil prices go up and they go down….it is called a cycle…..and NO amount of whining or bitching is gonna change that…..so to consider the use of SPR just so you do not have to pay a few bucks more is just way to petty and it will NOT stop this from happening……

Get over yourselves!  Stop whining!

A Ranting I Will Go #2

From time to time I either see, read or hear something that makes me hit myself in the head and ask just how stupid are they?  Usually the TV is the prime source of aggravation, but this time it is a bumper sticker……while driving to the store I got behind a Hummer, you know the vehicle that gets 4 gallons to the mile?…..anyway the sticker said…….”Drill Here….Drill Now….Pay Less”…..

Okay the section out there with the mental midgets…….if oil is drilled for here, how many really think that you will pay less?  (Pause here to give the multitude a chance to contemplate the question)……..

Do you seriously believe that if gas is $4 a gallon and it is drilled for here the price will come down?  Exxon, Shell, Texaco, etc….will screw themselves out of all that profit?  But I guess if I was driving a Hummer I would be delusional also……

Just yet another illustration of the sheer stupidity of the American people….they buy into some lame ass slogan and embrace it as fact……you tell if that is a way to go through life?  The statement is stupid, ignorant, moronic and completely fictional….but then that is how Americans vote…..(yawn)…..

Wait there is More!

On MLK Day a bomb was found along the parade route and disarmed before it could do any damage…the officials said that they did not know who placed it or what is was suppose to do (paraphrase)…..think about that!  They did not know what it was suppose to do…..how about f*ck up the parade and injure many people….that is called DOMESTIC TERRORISM!

Now, why has there been very little about this on the news?  Short of an initial report………apparently if it had been a Muslim who did it it would be a two week diatribe on all the stations…..why is domestic terrorism not that important for the media?  But yet they will show ambulance driving slowly from a hospital to an airport…….I kept waiting for a white Bronco to go by…….(thanx to Phillip for the anology)

Now tell me that the media does NOT drive national conversations!

Surprise–You Pay!

Daily Agitator

From the VOMITORIUM

The BIG news for the last month is the raging oil leak a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico…..BP, the responsible party, has tried several different methods of capping this massive flow out of a broken drill hole.  Their next attempt will be to pump drilling mud and concrete into the hole to try and seal it up and stop the killing of the environment.

Back in the day, the Exxon Valdez run a ground with a drunk captain at the wheel and was the responsible one and after years of litigation, the Supreme Court let Exxon off the hook for only about half of what they owed.  The environment in Alaska that was effected by the oil spill, still has not recovered some twenty years later…..and the Gulf spill has all the earmarks as a much bigger spill with  more devastation than Alaska.

Sorry to be a downer, but there are some things that the people need to know.  There is a proposal before Congress as we speak…….

The House “oil spill response” measure, included among others in a larger bill, proposes that the tax be increased from its current rate of 8 cents a barrel to 32 cents. This is projected to raise nearly $10 billion over the next 10 years for the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

A good idea, right?  They want to replenish a quickly disappearing clean up fund and also to try and expand the fund.  I hear the yell, “make them pay!”….if this passes it will do nothing to the company as a xconsequence of bad drilling procedures….it will be passed on to us, the American people…..

“We’re not talking a big impact here; we are talking about adding less than a penny to the cost of the fuel,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, referring to the impact that the increase would have on the price of gasoline.

According to Kloza’s calculations, the 8-cent tax on a barrel of oil works out to 0.19 cents per gallon of gas. He said that an increase to 32 cents on a barrel of oil would equal 0.76 cents per gallon of gas.

Now you have something to yell about……you WILL be paying more and the oil companies will be making more…..YOU will be paying the oil company’s “irresponsibility” tax for them……once again the American people will be bent over and no lube…….Ain’t capitalism great?