New talking points on gas prices

[TheFarseer]

Actually I heard them earlier this week but something someone said reminded me. Anyway, here goes:

1. When the economy is overheating like it is now, you're going to get inflation on certain items and right now we are having inflation on gas.

2. I can't blieve that we are fighting a war on terror, our brave soldiers are dieing and all people are talking about is the price of gas?! Are Americans that selfish? These are just some of the sacrifices we must make for living in a free country.

Which one is more insane? I'm not sure I've ever seen any more ridiculous talking points on gas but please feel free to add on if you have heard a good one.

[kliljedahl]

1. Yeah, but they still pay more in Europe

Sorry, forgot my sarcasm smiley:
:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:

[Mr Rabble]

5. ^^^^^^and there is the 3rd talking point.

Which means nothing. At all.

[Mr Rabble]

25. whew!

[Greyhound]

10. and in europe public transportation is viable, not so here. n/t

[kliljedahl]

14. Exactly

If we had decent public transportation here I'd take it. It's great if you're only going down town & when I go downtown I do. Anywhere else is a joke. A 2 hour bus trip compared to a 20 minute drive to work.

[TalkingDog]

18. In Europe public transportation was MADE viable

Over here oil had everything to do with dismantling the rail system in favor of long haul trucking which used more fuel (oil) and created a lot of energy related (oil) jobs building the now crumbling highway infrastructure.

Yes, the European govt. has to subsidize transportation, but we do too; albeit indirectly through higher prices for transported goods, rather than a direct tax.

It can work. But as a dead friend of mine used to say...I'll start riding the bus when it costs more to buy a gallon of gas than it does a gallon of soda. Many Americans feel exactly the same way.

[Conservativesux]

17. Yes they do but they have universal heathcare, so no out-of-pocket for

medical expenses, unlike here in the USA.

[Al-CIAda]

2. Its cheeper per gallon than nasal spray!

And the always popular, adjusted for inflation...

[kliljedahl]

15. Think nasal spray is expensive?

Have you priced a gallon of good perfume lately?

[Skittles]

3. if I hear a conservative f***wad say talking point number two

I WILL CERTIFIED KICK THEY HYPOCRITICAL SANCTIMONIOUS LYING ASS

[TheFarseer]

7. We could have had

we could have had *cheepER* gas and NO troops dieing in Iraq, but somebody f*cked that up. What was that again?????

[LibDemAlways]

4. My favorite:

"About the same as a Starbucks coffee."

Uh, last time I looked, Starbucks wasn't a necessity. Nobody has to fill their tank with the stuff. Sheesh.

[Horse with no Name]

30. Or if they are going to use that one

Tell them they must drink the equivalent gallons of starbucks as they use in gas for it to make any sense.

[Son of California]

6. Great rebutals for this kind of bullshit

1. Remeber the California energy crisis? When all was said and done, it turns out it was a giant corporate scam. That is now happening at the national level with gasoline. It's just another corporate scam -what would you expect when the pres himself and all his people are oldschool Texas oil men.

2. Corporations/OPEC are using the war as an excuse to raise oil prices.

SO REALLY, THESE INSANE GAS PRICES ARE THE PRESIDENT'S FAULT.

[AnnInLa]

8. And this: Fault of all those Dem tree-huggers

http://www.newshorn.com/index.php?option=com_content&ta...

$5.00 Per Gallon
Contributed by Dan Richey
Friday, 19 August 2005



United States’ energy policy has been set by tree huggers for almost 40 years. You see the results every time you fill your gas tank, especially now, when gas prices are going through the roof. As Rush would say, the environmental whackos are in control.

snip

Two events in the late 1960s and early 1970s changed all of this and marked the ascendancy of tree huggers. In 1969 seven birds were killed in the Santa Barbara, California oil spill, prompting the liberal media to begin outrageous provocations and distortions. The end result was congressional passage of the national Environmental Protection Act (EPA). The EPA, single handedly, albeit unconstitutionally, has done more to retard the development of energy supplies in the United States than any other entity. Tree huggers have owned this bureaucracy lock, stock and oil barrel ever since.

The second event was the oil embargo of 1973, which occurred after Middle East sheiks and sultans expropriated privately owned interests of American oil companies and then held the oil off the market as they created the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The one-two punch of EPA and OPEC jolted America’s energy industry. The solution was obvious – curtail the tree huggers and develop more domestic energy sources, especially from coal and nuclear power. That’s when the hard core leftists amidst the tree huggers went to work.
The goal of the socialists has been to break the capitalist hold on America. Here was there great opportunity – bring the U. S economy to its knees through a carefully crafted environmental policy that would prevent the development of new energy sources. Their successful results are obvious.

snip

Until then, brace yourself. To make you feel better, they’ll probably start selling it as liters. Get ready for $5.00 per 3.78 liters. Wow! Almost four liters for five dollars!
Doesn’t that make you feel better?

[kliljedahl]

11. Dan Richey is a Moran

[long_green]

26. Is that the Dan Richey who was in the LA state Senate in the

early '80's. Richey was a Grover Norquist-style conservative so far gone into his ideology that he was ignored and treated as a curiosity by his fellow lawmakers.
In The Last Hayride, a fine book about the 1983 governor's race, the author draws a little portrait of Richey. In it he describes how Edwin Edwards, our longtime governor, used to talk to Richey just to figure out what made him tick. EE once asked Richey who should build roads in this country. When Richey replied, "private business," EE snorted and asked Richey to "show me the business that would build a road between Opelousas and Baton Rouge."
It's a fun book.

[Canuckistanian]

20. BWAHAHAHAHA, our evil plan is bearing fruit....

Yes, we'll make gas so expensive, no one will buy it! Um..... wait a minute.........

[hwmnbn]

9. Today George Will noted on Stephanopoulis.......

that in todays dollars, gas prices are really cheaper than they've ever been, relative to the 1970's and 80's.

My brain exploded because he assumed that everyone's wage/income has grown accordingly. He conveniently did not mention that. His snide "get over it" attitude just burned me.

[FreedomAngel82]

13. The minimum wage hasn't been raised in a long time

Down the road gas is $2.50. During Clinton's terms gas didn't go past $1.40. :eyes:

[FreedomAngel82]

12. They both are ridiculous

Gas prices have nothing to do with the economy. :eyes: It has to do with the oil businesses themselves. The economy isn't doing fine either. :eyes: And remember when Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the gang said that the oil will pay for everything? Well how is it paying for everything if it's taking our money out of our pockets instead of paying for the war? This is the most lamest thing ever. And how can someone expect to get to work and help provide for their families when the gas is so high?

[Coastie for Truth]

16. The one that makes geological & engineering & thermodynamic sense

PEAK OIL

* The oil that we're drilling now is deeper.
* The oil that we're drilling now is "heavier" (requires "cat cracking")
* The oil that we're drilling now is "sour" (requires more "desulfurization")
* The Indians and Chinese are competing to buy the oil that we're drilling now.
* The oil that we're drilling now now is in further away places with stranger sounding names where the people hate us even more.

References:


* The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century by James Howard Kunstler

* Beyond Oil : The View from Hubbert's Peak by Kenneth S. Deffeyes

* Hubbert's Peak : The Impending World Oil Shortage by Kenneth S. Deffeyes

* Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil by David Goodstein

*

*

* Horror of Horrors - if you actually down load and read the full text, Adobe Acrobat PDF file of "Project for the New American Century" - not the descriptions of it in blogs or chat rooms - but the full file -- Peak Oil and Oil Imperialism and Oil Hegemony is the real issue.

PEAK OIL

[Pepper32]

19. It's still cheaper than milk , per gallon

:sarcasm:

[TheFarseer]

23. Sadly that's not even true anymore

It's about the same if gas hasn't overtaken it.

[Pepper32]

24. Yeah, and that's on sale. I pay 2.79 for milk.

Here in Atlanta, gas is 2.55 per gallon for unleaded.

[lectrobyte]

21. The economy is *overheating*? That's hilarious.

[sintax]

22. Guzzle Gas and Pretend

Guzzle Gas, and Pretend

by Derrick Z. Jackson

Americans probably know this deep down. It is almost as if we are binging to distract us from the needless killing. We build bigger subdivisions as far out as we can, no matter what it means in commuting time and $2.55 gasoline.

Even though the average size of the American family has shrunk, the average size of a new home has grown from an average of 983 square feet in 1950 to 2,330 square feet today, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The percentage of new homes over 2,400 square feet has zoomed from 10 percent in 1970 to 38 percent today. The percentage of new homes with two-car garages has grown from 39 percent in 1970 to 82 percent today.

In a New York Times feature this week about ''living large" in the exurbs, a sales representative joked with a family that was looking at a model home, ''Lots of places to hide, aren't there, boys?" It is mathematically impossible for the rest of the world to live like this. As the boys play hide and seek for a moment, the parents play out the fantasy that hiding from the reality of consuming a quarter of the world's energy and producing a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases is an all-American right.

Unfortunately, it is difficult for a populace to be enlightened if its leader keeps leaving it in the dark. President Bush, according to the Times, is planning to leave out mega-SUVs such as Hummers from new fuel economy standards, apparently to ease the competitive strain on Detroit, which has invested far more in selling gas guzzlers than foreign automakers. With the explosion of SUVs (trucks now account for 50 percent of light-duty vehicle sales), the nation's average fuel economy has been flat for a quarter century and has actually fallen slightly, from 22.1 miles per gallon in 1987 to 21 miles per gallon today.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0817-22.htm

[AllieB]

27. Economy overheating? Where?

[alarimer]

28. I thought inflation would affect all items?

Obviously you would be more likely to see a change in gas or heating costs than in, say, candy bars.

[not fooled]

29. Even if peak oil is real...

...the world's supply hasn't dwindled by 30-40% in the last few years, whereas prices have risen that much. I smell a California-style screwing!!!