Arkansas Blog

Let's see if I have this right: a member of a family known for its oil connections and a sponsor of tax breaks for Big Oil is expected to provide leadership in determining if there is fraternizations between the oil companes and enterprises? Spare me. Here's what it's all about:

http://www.bartcop.com/holding-hands.jpg

The God and Oil Party are looking out for regular folks like us, bartcop.

In 2000, the question was whether or not to *open* the SPR and take oil *out* to lower prices. Bush has not authorized withdrawals from the reserve, only placed a moratorium on buying additional crude to add to the reserves.

What is this? Buy High and sell Low?

Why is there oil going into reseverve during RECORD HIGH OIL COSTS?

Anybody with a lick of sense or not in the pocket of Big Oil would release to moderate prices. At least suspend purchases, but I guess that would require a lick of sense.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/info_glance/petroleum.html

according to the EIA, at the end of 2005, worldwide consumption of oil stood at 83.6mm brls/day.. in 2001 it was 77.66mm brls/day

if i'm reading this right that is 7.7% growth over the 4 years, total.. the price of oil has more than doubled since then.

we don't have an oil supply problem we have a dollar supply problem. a reversal to the president's tax cuts would do more to bring down the price of oil than not contributing to the SPR.
this is a scam

True, Theo...looks like a little politics, though. The gas pinch is coming, for sure. As much as I drive in my job, it will sting a little, but not as much as the nice old guy that mows yards in my neighborhood.

Of particular interest to me is that he is easing environmental controls in order to bring fuel prices down. He directed the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend federal clean-burning gasoline rules this summer that are forcing consumers to buy expensive new gasoline blends.

And if GWB would shut up about how awful it is that Iran is pursuing the same technology we're GIVING India, that would help as well.

I though Bush and his economic advisors assured us that regime change in Iraq would increase oil supplies and lower the price of gasoline. Did they misspeak themselves?

What? Dubya is flip-flopping? He's lying? He's selling out the economy and future of the entire nation to line the pockets of his friends? Impossible!

The American people are nothing more than a giant piñata. We are continually whacked by our government, big oil, the medical system, big pharma, insurance companies....you name it, it's our heads they're aiming at. Just be thankful they're not dairy farmers or milk would be 10 bucks a gallon today.

No one is fool enough to believe our oilman President, or our oilman Vice President are going to do a damn thing to curb the unending greed of the big oil companies. Our misery provides their profits and it will to the end of time.

At least there are a few Republicans in Congress who think a windfall profits tax is in order and while I'll never see a dime, at least that is a step in the right direction.

The best way to combat the misery of high gas prices is to stay at home and try to confine all you're activities as close to home as possible. The majority of our needs are met within a 10 block circle of the DBI family compound.

My condolences to those who must do a great deal of driving because of their job. Trust in Jesus, Allah or Tom Cruise cause no help will come from our government.

Flip-Flopper!

W talking about how to solve the oil problem is a little like the fox explaining how to restock the henhouse. Now that his puppet masters have temporarily slaked their thirst for obscene profits he offers these ideas:

. Investigate price gouging. Stalin's show trials held more validity than these hearings will obtain.
. Storm ANWAR. Our modern drilling methods won't harm the prissy little Arctic Eden.
. Stop worrying about the environment anyway. Silly regulations serve only to obstruct the free enterprise erection of new refineries and the exploitation of untapped reserves onshore and offshore.
. Spend a buttload of cash on alternative fuels. So what if we line the pockets of well-connected swells and accomplish little else? It'll look like we're seriously trying to find ways to stretch our oil dollars.
. Keep Democrats out of power. They'll only threaten our future by trying to get the truth the White House is trying to protect you from.

Meanwhile, remember the great job our W's doing next time you fill your tank.

Bush somehow thinks acting like a Democrat is going to do him or the country some good?
Next thing you know he'll join Chucky Schumer in calling for a breakup of the oil companies. That will REALLY help increase investment in oil production.

How about issuing an Executive Order opening up the California and Florida coastal areas for immediate development.

NOW, THAT WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

It does kill me how again and again, the talk about oil prices almost never drifts to conservation. Drive less. Drive smaller freaking cars.

I still want to know why we as Americans are paying record gas prices when the Oil companies are making record profits. The answer is because we don't have a choice and there has to be some intervention here. Not driving is not an option for me if I want a roof over my family and food on our table.

we don't have an oil supply problem we have a dollar supply problem. a reversal to the president's tax cuts would do more to bring down the price of oil than not contributing to the SPR.
this is a scam

So if we raised taxes the price of oil would go down? Is that Arkansas logic or Democratic logic?

It is international macroeconomic logic. No reason to give oil companies a 23 billion dollar tax break when they are making record profits. That must be republican logic.

"So if we raised taxes the price of oil would go down?"

YES - YOU FINALLY GET IT
THAT'S ECONOMIC LOGIC...

I DIDN'T SAY RAISE TAXES ON THE OIL COMPANIES YOU DIPSHIT, I SAID REVERSE THE TAX CUTS.

The tax cuts passed by Bush when he came to office were the initial kickoff to the inflationary policies that have driven commodity prices higher since 2001. A reversal of these tax cuts would be the beginning to exercising fiscal discipline which would help get the budget balanced and help strengthen the US dollar. It would also help keep interest rates lower.. you didn't hear me yesterday.
Clinton = strong dollar policy and balanced budget = low inflation = low commodity prices and higher wages.
Bush = weak dollar policy and budget deficit = high inflation = high commodity prices and lower wages...

like i said it's simple economics..

From The WaPo's Daniel Froomkin:

Gas Guzzling

Julie Mason of the Houston Chronicle notes in her pool report: "President Bush rode a 14-vehicle motorcade there and back to the Marriott Wardman to talk to the Renewable Fuels Association about energy conservation and other topics. En route, the motorcade passed the Exxon station next to the Watergate, where gas prices were $3.29, $3.39 and $3.49 a gallon. Just saying."

Meanwhile, remember the great job our W's doing next time you fill your tank.--Oily Kvetch

Everytime I fill my tank, I think of two words: F&@k Cheney!

Well put, Jackass...I also share concern with Patrick about the easing of environmental regs on the grades of gasoline. Bad idea...our environment is going to lose on this one because idiots have to drive their big SUVs to their little private schools and to their little soccer games. Who can have the biggest Hummer on the block?! It is only a matter of time before we start talking about drilling in Alaska...c'mon...

Jackass, apt name. We are in a period of inflation that is "historically low" unless you go back to immediate post-WWII years. Pray tell, how do you create inflation with tax cuts?

More truth. Oil money and political contributions: and we know the pay off.

http://www.bartcop.com/tom-gasprices3.gif

While it won't help immediately, the fastest of the long-term action that would help would be a federally mandated significant milage requirement on all vehicles, including the biggest cars and SUVs. That's faster than the time it would take for finding and drilling new wells or opeing up the North Slope and the results are long term. The Republicans can't seem to actually say the word "Conservation" whether it is gasoline or agricultural practice. They are hung on the erronous translation of that word in the Bible that they read as "subdue" and which actually means "to care for".

As to the argument that the cars would be made lighter, well if everyone is lighter, that isn't an issue. If your concern is an 18-wheeler, you're "toast" whether you are in a Neon or a Hummer, just a little more brown in the Neon.

BTW, this was the president that said that allowing his tax cuts to die amounted to a tax increase. Thus eliminating a tax subsidity, as he suggested today, amounts to a tax increase on the oil copmpanies. They, of course, have sufficient money from us without the subsidity. Remember that if they aren't buying the oil on the world market but rather drawing it from their own wells, it had minimal value as it comes from the ground and only gets valuable as they process it. It could be that 80% of their margin on oil from their own wells is pure profit.

The Rovian assault on the gas price issue is typical strategy by this White House: Make it look like we're helping the voter when we're really just advancing the same old agenda to the benefit of those who got us here (well, most of those who got us here, unless Scalia, Diebold and Co. can be counted among big oil investors).

Bush-Cheney (the thing with one-and-a-half heads and no heart) is quite happy with high gas/oil prices, which means it still has a shot at deflowering ANWAR and emasculating even more environmental controls, all the while deflecting some of the scrutiny on a ruinous foreign policy that may have contributed to the oil "crisis" but mainly promises much more mayhem for years to come, long after this monster has left the building. Any wonder at least 60 pct. of America has had enough? Here's hoping they're still fed up in November!

You 'economists'. Where do you get data that we are in an inflationary increase? Have you ever heard of Cost of Living Index. I'm glad you told me that we are in an inflationary spiral. I would have never known it. I guess the inflationary morass that we enjoyed during Jimmy Carter's administration was really deflation. So if you put more money in the hands of government that means more money is available to the private sector. How do you explain the fact that tax revenues have actually increased substantially since the tax cut?

Many, many people have to drive for a living. They don't have to drive SUV's, though, or even large cars.

Mr. Bush also said the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice would investigate whether anyone has been manipulating gasoline prices

But I thought Senator Ted Stevens solved all this with his hearings a few months ago...when he refused to embarrass the kind oil co. execs by having them swear to tell the truth in their testimony.

i'm getting sick and tired of explaining this to you idiots.

you guys are thinking of inflation as the consumer pice index which is highly manipulated (see housing compenent which makes up 20% of the index). the government has no incentive to publish real inflation data when their liabilities are indexed to the "cost of living increase".. think about your own debts, if you tell the bank you are paying interest based on the cost of living index do you think you would be inclined to understate the index? ah yeah.
furthermore, the government's inflation measurements are indexed w/o food and energy. i don't know about you guys but the two items i pay for every week are food and energy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation

inflation is a function of the growth in the money supply as a ratio to the growth of the economy. under bush the money supply (dollars in the banking system) has exploded as a pct of GDP. since you doubt my assertions measure it yourself.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/categories/24

during the same time all assets have appreciated exponentially but if you adjust for reduced purchasing power (or the excess dollars in the economy) they havent' really gone up at all.. this housing boom is a mirage, an illusion distorted by the excess money in the economy. when the economy has excess money sloshing around, that money finds its way into assets like commodities or real estate. that's the definition of inflation....

tax revenues may be nominally higher but as a pct of increased debt it is meaningless, plus that was during a stimulus induced economic expansion which is already over. the math doesn't work over the long term. we will never earn in tax revenues what we spent to stimulate them. that's why GHWB called it voodoo economics.. it's a fraud.

in re to Jimmy Carter, his inflation can be attributed to the Vietnam war debts and Nixon's subsequent removal of the gold standard which unlinked the dollar to the price of gold. the dollar puked and interest rates skyrocketed. sound familiar? this same shit is happening now and is driving oil prices higher. interest rates are still historically low but i remind you that 10YR bond yields are as high as they have been in 5 years (having risen 28% from their low) and the dollar is still falling in value.

to fix this we must pay down our debt outstanding. the first way to do this is reverse the massive tax cuts given to the people who needed it the least. the dividend tax cut may have been the worst allocation of resources in history. (even Warren Buffett said he didn't want the tax cuts)
who got paid in AR? Warren Stephens and the Walton family. you think they needed a few extra million per year to keep them spending? even if you note their civic contributions, the offset to the working class wages doesn't come close to compensating. i'm not in favor of giving Congress additional money to spend but rather in favor of shrinking the size of government and outlays (something i thought conservaties supported).

Inflation simply means money has no value.

Thus, it takes more of it to buy something. Costs escalates. Higher prices are the results of inflation, not the cause. Thus, Americans find their money has little value in the U.K. They don't want our money. Too much of it in existence.

Ok, so you reject indexes that you don't like and don't support your vodoo economics. There is a flavor of economics to suit anyone's perversion----even yours. When the rich get tax breaks they use it to create more jobs. The creation of capital spurs the economy to growth. Inflation is controlled through monetary policy. The Federal Reserve makes it more expensive to borrow money---it cools down the economy. Are these difficult concepts or do you just like to pay more taxes. Unlike the press, I'm going to ask you to define what you mean by 'rich'. Clinton's definition included many who consider themselves 'middle class'.

Anyone who thinks that they are getting too much in tax breaks can return it to the IRS. They will gladly take it with no questions asked. Get real!!!!!

HEY JACKASS....HOW MUCH TAX DID YOU PAY THE IRS AND THE STATE IN '05 ? DID YOU SEND THE TAX BREAK MONEY PRESIDENT BUSH GAVE YOU FOR SIX YEARS BACK TO THE IRS? COME ON COMMIE...ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS. YOU WANT PEOPLE WHO WORK HARD AND HIRE PEOPLE TO PAY ALL THE TAXES AND YOU NONE..RIGHT GET A JOB JACKASS ....

HEY JACKASS....HOW MUCH TAX DID YOU PAY THE IRS AND THE STATE IN '05 ? DID YOU SEND THE TAX BREAK MONEY PRESIDENT BUSH GAVE YOU FOR SIX YEARS BACK TO THE IRS? COME ON COMMIE...ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS. YOU WANT PEOPLE WHO WORK HARD AND HIRE PEOPLE TO PAY ALL THE TAXES AND YOU NONE..RIGHT GET A JOB JACKASS ....

"Higher prices are the results of inflation, not the cause."

exactly - Cato gets it....

i don't recall using the term "rich" i said, "reverse the massive tax cuts given to the people who needed it the least." go look up how much Alltel stock Warren Stephens owns and then calculate his dividend payment and then take than number multiply by 30% and then by 15%. the difference is what he made on one of his holdings... not to pick on Mr Stephens, he happens to be a great asset for LR, but was this really a good allocation of resources when we had to borrow to finance the tax cut? baby boomers will be paying for that tax cut in reduced purchasing power for years to come.. sorry its the math.

please don't lecture me on the Federal Reserve when you don't know what you are talking about.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/fomc/

The Fed sets interest rates for banks and borrowing costs for investors. they also print money at their discretion.
to quote current chairman Bernanke in 11/02:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2002/20021121/
"Like gold, U.S. dollars have value only to the extent that they are strictly limited in supply. But the U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost. By increasing the number of U.S. dollars in circulation, or even by credibly threatening to do so, the U.S. government can also reduce the value of a dollar in terms of goods and services, which is equivalent to raising the prices in dollars of those goods and services. We conclude that, under a paper-money system, a determined government can always generate higher spending and hence positive inflation."

i rest my case

I know it's only the 14 people who participate on this blog, but I've never seen such a collection of losers so eaten alive by envy -- of everybody who might have a few dollars more in their pockets. I was always taught that Arkansas folks were better than this.

It's fun to watch Bush flip-flop. But I will credit him with the intelligence to relook at his decisions. I didn't think he had it, based on Iraq.

The IRS will be taking a lot more taxes before this is over.

The rich don't create jobs with tax breaks as much as sock the money away. Who wants to create the responsibility associated with jobs? Much easier just to invest in paper.

Rick,
no need to repeat yourself, we heard you loud and clear the first time.

no i didn't give back my tax cut. you are right. that $1500 or so went to pay my gas bill for the year..

i never said i was against the tax cut per se: i was only against borrowing (that's going into debt if you don't understand) money to give people who needed a tax cut the least when it would cause inflation, hitting the working class discretionary income harder. the tax cut you/we received has been completely neutralized by the higher energy costs..... that's all i'm saying.

if you like those tax cuts so much.. bring em on, but they are not without a cost and all i'm saying is when you paying $5/gallon for gas -net/net it won't matter

if that is a crime - guilty as charged

Nancy Pelosi today, and I couldn't say it better!

If you want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and therefore improve our national security situation, you can't do it if you're a Republican because you are too wedded to the oil companies. We have two oilmen in the white house. The logical follow-up from that is $3 a gallon gasoline. There is no accident. Tt is a cause and effect. A cause and effect. How dare the president of the United States make a speech today in April, many, many, many months after the american people have had to undergo the cost of home heating oil. A woman told me she almost fainted when she received her home heating bill over this Winter. And when so many people making the minimum wage, which hasn't been raised in eight years, which has a very low purchasing power have to go out and buy gasoline at these prices? Where have you been, Wr. president? The middle class squeeze is on, competition in our country is affected by the price of energy and of oil and all of a sudden you take a trip outside of Washington, see the fact that the public is outraged about this, come home and make a speech, let's see that matched in your budget, let's see that matched in your policy, let's see that matched in and you're separating yourselves yourself from your patron, big oil, cut yourself off from that anvil holding your party down and this country down, instead of coming to Washington and throwing your Republican colleagues under the wheels of the train, which they mightily deserve for being a rubber stamp for your obscene, corrupt policy of ripping off the american people.

...It is only a matter of time before we start talking about drilling in Alaska...c'mon...

Heard Bush sing that ole refrain today.

I'm not surprised, however, that Bush's first response to any crisis is to further lift environmental regulations and suggest more drilling for oil in Alaska. Evidently, drilling in Anwar will solve everything from the bird flu to world hunger.

You're right Suzie. No matter what the problem is, the answer is always the same. Economy too slow? Cut taxes for the rich. Gas prices too high? Cut taxes for the rich. Post-nasal drip? Cut taxes for the rich.

Absolutely, suzie and arch. That, and let the companies pollute more and more.

And anonymous, this is the biggest crock:
"When the rich get tax breaks they use it to create more jobs."

You neglected to mention where those jobs might be. Can you say.....China or.....India??

They do not invest in the US except maybe in stocks or bonds. Anything but jobs for the US workers and middle class.

Nancy Pelosi is a good looking old broad but I wouldn't be using her as a reference. If she is the poster girl for the Democrats then you have a real credibility problem. If her political acumen were half as great as her looks she would be dangerous. However, the reality is she is just a mouth with nothing to say.

I would say that with an unemployment rate as low as ours someone has been creating jobs. Who do you suspect that is?

Those of you who think that all we need to do is get rid of Bush, Cheney, etc. and all of our problems with oil will be solved are dreaming. Do you really think that Hillary Baby is going to pull the solution of solutions out of her 'Kit Bag' and all will be great again? She, nor anyone else, liberal or conservative has a solution. Everyone in this country could get a small vehicle and be very 'conservative' about their driving habits and we will still have a significant problem. A large majority of the products that we consume today are 'petro-chemical' based. You are going to have to do considerably more than conserve gasoline.

I was looking at the price of bottled water the other day, and I'll be dad-gum...it's more than gas. Quick, someone call the President and get him to act to get the price down. I can't afford it.

I can't seem to Google up any news of any bottle water mongo getting half a billion as a going away bonus. And I can't find a damn reference to any bottle water people having secret meetings with VP Satan in the White House Brothel.

But I will say this...the US started going to shit about the same time government couldn't provide clean drinking water any more and we started buying bottled water. I swear if my dead family members came back to life it wouldn't be cell phones or computers or HBO that would amaze them, it would be that intelligent human beings actually pay money for little bottles of water. How ignorant is that?

And we need to find a math wizard to figure out how many bottles of water it would take to equal the cost of Rummy and Condi flying into Iraq this morning on separate airplanes? I'm guessing that cost about as much as I've made the last 10 years and used more gas than I have in a lifetime.

The only way America will survive is to vote out every elected official we have now. They've gone nuts on us. The 6 tiny teats on my male dog are far more useful......

"In 2000, the question was whether or not to *open* the SPR and take oil *out* to lower prices. Bush has not authorized withdrawals from the reserve, only placed a moratorium on buying additional crude to add to the reserves."

Good spin job! Actually, the same thing being said because W never made a clear distinction between putting in and taking out. An insurance policy is not any good unless you make a deposit into it.

Further, during the 2004 election John Kerry suggested withholding deposits into the SPR and W accused him of playing politics. Hmmm.

"The best way to combat the misery of high gas prices is to stay at home and try to confine all you're activities as close to home as possible. The majority of our needs are met within a 10 block circle of the DBI family compound." - deathbyinches

"It does kill me how again and again, the talk about oil prices almost never drifts to conservation. Drive less. Drive smaller freaking cars." - CJ

These folks are onto it.
The next time you're about to takeoff in your personal motorized transportation, consider how else you might get to where you're about to go, can the errand be combined with another errand later on? Maybe you have time to take a bus, ride a bicycle or walk. Are you at a shopping center and the next one you have to go to is just across the street? Why not walk across the street? Too much to carry back from that other shopping center? Then, go to that shopping center first and walk to the other one.

With all the strip shopping centers in Central AR, developers have gone out of their way to provide us with a lot to choose from and on nearly every commercially zoned corner. Centrally locate your car among one of these complexes and walk to each one returning to your car to deposit your merchandise. If you've got just one little thing to get from the store and it just can't wait, consider riding your bicycle if it's within 5 miles. The rule of thumb is if you can walk 1 mile you can pedal a bicycle 5 miles.

This mind set is a way of thinking and planning that benefits your health, your savings of money, savings of time and your community regardless of where the gas prices are today or tomorrow.

To this end, make your city planners and local officials design shopping areas and safe access to the local residential areas commensurate with this life style. You deserve it.

Julie Mason of the Houston Chronicle notes in her pool report: "President Bush rode a 14-vehicle motorcade there and back to the Marriott Wardman to talk to the Renewable Fuels Association about energy conservation and other topics. En route, the motorcade passed the Exxon station next to the Watergate, where gas prices were $3.29, $3.39 and $3.49 a gallon. Just saying."

But, he did get in a bicycle ride in Napa Valley while in the area.

Really, this was such a retarded way to make a position on something. If W really wanted to make a point on conservation, he should have saddled up on the bicycle and rode some respectable distance to get there. He's in good shape and should have been able to do 15 miles easily in 90 minutes tops. I'm sure there would have been a place for him to shower.

No way to avoid the motorcade, but 14 cars? Two bullet proof SUVs and a handful of Secret Service agents pedaling along would have been sufficient. The man does have to be safeguarded nonetheless.

Instead, W is missing every opportunity he has to push for alternative transportation - bicycle riding for example - as a sometimes feasible method of getting somewhere. Unfortunately, his policies and priorities reflect this too.

What american political party has consistently advocated over the last several years substantial increases in the gasoline tax in order to reduce demand? DEMOCRATS

You guys are the 44035 best, thanks so much for the help.