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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


5.23.2008

 

Having a gas of a time

This week, Sen. Patrick Leahy was giving oil executives a hard time about their salaries and their profits.

Rep. Peter Welch's bill to stop filling the oil reserves was signed by the president.

OK, so prices took a breather from their ever-ballooning ways, right?

Not in my neighborhood. Yesterday I had the pleasure of paying $3.89 a gallon, putting my total over $45 for the first time ever. Silly me, if I had filled up in the morning it would have been $3.77, but from morning to evening the price rose 12 cents a gallon. Had to rise that quickly or they wouldn't have been able to get it to $4 by the holiday.

You can tell by the increasingly creative ways people park at the increasingly crowded Richmond park and ride that some are changing their ways. You can also tell by the way one car company is retreating on its profit projections and another is advertising $2.99 a gallon gas for new cars knowing they can't advertise those cars as fuel efficient because they didn't bother to make them that way.

Have you changed your habits? Thought about selling the Sequoia? Started taking the bus? Driving slower? Forgoing trips? Has the price of gas changed your Memorial Day plans?

- Terri Hallenbeck

Comments:
As usual, the Vermont blowhards have found some easy pickings for their dog and pony show. Gee, wasn't it our own Leahy and Sanders (and I'm sure Welch if he was a senator)that just last week again voted against oil exploration in order to keep us dependent upon the Arabs? And what did the oil execs do to make China and India use so much oil, jacking up demand? And what did those same execs do to spur speculators like George Soros to keep the market going up? Three things are certain in life:

(1) Death and (2) Taxes, and
(3) whenever there's a tough decision for Sanders, Leahy and company to make, they always find a fall guy to take the heat off their own incompetence!

NOTE: think about how many dimocrat Presidents, houses, and Senates since Leahy was first elected that have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about energy. What a leader Pat has shown to be. Guess he better stick to his drunken cocktail parties with Norman Lear and Bill Moyers!
 
We aren't going to drill our way out of oil independence.


That's short sighted -- but don't tell the Republicans that. They don't trust science.
 
Let's get back to the question at hand. Will prices actually change behavior - of car manufacturers and of little people like us?
- TH
 
But Terry, that's not a matter of opinion. Increased fuel prices change behavior in all of the ways you've alread pointed out.

When prices rise, people take measures to consume less.
 
Here's the difference between Japanese and American auto makers:

The Japanese build and sell the cars people want to buy!

The Americans build, and advertise to convince you on the cars they want to sell!
 
Here's the difference between Japanese and American auto makers:

The Japanese build and sell the cars people want to buy!

The Americans build, and advertise to convince you on the cars they want to sell!
 
Yup. I'm driving a ton less. I'm trying to combine trips, and avoiding distance driving whenever I can. I'm also walking to the local stores more often than I once did, rather than drive to the big shopping centers in town.

The furnace has been off most of the time for the last month, even though it's getting down to the low 40's at night.

We are getting an energy audit this summer to see what we can do to cut fuel costs next winter.

So yeah, prices are changing behaviour.
 
They always do.
 
JWCoop10 said...
bubba said...

As usual, the Vermont blowhards have found some easy pickings for their dog and pony show....."

And George Soros gets Exxon off the hook for record gas prices while raking in record, Taxpayer Subsidized profits... how, little bigot boy?

That's what I thought.

In other words, little bigot boy's got bupkis.

Thanks for clearin' that up.

Things ya can count on from the gops and their ever-dwindling, delusional-dreck dealin', utterly-psychotic supporters like our little bigot boy:

Death, tax cuts for the rich, tax hikes for everyone else, McSame showing his support for the Troops with Building 18, calls for 100 years in Iraq and a vote against a new GI Bill claiming it's too expensive when the price tag is less than Bush is currently blowing in a couple of days in Baghdad before breakfast to make us less safe than we were over 50, 000 killed or maimed US Troops, 5 years and a trillion or two bucks ago and bubbles spewin' some utterly-psychotic, factually-challenged/fundamentally-dishonest delusional dreck with no basis in fact or so much as a nodding acquaintance with reality.

Actually, McCain's love for the troops was so great that he couldn't be bothered to actually show up to vote against the GI Bill because he had to attend a fundraiser.

Once again, Bubbles proves that the greatest threat to this Country remains the illegitimate trash in the White House, Congressional gop trash like McSame, and their anti-American, utterly-psychotic supporters.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
Maxine Waters hit the nail on the head when she INTERROGATED the CEO of Exxon - we are going to socialize all the oil companies- of course she meant nationalize, but like some of her constituents, not bright enough to know the difference.
Is this the way the Dems want to control gas/oil prices?
 
Terri:

I don't think there's any question prices will impact behavior, but the reaction time is going to be different depending on how close the actor is to the cost impact.

In the short term, higher gas prices should impact consumer behavior in direct proportion to the consumer's economic standing. The rich won't care, the middle class will adjust to the degree that it doesn't impact their lifestyle, the working class will make changes to accomodate the reality, and low income Americans will have no choice and be forced to curb their gasoline consumption.

Automakers will take a little longer to respond but I think the evidence is they already are; didn't one of the Big Three announce today or yesterday that they're cutting production of SUV's and pickup trucks?

I guess I'd put myself in the middle class and say I'm not really changing behavior radically. I've always been frugal (legacy of my working class upbringing) so I think I live above my means; maybe I'll cut back on eating out, be more judicious in planning my trips to shop, and shop around more on the Net for better deals on air fares for vacation, etc. I'm still planning on taking a vacation in the fall, but probably won't fly anywhere this summer.

How about a middle-class reporter like you? Or do you and Brent consider yourself working class?
 
NEK has left a new comment on the post "Having a gas of a time":

"Maxine Waters hit the nail on the head when she INTERROGATED the CEO of Exxon - we are going to socialize all the oil companies- of course she meant nationalize, but like some of her constituents, not bright enough to know the difference."

Is this the way the Dems want to control gas/oil prices?"

As opposed to the deregulated Bushco approach, redd?

Nice try.

Gee, Maxine Waters actually said that, eh?

Of course you'll be happy to produce her quote, its context and your source, right?

That's what I thought.

Nice try, redd. Dim, dumb and duplicitous is not a good look for you, little lyin'-slime fella.

You may just be havin' a worse day than Hillary Clinton and Clueless McCain, sport.

Leaving aside your blatantly racist-rubbish remarks and the fact that neither Maxine Waters or her Congressional Caucus has the power to do what your ignorant ass is pathetically trying to claim in another of your ludicrously lame attempts to deflect attention from the fact that Bush and the Gops gave away the store to these oil company schmucks in the form of tax breaks and federal subsidies and they're rippin' us off and rakin' in record profits as gas reaches record prices after Bushco lied us into a war for oil which they claimed wasn't for oil only to have gas prices go up 4.4 cents/gallon overnight, increase every day for 14 straight and go up 6 consecutive years in a row for the first time in history as the price of oil has jumped from $30/barrel when shrub seized power to over $135/barrel with no end to the continued rapid increase in sight.

So much for the benefit of having oil men in the White House.

Not are they the most corrupt Administration in US History, they're the most incompetent to boot.

Talk about your dim bulb constituents. We're talkin' 15-watters in a 75-watt world.

No soap, schmuck. You haven't been able to back up a damned thing you've said since your ignorant, ill-informed, lyin'-scum ass got here, little factually-challenged fella, and I seriously doubt ya can do so now. Therefore, I'm callin' your ignorant ass.

Turn 'em over, schmuck.

Gee, bupkis. Now who coulda seen that comin', little coalition of the clueless cretin fella.

The Dems don't have a veto-proof majority in DC any more than they do in VT, little fella. They can't override Shrub's veto without gop help. Given the fact that the vote to stop adding to the strategic reserve was 385-25 in the House and 97-1 in the Senate, evidently, they got gop help.

Always a pleasure. Always a piece of cake.

Dismissed.
 
Maxine Waters is a piece of trash that has previously said that the CIA hooked black Americans on drugs to "keep them down". She is a lot like Bernie Sanders in that everything she says is meant for demagogic value rather than to do anything to help a situation. She sounds incredibly stupid but there is a method to her ways as her criminal-element constituents in Watts just love it!

GET WHITEY!
 
bubba said...

"Maxine Waters is a piece of trash that has previously said that the CIA hooked black Americans on drugs to "keep them down". She is a lot like Bernie Sanders in that everything she says is meant for demagogic value rather than to do anything to help a situation. She sounds incredibly stupid but there is a method to her ways as her criminal-element constituents in Watts just love it!

GET WHITEY!"

Ah, so Maxine Waters and her constituents are members of the "criminal-element out to GET WHITEY!!", eh, little bigot boy?

Evidence? Of course not.

Thanks, as always, for that ignorant, ill-informed, factually-challenged, fundamentally-dishonest, anti-American, coalition of clueless-caucasian-cretin perspective, little bigot boy.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
bubba said...

"Watts doesn't ring a bell with you, little moron? Riots? Crime? Corruption? Just your typical inner-city slum represented by a black racist pimping the race problems of this country."

Ah, so Maxine Waters and her criminal-element constituents are responsible for a riot which took place in 1965, little bigot boy?

Nice try.

I remember all kinds of corruption. Most of it was by White Cops and White Politicians.

Philadelphia, Mississippi rings a bell, too, little bigot boy. That's where the Klan Cops and their Klan trash buddies murdered 3Civil Rights Workers.

Two of them were White. You do realize that we Jews are considered White, don't you, little bigot boy?

It was also Reagan's first stop on the Campaign Trail. He knew his people.

No racists, no reagan. No bigots, no bush.

I also remember how proud you were of the Brownington Incident and the White Citizens Counsel, too.

Thanks, as always, for embodying the very essence of dumb white trash and the reason that the South has been solidly and increasingly Gop for the past 40 years, little bigot boy.

Well, except for those recent special elections that is.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
Oh yes, the South has been solidly GOP the last few years - coinciding with the booming economies resulting from employers like Japanese auto manufacturers, banks, insurance companies, and other industries getting away from the union-dominated northeast and midwest. Of course that leaves the petulant whiners and cry babies like jw to sit around and demand more free stuff from the government instead of working for it. No wonder no one except the rich trustfunder flatlanders can afford to live in Vermont! Boo Hoo!
 
The gas situation has been brewing for decades and Leahy has been sitting in Washington for decades -
don't you think he should have done something about this besides yelling at executives?
 
Maxine Waters was on C-Span trying to intimidate the Oil execs. Unfortunately, Coop, the shows you watch would never replay her embarrassing moments. The 5 major oil companies did make $35 billion profit in the 1st quarter but they also paid $35 billion in taxes not to mention the tax per gal paid by the consumer. No excuses from me for their profit but they only make 8 cents gal- the US taxes 20 cents gal so who is gouging?
As for our personal driving habits, we have gone to better mileage vehicles but that will not solve this countries dependence on oil.
 
jw could care less. He is a typical whiny, partisan dimocrat that just loves Maxine Waters and trash like her. She is perhaps the sorriest person ever to be sent to congress, and this is saying something when one thinks of Bernie Sanders, Jim McDermott, Pete Stark, and other total nitwits. As soon as he checks his DailyKos playbook he will have a reply.
 
NEK said...

"Maxine Waters was on C-Span trying to intimidate the Oil execs. Unfortunately, Coop, the shows you watch would never replay her embarrassing moments."

In other words, unfortunately, redd, ya got bupkis. I'm shocked, schmuck.

Nice try, little factually-challenged fella. I watch a good deal of C-SPAN and the PODCASTS are at my fingertips as we speak. Feel free to cite the event, date and time.

That's what I thought.

Bush and the gops gave the Oil Schmucks the store in the form of big subsidies and tax breaks. They do business with the Federal Government. Congress has a duty to see how what they're doin' with our money. If they can't handle questions from Maxine Waters they can always retire with half a billion like the lard-butted Exxon schmuck did. Hockey players lose teeth and don't miss a shift. If they can't take a hit, they're in the wrong line of work. If lard-butted oil execs can't take questions, let 'em get a real job. Assuming, of course they can find one now that we're in the latest Bush Recession.

"The 5 major oil companies did make $35 billion profit in the 1st quarter but they also paid $35 billion in taxes not to mention the tax per gal paid by the consumer."

The federal tax on gasoline is the same 18 cents/gallon it was when Clinton was in Office and it was under a buck/gallon, little fella.

"No excuses from me for their profit but they only make 8 cents gal- the US taxes 20 cents gal so who is gouging?"

Are the oil companies getting federal subsidies and tax breaks, little fella? Were those subsidies and tax breaks increased during the period between 1/01-1/07 when the gops controlled all 3 branches of the Fed Govt?

Did their profits go up? Did the price of gas/heating oil go down?

Just what bang have the US Taxpayers gotten from the oil companies for their buck?

That's what I thought.

Nice try, schmuck. No sale.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
"Schmuck"? "Bupkis"? Sure doesn't sound like a Vermonter to me. Can you speak in terms us natives might understand?
 
bubba said...

""Schmuck"? "Bupkis"? Sure doesn't sound like a Vermonter to me. Can you speak in terms us natives might understand?"

Ah, so ya need me to dumb it down for your ignorant, ill-informed ass.

Pat Leahy is the Senior Senator from the State of Vermont and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He already got rid of one incompetent brain-dead bush-league AG and if this one continues to obstruct justice, run interference for the White House in their efforts to get rove's lard butt under oath, he'll be next.

Secondly, Bernie is the Junior Senator from the State of Vermont, Welch is running unopposed and the only thing standing between doogie the dim's sorry butt and the unemployment line is Anthony Pollina as Obama and the Dems run the table from the top of the ticket to the bottom in November.

Given those facts, clearly, your ignorant ass doesn't speak for the State of Vermont, little bigot boy, so ya better take it where the climate suits your sheet.

Am I still goin' too fast for ya, little fella?

Good thing you're just mad about Mississippi. I'm sure you, nek, indy and the nameless-nitwit brigade will be very happy down there, little fella.

The schools are perennially in the bottom 2-3 of the 50 states so you clueless cretins just may make it out of the fifth grade yet.

Best wishes. It's been fun.

Dismissed.
 
Check again JW, Maxine is on Fox- do you get that channel?
The Shell Pres says it all, "if the environmentalist do not let us drill or build refineries, we will be back arguing this point when gas is $10/gal.
 
I misspoke- the US only taxes gas @.18/gal, not .20/gal and the profit oil companies make is closer to .045/gal than .08/gal.
Why is it okay for the US Gov to make 4 and 1/2 times more on gas than the oil companies?, and then berate the oil companies for gouging?
 
Terri,
The average passenger car drives 15,000 miles per year so if we move to economy and go from 20 mpg to 35 mpg, we save +/- 340 gal per year. Why don't we concentrate on the trucks that average 150,000 miles per year? They use over 35,000 gal per year. If everyone drove a Prious, the problem would not be solved.
 
Hey jw, why don't you take a little vacation (I know, "from what") down to Philadelphia, Ms some time? Lots of neat Choctaw gambling casinos. You really have GOT to start getting out more!
 
bubba has left a new comment on the post "Having a gas of a time":

"Hey jw, why don't you take a little vacation (I know, "from what") down to Philadelphia, Ms some time? Lots of neat Choctaw gambling casinos. You really have GOT to start getting out more!"

Nice try, bubbles.

You've really gotta get your clueless cabeza outta your bigoted-trash ass more often and get yourself a case and a clue and some decent cards, little bigot boy, 'cause every time I call your ignorant ass, ya got bupkis.

Then again, nine times outta ten, it was only dumb luck that brought a gop-slop spewin' fool and his money together in the first place.

Without a stacked deck, gops are suddenly-insolvent schmucks waitin' to happen.

I'd be happy to relieve you and your coalition of the clueless compatriots of your worldly burdens, little bigot boy.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
NEK said...

"Check again JW, Maxine is on Fox- do you get that channel?
The Shell Pres says it all, "if the environmentalist do not let us drill or build refineries, we will be back arguing this point when gas is $10/gal."

Nice try, red. Once again, leaving aside the fact that Maxine Waters has neither the power or the votes to implement her calls to Nationalize the Oil Companies and the Shell Schmuck doesn't get to call his own balls and strikes, if your ignorant, ill-informed ass can't muster up anything than a selectively-edited, pathetic fixed news hatchet job attempting to link Waters to Hugo Chavez, you're dumb, you're scum and ya got bupkis.

Then again, having seen your act, that's a given.

Once again, little factually-challenged fella, the oil companies received huge tax breaks and subsidies from shrub and gops and gas prices have gone up for six straight years for the first time in history as they've raked in record profits and the taxpayers who underwrite those tax breaks and subsidies yielding those record profits have gotten the shaft for our trouble.

If you want to hold a telethon for the poor schmuck from Shell, you're free to do so, but when the pledge phone don't ring, you'll know it's me.

Maybe Dubie can help ya hitch it to a NG Concert. He's quite creative and experienced at that sort of thing and I doubt his brother will even come down on him like confetti the way Martha Rainville did.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
NEK has left a new comment on the post "Having a gas of a time":

"Check again JW, Maxine is on Fox- do you get that channel?
The Shell Pres says it all, "if the environmentalist do not let us drill or build refineries, we will be back arguing this point when gas is $10/gal."

In other words, red, ya got bupkis. Gee, I'm shocked.

Yeah, I get fox. I get Animal Planet and Comedy Central. All of 'em are funny and two of 'em are informative. The two that are informative are intentionally funny. Alas, fox is not one of 'em.

If C-SPAN doesn't make Maxine Waters look bad enough for ya because it covers her - and the lunatic-fringe likes of Darrell Issa the same way - that's just too damned bad.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
Unfortunately, when the dims gain power, that often means lifetime morons like John Conyers and Maxine Waters get to strut around as if they actually had an I.Q. greater than a turnip. Add Shirley Jackson Lee to that list. And how about the "lady" dim that just "won" a spot in California and immediately let her giant mortgage default after she and the other dims voted to bail out the flippers and speculators? Hopefully like kidney stones, they will soon pass as well.
 
bubba has left a new comment on the post "Having a gas of a time":

"Unfortunately, when the dims gain power, that often means lifetime morons like John Conyers and Maxine Waters get to strut around as if they actually had an I.Q. greater than a turnip. Add Shirley Jackson Lee to that list..."

Gee, funny how everyone your ignorant, ill-informed, lyin'-slime ass has mentioned is Black, but I'm sure that's merely a coincidence, eh, little bigot boy?

That's what I thought.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
Well, the list of idiots in Congress is too big for a single blog, but how about adding Waxman, Barney Frank, Larry Craig, anyone named Kennedy, Schumer, Boxer, Harkin, anyone from Massachusetts, John Lewis, Feinstein, Jim McDermott, Pete Stark, Pelosi, Dirty Harry Reid, Wexler, and on and on. And of course Peter Welch. Does that make it a little more diverse for you, idiot? (I had assumed you knew idiots came in all colors, races, and religions)
 
Yeah, there's Mc Shameless, lieberman, vito family-values fossella, Darrel and his other brother Darrel Issa, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and clueless condi.

Unfortunately for the gops, once JC Watts retired, the Republican Congressional Black Congress retired with him and outside of crazy ass Alan Keyes, they haven't been able to find a Black unpatriotic, unqualified and dumb enough to run for Congress.

Evidently, Armstrong Williams is holdin' out for more money.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
Armstrong Williams, JC Watts, Alan Keyes, Tom Sowell, Walter Williams.....all "Uncle Toms" to jw because they dare think outside of the box that is the liberal plantation.
 
bubba has left a new comment on the post "Having a gas of a time":

"Armstrong Williams, JC Watts, Alan Keyes, Tom Sowell, Walter Williams.....all "Uncle Toms" to jw because they dare think outside of the box that is the liberal plantation."

First of all, feel free to point out just where and when I used that term, little bigot boy.

That's what I thought.

Secondly, based on their historical track record, they don't think at all unless bushco pays 'em, tells 'em what to say and how to say it, little bigot boy.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
And who would be the bigot here? Now that you hate Joe Lieberman is he still allowed to be Jewish?
 
Nice try, little bigot boy.

Google the word Juddenrat, schmuck.

Lieberman isn't the first Jew to work with the nazis. Unfortunately, he probably won't be the last, either.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
jwcoop10 said.... "Lieberman isn't the first Jew to work with the nazis. Unfortunately, he probably won't be the last, either."

Very nice coop. It shows your true hate-filled colors. You are the posterboy of every vile word you have uttered on this blog.
 
"Very nice coop. It shows your true hate-filled colors. You are the posterboy of every vile word you have uttered on this blog."

I thank your ignorant anonymous ass for your factually-challenged/fundamentally-dishonest opinion, auntie amerika.

Once more, as you continue to cut and paste the same coalition of the clueless cretin lies again and again, invariably, you continue to demonstrate that you're just another senseless, stoneless, anonymous, ignorant-trash punk who hasn't been able to back up a damned thing you've said since ya got here about me or anyone and anything else, little filly.

I'm as happy to stand by that assertion now as I've been since I got here and I'm sure I'll continue to be in the future as you invariably continue to prove yourself to be dumb, to be scum and to have bupkis.

Don't go changin', auntie amerika. I loath you just the way you are.

Always a pleasure.

Dismissed.
 
JWCOOP10 said... "as you continue to cut and paste the same coalition of the clueless cretin lies again"

Said by the master of the cut and paste and btw, coopy, again either quit stealing my material or start sending the royalty checks. I know the pressure to be creative is brutal but a highly educated guy like you should be able to think of new stuff on your own every few months.
 
Anonymous has left a new comment on the post "Having a gas of a time":

JWCOOP10 said... "as you continue to cut and paste the same coalition of the clueless cretin lies again"

"Said by the master of the cut and paste and btw, coopy, again either quit stealing my material or start sending the royalty checks."

Gee, auntie amerika, one of the other anonymous nitwits must be cashin' your royalty checks, little filly. Ya best look into that.

"I know the pressure to be creative is brutal but a highly educated guy like you should be able to think of new stuff on your own every few months."

Well, little filly, given the fact that your ignorant anonymous ass has neither brains nor the facts goin' for ya, your delusional dreck has consistently made it abundantly clear since ya got here that you've got a better shot of winning the NBA MVP than meeting that standard,

Nevertheless, I'm sure you're special in your own way, auntie a, and you're doin' the best ya can with the hand reality's dealt your ignorant, anonymous ass.

Your material, eh? That's a good one, little nameless-nitwit filly.

Don't go changin'.

Dismissed.
 
yawn
 
Coop -

The Free Press would like to do a story about you. Could you leave us your name, address, e-mail and phone number here?

Thanks,

T.H.
 
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