I'm pretty cynical about the fact that the "prez" and VP are both multimillionaire Big Oil slease-politicians. The Iraq war was started for oil, and so was the original Desert Storm.

With that said, I think Bush Corp made some backroom deals with their buds at ExxonMobile etc and essentially said, "If you lower prices just before the midterm elections and get my Republican associates re-elected, you can raise prices as much as you want in December. Just remember to do a repeat of this scheme in September 2008."

FYI ... just bought a third row seat Honda Pilot SUV to replace a minivan. Maybe I'm an oddity? (oh ... but still have our two biodiesel powered Volkswagen TDIs!)

--RichC --- "My Desultory Blog" & CinciTDI Club

So, in other words, high gas prices are good for the environment and reduce our dependence on foreign oil because we conserve and start buying small, fuel efficient vehicles. They are also good because it gives folks a reason to bash the President for not doing something about the high prices.

Low gas prices are good because they save us money and give folks a reason to bash the President because he was obviously colluding with the oil companies to lower the prices.

Just so I get this straight, are we for the former reason or the latter to bash the president around here? Can't have it both ways.....or can you?

The long-term outlook is unchanged

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

Best Run >
www.cleanmpg.com

"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Ashen, I know you hate the current administration, but just because your people hate him doesn't mean he is the cause of all the pain in the world. As soon as certain people realize this and stop blaming him for everything the sooner their party gets credability.

I've talked to many extreemists such as yourselve and they all seem to believe that 90% of the country is against the president. I hate to break it to you guys, but the fact is that number is a lot lower. The hatred in the eyes of a lot of people are clouding them from the truth and will only further alienate them from mainstream america.

So my advice. make rational arguments instead of "bush did it because he is a meanie"

I'm independant leaning conservative (mostly because of how extream the left is getting) and your arguments don't tend to pull me over to your side. Do I think bush is great. no. Do I think he is as bad as the left makes him out to be. no.

Give some better arguments for your postions and I might be on your side. It is your choice.

My hydroponics experiment

You ever notice how hard it is to lip read cartoon characters?
"Crazy is what the sane call Delta Flyer"

I agree some what with you on the matter. However, it pains me that we have an elected leader who in my view has picked some of the brightest minds in our society to be on his cabinet, but in my view he still made many poor decisions. I will be honest "The greenback controls everything" america is being sold off for greed. Look at our tollway systems in some states our huge corporations. Like some have stated in earlier posts about Iraq I feel that was the biggest mistake that will take 3 or 4 generations to heal. While we have our troops bogged down in Iraq for no real reason we have a country (IRAN) who are known sponsors of terror groups making WMD. So we screwed up big time and I think we should be in Iran not iraq. I travel around the globe on business and everyones perception including some of our own allies are neg. about americans and bush's politics. The gov. can do more to help on gas prices in my view. Instead of offering the limited tax credits make them limitless and we will see the impact it has on fuel prices and in-turn it would be better for our national security. I will never buy gas at a citgo ever again. If I had a choice I would never buy gas - lol. But it sucks to have these same people who are making huge profits in america then want to destroy us.

I also don't think that Bush is an omipotent supernatural evil being.
You're right that an extreme attitude of hate detracts from credibility, except for the like minded.
I'm far from a supporter, and lots of things have been bungled but I try and stay objective and hear both sides. Criticism is good but when it goes way, way off isn't reasonable.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

I'm not a fan other either party anymore. Anyone that is, I believe, is missing the facts that BOTH are (and have been) screwing up things for a long, long time. Sometimes they even have best intentions at heart, but often political gain is the motivation.

Don't blame the current messes all on the current policitians. This is a group effort, and is nothing new.

We had our chance to learn 30 years ago with the Oil Embargo days. And 26 years ago with the Hostage Crisis. ALL political parties have have several opportunities to do something about that painful experience, yet we have not. At least not nearly enough.

Much of the rest of the world HAS learned that you cannot just preach energy conservatism - you have to hurt the consumer pocketbook to get our attention (at a mass level). That's one reason why gas is so much more expensive in many other countries. Do you think it really costs $6 a gallon for gas in England? Or France? It is taxed (like a sin tax, here) to curtail demand. We've had cheap gas in this country forever, and expect it. Unfortunately, many people do not see (or heed to) the tremendous costs of having that cheap gas. So we continue to make some political decisions based on energy - sometimes when we should not, but we have to protect our security (and fuel our warplanes and tanks, and homes and factories). We continue to be utterly dependent on foreign oil - when we could be energy independent by now.

We need a plan that will march forward regardless of who is in the White House. But partisan politics nearly always prevents large-scale accomplishment in Washington. One party doesn't want the other to take any credit.

So, we do what we can at the grass-roots level, I guess, until some political enlightenment manifests itself.

Steve

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

Vehicles:
350 miles a week ------------ 2006 HCH II, Magnetic Pearl, w/NAVI (born on May 25, 2006)
350 miles a month ---------- 2003 Mazda Tribute ES-V6
350 miles a year (for now) - 1986 Mercedes 560SL

The easiest way to dismiss any criticism is to accuse someone of emotionalism, of being a hater and avoid taking responsibility for these facts and data:

1) Huge, massive Federal deficits
2) Replacing the 'high mileage vehicle program' with the Potemkin H(2) fraud
(Killing the only hybrid programs we had!)
3) Invading the wrong country, Iraq
4) Ignoring bin Laden pre-9/11
5) Ignoring bin Laden until 60 days before an election
6) Non-science based FDA policies
7) K-Street bribe project
8) Non-science based energy and environmental policies
9) More, not less foreign energy dependance
10) Trade policies deconstructing our manufacturing base
11) Labor policies, especially illegal aliens, deconstructing our salaries

Personally, I think this thread belongs in "Anything goes" until we get more hybrid content.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

I was looking for some funny pictures of Bush (Gee, the web is filled with them) and came across this one:


C'm on George, give 'er back the dentures!

I do believe gas prices are driven by world market forces.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT