New Record High $139

On my way to the Dr. appointment this morning gas was $3.85 9/10teenths. Diesel $4.41 When I got home my wife had to go to work. Checking the CHR not much going on I went to Yahoo’s home page to see what the highlights were.

There it was.
Oil prices jump $11 to record high above $139 a barrel

They are calling for oil to be $150 this summer. I called the closest station, which is 13 miles from our home. I asked if they had raised the price since this morning? The girl said it was still $3.85. I wanted to know if they would be raising it before I could drive that distance, she asked then came back to say they would be raising it to $3.99 within the hour.

We were having tornado warnings for our area so I toss a coin so to speak do I go to beat the increase or play it safe and try to avoid the tornado? I go for the price savings. I put $96 dollars on the plastic card, if gas goes over $4.00 I can put gas in my wife's car so she can go too work.

Is this insane or what? I think the next President should 100 days to get a grip on what is going on or kick him out.

our gas went from 3.99 yesterday down to 3.85 today. Thats the calm before the storm!!!!!!!

That's the way it was here the other day when my wife filled up $3.99 now this morning $3.85 but it's going up big time this summer.

The ironical thing is that the failure of Congress to allow drilling for oil almost anywhere led to this problem and then Joe-Average will blame the Bush Administration when in fact that administration was trying to get more oil all along. There is a good chance the election will throw the baby out with the wash water and we will end up in a worse situation! I want an Aptera but my wife says no because it is not a station wagon!

http://www.aptera.com/

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

I just saw that on the news, and they showed some gas stations where regular is already about $ 4.39 and Diesel was mid $ 5 range. They said today was a triple whammy day.........oil hit an all time high, unemployment took a huge jump (highest rate since 1986) and the Dow dropped. For a change they didn't talk about home foreclosures, except to mention Ed McMahon is losing his home to foreclosure. I feel sorry for the poor old guy, I know he lived high on the hog for most of his life, but no one deserves to spend their golden years like that. :(

Things are changing way too fast for me, and not in the right way either.

Don

I just watched a specialinst on cnbc. He says by july 4th 2008 gas will be an average of 5.00 a gallon. I may have to break out the bicycle after all. Also does or does not George Bush own the land that has the largest oil reserve in the U.S. ?

I saw that also about $5.00 by July 4th, he also mentioned $1.20 but I didn't understand what year he said, could he have said 2005.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ford2custom

Is this insane or what? I think the next President should 100 days to get a grip on what is going on or kick him out.

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I sure as heck don't see what 1 single person, president or not, could possibly do to solve the problem.... The problem is one that is way beyond the scope of what the president (whomever it is) could possibly hope to solve....

Prices are up and down here too. On Average 4.15-4.19 for reg. High as 4.26+ some days. I see some stations charging more for debit/credit purchases lately. Like .20-.25 cents a gal more depending on the grade!! Some stations here can't even afford to buy gas and are closing. 110 oct racing here is $9.98 a gallon. Leaded or unleaded. Man if we hit $5 by July 4th that just SUCKS!!!

If a President could start a war I think he could do a little to help with the high oil prices.

Starting a war is much easier then solving the oil problem.... Going to take a whole lot more action and resolve to lower our usage and the price of oil. Our dependancy on foreign oil is one of the major issues. Now if somehow the treehuggers would get the heck out of the way and let us drill for our own oil in our own country....And maybe Congress could put up some incentives for the oil companies so that it is worth the investment to build some new and more efficient refineries.... That is if the environmentalists would stay out of the way and let the oil companies actually build a refinery....

Until recently the average Joe insisted on driving an SUV that gets 12 mpg instead of a smaller car that gets 30...... The flight to the suburbs which began in the 60's created 50 or more mile one way commutes for people in the big cities....then they overcrowd the freeway's into town with only 1 person per car because public transportation isn't "convenient" for them and it's their "right" to drive their car.

The oil companies are publicly held companies and the corporate officers are accountable to the stockholders... Their mission is to turn a profit and an acceptable return on investment for the stockholders and do all this on a very small margin.... As our oil consumption increases, the margin remains the same but the volume increases, the oil companies make money and the investors make money. This is ok for GE, but not for Shell????? I would never have been able to keep the doors open on my shop if I had to realize a profit margin as small as what the oil companies operate on.... Sure, they earn billions in profits, but only because of the huge volume of product they go through.....

The US consumers demand that goods and merchandise are on the shelves when they want them with no delays, so the railroads were for the most part done away with and trucking companies sprang up everywhere promising quicker shipping.... So now we have 100 trucks on the road at 6 mpg instead of 1 freight train....

We have met the enemy, and it is us!!!!! Whomever our new president is would have to have one heck of a powerful magic want to even began to solve these and all the other issues that go into the rising price of fuel..... Don't think it'll happen.....

I'm on the cell phone with my older sister, so it's hard to read and talk at the same time but your right Dave, this thing can not be fixed very easy. Just real quick one thing I can't understand is how the big automakers, and the oil companies could not have worked together to make things better.

Richard

Well, they could have....but they produced what the customer wanted, big SUV's... which is why there have been 4 plant closings announced recently which all produced pickups and SUV's.... Because no one believed gas would be $4.00 a gallon and now they can't afford it!!!!!! The Prius, when you find one on the lot, are going for over sticker and the Yukon's are sitting there gathering dust and costing the dealership big $$$$$ in floor plan interest. If the consumer's had WANTED smaller and more fuel efficient cars, the manufacturer's would have built them.... As I said before, the oil companies are in the business of supplying fuel and returning a profit to the shareholders of the company.... As long as people keep buying fuel at whatever price is on the pump, the government has tied the oil companies hands behind their back and blindfolded them with senseless regulations preventing exploration, drilling, and new refineries....

The US consumer is spoiled, that's all... They want the best of everything and they want it all right now.... When it doesn't work out for their budget then it's someone else's fault.... Interest rates too high on credit cards??? You betcha! But people still get all of them they can and max them out....Heard a statistic that the average debt in credit cards alone is $15,000.00!!!!! Add a mortgage to that (for a house with a lot of "wow factor" to impress people), 2 SUV's in the garage both with payments, both parents working, and $00.00 in savings....Then add a $1.50 to the price of gas, somebody gets layed off, and their entire life falls apart.

Mortgage foreclosures, fuel prices, and this month a -49,000 jobs in the "new job" market and now people want to sit back and wait for the government to fix it!!!!!!! There is no magic cure all. Getting back to the basics, living within your means, saving for the future, and taking some personal responsibility for improving one's lot in life is the only thing that is going to fix anything.... The government broke it and the bureaucrats and politicians all have from mid 5 figure to six figure incomes to sit around and talk about it. Don't expect them to change anything that would have an adverse effect on their own "position". Why in the world would they even want to fix it when they are the only one's who benefit from it?????

I don't know, maybe we're all just finally getting exactly what we deserve.............

I don't know if we "deserve" it but there are allot of good points there.....

Funny thing, though..... My Wife and I employ 29 people in our little business and all of a sudden everyone seems to be taking their job a little more seriously.
Kinda nice for a change.

DT

Damn Dave, you got it pegged! And Dogtag< i know what you mean, i am willing to take any decent job! Never before have i been scared about work, ive always had any job i wanted, now its slim pickins.

Dave, the way I see it there is no balance in anything anymore. I was satisfied when I lived in a neighborhood where everyone knew each other. If there was a death all of the people would bring food so the grieving family would not have to be cook so they could plan a funeral. Most people had a good relationship with the local gas station owner, and would support it. The reason people fled to the suburbs was pretty simple it was because of crime. First hand knowledge, I knew women were getting raped at our local supper market a few blocks from our house. As the old folks moved out new people moved in, parties would go on and the people would park in front of your driveway. My wife would say you better tell them to move their cars, my response was I’m not crazy! The guy that lived next door to me got shot and killed over a kids bicycle. My daughter was 3 years old and had asthma really bad, sometime in the middle of the night we would have to rush her to the hospital, the houses were so close if your driveway was blocked you didn’t have room to get out. In the 70’s people didn’t call an ambulance as they do today, and we didn’t have 911. We had a Mayor that made a new rule you could not have a for sale sign in your yard so you didn’t know what house was for sale until it was sold, and the u-haul was at the door moving the old out, and the new in. I feel like people have the right to live where ever they can afford but when it’s unsafe I’m not staying plain and simple.

I worked in mills that had toxins and if you choose to get paid you worked around the toxins. I worked in steel rolling mills, and when something would break, I, and others would have to fix the broken part so they could keep rolling beams, or channel. At times the only way to keep from burning up was to wrap a blanket around your self and it just happen to be asbestos.

The refineries, I worked there also, within a certain distance around the refineries there were people dying of cancer from the toxins. I believe it is North, Carolina a guy is ruining the country because of all of the hog farms he has. You can do a search and see what’s happing to that area. When people go out to eat ribs, they don’t care where they come from just how good they taste.

Chicken farms are the same way can’t just raise chickens for the area the people live in, they have to have chickens for the World but they are raised in some ones back yard, it’s always ok if it’s not our back yard.

You don’t have too many local farmer’s anymore you have one owner that has many, many farms.

A few people want to have more, and more never satisfied, how much money would it take to make a person happy, you can’t get enough.

As long as it’s not affecting a single person they pay no attention to the situation but when it does then they have a voice.

We still have a choice in this Country and my choice was to get out of the neighborhood that was being overtaken from crime. Most people do not have that choice or the means to get out and I feel sorry for them because most are decent people.

We could go on and on but the whole thing boils down to not having any balance.
Put the mills, and refineries in an area where people do not have to die from the poison being dumped.
Have smaller hog farms over a larger area.
Try to tell people they do not need a billion dollars to be happy.
Life was simple when we were just trying to keep up with Jones, now we want to be like the Hiltons.


In the 70’s, they said the same thing about being less dependent on foreign oil car pool drive less. Drive 55 turn down the thermostat to 68 degrees. People did that until it looked like things were ok again, then we went back too big cars using more oil. So the rich will get richer when they acquire all of the things the poor people can no longer pay for. I was afraid when the gas crunch hit back in the 70’s I had a 61 Corvette two 40 Fords, a 39 Ford, 55 Chevy plus the daily driver a new 72 Camaro. I thought these cars would really go down in value but I was wrong. The old cars I believe will always be worth money but fewer people will have them because we are in for some tough times ahead. I still say I feel sorry for the young people coming up today like my grandkids.


Richard

well said Richard.

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Originally Posted by hotroddaddy

Damn Dave, you got it pegged! And Dogtag< i know what you mean, i am willing to take any decent job! Never before have i been scared about work, ive always had any job i wanted, now its slim pickins.

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Man you think you are worried, I work for an automotive manufacturer.

It is normally my philosophy to be very positive about things..........I choose to see the upside rather than the negatives. However, I know recently I have started to sound like Chicken Little because of some of the problems I am seeing. I can't remember a time in my life when so many people are losing their jobs and homes at the alarming rate we are seeing right now. There is an overall feeling in this country right now where everyone is afraid to make any moves or hire any people.

What is sad about it is that so many people who have worked hard all of their lives are falling victim to circumstances beyond their control. There was just a story about cities that are setting up overnight parking areas for people who have to sleep in their cars. These aren't the usual homeless types, but some are folks who had good jobs and lost them and have been forced to take minimum wage situations and can't afford regular housing, or who are waiting on long lists for subsidized housing.

Food stamp recipients are at an all time high, and people who used to donate food to charities are now accepting food instead. When you see GM closing 4 plants we tend to see it as a statistic, but those plants were staffed by folks like all of us who have families, mortgages, car payments, and other obligations.

My Son Don recently ran an ad for a maintenance supervisor for one of the places he manages. He normally gets 3 or 4 applicants.........this time he had 46 before he pulled the ad, and some people were finding him even after that.

I know no one man can turn this country around, but the right leader can make a difference. It is just like any corporation, if the leadership is ineffectual the company suffers, if the leadership is effective the company will generally do well.

Don

You Think A Gallon Of Gas (or nitro) Is Expensive? This might make one think, and put things in perspective.

Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ........$10.32 per gallon
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 ......$ 9.52 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 .............$10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 .......$10.00 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 ..........$33.60 per gallon
Vick's Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 .........$178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 ........$123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ...............$25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 ................$84.48 per gallon

and this is the REAL KICKER......
Evian water 9 oz for $1.49 ......$21.19 per gallon.

$21.19 FOR WATER! ....and the buyers don't even know the source. So, the next time you're at the pump, be glad your car doesn't run on water, Scope, or Whiteout, or God forbid, PEPTO BISMOL or NYQUIL! Just a little humor to help ease the pain of your next trip to the pump.:LOL:

Itoldyouso/Don, As a person on a mostly fixed income I am certainly aware that the price of gas has far reaching effects and the situation does not look good, BUT, I was impressed with the recent interview of Sen. Clinton by Bill O'Reilly in which it was revealed that Sen. Clinton put the blame of the high price of gas on the Oil companies but O'Reilly pointed out that she had voted against drilling on seven occasions. In my opinion the combination of Democrats continuous opposition to Executive policies AND overzealous Environmentalism has caused this whole problem. Can you name a single CONSTRUCTIVE thing accomplished by the Pelosi crew since they took control of Congress? (Raising the minimum wage did not look constructive to my fixed income.) This blatant Democrat opposition and the unrealistic goals of Environmentalists has caused this whole problem along with the remnants of the devaluation of the U.S. dollar following 9/11. To me it looks very much like the Democrats take glee in damaging U.S. policy just so they can take over. Human nature can be nasty and takes it's most virulent form in politics! I hasten to add that some checks and balances are needed in terms of environmental control, but the bottom line is that human population generates human waste and so a sewer system is indeed needed but nevertheless the waste keeps coming! The lesson is that crap happens and so we need ways to get rid of it but it will still be a continuing situation. Nuclear plants generate hot waste and off-shore oil wells occasionally polute beaches but we can't just stop generating the waste and invoking NIMBY in every case! What make us so sure that change to a totally inexperienced leader will help the situation? Change for the sake of change should be accompanied by the question, "change to what?"

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Shillady

In my opinion the combination of Democrats continuous opposition to Executive policies AND overzealous Environmentalism has caused this whole problem. Can you name a single CONSTRUCTIVE thing accomplished by the Pelosi crew since they took control of Congress? (Raising the minimum wage did not look constructive to my fixed income.) This blatant Democrat opposition and the unrealistic goals of . Change for the sake of change should be accompanied by the question, "change to what?"

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

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Well, IMO the old political blame game hasn't accomplished anything and I don't see where it ever will....

The old game of the Democrats did this wrong, the Republicans did this wrong just doesn't seem to work anymore. The old Partisan politics haven't solved much in the last years other then lead to a stalemate on most issues........

Change to what??? Heck who cares? What we have hasn't accomplished much and it's doubtful it's continuance will accomplish anything either......

As I've said before, the politicians are the problem, why in the heck would they look for a solution???? Change to what? Well how about we start with a change to term limits and get the "good old boys" out of office and get some new blood in there that isn't owned by one faction or another.... Or how about a change to people taking personal responsibility for what is going on, and maybe a voter turnout larger then 40%????

Pointing fingers and blaming the other party is not going to fix anything!!!!!! IMO the current administration hasn't accomplished anything other then promoting a "the sky is falling mentality" and wasting 3,000 plus lives, and tens of thousands of wounded and crippled bodies and minds on a war based on nothing but lies!!!!! Remember the line of how the oil we could steal while at war in Iraq would cover the cost of the war????? Continuing on with this or any other such absurd course of action will accomplish nothing, either!!!

More of the same, with either party in power, is not likely to accomplish anything other then more of the same..... Change to what??? How about a change to representatives who will actually do something other the same old thing...and when they don't, replace them to... Until the government again becomes accountable to the people, we will change to nothing and continue along this course of destroying the country.....

More of the same, with either party in power, is not likely to accomplish anything other then more of the same..... Change to what??? How about a change to representatives who will actually do something other the same old thing...and when they don't, replace them to... Until the government again becomes accountable to the people, we will change to nothing and continue along this course of destroying the country..... Well said Dave.

I think that if everyone in power was reduced to the income of the common working man, and had a savings account like mine, they just might think of a solution much quicker. They are all well off financially and do not understand what its like to walk in our shoes. I say shame on all of them for letting this continue as they sit laughing as they count thier money. The money they are raking in because they all have stocks in oil, you can assure that. And I hope karma plays a role in thier lives real soon. Unfortunately a million more people will be bankrupt and homeless before that day. As far as I am concerned our government is not taking very good care of its own people.

also gulfcoastgasser, you forgot that printer ink is 5000.00 a gallon.

Ross, Perot {my not have his name spelled right} but you know the guy with the funny ears was the first independent to get a few people to listen to him in the beginning but the he went for his own self-interest. Ross's soft ware business where he was pushing for NAFTA IMO that was the beginning of bad things to come.

If we could find a good guy maybe a former/current hot rodder say like Dave, to run as an independent I believe CHR would vote for him.:toocool:
The lobbyists are the people that’s helping to ruin this Country IMO they should not have assess to any politician.

I was at the my Doctor's office Friday and heard a pharmaceutical rep, asking the desk person for a list of names taking a certain medication, is this any of their business or are we being watched by everyone. My wife went our post office yesterday; they wanted to see her driver license we have had the same P.O. Box for 13 years. When the Dr. updates his records they want your driver’s license, do they think someone may come in for a colonoscopy {butt} you know what I mean that is someone pretending to be you. Maybe the sky is falling!!!:eek:

Richard

As I recall Ross Perot was AGAINST NAFTA, predicting it would produce "a great sucking sound"! Yes, it is sad and revealing that the Republicans betrayed their trust on several occasions and I agree one of the strange strengths of our system is the ability to have change every so often, but the uncooperative partisanship is so unproductive. Often you vote in some local person based on character and record but then he/she becomes part of partisam politics and falls to the temptation to some scheme to get rich somehow so change is the only way to get fresh people. Still, why can't some get together to look out for the country instead of letting one party fail so the other can come in. It just seems to me that one candidate has demonstrated on a number of occasions his willingness and ablity to cross party lines and reach compromises that bridge partisan lines. For this he has been labled a "Maverick" but in fact that is exactly what is needed to get things done in the land of gridlock. The other candidate makes promise after promise but has only a record of partisan activities. Hey, according to our system I will vote my choice and then have to live with the outcome but I sure wish someone in the Congress had the sense to get oil drilling going again AND building nuclear plants and refineries. I thought it was interesting in a recent interview the Gov. of Montana said he doesn't want the Federal government meddling in the affairs of development of the Bakken oilfields that cover parts of Montana, North and South Dakota and Colorado as well as extending up into Saskatchewan. I don't really know how they do the horizontal drilling but maybe, just maybe the Bakken field will save the U.S. economy long enough to get some more nuclear plants built and allow us to switch over to cars that are electric with gas/diesel on-board charging units like the Aptera. Meanwhile I will keep my eye on that Aptera and hope they build a lot of them and lower the price just a little! I wonder how they handle in a cross wind?

http://www.aptera.com/

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Well, here's my wish list:

Term Limits

Accountability

90% Voter Turnout

Merit instead of Party affilitation

More states' rights

Less Federal intervention

Cut foreign aid by 50%

Bring the troops home

Close the borders

No deficit spending

At least one more political party (or none at all?)

The "system" has created the problems, don't count on the "system" to fix itself!!!!

Is it just me, or do other people think we should not have lobbyists? Why should they get favors or could we all go and sit outside the chambers and hook a politicians 's arm and ask for whatever we need?

Richard

Nope, not just you.......IMO lobbyists is just a form of legalized bribery..... Elected officials should listen to their constituients, not PAC's and special interest groups.....

I think it's time to try another party these two sure have screwed us pretty good I think we ought to give someone else the opportunity. Three is too much power in a small amount of people. Three sides or opinions should be better then two anyway.

I've tried to stay out of this one, but you guys finally hit my hot button.

Lobbying is a protected, constitutional right (a ligitimate one, unlike almost all forms of "entitlements" and other B.S. implemented in the past 75 or so years). If you send a letter to your congress person asking that they consider a proposal you make (like drilling in ANWR) you're a lobbyist. If a business entity is trying to keep congress from disadvantaging them by unfair and unnecessary legislation (like the phony "windfall tax" proposals) that's lobbying. The real problem isn't anyone/thing asking the government representatives to do or not do something, it's the representatives choosing to accept a "bribe" (large campaign donations, a house, a boat, cash, some favorable real estate deal, or anything else that benefits them) that is the problem. It's the voter's duty to fire the theiving bastard the next election............not condemning a constitutional right.

While we're on the constitution some of you need some more refresher. The President is not a unilateral powered dictator, the Congress and the Supreme Court are there to keep him/her in check.........and they do often, both correctly and incorrectly. Congress, not the President do the spending, all the President has is the power to present a budget and approve or disapprove budget and spending choices of the Congress. There's more that this whole thread has ignored about constitutional authority, but I've blown off enough steam for now.

[QUOTE=Bob Parmenter] It's the voter's duty to fire the theiving bastard the next election............
QUOTE]

There's the best answer yet!!!!!!!!!! They work for you, fire them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Same thing any good boss looking out for the companies' best interests would do!!!!!!!!!!

Well said, Uncle Bob!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob, Parmenter Their are a lot of smart people on this site, and I know you are one of many, it's easier to get information here then calling 1-800 numbers that are always busy. If a person, knows more then the next person, and wants to share his or her information I’m all for it. If smart people would keep everything to them selves us lesser smart people would not get the information. If it's free for giving I would be happy to take good free information. I don’t think these threads are out with anyone trying to get anyone upset, just give, and take. Gas is a big topic and sometimes it spends off in another direction. We do not have to get into party affiliation, that’s when things go wrong like talking religion different views.