All politicians embellish and mistate almost everything. And, it is sad, really sad. How is the voting populace suppose to gain the straight facts without the lies, embellishment and party bias they exhibit? Do whats good for the Nation and not for the party or yourseves.

The media is not off the 'hook' either. The bias (in both directions) is pitiful!

Classic straw man argument. Create an imaginary scenario and then blame it on someone.

How is the voting populace suppose to gain the straight facts without the lies, embellishment and party bias they exhibit?

Obviously, politicians hoping to gain more wealth & power will say anything. Absolutly anything, and are notorious for doing so.

They think the voter is stupid, lazy, gullible, and beneath them anyway so no respect is warrented either, and assume it's a given that voters will not listen, or check facts, and will easily be triggered by 'hot button' language that is contentious and divisive. Over the years these tactics have worked, so they keep using them.

Vote for the guy who at least assumes you will check what he says, and then hope that while you're checking you won't be waylaid by plausible sounding arguments that are agenda driven, and intend to deceive even further.

Gas prices are going up for several reasons.

1. It's stringtime and demand goes up

2. It's springtime and they refiners have to change formulas.

3. The job market is improving and more people need to get to work

4. The job market is improving and more people have money to go places like shopping and entertainment

5. The oil companies have been shipping a lot of refined product overseas where they make a bigger profit. That's the real reason they want the Keystone pipeline to ship Alberta tar sand oil to the gulf refine it there instead of say BP's huge Whiting Indiana refinery.

6. David and Charles Koch, worth a combined $50billion and having pledged $100million to defeat Obama want it to go up because they are struggling to get by.

I had a friend so dumb, I could easily cheat him at cards and I convinced him to vote republican.

ROFLMAO

Devil

You missed one. The Iranian's want the price of oil to go up. They sell oil.

We saw this last spring. Gas went up after the earthquake in Japan and we heard all kinds of nasty things about a war with Iran. We were told gas would be $6.00 or more my the end of June. It never happened. Supply is good, the US is even exporting gasoline, demand is down somewhat, China's economy isn't growing as fast as predicted -- what were seeing is nothing but speculation. That never last very long.The price of crude dropped 3 days last week and that will likely continue. Sorry Republicans -- your dream of $6.00 gas just ins't going to happen.

keck - wrong - it was said the first day of his Presidency - then repeated by dear Rush - the GOP's biggest mouthpiece!

Brianb - nothing you post goes over anyone's heads. Under our feet maybe but never over our heads. But, you've posted lies so many times no one bothers to follow what you say anyway.

Patricia - of course all of Congress is not from the GOP. However the GOP has used the filibuster to keep anything and everything Obama has proposed that would be good for this country from passing.

LoyalTexan, It's GOP math. $13K on unemployment and no benefits versus $35K-$60K with benefits working/teaching. OF COURSE (sarcasm) that teacher willingly picked unemployment. It's a well known fact teachers don't get enough time off work. (sarcasm) Jeez the GOP lies don't even make enough sense to fool a 6th grader. Substitute teaching pays $10 to $20 a day that is why REAL teachers with TEACHING DEGREES don't do it. That's not teaching it's babysitting!

o like the republicants have the working class needs on their agenda...give me a break!!!!

JS...just how does the President "allow" oil prices to rise? Oil is an international commodity with supplies going to the highest bidder. Why can't people understand that?

If you believe for one nanosecond the Newt, or anyone else, is going to give you $2.50 gasoline, your living in the same fantasy land he is.

keck....Obama ran on a campaign promise to intstitute what is now known as Obamacare. He was elected by a wide margin. He instituted what we now call Obamacare. What is it about our Democratic system that you do not understand ? Or do you understand it but don't like it and would prefer another form of government ? He said he would do it, the people elected him by a large margin, he did it. What don't you understand ? That is how it works. Your guy ( who by the way was also my guy ) got defeated, in large part because he selected an airhead as a VP running mate. I did not vote for Obama, but I support him now and unless someone else comes forward I will vote for Obama in November. He did what he said he was going to do. You should have campaigned harder for your guy.

JS in SD- Do you think President Obama really would be stupid enough to purposely raise gasoline prices at this time when he is trying to get re-elected? Every credible source says this election will be decided by the economy! Higher fuel prices will stall the economy and hurt his chances to get re-elected! At this time, I believe he cares more about getting re-elected than pursuing green energy! Now, look at the big money people on the other side, they know the only real way to beat President Obama is for the price of fuel to skyrocket in price and blame the President for it. All they have to do is drive the price up by speculation in the Oil Market! So, who is really to blame and has the motive for high fuel prices? Use your brain and stop listening to Fox!

Just like all Republican politicians Romney lied again but that doesn't surprise me, what would really surprise me is if I ever heard ANY of them speak the truth.......... When it comes to telling the truth these GOP fools make lawyers look like choir boys.

Seems to me the number one requirement to be the rethugli-cants nominee is one must be the biggest liar. Mutt Romney is a liar and I could only shudder to think what whoppers he'll be spewing come October/November if he is their nominee. My religion taught me lying is wrong. Anyone who would vote for these right wing clowns deserves what they'll get.

Brianb

The reason we will miss the phrase "in peace times"sprinkled throughout the executive order is because it is not there. It's also an order irrelevant to the argument you so weakly try to make. It pales in comparison to those put forth by GW Bush.

I suppose you're giggling to yourself, thinking "made ya' look". I've met many intelligent conservatives who make excellent arguments for their positions. You are not one of those people.

jimP1969 - since those that Bush produced were jokes I guess you were ranting and raving then too? Of course the fact that Bush left two wars out of his budget was just a minor problem??? So funny to read you guys tearing Obama up but you never did Bush. Oh that's right, his lies were okay with Republicans.

Brianb - still spewing your garbage huh? I expect no better from you. You don't have the capacity to understand a first grade book - so I don't pay attention to your lies and rants. Your paranoia is showing a little more than usual today. Off your meds???

More oil drilling going on than has gone on in decades.
Less demand than at any time in last 10 years.
More gasoline being stockpiled than at any other time.
More gasoline being exported just to get rid of it because no more room.

The world is awash in gasoline stockpiles and yet still the price goes up.

Why? Oil and gas commodity speculators.

Speculators have created the largest gasoline price bubble ever.

.

Brainb,

Before you wind up with the inevitable name-callling...

Computer glitch while editing my post above... but here let me take a step for you: The first citation of peacetime is this:

" The United States must have an industrial and technological base capable of meeting national defense requirements and capable of contributing to the technological superiority of its national defense equipment in peacetime and in times of national emergency" The rest of the document is an organization chart describing who has what responsibility. It says nothing about suspension of freedom, rights or otherwise.

Back to my challenge: instead of sending us to look at an irrelevant document (after all the article was about something Romney said), make the case. Prove your point. I'll be back later to check, but am not excpecting much.

Brianb "While I would bet good money on the fact that what I'm about to link to will go right over most of your heads, it is nefarious.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness
This gives the president the power to take over everything in this country. I am certain you will miss the words "in peace times" scattered all through this document. This is the first Executive Order of it's type ever written in this country."

I'd bet good money that Brianb didn't actually read or understood the whole executive order, just saw all that legalese and assumed it must be a socialist takeover of everything. Not even remotely right, Brianb. That executive order calls for the Secretaries of each executive department to make emergency plans, including determining suppliers for essential items, preparing purchase orders, preparing stockpiles where appropriate, even planning "executive reserves" to replace department officials that might be killed or incapacitated. Nowhere does it call for any sort of "takeover" of any company or private property, at most they might request a "priority order" for vital resources that would put the needs of the Nation ahead of other customers.

The Constitution still stands, the Government may not confiscate property without due process and just compensation, this executive order doesn't change that at all.

No, this isn't the first time such an order has been written, similar orders have been written by almost every President whenever a major enemy threatens US security - and we do have major enemies threatening US right now. As to why "peacetime" is mentioned, well, it is far better to prepare such emergency measures in peacetime than to wait until the chaos of war descends before trying to plan a response.

Jeez, where does this paranoid right-wing nuttery come from?

Hello? Oil is a finite resource. It will only get more and more expensive as it becomes more scarce. No one can keep that from happening. If we were smart, we would come up with plan B BEFORE we run out of oil. Unfortunately, I am afraid we are not smart enough to do that.

Republicans are now serial liars... everything they say is a calculated lie intended to manipulate some ignorant voter out there in rural America. This is truly the lowest I've ever seen Republicans sink... and believe me they are the deep sea exploration party!

Heck, one of the leading Republicans can say Obama met his promise for higher energy prices and completely leave out that reduced carbon emissions were to be the reason. And loyal party followers just eat it up. Not smart enough to plan ahead? Not even smart enough to understand cause and effect, or lack thereof!

A prime example of this is the electric and hybrid cars. Once you look at the environmental impact of manufacturing the lithium based batteries, not to mention their disposal, the truth starts coming out. Add to that looking into the overall efficiency of the power generation and distribution systems that provide the electricity to charge these cars, and in the end you find that these hybrids are actually worse for the environment than a traditionally powered car with an efficient gasoline engine.

Yes, it does take materials and energy to manufacture things, we understand that. But it takes far less energy to manufacture a lithium ion automotive battery pack than it does to make a V8 engine, due to the extreme high temperatures needed to smelt and cast steel. The high efficiency of electrics and hybrids means substantially more energy is saved during years of operation than the energy expended to make them.

Electric power plants use efficiency boosting devices too large for mobile use, combine power plant efficiency with the extremely high efficiency of the power grid and the extremely high efficiency of electric vehicles, and EVs use less energy and produce less CO2 than the equivalent gassers do, even where the energy comes from coal. Oil refineries need electricity, too, and the amount of electricity used to produce a gallon of gasoline would propel a typical electric car 25 miles. As for disposal of batteries, LiIon batteries are considered non-toxic, and are fully recyclable.

The same is true for many of the electricity generating solar panels that are being marketed. There are major environmental issues with the manufacture of many of these panels that offset the gains from their operation.

Wrong again. Making solar cells takes high power equipment, but for a short length of time. Solar cells produce low power for decades, meaning they ultimately produce far more energy (power x time) than the energy needed to make them. The "environmental issues" of solar cells - and windmills, hydro, geothermal, biomass, etc. are well known and can be dealt with. The benefits usually outweigh the environmental costs.

When anti-environmental types try to make an environmental argument, they so often get it wrong.

Heartlight3

I don't believe it's "we" that are not smart enough. Most clear thinking Americans know what needs to be done to fix our energy needs. It's greedy Republicans and their corporate masters who are holding up any progress towards fixing the problems we face. It's all about greed, greed greed. Anybody that votes for a Republican is voting against progress and the well being of our country.

Here's the truth neither side wants to admit. We are NEVER going back to the lower gas prices. For one thing the big oil is not going to take any kind of cut to their profits and their shareholders profits. Also, too many people have a lot of their retirement fund and 401k money riding on the speculators keeping that high cost of oil up. There is no shortage of oil or gasoline. Demand in the US is down. Oil prices are set on the world market. Oil production is up in the US (and guess what, those same big oil companies sell that US oil on the world market). So, learn to drives less, use mass transportation when possible, and look into other ways to save. Because it is NEVER going down again.

First, Romney has been called out on his lie.

Second, Obama is President of the U.S., not president of ExxonMobil. Obama has little or no influence over the price of gasoline. Maybe if he were a Republican, Big Oil would drop the price of gas right before the election to give him a boost, but it's in the best interests of the oil industry and the GOP to keep prices high and blame Obama for it. They blame him for everything else, why not blame him for the price of gasoline?

kaybee, it is more than that. Too many people have too much riding on keeping gas prices high. We are actually EXPORTING gas and oil (US is now a major player in the world market). However, all of it is owned by the big oil companies. Unless we want to nationalize the oil in this country (so much for that free market thing), we are just going to have to suck it up and learn to deal. We should, however, stop all the tax breaks and subsides to big oil. They don't need it.

Jeez, where does this paranoid right-wing nuttery come from?

It comes from some nutjob called 'Popeye' at FederalJack.com. A fine news source, for certain!

Thank goodness Brianb has sounded the alarm to alert us that Obama is conspiring to declare himself Emperor of the Universe.

Too bad Fox "News" hasn't jumped on the story.

Anyone got some extra meds they could spare? I'm sure Brian would be grateful.

No, Keck they understand what a budget is. It is re-election enemy #1. Without a budget that you have to vote on, it is a lot harder to be blamed for the hard choices that need to be made.

"I remember the teacher who had been out of work and she said that she could get opportunities to teach on a temporary basis, but when she considers the cost of gasoline to get to the job and back, it doesn't make sense to go off unemployment,"

Here's an idea. How about companies pay cost-of-living increases like they used to, and employees will still be able to afford to drive to work?!

Seriously, we have a lot of bad attitudes that are destroying our nation. The Race to the Bottom Teapublicans and their corporate buddies who are so busy trying to get interns to work for free, or pay below minimum wage, or make candidates take ridiculous assessment tests (asking how long they plan to stay with the company, OMG!), signing "non-compete" and "termination at will" agreements -- Rather than do the right things to keep employees loyal and happy.

To my fellow American workers, we can only become serfs and wage slaves as long as we allow companies to get away with it. We must tell them to take their crappy "job" and shove it if they aren't going to pay enough for us to afford to drive to work!

And then there's good ole Romney -- he is getting even more desperate. Unfortunately the Teapublican low-information base eats up the President Obama bashing and lies. But the swing voters and sane people out there, not so much. Instead of fear mongering about gas prices, why not talk about ways to create jobs and improve the economy? Romney, stop worrying about your hair -- your pants are on fire!

The American people are struggling.”

Yeah!

Like Willard who rakes in $57K PER DAY knows anything about 'struggling'!

Coming from someone who was born with a platinum spoon in his mouth - that comment is not only absurd but laughable!

I agree, phine. President Obama has called for an end to oil industry subsidies.

The idea of blaming him for the price of gasoline is a typical Republican trick. Too bad so many people can be so easily duped.

The U.S. is the closest it has been in almost 20 years to achieving energy self-sufficiency, a goal the nation has been pursuing since the 1973 Arab oil embargo triggered a recession and led to lines at gasoline stations.

Domestic oil output is the highest in eight years. The U.S. is producing so much natural gas that, where the government warned four years ago of a critical need to boost imports, it now may approve an export terminal.

Methanex Corp., the world’s biggest methanol maker, said it will dismantle a factory in Chile and reassemble it in Louisiana to take advantage of low natural gas prices. And higher mileage standards and federally mandated ethanol use, along with slow economic growth, have curbed demand.

The result: The U.S. has reversed a two-decade-long decline in energy independence, increasing the proportion of demand met from domestic sources over the last six years to an estimated 81 percent through the first 10 months of 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the U.S. Department of Energy. That would be the highest level since 1992.

"You do realize he doesn't care one wit about you. The only thing he cares about is his power..."

Uh....he is limited to one more term at best. Howzzis work, this great power he will come by if we all vote for him (again)?? Do you people ever THINK about the crap you post???

Feisty- I do have to ask myself, though, why, if someone rakes in $57 K a DAY- why the hell they would spend so much for so (relatively) little per year? Maybe a power-trip IS possible, eh??

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/05/whats-an-oil-subsidy

Can you please cite a non-biased source? The Heritage Foundation has an agenda to promote.

The Heritage Foundation is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense." ~ wikipedia.org

Romney, spoken like a real Mormon. The lies roll off the tongue so easily like all the rest of their anti-Christan garbage they regurgitate to anyone who will listen. And the hungry eat it up, poison or not! Ha ha ha ha. Then there is the religious Rick spewing his fascias demands of the masses to conform to his own self-righteous beliefs. What a Constitutional illiterate that boy is. Dopey do-dumby-dum-dum.

"Brianb - still spewing your garbage huh? I expect no better from you. You don't have the capacity to understand a first grade book - so I don't pay attention to your lies and rants. Your paranoia is showing a little more than usual today. Off your meds???"

Aww...go easy on her- It's probably just a 'Sunday thing",

BigAl Las Vegas -- Republicans sometimes tell the truth; 1) before they are "primaried" from the far-right Teabaggers, 2) before Rush Limaugh crucifies them, and 3) on accident.

Examples are Romney bragging about "Romneycare" and how it should be implemented at the federal level. Though "Romneycare" has lowered health care costs in Massachusetts, he can't take credit for it thanks to the ignorant GOP/TP base. Another is Gingrich saying that Paul Ryan's privatization of Medicare was extreme right-wing social engineering, which it is, and then he caught hell from Limbaugh. But the saddest of all was McCain having to turn his back on his position against torture when "primaried" by JD Hayworth. What kind of f-up Party would make a POW do this?

BB,

First of all your source is Heritage, a noted right wing group. And of course they want to appease big oil and de regulate it. So, I am afraid I am not buying what they are selling. Just as I wouldn't take as gospel some left wing report. I like the independent ones, or just listening this morning to what an oil speculator had to say - he is in the market, he knows the facts. As long as the various agencies turn a blind eye to speculators and hedge fund managers and all the rest, things will keep on keeping on. On a personal note, my mother's retirement is alive and kicking. She has a lot of Exxon/Mobile stock. So, it keeps her financially independent. If you have a 401k or any other kind of pension fund, you will find it doing better because of the high speculation in oil.

So, do I think we should stop the tax breaks and subsides for big oil? You bet your sweet patootie I do. They are NOT hurting one bit. Would it hurt Mom's retirement? Probably some, but the overall good to the nation - if only psychologically would be worth it.

Oh, and have you checked out natural gas? Low prices there. How about changing over to that? That's a place to start putting some of that subside money towards - in opening natural gas stations and converting automobiles to natural gas. Just some ideas. It is time and past time that we Americans grow up and face the fact the oil prices are not going to go down and we need to find a way to move forward.

phinephancy.

We are exporting because OPEC cut production and our ecoomy is still on idle while our production is way up. Our production is way up because big oil cannot drill off shore or on government lands, they are going to private landowners and signing them up to drill oil.

Our Satellite Technology is so improved that they are drilling and finding oil where oil was though not to believe. We have a large pools under Akron, but laws may make it inexcessible for now. We now know that the Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota area probably has more oil than Saudi Arabia.

Did see the increase in Millionaires the past two years (up 12%). Here's what happens. To lease property for either oil or Marcellous gas, they first lease the property for $1,000 - $4,000 per acre. Farms can average be between 71 acres (Rhode Island)- 3743 acres (Wyoming).

http://stuffaboutstates.com/agriculture/farm_by_average_size.htm

Do the math, and add that to their farm profits, - those people are overnight millionaries. And when the wells come in, gas wells are easily $250,000 per year in royalties going to FARMERS!

The reason fuel is so high is because in the 80's and 90's, environmental regulation snuffed out a whole sector of oil wells called stripper wells (produce 10 or less barrels of oil per day). That was 20% of our domestic oil production rendered unprofitable. OPEC loves our stupidy and are driving around limosines, live in posh mansions and enjoy a a huge indoor ski resort - in the middle of the desert!

jones-1576915

Romney, spoken like a real Mormon...

I've done a good deal of business in Utah, and there does seem to be a disconnect between morals and ethics. As long as you abide by the church doctrine in regard to attendance, Word of Wisdom, fidelity, etc., business is fair game. Heck the freeway is fair game, but you can't honk -- that's not nice. Weird people.

Back to the topic... and subsidies. These tax credit subsidies are a manufacturing incentive given to many businesses aside from Big Oil. The Dems want to end the subsidies altogether for all companies. This is where the hang up is.

"The Exec.Order allows the nationalization of pretty much the entire USA even in peacetime if he desires. They can, under this order, restrict civilian travel by any mode, including (probably) foot travel. They can ration food. They can restrict water usage, even from private wells. They can ration any and all drugs, including OTC and vitamins. They can collectivize farms. They can take over all energy production, including home solar units."

This "they" you refere to- not sure who 'they' all are, but if I were you, Brianb- I'd hide under y' bed untill I say it's safe once again to come out. You heard me! Now GIT GOIN'!!

DB

Saudi has offered to increase production. China and India's demand has increased. We are producing more oil now than we have in over 10 years. Our demand is down. There is a glut of oil sitting in the middle of the country now because they can't move it (the oil companies own the pipeline and haven't felt like reversing it). Even if the president did release some of the oil reserve it couldn't be refined (oh, those same refineries owned by big oil - not the US government).

Look, the base line for higher profits keep moving. First it was at $35/barrel, then $50, now $75. Soon it will be at around a hundred. The government doesn't set that base profit margin. Big oil, hedge fund managers, retirement fund managers, etc. do. And I don't really see them backing down - do you?

Kaybeetoys said: Can you please cite a non-biased source? The Heritage Foundation has an agenda to promote.

No. I will not. There's enough ThinkProgress.com sources promoted around here to puke over. If you didn't take the time to read what it said, you missed out on the fact that they feel subsidies should be removed as well.

phancy, did you read that?

Feisty- I do have to ask myself, though, why, if someone rakes in $57 K a DAY- why the hell they would spend so much for so (relatively) little per year

Buzzy,

Pure & simple - it's an EGO trip nothing more... nothing less....

Poor Willard - the ONLY majority vote he can garner is from the dime store mannequins & brain DEAD!

What we are witnessing is the implosion of what is left of the one Grand Old Party!

And, I for one am LOVING it!

“You’ve got moms that are driving their kids to school and practice after school and other appointments and wonder how they can afford putting gasoline in the car, at the same time putting food on the table night after night. The American people are struggling.” -- Romney

And the Republicans care about this exactly how? And the Republicans are going to fix it, right? Yeah, right (sound of crickets)!

BB,

Yes I did. It is as politically one sided as ThinkProgress is to the left. Find me someone with NO political agenda, then we will talk. Or take the easy and correct way - admit I am right. :)

The Exec. Order allows the nationalization of pretty much the entire USA even in peacetime if he desires. They can, under this order, restrict civilian travel by any mode, including (probably) foot travel. They can ration food. They can restrict water usage, even from private wells. They can ration any and all drugs, including OTC and vitamins. They can collectivize farms. They can take over all energy production, including home solar units.

Nope, nothing in there about "nationalizing" anything, nor anything about restricting travel, rationing food, restricting water usage, rationing drugs, or taking over energy production. There certainly isn't anything even remotely resembling "collectivizing farms". It is planning and preparation for a possible national emergency - that would include disasters, a terrorist attack, or even war. Part of that preparation would be securing essential supplies, purchase orders, preparing stockpiles, and if necessary to make priority orders for essentials. Would you rather they didn't make plans? Or do you really think "business as usual" should take precedence over saving the nation in case of emergency?

It also allows for drafting civilians. If they have need of your skills, they can compel you to work for no compensation.

I have news for you - the "Draft" was implemented centuries before the Obama administration. Their plan for "Executive reserves" is similar to the military reserves, civilian volunteers trained for service in the event of war or other emergency, they are paid for the training, and paid even more if called for service. Neither "compelled" nor "no compensation". Instead of military service, the "Executive reserves" would train for possible bureaucratic service managing various departments in the Executive branch of Government.

Again, Brianb, you've proven that you haven't really read or understood the link you provided.
But paranoid conspiracies are so much more fun!

BB,

I am sorry, yes the source is the problem. But, you know I am right. Prices will never go back down to levels of even a year ago. We need to find another way. Deregulation and subsidising big oil is not the answer. (And like I said, just admit I am right and you will feel much better. Hey! I am a mother and mother is ALWAYS right! Bet all the mothers - on each side of the divided would agree with that!)

Romney and Newt are laughable. Do they believe the public is THAT gullible? Natural gas and oil production in the U.S. is at a historic high. We have not seen such production for nearly 40 years, and the price of fuel is still going up. Regardless of how much oil is produced locally, it still goes to the highest bidder. The only way the U.S. government could lower the price of gas is to build refineries and subsidize fuel. We could also lower demand. Other than that, ask Newt how he can keep a promise of $2.50 a gal gas when the rest of the world already pays much more than $4 a gal....

Red Betty - F off!

OH MY!

When someone gets their ass handed to them - this is the best they can do? lol

Better luck next time little buddy! ☺

Brianb: What Obama's Executive Order does is to learn from past mistakes and thereby avoid them.

According to a tool and die professional at the time, the US had to defer entering WWII for two years because outsourcing of manufacturing to Germany had left our country with reduced manufacturing capability and a shortage of skilled tool and die workers needed to produce the armaments. This is the situation that Obama's EO addresses--precisely because so much manufacturing has moved off-shore (much of it to China) that our national security is at risk.

Would you rather risk a repeat of the WWII mistake? Do you think we would have a 2-year window of opportunity to retrain and retool in the computer age?

Brian is throwing a hissy fit because he is being busted for using right wing extremist zombie sites as sources, eh? He might as well use Romney as a source...it's no secret conservatives need lies to hold their own.

I've read enough remarks from the left that I can see you do not see the dangers of what the Executive Order entails. Obama is making sure he can operate around congress by issuing these types of orders. It's one more way to stop the republicans from limiting his power to what it is under the Constitution. Of course those on the left can't' see this because they believe Obama is benevolent.

In a speech he made in Nevada, Obama said this:

“I’m here to say to all of you and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas, we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” Obama said.

Don't you see what he's trying to do? Because a republican controlled house and possibly senate will do everything in their power to limit Obama to Constitutional authority, he is taking steps to ensure he can go around them. He's giving powers to his cabinet so they can usurp congressional control that is afforded them under the Constitution. This is as plain as day and it's dangerous to this country.

In a speech he made in Nevada, Obama said this:

OMG - run for the hills, hoard the food, get out the tin foil hats to protect you from the rays, the boogeyman president is out to get you.

Meanwhile, back on planet earth, when President Obama said this, it was about the job crisis and the utter GOP/TP failure to create one single job legislation act. What that has to do with holding citizens at gunpoint and confiscating solar panels is beyond me.

when I addressed a joint session of Congress about our jobs crisis, I also said that I intend to do everything in my power to act on behalf of the American people -- with or without Congress.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/obama-speeches/speech/836/

Not quite as funny as: "Of course it hurts, you're being screwed by an elephant" - or the even better "If ignorance is bliss, why are Republicans so angry?"

[Don't you see what he's trying to do?]

OMG!!! Brian!! Soylent Green is...... PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

while he points out correctly that The President has just given himself the power to make us slaves. That's right, I said slaves. What else do you call someone who is compelled by force to labor for free?

Now that we have been told Obama implemented slavery, here is a rebuttal to the executive order worth reading.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/18/obama-executive-order-nothing-to-storm-the-castle-over/

It will be Monday morning soon, the start of another work week for those of us fortunate enough to have jobs.

Brianb, may I suggest you cease worrying that President Obama is out to circumvent the constitution --he knows that document much better than any of us could ever claim to-- and get a good night's sleep?

You'll feel better in the morning. We'll all be better off when Obama wins re-election in November. Not just America, but the rest of the world as well.

In time you'll see that... and even if you don't, you'll still be better off than you would have been if one of those mediocre GOP fools had managed to take the reins and mess up all the good work Obama has done

Thanks for the link, RedDevPS. I hope it will help Brianb sleep better. :)

kaybeetoys,

Good advise to Brian.

I would add after reading all of his posts on this thread plus the executive order:

Brian, there are monsters under your bed but this is not one of them. Keep the light on and sleep well.

Gawd, I LOVE BrianB's posts! The guy is so far in left field (Jab intended) he can't even see home plate! "I don't gotta quote a reliable source!" Hey Brian, never heard of any such order? Yeah. See, about 60 years ago there was this little thing called World War II. And during WW-II they had rationing. Now, I'm not old enough to rememebr the war or even the ten years after it I do remember seeing a car with a gasoline rationing sticker on the windshield. See, during that time pretty much *everything* was rationed. Gasoline, tires, serveal forms of foods. You name it. They had drives to collect all sorts of material for use in the war effort. And you know what, Brian? People went without to support the war effort. They didn'd drive unless they had to. They volunteered for the Civil Defense corp if they couldn't get into the Army. They went without because it meant the safety and security of the country. So let's fast forward to today. Our country is in trouble again. We owe more money to and have sent more jobs to one of our enemies than my parents could ever have imagined. We send billions every year to middle-eastern countrys that hate us and they return the favor by giving the money to terrorists. And how are you helping the country, Brian? Got yourself a Hummer, a big ol' pick-em-up or some huge SUV probably. Drive it to and from work with all of one person in it, do you? Al Qaeda thanks you for your contribution. Way to help America! Help America get sold off piece by piece to our enemies, that is.

Read the thing yourself, and form your own opinion. I know, it will be hard at first, but you can do it!

@sense - if I were to believe the interpretations proposed by the right wing posters concerning the executive order, I would certainly have a one-sided jaded view. Thus, my personal view is one should always explore both sides of an argument before forming opinions. That was the reason for posting the rebuttal to the right wing rantings posted here.

Incidentally, reading is what allows me to arrive to conclusions - such as my opinion that you have about as much common sense as a fully certifiable insane person.

The spike in oil prices ONLY happened when Willard, Newton and Ricky started to threaten to invade Iran, who is after-all a sovereign nation. I ask the morons of America to Google the terms SOVEREIGN, SOVEREIGNTY and see what you come up with. America is a sovereign nation and I doubt we'd like being threatened on a daily basis because of over 5500+ nukes we have.. I didn't hear the IAEA complain, nor Iran, nor any other nation when Obama approved the first Nuclear plant in over 30 years in America. I didn't hear other nations saying it was for bomb making purposes now did we? F no..

NOT Obama, Not Bush not even Clinton could keep gas prices down. When Americans go around threatening every nation the @!$%# we espouse is bound to come back and bite us. We threaten Iran and so as with any nation they take a stance and want to defend themselves. I don't have a problem with it. We need to focus on America. Drilling Here and Drilling now won't have any impact for 10-20 years and that was the estimate during the Bush drilling hey-day. America has a blood lust these days for all things oil. We hate Iran, but love its oil..

America and Americans face a choice in November 2012. Elect a GOPer which will take America backwards in time when only white rich land owners could vote, and a few blacks who actually had land and owned slaves in the late 1700's and early 1800's..The GOP want to destroy a womans right to choose anything for herself. They in the case of Ricky want to rule with Judea-Christian Sharia law.. Elect any of the 3 and you'll get WW3 with Iran, China and Russia..

Re-elect Obama and America can continue on a path of re-growth.

The GOP wanted a magic wand to fix something that took 8 years to break. The GOP wanted it all fixed on day 1, all the while knowing their sole goal from Jan 2009 to present wasn't trying to help Americans, but they wanted to destroy President Obama. Why? They GOP hates Blacks.. Plain and Simple.. Even til today a majority of the GOP believe he wasn't born in Hawaii..

RedDev, I challenge you to rebut any single thing that I have said.

Simply saying someone has no sense is hardly a respectable argument.

I am not just giving you my opinion, I linked to the actual white house release of the text of the bill.

You got anything else?

And 420, Who has all the warships in the Strait of Hormuz? Romney? Grinch? Santorum?

NO. It's Obama, silly!

Let's see... Hmmmm... Gas consumption is DOWN... Oil/Gasoline production is UP! Prices are pushing $5.00/Gallon for gas.

It seems that prices went UP because we were consuming more than the refineries could handle. We were "in a pinch" so prices had to go up to limit consumption. At least, that was the story at the time!

So, here we are, a scant year later and the OIL Companies have found a MARKET for OUR OIL and refined products and, suddenly, the refineries have AMPLE capacity to handle all of our consumption needs AND export plenty more at TOP DOLLAR!

Who is ZOOMING who here? This is OUR OIL, it doesn't belong to the Government or Big Oil! It belongs to the CITIZENS of the USA! We, the US treasury, gets paid by the barrel for OUR OIL if it costs $25/Barrel or $250/Barrel! It doesn't cost the OIL COMPANIES any more to produce if it is selling for $25/Barrel or $250/Barrel and they pay the EXACT SAME PRICE to US per Barrel.

The point of this is: This is OUR GODDAMN OIL and it should be sold to us at a reasonable profit to the Producers AND NOBODY ELSE regardless of the price of oil on the World Market! Our consumption has NOT dropped THAT drastically that we can SUDDENLY produce way more than we NEED! We have been fed a boatload of BS for years in order to manipulate prices up and now the truth comes OUT!

Get our Natural Resources out of the World Market and away from the Speculators. We ARE Energy Independent! Once the Oil Companies run out of places to store OUR OIL for OUR consumption then they need to turn off the PUMPS! Our OIL RESERVES are based on OUR consumption and does NOT include selling any of it to OTHER COUNTRIES!

The ONE good thing Obama could do with his great Executive Order (but probably won't) is to regain control of our Gas and Oil reserves and make sure we have the 100 Years of reserves to tide us over until Science and Technology finds away to replace them! He should re-do all of the leases on them for the benefit of the Country.

There is NO REASON for us to be paying, EVEN, $2.50 for a gallon of gas. Just try to imagine what a $2 or more reduction in gas prices would do for our economy. It is a tax free pay raise to almost every citizen in the USA! It would bring down the cost of everything because ENERGY is a major component in everything we buy and/or make!

Uncommon Sense:

I fail to see a reason for rebutting any of your clams. You see, all Obama has done is update an executive order, that was apparently established by Roosevelt (note, updates appear to have also been made by Clinton, Truman, Reagan to name a few). How you can make the claim that the following update leads to a unique capability by Obama (only) to mandate enslavement is beyond me.

Another curious change involves the Department of Agriculture's mandate. New language from Obama includes, for the first time, "livestock resources, veterinary resources, [and] plant health resources."

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/18/obama-executive-order-nothing-to-storm-the-castle-over/#ixzz1pWjLxwcM

You fail to see a reason to rebut any of my claims?

You mean you CAN'T rebut any of my claims.

As for your assertion that this is simply an "update", that is a misleading claim.

Is taking an extreme measure made necessary by a world war, and using it during peacetime an "update"?

Is expanding that executive order to allow The President to enslave the citizenry an "update"?

Does it matter if The President enslaves you by updating an existing order, or writing a new one?

Hint - The answers are all "NO".

12 Jun 2008 - 41 sec - Uploaded by ObamaOnGasPrices
In a recent CNBC interview, Obama indicated that he supports higher gas prices if they are gradually adjusted.

@sense - if, and when you make a coherent claim, perhaps then it can be debated. You claim this is unique to Obama, but it has been around since Roosevelt. You made the claim we should horrified if Bush had these same powers. Well, guess what, he did, and I'll do you one better, both Bush's did. You try to suggest that Ron Paul would immediately rescind this kind of executive order - what on earth makes you think that? He certainly hasn't brought up rescinding the order in his campaign platform. You claim this is a peacetime mandate original thought up during a world war. Don't know where you been for the last 10+ years, but I'm pretty sure we have been at war.

You are all over the friggin' place. Yes, this is updating a previously issued executive order. I haven't found any wording that this new update does any more or less that the previous orders concerning your slavery claims.

"...let's say the sitting president was republican and a liberal discovered this Executive Order that was signed on Friday, published after 5 PM."

If it was Bush, I would expect him to start a campaign of lies and fabricated evidence to sucker congress into supporting his call for an illegal war to seize Iran's oil. It worked for him in Iraq, after all.

Or was that a little too Republican for you?

RedDev - give me the number of the executive order. It should be in line with previous executive orders of this nature. You should be able to trace it all the way back to Roosevelt if you are correct. All we need is the number of the executive order. That is, if it's an update. When EO's are updated they contain a revision number along with the original number... I want you to find the number of this order and what revision is it? It shouldn't take you too long..... or not.

Sailcat - It appears you still have Bush Derangement Syndrome. Explain to me how the war in Iraq was illegal. Didn't it undergo the approval of Congress and even many democrats voted to go to war. I know, the intel was cooked, although there is absolutely no proof of that claim. Some liberal made that all up and when the lie was repeated enough, the liberals made it into a fact... only problem is... there's still no proof. Oh... Valerie Plame... her husband... said it was all a lie... while she worked for a democrat lobbiest... I know, no connection whatsoever. It's a right wing conspiracy! And you liberals wonder why we call you moonbats.

Moonbat I didn't ask you what Bush's reaction would be... I asked what the liberals reaction would be.

BrianB - in a previous post, I provided a link to a site where someone already did this compare and pointed out the differences. If you don't like what I provided, feel free to continue to dig for other links to other research/citations - contrary to your perception, I am not your personal research agent.

Now, Brian. Bush fabricated evidence and withheld intelligence to sucker both aisles of congress into supporting his illegal invasion. George Bush is responsible for a war that was conducted under false pretenses and which resulted in the unnecessary deaths of more than 2000 American soldiers.

Here is a White Paper from The National Security Archive that contains this quote, "A comparison of the CIA draft white paper with its publicly released edition shows that all the changes made were in the nature of strengthening its charges against Iraq by inserting additional alarming claims, in the manner of an advocacy, or public relations document." In other words, the document had been doctored.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB254/index.htm

Here is an article that reveals George Tenet presented information to Bush months before the Iraq War that clearly showed Iraq had no WMDs. This intelligence was ignored and the information was not released to the public until after the invasion.

http://www.salon.com/2007/09/06/bush_wmd/

Spin it any way you want to, Brian, but Bush is a war criminal and one of the great tragedies of the new century is that he will probably never be brought to justice for his crimes.

"I didn't ask you what Bush's reaction would be... I asked what the liberals reaction would be."

And based upon the predicted reaction of George Bush, it would be folly to expect anything but dishonesty, Brian. Based upon recent history, I have far more faith in President Obama than I would have in a Republican president of Bush's low caliber, such as Santorum or Romney, for example.

New York Times, 3/18/2012:

In 2005, oil imports accounted for nearly 60 percent of America’s daily consumption. In 2010, for the first time in recent memory, imports were less than half of consumption, and last year, imports were only 45 percent — 8.6 million barrels a day of the 19 million consumed. There are two reasons for this welcome shift: production is up and oil consumption is down. Production of crude oil and other liquid fuels, onshore and offshore, reached about 10.3 million barrels daily in 2011, its highest level since the late 1980s.

In short, GOP, you lie!

RedDev said: BrianB - in a previous post, I provided a link to a site where someone already did this compare and pointed out the differences. If you don't like what I provided, feel free to continue to dig for other links to other research/citations - contrary to your perception, I am not your personal research agent.

In other words you want to believe that this EO has a predecessor. Let me inform you. It doesn't. This is a new EO authored by the Obama administration. I was trying to help enlighten you about it.

You know what? Disregard it. Don't worry about it at all. Obama is your friend... he loves you in a very personal way. He's not your typical politician... he cares about you and all your needs... as long as you vote for him that is... so vote for him... trust him... be happy in your political choice, you deserve each other.

Sailcat - Enjoy believing your lie... It probably gives you comfort that you are stuck on an untruth... When there's no proof and people keep on repeating it over and over again, it's very simple... it's a lie. You may have a different definition but a lie is a lie.

The very definition of willful ignorance is being presented with verifiable truth and pretending it is a lie because it does not conform to your fantasies. You, Brian, have no personal integrity because your willful ignorance prevents you from accepting the truth. You are a liar and the person to whom you lie the most is yourself. Shame.

Sailcat - a liberal university that hated GWB and a liberal website. Wow... real proof. ROFL!!!! Moonbats unite!

AKRandy

You did not read the story. They checked the facts.....and did confirm Obama did say energy costs would go up......BUT....he did not say "gas (oil)"

Romney ignored the natural gas, and coal statements Obama did say....and went with what turns out to be fabricated information (again...gasoline was never mentioned)

You cannot discredit the information because it is backed by real sources, unlike the right wing extremist zombie sites from which you mine your lies, Brian.

George Washington University is one of American's most highly regarded institutions of higher learning. You might as well condemn information because it came from Harvard or Princeton as to snivel about GW. In any case it has been entrusted with maintaining the National Security Archive.

A description of the awards won by The National Security Archive is as follows:

The National Security Archive has established an extraordinary track record of highly credible, award-winning investigative journalism and scholarship:

• In 1998, the Archive shared the George Foster Peabody Award for outstanding broadcast series (CNN's Cold War).
• In April 2000, the Archive won the 1999 George Polk Award, for which the citation reads, in part: "We are pleased to present this special 1999 George Polk Award to the National Security Archive, which is housed in the Gelman Library at George Washington University, for piercing self-serving veils of government secrecy, guiding journalists in the search for the truth and informing us all."
• In September 2005, the Archive won an Emmy Award for outstanding news and documentary research. The citation states: "President Nixon's historic 1972 trip to China was one of the greatest diplomatic coups in history. This heavily-researched documentary reveals an unknown story behind the one most journalists and historians think they know. To tell it, the producers had to find, sift, evaluate and codify thousands of declassified documents, both from the U.S. government and the secretive Chinese government too. Working in cooperation with the National Security Archive, the program's researchers brought dry government files to life, revealing details that would have rattled the world at the time..."

Furthermore, Salon is a highly respected public affairs site and the article to which I gave a link is properly sourced and researched, something that your right wing sites consistently fail to do. Both articles are authoritative and simply saying you reject them without cause points to your personal dishonesty and willful ignorance, reprehensible traits to which I referred earlier. Again, you are a liar who deceives yourself instead of other people, Brian: we see you for what you are. A coward.

Ah Sailcat - music to my ears. Willful Ignorance - some would say the 8th deadly sin, others would say the culmination of the 7 deadly sins. I would say around half the posters here. You might enjoy this article.

http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/catholicamerica/2010/08/willful_ignorance_and_the_dittoheads.html

Thanks for the link, RedDevPS! I appreciate it!

@brianb - your tin-foil hat must have slipped off when your good ol' boy from Texas signed NSPD51 into law back in '03. The EO you refer to is a revision of that order.

And to your argument about Iraq - Congress DID NOT DECLARE WAR. End of story. What Bush did was pay for the conflict (yes no declaration of war was ever proposed or voted upon in Congress for Iraq or Afghanistan) with off-budget monies resulting in the largest budget deficit in history and the largest US Sovereign Debt in History. Granted - the Debt has increased since, but that was because the conflicts are continuing without budgetary control, and the imminent failure of the auto-industry resulted in a very successful bailout of GM and Chrysler - saving hundreds of thousands of jobs in the auto and related industries and many other jobs in the areas where the industries thrived (and almost failed - thanks to that wonderful free-market economy you GOPers love).

If you want to put your tin-foil hat back on then go ahead, but remember the internet means the government knows where you are, what you browse and what you post on message boards like this one . . . . .

Dream on CM - when it reaches out and bites you in the ass, then we'll talk. Obama has all you liberals fooled.

Well, I notice you haven't refuted anything I've written, nor have you presented any proof of your wild conjectures - so who is being fooled? I'd say its the one believing wild rumors that have no basis in fact, and whose "evidence" proves the exact opposite of those rumors.

The radical right will never let facts get in the way of anything they say to their unquestioning audience.

BrianB,

It's a jobs bill. It allows for creation of new manufacturing plants. It allows for loans to upgrade existing manufacturing facilities. It allows the proper authorities to designate that certain types of manufacturing facilities and certain resources be kept within the jurisdiction of the United States, and not sent outside the country. It's all about creating jobs in this country and keeping jobs in this country. Good job keeping this one under the radar of the corporatocracy, on the President's part.

Thanks for the link.

If you want to put your tin-foil hat back on then go ahead, but remember the internet means the government knows where you are, what you browse and what you post on message boards like this one . . . . .

Oh no, dieselbug! Brianb will be awake all night if he reads that! ;)

The crux of the matter is that the GOP attack machine has nothing to pin on Obama, nothing to sink their teeth into. They have looked under every rock and pebble to find something, anything to use to discredit him. The result is that they found exactly nothing.

So-- like the moral, patriotic and fair people they are-- the GOP has manufactured issues instead. They came up with the ludicrous claim that Obama was born in Kenya. Amazingly, a lot of people still buy that (which demonstrates their gullibility), just as they buy that Obama is a Muslim (which demonstrates their religious intolerance).

Now we have Brianb jumping on the bandwagon with the latest round of swift boating.

We citizens can be fooled some of the time, but not all of the time. We know what you're up to, Brianb and it won't work. Americans can still read and comprehend Obama's latest Executive Order, despite Republican attempts to destroy public education and brainwash the citizenry.

It is the height of immorality to spread lies and bear false witness. To do that against a sitting president during a time of war ought to be considered an act of treason.

For the millionth time, the democrats NEVER had a filibuster proof majority. There were 60 senators that caucused with the democrats after the 2008 election but several are conservatives that are democrats in name only. Then there is Joe Lieberman -- he votes against the democrats more often than he votes for them. He's not even a democrat.

The fact is that the republicans *DID* filibuster virtually everything Obama tried to do after the 2008 election. It worked because the democrats NEVER HAD 60 senators that were willing to bring democratic bills to the floor for an up or down vote.

Senator Obama voted against every debt ceiling increase. Senator Obama blamed Bush for the rising gas prices. The hypocrisy goes on and on. President Obama is borrowing, printing, and wasting money like never before as he adds more to our national debt in one term then Bush did in two. President Obama calls for an all of the above approach to our energy needs, but so far he has only engaged in crony capitalism with failed green energy companies while he blocked everything else. Obama had done nothing but blame everyone else for everything that has gone wrong in his presidency, no pair of big boy pants in the White House.

Winners take responsibility, losers blame others.

In the 50s Congress broke up the large monopolies like Standard Oil only to allow the oil industry to again become a monopoly. No oil company has built any refineries in the last 20 years. We are at the mercy of these giant companies. The new proposed pipe line is only an easy route for Canada to pump oil to the gulf for refining and export. Our Congress is not making any effort to ensure cheaper and more supply to the American public. Think people, it is all about the dollar, not energy independence. Exxon Mobile and the other oil companies have no qualms selling our resources to foreign countries. It's the old adage, you make hay while the sun shines and big oil is certainly making hay with our energy resources. I saw an ad from the petroleum industry saying they we had 200 years of oil in sand fields....where is it and when are they to tap it for our use, when are they going to build new modern refineries and lower our cost??? More importantly when are they going to stop ripping off the American public and when will Congress say enough is enough???? And don't forget the tax supplement that big oil gets for drilling. Record profits for the oil industry and we still blame the President!!!! He doesn't legislate, your dumb bunnies in Congress do that. It's time you let them know you are fed up with their pandering to Business, BOTH PARTIES!!!

Got to love the lack of fact checking by MSNBC over when candidate Obama talked about being in favor of rising gas prices. Especially when they needed to look no further then their own interviews.

In 2008 then candidate Obama said in an interview with Steve Harwood of MSNBC that he agreed with (our current energy secretary) Chu that rising gas prices would be a good thing because it would force citizens to drive less and look to alternative forms of energy. He preferred “a gradual adjustment” in pricing as opposed to a rapid spike.

The Keystone Pipeline would put more supply into the marketplace. The more supply the lower the price, it really is that simple.

Rick, the only thing the pipeline will do is enable Canada to have a direct route to the Gulf refineries and a direct export hub. If you've not been keeping up with the business news, our oil producers number one money maker is exporting refined oil products which includes gas and diesel. So who would benefit from this pipeline?? I say keep that oil at home. Build refineries to supply this Nation, not China and the rest of the world. And stop subsidizing Big Oil Companies who are making record Billions !!!! Let's build that pipeline and see if the prices come down....I say they won't. And while we're at it, let's build that bridge to no where that President Bush and the GOP wanted.

keck.......you said above:

Quote....personally i rejected obama as my president after the democrats rammed obamacare down our throats.....EndQuote

Oh, really ? Back in April of 2009 you said the following:

Quote.....obama was born in jakarta , he shouldnt even be president, such a shame.....EndQuote

Here keck, you have thrown another disingenuous straw on your credibility camel.

Are you still a "birther" keck ? Do you folks volunteer to be crackpots or is it congenital?

Gene, it is real simple. Oil is a global commodity. The more oil in the commodity the less it will cost. To suggest because the oil will be shipped over seas it will have no impact is false. More oil means more oil available on the market. Same with drilling here in the US, more oil. Policies that will be seen in the Middle East to be threatening their gravy train will impact the price of oil. This is a global commodity, a global market, and the US can certainly impact the price through our energy policy.

But lets not forget that we have a government that is borrowing, printing out of thin air, and spending money like there is no tomorrow. The Obama administration has done nothing but devalue the dollar since they took office. The weaker the dollar becomes, the more of them it takes to buy a barrel of crude. Which is the benchmark for the pricing of all refined products. So no energy policy and a weak dollar, means the borrowed buck stops with Obama on this issue.

@ CM-6969, “I'd bet good money that Brianb didn't actually read or understood the whole executive order, just saw all that legalese and assumed it must be a socialist takeover of everything.”

“The Constitution still stands, the Government may not confiscate property without due process and just compensation, this executive order doesn't change that at all.”

Actually I can say that you must not have read the whole executive order, or else did not understand it. Nor do you seem to understand our US Constitution is is being not only ignored, but undermined.

On March 16, 2012, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order stating that the President and his specifically designated Secretaries now have the authority to commandeer all domestic U.S. resources including food and water. The Executive Order also states that the President and his Secretaries have the "authority" to seize all transportation, energy, and infrastructure inside the United States as well as forcibly induct/draft American citizens into the military. It also has a reference in regards to harnessing American citizens to fulfill “labor requirements” for the purposes of national defense in peacetime.

The "authority" claimed inside the Executive Order does not only apply to National Emergencies and times of war. It also applies in peacetime. (emphasis is mine) Nor does it make any reference to reimbursement or pay for anything taken away from us, or for our labor if they decide to order us to work. (no pay = higher profits)

That means that we no longer own our property, the food we buy or raise, our cars, the water we pay for, nor our labor. It literally makes us slaves.

It is true that if Obama follows the US Constitution he would not have done many things he has done. So you KNOW he is NOT following the US Constitution (But then he has told us many times that his "Authority" comes NOT from the US Constitution, but from the United Nations, a foreign entity).

Examples of what he would NOT have done if following the US Constitution: The US Constitution makes the Patriot Act NOT legal here, it is "void", yet it is being enforced. Nor is warrantless searches, warrantless seizures legal here, yet they are happening daily here in the USA. TSA actions in airports, bus stations, train stations and on our roads are not legal here and happening daily 24/7 here in the USA under our US Constitution. NDAA is not legal here, Warrantless tracking of US citizens is NOT legal here. Taking control of the internet, monitoring all of our cell phones, e mails, us at our homes/businesses, etc are all not legal here, but are being done. Arresting those peacefully protesting, and stopping peaceful protests - these illegal actions are all happening here.

But how can anyone be surprised? He has told everyone all along this is who he represents. Media fed us all lies, and ignored any wrong doing under orders from the people who own those companies and give them their jobs.

Over his almost 4 years in office, since "President" Obama was Chair for the UN, he and his administration has routinely cited the authority of the United Nations over the US Constitution, the United States of America.
President Obama sent a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner in which Obama boldly asserted the “Authority” of international powers over and above the US Constitution. Panetta, Dempsey and Obama openly declared that they no longer represent the American people and instead are representatives for a global dictatorship that has usurped the sovereignty of the United States.

Obama and his administration area domestic enemies destroying our country from within. If this were not true none of those things would be "on the books", nor would the issue of them be coming up at all. Yes this executive order does make us slaves, all of us here in America.

If their "authority" comes from UN and NATO, then they have NO authority in the USA.

Their treasonous acts and words are on video, in writing, etc and there is no excuse for them to have not been arrested.

If you come on here and us facts to expose the Lib fauls claims be ready to have you post collapsed.

Fiesty -I think you are always nasty to people because that is you Lib nature, if you can't win the argument attack the person, classic Lib.

This website is full of paid bloggers, Fiesty among them. They spew the talking points they are given by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. They congregate like pack wolves and the truth or hypocrisy mean nothing. Any post they don't like because they don't have a script telling them how to attack, they simply collapse it in a daily demonstration against freedom of speech. For them the end justifies the means. The liberal motto is a simple one, we need to pass the bill so everyone can find out what is in it.

Czar you have it, now you know the rest of the story.

To all the Democrats, Liberals and Centrists on this board. Your arguments on this board are moot. I dare you to find me ONE Republican or Tea Bagger that is smart enough, or thinks analytically enough to understand all of your FACTS and STATISTICS.

See the fact is, THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT FACTS! Once they have drank the Fox Coolaid, they subjugate all of their critical thinking to Fox and the Teapublican party. If Faux News told them the earth was flat, they would believe it. All pictures, science, facts, hell even if you flew them all the way around the word, would make absolutely no difference at all.

So, all you are doing is giving yourself high blood pressure and causing them to hoard more guns in their bunker, for well... you know... when the evil Obama comes to take over their farm and steal all their guns. LOL

SAVE YOUR BREATH!

Very strange why the gop/tp nuts never blame the U.S. oil companies who keep breaking record with outrageous profits year after year., and they never blame themselves for doing everything to keep the stupid subsidies to these oil companies. They're simply counting on their utmost stupidity of their base, but the rest of the country is much smarter than their brain-dead base!!!

JUST STOP ALL THOSE SUBSIDES TO THE OIL COMPANY AND CUT THE TAX FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS WHO ARE THE BULK CONSUMERS OF GASOLINE CAUSE THEY HAVE TO MAKE AN HONEST LIVING!!! AND TAX THE OIL INDUSTRY ON THEIR PROFITS HEAVILY!!!

First, for Gingrich to get gas to $2.50, he would have to nationalize the oil industry, like Chavez, and then artificially lower the price to $2.50. But that would be a very socialistic move, especially for a republican.

Next, as mentioned earlier, oil is a commodity on the world market and as such, is affected by possible crisises around the world. Speculators play a part in the pricing mix. In the last ten years, there has been one refinery built and in the last 20 years four came online. So there is no mad rush to build new refineries and what we have are running at capacity. It is all about supply and demand. Why would an oil company build a multi-billion dollar facility that would push supply higher and prices lower when they are making so much money in the current configuration?

Now, if the politicians even cared about average Joe American, then they would be talking about ways to increase your wages to be able to deal with inflation. A growing economy will have inflation associated with it, but the US wages are not keeping up with inflation and that is the big problem.

AnIndependat- See you always come back to this take the subsidy's from the oil companies it is now Obama that has been giving them to the oil companies the last three years; if we take them away what do you think would happen the would pass the cost back onto the consumer just like if you over tax them they are going to pass that back on, you can not be so naive to believe that buy taking away these subsidy's would hurt anyone but the consumer. I know I just can't think as analytically as all you Libs. This is America and that is how it works a company provides a service and if you like there product you can buy it if you don't you don't have to buy it ride a bike if you don't want oil companies to have you money to add to there profits. I will tell you it is no companies responsibility to prop up the USA government because the POTUS does not know what the hell he is doing. Here is fact Obama can't get the Dem in congress to back cutting the subsidy's to the oil companies, I understand that you need us to think it is the other way around but it is not he does not have the backing of his own party to get this done as of right now.

Christian- Centrists bahhahahaha you gotta to be FU*8*** kidding me, Centrists bahahaha.

ONE Republican or Tea Bagger that is smart enough, or thinks analytically enough to understand all of your FACTS and STATISTICS.

Just because you say they are facts does not make it so. Actually the are talking points more convoluted than Fox's talking points. As for you all being the smartest person in the room get a grip most of you don't even have jobs that's why you are on here all day. Just because you spend all of your time in school because you don't want to work doesn't mean that the other side is any less analytical than you it just means maybe thy had to actually get out and work.

http://www.brutallyhonest.org/brutally_honest/plainly-prevaricating/

This is why America needs a new president, to think this is a sustainable leave of spending is just wrong

* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000

Let's remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts: $385

Here's a quote from Obama's Energy Secretary Chu just before he got his job;

"Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the
price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," Mr. Chu, who
directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said
in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September of 2008.

It would appear that Obama has at least kept ONE of his commitments. The price of Gasoline was only $1.84 when Obama took office.

Why don't we cut the nonsense about the effect of the 'oil company subsidies' that Obama keeps harping on.

1 - They are not specific to the oil industry - they apply to all American companies and the special 'credits' helped one company alone (GE) by five times as much as the entire oil industry combined.

2 - The amount Obama wants to cut is only about $3 Billion per year - The government spends $10 Billion per DAY.

If we want to cut that $3 Billion from oil companies, fine, but let's also cut the $15 Billion given to Obama's buddy - General Electric.

Hey Bill -

There would actually have to be an actual BUDGET to get those figures. Im sure thats a pretty modest estimate, its probably higher than $3.8T, but thats just speculation.

Liberal Senate can't even get a budget passed, its pathetic. Remove everyone from power in Washington and start anew. Thats the only way we can move forward in this country.

Don't say that too loudly Raff or the libbies around here will collapse you for telling the truth. It happens all the time. Hell, they completely forgot the lie Obama told about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on Friday. Remember when he "spent" those "savings" from those two theaters, saying it would reduce his record deficits? Well, on Friday he reneged on that by saying he wants to spend half of it on infrastructure. In other words, "I lied when I said I wasn't going to spend more money." How many times can that absurd excuse for a POTUS spend the same damn dollar? Now, for the libbies, collapse my post and prove me (and Teddy R) right.

"To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth." Teddy Roosevelt

You try and discredit Brian as paranoid, while he points out correctly that The President has just given himself the power to make us slaves. That's right, I said slaves. What else do you call someone who is compelled by force to labor for free?

Because there is nothing in the Executive Order about not paying for labor, so that "slave" claim is just total nonsense.

Actually I can say that you must not have read the whole executive order, or else did not understand it. Nor do you seem to understand our US Constitution is is being not only ignored, but undermined.

Actually, I really did read the entire executive order, every last legalistic paragraph. That's why I know it doesn't say what the paranoid fringe pretend it says.

On March 16, 2012, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order stating that the President and his specifically designated Secretaries now have the authority to commandeer all domestic U.S. resources including food and water. The Executive Order also states that the President and his Secretaries have the "authority" to seize all transportation, energy, and infrastructure inside the United States as well as forcibly induct/draft American citizens into the military. It also has a reference in regards to harnessing American citizens to fulfill “labor requirements” for the purposes of national defense in peacetime.
The "authority" claimed inside the Executive Order does not only apply to National Emergencies and times of war. It also applies in peacetime. (emphasis is mine) Nor does it make any reference to reimbursement or pay for anything taken away from us, or for our labor if they decide to order us to work. (no pay = higher profits)

Instead of quoting what someone else claims is in there, why don't you quote from the actual Executive Order? Of course, that wouldn't sound so dramatic and inflammatory. Didn't you realize that "the draft" has been around for decades, it's nothing new and certainly not something Obama came up with? Of course it doesn't specify pay, neither does the Selective Service laws that regulate the draft - but draftees are not and never have been "slaves", they get paid for their service, and nothing in that EO exempts the Government from having to pay employees for work - even if they are drafted to serve.

No true liberal could support Obama based on Obama's own actions.

Use of the "No True Scotsman" fallacy noted.

If you so called "liberals" don't realize that this latest executive order is in preparation for war with Iran, then there is no logic, no reason left in you.

It doesn't specify any war or any nation, it is a general preparation for any type of national emergency - disaster, terrorist attack, or war. Iran is hardly the only threat we face. Ironically, it is the Republicans that have long been beating the drums for war against Iran, and Obama has been pushing for restraint and diplomacy.

Listen carefully...... Obama is not liberal!!!!!!

Finally, something I can agree with! Obama is a reasonable moderate, not the "marxist socialist islamist" that the paranoid right keeps pretending.

Obama's policies are all directed towards consolodating and maintaining power for ONE person.... The President. It is no longer imaginary or delusional. It's real. It's happening right before your eyes, and many of you still just refuse to see it.

A delusion doesn't become real just because you insist that it must be real. Sorry, but the things you claim are there just are not there.

I have a rather pertinent question... just for @!$%#s and giggles... let's say the sitting president was republican and a liberal discovered this Executive Order that was signed on Friday, published after 5 PM. What would your reaction be?

Apparently Reagan made a similar Executive Order - and there was no big outcry from the Left, as it was straightforward preparation for a potential emergency. Reagan also signed an order requiring all able bodied men of a certain age group to register with the Selective Service, even though there was an all volunteer military and no draft. That executive order is still in effect.

So, did you scream and holler back then about "Reagan wants to make us slaves"? I didn't think so.

Gasoline supply good in USA or we would not be exporting it. Speculation is still key to rise of gas. Wall Street, Unrest in Middle East and greed mongers.

The money for gas comes out of our pockets and straight to oil companies and investors who artificially inflate to create profits and use any slight news story to justify the Wall Street corporate bandwagon. This has been an ongoing scenario.

The power the oil/ Wall Street major players have is so big that this is what happens when there is any reason/speculate to make profits.

If proper regulations were in place, I doubt we would be going broke paying for gas.

Keystone pipeline extension would not have changed anything but more exports

Brian you do realize when you wrote 'Now when you decide to protest it... never ever forget HR 347 that takes away even more of your rights. ', it was a republican that introduced that bill, and congress had to pass the bill before it went for President Obama's signature, right?

The numbers I gave above and below were actual numbers as of last year, but they were only intended to help show you how it would look if you looked at it from a household prospective. Pretty worrisome if you ask me it shows that this type of spending can't be sustained.

This is just a tool to help you see how it would look if you viewed the US debt as it was your households debt, these were the actual numbers last year.

* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
* Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
* New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
* Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000

Let's remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700
* Money the family spent: $38,200
* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
* Total budget cuts: $385

RedDev, you are wrong on every level.

Both Bush's ABSOLUTELY DID NOT HAVE THESE POWERS.

Thes powers are NEW.

And Yes, Ron Paul will absolutely rescind such unconstitutional garbage.

You are so lazy, you have been presented with the ACTUAL TEXT of the executive order twice in this thread, but you are still spewing your left wing talking points that you garnered from a left wing op-ed piece.

Perhaps if you read the actual text, you can FORM YOUR OWN OPINION.

What you are saying is completely false. As anyone who actually read the EO could tell you.

Regurgitaing others opinions about something you haven't taken the time to read, make your opinions worthless and weak.

Why dodn't you read the part where it says they can make anyone with any "expertise" they need work for them without compensation?

Hey, hope your "expertise" isn't in Agriculture! Lols at you, sheeple who can't even see who and what you are supporting.

A vote for Obama is a vote for WAR!

Get it?

And War never used to be a liberal agenda.

Because the 'printing press usa dollar' is running out of control AND the USA owes 16 TRILLION the value of the dollar is now less and THEREFORE takes more to buy a barrel of oil.... Just keep borrowing and spending obama... Yeah that should help!

In the referenced article, Obama does not say that he wants gas prices to go up, rather that a gradual increase would be better than the sharp spikes we were seeing at that time.

The actual price we pay for gas is based on several factors; some change gradually over time, such as short term supply, while some can spike wildly, such as speculation. Wild swings make it difficult for the market to adjust; for example, it is hard to develop oil shale over many years when it is not clear what the price will be when the development is finished. The same is true for wind, solar, geo-thermal and other energy options. It is hard to sell investment with that much uncertainty.

Given increasing demand and finite supply, the cost of oil & gas will rise over time. A gradual rise will allow for investment in alternatives. That is all Obama is saying.

So let get real. If Republicans really want to see gas prices come down (which of course they do not want to see before the election) they would stop talking about going to war with Iran, which drives up the price of oil, and throttle speculation in oil futures which accounts for a large portion of the increase in gas we have seen in the last year.

nojo, no bo, nj

"But if we take some steps right now to help people make the adjustment, first of all by putting more money in their pockets",

I read that article. His choice of words has alot lot to be disired. It is more like if we could force people make the adjustment, first of all by putting more money in thier pockets. I haven't seen anymore money in my pockets, infact i have seen less. Due to higher gas prices. I guess he figures that if we have to pay more for gas. We will be more willing to comply with his green energy plan. All he is doing for me is pissing me off.

What do you not understand about "gradual increase"? To most that can read, that means prices go UP...get it...increase, up....one and the same.

When Obama was campaigning into 2008, gas prices hit an all time high with an average of $4.11/gallon. The price now is still $.28 lower than that.

I wonder why the republicans are fighting so hard to keep from reining in the speculators who have been calculated to add at least .50 a gallon to every gallon of gas you buy? Then the republicans call these speculators job creators and protect them from paying the same percentage of tax that you and I pay.

Could it be they don't want gas prices to come down, they just want to blame it all on President Obama just like everything else the republicans have done.

Republicans would rather have you thinking about gas prices than thinking about all the rights the republican taliban are taking from women.

And men, are you ready to limit your sex to making babies only, like the republicans are trying to force on America?

VOTE.....FOR MEN AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS.....Obama/Biden 2012

Americans First - vote for our country!

Obama/Biden 2012

I am amazed at how republicans revere president Obama as a Messiah, as more than a mortal, republicans believe him to be a Godlike being who singularly controls everything from world events to gas prices. It is not healthy for republicans, and it exposes them as being weak and puny when they give such deference to a single mere mortal. Republicans are lost they have no plan or the ability to understand much less solve the problems we face, they totally rely on President Obama to be the nanny they claim they don't want, but obviously so desperately need, because they constantly defer to him as the only super-human that can be in control of, and responsible for every detail of our nation. To put it a bit more bluntly what a bunch of chicken sh!t, bench warming, Monday morning quarterbacking, two bit, two faced, sorry azz bunch of wussies. They deserve Mitt Romney!

I remember the energy crisis during the 1970's. We've only known for 40 years, we need to get off oil, for environmental reasons, national security reasons and the finite nature of the resource. My God, we just saw the Gulf polluted by what the Republicans with their "drill baby drill baby " think is so wonderful. Its amazing after 40 years, Republicans still think consumers have some kind of " right " to be shielded from the true price of our addiction. And they say Democrats promote a "nanny state" mindset.

great minds think alike, Forrest:)

We need to remember that he federal gov't has little control over gas prices. In the U.S. oil and gas are international commodities, sold in an international marketplace, by private corporations. The U.S. can reduce pump prices by releasing reserve fuel under its control but then it will also lose any advantage and security of having a strategic reserve (to be used for national emergencies). I'm not sure how Newt will increase availability and lower prices to $2.50/gallon - perhaps liposuction?

Can anyone give an example of a something the president (any president) can do to bring gas prices down? The way the GOP candidates talk I would think there must be something simple that could be done. Right off the bat I will refute the most obvious: drill baby drill. America does not have oil. Exxon, Texaco, BP - they have oil. America buys that oil from them no matter where they drill it, even if they drill it in America. Drilling more oil here only offsets the volatility of oil drilled in the middle east by supplying steady, politically sound oil to the market. Under Obama our domestic production has increased by 10% - so Obama is producing more oil and still the prices are up. That's because the oil is priced based on the international supply and demand for oil. China is using more oil and there has been great interruptions in Middle Eastern oil production, for instance. Yet we still hear that Obama is simply choosing to not do "something" to change this.

If the GOP and their supporters insist on continuing this impossible argument then they need to explain this. They need to give examples of what could be done - realistically! Otherwise the candidates and their supporters are just trolling 24-7.

Its amazing to me..Obama is too blame for everything...yet he took on election day a huge debt handed to us all, the citizens of this country.....brought about by a war he chose not to fund and a cutting of taxes for his wealthy friends in the republican guard. Did not hear any of the republicans calling for Bush's war to be paid for...still have not heard that from them...only that Obama is too blame for everything. Yet...the first thing , statements from republicans when Obama was elected was that they wouod do everything to make sure he failed. So...just where does the true blame fall ? On a do nothing congress..or a president who can only send to congress what he hopes to get done...and have a congress work for the people rather than for themselves.

ivan, NC - well said!

The media lies!!!

On June 10, 2008 in an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood, then-candidate Barack Obama said, “Well, I think that we have been slow to move in a better direction when it comes to energy usage. And the president, frankly, hasn't had an energy policy. And as a consequence, we've been consuming energy as if it's infinite. We now know that our demand is badly outstripping supply with China and India growing as rapidly as they are.”

Asked if high gasoline prices would help, Obama answered, “I think that I would have preferred a gradual adjustment. The fact that this is such a shock to American pocketbooks is not a good thing.”

Also in 2008, Stephen Chu, who became Obama’s Energy secretary, was quoted as saying, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

@radagast -- #2.12 - Richard Nixon instituted price and wage controls prior to the OPEC embargo in an attempt to control inflation. The price controls did extend to gasoline; however, the problem was lack of available oil due to the OPEC embargo. Oil simply was not available at any price.

Here is President Nixon's address that announced the price controls.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=3868#axzz1pVMatxvT

I can think of a way that Obama can put some downward push on gas prices: Announce an investigation into gas futures speculation.

Big fanfare, use the bully pulpit...

"you guys are hurting ordinary Amercans and I'm not going to stand for it!"

Forrest Grump 2.0 post 2.8

Man, did you hit that one out of the park! I have been saying for years that the majority of Republican politicians are such cowards that they MUST lie just to keep their base ignorant voters fired up......... Their pathetic losers.

Hey, can someone tell me if Obama is also in total control of Canada, because fuel prices there are rising at and falling at almost the exact same rates they are in in the US.

You guys don't seem to have any understanding at all. The President and Chu were trying to say that to make progress in the future, we will have to feel some pain now. They would like to see higher prices because they are smart enough to realize that unless we get to the point that it's hurting too much we will never cut back on our oil use and be accepting of alternatives. They understand that many of us are stuck in what we perceive to have worked for all these years rather than even consider change. Then we cry about our oil dependency and the high prices.

Very similar to the healthcare system. It works so well that we are paying twice what the next highest country is paying, yet are ranked at between 20th and 30th in overall health. Yet we still seem to feel it's working and we better not change it.

Here is the difference. If the government raises the gas prices with taxes, that money stays in the country (maybe used for infrastructure or something here at home). Big oil speculation profits the hedge fund managers and your retirement plan or your 401k. The prices will never go back down to what they were even a year ago. Why? Because the baseline for the profit has gone up. People are making mega dollars, and they WILL NOT give that up. So everyone needs to suck it up, learn to deal, and move on.

x

Well, looks like the liar wins the front runner for now award. I'm just shocked he's Mormon! Who'd of guessed? And the crowed goes wild....

Romney reminds me of a chi-wa-wa yelping backwards as he goes under the bed. And his jobs plan is what?

Feisty Redhead Roselle, IL

x

Uh, migHt want to post a different 'test' letter, there, "old gal"- 'else Santorum gonna gitcha!

Did you ladies see the picture of Santorum laying out by a pool in Puerto Rico? Picture was taken by a guy from a gay cruise. Guess Santorum was letting his inner Putin out (BTW, don't look at the picture too long, it can cause permanent eye damage)

Uh, migHt want to post a different 'test' letter, there, "old gal"- 'else Santorum gonna gitcha!

Are you kidding me?

These right wing perverts can NOT get enough of some titillation... lol

Republican controlled the house always act as a spoiler, Romney Ginrich and Santorium are nothing but pinochios. none of these candidates can produce any integrity whatsoever all these 3 Pinochios with Romney having the longest nose are good attacking each other, mudslinging, yet they can not produce a solid result once elected. Do you really want one of these clown to be a leader that does not have a good solid approach to solve problem and only good to sling mud. When Bush was in office gas price went skyrocketing, cheney pocket was loadedwith cash by way of haliburton. Once in office they are good for nothing.

12 Jun 2008 - 41 sec - Uploaded by ObamaOnGasPrices
In a recent CNBC interview, Obama indicated that he supports higher gas prices if they are gradually adjusted.

September 2007: [Democratic-controlled] Congress raising the
debt limit to - $9.815 trillion

July 2008:
[Democratic-controlled] Congress raising the debt limit to - $10.615 trillion

October 2008:
[Democratic-controlled] Congress raising the debt limit to - $11.315 trillion

December 2009: [Democratic-controlled] Congress raising the
debt limit to - $12.394 trillion

February 2010: [Democratic-controlled] Congress raising the
debt limit to - $14.294 trillion

What are we now?
ALMOST 16 TRILLION!?!?! Way to spend our tax money

Mr. Big $PENDER OBAMA
- Epic Fail

Those damn facts!! Huh Feisty?

401ks are the 800 lb gorilla in the room. Mindless, moraless money making machines. I will garauntee you mine as well as yours is invested in China and Bangladesh and any other third world country that has cheap, controlled labor. As long as we allow oil to be an uncontrolled commonly traded commodity the speculators and oil barons will minipulate the market for profit and our 401ks will follow them into the sewer.

Pension plans used to be tightly controlled. Any company administering a pension plan had to show they could fund said plan through the last particpant's expected lifetime. Bush 1 by executive order when his economy was on the ropes changed this to allowing companies to borrow against thier pension plans and only show that they could fund the plan for a year. Thus the collapse in the 90s of most pension plans and the invention of the 401k slush fund for the speculators and vulture capitalists.

Trust me folks. When the economy hits the skids and your 401k takes a dive the big players are allready out of the market and waiting for the next climb to latch onto your money again.

And finally to the substitute teacher would couldn't afford to take a job and go off of unemployment You need to listen to Romney and the rights talking points. It doesn't matter if you can't afford to work for less. You must accept the low wages and work or you can't be a good Republican.Get a bicycle and move into a cardboard box. Suck it up for America.

They need to give examples of what could be done - realistically! Otherwise the candidates and their supporters are just trolling 24-7.

Well...they are just trolling 24/7. That's how they roll.

Sanka, you don't have to keep posting the same comment over and over. We read it the first time and ignored it for a reason.

Obama doesn't control the price of gasoline. His administration has increased domestic energy production well over that of the previous administration. That is the promise he's kept.

Romney had better come up with some better lies, and fast. He's got an ultra right-wing theocrat breathing down his neck and he still can't get past what he did to poor Seamus.

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012

To the person who said Obama knows the Constitution better then any of us. Knowing something does not mean you are following it. I suspect YOU do not understand our Constitution or what its seven pages does or you would know that these things he and his administration are doing are illegal in this country and would only be "legal" in a dictatorship, monarchy, or any other "ruled over" government. Let me enlighten you.

The US Constitution is the blueprint for the way our government operates, grants our government certain specified powers. It makes clear certain government limitations, to better protect the liberties of the people. It limits the power of our federal government because our forefathers dealt with bad governments. It defines each branch and assigns them their duties and powers. It also gives each branch the way to protect their power from encroachment from the other branches.

It put into writing the guarantee that NO ONE serving with our government will ever have the legal power to weaken or takeaway (what Constitutional framers considered our "natural, god-given) our natural rights". The Bill of Rights puts limitations on our federal government put into writing some of those natural rights (and includes specific privileges in the judicial system already accepted in Anglo-American law), protecting us from those who might serve and try to take those rights from the people. It also says that those rights written into the US Constitution are not the only "natural and god-given" rights we have.

The other important thing to realize is that the united States existed before our federal government, which was created by them to handle such things as foreign affairs, making sure that trade was equal between the states (ex: meaning that the state of Ohio could not charge one price for those who lived in Ohio and another to those who came there from another state). That the federal government gets its powers from the states and the people. The federal government has limited powers while the states and the people do not.

Obama and Bush, and Clinton and their administrations way overstepped the powers assigned to them and we allowed it. But, there is NO TIME limit on stopping those who overstepped their powers, or for those illegal activities to ever be legal under our Constitution. What I mean by that is congress can never give any of constitutionally assigned duties away to any other branch, or to any one else. So the Federal Reserve is an illegal entity. Patriot Act is illegal. Extension of the Patriot Act is illegal. Warrantless searches are illegal. Executive orders (gives the president legislative duties) are illegal, NDAA is illegal. Obama giving a foreign entity power over the US is not only illegal but an act of war AGAINST the USA. Truthfully all of those actions are actions in the destruction of the USA, internal acts against our way of government, our way of life by domestic enemies.

Law enforcement and military do not always understand their Oath is to the USA. That the US Constitution IS the USA (because it defines our way of government). That their Oath is to "support and Defend it from domestic enemies (and foreign ones). Illegal laws can be enforced because of who ordered it instead of following what is actually legal in our country. Of course that makes us under a dictatorship when the person who makes those orders is put above the laws of the land.

kaybeetoys, "Obama doesn't control the price of gasoline. His administration has increased domestic energy production well over that of the previous administration. That is the promise he's kept."

Hope this helps you to understand. Some background: Actually, the astronomic price run-up in the Summer of 2008 when oil in futures markets briefly hit $147 a barrel, oil today is rising because of the speculative pressure on oil futures markets from hedge funds and major banks such as Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase and most notably, Goldman Sachs, the bank always present when there are big bucks to be won for little effort betting on a sure thing. They’re getting a generous assist from the US Government agency entrusted with regulating financial derivatives, the Commodity Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC). Source: oilnergy.com

Since the beginning of October 2011, some six months ago, the price of Brent Crude Oil Futures on the ICE Futures exchange has risen from just below $100 a barrel to over $126 per barrel, a rise of more than 25%. Back in 2009 oil was $30.

Yet demand for crude oil worldwide is not rising, but rather is declining in the same period. The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that the world oil supply rose by 1.3 million barrels a day in the last three months of 2011 while world demand increased by just over half that during that same time period.Gasoline usage is down in the US by 8%, Europe by 22% and even in China. Recession across much of the European Union, a deepening recession/depression in the United States and slowdown in Japan have reduced global oil demand while new discoveries are coming online daily and countries like Iraq are increasing supply after years of war. A brief spike in China’s oil purchases in January and February had to do with a decision last December to build their Strategic Petroleum Reserve and is expected to return to more normal import levels by the end of this month.

Why then the huge spike in oil prices? A brief look at how today’s “paper oil” markets function is useful. Since Goldman Sachs bought J. Aron & Co., a savvy commodities trader in the 1980’s, trading in crude oil has gone from a domain of buyers and sellers of spot or physical oil to a market where unregulated speculation in oil futures, bets on a price of a given crude on a specific future date, usually in 30 or 60 or 90 days, and not actual supply-demand of physical oil determine daily oil prices.

In recent years, a Wall Street-friendly (and Wall Street financed) US Congress has passed several laws to help the banks that were interested in trading oil futures, among them one that allowed the bankrupt Enron to get away with a financial ponzi scheme worth billions in 2001 before it went bankrupt.

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) was drafted by the man who today is President Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner. The CFMA in effect gave over-the-counter (between financial institutions) derivatives trading in energy futures free reign, absent any US Government supervision, as a result of the financially influential lobbying pressure of the Wall Street banks. Oil and other energy products were exempt under what came to be called the “Enron Loophole.”

In 2008 during a popular outrage against Wall Street banks for causing the financial crisis, Congress finally passed a law over the veto of President George Bush to “close the Enron Loophole.” And as of January 2011, under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform act, the CFTC was given authority to impose position caps on oil traders beginning in January 2011.

Curiously, these limits have not yet been implemented by the CFTC. ... While he has made noises of trying to close the loopholes, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has yet to do so. Notably, Gensler is a former executive of, you guessed, Goldman Sachs. The enforcement by the CFTC remains non-existent.

The role of key banks along with oil majors such as BP in manipulating a new oil price bubble since last Autumn, one detached from the physical reality of supply-demand calculations of real oil barrels, is being noted by a number of sources.

While he has made noises of trying to close the loopholes, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has yet to do so. Notably, Gensler is a former executive of, you guessed, Goldman Sachs. The enforcement by the CFTC remains non-existent.

The role of key banks along with oil majors such as BP in manipulating a new oil price bubble since last Autumn, one detached from the physical reality of supply-demand calculations of real oil barrels, is being noted by a number of sources.

Michael Greenberger, professor at the University of Maryland School of Law and a former CFTC regulator who has tried to draw public attention to the consequences of the US Government’s decisions to allow unbridled speculation and manipulation of energy prices by big banks and funds, recently noted, "There are 50 studies showing that speculation adds an incredible premium to the price of oil, but somehow that hasn't seeped into the conventional wisdom," Greenberger said. "Once you have the market dominated by speculators, what you really have is a gambling casino."

The result of a permissive US Government regulation of oil markets has created the ideal conditions whereby a handful of strategic banks and financial institutions, interestingly the same ones dominating world trade in oil derivatives and the same ones who own the shares of the major oil trading exchange in London, ICE Futures, are able to manipulate huge short-term swings in the price we pay for oil or gasoline or countless other petroleum-based products.

Some analysts speak of oil at $150 by summer.

Hillary Clinton just insured that the oil price will continue to ride high for months on fears of a war with Iran by delivering a new ultimatum to Iran on the nuclear issue in talks with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, “by year’s end or else...” 5

Curiously, one of the real drivers of the current oil price bubble is the Obama Administration’s economic sanction recently imposed on oil transactions of the Central Bank of Iran. By pressuring Japan, South Korea and the EU not to import Iranian oil or face punitive actions, Washington has reportedly forced a huge drop in oil supply from Iran to the world market in recent weeks, giving a turbo boost to the Wall Street derivatives play on oil.

The issue of unbridled and unregulated oil derivatives speculation by a handful of big banks is not a new issue. A June 2006 US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report on “The Role of Market Speculation in rising oil and gas prices,” noted, “...there is substantial evidence supporting the conclusion that the large amount of speculation in the current market has significantly increased prices.”

The report pointed out that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had been mandated by Congress to ensure that prices on the futures market reflect the laws of supply and demand rather than manipulative practices or excessive speculation. The US Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) states, “Excessive speculation in any commodity under contracts of sale of such commodity for future delivery . . . causing sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in the price of such commodity, is an undue and unnecessary burden on interstate commerce in such commodity.” Further, the CEA directs the CFTC to establish such trading limits “as the Commission finds are necessary to diminish, eliminate, or prevent such burden.”

Where is the CFTC now that we need such limits? As Senator Sanders correctly noted, the CFTC appears to ignore the law to the benefit of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street friends who dominate the trade in oil futures.

the key oil derivatives insiders are laughing all the way to the bank. The effect of the soaring oil prices on fragile world economic growth, especially in countries like China is very negative as well.

Notes:

1 Morgan Korn, Oil Speculators Must Be Stopped and the CFTC “Needs to Obey the Law”: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Daily Ticker, March 7, 2012, accessed in

2 Ibid.

3 UpstreamOnline, Kuwait's oil minister believes current world oil prices are not justified, adding that the Gulf state's current production rate will not affect its level of strategic reserves, 12 March 2012, accessed in

4 Peter S. Goodman, Behind Gas Price Increases, Obama's Failure To Crack Down On Speculators, The Huffington Post, March 15, 2012, accessed in

5 Tom Parfitt, US 'tells Russia to warn Iran of last chance' , The Telegraph, 14 March 2012, accessed in

6 Steve Levine, Obama administration brushes off oil price impact of Iran sanctions, Foreign Policy, March 8, 2012, accessed in

7 F. William Engdahl, ‘Perhaps 60% of today’s oil price is pure speculation’, Global Research, May 2, 2008, accessed in

Knine,

You don't know squat about the Constitution. You're an acolyte of Ron Paul, who spouts off about the Constitution without knowing much about it, and screws it up most of the time. The Constitution of the United States of America does not limit the power of Congress to regulate so long as that regulation touches the stream of interstate commerce and doesn't violate an individual right contained in the Bill of Rights, i.e., the first 8 amendments. You're spouting sophomoric blather by those who corrupt the extent of "states rights" regarding powers not expressly granted are reserved to the states.

The 10th Amendment, which covers "states rights," is virtually a vestigial part of the Constitution and has hardly ever proved an impediment to upholding the constitutionality of federal legislation. "States rights" was the rallying cry for Southern racial bigots to escape federal orders to desegregate the South , and now is being used by anti-government ideologues to assail the federal government's lawful exercise of its plenary powers.

You and Paul should stop misinforming the public. You don't know whereof you speak.

Michael L. Marowitz
J.D., J.S.M. (Master's Degree in law with emphasis on constitutional law, Stanford Law School, 1981)

yep, jolly, you got the "obama lovers" figured out. Brilliant! lol. what else do you "know"...the earth is flat? :)

I guess you forgot that the wars were all started by a Republican president, what is his name again... That guy who hangs his head in shame in Texas somewhere now. Jolly Joker, do some fact checking then perhaps some of your posts might make sense.. Bailouts were started by that same guy, lives in Texas. You know.. the guy who hangs his head in shame.

I wonder if Romney knows how much a loaf of bread costs?

Heyseed,

He doesn't have a clue and he couldn't care less.

Romney knows what his listeners want him to know. If they don't believe him, they'll just ask him and he'll tell them what they came for. Know really-Honestly....he will...just ask him anything Ha ha ha ha.

Good line, Blueoval.

Romney doesn't inhabit the same world as the rest of us. What does he care about the price of anything?

He earns enough money in one day, without even working for it, to send a student to Harvard for a year, all expenses paid.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are struggling to buy groceries and pay our dental bills.

Vote for the people who are working for the middle class and our future:

OBAMA/BIDEN 2012

@ Roger, "I guess you forgot that the wars were all started by a Republican president, what is his name again"

You are correct in that Bush, (who needs to be prosecuted but Obama said "no" to that) had Special Operations into 60 foreign countries in his 8 (illegal) years of office.

But you must not realize that Obama has Special Operations in over 140 foreign nations in his almost three years. Not widely brought up by the media but very easy for you to research.

There is nothing except for Obama care that was "policies by Bush/Cheney" that has not either been continued/extended by Obama, or added to by him. The people who make up most of his administration are from big banking, etc.

So your own fact checking was a bit deficit.

When are you all going to realize the difference between the republican and democratic party is pretty much non existent except what they use to divide us? Clinton and Bush traveled together. Obama kept all of Bush' policies and added more of the same type or worse.

Voter Fraud is being extensively used to keep corrupt individuals within our government. Research it. All Americans shoudl be fighting for and demanding that we change the way we vote to eliminate Voter Fraud.

When are you all going to realize the difference between the republican and democratic party is pretty much non existent except what they use to divide us?

LOL... what world do you live in Knine?? There is a big difference between the parties... Democrats care about people, and Repubnuts care about themselves, oil corporations, and their rich friends!

GOP = It takes a liar to be a liar!

Gee -- a Republican is lying!! That's news??

Weemee, do you even know how to use the internet? For all of you liberals who think Romney or McCain is not right in saying that obama wants higher gas prices. I can find dozens of articles that support this. With the age of the internet, people can look up and dispute your lies and denials.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-sheffield/2012/03/16/open-thread-obama-video-saying-he-wants-higher-energy-prices

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Tmi_fpUHs

obama and his democrats have done nothing less than lie, distort the truth, hammer the lower, middle, and senior classes, and will cause a financial calamity when the spiraling costs of his healthcare bill fully hit us. Everything about the HC bill was a lie and we are slowly finding out how much obama, reid, pelosi, and the democrats lied to us.

Mark: The US has (if you drill every available site in US possession) 2% of the world's supply. We use 20% of the worlds supply. Do the MATH.

Gas prices are never going to be lower. Besides, its a commodity in a free market, doing what the free market does; charge as much as the buyer will bear. Capitalism in its full glory. You GOPers should be ecstatic.

I still have yet to hear ANY GOP candidate or even poster here tell us a solution that will bring down gas prices short (or even medium) term. Gas prices are all the desperate GOP has these days.

Got Solutions?....Got candidate?

Pretty much all politicians lie. The only one who most (even other politicians) is not is Ron Paul. Pretty much if the mainstream media is going on about how great they are then they are NOT good for the USA.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits? Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because the Congress created that problem. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. The Speaker of the House is the leader of the majority party. The Speaker and fellow House members can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully understand the plain truth that 545 people exercise the complete power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists today is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Army & Marines are in foreign nations, it’s because they want them in foreign nations.

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees... We should remove all of them out of office and clean up their mess! Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

I have been thinking this thought for a while. That is how I treat my sales, never de-grade my competition but, show why I and or my product is the better choice. There is less room for buyers remorse when your customer gets what they want.

unfortunately, that is the what politicians do, throw mud at each other in order to get elected. i believe that the American people would fall over dead from disbelief if politicians actually talked issues and solutions.

That is why ALL voters need to be joining the Popular Amendment Movement's petition drive for two constitutional amendments (faircampaignreform(dot)us.) Note Section 2 requirement for candidates in the Election/Campaign Finance Reform Amendment.

Petition for US Constitutional Amendment For Election Reform

We, the undersigned US citizens, duly registered voters in our respective states/territories, do hereby petition for our state to approve the following amendment to the United States Constitution by the method noted below.

Election Reform:
1. Abolish the Electoral College (Repeal Amendment 12)
2. ONE NATIONAL primary date to be held on the Tuesday eight (8) weeks prior to the General Election day for Congressional offices and for the President. Candidate petitions must be filed with the local/state elections boards 60 days prior to the Primary Election date. Federal election petitions shall be uniform in every state and shall include a “contract with the voters” that spells out clearly what that candidate stands for on all issues that they may have to address in elected office. They shall be held accountable in court for breach of that contract if elected and any/all terms are not met.
3. NO campaigning allowed for any elective federal office more than 60 days prior to the National Primary Date.
4. NO campaign contribution shall be donated to any candidate of more than $200 from an individual or $500 maximum from a family (spouses/children living in the same household.) No donations shall be made to a candidate more than sixty days prior to the primary date. No candidate shall contribute from their own funds more than 60% of the total donations from other private individuals.
5. NO campaign contribution from any PAC, corporation, union, non-profit organization, special interest group, etc. shall be allowed for any elected federal office.
6. NO third party campaigning (separate PAC ads, corporate ads, etc.) for/against any candidate shall be allowed at any time during or before the election season.
7. NO party conventions shall be held to select the presidential candidates. The selection must be done at the ballot box in the primary election.
8. The One Man/One Vote Supreme Court ruling shall be enforced by this Amendment, namely that NO federal candidate selection shall be by any means other than the ballot box on Primary/General Election Dates.
9. National Party Organizations shall NOT raise money for or donate to specific candidates of their party prior to the dates outlined above.
10. PAC’s shall NOT be granted tax-exempt status by the IRS, and any non-profit organization who uses their funding for political purposes shall lose their tax-exempt status.
11. All lobbyists shall be outlawed from influencing Congress at all times.

This amendment shall be approved ONLY by State Constitutional Conventions to be called within 90 days of this petition being submmitted to a state’s Secretary of State. A minimum of 25% of the registered voters in each state shall be required to further this petition to the respective Secretary of State.

Name Signature State Address

Petition for US Constitutional Amendment For Congressional Term Limits

We, the undersigned US citizens, duly registered voters in our respective states/territories, do hereby petition for our state to approve the following amendment to the United States Constitution by the method noted below.

Term Limits for Congress:
1. Representatives to Congress shall serve no more than two two-year terms in the House.
2. Senators shall be elected to no more than two six year terms in the Senate.
3. No elected official shall serve more than six terms in office in any combined elected offices (House/Senate/Presidency.)

This amendment shall be approved ONLY by State Constitutional Conventions to be called within 90 days of this petition being submmitted to a state’s Secretary of State. A minimum of 25% of the registered voters in each state shall be required to further this petition to the respective Secretary of State.

Name Signature State Address

Anti-trust proponent,

While I couldn't agree more with your post there are a couple of things I have an issue with. First the contract part of the first one bothers me as no candidate can know for sure what is going to transpire during his/her administration and therefore would always be in trouble if they dared make any promises. Without promises what will they campaign with? Often there are things a sitting POTUS knows because he has a need to know that others don't have. Through our intellegence agencies there will be things like that. The bottom could fall out of foreign policy or economy that isn't foeseen.

We already have term limits. It is done by elections. If you don't like who is in office or think they should be replaced than run against them or encourage someone else to run against them. Let the voters decide who shall represent them and for how long. Too many rookies in the Congress could be devistating.

Is Romney's first term as President going to be based on blaming Obama?

Considering that Romney's first term as president will take place only in his imagination, that's a pretty fair guess.

Never underestimate the ability of a demagogue to sway the weak minded. There are too many instances throughout history where the unwashed masses were lead to their own destruction.

Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich are running campaigns without discussing relevant issues - without explaining why they want to be President - without any indication of what they would try to accomplish as President. Yet they each receive attention in the media - they each have been endorsed by various people in leadership positions - they each have the backing of big money - they each have won state primaries.

You may laugh all the way to the slaughterhouse, if you wish. Even Romney understands the value of planning for the worst case scenario.

Neither side can do one thing about the high prices - and if they say they can they are lying to you. Period.

there is very little market in america. Most things -- from farming , oil , education, health care to you name it are subsidized and regulated for the big boys to wipe out the small players.

Exactly, JonSmith. Currently we are an exporter of gasoline. It is a world market, with pricing governed by global factors, not by a U.S. president. Of course, it might help if some of the knuckleheads on the right would shut up about bombing Iran. That action has driven up the price of crude.

It continues to amaze me how the party of God, and the candidates for president from that party, can spew such lies and hatred.

JonSmith, You have it all wrong. When Bush was in office the Repub talking heads assured us that it was not Bush's fault gas prices were above $5 per gallon in California. Now it is different. Obama causes gas prices to rise. When the president is a Democrat, high gas prices are his fault. If he were a Repub, they would not be his fault. If Cheesy Grits becomes president, high gas prices won't be his fault either. See the pattern.

Please elaborate, Bob. How has the President destroyed the free market? Can you give specific examples? I'm a leftie knucklehead, and would be quite open to listening to your argument, but I would like specifics. Just because you hear it from Rush, or from Fox, doesn't make it true, no matter how many times you repeat it.

your President has spent 3 years destroying what little is left of a free market??

Ya know Bob -- the more of your messages I read it becomes very clear you get your information from Limbaugh the junkie and Fox and -- you simply aren't all that bright.

Wireman

You have it all wrong. When Bush was in office the Repub talking heads assured us that it was not Bush's fault gas prices were above $5 per gallon in California.

And the dem talking heads assured us that it WAS Bush's fault, now that the shoe is on the other foot all you want to do is make excuses for Obama.

Bob in Virginia-5210392

You leftie knuckleheads are now citing the 'free market" as an excuse for high oil prices, after your President has spent 3 years destroying what little is left of a free market??

Priceless.

Yeah, Dow over 14,000! Free markets Rest in peace! If you don't say stupid things with no basis in reality, people may take what you have to say a little more seriously!

centerlib - no one will ever take Bob in Virginia seriously!

So, Jolly, why was I paying $4 a gallon for gas the summer of '08 under Bush? Was that Obama's fault too? Or was it ok under Bush?

Our Republican friends are always saying that the free market should be allowed to do its thing but then when it does they complain. Such babies...

Two wrongs make a Steve In 2008 Dem talking heads were amazed that Bush could not control his greedy big oil buddies during an election year. They joked about how he must have begged them. Finally before the election, gas prices retreated. Was it due to the fact that big oil wanted to paint a rosy Repub picture? Or was it due to the world economy taking a Bush policy dive? Could be a combination.

There is no need to make excuses for President Obama. So stop with the sour grapes and face facts like a man.

"[A]llowing higher energy costs"? How is this tiny little ineffectual, free-market-obsessed government we're supposed to want going to disallow higher energy costs?

Dave in NM. Notice I didn't blame a particular party. It is just that BIG OIL has the government in their back pocket, and that needs to stop. How, I wish I knew the answer. Gas in my area is up 12% in the last 3 months. Hope it doesn't get much higher or even you may not be able to afford filling your HOT AIR BALLOON for enjoyment.

Dick, stop drinking the socialist kool aid. It is Big Government, not the oil companies, who are to blame.

Bob: I reiterate my original question, which you have failed to answer, and await your explanation of how the oil companies are blameless, and "big government" is at fault. Take your time - I'll wait.

Dick: Fortunately, hot-air balloons don't run on gasoline.

Mr. Bob Vaginal Probe of course you can't blame the oil companies raking in billions. It is not their fault they get so rich off all us Americans.

Can't forget the speculators that the republicans are in court now trying to protect their profits calculated to be about .50 for every gallon you buy. Can't rein in the speculators that is free market, yet you can't help being part of the repeat-a-lie crowd by blaming it all on our president.

Perhaps if you pulled your vaginal probe out of your ears you might find out what is really going on.

PROTECT WOMEN'S RIGHTS.....VOTE.....Obama/Biden 2012

Americans first

If you dont like the price of their product, dont buy it, nobody is forcing you.

Shut up bob in va, you add nothing to the discussion!

You socialist zealots cant stand any private enterprise to succeed, you want to mooch all its profits to your God of Government.

The oil companies want to do what they do for a living--provide oil for the US and the world. The supplies are in the US, if they were allowed to drill.

Instead the anti-growth government zealots wouldnt allow it. Look for one example to to Alaska 10 years ago,..the Dems prevented drilling in ANWAR...this would have helped the supply of oil and the price.

Government isnt the solution, it is the problem.

Bob in Virginia - don't you realize that when you throw out the "socialist" and "kook aid" terms it just makes anything you post stupid?

Bob, if the only example you can come up with is protecting the ANWAR, you've got a LONG way to go to make a cogent case that "government ... is the problem" and that those poor widdle oil companies and speculators have nothing to do with the price at the pump. We can't drill our way to energy independence, and you have yet to identify any act on the part of the current (or any) administration that has led to higher pump prices. Just saying "blah blah free market capitalism" utterly fails to show that the oil companies are not responsible for the gas prices THEY are charging. I'm still waiting.

Bob,

Get your head out of your arse and stop playing politics. Gas prices have nothing to do with which party is in power. There is no shortage. We are exporting gas. Got a complaint - file it with the big oil companies, or the person who manages your retirement account. For goodness sake, people, wake up and grow up.

Hey Bob, I will agree with you just as soon as those succeeding private companies give up their government subsidies they are taking while at that same time make record profits.

Dave in NM. I know balloons don't run on gasoline. It was just an example, but you must use a fuel to produce the heat to make the balloon rise IE propane, unless it is helium, hydrogen, etc. So who produces the fuel you need to get your balloon in the air? I'll bet Big Oil is in there somewhere. Don't we just love deregulation too. Banks, Wallstreet, Big Oil, Airlines, shall I go on.

Dick: The price of propane has gone up in the last few years, as have helium and hydrogen. I don't dispute your point that the oil companies are behind the increase - we're on the same side of that argument. In fact, all three of the main ballooning gases are domestically sourced, which would seem to belie the Republican party line that all our problems would be solved by drilling on our own soil.

Deregulation was supposed to work economic miracles. And for the 1%, it worked!

Dick, you cannot blame the oil companies on this. This is a result of obama's lack of energy policy, other than wanting to drive the prices up. This is partly to do with the value of the dollar that obama and bernanke keeps driving down. The price of a barrel of oil is based on the dollar. When the dollar goes down, the price of oil goes up. Look back in 2008 when oil it $140 a barrel. That is when it $4.00 a gallon. We are not at $107 per barrel and at $4.00 per gallon of gasoline. Drilling on government land is down 10% and up more than 20% on private land. But, almost all of these permits were initiated and granted under Bush. obama stated that he could not control the price of oil. Then why is it last week that we asked the Saudis to increase their production so the price would come back down? Another blatant lie by our president.

lets have some things that are facts for Presdeint Bush, stock market went from 13,000 to 6,000 points all in 2008 the price of gas was 3.60 plus all time high at the time, unemployment was going up monthly, housing crisis was chaos, banks closing, etc.... but none of that matters to the GOP since they cant pick on someone from their own party

National Security: Damn, he killed Osama Bin Laden.

Unemployment: sky high throughout his failed Administration. At this pace, will take 12 years to get to normal levels..

Debt: Obama has spent us close to bankruptcy paying off Dem special interests. He has done NOTHING to stop the outrageous runaway train of entitlement spending . Nothing. He wants to bribe his way to reelection by emptying the treasury

Energy prices: we have oil here, but instead he wants to use "algae"...and wants more Solyndras, paying billions for failed technology to pay off his cronies..

Facts Republicans Hate:

Job losses per month in January 2008: 700,000

Job gains last month: 227,000

24 straight months of private sector gob growth

GDP growth in 2008: negative 6%

GDP growth last year 2.9%

Dow Jones Average in January 2008: Under 8000

Dow Jones Average today: 13,000+

Record domestic oil production

GMC – all time record profits

Near record corporate profits across the board

Osama Bin Laden --- dead

Iraq war --- over

"GMC – all time record profits"

Yeah, Government Motors...and Big Government in general..is making records stealing from productive citizens. To pay to crooked unions.

if you believe GM is making a real "profit' , rather than using phony numbers after ripping us off of billions of taxpayer dollars that were used to bribe their unions, you are dumber than a bag of rocks.

Bob:

GM is paying back the money used to bail them out, as is Chrysler. It will all come back, with interest.

Keep trying, Bob.

yes-it was higher during the Bush administration. I know that for a fact because I was filling the tanks on a motor home in West Virginia.

I had to go inside and lay down after I paid the bill.

yes- That's the real reason the Republicans lost the last presidentual election! Bush lied, destroyed our economny, drove up our debt by starting two wars without funding, creating a new drug benefit without funding, and then at the same time lowered taxes, but nobody really cared until gasoline went to well over $4.00 per gallon! Then the voters revolted and voted Obama in. Are you listening President Obama?

It is the REPUBLICAN PARTY and their Party Members that control the flow of oil and set the prices for gasoline in AMERICA.

the price of oil is a international set and it will only drop a few cents if polices were different

democrat

" the price of oil is a international set"

Thats righ,t but you left out so much that affects the internationally set price. Try telling the whole truth next time not just part of it.

Ted,

Like threatening war with Iran? Allowing speculators to run amok?

Your can't fix stupid.

Your post seems to have been cut off. Could you please repost the list of promises President Obama made, and how he broke each of them? You can start with getting Osama, positive trends in employment and getting rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

its just more whining from the haters. Obama's record is far from perfect, of course, but he has kept many of his promises. But that wouldn't be a hateful fox talking point....

Broken promises of Obama

Cut the deficit in half by end of first term --quadrupled the debt

Close Gitmo---broke his promise

Rock solid promise not to use 'signing statements" --broke his promise

Stimulus would lower unemployment below 8% --broke badly

"if I cant turn the economy around in 3 years, we are looking at a 1 term proposition" --now wants another term after his massive failure

Bob: And Osama? Gadhafi? DADT? Employment numbers? GM's and Chrysler's turnarounds? The fact that this country is stronger and more prosperous now than it was when President Obama took the reins? As for your last statement, I agree that if the economy were still as bad as the one Dubya handed him, our President would be a one-termer. So let's revisit this discussion in 4 more years and see how his second term went.

"The fact that this country is stronger and more prosperous now than it was when President Obama took the reins?"

Your hot air balloon could fly around the country on your own hot air.. you are delusional.

Again, Bob, the facts supporting your accusations and insults keep getting cut off. The stock market is up, employment is up, manufacturing is up - you mention the deficit but fail to note that the damage was done long before President Obama took office. Perhaps you could re-read your posts before hitting "send" to make sure your facts haven't been cut off (again).

Bob, average credit card balances were around $5500 per person who held a credit card when Obama took over. Today that number exceeds $15,000. I doubt this will end well...

The private sector oil companies do not get "subsidies" like Solyndra, you moonbat. No matter how many times Obama and others say so.

A regular tax deduction is different than a "subsidy".

Oil companies get the same tax deductions as other businesses. Their profits are lower than many businesses. They produce an actual product that we need. Obama's cronies in failed green energy, they get direct loot from the taxpayers. Billions in failures like Solyndra, who do nothing but spend tax dollars. That is a 'subsidy'.

Bob

Depletion allowances let oil companies treat the oil in the ground as capital equipment, and they can write off a certain percentage for each barrel that comes out.

The trick is that they can write off the value of the oil unrelated to its cost of discovery and to ultimately deduct more than its cost.

"I don't think the big oil companies need to have the oil depletion allowances, but for small, independent oil and gas producers, if they didn't have this, there'd be even less exploration in America than there is today," Boehner said on ABC's World News Tonight. "It's certainly something we need to be looking at." CNN April 26, 2011

Bob, you are dead wrong but I do not expect you to acknowledge that even your House Speaker thinks big oil doesn't need this tax subsidy.

that's ncie but what was your point?

The point is, the radical Obama wanted (and still wants) high gas prices, so the American people can be like Europeans, more and more dependent on government handouts.

Bob in Virginia, How's that Vaginal probe working out for you-sounds like your a big fan LOL

Bob, I live in Europe and we work over here mate!

I've often wondered about Americans; why do your cars have to be so big? Why does everyone need to drive everywhere? I once asked this woman directions to get to a mall in Florida. When she pointed out directions I asked her how far it was walking distance. She looked at me like I was nuts and shouted, "you wanna walk?" It took me 20 minutes to get there by foot.

Cultural differences aside, you need to pay more for gasoline, not less. It needs to get to $10 a gallon. Maybe Nute will get it down to $2.50. There was a comment above about Obama wanting gas prices to rise so he can further his "green" policies. What is wrong with being energy/environment conscious? We only have one world don't we? Or is America in a world of its own?

I'd like to think the vast majority of Americans are sensible people and will vote for Obama in 2012.

Thanks for your insight Timothy. Please don't take the hatred by America's right wing personally. Why they hate Europe, I haven't the slightest idea. Then again, this is the party that wants to increase usage of finite resources and also believes that we can pollute all we want and it won't have an adverse effect on the environment. They honestly think that science is a corrupt field and billionaires like the Koch brothers have the right answers.

Maybe if we'd concentrate more on green energy NOW instead of waiting until it's too late, we'd have a way out of this economic mess and a brighter future for our environment. This type of development does take time, and there will be failures along the way, but I believe we as humans can overcome our dependence on oil and find better ways to provide energy for the world.

Vote Obama 2012

Timothy In London

You got to appreciate that these GOP candidates rate global warming "junk science" and that hydrocarbons appeared magically in the ground 6,000 years ago.

Raising the concept of finite resources with this crowd is waving a red flag at the consumption bull. Their mission is to pump the world dry in their lifetimes.

Wall Street is setting the price of gas with futures trading it has nothing to do with supply and demand, we have more oil here then we know what to do with.

They've been playing the crisis game since the 70's with the gas hike from $.50 to $1.44, get your gas on certain days based on your license plate #, it was all BS. They were dumping gasoline in the desert because they had way too much, harbors were backed up with tankers not allowed to dock because we had to much oil. Now they don't have to waste time with actual oil, just sell and trade virtual oil (future oil).

Dear Timothy,

When you visit here try visiting small rural cities rather than assuming everyplace is like Disney World. Then you might understand why we drive everywhere, sometimes it's 15 miles to the closest store. Try walking that one to bring back a weeks worth of groceries and hope it's a nice day out.

If she's struggling that much maybe it's time to make her kids walk to and from school. It may be a good form of population control (for the ones dumb enough to play in traffic) as well as decrease child obesity allowing for a much fitter society.

I walked to school in kindergarten back in the 70's. Thru the hood, under the bridge and around the sewage treatment plant and only had a couple of beat downs. Picture it, North Long Beach near Compton and Watts, the early 70's, a little 4 year old blond irish lad skipping 2 miles each way by himself.

Come to think of it, I can't believe I lived through elementary school, LMAO!

Yep - I chuckle that the right rails against "MSM" (mainstream media) while supposedly taking their cues from Magic Sky Man.

Not Newt, mayor of the moon?

And Obama gets his cues from the likes of Jeremiah Write
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