Credit Where Credit Is Due?

Not likely.

Republicans were o so quick to blame President Obama when prices were soaring and drivers were paying $4 per gallon on average to fill their tanks. Sen. John Barasso (R-Wy.) held the President "fully responsible" for the price of gas. Florida wingnut Allen West bitched about having to pay $70 to fill his Hummer. Yes, a fucking HUMMER. And don't we all remember then GOP primary candidate Newt "The Sky Is Falling" Gingrich predicting gas prices at $10 per gallon? Ah, the halcyon days.

But then just a few days ago, when it was noticed that gas prices have been steadily going down for a few months, the same intrepid politicians who were blaming the President and his policies for high gas prices, were a little less enthusiastic to give him credit for the price drop.

Barasso: “People are still feeling pain at the pump and pain at the plug, and it’s a result of the administration policies...”

West: “If you’re the chief executive officer of the United States of America, you should take responsibility for anything that’s occurring in this country, and you should not want to seek to get praise,” even though I don't remember President Obama looking for praise on falling gas prices. It was just a question from a reporter, Allen. And no, said reporter is not a communist.

Now, logic would dictate that if it was President Obama's policies that were causing the price of gas to increase, then those very same policies which are in place and haven't changed, are what's causing the price of gas to decrease. But hey, since when does the current Republican Party have anything to do with logic?

Granted, the rest of us in the real world understand that no administration or its policies really make an impact on the price of gasoline, a global commodity. The continuing debate and decisions on the XL Keystone Pipeline have nothing to do with what we pay at the pump, considering the fact that the oil isn't actually ours and it's put out on the global market just like the oil that's pumped out of Texas or Alaska, or Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.

So what are we to decipher when Donald "I have investigators in Hawaii" Trump (still waiting for the results of the investigation, by the way) makes the following statement?

...I think Saudi Arabia is doing Obama a big fat favor. I think he asked for the favor and prices are coming down, but also the economy's going bad so maybe it won't help that much. but as soon as -- assuming if Obama got elected, you're going to see something with oil like you've never seen before, it will go through the roof. The favor will be repaid many times over.

Wait, what? Is Donald Trump swimming against the Republican tide and actually giving President Obama credit for lower gas prices? Well, no, he's actually insinuating that the President is in cahoots with a Mooslim leader (you know, the same one that was kissing up to George W. Bush) but you get my point.

The Republicans and their wingnut supporters will do or say anything, ANTHING, to disparage, demean and discredit the President in order to push their twisted agenda.

The Big Gas Lie

Last week, I received an email from House Republicans. I guess I'm on their list, or someone being a wise guy put me on their list. But no matter - I love seeing the latest shit that comes out of their ass and their attempt to pass it as some kind of idea.

The email was hitting all talking points of the most recent attack on President Obama in blaming him for the current gas prices. Here's the chart they included:



Perhaps they should have included a wider timeline range... like this:



You see that big peak in June of 2008 when gas prices were $4.12 per gallon just before that precipitous decline? Can anyone remind me who was President in June of 2008? Oh, right! It was George W. Bush. Was he to blame for to blame for that? No. Just as President Obama isn't to blame for current prices. And the reason for the nose dive to $1.61 by December of 2008, just one month before President Obama took office was the huge recession that we are still recovering from these three and a half years later.

But that doesn't stop the GOP from trying to tie high gas prices to Obama administration policies. Hell, that's all they really have, isn't it? They scream about Keystone XL even though any oil from that project would go on to the global market. We are in our 24th straight month of private sector job growth, unemployment is down to 8.3% from a high of 10% in October of 2009 and more people are now encouraged to enter the job market which is why the unemployment rate remained steady.

So if they can't attack Obama on the economy, and they can't attack the man who gave the go ahead to take out Osama bin Laden as being weak on terrorism, and their attacks on the contraception battle are backfiring, what can they attack him with? Something he can't do much about: the price of a gallon of gas. Even though the fact is that no presidential or congressional policies can do much to affect the cost of gas.

What is driving up the price of gas is global oil prices,  Wall Street speculation, Middle East unrest (I'm looking at you Iran and Israel.)

But that doesn't stop Newt Gingrich's from bellowing that he can give us gas for $2.50 a gallon while we are headed for $10 per gallon at the current rate because of that meddling President Obama. Gingrich is lying. Plain and simple. Not that it matters. Anti-Obama factions will believe what they want to believe. They'll even believe a thrice married, twice adulterer, disgraced former Speaker of the House who was run out of town on ethics violations. But I never claimed those people were smart.

President Obama's Weekly Address - March 10, 2012

Investing in a Clean Energy Future

President Obama's Weekly Address - March 3, 2012

Taking Control of Our Energy Future

President Obama's Weekly Address - February 25, 2012

An All-Of-The-Above Approach to American Energy

Cadillac Man

“I love this country. Actually I love this state,” he said in Detroit Friday. “This feels good, being back in Michigan. You know, the trees are the right height. The streets are just right. I like the fact that most of the cars I see are Detroit-made automobiles. I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually. And I used to have a Dodge truck, so I used to have all three covered.”

~Mitt Romney

Again with the tree height? What does that even mean?! And what an awesome way to show how much Mitt relates to the Average Joe. Four cars (at least) and two of them are Cadillacs. The other is a sports car. And the other other is a truck. I wonder what the Romney household(s) fuel consumption is?

At least he's not blaming President Obama for the amount of gas money it takes to fill up his Hummer.

President Obama's Weekly Address - May 14, 2011

Expanding Responsible Oil Production in America

President Obama's Weekly Address - April 23, 2011

Stopping Oil Market Fraud, Beginning a Clean Energy Future

President Obama's Weekly Address - April 2, 2011

Gas Prices & Energy Security

Just So We're Clear On The Gas Price Thing...

... and frankly because I'm getting sick and tired of Mississippi Governor Boss Hogg and his inane meme that President Obama is somehow manipulating high gas prices because of administration policies (it comes out whenever Barbour decides to open his cakehole), "Drill here, drill now" has nothing to do with gas current prices. That goes for House Speaker John Boehner and Sarah Palin too. Boehner's just using it as a political tool, while Palin should just shut her yapper for once and trying learning something. Drilling here, drilling now might yield oil production increases... in a decade or two, which has nothing to do with today's prices. And the experts, conservative or not, agree:

Near-term fluctuations in gasoline prices are determined by two primary factors: crude oil prices and seasonality. Since the deepwater drilling delay applies only to exploration and production, it would take years, maybe a decade to get any amount of crude oil out of the ground and into our gas tanks. In the meantime, global crude oil supply is exactly the same as it would have been if the government were giving away permits like candy.

~ Chris Lafakis, economist at Moody's Analytics and expert in energy markets

It's not credible to blame the Obama Administration's drilling policies for today's high prices because of the relative scales involved. As I indicated the last time, world oil prices are determined in a market of around 85 million barrels per day of production and consumption, while the consequences of domestic drilling, particularly in the Gulf, likely would be more in the range of several hundred thousand to one million barrels per day, and most of that production would not occur for a number of years.

~Michael Canes, research fellow at the Logistics Management Institute and former chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute

Higher oil prices today are a global phenomenon, and the additional supply from increased drilling by the U.S. would not alter the global balance of supply and demand greatly. Gasoline prices at the pump would be higher either way.

~Lou Crandall, chief economist of Wrightson ICAP LLC, an independent research firm that analyzes high-frequency economic data

Even if you gave permission to drill, it might take generally about seven years for oil to get to market. So that has absolutely no effect on the price of oil today. None whatsoever. The amount of extra oil that the U.S. would produce, as far as affecting the world price of oil, is almost insignificant.
People who say producing more oil will bring price down for Americans are missing the fact that it's a world market. For instance, oil produced in North Slope may very well go to Japan. There's not a separate market -- It's a world market.

~Tom O'Donnell, professor of Graduate International Affairs at The New School and expert on the globalized energy sector

Drilling here, drilling now will only serve to add more oil production to the global market at minimum in the year 2018. It may be harvested on our land, but that doesn't mean it's ours. It's put into a reserve where we are free to purchase it at global prices. And for this privilege, we continue to give exorbitant subsidies and tax breaks to Big Oil.

If Haley Barbour is serious about running for president, then he needs to stop sounding like a fool when it comes to energy policy and lying about the true causes of rising gas and oil prices.

And while we're at it, maybe the media should actually do the research, tell the truth and challenge anyone who tries to blurt out nonsense for purely political purposes instead of having two nitwit talking heads arguing both sides of an issue and giving both sides equal gravitas. Usually, someone is right and someone is wrong. Usually, someone is being honest, and someone isn't. So do your homework and call them out on it. Isn't that what you're supposed to do with liars when you have truth on your side?

We're Watching You

Obama orders gasoline-price probe

Speaking at a White House press conference, Obama said he’s asked his attorney general and U.S. government agencies to work with state attorneys general to monitor for gasoline-price gouging, “to make sure that nobody is taking advantage of working families at the pump.”

I think this is a good move by the administration if only to put a warning out there and show people, especially idiots like Haley Barbour who accused President Obama of manipulating gas prices, that he's on the lookout.

Addict-In-Chief

I guess Thomas Friedman has finally stopped defending Bush. Here's what he has to say about our awesome leader.

NY Times: Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was “addicted to oil,” and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it. Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: “Get more addicted to oil.”

...It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: “C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude.”

It is hard for me to find the words to express what a massive, fraudulent, pathetic excuse for an energy policy this is.

How incredibly bad is it when Thomas Friedman is ripping you to shreds?

FYI

I suppose it's a hair of an exaggeration depending on what kind of beer you drink, but you get the point.

She's One Of Us!

Because she pumps gas! Or maybe not...

...The Clinton campaign arranged for Mrs. Clinton to “commute” with a sheet-metal worker on his way to work; she rode shotgun in a white Ford pick-up truck and to stop by the gas station to fret over the cost of filling up.

No shock, but David O. Selznick could not have staged the thing better.

The Marathon gas station was effectively closed to other customers for more than an hour as 30 reporters and photographers gathered at the station to await Mrs. Clinton’s visit. A caravan of 10 vehicles – 10! – finally arrived, including a van carrying cameramen to record the drive, and a white Ford pick-up truck driven by the “commuter,” Jason Allen Wilfing, with Mrs. Clinton in the passenger seat.

And it turned out the pick-up belonged to Mr. Wilfing’s boss; they used it so they could fit a Secret Service agent and Mrs. Clinton’s traveling aide in the back seat.

Reporters speculated beforehand about whether Mrs. Clinton would pump the gas herself, but it was not to be...

...Mrs. Clinton said she had not pumped gas in a long time, given the Secret Service role in her life since 1992.

No elitist here. Oh, no. ...Ooh look, the numbers turn fast!

Surprising that she wouldn't pump her own gas after endorsements describing her as making "Rocky Balboa look like a pansy" and having "testicular fortitude." I shit you not.

Here's her reaction after the comparison to being ballsy.

Of course, it was meant as a compliment. If an opponent had said something like this, well, who knows what the campaign reaction would be or what claim of misogyny they would come up with.

But are we really surprised what comes out of the Clinton campaign anymore? A staged event, making a man drive forty-five minutes out of his normal commute to pick up Clinton at her hotel in a truck that isn't his, only to have her talk on her cell phone the entire length of the trip and then to stop for a fill up at a gas station that's been closed to other customers for security and press reasons (who knows how much money they lost during that time) and then speak to the press about how she knows the hardships of Joe Average even though she hasn't pumped gas for herself in at least the last 16 years if not more.

Yes, she is "in touch" with the average voter. There's always the full service pump, Hill.

Here's Keith's take on it.

McThuslelah's Big Gas Price Solution

Here's the skinny: John McCain is suggesting a gas "tax holiday" between Memorial Day and Labor Day - about 3 months - 13 weeks. I'll do the math for the extreme end of savings. 18.4 cents per gallon multiplied by a 15 gallon tank equals $2.76 per tankful. Assuming you fill up your tank weekly, multiply that by the 13 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day... that equals $35.88. For a 20 gallon tank, the total savings is $47.84. The savings for a 12 gallon tank is $28.70 or basically less than a tank of gas. Great solution, huh?

Yet McThuselah calls Barack Obama "out of touch" with what poorer, low-income people need because Obama rejects the idea of a tax holiday for two reasons: it does little to ease the strain on the pocketbooks of consumers and it would deplete the highway trust fund by $9 billion and would cost 300,000 highway construction jobs. The man who married a $100 million beer baron heiress - Mr. Campaign Finance Reform, who had been using his wife's private jet for campaigning through a loophole in the rules - thinks he's more in touch with the common folk.

Here's Obama telling the truth himself.

Obama: Half a tank of gas. That's [John McCain's] big solution...this is at the same time he is proposing hundreds of millions of dollars of more tax breaks for corporations and the wealthiest Americans...that's typical of how Washington works, there's a problem, everybody's upset about gas prices, let's find some short-term, quick fix so that we can say we did something, even though we're not really doing anything...and then we pretend like we did something. So I'm here to tell you the truth. We could suspend the gas taxes for six months, but that's not going to bring down gas prices long term...we have to go after the oil prices and look at their price gouging, we've got to go after windfall profits...and we have to stop using less oil, that means raising fuel efficiency standards on cars, and developing alternative fuels, that's the real honest answer to how we're gonna solve this problem, that's what you need from a president, someone who's gonna tell you the truth, who's gonna tell you not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear.

Who are you going to believe? John McCain or your lying eyes and shrinking wallet?

(H/T Bob Cesca)

Thanks, George.