Sunday, April 7, 2013

Slow Saturday Specials: Obama Taking America For Ride

Gotta fill up the gas tank first!

"New gas rules would raise price at pump; But EPA says benefits outweigh cost" by Dina Cappiello  |  Associated Press, March 30, 2013

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s newest antipollution plan would ping American drivers where they wince the most: at the gas pump. That makes arguments weighing the cost against the health benefits politically potent.

Okay, here's the drill, USA citizen.... 

1. Pull up to pump
2. Get out of car
3. Drop pants
4. Insert gas pump into ass
5. Pump gas


O.K, get set, ready, go!!!!


The proposal to reduce sulfur in gasoline and tighten auto emission standards, released Friday, would raise gasoline prices by less than a penny per gallon, the Environmental Protection Agency says. But the oil industry points to its own study putting the cost between 6 and 9 cents a gallon

It's not the amount, it's the principle of the thing. I'm tired of taxes going for wars, Wall Street, corporate welfare, and Israel. 

You want to make a healthier planet, Obama? Shut down the military machine

Related: 


If we can't find a human enemy we will wage war on the planet itself (already are with the DU, chemical, and biological weaponry)!!


Proves the environmental movement is nothing but a fart-misting fraud.

The EPA also said its proposal would add about $130 to the price of new vehicles, beginning in 2025.

The administration says the costs to consumers are worth the payoff: billions of dollars in health benefits from reductions in smog- and soot-forming pollution. 

Look, I'm not saying we should live in a polluted world, not at all. What I am saying is why would anyone trust this government?

The agency predicts $7 in health benefits for every dollar spent to implement the new rules. The agency must hold public hearings before finalizing the rules. It plans for them to take effect in 2017.

They have no way of knowing or calculating that. It's just a figure they pulled out of their ass that sounded good.

The proposal was praised by environmentalists and health advocates, as well as automakers who say it will help the United States catch up with the cleaner fuels used in other nations....

Uh-oh.  When those groups join together I start reaching for my wallet.

Opponents say gasoline prices are stubbornly high already and Americans shouldn’t have to pay more. The oil industry, Republicans, and some Democrats had urged the EPA to hold off on proposing the tighter regulations.

‘‘With $4 a gallon gas the norm in many parts of the country, we cannot afford policies that knowingly raise gas prices,’’ House Energy and Commerce chairman Fred Upton said Friday. Instead, the Obama administration should work to increase energy supplies by approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada and other projects, said Upton, a Michigan Republican....

Obama steps on Gas for Israel. 

Related: Obama Steps on the Gas For Israel

And the price of gas is up a year later, too!! Imagine that.

Environmentalists hailed the proposal as potentially the most significant in President Obama’s second term....

Pffft!

But the head of American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, Charles Drevna, questioned the motives behind the agency’s regulation....

I might be able to give him an an$wer.

--more--"

"Obama seeks to divert $2b to clean-vehicle program" by John M. Broder  |  New York Times, March 16, 2013

WASHINGTON — With few options available for financing his clean-energy ambitions, President Obama on Friday proposed diverting $2 billion in revenue from federal oil and gas leases over the next decade to pay for research on advanced cleaner-running vehicles.

That would have been nice when this country hadn't blown trillions in wars based on lies and on bailing out Wall Street bank fraud. 

Now, in this time of austerity, he can put that money into health care.

Obama visited the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago to tour its state-of-the-art research facilities and to promote his idea, first proposed in last month’s State of the Union address, to use oil and gas money to find ways to replace hydrocarbons as the primary fuel for the nation’s cars, trucks and buses.

We have been hearing and seeing this for years, and yet when you drive around town.... (sigh. How long before I'm being taxed for the exhale?).

The idea enjoys some bipartisan and business support but is likely to encounter strong resistance from congressional Republicans, who will portray it as a tax on energy producers....

I'm with the Republicans on this, but not for the rea$on$ you think. Bu$ine$$ is for it because they see a tax loot tit they may be able to $uck.

Obama presented the proposal as part of his ‘‘all-of-the-above energy strategy,’’ which includes an increase in oil and gas development; support for nonpolluting sources like wind, solar, and geothermal energy; loan guarantees for new nuclear plants; and research into long-term alternatives to fossil fuels.

Yeah, I'm starting to smell a s*** show political fooley.

Obama has given up on moving comprehensive climate change legislation through Congress and has ruled out a carbon tax as a way to finance the development of alternative energy sources, so he is pursuing smaller-scale projects that do not require new sources of revenue.

The Energy Security Trust, as he calls his proposal to shift oil and gas royalties to alternative energy research, is one of those projects -- a central part of the administration’s economic strategy....

Obama came to office with grand ambitions of remaking the nation’s energy economy and tackling climate change. His stimulus package included $90 billion for clean-energy research, but most of that money is gone, and Congress is unlikely to finance such work at anything like those levels in the future.

And some of those companies that got tax money went bankrupt and folded. 

Related: Solar Stimuloot Went to Goldman Sachs

And Google, and other well-connected corporations. 

Also see: Administration Telling the Truth About Stimuloot

Do you still believe them? 

What is that they say about making the same mistakes over and over again with the same failed solutions time after time?

The Argonne National Laboratory, which has done groundbreaking research in vehicle battery technology that has helped jump-start the electric car industry in America, received a large chunk of the stimulus money.

No exact number, huh? Why, would we get angry out here? 

Related: The Vieau From A123

He must be far-sighted being in China and all.

Now, it is facing reductions under the mandatory budget cuts known as the sequester.

Related:

Sequestration Scare Continues
Sunday Globe Specials: Defending Sequestration
The Mendacious Obama Administration

Have you had quite enough, readers?

The laboratory’s director, Eric D. Isaacs,warned this week that the spending cuts would have a devastating impact as ‘‘the nation begins to feel the loss of important new scientific ideas that now will not be explored, and of brilliant young scientists who now will take their talents overseas or perhaps even abandon research entirely.’’

Tell the companies to stop moving to China first.

--more--"

Related: Corn shortage idles 20 ethanol plants

I never liked the idea of burning food for fuel over a nonexistent threat such as warming.

And about those gas prices:

"The average has risen about 48 cents since Dec. 21, 2012. ‘‘After nine weeks of prices increasing we have a drop,’’ Trilby Lundberg, president of Lundberg Survey, said Sunday. ‘‘We can expect more price cutting in the future, possibly more than a dime.’

Really? 

Five days later:

"A spike in gas prices drove a measure of US consumer costs up in February by the most in more than three years. But outside the gain in fuel costs, inflation was mostly modest. Low inflation leaves consumers with more money to spend, which benefits the economy."

Yeah, it looks real good if you take gas out of the equation and then lie about the economy.

So where are prices headed?

"Drivers face high gas prices despite US oil boom" by Jonathan Fahey  |  Associated Press, March 22, 2013

NEW YORK — The United States is increasing its oil production faster than ever, and American drivers are guzzling less gas. But you would never know it from the prices at the pump....

So is the high price of gas a sign markets are not working properly?

It's a sign that the American dollar is worth less because of Bernanke's printing press, that's what it is a sign of. Supply and demand no longer works in America, if it ever did.

Not at all, experts say. The law of supply and demand is working, just not how US drivers would want.

Who listens to agenda-pushing, ma$$ media mouthpieces called "experts" anymore?

US drivers are competing with drivers globally for every gallon. As the developing economies of Asia and Latin America expand, their consumption rises, which puts pressure on fuel supplies and prices everywhere else.

What a crock of crap.

The United States still consumes more oil than any other country, but demand is weak and imports are falling.

Meaning the alleged recovery is a myth unless you are in the top 1%. Btw, most of that oil is for military purposes.

That leaves China, which overtook the United States late last year as the world’s largest oil importer, as the single biggest influence on global demand for fuels....

Yeah, let's blame China.  Un-f***ing-real!

‘‘There’s an 800-pound gorilla in the picture now: the Chinese economy,’’ said Patrick DeHaan, chief petroleum analyst at GasBuddy.com.

The other 800-pound gorilla is the U.S. military and its constellation of bases.

US refiners are free to sell gas to the highest bidder around the world.

See that Americans? The AmeriKan oil companies don't care about you, they care about the buck!

In 2011, the United States became a net exporter of fuels for the first time in 60 years.

See: Flabbergasted at Boston Globe Flatulence Just don't drink any water.

Mexico and Canada are the two biggest destinations for US fuels, followed by Brazil and the Netherlands.

Two other factors are making gasoline expensive:

■ High oil prices. Brent crude, a benchmark used to set the price of oil for many US refiners, is $108 per barrel. It has not been below $100 per barrel since July. On average, the price of crude is responsible for two-thirds of the price of gasoline, according to the Energy Department.

■ Refinery shutdowns. Refineries temporarily close in the winter, when driving declines, to perform annual maintenance. That lowers gas inventories and sends prices higher nearly every year in the late winter and spring.

Yup, anything and everything but private central bankers are the problem.

Rising gasoline prices act as a drag on the economy because they leave less money in drivers’ wallets to for them spend on other things.

Mine's already empty anyway.

But because average prices have remained in a consistent range between $3 and $4 per gallon since the end of 2010 — economists say their effect on growth has been minimal....

Yeah, you should consider yourself lucky when you go to fill up!

‘‘I just don’t get it,’’ said Steve Laffoon, a mental health worker, who paid $3.59 per gallon in St. Louis....

--more--"

And now they are saying  $4 by May. I won't be going anywhere.

"The picture at the gas pump looks better, too. The average US price for a gallon fell a penny to $3.66. That’s 12 cents cheaper than a month ago and 24 cents less than a year ago."

At least our roads are in good shape:

"Ambitious plan to improve US infrastructure is pushed

MIAMI — President Obama promoted his plans Friday to rebuild the nation’s “raggedy” roads, bridges, schools, and other infrastructure with a marriage of public and private investment.

This f***ing government can't even keep the roads in good shape. 

So how much more tax loot is going into private hands?

At the end of a week absorbed by social issues like gun control and gay rights, the president returned to the economic challenges he has called his top priorities....

We call those other things diversions and distractions.

Obama proposed tax breaks and loans to stimulate private investment.

You know, that hasn't worked yet! 

And they are going to get TAX BREAKS in this AGE of AUSTERITY for the American people? Are you f***ing kidding?

Among other things, new ‘‘America Fast Forward Bonds’’ would help state and local governments borrow money for projects, while foreign pension and retirement funds would have a tax penalty eliminated so they could invest in infrastructure in the United States on a similar basis as American funds.

That's their solution to everything: BORROW MONEY!

Can you be any deeper in the pockets of the banksters?

Grant programs that were part of the stimulus program would be expanded by $4 billion.

But Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid cuts for you Americans!

Obama also promoted an infrastructure bank that would use $10 billion in public money to leverage private investment, a concept he has been pushing without success since 2011.

Republicans responded by saying they also wanted to upgrade roads, bridges, and other infrastructure, but only if it could be paid for....

Shut down an occupation or two, That ought to get you enough.

--more--"

Let me out of the car!

UPDATE: Hybrids a highlight of N.E. International Auto Show

It really is a bu$ine$$ paper.