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Frameshop On Gasoline Prices
A few minutes ago on "The Situation Room", with Wolf Blitzer, Paul Begala put an excellent frame around the sheer greed of high gas prices and the Republican's "bold new plan" of giving $100 rebate check to each taxpayer.
Rought transcript:
After watching video of Senate Majority leader Bill Frist's call a $100 rebate for tax payers in response to the exhorbitant greed at the pumps, Blitzer asks Begala for a comment (emphasis mine):
Blitzer: (to Begala) After hearing Senator Frist there just now, tell us, what do you think of that, Paul?
Begala: I think that the Republicans have just told you what they think you're worth America- a hundred bucks. The Republicans think that CEO's like Lee Raymond, the head of Exxon oil, should get $600 million dollars, they think he's worth $13,700 an hour, that's what he gets paid, and people like you and I are worth a hundred bucks.
Nice frame.
She loved John Kerry.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/27/153217/331
Kossack George 10 has made the (sort of) mainstream media
If the govt sends me $100 I'll use it to make flyers to put at gas stations. When the city sent us $20, most of returned it with notes that said "Fix a pothole."
How insulting. Good "frame" though.
Nice frame indeed...
BWAAAHAAAHAAAHAAAHAAA.
If the government sends me $100, I will turn around and spend it on a donation to a candidate.
Spin --
Good idea... hmmm... that could start a trend...
Heh.
Just turned on the t.v. to see if Cindy and the women are on the news yet....
Casey I caught Blitzer's interview with Michael Brown.....it was hilarious!!!
They had a huge screen up, and Wolfie was talking to Brown on one half of the screen, and Brown was saying how inept and unorganized and unprepared FEMA is, along with telling the story of the "chain of command" during Katrina was President Bush calling him to ask him what he should do. Bush and many others including Andrew Card were all on vacation, and Bush was calling Brown to ask him what he should do!!! Now, get this, it just cracked me up!!! On the OTHER HALF of the screen, they had footage of George Bush, and the mayor of New Orleans in the open back of a big truck being driven through all the ruins after the fact. They left those images on both screens the entire time Brown was blasting Bush and the administration. Tee Hee. It is indeed a good day!!
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at April 27, 2006 05:42 PM
Dumbya is supposed to be in NOLA today, so the film footage might have been from today, rather than file footage from when he was in NOLA before. He's ignored the city for months, but attention has to be diverted away from things like Turd Blossom's FIFTH appearance before the grand jury, his bungled war, and the visit to Iraq by both Condisleazy and RumDum (and any other scandals that are not appearing on the screen in my frontal lobe at the moment), not to mention the 'news' that FEMA should be scrapped. Actually, occasionally FEMA did a few good things before it was absorbed into that totally unnecessary and monumental waste of time and money: Dept. of "Homeland Security." (I still hate, hate, hate the title 'homeland security' because it reminds me of Nazi Germany....)
In March, 2002, my car was smashed in on the right side in the first and only car accident I've ever had in all my years of driving (I was in shock for a week or so, but physically, except for joint and back and neck pain for almost two weeks, I was fine - the car was totaled, however). I didn't replace it. Now I'm glad I didn't. I see what a racket forced car insurance is when it's mandated by state law (just as forced health insurance is with Medicare, etc. - a MN health insurance company is now being investigated for excessive profits, kinda on the order of oil companies). I also see what a racket the inflated profit margins are for the oil companies. Additionally, I don't have to deal with auto mechanics who talk down to me and charge exhorbitant fees, and I don't have to beg someone to shovel me out of snowbanks in the winter since my back can't deal with that stuff now. I also remember when I got my first car (a little used VW that didn't even have a gas gauge, but had a 10 gal. tank and a one gal. reserve tank - I used to know how to figure out mileage), and at the time gas was only $.30-.35 cents per gallon. I could drive a whole month on one tank of gas (to-from work, errands, laundromat, etc.) for a grand total of about $3.50!!!
Nowadays, I do the stock-up routine: stock up on groceries for a whole month at a time (only have to replenish perishables like milk), and even if I pay a taxi driver a healthy tip to carry all the heavy stuff upstairs to the door of my apartment, it's still cheaper to take a taxi to and from the grocery store and/or include other errands at the same time (car insurance and gas combined is murder on a low, fixed income). If there's no heavy lifting or carrying, I also have the option of a city bus which is cheaper still, but I don't tend to like the busses and they stop running at 4 p.m. and don't run on weekends anyway. I often feel like one of my pioneer ancestors doing the routine of a monthly stock-up, but it actually works to my benefit financially (and mentally if you count the lack of hassles for car repairs and maintenance).
As far as the current national problem with high gas prices just at vacation time for summer coming up (just when gas prices have always gone up), even if there's not a one day or one weekend boycott, if everyone starts driving less, the demand for gas will go down and the oil companies will become over-supplied with oil reserves and the price will have to come down. Oil companies have rationalized all this supply-demand economics, so if they're right, and the demand goes down and the supplies are overstocked, then the price has to go down. In theory....
Still, if people get over their addiction to gas-guzzling SUVs and big cars and switch to economical little cars, and drive less and only when necessary, and then start to bargain with their car insurance companies to charge less in monthly premiums if they drive less (how can one get in a car accident if one's car is parked in the garage or the driveway most of the time?), not only would the environment benefit, but so would the wallets or checking accounts of everyone who has a car....
It's a thought.... I never did figure out the fascination with big cars (except as inflated phallic symbols for impotent men who need status symbols to fill their empty and meaningless lives). I've heard the nonsense about big cars protecting people in accidents, but speaking as one who has typed literally thousands of accident reports, if the speed is high enough, the driver drunk enough, the impact just at the wrong spot, or the rollover severe enough, or the roads slippery enough, or any other conditions bad enough that it has an effect on an accident, somebody's gonna die, or someone's going to come away crippled, or with missing limbs, or broken bones, or internal injuries..., no matter how big or small the car is. Except for things like moving massive amounts of stuff for which semis are needed, all that's really "necessary" to get to a destination and home again is a small car with economical gas mileage. People put too much emphasis on appearances vs. practicality when it comes to cars. We're coming to a reckoning with practicality vs. appearances now, and some people just aren't going to like it much. Personally, I like the little cars just 'cuz they're practical for someone who is short and fat and who has back problems and just can't climb up into those big cars like a child climbing into a vehicle (seriously, a friend of mine has a high vehicle and I can't get into it unless he parks by a curb so I can get in and out of the thing without help)....
But if everyone just stops driving unless it's absolutely necessary, the impact on the profit margin for oil companies is bound to be rather considerable. Haven't they already profited enough from the people of this country???
I found this link earlier and thought it was interesting....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060425/ap_on_sc/britain_green_car
The Newshour had on a representative for a citizen's group (don't remember the name of the group at the moment) who called for an excess profits tax - the proceeds of which would go towards funding alternative energy development.
America can not drill its way out of this problem. It can only innovate its way out of this problem.
my $100 will be going to Congressman Ford's campaign b/c Tennessee deserves better representation than Bill Frist.
NonnyO,
Yes, I did notice later then this evening that Bush was in New Orleans today, so that shot they kept showing over and over of him standing up in the back of a truck could have been taken today. It was so funny to see that on the screen right next to Brownie telling how Bush called Brownie to ask what he should do during the flood caused by Katrina. You could see Brown seems self assured, and as he was telling the world what a mess all the organization is, here next to him is a shot of our fearless leader standing up in the back of a truck "surveying" and taking stock of the situation. It was one of my favorite funny political pictures. A definite Kodak moment!
NonnyO, I remember when we could buy gas for 29 cents a gallon back in 1967, and in the 70's we budgeted $20.00 for gas for two cars per month. I just filled my gas tank a couple of days ago, and I had half a tank so only had to fill half, and it was about 34 dollars.
They do it every year about this time, as you say, and people have a fit, and the news talking heads spit about it, but it usually seems like it stays up a little bit more each time they hike it up then take it down again.
People always threaten to boycott gas this time of year, and buy smaller cars, and the car manufacturers get on and talk about how they are developing cars that will take other forms of liquid fuel, but it never seems to actually happen. People buy the big cars because the ads tell them they are nobody if they don't have a snazzy car. Europeans have had small cars for decades, but then their gas is twice the cost of ours.
America can not drill its way out of this problem. It can only innovate its way out of this problem.
Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at April 27, 2006 06:50 PM
I fear the only time America will stop it's love affair with oil is when we have no further access to it. There are, as I am sure you know, other fuels introduced that have never been used.
However and whenever it comes down, it may be that this nation will keep it's bloody fingers on that oil rig and gas pump to the bitter end.
new thread
[carried over from previous thread, but WTF -- so have your personal assistant blueberry her assistant and have her fax my lawyer's personal assistant who will have her own assistant email back a generic and totally content-free reply, and let one of them somewhere somehow sue me for something already...]
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My personal opinion in re The Donald, which for emphasis' sake is *not* that of the DCP or any other such oganization nor anything of its ilk:
Yes, Donald Rumsfeld *should* resign his post as Secretary of MisDefense. Absolutely. Formally, and with prejudice.
But this sentiment -- which once again I reiterate is *purely* my own, and is not representative of any other aquatic mammals and/or e-scrivners and/or any other web-based noms du tron anywhere at any time or any place, ahem -- is directly tied to my awareness of the fact that ritual seppuku is no longer recognized as a valid expiation of accumulated personal guilt and dishonor in modern Western circles of thought these days.
although I still gotta say that if he had even half of (the liddle kiddy-sized version with a special toy in every box) of the political and personal cojones that someone like, say, nancy pelosi does then he'd've resigned long since already,
Otter
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[Just my extra and additional $.02 -- your $3/gallon mileage may vary of course. Products sold by weight, not volume. Contents may have settled during handling. Do not try this at home. Please do not adjust your set. There are no user-serviceable parts inside your head. Copied right 2006, all rites preserved, by Planet Otter Productions. Thankyouverymuch.]
What's the cost of mailing out all the checks?
What's the potential for abuse?
So you get a couple tanks of gas, who will this help?
Will this really stop the widespread inflation even Bernanke links to rapidly rising fuel costs?
Will it stop the meteoric rise of fuel costs or decrease our dependency on fossil fuels?
And most importantly, are a couple tanks of gas really worth drilling in ANWR?
This is really calling out for a moveon "priceless" ad.