Ready For $4/Gallon Gas Prices in February?

Well, at least Bush and Cheney and Blackwater execs and the bastards who benefited most from the subprime mortgage crisis can afford to fill up the tanks of their Humvees. The rest of us? Maybe not so much.

After crude oil prices surpassed their previous record high at above $100/barrel, pushed in part by the assassination of Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and even moreso by the worsening situation and escalating violence in Nigeria, some experts predict that, rather than see "at the pump" prices begin to moderate out again (they actually fell to below $3/gallon in some places - NOT Vermont, but some places), we may very well see $4 per gallon prices before Valentine's Day.

And if Bush further steps up his violent rhetoric toward Iran, we might see them climb higher still.

Obviously, we're not just hurting at the gas pumps. The Bushies further cut funding for energy assistance for money-strapped Americans needing help to pay astronomically high fuel prices.

The New Big Damned Bush Lie: "The Troops Will Have to Walk Home If We Don't Fund This War!"

Excuse me, but this is a total lie. One of so damned many. It's another Bush-Rove-Cheney spin to keep the weak-minded going "America's #1 So Let's Rustle Up Some Muslims and Their Oil." The media then repeats the damned lies until most of America knows the story by heart.

If the war stopped tomorrow, there would be plenty of money to bring all these troops home. What will hurt our troops is one more day on the job, and May's looking to be the deadliest this year for our soldiers, not to mention Iraqi civilians.

What the president - none of the Bush Administration in fact - will NOT tell you is that they want this funding bill signed not to pay for what we've done, but to:

• secure the Iraq oil we're stealing through a forced mandate to the Iraqi government in which we demand oil/energy companies get record-high takes on Iraqi crude that we've already been stealing for four plus years now
• help Republican politicians who are happy to use U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians as expendable photo ops
• shore up Bush's delusional base
• (quite probably) help fund Bush's next mecca: an (extremely ill-advised and not just bordering ON the lunatic) attack on Iran

Bush and the loyal GOP have proven everyday, in every way (cuts in services, filthy or ill-equipped medical services, opposition to combat pay and pay raises, educating troops' children - I could list these all night) that an American soldier or an Iraqi citizen does not begin to rate the value of billions and billions of dollars of crude oil.

This isn't about our soldiers at all, folks. It's about An Empire of Diminishing Crude Oil" and those lovely coming $4-5-6? dollar per gallon fuel prices we're paying while the Bushies tell us we need to write big corporate welfare checks to mega-profitting energy companies to build their refineries for free. This, while they de-fund fuel alternatives.

Iran, Here We Come?

With Vice President Dick Cheney's nasty rhetoric about Iran delivered while in that part of the world late last week, is it any surprise that the national average per gallon price for gas is now $3? Much of the country is already paying far more than that, with no obvious obstacles to hitting $4/gal prices this summer.

I'm also worried about this report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (or IAEA, the nuke watchdogs of the United Nations), claiming that Iran may have overcome problems which might otherwise slow down their technological work regarding nuclear weaponry. Very recently, the IAEA was saying quite the opposite: that the U.S. was manufacturing propaganda about Iran and its nuclear efforts to perhaps justify an attack there.

While I've read several articles on this matter since last night, it is not immediately apparent to me whether it's "right" to say Iran is well on its way to nuclear weaponry or whether, with the change in U.N. secretaries, the IAEA may be getting pressure from the Bush Administration to make their reports sound scarier re: Iran. Stranger things have happened, and much of them since January, 2001.

Gotta Love Those Gas Prices, Eh?

King Bush keeps sniping at Iran while dancing with the Saudis and the rest of us pay BIGtime.

High Energy Prices Giving You Gas?

In just under a week, gas prices have gone up on average of six (6) cents per gallon. This brings the national average per gallon to $2.61, considerably lower than what my home state and many others are seeing.

In fact, look at the gas price graphic on my right hand sidebar, and you'll see that most of the blue states pay far more, on average, than their red state brethren.

Funny how that works.

While pundits were predicting around the middle of last week that it was "unlikely" we would see $3+/gallon by summer, California passed that benchmark a few weeks ago. Where I live in Vermont, it's tough to see anything less than $2.60.

More On Gas Prices

If you note at the topmost right sidebar, one of the items I've added (as of late last night) is a report on state-by-state gasoline prices. And as I posted yesterday, one must look to the Bush-Cheney Administration for why the prices have skyrocketed.

However, let me add a couple of points here.

First, while the fuel reserve is an issue - one Bush and Cheney manipulate wildly - I failed to mention probably the biggest reason for the average 14 cent per gallon gas rise in the last week: Bush's drumbeat toward war in Iran.

Second, here's another issue I noticed. Check out the prices as they go by, alphabetically by state, and you might notice the same pattern I did. Blue states are paying MORE for gas, on average, than red states. Now, sure, blue states are more likely to impose gas taxes for environmental causes, etc. But up until the time of Bush, we rarely saw such a difference in gas prices, dependent on how voters in a state cast ballots.

Hmmm...

BTW, If You Think Gas Prices Are High Now

... wait until Bush & Cheney attack Iran!

Thank the Bushies For The Average 14 Cent Per Gallon Gas Price Hike In Less Than 2 Weeks

'Tis true. When gas prices began to drop, the Bushies decided to borrow yet MORE money to put even MORE fuel into the reserves - when we are at way past record levels already and with even folks in the energy biz saying Bush only does this to return prices to a high each time they begin to drop. You wouldn't believe how many tax dollars are spent just for the Bushies to "lease" holding tanks for the reserve that cannot be stored indefinately (and Bush has never released a drop).