I notice in todays QC Times that there was a substantial drop in gas usage last month. I hope the trend continues. Maybe some of the oil producing countries can drink some of the excess or ship it to China.

waittttt aaaa minute...you mean the president doesn`t decide every single thing,he leaves it to others? does this apply only to Bush two,then,but not Obama,eh? Perhaps the new guy might actually listen to sound advice from his advisors. Maybe he wont stoop to stuffing sensitive gov`t positions with know-nothing boot-licking toadies. You think?
hey,where`s the defense of the 5th record deficit,courtesy of Bush2 and co.?This last one blows the doors off that "liberal tax/spend"myth. Bush has quite the legacy and record. Wait,more? Dont see anybody up here discussing new revelations at the Justice Dept [smoking gun and now fire ;expect indictments] or,to top it off, that nutcase admirer of Bill O`Reilly,Sean Han nut ty, and Michael Savage,who went and murdered those people at the Unitarian Church. He had books by those guys in his possession,and spouted the usual right wing gibberish in his 4 page letter defending his murders. Now that`s what I call Influencing your listeners. Want real revulsion? go to Malkin`s website and see what she has to say;that the guy was a secret liberal,out to tar the right by his actions...I love free speech. Warts and all.
yes,indeed,it has been a rather rocky 48 hrs in NeoCon Land.

quote:

p

Aviator,you have a skip in your record, lol...we set up,cooked the books on Iraq for some time,starting back in late Bush one,and Clinton years...we were illegally flying over and doing bombing runs long before the official "invasion",and dont think for a second we haven`t had contingency plans for these sorts of things. They are planned- loosely- long in advance, and likely independent from the president`s grasp... you sure have alot of faith in those 17 resolutions you keep carping about.Gee,does that include the criminal activity done by u.s.oil companies doing side business with saddam? .... how odd, nodody else went along with us for very long,did they? even the Brits pulled,out. Not much leverage there; we were breaking international law in order to claim somebody else was breaking the law. Nobody leaped up to join,we had to bribe them,and most countries saw this for what it was; an oil grab.
Panama happened long before Bush2,fellers. And Granada was a laughable excuse of a fight,meant to tweak Cuba more than anything.And what are we even bringing up Germany and WW2?! huh? what?
Let`s start with Vietnam; we were there,eye-ing the oil and rubber. The excuse to war there? why, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, now discovered to be a lie,but a good enough lie to bring us to 57,000 or so American combat deaths. ok,back to original thread, and sorry for getting off track. [I`m still rattled by 490 million in deficit,not counting the additional 80 million for Iraq]

Maybe after we remind a few people 5, or 6, or 10 times, or <gasp> maybe even 17 times, then they will remember.

Did you say 17 United Nations Resolutions calling for Iraq to disarm and allow international weapons inspectors to verify same?

Seventeen ignored and rebuffed resolutions?

But wait, this is about oil!

I can't believe how many U.S. citizens make excuses for Iraq ignoring 17 resolutions when it fits with their talking points. Then again, it fits their political spin to ignore them.

Only 17 resolutions ignored and rebuffed, huh?

quote:

Originally posted by cleve:
lyonsgreenie, that only applies if there is oil under the ground of said sovereign country we invade...notice we never invade countries where there are no natural resources we may be able to plunder? I lost count on the number of excuses given,btw for why we needed to invade Iraq.What? They didn`t like those dorky photo ops from the `70`s,80`s?...they vary so much,it`s like a greatest Hits package from the past 100 years of war.
it`s as silly an argument as the ones I occasionally hear "that we left Vietnam too early"...that argument is usually given by NeoCon chicken hawks who ran hysterically crying for deferments to escape Vietnam. Yep...keep talking... we are really convinced we need 4 more years of this nonsense.mmm-hmmm...

I don’t think it was ever about taking or stealing the oil as much as it was about getting Iraq to let in foreign ownership of the oil. I read the other day that Iraq is at about 40 percent of pre war oil pumping levels. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that the recent global shortage has worked out so well for the oil CEOs who sat in Cheney’s secret energy meetings in 01. Either Aviator is having another case of selective memory or he wants everyone to forget that UNMOVIC and IAEA inspectors were allowed into Iraq from November 02 thru April 03, when the UN pulled them out the day before bombing began. Bush was the commander in chief who rushed us into Iraq, and naturally Aviator wants to blame everyone else, so there is no surprise there. Bush may not have crossed every t or dotted every i before the war, but he did find the time to give praise and hand out Medals of Freedom to the top planners and handlers involved in this mess.

(plus 16 more)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter.

A few things to remember and put this in perspective:
1) The profit is about 8.5% - which is not all that outlandish for a major inductrial firm.
2) They paid more in taxes ($32 billion) than they made in profit.
3) Of their profit, $10 billion was from selling oil on the world market, but only $1.6 billion was from selling fuel.

KK--They certainly don't have my sympathy. The profit they reported is the highest ever profit by a U.S. company. Selling fuel is not the only profit generated from a barrel of oil. There are many by products such as blacktop, plastics, rubber and etc., all generating profit.

quote:

Originally posted by /Dick:
KK--They certainly don't have my sympathy. The profit they reported is the highest ever profit by a U.S. company. Selling fuel is not the only profit generated from a barrel of oil. There are many by products such as blacktop, plastics, rubber and etc., all generating profit.

It was stated that the profit from all refining operations was $1.6 billion - I, probably incorrectly, simplified that to "fuel".

Exxon certainly doesn't need sympathy, but they aren't quite the devil incarnate either. 'Profit' is not a dirty word - it's what keeps us all employed.

You will also note that their profits did not meet the expectations of Wall Street so their stock didn't jump either.

FUTURES MOVERS

Oil futures rally to trade above $128 a barrel

Sept. contract at over one-week high on Iran tension, stock market decline

By Polya Lesova & Myra P. Saefong
Last update: 11:34 a.m. EDT Aug. 1, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures rallied past $128 per barrel Friday with fresh concerns over a possible Israeli strike on Iran and weakness in the U.S. stock market following a four-year high in the nation's unemployment.

Chevron results....

from CNNMoney

But the company's division that refines and sells gasoline actually swung to a loss of $734 million in the quarter...

quote:

Originally posted by /Dick:
KK--They certainly don't have my sympathy. The profit they reported is the highest ever profit by a U.S. company. Selling fuel is not the only profit generated from a barrel of oil. There are many by products such as blacktop, plastics, rubber and etc., all generating profit.

Here is what I do not understand. Do people really think the oil companies are eager to drill, when new wells will put more oil on the market, therefore cutting their own profits? Or are people thinking the oil company execs are willing to hurt their profits out of the goodness of their hearts?

Let's really stick it to those oil companies. We can quit buying their products. That will show them we have had enough of them making money off our backs!!! It worked when we quit buying products made in the USA and switched to buying the cheaper products imported from overseas (mainly China).

Everybody think of ways you can cut your energy purchases 10% in just the next month, and watch how they respond and lower their prices to get us to come back.


________________
The only time it is not appropriate to think outside the box is when housebreaking a cat.

KK--The reason Chevron posted a loss is because they are not pumping enough oil of their own to keep up with their own refineries. Gosh darn, they had to buy oil from competitors.



Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to a teenage boys. P.J. O'Rourke