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Real problem: deficit
Yes, oil is a depleting finite resource, but the real reason for most of the price spike in oil stems from the reckless fiscal mess the Bush administration has shamelessly put us into.
There is a consequence to increasing our national deficit in just seven years. That consequence is called inflation!
The mushrooming deficit has caused the dollar to collapse. Oil is based in dollars, which makes our oil and all commodities very attractive to foreign investors because their currencies are worth a lot more than our dollar, which entices them to buy oil and other commodities cheaper with their stronger currencies.
The bottom line is that Bush thinks drilling for offshore oil will bring down the price of oil. The president needs to get real and get his fiscal house in order, which will help strengthen the dollar and do much more to bring down the price of oil.
Bush's shameless handling of our economy has forced him not only to put our economy in peril, but our oceans and beaches as well.
Using the president's logic, we'd better plant more corn and soybeans, dig for more copper and gold and create more dairy farms, since all these commodities have spiked to new all-time highs.
And now that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and IndyMac Bank are going to need bailout money, our deficit will grow higher and likely lead to an even lower dollar and higher inflation.
Sometimes I think the Bush presidency is a nightmare, but, sadly, it is not.
— Mitch Rheingold, Thousand Oaks
Hold county accountable
Re: your July 16 article, "Plan to replant lawn at county site wilts":
It appears that doing everything to conserve water is good for regular people, but not for the same people who are telling us to conserve.
Director of county General Services Paul Grossgold's rationale is typical of the arrogant, condescending attitude that those in government have toward the people who pay their salary.
The fact of the matter is that government has no money except for that which it takes from taxpayers. It is taxpayers who pay for the arborist. It is taxpayers who paid for the well. It is taxpayers who pay for the operation of the well. Grossgold makes it sound like the General Services Agency or the Board of Supervisors is paying for something when they are not. It is the taxpayers who are paying for everything.
Voters should wake up and start demanding accountability by those who are working for us.
— Bruce Jackson, Ventura
Posted by mikeb6804 on July 21, 2008 at 12:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Mitch -- the people who have stymied efforts to do more drilling and use nuclear power haven't done us much good either. Our population has increased over 30% in the last 30 years and our fuel infrastructure has done ___?? This is pure lunacy.
Posted by mikeb6804 on July 21, 2008 at 8:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
jw --- when the Democrats took over in 2007, Nancy Pelosi clearly stated they would solve the problems and eleminate the gas crisis? What happened?? Admittedly there has been some bad legislation, but the Democrats could have stopped it. They didn't.
Posted by AnaCapa on July 21, 2008 at 9:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)
mmshoot you can't blame the Democrats on this one. Pres. Carter saw this coming 30 years ago and tried to do something about it, but Reagan took office and did nothing. Read his speech to the nation in April of 1977. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/f...
The oil companies already have licenses to drill on thousand of acres, they aren't using the leases, why?
Posted by nelsonknows on July 21, 2008 at 10:52 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Isn't it just amazing how left-wingers blame everyone but themselves. Trace when economic problems started in the U.S. The Bush Admin. took over in January of 2001 and the economy was rolling right along until 911 which, by all rights, our economy should have gone into the dumpster but it didn't. 911 caused a large hiccup but the economy corrected itself thanks to the American people. Soon the stock market was over 15,000, unemployment was at 4.6%, life was good even though the U.S. was involved in a war. In 2006 Democrats won both houses of Congress and in February 2007, the economy started to turn a bit sour which has continued to this day. This has happened each and every time in the past 120 years, when Democrats take both houses of Congress, within 2 months our economy starts floundering, why is this? Do American businesses have little confidence in Democrats or are the American consumers afraid of higher taxes, thus are afraid to invest?
Let's look into another problem, the housing market where when you get to the brass tacks of loans for housing, fully 24% of the loans on homes claimed to be in default ARE NOT in default. People took out 3 to 5 year, interest only or adjustable loans where the terms of those loans ended in that 3 to 5 year period and those homes would have to have been refinanced. Many people could not qualify for refinancing thus, they lost the home. This is NOT default, these are simply people playing a shell game thinking they could refinance a loan at the end of the term of the prior loan. Let's inject some truth into these subjects before folks start losing their minds.
Posted by nelsonknows on July 21, 2008 at 11:02 a.m.
(This thread was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by nelsonknows on July 21, 2008 at 11:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
On January 5th, 2007, Democrats took control of both houses of Congress and gas was $3.119 on national average, today it is $4.079 on national average. In 5 years and 4 months, from September 2001 to January 2007, gas prices increased $1.72 but in the past 18 months have increased nearly a dollar. Let's start using a little, valid math here jw1000.
Posted by sslocal on July 21, 2008 at 12:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hmm, maybe Nelson can tell me why the approval rate for congress is at 14%. This is less than half of what the approval rate is for Bush.
This alone should tell you something.
Posted by nelsonknows on July 21, 2008 at 2:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I see, jw1000 can blatantly lie and when you call him on it, the Star staff deletes your posts, so much for freedom of speech.
Posted by nelsonknows on July 21, 2008 at 2:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Again, jw1000, I posted the U.S. Dept. of Energy Statistics, I don't know where YOU get what you seem to call fact but again, jw1000, lying gets you nowhere. Let's see how long this posts stays up for telling it as it is.
Posted by nelsonknows on July 21, 2008 at 7:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The figures I posted were from January 20, 2001, they were the national average posted by the Department of Energy as I stated before, YOU need to prove that Gas prices were not as I stated earlier and as you've noticed, that post no longer exists, I guess the editor is all for censorship.
Posted by NovaM on July 21, 2008 at 10:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)
In all of the above posts on gas price gouging and war profiteering by the Saudis and American Big Oil with the Bushnicks in their pockets protecting their sweet cash cow with an unjustified MULTI BILLION DOLLAR WASTE OF OUR TAX MONEY AND CREDIT (not to mention credibility in the World), none of you are attempting to tie the billions wasted in Iraq (for NO RETURN THUS FAR) to the run-up in oil prices by OPEC & American Big Oil.
With Bush and the Repuklicans in their pocket and a lid on the flow of Iraqi oil to help stabalize gas prices in the region, and with the collapse of the dollar leading to wild speculation in all of the commodity markets, Bush's partners the Saudi Royal Family are free to charge whatever they want for their oil.
Forget November - January can't come soon enough (when these war criminals and speculation crooks leave office).
Doesn't anyone see any similarity to the California Energy Crisis of just a few years ago? The one engineered by these same crooks, to create the conditions by which we actually accepted an ACTOR as GOVERNOR?
Oh yeah, I keep forgetting about Regan and his cabal of neocons (the ones who actually convinced enough of the business thieves out there that deregulation - the elimination of the laws that made them crooks in the first place, is a 'good thing').
I can think of no more PERFECT CRIME than that of purchasing enough politicians, that they can actually eliminate the laws that made you criminals in the first place!
And now they've politicized the Justice Dept., where the rest of the laws get enforced (and taxes are forced to be paid, btw, to pay for the 'freedoms' that these criminals use every day to make them rich).
Posted by wolf9walker on July 21, 2008 at 10:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Diesel, sense 2003 has increased by 400%. Which increase’s everything that we by at the stores or even restaurants
Posted by wolf9walker on July 21, 2008 at 10:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
thats "buy at the stores and restaurants"
Posted by ReadMyLipsNoNewTaxes on July 22, 2008 at 9:51 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Jeeze you left wingers are bitter.
Not one of you addressed the issue that demand is up.
Just as we can't drill our way out of this miss, we can't conserve our way out of it either.
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