About a year ago, we at this Website predicted $4 a gallon gasoline within a year. Unfortunately, we were right. But where else was the price of gasoline going to go? DOWN? With this country's two top executives having been either owners of, employees of or chief executives of oil companies and those in related fields, what else would anyone expect to have happened? The Bush family's history in the oil business, not only in the US, but in Saudi Arabia and most other Middle Eastern countries, has been written-about and reported on extensively --- And W still got elected and then re-elected, if you believe the US Supreme Court. Our current pres' father, George Herbert Walker Bush, joined that small club of one-term presidents only when he was either so arrogant or just plain stupid enough to open his mouth about "Read my lips: No new taxes!" That Bush, dad, had also been head of the CIA ... Are we just out of our minds in this country, electing and re-electing these dangerous dolts?
Dick Cheney played it more straightforward, you have to give him credit for that. He has been so 
obviously entangled in the huge monies flowing between government, the "private" market and outright, unapologetic warfare, that he was almost daring Americans to vote for him. Cheney, having worked for various neo-con leaders in the shadowy hallways of our federal government, became a Congressman from Wyoming, a super-right-wing backwater state if ever there was one, and "somehow" became the chief executive of Halliburton. That outfit makes a lot of its money from the business of finding oil, drilling for it and operating oil fields. They also have developed a nice "side business" taking care of feeding and supplying our military forces all over the world. Of course they do so without having to engage in any of the usual pettiness which goes with these things, like actually "bidding" for contracts; and why should they? Their fix was in years ago, bought-and-paid-for. The company gave Cheney a $30-million "thanking you in advance" paycheck when he left the company in order to take the lesser-paying and lower-prestige job of American vice president.
Do you seriously think someone as clearly stupid as George Bush ever wanted to be anything other than Commissioner of Baseball, yet somehow got side-tracked into his scripted job? The more sensible people of the world are scared to death that these two will blow it all up before next January, when, says our Constitution, they get run out of office ... But only if there isn't some emergency or rumor of emergency which forces the inauguration of the new president to be "moved back". Think it can't happen? We all thought Katrina and the destruction of a great American city could never happen because of a hurricane. It did. Most of us have probably forgotten about that already.
Now, to the gas prices we're all dealing with:
The Associated Press reports, out of San Francisco, the following:
San Francisco's surging gasoline prices stand poised to smash their old record of $3.36 for a gallon of regular, perhaps as early as today.
Some stations in the city already have passed that record, set last May.
Although San Francisco's average gasoline price reached $3.34 Thursday, individual stations were charging as much as $3.98.
And yes, that's $3.98 for regular. Want premium? At least one San Francisco station was charging $4.18 per gallon. Blame huge refinery profit margins, falling gasoline production, tensions with Iran and American drivers themselves, who are -- believe it or not -- buying more gas now than they did last year.
Just two weeks ago, it looked like San Francisco and the rest of the country would finally get a break at the pump. Prices for crude oil, gasoline's raw material, were falling. Refineries were almost done with their annual spring maintenance, which temporarily had cut the amount of gas they could produce. Market analysts predicted that the stunning late-winter run-up in prices would soon end. San Francisco's average even dropped for a few days.
Then escalating tensions with Iran forced crude oil prices sharply higher, almost 17 percent in 10 days.
Mechanical problems kept hitting refineries throughout the country and in the Bay Area, shrinking the amount of gasoline on the market.
Throughout, refinery profit margins on the West Coast remained almost twice as high as they were last fall, adding to the price drivers pay at the pump. The difference between what West Coast refiners pay for crude and the price they charge for refined products has risen to $37 per barrel from about $20 last fall. (end of AP story)
We left out one important detail about the above story. It was posted by the AP on March 30, 2007. Yep, a year ago. And oil prices have managed to run up to over $110 a barrel. And you thought $37 a barrel was bad? That was last year!
Here's another story, again from the AP, datelined this week of 2008; it's posted from Honolulu:
Maui No Ka Oi" is a popular Hawaiian saying that means Maui is the best. Mike Sweeney recently moved to this idyllic island from Denver and was hit with the other side of living in paradise with his first visit to the gas pump: Maui is also No. 1 in gas prices.
"After seeing the total, I won't be smiling," Sweeney said as he watched the numbers on the Chevron pump spin faster than a slot machine.
The pump finally stopped at $97.20, which put 24.5 gallons in his Chevrolet Avalanche.
He was elated about living on Maui and being reunited with his black, super-size pickup truck, which just arrived from Colorado, but he wasn't so thrilled about paying nearly $4 for a gallon of regular.
While the price of oil climbs above $110 a barrel, most Americans dread the day they will have to pay $4. On this tropical island and a few stations in California, $4 gas has already arrived, straining the pocketbooks of residents and businesses.
Maui is on the verge of becoming the first area in the nation to average $4 for a gallon of regular. The average price in Wailuku reached $3.943 on Friday, the highest price in AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report. At several stations, it was a penny shy of $4. In the remote coastal town of Hana, it was around $4.40 a gallon.
"Outrageous. Completely outrageous," said Janet Carone, of Wailuku.
The high price to get around has hurt many families, like the Carones. They're coping by driving less, carpooling or working more.
"It has a big effect because our housing is high, our food is high, and the gas prices just make it worse," she said.(End of AP story)
Just remember ... Next time someone tells you that whoever is elected president doesn't really matter ... You'll have a good answer for them.
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