Fuel costs

[luvrbus]

Skipn, does diesel fuel come out of the same cracking process for that barrel of oil

[HighTechRedneck]

This site breaks it down pretty well:

http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/whats_in_barrel_oil.html

[luvrbus]

Thanks, Hightech they make big bucks off a barrel being they lose only the smell from a barrel oil

[Ncbob]

While following this thread I have tried to sit back and consider all sides of every opinion offered and honestly, I've come to the conclusion that we have some pretty intelligent people in our ranks. Each and every one has offered some information or thought that only proves one thing.  America is still the greatest nation in the free world.

Nick thought that we might have set a new record for pages of dialogue without a flaming fight. With all due respect, we're all adults and have weathered more arguments than we'd like to repeat. Personally, I thank you all for your thoughts.

Where from here? If the powers that be finally realize that we're married, for probably the next couple of generations, to oil and its' byproducts I pray that they'll stop the foolishness and let the farmers raise grains to feed our people and not the potential coffers of their dreams of tax money.

This is the very first year of my 72 year old life where I see our country finding that we HAVE to import grain from another country because we're so caught up in this Ethanol thing that we cannot feed our own people!

Take a hard look at this last sentence gentlemen. Is this where we want America to go?
We have been the breadbasket for the world for generations. Are we going to let Politicians reduce us to a 3rd World Country in their quest for power?

I'm not going to answer my own question. My wife and I have only a voice each...which we can exercise only every two years...and then, seemingly, only in opposition to our own children.

We are going through a period of tremendous potential political turmoil. All are asking for 'change'. From the known to the unknown? We've been there so many times before, but have always pulled together as a nation, to secure the freedoms we were promised in the Constitution. 

Would you wager a tank of diesel fuel today....on the future?

Bob

[rcbishop]

Thoughtful post, Bob.  Thanx,.... and I pretty much agree with you.  What price " change," eh?

RCB

[PP]

Someone said it earlier in the thread that these are the 'Good Ol Days'. Sad but true.

[cody]

Bob, I'm scared now, I find myself agreeing with some of the things your saying, luckily I'm comforted by disagreeing with a few of your statements. This year we will have the chance to make a decision that we will have to live with for the next 4 years, not to be taken lightly.  Your right, at this time we stand a chance of slipping into third world status for probably the first time in our history.  It used to be easy for this country to wield the economic hammer and sway other countries to our way of thinking but in a global economy this is becoming encreasingly difficult, with other countries rising into the power circles, we have to adapt or fall behind.  I realize that a military campaign in another part of the world has merit in many respects but I cannot help but think of what the 400 million dollar a month cost would do for our highway infrastructure, or the educational system or in other area's if it had been directed in that direction. I see capped oil wells sitting, and undeveloped oil fields, no new refineries built in the last 30 years, so many other area's that could be of a national interest to us. For us to have to import food when we have the potential to feed the world and now we can't even feed ourselves without help from outside the country is a travesty made real by unwise choices.  Techologically, we have always had the edge but now we see other countries taking the forefront in area's of alternate power, and new product develpoment, jobs are going overseas at an unpresidented rate, something is radically wrong in the best nation on earth and it's correctable we just have to get back to the ideals that made this country great, not only to give us back the edge we always had but to regain the respect of the other countries.

[Barn Owl]

How about this for our politicians looking out for our countries best interest:

Machinists Union Blasts Tanker Decision

Machinists across the country are calling for congressional action following the decision by Air Force officials to award a $40 billion aerial refueling tanker contract to a team led by the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS), parent company of Airbus.

"The Air Force's decision is a serious blow to a key American industry," said IAM GVP Rich Michalski. "President Bush and his administration have denied real economic stimulus to the American people and chosen instead to create jobs in Toulouse, France."

The tanker competition was mandated in 2003, allowing a heavily subsidized European manufacturer, EADS, to bid against Boeing, a U.S. firm that received no subsidies.

"This decision means billions of taxpayer dollars will be used to create jobs in foreign countries, rather than here in the United States," said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. "Giving this contract to EADS further hollows out America's industrial base and rewards a company that has already used $100 million in European government subsidies to grab nearly 50 percent of the U.S. commercial aircraft market."

The IAM represents nearly 35,000 Boeing employees in Washington state, Oregon, Kansas and locations across the country.

I am a IAM member, and the above was taken from their website:

http://www.goiam.org/publications/imail/imail_03_04_2008.htm

[Barn Owl]

How about this to add to our problems (a little long, but watch the whole thing):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ

Think we have problems now? 

[NJT 5573]

Do any of you follow the metals market? Do you think Silver and Gold are around the top or do you think Silver/Gold is going to go up a lot?

[Lin]

They are selling some Chinese gold at Walmart cheap.  Of course, as many things from China, it is made of lead.

[NJT5047]

I believe the Airbus tankers are going to be built in Georgia. And Airbus is moving the A330 production (or some major assembly thereof) to Ga also. 
Feel free to correct my post, but we are becoming a less expensive place in which to manufacture due primarily to the deflated buck.  And we have the skilled workforce to do the job unlike most third world countries.    Airbus is hedging their losses by manufacturing in the US.
I've got a new Turbo Meca plant right down the road.  French helicopter engine plant.  Big potential employer in this area.  They send everyone to France for initial training.
So much for the trade imbalance on the Airbus fuel tankers? 

JR 

[Sojourner]

How about this to add to our problems (a little long, but watch the whole thing):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=n7WJeqxuOfQ

Think we have problems now? 

Amen!

Too bad that some of our American government officials are letting the foreigner into our English speaking land without even getting citizenship and learn to speak our language. Even our government allows their own children to not speak English as main language in every stores & products & manuals. 

The one Barn Owl posted the "you tube" link is EVEN MORE STOCKING than above. From that alone will never stop increasing fuel cost.

Thanks for the update Barn Owl..... hooot hooot!

Sojourn for Christ, Jerry

[JohnEd]

JR,

Great info and long overdue.  We are the land of opportunity and fair competition and that is WHY we are number one.  We aren't letting these foreign corps into the country, we are welcoming them and the capitol (remember capitalists?) they bring "back" (pretty much")  into our nation.  Surely to Chr**t you will have no trouble whatsoever finding negative examples but the theory holds and it is our Gummints responsibility to inflict law and regulation on EVERYONE.  Levels the playing field.

A french Corp bought the old Rust Belt mill he retired from.  They had talked a lot about how they were going to "revive" the mill with contracts they had in Europe.  Less than a year after they acquired the company the truth began to unfold.....First, they announced they were having difficulty making ends MEET, Then they announced that they would have to sell of machinery to get the capitol to purchase the new equipment that they needed to turn around the negative cash flow.  Many wondered out loud about why these people were being "blind sided" by problems any man on the street knew about.....Turns out the plant assets had been "used up" by the original mill owners before they transferred the manufacturing off shore.  There were NO ASSETS that could be liquidated and if there had been the PO would have sold them and taken the cash off shore.....Then the Frogs played their trump card.  The Pension Fund would have to be raided and pensions reduced to half so the funds could be made available for corp investment......Ahhh  Sooo!.....The court stopped this rape based on their being a contract between the corp and the retirees that it would be maintained.  It also came to light that the fund was rich and would always have funds for the original deal and that while it was arguable that the funds should be distributed at an accelerated rate the fund managers, corp people, fought this because the residual funds reverted to the corp.   Inflation ate their pensions and the retirement income became a joke after many years.  My Dad is dead now and the Principle that provided the interest that paid his paltry pension has now been converted to a unfettered Corp asset acct.  That mill stays buttoned up as tight as ever and no amt of funds (deaths) has started a single machine.  From what I know of finance, they corp could always have borrowed against their "proven" income from those "conversions"(deaths) but they never did.

I don't have much info on this but a French outfit that specializes in WATER TREATMENT  is purchasing up water plants and distribution systems world wide.  I understand that many municipal operations have been "privatized" and sold to them and others for the purported purpose of achieving "the efficiency" that the market brings to any enterprise.  Sure, and then the additional profits will be passed along to the consumer.  There are a lot of people high fiveing and celebrating the riddance of those GD Civil Servants that "never did a days work in their life and were just sucking a living out of hard working folks like you and me".  Get ready to get real thirsty!

The best selling compact sedan in the world is manufactured in Tenn.  It is the 4 door Toyota Camry.  Or was.  That car is shipped back to Japan where it enjoys a reputation as one of that country's most reliable and best seller.  The two door version is still made in Toyota City in Japan and is equally respected as a high water mark in value.  Both our nations benefit from arrangements like this.  It can be done and it must be done for us to survive in this new economy.  We just have to be sure who it is that is negotiating for us.  Transparency in Gummint is critical and critical review is essential and public access to those reviews is the ONLY thing that gives them any value.  Now lets hear it for why "the Pres needs to have private consult cause people won't offer really candid advice if the public finds out".  Who do you think is high diving that.  I like the old system of checks and balances and "open" Gummint "of and for the people"....you know, the CONSERVATIVE values.

The Air Force is the most progressive of the services.   They most closely follow the Defense Acquisition Regulation (DAR).  That document requires that ALL Acq be a competitive process and that the award be to the highest qualified bidder.  The biggest bang for the tax dollar is is the rule and mission will never suffer from that process.  The Air Bus contract will have a clause in it that the aircraft will be domestic manufactured and that those manufacturing assets will remain domestic for life cycle support.  We will never let a foreign country have control over the maintainability of out military aircraft.  That would be just plain stupid.  That is how we deal with the rest of the world that buys our military hardware, however.  Except Germany got the rights to build the F104 and I think Israel got a "favorable" deal also but I forget what it was.  Ceaser Chavez wanted to be able to mfr his own rifles but we wouldn't sell him the guns or the mfr. licence so he bought from the Russians.  Probably got a worse deal from them cause he paid with Dollars he got from selling oil to us.  We could have gotten a lot of that money back and the jobs we need.  Why would we care how many assult rifles he has to fend off an invader??  I would sell him all the rifles he could carry back there.  Those Boeing workers will get jobs working for Air Bus and we all know that the Europeans have better health care and pensions so why wouldn't they pay the same here unless our Gummint doesn't require that?

Love ya,

John

[Barn Owl]

Europeans have better health care and pensions

I respectfully disagree,


Laryn