61. America gets oil from Alaska, which is piped down to the states and then loaded on boats and taken to CHINA and other Asian countries to be refined. And why is that? Because California and other Pacific states don't want refineries in their backyard to "dirty" up their states. So our gas goes to China. Isn't it time that California come out of their ILLUSIONARY state of Hollywood mentality, and start pulling their own weight for the country?????

BEAJ at 12:48AM on May 15th 2008

62. Europe's price of gas is higher because it covers the cost of their health programs as well as education expenses. Gas price today in Denver: $369. And I'm still paying for my insurance and student loan. So who's REALLY paying the ,ost money for gas?

BEAJ at 12:50AM on May 15th 2008

63. BEAJ

So how much of your student loan and health care cost do you feel other people should be paying for?

Paul Sparcello at 1:07AM on May 15th 2008

64. BEAJ

No oil exports from Alaska since year 2000.
In a CRS Report for Congress 5/8/05, it stated as of year 2000 oil exports from Alaska ceased. Prior to 2000, when oil was being shipped from Alaska, no more than 7% of Alaska oil production was sent to China, Japan and S.Korea.

Your information is 8 years outdated.

You view of paid health care in Europe is also distorted. Do some research and you will find that people do pay out of the pocket, getting your own insurance is not allowed, health care can be denied to a person, healthcare is substandard which isone reason so many people from Canada go to USA for care and so many Europeans go out of country to Thailand, Philippines etc for health care such as needed operations. The coverage varies country to country, but it is far from FREE.

Sum up, NO OIL EXPORTS FROM ALASKA SINCE YEAR 2000

robert okane at 2:29AM on May 15th 2008

65. Gasoline Price Update. Prices as of 5/08/08

Hard to find, but got recent European Gasoline prices in dollars per gallon. Data from
About.com European Travel

International Energy price
UK- $9.40 a gallon for gasoline
France, Belgium, Germany,
Netherlands,Italy $7.50 to $8.50 a gal.
of gasoline.

Price of gasoline in USA is much cheaper than in Europe

robert okane at 3:59AM on May 15th 2008

66.
From: "Head of State"
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/05/golf-as-expiation.html


Thursday, May 15, 2008
Golf as Expiation

From Reuters:


"U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he quit playing golf in 2003 out of respect for the families of Americans killed in the war in Iraq."


Golf As Expiation

By Guru Alano Jeffries Lipmiano, adviser to former heads of state Amin, Taylor, Nixon et al.

Many have criticized President Bush for his statement that he gave up golf as a way of making a personal sacrifice to show solidarity with those fighting and risking their lives in the war in Iraq, a war that he largely created.

However, I think that it is difficult to see the value and importance--the weight and value of such a personal sacrifice--until we examine it more closely.

I recall meeting with Mobutu Sese Seko, I believe it was in the late 1960s. He had just finished his plundering of the Zairian (Now Congolese) economy after deposing Joseph Kasavubu in a bloody coup, raping the natural resources of the nation, and had lured the former Minister of Education back to the nation on the assumption that he would be amnestied, only to be tortured and then murdered by Mobutu's minions. I recall the scene vividly, Seko sitting atop an ornate Louis the XVII original, running his right hand through a hand of rubies. "I am satisfied, Guru, but I cannot yet find full and complete satisfaction. There is a vague feeling of irritation, or disquiet. Perhaps I am taking my people in the wrong direction."

Table tennis, I recommended. Give up table tennis, your favorite sport after your evening repasts. With this sacrifice, you will show that you too are willing to deny yourself what is important, that you too will bear the burdens of want, as does the nation. Seko smiled, as several rubies fell from the bag to the floor.

I, too, remember vividly, the events of 1973. Pinochet had just overthrown Allende in a bloody coup, and he had just then declared himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation". The General had begun his "disappearing" of political opponents, in which over 2000 were killed and about 30,000 tortured. "Guru," he said one evening, as we sat in the Massage Room of the Presidential Palace, "There is a pain in my lower back that emerges whenever I hear the shouts of imprisoned former associates from the courtyard, a pain that no massage can remove. Please, tell me, how can I rid myself of this continuous suffering".

I looked to the plate of Maté and Alfajores (fried Argentinian bread) that sat on a tray beside the massage table. "You must make a show of sacrifice to rid yourself of the tension of the difficult removal of your treasonous enemies, General." I pointed to the tray--"Mate' es fine. No mas."
He smiled, instructed a satrap to remove the tray. The following day, the vanishing of the Disappeared once again flowed without imposition or bar.

It was only months later that I sat with Nixon and Kissinger. It was late at night, the three of us seated in the Oval Office, tumblers of scotch before us--all but Nixon's untouched--and Nixon shoulders hunched low over his desk, the desk lamp against the night sky framed in the window behind him casting his face in an eerie glow. "It's the goddamn press, Henry. They want to hang us. Why don't they realize what I am trying to do for them, Henry? Peaceniks, Hippies, Yippies, and the damn New York Times. One day, when this has all passed, passed us on, then they'll realize, then they'll understand how hard I worked, how hard I tried..." The tumbler shook in his hand, and all that could be heard was the ice lightly clinking against the heavy glass. "What can I do, Guru? What can I do?"

I looked to the gilt framed picture on his desk, of Nixon playing the piano, Pat beside him. "You must sacrifice. You must abstain. The piano is your sacrifice to the lives so bravely being lost in Vietnam. Just as they have given up their freedom to play stringed ebony instruments in the Southeast Asian jungles, so you too shall put aside this desire. For them. "

He looked at me with a silent, poignant, smile, as a tear slowly ran down his cheek. "Henry", he said, waving his hand "Tell Ramon to remove the piano from the East Room and put it in the basement. And have him bring another bottle of Scotch."

There are many such tales of deep sacrifice for the good of one's nation, taken with a full and insightful vision of what the nation has suffered, and taken with a full understanding of what that suffering entails.

The sacrifice of golf is no mere folly, by a man so out of touch throughout his entire life with the meaning of actual suffering, by a man whose lifelong values have been so skewed by the cosseting of pain, infliction of deprivation, error, and the human consequence of his actions by an ever-present familial safety net that he cannot even conceive of the notion of risk inherent in actual sacrifice, by a man in thrall to his own limitations and such fears of those limitations that he has walled himself in from all that might possibility contradict it.

No.

Golf is a sacrifice, a man giving up the very peace and solace, the removal from daily life, that his war has removed from those that his actions have sent into sands of Iraq.

And so I say, Mr. President, put your putter aside with honor, with pride, and with the knowledge that you too have made a great sacrifice fully in keeping with the actions and goals that you have taken on behalf of this nation.

Cite:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/05/golf-as-expiation.html

Robert Hewson at 7:28AM on May 15th 2008

67. I want to know if Robert Okane, Dave and all the other right-wing-nuts have also given up golf like their idiotic hero, GWB, to show the troops their support. I'll believe you are supportive when you go and sign up for your tour of duty in Iraq. As a matter of fact, I think Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Condi and Wolfi should all be assigned to the most dangerous missions in Iraq (possible the convoy trucks running supplies) as their punishment for this mess.

Sarah at 10:58AM on May 15th 2008

68. Sara

I said nothing about Golf, just about gasoline prices.

I presented documented stats on oil for those who were babbeling about price of gasoline, but, for example, USA exports Alaska Oil-not true since 2000.

I was in the military and I am uite sure you did not get your butt in a US Uniform.

You think that being in the military is a necessity to being President, since you pointed out that Bush, Cheney etc. Then Sara, I am quite sure you will vote for a real man who served his country and was a POW, John McCain. Obama never served in the military so according to your theroy, he should not be President and thus Commander in Chief of the Military

robert okane at 2:55PM on May 15th 2008

69. Sarah

Right wingers are Nut Jobs. That is because we have NUTS and hold JOBS. The same can not be said of the castrated parasites that make up the core support of the Democratic Party.

Paul Sparcello at 3:40PM on May 15th 2008

70. Major Democratic Legislation to lower gas prices FIVE CENTS!!!!!!!

Nancy & Harry have made the awesome move to put 70,000 barrels of SPR royalty oil into the open market to lower the price of oil. So they admit that increased supply will lower prices.

Do the math: If 70,000 equals a five cent reduction then a 2,000,000 barrel/day increase in domestic production would lower gas prices by $1.50/gallon.

DRILL NOW DRILL NOW DRILL NOW DRILL NOW

Paul Sparcello at 3:52PM on May 15th 2008

71. Good point, Sarah. All the nut-jobs should stop playing golf in support of the troops. They worship George Dumbya Bush so much that they should follow his lead. They should also enlist and volunteer for 100 years of service in Iraq, Pakistan and (soon) Iran.

But, unlike Dumbya, they shouldn't desert, even if it is only from the "Champaign Division" of the Texas Air National Guard.

Captain Negative at 6:00PM on May 15th 2008

72. We have been lied to again by this parasite called commander in chief. We should have known better than to imagine this little man would personally ever sacrifice anything at all. You can see a video of the decider golfing in October of 2003, which of course for those of us that know how to count know that this would be 3 months after his declaration of solidarity with the families of our brave soldiers.

Alternatively, this parasite did sacrifice something. Our brave men and women of the Military, this man is the lowest form of matter that takes up space for no valid reason.

Patty at 10:15PM on May 15th 2008

73. and of course it was revealed today (and on tape) that Bush has played a few rounds of Golf since he "gave it up" for the troops.

The trick in telling a big lie is NOT TO BE ON CAMERA when you've done what you just said you weren't.

T.Brough at 12:39AM on May 16th 2008

74. Patty

Since you are such an ardent Military Supporter, please explain how 7,500 Soldiers died under eight years of your beloved Slick Willy!!!!!!! Under the first six years of 'W' there have been 8,792 Soldiers killed. Since Slick Willy oversaw no major combat actions, please explain how 7,500 Soldiers died on his watch? And were you complaining to/about your beloved Slicky?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2311/1847402056_5a409521f3_o.jpg

Paul Sparcello at 10:50AM on May 16th 2008

75. Ana/Cenk

This story/video fails to mention if BJ Clinton gave up having interns going down in the White House while the troops of "Blackhawk" were going down in Somalia!!!!!!!

Paul Sparcello at 10:53AM on May 16th 2008