# Oil companies and Bush. Make up your minds! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 7, 2004, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078 "2004-06-07T10:04:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/1 "2004-06-07T10:04:44Z")
What the fuck is this, an alternate universe? I left my comfy home today to play 18 holes at my ‘home’ course (actually the wife made me, she wanted some quiet time. I married well 😉 ) The course is 20 miles away, so I had to fill up the car. I paid $1.99/gal. Last week I filled up at $2.19/gal. WTF?!? I thought Bush had some kind of world-wide plan to make the oil companies rich! I’m so disillusioned right now, I may not make sense. I trusted some Dopers when they said that the oil companies wanted to anal-rape Americans at the pump. Why the hell are prices going **down!?!** It can’t possibly be that worldwide commodities aren’t controlled by a single person, right? RIGHT? Eh, maybe it’s just a conspiracy orchestrated by Bush to get votes. Yeah, that’s it. Disregard, I guess I just figured it out. BTW, the money I saved on gas paid for the ball I lost to the frigging river. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/2 "2004-06-07T10:16:50Z")
You think that charging $1.99 a gallon is cutthroat competition? This is a bargain to you? ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/3 "2004-06-07T10:18:44Z")
The least that I can remember paying for gas was 29 cents. This was about 1970. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/4 "2004-06-07T10:22:51Z")
In case it was missed, this was kind of a pit about the people who bitched that gas above $2/gal was a plan by “Bushco” to kill all of mankind. Come on, I thought at least you 2 would pick up on that! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/5 "2004-06-07T10:24:49Z")
Gas. is still waaay over $2.00 a gallon here in densely populated southern California. I paid $2.31 for my last gallon. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/6 "2004-06-07T10:42:19Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > Gas. is still waaay over $2.00 a gallon here in densely populated southern California. I paid $2.31 for my last gallon. Forgot to note you’re in Cali. One hour south it’s $1.84. Regional stuff. Plus, we don’t have radicals forcing specialized blends on us. Chicago and Milwaukee Dopers (among others) feel your pain. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/7 "2004-06-07T10:48:02Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > The least that I can remember paying for gas was 29 cents. This was about 1970. Oh, and just cuz it’s the Pit and I’ve had few opportunities to do so, Fuck off! (The few opps are because I’m seeing more and more posts from you I agree with. Even if you’re voting habits are wrong. Great job in the Reagan thread I saw by the way. You may be a class act after all 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/8 "2004-06-07T10:54:07Z")
Somehow, I missed the consipiracy theories with respect to gas prices. I usually don’t keep up with news much except when big or unusual things happen like Reagan dying. Funny thing is, when I was young, dumb, and full of cum, I used to blast my mother all the time for being out of the loop and never watching the news. I was a news hound, very politically active. One day, I confronted her directly. “Why don’t you ever watch the news? No wonder you never know what’s going on!” She didn’t skip a bit. “I don’t need to watch the news. I know what’s on it. There’s unrest in the Middle East.” Stopped me right in my tracks. Thirty years later, she’s still right. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/9 "2004-06-07T11:08:24Z")
Regardless of who may or may not be making a killing off gas prices, there will still be price fluctuations. That it went down this week does not mean that it will not go higher than before next. Summer is usually more expensive than other months. I’m paying about 30 cents more per gallon than I did last year at this time. ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/10 "2004-06-07T13:15:45Z")
Yeah I agree **Duffer**. It’s bloody stupid the way **commodities** prices go up and down all the time. Stupid stock market. Only 2 weeks ago pork bellies were 30 cents a pound **cheaper** - would you believe it 30 cents a pound!! And silver is up and down like a John Howards preffered prime minister polls. Stupid commodities. And how about the currencies. Like the NZ dollar, thats bloddy annoying too going up and down so much all the time - down **12 cents** overnight - and the Vietnamese Dong, just when I was used to it being 12 thousand it slips down to 10 K per dollar. And dont get me started on Bonds and Rates…yeah fuckin’ dumb markets…totally mental. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/11 "2004-06-07T13:27:37Z")
Bah. I fail to note more than few (as in one or two) claims on this board in recent weeks that there is some conspiracy to raise gasoline prices. When such a complaint came up in GD, what did I, and others do? Went out, did a bit of research, and posted condensed explanations of how the oil commodity market works, showing that it is not really possible for such a conspiracy to exist. What, by contrast is the **duffer** approach? Make some vague claims about unnamed Dopers using this as an excuse to unfairly bash Bush, line up a few straw men and set fire to them. Geez, man, if you really think that a significant number of Board members are trying to score some political points on this issue, name some names; let’s air it out. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/12 "2004-06-07T15:30:27Z")
Yeah, _everyone_ knows that Bush’s cronies are making the big bucks with their [no-bid cost-plus contracts](http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1559574) in Iraq… ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/13 "2004-06-07T18:05:17Z")
I’m not saying Bush would, and definately not that he has, but if I were going to get into bed with the oil companies, I’d find a way to give them a massive tax-break, so they can lower prices, get more custom, AND make more money. The only people to lose would be tax-payers. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/14 "2004-06-07T19:34:07Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > What, by contrast is the **duffer** approach? Make some vague claims about unnamed Dopers using this as an excuse to unfairly bash Bush, line up a few straw men and set fire to them. Geez, man, if you really think that a significant number of Board members are trying to score some political points on this issue, name some names; let’s air it out. C’mon, man - that’d be WAY too much work. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/15 "2004-06-07T21:00:17Z")
Well, I’m not attempting to slam any Dopers with this thread. I made a broad generalization. Hell, substitute “Dopers” with “press” and it’s the same idea. The point is, 2 weeks ago it seemed the entire nation was in an uproar because gas prices were at all-time highs. It made for cover stories and above-the-fold front page articles in papers around the country. Now that prices go down, nobody seems to notice. I had no idea until I actually filled the car. Yes, I know commoditites fluctuate, that’s the point. If the price goes over $2/gal again, I’ll be the last to complain. Geez, don’t take it personally. ---
**Author:** ![cmason32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@cmason32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmason32)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/16 "2004-06-07T21:33:38Z")
> [@duffer](#): > > Now that prices go down, nobody seems to notice. . I don’t think any news organization has noticed anything other than Reagan’s death the last 3 days. Considering the magnitude of that story, your complaint about gas happening to go down at a particular station, and the lack of media coverage thereof, strikes me as a bit odd. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/17 "2004-06-08T01:40:17Z")
And in a lot of areas, prices have NOT gone down. I could give a shit what the price of gas is in Aames, Iowa, because I ain’t going to buying my gas there. When the price drops to $1.50 a gallon, then I’ll notice. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oil-companies-and-bush-make-up-your-minds/249078/18 "2004-06-08T02:03:12Z")
It sure hasn’t gone down in my area, not yet at least.