High gas prices are part of a vicious circle.  The high cost of artificially manipulated oil helps to drive down the value of the dollar, while the less valuable dollar buys less and less oil, raising gas prices higher and higher.  Along the way there are a bunch of opportunists getting rich, all the while proclaiming innocence.  Gas prices are affecting every business including mine.  There is less business.

This is the price we Americans Pay for getting ourselves get involved in other nation's business when in fact the war we are in is costing not only you but the economy itself the opportunities that most hard working class families struggle for and that is making ends meet and the ability to afford basic necessities like Health Care, for some a College Education, and many a decent minimum or non-minimum wage job. I hope that these families who are affected can some how work it out for the best if not you all know who to blame for your misfortunes, and that is the government officials that we elect to run this God Forsaken Country, that's why it is important for everyone to vote and to make sure you put your faith in the right people to get the job done, because at this point we are all heading down the same road and everyone will find themselves struggling just to get by day by day thanks to the beauracrats who make profits and deepen their pockets from us struggling working class who just have to go with the flow!!

Our faith tells us that we are near the end of days and I believe that now, at this time, here in San Antonio, we are closer to that day than ever before.  The forces of the Anti-Christ are gathering over in Araby and pressing to fill their war chest with our own money.  Our good leader, George Bush, has struck a blow against our foe in Iraq, but it may be too late.  We must unite with our Israeli allies and make ourselves secure before the onslaught.  The Day of Days, the Day of Christ's return is near.  Soon, the battle will be joined with the forces of the Anti-Christ.  At the end of that battle, all remaining Christians will ascend to Heaven with our Lord Jesus.  All others are sinners and must endure the torments of Hell for eternity with no hope of redemption.  If that happens to you, don't say I didn't warn you.  This may come as a surprise to many, but the pastors of America long ago came up with a plan to save the Jews.  As you know, no one but a God Fearing, redeemed Christian may enter Heaven.  Our stiff necked Jewish brothers have so far failed to accept Jesus as their personal savior.  On the day that Christ returns, they will see their blunder.  Our plan is for a select group of ministers (I am proud to say that I am one) to fly to Israel on a specially equipped jumbo jet on the day the Lord returns and convert the Jews-  All on the same day!  Glory!  Our chariot, so to speak, comes stocked with a fully equipped kitchen that can turn out a Thanksgiving Day Feast for hundreds.  I don't mean to ramble so.  Anyway, I urge all Christians to attend their house of worship this Sunday where a special love offering will be collected to assist us in out endeavors.

Adjusted for inflation, one gallon of gasoline costs somewhere around seventy cents.  It is a fact that a gallon of gas cost about a quarter of a dollar back in the early sixties.    It is a generally accepted law that in America the dollar has been sliced in half every ten years, so these days a gallon of gas should cost about six dollars if nothing has changed.

Three fifty a gallon is a good deal, my gentile brothers.  In Europe anything less than eight dollars a gallon is considered to be a scam of some kind.  If you really think the price of oil is going to get you laid off, you need to research the recent rise in bed bug infestations in America.  Just google bedbugs.  They are back, and they show up as little mosquito bites where your night clothes tend to bind.  They itch a little in the morning.

Some say they are vectors of disease in the home, and they certainly are in hotels.  One, just one bedbug bite if the cleaning woman at the Marriot took a break can transmit two kinds of hepatitis, rarely aids, or most commonly the flesh eating variant of the common staph bacteria, which if not controlled will leave gaping wounds prone to maggots in the abdomen of the unsuspecting victim, again, usually around the waist band.

This is the reward of those who insist on driving an SUV, a wasting disease with pus running down to settle into the seat, and you can't get those stains out even if you use Bon Ami.  You can, of course, purchase a vehicle with a yellow interior theme, but there is nothing you can do about the smell.

It is time to wake up and smell the cooties, America.  Unpleasant though it may be, this is Mother Nature's way of announcing the new dawn of mankind, a brussel sprouts vision dressed with a subtle venaigrette dressing.

Namaste, babies

it was said in the 70's we need to conserve, again in the 80's an 90's. How many times do we need to hear it before we act! Many ride all day for pleasure, have no regard for fellow man and ergo, boys an girls, we all pay for the foolishness...........

Stop it, just stop it.

I had a red spot that was itching just inside my panties this morning.

I do NOT have bedbugs.  I wash my sheets every week.

i guess my family will not be taking a vacation out of state this year
and there will be less trips to the store
if my job does not pay more i think it will be time to find something closer to home

True- I don't think the Jews are wanting to get saved just now.

CyberBob, Save yourself!  Your blog is drowning in all these posts to SA Living.  

Put them all in one place so they don't drive off the majority.  Haven't you noticed how fewer and fewer people are using your site everyday?

Sam's right Bob.  Reign in Monica.  It is getting to be too much trouble to find the interesting stuff.

Bob doesn't care.  You might try writing the losers and suggesting that they try to keep it to one communal post a day, but don't hold your breath.  I have done just exactly that and they ditched the posts, just as Monica does for nearly everything that isn't all "hello kitty" in nature.  Monica doesn't believe in free speech, but I am major disappointed in the diet clan.

The alternative is an all out war, but we should wait a bit before proceeding with that option.

We do underground utilities, an bid this job last year, it is now costing about 15% of the profit, to pay for transportation an equipment usage to an from the site! Most construction jobs are bid a year in advance. The end result of fuel rising prices, will be what we bid to do now, will be higher priced to offset that cost in the future,which, in turn, will be passed back on to the consumer in one form or another, in the not too distant future.

Ditto on the problem with SA Living deleting posts and hogging the space.  They have a political question on the front page right now with no posts.  I wonder how that could be?  That is the kind of question that will bring out the comments and it even involves the Clintons!  Both of them!  I bet they have deleted a lot of posts.  If you don't start and end with a smiley face, do not bother to comment on SA Living.

Man......just chill out and get high, it'll get ya where you need to be!..........ooooffffffff hold it........exaaaaaaaaaaaaaale...............yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Who cares about gas? Illegal aliens murder up to 3000 U.S. citizens each year and sexually molest 2500 U.S. children per year. Where's the outrage there?

Oh yes, a democrat is proposing to raise the gas tax 50 cents per gallon at this very moment and the government already rakes in 10 times the profit as the oil companies every fill. Here's a guinness worthy idea; How about we drill and get what's on our property already? Oops, the envirowackjobs don't want us to. Maybe if we all just conserved a little more...a little more...a little more...idiots...

Adieu

I'm sure Bob didn't wreck his blog site of his own volition.  No doubt the brilliant minds who run the station decided to hijack the site.  Maybe when the heavies get through it will come back eventually.  I can understand why WOAI censors profanity, but what is the point of posting a political question and then deleting all the replies?  That is plain old censorship designed to silence opposing opinion.  That shows a serious lack of journalistic integrity.  In the business they are in, that kind of behavior would have to be considered shameful.  

I have noticed the posts have fallen off to just about zero.  Part of that is the censorship, but most of it is because there is no longer anything to comment about.  Too bad.

Bob may be on spring break.

I really am disappointed in the heavies, but it is food for thought, if you will.  Are they so terrified of the crowd of hyenas that wander through here from time to time that they censor any post that is not part of their clique?  Do they not realize almost all of it is an exercise in what some call Bohmian Dialogue on a grand community level?

I started to set up something called thepigsmurderedsanantonio.blogspot.com just to see what kind of comment trash we would get and got busy with other things.  I remember someone setting up ihatedodielee.blogspot.com or something like that but they deleted it in just a day or too.  Blogger still knows about it but says the blog is gone and the name can't be used again.

(cough) don't use your regular name.  Make up a new one.  This are a test.

OINKLESSANTONIO.BLOGSPOT.COM  <=== dyslexics, be careful

I'm not going to put up with all the known pain from blogger for long, but if there is any interest a new site may appear in another place.

I saw your site Don.  Here is what I want to know- How can you doubt the existence of Dodie Lee?  Dodie is as real as the gas you get from eating too many vegetables, especially beans.  To doubt Dodie is the same as doubting God or President Bush.  That is decidedly unamerican.

I hope Monica isn't in charge of the Blog site while Bob is away on vacation in his Yankee paradise.  She don't like no talkin bout stuff she don't agree with.  I wonder if Monica and Bob will duke it out, mano a mano, when he returns.  I hope Bob wins, though I am surprised to find myself on the side of a right wing whacko Yankee.  I am thinking that it could be that he is not on vacation after all.  There are but few right wing lunatics in the news business.  Most are left wing nut cases.  I wonder if Bob's credentials as a right wing lunatic could have gotten him appointed to sort and file George Bush's comic books for the Presidential Library?

You people are lost.  What is this "if only the King were here" stuff?  You think maybe the King doesn't know the evil minister has taken over the Kingdom?  This is right out of the late middle ages.  The King knows.  He will not come to save you.

I tried to actually help that dumb azz who posted about the liquid diet in SA Living and they deleted my post too. I guess you have to be a fatty to be in there group.

Fat people are in many ways the same as drug addicts, be they smokers or whores or meth fiends.  The depression that serves to prove each lie true conforms to the integral proven by society, and the worm turns inside out.  Ask yourself if you want to sit next to your Auntie Lenore, if it's okay that she whispers and blows a secret into your ear.

She is not telling the truth.  Fat people are liars, but remember this, they can hear like bats.  They know what you done.

It is all your fault.

Fat people know this and remember that you are the ultimate problem.

If you don't think gas prices affect every aspect of the economy you are living in a dream world.  Turn on the wells and open the values of the oil reserves.  

last time i checked religeon had not bearing on the price of gas, the reason the arabs control all the gas is because their ancestors were at the "cradle of civilization" its not their fault, its ours, for just having to own that brand new escalade or as Shaq likes to say a 'sclade". If everyone drove about two miles an hour slower, this works i tried it the other day instead of 70 i drove 67, i saved about a gallon of gas, (valero) and got excellent gas mileage. almost 30mpg ona 2007 toyota camry. little stuff will help your gas mileage. I dont go through drive throughs unless i got my kids with me and i am by myself, just get out and walk the ten feet sometimes youw ill get your food before the people inthe drive through, plus being one of the fattest city some of us could us it.  If you have a SUV guess what , do you play sports in it, do you go off road, do you even have a reason to have 4 wheel drive, when have you ever used your four wheel drive. most people have vehicles because they are the thing to have, oh i just have to have that toyota sequia 4x4 because it has a screen inthe back, who cares, i worked at a toyota dealership in houston for about three days, and told one lady who was a nurse with an average salary, why do you need 4 wheel drive, she was like never, well that added weight saves your gas mileage due to the reduction in weight. plus the vehicles the bigger they are the more they use, the more wind they have to move and friction they are creating. plus the more people with DONKS ontheir cars you are getting probably the worst gas mileage ever, there is a test they can do at discount tire, it will show you a diffence if you change rim and tire size from the OEM specs , at least 5 mph diffence due to the transmission having to work harder to get that speed, thus lossing gas mileage, so think about the vehicle you drive, there is no reason to drive a V8 if you just use it to go to work, unless you have a vehicle that shuts down the cylineders when it doesnt need it (HEMI)

Oh good lord, another conservation will save us nut. If we all drove a little slower and just bought smaller cars, we'd be in a utopian pasture smoking weed and sowing our seed. It reminds me of the BP commercials where these random morons suddenly became Nobel Peace Prize geniuses when it can to energy.

Anyway, the U.S. has the oil fields below our very feet, but we are too envirowackjob to fetch it. And that's a sad fact because last time I checked, the communists and islamofascists of this earth had ZERO reservation about drilling. Yet here we are tying our own hands and bending over with pride. Better start studying the Quran, and strap on a sui-belt, because we are getting overrun.

Here we go again, in the 70’s we had a gas shortage, prices went up, Hurricanes were seen in the future, prices went up, the war, not enough refineries, Iran, prices went up. All of us know that oil will not last for ever, but it seems that we are hostages of the oil companies. Government (congress) treats this issue like the immigration bill. The oil companies think the American people have know idea what’s going on, do  I have news for them, sooner or later we will be forced to stop purchasing fuel, and guess what? Prices will go up again so they can keep their 30 percent margin and another record breaking profit. One last thing do the Oil speculators work for the Oil companies? I rest my case.

What's funny is that Big Oil says things like "Our refineries are old and we are having outages." for example....but when you are posting 20 or 30 Billion in profits, you mean to tell me you can't fix up a few of those run down refineries that are suposidly costing all this cost increase?

Remember $20 Billion proffit means that that's what they had LEFT OVER for share holders after operating costs, salaries, taxes, and every other expense they paid for for the year.

The way their CEOs talk, they try and make it sound like their just creeping by.

Shameless!

Let's have some common sense.

(a)  Why is refining capacity down?  

Someone in an earlier post mentioned that there are "envirowhacks" at work causing high fuel prices.  Not sure what that is...but I do know a bit about manufacturing.  The issue isn't that simple.  

When you change over a process from one thing to another, you lose time.  Adjusting production equipment, cleaning and setting up costs you production time.  Does anyone here realize that we have many, many blends of gas in the US?  Each of those blends is made in no less than three formulas...for our three octane levels.  When we have a large number of blends, we have a large number of changeovers.  

Changeovers reduce production capacity.

Pick one type of gas blend for the entire nation...and see an exponential growth in refining capacity.

(b)  Oil are getting rich.

Love seeing non-business types rant about "record profits" - that's hilarious.  

When is the last time you've heard about record profit MARGINS?  Unless the profit margin is growing, the company isn't making anything more than a higher gross profit.  

To put it into simpler terms, if you work for me and I quadruple your income, you're likely earning a "record income for you."  But, if your expenses rise at the same rate...the answer is a resounding NO.  

Get it?

Alan, I agree with you when you mention the confusion caused by too many types of gasoline and that eliminating that problem would increase supply, but I think you are way off base when you get to margins.  I don't think it's hilarious at all.

I don't know if I would qualify as a "business type", but I own a business.  I am the President of a small corporation and I employ a bunch of people in 2 cities.

I find your reasoning murky.  You seem to imply that the increased cost of the raw material and production costs is eating up all that extra profit.  That is not the case.  The guiding principle of the world wide oil business is to keep price high by controlling supply.  That is true from the glittering palaces of the OPEC Sheiks to the ivory towers of the Seven Sisters.  That concept has worked a bit too well of late and we, as a nation, are being strangled.  That is not excuse enough for the oil companies to roast us a little further.

My production costs have increased considerably in the last couple of years.  Sadly, I do not have a monopoly on how this country moves every single thing, so I have to make less money.  My customers pay more, I make less and the oil companies pat us on the back all the way to the bank.  

I don't mean to imply that the problem with gas prices is solely the responsibility of the oil companies.  They are a small part of the problem, but they are in on the gouging and making a mint, however you want to dissect it.

Again, when was the last time you heard about record profit margins?

Simply stated...you haven't.

Profit margin:  “A ratio of profitability calculated as net income divided by revenues, or net profits divided by sales. It measures how much out of every dollar of sales a company actually keeps in earnings… Profit margin is displayed as a percentage; a 20% profit margin, for example, means the company has a net income of $0.20 for each dollar of sales.”

Oil companies:

   * Exxon Mobile: 11.65%
   * Chevron: 9.49%
   * BP: 8.09%
   * Total SA: 8.87%

Others (for comparison):

   * Altria (tobacco): 22.80%
   * US Bank (banking): 36.26%

Oil companies make money on volume...and on price.  Gas selling at $3.00 per gallon makes $0.24 on an 8% margin.  If an 8% margin qualifies as "gouging" at your business, good luck.  

How about the government cuts back on all the insane gas taxes which apply every gallon? Politicians sure do not seem to care about their record "profit margins" or "gouging" or whatever flip phrase of the day applies to themselves. I'd rather give a dollar to the CEO of Exxon Mobil himself than give a cent to the communist liberals in Washington. At least the CEO will know what to do with it.

Alan, I'm sure you make all "A's" and understand everything about business.

Your ratios fail to address the fact that the oil companies are loading all our wealth into their coffers.

Screw margins.  Who cares about margins?  Those SOB's are making more money than any industry has ever made since the beginning of the world.  They are draining us with their Arab masters.  They will break us if we let them.

Only a kid would be fixated on structure and profit margins.  That crap is fine in the classroom, Alan, and will help you to understand how business works, but it means nothing in the real world.  Profit margins are great for stock brokers who want to sell stocks.  Profit margins are great for showing what a fine job you did and now you want a big bonus.  Profit margins are "heres what we did and heres how we did it"; it is all after the fact.  

Those companies are the most profitable companies that have ever existed, not because we love them and flock to them but because they have us by the balls and we have to go to them.  Meanwhile they are getting filthy rich while we suffer.  

I have met a few pencil pushers from those big accounting firms like Price Waterhouse.  They all sound just like you Alan.  Once they learned how to add up the profit and loss made by someone else they became great business experts.  They can tell you all about any business and what you are doing wrong and how to fix it.  I have never met one yet who really knew anything he was talking about.

If I tried to rape the citizens of any of the towns and cities I do business in the way the oil companies do, the villagers would be at my castle with their pitch forks and torches.

You perceive you've been raped by the oil companies, therefore you have been raped by the oil companies. They make a great scapegoat for the weak minded don't they?

Polish up those wing tips, oil boys.  You have been wading in deep bullshit.

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Is this why local Shell gas stations are closing?

Sounds like Gregory and Alan work for oil companies....which is it Valero? Tesoro?

I work for a market research firm and the Energy and Power sector are two areas we cover very heavily. There are tons of green technologies that Big Oil has licenses for and thousands that they already have obtained the patents on the technologies yet they don't use them. Hell, in the 1970's they developed an engine that gets 70 miles to the gallon, but no one makes that for our cars, we're getting 35 mile to the gallon Toyotas and we're suppose to be impressed?...why you figure that is Alan? Maybe cause it will cut into their Record Profits driven by oil and lets be honest, the Auto industry...and yes, their record profit margins.

Accounting is like physics, you can always work the numbers to show anything you want just...in physics you can theoritically prove that an elephant can hang over a cliff with its tail tied to a daisy but that doesn't mean that it can happen in the real world. Have you personally seen the Books at Exxon, or Valero, or Shell? I doubt it....so tell me, how do you know that they aren't BSing their Profit Margins? God knows they can afford teh best lawyers and accountants in the world.

Anyway, I agree with, Flagranto Delicto and honestly, I don't see how a company with $20-$30 BILLION in profits is not haveing a record PROFT MARGIN at the same time. They may be crooked but Bio Oil is not stupid.

Pump Watch,

Hey Pump watch,

You guys must be asleep , I just went by your Sam Club Station off of Judson Road and ITS NOT $2.24 for Reg like your reporting. It's $2.40 /gal and Diesal is $2.60/gal.  Wake up guys I can't be mopping up after you all day !!!!!!!!!  

GET ON IT !


Roger C.

San Antonio, Tex.

If i remember correctly, when the current president got elected,  oil was around $20.00 per barrel.   What will it be when the next person walks through the doors at 1600 Penna. Ave

Yes that makes sense because the President decides oil prices as well as supply and demand...oh he also decides how many miles to the gallon engines use, gee I bet he also personally oversees refining, etc.

W Gillespie is right.....We have all been tricked by Big Business....its really our governments fault!! Lets elect Barrack or Hillary and then the gas prices will go back to $1.45 a gallon, cars will get 400 miles to the gallon, and supply will increase!!!!!!

A great many issues have prompted a major change in my life. Gas prices, no universal health care, no universal retirement, no free education. Norway, Germany, and many other Eropean nations afford this to their citizens.
US citizens argue that too much tax will be needed to tbe extracted from their paycheck for such necessities.
Honestly, think about it: You can make $5,000 per month and it will do you no good if you do not have the three things I mentioned above.
I would rather make $1,500 to $2,000 per month and have all three things above.
I will be the winner in the long run.
Think about it: total what you pay for retirement, for health care, and for education, that is a lot of money!
Don't be so ignorant citizens of the U.S. vote for universal health care, retirement, and free education.
Oh yeah, about that biggest decision I've made. I'M SELLING EVERYTHING I OWN AND MOVING TO EUROPE, WHERE I CAN TRULY LIVE FREE!

Reasonable,

Universal healthcare is great if you want sub-standard service and long waits.

My sister lived in Europe for a while and she said that no one gets good healthcare coverage even though "technically" everyone is covered.

Truth is everyone gets very little help vs. here where if you pay for your insurance you get lots of help.

That is the issue here...if you are too cheep to pay your own medical coverage (if you have a job your employer normally pays half) thats your right...in Europe, you are taxed to the teeth and forced to pay for really crappy coverage...

Gee, that sure sounds like a great deal to me!!

Reasonable,

A.) Europe's free education is very poor. B.) Their healthcare is carp...ever see a European with good teeth?

I think its good if you go...then we'll have one less idiot to deal with here.

Bye-Bye!

The news is reporting that it will be another 40-60 years before the US can produce enough biofuel to to feed our transportation & energy demands.

I work for a research firm and based on the emerging technologies that I see through my work, I really think that these greenfuels could be available much earlier if Big Oil, The Govt. and the big Auto Makres don't buy up the technology licenses and lock them Away some where.

Its not just ethanol from corn...here is just one of many examples:

A Calif. based company named Solazyme (http://www.solazyme.com/) is creating Biofuel from Algae making clean and scalable, high-performance biofuels. (Algae can contain over 50% of its total weight as bio-disel oil.)

Its going to take the public to just stop buying gas and force these types of technologies out into the market...right now they are just little knowns.

I work and own my own 18 wheelers hauling gravel and I have had to park one of my own and four of the company that I work for.  With the price of diesel it just aint worth sending the trucks to work which resulted in us letting drivers go.  I stopped working 5 days a work because of the price of fuel as well. I would spend over $100.00 a week to go to work.

It does affect me a lot. I work in Goodwill Ind. and every time I receive a paycheck, I buy food. it is less food for the hard work because of expense in food and other items. It is DEAD WRONG for those Saudi Arabia to be greedy and supporting terrorism with it.  My parents are struggling to buy their needs to keep them from becoming poor.  It is tough in the middle and poor class.  Eventually, the rich will suffer too (if the dollar value gets to zero!!!). IT IS EXTREMELY HARD ON EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN.