How is his personal tax return part of the public domain? I thought only publically traded companies, 501's, Pac, etc. were required to publically post their returns.

All:

WorldnetDaily Article on MM's Schedule D

This looks like the article that MIB copied (without attributing his source), although there are other copies of the same article on various other right-wing web sites.

FYI: The best way to get a free invitation to a stockholders meeting is to own substantial stock in that company and be eligible to speak and vote on policy.

Once you're at the meeting, you can kick up all the shit you can get away with before they throw you out. Also, make sure you bring a cameraman with you. See you at Cannes!

BTW: The price of gas is over a loonie again in my neighborhood.

Royal Dutch Shell today reports record-breaking annual profits of £13.2 billion (€19.4 billion, US$23.5 billion); the highest ever for a British or Dutch company.

Rob

you can tell summer's not far off...

About the time the 2006 election season gears up, oil prices should start to drop.

Something I've noticed lately are the huge price swings for no apparent reason. There has to be a reason for gas to go up 25 cents in one day! Also, the price never falls as quickly as it went up. What is up with that...sheer greed?

Its up to $2.55 a gallon here this morning, and headed up they say. frown

A few weeks ago I was in New Jersey and I needed gas - so I started to pull into a station that was advertising 2.21 a gallon. Before I made the turn I saw another station down and across the street advertising at 2.14 so I went there - as I was about to turn into that station I saw another one selling at 2.09; so I crossed the street and went in there.

As I pulled up to the pump, a police officer stopped me and gave me an $80 ticket for "unsafe lane change".

All of that to save $1.50 :mad: frown

That Camry Hybrid being released in May can't get here quick enough...don't wanna endure another $3/gallon summer.

Vague Law and Hard Lobbying Add Up to Billions for Big Oil

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS - NYT
Published: March 27, 2006

"WASHINGTON, March 26 — It was after midnight and every lawmaker in the committee room wanted to go home, but there was still time to sweeten a deal encouraging oil and gas companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico.

There is no cost," declared Representative Joe L. Barton, a Texas Republican who was presiding over Congressional negotiations on the sprawling energy bill last July. An obscure provision on new drilling incentives was "so noncontroversial," he added, that senior House and Senate negotiators had not even discussed it.

Mr. Barton's claim had a long history. For more than a decade, lawmakers and administration officials, both Republicans and Democrats, have promised there would be no cost to taxpayers for a program allowing companies to avoid paying the government royalties on oil and gas produced in publicly owned waters in the Gulf.

But last month, the Bush administration confirmed that it expected the government to waive about $7 billion in royalties over the next five years, even though the industry incentive was expressly conceived of for times when energy prices were low. And that number could quadruple to more than $28 billion if a lawsuit filed last week challenging one of the program's remaining restrictions proves successful.

"The big lie about this whole program is that it doesn't cost anything," said Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who tried to block its expansion last July. "Taxpayers are being asked to provide huge subsidies to oil companies to produce oil — it's like subsidizing a fish to swim."

How did a supposedly cost-free incentive become a multibillion-dollar break to an industry making record profits?

The answer is a familiar Washington story of special-interest politics at work: the people who pay the closest attention and make the fewest mistakes are those with the most profit at stake.

It is an account of legislators who passed a law riddled with ambiguities; of crucial errors by midlevel bureaucrats under President Bill Clinton; of $2 billion in inducements from the Bush administration, which was intent on promoting energy production; and of Republican lawmakers who wanted to do even more. At each turn, through shrewd lobbying and litigation, oil and gas companies ended up with bigger incentives than before.

Until last month, hardy anyone noticed — or even knew — the real costs. They were obscured in part by the long gap between the time incentives are offered and when new offshore wells start producing. But lawmakers shrouded the costs with rosy projections. And administration officials consistently declined to tally up the money they were forfeiting.

Most industry executives say that the royalty relief spurred drilling and exploration when prices were relatively low. But the industry is divided about whether it is appropriate to continue the incentives with prices at current levels. Michael Coney, a lawyer for Shell Oil, said, "Under the current environment, we don't need royalty relief."

The program's original architect said he was surprised by what had happened. "The one thing I can tell you is that this is not what we intended," said J. Bennett Johnston, a former Democratic senator from Louisiana who had pushed for the original incentives that Congress passed in 1995.

Mr. Johnston conceded that he was confused by his own law. "I got out the language a few days ago," he said in a recent interview. "I had it out just long enough to know that it's got a lot of very obscure language."

Con't..."

Just what the big oil co's needed, one more huge gov't subsidy.

It must be nice to haveboth congress and the president in your hip pocket.

R

You know Rob, this is the kind of stuff that revolutions are made of.

Okay. Nothing new from Iran. Nigeria's militants release the last hostages, and her President calls for talks.

Yet Oil still goes up almost $2.00 today because of "additional" worries about Iran and Nigeria?


WTF? And the oil companies expect us to continue beleiving it?

If the price of oil is determined by a market, then methinks that the market is being manipulated, just like Enron manipulated the California energy price market.

Maybe it's time to re-look at the Standard Oil act of the beginning of the last century.

HA! That won't happen until Bush and his cronies are finsihed raping this nation. I wonder if King George is even aware that he is suppose to be running a nation, not making all his oil buddies from Texas wealthy beyond imagination.

The people have to take back the power and find ways to change their behavior. If we find ways to use less oil in our daily lives, then the oil companies slowly lose their power over us. Drive more fuel-efficient cars, carpool to work, find ways to use less electricity, etc...

We can't sit back and wait for others to do something about it...it's up to the individual to do his part.

I'm no fan of oil companies--at all. I can't stand them. However, they're not the ones setting the price of their product as you allude to above.

What I can't stand is how quickly--and dramatically--gas prices go up, but how very sloooooowly they go down. Example: Monday afternoon in west suburban Cook County, the price of gas at a BP and a Shell station (across the street from each other) was $2.53/gallon. Tuesday afternoon, about 24 hours later, the BP price was $2.63 and the Shell price $2.69!

What the f**k is that?!? How and why did that happen? The gas in the tanks underneath the station was the same, so why did its price at the pump jump so dramatically?

f**king bastards!
:mad:

Maybe the message is finally being heard.

[ March 29, 2006, 09:18 AM: Message edited by: hockeyTom ]

It shot up again today.

Not good. The way its probably going to go up I should think $3.00 a gallon by sometime in April will not be unexpected. I have noticed a number of gas stations here now, leaving some of the numbers down, so as they can change them quickly and often, again not a good sign. frown

Exxon chairman receives $400 million retirement package amidst soaring gas prices.

No comment.

It may be free enterprise, it may be a free economy, but a bonus like that makes me sick to my stomach. What arrogance. I will never set foot in an Exxon/Mobil gas station again.

Disgusting and obscene, plain and simple. Meanwhile, I just noticed that oil has hit $70 a barrel, for the first time in 7 1/2 months over concerns about the US supply, and Iran. This can't be good. frown

You know who should be the most outraged by this? ExxonMobil shareholders, who, as owners of the company, may have been under the impression that this was their money.

I have some Tyco stock, so I got to pay for Dennis Kozlowski's shower curtain as well as his lovely party in Morocco or wherever it was.

[ April 17, 2006, 06:57 AM: Message edited by: twin58 ]

Oil prices jump for ANY frickin' reason known to man, which really pisses me off. I'm pretty good at understanding capitalism, markets, and all, but I admit, I can never figure out oil prices. First of all, why is it that when oil increases, gas prices increase within days if not hours? However, when oil prices drop, all the so-called "experts" and "analysts" explain that it will "take months" for the price drop to reflect at the pumps? WTF is that??? :mad:

As I said above, oil prices increase for ANY reason: fears of U.S. attacks on Iran (unfounded or not), Nigerian terrorists, OPEC hiccups, Hugo Chavez farts--you name it. It's sickening!

Remotely related since the guy is (pardon me "was") and oil tycoon of sorts:

Imprisoned Russian oligarch accused of sexual harassment against a young fellow male inmate.

I've always thought that part of the reason for Putin's aggresive pursuit of him was gay jealousy.

I heard on World News Now this morning experts say that gas could settle between $3.00-$4.00 a gallon by the summer. Lets hope that maybe we as consumers back off our demand a bit, and this price does not actually happen. If it does not, people are going to be spending alot less on other things because their wallets will be drained by the oil companies.

But the gas prices we put in our car is just a small part. Yes consumers have some control over how much gas they use in there own car. But don't have control over the fact that the product they purchase is manufactured in another country shipped here (using oil), but on a train (using oil), then on a truck (using oil). If we tried to only purchase products that used only a minimum amount of fuel our carts would be relatively emtpy. So man of the products we purchase will go up a few cents to cover increased transport costs. Not noticeable that much by product, but noticeable if you add it all together.

Bush's idea for lowering gas prices? Cut out emission standards! Yeah! Kind of ironic because Bush has been touting how we should be using more ethanol......and now under these rules they don't even have to add it.

In fact, I have to drive to work. No public transportation will get me there. And it is 50 miles a day round trip. I'd love to have a job closer or one on BART, but I was out of work 6 months. I simply don't have a lot of choices. I do walk where I can for personal errands. And as was said, I have no control over the shipping of everything I buy. I can try to buy local produce, but where does my toilet paper come from? My cat litter? Ink for my printer?

The days of cheap petroleum are over. Plain and simple. And the price of oil will only continue to rise as China and India begin to quench their growing thirst for oil.

Our problem is that absolutely no one in Washington is taking a serious look at energy policy. The GOP and Bush lines have always been to increase the supply via drilling in ANWAR or the Gulf. The problem is that this only perpetuates our reliance on oil and does nothing to develop alternative energy sources. To be fair, the Dems have done precious little to make change, either.

Our first wakeup call was over 30 years ago during the oil embargo and our country did nothing. We got another jolt in the late 70's and our country did nothing. Here is is, 27 years after the last gas crisis and our cars are burning more gasoline than back then, only it's getting to the point where doing nothing is not an option. And our ****ing around for the past 30+ years has now made getting off oil all the more costly and difficult.

We seriously need a new energy policy that moves away from petroleum.

[ April 25, 2006, 01:27 PM: Message edited by: aquaman ]

Don't expect a new energy policy until we get a new president. I think Bush must have signed a pact with Satan and his Texas oil buddies to keep the price artifically high. Do you really think Bush cares if the price of oil goes down? I think not. As long as the twins can afford to fill up the Bush SUV, I am sure the price of gasoline is far from their minds. What a disgusting president.

...And don't forget that, in a press conference not too long ago, W said that he saw "no problem" with oil companies making obscenely high, record profits in the last quarter of 2005 after gas prices took their post-Katrina jump. As W said, "that's just how the free market works". What a d-bag.

DC'ers should be familiar with this Exxon station--often a prop used by Senators. It sits on Mass Ave, NE right in front of the Heritage Foundation and ONE BLOCK from the 3 Senate Office Buildings.


Lawmakers Arrive at Gas Price Event in Gas Guzzlers

Thanks for that post, PennState. I know many of these senators are getting up there in years, but would it be too much to ask for them to WALK to their offices?

Aquaman, Jimmy Carter actually proposed a comprehensive energy policy back in the late 1970s. He was mocked by both Democrats and Republicans, but the truth is that by the early 1980s, if you and others remember, Detroit was actually on its way to raising mileage standards in part because of its need to be competitive with Japanese automakers. By the 1990s, this trend was out the window, and one of the things I lay at Clinton's doorstep was his failure to take up this issue when he could have, even though Gore was talking about it back in 1992.

Let's also not forget that in 2000, Al Gore was mocked for talking about hydrogen-powered cars, alternative fuels and innovative strategies for addressing our future energy needs. He was ridiculed by Republicans and the media as a joke, though so much that he was warning about as far back in 1992, from the ongoing degradation of the environment to our current energy crisis, is coming to pass. Instead, we had W foisted upon us by the Supreme Court. One of his and Cheney's first was the secretive Energy Task Force meetings, which we've never fully gotten information about, though it's become clear that the energy corporations, including the oil companies and disgraced, bankrupt Enron ("Kenny Boy" Lay & Co. met with Cheney at least six times), wrote the administration's energy policy. (Don't forget Enron's role in the California electricity crises in 2001-2002, and the tapes that eventually became public.

In 2006, it's unconscionable that the Congress and White House aren't seriously addressing our dependance upon fossil fuels, but when you have two oilmen running things (or one as the marionetteer and one as the marionette), what can you expect? They thought they'd waltz into Iraq and that they'd be greeted with flowers and tributes of oil ("it floats on a sea of oil"--Paul Wolfowitz), but instead Iraq's oil production has waned, Iran and other nations are playing games with the oil supply, China and other developing nations are using more oil than ever before, and we're caught between a rock and a hard place.

And yet last August (8/8/2005) Bush and the Congress still gave the big oil companies one of the largest tax giveaways in our nation's history. Have the oil companies cut consumers a break? Have they given us any of their windfalls? As Usher says, "HELL NO!"

A heck of a job!

[ April 27, 2006, 09:36 AM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

Oh, and the web headlines are screaming about some proposed $100 gas rebate to Americans the Senate is proposing. Nothing more than an election year grab, plain and simple. What a bunch of crap. Surely they can do better than this??? Maybe not....

It's worth remembering that the only reason any of those Members are there is because "We the People" keep putting them there.

As someone who deals with Congress every day, my observation is that the decline in the quality, creativity and intellect of Members is matched in equal or greater part by Congressional staff.

[ April 27, 2006, 11:34 AM: Message edited by: PennState4Ever ]

Bent over congressional pages in the National Library?

Well, most sane folks avoid politics. There is more money to be made in the private sector, and it seems as if only power-freaks want to enter the political arena. Until this changes, until the process becomes more humane, we will continue to have half-wits represent us in our government.

What's worse than showing up in a gas guzzler?

Showing up in a Hydrogen powered car, pretending you're for the people, leaving in the same car, then 1 mile down the road sneaking into a gas guzzlin' SUV.

Nice read and European view on whats going on over there in my Sunday paper this morning. We like to bitch about the gas prices here, and we do!, but in England its selling for the equivalent of about $6.50 a gallon.

There have been drastic changes in life and driving behaviors because of this. Story about how one family now takes the bus to go grocery shopping ( in America, imagine that!). This one Lady drove an older Ford Fiesta, small car, and how it cost her $60 a to fill up the tank! In other areas the price has affected just about everything bought, and the price of gas is passed on to the consumer, just as it is here of course. People are walking everywhere, bicycles, especially in Holland have taken over just about everywhere, but that always has been a very popular form of transportation for them, being such a small country. Thats one thing that really impressed me about Holland when I had the chance to visit there many years ago, that and how clean and pro-environmental the people were.

[ April 30, 2006, 05:57 AM: Message edited by: hockeyTom ]

I have heard predictions of between $5-$6 a gallon gas by election time this November...looks like we are catching up to Europe big time..

Well, hubby and I have finally decided that the big assed SUV has got to go. We have purchased a Toyota Matrix, as a few of our friends have them and like them. It also has the requisite room for 2 large dogs when we go to the cottage.

So now I am going to try and sell the Explorer privately.

I am so screwed.

Maybe you can get a tax write-off by donating the Explorer to one of those charities that takes old cars?

I can't tell you how thrilled I am to have paid $1.65 for a gallon of gas tonight...amazing. It's almost humorous reading some of the relatively recent posts in this thread. I never thought I'd ever see gas below $2.00 a gallon. Unreal.

Yeah, I filled up at $1.96 a gallon here last night. I don't remember the last time gas was below $2 a gallon. Unfortunately, this means that all those plans to really fund alternative energy solutions, more fuel-efficient cars, etc. will probably be forgotten. Until the recession is over and oil spikes again, at which point everyone will be in a lather again, and we'll have done nothing in the interim. We as a nation are very short-sighted on this issue.

They're hooked on cocaine and we're hooked on their oil.

The price drops and we go back to using.

Every good dealer knows his market, and how to string it out.

The cycle will end. The only question is "When and will it be in time to prevent cold turkey withdrawal?"