by Jack
As most of you know, I have been long been an outspoken advocate for peaceful resolutions to egregious errors that impede good governance i.e., voting down stupid issues and voting out stupid politicians. However, the older I get, and the more outrageous stupidity that is foisted upon us by government, the more I’m convinced there are special times when we need an angry mob with torches and pitchforks to storm the castle. The following is such a case. Please hang onto your hat, here’s another stranger-than-fiction story of government runamuck, from the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle I submit this:
Alameda County supervisors have really taken to heart the adage that government should run like a business, rewarding county Administrator Susan Muranishi with the Wall Street-like wage of $423,664 a year.
For the rest of her life!
— $24,000, plus change, in “equity pay” to guarantee that she makes at least 10 percent more than anyone else in the county.
— About $54,000 a year in “longevity” pay for having stayed with the county for more than 30 years.
— An annual performance bonus of $24,000.
— And an additional $9,000 a year for serving on the county’s three-member Surplus Property Authority, an ad hoc committee of the Board of Supervisors that oversees the sale of excess land.
Like other county executives, Muranishi also gets an $8,292-a-year car allowance.
Muranishi has been with the county for 38 years, and she’s 63. When retirement day comes, she’ll be getting a lot more than a gold watch.
That’s because, according to the county auditor’s office, Muranishi’s annual pension will be equal to the dollar total of her entire yearly package - $413,000. She also has a separate executive private pension plan, for which the county chips in $46,500 a year.
“And she’s worth every dime,” said Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who was on the board when it promoted Muranishi to county administrator in 1995, voted for her and joined in approving her base pay and perks. (end of Examiner story)
This can only be the end result of insulated, ignorant, bureaucratic thinking and/or outright greed because they are standing in the same gravy train line. These supervisors have fooled their constituents into thinking that nobody else in the world could do this job equally as well for half the money. Somehow in their pea brained heads, they are able to justify a humble county official making more than the Governor of the State, more than the President of the United States and more than 97% of the residents of Alameda county!
I wonder…how is possible that an angry mob of taxpayers has not set fire to the supervisor’s chambers, and with them in it? What devious government drug have they used to numb the minds of the citizenry into such a state of complacency, that they would not react in shock, horror and disbelief, followed by rage, revulsion and violence? What have the people in this county become…sheep for the slaughter? In the words of Secretary John Kerry, “Would that it were…” only in this one county, but it seems epidemic in the state, and the nation!!!
BONUS STORY: Oh, by the way. . . tomorrow there’s a City Council meeting in Chico to hold a discussion on our homeless problem. On one side are the bleeding hearts, “build-more-homeless shelters” and on the other side, the taxpayers who aren’t buying their BS! They don’t want new shelters, they don’t even want the old shelter, because it’s been magnet for drifters. And they absolutely don’t want see their tax money go to these out-of-state bums on the road. (See article below on the homeless in Chico for more details) The charity and generosity of the people has been exploited by a new breed of young, able-bodied drop outs and people are fed up with their aggressive panhandling, thefts, drinking, drugs, public excrement and vandalism that has all but closed down businesses in the downtown and caused our beautiful city plaza with our recently dedicated veterans memorial to be renamed BUM CENTRAL!
I wish everyone reading this would come this important meeting! Voice your opposition to anything that would dare attract more so-called homeless to Butte County and Chico! I suggest you also ask a friend or relative to show up too…and then be brave, speak up and be heard!
There’s going to be a heated debate tomorrow at the City Council Chambers that much I can guarantee you! So, it’s absolutely crucial that you show up, besides there’s nothing on TV that is going to rival this show. Police will be standing by for the protection of the council.
I’m sorry Jack, but you just don’t know what you’re talking about, salary-wise. A Wall Street wage is $4.2 million.
Alameda County is huge, and highly problematic. She truly is a public servant, because all she has to do for another 150k is cross the bay.
Libby, salary wise I do know what I’m talking about Libs. Why should she make more than the Governor or the President of the United States. Don’t tell me she has more responsibility and has to make tougher decisions. I don’t pay that Wall Street guy out of my taxes and thats the big difference. However, that being said I also don’t care to see a CEO loot his company coffers and deprive his shareholders of their fair share. Thats not right either. It’s all about greed Libs, even your dedicated public servant who is forced to slave away on a meager $423,000 a year salary…they are just as greedy and just as wrong as that corporate pirate you complained about.
So, any good exhibits at the DeYoung these days? I want to go!!!
-Jack
By Thomas Peele
Contra Costa Timescontracostatimes.com
Posted: 08/30/2009 12:00:00 AM PDT
April 22, 2011 6:39 PM GMTUpdated: 04/22/2011 11:39:28 AM PDT
A public health care district in southern Alameda County paid its chief executive $876,831 in 2008 — more than twice as much as any other local government employee in the East Bay, San Francisco,San Mateo County and San Joaquin County, an extensive survey of salary data by the Bay Area News Group found.
The pay of Nancy Farber, CEO of Washington Township health care district, was nearly three times as much as what Contra Costa County paid the chief of its hospital in Martinez and four times as much as the top administrator at San Francisco General Hospital.
Farber’s pay more than doubled the salaries of administrators at government agencies with thousands more employees and budgets that dwarf that of the Washington district. The district has an elected board of directors that runs one hospital.
What appears to be the only comparable salary in the Bay Area is that of the CEO of the Marin Healthcare District, Lee Domanico, whose contracted base salary is $498,000 and whose contracts allows for bonuses of as much as $209,016. The district has not answered a request for the exact amount of Domanico’s 2008 pay.
Farber’s pay is but one example of data culled from the salaries of more than 134,000 local gover acrosnment workers in the Bay Area through Public Records Act requests. The disclosures follow a 2007 California Supreme Court ruling stating that the information is public, a decision in a case brought in 2004 by the Bay Area
News Group’s Contra Costa Times.
Salaries ranging from those of firefighters and janitors to health care administrators and lawyers in 64 counties, cities and districts is now posted at ContraCostaTimes.com and InsideBayArea.com. The salary data will be a growing presence on the Web sites of the Bay Area News Group. Information on additional government entities will continue to be added.
The data show wide discrepancies in pay and sometimes high salaries in government agencies, such as the Port of Oakland, where a semiskilled laborer grossed $123,450 in 2008, and in Newark, in southern Alameda County, where more than half of the 215 city employees were each paid more than $100,000 last year and the average gross pay was $109,027.
As governments struggle through layoffs, furloughs and attrition, leaders are realizing that they have “given away too much” in salaries during flush budget years, said Gary Wyatt, president of the California State Association of Counties.
More than 80 percent of general fund expenditures on a given government level are related to personnel, said Wyatt, an Imperial County supervisor. High salaries, he said, are often the result of “people being just too generous” with public money.
Libby when are you going to admit that the Wall Street guy, no matter what his salary and benefits, is able to get that money because people willingly invest in his company or happily purchase the product or services of his company. The consumer/investor gets something in return for his money.
These bureaucrats, in contrast, are treating themselves to bloated salaries and benefits from money that is taken from all taxpayers…rich and poor (sales tax) alike.
If your little buddy Elizabeth Warren want to know where the extra money for the working middle and lower classes goes she need only look to the fat cat bureaucrats whose salary and benefits are not only killing cities, counties, and states across the fruited plain, but are also bankrupting the middle class engine of America. The return for this tax money, were it a private sector product or investment opportunity, would have lost favor long ago. The left fools the people, they clink their glasses is self congratulations, they determine that they are the smartest people in the room while schools are failing, cities are failing, and the people can’t find jobs and see the cost of living going up.
There is definitely something sinister in sicking the poor on the wealthy as a means to stuffing the pockets of politicians and bureaucrats. And by the way those same politicians serve big corporation for the same damn reason.
Freedom and small government will not result in handouts but it would result in the chance for ordinary Americans to create and grow smaller businesses and employ a lot of people.
Sorry Jack, but the people are getting just what they asked for. Every single council, school board, county supervisor, state and federal representative are elected by the very people who are paying for these salaries. And to top it all off every one of these elected officials is on a career path to that higher lever position, so they’re approving the salary they hope to attain some day.
Voters are not just uninformed Jack, they’re just plain stupid. They’re like a bunch of sheep who only need one to head in a direction for the others to follow. They don’t understand they can’t afford to put gas in their own car because they’re paying for someone else’s $400k a year salary and their brand new luxury car.
I hope the council chamber is packed with support, I’ll be there.
Peggy, I couldn’t agree more, the voters are stupid. Unfortunately when this lady draws retirement the money will come from everyone in the state that pays taxes, not just the stupid voters in Alameda county.
“I don’t pay that Wall Street guy out of my taxes and thats the big difference.”
It’s not any difference at all. The money you pay, say, some Big Oil CEO comes out of the same wallet your taxes do.
That you have to pay is a given. The question is whether you’re getting your money’s worth, and as you don’t live in Alameda County, I’m not sure it’s for you to grouse … about that. And I repeat, you are wrong, $400K is not a vast some for any position of responsibility in this neck of the woods.
Furthermore, IMHO, anybody who thinks some “professional luncher” (CEO) is worth 90 times what they are confirms his status as “pawn”, not player.
“They don’t understand they can’t afford to put gas in their own car because they’re paying for someone else’s $400k a year salary and their brand new luxury car.”
You don’t suppose it might also have to do with the fact that you’re paying a fat fist full of oil execs M’s, not paltry K’s?
I agree with Jack on this one. No public servant in any position should make more than the President of the United States. Period. If she wants to make millions, go across the bay. She is in Alameda and should not rake in that kind of cash. Until the public has the kind of pensions the “servants” have, they should not exist.
Look at the absolute corruption in Chico with our City Manager firing a long-time Chico servant and bringing in a crony. Is it any surprise downtown has turned into a cesspool that mirrors the management?
“#1 Libby (says) : I’m sorry Jack, but you just don’t know what you’re talking about”
Actually liberal friend you don’t understand what Jack is saying. If you did, you might just be more upset with ridiculous public servants and political greed. At some point you need to understand, even admit, that private business creates the wealth this country enjoys,and that our government squanders it on themselves. This is money they haven’t earned or created, they just usurped it from the private sector.
OMg Libby, you can’t be that stupid. I can choose which gas station I go to. I don’t have a choice if I pay my taxes or not, unless I want to deal with the IRS and end up paying fines, penalties and CPA/attorney fees too.
Libby: “It’s not any difference at all. The money you pay, say, some Big Oil CEO comes out of the same wallet your taxes do.”
Spoken like a true progressive. Government is NOT exactly the same as private business.
When Jack make a gasoline purchase he pays $.50 on the dollar (half) to government for that pump price.
The $.50 on the dollar at the pump tax is in addition to the other taxes and fees that are placed on both the various oil companies and on Jack.
Do the math and it’s pretty easy to see that our government takes a big slice of oil money one way or another. We go to the gas station to buy gas but what we don’t always remember or know is that we are actually buying more government.
Does it strike anyone else as a bad deal that government takes that $50 on the dollar and yet our roads and bridges remain in a state of degradation and disrepair while the oil industry consistently delivers it’s product to market and in doing so supports the entire economic structure? (Every product is manufactured and brought to market using oil)
Government is a poor manager of the people’s money!
Government is inefficient and unaccountable to the people!
The people are not getting value, a solid product at an affordable price, for the money that is taken from them by our government.
The more I learn the more I realize we have no idea how much gas or any other product or service actually costs. On reflection, I sure would like to know. I can recall paying $.25 per gallon at the pump around 1965. Using the inflation rate calculator found here I can determine that inflation would have raised the cost to $1.84.
You know Jack, if we could get rid of a lot of government regulation, fees, and taxes…if we had leaders and servants that were dedicated to efficiency, we might just see those CEO salaries come down along with the cost and price of everything else!
We need classes on what drives the cost of things up in every classroom in America. some of it is necessary but a lot of it isn’t…and some of it is pure theft taken under cover of the darkness that fills all bureaucracies.
Tina, you are of course right on the money, pun intended. I would like to see character taught once again in schools so the kids would have some of the same opportunity to learn about morality that they did before prayer was removed from the classroom. Maybe then more parents would be inclined to talk about character and real values in life, not just greed and clawing their way to the top by any means necessary be it in government or the private sector. I’ve been personally hurt by corporate greed and malfeasance as well by government. In my never to be humble opinion this is becoming a nation lacking in good solid character on too many levels.
“I can choose which gas station I go to.”
Name me a Big Oil CEO who is not compensated in the tens of millions, at the very least. You have no choice, at all. It is quite foolish of you to think that you do.
But you HAVE chosen NOT to live in Alameda County, so what IS your problem?
“The pay of Nancy Farber, CEO of Washington Township health care district, was nearly three times as much as what Contra Costa County paid the chief of its hospital in Martinez and four times as much as the top administrator at San Francisco General Hospital.”
I have told you, and told you … research this stuff before you post it. But you will not learn.
From their website:
Although the Washington Township Health Care District is a public entity, unlike cities or counties, it does not receive any taxpayer funds to cover its operations. Rather, the District is required to compete against other profit and not-for-profit healthcare providers to cover not only its operational costs (including employee salaries) but also to fund its community and charity care programs.
So! What this does is bear out my position about private entities being the real hedonists and squanderers of resources … and … neener, neener, neeeeeener!
I looked at the Washington Township website. the statement that “it does not receive any taxpayer funds” is misleading. Many, if not all, of the people served by this hospital are people receiving some kind of assistance from the government.
Since 1965 when the government inserted itself into healthcare by creating Medicare it is impossible to say that any hospital or care provider is a totally private entity or that it operates independent of government funds.
Your revelation actually does not bear out your position!
If a CEO does a lousy job of running his company he is removed.replaced! Whether a bureaucrat does a good or lousy job is irrelevant; he is rewarded with a raise or better job and no one holds him accountable for the mess he leaves behind. In too many cases he is not actually contributing much to the end product or service but instead represents a highly paid unnecessary extra expense that drives up the cost of a product or service.
Those who attempt to evaluate the consequence of Obamacare tell us that doctors will not be able to make it as private entities in the market. those who do not leave the profession through retirement or choice will put themselves under the roof of a hospital. As this happens those unaccountable, unnecessary bureaucrats will grow in numbers and thrive and drive the costs for healthcare through the roof!
Neener, neener my Great Aunt Fannie!
Keep in mind that when compensation for these bureaucrats goes up the cost to hire a CEO in the private sector is forced or driven up dramatically! Bureaucrats get raises in pay and benefits automatically without performance consideration. The consumer pays big time in higher prices for healthcare and insurance, higher prices on the products used by healthcare providers, and higher taxes of one type or another.
Jack I’ve been personally hurt by greed after taking a risk and investing in a corporation. The greed was not “corporate” however. The greed deed was accomplished by “individuals” using underhanded, unscrupulous (IMHO) practices within the confines of the law (complex regulation) to loot the company and get their money back with a sizable profit while leaving me holding an empty bag! In my case it was Global Crossing…the company was suddenly and without warning reconfigured and sold so that the few big investors made a bundle
and the know nothings like me lost their investments:
I bought the GC stock on the technology when it was priced fairly low; I would have done very well except for this maneuver. They were the leader at the time in building the infrastructure that makes the internet possible.
I don’t know why the laws allow this kind of restructuring without obvious warning to the small investor. It seems to me that this is at least as unscrupulous as profiting from insider trading (probably more).
The other investment that I lost money on was equally slimy and in that case one of Bill Clinton’s buddies benefited greatly from the deal.
In the case of Enron government played a definite role:
A summary can be found here:
Here’s a good article about ethics and the law and the Enron scandal. The entire piece is interesting and valuable but this conclusion is pure gold:
On the other hand, I have gained substantially over the years from investments in good companies that give nice dividends and/or perform well and consistently year after year. I see that our entire economy is driven by the efforts of people in corporate entities big and small whether in jobs that are created or in the products they provide. All things considered corporate performance has been good an done more good than harm.
I know I’m demanding that we be more specific in our speech. It may seem like it does not matter or that I’m just being too picky. But when you consider terms like “corporate greed” and “gun violence” have been created for political purposes…well, it becomes obvious that we MUST force better use of the language or we will continue to LOSE the argument!
Tina, so if individuals who run a corporation do good things, that is corporate behavior … but … if people who run a corporation do bad things, it is NOT corporate behavior?
Does that really make any sense to you?
Corporate greed is the greed of the people who run the corporation … always has been. And I’m afraid that there is now a fair bit of research indicating that, if individuals are shielded by a corporate entity, they REALLY “go to town”, greedy-wise.
My problem Libby is you and people like you who refuse to understand the difference between the Free Market system and the Public system.
The FM system exist because consumers want their product or service and are willing to pay the price. Otherwise, the price goes down and/or the company goes out of business. If consumers and shareholders don’t want to pay for the high salaries they don’t have to. Consumers do have a choice to go else where or do without.
The Public system exist by the FORCED collection of taxes. The product and service is chosen by someone else who determines what we’ll pay, how much we’ll get and of course what the salaries will be from the very top CEOs to the very bottom grounds keepers. The ONLY choice we have is electing who sits on the governing board or in the seats of power that determines what their salaries will be. It is our fault for voting these individuals and placing them into their power positions. Taxes for this, taxes for that, and more taxes to line the pockets of top CEOs is not the solution, it IS the problem.
Like Tina said, you are a true socialist if you can not or refuse to understand the difference. I expect you even believe what’s happening in Cyprus where the gov’t is taking peoples saving is acceptable to you because it’s for the good of the gov’t so they can have more to spend and squander.
It’s very sad to know that if there are enough people like you we will be just like Cyprus within our life time. California cities, counties and the state is bankrupt or going bankrupt and you have the nerve to defend theses salaries. Unbelievable, but expected of a socialist.
This even made national news. There’s a better video on American Live w/ Megan Kelly, but it’s not available on line yet.
http://nation.foxnews.com/california-official-susan-muranishi/2013/03/26/california-county-administrator-get-423644-year-after-retirement
A favorite poem of Dr. Ben Carson.
“Yourself to Blame”
by Mayme White Miller
If things go bad for you
And make you a bit ashamed
Often you will find out that
You have yourself to blame
Swiftly we ran to mischief
And then the bad luck came
Why do we fault others?
We have ourselves to blame
Whatever happens to us,
Here is what we say
“Had it not been for so-and-so
Things wouldn’t have gone that way.”
And if you are short of friends,
I’ll tell you what to do
Make an examination,
You’ll find the faults in you…
You’re the captain of your ship,
So agree with the same
If you travel downward
You have yourself to blame
Great poem and it’s so true!
“The Public system exist by the FORCED collection of taxes.”
Horsepucky. You agree to pay for public services, and for other people too, not just you. And if you don’t agree, you can always leave the country. But you don’t. Why is that?
I love this business of American retirees moving to Costa Rica, and living high, until they get sickly and come right back.
Tax-dodging, vulture capitalist hypocrites.
And it sounds like Dr. Carson is another believer in the mystical power of lady parts.
Ick.
Libby: “Horsepucky. You agree to pay for public services, and for other people too, not just you.”
No I didn’t. Others decided for me what I would pay and for whom I would pay their share of.
Instead of telling me to move to another country how about you tell those who pay nothing in taxes to pay their fair share instead. Why should some get to live here for free while we pick up their cost in addition to our own share?
I’m all for a Flat Tax where everyone contributes something for the privilege of living here and the “free” rides ends. That way no one has to move to another country to keep what is theirs.
Libby your retort doesn’t explain why citizens with Constitutional rights should just roll over and take it when CLEARLY the taxpayer money has not been managed well.
You are trumpeting gross mismanagement like a sock puppet who pops up just to shame citizens into silence…what a tool! You also seem perfectly happy to see able bodied persons turned into unproductive dependents. How does that figure into your worldview?
But even that is a side issue. the point is we are forced to pay for a lot of government that doesn’t add value to the service…and that, my dear, is just plain ol’ fashioned stupid. We speak up because we think the people of this nation should wise up!
this may help you to understand Libby’s mindset a bit better Tina, Libby votes Democratic because she believes that a oil Company’s profit of 4% on a gallon of gas is obscene, But the Government taxing that same gallon of gas 15% isn’t.
Libby: “And it sounds like Dr. Carson is another believer in the mystical power of lady parts.
Ick.”
Please see my post about dumb people attacking Dr. Carson for being black.
Peggy, I didn’t know what to make of Libby’s nutty, ugly remark.
Tina, I didn’t either, but figured it was just another one of her snide attacks she directed at Dr. Carson.
What she meant by “lady parts” I have no idea and nor do I want to.
We have running themes. You should have been able to follow.
Though I suppose the poem could be taken two ways. Some people might see it as typical “up by your bootstraps” morality. But then some people could see it as blaming the victim … like rape victims, say. I mean, some people are “shamed” by circumstances entirely beyond their control … unless …
I couldn’t remember the weasel’s name, so I googled “lady parts senator” and up he popped: Todd Akin, a great blamer of the victim.
Now, if Dr. Carson concurs, then he too must be a great believer in the mystical power of lady parts.
Libby, It’s official you really are a progressive nut case. No one could follow your thought process when you compare a brain surgeon who has saved hundreds of lives during his career to an idiot who has probably never opened an anatomy book.
Next time try googeling Dr. Carson to learn something about him instead of googeling “lady parts” to find someone to compare him too. You just might actually learn something of value, acknowledge a man who was able to rise out of poverty and is now encouraging others to do so by setting up libraries in schools and giving out scholarships.
Just a little effort Libs and you could stop being a bully. Oh here, I’ll do it for you. I almost forgot you’re one of those progressives who wants everything done for them instead of doing it yourself. I dare you to check out his website and watch the video, and then try to justify comparing him to Akins with another one of your bullying attacks.
The Carson Website:
http://carsonscholars.org/
“Some career highlights include the first separation of craniopagus (Siamese) twins joined at the back of the head in 1987, the first completely successful separation of type-2 vertical craniopagus twins in 1997 in South Africa, and the first successful placement of an intrauterine shunt for a hydrocephalic twin. Although he has been involved in many newsworthy operations, he feels that every case is noteworthy – deserving of maximum attention. He is interested in all aspects of pediatric neurosurgery and has a special interest in trigeminal neuralgia (severe facial pain) in adults.
Dr. Carson holds more than 50 honorary doctorate degrees. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, the Horatio Alger Society of Distinguished Americans, and many other prestigious organizations. He sits on the board of directors of numerous organizations, including Kellogg Company, Costco Wholesale Corporation, the Academy of Achievement, and is an Emeritus Fellow of the Yale Corporation, the governing body of Yale University. He was appointed in 2004 by President George W. Bush to serve on the President’s Council on Bioethics. He is a highly regarded motivational speaker who has addressed various audiences from school systems and civic groups to corporations and the President’s National Prayer Breakfast.
In 2001, Dr. Carson was named by CNN and TIME Magazine as one of the nation’s 20 foremost physicians and scientists. That same year, he was selected by the Library of Congress as one of 89 “Living Legends” on the occasion of its 200th anniversary. He is also the recipient of the 2006 Spingarn Medal which is the highest honor bestowed by the NAACP. In February, 2008, Dr. Carson was presented with the Ford’s Theatre Lincoln Medal by President Bush at the White House. In June, 2008, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the President, which is the highest civilian honor in the land. He has literally received hundreds of other awards during his distinguished career.
Today, Dr. Carson and his wife, Candy, dedicate themselves to expanding the reach of the Carson Scholars Fund. Their dream is to name a Carson Scholar in every school within the United States.”
Harold: … because she believes that a oil Company’s profit of 4% on a gallon of gas is obscene, …
So I go to track this down, and what do I come upon but our friend and obfuscator, Rand Paul. Alas, Fact Checker has some things to say about this assertion:
“In opposing the Senate bill to repeal tax breaks for oil and gas companies, Paul claimed that the federal government makes more money in taxes on a gallon of gasoline than oil companies earn in profits. He presented a chart that carried the header “Regular Gasoline Tax v. Oil Company Profit, Per Gallon,” showing 7 cents per gallon for the oil companies and 18.4 cents per gallon for the federal government. (In his May 17 speech, he said 7 cents and 18.4 cents per dollar, but it was clear from his chart that he meant per gallon.)
“But the 7-cents-per-gallon figure grossly underestimates the industry’s earnings. It includes only earnings from the sale of gasoline and not earnings on producing and selling crude oil. There are no independent figures on how much oil companies earn on a gallon of gasoline.
“Paul’s per-gallon figure is consistent with a claim ExxonMobil Vice President for Public and Government Affairs Ken Cohen wrote in his blog, “Perspectives,” when the company released its 2011 first quarter earnings in April.
We called ExxonMobil and asked how Cohen arrived at his figure. Spokeswoman Kristen Hellmer said it was determined by dividing ExxonMobil’s “downstream earnings ($694 million) by the number of gallons of gasoline and other products refined and sold during the quarter in the U.S. (9,355 million gallons). The result is 7.4 cents per gallon.” Downstream earnings are what the company earns from refining crude oil into gasoline and other petroleum products and then selling it. But that ignores “upstream earnings,” which is how much Exxon earns in producing and selling crude oil. And the cost of oil exceeded $100 a barrel in the first quarter of 2011.
Oil industry analyst Kloza called the 7-cents-per-gallon figure “disingenuous,” because it ignores high earnings from oil production. “Bringing crude oil to market has been incredibly profitable,” Kloza said. ‘It is disingenuous to say in the downstream we are making only this much.’”
Harold: “But the Government taxing that same gallon of gas 15% isn’t.”
Damned straight. We need the means to clean up all the messes made by the internal combustion engine. And I don’t know where you get the idea that this is any hardship on the oil companies. They pass that tax right along to us.
If we were grown-ups, we’d just pay without the obfuscation … but we’re not grown-ups.
“Just a little effort Libs and you could stop being a bully.”
Am I a bully? If I mow down your specious reasoning with just a couple of facts … a plausible alternate interpretation … am I a bully?
Maybe you are just wrong. Did you ever consider that?
I mean, that treacly bit of prosy isn’t anything but propaganda posited by a selfish, greedy, decidedly unChristian class of people bent on preserving their own interests.
And, again, if Dr. Carson concurs, I despise the man, his ethnic origins notwithstanding.
This is for you Libby. Enjoy!!
Alfonzo Rachel: Why Liberals Love Racists Like Touré:
“Recently MSNBC’s resident black guy Touré rendered his opinion of Dr. Ben Carson, referring to him as a ‘token’ and ‘Uncle Tom’. That’s just the type of thinking we’ve come to know and expect from them.”
http://www.ijreview.com/2013/03/43836-alfonzo-rachel-why-liberals-love-racists-like-toure%C2%B4/
“…that treacly bit of prosy isn’t anything but propaganda posited by a selfish, greedy, decidedly unChristian class of people bent on preserving their own interests.”
Oh get off it Libby…everybody is “bent on preserving their own interests”.
Libby, thanks for providing the facts on oil. I knew the “4%” statistic couldn’t be true.
I’m not sure what you mean by comparing Carson to Akin. Carson’s already said some pretty dumb things about the poor, but what has he said about women?
Peggy, I don’t see Libby attacking Carson for his race. I do agree with you, though, that it is racist to use terms like “Uncle Tom,” “oreo” or “token” to refer to black Republicans.
However, I have seen Republicans refer to black Democrats as “slaves” who are “living on the Democrat plantation,” and that too is racist. When I bring this up here, conservatives usually defend these terms and claim that they are not racist. Can you concede that both sides need to stop acting like there is only one way to be black, and that their race should not be a factor in criticizing their political positions?
Chris, Libby comparing Dr. Carson to Akins by looking up “lady parts” is what I find offensive.
Her dismissive attitude of a person who has accomplished so much, has used his skills to benefit others by saving lives and is contributing personally to help others through his foundation is what I find offensive.
Attacking and dismissing people because of the color of their skin who believe differently is what I find offensive. I’ll bet she didn’t even attempt to inform herself about Dr. Carson or even took the time to watch Rachel’s video. She just dismissed and attacked him like a child does on the playground instead of as an adult should have.
Dr. King’s teaching was for us to judge individuals not groups of people by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Libby and Toure need to remember what Dr. King died for. After watching the video by Alfonzo Rachel they need to look in a mirror and decide if Dr. King was still alive what he would say about their remarks.
Dr. Carson and others of both parties deserves to be treated with respect and I’ll not sit silently while others attack them because they don’t agree with their beliefs.