Also at The Albany Project

A mere three days ago, I wrote a diary about an amazing 20-cents-in-one-week gasoline price increase at my regular station in upstate NY.

Today, I saw a price hike even more shocking -- 10 cents in one day.

And, I came across another incredible story on the Internets about how fragile gasoline supplies can get.

Details that explain some of why more than four out of five people are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the USA, below.

Here's another reason to hate Comcast.... and hopefuly a good reason to boycott them.

No huge bombshells for a couple days, but the Michigan governor's race is a squeaker. You have to love how much Scamway money Dick DeVos is pouring into this thing, none of it ever seeming to result in a lead outside the statistical margin. Granholm is back on top again. In the middle of a tough time for Michigan, she's a fighter.

And one thing else is for sure, she definitely knows how to work a camera. If you haven't seen the latest ad, it's now on YouTube. If she buys a few more of these, and voters can actually see her talking TO them, it'll do wonders. I don't know how wide the ad is going, but I hope they make a serious ad buy. The ad after the jump:

Click on the image to view:

DeVos can barely look at the camera, and he sure can't deliver a serious monologue. And he SURE can't say he's done anything for the state of Michigan. Granholm has needed to engage and start fighting back for awhile now. She's strong in this spot and I love that she's decided to go directly after DeVos and the gas gouging rethugs - Keep it up!

I'm going to save the Republican party. You see, I've discovered a fundamental flaw in recent GOP doctrine For a long time, the Republican party has claimed they are for a small government. However, somewhere along the way they have diverged from the path. And after careful analysis here is the issue. It is a small semantic mistake that anyone can make.

I am the author of this piece:

http://www.boomantribune.com/...

Text below

Alex Markels on Sunday Edition.  NPR's version of   John Stossel, a career defender of megacorporate greed.  Markels just did a piece on Price Gouging and [1] spoke only about Republican efforts fig leaves misdirection re:  gas prices and [2] had a Republican Congressman, Big Oil apologist economist & a Georgia Libertarian on to reinforce his meme.

Markels:  "Are gas stations were 'gouging' consumers?"  A few "For the People" Capitol Hill Republicans:  "We'll protect consumers from any gas stations gouging motorists."  

Of course, it's not the gas stations, but Big Oil that's wallowing in record profits while squeezing wringing-dry consumers.  

At the end of the piece, Stossel Markels did a snarky thing about theater popcorn and ball park hot dogs evidencing theater and ball park gouging -- so why isn't that causing as much public ire as $3.00/gallon gas?  Yeh!  

NPR's Stosselization:  complete.
   

While many families struggle to make ends meet, there is one lucky family that is doing very well. Meet the Chevron executive family ...

http://www.alonovo.com/...

When raw oil prices increase it is all too easy for oil companies to bend us over the proverbial barrel. When raw prices move up 5%, without doing the math (I once loved to do) I'll bet there is a corresponding 10% increase at the pump. And when raw production prices drop 5%, I'll be there is a very slow 3% price decrease at the pump. And while I would never believe there would be collusion among energy companies on consumer pricing, isn't it interesting that all the prices across the market move together?

Shouldn't this be a no brainer?  Why should oil companies reap windfall profits at the expense of every American's pocketbook and the economy as a whole?  If their profit margins had remained the same, it would seem fair since presumably, their costs have risen so much.  But no, oil companies are reaping RECORD BREAKING BILLION DOLLAR profits, hence this is gouging pure and simple.  Immediately enacted should be a windfall profits tax pushed through by congressional progressives, the revenues of which should go to subsidizing alternative fuel technologies, hybrid cars, etc.  Something to PERMANENTLY reduce our dependency on Saudi and Mideast oil.  

I watched Squawkbox on CNBC this morning, where they had a discussion about a windfall profit tax for oil companies. They showed a clip of Grassley (R-IA) saying he believed oil companies should pay 10% of their profits to help the poor meet their heating bills. Asked how he arrived at this figure, he actually said that he got the figure from the bible.The bible says people should tithe 10% of their income. I fell off my chair. Separation of church and state is so far gone, that economic policy is now being set by religious dogma.

Personally, I don't believe in windfall profit taxes. But I also believe we should not be subsidizing the oil companies with our tax dollars, at time when they are making QUARTERLY profits equal to the amount being asked to rebuild New Orleans.