Someone Needs To Be Arrested

The highest gas prices in the state as of 3:15 Sunday afternoon are anywhere from $4.49 to $4.69 per gallon, and anywhere from Carbondale to Mattoon to Sycamore.

The State Police need to be ordered by the Governor to be pulled out of their speed traps and sent to these stations immediately and start questioning on-site managers as to who their superiors are, where they live, and then go to those residences and start arresting people. They are thieves. Criminals. Crooks. And they need to be locked up until they can appear before a judge.

I thought I’d never see myself type this, but this is NOT entirely the fault of oil companies. When the West side of the state is still able to sell gas for $3.75-$3.99 (which IS still a ripoff blameable on the oil companies) while the south, east, and Chicagoland areas jack up their prices as much as a dollar in the last 48 hours, those district managers, those small-time operators, need to be arrested for price gouging and price fixing.

Criminal. Absolutely criminal.

Like it or not, people, gas and diesel fuel are as NECESSARY right now, in this current society, for survival as food, water, and sleep. I can’t invent another type of fuel, or I would. I can’t walk to work, or ride a bike, or ride a horse, because work is 55 miles away. Groceries cannot be delivered, staples of survival, without gas or diesel being involved in SOME way as part of the transportation process.

So the price gougers and opportunists are nothing more than the common thieves who break into homes and businesses and steal goods. They are nothing more than the commo thieves who get us into a privatized, corporate war for profit, like the Bush/Cheney/Halliburton/PNAC bunch has us in. Lock them up too, while we’re at it, for not doing a damn thing about these gas prices for the last five years. Disgusting f’ing lowlife a’holes.

UPDATE, Monday Morning: Gas in Farmington is $3.83. Less than 10 miles south in Canton, it’s $4.09. All the excuses in the world CANNOT justify a difference that large.

UPDATE 2, Monday Morning: Oil prices are plummeting, $95 early this morning per barrel. We should see gas prices dropping accordingly, no?

UPDATE 3, Monday morning, Texas Governor Rick Perry reported on CNN this morning that the “oil industry dodged a bullet on this one” in reference to Hurricane Ike. He said since they generate their own electricity, all refineries were back up and running in SE Texas this morning. So there goes THAT excuse from the gougers.

Let The Gouging Begin! UPDATED

As of 1:40 PM on Friday, gas shot up 40 cents per gallon in DeKalb to $4.19, and as of 2:20 PM, two stations in Willisville, IL (west of Carbondale) just went up to $4.30. All because of another hurricane threatening, perhaps?

Well, maybe not…Texas gas prices have FALLEN today by a penny or two per gallon on average, according to this story.

EDIT: Saturday morning, and DeKalb is reporting $4.49 per gallon prices. Isn’t there laws against this shit?

Crooks. Thieves. Criminals. (the Illinois dealers, not the Texans…at least not yet)

They Still Don’t Get It In The C-U Hospitality Industry

Last week, I sent an announcer down to Cerro Gordo to call a high school football game, and tried to find him a room so he could spend the night in Champaign-Urbana and cover the Illini the next day.

More on that in a minute. But first, a little background:

Years ago, shortly after I arrived in Peoria, the city won the contract to host the IHSA Boys State Basketball Tournaments. Shortly after that, I was asked by John Butler and Bill Roeder to help with the “March Madness Experience” next door to Carver Arena in the Exhibition Hall of the Peoria Civic Center during the tourney weekends. Over the years, through discussions with those closer to the situation, I came to learn that C-U lost the tourneys to Peoria in part because they gouged on hotel prices during the event.

I found that to still be the case, unfortunately, when I called to get Mark a room this past week. I was told by several hotels that they “had space available”. With each call, I first tried to trade rooms for radio advertising back here in the Peoria/Canton area. Failing that, with each call, I then inquired about “your best rate for Friday”, and got anywhere from $119 to $149. Mind you, these were at hotel/motels that I consider “average” quality. So I started asking, “what is your normal rate”? Only one desk clerk responded with a bit of indignance, saying, “what makes you think this isn’t our normal rate?” But the rest of them, four in all, happily gave me rates anywhere from $30-$50 less for a “non-game weekend” rate.

That’s right, they said it: “Non-game weekend”. Are you kidding me? They are so bold and brazen in C-U on “game weekends” that they can just bump rates by 25-40% and not worry about it? No wonder they all had “plenty of rooms” on a Thursday and Friday of a “Game Weekend” for the Fightin’ Illini.

It’s no wonder they lost the basketball tourney for their cities. Color me unimpressed.

Rigged.

Well, another NBA “Lottery” has come and gone, and yet another fixed result has been achieved. Don’t think it’s fixed? Then why won’t they pull the ping pong balls in public?

It’s fixed. Big time. Congrats, Chicago, your pathetic Bulls again get something they don’t deserve.

BTW, the Minnesota Timberwolves remain the franchise the league loves to screw. Twelve times the T’wolves have been in the lottery in their 20 year existence. Why? Well, how about this little fact: In 12 lotteries, the Wolves have moved DOWN in the order from where they should pick seven times. In each of the other five times, they stayed where they should pick, based on win-loss record. Twelve total times and you haven’t gotten lucky ONCE?

“Nah, it’s not fixed,” says David Stern. Um, David, yes, it is, and this year anyone outside of Chicago knows it, and most IN Chicago know better, too.

This rigged lottery crap has been going on since the first one, even when they drew out in the open. See for yourself.

A Theory In The Works

I remember a time a decade or two ago where “convenience stores” were willing to mark their gas prices as low as they could to still make a minimal profit (2 or 3 cents per gallon was all my grandfather profited towards the end of his run as a store owner in the early 80’s), and then rely on the customers to come inside and spend a bunch on pop, hot dogs, potato chips, candy, cigarettes, etc. in order to turn a healthy profit. Believe me, when you charge 99 cents for a 32oz pop from the fountain, you’re making a nice profit, and when you buy 8 hot dogs for $2 dollars and 8 buns for $0.60 and then sell those same 8 dogs for a total of $12 dollars, you’re doing alright.

But that has changed. Gas must be as profitable as humanly possible for these stores. They’ve got to make a killing on every gallon, just like they do on every hot dog inside. Why? Because we can pay at the pump. We can stick a credit/debit card into a slot, start the pump, fill the car, return the nozzle, grab the receipt, and hit the road. The convenience store/filling station has just lost a big potential profit be me not coming into their store. So they’ve gotta get it where they can, and gas prices suffer even more because of it.

I’d like to see a station go back the other way. Take away the pay-at-the-pump option and drive traffic back into their store, where, while preparing to pay, I (and most others) will grab a cup of pop, a pack of gum, a candy bar, a bag of chips…whatever…and the shopkeeper will now show a profit again.  Think about it when you whip out your credit card to “pay at the pump”. Your interest in saving a walk of 40 feet and possibly having to stand in line behind…heaven forbid…one or maybe even two people, is now helping me - and YOU - pay more for your gas.

There’s A Ray Of Hope For Our Population

I was stunned with delight this week when CNN asked the question, “Which candidate’s plan regarding removing the gas tax for the summer months is the best?” 

Of course, John McCain has pandered to his base by suggesting a simple removal of the Federal Gas Tax for the summer. Hillary Clinton’s idea (which, if I’m not mistaken, is pretty darn similar to a plan talked about by a certain local candidate a few weeks back) called for a dropping of the gas tax and a “windfall profit tax” being assessed the oil companies in addition, which, of course, was a populist position pandering to her base. Obama? Called both ideas irrational and, basically, stupid, saying the tax is not the problem, that corporate greed is.

The results:

McCain - 2%

Clinton - 13%

Obama - 85%

Unbelievable. We do have hope in this country. In a day and age were a certain percentage of the population thinks that any tax is wrong, in a day and age in which it’s an absolute rarity to see 60% or more of us take the same side on anything, to have 85% of the respondents see through the shameful ruse offered by McCain or Clinton is a good sign. Of course, it would have been a better sign if the poll was on Faux News and their typical viewers had similar results, but I’ll still take it.

BTW, if the idiotic populist pandering ideas of McCain and Clinton were actually put in place, and we say 18 cents knocked off a gallon of gas (wow…big deal…it’s only $3.49 now!) we’d simply see the oil companies put 10-15 cents back into the price for additional pure profit. That’s what they did the last time this stupid plan was tried…who can honestly sit here and say they wouldn’t do it again?

Economic Fixes…Discuss

Here are generally agreed upon reasons for our weak economy: Subprime mortgage crisis; job losses; weakened dollar abroad leading to significant trade imbalance; continuing cost of war; not enough revenue to pay the bills.

There are obviously lots of factors, and lots of solutions are being bandied about. I’m certainly not an economist, and I’m not going to claim to be smarter than anyone else. I’m just an average Joe who wants to make a few suggestions, and have discussion about them to see if they are good ideas, bad ideas, or can be good ideas with tweaking. In other words, I’m looking to open a line of discussion with people smarter than I (oops, sorry Vonnie, that leaves you out ).

Obviously, I hope the tax cuts Bush imposed to help his rich buddies are not made permanent. I think that will happen.

But my ”first step” in fixing the problems? Wages. I read where the average wage is down since 2001, the typical household income is lower than it was in 2000. But big corporations are raking in record profits. Wages for middle-management on down to entry-level wages are going down, but the big-wigs make more, which pleases the shareholders. However, the people who TRULY spend the money to keep the country rolling (i.e. the middle class) have less to spend.

I also have read that while these profits for the major corporations have soared, they haven’t put the money back into not only the help, but the investment on upgrading equipment and computer software is way off what it once was. That, of course, blows the “trickle down” theories out of the water to me, but we already know that scheme doesn’t work.   

So how do we increase wages?

Can we can start by increasing taxes and closing tax loopholes for these corporations, instead giving them incentives by way of new and different tax breaks IF they increase wages and benefits for American workers?

If we can increase wages, can we do it slowly enough so as to not scare the hell out of the elite on Wall Street who then cry “inflation, inflation!”. Also, why couldn’t these companies be given incentives on bringing jobs BACK to the U.S., not farming them out overseas, and why shouldn’t they instead be harshly PENALIZED for taking their jobs out of country. 

I don’t think I’m proposing, btw, some sort of isolationist nationalism here, certainly not. I’m only suggesting we achieve a better trade balance. It seems to me that the mega-rich actually do BETTER when the middle class has enough extra cash to go out and buy things to stimulate growth.

They are, of course, convinced otherwise. But that’s my start. Let’s discuss…rationally, without snark (oh, crap, that leaves Vonnie out again. Darn the luck.)

Nice Call, Cramer

Jim Cramer turns into the General Custer of financial advice with this gem.

Here We Go Again

Friday, 9pm, March 7th. Gas in Kewanee and Peoria: $3.29 per gallon. A Shell station in Pekin is at $3.30. See the high (and low, for that matter) prices here.

I just got gas in the Quad Cities. It was $2.99. Yet 35 miles away in Kewanee it’s $3.29. In Bloomington right now, it’s $3.07, but Peoria is $0.22 higher just 40 miles away. Amazing. But some don’t seem to have a problem with it. And the oil magnates? They’re rolling in dough even at the lowest prices. Imagine the profit the Peoria operators are seeing.

Sickening. Disgusting. And we’re at least 10 months from any relief. January, 2009 can’t come soon enough.

What Is Their Excuse THIS Time?

Gas was $2.95 per gallon at noon yesterday (87 octane unleaded, in Canton). It was $3.19 five hours later.

What the hell?!?!?!

A 25 cent per gallon increase…what is the given excuse this time? The explosion at a refinery? A refinery that, btw, produces 70,000 barrels per day?

70,000 barrels per day. How big is that? Well, a look at the list of “largest refineries” shows 22 refineries world wide with over production capacities of over 300,000 per day.  As a matter of fact, that same list shows this refinery that suffered the explosion wasn’t even among the Top 20 in TEXAS ALONE!!!

So let me get this straight: one of the smallest refineries in Texas has an explosion and our gas goes up 9% in one day?

Nah, they’re not greedy.

UPDATE: Just got back from Iowa, on Friday, the 22nd, at 10pm. Gas in Iowa? $2.89 per gallon on Interstate 80. Oh, did I mention, that Illinois’ tax-per gallon rate is actually LOWER than Iowa’s?

We’re getting ripped off here, fellow Illinoisans. Period.

My 2008 Budget

I’ve completed my proposed 2008 budget for the radio stations. I’ve taken cues from our current “leadership” (wow, is THAT term used loosely here) to complete it.  Here it is:

1. I’m increasing the external advertising (read: “defense“) by a couple hundred thousand. (Actually, advertising is “offense”, but that’s the way our administration has treated our military since 2003, so the comparison is perfect.)

2. I’m also increasing the maintenance cost of the building by purchasing a bunch of new equipment and replacing things that still function just fine (read: “earmarks” and “even more defense“), and I’m not really setting a cost on that, it’ll just be a surprise. (more…)

Careful Who You Root For

Senator Bill Brady of Bloomington sent out a letter to the editor, I’m assuming to several papers, that the PJS ran this morning. In it, he shows unwavering support for Fred Thompson (pictured, in the outfit we’d all be going back to if he were elected). Thompson is currently back on his yacht in Florida reading scripts. A vast majority of the country is happy about this fact.

Anyway, the Senator says in the letter that he supported Thompson’s “common sense conservative values”. So what exactly did Mr. Thompson stand for? You really couldn’t tell from his campaign, because it imploded very quickly after he finally announced he was running.

But if you’d like to learn more about Mr. Thompson, David Broder’s recent column showed what many would feel were some pretty ugly things (actually, almost everybody except Vonster) about the actor/former Senator.

According to Broder, Thompson did indeed have some pretty strong opinions on things. Well, as long as they were off the record:

We visited for two hours and he answered every question, outlining plans for a campaign that would be notable for its boldness. Repeatedly, he emphasized that the only reason he saw to run was to raise issues that the other candidates were too timid to address. Those issues, he said, included the need to expand military manpower and increase the Pentagon budget, while attacking the “unaffordable” entitlement programs that dominate domestic spending.

Thompson was particularly critical of farm subsidies, and when I asked if he were really going to take that message to Iowa, he said, “Yes, but I’d like to keep that off the record [emphasis added] until I announce out there.” I agreed to omit that detail from my column, but reported that he was going to enter the race with rhetorical guns blazing, and that was his reason for running.

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More Evidence of “Booming” Economy…Not

I am still a tad miffed about the whole “booming economy” discussion a couple of weeks back on Billy’s Blog, on a post originally written by Anon E. Mouse.

While visiting Iowa and my kid this weekend, I grabbed a couple of local papers (Waterloo Courier/Dubuque Telegraph-Herald) while traveling. Saturday’s Courier reported that Iowa’s poverty level is up 30%…30%…from 2000 to 2005. The state’s middle class is shrinking, too, and while wages were up 7.8% in the first half of the decade, that doesn’t come close to the 13% rate of inflation, thus the increase in poverty. The state says median income needed to increase about $4,000 more per family than it did to keep up with inflation. Wow. Booming, eh?

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Even They Don’t Think The Economy Is Good

Just got home, turned on CNN to see how New Hampster’s primary is going, and the first thing I see in “The Situation Room” (that name is hokey and hilarious, btw) is the results of a poll about our “BOOMING Economy” (David Jordan’s words, not mine).

87% of Dems think the economy is weak. No surprise there. But 51% of GOP’ers surveyed also think the economy is weak. That’s right, half of the people that supposedly side with Mr. Jordan feel the economy is far from “booming”. If they surveyed half Dems and half Repubs (which they did), that would put the overall number at about 75% of Americans that think the economy is weak…not “booming”.

It makes me hypothesize that that only people who think it’s BOOMING are upper-class people who have no problem with the middle-class disappearing, and that’s class warfare. Period.

Way To Go, Indiana!

The above headline is dripping with sarcasm. Lovely story yesterday in the Chicago Tribune.

But I’m not worried, because I know our wise and environmentally friendly adminstration in Washington will step in and…um, er, ah…

never mind.

Drug Stores Overcharging For More Than Just Medicine

On InsightBB’s homepage today, there is this story: 

Inspectors Find Overcharging At Pharmacies
Sep 23, 2007

The Chicago Department of Consumer Services has discovered an epidemic of overcharging at some of the city’s pharmacies. Department investigators recently posed as customers at more than 180 CVS, Walgreen’s and Osco stores. They found that 71 of the pharmacies overcharged for all kinds of products, including blood glucose monitors, cough syrup and razors. One investigator was charged nearly 80 dollars for a glucose monitor that was listed at about ten dollars.

Color me not surprised. But it’s not just drugs they overcharge for. Just the other day, I stopped at a CVS. I walked down a few aisles, seeing if there was anything I could pick up. I saw a six-pack of Propel Fitness Water. Diane and I have been drinking a lot of this, and we usually pay $2.97 for a six pack at the local Evil Mart. I’d rather buy my groceries and beverages at other places than Evil Mart, but when the CVS price is $5.29 for the same six pack, and you’re on a limited budget, you’re almost FORCED to shop at Evil Mart, or you don’t eat.

I asked a CVS employee to justify the disparity, and he said “they must be taking a loss on it, because we can’t buy the stuff that cheap.” Well, then use your head. STOP ordering from whatever grocery wholesaler is ripping you off unless they drop the price to a more competitive level, or find another wholesaler who will. If those things don’t work, you go down to Evil Mart and buy your week’s supply for your shelves from Evil Mart. You buy it for $2.97 and sell it for $3.39, and you make a profit off of those who just don’t want to go to Evil Mart. Heck, if it was that close, I’D be shopping at CVS more.  But sadly, it’s not.

Now, on the other hand, if you’re NOT paying over $2.97 per six pack, YOU are the ones ripping people off at $5.29 and you don’t deserve the business anyway.

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