A Good Year for the Outlaw

I don’t pay much attention to baseball anymore, outside of checking the standings here and there. But what with Sosa’s name back in the news (one of the guys who made me feel the way I know feel about baseball), and the latest folly at Wrigley Dump this evening, I gotta comment.
I understand 40,000 people [...]

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Hey, big congrats (snark) to Exxon Mobil for surpassing Wal Mart atop the Fortune 500 this year.
Scariest fact of all? Exxon Mobil’s PROFITS of 45.2 billion dollars would place them around 150 on the list of REVENUES. Sickening. Absolutely sickening.
Oh, by the way, Number 2 on the “profits” list? Chevron, at 23.93 billion dollars. [...]

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Ready for gas prices to spike for no apparent, and certainly no good reason? At the same time this morning, gas was being reported at $1.88 per gallon of unleaded in Decatur, but just a few miles up the road in LeRoy, it spiked to $2.28 after being $1.99 the night before.
First of all, [...]

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I made a semi-angry post last week about AIG and their “smug execs”. In doing so, I broke my own rule about “generalizing” and lumping all people or things into one bucket, regardless of subject. This morning, I read the letter of resignation from Jake DeSantis, AIG-F.P., to Mr. Liddy, the CEO of the company. [...]

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Area gas prices I’ve seen today: $2.19 in Bartonville. $2.25 all over Peoria. $2.34 in Canton. $2.33 in Chillicothe.
Gas price in Kewanee? $2.68.
Somebody needs to go to jail. Robbery is a crime.

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Many folks have purchased “flex fuel” vehicles in recent years, so they could use E85 – a viable alternative to regular or E10 fuel. The beauty in E85 is that it is always sold…or at least ALMOST always…cheaper than other fuels.
But to be really effective, E85 needs to be 20% or more less than [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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, [...]

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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 [...]

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Jim Cramer turns into the General Custer of financial advice with this gem.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/gUkbdjetlY8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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.

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On InsightBB’s homepage today, there is this story: 
Inspectors Find Overcharging At PharmaciesSep 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 [...]

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