A CALL TO ACTION: ONCE AGAIN, GAS GOUGING THE PUBLIC!!

[Kbowe]

It happens every year about this time. The oil companies are set to reap windfall profits at the expense of the blinded American people. Gasoline prices have increased 20 cents in my neighborhood in two days. It went up 12 cents in four hours. This is happening all over the country and the media continues to report it as isolated occurances for specific reasons as the pipeline disruption in Arizona. This is not the case across the country. There have been no pipeline disruptions in NJ, MD, VA, DC W.VA, NC etc. Yet the prices of gasoline have skyrocketed.

I am asking DUers to unite across the internet to gather information and share it with all the message boadrs possible to ask our fellow citizens of all stripes to unite against this gouging behavior, obviously sanctioned by the WH by its inaction, by using as little gasoline as possible over the Labor Day Holidays. Stay home, cook out, pray from cool weather, turn off air conditioners, stay away from hotels and motels help organize and participate in the largest ever boycott of anything related to travel and the oil companies. We must be able to send a message to this administration and their oil company buddies that we are not going to passively take this gouging. What is worse, they are gouging in the name of the war in Iraq and events that are just plain lies.

Here is what you can do:

1. Take down the name and location of your local gasoline stations that have raised their prices over the last week (gouging) and report them to your local newspapers. Let the proprietors know that you are doing this.

2. Report them to AAA and Checkbook and anyother consumer organization in your area.

3. Pass out flyers at your local food and retail stores pointing out what is happening.

4. Join the Internet effort to get the word out about the boycott.

5. Flood your Congressional offices with messages of discontent.

6. Flood all talk shows and media e-mails with the same message and call them to task for not reporting on this obscene behavior by the so-called "patriots." "The-more-patriotic-than-thou" gang must be stopped!

[OneTwentyoNine]

1. The only little detail that Bush bootlickers don't get...

The little freepers and Repigs that jump for joy when they get $3.00-4.00 tax cut have never taken into account that gas--at least around here is a full .30-.40 cents per gallon more than when Clinton was in office. So much for your tax cut,Bush just lets his Oil barons take it back from you.

Its an absolute rip-off,gas went up last Thursday .14 overnight. Your right,a boycott is needed.

David

[Jacobin]

2. Shriek!! It costs too much to fill up my SUV

We are turning into a commie socialist country like those in Europe where it costs $5/gallon for petrol.

Waaaaaaaa. Send more american young to the M.E. to steal oil so I can have cheap gas for my car!!!!

The idiotic thinking that cheap gasoline is a solution and not a problem creates RWers, global warming, M.E. wars and is not connected to the reality of peak oil problems.

Figure it out and get a hybrid car and start being part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

[OneTwentyoNine]

3. Yeah,they always pound on that $5.00 in UK

Thats so they can raise the price in the US and tell the sucker public all the while how GOOD you have it. BS,the main reason gas is so expensive in the UK is the tax's on it.

I haven't look in some months on Gas Price Watch but...if you strip away the tax's on both US fuel and UK fuel its actually cheaper in the UK.

David

[Jacobin]

5. Get real

Do you think oil companies control politics in France or Germany?

We are running out of oil. Our policies in this country encourage waste of fossil fuels and prices WILL rise as we run out.

Guess what? Cheap oil is part of the fascists plan. Helps the economy go (short term) and takes lots of military muscle in the M.E. to steal their oil to keep in cheap.

Figure it out. This ain't a personal attack by the RW to make your SUV more expensive to drive.

Figure out who "they" is and how supporting "them" by demanding cheap oil enables PNACers and screws up the environment and kills our children in wars.

[Kbowe]

4. People who don't even own cars are hurt by rising fuel prices.

It is not time to attack each other, but time to attack the real source of problems...greed. If you make an alternitive source of energy, the people will use it. If you make an auto that gets 75 miles to the gallon, people will them. But most people have little choice except to buy and use what is available.

[Jacobin]

6. then stop demanding cheap gasoline. THAT is the problem

[rucky]

13. Meanwhile, back in the real world...

Most urban infrastructures are created to be car dependent. Most cities do not invest in public transportation. Most people drive to work because they have no choice. The people who can afford hybrids can also afford to pay high gas prices, so it's great if you own one, but realize that most people can't - nor would they stand to reap the benefits of a tax write-off.

Expensive gas limits most people's options on where they can live and work. Expensive gas makes a huge difference to the working poor who must commute by car.

I'm glad I live near my work...
I'm grateful my city has a great public transportation system...
I don't live in a typical city, though.

[Racenut20]

7. Ouch!!!

Up $0.14 per gallon at my local Shell station in North St. Petersburg yesterday since last Sunday. $1.719 per. February 1999 when I first was transferred here??? $0.839.

Vote Smirk/Mole...oops, my tongue stuck to my cheek.

[mrbill]

8. yep, gas gouging......

north central texas report: went from $1.349 to $1.599 at the cheap station in the last week. Seeing $1.699 in the near future, a new record.

[Jacobin]

9. Of course this has nothing to do with Iraqi oil being cut off

I think its sabotage by Iraqis to run us out of their country.

Tinfoilers believe its a Smirk black ops trick to raise oil prices to further destroy the U.S. economy to assure his defeat in 2004.

:crazy:

[knight_of_the_star]

10. You don't live in Cali

The cheapest I've seen here outside of Costco is $2.05. And I thought gas prices were supposed to be going DOWN .:eyes:

[Kbowe]

11. More input please...who is going to protest?

Windfall profits does not a dwindling oil make. The point is, the oil companies are still making windfall PROFITS at the public's expense. Anybody out there except oil company employees and stock holders?

[BiggJawn]

12. Why Bother?

As long as the price stays at or below 5 bucks a gallon, the state Att. General has decreed that it's not "gouging". On 9-12, he only went after those stations that charged more than 5 bucks.

We already use as little power as possible around here.It's expensive. My girlfriend and I are members of the "Working Poor" (we used to be "middle class")

There is not ONE station that stands out in this. They all keep an eye on each other so the prices stay within 3-4 cents of each other. So who you gonna "out" as the bad-boy gouging poster child?

[Kbowe]

15. Will anyone be willing to sacrifice and just stop driving for two days?

I think Americans are over indulged in everything and refuse to sacrifice for anything.

[leftyandproud]

14. "It happens every year about this time"...why?

because people always DRIVE more in late summer for some reason
more driving = less supply
less supply = higher prices

econ101

[InkAddict]

16. Don't forget to check to see if the elderly homebound

and/or long-term unemployed/underemployed need groceries, etc. These days, both of these crisis situations are stressing families to the breaking point.

Many of these folks rely on organized volunteers to get medical care, or perhaps they are driving long distances just for interim work and/or job interviews, and/or need fresh groceries for special diets, etc...some volunteers/services may find it very challenging to continue to stretch their own budgets as gasoline prices continue to climb. If you know people in these situations, what can it hurt to ask before one runs merrily off to the quickie-mart/drug store/dry cleaner?