theres too much finger pointing, and im not thrilled about the gas prices goin' up all the time...what gives?

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As a 'liberal' (oh those commie pinko liberals eh?), I for one have screamed about rising prices, the false equations used by this so called liberal President to calculate annual COLAs, and about every promise that Obama made that he has broken. But to say that only liberals are complacent is a red herring argument my friend. Right wingers are saying literally NOTHING about corporate welfare at the expense of the rest of us. Watch something besides the propoganda channels such as Fox, MSNBC, and CNN....................

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Many humans are no longer living the fear/ hate mindset.

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Paul: this has nothing to do with Fox, MSNBC or CNN...I get most of my news from the regular news feeds. All I heard three years ago was "It's Bush's fault gas is $4/gallon" and now I hear nothing.

As for "only liberals", I make that comment because they were the ones screaming the loudest. I will add that I have yet to hear Newt Gingrich and his "Drill Here, Drill Now" crowds. I would like to know where they are, but I was more making the point that it was the loud-mouth liberals screaming before and wanting to know where they were now?

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D. E.,

I liked many things about this article. I have asked myself and others "Where’s the outrage?" many times. I have yet to find a satisfactory general answer.

Therefore, I can only answer for one liberal, myself. My outrage is directed at other targets. Unfortunately, we are living in a target rich environment as far as causes for outrage goes.

My outrage is directed at the politicians I describe as reactionary who have used there 2010 victories to enact an ideological agenda that ranges from crippling unions to defunding NPR, PBS, and Planned Parenthood. Reactionary politicians who want to give tax cuts to the extraordinarily well off and tax breaks to corporations while shifting tax burdens to seniors and low income Americans and cutting vital services at the national, state and local levels. Reactionary politicians who make a spectacle of reading the Constitution and then, display their utter ignorance of the Constitution when they pass a bill [HR1255] as they did on April 1, 2011, to wit "If the House has notreceived a message from the Senate before April 6, 2011, stating that it has passed a measure providing for the appropriations for the departments and agencies of the Government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, the provisions of H.R. 1, as passed by the House on February 19, 2011, are hereby enacted into law."

This is utter nonsense from a Constitutional perspective, but the Republican majority in the House of Representatives passed such a bill anyway. This blatantly contradicts the Constitution the reactionary politicians purport to revere. Furthermore, it is an attempt at a virtual coup d'etat.

Consequently, this liberal has so much to be outraged about, he has little left for rising gasoline prices.

Good thought provoking piece however. I hope you can spare some outrage for the things I mentioned.

Larry aka Caballero_69

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I am trying to follow comments on this and some other articles. Suddenly, this feature is not working. Is anyone else having this problem?

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One even greater focus of my outrage is Congressman Paul Ryan and his vicious budget proposal for 2012. This will be introduced on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. He and his henchmen are seeking to eviscerate the government to liberate their wealthy patrons and the corporations from taxation, regulation, and any patriotic commitment to the Republic.

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Nice Post!!!

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I’m not sure what the American working-class gain from labeling one another (such as Liberal) and attacking each other. We received a decent public education and we’re rational thinkers. Blaming Liberals for rising gas prices is ridiculous. Blaming a president doesn’t make sense either. Gas prices are not established by the Executive Branch of any one nations government. Please do your civic duty and do some basic research and don’t believe what you hear on the radio or TV. What Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity didn’t tell you is:

The price of oil is set by the Oil Futures Market—A contractual agreement made on the trading floor of world stock markets. Oil prices are global not national. The major entity for setting oil prices rests with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC.) They are: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Not the US or Pres. Obama.

Our consumption plays a factor, but only one of many factors. To say that drilling more Alaskan oil or threatening our fresh water aquifers with more pipelines and oil shale development will alter the balance isn’t correct. Alaskan oil is sold on the international market and the price is determined by OPEC and futures markets. To say Liberals are to blame is just ignorance!!

It is also true that the top five major Western oil companies are making record profits while we struggle to pay for a tank of gas. In 2012, the top five made $62Billion. In the US, the Big Five receive $6.6 Million-a-DAY in tax breaks (that’s $2B a year.) The Big Five spend $400,000 a day lobbying U.S. politicians (that’s $146 million dollars) Our Congress is made up of 535 voting members (you do the math). That’s a lot of money and corrupting influence for both Republicans and Democrats who we elected. They spend 146 million to get 2 billion in tax breaks…. A sweet deal for sure…at our expense.

Before you blame your neighbor who doesn’t want an oil pipeline to run through fresh water aquifers or have our landscape scarred for the profits of a very few members of the privileged class, stop and think. Do some independent research. What you can also do is conserve. That may help more than angry diatribes. You can stand-up against influence peddling and tax breaks for corporations that are making money hand over fist and using it to corrupt our political system. Get informed and not from Tea Party radio, the Cato Institute or Fox News. Hold yourself to a higher standard!

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P.S., even if we "socialized" our oil, all that would mean is that most of the profits would come back to our treasury for use in schools, healthcare and infrastructure instead of the pockets of a few fat-cats. We get pennies on the barrel as it is now.... But if you love that system...that's your choice. You don't benefit from it, but believe what you will. The price would still be set by OPEC.

Obama has no intention of socializing our oil supply, He's a capitalist. Such reactionary comments are foolish.

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