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Archived: Pres. Bush

Heh that's part of it I think, there has to be more though.. Like screwing up everything?

Yes, on a gaming board full of people who really don't understand politics. Nor do they have an overpowering grasp of the English language.

Again to my point. Several of the people running their mouths about how bad the country is probably only hear this from their parents. They do not understand the entire world is in an economic slump. Oil, gold, and silver are up, the dollar is down. Oil, gold, and silver are bought and sold in US dollars. The US economy is tied to the world economy and if the world is having a hard time, then so will the US.

Imagine if oil were bought a sold only in Euros. Right now it is something like $1.75 to 1 Euro. The US would die. But, oil is sold in Dollars.

How many of you complaining about Bush and Iraq drive a car that gets over 30MPH? I have two that get over 30MPH and I limit my driving as much as I can. How many up plug their 360 when they are not playing it? Leaving it plugged in wastes electricity. I have mine plugged into a power strip with my TV, DVD player, and Direct TV. When not in use I turn it off.

The mess our economy is in now is every Americans fault, not just the Presidents. Yes, we need to get out of Iraq, but that will not solve out problems here at home.

Quote by Capt Adams67:

Imagine if oil were bought a sold only in Euros. Right now it is something like $1.75 to 1 Euro. The US would die. But, oil is sold in Dollars.

Would you mind elaborating? I don't know squat about economics and I'm curious.

I think what he is saying (please forgive me if I'm wrong) is that if oil was bought via Euros instead of Dollars, the price would jump up a ton. Basically if you think about it like this. Say the average gallon of gas costs $3 right now (I have no idea what it costs, I walk everyday to class and don't have a car here at school). In Euros that would be $5.25 instead ($3 * E1.75 = 5.25). $2.25 more that we would have to pay. If you are filling up your 15 gallon tank, that is $22.50 extra.

For all I know I just playing with my calculator. All of this could be true or all of it could be false.

Quote by Hockeypuck55:

I think what he is saying (please forgive me if I'm wrong) is that if oil was bought via Euros instead of Dollars, the price would jump up a ton. Basically if you think about it like this. Say the average gallon of gas costs $3 right now (I have no idea what it costs, I walk everyday to class and don't have a car here at school). In Euros that would be $5.25 instead ($3 * E1.75 = 5.25). $2.25 more that we would have to pay. If you are filling up your 15 gallon tank, that is $22.50 extra.

For all I know I just playing with my calculator. All of this could be true or all of it could be false.

I don't think that's true. If the exchange rate were 1.75 dollars to 1 euro, $3 would equal 1.71 euros. The value behind the currency doesn't change unless the exchange rate fluctuates.

I understand that right now there's no market where oil isn't traded using exclusively the US Dollar... but I don't understand how we'd be screwed if it was so sold exclusively in Euros. The value of the US Dollar is slipping right now no matter what. Whatever currency the market uses doesn't matter, just the value of our own currency. I definitely could be wrong though as I've never taken economics class.

You got it right about the Euro and the dollar. If oil were switched to the Euro, then our end cost would go up. The dollar could be potentially weakened and then again everything would cost more.


As I see things right now in the world there is more and more consumption and less and less oil. We are using it faster then it can be recovered and are now seeing the folly of our own life styles. It was about 3 years ago National Geographic ran a story, The End of Cheap Oil. The predictions in this article said that by between 2007 and 2010 we would see a major switch in our pricing on oil and feel its impact all over the world. Hurricane Katrina helped push that up a couple of years.

Oil is so important to our economy that people totally forget all about it. Your computers monitor, mouse, keyboard, and circuit boards use oil. Oil is used to make plastics. Oil is used to make medical items. Oil is needed for power, transportation, and pretty much everything. Some countries in the Middle East will stop being able to produce oil within the next 10 -15 years. Oil reserves are falling and it takes millions of years to make more.
At the end of World War II the US pretty much ruled the world. Our goods were sold all over the globe and our currency was worth more than anything. Now today the Canadian Dollar is worth more than the US dollar. We import nearly everything from China. Use waste more energy than anyone. China pollutes more than the US, but add the remaining industrial nations together and we are still #2.

People complain about how bad things are in the country, they blame the President, but they do not totally understand how neither the economy nor the government works. Our economy is tied to factory output and oil. One has risen while the other has fallen. We are becoming a service economy and sending all those great jobs overseas. Look back at when it started. Take a look back about 10 years ago, who was in the White House then? The US economy is a monster of a beast. It takes time to get going and it takes time to slow down. Reagan started policies that got it running. Clinton reaped the benefits of that up turn. Clinton policies started to slow it down. Now President Bush is being spat upon because of it.

So, if you feel like making immature posts, do so with an informed mind. Otherwise, grow up.



So we are in Iraq, because we need to protect the worlds free supply of oil. We as a nation waste the most so we should be needed to defend it. Was Sadam a threat to the security of the US? At the time he pretended to be and even went to so far to make us think he was. We reacted and were wrong. However we need to make sure we fix things as best we can before we leave.


Our President is still our President. He is doing one of the hardest jobs in the word and I would love to see anyone try to do it with what has been going on all over the world.

The Iraq war, which by now most people agree is a war we were entered into without knowing all the facts- a war under false pretenses if you prefer. We are- for all intents and purposes- trying to bring peace to a land that has been at war since the crusades. And until that happens (read: NEVER) George W Bush would never withdraw troops. Whether it's stupidity, pride, determination, or just him having seriously bad advisors, I don't know, nor do I care to debate my own personal opinion on it. But what is very obvious is that this war is and will continue to be a massive waste of American money. The US has allocated over $360 billion dollars for the war. That's ALLOCATED, not actual spending. Do you feel that if everyone in America turned off their power strips so they didn't waste that "passive energy" it would in any way offset that amount of money? Or did we just not need that money?

And how can you say that the whole world is in an economic slump? OK, I can see Japan because of how closely tied to America they are- but China? India? Even South Korea is up. EU unemployment rates are some of the lowest in years. Although I am an American, I currently live in Germany for a few months, and things I have to pay in Euros are kicking my a$$!

But the worst thing that GWB has done to our country has got to be the drop in credibility that we now have. If you've ever traveled to another country and seen the eyeroll when they realize you're American you know what I mean. I had an English friend who was shocked when he heard I was American, because of my vocabulary and spelling. He said everyone he knew thought of Americans as trash, with Texas accents and shot guns.

Regarding transportation (I assume you mean you have 2 cars that get more than 30 MPG... do you mean MPH or do you really think cars are made that can't drive over 30 MPH?) the fact remains that the US is a very mobile country, and it is not possible for EVERYONE to walk to work or school or only drive once a week. Are these huge SUVs and trucks and other "phallic compensators" ridiculous? YES! Does America need to work on energy conservation? Of course! We also need the government to put AT LEAST as much money into developing alternate fuel sources for our future as they do into securing oil for our "right now." And this war isn't about oil, remember. Because if we acknowledge that this war is over oil then that means we're slaughtering Iraqis, both insurgents and civilians, for the good of our own country, not for the reasons we were given prior to war- nor for the reasons given to our allies, some of which chose to fight and die right alongside us thinking our motives were a bit more noble than just wanting OIL.

The absolute absolute WORST part of this war is that talking about it has become a debate of party politics, or finances. It's inevitable that someone starts talking environment. Usually you'll find someone who starts bringing up 9/11 (even politicians and government leaders like to throw in something like that that SHOULD be irrelevant). But the cost to our country is much higher than the 3 trillion the Washington post estimated it to cost a few weeks ago. What is so sad is that we overlook, in these debates, the nearly 4000 men and women who will never return to their families. The over 29,000 that were wounded and will never be the same, and the over 150,000 families who are living in fear that their loved ones will be added to either of those other numbers.

It's always people who either have no loved ones in the Army or have already lost their soldiers that say "If we pull out now, our soldiers will have died in vain!" Do we say that casualties in Vietnam died in vain? If we are trying to get something out of the garbage disposal with our hands and it starts going and cuts off a finger, do we keep reaching in there, risking the other 9, so that one finger didn't go down in vain? OK, not the prettiest analogy, but I'm tired!

Why is Reagan made into some kind of God here? I leave you with a quote from www.globalexchange.org (keep in mind it's from 10/07 so when it says "Current" deficit it's a little behind, but I believe it's talking end of fiscal year):

" It is odd that the Republicans have made a big issue of the deficit and the national debt, seeing as it was Republican presidents (Reagan and Bush) who created the record deficits that produced most of the national debt. When Ronald Reagan took office on January 20, 1981 the national debt was under $1 trillion. By the end of the Bush administration, on January 20, 1993, the national debt had quadrupled to $4 trillion. The interest we taxpayers fork over to bondholders on this additional $3 trillion in debt (figuring at an average of 7 percent) comes to $210 billion: far more than the current budget deficit of $172 billion. If Reagan and Bush hadn't splurged on the military while giving huge tax breaks to their corporate backers, there would be no budget deficit."



Sorry to drop you all the way at the end of this novel there, GB, but I wanted to say I believe you are correct in your assumption. HP had his calculations backwards 3.00 USD = 1.91137 EUR. Regardless, whether it is priced in dollars or Euro, the value of the oil should remain the same. Currency doesn't deternine value. That's why if I go to the Rewe down the street and buy a 1/2 gallon of milk and only pay 1 euro, I'm paying the same as if I went to the commissary here and bought it in USD. What cpt Adams is insinuating regarding the value shift would pretty much be like saying "Too bad barrels of oil aren't priced in Yen! 100 yen is only about a dollar!" (I'm using an estimate of $100 a barrel, which I think is fairly accurate right now, and don't hold me to the currency conversion ^_^).

Quote by D3ADLYKILL3R:

wow
im sorry i didnt even get past the second paragraph

lol imposible to read the full article

Haha, don't hurt their eyes Raine.

Just say you hate Bush and don't think we should be converting blood to $$.
A repatriation squad will be with you shortly.

It's awesome how interconnected the whole machine is, even with the redundant backups, but the sad part is that about half the people that are propagating it are the same ones that think they are passionately, resolutely against everything it stands for, and in order to demonstrate this they take on unneccessary hardships in order to "do their part."

Awesome! I don't think it matters too much who the figurehead is, but being able to look at something other than an old white dude reading speeches to me from the tv & newspapers would be nice.

I personally do not talk about politics or religion.

It's like pissing into an ocean of piss. Nothing changes, and the ocean only gets bigger.

I did make a mistake, I wanted to say MPG, not MPH. Sorry.