Major Media outlets be it papers, local network TV or cable/satellite news has become as one of the above posters noted - so "balanced" its nothing but mindless mud slinging back and forth and waist deep crapola slanted one way or the other. Was a time that I thought FOX satellite was rising above the rest but lately it seems they have gone almost the tabloid genre and I am watching them less and less as well. About the ONLY thing that I find enlightening is when Cspan 1 and 2 will cover debates in Congress, votes etc or major political whoop de do's with various embedded lifer politicans or wannabe's running and they will then dissect the whole thing quite middle of the road and then have the call in lines for the polarized party groupies and us independent inbetweens - that can be quite interesting at times. Its amazing how much people in this country don't know when it comes to facts and stats and have no desire to pursue the truth and want it tabloidized to suit their particular political whims. Do I personally care about what is really important, yes, but its hard to find reliable sources for real news and facts; NO I could care less about the 6 and 10PM tabloid crap that the mainstream media force feeds us on a daily basis.
I was in the grocery store yesterday when they let me off my ball and chain here in my office and standing in line listening to the others in line arguging about "we get all our oil from this middle Saudiland and this ohmpeck company that makes gas (this woman was my age on top of it).. one in front of her makes some comment that got the first one infuriated that had to do with how dumb she was and we make our own oil and gas in Texas that is why the Bush's are rich they own all of it (another middle aged woman.. scarey stuff my generation is this downright stupid).
...... as the argument continued I decided I could not take them any longer and threw in my 2 cents worth which is now probably 1 cent with inflation, replied:
You are both wrong, the US imports more than half of all its crude oil that is found elsewhere in the world NOT anywhere on USA soil, and the oil from SAUDI land, which is called Saudi Arabia and OPEC which is the abbreviation for the group of controlling oil companies not an actual person (looking at the first mental dwarf) is NOT the main supplier of crude oil to us. By the way we MAKE gasoline from CRUDE OIL - gasoline like you pump it into your car does NOT come out of the ground in that specific form. I'm not sure of the exact percentages any longer but I do know that we get the majority of imported crude from a group of countries that is higher than what we get from the Middle East as a single entitity that means the comment about "all of it from the middle east" is way off base. We get the majority of imports from Mexico, South America and Canada I believe which combined are more than from Saudi Arabia or other souces. They stood there with their mouths open and one asked which magazine I got that from People or US.. I shook my head and changed lanes !!!
I have a link to a Gov site that actually gives a LOT Of good info on our crude importation, consumption as well as what we store and do in the lower 49 and Alaska. If anyone is interested its :
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/usa.html There is a lot of factual info out there that our government provides knowing full well they have bred a nation of mushroom people and the few of us that will take the time and energy to seek it out are not a threat to these homegrown embedded monarchy's.
That being said here's some of the stats from the site that are quite interesting:
The United States contains over 500,000 producing oil wells, the vast majority of which are considered "marginal" or "stripper" wells, generally producing only a few barrels per day of oil. During 2003, top oil producing areas included the Gulf of Mexico (1.6 million bbl/d), Texas onshore (1.1 million bbl/d), Alaska's North Slope (949,000 bbl/d), California (683,000 bbl/d), Louisiana onshore (244,000 bbl/d), Oklahoma (178,000 bbl/d), and Wyoming (143,000 bbl/d).
Lower-48 States oil production in 2004 is estimated to have decreased by 130,000 bbl/d, to 4.58 million barrels per day, in 2004, with an increase of 190,000 bbl/d expected in 2005. Generally speaking, Lower-48 onshore production, particularly in Texas, has fallen in recent years, while offshore (mainly Gulf of Mexico) production is rising. For 2004, prior to Hurricane Ivan in mid-September, Gulf of Mexico oil production had been expected to increase both from new fields that came online in late 2003 as well as from start-ups at the southern Green Canyon deepwater area in late 2004. By late 2005, the Mars, Mad Dog, Ursa, Thunder Horse and Nakika Federal Offshore fields are expected to account for about 12% of Lower-48 oil production.
Petroleum Imports/Exports
The United States averaged total net oil (crude and products) imports of an estimated 11.8 million bbl/d during January-October 2004, representing around 58% of total U.S. oil demand. Crude oil imports from Persian Gulf sources averaged 2.4 million bbl/d during that period. Overall, the top suppliers of crude oil to the United States during January-October 2004 were Canada (1.6 million bbl/d), Mexico (1.6 million bbl/d), Saudi Arabia (1.5 million bbl/d), Venezuela (1.3 million bbl/d), and Nigeria (1.1 million bbl/d).
We are still the largest consumer and WASTER of these products as well.
Hey.. I'm finally off hold and a human is coming on line.. gotta run...