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BorgBlog
Take a peek over Jim Borgman's shoulder


Jim Borgman has been the Enquirer's editorial cartoonist since 1976. Borgman has won every major award in his field, including the 1991 Pulitzer Prize, the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year in 1993, and most recently, the Adamson Award in 2005 as International Cartoonist of the Year. His award-winning daily comic strip Zits, co-created with Jerry Scott, chronicles the life of 15-year-old Jeremy Duncan, his family and friends through the glories and challenges of the teenage years. Since debuting in July 1997, Zits has regularly finished #1 in reader comics polls across America and is syndicated in more than 1300 newspapers around the world.

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

$4 Gas


45 Comments:

at 3/11/08, 8:36 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

just say no to ANWR.

 
at 3/11/08, 8:59 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, he really has been working on that book for a while

 
at 3/11/08, 9:19 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I see what you did, Jim. Just remember, though: he's President of the United States of America and his name will be on that list long after everyone's forgotten you.

 
at 3/11/08, 9:21 AM Blogger gogginguy said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
at 3/11/08, 9:28 AM Blogger gogginguy said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
at 3/11/08, 9:28 AM Blogger gogginguy said...

OK, Jim -- you're the President of the United States. Gas has just reached $4 per gallon. You'll lose your job if you don't get the price down to $3.
Question 1: You pick up the phone and call who? And say what?
Question 2: You grab a peice of paper and write what?
Question 3: You walk out the door and go where?

And you wonder why the average American fail civics. It's because people who know better (like yourself) keep fueling the ignorance.

 
at 3/11/08, 9:36 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

So gogginguy...you just said it yourself! You're THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

If you can't influence the price of gasoline you have failed the people that have ignorantly elected you. It is this failure of politics throughout the administration that has put us in this position. It is unacceptable that we are on the downswing when the likes of China is booming. We should be peaking right now with the Internet and evolution of industry, not falling into recession.

It is terrifying to think that while everyone is going up, we are going down. What's going to happen when there is a global downswing?

01/20/09...there is a reason we are counting down.

 
at 3/11/08, 9:42 AM Blogger Jonimp9 said...

I think you all are missing the point of the cartoon. There was a recent press conference where a reporter asked Bush about $4 a gallon gas and Bush responded by saying that he had not heard that gas was that high. This cartoon is suggesting that Bush isn't paying attention to rising costs of gasoline here in the US.

You can read the transcript and watch the video here.

 
at 3/11/08, 9:50 AM Blogger Jonimp9 said...

I guess I should add that in order to try to do something about the gas prices, wouldn't you have to be, you know, aware that the problem exists.

Granted he can't just wave a magic wand and reduce the price to $2 a gallon, but he should at least try a little to help out those in the US who really are being hurt by the increase in prices.

 
at 3/11/08, 10:04 AM Blogger gogginguy said...

jake2bake4: I noticed you didn't even try to answer any of the questions. Because you can't!

Jon: What problem? I filled up this morning for $3.15. If someone asked anyone who lives outside of NY about $4/gal, they wouldn't know what they were talking about, either. New York having the highest gas taxes in the country is hardly the POTUS's problem (regardless of the 'R' or 'D' next to their name).

What do you want POTUS to do? And the answer better be more insightful than 'something' ??

 
at 3/11/08, 10:09 AM Blogger Quizzigal said...

It pains me to defend George W. on anything, but as gogginguy noted, just what is he supposed to do? The problem is your basic supply vs. demand: not enough supply for the increasing demand. We need: fewer people, public transportation, fuel-efficient vehicles and preferably ones that run on something other than gasoline. Hybrid SUVs?! Talk about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Anybody old enough to remember the oil shocks of the 1970s who is driving an SUV deserves to pay through the nose.

 
at 3/11/08, 10:18 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jon...DEMS love to find goofy gotya's with REP presidents.Bush the 1st was in a grocery store ages ago and hadn't seen the new price scanning device at the checkout counter.He was roasted by the press for being "out of touch".Maybe when his executive chefs went shopping for his meals they should've given him an update on
the latest in grocery technology...?
Just say no to ANWR.Just say no to refineries.Just say no to oil exploration off the coasts.Just say no to America's need to be energy independent.Meantime,trash the POTUS for not knowing the price of a gallon.

 
at 3/11/08, 10:26 AM Blogger gogginguy said...

Jon -- sorry, I didn't address your latest point... you said 'he [Bush] should at least try a little..." Try what? Does he go on TV and plead for gas stations to take a loss? Does he send Rice to the mid-East and ask them increase production 'please?'. POTUS has no more influence on gas prices [a free world commodoty] than the price of Reeboks.

The larger point is that more and more people today are taught to some degree that the President has Emperor power -- mostly because trying to figure out how the institution that holds the regulatory/policy/purse-strings in the country (Congress) is too daunting a task, so they (and I include jake2bake4, based on his comments, today) opt for the simpler answer to the question 'who's to blame?'.

And thank you, Kate. :)

 
at 3/11/08, 10:29 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bush can't be expected spend time on the price of gas. He's busy right now "winning" his war in Iraq, getting a settlement in Isreal/Palestine and Darfur and.....
If he gets involved in gas prices, get ready for $5/gallon.

 
at 3/11/08, 10:33 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

For those who say he can't influence the price of gas, you're dead wrong.
His efforts have trashed the dollar and that's a major factor in the cost of oil/gas.

 
at 3/11/08, 10:33 AM Blogger Philip Shade said...

Kate, it's not a simple matter of supply and demand.

There are three things driving the price of gas, supply & demand, instability in the region, commodities trading.

Supply & demand can take us up to about $80 a barrel, instability in the region, coupled with oil being traded as a commodity is the next $20.

It's also worth noting that as part of supply & demand no refineries have been built in the US in 20 years. And none are planned. In fact oil companies have shut down refineries. So no matter how much oil is pumped, the amount of gas will never increase! Neat trick

 
at 3/11/08, 10:48 AM Blogger Quizzigal said...

I agree that there are other factors besides supply vs. demand. But I think we've made a lot of our own problems in this area. We've chosen to become dependent on a non-renewable resource that is produced in large part by countries that are hostile to us (I won't even try to get into cause-and-effect on this one). And we still see the Big 3 automakers in this country fighting tooth and nail to continue producing gas-guzzlers that fewer and fewer people want. How dumb can you get?

 
at 3/11/08, 10:54 AM Blogger gogginguy said...

To 10:33 AM Anonymous: I don't know what "his efforts" are, you didn't bother enumerating. But even so, if that were true, the cost of everything would go up at the same rate...but for some reason (oh, I don't know -- maybe because OPEC arbitrarily decides what production is going to be), gas prices are outpacing all else. (And don't try to blame the oil companies, because their profit is 7% regardless of market fluctuations).

 
at 3/11/08, 11:17 AM Blogger Christopher Hillman said...

Low dollar + high world demand + low production = high gas prices.

Low dollar = Who did this? Many say that it was Bush. The actual cause is quite a bit more complex but let's call it pervasive corporate greed (outsourcing of jobs, subprime loans, etc).

High (world) demand = Who does this? China and India are catching up. Two issues, first should they catch up? Outsourcing caused a middle class in those places, should we deny a person the ability to live as middle class because they are in India or China? Second issue, domestic demand. If more was done to reduce domestic demand in a meaningful way then overall demand might level off. Typical issues with lowering demand, high gas taxes, alternative fuels (oops corn and wheat are expensive) and mass transit (don't forget that we need to modernize Detroit and force strict mileage targets).

Low Production = OPEC. They are a bunch of dictators. Here is the thing. When OPEC cuts production or keeps it at a specific pace the goal is to raise prices. Not all oil comes from OPEC. Then they pump oil off the gulf coast then it is magically worth OPEC price. I think that is an issue worth looking at.

On the subject of OPEC and Mideast conspiracies: who is buying out the mortgage companies who wrecked themselves with bad loans? Middle East billionaires...

It is a complex problem not explained by the book Bush is reading. Could be he feels "Don't know, don't care." No matter what we know he is totally out of control of the issues, unable to manage anything - even congress and senate.

 
at 3/11/08, 11:56 AM Blogger gogginguy said...

Chris - Who's going to break the news to Harry Reid (Senate) and Nancy Pelosi (House) that it's their lot in life to be "managed" by the next president? (Or that they just weren't adequately "managed enough" by the current one and thus we're in this predicament?)

 
at 3/11/08, 1:44 PM Blogger Christopher Hillman said...

Should the president allow themselves to be victimized by partisan mob rule? No, the President has an agenda and only four years to accomplish it (or two sets of four years if they are lucky).

Therefore either by compromise, agreement, threats or bribery the President is expected to control the government and drive the nation. What is it that Pelosi and Reid "should" do about the Gas prices? Unilateral liberal bills should/would be vetoed, and might not have 2/3rds to be overridden. Pelosi and Reid can be in there as long as a Kennedy. There is no hurry for their agenda.

That is why the president must manage the House and Senate. Dismissing them with contempt and randomly vetoing bills is no way to forge the necessary relationship.

The implification of the strategery was incorrectified by the free wills of the elected representitives... "Because I'm da prez" only works with fake intel and votes for war.

What is unfair is that they are all distracted by shiny objects...

 
at 3/11/08, 1:54 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good one!
Cluelessness captured concisely.

-- Weekly Cartoonist

 
at 3/11/08, 2:12 PM Blogger G-RANT said...

whatever DID happen to that goat?

i think that's the real question here.

 
at 3/11/08, 2:14 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

his name will be on that list long...

how true. little did anyone expect it to be as the worst president ever.

 
at 3/11/08, 2:28 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

On the list as worst president ever? Only if you spell Bush 'C-a-r-t-e-r' ...

 
at 3/11/08, 5:32 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kate:

"We need: fewer people, public transportation, fuel-efficient vehicles and preferably ones that run on something other than gasoline."

The President has taken no meaningful leadership stances on any of these things...except for the 'fewer people' one as he sends our youth off to die in a war that runs on oil.

 
at 3/11/08, 6:28 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

2:28 - i used to think carter was a pretty bad president but he is really just a preview of what will happen to the next democratic president who has to clean up all the messes caused by a republican.

so, clearly you're a kool aid drinker, you probably like insannity and colmes, even listen to druggie limppaw, but you are so wrong.

 
at 3/11/08, 6:38 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, so much to debunk, so little time, I guess I'll just start . . .:

Since no one else will answer those questions:

Question 1: You pick up the phone and call who?

- The Pentagon.

And say what?

- "Initiate the withdrawal from Iraq now, it's time to cut our losses."

Question 2: You grab a piece of paper and write what?

- Whatever legal papers are needed to follow through on "Answer 1."

Question 3: You walk out the door and go where?

- The golf course, or where ever; that job is done.

Reality Check 1: The price of oil was around $20 a barrel at the start of March 2003; it's not higher demand from China and India, it's not OPEC, it's Iraq stupid!

Reality Check 2: Not only have refineries been built in the US within the last 20 years (or 30, whatever the current right-wing talking point is), they include the largest one in the Western Hemisphere (Hovensa; yes, St. Croix being a US Virgin Island makes it part of the US).

Reality Check 3: Oil is not "produced," it is extracted. As a natural resource, you can no more "make" oil than you can "make" gold. Like any other resource, it is limited, and in limited areas.

Reality Check 4: Oil is filthy, including refining it. "Thanks" to Havansa, St. Croix is one of the worst sources of pollution in the world. Over in Alaska, there are fisheries that are yet to recover from the Exxon Valdez calamity of almost twenty years ago. Just a few years ago, a BP-run pipeline from Purdue spilled about 800,000 gallons of the crap . . . and some boneheads want more. Not just no to ANWR oil drilling, but HELL NO!!! Solar, wind, and nuclear (yes, nuclear) have matured; time to dump this 19th Century relic . . .

Seriously people, time to grow up . . .

Antonio E. Gonzalez
Los Angeles, CA

 
at 3/11/08, 10:09 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Gas prices are outpacing the cost of everything else"?
Checked your grocery, insurance, prop tax etc bill lately?
Inflation is through the roof, thanks to this "Administration".

Of course, W isn't worried about gas prices >> only about his Buds on Wall Street. And, as of today, he's taking very good care of them.

 
at 3/11/08, 10:33 PM Blogger Scott Evans said...

Jim,

Didn't all the environmentalists and global warmingists (It is a religion after all) want $4/gallon gasoline when we were paying 79 cents per gallon in the mid 90s? I think I even remember Al Gore saying American's were getting gas too cheap. What if gas were to return to those levels would you then applaud a Republican president or would you say gas taxes need to be raised to fight global warming as 99 cent gas means more SUVs and Hummers on the road?

 
at 3/11/08, 11:08 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

1. Cincy voted for bush and voted down a public transportation system with the rails, etc all already in place

2. great propaganda for going to war

3. the economy has never been bush's concern for the past 8 years, never

 
at 3/11/08, 11:09 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

you hillary haters, she's the only one who has ever talked about energy (go vote for mccain)

how much more can we tolerate giving $12 billion/month to the war?

can you walk to work?

 
at 3/11/08, 11:10 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

cincy, where are your buses?

 
at 3/12/08, 12:46 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why does everyone seem to make this issue simple? Is it Bush's fault? Yep. Is it they fault of Congress who is Dem now? Yep. Everyone blames Bush but where is the other side standing up against him. I am so tired of BLUE vs RED. Washington is full of Crooks, not one from is worth the time that it takes to make on cartoon or fight with each other. They could stand up, but they are waiting for what? A Dem in the white house? Would Bush veto? Has someone tried? NO! I don't care what you say we could vote in RALPH NADER and things would not change. As Americans BLUE or RED we need to have they next crook I mean leader demand to have a 10 year plan to move from gas to alternative fuel. I don't care about arguments about global warming, or drilling, America when we were in trouble we invent our way out of things. So yell Bush, yell Obama, yell Clinton, heck yell Nader. Yell that something finally getts done. For God sake this is not a football game, its not we win you lose this is our future as a county if we get this wrong we are all done. Other countys are buying our debt, and if you say that we only have Bush to thank for that you are wrong, everyone in Washington who takes money from lobiest, everyone who does not look for the best for this country should be held accountable. So much should needs to be done in this country and all we do is fight BLUE vs Red. No one stands up, they talk a good game but they don't stand. What is best for me, not what is best for their state, city, community, house. This country has become selfish, maybe it always has. Drill is not the answer invention is the answer. We are using 12 billion dollars a month in Iraq why noe 12 billion for the first person that comes up with re-usable fuel? I would pay that just to finish this. That would bring back the dollar, buy our debt back, get America on track again. I wish I was smart enough to figure it out, I am tired of the blame game, we need to demaind this from our leaders.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation


But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

Sounded like someone else had it right. Stop the fighting, stand together I know it's not possible, but I can dream. I hope the Blue side and the Red side are happy, in November nothing will get done.

 
at 3/12/08, 1:11 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

About the cartoon: I saw the clip of him saying he hadn't heard about $4 gas, but, as others have suggested, find something better about which to pick on George Bush. What should he do? Mandate the oil companies stop liking profits? Mandate that American s stop meeting the demand regardless of the price?

Most of all, we need to invest in alternative energy, by which I DON'T mean ethanol- corn prices are sky high and that just as well negates gas prices.

 
at 3/12/08, 10:09 AM Blogger who2 said...

Thanks, Jim, great 'toon, great focus.

Yeah, how about improved public transportation, life style changes, fuel efficient vehicles, conservative driving habits, planning, solar cars, refusal to buy SUVs that can't deliver more than 10 mpg. Who is buying SUVs, mobile homes, airplane tickets. All the wasters. We live like kings. In the '40s we walked to the local grocery store, school, movies, swimming pool, got rides to visit relatives, took the bus downtown. Who is buying houses in suburbs where you have to have a car to get to work, school, shopping.

If everyone reduced their need to use cars by 50% we wouldn't have a pollution, supply, congestion problem.

Wake up, we do have control, we just have to make the right decisions and make it possible. We're slaves to our own indulgences.


who

 
at 3/12/08, 12:34 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

He doesn't care. He's an oil man just like his father and Dick the VP. The only thing we can do is drive less and buy smaller cars.

Then again they will just come up with another excuse to raise the prices. Now it's the falling dollar, next it will be a shortage due to summer driving, then it will be Hurricane season, then we're back to winter and home heating oil. Don't forget about trouble in the Middle East, South America or the lack of refineries and which one will catch fire due to aging and lack of upkeep. Did I miss one?
Doesn't anyone see an pattern or issue here?
A bike is looking pretty good right now.

 
at 3/12/08, 1:45 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

We could also open ANWR to drilling, but you leftists certainly wouldn't want that to happen. Might give a caribou a slight headache.

 
at 3/12/08, 2:19 PM Blogger gogginguy said...

Reality Check -- No, no the questions was how to make the price of gas go down not up. Drawing down the troops will increase instability in the region, thereby increasing the cost of oil. So again, what do you want POTUS to do to decrease the price of oil? (Keeping in mind (again): Reid, Pelosi, OPEC, etc. don't have to do anything they don't want to do. So, why aren't they under the pole with Bush?).

And do the "losses" we'll cut include the heads of the opposition to whatever regime overtakes the region, so you can save 50 cents on a gallon of gas? (which wouldn't happen anyway, but you think it will) So, I can only deduce that you believe in "blood for oil", as long as it's not American blood.

 
at 3/12/08, 5:02 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't know what world "gogginguy" is living in, but in this real world, gas prices were bellow $2/gallon before the catastrophic Iraq invasion.

"Opposition heads" have been cut by the ruling regime from time immemorial, including the current "elected" regime (Shi'ites by a Shi'ite majority).

As for Iraqi blood, about 1 million Iraqis (100,000 by other estimates) have lost their lives since March 2003; any analysis leaves little doubt that the most destabilizing force in the region is the US military; time for common sense, time to let that region heal, time to pull out; heck, that neglected Afghanistan place could use a few of 'em . . .

BTW, similar arguments were made about the eventual pull-out from Vietnam, what ended up becoming one of the biggest success stories of late 20th Century Asia . . .

 
at 3/12/08, 6:00 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jim:

SA-WEEEET!

You nailed it. The Chimp-in-Chief in all his glory. And the squeals of toasted Bushies on this blog are like pure music.

 
at 3/13/08, 12:11 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kinda like the sound Spitzer's whore has been making for the past 6 years?

DemokkkRATS, they name is HYPOCRISY!

baaaaaaaaahahahahahah

 
at 3/13/08, 1:24 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey, it's our own "spechul" poster "Oh, the Hypocrisy"! Long time no see! (unless this is another pathetic wannabe)

 
at 3/15/08, 10:20 AM Anonymous Anonymous said...

We could also open ANWR to drilling...

most of alaska's oil is exported to japan where its converted into exxon gold. why destroy the environment for that?

 
at 3/18/08, 3:31 PM Anonymous Anonymous said...

When George Bush was put into office in 2001, gas stood at around $1.45 a gallon nationally.

Today the average price is hovering around $3.50 and threatens to reach $4.00 by summer.

At the same time, the major global oil companies have recorded RECORD profits for any company in the history of the known world while production has increased substantially on a global scale every year he's been in office.

However, we've alienated those that might sell us cheaper oil through misgotten wars and an even more misgotten foreign policy and we've literally done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to curb demand for oil besides buy a few thousand hybrid cars. Way to go America!

George Bush is a failed business man from Texas. He has literally failed at every single major thing he has tried in his life. He was an awful Governor of Texas. Awful. go look it up.

He was a terrible oil man...so bad that a certian Bin Laden family had to bail him out and buy his company for more than it was worth (again, totally true).

He was a terrible baseball owner...had an awful National Guard service record (which allowed him to dodge the draft into Vietnam and never serve his country)...oh, and he snorted coke and breezed through Yale on a C average because his family was rich and his dad wasn't a moron.

Look, you get what you pay for America and it's not hard to link the dots between George Bush as President, the economy going straight to hell, gas at crippling prices and yet companies making BILLIONS. C'mon, who are we all kidding here?

The Bush administration was unable to handle the power of the Presidency unlike any recent office holder since Jimmy Carter.

Now Bush is not corrupt...he doesn't lie and he doesn't cheat...and he seems as though a pretty likeable person...but he makes terrible decisions and has for as long as anyone can remember.

Anyone with integrity can certainly see that.

 
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