So, we are changing subjects AGAIN??!!

When did i ever say this or make this type of generalization?? Are you assuming a whole lot here???? I don't even think that Bush was/is all that great, but you can think what you want. However, at least for me, i tend to do more research before opening my mouth.

I just asked you to back up your statements with facts...and i guess that i got the answer...pure uninformed assumptions. I love how you just change subjects whenever you are caught with your pants down!

He accidentally made a new thread instead of replying.

Edit: Thai, I just read through this thread. You stopped offroading just because gas went up in price? Shame on you.

Guilty as charged! Well, actually, there were several reasons, including the birth of my son 12 months ago...and a daughter on the way. This was the main reason why i stepped down from being an admin of this forum. Even with today's gas prices, i just don't have time to spare to go 60 miles (one way) for off-roading. I can't just leave my pregnant wife at home to deal with a overly active 1 year old! But, yeah, at the time, gas prices skyrocketing did not encourage me to go off-roading.

Nowadays, my G does serve its purpose during those famous Houston floods!

As for JP, that's cool...i just hope that people would do more research or just google things before forming such beliefs. As a recent poll showed, Americans believe what the TV says.

Legislative oversight? That was in the hands of the Democrats.

How about this; when did the economy start going bad? Could it be when Nancy Pelosi and her gang of re****s took over congress?

You think that George Bush has any control over OPEC - you know that entity that determines how much oil will be produced. OPEC recently stated that they were going to cut oil production by 2 million barrels; guess Bush told them to do that. Or, maybe they liked all the money we were paying for their oil and wanted to increase the cost per barrel to $100 again - but blame Bush.

And you clearly insinuated that the election of Obama was the reason for the drop in gas prices. I guess that theory will be blown away when gas prices go up shortly after he takes office.

Good, at least i am not the only one who understood this. Well, i am sure that he knows that his "assumptions" were wrong...he has been quiet.

Sadly, JP4RNR is not alone in thinking this...many Americans out there are very misinformed. Hell, the damn media is misinformed!

The 2.7 that will be in the 09 Highlander will also be in the 09 Venza and there is talk about it being the Sienna mini-van.

"Toyota is also using the big 2.7-liter four in the Highlander, and we're told it might even show up in the Sienna." quote from Edmunds.com.

As mentioned before, I don't see this engine going into the 4Runner since it is not a truck engine. It is amazing to think they may put that sucker in a mini-van. My Previa may make a come back????

Picture of the 2.7 in the Venza.

Attached Images

 

Thai

Please comment on the below article

It was August 1st, 2006, when Howard made this disingenuous remark. The oil market had soared to record highs (over $US78 a barrel) in mid-July. There was widespread consumer anger at ever-rising bowser prices and record oil company profits.

And yet, by the time US mid-term elections came around three months later, the oil price had fallen a massive 20 percent.

And now, with the US elections over, oil prices are on the rise again.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. The big question is, how did it happen, and why?

First, let's look closely at what happened. Here, courtesy of Blogging Stocks, are the average weekly U.S. average price for Super Unleaded for that period (based on data from the Energy Information Administration):
Aug 21, 2006: $3.08
Aug 28, 2006: $3.01
Sep 04, 2006: $2.90
Sep 11, 2006: $2.79
Sep 18, 2006: $2.67
Sep 25, 2006: $2.54
Oct 02, 2006: $2.48
Oct 09, 2006: $2.43
Oct 16, 2006: $2.40
Oct 23, 2006: $2.39
Oct 30, 2006: $2.41
Nov 06, 2006: $2.39
Nov 13, 2006: $2.42
Nov 20, 2006: $2.42
Note the low point of $2.39, achieved in the week just prior to the US mid-term elections, and held to the very day before the election. This fine tuning by US oil retailers was no accident, either. Can you say "price gouging"?
Specifically, on November 6th, the ratio of the price/barrel of gasoline at the pumps and price/barrel of crude oil fell to 167% -- significantly lower than the weekly average of 174% between August 21st and November 20th.
The conventional wisdom holds that the US government cannot significantly influence world oil prices, except through manipulation of the US strategic reserve. But in a globalized world, that sort of thinking is sorely out-dated:
During a meeting in the Oval Office, according to [Bob] Woodward, Bush personally thanked Bandar because the Saudis had flooded the world oil market and kept prices down in the run-up to the 2004 general election.
The remarkable link between the price of oil and Bush's popularity has already been well documented:



Many people reading this article will not be surprised by such data. A USA Today poll in September showed that a massive 42% of Americans thought the Bush administration "deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections." White House spokesman Tony Snow was forced to address the mounting speculation at a press briefing:

"I have been amused by ... the attempt by some people to say that the president has been rigging gas prices, which would give him the kind of magisterial clout unknown to any other human being. It also raises the question, if we're dropping gas prices now, why on earth did we raise them to 3.50 dollars before?"
Well, that was a stupid question from a stupid man. Obviously, if the oil industry is supporting Bush, it is expecting massive profits in return. And that is exactly what they have been getting. Well over a quarter of a trillion dollars, in fact.

The real question is not why they manipulate oil prices for political profit, but how do they do it?

In the case of the '06 mid-terms, it was a two-pronged attack. On the one hand, we had the Saudis and other pro-US players in the Middle East playing a delicate balancing game by promising their OPEC friends that they would cut production, but then failing to commit to the cuts and even raising production slightly instead. The market reaction was an interesting and significant factor here: none of the experts actually believed that OPEC would cut production before the US mid-terms, so the price never went up.


On the other hand, we had Goldman Sachs dumping more than $6 billion in gasoline futures contracts. This move was like a clarion call to the markets: when the big funds change their weighting, smaller funds quickly follow suit. Even if the move is actually contrary to market realities, it doesn't matter. As Lew Rockwell explains, what Goldman Sachs did is called "painting the tape":
Goldman doesn

Source of this "unbias" article??

42% of Americans thought that?? Well, these are the same Americans who believe in Obama's BS (see: http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showth...threadid=43423)...so, i would not give that much credit to this "article."

I am confused at one thing...you said that Obama's administration has a lot to do with the fall in gas prices. Well, why are the gas prices going up these days??? Bush is going out of office, right?

BTW, Obama's own party is now seeing how ridiculous Obama's "tax plan" really is! Classic! And he hasn't even taken office yet...and already, his own party is laughing at him! I am sure that foreign leaders will be more respectful.

Again I am not a supporter of Obama. America needs to have a revolution and tear down the whole corrupt political system. They are all crooks, like that f@#$% democrat Blagojevich from Illinois (you know Obama was up to something with him)or that Republican from Alaska who was on the take, and convicted of bribery.

If anyone wants to know where the terrorists are, they are in the senate, the congress, the white house, wall street etc.

And you think that it will be different NOW??!! How gullible are you?!! Again, you represent the typical uninformed American who based all of his/her opinion on what the media spits out. You apparently admitted that Obama was perhaps involved in the Illinois scandal, yet you apparently think that things will a change by voting for him??!! I don't understand your logic in this thread at all!

First, you blame Bush for the high gas prices (and sleeping with Saudis) and credit the new administration (Obama's) for the low gas prices even before him taking office. (In all this, you even try to change your original statement by saying that you are not an Obama supporter! Hilarious crap!) Now that gas prices are going back up again just days before Obama inauguration, you still stand by this "thought" process???

Whatever drugs you're on, please share it with the rest of us!! I like to be oblivious to reality and live in la-la land!!

And why are we changing topic once again??!! Why don't you answer the very topic that YOU brought up?? If you don't know what it is, then please read your first post on page 1 of this thread.

BTW, what is the SOURCE of the article you posted???

Well, maybe if Americans were more INFORMED and have an attention span longer than 5 seconds, then we would have more responsible leaders. But, as you have elegantly shown, this is not the case...so, if you want to moan and groan, then you better look in the mirror.

Hmmm, what are the gas prices these days?? I can tell that it is NOT $1.00...and we're in January 2009! Oh wait, did you mean January 1990???

BTW, gas prices are RISING...days before Obama's inauguration in fact!

This has been a fun hijack in this thread...but PLEASE JP4RNR, don't have another "deep thought" moment...spare us the embarrassment of reading it.

Well, it's January and gas is back up to $1.70+ here, guess it didn't get to $1.00 - and we're only a few days from the inauguration.

As to why oil shot up? Not due to any administration unless you think oil speculators at the Chicago Board of Trade were a part of the administration. The run-up in oil prices was driven, primarily, from profiteering futures traders, playing on everyone's fears about the relative unstability of the Middle-East.

Are you old enough to remember the embargo of the 70s? It all comes back to profit-taking and oil royalty (Arabs) and the various wars and other turmoil that oil royalty often find themselves in.

Based on what would be average and sustainable inflation and COLA (cost of living adjustments) for most people, based on historical trends, oil *should* be about $60 a barrel now, meaning about $2.00 per gallon. That's if you look at what it was in 1980, 1990, and 2000 - and normalize the price growth to reflect a normal market from 2000-today, excluding the big artificial run-up this past summer, weighted on the high-side for external influence due to 9/11 and the ongoing conflicts in Iraq ande Afghanistan.