The summer of 2008 is turning out to be both good and bad when it comes to planning a summer vacation. On the good side, there are great deals being found in some of the previously most expensive summer vacation locations of Las Vegas and Orlando. Now for the bad news, these deal are only good because high gas prices have caused travel to those locations to become more expensive and that is why these mega vacation destinations are discounting their prices at the height of the summer vacation season. However, for the fortunate people that live within one to two hundred miles of Orlando and Las Vegas – they will find not only great prices on hotel rooms and top quality entertainment, but the price of gas to get to those locations will be less, as well.
The energy crisis of 2008 is putting stress on popular vacation locations like Orlando and Las Vegas more than some of the others because these mega vacation stops are usually visited by people that fly to their destination or who are willing to drive thousands of miles to get there. With 2008 summer gas prices well over $4 per gallon, huge vacation locations like Vegas and Disney are cutting the cost on many of their most popular attractions and they are also lowering the prices of hotel rooms in order to fill them up during the time of the year when usually no discount is needed. In huge mega vacation locations like Las Vegas and Orlando, expansions have been build into their business plan years before gas prices start rising so high. Now, these huge vacation locations have new attractions that they hoped would increase their bottom line five or ten years ago, but today there are not enough summer vacation travelers to fill up their hotels and sell out those multi million dollar venues that took years to build.
Just like in the current U.S. real estate market, the mega vacation marketplace has become a buyers market where desperate corporations will make sweet heart deals in order to get people to their locations in order to spend money on their newest attractions. While mega vacation locations like Las Vegas and Orlando are in a good position to lower prices in order to attract vacationers dollars, there are more out of the way vacation locations that will not be as lucky this summer. The first casualty of high gas prices will be moderately sized vacation areas that are mainly dotted with small 'bed and breakfast' accommodation's that have been all the rage with many Americans over the past few years. Many of these small, out of the way, summer vacation areas were popular back when gas prices were cheap and they also allowed busy city dwellers an opportunity to get out of the hustle and bustle of their normal lives and rest in a location where life moves at a slow and restful pace.
If the experts are right and gas prices rise to $6 or more per gallon by the end of the summer of 2008, then the first businesses that will cease to exist will be small vacation locations in some of the most beautiful areas of this country. The next area that will eventually suffer and could face an all out depression are mega vacation areas like Las Vegas and Orlando. I certainly hope that before Vegas and Disney start losing billions of dollars in tourist revenue, that our elected leaders in Washington start doing the right thing which is drilling for more oil and allowing America to take care of it's own energy needs. If our government leaders don't start doing the right thing when it comes to exploring for and drill more crude oil in the United States, then the problems that will be faced by mega vacation locations like Las Vegas and Orlando will pale in comparison to the all out pain we will all be feeling when and if gas prices are not brought under control.
Title: Summer Vacation Deals Both Good And Bad
Written: June 22 2008
Related Gas Prices Content:
Could Airlines Disappear As Fuel Costs Rise?
Saudi Arabia Tries To Get OPEC To Pump More Oil
OPEC Against The World Over High Gas Prices
2005-2008 © Hutch Report
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Democrats Will Win In November With Conservative Issue
The past few weeks I have been writing stories about what the number one issue will be in this November's presidential and congressional elections and the handling of that major issue, high gas prices, will determine which major political party will be successful in November. I have made no secret here that I do not believe Senator John McCain will be a good President of the United States, even though I have voted for GOP presidential candidates for most of my life. However, on the issue of drilling for more oil within our own country, Senator McCain is gaining ground on Senator Obama, because of this one very important issue. To date, Senator Barack Obama has been holding firm to the old liberal line that more drilling will not help the U.S. in the short run. That liberal talking point has been used successfully for years, but it will not work right now with gas prices well over $4 per gallon nationwide.
The past two years, U.S. consumers and businesses have been hit hard by raising gas prices and over that same period of time, neither Republicans or Democrats have bothered to compromise on their iron clad and polar opposite positions. In reality, but liberals and conservative are right in their ideas of what it will take to reduce Americas dependency on foreign sources of crude oil. Conservatives are right when they encourage more domestic exploration and drilling of crude oil within our own borders and liberals are right that more money should be spent by the federal government on energy alternatives. However, right now it is the liberals that are refusing to compromise on additional oil drilling within the United States while most members of the GOP are in favor of some kind of government funding of energy alternatives. Before long, the American people will start to see that it is the extreme liberals that are causing them to pay higher gas prices and when that realization happens, the chances of Barack Obama winning in November will diminish.
I personally believe that Senator Obama will change his liberal position on additional drilling for crude oil off the coasts of Florida, California and Alaska. However, right now his campaign seems to still be stuck in democratic primary mode where he was fighting with Hillary Clinton to prove which one was more liberal than the other. For Barack Obama to eventually be successful at winning the White House, he must show the American people that he is not a liberal ideologue by compromising on offshore drilling in the United States. Both Democrats and Republicans are tired of high gas prices and with the exception of a small fringe of liberal environmental extremist, most Americans what oil companies to be able to search for and produce more crude oil right here at home and a vast majority of American voters want more oil refineries to be built to convert crude oil into gasoline and home heating oil.
The reason I believe Democrats will win the White House in November and expand their lead in the U.S. Congress is because they will soon start changing their point of view on increasing domestic oil production. When that happens, there will be a huge shift of public opinion to Senator Barack Obama and to other Members of Congress who also change their long standing view that the environment is more important than energy independence. The reason Democrats will change on this most important of issues is very simple. More than anything else, die-hard Democrats want to win in November because they have more than had their fill with the outdated policies of the Bush administration. While there will be a few liberal extremist that will shout their displeasure at this change of position in the democratic party, the vast major of Americans will view this change of attitude as a positive development and give the democratic party a presidential victory in November and add to their numbers in the U.S. Congress.
The only real chance Senator McCain has in November is for the democratic party to run a liberal based campaign and while that is still a possibility, the people that are surrounding Barack Obama know all too well what will happen to their chances in November if they run too far to the left of the American people.
Title: Democrats Will Win In November With Conservative Issue
Written: June 22 2008
Related Election 2008 Content:
Will Obama's Lead Over McCain Hold?
Fun Interview With Joe Salzone On Sirius Blog Bunker, Today
Senator McCain Finally Found A Winning Issue, Offshore Drilling
2005-2008 © Hutch Report
The past two years, U.S. consumers and businesses have been hit hard by raising gas prices and over that same period of time, neither Republicans or Democrats have bothered to compromise on their iron clad and polar opposite positions. In reality, but liberals and conservative are right in their ideas of what it will take to reduce Americas dependency on foreign sources of crude oil. Conservatives are right when they encourage more domestic exploration and drilling of crude oil within our own borders and liberals are right that more money should be spent by the federal government on energy alternatives. However, right now it is the liberals that are refusing to compromise on additional oil drilling within the United States while most members of the GOP are in favor of some kind of government funding of energy alternatives. Before long, the American people will start to see that it is the extreme liberals that are causing them to pay higher gas prices and when that realization happens, the chances of Barack Obama winning in November will diminish.
I personally believe that Senator Obama will change his liberal position on additional drilling for crude oil off the coasts of Florida, California and Alaska. However, right now his campaign seems to still be stuck in democratic primary mode where he was fighting with Hillary Clinton to prove which one was more liberal than the other. For Barack Obama to eventually be successful at winning the White House, he must show the American people that he is not a liberal ideologue by compromising on offshore drilling in the United States. Both Democrats and Republicans are tired of high gas prices and with the exception of a small fringe of liberal environmental extremist, most Americans what oil companies to be able to search for and produce more crude oil right here at home and a vast majority of American voters want more oil refineries to be built to convert crude oil into gasoline and home heating oil.
The reason I believe Democrats will win the White House in November and expand their lead in the U.S. Congress is because they will soon start changing their point of view on increasing domestic oil production. When that happens, there will be a huge shift of public opinion to Senator Barack Obama and to other Members of Congress who also change their long standing view that the environment is more important than energy independence. The reason Democrats will change on this most important of issues is very simple. More than anything else, die-hard Democrats want to win in November because they have more than had their fill with the outdated policies of the Bush administration. While there will be a few liberal extremist that will shout their displeasure at this change of position in the democratic party, the vast major of Americans will view this change of attitude as a positive development and give the democratic party a presidential victory in November and add to their numbers in the U.S. Congress.
The only real chance Senator McCain has in November is for the democratic party to run a liberal based campaign and while that is still a possibility, the people that are surrounding Barack Obama know all too well what will happen to their chances in November if they run too far to the left of the American people.
Title: Democrats Will Win In November With Conservative Issue
Written: June 22 2008
Related Election 2008 Content:
Will Obama's Lead Over McCain Hold?
Fun Interview With Joe Salzone On Sirius Blog Bunker, Today
Senator McCain Finally Found A Winning Issue, Offshore Drilling
2005-2008 © Hutch Report
Brokaw Will Host 'Meet The Press' Through 2008
This morning, NBC News made the announcement that Tom Brokaw would host their Sunday morning program, 'Meet The Press' until the end of the year. A couple of weeks ago, the long time host of Meet the Press, Tim Russert, died suddenly. While few people are even on the short list to replace Russert, having Tom Brokaw sit in as host for the next six months will give the viewing public enough time to grieve the death of Russert and also give the new host of that show a fair chance of winning over an audience that loved Tim Russert like a member of their own family. Over the past week - friends, family and total strangers have been morning the death of Tim Russert. In what some people referred to as saturation coverage of Tim's death, all of the major television networks reported updates on what killed him as well as given a large amount of coverage to his memorial and funeral services.
Like most other American, I found myself in a state of shock when I first heard the news that Tim Russert had died. More than anything else, the fact that Tim Russert was only 58 years old is what caught some many people that have enjoyed watching him on television for years to shake our heads in confusion and disbelief at the news that he had passed away. The positive side of Tim Russert's death is that millions of middle aged Americans are now starting to look at their health in a totally different way. When a healthy man like Tim Russert can just fall over dead from a heart attack at age 58, the same thing could happen to anyone else, as well. Even after Tim Russert's death, he is still working his magic with the American people. Before Tim died, he helped all of us better understand politics and now after his death he is helping us better understand our own health.
Watching Tom Brokaw first announce the death of Tim Russert on NBC and then suffer with him as he hosted Meet The Press last Sunday and then speak at his dead friends funeral – it is crystal clear in my mind that Brokaw lost not only a good friend, but someone that was as close to him as a brother. For years, millions of Americans watched Tom Brokaw on the NBC Nightly News before his retirement. Then Brokaw wrote his best selling book called, 'The Greatest Generation'. That book is considered the 'gold standard' among many people at honoring the young men and women that their gave all to this country during World War II. Now Tom Brokaw is becoming this nations 'comforter and chief' as he helps all of us grieve the tragic loss of Tim Russert.
When Tom Brokaw retired from NBC, he and his wife moved to Montana to live out the rest of their lives. However, like with so many well thought out and planned retirements, Tom Brokaw is now finding himself back in the news business once again. Not because he needs to work because of financial reasons, but because he has found a way to honor his friend Tim Russert in a way that will help all of us get over his death in our own way. Everyone that has watched Tom Brokaw over the past week understands that he is a man that is suffering deep pain because of Tim Russert's death which makes Tom Brokaw the perfect person to host Meet the Press for the rest of this year. While no one could successfully replace Tim Russert as host of 'Meet the Press' right now, Tom Brokaw is the best transition person available on the planet for the next few months. While I am sure that Brokaw would rather be enjoying this summer in Montana, like on so many other occasions – Tom is more than ready to step up and do the right thing when it is presented to him.
Title: Brokaw Will Host 'Meet The Press' Through 2008
Written: June 22 2008
Related Entertainment News Content:
Tom Brokaw Honors His Friend/Colleague on 'Meet The Press'
Tim Russert's Legacy, Teaching Others The Art Of Reporting
Tim Russert's Cause Of Death, Enlarged Heart/Cholesterol
2005-2008 © Hutch Report
Like most other American, I found myself in a state of shock when I first heard the news that Tim Russert had died. More than anything else, the fact that Tim Russert was only 58 years old is what caught some many people that have enjoyed watching him on television for years to shake our heads in confusion and disbelief at the news that he had passed away. The positive side of Tim Russert's death is that millions of middle aged Americans are now starting to look at their health in a totally different way. When a healthy man like Tim Russert can just fall over dead from a heart attack at age 58, the same thing could happen to anyone else, as well. Even after Tim Russert's death, he is still working his magic with the American people. Before Tim died, he helped all of us better understand politics and now after his death he is helping us better understand our own health.
Watching Tom Brokaw first announce the death of Tim Russert on NBC and then suffer with him as he hosted Meet The Press last Sunday and then speak at his dead friends funeral – it is crystal clear in my mind that Brokaw lost not only a good friend, but someone that was as close to him as a brother. For years, millions of Americans watched Tom Brokaw on the NBC Nightly News before his retirement. Then Brokaw wrote his best selling book called, 'The Greatest Generation'. That book is considered the 'gold standard' among many people at honoring the young men and women that their gave all to this country during World War II. Now Tom Brokaw is becoming this nations 'comforter and chief' as he helps all of us grieve the tragic loss of Tim Russert.
When Tom Brokaw retired from NBC, he and his wife moved to Montana to live out the rest of their lives. However, like with so many well thought out and planned retirements, Tom Brokaw is now finding himself back in the news business once again. Not because he needs to work because of financial reasons, but because he has found a way to honor his friend Tim Russert in a way that will help all of us get over his death in our own way. Everyone that has watched Tom Brokaw over the past week understands that he is a man that is suffering deep pain because of Tim Russert's death which makes Tom Brokaw the perfect person to host Meet the Press for the rest of this year. While no one could successfully replace Tim Russert as host of 'Meet the Press' right now, Tom Brokaw is the best transition person available on the planet for the next few months. While I am sure that Brokaw would rather be enjoying this summer in Montana, like on so many other occasions – Tom is more than ready to step up and do the right thing when it is presented to him.
Title: Brokaw Will Host 'Meet The Press' Through 2008
Written: June 22 2008
Related Entertainment News Content:
Tom Brokaw Honors His Friend/Colleague on 'Meet The Press'
Tim Russert's Legacy, Teaching Others The Art Of Reporting
Tim Russert's Cause Of Death, Enlarged Heart/Cholesterol
2005-2008 © Hutch Report
Could Airlines Disappear As Fuel Costs Rise?
There are few businesses in the United States that have been hurt more by rising fuel costs than the major airlines. For generations, Americans have taken great pride in travel to and from locations all over the world whenever we saw fit. However, in the past two years there has been a remarkable decrease in the numbers of average airline fliers and in recent months, even big business has started to cut back on the numbers of flights their employees and executives book. At the heart of the U.S. airline crisis is the ever rising price of jet fuel which is manufactured from the same crude oil that is turned into gas for our cars and trucks. Like average Americans, major airline companies have been looking for ways to increase their prices because of rising fuel costs, but to date few of these price increase have been able to hold for more than a few days or at the most one week.
High jet fuel costs are dragging the bottom line of all U.S. air carriers to the breaking point and somewhere down the road, something will have to give or these necessary businesses are not going to survive financially. Conservative politicians worked for years to get the U.S. airline industry deregulated and while their ideas of deregulation looked good one paper, once all the U.S. airlines were deregulated, all hell started to break loose within that once strong U.S. industry. In most areas of business, I side with conservative Republicans on deregulation. However, there have been some businesses in the U.S. economy that seem to preform better for the consumer when they are regulated by the government, instead of being thrown into a worldwide marketplace like most other companies.
History has proven that the U.S. airline industry worked much better, years ago, when it was a government regulated industry than when it was deregulated. Today, almost no one says that flying is fun anymore and most people would rather visit the dentist than to go through security and fly on a domestic airline flight these days. While the terrorist attacks against America on September 11th, 2001 did cause the flying public to even hate flying more than before, in reality the flying experience of most regular airline passengers was rated as negative long before 911. Rather than most customers having a feeling of appreciation from the major airlines since deregulation, instead most of the American flying public feels like they are little more than cattle on some airborne flight where they receive little customer appreciation and on most trips they can't wait to get off that plane as soon as possible.
While most Americans do not want to go to a totally government regulated marketplace, it is time for extreme conservatives to admit to themselves and to everyone else that some industries preform poorly under a strict capitalistic system. In hindsight, it is a proven fact that the U.S. airline industry is not working well under a deregulated environment and something needs to be done in Washington to remedy this problem. When it comes to business, there is no – 'one size fits all'. While most businesses flourish in an open and competitive marketplace, some do not and at the top of that list of companies that preform poorly in a a free market system are American airlines. While some politicians will try and blame all of the problems with U.S. airlines on the current energy crisis, in reality – most U.S. airlines were in trouble long before the price of jet fuel became a big issue and before terrorist attack the U.S. on 911.
Title: Could Airlines Disappear As Fuel Costs Rise?
Written: June 22 2008
Related Gas Prices Content:
Saudi Arabia Tries To Get OPEC To Pump More Oil
OPEC Against The World Over High Gas Prices
Using Corn For Fuel, A Smart Choice?
2005-2008 © Hutch Report
High jet fuel costs are dragging the bottom line of all U.S. air carriers to the breaking point and somewhere down the road, something will have to give or these necessary businesses are not going to survive financially. Conservative politicians worked for years to get the U.S. airline industry deregulated and while their ideas of deregulation looked good one paper, once all the U.S. airlines were deregulated, all hell started to break loose within that once strong U.S. industry. In most areas of business, I side with conservative Republicans on deregulation. However, there have been some businesses in the U.S. economy that seem to preform better for the consumer when they are regulated by the government, instead of being thrown into a worldwide marketplace like most other companies.
History has proven that the U.S. airline industry worked much better, years ago, when it was a government regulated industry than when it was deregulated. Today, almost no one says that flying is fun anymore and most people would rather visit the dentist than to go through security and fly on a domestic airline flight these days. While the terrorist attacks against America on September 11th, 2001 did cause the flying public to even hate flying more than before, in reality the flying experience of most regular airline passengers was rated as negative long before 911. Rather than most customers having a feeling of appreciation from the major airlines since deregulation, instead most of the American flying public feels like they are little more than cattle on some airborne flight where they receive little customer appreciation and on most trips they can't wait to get off that plane as soon as possible.
While most Americans do not want to go to a totally government regulated marketplace, it is time for extreme conservatives to admit to themselves and to everyone else that some industries preform poorly under a strict capitalistic system. In hindsight, it is a proven fact that the U.S. airline industry is not working well under a deregulated environment and something needs to be done in Washington to remedy this problem. When it comes to business, there is no – 'one size fits all'. While most businesses flourish in an open and competitive marketplace, some do not and at the top of that list of companies that preform poorly in a a free market system are American airlines. While some politicians will try and blame all of the problems with U.S. airlines on the current energy crisis, in reality – most U.S. airlines were in trouble long before the price of jet fuel became a big issue and before terrorist attack the U.S. on 911.
Title: Could Airlines Disappear As Fuel Costs Rise?
Written: June 22 2008
Related Gas Prices Content:
Saudi Arabia Tries To Get OPEC To Pump More Oil
OPEC Against The World Over High Gas Prices
Using Corn For Fuel, A Smart Choice?
2005-2008 © Hutch Report
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)