I think this is a "slightly" different situation though, Ben. The oil companies are bankrupting the country - simply because they can. Yeah, it sucks that we've gotten so dependent on oil - but it's not like we can all just say "I think I'll buy a bicycle instead of driving" because the existing infrastructure has been built entirely around motorized travel.

I'm the last one to think the Government can do anything right - but methinks it's time for them to call bullshit and regulate the price of gas - even if only in the short term - in the name of a National Emergency. Anybody remember Bush's speech following the limited pockets of price gouging after 9-11. "I will not sit back and let the oil companies take advantage of the American public..." Well now it's going on all over the country - and nobody seems to be the least bit concerned.

I happen to know that a local company that refines oil is only paying around $50 per barrel versus $140 or whatever the world market is commanding. Yet they're selling the final product at a price consistent with the $140 cost. That's BS!

Imagine what would happen to the US economy if the US oil companies decided to make a fair and reasonable margin (even if it is TWICE what they usually make) by dropping the price of gas and diesel by $1.50 or $2.00 per gallon when selling domestically. Unemployment would drop, consumer confidence would go up, the profitability of US companies would improve, etc, etc, etc...

Yeah, go ahead and rape and pillage the rest of the world who don't have their own reserves - but Jeezus Christ, enough is enough here at home. When the US goes completely broke, everyone is unemployed, and anarchy reigns supreme, and the oil companies find themselves in the middle of a civil war - who they gonna sell gas to then?

Eff those effing, effers! Efffff!