• On the news this morning it was reported that Americans traveled 1.4 billion fewer miles than during the same period last year. The high price of gasoline is cited as the primary cause.  A side effect of this is a huge reduction of government budget money for the repair and replacement of roads and bridges in America. ( http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=520111&catid=2)
• Floods in the Midwest have destroyed millions of acres of farmland.  Corn, already priced higher than normal because it is being used to make ethanol instead of feeding cows and people (look at your labels, folks, corn syrup is in almost everything!) is going for record, sky-high prices.  The cost of shipping food with extravagantly priced diesel fuel is making for bigger and bigger tickets at the grocery store.  Grocery purchases are eating into those luxury item purchases like shoes and clothes and electricity.
• Our "oil man" president's economic stimulus package gave everyone in America enough money to pay off their gasoline credit card for a month.  Almost.  Great news for the oil companies, right?

With the administration in favor of the financial suction of Pig Oil and their blatant rape of this country's economic system, oil barons who posted billions in profits after one of the biggest catastrophic disasters in this nation's history got away with price gouging of the highest order.  Their excuses about losing refining capacity is belied by their lack of investment in building new refineries with their ill-gotten gains.  And their token attempts to support "green" technology is simply a way of deflecting the direct criticism they deserve.

This winter, who will assist those freezing elderly Americans on the president's reamed out social security program who can't afford to move to Florida or other sunshine states and can't afford the high cost of heating oil?  Will we have to depend on Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez for relief again?

It's time we stopped feeding the pigs and started cleaning the barn.  This country can be energy independent with non-combustible fuels in ten years with some effort and the loss of absolute power of the oil companies.  We did it for Kennedy, we can do it for ourselves.  After all, he just challenged us to go to the moon.

Perry Tenitiss