And then we'll have to back off. Because let's face it, they have us by the, um, throat.

The only way things are going to get better is when we wake up and start spending the "Defense" budget on a massive alternative energy infrastructure (one without Ethanol, thank you very much).

What is wrong with ethanol????? The problem now is that they use corn so food prices go up. Ethanol can be made from hemp (marijuana) so no effect on food prices. When it is grown for this purpose the THC (the thing that gets you high) level is very low.

And by the way, there are many other uses for hemp--food (second only in nuitrition to soy), paper and clothes (the original Levi's were made from hemp, as well as Christopher Columbus' sails)--Cheaper and less pollution that trees--1 acre of hemp produces as much paper etc as 4 acres of trees.

And then we'll have to back off. Because let's face it, they have us by the, um, throat.

The only way things are going to get better is when we wake up and start spending the "Defense" budget on a massive alternative energy infrastructure (one without Ethanol, thank you very much). ???????????

No spending the defense budget is not a good idea, unless you don't want to have a country to drive in? Like it or not our military is the only thing keeping us free. Alternative energy you say? Great idea, for the hopefully not to distant future. However, we need a fix for the high oil/fuel prices that are here NOW. What we need to do is tell the environmentalists to shut up and sit down and then find and tap into the vast oil that is still available to us in the United States of America. Hell there is supposed to be a 200 year supply just off the coast of California but the tree huggers don't want all those ugly oil platforms on their coast line. Easy fix: Once the oil is flowing turn the oil platform into a island/wildlife refuge or something else that is not as unsightly. Stop sending 60% of the oil that is pumped via the Alaskan pipeline overseas. They say we can't use all of it because it has too much sulfur. I say take the sulfur out ,Canadian tar oil is high in sulfur and they are able to do it with American technology so it can be done. Once this is all in place tell OPEC to keep their oil and drown in it. Also build additional refineries that are strategically placed and highly efficient. This combined with the local oil can't help but lower costs as there will no longer be a supply and demand problem. Instead of sending money to countries for aid they don't want, keep it here at home and spend it on viable alternative energy sources. Hell our government wastes enough money in other countries giving grants to study stupid things to probably fund the alternative research alone. I figure within 2 to 5 years OPEC will be begging the United States to buy their oil and then if we still need to, we can name our price. The only way to control OPEC is to stop funding them.....