...or are you all sick to death of crawling to Hugo Chavez and Prince Abdullah for a cup of oil?

Every married person in the world has had this experience:
Your wife/husband rants and raves about how inconsiderate and uncaring their mother is and, in an attempt at solidarity, you agree that, yes, now that you bring it up, your mother is an inconsiderate, uncaring crone. Then, faster than you can say Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, you find yourself being reminded at some length what a creep you are and how mom is a saint. Your mother, on the other hand...

I feel very much the same way about George W Bush. He is the president of my country. I get to call him simple-minded and ineffectual. I get to point out that Millard Fillmore will have a more lasting legacy than he. However when Hugo Chavez wants a piece of George, he's got to go through me to first.

I have to assume that most Americans take great umbrage at having their President (even this president) called "Satan" and "bully". (Cheney? Maybe.) Wars have been fought over less. (like over mysterious WMDs) Chavez even suggested that George was in need of a psychiatrist. Ouch!

Well, my belligerent friends, drop the pikes, put the family rifle back over the fireplace. There will be no call to arms today.

Can it be that we have lost the will to defend our honor? Perish the thought. What we have lost is the ability to stand up to two-bit, windbags from countries that we could normally squash before lunch. And why is that? Say it with me, Chavez has OIL.

As for Iran, why would we pay any attention to the ravings of a weasel in a Members Only jacket rather than turning his country into overflow parking for Turkey...because Iran has OIL.

It would be wonderful to blame George W. Bush for American dependence on foreign oil sources but he's just the most recent bartender in an America, drunk on cheap gas.

Jimmy Carter had the top job when the oil got shut off and it wasn't a pretty picture. Those long gas lines should have been a wake-up call that we had better do something to cut the umbilical cord to the Middle East. No such luck. The Arabs turned the spigots back on and Carter was called a defeatist for suggesting that we have to change the way we consume products that we don't produce.

Well, that was 1979 and, in case your math skills are rusty 27 years have passed. Look around and tell me what we have learned. NADA. We don't hear much about OPEC any more but they're still out there. New players are in the game but we are still the suckers getting fleeced. As soon as the Russians figure out a way to tap their vast petroleum resources, they will become a major world supplier and then we can look forward to taking abuse from them at the UN also

Is there any American that doesn't believe that, with serious,committed leadership, we could have radically reduced our dependence on oil by now. Hell, we got to the moon in nine years. Congress forced the car companies to install seat belts, emission converters and air bags. Why couldn't we have forced a change in fuel consumption. Brazil managed it. If all it takes is a dictator, now would be the perfect time.

If George W. Bush is to blame for anything (and he usually is) it's for doing absolutely nothing to change this sorry situation. The administration has just released it's, "Climate Change Technology Program Strategic Plan". Pulllleeease! The proposal has a "100 year planning horizon". How about a 100 day planning horizon. The administration rolled out this -244-page fig-leaf just to silence the Republicans that wandered into Al Gore's movie by accident. It has no teeth and in two months no one, including the author's mother, will remember it ever existed.

We are already getting our asses kicked by Japanese car companies so what do we have to lose? Let's make cars in America that are so fuel efficient we never have to kiss another foreign derriere again. Give Americans a reason to buy American.

Sadly, "The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves." Look around the parking lot of your suburban supermarket and tell me who's fault this is. We love our big cars and SUV's. We tell ourselves that it's a safety issue for our families but that's a crock. If safety was such a big deal, the Checker Car Company would still be in business. You want safety- own a Volvo and drive less. If you own a Hummer, you should be ashamed of yourself.

This is America and we don't like being told what to do. That's fine but the next time your president takes a pie in the face from some tin pot dictator at the UN, remember, we provided the whip cream.