From the email ...

I got this on Monday and had wanted to get it on the web site sooner, but this is my first bit of "down time." The following is in response to a phone call I got on Dialog blaming environmentalists for the rising gas prices. I had agreed with the caller.

Scott,
We've ruined the country over a war in Iraq trading blood for oil, and are plummeting the entire planet into a global climate change catastrophe, but god damn those environmentalists for making me pay $7 a gallon to drive my motor home to Tennessee.
Scott, why are you not spending precious air time skewering this human filth?

Truth of the matter is - or at least as I see it - there's plenty of blame to go around. While the Democrats tend to blame the war for the rise in gas ... and the Republicans tend to blame the environmentalists ... both sides are to blame for the outrageous cost of filling up the car.

As much as I'd like to completely blame the GOP and their phony war on terrorism for my $4 (plus) gas, we'd definately be better off if we had access to more oil. And we'd definately be better off if we weren't buying a large percentage of our oil from the always embattled Middle East. In other words, we'd be better off if we could drill here in the US.

And while the caller may have been right that the "environmentalists" not allowing us to drill is part of the problem, it isn't the whole problem. The hornets nest we've stirred up in the Middle East set the price problems in motion. Our vain attempts at "liberating" the people of Iraq and threatening Iran certainly hasn't made the area more likely to want to help us. So when we ask for lower oil, they just laugh.

And while it was widely reported that President Bush asked the Saudi's to increase production, one has to wonder if "Bandar Bush" winked when he asked.

So - to the emailer ... I didn't skewer him because he's right ... in part. I probably should have presented the other side, but (frankly) just wanted to get him off the phone and move on.