1 Excellent ;p

2 This is silly, especially when many on the right have being proposing some equivalent of sales tax. Serious fiscal conservatives have been modrately comfortable with a higher gas tax so long as it was matched by reductions elsewhere. It is believed that the market would then provide more efficient vehicles and alternatives. This is starting to happen, but the money is going to countries like Iran and Venzuela. Our enemies. Fortunatly even a little conservation is bringing prices down, still we are sending billions to the terrorists. We also have a situation where it takes twice as much energy to produce a dollar of product as other industrial countries. This of course gives our competitors an advantage. Understand your pampered life is going to be less spoiled, your whole attitude is that of a princess so proud she can write 2 paragraphs of cliched banalities. Undoubtedly this worked well for you in what passes for education and there is no question that mediocrity is valued in many instiitutions, but they are threatened. And so is your pampered me me me lifestyle.

3 I have to agree with conservatives gist. Republicans are no longer conservatiives, we expect the federal government to pay Republican states far more than they give in taxes and then think it normal that Democratic states get less and that the difference is made up in borrowing. The assumption that the states should stop paying for roads which is were gas taxes go is a further example of this irresponsibility. Yes I know that in theory Bush could borrow the money, but believe me it's a bad idea. And outside of the land of make believe roads don't build or mantain themselves. I am saddened by those who think that taxing those who use those roads is gouging. I think you take too much for granted.

4 The US is more than competetive with the rest of the industrialized world. Energy is still cheaper than Euro-Socialist labor with 35 hour work weeks, 8 week vacations, and all those benefits and low productivity to boot. What do you think Kyoto is all about? The run-up of oil prices took place in the Futures Market. And all the action was from sources outside the traditional players--producers/consumers hedging. Lots of this action was from the Left. Could someone have been trying to win an election or two? The buggers wound up doubling and tripling their money. Sending lots more to less-than-friendly producers, too. Some of which, of course, comes back to the Left from those agreements the Left made with the Islamofascists...

5 Um, "Con"/"Sensible" . . . ? It's a joke. But thank, Con, for the "proud princess" moniker. Better than the more-shopworn "pampered princess." Of course, I like to think I'm both.

6 Darrell, that is interesting information. Do you have sources that can show clearly where the atypical buying pressure was coming from? I know big traders have reporting requirements that lag the market by some time. But I didn't know speculators had such requirements. It was pretty clear to just about everyone that the price spike was speculatively driven. The fundamentals were just not there to support it. Now that the bubble seems to have popped, this is all the more clear. I really want to believe what you are saying, but...that is part of the problem. I don't want to be too credulous on something that my (admittedly limited) knowledge of commodity markets tells me would be hard to prove. Of course, as the left has demostrated to us, if you repeat an assertion emphatically and frequently enough, it becomes "fact".

7 I will remember this forever, as the instance of Some Other People taking a joke for serious and getting all riled up. I'm Not Alone! Oh, precious, precious. Oh, thank you, Little Miss Attila and Readers.

8 Just private conversations with traders/brokers in the crude oil futures market. They know who their regular clients are. I agree that it would be difficult to document...if you're not the SEC. Sort of like proving the Dems sold out their portfolios before they started the "talk down the economy thing" after Jan. 2002. Remember when they said for every 100 point drop in the Dow they would get 6(from memory) seats in the House? I didn't see them losing on a personal basis. The only reporter I could get to look into it was Amity Shlaes of FT. Of course her questions went unanswered.