So, guess who this rant is directed at?

Think hard.

What segment of our government has a disapproval rate of 72 percent according to some of the latest polls?

Hint - It's nine points lower than President Bush's.

Got it?

Of course, it's Congress.

Four hundred and thirty-five men and women who belong to one of the most expensive clubs in the world and who seemingly have so little regard for those who pay their membership.

Honestly, you just gotta believe that out of that body of "public servants" there really ARE some folks who simply want to do the right thing ... after insuring they are re-elected.

But you have to wonder if a bunch of them aren't poppin' Stupid Pills.

"Let's investigate the oil industry," they say, after all, it's those mean grubby oilmen buddies of Bush that's causin' the pain.

Well, maybe, but perhaps that's simply a ploy to con us into thinking that they are trying to help the masses.

When the Federal Trade Commission has investigated the oil industry in the past, it turned up nothing. But, it's a good way to keep the voters pacified.

"Oh, it's those mean old Saudis and others who are buddies of George Bush," they say.

Well, those mean old Saudis have been "buddies" with the leaders of this country for decades but, of course, they gotta do something.

Sooo, some of these pathetic politicians pandering to our passion for petroleum are suggesting that we sue them for price fixing.

Are we gonna drag the Saudis and others into America's broken judicial system and sue them? Nutty.

But, if we can do that to them, can't other countries do that to us?

Maybe that's not such a good idea.

So, they pop another Stupid Pill.

"Okay. You know, the folks back home are always complaining about taxes. We feel their pain, we really, really do."

"Maybe it would be a good idea to repeal that tax for a few months, right before the election, and the sheep, err, voters back home will think kindly of us and remember that when they go to the polls so we can stay in the club ... err, Congress."

But, aren't those taxes intended to maintain our interstate roads and bridges, what you smart people call "infrastructure?" You know, what you said earlier was falling apart?

"Well, yeah, I guess so," as they pop another pill.

"Hey," they say, "how about all that oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that we could divert so you can go on your summer vacation just before the election. How about that?"

Another pill-induced hallucination.

The SPR is a hedge in the case of war or major disruption - not shortage - of the oil supply.

According to a Cato Institute report in November 2005: "Withdrawing the maximum amount of oil possible from the SPR would enable the federal government to replace about 36 percent of U.S. oil imports and add about 5.9 percent to the world's daily oil supply for approximately 163 days before the reserve ran dry."

But then the taxpayers would have to replace a billion barrels of crude oil - 5.9 percent of the world's daily supply of oil - plus what we needed daily.

Ouch.

You know what's funny about this dialogue?

It was roughly identical to the one that our nation had back in early 2006 when gas reached a billfold-ripping $3 a gallon and $70 a barrel.

Oh for the good old days.

Jacob Weisburg, writing in Slate magazine in April, 2006, said: "Sustained high prices will bring about behavioral and political changes: energy conservation, public transportation, less exurban sprawl, and eventually the economic viability of alternative fuel sources such as biomass, fuel cells, wind, and solar power, which may one day undermine the power of the oil oligarchs. Are politicians too stupid to understand this ...?'

Yes.

As they reach for the pill bottle.