Well…it has been a day of thinking, recovering, and reading and that led me to an article on ThinkProgress today that should shut the whole “oil prices are high because Obama won’t let them drill” crowd up once an for all. The article compares the amount of drilling and production in the US to the consumer price of gasoline and found what I have been saying for a long time…that none of this extra production, or the building of the Keystone pipeline is going to have any effect on the prices we pay since they are disconnected from the market forces that the repubs just love. The study shows that we used less oil last year than we did in 2001…that’s lower demand for the economically challenged out there….and oil production went up almost 14%…that’s higher supply for exactly the same reasons. Okay…so the great, unregulated marketplace that the repubs think is the cure all for everything including dandruff….takes lower demand, couples it with higher supply, and what this market gives us is higher prices…doesn’t anyone else think this is nuts? Let’s throw one more little piece into this puzzle…the oil companies profits are the highest they have ever been…something that should not happen if there was a truly open marketplace…so, what does that say to you? That the oil companies and the traders that they own are rigging the market to maximize profit…essentially taxing every American to the tune of $2,900 dollars each….the only thing that degrading our environment so the oil can be extracted is doing is adding to the already obscene profits that the oil companies make…so let’s continue to give them tax breaks and subsidize this thievery…just like the repubs continue to do…geez…