The guy in the checkout line embarrassed because the MAN in front of him bought a rack of ribs and he was eating tofu or something wimpy, so he goes out and buys a Hummer and...big smile! He has redeemed his masculinity.

How typically American: Chump goes in hock up to his eyeballs buying something that a T.V. ad told him would turn him into a "real man". I wonder if chump ever stopped to think about whether or not "real men" are so easily manipulated?

The Republicans know damn well that drilling won't do anything to lower the price of oil for a long time, if ever. The only reasons they're screaming for more drilling are:

1) Election-year theater

2) Give Bush one more shot at screwing the U.S. by letting his administration be the one to cut the lease deals with the oil companies.

...and in the case of China and India they cannot print dollars to buy fuel...

The Chinese and the Indians don't have to print dollars to buy fuel. We send them all the dollars they'll ever need, dollars that used to go into the pockets of American workers.

...considering the fact that the US, the richest society in the world, could have become self sufficient in oil decades ago ...

Exactly how do you think we could have done this? The last time I checked, we had 25% of the world's appetite for oil, but only 2% or 3% of the world's supply of oil.

If we had drilled more wells and pumped it out faster, I think we'd have run out by now.

Bush and his cronies are well-known for hiring, appointing and promoting on the basis of political ideology and loyalty, rather than on the basis of ability. Eight years of controlling promotion policy would have effected many positions in the military hierarchy. I wonder how much damage this has done to the upper ranks of the U.S. military?

You can actually connect a VT220 keyboard to a PC serial port. The keyboard uses plain old serial data transfer at a standard data rate (ISTR 4800 bps, but it's been a while and I might be mistaken). The signal voltages are also compatible.

OF course, it takes more than hooking it up to make it useful. It took me several evenings to reverse-engineer the character coding and write a driver that would make it fly with DOS or Windows 3.1. I'm pretty sure my old driver (if I could find it) wouldn't work with any recent Windows version and would need to be redone from scratch, but I'm sure it could be done. Linux should be a piece of cake.

"For McCain to win in such troubled times, he needs to begin telling the American people how he intends to lead us. That McCain exists. He can inspire the country to greatness."

If he needs to be told this, then don't bother because he's already hopeless.

My understanding is that the more oil the world has the lower the price goes. We are using all the oil that we have so the demand is more than the supply. Whatever we can do to add to the supply, will help the price go down.

That only works in a true free market where all suppliers complete for business. We don't have such a market. Most of the global oil supply comes from OPEC, and they can control the supply to manipulate the price. If the U.S. adds more production, OPEC can simply throttle their own production to keep the price wherever they want it. They can even drive the price higher to make up for the reduction in sales.

The only way the U.S. could drive the price down is by replacing a substantial fraction of OPEC's output. Since the U.S. only has about 2% or 3% of the world's oil reserves, that just ain't gonna happen.

We will get the oil in 2 to 4 years...not 10

Nope, not the offshore oil because there is a 5+ year waiting list for deep-water drilling ships and equipment before exploration can even begin. And not from the wildlife reserve either because a lot of infrastructure needs to be built to move oil from the middle of nowhere to someplace useful.

P.S.: You might want to consider the benefits of patience.

If Congress rushes through a lifting of the drilling bans and the Bush administration gets to cut the lease deals, you can be certain that Bush will give the oil companies sweetheart deals that let them screw our eyes out. We might do better if the next administration isn't a wholly-owned subsidiary of the oil companies.

You just get dirty, and the pig likes it.

If that's true, then the Bush administrations attempt to resurect offshore drilling is nothing but a last minute givaway to their biggest contributors before they get kicked out of office.

Bingo. The Republicans are in a hair-on-fire hurry to open up new areas for exploration so that the Bush administration will be the one that cuts the lease deals. Bush would give the oil companies carte blanche to screw our eyes out, and Exxon wants that very badly.

As an added benefit to the oil companies, news that the offshore drilling ban had been lifted would probably throw cold water on investor enthusiasm for alternative energy.

Maybe we will have to drill in the presently banned areas eventually, but we know it won't help in the short term. I think a little patience might pay off if we can avoid having the new leases written by an administration that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the oil companies. Bush would give the oil companies the best deal possible at the expense of the rest of the country.

If you really are worried about the price of oil, you might consider the possibility that McCain might be as much in the oil companies' pocket as Bush.