You gotta love Vladimir Putin. He’s been busy laying the smack down on any and all organizations which stand between him and absolute power over in the old USSR. Of course Bush likes him, which makes as much sense as him inviting Ready Teddy over to the White House theater for popcorn.

Now he is going to stop selling gas to Ukraine, since that country refused to sign a contract with the Russian state monopoly Gazprom which would quadruple their current price. Ukraine is the conduit through which Europe receives 25% of its gasoline. Last time I looked, we are part of a global economy. Gas shortages in Europe are going to affect the prices of gas and petroleum products here.

So now is the time for all the Democrats and limp-wristed girls in the Senate who kept us from drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Reserve to stand up and take a bow. Now would be a really good time to look at breaking a little of our dependence on foreign oil, but the PETA-heads have decided what’ best for all of us once again.

BTW, drilling up there isn’t going to have any significant impact on the caribou and (last I heard) the goofy-looking critters liked to huddle around the existing Alaskan pipeline to keep warm. Maybe we can ship ’em some solar powered space heaters to boot.

Drilling in ANWR wouldn’t solve all of our oil-related problems, but it would eventually account for about 20% of what we currently have to import from overseas. After we start drilling in some desolate part of the Great White North, maybe we can really go out on a limb and seriously discuss builing a new oil refinery for the first time in 30 years. If I had my way it would be constructed just off the coast of Kennebunkport.