Thanks, George

Oh, the hand-wringing over gas prices. Oh, the pain of $3 a gallon. Oh, how will we survive? Oh, please.

I'm not happy with the spike in prices. Just like every other American, I rely on my car to get around for most things -- to get to work, to take the kids to school -- but unlike most Americans, I think I accept who is to blame for the gas price increase, George Bush.

No, I'm not just bashing the president. That's like shootin' fish in a barrel (no Cheney jokes, please). And I know we're all to blame, but collective guilt does little. So I blame the president for the uncontrolled increase and I blame myself for being a rider on the Titanic. But how does a passenger on a doomed ship get off it in the middle of the ocean? You can't.

Here's why I blame the president for my pain at the pump:

1: Iraq. He invaded a major oil producing nation for no logical reason. We know there were no weapons of mass destruction. We know the 9/11 terrorists had no link to Saddam Hussein. Yet the U.S. invaded. Thanks, George, for further destabilizing the region and being responsible for the deaths of more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers and countless Iraqis.

2: Iran: Bush gives this "axis of evil" speech and includes Iran. Way to go, George. The nation continues its struggle after the 1979 Revolution from an oppressive, U.S.-backed dictator, and was making minute yet encouraging signs of openning. No more. Nice job, George. Way to pour an ocean to extinguish a small flame of hope.

3: Hamas. So the U.S. backs free Palestinian elections, but the wrong people win in a fair vote (Sounds like the U.S.!). So, instead of accepting a legitimate government and working with it, the U.S. cuts off needed aid. Now there's even more chaos and suffering. Thanks again, George.

4: Venezuela. So, there's this coup against the constitutionally elected government in this oil-rich nation, and the U.S. backs the plotters. And does the international equivalent of a playground "na-na-na-na-boo-boo" to the ousted president. Oops. The president gets back in power. Now we look silly and we've pushed a borderline leader into the crazy camp.

So, as our ship of state chugs headlong into the ice field, I can only thank George Bush for getting us here. I think the captain of the ship has a blindfold on and his self-appointed crew is wearing sunglasses on a moonless midnight.

Our only hope? The ship runs out of gas. And that may be sooner than we all think.

Thought: Who sails into an ice field, anyway?