Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

In one of the most self-serving votes I've seen in a long time, the Senate passed legislation that could end up forcing the Bush administration to stop filling the nation's strategic petroleum reserve.

The vote, which was an overwhelming 92 to 6, with 46 Republicans breaking rank with the Bush Administration, shows that the major purpose they serve is themselves, and getting reelected. Nothing new there, of course. But...

Was there other reasoning behind this vote besides getting reelected? Yes! It was also the admission that there is nothing the government can do about oil prices. The reason the vote went this way was because there has to be the illusion maintained that the government is able to do something, because the conclusion would eventually dawn on citizens that the government is, and should remain ... limited.

This is why with unbelievable stupidity, the consequences of voting against building up our strategic petroleum reserves has been thrown by the wayside and recklessly abandoned. It also shows that the Republican and Democratic parties are simply two sides of the same coin, and not really legitimate alternatives for the American people.

All of this is for the most part the fault of the government in the first place, as it attempts to be the nanny state for everyone, and positions itself as the benevolent provider for all its citizens, as well as those that aren't. Now that the provision side is being challenged by reality, politicians are scrambling under the weight of voter anger, as the soft underbelly of socialism is again revealed.

The administration take on filling the strategic petroleum reserve is that it's a question of national security, as even today supply disruptions exist, and it could cause huge problems without backup oil in place. Nigeria is the obvious example, where combatants are causing disruptions in the supply of oil to the U.S.

In what would have been a good move, a majority of ignorant Senators voted down a proposed amendment by the Republican minority to increase oil and gas production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, as well as the huge amount of known reserves in the Outer Continental Shelf.

This would actually make a huge, positive impact on oil and gasoline prices, as billions of barrels of known oil reserves could be retrieved for the American people.

With only about 70,000 barrels of oil a day being put into the SPR, it won't even have much - if any - impact on oil prices. Over an entire year it would only account for about 26 million barrels.

Some are attempting to call this a bipartisan effort, but rather it's a look at how we no longer have a two-party system in the United States. This is nothing but people who believe in big government selling the future in order to get votes in the present, while also maintaining the illusion that big government will take care of us.

The only thing the government should do is admit they've made a mistake in cutting off the retrieval of billions of barrels of oil, and get out of the way so the free market can go to work to get them.

Welcome to the new Demorepulican party. Now we need to seriously look for a second party in the country, as the two have now become one.