The issue is that McCain, Bush, Cheney et al. have done NOTHING to reduce our "oil addiction" or to address our energy/environmental issues.  Instead, they have: subverted science; coddled Big Oil and their pals the Saudis; wasted hundreds of billions of dollars (or more) in Iraq, in part because there's a lot of oil there (I'm not saying this war was FOR oil, but does anyone think we'd have gone to war in Iraq if there had NOT been oil there?); endangered our national security by allowing huge amounts of money to flow to countries that don't like us and to terrorist groups; etc., etc.  This goes way beyond incompetence and starts getting into crony capitalism or even corruption.  Totally pathetic.

By the way, I've got to say that all this focus on $4 per gallon gasoline really misses the mark. In fact, $4 per gallon gasoline (or $7 or $8 as in Europe) - as Eric highlighted several days ago - is part of the ANSWER, but NOT if the money goes to the Saudis, fundamentalist madrasas, Al Qaeda, etc.  Instead, that money should stay here in America and be used for reinvesting in our infrastructure and our people, in transforming our energy economy, and in cutting other regressive taxes (and providing subsidies for people below a certain income level can purchase energy efficient vehicles, homes, appliances, etc.), so that lower income and middle class people aren't hurt so badly (or at all) by high energy prices.  Universal health care would also remove an enormous burden from working families, and that could be paid for if we got our act together instead of throwing trillions down a rat hole.

as near as I can figure out. Forestalling is an ancient, if dishonorable practice:

Forestalling during the Middle Ages meant some clever bigwig went out into the countryside and bought up and stored all the food crops (or whatever) before they were harvested and would otherwise have made it to the town to be sold by individual farmers in their stalls at the local market. Then the greedy bigwig could create a scarcity and raise the price when he began dribbling the stored produce out on the market.  Sometimes the bigwig even caused famine in order to bring himself higher prices. Royalty or other Overlords imposed severe penalties when forestalling could be proved, including drawing and quartering and posting heads on pikes. Heh.

Someone in the video piece said in testimony before the CFTC that if the "Enron loophole" was closed, the price of crude would fall 25% within a matter of days.  The Enron loophole was closed last month in the Farm bill, according to the story.  So what happened?  Why hasn't it had the predicted effect?  Did some Senator just sneak in another loophole written by a lobbyist?  We need to start finding this stuff out in real time, not 10 years after the fact.