Well get ready for it to get worse dudes, we are going to have $100/barrel crude beofre it starts to come back down again. There are a bunch of contributing factors including hedge fund investment strategies, exploration, quality of drilled product, refining capacity etc. contributing to this and they all seem to be pointing to a steady increase in crude prices for the foreseeable future. Actually believe it or not, its not really dumbass Bush's (or any other politician's really) fault, its factors way beyond the scope of their control..