You'd Think Bush Would Get Down On Knees+Kiss Chavez's Behind-Greg Palast

[kpete]

Hugo Chávez
By Greg Palast
July 2006 Issue

You’d think George Bush would get down on his knees and kiss Hugo Chávez’s behind. Not only has Chávez delivered cheap oil to the Bronx and other poor communities in the United States. And not only did he offer to bring aid to the victims of Katrina. In my interview with the president of Venezuela on March 28, he made Bush the following astonishing offer: Chávez would drop the price of oil to $50 a barrel, “not too high, a fair price,” he said—a third less than the $75 a barrel for oil recently posted on the spot market. That would bring down the price at the pump by about a buck, from $3 to $2 a gallon.

But our President has basically told Chávez to take his cheaper oil and stick it up his pipeline. Before I explain why Bush has done so, let me explain why Chávez has the power to pull it off—and the method in the seeming madness of his “take-my-oil-please!” deal.

Venezuela, Chávez told me, has more oil than Saudi Arabia. A nutty boast? Not by a long shot. In fact, his surprising claim comes from a most surprising source: the U.S. Department of Energy. In an internal report, the DOE estimates that Venezuela has five times the Saudis’ reserves.

However, most of Venezuela’s mega-horde of crude is in the form of “extra-heavy” oil—liquid asphalt—which is ghastly expensive to pull up and refine. Oil has to sell above $30 a barrel to make the investment in extra-heavy oil worthwhile. A big dip in oil’s price—and, after all, oil cost only $18 a barrel six years ago—would bankrupt heavy-oil investors. Hence Chávez’s offer: Drop the price to $50—and keep it there. That would guarantee Venezuela’s investment in heavy oil.

more at:
http://progressive.org/mag_intv0706

[acmavm]

1. bush** is too frigging stupid to know when he's staring a good

thing in the face.

And too damn ignorant to back down when he's trying to be a big man.

Traits that will make him the biggest jackass in the history books.

[WiseButAngrySara]

4. I beg to differ. B* is not ignorant on this one. He'd rather We, the

people (His people):sarcasm: pay high prices at the pump so long as his oil cronies continues to profit. It's all about money to his friends and making the middle class dependent. IMO, He no more wants us to 'cure our addiction for oil" than he wants a free and independent Iraq.

[WiseButAngrySara]

2. Self Interest rules for B* & Co. Freedom for the wealthy; not Democracy

for Freedom; he cares little about either freedom or democracy, but they decorate his speeches effectively as tools for the sheep. Thank God, he is such a horrible speaker. Our country would be in even graver danger than it currently is had he the rhetorical skills of a JFK, a Clinton or a Hitler!

Chavez is what leaders of a Democracy should be: He serves the people. Tyranny, by definition, is self-rule. B* is a tyrant, and should have been impeached long ago!

[AndyA]

3. If Bush were a REAL PRESIDENT, he would negotiate the deal on behalf

of what was best for the AMERICAN PEOPLE, not his rich oil buddies. But his rich oil buddies know where the bodies are buried, so he would never do that. Instead, he'll allow Americans to give up other necessities just to keep their tanks filled, and his oil buddies can keep stuffing the BILLIONS they earn in profits EACH MONTH in their fat bank accounts.

George Bush is a coward. George Bush is a traitor.

[WiseButAngrySara]

5. BINGO! ....n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Hey, c'mon, Bush is an honorable man!

When he's been bought by US oil companies, he STAYS bought by US oil companies.