Bush Should Get on His Knees and Kiss Hugo Chavez's Behind (Greg Palast)

[marmar]

from the Progressive, via Greg Palast.com:


by Greg Palast
From The Progressive

You’d think George Bush would get down on his knees and kiss Hugo Chavez’s behind. Not only has Chavez 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: Chavez 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 Chavez to take his cheaper oil and stick it up his pipeline. Before I explain why Bush has done so, let me explain why Chavez has the power to pull it off — and the method in the seeming madness of his “take-my-oil-please!” deal.

Venezuela, Chavez 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 Chavez’s offer: Drop the price to $50 — and keep it there. That would guarantee Venezuela’s investment in heavy oil.

But the ascendance of Venezuela within OPEC necessarily means the decline of the power of the House of Saud. And the Bush family wouldn’t like that one bit. It comes down to “petro-dollars.” When George W. ferried then-Crown Prince (now King) Abdullah of Saudi Arabia around the Crawford ranch in a golf cart it wasn’t because America needs Arabian oil. The Saudis will always sell us their petroleum. What Bush needs is Saudi petro-dollars. Saudi Arabia has, over the past three decades, kindly recycled the cash sucked from the wallets of American SUV owners and sent much of the loot right back to New York to buy U.S. Treasury bills and other U.S. assets.

The Gulf potentates understand that in return for lending the U.S. Treasury the cash to fund George Bush’s $2 trillion rise in the nation’s debt, they receive protection in return. They lend us petro-dollars, we lend them the 82nd Airborne. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.gregpalast.com/hugo-chavez-an-exclusive-interview-with-greg-palast/

[Greeby]

1. Shrub's message to the poor and the average working person is this...

"What part of fuck off and die do you not understand?" Therefore, it's no suprise he hates Chavez

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

2. kick. n/t

[BayCityProgressive]

3. Bush hates Democracy

so why would he support Chavez, a democratically elected leader, over the Fascist House of Saud? By the way, Hillary feels the same way as Bush on the subject...she has already attacked Chavez verbally.

[Richard D]

4. That link doesn't seem to work . . .

. . . here's one that does: http://www-gatago.com/soc/culture/venezuela/35860336.html

[marmar]

5. I just tried it...it worked fine for me...

:shrug:

[OneBlueSky]

6. to do that, he'd first have to extricate his lips from Cheney's posterior . . . n/t

.