Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Politics: Remember how we were talking about the ANWR?

Nigeria, 5th largest supplier of oil to the US, is dissolving into chaos.

Venezuela, from who we get even more oil than that, has nationalized industries, jumped into bed with Iran, and has been taken over by an El Presidente-For-Life bent on playing chicken with the Yanqui superpower:
In a speech earlier Saturday, Chavez called for the U.S. government to accept "the new realities of Latin America," as he brushed aside restrictions that limit presidents to two consecutive terms. He vowed to stay in office beyond 2013, when his term expires, saying he would revise the constitution to get rid of presidential term limits.
We're making noises about attacks on Iran, who is cheerfully providing us with casus belli.

Anyone who thinks that this isn't going to blow up messily in the next two or three years is, to put it bluntly, hopelessly naive.

Fill 'er up?

12 comments:

LawDog said...

After having spent 7+ years in Nigeria, I don't seen anything in that article other than business-as-usual.

Hell, while we were there the unofficial National Sport was revolution, and I figured that everyone had a coup d'etat every six months or so, just to air things out.

I was frankly shocked to discover that the United States actively dissuaded that sort of thing. That sort of attitude just didn't seem ... normal.

*shrug*

Tam said...

True, but when you and I were chilluns, I believe that the proportion of US oil imports that came from Nigeria was smaller than it is now.

I don't think this whole thing is keyed on any one scenario but: Iraq + Iran + Venezuela + Instability in Africa + Frostier relations with Russia + No ANWR = Perfect Storm.

Anonymous said...

Would be nice to think that if Bad Things did come to pass it would de-ass the collective heads of our population, both politically and socially.

Anonymous said...

Heck, I refuse to get uptight over articles like this. Nigeria has always been in chaos, South America has always produced wild-eyed Presidnte's for Life, and the Middle East has always been on a Jihad. So what else is new. If it gets too out of hand, the US will eventually get tired of it and squash 'em like a bug....but, this'll probably be well into the future.

Anonymous said...

Look at Chavez's production numbers. He has had trouble keeping production up ever since the PDVSA purge. Also look at his renegotiation of his oil deals. This has squelched foreign investment to keep the oil flowing.

From an oil perspective he is in a death spiral which is only held up by the current high prices. If OPEC lets the price drop 20$ (very unlikely), Chavez will be in deep trouble quickly. The man is living on "borrowed time" in terms of oil.

T.Stahl said...

A good seventy years ago Chavez' actions would have been called Machtergreifung.
Well, we'll see when he enacts his kind of Ermächtigungsgesetze.

BobG said...

"Well, we'll see when he enacts his kind of Ermächtigungsgesetze."

Almost a Godwin...but very appropriate, Hessian.

Anonymous said...

The Chavez nattering is rather ironic, since Venezuelan production is down from 3.3 mmbd to 2.8. V. sends its crude to Corpus Christi for refining into gasoline and shipment thereof back to V-land.

I've seen in recent news squibs that Pelosi wants to introduce legislation to forever outlaw drilling in ANWR. She also wants to renege on the contract $$$ for the leases of our oil companies in (get this) international waters. It's a "loophole", you see. That should be encouraging for the oil companies to do more exploration/development---not. Oh, and "excess profits" taxes, too.

Art

Anonymous said...

Yep, they are blabbering about windfall profits now. Of course, these taxes will not affect them- they will always have free fuel (taxpayer supplied, of course) for their armored limos.

More refineries, drilling in ANWAR, drilling of the east coast and more drilling in the Gulf coast, less taxes- it would all help, but no, they decide to give in to the insane enviromentalists.

And the public will take it all without complaint- as long as they have their American Idol.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps Komrad Chavez ought to be schooled in the "realities" of the Monroe Doctrine? It is far easier for us to reach out & touch him in the jewels than it is for us to do so in the Middle East.

Perhaps we can send the Liberal Media to Venezuela first, then flatten the area where Chavez & they are?

Wishful thinking....

Venezuelans will get tired of him eventually & trade him in for a new one. This ought to calm things down for us.

Anyone want to buy a tank of Biodiesl? Made by small farmers in the US.

:^P

T.Stahl said...

bobg,
who's Godwin?

BobG said...

"bobg, who's Godwin?"

A jocular reference to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Godwin's_law