[Kitten Festival]

Tomorrow is d-day. The Thug of Caracas is going to send in armed troops, red tshirted screaming chavista mobs and buzzing soviet aircraft to take over US oil company assets tomorrow or Tuesday. He will probably parade the oil executives through the streets in handcuffs. It is going to be absolutely repulsive and a perfect show of weakness of america's dependence on foreign oil.

[ClearCase_guy]

FDR spent huge amounts of money on the Manhattan Project. JFK promised to put a man on the moon. One of these days, a president will set aside several hundreds of billions of dollars to develop either fusion or methane hydrates. And when the goal is accomplished, our economy will be tremendously stronger, and nutjobs by Chavez and Ahmadinejad will be tremendously weaker.

It would be a worthwhile investment.

[philly-d-kidder]

Chavez does that you will Find How Tightly knit the Oil industry is....and he will learn the importance of Maintenance which he will be lacking expertise. most Oil field around the world are Manned mainly by Foreigners...that are US friendly.

[EagleUSA]

Lets hope this communist dictator halfwit suffers from the big companies pulling out or cutting way back on him. They have much clout over this whack-job. Get out the popcorn.

[Rodney King]

america's dependence on foreign oil.

We have no dependence on foreign oil. We buy oil because it is the most cost effective form of transportable energy. We buy oil overseas because of the price. That is not a dependence.

For example, I shop at Walmart because of the prices. I don't have a dependence on Walmart even though 75% of my grocery shopping is done there. I could go somewhere else that is more expensive. I choose not to.

I chose my particular cell phone plane because it was the cheapest. I am not dependent on Cingular. I chose the most cost effective solution.

I buy my books at Amazon.com because of the price. Over 90% of the books I buy I buy at Amazon. I am not dependent on them, I could switch to another more expensive provider.

[Obie Wan]

Geez Louise,so many people here down on Hugo Chavez. Joe Kennedy Jr. thinks he’s a GREAT guy,so why the diffrerence in opinion ???

[D-fendr]

Hugo has a lot of assets over here that could be seized to compensate those he steals from.

[marron]

The thing is, Chavez has already re-negotiated his contracts with the international oil companies several times. Each time they have gritted their teeth and accepted it.

This is not the first time. Its just the latest time.

At the beginning the oil companies were offered rather favorable terms because it was heavy oil, and the technology was uncertain. Since then, as the plants and pipelines have been built, he has managed to force through a better cut for Venezuela by pointing out that the uncertainties had been eliminated. He several times has threatened to “nationalize” their share, publicly, and then has privately assured the oil companies that they were safe, please continue to invest. And squeezed a better percentage out of them each time.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Being from South America, one would’ve thought that Commandante Hugo Chavez had heard of Salvador Allende or Juan Peron. Does he think that we don’t protect our own vital interests? Perhaps he’s been reading too much of the New York Times or watching CNN. I see a coup in Mr. Chavez’s near future.