Saudi Arabia Collapse

Given all the turmoil in the Middle East it is a given question if Saudi Arabia is the next country to collapse with citizen revolt. And is this possible revolt the result of education of the countries citizens abroad? Could the education systems in the United States and other nations where the law of religion is not the norm and their citizens actually see another way of life that is not state dictated posing a problem for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? There are so many what if’s but the certainty is that the Kingdom is prime for revolt and the King knows it but has no clue how to deal with it other than throw money out the window.

Over at the New York Times they have a great piece on this very subject…

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — As one nation after another has battled uprisings across the Arab world, the one major country spared is also its richest — Saudi Arabia, where a fresh infusion of money has so far bought order.

The kingdom is spending $130 billion to pump up salaries, build housing and finance religious organizations, among other outlays, effectively neutralizing most opposition. King Abdullah began wielding his checkbook right after leaders in Tunisia and Egypt fell, seeking to placate the public and reward a loyal religious establishment. The king’s reserves, swollen by more than $214 billion in oil revenue last year, have insulated the royal family from widespread demands for change even while some discontent simmers. - New York Times

Saudi Arabia may be a friend to the United States but it is in fact an abomination to human rights when it comes to woman. Woman can not drive in Saudi Arabia. Woman can not vote in Saudi Arabia. Woman in general have no voice or say in Saudi Arabia.

Absolute monarchies are dead in these times we live in and the nation of Saudi Arabia is prime for revolt when the leaders of the nation refuse to listen to its own people. Much like here in the United States they want to throw massive amounts of money at the problems they have in their society and yet still demand that the status quo is the way life will be. This is the rule from men in their upper seventies and eighties in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Times change and so will Saudi Arabia. Sometimes throwing money out the window of your limousine at a problem is not the best solution when all that you had to do was talk to your people. Which raises the larger question if the people in power even care what their own people think? Which I doubt.

Papamoka

Crucified Fox News From Saudi Arabia

Crime prevention that the extreme right would have no problem agreeing with. Hang the bastards high and we don't need no facts to nail a man to a cross! You betcha'!

Saudi Arabia Beheads and Nails Murderer's Body to Cross Published June 21, 2010

Saudi Arabia executed two murderers including a Yemeni whose body was nailed to a cross after he was convicted of killing a fellow countryman and his daughter, the interior ministry said on Monday. Shaaban al-Nasheri was beheaded for shooting dead Dhayeh al-Manbahi after barging into his family home in the southwestern town of Jazan, the ministry said in a statement cited by the official SPA agency. Nasheri was also found guilty of raping and killing Manbahi's daughter before shooting and wounding her sister. Following his execution, the murderer's body was nailed to a cross in Jazan. - Fox News (LOL)

What’s missing here are the facts from the actual trial that this man was sentenced to death for. Nothing on the defense argument of innocence what so ever. He did it, we kill you! Mind you, I know none of the facts either because Fox News should have presented more facts than they did in this article. But it makes for a damn good headline when it comes to capital punishment.

Way to go Fox News for sensationalistic journalism. This should spin up the extreme right into a happy mood where after church they all go and crucify someone for an alleged crime. Mob rule journalism is alive and well at Fox News.

Nice piece of work there at Fox News. NOT! And I am sure that the Saudi people and its Kingdom appreciate your less than factual article. Was this story meant to stir up the right? You betcha’.

Papamoka

Lost Wallet - Huge Reward!

Some old friends of mine contacted me very distraught and upset. They either misplaced or lost a very large some of money. There was a considerable amount of money in my friends wallet and as you can imagine, they had some serious plans for it. They have been doing some renovations around the old home and without this cash, they can not even think about finishing the projects. If you could look around and of course ask around if anyone has turned in some lost cash then I would appreciate it.

Arabs lost 2.5 trillion dollars from credit crunch: Kuwait
Jan 16 04:30 PM US/Eastern

Arab investors have lost 2.5 trillion dollars from the credit crunch, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah, whose country hosts an Arab economic summit next week, said on Friday.

"The Arab world has lost 2.5 trillion dollars in the past four months" as a result of the global financial crisis, Sheikh Mohammad told a press conference following a joint meeting of Arab foreign and finance ministers in Kuwait.

He also said that about 60 percent of development projects "have either been postponed or cancelled" by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states because of the global meltdown. - Breitbart

I’m personally going to offer a five dollar reward if you find their lost wallet. Contact Papamoka right here if you find it or have information leading to the return of their home improvement money.

Papamoka

Saudi Arabia and Oil’s Future

Saudi Arabia does not fear the current drop in oil prices, matter of fact it tells them that the business needs to be reevaluated with intense scrutiny. 60 Minutes with Lesley Stahl did a great piece on what the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is doing to hedge their bets for the future of oil. According to the report, Saudi Arabia would like the price per barrel to be at $55 in order to support all of its production costs and government obligations.

They are bringing online two oil fields that will be able to supply close to three million barrels a day alone in 2009 with new technology that can find every last drop of oil in a field that would supply oil for the next fifty years. According to the piece, that is more oil per day than most Middle East countries can supply per day today. Lesley was able to get the gentleman in charge of the oil fields to admit that the cost to produce one barrel of oil all across the kingdom is less than $2 per barrel and yet the two fields they are opening up in 2009 they paid cash for at the richly sum of $60 Billion dollars.

Trust me, I am having no pity for the Saudi Oil Kingdom that sat back at the pool while the cost of a barrel of oil hit $147 per barrel. $147 dollars per barrel minus $2 production cost, then subtract say another $10 bucks per barrel for overhead and paying the kingdom heirs off for sucking the go go juice out leaves $135 per barrel pure profit! Multiply that profit by the number of barrels of oil they supply a day to the world and you have a disgusting amount of expendable cash. Or dare I say a savings account to pay for any new technology that serves their purpose and nations future.

I don’t begrudge them the mega gross profit they have received; I frankly admire them for repeating the P.T. Barnum business plan. If there was an American business that could earn that type of profit margin on any product and legally, I say legally for a reason, then all the power to them. What really scares me is the fact that Saudi Arabia is not being stupid with its profits and just spending away like drunken sailors on their first shore leave in six months. No offense to sailors, it was just an expression. Saudi Arabia is looking at wind power and solar power for its future offset when oil declines in use across the world. Saudi Arabia is looking at engineering the greenest fossil fuel engine the world has ever seen. Saudi Arabia is doing now what America should have done immediately after the oil embargo of the 1970’s and I have to applaud them for seeing the future need where most American industries do not.

Oil and gas prices are going to tank for the next few years and that cheap oil will pave the way for the decline in American and world research on expanding solar power technology, wind power technology, and every other alternative source to oil but the Saudi government is still going to toss hundreds of billions of dollars at these technologies every single year. From the spoils of this past energy crisis will go the investment and ability to continue the research that in a couple of decades will pay off enormously for the kingdom. Saudi Arabia in thirty years will be the largest exporter of green energy in the world simply because they invested in the technology today. That is the business plan that they are following and it is a damn good one! Maybe we in America should look at their plan and try to beat them to the moon so to speak.

When the cost of a gallon of gas is just $1.00 then where is the market for an alternative fuel that cost $3 for the same vehicle? When oil fed electric plants can produce a megawatt of power at two thirds the cost of a wind turbine then where is the market for wind power? Same goes for solar power and the list goes on for all the alternative energy initiatives when it comes right down to the cost of energy for the average consumer. It is a little disheartening but it is reality. Or am I wrong?

Papamoka

People vs. OPEC

I’m sure that all across corporate America in the executive offices of the CEO’s of all the big oil companies could be heard one phrase today.

“Ut Ohhhhh!”

Congress today passed legislation allowing the creation of banks of lawyers to sue the pants off of OPEC members and investigate price gouging by any company. Of course the Commander in Chief is against this kind of legislation. Who’d of thought that? Over at the New York Times they have this on the subject…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.
The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

"This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules -- instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities," said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation. - New York Times

When it comes to the scales of justice here in the States it is basically a foregone conclusion that big oil interest have heavily tipped the scales against consumers. It looks to me like we finally will get a break and the powers that be on the exchange markets that set the market price for oil should start investing in shredders.

I’d be willing to pick up a few document threshers if they would be willing to drop the price of oil down to around fifty or sixty bucks a barrel. If they loan me a hundred bucks to fill my tank then I’ll even deliver the shredders.

Papamoka

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King Abdullah to Bush… Screw You, Again!

On President Bush’s second trip to Saudi Arabia in four months time the King once more is not buying what Bush is selling. President Bush asked the King of Saudi Arabia to raise production to ease concerns over supply and the King basically told him that the Kingdom is meeting the supply needs of its customers and would not increase production. AKA… Go away little boy, you are bothering me and don’t know what you are talking about. Over at MSNBC they have this from the Associated Press on it…

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The White House said Friday that Saudi Arabia's leaders are making clear they see no reason to increase oil production until customers demand it.
President Bush was in the oil-rich country to appeal to King Abdullah for greater production to help halt rising gas prices in the United States.

But his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said Saudi officials stuck to their position that they already are meeting demand.

Gas Snippet…

When Bush met Abdullah in mid-January, the president also asked Saudi Arabia to raise production to ease high prices at the pump. But he got a chilly response to that plea. The kingdom said it would increase production only when the market justified it, and that production levels appeared normal.

Oil prices climbed to a new high Friday, above $127 a barrel. At the pump, gas prices rose to a national average of $3.78 per gallon, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Dem Snip to Da King…

Withhold weapons?

Also, as Bush prepared to leave Washington, Senate Democrats introduced a resolution that would block $1.4 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia unless Riyadh agrees to increase its oil production by 1 million barrels per day. The Democrats said they introduced the measure to coincide with Bush's trip to send a message to Saudi Arabia that it should pump more oil to reduce the cost of gas for Americans.

High energy costs are a major drain on the U.S. economy, which is experiencing a slowdown that some think is already a recession. Gasoline threatens to go to $4 a gallon this summer. - MSNBC

One of the things I hate to see, even though I detest George Bush, is a foreign nation telling him to screw. As an American it is my right to call him to task for what I believe are political mistakes and somewhat illegal moves on his part. It pisses me off to no end to see the King of Saudi Arabia basically tell the American people to screw. I would love to see a picture of the SOB telling my President “No!” with a smirk on his face. Then I could justify saying that the next time the House of Saud needs our American Military to defend their oil fields against a rogue dictator to go pound sand! Something the oil rich kingdom has plenty of so they will not run out of that commodity as well.

In this same article was a little piece about the stopping the fill of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Democrats pushing it through to Bush’s desk where he will sign the legislation. Something I’ve argued against as a fatal move to the future of our nations energy needs on my post here.

Stopping the SPR is a dumb idea and it fits right into the hand of the Saudi’s. 70,000 barrels a day is nothing to them when they can blink an eye and raise production ten times that amount per day. No, I think we have to face the facts that the Saudi government that used to be a friend to America is no longer a friend. In that respect I have no problem halting all military weapon sales to that former friend.

Makes you think that the boys on the Soprano’s would be better friends than the sheiks and Kings of the Middle East.

Pay attention, Hillary, Barack and Johnny Maverick, the friends your nation had yesterday are only as good as the threat they face from the dictatorship neighbors they have.

In the interest of fairness, if the Saudi’s are meeting the demand of their customers then who are their top customers? Is it China, is it India or Japan? Maybe it would be a wise thought to have an energy summit with the folks that are Saudi Arabia’s best customers and have a little chat? That is what I would do but I’m just a political writer.

Papamoka

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Bush Feels Your Pain at the Pump?

President Bush today let the American people know that he is right on top of things with the rising gas prices. Then again, no, he really didn’t. But he did acknowledge that it’s a problem for the working class of America. Then again, no, he really didn’t. I’m pretty sure he is really feeling the pain that we are all suffering but I’m also pretty sure that President Bush had his fingers crossed through the whole interview.

Over at MSNBC they had this to say on our distinguished “Deciderer” on the gouging at the pumps…

Bush: No quick fix for gas prices
President troubled by 'tax on working people'; to take look at proposals

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Monday that he's troubled by rising gas prices and will take a look at proposals to relieve the crisis but warned that there is no quick fix.

"It's been a while in the making and it's going to be a while that we solve the problem," Bush said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America." "We're too dependent on foreign oil and we need to be exploring more at home."

Bush said the rising cost of gas "troubles me a lot" because it is "like a tax on the working people."

Snippet…. Wait for the key phase!

He said he understands the pinch for working families and that some people will cut back on summertime travel. The federal tax rebate on the way to taxpayers will help, he said.

"One way to help solve it, of course, is by sending some of the money back. That's what's happening now as we speak. There's a rebate going back to the American people, which should help," Bush said. He reiterated his call for Congress to make permanent the tax cuts enacted during his administration. - MSNBC

This was classic Bush and his shiny object over here while I’m doing something else over here. Does the man think that the entire nation suffers from some form of attention deficit disorder?

Basically, his whole speech or interview could be translated into the following. Blah, blah, blah, gas prices, blah, blah, rebate checks, blah, blah, blah, but leave my tax cuts for the top two percent of income earners alone!

Maybe somebody should explain to the Nit Wit in Chief that the gas crisis is market driven and not a supply problem. Then while they are explaining that they could tell the deciderer that some of that market problem is directly linked to some little scuffle in the Middle East called the Iraq War that he started to settle a personal grudge! 4,000 plus U.S. Military dead but at least the crayon pusher at the White House got the guy that threatened to kill his daddy.

George Bush could care less if you can not afford to fill up your Chevy or Ford to get back and forth to work and why should he? He could care less if your family is about to have the lights shut off because the money is so tight these days that food just might be more important than paying the electric bill. All you people that are on fixed incomes are totally screwed if this sad excuse for an American President has any say in a pay raise of one or two percent in your Social Security check. You folks might as well sell your cars and think about canceling next winters idea about having heat in your home. In his mind your winter heating problem could be fixed by moving your sorry asses south where you don’t need heat in the winter! He is about as compassionate as a freaking rock! You might want to duck because the CEO of XYZ oil has this puppet boy President’s permission to smash all your windows and take all that they want from you.

I’ll be very clear that this President is on the take and his pockets are lined with the tears of the poorest American’s and those tears are not enough for him or his corporate buddies in the oil industry. Ten Billion in profits every three months isn’t enough for the number crunchers, they feed on greed and want more of what you no longer have. By the oil industry I’m also talking about all those fast talking salesman on Wall Street that are riding the fatted calf of oil with no care for their fellow man. Bush and company is all about full speed ahead till the Democrat’s derail the Republican business machine that takes no prisoners.

One has to give the Liar in Chief Bush credit, he has never wavered on the services he could provide to his business friends that put him in the White House. George Bush and Dick Cheney are very loyal to their friends, that is till the special prosecutors come looking. Bye Alberto, bye Scooter, bye…

Papamoka

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American Ingenuity on Oil’s Replacement

I’ve said it before on many posts on this site. The end of the strangle hold on America’s energy needs is nearing the end of the beginning. All of those back yard inventors of a better mouse trap when it comes to our fuel needs are coming out of the woodwork and the ones serious enough to believe in it will be successful.

One of the things I find interesting is that many of these backyard chemist, biologist, and guys that know how to work a mean wrench have on thing in common, not one of them thinks they will replace the Exxon’s of this world but they sure as hell will put a dent in their billion dollar profits year by year. And as these combined technologies all grow over time then the likes of Exxon will be the mega giant corporations that dared to think it was irreplaceable. Read more on this great article from Popular Science and Amanda Schaffer in the latest issue…

I’m watching this image on a computer screen at Amyris Biotechnologies in Emeryville, California, where one of the founders, biologist Jack Newman, is giving me a tour. The genetically manipulated E. coli before me are highly crafted units of industrial production, which Amyris is using to turn sugar into novel versions of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel—in other words, the fuels on which the world already runs. Amyris is one of a handful of young biofuel companies putting a brilliant and weird twist on the future of green. It’s betting that, with the help of bacteria, the long-term answer to our gasoline woes will actually be . . . gasoline.

Because as it stands, the main alternative to petroleum, ethanol (a type of alcohol), is fraught with problems. It can’t be pumped through current infrastructure because it tends to corrode pipelines. And according to University of Minnesota economist Jason Hill, even if all the corn grown in the U.S. were converted to ethanol, it would replace only some 12 percent of the 146 billion gallons of gasoline we use every year. Cellulosic ethanol—fuel produced from the cellulosic matter contained in plant stalks and stems rather than from seeds—would solve that problem, but the technology to produce it on a large scale is still a way off. Plus, ethanol simply isn’t as energy dense as petroleum-based fuels. - Popular Science

One of the things I find very warming to the spirit is that this research isn’t coming from the United States Government or sponsored by XYZ oil company. It’s coming from American’s with an attitude, American’s with a spirit and sense of what is right and what is wrong. It’s coming from a displaced sense of the American way of life. For the last eight years we as a people have been jerked around by circumstances beyond our control and if you know anything about Americans, we hate being told that the price of our greatest energy resource is beyond our control. That’s a tough pill to swallow and we American’s tend to hate having anything shoved down our throats. Even when it comes from within our own nation with the people we allow a free market to dictate prices.

This is an Energy Revolution and it is starting in garages, chemistry labs, brain storming sessions, and with individuals sick and tired of having the money they earned spent on fuels to run our vehicles or buying a gallon of milk for their families. That is an argument that will never be won when it comes to the hundreds of thousands of brilliant minds working today all across America to pretty much chuck the Middle East and all OPEC nations the bird.

This countries energy needs will pretty much be self reliant in twenty to thirty years. It’s not going to be easy and it isn’t something that can happen overnight or from any one technology. It will happen with one advancement at a time. Think of it as a slow strangling end to imported oil much like the horse and buggy day.

One last quote from the same Popular Science piece…

Before I leave, though, he shows me a painting he keeps in his office. It’s of a little boy leaping from one cliff to another across a chasm. The boy’s arms are stretched out. His head juts forward. “He isn’t even looking at the edge. He’s looking beyond the edge,” Reiling says. “He’s 100 percent committed to that jump. That’s what you’ve got to do when you’re going after something.”

You have my best wishes on success Amyris!

Papamoka

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W "Let Them Eat Cake"

Maybe President Bush is right, the world is a far safer place today. Terrorist attacks on America are down, terrorist attacks in England are somewhat down, terrorism is on the run simply because they just can’t afford to eat. W has saved us from the terrorists by stealing the vitality of the global economy off of our dinner tables. Way to go W! I think?

One of the things that most U.S. Presidents prior to W knew was that there is no solution to the Middle East quagmire. It’s been going on for thousands of years and it will still be going on thousands of years from now. In our nations quest for being safe we have opened the gates of hell when it comes to economics. Those that we thought were out to protect and defend our nations history and heritage masqueraded around in sheep’s clothing while they robbed the world of the innocent little Red Riding Hood. Adding the Constitution to it helped. It’s just a piece of paper that some drunken Deity believing King haters dreamed up so what is the big deal?

We are not alone in the world. The butterfly effect is in full force except now the butterfly is the size of Saudi Arabia and it fears not to beat its wings regardless of the consequences on the masses. That is how the world economy collapses. More on this over at Reuters…

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

BEIRUT (Reuters) - While Gulf Arab oil producers reap windfall earnings, their poorer cousins elsewhere in the Arab world are struggling with soaring energy and food bills.
Inflation has surged in Gulf countries, fuelled partly by lavish spending of record oil and gas revenues. This is also spurring demand for everything from housing to power and water.

Gulf states with currencies pegged to the dollar have also been hit by the global weakness of the U.S. currency, which is driving inflation by making some imports more expensive.
But wrestling with rising prices is a grimmer business in Arab capitals not cushioned by oil wealth. From Cairo in Egypt to Sanaa in Yemen, mostly authoritarian governments have to weigh the fiscal costs of subsidizing fuel and food against the explosive political risks of social discontent.

"Nothing's inexpensive any more," griped Jihad al-Amin, who owns a dry-cleaning store in Damascus, Syria. "Even parsley, which has been dirt cheap for as long as I can remember, has tripled."

Food price rises hit the poor hardest in the Middle East, as in other food-importing developing countries around the world, but any instability here could ripple far beyond the region. - Reuters

Maybe we should face the facts that Bush is right? If you give enough free rain on the market and trust the mega capitalist to trickle down the wealth then maybe those of us down on the bottom might get something. The key word in that last sentence was something. Exhaust fumes from a passing motorcade is something so stop your gripping.

It isn’t wrong to think that America may be on the verge of a coming revolution. Just as in the time period prior to the first American Revolution there was a King that imposed one tax after another that people stood up to and had said taxes repealed. Although we no longer have a King we have a President ignorant of his peoples needs, wishes and dreams. That is not acceptable.

If given the choice of thought processes I don’t think it is a far reach that the current President is no longer in charge of his nation. He has deregulated his authority as President to the brokers of business on Wall Street and sold out the office he swore to uphold. While he sat idle while millions lost there homes he staid the course. While his nations food prices erupted out of control, he staid the course. While our nations military begged for better equipment to defend themselves and fight with he staid the course. While his people went under he sipped his drink and looked the other way because those that lead him detracted him from his people.

George Bush is guilty of ignoring his people and God help anyone that dares to follow in his footsteps. That path is laid with madness and betrayal of your people. Patriotism and starvation are something that American’s are not afraid of but they will fight and vote for one or the other, not both. George Bush has played his game out and divided his people so much that they are against one another fighting over being a patriot or starving. Meanwhile the record Billion Dollar profits are being talked about as if it is business as usual. That is how Revolutions start! You don’t flash mega bonuses to a man that’s family is broken, busted, down and out and can barely afford the weeks food bill. It all comes down to the masses and providing for their families. That is what W will never understand.

One thing is certain in the next President of the United States of America. You will have a broken nation to mend and that process does not start out thousands of miles from our shores. It starts out here at home. Americans do not just eat cake!

Papamoka

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Saudi Arabia... Screw You Wall Street!

There is not one person that knows the oil business better than the folks in Saudi Arabia when it comes to supply and demand on the world oil market. Even Saudi Arabia is wondering how the world of oil market speculation has the price of a barrel of oil tempting at the hundred dollar mark. With that thought in mind the nation of Saudi Arabia is exploring for new oil fields with all of the new technology available to ramp up production thus saying to oil market speculators in the market, SCREW YOU!

Wall Street can play the game and pocket the cash but I’m thinking that the producers of oil in the world are looking at the bigger picture and alternative energy sources are more than attractive with oil at one hundred dollars a barrel. That is and will be a direct effect to the bottom line of all oil producing exporting countries, aka OPEC. Oil has only been the main source of heating and vehicle power because it was cheap and affordable to the masses. That is no longer the case.

Then again, I have to give the nation of Saudi Arabia credit for bumping up the supply to offset the non stop rumor mills on Wall Street that speculate that the oil supply to the world is limited thus driving the price up into Never Never land. Peter Pan and Tinker Bell have nothing to worry about as long as Wall Street believes in Fairies and an oil market with a supply problem. Over at the Washington Post they have this amazing post on this very subject…

Saudi Arabia Works the Vast Desert To Pump Out More High-Quality Oil

By Steven MufsonWashington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 17, 2007; Page D01

SHAYBAH, Saudi Arabia -- For a decade, Hussain al-Obaid has been working in the soft red dunes that stretch across the vast desert known as Rub al-Khali, or the Empty Quarter. In summer, temperatures climb as high as 130 degrees and sandstorm winds gust up to 80 mph, though on a mild fall evening the stars shine and the air is mild.

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa, Obaid is the engineering superintendent of a project that pumps half a million barrels of crude oil a day from beneath the sand and delivers it through a 400-mile pipeline. The oil is some of the world's purest, highest-quality crude, easily refined into gasoline.

To complete the project, construction crews built a road across the desert and moved 100 million cubic feet of sand to make way for an airplane runway.

Next year, Saudi Aramco, the state oil company, plans to boost production by 250,000 barrels a day, one step in an effort to expand the kingdom's oil-production capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day from the 11.3 million barrels. The new production is part of a strategy that could ease market tension and is designed to preserve Saudi Arabia's ability to produce 1.5 million to 2 million barrels a day more than its actual output in the face of rising world oil demand, said a senior Saudi Oil Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Tell me of any other country that's made commitments this broad on its own," Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the deputy minister of petroleum and natural resources, said during preparations for this weekend's summit of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. "We are the only country with a policy of maintaining excess capacity."

Snip-sa-doozey

… it costs Saudi Arabia about $2 to produce a barrel of oil. Developing new fields is also cheap, he said, running about a quarter or less of exploration and development costs elsewhere. - Washington Post

Unless the Washington Post is making things up… Did that say $2 cost to produce a barrel of oil? Where else in the world can you get a cost to market price mark up like that? This sort of thing only happens when the market is let loose to run wild and around the corner is the market crash. That is where the end of the line is because the bottom of this feeding frenzy is the consumer all around the world and when they can no longer afford the product they will not buy it.

Thus is the major investment in renewable energy like wind power, solar power and of course Ethanol or bio fuels. That is why Saudi Arabia is ramping up production. It is in fact to the better interest of the Kingdom for the price of their product to be affordable. Where President Bush sees a free market the Saudi’s see a market out of control that will eventually threaten the bottom line of their nation.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the oil market is raping the market. What it takes to offset the overblown cost of oil is chemists and creative minds to invent alternatives to oil that will make that profit driven market as much as yesterdays news as whale oil is for lighting your home at night. That process has already begun.

Papamoka

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George Orwell was Right!

Picture courtesy of The White House

Now that President Cheney… I mean Bush, has the nation firmly embracing the mentality of fear in his roll as Big Brother… I mean as our President, we should all sleep better at night. Snug in our beds while surveillance cameras keep a watchful eye out for terrorists committing acts of terror and running a yellow light at three in the morning.

Billions of tax dollars are being wasted by the Department of Homeland Security with a vast conspiracy theory that everywhere you look the terrorists are going to pop out and get you. The Boogie Man could only have dreamed of having a public relations campaign like these guys have worked up.

With FDR rolling over in his grave at a couple of thousand RPM’s a minute, Bush has succeeded in making us all for the most part live in fear simply because he thinks that we should. The only thing we have to fear is…(insert Bush tag line here) __________!

Over at the Boston Globe they have this interesting point of our governments efforts to protect us all…

US doles out millions for street cameras
Local efforts raise privacy alarms

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff August 12, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security is funneling millions of dollars to local governments nationwide for purchasing high-tech video camera networks, accelerating the rise of a "surveillance society" in which the sense of freedom that stems from being anonymous in public will be lost, privacy rights advocates warn.

Snip

In the last month, cities that have moved forward on plans for surveillance networks financed by the Homeland Security Department include St. Paul, which got a $1.2 million grant for 60 cameras for downtown; Madison, Wis., which is buying a 32-camera network with a $388,000 grant; and Pittsburgh, which is adding 83 cameras to its downtown with a $2.58 million grant.

Small towns are also getting their share of the federal money for surveillance to thwart crime and terrorism.

Recent examples include Liberty, Kan. (population 95), which accepted a federal grant to install a $5,000 G2 Sentinel camera in its park, and Scottsbluff, Neb. (population 14,000), where police used a $180,000 Homeland Security Department grant to purchase four closed-circuit digital cameras and two monitors, a system originally designed for Times Square in New York City. - Boston Globe

This story reminds me of yet another one from ten or twenty years ago where the FBI infiltrated a local KKK organization to keep an eye on them. While the surveillance went on for months it was later reported that in the local group that they were keeping a close eye on there was actually only one or two members that were not undercover FBI agents. My point in mentioning this little story is that whenever we put total trust in our agencies to protect us they inevitably screw it up or are over zealous with their efforts.

I’ve always been a firm believer that there is no better deterrent to crime than a person in a police uniform patrolling the community we live in. Pick a city or pick a state and where there is a strong police presence crime goes down. There is not a camera out there that will ever stop a crime from happening but a uniformed police officer can. All of the money that Homeland Security spends on surveillance cameras on our streets could actually pay for several years worth of police officers salaries.

What’s next on the Bush/Cheney doctrine to protect us from the terrorists is American Blue and Grey uniforms so authorities can more easily spot the terrorists amongst us. If George Orwell only knew.

Papamoka

Cross posted at Gun Toting Liberal

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