Seems every day there’s a whole new excuse for gas prices to rise.

Gas jumps above $3.67, oil passes $126 on Venezuela concerns

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil rose above $126 a barrel for the first time Friday, bringing its advance this week to nearly $10, as investors questioned whether a possible confrontation between the U.S. and Venezuela could cut exports from the OPEC member. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose above an average $3.67 a gallon at the pump, following oil’s recent path higher.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal published a report that suggested closer ties between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and rebels attempting to overthrow Colombia’s government. Chavez has been linked to Colombian rebels previously, but the paper reported it had reviewed computer files indicating concrete offers by Venezuela’s leader to arm guerillas. That appears to heighten the chances that the U.S. could impose sanctions on one of its biggest oil suppliers.

“If we put on sanctions, I’m sure Chavez would threaten to cut off our oil supply,” said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. “Obviously that would have a major impact on oil prices.”

If it’s a fair election, and it’s what the majority of Venezuelans want, then I have no problem with it. It’s their business.

But, you have to admit, Chavez is not the most stable leader going. Monday may prove to be the beginning of (even more so) bad times at the ol’ gas pump.

Chavez Backers Rally for Charter Changes

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez urged supporters Friday to approve constitutional changes that he said could keep him in power for life and threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States if it tries to meddle in Sunday’s vote.
[...]

“If ‘Yes’ wins on Sunday and the Venezuelan oligarchy, the violent Venezuelans - the ones who play the (U.S.) empire’s game - unleash violence with the tale that there was fraud … minister, that very Monday you order a halt to the shipments of oil to the United States,” Chavez said, addressing his oil minister, Rafael Ramirez.

Venezuela was the fourth largest oil exporter to the United States in 2006.

Halting exports to the U.S., the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil, would cut off a major source of income for the Venezuelan government.

I think we can relate. Seven years ago, they gave us an election. And all we got out of it was a worthless president!

It’s all starting to make sense though. Sounds like Chimperz wants to put our currency on par with how he feels about our Constitution.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that OPEC’s members have expressed interest in converting their cash reserves into a currency other than the depreciating U.S. dollar, which he called a “worthless piece of paper.”
[...]

“All participating leaders showed an interest in changing their hard currency reserves to a credible hard currency,” Ahmadinejad said. “Some said producing countries should designate a single hard currency aside from the U.S. dollar … to form the basis of our oil trade.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez echoed this sentiment Sunday on the sidelines of the summit, saying “the empire of the dollar has to end.”

“Don-t you see how the dollar has been in free-fall without a parachute?” Chavez said, calling the euro a better option.

You may want to invest in one. It might end up being a very cold winter ahead of us.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday that oil prices could more than double to $200 per barrel if the United States attacked Iran over a standoff about Tehran’s nuclear program.

“If the United States is crazy enough to attack Iran or commit aggression against Venezuela … oil would not be $100 but $200,” Chavez told an OPEC summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh. His remarks were translated into Arabic.

By Saul Hudson
Reuters

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez wants Venezuelan clocks turned back half an hour and he wants it done in record time — next Monday.

“I don’t care if they call me crazy, the new time will go ahead, let them call me whatever they want,” Chavez said on his weekly TV show. “I’m not to blame. I received a recommendation and said I liked the idea.”

The shift will allow children to wake up for school in daylight instead of before sunrise, Chavez said.

That may seem reasonable to many Venezuelans but ordering the change with little notice and scant public education has raised questions over how much thought was given to the plan.

It also highlights how the anti-U.S. president’s governing style can sometimes be eccentric, improvised and rushed in his self’styled revolution to turn one of the world’s biggest oil exporters into a socialist state.

Chavez himself has not had time to get to grips with the practicalities of the clock shift.

read more HERE

Washington, DC: A new paper from the Center for Economic and Policy Research looks at the Venezuelan economy during the last eight years and finds that it does not fit the mold of an “oil boom headed for a bust,” as is commonly believed.

“There’s no obvious end in sight for Venezuela’s current economic expansion,” said economist Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and co-author of the paper “The Venezuelan Economy in the Chavez Years.”

The paper notes that Venezuela’s economy was wracked by political instability for the first four years of President Hugo Chavez’s tenure, but has grown steadily and rapidly over the last four years, after political stability returned to the country following the oil strike of December 2002 to February 2003.

Since the bottom of that downturn in the first quarter of 2003, Venezuela’s real GDP has grown by 76 percent.

Moreover, the private sector is still a larger share of the economy than it was before President Chavez took office.

More at VenezuelanAnalysis.com

By Stephen Lendman

On June 27, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal vied for attention with feature stories on oil giants ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips “walking away from their multi-billion-dollar investments in Venezuela” as the Journal put it or standing “Defiant in Venezuela” as the Times headlined. Both papers can barely contain their displeasure over Hugo Chavez wanting Venezuela to have majority ownership of its own assets and no longer let Big (foreign) Oil investors plunder them. Those days are over. State oil company PDVSA is now majority shareholder with a 78% interest in four Orinoco joint ventures. That’s up from previous stakes of from 30 to 49.9%. That’s how it should be, but it can-t stop the Journal and Times from whining about it.

What ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips reject, oil giants Chevron, BP PLC, Total SA and Statoil ASA agreed to. They-re willing to accept less of a huge profit they-ll get by staying instead of none at all by pouting and walking away as their US counterparts did. Or did they? The Wall Street Journal reports “Conoco isn-t throwing in the towel in Venezuela yet. By not signing a deal, the Houston company kept open the option of pursuing compensation through arbitration.” Exxon, however, is mum on that option for now. Responding to Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez saying the two oil giants will lose their stakes in the Orinoco oil fields altogether, a company spokesperson expressed “disappoint(ment) that we have been unable to reach an agreement on the terms for migration to a mixed enterprise structure (but will) continue discussions with the Venezuelan government on a way forward.”

Continue reading at Thomas Paine’s Corner

Is it just me or is Rudy talking out of both sides of his mouth? He says Chavez is a danger to the United States, yet, his law firm represents U.S. subsidiaries in Chavez’s companies.

WASHINGTON - Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, whose law firm represents an American subsidiary of a Hugo Chavez-controlled oil company, said Tuesday that the socialist Venezuelan president is dangerous to U.S. interests.

In a speech to Hispanic small business leaders, the Republican brought up Chavez while discussing ways the United States could become free from its reliance on foreign oil.

“Isn’t it annoying, upsetting and even in some cases a matter of national security that we have to send money to our enemies?” Giuliani asked. “We need a president who knows how to get things done so we don’t have to be sending money to Chavez.”

Giuliani called for the United States to develop alternative energy sources and take advantage of oil already in its control. He said that antagonistic leaders of oil-rich nations, like Chavez,
would have “little power” if the United States could stop buying oil from them.

“Who would listen to Chavez if he didn’t have all this oil money? Nobody would listen to him,” Giuliani said.

He said Chavez’s social programs and those of Cuban leader Fidel Castro “keep people in poverty” and “keep people dependent.”

Giuliani argued that “astounding” unemployment levels show that the Venezuelan president isn’t using his oil revenues to help his own countrymen.

More at YAHOO! NEWS

PUERTO PIRITU, Venezuela (Reuters) — President Hugo Chavez’s government took over Venezuela’s last remaining privately run oil fields Tuesday, intensifying a decisive struggle with Big Oil over one of the world’s most lucrative deposits.

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez declared that the oil fields had reverted to state control just after midnight. Television footage showed workers in hard hats raising the flags of Venezuela and the national oil company at a refinery and four drilling fields in the oil-rich Orinoco River basin. Chavez planned a more elaborate celebration Tuesday afternoon with red-clad oil workers, soldiers and a fly over by Russian-made fighter jets.

The companies ceding control include BP Plc (Charts), ConocoPhillips (Charts, Fortune 500), Exxon Mobil (Charts, Fortune 500)., Chevron (Charts, Fortune 500), France’s Total SA (Charts) and Norway’s Statoil ASA (Charts). All but ConocoPhillips have agreed in principle to state control, and Venezuela has warned it may expropriate that company’s assets if it doesn’t follow suit.

Despite the fanfare, these companies remain locked in a behind-the’scenes struggle with the Chavez government, and appear to be taking a decisive stand, demanding conditions - and presumably compensation - to convince them that Venezuela will continue to be good business.

More at CNN

From YahooNews:

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez announced Monday he would formally pull Venezuela out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a largely symbolic move because the nation has already paid off its debts to the lending institutions.

“We will no longer have to go to Washington nor to the IMF nor to the World Bank, not to anyone,” said the leftist leader, who has long railed against the Washington-based lending institutions.

Chavez said he wanted to formalize Venezuela’s exit from the two bodies “tonight and ask them to return what they owe us.”

Venezuela recently repaid its debts to the World Bank five years ahead of schedule, saving $8 million. It paid off all its debts to the IMF shortly after Chavez first took office in 1999. The IMF closed its offices in Venezuela late last year.

Chavez made the announcement a day after telling a meeting of allied leaders that Latin America overall would be better off without the U.S.-backed World Bank or IMF. He has often blamed their lending policies for perpetuating poverty.

The leftist president also has repeatedly criticized past Venezuelan governments for signing structural adjustment agreements with the IMF that were blamed for contributing to racing inflation.

Under former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez in 1989, violent protests broke out in Caracas in response to IMF austerity measures that brought a hike in subsidized gasoline prices and public transport fares.

Enraged people took over the streets in violence that killed at least 300 people - and possibly many more. The riots came to be known as the “Caracazo,” and Chavez often refers to it as a rebellion against the status quo.

“…a devil, a donkey and a drunkard.” -Hugo Chavez, referring to president Bush

Of course Hugo didn’t really mean this. He was going for “Satan, an ass and a boozehound.”

WashingtonPost.com:

Chavez Says Attacks on Bush Not Personal

CARACAS, Venezuela – Hugo Chavez has called President Bush a devil, a donkey and a drunkard. But on Wednesday the Venezuelan leader said his comments were “nothing personal.”

Chavez, who had stepped up his verbal assault during Bush’s Latin American tour this week, suggested that the two adversaries might eventually overcome their differences and even play a game of dominos or baseball together.

“One day, if maybe George Bush and I survive all of this, we will reach old age, and it would be good to play a game of dominos, street baseball,” Chavez said on his weekday radio program.

But he said his comments about the American leader were “nothing personal” and that his opposition to Bush was due to “deep ethical, political, historic and geopolitical” reasons.

This has nothing to do with him being a “threat to democracies in the region.” It has to do with him taking majority control of the oil projects in the Orinoco River basin by May 1. Are we looking at another conflict to protect the interests of British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips?

WASHINGTON: High-ranking US officials and lawmakers are pressuring the State Department to take a more punishing tone with Venezuela, at the risk of tossing “red meat” to President Hugo Chavez, who now rules by decree, experts told Agence France-Presse.

The US State Department’s top Latin-America diplomat, Tom Shannon, who for the past year has taken a moderate tack with Venezuela “is under pressure from within the administration and from Congress,” said Michael Shifter, vice-president of the Inter American Dialogue, a Washington think tank.

“Frustration is high in Washington about what Chavez is doing,” said Shifter, after the incoming number two at the State Department, John Negroponte, broke with Shannon’s diplomatic tack on Tuesday to hit out at Chavez.

Negroponte said Chavez “has been trying to export his kind of radical populism and I think that his behavior is threatening to democracies in the region.”

Daniel Restrepo, of the Center for American Prog­ress, said that pressure on Venezuela would rise with Negroponte in the State Department, and that members of Congress of both parties are also looking “for a way to challenge Chavez.”

Even before Negroponte’s statements on Tuesday, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Chavez a threat to the United States, alongside al-Qaeda, Iran and North Korea.

Continue reading here

Here lies the problem:

Any foreign oil company that resists the nationalization, under which the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA would take a stake of “no less 60 percent,” can leave, Chavez said.

The president said the private companies affected — British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA — would be given the option to stay on as minority partners.

Will we war for the oil in Venezuela?

Caracas, Venezuela · President Hugo Chavez dismissed Washington’s concerns that Venezuela’s democracy is under threat, saying a “dictatorship” led by President Bush poses a true threat to democracy around the world.

Condemning the war in Iraq, the Venezuelan leader said that Bush and John Negroponte, a former director of national intelligence who is designated for the No. 2 position in the State Department, should be tried for war crimes committed by the U.S. military across the globe.

“The two of them are criminals. They should be tried and thrown in prison for the rest of their days,” Chavez told a news conference Thursday.

Read more at the Sun Sentinel

If the man lived to be a thousand years old, it would be worth it just to PISS THESE PEOPLE OFF!

Castro up and talking in new Cuban video

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) – Cuban television Tuesday broadcast scenes of what it said was ailing leader Fidel Castro meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The only indication of a date on the video was a copy of Saturday’s edition of the Argentine newspaper Clarin, which Chavez carried.

The 80-year-old Castro, who has ruled Cuba since the 1959 communist revolution he led, ceded power to his brother Raul in late July before undergoing intestinal surgery.

Castro has not been seen in public or on video since October, and the Cuban government has maintained secrecy about his condition, giving rise to widespread speculation about his fate.

Chavez told the Cuban state television program “Roundtable” that Castro was in a good mood and looked well Monday during their meeting.

The scenes that aired Tuesday showed Castro, dressed in a track suit, talking with Chavez, a close ally. The Cuban leader was shot from the waist up and could be seen standing but not walking.

Chavez said they spent two hours discussing various topics, including “the threats of the empire” — a reference to the United States.

Earlier this month, the Spanish newspaper El Pais quoted unnamed medical sources saying Castro was in grave condition.

A Spanish surgeon, who had visited Castro in December and works at the same hospital as the sources, dismissed the report and said Castro’s current condition shows “some progressive improvement.”

Source: CNN.com

h/t to ‘QvQ’ for this post!!!

CARACAS, Venezuela — Hugo Chavez has just about everything a president could want: popular support, a marginalized opposition, congress firmly on his side and a booming economy as he starts his new six-year term.

Now, he’s about to become even more powerful — the all-Chavista National Assembly is poised to approve a “mother law” as early as Wednesday enabling him to remake society by presidential decree. In its latest draft, the law would allow Chavez to dictate measures for 18 months in 11 broad areas, from the “economic and social sphere” to the “transformation of state institutions.”

Chavez calls it a new era of “maximum revolution,” setting the tone for months of upheaval as he plans to nationalize companies, impose new taxes on the rich and reorient schools to teach socialist values. With near-religious fervor and plenty of oil wealth, Chavez is mobilizing millions of Venezuelans, intent on creating a more egalitarian society.

Already, profound changes can be seen throughout Venezuela. Those who felt left out of the old system are thrilled at the prospect of having a voice in politics. Others are horrified, predicting that doors will close on their personal freedoms under one-man rule, although exactly what Chavez will do with his power remains unclear.

On a floodlit playground, neighbors meeting to discuss the new mechanics of power are feeling empowered by Chavez. As participants in a new Communal Council, they will get a direct say in spending on projects from public housing to better electricity to fixing potholes — decisions previously made by local governments.

Read more at NCTimes