Oh ! Burhma ! Now you’re aiding terrorists !
You probably shipped an bunch of radical muslims over in those containers and dont even know it.

JMJ

No way. I can’t believe you just said that.

So Micky, you’re saying that we should close down the oil commodities exchanges in the US (and de facto Britain)??? Gee, and all this time I thought you were a laizzez faire capitalist! LOL!

Shall we nationalize our oil? Why not? It does follow your logic.

Look, Micky, don’t turn into a liberal on me, you’ll freak out the order of nature.

JMJ

The point is that we should try to free ourselves of that scenario and produce our own oil to be traded by no one.
Why do you think some countries are only paying 5 cents or 15 cents a gallon.
I think we can all agree that there is no shortage of gas. But since prices are being jacked up by traders and speculators who are basically the middle men I think actually producing our own product would side step that transaction.
Before sugar went down in Hawaii we used to pay more for a pound here than they did in Cal. Why ? Because the refinery was in Cal and the sugar got shipped back and forth. Anytime you start moving a product around it gives opportunity for others to impose whatever means upon it.
Why are you Dems against drilling. How can it hurt not to have our own reserves if it cuts our dependence down even say 10 or 15% ?.
The less dependence the better, right ?
Hell you guys should be happy. That lack of dependence would cut our reasons for being in the middle east in half.
Then you couldn’t run around crying “blood for oil” all the time.
That was the main bitch coming outta liberals when we invaded Iraq, wasn’t it ?
Well ? Where is all this oil we were supposedly after ?
Right now the Sunni and the Shia are fighting over it. So I hardly see it as belonging to us.

I’ve was the tourist business for 30 years and met more people from around the world in one month than you have in your whole life and my numbers say that about 1 in 5 of the people from around the world feel the way you say they do about our country and its republican leadership.
How long have you been out of the container business ? And how long has Bush been in office ? Where you actually able to come across anyone who ha any sentiments about an administration that was not in place yet ?
In getting to know you for a year now I don’t believe you were there during any Bush administration.
I have to be able to take your word in order to believe you or the conversation looses its purpose. My purpose would be to find an answer and try to see who’s right or wrong.
We need it all. Renewable’s, alternatives, nuke , solar , oil etc.
There is no absolute one “save us all” energy out there.
With this in mind its best that those who are hung on being right or some kind hero take a hike and get lost because they are going to of no help when this country’s financial infrastructure and peoples lifestyles begin to decline.

And since you yourself said that your Brit friends opinion was not worth too much how can ones opinion from Rangoon seem to matter too much either ?
In Rangoon it was most likely the Christian fundies that were paying the freight. Your wages.

If oil is a globally traded commodity, and we have only 3% of the reserves but demand 25% of the oil, then we can drill all we want but the price will barely be affected.

Basic arithmetic, man. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. All this drilling nonsense is just political bait for the common schmucks who love easy - and usually wrong - answers to their problems.

And please stop personalizing something you obviously know nothing about. I dealt with people on the phone, on the email, and in person - mostly on the phone. For years my job was to assist people in clearing customs, the USDA, and freight obligations. I developed a reputation as the best in the biz and had personal relationships with hundreds of clients. I dealt with people from all over the world everyday. Our services included up to everything - from the “door,” as we call it, in Rangoon, for example, to the door in Topeka, and everywhere in between. The only people who liked Bush were the very wealthy and loony Christian fundies.

JMJ

I can argue it, and I can even make good sense out of the whole thing.
But libs will argue, non the wiser.
If we drilled for what we are capable of drilling and reserving it would simply be that much less that we depended on others for.
Especially since its proven that the oil is there , its just that the moonbats want us to drill where there is none or where we havent discovered any yet.
You say its our dependcence on oil itself and not our dependence on foreign oil thats the problem.
Well geee, duh !
If we drilled our own we wouldnt be dependent on others for our dependence.
World prices are not so much an issue as prices are here at home. Ask the Iraqis who pay 0.5 cents a gallon.
So that blows your deceptive approach to this as a world problem for us away and brings it back to the real problem which is that WE ARE dependent on oil from the rest of the world and that it goes to the center of many of our problems.
But of course moonbats expect us to just pick up overnight and start using generators attached to our excersisie bikes and power everything like hamsters in a wheel.

Yea thats right ! If Clinton had drilled ten years ago it would be that much more less that we have to worry about today. But no ! Libs and environmentalist have been standing in the way of every drilling project mentioned saying it will not help us at the pump.
Of course it will.
Anyone with a basic knowledge (never mind parochial) of business knows that once we start announcing that we will be drilling and using our own reserves the others will drop their prices in hopes that we dont follow through. And when we do follow through they will let their prices remain low so they can still be competitive.
What we do today most certainly will not hurt us tommoroww. But this precaution will prove usefull because the reserves are actually there. Not some imaginary disaster like Global warming where there is no truth that the crap implemented on on us know will help in the future.
Drilling is guaranteed to help us in the future.
Also, all the monies being put into subsidies and grants for bio fuels should yanked, taken away from corn farmers, immediatley !
This would free up a lot of money for investing into reserch for other fuels and it would bring down the cost of food right away. This would help to off set ther cost of fuel.

You went door to door throughout the world ?
And no, I dont by your BS about your Brit friend. Since when do dems think that Europeans critique of American politics wasnt valid ?
You guys are always saying we need to be more like them.
Well, then let us put up some nukes !!

Yes Micky. That was my point. Comparing Sarkozy or Brown or Berlusconi or Merckel with Bush is inane at best. It’s like a Monty Python sketch.

Micky, I worked for two of the largest container lines in the world, with ports of call spanning every continent but Antarctica, every ship with thousands of containers, and customers everywhere, even from door to door, throughout all the world. I’ve spoken to an awful lot of people - you American conservatives are a unique breed.

JMJ

And this. This from a man of the investment biz. Amazing.

Anyone with even a parochial knowledge of world markets knows that the difference between US production and US consumption is such that US oil producers have no effect almost whatsoever on world oil prices. Drill ing virtually nothing. Our dependence on foreign oil is not nor never was the problem - It’s our dependence on oil itself that is the problem. The Neocons allow for the profiteer of oil to death - its and ours - without any concern at all for the consumers gouged at the alter of personal profits for a minority of people who would do such a thing. Drilling does nothing and I hereby right now dare anyone to honestly argue me otherwise.

JMJ

Yea, I worked for All American and we brought in furniture from all over the world and shipped it out across the states. But tthe guys who aorked in the containers rarely ever met any of the buyers or sellers.
Just about all 40 and 60 ft. cantainers cant help but be involced in international trade when youre on the east or west coast.
Trust me Mr McJones. If anyone in this world knows what a container line is its me.
Everything we get in this state comes out of a container and we are all too familiar with the goings on in the container industries. I ‘ve worked with the shipping lines Matson etc. And very few of those people actually ever do any trading, the container lines simply move the stuff and rarely contact anyone on the other end.
If you were into marketing or some kind of salea scouting I could see you actually dealing directly with importers.
For a longshoreman to say hes involved in foreign trade is a little bit of a stretch.
I’m sorry but you have said four or five tiimes now that worked with containers for a while ( hauling recyclables was your specialty if I remember correctly)
Now all of a sudden you’re an expert on foreign trade because you worked in container lines.
Sorry if I have a hard time swallowing your grandios claims.

Your brit friend may think Bush is a shmuck but why dont you ask him what the terror threat is like in his country ?

The point I was making is that you can’t apply the results of foreign elections to US politics, especially those among First World competitors. And British conservative is not the same as an American conservative is not the same as an Italian conservative, etc. Heck, in Europe, you guys are called Neoliberals - NOT conservatives.

JMJ