Drill Here, Drill Now

If there ever was an argument for 'Drill here, drill now...' that the Republicans chanted during their convention, or the protesters chanted during an event attended by Speaker Pelosi during the Democratic convention, it is a single human being - Hugo Chavez Frias, the President/Autocrat (I won't say dictator just yet) of Venezuela.

As I've said before in posts, Chavez thumbs his nose at the US every chance he gets, and he can do it with money that we supply him thanks to our dependence on Venezuelan oil. Sure, it's not the percentage of oil this country imports (Canada is tops), but it does account for 60% of Venezuela's oil exports. And as we all know, oil is king in Venezuela as far as source of revenue for the government. So the oil we import from Venezuela feeds the corrupt political system with Chavez at the helm.

For instance - the scandal where Venezuelan operatives were caught attempting to smuggle a suitcase with $800,000 into Argentina (with another $4.2 million possibly aboard) came from Venezuela's oil company PDVSA thanks to you and me who buy gas.

Not enough? Now, there are allegations on the same tapes used to prosecute the above case in Miami that Chavez' government attempted to bribe nations to vote for Venezuela when a seat became available on the UN Security Council. (BTW, this guy's blog is very good and very current on what's happening in Venezuela - it's a great read. He's a financial expert who I believe I've seen quoted on Bloomberg regarding Venezuelan economic issues.)

And so, with impunity Chavez can run his mouth (I wonder if he's auditioning for an Orbitz commercial), and expel the US ambassador and play war games with Russia and buy billions of dollars of weaponry all at the expense of the US. (Sorry Mr. Wright, I know that's probably a run-on sentence.)

So to Speaker Pelosi, all Senators and Representatives, and the future President of this United States please, please, please - DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW!!!!! Yeah, we won't reap the benefits of an immediate drop in the price of gas, but we could replace or reduce or demand for Venezuelan oil, and stop sending as much money to Chavez. Besides, he's on a trip now to China to explore shipping more oil there to replace the US as a buyer.