texasshoe previously said:

HiHater said;

"About Venezuela, you should care because they are neighbors and fellow latinos, but to each his own. I think hugo had it right at first, the US was heavily indebting the country as owned most of their resources (no surpirse there). Yet he definitely went overboard, too radical and idiotic at times yet at times the US does need a good counter balance and when that counter is from your third largest supplier of oil it gives you some certain leverage. Venezuela is a regional player like it or not."

That is not true about the resources. Under president Perez they (Venezuela) had an opening of the oil sector in which international companies could participate in the infrastructure of the energy sector. 4 large projects were built on the northeast coast of Venezuela in the Cryogenic Complex outside of Barcelona. The highest percentage of ownership by a foriegn company was 50% which was at the Petrozuata upgrader, the partnership was Conoco and PDVSA, the next one built was SINCOR and that was 37% by Total, 37% PDVSAand 26% Statoil, the third and fourth were constructed during the same time period, Hamaca and Cerro Negro. Hamaca was Exxon, PDVSA, Cerro Negro was Mobil, PDVSA and Veba. What the international companies owned was the technology in the facilities and payments from the government (PDVSA) were made in the form of semi-refined products to the oil companies for the investments in the facilities. Almost all of the upgraders cost in excess of 3 1/2 billion US. If you look at the companies involved, Conoco and ExxonMobil are the only US companies involved. Total is French, Statoil is from Norway and Veba is German. The largest support company to PDVSA in the country was Schlumberger which is also French. Even during the opening of the energy sector PDVSA maintained ownership of the crude reserves but foriegn companies were allowed to invest and recieve payments in products. From 1999 until 2005 I worked in the Crigenic Complex at Petrozuata and SINCOR.

The vast gold reserves are located in the State of Bolivar at Las Cristinas mine and it has not been exploited in a number of years and the last company that won the concession and had it revoked recently was Crystalex a Canadian company. I guess what I am getting to is there is, or was, a very large international presence in Venezuela but non-US companies made up the bulk of the investments.

texasshoe previously said:

HiHater said;

"About Venezuela, you should care because they are neighbors and fellow latinos, but to each his own. I think hugo had it right at first, the US was heavily indebting the country as owned most of their resources (no surpirse there). Yet he definitely went overboard, too radical and idiotic at times yet at times the US does need a good counter balance and when that counter is from your third largest supplier of oil it gives you some certain leverage. Venezuela is a regional player like it or not."

That is not true about the resources. Under president Perez they (Venezuela) had an opening of the oil sector in which international companies could participate in the infrastructure of the energy sector. 4 large projects were built on the northeast coast of Venezuela in the Cryogenic Complex outside of Barcelona. The highest percentage of ownership by a foriegn company was 50% which was at the Petrozuata upgrader, the partnership was Conoco and PDVSA, the next one built was SINCOR and that was 37% by Total, 37% PDVSAand 26% Statoil, the third and fourth were constructed during the same time period, Hamaca and Cerro Negro. Hamaca was Exxon, PDVSA, Cerro Negro was Mobil, PDVSA and Veba. What the international companies owned was the technology in the facilities and payments from the government (PDVSA) were made in the form of semi-refined products to the oil companies for the investments in the facilities. Almost all of the upgraders cost in excess of 3 1/2 billion US. If you look at the companies involved, Conoco and ExxonMobil are the only US companies involved. Total is French, Statoil is from Norway and Veba is German. The largest support company to PDVSA in the country was Schlumberger which is also French. Even during the opening of the energy sector PDVSA maintained ownership of the crude reserves but foriegn companies were allowed to invest and recieve payments in products. From 1999 until 2005 I worked in the Crigenic Complex at Petrozuata and SINCOR.

The vast gold reserves are located in the State of Bolivar at Las Cristinas mine and it has not been exploited in a number of years and the last company that won the concession and had it revoked recently was Crystalex a Canadian company. I guess what I am getting to is there is, or was, a very large international presence in Venezuela but non-US companies made up the bulk of the investments.

texasshoe previously said:

HiHater said;

"About Venezuela, you should care because they are neighbors and fellow latinos, but to each his own. I think hugo had it right at first, the US was heavily indebting the country as owned most of their resources (no surpirse there). Yet he definitely went overboard, too radical and idiotic at times yet at times the US does need a good counter balance and when that counter is from your third largest supplier of oil it gives you some certain leverage. Venezuela is a regional player like it or not."

That is not true about the resources. Under president Perez they (Venezuela) had an opening of the oil sector in which international companies could participate in the infrastructure of the energy sector. 4 large projects were built on the northeast coast of Venezuela in the Cryogenic Complex outside of Barcelona. The highest percentage of ownership by a foriegn company was 50% which was at the Petrozuata upgrader, the partnership was Conoco and PDVSA, the next one built was SINCOR and that was 37% by Total, 37% PDVSAand 26% Statoil, the third and fourth were constructed during the same time period, Hamaca and Cerro Negro. Hamaca was Exxon, PDVSA, Cerro Negro was Mobil, PDVSA and Veba. What the international companies owned was the technology in the facilities and payments from the government (PDVSA) were made in the form of semi-refined products to the oil companies for the investments in the facilities. Almost all of the upgraders cost in excess of 3 1/2 billion US. If you look at the companies involved, Conoco and ExxonMobil are the only US companies involved. Total is French, Statoil is from Norway and Veba is German. The largest support company to PDVSA in the country was Schlumberger which is also French. Even during the opening of the energy sector PDVSA maintained ownership of the crude reserves but foriegn companies were allowed to invest and recieve payments in products. From 1999 until 2005 I worked in the Crigenic Complex at Petrozuata and SINCOR.

The vast gold reserves are located in the State of Bolivar at Las Cristinas mine and it has not been exploited in a number of years and the last company that won the concession and had it revoked recently was Crystalex a Canadian company. I guess what I am getting to is there is, or was, a very large international presence in Venezuela but non-US companies made up the bulk of the investments.

Escott previously said:

I would have loved to have seen a George W Bush Presidency without a 9-11. I really wonder what it would have been like.

I would have liked to have seen a Presidency with 9-11 with a tree hugger at the helm to see where we would have been.

George Bush got a bad rap as would any other Republican by the Democrats. They certainly know how to bash without coming up with alternative ideas or for that matter "ANY IDEAS". So far I disagree with all of Obamas ideas. He scared me before the election for his lack of experience and since his election with the debt he has taken on (more scary for my children).

I am not trying to change history. Just would have liked to have had a look see...

PS> believe it or not I have been a registered Democrat for 20 plus years and an independant before that. Never a regi8stered Republican.

I remember sitting at a bar with a guy that continually ran for office locally on the Dem ticket. He was also the town Dem Chairman. The guy was a cheap hustler. Always trying to sell me some sort of advertising and never successful. He was saying how "Stupid" Bush was. I asked him where he went to College. He said he attended SUNY New Paltz. I asked him if he thought it was as good a school as Yale because that is where bush went to school. He then said "His father did that for him"