China Confidential
Sunday, September 28, 2008
No-Drill Democrats Fail to Save Oil Shale Ban
Dateline USA....
When it comes to energy, there is nothing to fear except fear itself--and the Democratic Party.
But, God willing, the no-drill dumbbells will be defeated; their perfidious plot to drive America into an early grave, in the name of "saving the planet," will be exposed and crushed, as shown by the latest developments in oil shale.
Production of this truly awesome energy resource on federal lands in the West will be allowed to move forward starting Monday after Congress failed to re-enact a ban on finalizing a leasing program.
Hatred and Anger
Of course, some Democrats, seething with hate and anger, are warning they will try to replace moratoriums as soon as Congress reconvenes in January.
Be that as it may, the anti-energy party in the Senate failed on Friday to pass a bill that included language that would continue to prohibit the Bureau of Land Management from issuing final oil shale regulations.
The Democratic effort failed when the financial stimulus package, which would have contained the oil shale ban, stalled in the Senate on a 52-to-42 vote.
Yes, there is a God....
The vote came as the expiration of the oil shale ban — often called the oil shale moratorium--appreoached. It is set to expire at midnight Monday.
If the ban fades away, the Bureau of Land Management will be able to issue final regulations for a commercial oil shale program for 2 million acres in the American West at the end of this year. The agency released draft regulations in July.
1 Trillion Barrels of Oil
The completion of those regulations, along with an expected record of decision that will open about 360,000 acres in Colorado to possible oil shale development, could open the door to a potential sale of federal oil shale leases in the state. But Bureau officials say it could be years before any lease sale occurs.
The Piceance Basin, which stretches across Garfield, Rio Blanco and Mesa counties, is estimated to have close to 1 trillion barrels of oil.
Companies pursuing oil shale research on five experimental leases in Colorado say they are years from even deciding whether to go ahead with commercial production of oil shale.
Wanted: a national oil company, owned by the taxpayers, to tap oil shale and other energy resources that are profitable but perhaps not profitable enough for multinational or large independent oil companies. A national oil company could also develop the nation's heavy oil resources and use proven, commercially available enhanced oil recovery methods to squeeze new oil from old oil fields.
Israel Trained Chinese Police Ahead of Olympics
Israel Police held secret training for Chinese police officers ahead of the recent Olympic Games.... The approximately six-week course was held in Israel for about 20 selected officers of the People's Armed Police Force, to use Israeli experience to train them for possible scenarios involving terror and civil disturbances at the Games.
The training involved, among other things, how to neutralize terrorists with their bare hands, how to deal with a crowd that riots on the playing field, and how to protect VIPS and remove demonstrators from main traffic arteries.
The Chinese officers arrived in Israel last May for the training, at the request of the Chinese public safety ministry. Brigadier General Bentzi Sau was appointed head of the project and designed the training program.
All the police and Border Police officers participating in the program underwent a series of lectures by Foreign Ministry officials to sensitize them to cultural differences and make it easier for both groups to find a common language.
Click here to continue reading.Thank You, Dr. Kissinger
-Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, reacting to Barack Obama's mischaracterization of his view on negotiations with nuclear-arming IranSaturday, September 27, 2008
Mysterious Mr. Obama Admits He Was Dual Citizen
Dateline USA....
Democratic Presidential candidate (of constant change) Barack Hussein Obama has admitted that he was born a dual citizen--of the United States and Kenya. He says his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired in August 1982. Click here for the story.
But Obama has yet to address another question: was he atriple citizen--of the United States, Kenya, and Indonesia? More important, is he still a dual US and Indonesian citizen?
Obama's Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, registered Obama for school in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, under the name Barry Soetoro, and listed his religion as Muslim and his citizenship as Indonesian, according to an apparently authentic registration certificate.
In addition, there are credible reports that Obama may have used a foreign passport to travel to and from Pakistan and between Pakistan and India during a mysterious trip he made in 1981 with his Pakistani roommate after transferring to Columbia University from Occidental College--one year before his Kenyan citizenship supposedly expired. Obama could have used a Kenyan passport or an Indonesian one.
Indonesia is a hotbed of Muslim separatism and Islamist terrorism. It is inconceivable that a US President and Commander-in-Chief could also be an Indonesian citizen--or any kind of dual citizen, for that matter.
UPDATE: Did the dual citizenship issue distract and weaken Obama before the Presidential debate Friday night? Some veteran Democrats wonder. Their candidate seemed tired and defensive, as if he had just been hit by bad news.Sinopec Buys Heavy Oil Company Active in Syria
Foreign Confidential....
While energy-choked America, paralyzed by global warming zealotry and environmental extremism, looks to phony agrofuels and government subsidized, inefficient wind and solar power and nonexistent cellulosic ethanol for salvation, China is increasingly investing in heavy oil--the thick, gummy resource that is far more plentiful but also more expensive to extract and refine than conventional crude oil.
Only two days after Venezuela announced that China had agreed to build a heavy oil refinery in the South American country's incredibly heavy oil-rich Orinoco River Basin (scroll down to read the story), Chinese oil firm Sinopec Group agreed to buy Tanganyika Oil, a small producer of heavy oil in Syria, for $2 billion. The company, which is listed in Toronto and Stockholm, made the announcement on Thursday.
The acquisition of Tanganyika Oil brings Sinopec 184 million barrels of proven heavy oil reserves at a cost of roughly $10 a barrel, according to energy experts. Production was expected to grow from 6,000 barrels per day to up to 12,800 bpd this year.
The heavy oil reserves are located in Syria's Kurdish areas, in the northeastern part of the country, near the Kurdish region of Iraq.
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Haaretz reports
"Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality."
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