Crush Liberalism

Liberalism: Why think when you can “feel”?

House passes bill to sue OPEC

While they’re at it, why don’t they pass a bill that allows gravity to be sued if someone falls down and gets hurt?  Both are examples of stupidity.  From al-Reuters:

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

“This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities,” said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation. …

These morons do understand that we have no jurisdiction over OPEC, right?

If these jerks were serious about stopping the vermin speculators, they would take up Larson’s bill that would stop speculators dead in their stinking tracks.  But Congress doesn’t want to stop the speculators, and I suspect it’s because they themselves have some of their money in the hedge funds that are profiting off of the oil problems they’re causing.

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May 21, 2008 - Posted by | economic ignorance, oil

14 Comments »

  1. Symbolism over substance. If the 324 truely wanted to affect oil production they would approve ANWR, shale oil drilling, gulf exploration/drilling, coastal drilling…

    Comment by dj | May 21, 2008

  2. Oh yeah, this makes us look relevant…

    Term limits and no income. Provide housing for the congressmen and women while serving their two terms, then back to the private sector they go.

    That was Jefferson’s idea anyway.

    Comment by Gawfer | May 21, 2008

  3. So rather than getting some testicular fortitude and standing up to the REAL culprits — the environmentalists, they choose this???? What a bunch of incompetent morons!

    Comment by Kanaka Girl | May 21, 2008

  4. I can just see OPEC’s response (after rolling on the floor laughing for a few hrs) from one of the Mad Max movies EMBARGO ON. But then maybe we can drill for OUR oil.

    Comment by WMD_Maker | May 21, 2008

  5. WMD – the same thing occurred to me. I wonder if the OPEC nations have enough in the piggy bank to cover the lost profits an embargo would entail? Of course, they could always just cut the price a bit for the rest of the world, and I’m sure China, Russia, India, et al would gladly take up the slack. I’m thinking this could only hurt us more than them (but it sure will make a pack of lawyers happy).

    Comment by PabloD | May 21, 2008

  6. The problem with Congress is that they are ALL (well, maybe not all) lawyers!!

    I think it was Bill Snakeshit that said something like “first, kill all the lawyers” or words to that effect.

    Sue OPEC…..Yeah, that’ll learn em!

    Good God, what will those fools do next.

    Comment by Lee | May 22, 2008

  7. Pablo “I wonder if the OPEC nations have enough in the piggy bank to cover the lost profits”

    Take a look at the building spree in Dubai and ask the question again.

    Comment by WMD_Maker | May 22, 2008

  8. WMD: I know that some of the OPEC nations have started to think long-term; Dubai (or maybe Qatar) has spent a ton of money on developing world-class research and educational facilities so they’ll have an economy when the wells run dry. I don’t know if the Saudis have socked anything away for a rainy day… In any event, I’m guessing we’ll break down and cry “uncle” (however one says it in Arabic) long before they do, should an embargo ensue.

    Comment by PabloD | May 22, 2008

  9. This is business as usual: These are the same people who want our courts to use Euro-peon court precedents to decide our legal issues. It’s only natural that they think that our courts should decide what some other countries do. It’s all in the vein of global courts and UN jurisdiction over everything.

    More “investigations” into price gouging, etc.? They’ve had at least 9 probes, investigations, hearings, or whatever this year’s fancy term is, in the past 12 years. The results are always the same: Nothing.

    Our politicians suck donkey balls.

    Comment by Henry | May 23, 2008

  10. Next they will authorize an official mean look to the OPEC officials.

    Comment by Conservative Black Man in the ATL | May 23, 2008

  11. [...] House passes bill to sue OPEC – Crush Liberalism [...]

    Pingback by Saturday Afternoon Laundry - Reproducing Like Rabbits - Time , An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings | May 24, 2008

  12. Maxine Waters said it all on the House floor last week when she told the oil executives that the government was prepared to take over their companies.

    Socialism….here we come.

    Comment by Kanaka Girl | May 27, 2008

  13. Has no one noticed that the antitrust laws are very seldom enforced in the U.S. these days????? I think the “illustrious” members of the U.S. government wants to have just two or three major businesses so they know just where their paychecks are coming from.

    Comment by Joyce | May 27, 2008

  14. I am not sure its that they want to be sure where the kickback checks are coming from as much as it is that it is far easier to extort money from 2 or 3 than it is from 10 or 20.

    Comment by WMD_Maker | May 27, 2008


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