Posted on 06/19/2008 5:53:31 PM PDT by King of Florida
“Besides, what can the US Court do outside of US soil? The assets aren’t available seizure, short of open warfare, which isn’t the province of the courts.”
Well, that’s not quite true. Any assets of a nation located here, or even moving through here in the financial system, could in theory be seized as the result of a valid court order/judgment. The practical effect would be to deny access to the American financial system. If we were really serious we could do to OPEC what we have previously done to No Korea and are beginning to do to Iran. In the recent past, however, the State Department has done everything in its power to prevent seizure of the assets of foreign sovereign nations, even of those like Iran with whom we have no relations, American court orders to the contrary notwithstanding. The Clinton bunch was active in this area but the Bush crowd virtually never fails to side with foreign sovereigns against American citizens in litigation.
Now of course OPEC could refuse to sell us their oil, but then there’d be a glut elsewhere if current spin is correct.
“OPEC is like the soup nazi on Seinfeld.
Either you play by his rules, or:
NO SOUP FOR YOU!”
How about we raise the price of wheat to them to $140.00 a bushel?
The supply and demand curves are crossing. No law suit can change that fact.
Start drilling NOW!
The biggest thing we could do to harm the Saudis is start poking some holes in our ground and pumping out the oil. The have us by the short hairs because we took off our pants.
Well, for starters, we can stop all aid to members of OPEC everywhere, and their allies.
Next is a technical embargo; any American company that uses foreign subsidiaries pays a price. They can buy from Europe? Great. They deserve each other.
Finally, there's the potential for a "food and high tech" embargo. The possibilities are limited only by our imagination.
What are they gonna do? Cut off access to the American tourist industry to Yemen?
Can anyone really be this stupid?
They could retaliate in many ways. The idea is lunacy. The WTO is the only vehicle to seek redress. But I do not think that the WTO covers OPEC and oil production. This idea is typical rat speak. Ignore the obvious solutions and bring in the lawyers.
This first paragraph of the NYT article is almost stunning in its willful ignorance ... I don't even know where to start with it.
First off, OPEC may be a cartel, but it isn't 'illegal' in the sense that this article characterizes it. Sure, if OPEC were a US corporation then it would be 'illegal' as a monopolistic price-fixing entity, but it isn't ... OPEC is a globally sovereign cartel, but not simplistically 'illegal' as the Times puts it
Secondly, the NYT states that all of our oil woes can be straightened out by the US Supreme Court, as if OPEC would bow down and cower in shame to such a revered body as the USSC (after all, the USSC gave the NYT their beloved abortion ruling, which is law of the land!, so surely OPEC will too
Thirdly .... oh, never mind ......
How about sueing the NY Times for pretending to be the best paper in the World. The NY Times is good for lining litter boxes.
Bush fights a war there and they crucify him for it...Now they’re on top of him for not suing OPEC...Just blame W for all of our problems.
I have a hard time following this author’s line of argument. In any event, if the Supreme Court does have jurisdiction, and I don’t know if it does, why doesn’t a State simply try it and see what happens?
BTW, does anyone realize that methane can be catalytically converted to methanol? I heard in addition to billions of barrels of oil, we have 70 trillion cubic ft. of methane out there, wonder how much alcohol that would make?
Well, they just have to!!! That's why!!!
Seriously, the idiocy in this article and some of the posts on this thread...
Combine this with the recent habeas corpus rights for illegal combatants and POW’s decision. It's like, “Well, if we only threw more lawyers plus the Supreme Court at the world's problems they would all be solved.”
That works to hurt one country, or a couple, because of the US's economic importance, but it won't work against the whole of OPEC. The US can't wag the world's economy as much as it used to. At some point, the rest of the world would find ways to work around us.
Refuse to sell us oil. That's what I would do, right after laughing loudly and telling the whiners suing me to pack sand.
A good start would be to simply bar Iraq from re-joining OPEC, and also commanding that Iraqi oil revenues be tapped for as long as it takes to repay 100% of U.S. expenses since the April 2003 invasion.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.