Bush's friends, the Saudis

Wow. What a lot of pull former Halliburton CEO Richard "call me Dick" Cheney and former Harken CEO George W. Bush, Jr. have with their OPEC buddies - especially their best friends, the Saudis. "The Bush administration, in an election year, had pressed OPEC to lift export restrictions to help control U.S. pump prices and prevent energy inflation slowing economic growth. OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia led the push for the cartel to implement cuts of one million barrels a day from April 1, as first agreed in Algiers in February. 'The Saudis have gone from being a reliable OPEC price dove to OPEC's arch price hawk,' said energy consultant Mehdi Varzi. 'That's because of the demands of the Saudi budget. They need higher and higher oil prices every year to meet current expenditure for a larger and larger population.'" Thanks, Saudi Arabia! Thanks for those 19 lads who blew up 3000 innocent Americans. Thanks for Osama bin Laden. Thanks for ever-higher gas prices to prop up your failing, decadent regime. Bastards.