Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea

A very interesting thing is occuring in countries since Bush declared war on Oil rich countries. Just yesterday it was decided by "The Decider" that no longer is Libya a terrorist state. For 18 years American oil companies were banned from operating in Libya until old Georgie lifted most restrictions on doing business in the country in 2004.

According to some estimates, Libya could double its daily production of 1.5 million barrels of oil a day within a decade with new American investment and new drilling technologies.

Assuming that Congress does not disapprove of Libya's removal from the State Department's terror list in the 45 days that are allowed for review, "the oil companies will send whatever they want to send for their operations," Lichtenbaum, an international lawyer with Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, said.

But of course Congress is going to approve the disappearance of terrorism in an oil rich country. So while everyone in the oil business and our fearmongering government is licking their chops to get their hands on oil, Ecuador stands up and delivers a bold blow.

Ecuador began on Tuesday to take over operations of U.S. oil giant Occidental Petroleum Corp, the latest move in Latin America against foreign energy producers after nationalization in Bolivia and growing state intervention in Venezuela.

Ecuador revoked Occidental's contract on Monday after accusing it of transferring part of an oil field without authorization.

That announcement did not sit well with the shares of Occidental as their prices fell by 2.35 percent on Tuesday.