HI Superferry: What is the Big Picture?

You know, I was thinking, there is an interesting confluence of events taking place in the Pacific Region and beyond, and I do not think they are unrelated. One of them is a short clip below regarding elections in Australia yesterday, one of the few staunch allies that the U.S. has left in the world, and home country of Austal, maker of HI Superferry.

But other big things happening include....oil prices getting close to $100/barrel and threats from some OPEC nations of pushing it to $200/barrel, new laws in Congress meant to crackdown on the American public, North Korea and nukes, China buying more oil and selling more dollars, U.S. dramatically stepping up military activity in the Central Pacific (including force movements and unprecedented bombing practice in HI) and the East Pacific in recent weeks, and the no holds barred government effort on behalf of the militarily capable HI Superferry.

If I was going to start a research project on this, and I don't necessarily have time to do so, I would say that there is political-economic power struggle developing right now behind the scenes between China and the U.S., and that China is buying and storing crude oil to push up the price for later use and that they are using U.S. dollars (selling them) to do it, putting persistent pressure on that. And as usual, the Neocon's, because they do not really understand finance or economics, the only response they can come up with is military posturing. Somebody else can take the time to research this, but if I had to guess, I would say this is the big picture that the HI Superferry falls within.

Regarding one of the best U.S. allies left in the world:

Australia’s Labor Party sweeps to power
Conservative Howard ousted; policy changes on global warming, Iraq ahead

SYDNEY, Australia - Conservative Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat Saturday at the hands of the left-leaning opposition, whose leader has promised to immediately sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and withdraw Australia's combat troops from Iraq.
Labor Party head Kevin Rudd's pledges on global warming and Iraq move Australia sharply away from policies that had made Howard one of President Bush's staunchest allies.
Rudd has named global warming as his top priority, and his signing of the Kyoto Protocol will leave the U.S. as the only industrialized country not to have joined it.

Aloha, Brad