The Great Oil Caper
The U.S. invastion of Iraq did not take place because Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat. It was not because their government possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction. It was not because the dictator, Hussein, had murdered many of his own people, or because he was harboring al-Qaeda and other terrorists, or for the cause of western democracy and international peace. These were merely selling points.It was because of oil. Iraq had it and America wanted it. Now we're taking it.
On June 30th, Iraq's Oil Ministry, led by their American advisors, will formally announce that no-bid contracts have been settled with four multi-national oil companies of the West-- ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, and BP-- to service the country's oil fields. The move comes 36 years after this oil was lost to these companies as Saddam Hussein rose to power in the region and nationalized the industry. After the deaths of more than a million Iraqis, severe damage to the strength and standing of the U.S. Armed Forces, and the obliteration of the cause of peace, the war profiteers are now getting down to the serious business.
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Why do Democrats lose elections? Here's the latest illustration:
Campaigning in the rust-belt states of Pennsylvania and Ohio this spring, Barack Obama accurately described Bill Clinton's North American Free Trade Agreement as "devastating" and "a big mistake" and suggested that he would use the U.S.'s opt-out clause "as a hammer" to demand a better deal for workers and farmers in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. But this week, he's telling Fortune magazine that he doesn't believe in unilaterally re-opening NAFTA or any other so-called "free trade" agreements.
Says Obama: "Sometimes during campaigns, rhetoric gets overheated and amplified... Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself." This craven back-pedaling reinforces the Democrats' reputation for pandering and puts the Electoral College tallies for Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin back into play for John McCain, but I'm sure it will still be Ralph Nader's fault if they lose.
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A Cedar Rapids Gazette videographer, Elizabeth Hladky, has gathered footage of some of the flood destruction in downtown Cedar Rapids, including a peek inside both the Paramount Theater and the bus depot. They are some pretty harrowing images.
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In Gloucester, Massachusetts, a group of high-school girls reportedly entered into a teenage "pregnancy pact", and at least 17 of them are expecting babies. When I was in high school, my buddies and I entered into a pact to finish an 80-game season with a baseball board game.
posted by CM @ 11:24 AM
1 Comments:
An APBA reference, I love it! The only thing that could have made that summer better was if there was a pregnancy pact among some of the BC girls ;
TA
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