Big oil keeps 75% of the take? Consider every Iraqi as...The Sunni Arab muqawama (resistance) certainly has other ideas - as in future rolling thunder against pipelines, refineries and Western personnel.
This will be continual war just trying to keep the pipelines open. We've only seen the very tip of the bloodshed.
Posted by phidipides at February 28, 2007 11:11 AMWhat matters is who controls the valves.
The war's outcome will determine that.
An American victory appears vanishingly remote.
Might be time for a serious energy policy.
Posted by Pvt. Keepout at February 28, 2007 11:29 AMIncroiable!---no diplomacy until we get our oil law! American exceptionalism. What a scandal.
I'm sure this noble little development will get the play it deserves in cable news land.
Clearly, it was NEVER about oil.
Posted by euzoius at February 28, 2007 11:36 AMI guess that conservatives don't care that they'll continue to fund terrorism.
Posted by Ga6thDem at February 28, 2007 12:01 PM“Mr. Cheney contacted me this afternoon from an undisclosed location, and informed me that as the Iraqi government has signed the new Oil Law, the War On Terror is officially over, and was a complete and utter victory. Thank you, and good night…”
Tony Snow, at the White Horse Bar and Grill
This is no surprise if you've studied the history and economics of the oil business. The worst thing is it means our troops must be there forever to secure the new oil infrastructure the oil companies will invest in to pump more oil. And the Dems know it too.
Posted by at February 28, 2007 12:57 PMWho is the Democrat now heading the Energy Committee in the House, and why isn't he/she demanding an investigation into the Cheney taskforce?
Posted by T2 at February 28, 2007 01:01 PMIt is time to tax the oil companies for the war.
Anyway, there are enough locals who hate us to make the oil law irrelevant. No oil will flow without a lot more blood and bribes flowing first. Kleptocrats all.
Posted by Nobody at February 28, 2007 01:15 PMWho is the Democrat now heading the Energy Committee in the House
John Dingle, Michigan. Longest serving member of the house and, if I recall correctly, long term friend of the auto industry, who has helped quash sensible CAFE standards for decades. Any questions?
Posted by DeminNewJ at February 28, 2007 01:26 PMDo you people have any idea of just how much Premium my modded supercharged Ford Lightning inhales?
I'm glad someone is insuring my God given right to get to 60 mph in 5 seconds on my way to Walmart. Mind your own business.
Posted by TIKI AL at February 28, 2007 01:50 PMWhat the fookin' hell is a Ford Lightning, Tiki? Can I steal one?
Posted by at February 28, 2007 02:10 PMMeanwhile as Cheney mistakenly believes he has locked up the Iraqi Oil Steal, Musharref has made a new deal with the Taliban to help in their spring offensive against NATO?
Posted by Nobody at February 28, 2007 02:14 PMMusharref has made a new deal with the Taliban to help in their spring offensive against NATO?
"One-legged Mullah Dadullah." Some things are absolutely priceless.
What the fookin' hell is a Ford Lightning, Tiki? Can I steal one?
I have one for sale that's a modded supercharged Ford Lightning. It uses premium gas and gets to 60 in five seconds. It's cheap. You'll have to meet me in Arizona, and take delivery at 2:00 in the morning, give or take, depending on guard dogs and security syste...uhhh, depending on traffic. You must pat in cash.
Incroiable!---no diplomacy until we get our oil law!
It's not about the oil, silly rabbit. It's about the WMDs...Osama bin Ladels...terrorism...Saddam is a bad guy...making them free...bringing democracy to our little brown brothers...the terrorists...the insurgents...the bombings...them standing-up as we stand-down...surging...the democratic process giving us the oil. But really, it's not about oil if you do it in a democratic fashion. It simply becomes good business.
Posted by phidipides at February 28, 2007 02:46 PMAs they say, there's more. On May 22, 2003, President Bush, declaring a "national emergency", conferred legal immunity to transnational oil corporations in Iraq.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030522-15.html
">Executive Order 13303 decrees that "any attachment, judgment, decree, lien, execution, garnishment, or other judicial process is prohibited, and shall be deemed null and void," with respect to the Development Fund for Iraq and "all Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, and interests therein."
In other words, if ExxonMobil or ChevronTexaco touch Iraqi oil, it will be immune from legal proceedings in the United States. Anything that could go, and elsewhere has gone, awry with U.S. corporate oil operations will be immune to judgment: a massive tanker accident; an explosion at an oil refinery; the employment of slave labor to build a pipeline; murder of locals by corporate security; the release of billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The president, with a stroke of the pen, signed away the rights of Saddam's victims, creditors and of the next true Iraqi government to be compensated through legal action. Bush's order unilaterally declares Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of U.S. corporations. Executive Order 13303 protects anything those corporations do to seize control of Iraq's oil, from the point of production to the gas pump -- and places oil companies above the rule of law.
Posted by Don Bacon at February 28, 2007 02:56 PMI know--I should have previewed it.
Posted by Don Bacon at February 28, 2007 02:58 PMIt is time to tax the oil companies for the war.
That will work about as well as Nationalizing them!
Posted by Seven of Six at February 28, 2007 03:08 PMWhy does anyone think that deal will last a day longer than the current government?
Posted by Richard W. Crews at February 28, 2007 04:04 PMSo what if he gave the oil companies immunity in Iraq? It's not like anyone there is really going to care. The problem is people blowing up the pipelines not some issue to be settled in a court of law. Truthfully, anarchy reigns in Iraq and we don't have enough troops there to do anything.
Posted by Ga6thDem at February 28, 2007 06:03 PMAnd how much you want to bet that Bush and Cheney, after they leave office, will somehow end up being members on the Iraqi Oil and Gas Council, controlling the very oil they "liberated" from Saddam Hussein and the Baathists, maintaining their very own mini-OPEC, while making millions of dollars in blood bonuses each year.
Hey, it beats their previous oil gigs, Bush at Harken Oil and Cheney at Halliburton. These piker jobs pale in comparison.
By being members of the Iraqi Oil and Gas Council, Bush and Cheney will make more of a financial "killing" than they already have. Talk about a retirement package. Soaked, of course, in American and Iraqi blood, but still a highly lucrative retirement package.
Posted by The Oracle at March 1, 2007 03:14 AMI'm thrilled Tiki is happy. I can't wait for Coyote's take on this. I'm sure it will be enlighening.
Posted by JohnT at March 1, 2007 05:51 AMAs far as I can tell, TLC is the only place that has highlighted this Bushco tying of diplomacy to the passage of the Oil Law, nor has any politician mentioned it.
Your lib'rul media.
Posted by euzoius at March 1, 2007 10:16 AMIt's bad enough that Cheney is going to steal Iraq's oil in the first place. But what is very troubling is the Democrats who are just sitting on their hands, again. I can't believe that not one of the Democrats in Congress has spoken out in public against this new oil law! When will they get up the courage to build an effective assult against the worst administration in history???
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