Oil and the Sept troop pullout of Iraq

Get a clue.

What is this talk from Robert Gates and Condi Rice about troop pullout by September? Well, the GOP is certainly happy to hear that....many of their their butts will be on the line for re-election.

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said this morning on CBS' Face the Nation that "unless something extraordinary happens," most members of Congress believe that troop withdrawal should be on the table in September....Speaking about a report in yesterday's New York Times, that said the Defense Department is considering drawing down troops by up to 50% in 2008, Sessions said, "I certainly hope that's what will occur. We cannot sustain this level, in my opinion, in Iraq and Afghanistan much longer."

But something more cynical is going on. Most Americans, don't know what's really going on with the Iraq oil and the Iraqi oil fields. The new Iraq Hydrocarbon law was a large part of the Iraq war funding bill that Bush signed this week.

Apparently, the Iraqi government was held hostage to passing the hydrocarbon law, which in effect, gives the US and multi-national governments a major share of the oil. Clearly, our modern day robber barons - the oil companies and their boards and stockholders - feel they're getting what they need to forge ahead on owning what failed World Bank President Paulie Wolfowitz says "awash in a sea of oil".

Diplomat Sorry for Remarks

Who's apologizing now?

State Department diplomat Alberto Fernandez is apologizing for his "US is Arrogant, Stupid remark...(how long do you think he'll remain in the State Department after this gaffe?)

CNN: "Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," Alberto Fernandez said in an e-mail sent to reporters by the State Department and attributed to him.

"This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department. I apologize," the statement said.

Fernandez gave the Qatar-based network the 35-minute interview from Washington, where he is director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near East Affairs. His apology Sunday differed from a defense of his comments that he made to CNN during an interview Saturday night.

Getting fired by a Lobbyist?

Ken Mehlman, on the request of Jack Abramoff, had this guy fired. It's never ending with these guys.

LAT: October 16, 2006WASHINGTON — For five years, Allen Stayman wondered who ordered his removal from a State Department job negotiating agreements with tiny Pacific island nations — even when his own bosses wanted him to stay.

Now he knows. Newly disclosed e-mails suggest that the ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff...."Mehlman said he would get him fired," an Abramoff associate wrote after meeting with Mehlman, who was then White House political director.