FADED CELEBRITY IN CHIEF BARRY O GAVE HIS WEEKLY ADDRESS TODAY AND IT WAS ON MEMORIAL DAY.
THE VETERANS WHO FEEL BARRY O HAS BEEN AWOL ON THE LATEST V.A. SCANDAL DID NOT RECEIVE MUCH COMFORT IN HIS SPEECH WHICH DID NOT EVEN NOTE THE SCANDAL BUT ALSO OPENED:
Hi, everybody. It’s Memorial Day weekend – a chance for Americans to get together with family and friends, break out the grill, and kick off the unofficial start of summer.
HE MARCHES TO HIS OWN LITTLE DRUM, DOESN'T HE?
FROM THE TCI WIRE:
Imagine that you woke up this morning to find you were the ruler of a country and that your country had only one high value export while your people lived in poverty and you had to import rice and other basic food staples.
Realizing the importance of your sole commodity, you would most likely attempt to ensure that everything was in order, every 'i' dotted, every 't' crossed.
You'd do that because of the importance of the commodity to your entire country.
And if you didn't do that and the citizens found out, they'd consider you a failure.
Well the commodity is oil, the country is Iraq and the failure is Nouri al-Maliki.
The chief thug of Iraq was put into place by Bully Boy Bush in 2006 with the understanding the Nouri would push through an oil and gas law because 'liberated' Iraq had none. In 2007, with the US Congress questioning what was being accomplished in Iraq, the Bully Boy Bush administration came up with a series of 'benchmarks' which success would be measured by. Chief among the benchmarks? Passing an oil and gas law.
Nouri wanted the US taxpayers money that the US government had been wasting to continue to flow into Iraq, so he readily agreed to the benchmarks.
But he was unable to pass any oil and gas law.
Not in 2006.
Not in all the years he held the post.
Let's not pretend that there weren't problems.
There were problems.
I, for one, was always thrilled watching Nouri's continued failure.
That's because the law the US government wanted, the one Nouri forever pimped, wasn't wanted by Iraqis and especially wasn't wanted by Iraqi labor groups.
When a proposed law is deeply unpopular what do you do?
If you're the leader you can try to ram it through.
It's not democratic but sometimes it can be rammed through.
But you might try that once or even twice. When you've tried that over and over since 2006?
You're not just a bad leader, you're kind of idiot.
A smart person jettisons the parts that are felt objectionable and refashions a new bill. A smart person refashions it in a way to get more people on board and uses horse trading on that and other issues to bring others on board.
When your economy has no diversification to speak of and is rooted around only one commodity, you do everything you can to secure that commodity.
If you're not an idiot.
Nouri's an idiot. Eight years in a row as prime minister and he couldn't even make the most basic move to secure the economy. And yet the failure thinks he deserves a third term as prime minister.
SPA reports, "Iraq filed for arbitration against Turkey on Friday" and that the filing was "with the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce."
What's going on?
From yesterday's snapshot:
Marina Ottaway offers an analysis for CNN which includes, "Elated by his victory, al-Maliki is sounding uncompromising, and although he has declared that he is open to work with any political party, he has made it clear that it would be strictly on his own terms. For example, he has told the Kurdish party that they are welcome in a government coalition as long as they accept his interpretation of the constitution, thus renounce their ambition to export oil independently." Apparently while preparing that analysis today, Ottaway missed Sinan Salaheddin's Associated Press report which opens, "Iraq's self-ruled northern Kurdish region on Thursday started exporting crude oil to the international market through the Turkish port of Ceyhan despite objections from the central government in Baghdad, Turkey's energy minister said."
This morning, Gary Dixon (TradeWinds) noted,
"Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters loading of the 1m
barrel stem was completed on Thursday." Selcan Hacaoglu and Ali Berat Meric (Bloomberg News) added, "More than one million barrels of
Kurdish oil were shipped from Turkey to Europe yesterday,
Turkey’s energy minister and the Iraqi Kurdish administration
said, a sale that may trigger legal action by Iraq’s government."
The Kurdistan Regional Government issued the following today:
Erbil, Kurdistan (KRG.org) - In line with its policy of implementing the 2005 Constitution of Iraq and helping Iraq achieve its oil production, export and revenue targets, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has completed the first sales of crude oil produced in the Kurdistan Region and piped to the port of Ceyhan.
A tanker loaded with over one million barrels of crude oil departed last night from Ceyhan towards Europe. This is the first of many such sales of oil exported through the newly constructed pipeline in the Kurdistan Region.
The revenue from the sales will be deposited in a KRG-controlled account in Halkbank in Turkey and will be treated as part of the KRG’s budgetary entitlement under Iraq’s revenue sharing and distribution as defined under the 2005 Constitution of Iraq.
Meeting Iraq’s continued international UN obligations, five percent of the sales revenue will be set aside in a separate account for reparations.
The KRG has invited independent bodies to observe the sales and export process in line with the KRG’s commitment to transparency. KRG also hopes that officials from SOMO (the federal Iraqi oil marketing organization) accept KRG’s invitation to observe the process.
The KRG will continue to exert its rights of export and sell oil independently of SOMO but remains committed to negotiate in good faith with its counterparts in Baghdad to reach a comprehensive settlement on oil issues within the framework of Iraq’s Constitution.
The KRG has worked tirelessly with its international partners and investors to create new pathways to prosperity and economic development for the people of Kurdistan and Iraq and is ready to become a reliable and stable source of energy both for its immediate neighbours and international markets.
The Kurds can sale their oil because (a) they're semi-autonomous and (b) no national oil & gas law has been passed.
The Kurdistan Regional Government issued the following today:
Erbil, Kurdistan (KRG.org) - In line with its policy of implementing the 2005 Constitution of Iraq and helping Iraq achieve its oil production, export and revenue targets, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has completed the first sales of crude oil produced in the Kurdistan Region and piped to the port of Ceyhan.
A tanker loaded with over one million barrels of crude oil departed last night from Ceyhan towards Europe. This is the first of many such sales of oil exported through the newly constructed pipeline in the Kurdistan Region.
The revenue from the sales will be deposited in a KRG-controlled account in Halkbank in Turkey and will be treated as part of the KRG’s budgetary entitlement under Iraq’s revenue sharing and distribution as defined under the 2005 Constitution of Iraq.
Meeting Iraq’s continued international UN obligations, five percent of the sales revenue will be set aside in a separate account for reparations.
The KRG has invited independent bodies to observe the sales and export process in line with the KRG’s commitment to transparency. KRG also hopes that officials from SOMO (the federal Iraqi oil marketing organization) accept KRG’s invitation to observe the process.
The KRG will continue to exert its rights of export and sell oil independently of SOMO but remains committed to negotiate in good faith with its counterparts in Baghdad to reach a comprehensive settlement on oil issues within the framework of Iraq’s Constitution.
The KRG has worked tirelessly with its international partners and investors to create new pathways to prosperity and economic development for the people of Kurdistan and Iraq and is ready to become a reliable and stable source of energy both for its immediate neighbours and international markets.
The Kurds can sale their oil because (a) they're semi-autonomous and (b) no national oil & gas law has been passed.
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