Nobody Saw this coming...
Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.
Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat. ...
The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.
There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract. The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq’s Oil Ministry.
Read the whole thing here
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Lost Opportunity
So I found out yesterday that an old co-worker of mine died recently. I wasn't particularly close to this person, nor did I really like him a lot, but I feel a great sense of sadness that he died.
We argued a lot at work, over politics and history, but we both had a similar view that things could change. In his life he didn't have a lot of luck, as he put it. He grew up in a poor inner city, and learned from the words of wisdom of his grandfather, an old black man from the deep south. A lot of the sayings that he would make would be those old southern sayings.
When we first met he aspired to work in the job he had. His goal was to work in the printing industry, because that was all he had ever known. He was suspicious of education and educated people, because all the educated people he had ever known tried to screw him out of money, freedom or both. The educated were the government people who created the ghettos in which he lived. It was the educated who had initially allowed slavery in the Constitution, and that caused his people to be in the situation they find themselves today.
Throughout the year or so that we worked together we discussed many things, but the topic that most often sticks out in my head is Education. I made it my goal to convince him that education was the key, the silver bullet that can cure all worlds ills and destroy poverty. He had never seen it this way.
By the time I stopped working there, he was convinced that he was going to go back to school and get a degree in sociology or political science. Whether or not he said this for my benefit or not, I am not sure. He went from seeing his community as a bucket of crabs, where when one tries to get out, the rest pull em back in, to seeing opportunity for the future, and hope for a better tomorrow. He had hope that he could do better for himself. And for his son.
He had a 6 year old that was his life. As anyone that knows me, I don't like kids. However he stayed with his girlfriend of 15 years for his son. He understood what it was like growing up without a father, and knew that his son wouldn't have the same opportunities and learning experiences without a father, than with. He tried real hard to do good for his son.
Anyway, long story short, i find it sad that he is now gone and won't have the opportunity to go back to school, see his son graduate from high school, go to college or start his first day of work. It is sad that he will never know whether his son had done better than he had for himself. And while I will never be a parent, I would imagine that every mom and dads goal is for their child to do better than they had.
Happy Fathers day Al.
We argued a lot at work, over politics and history, but we both had a similar view that things could change. In his life he didn't have a lot of luck, as he put it. He grew up in a poor inner city, and learned from the words of wisdom of his grandfather, an old black man from the deep south. A lot of the sayings that he would make would be those old southern sayings.
When we first met he aspired to work in the job he had. His goal was to work in the printing industry, because that was all he had ever known. He was suspicious of education and educated people, because all the educated people he had ever known tried to screw him out of money, freedom or both. The educated were the government people who created the ghettos in which he lived. It was the educated who had initially allowed slavery in the Constitution, and that caused his people to be in the situation they find themselves today.
Throughout the year or so that we worked together we discussed many things, but the topic that most often sticks out in my head is Education. I made it my goal to convince him that education was the key, the silver bullet that can cure all worlds ills and destroy poverty. He had never seen it this way.
By the time I stopped working there, he was convinced that he was going to go back to school and get a degree in sociology or political science. Whether or not he said this for my benefit or not, I am not sure. He went from seeing his community as a bucket of crabs, where when one tries to get out, the rest pull em back in, to seeing opportunity for the future, and hope for a better tomorrow. He had hope that he could do better for himself. And for his son.
He had a 6 year old that was his life. As anyone that knows me, I don't like kids. However he stayed with his girlfriend of 15 years for his son. He understood what it was like growing up without a father, and knew that his son wouldn't have the same opportunities and learning experiences without a father, than with. He tried real hard to do good for his son.
Anyway, long story short, i find it sad that he is now gone and won't have the opportunity to go back to school, see his son graduate from high school, go to college or start his first day of work. It is sad that he will never know whether his son had done better than he had for himself. And while I will never be a parent, I would imagine that every mom and dads goal is for their child to do better than they had.
Happy Fathers day Al.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
I'm not an addict, it's cool, I feel alive...
So quitting caffeine while thunderstorms are present... bad idea. The double whammy headache has slapped me into submission. Oh well, next time...
Friday Night
yeah, so I didn't accomplish any of my goals last night. Hopefully today will be better.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Goals
So I am in one of those moods where I need to set some goals and think about the future a little bit, so here we are. I will separate them by due time. (this is a work in progress)
By the end of Today
- Go out tonight and have fun
- Get laid
- Sleep
By the end of This Week
- get to the gym 2 more times
- talk to the girl i like at the gym (hottie!)
- stop drinking caffeine & quit for good
- clean my apartment
- have an awesome BBQ
By the end of This Month
- Finish reading the two new books I bought (one by Jim Webb, the other about Vikings or something)
- Loose another 5 lbs
- Begin to reorganize my room
- Begin pre-reading for Con law and Crim Pro in the fall
- decide what i want to do about the campaign
- get the apartment ready for my new roommate
- get to the beach
By the end of 2008
- Help elect Barack Obama president
- Bring my GPA up .25
- Get an A in con law
- Get to my goal weight by loosing 15 more pounds
- Get into physical shape where I would actually take off my shirt in front of people
By the end of 2009
- see the first African-American inaugurated President
- Run an average of 25 miles per week
- Run a half marathon (maybe philly)
- Get an awesome internship in DC that leads to an even awesomer job
By the end of 2010
- Graduate Law school
- Passed at least 1 bar exam (VA maybe)
- start working at the ACLU in D.C. (or another org. similar)
- Get an awesome (yet tiny) apartment in Georgetown
By 5 Years from now (2013)
- own a flying car (ha ha!)
- be successful in my legal career representing the poor and needy
By 10 Years from now (2018)
- Become a Constitutional Law professor
- Get either a Masters in Political Science or an LLM
- Visit Australia, New Zealand, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador
- Write my first book
- Pay off my law school debt
By 25 Years from now (2033)
- Either run for office or get appointed a judge (hopefully federal)
- Help save the world from evil conservative reactionaries that want to put us back to the 15th century
- Visit China, Japan, Russia, Europe (the good parts), the Congo, Mexico, Alaska and Canada.
- Write another book
- Spend time studying Bonobos
- really pay off my law school debt
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