Oilaq

Iraq has the world’s second largest proven oil reserves. According to oil industry experts, new exploration will probably raise Iraq’s reserves to 200+ billion barrels of high-grade crude, extraordinarily cheap to produce. The four giant firms located in the US and the UK have been keen to get back into Iraq, from which they were excluded with the nationalization of 1972. During the final years of the Saddam era, they envied companies from France, Russia, China, and elsewhere, who had obtained major contracts. But UN sanctions (kept in place by the US and the UK) kept those contracts inoperable. Since the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, everything has changed and the companies have been scrambling to grab their share of the spoils. In the new setting, with Washington running the show, "friendly" companies expect to gain most of the lucrative oil deals that will be worth hundreds of billions of dollars in profits in the coming decades. The new Iraqi constitution of 2005, greatly influenced by US advisors, contains language that guarantees a major role for foreign companies. Negotiators hope soon to complete deals on Production Sharing Agreements that will give the companies control over dozens of fields, including the fabled super-giant Majnoon, whose 21 billion barrels are worth $1.5 trillion at today's prices. But no contracts could be signed until after elections and the formation of a new government, so that the Iraqi side would appear legally legitimate. While regional governments angle for influence over the foreign oil contracts, most Iraqis favor continued control by a national company and the powerful oil workers union opposes de-nationalization. Iraq's political future is very much in flux, but oil remains the central feature of the political landscape.

[Report prepared by the Global Policy Forum]

Sociaholism

Now that rehab has become such a popular political ploy for copping a plea, it might be useful to contemplate just how alcohol gets into the body politic in the first place — not that any of this is news to anyone who has been there and done that to their bodies or their politics.

As we all know, drinking is a legendary social lubricant, fuel for rituals of conviviality and celebration. Cheers. Let’s drink to that. Hear, hear, a toast. It can also be mysterious, delirious, and even imperious. Oh, that subtle bouquet, so pleasing to the palate, and that buzz emboldens. Drinking too much, however, often contributes to what is called a social problem, usually for those who are not drinking too much. Too much drinking is also considered to be a social disease, and the drunk is often condemned not only as obnoxious but also weak or even fatally flawed. Since the 1950s, the American Medical Association (AMA) has classified this condition in its chronic manifestations officially as a medical disease, alcoholism, often genetically traced to parents or ancestors.

But if you examine the patterns of behavior that lead to drinking too much in the first place, you may also detect distinct social correlations. It’s nice to be socially connected, isn’t it, not to mention socially accepted. At first, drinking seems to enhance social contact. It is a rite of passage (if not a right) from youth into adulthood. Let the party begin. And then you’re even the life of the party. Imagine that. And so, why not keep this party going?

In time, with social reinforcement and sheer conviviality, drinking can easily become a part of daily life, a routine even, as the cocktail hour approaches and parties convene. Let’s go knock back a few. Let me buy you a drink. You work hard, so you’re entitled. Relax, kick back, and take a load off. Here, have another, you’ve earned it; and then one more for the road. You may not even realize, though, exactly when having that drink becomes that drink having you.

You may also see some effects of social intercourse on others who drink too much that are not so affable and may actually cause them to seek refuge in the bottle, so to speak — to drink to escape the pain, say, or any manner of other uncomfortable effects of society on them, or so they may think. This may be blamed on family, friends, colleagues, work, play, social or economic circumstances, just the challenge of daily life or society at large as perceived through insecurity, isolation, or loneliness.

You name it; the possibilities are endless. Some heavy drinkers might even think of it as a kind of allergy, how the behavior and attitudes of others affect them or infect them with “just too much to bear,” in which case a few stiff drinks can relieve the pressure. Sometimes it’s fear, and a few drinks will provide the courage, or temerity, to overcome the fear to act, or not, or to act out. Other times it may be frustration leading to anger, as alcohol rearranges your consciousness, perception, or even conscience. Now you really need a drink. Or it may just be comforting, more comfortable, helping you through the day so you don’t mind so much the mindless. Drink up; there, that’s better. You can do this.

This sweet elixir of relief, alcohol is seductive. It’s your magic potion, your secret weapon. You’re feeling good, and nothing bothers you. You feel no pain. Everything seems smooth and neat. But then, eventually, you realize you’re not really in control. You’re not really in touch. Progressively, the disease takes hold of you. You can’t get enough; you can’t put it down. It becomes treacherous — cunning, baffling, and powerful. You’re blacking out, and half the time you may not even remember where you’ve been or what you’ve done. Finally, you are powerless over the alcohol as your life becomes unmanageable. The party’s over. Now you are drinking alone, and you are antisocial.

Deficit

"The 109th Congress took our already large projected budget deficits and passed legislation that will make them larger. The legislation increased projected deficits from 2005 (the year the Congress convened) through 2011 (when the current five-year budget window ends) by a total of $452 billion. Moreover, the budget deterioration over the past six fiscal years -- 2000 to 2006 -- is the largest deterioration for any six-year period in the past half-century." [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]

If this were a business venture in the private sector, such as a corporation or even a foundation, wouldn't bankruptcy be looming and wouldn’t the perpetrators, or at least the principals, be under investigation, if not indictment, right now for cooking the books, if not other criminal lapses? Would you say the fiduciary fecklessness here appears to be so overwhelming as to threaten national security on a scale tantamount to sabotage in it’s most venal form — subverting the fiscal foundations of our cherished capitalism? Or would that just be too fantastic even for an American citizen to contemplate?

If nothing else is clear, the burdens of interest and taxes continue to trickle down, as it were, ever more soddenly from the wealthy to the middle class, not to mention those even less fortunate, whose personal costs for health care, higher education, and retirement continue to swell like a flood in New Orleans. This reckless economics of extravagance is perpetrated by profligate politicians with little if any fear of foreclosure. And which other countries do you think hold the notes? In the end, it's as though this country is stuck in some prepubescent Rough Rider time warp, and the victims remain in a hapless state of suspended imagination.

In

In Washington, D. C., of course, most people want to be in with the presidential crowd. But just how “in,” really, is George W. Bush? When you look through the dictionary for words beginning with “in,” it’s a little startling how many describe him in one way or another, but none too flattering:

Inaccessible, inaccurate, inadequate, inadmissible, inane, inappropriate, inarticulate, inattentive, inbred, incalculable, incapable, incendiary, incessant, inchoate, incidental, incoherent, incommunicado, incompatible, incompetent, incomplete, inconceivable, incongruous, inconsiderate, inconsistent, incontinent, incorrect, incredible, incurable, incursive, indecent, indebted, indecisive, indefensible, indelicate, indeterminate, indictable, indifferent, indisposed, indolent, inebriate, ineffectual, inept, inert, inexact, inexperienced, infantile, infirm, inflated, inflationary, insane, insecure, insincere, insolent, insufferable, insufficient, insular, intolerable, intolerant, intractable, intransigent, intrusive, inverted, invidious, in vitro, and, inevitably, in denial.