Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Iraq needs gasoline

The Tehran Times notes, "Iran is now exporting gasoline and diesel fuel to neighboring countries, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining & Distribution Company announced on Tuesday." The Fars News Agency picks up there to quote Alireza Zeigami, Iran's Deputy Minister of Oil, stating, "At present 1.5mln litters of gasoil is exported to Iraq every day." And yes, oil rich Iraq shouldn't need to import any petroleum based product. But it does. Al Sabaah reports on the soaring temperatures in Iraq coinciding with the decline in electricity for the citizens of Baghdad. The article notes that the Ministry of Oil is denying that there has been a decrease in the gas stockpies in Iraq and the Ministry insists that is not the reason for the increasingly longer lines at gas stations in Baghdad. Al Mada has a Washington Post article noting the closing of government offices in all but the Kurdistan region (the KRG has more reliable electricity and, being in the north, it is a little cooler than throughout the rest of Iraq). The articles notes that some Baghdad gas stations had to announce shortages and they remind that fuel shortage doesn't just mean gas in the car tank, it means a lack of the fule needed to power the generators so many Iraqis have to depend upon for electricity since Nouri al-Maliki's government has never been able/willing to address the issue of basic and consistent electricity. As I type this, it's 109 degrees in Baghad with a prediction of 113 for tomorrow.

Ramadan started Monday. Michael S. Schmidt (New York Times) reports on the heat:

During Ramadan, the faithful may not eat -- or more important, drink -- during daylight hours. That has prompted some to say they simply would have to skip the fast, even though it is one of the primary religious obligations for Muslims.
"It is impossible to fast and work with this heat, so I'm not fasting this year," said Ahmed Kareem, 20, as he cleaned a broken engine. In many Muslim nations in the region, those fasting retreat to air-conditioned homes where they sleep for most of the day, rising in time to break the fast and feast all night. But in Iraq, there are just a few hours of electricity each day.

As he does nothing to meet the needs of the Iraqi people, the editorial board of the National Newspaper sees Nouri consolidating power and tossing aside one-time supporters:

One hundred mini-Saddams. In the place of one repressive overlord, Iraqis now contend with dozens of mini-tyrants who run their government departments or agencies as their own little fiefdoms.
Nowhere has the bloated bureaucracy been more apparent than in the federal cabinet. After a record-breaking eight months of deadlock, the government cobbled together in December was a messy affair. To keep Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki in office, his State of Law coalition divvied out ministerial posts to every party that would support him, resulting in an unwieldy 46-member cabinet.
At the weekend, Mr Al Maliki managed to pare 14 posts from that cabinet (mostly ministers without portfolio). More cutbacks are supposed to trim another five ministries and sack a number of senior officials.
Those decisions should streamline decision-making and, it is hoped, undermine the patronage networks that drain the public purse. That Mr Al Maliki can now afford to throw some of his former allies overboard shows that he is consolidating power.

The following community sites updated last night:


That's not all that updated, just the ones Blogger/Blogspot is picking up on. The following updated as well though Blogger/Blogspot doesn't yet show it:


We'll close with this from Lisa Karpova's "NATO Too Stupid To Face Reality" (Pravda):

With the controversial death of Abdel Fatah Younis, it has become glaringly apparent that the NTC is a fractured, disorganized mess of incompetence that cannot even keep its own people under control, much less run a country. But try telling that to the foot in the mouth government of the United Kingdom, or that Napoleon wannabe Sarkozy.
The timing only outlined the stupidity of recognizing a group of ragtag, disorganized terrorists as a government, as news of the death came the day after the UK announced its recognition while expelling Libyan diplomats at the same time.
The terrorists, stupidly referred to as "rebels" in western corporate media, are now violently fighting each other, as could have been predicted by anyone willing to see the real picture. They have been in-fighting all along and this recent death has served to bring things to a head.
For all practical purposes, this National Transitional Council collection of terrorists - paid CIA mercenaries, al Qaeda operatives, islamic extremists, monarchists and traitors - they are through, finished. Their terrorist stooges are done for, kaput, defeated and NATO is defeated.
But NATO continues its bombing in order to cause maxiumum suffering to the civilian population of Libya. Sneaking arms into the country in clear violation of the UN Resolutions is also still occurring. They also dumped another pile of this filth into the country several days ago. Will they continue to do so?
It should be obvious to those running NATO that not only are their stooges complete failures militarily, no matter how many they dump into the country, but that their campaign to break the will of the Libyan people is having the opposite affect on the people. They become more and more determined to resist the crusader colonialist aggression.
Never has Muammar Gaddafi been more popular with his people, or with millions worldwide.




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thomas friedman is a great man






oh boy it never ends




























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