More Krugman
I included this quote in my previous post, but I think it deserves some additional attention--both because I'm still laughing about it, and because it's a genuinely significant indicator of how far we've come in the last four years: "Some commentators have expressed surprise at the fact that a businessman with very close ties to the White House is undermining U.S. policy." What a bunch of silly commentators!
Once upon a time, Peter Beinart, writing in--where else--the New York Times noted that "Krugman's assumptions about the administration's motives are most problematic on foreign policy. He understands the Iraq war by analogy to the Bush tax cuts, as if rewarding corporate friends with military contracts via the Carlyle Group was a driving force behind the decision to depose Saddam Hussein."
That was the dominant critique of anti-war commentators in the pre- and immediately-post-invasion era. Years too late, the tables have fully turned.
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Here's a good article I found about the Hunt oil deal..
Is it just me or does everyone else have to really do their own research these days to find out what is really going on with our government – because, you know, it’s not like WP or NYT ever do anything more that simply hint at what is going on in the Bush administration.
Nope, instead now a days, you must piece-meal every tiny bit of news story you get anymore by combing through google and other sites to get the big picture. It's like our national press just loves keeping us in the dark while simultaneously asking for a shield law.
At any rate - I thought this was an interesting part of this news story.
Hunt’s position on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board places him in close contact with the intelligence establishment in the US. In 2005, along with Hunt, Bush appointed 11 other members, including Lee Hamilton, vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission and former Democratic congressman; William DeWitt, a close Bush supporter who helped Bush make his millions in his dealings with Harken Energy and the Texas Rangers; Donald Evans, long-time Texas oil man, Bush supporter and former secretary of commerce; and Martin Faga, former director of the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates US spy satellites.
Another factor behind the Hunt deal is concern within the administration over the growing interest in Kurdish oil expressed by other foreign powers—including China and Iran. A January 2007 report by the BBC noted “an increasing foreign interest in the future of Kurdistan’s oil.” The article cited Jerry Kisler, a US oil expert who was advising the KRG, who said Iran’s activity had been particularly notable.
Lee Hamilton is always being billed as making any of the commission he happens to be, on for the Bush administration, as "bi-paristian" but Hamilton's name keeps coming up in places that make me wonder how bi-partisan is this guy really?
Hunt is also on the board of directors of Halliburton too so I wonder if Lee Hamilton is also on that same board of directors for Halliburton?
And this article by Joe Kay goes on to mention this:
The large energy conglomerates have thus far remained on the sidelines, waiting for the passage of a national law that will secure their investments and provide a legal cover for their operations.
And then this: Given Hunt’s connections, however, there is reason to believe that the deal was encouraged by the Bush administration—either as a means of pressuring the Maliki government or as a step toward supporting regionalism over the national government.
Or perhaps it is simply gross political cronyism. I mean, now that we know why Bush pushed for the surge - to buy time for the Hydrocarbon framework law benchmark - which has fallen, thus Bush is awarding the few and faithful elitist behind Bushies as a last ditch effort to get something for the hard cord supporters of this administration.
But does the Hunt deal have any legal cover?
And if it doesn't Bush must be hoping Iraq never meets any of those benchmarks and Bush is hoping for regionalism. It been pretty much anything goes for control of that oil for few, the favorite, the proud singluar party of Bushism.
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