Pelosi REFUSES to discuss how Bush's Iraq oil law screws Iraqis say Antonia Juhasz

If you aren't familiar with Antonia Juhasz, she used to be a staffer for John Conyers and has done excellent work on the Bush economic agenda, neoliberalism, and most importantly, how the Bushies are trying give Iraq's tens of trillions of oil income to his big oil cronies.

She was on Stephanie Miller today, and I called in to ask why more Dems than Kucinich, McDermott and a couple of others weren't discussing how the Hydrocarbon Law Bush is forcing on the Iraqis essentially gives away the store to big oil.


She said that was the million dollar question.

She lives in the Bay area, and Pelosi is actually her rep, but refuses to address this issue. Unfortunately, this is pretty consistent with how other Democratic Party "leaders" react to this question even when asked on camera.

Juhasz didn't know the reason, but her best guess is to help in the '08 election--if the war is still an open wound, the Democrats think they will gain more seats and the White House.

Juhasz didn't say it, but I suspect this is the same reason they aren't impeaching Bush & Cheney or cutting off war funding. Once those problems are fixed, they will be out of the public mind in about thirty seconds, and the GOP can start their rehabilitation PR. After Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford came within spitting distance of holding onto the White House for the GOP.

She also mentioned the more obvious and prosaic reason: corporate money talks in DC, and the rest of us are at best annoying mimes.

She said Congress got some secret report from the White House on Iraq's oil that said we will need to keep troops their for the foreseeable future to protect the oil, so I looked it up:

But the report, obtained by the Blotter on ABCNews.com, says the issues the three sides are too far apart to agree on are the "role of foreign companies in the oil sector" and the division of the oil profits.

The report also includes a grim assessment of the possibility of an increase of oil output in Iraq despite its huge reserves.

It concludes that security in Iraq is so unstable "it is unlikely that any major foreign oil company will be able to invest in Iraq during 2008 (unless they are heavily underwritten by the U.S. government)."

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