SHOCK AND AWE

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – 100.000 Iraqis across the country marched on Friday in support of Moqtada al-Sadr’s opposition to a draft constitution that U.S.-backed government leaders say will deliver a brighter future.

``Bush and America out,'' yelled cleric Abdel-Zahra al-Suwaidid, reading a statement on Sadr's behalf in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City which is named after his revered father, a cleric allegedly killed by Saddam Hussein's agents.

WHILE CONDI WAS SCREWING UP IN IRAQ, CHEVRON RENAMED HER TANKER

More than 20 foreign companies including Chevron Corp., British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell are being targeted in an effort to collect more than $3 billion.

Mr. Chavez, who presides over the largest oil reserves in the hemisphere is threatening to expel foreign oil companies if they do not pay up. Royal Dutch Shell and Houston-based Harvest Natural Resources, won't go without a fight.

These eight companies, including Harvest Natural Resources, the Spanish Repsol, and China National Petroleum Corp., last week signed transitory contracts that govern their operations as they negotiate the joint ventures with the state-run oil company PDVSA

"With a company like Chevron being in Venezuela for over 60 years, we are committed to Venezuela,"

Shell is "pro-active in approaching the government to talk about converting our operating agreement to a joint venture because we felt it was the right thing to do."
U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said that while Venezuela has a sovereign right to govern its natural resources as it pleases, it also has an "obligation to respect the contracts that it has already signed and voluntarily entered into."

Venezuelan navy plans to buy 3 submarines

It has launched a multi-year plan to modernise its armed forces, raising concerns in the US and Colombia.

VENEZUELA OPENS OIL FIELDS TO CHINESE OIL CORPORATION

Venezuela and China signed a "preliminary agreement" for a joint company to drill for light and heavy crude in eastern Venezuela, reported the government owned Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA.

Beijing and Caracas also signed an agreement to quantify and certify oil reserves in an area of the Orinoco Strip, in southeast Venezuela.

Venezuela is the world's fifth exporter of crude and the United States' fourth main supplier which represents 70% of all the country’s oil exports.

HEY, WHO'S THAT ASSHOLE IMPERSONATOR STANDING NEXT TO ELVIS

STRAIGHT TALK FROM SEAN HANNITY

Sean says, "Pat Robertson caused a bit of a media firestorm this week when he advocated, some say, the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez."

The "some" who say that Robertson did advocate Chavez's assassination includes Robertson himself

WE REPORT, YOU DECIDE.

PAGANS POPE-SLAPPED BY BENEDICT

"In the 20th century, in the darkest period of German and European history, an insane racist ideology, born of neo-paganism, gave rise to the attempt, planned and systematically carried out by the regime, to exterminate European Jewry," he said. "The result has passed into history as the Shoah," he said, using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust.

...and I always thought that homosexuality would be the canary in the culture-wars coal mine.

Oh well, I guess you need more than one canary

GEE CINDY, THAT'S A HARD ONE. I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT THE NOBLE PURPOSE OF HIS DEATH WAS. IT'S ALL STARTING TO RUN TOGETHER.

HEY! I'M TRYING TO HAVE A VACATION HERE, DO YOU MIND?

DANG, I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THE WAR. LET'S CHECK IN AND SEE WHAT'S GOING ON. YA WANT TO?

SERIOUSLY CINDY, ALL KIDDING ASIDE, IF YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST KNOW WHAT YOUR SON DIED FOR, THEN HERE IT IS (MOST OF IT)

(1) to strengthen US global dominance in the 21st century.

(2) To fracture independent nationalist movements which might encircle the "lone superpower" and serve as countervailing powers in a multi-polar world,

(3) to make a bold statement to the world that the US is willing to use massive military force, at great cost in money and lives, without justification and without regard for international law

(4) to increase US leverage on the world's oil spigot, giving the US security establishment veto power over who has energy for war and industry, and who doesn't;

(5) to establish an ongoing military presence and massive staging area in Iraq, enabling the US to control crush uprisings and control politics throughout the region;

(6) to privatize Iraq's previously natinalized economy to the benefit of US corporations and the rest of the US corporate-political power structure.

CAN YA SEE IT? IT'S RIGHT THERE. LOOK OUT! IT'S GONNA GIT YA.

"BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iranian agents have tried to obtain from South Korea a substance that can be used to boost nuclear explosions in atomic weapons, an Iranian exile group said on Thursday.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which has in the past provided accurate information on hidden Iranian nuclear activities, said Tehran had used front companies to obtain the substance, a hydrogen isotope known as tritium.

"The regime has tried to smuggle it in from South Korea," said Ali Safavi, a senior NCRI official, told a news conference in Brussels, citing what he called high-placed unnamed sources in the Iranian leadership.

Safavi said he understood that Iran's attempts to acquire the substance had been successful, but gave no further details."

Yea, Right.

WE WENT TO VIETNAM, SPENT 300 BILLION. 58,000 MEN CAME BACK IN BODY BAGS (TRANSFER TUBES) AND ALL WE GOT WAS THIS WALL

HOW MUCH WILL THE NEXT WALL COST?

AND IT'S ONE, TWO, THREE WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR? DON'T ASK ME CAUSE I DON'T GIVE A DAMN.

Because of connections to 9/11? Nope

Because Saddam was Osama? Nope

To shut down the terrorists network? Nope

Because of Weapons of Mass Destruction? Nope

To make America safer? Nope

To bring Democracy to Iraq? Nope

To gain control and access to Iraq's Oil? Yah think? Didn't work did it?

$300 trillion investment (deaths don't count). Arbusto has gone bust again. Who is going to bail him out this time?

TIME TO CHECK IN AND SEE HOW THE WAR IS GOING

WAR GAMES: FIRST CHAVEZ AND NOW THIS

The eight-day war games, which involved nearly 10,000 Chinese and Russian troops in east China's Shandong Peninsula, have been interpreted as a series of signals.

The unprecedented display of Russian and Chinese combined military might sends a signal to Central Asian countries that both Moscow and Beijing will no longer ignore American inroads into the strategically important region.

Russian-Chinese military cooperation could be developed within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) …China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

SCO as a counterbalance to growing US influence in the region. This policy appeared to entail the recent eviction of the US military from a base in Uzbekistan, a SCO member.

…To ensure the readiness of the two armies "to counter the challenges we face today in Asia-Pacific and globally".

As Washington is stuck in its Iraqi quagmire, Russia and China seemingly availed themselves an opportunity to demonstrate their unwillingness to live in a unipolar world

Moscow and Beijing have to join forces in a drive against the US unilateralism.

OF THE REPUBLICANS, BY THE REPUBLICANS AND FOR THE REPUBLICANS

FAIR AND BALANCED

THIS IS OUT
BLEEPING
RAGEOUS

So John Bolton is having a reception at the U.N. ambassador's private residence in the penthouse at the Waldorf Astoria tonight. The Washington Times, Fox News, and various other conservatives will be represented there, but some of the people who won't be there include Colum Lynch from the Washington Post and Warren Hoge from the New York Times, both of whom cover the U.N. for their respective papers.

FINALLY, AT LONG LAST, BUSH MEETS WAR WIDOW

Speaking at a rally of 10,000 servicemen and their families in Idaho, the President quoted Tammy Pruett, from Idaho, who has also seen her husband and a fifth son serve in Iraq, as saying:

“If something happened to one of the boys, they would leave this world doing what they believe, what they think is right for our country. And I guess you couldn’t ask for a better way of life than giving it for something that you believe in.”

OOPS!! Not a war widow yet.

RUMMY SAYS COUNTRIES DO STUFF LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME

Some 10,000 Russian and Chinese troops are taking part in the weeklong air, land and sea exercise, which includes a simulated naval blockade and amphibious landing.

Chinese destroyers, submarines and fighter aircraft coordinated their movements in the Yellow Sea Tuesday with a Russian missile destroyer and anti-submarine vessels while a Russian surveillance plane circled overhead.

Russia and China did not invite the United States to attend as an observer.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050824/wl_afp/
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