From the Moscow Times...

Putin Lands a Deal for Turkmen Gas
By Miriam Elder
Staff Writer

President Vladimir Putin scored a victory for access to Turkmen gas on Saturday, winning approval for a direct pipeline around the Caspian in a major setback to U.S.-backed plans for an alternative route that would bypass Russia.

The new pipeline is due to run from western Turkmenistan along the Caspian shore, pumping billions of cubic meters of gas through Kazakhstan before entering Russia, from where it will likely be exported at great profit.

A triumphant Putin announced the deal after a meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in the Caspian port of Turkmenbashi.

The deal serves a big blow to U.S. and European Union interests. Washington and Brussels have been lobbying hard for a pipeline that would send Turkmen gas to Europe under the Caspian Sea, cutting Moscow out of the picture.
 

From the Moscow Times...

...

"Clifford Gaddy, a Brookings Institution scholar, said the United States has "zero leverage" with the Kremlin. "The only leverage we ever had on the Russians was the financial dependence of Russia in the late 1980s and in the 1990s," he said. "With the current oil boom, that is gone."

 

From the SMH

Deputies stand by their sheriff

Gerard Henderson
May 15, 2007

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Gus: the headline says it all... "Gangsters stand by their boss..." But in fact it's a bit more complicated. The subtle lies and underlying threats, the uneasy stand offs and the personal interests of all make that everyone is watching their back, in case they get scratched the wrong way — or simply knifed.

The little wars are not popular. The downward spiral of the US dollar is not good for the Europeans either, who amongst other problems are divided by the deliberate divisive US policies. Merkel knows that more US citizens need to buy a few more Mercs at whatever cost, and Sarkozy will have to very carefully deal with a powerful socialist movement despite the defeat of Segolene Royal. But the fact is that a Sarkozy is more like a Hawke than a Howard — despite his first few (deliberate?) gaffes in his his new incumbent role, for which he will have to quickly mend the breaches, otherwise the streets will be ablaze, again. The caliber of the French socialists has a many great financiers, economists and accountants who know how to make things work for all — not just for the greedy elites, from which one get crumbs like a mutt gets scraps "for being a good dog".

In the US, the Democrats have the upper hand despite Bushit resistance... Blair knew he had become an embarrassment to his party despite "some of the good things" he'd done. To tell the truth here, it's easy to do a few good things — although some may be harder than others — but it's avoiding the bad deeds that's hard, especially under the influence of a bully mate. And Blair did a big bad thing amongst others. Supporting the invasion of Iraq, knowingly under false pretences, like our Rattus did here, was way below the belt and many people have paid the price in this dishonest war.

But the psychopaths who rule our world may have no qualms about the conquest, for which they will blame others for failure or take credit for success, although success is never ever total "mission acccomplished". What a crock!. The true State-persons would stop sleeping at night for the useless deaths they have commandeered and repent for ever after... They would demote themselves to street sweeper second-class. But they would not lie in the first intance, thus the situation would not arise. Conclusion: we are ruled by psychopathic gangsters...

The fluffy analysis by Gerard Henderson is thus superficial blabber that does not take into account the real under currents of people power. As a mid-secondary-school homework, it would get a D minus. But sure as a regular crooked headline on a Daily Telegraph, he may think he can manipulate people to believe more of the same old dung-beetle propaganda. He is right — mind you — to say the Bush Administration is on the nose. Full stop. Trying to tack a few apologetic words beyond that ("However, the significant involvement of Britain and Australia in Iraq and Afghanistan - with Canada in Afghanistan - indicates the US is not as isolated as many of its critics maintain...) is confirming that the Gangsters will do anything to protect their Boss controlling the patch, their crookery and their lies.

 

Old-new Europe divide opens up over policy towards Moscow · No new cold war, insists Rice on arrival in Russia
· Last-gasp attempt to salvage weekend summit

Ian Traynor in Brussels and Luke Harding in Moscow
Tuesday May 15, 2007
The Guardian

European leaders were locked in a bitter dispute over policy towards Russia yesterday, just days before a crucial EU-Russia summit that threatens to turn into an acrimonious flop.

Amid the worst hostility between Moscow and the west for years, the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, arrived in Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin insisting there was "no new cold war" and the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, prepared to rush to see President Putin today in a last-gasp attempt to salvage this weekend's summit.

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Gus: As mentioned in the blog above, the US policies are designed to crack Europe's unity as much as fiddle with Russia, but young Putin is smarter than the average Siberian bear... while the others, they could behave like a pack of wolves to which a rotten bone has been thrown at... to distract them while the Bushit caravan passes.

From the BBC

Brazil claims WTO cotton victory

Brazil has claimed a victory over the US after the World Trade Organization (WTO) upheld many of its complaints over subsidies paid to cotton farmers.

The US has been accused of unfairly helping its farmers, distorting the price of cotton and make it harder for developing nations to compete.

Brazil called on the US to comply with the WTO's preliminary ruling, warning of retaliation should it not.

The US said it was disappointed by the ruling and would protect its farmers.

It argued that it had already taken sufficient steps to meet WTO requirements, and had scrapped a number of payments and credits.

However, the WTO said that it was "very disappointed with these results".

It added that: "The changes made by the US were insufficient to bring the challenged measures - certain support payments under the 2002 Farm Bill and export credit guarantees - into conformity with US WTO obligations."

House Passes Massive Farm Bill
Tax Issue Prompts GOP Opposition

By Dan Morgan
Special to the Washington Post
Saturday, July 28, 2007; A01

The House yesterday passed a far-reaching new farm bill that preserves the existing system of subsidies for commercial farmers and adds billions of dollars for conservation, nutrition and new agricultural sectors.

Passage of the 741-page bill by a vote of 231 to 191, after partisan battling unusual for farm legislation, was a major achievement for the new Democratic leadership.

With most Republicans opposing the five-year bill over a tax issue, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hammered out a compromise that held together a shaky majority of Democratic farm-state lawmakers committed to the entrenched farm subsidy system, together with urban liberals and reformers seeking sweeping changes.

"This signals change and a new direction," said Pelosi, in calling for the party to stick together on the contentious vote.

The bill, which has a price tag of almost $286 billion, boosts spending on preservation of grasslands and wildlife habitat, and mandates a major study of the Chesapeake Bay watershed as a first step to restoring the bay by reducing agricultural and other wastes.