MiuraDude

I suppose anything Barzani agrees to is a good thing, but is this or is this not related to the HCL?

Hate to be so unsympathetic, but this is an example of someone that was too stupid to follow the directions (she was 21 years old, not some little kid that accidently ingested the pills) and was too lazy to lose weight the right way. And now she's dead.

So at best we're looking at six months for the boys to come to terms on the HCL? Is that how you read it Yota?

It would seem that if Baghdad or anyone else (including all of us) wants the Kurds to sign off on the HCL, it will cost (at least) $12 billion. Damn.

Kurds......are you happy now?

I basically just posted the same thing on another topic, but anyone that thinks the HCL is just around the corner needs to do a status check with the Kurds. There is definitely something or some things that they are not in agreement with with the current form of the HCL, and that hasn't changed since Abadi came onboard.

Until I read that Barzani and the Kurd boys are in agreement with all the provisions of the HCL, I won't believe anyone is any closer to the actualization of the HCL.

Is this (continuing) HCL negotiations, or something else?

I don't think the HCL is as close as Adam may have thought. Of course I hope I'm wrong and he's right.

I think this puts pressure on the Japanese to do something after what happened to a couple of their journalists recently. And I certainly would have no problems with them going in there and taking out a couple hundred more of these scumbags.

ewingm......and what principle explains your behavior???????????

There is no better tasting fish than the fish you catch yourself!

Question.....would there or would there not necessarily be indicators in the budget that reflect the implementation of the HCA and/or HCL?

It's incredible, and at the same time disturbing, how things have developed and moved forward since Abadi took office. The disturbing part is thinking about how horrible the Maliki regime was, and how much he ultimately cost the Iraqi people.

Amen dontlop. Spot on comments!

I just hope that all the morons that had a hand in getting this law passed have a relative or loved one that is ultimately going to lose his or her job because of this law, and will get to witness first hand the results of their actions.

Banks don't commit crimes. People that work at/for banks do. Greedy people. Extremely greedy people. As long as there are no consequences for them specifically, this type of activity will continue.

I've always thought that the release/issue of coins with values somewhat comparable to our penny, nickel, and quarter was an RV requirement. If they were going to RV at 1:1, it would only make sense to have similar "fractional denominations" relative to the dollar/dinar. So I find this article particularly encouraging.

Apparently the University of Montreal has run out of worthwhile studies to conduct.

There's no better incentive to "bond" than when there's a common enemy. So while other issues may exist amongst the parties, I'd like to assume that they will put those differences aside in dealing with the terrorists. I'm sure the issues that exist between the parties will resurface after the terrorists are successfully dealt with, but at least while they're "fighting the fight", Kurd and Sunni (or whatever the case may be) will fight side by side. It's not significantly different than what happened in this country after 9/11. People that may have been considered adversaries, were suddenly thrust into a position of being "teammates", and at least for a brief period of time, we were all on the same team, against the common enemy.

I've read this mentality before, and while I may just be ridiculous ignorant, why is there a belief that the government doesn't want people to have money/become millionaires? I guess I just don't see how, from the government's perspective, that people having money is a bad thing.

I don't know how the new PM actually influences the situation in an absolute sense, but things sure have been moving along since the new guy came onboard, which is very encouraging to see. Perhaps we will be able to redefine the term "soon" as it appears in these news articles, and soon will actually mean soon.

150 holidays a year? Are you shi**ing me? And we wonder why these guys are not the most productive people in the world.

Hard to believe, but these jokers might actually have a fully seated government by the end of the month. I'm not saying that means RV, but it certainly is progress.

Hopefully, this is not some idle threat or wishful thinking on someone's part, and they're actually going to follow through with prosecuting Maliki.