Cheney can't understand why they can't get that oil law signed

That's really why he's pushing and demanding they not take a vacation. The oil companies are getting anxious:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Vice President Dick Cheney met Wednesday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to push al-Maliki's government into adopting U.S.-favored changes before American military commander Gen. David Petraeus must report to Congress on whether the "surge" of American troops has been succeeding.

Cheney pressed Maliki to stop the Iraqi parliament from taking its scheduled two-month summer recess. President Bush made a similar appeal in a videoconference with al-Maliki on Monday.

"I did make it clear that we believe it's very important to move on the issues before us in a timely fashion and that any undue delay would be difficult to explain," Cheney told reporters after his day of back-to-back meetings. "I think they're somewhat sympathetic to our concerns."

[snip]

In his speech Jan. 10 in which he announced the dispatch of tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops to Iraq, Bush said the increase would help provide security so that Iraq's government could resolve critical issues involving oil revenues, deBaathification, and the constitution.

But the parliament has made virtually no progress in those areas. A draft oil law is in committee, and there's been no discussion on easing rules that bar Baathists from serving in government. A report from a committee on proposed changes to Iraq's constitution is due to parliament on Tuesday.

Few here expect the parliament to reach agreement on the issues, even if it stays in session an extra month.

I think the Iraqi Parliament realizes once they sign away their nation's resources to foreign companies, their lives are forfeit. It looks like they are trying to wait Bush and Cheney out.

Giiiiivvvveee iiiiittttt tooooooo meeeeeee:

Update: I posted on this before, why privatization, why the bill is stuck, who benefits.

Update: Michael Schwartz of the Asia Times:

Since the invasion of Iraq, US officials have melded economic and military policy into a single fatal brew, driven by dreams of controlling the country's fabulous potential oil wealth. The key "benchmark", therefore, that the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki must pass is passage of a new oil law forced on it by the Bush administration. Widespread opposition to the law, though, could result in escalating conflict that leaves the oil out of the United States' reach.