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TO: Obama Wins Most Texas Delegates

The Associated Press reports: “Sen. Barack Obama has won the overall delegate race in Texas thanks to a strong showing in Democratic county conventions this past weekend.” Obama reportedly is out spending Hillary on the airwaves in Pennslylvania. In Zimbabwe’s election, there is a “dead heat.”

BUSH’S HUD SECRETARY OUT, FACES CRIMINAL PROBE

WASHINGTON (March 31) - The Bush administration’s top housing official, under criminal investigation and intense pressure from Democratic critics, announced Monday he is quitting.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said his resignation will take effect on April 18. The move comes at a shaky time for the economy and the Bush administration, as the housing industry’s crisis has imperiled the nation’s credit markets and led to a major economic slowdown.

PENTAGON SPY FOR CHINA CAUGHT

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Pentagon official pleaded guilty Monday to passing US military secrets to an agent working for China after being showered with gifts and gambling money, the Department of Justice said. Gregg William Bergersen, 51, faces up to 10 years in jail after admitting to one count of conspiracy to disclose national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, the department said in a statement.

Steve Soto-ICH: Al-Sadr’s Clever “Retreat”

Al-Sadr knows that he and his forces cannot win a face-to-face battle with American forces and air power, and that attempting to engage in such a prolonged battle is a recipe for decimation and destruction of Iraqi cities.

YOU ARE GOING TO WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE: Errol Morris’s Take on Abu Ghraib. Powerful.

RELEASE: 60 Minutes interviewed a German resident held by the US for almost five years in Afghanistan. He claims American troops tortured him by holding his head underwater, administering electric shocks to the soles of his feet, and suspending him from the ceiling of an aircraft hangar while being kept alive by doctors. These shocking allegations harken back to abuses at Abu Ghraib and the scandal that ensued.

“Standard Operating Procedure,” a documentary out April 25 from Errol Morris (“The Fog of War”, “The Thin Blue Line”), examines the events at Abu Ghraib through the photographs taken and interviews with the soldiers involved. It is the story of how a small group of lowly soldiers were blamed for policy decisions and a war out of control.

BLOOD FOR OIL?

Can you believe that just now, just yesterday it was reported publically that Iraq has more oil than anyone thought. I am sure that everyone did not include the Oil Industry and the CIA. They must have known but kept the news to themselves lest anyone think. Heavens to Betsy as Donald Rumsfeld may have said that this war was about oil. Perish the thought.

A WP op-ed by Steven Mufson, the Post’s energy correspondent, titled “A Crude Case for War?”:

It’s hard to miss the point of the “Blood for Oil” Web site. It features one poster of an American flag with “Blood for oil?” in white block letters where the stars should be and two dripping red handprints across the stripes. Another shows a photo of President Bush with a thin black line on his upper lip. “Got oil?” the headline asks wryly.

Five years after the United States invaded Iraq, plenty of people believe that the war was waged chiefly to secure U.S. petroleum supplies and to make Iraq safe — and lucrative — for the U.S. oil industry.

We may not know the real motivations behind the Iraq war for years, but it remains difficult to distill oil from all the possibilities. That’s because our society and economy have been nursed on cheap oil, and the idea that oil security is a right as well as a necessity has become part of our foreign policy DNA, handed down from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter to George H.W. Bush. And the war and its untidy aftermath have, in fact, swelled the coffers of the world’s biggest oil companies

FT story titled ‘’Iraq may hold twice as much oil'’:

Iraq could hold almost twice as much oil in its reserves as had been thought, according to the most comprehensive independent study of its resources since the US-led invasion in 2003.

The potential presence of a further 100bn barrels in the western desert highlights the opportunity for Iraq to be one of the world’s biggest oil suppliers, and its attractions for international oil companies – if the conflict in the country can be resolved.

If confirmed, it would raise Iraq from the world’s third largest source of oil reserves with 116bn barrels to second place, behind Saudi Arabia and overtaking Iran.

The study from IHS, a consultancy, also estimates that Iraq’s production could be increased from its current rate of less than 2m barrels a day to 4m b/d within five years, if international investment begins to flow.

That would put Iraq in the top five oil-producing countries in the world, at current rates.

THE PRICE OF GAS—UP!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. retail price for gasoline set a new high of $3.29 a gallon after rising 3.1 cents over the last week, the federal Energy Information The national price for regular, self-service gasoline is up 58 cents from a year ago as expensive crude oil continued to be passed on to consumers at the pump, the Energy Department’s analytical arm said in its weekly survey of service stations.