Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer
California Representative (and mine) Henry Waxman, the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, answers questions about Iraq last night with Tavis Smiley on PBS. After Waxman explains how at least $12 billion allocated for Iraqi reconstruction went missing, an incredulous Smiley states:
Can I ask a real simple question? Who would be in our government, so stuck on stupid, such an idiot, as to fly $12 billion in cash into a war zone.
Waxman lays most of the blame on the Republican-led Congress which failed in its oversight responsibilities. Similarly deplorable is what the reconstruction effort accomplished, considering Iraq’s billions and our own additional $20 billion. According to Waxman:
The oil production is behind prewar levels. The electricity doesn’t even last eight hours in Baghdad. In some places they have no electricity at all. And electricity is below prewar levels. Even drinking water is not available, and if you are going to measure it, it is not as good as it was before the war.
But while “Iraqis and the American people are not better off” for the war, Waxman does identify one group that has made out extraordinarily well:
But the ones who are really better off are all these contractors. Haliburton, Bechtel, all these different big contractors. They got mega mega monopoly contracts. They subcontracted and the subcontractors subcontracted and there are layers of costs on top of layers of costs. A lot of people made money out this who were the contractors.
34th annual CPAC conference…for “fake conservatives” (corporate fascists)
2007 invitED SPEAKERS
(YOU CALL THESE GUYS, “CONSERVATIVES”??? ARE THEY AGAINST FEDERAL SPENDING, AGAINST WAR AND PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKES, AGAINST BIG GOVERNMENT SPYING ON CITIZENS’ PHONE CALLS/COMPUTERS/EMAIL/SNAIL MAIL???)
Vice President Dick Cheney – Sean Hannity – Senator Mitch McConnell – Ann Coulter – Tom Delay – Michelle Malkin – David Horowitz – Congressman Mike Pence – Newt Gingrich – Phyllis Schlafly – Wayne LaPierre – and many more!
CPAC features book signings by the nation’s leading conservative authors, live broadcasts of national and local radio talk shows, hands-on training sessions from grassroots activism to
media strategy, internet row and a bloggers’ corner, and much, much more!
2007 REGISTRATION PACKAGES
Diamond Package | $425 3-Day Conference Package | $125 Reagan Banquet* | $200
Gold Package* | $300 Presidential Banquet | $225 Student Package | $25
* Sold out
On-site registration is open, and will continue throughout the conference.
http://www.cpac.org/
Snow at CPAC: We didn’t create the war in Iraq, We didn’t create the war on terror
http://www.rawstory.com/news/20...r_in_0301.html
MESSAGE TO CONSERVATIVES: YOU ARE IDIOTS, BECAUSE THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT CONSERVATIVES!!!!!!!!!
Is REAL conservative Ron Paul speaking there???
Last year’s “great” CPAC speeches…
(ATTENTION: THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT CONSERVATIVES!!!)
Senator George Allen (macaca)
Ambassador John Bolton (corporate fascist neo-con)
Vice President Dick Cheney (corporate fascist)
David Keene
Susette Kelo
Congressman Sam Johnson
Manuel Miranda
Congressman Mike Pence
Governor Rick Perry
George Will
http://www.cpac.org/speeches.html
And to which party’s political candidates’ campaigns do you think those well-off, war-profiteering contractors, sub-contractors, and sub-sub-contractors, made large contributions? The GOP maybe? Around and around it goes….
I bought the “Diamond Package” for the CPAC conference! Yay!!!
Tom DeLay’s going to talk about how he pulled the plug on his father’s life support. Because Jesus told him to…
Sean Hannity is going to give a speech on how poor American families should keep sending their kids to die for lies…and his sponsors’ war profits. “You’re a great American…for sending your kid to die for me! And you’re also a big ASSHOLE!!! We conservatives must keep doing this.” (meaning YOU keep doing it for HIM! the non-conservative who’s tricking you)
Ann Coulter will give a speech about how she is going to the slammer for federal vote fraud. She’ll be the next Anna Nicole Smith, when she wastes away from anorexia.
Dick Cheney will give a speech on how he will keep funnelling Americans’ taxpayers $$$ to his war profiteer buddies…yet somehow claim he’s a conservative. Well, he’s speaking at the CPAC, isn’t he? So he MUST be a conservative!!! Dick also will tell us how the insurgency in Iraq is in its “last throes”…and to keep sending your kids to die for him and his profiteers…because you’re “patriotic”…
George W. Bush will give a surprise appearance, and explain how your $300 tax cut will pay for 3/5’s of the “Diamond Package” for the CPAC conference…and keep sending those kids to die for him!!!
Michelle Malkin will explain how, although she’s a “gook”, John McCain wasn’t referring to HER, when he said he hated “gooks” from the “Double-Talk Express”…and keep sending your kids to die for her!!!
Newt Gingrich will explain how he is somehow constantly on ANBCBSNNX and in the rightwing newspapers like the NYPost…even though he holds no elected office. He will explain how he’s on TV more than elected officials Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters, and Dennis Kucinich and Ted Kennedy!!! Hooooray!!!
William Kristol will give the same exact speech as Newt Gingrich.
Rush Limbaugh will be in the audience as a vendor…”GETCHER OXYCONTIN HERE!!!”
There will be no black speakers at the CPAC…and no normal women, only “CRAZY” kooks like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin…
…and the finale…Wayne LaPierre from the NRA will tell the audience how Bush was the only president to ever order guns confiscated from American citizens…during Katrina. (well, he actually won’t inform them of this, he’ll keep the hypocrisy non-conservative train rolling with a bunch more lies…like the rest of them).
Independent media: PLEASE HAVE A FIELD DAY COVERING THIS HYPOCRISY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That 365 tons of money in trucks is a truly startling image for all the “conservatives” who were so worried about those “tax and spend” democrats.
That’s why you’ll never hear about it again.
Big Dan:
A hideous time for all!
If the dems in congress do not make a strong, strong attempt … to the point of forcing the republicans to filibuster … on the Iraq budget matters, I will not be voting for any democrat in ’08.
Any blogger here knows I advocated giving them a chance, and if they do not seriously follow the wishes of those who voted them into office, I seriously will not vote for them or republicans. Any of those in those parties in ’08.
Take heed democrats … I am very in tune with the majority and you dis us at your political peril!
Can we please back all the way up to the 2.2 TRILLION missing from the Dept of Defense, which Rumsfeld announced the day before the Project for the New American NeoCON Century’s “Pearl Habor.” You know, 9/11? Now that we can force foreign banks to show us the money trail, I think it would be fun to hang them with their own noose! And what about DICK Cheney’s conflict of interest with his Halliburton stock? If we don’t unravel ALL of this premeditated theft of BLOOD AND TREASURE history will continue to repeat itself, let’s say in about another 40 years. Or maybe sooner since they have such a wonderful government with in a government in place now!
There are no good Conservatives anymore (if there ever were). They are ALL lying, war-loving, thieving, hypocritical scum.
Do not converse with them—Ridicule them and curse their duplicitous, America-hating ways.
And if one wants to start anything–Punch out their lights (most are pussies, anyway).
Them, wash your hands—THOROUGHLY!
This must be yet another good reason for impeachment on its own merrits. Either its theft or complete incompetence. I favour the former with a big dollop of the later.
Brad
I’m so glad you and yours are still doing this Blog. Bradblog and a few other blogs are the heart of the good thats left. Those who know whats happening and truly want good for America and the world come here.
Ancient:
Here’s the video. How many tons of money would 2.2 trillion make?
Some trouble making, wonderful young lady brought this fact up to Jim Moran and Jack Murtha on C-Span and Moran said something like ‘He, (Rumsfeld) must have meant billions’. Murtha said something like ‘I don’t think it was that much’ and they moved on.
Very maddening!
Hey Larry, I’ll TALK to my people, and find out what I can. It’s time everyone do what you can in your own neighborhood! Find out where YOUR NEIGHBORS stand on voting things to begin with! SHIT (THE WAR) RUNS DOWNHILL FROM THERE, OR SO IT SHOULD.