About that $87 billion--anyone remember this?

[jpgray]

BLITZER (10/26/03): As you know, the Senate wants half of that $20 billion to be in the form of loans, half in grants. The House says all of it should be in the form of outright grants. The president is threatening to veto the entire $87 billion unless all of that $20 billion is a grant. Is that a hard-and-fast position, as the House and Senate conferees resolve this issue?

POWELL: Yes, it is. The president feels very strongly that it should be a grant. We need to get this country up and running quickly. And I was quite taken, at the Madrid conference I attended, where the U.N. representative, Mark Malloch Brown, from the U.N. Development Program, said it should be a grant. We need this infusion of dollars as we structure, over a longer period of time, the influx of grants and loans on a long-term basis.

And now we hear that scarcely any of that money has been spent? Boy, that flip flopper Kerry just can't be trusted.

[elperromagico]

1. Bush was going to stop funding our troops!

Shame on him.

</simplification>

[punpirate]

2. Since they diverted $700 million from...

... Afghanistan to do war planning for Iraq, and that Bush, Rumsfeld and a host of others have been crying for Congress to essentially provide the administration with block grants to use as they wish, my guess is that we're going to find, much later, that they don't know where it's gone, haven't spent it, or spent it on something else they shouldn't have.

What they will have spent, we will discover, went to Halliburton and a string of faith-based mercenary firms for security ("... praise the Lord and pass the ammunition, uh, I mean, money....").

Cheers.

[jpgray]

4. Bingo. How much has already gone down the Chalabi hole?

There are defense contractors far more practiced at conning the US government out of money than he.

[punpirate]

8. Up until 2000, about...

$200 million to the INC. After that, there was some argument that the government wasn't getting much for its money, the payments were suspended and then that position was reversed and Bush began supporting them again.

In the fourteen months after Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" that Chalabi was around the honey pot, he undoubtedly siphoned off some funds, but I doubt we'll really know about that, either, since the one guy who had been auditing the Iraqi side of the coalition has been murdered and his computers drives are now dust.

When we started pushing for this invasion, I feel sure that one of the intended consequences was to obscenely enrich American corporations. One of the unintended consequences of the invasion was that it also attracted every thief and embezzler for ten thousand miles around. The neo-cons were so busy making deals for their friends that they never noticed when their pockets were being picked. News of that will come much, much later.

Cheers.

[napi21]

3. Even I forgot Powell was involved in this BS too!

I remembered Kerry's position and the shrub threatening to veto, but forgot about this interview with Powell. Weren't there other appearances too on MTP etc? Now that you mentioned this, I think I remember hearing a whole slew of Pubs spewing this same message.

Quite amusing that it was such an emergency then, but almost a year later it hasn't been used!

[Mr_Spock]

5. Yep, a total lie about the change of vote-only most people don't remember

Bush should be made to eat a steaming pile of shit for this bald-faced deception he has pulled. And Kerry can't explain it now because people's eyes will just glaze over. Just throw it in the faces of the freepers - they know it's true. When I did it the stupid freeper just conceded "well, they all tell lies to get elected" How fucking apologetic of you Mr. holier than thou freeper. What a piece of work these Republican fools are.

[ComerPerro]

6. They don't care when Bush lies

Confront any freeper with Bush's lies, and they suddenly just say, "well, its politics. They all lie. So what."

[Mr_Spock]

7. Exactly - that's the response I got. Christian soldiers sans ethics.

What a bunch of hypocrites. Fine with me - based on the faith of many of *'s followers, they are destined to burn in hell for their deceptions and the awful things they have said & done to their "so called" opponents (you know, the compassionate liberals that actually LIVE by the teachings of Jesus, not talk about it - which is meaningless).

[LittleClarkie]

9. And now I hear that folks are getting hepititis

from the lack of fresh water and proper sewage treatment.

One would think that this would be priority over 14 US bases and a big-ass UN building.

Oh no, let's watch the Iraqis die because we didn't supply them with proper water. That'll be much more fun later.