Establishment Hypocrisy Continues

    

	Not Spent on Iraqi People	Spent on Iraqi People
Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti	2 billion	62 billion
United States of America	150 billion	1 billion

First, the establishment NY Times says that the most recent bombing was done in order to disrupt elections.  It's not a long peice, but you'd still be better served by reading DailyWarNews.  No word on how the bombers planned to use this event to stop the elections, nor how they knew elections would be held, and where they weren't.  Nor was there any indication that the bombings has ceased in areas without elections.  When the violence started climbing, first it was blamed on "foreign fighters" bent on stopping the transition.  Then it was blamed on "dead-enders" bent on influencing the US election.  Now the "insurgents" want to stop an Iraqi election.

     The establishment media is all over the story of Samir Vincent, who is likely working with the US government to a far greater degree than is indicated.  He was born in Iraq, moved here when he was 18, and ran Pheonix Intl, LLC, an energy trading company (e.g Enron Energy Services), lived in... Virginia, and although he made no verbal statement in court, and could not be reached for comment, he said "I hope that my guilty plea and my agreement to assist the Department of Justice in investigating these matters will help not only the United States but also the Iraqi people as they struggle to rebuild their nation."

     Few reporters even bat an eyelash at any of the above facts, and fewer even mention that he turned himself in, yes, turned himself in on Tuesday, and is being charged today.  Justice is speedy, when the timing is good for C Rice's SecState confirmation hearings.  Reporters seem to be falling all over themselves to believe the establishment line.  The Chicago Tribune says C Rice was talking about Kofi Annan when she said "those who were responsible should be held accountable."  Except that's impossible for Kofi to be responsible, since the O-F-F program was run under the auspices of the Security Council itself (i.e. US, UK, Russia, China, France + 10 rotating others) and not the offices of the Secretary General (who is basically the Speaker of the General Assembly). 

     I'm halfway done with Suskind's Price of Loyalty.  I'll probably get a job offer this week, so I felt I could spend the money.  Bush is even more of an idiot than I thought.  He's got rules he won't violate, no matter what the numbers say.  The line about him "not negotiating with himself" is in there three or more times.  Normal humans, who don't play pretend-perfect-while-being-human, know that thinking things through is natural, and Bush simply believes thinking things through is a sign of weakness.

     Numbers for the table: Total $ produced by OFF=67 billion.&nsbp; Amount left in accounts=3 billion.  Amount of alleged corruption=1.7 billion (payoffs to palaces, we can talk about the 10s or 100s of millions the Bushes are spending on beautifying Pennsylvania Avenue later).&nsbp; Amount spent on Iraq War=150 bilion.  Amount spent on rebuilding contracts=1 billion.  The loony UN haters are alleging that the scandal was really 20 billion.  They are free to imagine how that chart would look with 20 and 44 replacing 2 and 62.  I've seen no compelling evidence at all yet.

     What was the value of getting the Oil-for-Food program begun?  It was a great humanitarian thing.  Turns out, according to Newsday, Samir Vincent was instrumental in starting the program!  He probably deserves a medal, if he hadn't taken the 5-7 million in "incentives" (Armstrong Williams would undoubtedly use a different term).