Home > Members of Congress unaware of missing 8.8 billion
Members of Congress unaware of missing 8.8 billion
by Open-Publishing - Monday 23 May 20053 comments
Wars and conflicts Economy-budget USA UK
Last Friday I was on the panel of Bill Maher’s season finale of his HBO show “Real Time.” Bill’s guest by satellite was Senator Norm Coleman from my home state of Minnesota. Because Coleman serves on the homeland security committee, Maher asked him to comment on former homeland security director Tom Ridge’s recent revelation that the Bush administration would often issue terror alerts that he didn’t think were warranted. Could it be that they were using terror alerts politically?
Coleman answered that it was always good to err on the side of caution. Maher followed by asking Coleman if it struck him as odd that there haven’t been any terror alerts since the election?
After a long laugh from the audience, Coleman answered with some stuff about there still being a high level alert, but then reassured everybody with: "If in fact people used these things for political purposes, I’m sure Congress will look into that."
Wow! If people used these things for political purposes, he’s sure the Republican Congress will look into it? How is it that this guy can’t get through a five minute interview on a political comedy show without having to resort to total b.s.?
Right now Coleman is looking into the Oil-for-Food program, which was administered by the Security Council in the U.N., mostly by the U.S. and Britain. That didn’t stop Coleman from demanding Kofi Annan’s resignation without any proof of any wrongdoing on his part. There appears to be anywhere from one to two billion dollars stolen through the program - with most of that going to Saddam. Primarily the U.S. and Britain took it upon themselves to make sure that none of this money went toward making W.M.D.s. They seemed to have done a pretty good job.
Meanwhile, the Coalition Provisional Authority, which we ran, has lost 8.8 billion dollars. By lost, I mean it’s totally unaccounted for. Not only has Congress not "looked into" this $8.8 billion and who might have it now, but it seems that some members are completely unaware that this staggering sum, which was supposed to go toward rebuilding Iraq, is missing. The Sunday morning after the White House Correspondents dinner, I ran into Senator George Allen at a brunch thrown by John McLaughlin and his wife. Allen had never heard of the missing $8.8 billion, or at least that’s what he told me. And he’s on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Stunned, I went up to Susan Page of USA Today and her husband Carl Lubsdorf of the Dallas Morning News, two veteran Washington political reporters, and told them about Allen’s ignorance of this huge scandal, which has no doubt contributed to hatred for America and the deaths of our troops. There’s less electricity in Iraq now than there was before we invaded Iraq.
Turns out that Page and Lubsdorf had also never heard of the unaccounted-for $8.8 billion. For a moment I thought that maybe I had been imagining things.
Then I spotted my friend Norm Ornstein, scholar from the American Enterprise Institute. "Would you believe it if Norm Ornstein told you about the $8.8 billion?" I asked Susan and Carl.
"Sure."
I brought Norm over, and indeed I had not been imagining things. "It was a huge story," Norm told them.
"Was it in the New York Times?" Carl asked Norm.
"Yes," Norm assured him.
What in God’s name is going on?
Forum posts
24 May 2005, 02:50
Please don’t get God involved, here, with any aspect of the Repukican Right-Wing and ’manly’ love of mammon. "The Gospel According to Bush" states as follows:
6:19 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal :
6:20 "But lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where we can break through and steal :
6:21 "For where your treasure is, there will our hand be also."
SOURCE: The Bush Gospel, Sinner Matthew, Chapter 6, Verses 19, 20 and 21.
The previous Chapter begins with the following:
" THE GOSPEL
" ACCORDING TO
" GEORGIE ‘Doh’BYA BUSH
" DICKIE ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ CHENEY
"DONNIE ‘Know-It-All Except Abu-Ghraib’ RUMSFELD
" CANDY ‘Me So Yummy Horny’ RICE
" ANNIE ‘The Bitch is Back’ COULTER
" RUSHIE ‘Pills’ LIMBAUGH
" BILLIE ‘Shut Up!’ O’REILLY
"CHAPTER 5
"1 And deceiving the multitudes, he went up into Washington : and when he was set, his disciples came unto him :
"2 And he closed their minds, and taught them, saying,
"3 “Damned are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of hell.
"4 “Damned are they that mourn : for they shall be disconsolate.
"5 “Damned are the meek : for they shall inherit nothing.
"6 “Damned are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness : for they shall starve.
"7 “Damned are the merciful : for they shall obtain no mercy.
"8 “Damned are the pure in heart : for they shall see Satan.
"9 “Damned are the peacemakers : for they shall be called the children of Satan.
"10 “Damned are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake : for theirs is the kingdom of hell.
"11 “Damned are ye, when men shall praise you, and reward you, and shall say all manner of good for you truly, for His sake.
"12 “Mourn, and be exceeding sad : for small is your reward in hell : for so rewarded us the prophets which were before you.”
In particular, all liberals should be mindful of Chapter 5, Verse 9: “Damned are the peacemakers : for they shall be called the children of Satan."
24 May 2005, 04:54
The members of the U.S. government have become experts at selective listening. They only hear what they want to hear, and only "know" what they want to know. When you are a professional liar it is always best to pretend that you are unaware of anything that you do not want to admit. Now that these persons have been "enlightened" let us watch and see what they do about it. I’m taking bets that they do NOTHING because they still do not want to hear or know about this. The only conclusion to draw is that these people are all on the take and that they do not want anyone to find out where the 8.8 billion went to, it went into the off shore bank accounts of our "representatives" of course, and which liar is going to investigate that?
24 May 2005, 10:14
If you go to Congress.org, you can read letters being sent to senators and congressmen in each state . You’ll find they’ve been told. They just choose not to hear.