halliburton

I am one of those people who will actually watch those boring, boring, hearings on C-SPAN that most of us flip right on past while watching TV, and this past week I’ve been watching one of the longer events the channel broadcasts...but it’s been far from boring.

The Coast Guard and what used to be the MMS were in Houston looking into what caused the Gulf oil spill and they’re taking testimony from representatives of the involved parties...and let me tell you, this is more than just an accident inquiry—it’s also a warm-up for the lawsuits that are surely going to follow.

We’ve had dozens of trial attorneys basically conducting a deposition process, witnesses who can teach a master course in “plausible unawareability”©, BP employees who have taken the Fifth and refused to testify at all, and, overseeing the entire process, a retired Federal District Court Judge and a Coast Guard Captain who might very well be on the way to trading his eagles for stars one day soon.

Do you really believe all those “we’ll make it right” BP commercials?
If you watch this hearing, that impression may well change.

... Even If It Is In Dry Dock.

What is up with all these high level Republican / White House departures? Some we know about, Donald Rumsfeld, Tom Delay, Larry Craig and now we have the second highest ranking Republican, Senator Trent Lott, leaving five years before his seat was expected to be contested, causing the Katrina stricken state of Mississippi to spend over a million some odd dollars to hold a special election just to replace him. Why?

Crossposted from Town Called Dobson & My Left Wing


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A Few Things about Iraq You Probably Have Never Been Told (Generally speaking)

By Marshall Adame

1.In the United States Embassy in Iraq there are a couple of hundred Iraqi workers. They are badged and vetted. No hostile incident has ever occurred in the US Embassy executed by an Iraqi employee of the U.S. Embassy. In fact, the Iraqis working for and in the US Embassy have turned out to be great assets to the operation as a whole and have contributed more than expected and have gone the extra mile to help achieve stability in Iraq. Most are risking there very lives every day by working for the US Embassy, but through various forms of cloak and dagger secrecy they are able to make their way to the Green Zone to work on behalf of the Coalition and their country. (Most Iraqis are not the enemy).

Crossposted from Town Called Dobson & My Left Wing


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From Deputy Whip Largely's blog:

"What we know is that we’ve seen multiple reports of fraud and waste by the private contractors operating in Iraq. We’ve seen nearly $9 billion in reconstruction funds simply vanish. That is money that should be going to securing Iraq, protecting our troops, and bringing them home as quickly and safely as possible."
[...]
"The resolution, sponsored by Iraq War veteran and new Representative Patrick Murphy, focuses on four crucial points for installing fiscal responsibility over Iraq budgeting. The points are: a call for transparency on how Iraq war funds are spent; the creation of a Truman Commission to investigate the awarding of contracts; a need to fund the Iraq war through the normal appropriations process and not through “emergency” supplementals; and using American resources to improve Iraqi assumption of internal policing operations."
[...]
"We must realize, however, that we have already spent over $400,000,000,000 (that’s BILLION) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, but money cannot make Iraq secure."

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Over 100 American soliders were slaughtered this month so far in Bush’s illegal war. With resources strained in Iraq and recruitment numbers at all time lows, you know someone has to be thinking about the draft.