The U.S. Army has developed architectural drawings for a "Tigris Woods Golf and Country Club Resort" for a planned "zone of influence" in Baghdad, and the Boston Herald is reporting that the plans have the support of the Pentagon.

There are also plans for an amusement park.

There are many appaling questions that deserve answers about this given the lack of electricity, running water, civil war atmosphere, much less who will maintain security for people standing in line to ride a rollercoaster in a war zone.

"Contractors hired to rebuild the country’s infrastructure or provide security have overcharged the U.S. for everything from soft drinks—$45 a can—to gasoline. Millions of dollars in no-bid reconstruction contracts were diverted to things such as Super Bowl tickets, prostitutes, watches, and jewelry. And much of the reconstruction work has been substandard. The U.S., for example, paid $72 million to Parsons, a U.S. contractor, to build a police academy in Baghdad. But the building was so badly put together that raw sewage seeps from its walls and ceilings. “This became the lens through which Iraqis now see America—incompetence, profiteering, arrogance,” said House Democrat Henry Waxman of California, a vocal critic of the war."

There's more at The Week Magazine. 

Bottoms up!

It looks like Hillary Rodham Clinton agrees with McCain when it comes to visualizing 50+ years in Iraq ... as long as they can keep the public satisfied with low U.S. soldier death counts.

Said HRC:

"Senator McCain made the point earlier today, which I agree with, and that is, it's not so much a question of time when it comes to American military presence for the average American; I include myself in this. But it is a question of casualties," said Clinton. "We don't want to see our young men and women dying and suffering these grievous injuries that so many of them have. We've been in South Korea for 50-plus years. We've been in Europe for 50-plus. We're still in Okinawa with respect to protection there coming out of World War II."

Can someone in the MSM ask her if she still agrees with this b.s? Iraq is NOT Europe, m'kay?

- 2005 CBS "Face the Nation" interview  (see attachment with transcript below)

You're paying taxes that support this war, whether you like it or not.

Vice President Dick Cheney's defense company KBR, with $16 billion in no-bid contracts - 8x the work of its nearest competitor - doesn't.

From the Boston Globe:

"Over the course of the five-year war, their tax bill would have been more than $500 million."

Here's how they do it.

Get UPPITY! Let your Wisconsin Senators know what you think about this.

Shoddy work by Vice President Cheney's (former?) private defense companies in Iraq and Afghanistan is resulting in U.S. soldier deaths by electrocution.

Halliburton and KBR whistleblowers and U.S. military personnel brought the problems to light as early as 2004.

And they were mocked for their concerns and lied to.

Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth - a highly-skilled Green Beret - was electrocuted in the shower in a Baghdad military compound three months ago, and the Army told his mom that he died because he brought an electrical appliance into the shower with him ... like the woman just fell off an applecart or something.

These are the same people who wanted us to believe a public relations fairy tale about Pat Tilman and Jessica Lynch.

I may never stop puking.

via mal contends

Comes up every once in a while. My girlfriend so proud of her dad talking about what she knew of her late father's service in World War II. And from both of our parents (my father was a veteran recruited by the CIA but he went to grad school instead to have me), we hear of the society-wide, shared sacrifice to defeat some pig NAZIs and fascists.

War profiteers, they were a pariah. Not like today when they are protected by the Bush DOJ.

via MAL Contends
Madison, Wisconsin—Frank Rick has a piece in this morning’s Times arguing that Obama and Hillary  “are flat-out wrong” in condemning John McCain for McCain's allegedly having expressed a willingness “… to keep this (Iraq) war going for 100 years,” as the two Democrats on the campaign trail state their desire for withdrawal, contra McCain.

Rich, among the most perceptive columnists today, cites other writers and fact checkers making the same point, including tips [at] cjrdaily [dot] org in the Columbia Journalism Review.

So what are McCain’s words about the U.S. occupation/war made at a town meeting in January, and repeated since?

Update II: McCain Keeps up Al Qaeda-in-Iraq Talk Update: Obama Scores against McCain

Bottom line: Clinton bought Bush's war talk, Obama didn't.

Anyone in Wisconsin against the Iraq War?

Check out this NYT piece on how Berkeley is opposing the Iraq War.  

It's past time for municipalities to ramp up war resistance in as many creative ways as possible.

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