Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency—much of it belonging to the Iraqi people—was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled.[October 2007]

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/10/iraq_billions200710

One of the sub-titles is "Coalition of the Billing"

I agree with you,

like I said

on the other thread.

Cheney interview:

Citing intelligence reports, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration — “that’s about 11 or 12 percent” — have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”

I guess he didn't read this report by a Seton Hall Law professor:

"January 13, 2009-The new numbers [for recidivists] are, we believe, 18 confirmed and 43 suspected of returning to the fight. So 61 in all former Guantanamo detainees are confirmed or suspected of returning to the fight.”-Defense Department spokesman. These figures are disputed by Professor of Law Mark Denbeaux, et al. From the Executive Summary of their new report: “In each of its forty-three attempts to provide the numbers of recidivist detainees, the Defense Department has given different sets of numbers that are contradictory and internally inconsistent with the Department’s own data.” Details, including timeline of such official assertions at [32]

http://www.webdsi.com/jebbie/tlpage33.html

[32] “Released Guantanamo Detainees […] Propaganda by the Numbers?” Mark Denbeaux et al.

http://law.shu.edu/center_policyresearch/reports/propaganda_numbers_11509.pdf

For more of his reports, see:

http://law.shu.edu/faculty/fulltime_faculty/denbeama/denbeaux.html

which continue on unabated...

July 23, 2002-“Downing Street Memo” (minutes of a meeting between Blair and senior British officials) written. Head of MI6 reports on his recent talks in Washington.”…the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the evidence…little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.” Jack Straw: “The case was thin.” (The Sunday Times of London, May 1, 2005) (L) “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”- Sir Richard Dearlove, [the head of British intelligence] [7] “Tenet said, We’ve never done an N.I.E.”-Bob Graham [7]

September 24, 2002 – The British government issues a public dossier saying, “There is intelligence that Iraq has sought the supply of significant quantities of uranium from Africa ” ( British Govt. Report 25, Sept. 2002). The Washington Post reports later that the CIA tried unsuccessfully to get the British to omit these claims. (" Bush, Rice blame CIA ,” July 2003)(G) (L) “…”the assessed intelligence has established beyond doubt that Saddam . . . continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons.” A subsequent parliamentary inquiry determined that the published statement had been significantly toned down after the C.I.A. warned its British counterpart not to include the claim in the dossier, and in the final version Niger was not named, nor was SISMI. (T)

(G) “The Wilson-Plame-Novak-Rove Blame Game”

http://www.factcheck.org/article337.html

(L) What the White House Knew and When It Knew It: Time Lines of the Selling of the War http://frankrich.com/timeline.htm

(T) The Stovepipe, by Seymour M. Hersh, October 2003

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/03 [...]

[7]- “Farewell to All That: An Oral History of the Bush White House”, 1/2/09

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/02/bush-oral-history200902?printable=true&currentPage=all

The Bad Bank Assets Proposal: Even Worse Than You Imagined

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/02/bad-bank-assets-proposal-worse-than-you.html

“Dear God, let's just kiss the US economy goodbye. It may take a few years before the loyalists and permabulls throw in the towel, but the handwriting is on the wall. […] The Obama Administration, if the Washington Post's latest report is accurate, is about to embark on a hugely expensive "save the banking industry at all costs"

On the Edge http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/opinion/06krugman.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts.

Lessons from FDR-2 http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/013779.php

"[...] when I see rhetoric from President Obama like "A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe...", I am reminded of President Franklin Roosevelt's repeated calls to that effect - yet, not only am I not seeing President Obama doing what FDR did to push aggressively to follow-through on his own calls, he is sowing the seeds of his seriously flawed "bipartisanship" rhetoric - something that was flawed when he propagated it repeatedly during his election campaign and that remains flawed today and a stumbling block.