Well, now we know why the rebuilding effort in Iraq has been going so rosy. According to this story by the Washington Post, apparently the only thing that mattered if you wanted to be hired in the rebuilding/reconstruction of Iraq, was your loyalty to Shrub, and little else. No wonder things continue to go so badly. We have heard this story before, haven't we????
link
"Two people who sought jobs with the Iraqi Rebuilding Authority we even asked their views on Roe vs. Wade." Unbelievable, but sure explains the mess over there.....

[ September 17, 2006, 05:36 AM: Message edited by: hockeyTom ]

Shocking

I can see myself now applying for a job back then, All hail ye insufferable buffoon!. eek!

Like I said on another thread, "Where's Thomas Paine when we need him?", especially to knock some Common Sense into the American public.

[ September 17, 2006, 07:54 AM: Message edited by: SCTrojan ]

It looks like right-wing blathermonster Kate O'Beirne's husband was one of the major cronies in charge of this debacle.

But let's not forget, some of us pointed out these problems several years ago on this very board.

From Outsports, March 2004: CPA in Iraq: Nice Work If You Can Get IT

From Outsports, September 2005:
$1 billion looted from Iraqi Defense Ministry

etc.

Whatever the Bush administration has touched has turned out badly, very badly.

BTW, what's up with the "search" function not finding posts from before 2006?

Fantomas, love your description of Kate O' Biern....

Judging from your posts, FT, you're the only one of "some" who noted these matters "years ago." What's with the safety in numbers bit? You echo Bryan's smug "We all know Ann Coulter is a bitch" comment elsewhere. Wherefore the royal we - especially coming from such egalitarians?

That said, I agree that it's improper not to hire the best and brightest for the job at hand, let alone trust the job to unqualified youngsters and cronies' offspring; that lesson should have been obvious after Hillarycare never got off the ground. Whether it's firing gay multilinguists or hiring the incompetent, this Administration could be doing much better in terms of pure, value-neutral governmental efficiency.

Ms. Coulter wore a black cocktail dress on Morning TV. Now that's the definition of sad. I really feel sorry for her...she's such an unpleasant, disruptive gal. I daresay she fibs with great regularity..if only she'd find the lord and speak the truth. I'll pray.

How's that for the smug patrol?

And maybe the right wingers enjoy bringing up the failed heath care plan from Clinton's time, but the fact is millions and millions of Americans still don't have health care...an embarrassing statistic to the most powerful, supposedly humane country in the world, or at least I think it still is...

[ September 18, 2006, 03:09 PM: Message edited by: Bryan ]

Maybe it was a case of late night, early morning and she did the walk of shame on the way to the studio.

Swiminbuff, I was rolling on the floor over that one...the walk of shame! You would think she would have had an image consultant tell her how inappropriate it is to wear an evening dress on morning television. Trust me, every woman watching noticed the faux pas. Actually, it just let me know that the slut has no taste whatsoever.

True, every slut knows that if you're going on a sleep over, the trick is to wake up early, ask the guy his name (then promptly forget it), and rush home to shower/change before greeting the day. Of course, thats just an ex-sluts opinion

Dallas and others commented--are you negating their responses? More than "I" = "we," no?

Your dispassionate response to this gross theft by the GOP and its cronies is typical, though. "Could be doing much better"--come on! You were whipped up into a lather by the possibility that poor New Orleanians (and not the government cronies) had misused and misspent their $2000 cards, yet when BILLIONS go missing, at the hands of Republican dunderheads and thieves, your response is a cool, deadpan suggestion that the disaster-in-chief could be "doing better." That is an understatement if there ever was one. Yep, Halliburton could be "doing better," Bechtel could be "doing better," the CPA thieves could have done "better," RummyCheneyAlphonsoJacksonMargaretSpellings could "done better," etc. than the "heckuva job" we've have to endure these past six years. What is it going to take for you and other Republicans to wake up? These people cannot govern. They lie through their teeth. They screw up everything they touch. And they have created a quagmire in Iraq that is taking American lives, has left Iraq worse off than before they got there, is sucking up billions of dollars a year, and shows few signs of getting better. Let it go--admit they're awful, and be done with them. It won't kill you to vote for Democrats or Libertarians or Greens or somebody, anybody, but these cuckoo Christianist crackpots. Really. And the world not only will be here tomorrow, but it'll be a hell of a lot better off.

[ September 23, 2006, 12:17 PM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

A new milestone has passed. There have now been more deaths from the Iraq quagmire, than there were from 9/11, with no end in sight. Stay the course George!!! :mad:

How was Iraq's reconstruction botched? Now we have a glimpse of an answer in an upcoming book from Ali A. Allawi, cousin to former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi. Washington micromanaged everything that happened, not allowing for much local control at all. It truly was akin to a dictatorship.

Knowing where our Imperious Leader went wrong doesn't seem to help me see the wisdom of occupying Iraq, even after all this time.