corrente

Here’s some reading that will piss you off, if you care about things like money and fairness in government contracts and the rights of a sovereign people:

Similarly, a United Nations sanctioned audit concluded that about half of the $5 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds could not be accounted for because of poor financial controls, according to the "Development Fund of Iraq-Report of Factual Findings in connection with Disbursements from January 1, 2004 to 28 June 2004, by the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, in September 2004

Until the summer of 2004, the CPA refused to release the names of companies that were awarded contracts paid for with Iraqi funds. Although information was available about US funded contracts, there was no public information available about companies paid with Iraqi money. In August 2004, information was finally made available for contracts valued at more than $5 million. But to this day, no details have been released about contracts worth less than $5 million.

An analysis of the data released in August 2004, showed that the CPA had awarded 85% of the contracts to US and UK firms. By contrast, Iraqi companies received a mere 2% of the contracts paid for with Iraqi funds.

and of course, the money quote:

But the fact remains that Halliburton received 60% of all contracts paid for with Iraqi money, even after it was proven time and time again that its projects involved fraud on every front, from paying over $6 million in kickbacks to a Kuwaiti contractor; to charging for three times as many meals as the company actually served to soldiers; to spending millions on laundry and monogrammed towels; to running up costs by driving empty trucks back and forth across Iraq; to leasing overpriced vehicles from Kuwaiti purchasing offices.

So the fact that the same people who brought you a ‘reconstructed’ iraq are going to bring you New New Orleans is very comforting, I’m sure. Especially to this young man.

Freedom isn't free. 21 just yesterday. Was once religious, no longer believe. God wouldn't allow such pain. The war is against religion, must stop it to defend the country. Almost in tears. Knee blown out. Chest. Scar. Fighting for brothers. Fighting with brothers. No one understands. honor. repeat. honor. Fighting for country. Captured. Razor. No air support when needed. Politics. Will fight for country. Children. Killed. Honor. Freedom. Fighting for country. No one understands. 14 months. Honor. Brothers. Dude, have a beer. Tag some pussy. Children. Backpacks. Ammunition. Fought for country, for freedom. Will end up in hell.

Some days, there just doesn’t seem to be anything to say to this hell we’re all living in. And I feel guilty even whining, I’m not the 21 year old in the bar going crazy or the starving Iraqi family watching billions meant for them get spent on the fat asses in the green zone.

But eventually, the party has to come to an end, right? Right?

Knowing that, the Fed is engaging in self-delusion when it relies on a measured-paced interest-rate policy to deal with a runaway debt bubble sourced globally. For the Fed, the debt bubble is already too big to burst. The only option is to keep feeding it, albeit at a slower pace. The measured-pace interest-rate policy is merely an attempt to slow the bubble's rate of expansion, not to stop it, much less to burst it. But a measured-paced interest-rate policy will not slow the economy enough for a soft landing. It will only prolong the bubble for a bigger bang at the end.

I'm going outside, where I will listen to the sound of the trees growing and the birds singing. It's something, and I need to clear the angry buzzing in my head.