Wednesday, April 12, 2006

All About Numbers

The fatalities and injuries are up again in Iraq. The New York Times is reporting the number of troops killed this month to at least 32. That figure already surpasses the American military deaths for all of March.

The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count has the numbers on our war dead and injured. It is really sad to see the brief death notices given for the American service members. It is even more difficult to realize that more of our young men and women will die and be injured because the current Republican administration has no exit strategy for Iraq. How many more families will lose a loved one while this war continues?

MSNBC is reporting that
....At least $8.8 billion in Iraqi funds that was given to Iraqi ministries by the former U.S.-led authority there cannot be accounted for, according to a draft U.S. audit set for release soon.....
....One of the main benefactors of the Iraq funds was the Texas-based firm Halliburton, which was paid more than $1 billion out of those funds to bring in fuel for Iraqi civilians.

The monitoring board said despite repeated requests it had not been given access to U.S. audits of contracts held by Halliburton, which was once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, and other firms that used the development funds.

**American taxpayers are footing the bill, and all this money goes missing? There is no money to rebuild the Gulf Coast, but the shareholders of Halliburton are seeing huge profits. This is morally wrong!

George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States, was born in Connecticut. However, a home he spent some time in as a youngster, has been restored. The home in Texas, is trying to give evidence to the myth that Bush is a "good ole boy." The story is here. (In my humble opinion, the restoration is trying to make it look like he was born in a log cabin!)

Do you hear the sound of a check being written? No, I didn't hear it either. The federal government still has not written a check to reimburse Franklin County for the money spent on finding the freeway shooter, Mr. McCoy. I guess the taxpayers of OH-15 will have to foot the bill because Republican Rep. Deborah Pryce isn't doing her job to help the people of her district.