nytimes.com - 1/11/2009
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While our new president indeed must move on and address the urgent crises that cannot wait, Bush administration malfeasance can’t be merely forgotten or finessed. >
nytimes.com - 1/9/2009
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nytimes.com —
President-elect Barack Obama explained why the nation needs
aggressive action to deal with the economic crisis, and...
he’s right. But his economic plan falls well short of what’s needed. >
(more)
Op-Ed Columnist: The Obama Gap
news.yahoo.com - 1/5/2009
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news.yahoo.com —
BAGHDAD The United States inaugurated its largest embassy
ever on Monday, a fortress-like compound in the heart...
of the Green Zone and the most visible sign of what U.S. officials call a new chapter in relations between America and a more sovereign ...
(more)
US inaugurates $700 million embassy in Iraq - Yahoo! News
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Irony Alert
QandO —
... Frank Rich points to a 513 page report about Iraqi reconstruction and claims the report points to it as "a sinkhole of corruption, cronyism, incompetence and outright theft that epitomized Bush management at home and abroad." The cost? $117 billion. ...
Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Daily Kos —
Sunday edition! Frank Rich: We could certainly do worse than another 9/11 Commission. Among those Americans still enraged about the Bush years, there are also calls for truth and reconciliation commissions, war crimes trials and, in a petition movement on Obama’s transition Web site, a special prosecutor in the Patrick Fitzgerald mode. One of the sharpest appointments yet made by the incoming president may support decisive action: Dawn Johnsen, a law professor and former Clinton administration official who last week was chosen ...
Numbology
N/A —
... We are numbed by the numbers. Madoff’s fifty billion? No big deal. Seven hundred billion? Okay fine. So Frank Rich’s note about Iraq reconstruction may hardly cause a ripple “What’s most remarkable about the Times article, however, is how little stir it caused” ...
bernie and bush
skippy the bush kangaroo —
both made-off with beau coup bucks in ponzi schemes. three days after the world learned that $50 billion may have disappeared in bernie madoff’s ponzi scheme, the times led its front page of dec. 14 with the revelation of another $50 billion rip-off. this time the vanished loot belonged to american taxpayers. that was our collective contribution to the $117 billion spent (as of mid-2008) on iraq reconstruction — a sinkhole of corruption, cronyism, incompetence and outright theft that epitomized bush management at home and abroad. - frank rich in the nytimes
Obama’s Janus Dilemma
The Moderate Voice —
As he takes the oath in this aptly named month, Barack Obama is faced with looking both forward and back over an enormous list of national problems.
Steering the country through economic minefields will obviously take almost all of his administration’s energies but, to the extent that present difficulties are rooted in the disastrous Bush years, the past can’t be totally ignored.
In cataloguing the major frauds and deceptions, Frank Rich in the New York Times asserts, “The more we learn about where all the bodies and billions were buried on our path to ruin, the easier it may be for our new president to make the ...
Related Content
A New Iraq
mudvillegazette.com 1/9/2009 — A view from two Iraqi brothers, a New Iraq Emerges from Tyranny and War (Excerpt):
The headlines for those cynics do not go beyond the throw of a shoe, whereas my headlines look into the future and speak of a new Iraq. My headlines speak of ...
Op-Ed Columnist: Obama’s Iraq Inheritance
nytimes.com 11/30/2008 — For the first time, there is a chance that a reasonably stable democratizing government, though no doubt corrupt in places, can take root in the Iraqi political space. >
Iraq
whitehouse.gov 1/20/2009 — IRAQ President Obama and Vice President Biden will responsibly end the war in Iraq so that we can renew our military strength, dedicate more resources to the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, and invest in our economy at home. The ...
Op-Ed Columnist - Obama’s Iraq Inheritance
nytimes.com 12/1/2008 — Here’s a story you don’t see very often. Iraq’s highest court told the Iraqi Parliament last Monday that it had no right to strip one of its members of immunity so he could be prosecuted for an alleged crime: visiting Israel for a seminar on ...
SoI: Anbar
mudvillegazette.com 1/12/2009 — Third in a series, previous entry here .
More from Adam Weinstein, on the near-future of the Sons of Iraq program.
Anbar grassroots movement reaches milestone:
Sons of Iraq registration underway
By Adam Weinstein
MNC-I Public Affairs ...
Re-Arming Iraq
wonkroom.thinkprogress.org 1/15/2009 — Our guest blogger is Peter Juul , a Research Associate at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
In 2008, the Iraqi government went on a military spending spree, signaling its intent to buy large quantities of advanced weapons from the ...
SoI: Diyala
mudvillegazette.com 1/12/2009 — Continuing a series begun here .
As 2008 drew to a close, Adam Weinstein, MNC-I Public Affairs, sent us the following update on the transfer of the Sons of Iraq program to Government of Iraq control.
*****
Progress for Peace: Reconciliation ...
Iraq 2009 Elections Updates
mudvillegazette.com 2/1/2009 — Peace, high turnout reported at Iraq polls -(CNN) Half of Iraq's eligible voters turned out for peaceful provincial elections this weekend, the election commission said Sunday.
An Iraqi man whose finger has been ink stained after voting makes a ...
Bush Visits Iraq For Final Time
huffingtonpost.com 12/14/2008 — BAGHDAD — President George W. Bush on Sunday made a farewell visit to Iraq, a place that defines his presidency, just 37 days before he hands the war off to a successor who has pledged to end it.
Air Force One, Bush's distinctive powder ...
More Madoffs?
politico.com 1/21/2009 — My colleague Eamon Javers emails over an addendum to his January 11th story warning to expect more Bernard Madoff-type financial scandals, and presenting some of his own research to show some of the hedge funds across the country that have produced ...
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