Like Fredo, But Not as Smart

"They said there was something in it for me...won't get fooled again."

This morning's foray through the internets found me comparing and contrasting. First, here's one of the big stories re: the latest example of the Fredo Corleone-like planning of Operation Enduring Clusterfuck...and it only cost us $200 million dollars:

A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.

The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis.

Parsons, according to the Corps, will walk away from more than 120 clinics that on average are two-thirds finished. Auditors say the project serves as a warning for other U.S. reconstruction efforts due to be completed this year...

By the end of 2006, the $18.4 billion that Washington has allocated for Iraq's reconstruction runs out. All remaining projects in the U.S. reconstruction program, including electricity, water, sewer, health care and the justice system, are due for completion. As a result, the next nine months are crunchtime for the easy-term contracts that were awarded to American contractors early on, before surging violence drove up security costs and idled workers.

Stuart Bowen, the top U.S. auditor for reconstruction, warned in a telephone interview from Washington that other reconstruction efforts may fall short like that of Parsons. "I've been consumed for a year with the fear we would run out of money to finish projects," said Bowen, the inspector general for reconstruction in Iraq.

Actually, come to think of it, Fredo might've done a BETTER job. Hell, he managed to make it to Havana without losing any of the money.

Meanwhile, the difference between reality and the administration when it comes to matters about Iraq continues to become ever more surreal. Indeed, the way things are going, I believe we might be ready for an encore:


And I bring THAT up because of the contrast--at least in my own head, since the media's doing a Team Bush-like bang up job of ignoring it: as the blood CONTINUES to gush in Mesopotamia, as the corruption continues to suck up dollars by the millions like a money hungry Dyson, the Gulf Coast, to cite Ashley and Mark, is NOT ok, and little or nothing is being done about that by this administration or the Moron Caucus in Congress.

I keep thinking about the pious rants re: Gret Stet corruption, delivered by Representatives and Senators who've literally whored themselves to the highest bidder in search of campaign dollars...then I think about the waste of lives and money in Mesopotamia...then consider the way they've IGNORED their own country.

These folks better hope there's no god, or at least no god along the lines of the classic, vengeful, Biblical Yahweh variety. Because if there is...there will be hell to pay, and it won't be a metaphor.