Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

The words do not have to be perfect.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War / Damn You, Scott Beauchamp!

Reader Interactions

32Comments

  1. 1.

    chopper

    we have to give our soldiers dysentery over there so we don’t have to fight it over here.

  2. 2.

    Zifnab

    This never would have happened if the Democrats had conducted proper oversight. I blame Waxman and Pelosi.

  4. 4.

    Punchy

    When your so busy raping the female employees, it’s hard to keep those filtration tanks free of all the crazy semen flying everywhere.

    Yeah, I said it.

  5. 5.

    caustics

    We go to war with the shit water we’ve been given, not the bottomless well of Fiji Water we’d like to have.

  6. 6.

    Dennis - SGMM

    The Pentagon just released a statement:

    Some are questioning why KBR is unable to provide our troops with clean water. Many are asking why KBR keeps its lucrative no-bid and sole source contracts despite their cost and KBR’s failures to perform.
    Shut up, that’s why.

  7. 7.

    clone12

    Mutually exclusive ledes of the week:

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2008-03-09-sunday_N.htm

    BAGHDAD, March 9 (AP) — The U.S. military said Sunday it does not believe a recent wave of deadly attacks in Baghdad reflects a trend toward an overall increase in violence.

    http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gQl_i-xfN3zSB7jRSyL2hAxuhXUw

    WASHINGTON, March 10 (AFP) — Al-Qaeda may be shifting tactics back to the big, headline grabbing attacks in Iraq that helped plunge the country into chaos, a senior US commander said Monday.

  8. 8.

    Svensker

    Apparently Michelle “Our Lady of the Concentration Camps” Malkin thinks this is just AP propaganda against all that is good. TBogg has the story.

    Anyone who thinks that big offshore tax-evading corporations that overbill the U.S. government and allow rape during lunch breaks aren’t the good guys? Well those people are troop-hating terrorist supporters.

  9. 9.

    Jake

    Maybe The Troops (R) like skin diseases and the runs Tim. Didya ever think of that? Did ya?

  10. 10.

    cbear

    KBR serves shit water to our troops, sickness and disease follow.

    Yeah, but look at the upside. Now one of the gooper-backed pharmaceutical companies can develop a new wonder drug to treat the troops and sell it to the Pentagon for $1000 a pop.

    “When everyday life in a war zone gets you down and you’re feeling a little queasy and weak–why not ask your doctor if Shitlax is right for you?”

  11. 11.

    Evinfuilt

    This seems interesting, technically KBR used the correct methods to treat this water (reverse-osmosis, then clorinate) but then they did the Republican move of never checking to make sure it was working.

    After all, it costs money to check on stuff.

    The problem here wasn’t the source of the water, the problem was no follow-through on the treatment to make sure it was actually being done properly.

  12. 12.

    Punchy

    Can this be true?

    Question–do they just stop recruiting after they hit their numbers? How else do they so perfectly nail the exact value they’re looking for in several cases? Doesn’t that look a bit odd, almost like the DoD just changes the “goal” to whatever the number is?

    John, any military insight?

  13. 13.

    Jake

    This seems interesting, technically KBR used the correct methods to treat this water (reverse-osmosis, then clorinate) but then they did the Republican move of never checking to make sure it was working.

    Next up, the Republican move of blaming Iraqi sub-sub-sub-contractors who were right here a moment ago but seem to have mysteriously disappeared.

  14. 14.

    JR

    No, this must be Ralph Nader’s fault.

    If Nader had not caused the Iraq War, which is the default “safe” position of Dkos, then KBR could never have poisoned our troops.

    Damn you Nader.

  15. 15.

    Tim F.

    This seems interesting, technically KBR used the correct methods to treat this water (reverse-osmosis, then clorinate)

    No, KBR signed a contract to use the correct methods to treat the water. Had they actually done so the shit bacteria would have either died or been filtered out. It’s nothing more than one more case of contracting fraud hurting the war effort.

  18. 18.

    Jon H

    “An orgasm wasn’t involved in this story, so I can’t see why this is such a big deal.”

    To be fair, we don’t know what went into the water.

    Also, I expect KBR’s managers made the o-face when they found out how much profit they were making by giving liquid cholera to the troops instead of clean water.

  20. 20.

    wvng

    and over at Think Progress, you can find out what else KBR has been up to. Here’s a hint:

    “Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said the defense contractor KBR, formerly of Halliburton, has been stamping its logo on towels given to U.S. troops. Dorgan said a contractor told him that he ordered plain white towels for troops, but the “superviser” said the towels must have the KBR logo on them — despite the cost to taxpayers.”

    http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/11/kbr-forces-its-towels-on-us-troops/

  21. 21.

    Bubblegum Tate

    Apparently Michelle “Our Lady of the Concentration Camps” Malkin thinks this is just AP propaganda against all that is good.

    Goddammit. I was going to snark that this is all the media’s fault for reporting it, but ol’ Stalkin’ Malkin beat me to it–except she’s not kidding. Fuck you and your ahead-of-the-parody ways, Malkin.

  22. 22.

    Jake

    Dorgan said a contractor told him that he ordered plain white towels for troops, but the “superviser” said the towels must have the KBR logo on them — despite the cost to taxpayers.

    The KBR rep also insisted that he had to hand the towels to the soldiers as they were leaving the showers…

    I kid. It was nice of CornFlakesBR to give the soldiers a nice fluffy place to wipe their asses after another bout of KBR-sponsored squits.

  23. 23.

    Martin

    Question—do they just stop recruiting after they hit their numbers? How else do they so perfectly nail the exact value they’re looking for in several cases? Doesn’t that look a bit odd, almost like the DoD just changes the “goal” to whatever the number is?

    The target was 2,947? Yeah, that’s bullshit. Not only are these guys not hitting their targets, they’re not even bright enough to figure out how to lie about what the target was without it being obvious that they’re lying. Well, the Army and Marines know how to game the stats, Air Force and Navy, not so much.

  25. 25.

    Tsulagi

    No, KBR signed a contract to use the correct methods to treat the water. Had they actually done so the shit bacteria would have either died or been filtered out. It’s nothing more than one more case of contracting fraud hurting the war effort.

    Pretty much.

    For FOB Q-West, the subject base in the NYT article, one clearly America-hating brigade surgeon found the buffet waters of the Tigris being treated just a little bit differently than what was called for …

    Mr. Wallace argued that since the raw water from the Tigris is first filtered through carbon prior to going into the ROWPU that it is acceptable for hygiene. This argument is wrong. Charcoal filtration only removes particulate mater and binds some chemicals. All the bacteria and chemicals that make it though the charcoal are concentrated to twice the level as in the Raw water.

    And more. When the brigade surgeon and other officers told the KBR manager on site their practices and water weren’t meeting Army contract specs and regs…

    Mr. Wallace stated that it has always been done this way and there is not a problem with it.

    See? No problem. That Army captain just wasn’t seeing the big picture.

  26. 26.

    HyperIon

    Now one of the gooper-backed pharmaceutical companies can develop a new wonder drug to treat the troops and sell it to the Pentagon for $1000 a pop.

    hmmm..i read something just today about findings that Gulf War syndrome was actually caused by the drugs given to soldiers to protect against chemical weapons. i wish i had paid more attention to the article so i could provide a link. perhaps someone else saw it? i found it….amazing….like much of what i read these days about the government.

  27. 27.

    Tony J

    In Black Adder II, Captain Rum (Tom Baker) liked likes drinking his own urine, and when playing the role of Captain Rum in Black Adder II, insisted on having his character do the same, arguing “I’ll wager he’s a lot like me, and he likes the familiar taste of a man’s salt when he’s washing down his biscuits.”

    Fixed for verisimilitude.

  28. 28.

    maxbaer (not the original)

    Corruption and cronyism during wartime led to this. Who could have foreseen such a thing?

  29. 29.

    rawshark

    Mr. Wallace stated that it has always been done this way and there is not a problem with it.

    Typical republican answer. During the US Attorney scandal I had wingnuts instead of trying to defend Alberto they hit me with ‘well back when blah blah blah’. I actually got the ‘two wrongs make a right’ excuse.

  31. 31.

    HyperIon

    Jake Says:

    Hyperlon.

    thanks, jake.

    i’m surprised that this is not getting more notice.
    wasn’t the owner of this fabulous blog involved in that conflict? i wonder if he has any familiarity with the drugs/symptoms.

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