Shocking! Who would guess that the massive, fortresslike US embassy in Baghdad would devolve into a half billion dollar non-functional disaster? Then there’s the slave labor issue.
Answer: anybody who noticed that the State Dept. Inspector General cares a lot more about litigating his own family than doing his damn job.
The simple point that government goes to hell when you take away oversight is so thoroughly demonstrated at this point that frankly I’m growing tired of pointing it out. It’s about as shocking as reporting that the sun rises in the east or water flows downhill. A festering hate of oversight at every level of the Bush administration has led to miserable performance from A to Z.
Honestly, if I supported the Bush administration’s police state agenda I would detest them more than I do already. For me it’s just my country that these guys are wrecking. Supporters get to watch Bushism wreck their country, their party and their ideology.
Elvis Elvisberg
Supporters get to watch Bushism wreck their country, their party and their ideology.
I disagree. Bush supporters support Bush because he is Bush. Whether it’s vetoing SCHIP over the objections of his party in the Senate, or turning Iraq into Somalia, “it’s good that Bush did that! It’s very good!”
Like I said on John’s thread the other day about that David Brooks column, this is not an ideological movement, so it can’t be discredited. It’s a tribe to which they believe they belong.
Not that there’s absolutely no one out there who fits your description– say, Jack Goldsmith– but for the vast bulk of the 27 percenters, this rolls off of them like water off a duck’s back.
chopper
jesus, a 750 million dollar embassy. what does the thing do, transform into a fscking robot or something? fly through space? did someone at the state department watch too much robotech as a kid or something?
oh wait, the SDF-1 wasn’t built with slave labor. and the toilets actually worked.
Sirkowski
If you were a supporter of the Bush administration you’d be to stupid to understand that the sun rises in the east.
You’d make your own reality and say the sun rise where you god damn please.
RSA
Suggestion to trigger 28-percenter outrage: “Think of how many prisons we could have built for that kind of money!”
craigie
Fixed.
Tim F.
True, .75 billion buys a lot of torture.
And honestly, I cannot figure out exactly what pullout scenario lets us keep embassy town. I can just see one of Maliki’s cabinet sons-in-law entertaining guests in Condi’s personal jacuzzi.
caustics
Don’t forget: We are an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.
This new Republican Palace is just a small, illustrative pocket of Reality until Iraq “gets it”.
In the meantime, this heavily fortified outpost of volley ball courts, terror-free shopping and fine dining will help keep our eminently qualified State Department employees clearly focused on their mission. Whatever that eventually may turn out to be.
kb
Hey, when it comes to iraq, why change a losing formula ?
Bubblegum Tate
I think a better argument for them would be, “Think how awesome a border fence we could build with that money!”
Chuck Butcher
What is truly frightening is what’s happening to Radhi al-Radhi, talk about oversight… I’ve tried raising a stink, so what?
whippoorwill
Your so negative Tim, look on the up side. All those hundreds of billions
wastedspent in Iraq now can’t be spent by the commie liberals on their pinko social programs like S-Chip and Head Start.Not to mention the rising stocks of KBR and other war
profiteersprivate contractors. And what about the stunning success’s of companies like Blackwater and the other privatemercenarysecurity firms. Their doing so well we may no longer need a government run military with all the meddling by the Congress with their pissing about accountability and all. So what if the Iraq war goes on forever when it clearly will provide jobs and corporate and stock dividends to millions of Americans.bbs
I guess the Katrina victims will be happy to hear that they aren’t the only ones living in formaldehyde-ridden trailers. It’s fucking disgusting. We dump poor black people in toxic trailers and then watch the government refuse to even test the trailers for health risks when they complain.
Here, the same thing happens in Iraq, where it’s ok to spend tons of money because it benefits someone’s political allies, and as soon as someone catches a whiff of formaldehyde, the government runs in to conduct tests and cry about “acceptable standards.” The WaPo article only says that “security guards” for the embassy are meant to stay in those trailers. I’ve heard it’s irresponsible not to speculate, so I will: I suppose contractors are the ones who’ll be guarding this embassy, maybe even Blackwater. Surely, if military personnel were staying there, the article would have been explicit on that point.
I know FEMA and the State Department can’t be expected to keep tabs on each other completely, but this seems pretty emblematic of our country’s priorities the last seven years.
The Other Steve
You know. I remember right after the election in ’04, a few trucks driving around with these black stickers with white lettering… saying ‘W – Still the President’. I was trying to understand what was the point.
I think if you place this in the tribalism explanation, it begins to make sense.
Punchy
Filling out the State employment paperwork shortly…
bains
It certainly explains the comment section here. The choir’s tempo set by the ‘I hate BushCo’ drum-beat. …and who can ignore the tribalism of a dancing crowd around a Bush (or America) effigy burning.
Pity… Ballon Juice used to be a good read for those of us in the center.
Xenos
Salle de Bains, please tell me how Bush apologetics fit within the ‘center’? Actually, don’t bother.
And if Bush = America, the country is long gone. If the Constitution is a dead letter, the country is kaput.
Elvis Elvisberg
bains– Yeah, you 30 percent of centrists are wise to overlook the record deficits, a poorly planned and unnecessary war, the politicization of Justice, NASA, GSA, etc., the assertion of limitless executive power, governing as a rabidly partisan divider not a uniter, failing to get Osama, etc., failing to act on global warming, vetoing the bipartisan SCHIP bill, failing to get the widely supported immigration bill passed, etc.
Tim F.
Bains sweetie, you’re not right of center. Sullivan is right of center. Your emotional identification with the president places you to the right of Malkin.
Who do you think you represent, chum? A substantial fraction of Bush supporters believe Saddam helped plan 9/11 and had an ongoing nuke program. I don’t think you’re that dumb, which means that you stand for a vanishing fraction of a vanishing fraction of America. Pleasing you ranks on my priorties somewhere below writing my first porn script.
If you had something to say you’d discuss an actual thread topic, but I haven’t seen that. Just how mean we all are to the president with whom you seem to self-identify. Waa.
rachel
He is acting like a whiny titty-baby, isn’t he? But then, if Bush were my idol, so would I. Any way you look at him, the man has been a major disappointment.
jake
The simple point that
governmenteverything, even kindergarten classes, goes to hell when you take away oversight is so thoroughly demonstrated at this point that frankly I’m growing tired of pointing it out. … Afestering hate of oversightfull blown temper tantrum at any suggestion thatat every level ofthe Bush administration isn’t the most perfectest administration EVA and a tendency to view the US Treasury as a piggy bankhas led tomade everymiserablemind boggling cluster fuck as inevitable as the sun rising in the east.performance from A to Z.Fixed.
I’ll tell you what surprises me: That the entire GAO hasn’t been rounded up and extraordinarily renderated.
bains
Not in some time Tim. But then for some time this site has only been hospitable to those of a certain inhospitable bent.
Actually, if you were to lose your rage inducing glasses, you might see that I am not particularly fond of our present President. What sets me, and the rest of center America, apart from the majority of your readership however, is that we dont harbor the visceral hatred that precludes rational discourse.
croatoan
Wasn’t the embassy supposed to be an on-time, on-budget showcase for the reconstruction of Iraq?
The Other Steve
Center? How does being a member of the 28percenters place you close to the center? You’re not even sane.
The Other Steve
All Hail Bush, our God, our Savior!
bains
Beautiful…
Because I don’t fall within the lockstep of the 28% on the left, I must be part of the 28% that marches lockstep with the right.
Do your math folks, there are 40% of the voters that are as unconvinced by your arguments as they are by your opponents. Preaching to the choir doesn’t win elections.
And Tim, while Sully claims to be ideologically center right, he is consumed by a single issue. Consequentially everything he sets forth is prejudiced by his desire to see his single issue bear fruit.
whippoorwill
You just have to love wingnut logic. Dear Bain-less, your figuring is all wrong. It’s not 28 percent on the left against your Bush king. It’s 72 percent of Americans who are fed up with little Bushbots, like yourself, who are the 28 percenters who dragged this country into the wingnut shithole created by you and your choir.
Tim F.
Waa. Law, facts, table. You’re pounding the table.
bains
And the tenors show up…
whippoorwill
Better than the all wingnut Kazoo band.
Delia
Hmm, I suppose you’re referring to the gay issue, bains. And thus you betray your own bigotry. If you check Sully’s page at any random time (like right now, as I just did), you’ll find posts on torture and the decay of the Constitution (that’s a biggy for him), Christianist nutcases, religion, the bane of Hillary Clinton, rightwing idiocies, leftwing idiocies, etc, etc,
Now I’m a left of center person, and there’s plenty I don’t agree with on Sully’s site, but at least he thinks about things.
TenguPhule
Shorter Bains: My imaginary friends tell me you’re all a bunch of poopy heads that don’t understand that Rape is Nature’s way of getting Democrats to put out for Republicans.
There is only one rational side today.
Bains isn’t on it.
bains
Bigotry? So if I am a c_cksucker, how does this show my bigotry?
Unless it’s the narrative that is paramount… and that seems to be the case in this unfortunate echo chamber.
The Other Andrew
Bains–are you seriously basing your politics on the issue of the left being “mean” to Bush? Given everything that’s happened, over the last six years, don’t you think that political tone is a pretty unimportant issue?
Brian
I’m not sure about how firm that 72% is, actually. I would speculate that most of that 72% is fully favorable towards American exceptionalism, 700 military bases around the world, killin’ some brown skinned “Islamofascists” (or the enemy of the moment)and wearing plenty of tacky patriotic flair. It’s just that the Bush Cabal got arrogant, went too far, made the reality of our bipartisan consensus too plain-as well as being such a 150% fuck-up for anyone outside the cabal (who all profit nicely. Don’t forget, for the war machine and Bush insiders, the war has been very successful overall).
One more terrorist attack (inevitable), and that percentage will switch within hours, and the nuclear bombs will be falling on Tehran. Even if it’s a Pakistani terrorist who is to blame.
Beej
bain, you apparently love to criticize those who post here, but I have yet to see any discussion of an actual issue from you. To what opinions do you take exception? State your case in non-accusatory language and I’ll wager that most of the posters here will discuss the issues with you.
Oh, and one more thought: trying to straddle that ever-eroding middle gets extremely uncomfortable, especially when you have to torture both the English language and all logic to see any merit at all on the right side of it. If that is hatred of Bush, so be it. Seems to me it’s just application of reason to facts.
TenguPhule
Says bain from his echo chamber.
Lupin
If you upset Bush, he’ll send you to the corn field.
Or something like that.
Jay C
OK bains, you want some rational discourse? Fine – it IS possible: even on Balloon Juice(amazingly enough). It’s even possible to discuss the proposition that your position is all wet -without descending to invective and/or insult.
But you shouldn’t be surprised at the reaction a post like yours gets when you resort to yet another iteration of the same-old same-old: that tired “Bush Derangement Syndrome” accusation: i.e. “GW Bush sucks as a President, but I have to support him reflexively ‘cuz your attacks are all so vicious”, which comes across (especially in its n-to-the-nth-power repetition) as a very lame argument. And pretty trite, besides, since we have been reading this wheezy dodge on virtually every blog on the Internet since… well, ever since Al Gore invented it! And it still smells.
Here’s a clue, bains: one George Walker Bush – no one else – is the President of the United States. The Administration he has presided over for seven years now (and yes, bains, take it for granted that we do know he doesn’t run everything personally) has engaged in activities and promoted policies that have (to say the least!) dismayed and/or ticked off a sizeable percentage of the citizenry. ALL of whom, btw, still enjoy the freedom to express said dismay/tick-off.
If you want to argue politics or policies, fine: but just remember that “Bush” is quite often just handy shorthand for “The G.W. Bush Administration”. Defenses of whose medacity, criminality and incomptetence we are all just waiting to hear. And, JFTR, whining “…but you’re all so MEAN!!…” doesn’t cut it.
Evinfuilt
Not all of that 750 million is wasted. I’m sure a lot of it (250-500 million) goes to cover administrative costs.
After all cheap materials + slave labour isn’t that expensive.
mrmobi
Now, I don’t know you, Bains. But you’ve got to be kidding with that “28% on the left” remark.
You seem to have an unclear idea of the unpopularity of this worst President in our history. By most polls, fully 66% of Americans think he’s doing a poor job. Think about that, because it helps explain the anger that people express when non-centrists like yourself decry the lack of amity.
You want people to be all nice, right? Have you ever been forced to work with someone who was clearly incompetent? A bosses son, perhaps? It’s no fun, and not being able to do anything about it is the worst part.
So what we have here, dear Bains, is a President who has never succeeded at anything he’s tried, who knew so little about the rest of the world that his campaign had to hire a brilliant black woman to school him in pronunciation of names of countries and foreign leaders, who has hired people who are either ethically challenged or incompetent in virtually every area of government, and whose main concern is how “history” will perceive his administration once he’s gone. Sheesh.
One other thing. The “center” is screwing things up so badly right now, that our congress cannot get a god-damned thing done. What promised to be a time of oversight and accountability has ended up being an infuriating exercise in sound and fury, signifying nothing.
This is not a time for the “reasonable center,” it is a time to return this country to the values it has stood for for over two centuries, including respect for our laws and constitution, and government which is accountable to the people.
Centrists gave Bush permission to bomb Iran whenever he god-damned feels like it last week. How very reasonable of them.
bains
Been a long time since I engaged in real discussion on this site, so you are correct in your observation that I’m sniping Beej. This site has come to treat differing opinions much like LGF, so why bother with niceties when rhetorical grenades are just as likely (not) to produce intelligent discourse.
Jay C, you don’t even know my positions – hence your comment is merely a poorly veiled insult.
I’m not, but you seem surprised that when folks launch tirades that can be easily tucked into BDS they get called on it.
Why should that surprise me, mrmobi, I’m part of that 66%. The problem that many on the left have is in presuming that because so many folks feel that Bush is doing a piss-poor job, they must agree with them.
Well, it’s a good way to start wouldn’t you say? But really, being nice is quite distant from being intellectually honest. I’ve had no problem with the
attackcriticism of Bush being a spoiled frat-boy, because that’s what I thought back when I didn’t vote for him in 2000. I don’t need to invent, nor embellish Bush’s flaws when I argue against some of the things he has done. But primarily, I don’t hanker to invective replacing argument.