[HARDCORE]

?EXCUSES?, as usual, are all that ?Certain Untouchable Powers That Be? can come up with when explaining the whereabouts of that missing ?$9,000,000,000 in U.S. Tax Money that was gifted (for reconstruction) to Iraq?!?

You heard me right - Some 9 billion dollars worth of your hard-earned tax money that was lovingly transferred to ?Various Iraqi Government Ministries for Reconstruction? has totally vanished from sight - at least according to AP! And as such, I can only assume that (like that old southern minister said some years back): ?God (and your Uncle Sam) wants the big boys of Iraq to have nice things too!?

Sadly, after all is said and done, this foreign attitude of - ?I want only the best that U.S. Taxpayer Money Can Buy For Me?, is a mindset that has been well nurtured amidst world leaders for years, has it not?

Now please tell me again - ?What was it that you were saying about conservatism, as (in my opinion) Conservatism only seems to exist here in the United States?!?

In defense of yet another monumental $crew-up, some ?Well-Situated, State-Side, Political Bonvivants?, are now utilizing each and every feeble excuse that their devious little minds can contrive, in order to explain away the disappearance of that Nine Billion Bucks! And they are doing this, again in my humble opinion, in order to place a smokescreen around that conveniently missing, and probably already in a Swiss Bank Account - king?s ransom!

The weak excuses that are currently being offered up, range all the way from the ridiculous to the sublime! These include, but are not limited to:

A- Western-style budgeting and controls could not be utilized in Iraq....

B- Iraq lacks management controls....

C- There was no way of verifying that this fortune in U.S. tax dollars went for it?s intended purpose....

D- (And this is a lulu!) We turned those big bucks over to the Iraqis - it was for them to handle this money properly once it got there.... (OUCH!!)

Did any of those bureaucratic bums ever think to raise these questions prior to sending out that (no strings attached) fortune? And while we are at it, with our President setting a prescient (Mass firings amidst his former cabinet members), maybe he should think about resurrecting ?Old Lizzy Borden?s Axe? anew!!

Now I ask you all:

Considering that the majority of Americans (many of them honorable veterans), may soon be dying upon - ?The Strangling Vines of Domestic, State-run Financial Cutbacks? - do you consider it right (or even fair), that all that those ?Well-Armed Middle-Eastern Highwaymen? have to do to garner billion$ of dollar$ in American handouts, is to cry the blues to those who write the checks?

?And while we are at it, what about those (even here in the United States), who looked the other way when these humungous checks were being drawn up and cashed?? Apparently, all that a few of our (part time) friends abroad have to do to nail us for a fortune is: ?ASK, AND THEY SHALL RECEIVE!?? This, of course, is pure Bull Dung!!

You Know - I sincerely believe that a few, even here within our own elected government, are redundantly proving that ?There is indeed, a sucker born every second in the Good Old United States!" -

Now I dare you to guess who that sucker might be?!?

"AND BY THE WAY, HAVE YOU (OR I FOR THAT MATTER) LOOKED INTO A MIRROR LATELY?!"

VERITAS