So...What Happened In February? Henry Waxman Follows the Missing Money

February is almost over...what happened this month?

Well...Anna Nicole Smith died.

And, some astronaut put on a pair of diapers and raced crazily across the south to do something horrible to somebody in some lover's quarrel.

And Henry Waxman began holding hearings.

Who?

About what?

If you don't know, I'm sure you are not alone.

I mean, I didn't know until recently. I've been busy this month, and the only news I was seeing was the news that was easy to find (the headlines I see in the newspaper box on my way to work, or as I open my email program)

...My Dad had to point it out to me...and it still took me a week to go searching for it...

Here's the scoop:

According to the Denver Post :

House Democrats on Tuesday [2/6] grilled the former U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, demanding that he account for billions of dollars distributed in Iraq that no one seems able to trace.

Much of the questioning focused on $12 billion - mostly in $100 bills packed in huge bundles, 363 tons of cash in all - from Iraqi oil sales and frozen assets of Saddam Hussein's regime. The U.S. shipped the money to Iraq for Bremer's organization to disburse to Iraqi ministries.

Okay- granted, the audit was done back in 2005, and we did hear something about this then- but with the D.O.P. (that would be: Damned Old Party)firmly in control...we sure didn't hear much about it.

Now, it's finally being looked into-- and what are the headlines that are catching my eye? Bush Administration questioned about missing Billions? No...that's not it. Instead, we are captivated by a diaper-wearing astronaut and the death of Smith.

This is a big deal, of course, because it is quite possible that the missing money has found it's way directly into the hands of some VERY BAD PEOPLE and that many of the wounded soldiers languishing in hospitals today were put there with U.S. Taxpayer funded bullets*.

Again, From the Denver Post:

Oversight committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said that with no clear standards, it was possible that some of the money ended up in enemy hands.

But are we hearing about any of this? Bush Bankrolls The Terrorists? for example? Nope...hardly a peep...at least, not ABOVE the fold.

That damned old Liberal Media...they sure don't give those Republicans a fair shake, do they?

Yes... I KNOW it's my responsibility to stay informed...but, then, I might have looked more deeply into the news if I'd been given some indication that I would find something more valuable than the contents of Lisa Nowak's diaper.

Postscript

Note: Administration apologists, like L. Paul Bremmer, are quick to point out that these are "funds belonging to the Iraqi people …these are not appropriated American funds." But this simply obscures the issue...it was held by the Federal Reserve, shipped to the war zone on our planes, and may well have fallen into the hands of the enemies of our soldiers. So, I don't feel the phrase "Taxpayer funded bullets" is all that inaccurate.

Not only that, but according to Waxman's opening statement in these hearings, in addition to sending more troops, the President also wants 1.2 billion dollars...but if these guys can loose 12 billion dollars, a mere 1.2 billion should go in record time...and, in this case, it IS our money.