WTF Is It Now?!?

"President Bush said his new year's resolution was to eat fewer cheeseburgers. The economy's collapsing; there's trouble in Iraq...you'd think he'd have a loftier goal, not the same one as Clem from the Shell station." - Leno.



Iraq's oil to pay for war and occupation
Misadministration officials are seriously considering proposals that the United States tap Iraq's oil to help pay the cost of a military occupation, a move that likely would prove highly inflammatory in an Arab world already suspicious of U.S. motives in Iraq.

Officially, the White House agrees that oil revenue would play an important role during an occupation period, but only for the benefit of Iraqis, according to a National Security Council spokesman (nudge nudge, wink wink).

Yet there are strong advocates inside the administration, including in the White House, also including in Dick 'Chicanery' Cheney's office, for appropriating the oil funds as "spoils of war," according to a source who has been briefed by participants in the dialogue.

"There are people in the White House who take the position that it's all the spoils of war," said the source, who asked not to be further identified. "We [the United States] take all the oil money until there is a new democratic government [in Iraq]." No matter how long it takes. - Knut Royce (mostly).




I must be only two feet tall
There's no guarantee that rich people will do anything economically productive with more money. Their major strategy seems to be stashing it in offshore banks so they don't have to pay any taxes. As Leona Helmsley famously remarked, taxes are for "little people."

The dirty little secret about taxes in this country is that rich people and corporations mostly don't pay them now - they have a whole system of shelters and offshore deals. We don't need to raise taxes in this country - we need to collect them. - Molly Ivins.