WTF Is It Now?!?

The Bushies' latest Friday Surprise
Here we go again: the Bush misadministration is trying to hide bad economic news by releasing the government's latest estimates of poverty in America right before the weekend.

The Census Bureau data, which is scheduled to be made public at a Friday morning news conference, will show that incomes declined in 2002, while more people fell into poverty. In previous years, the estimates were released either on a Tuesday or Thursday.

"Sounds like they're trying to bury the numbers where people won't find them," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York. "This is another clear example of political manipulation of data by the Bush administration to avoid the glare of public scrutiny about the country's worsening economy." - - link.




I do not have financial relations with that company, Halliburton
A congressional report concludes that, under federal ethics standards, Dick 'Chicanery' Cheney still has a financial interest in Halliburton, the energy services company he "used" to run.

The report, by the Congressional Research Service, came at the request of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, NJ-D.

"As this CRS report shows, the ethics standards for financial disclosure is clear. Vice President Cheney has a financial interest in Halliburton," Lautenberg said. "And it's high time that damned pissant stopped lying to the American people." - - CNN.




Colin Powell caught lying about the Bush case for the war with Iraq
So, in typical Bush Cartel fashion, he lies some more

Colin Powell tried yesterday to explain away remarks on Iraq dating back to the beginning of the Bush misadministration, before the United States decided to invade Iraq.

Speaking in Cairo in February 2001, on his first Middle East trip, Powell said that Iraq had not developed "any significant capacity" in weapons of mass destruction and was not able to attack his neighbors with conventional weapons.

A former Democratic congressional aide dug out his remarks this week and has circulated them to the media.

Asked why he changed his assessment, Powell said: "I didn't change my assessment... I did not say he (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) didn't have weapons of mass destruction. He was a threat then. The extent of his holdings were yet to be determined. It was early in the administration and the fact of the matter is it was long before 9/11." - - Habbida habbida habbida... link, and thanks to BuzzFlash for the headline!




In GOP, concern over preznit's Iraq price tag
"We're not talking sanity here." - check out the shopping list so far:

A new curriculum for training an Iraqi army for $164 million.

Five hundred experts, at $200,000 each, to investigate crimes against humanity.

A witness protection program for $200,000 per Iraqi participant.

A computer study for the Iraqi postal service: $54 million.

$100 million to build seven planned communities with a total of 3,258 houses, plus roads, an elementary school, two high schools, a clinic, a place of worship and a market for each

$10 million to finance 100 prison-building experts for six months, at $100,000 an expert

40 garbage trucks at $50,000 each

$900 million to import petroleum products such as kerosene and diesel to a country with the world's second-largest oil reserves

$20 million for a four-week business course, at $10,000 per student

$400 million to build two 4,000-bed prisons at $50,000 a bed

These numbers, buried in Fraudy McFundraiser's $87 billion request for "the war on terrism," have made some congressional Republicans nervous, even furious. Although the GOP leadership has tried to unite publicly around its president, cracks are beginning to show. - - WaComPo.

Meanwhile the United Nations has pulled more staff out of Iraq following two suicide bomb attacks.