Since I posted my last entry, I looked up the senate vote on this little theft in the form of so called "rebate" checks....

Three trillion dollars: the true cost of Iraq

In building Iraq, I don't like the prices that we're paying...

America has been in Iraq for five years - longer than it spent in either World War #1 or #2.

Daily military operations (not counting, for example, future care of wounded) have already cost more than 12 years in Vietnam, and twice as much as the Korean war.

America is spending $16bn a month on running costs alone (ie on top of the regular expenses of the Department of Defence) in Iraq and Afghanistan; that is the entire annual budget of the UN.

http://tinyurl.com/...

Friday i was at the pennsylvania democratic state committee meeting in camp hill Pa. There was a woman = Renee George Martin Who shared the following

(special assitant for legislative affairs for the commonwealth of Pennsylvania)

They were holding a meeting with over 300 hundred Pa. democrats in attendence. She spoke about The USA fighting Iraq due to Sadam Husein selling oil in euro's versus dollars. She also mentioned Iran was doing the same and this was the reason Bush wants to attack Iran. She also mentioned that Pemex was the Mexican petroleum company that was altering its sales to america

She said Mexico's petroleum corporation would only sell america oil for 7 more years. She said they need it for their future use.

She said Mexico's "Pemex" is our number 2 supplier. She said Canada was our number 1 supplier. She said Brazil and two other countries also sold their oil in euro's. She said if all oil producing countries sold their oil in euro's that america would collaspe. She said china owns billions of US dollars as well as the middle east. My question to all is below in the body.

Starting in 2007, the US Mint will start producing gold coins with images of the first ladies.

This comes on the heels of the new Presidental $1 coins that will begin next year and change every three months.  (Oh i just can't wait to get a Millard Fillmore in change, or better yet a ........).  The Mint is hoping these will become as wildly popular and collectible as the state coins.  (ok -- guilty pleasure, i have been collecting those).  But alas live presidents dont get one (sorry George...not yet, the only coin you get is a subway token to hell)

full story
http://www.cnn.com/...

Well it is that time of year when we are trying to stretch our dollars as far as possible in order to pay for heating bills, books, school, gas, etc.  So I thought I would share some of my favorite ways to save cash.  I'll outline some below and share with you my total savings.

Please add your own sure-fire ways to save money and perhaps we can help eachother out.  My list is a bit odd but here goes:

From my journal of experiences in Iraq.

Forgive my rudeness, but what in the hell is this?

In the event of a bird flu outbreak, U.S. money could be produced overseas and Americans checked in drive-through medical exams for signs of infection, according to government plans being finalized.

While the US repeatedly raises its debt ceiling, auctioning bonds by the billions to foreign creditors, South American countries continue to shed their foreign debt obligations.

Opening an oil bourse is becoming rather fashionable these days. The Prudent Investor reports on Norway's plans to open an oil bourse to compete with London's International Petroleum Exchange. It's decisive marketing edge?

According to an article at NRK.no that was translated by energybulletin.net Bourse director Sven Arild Andersen said already in December that it would be advantageous to trade oil in Euros.

Would you look at that!

DEATH TO COUNTERFEITERS

By Peter Fredson

February 16, 2006

Once I owned a small, gray, coarse paper bill, issued in Revolutionary days of the U.S. It was crudely hand-etched and printed on a small hand press. On it were the words: DEATH TO COUNTERFEITERS.  Counterfeiters would have had an easy time printing any denomination of bill because the technical skill was minimal. The temptation to print money in those days of poverty and tumult must have been enormous, hence the penalty of Death.

Those pieces of paper, if accepted by an innkeeper or grocer, signified room and board, meals, drink, clothing and all kinds of material resources. Sometimes local legislation would require people to accept the bills. What backed them up?  Simply the collective word of the revolutionaries that the bills were "good."

I endorse and agree with David Niewert and his  Orcinus: My Letter to Cantwell

I'll vote for you, but not enthusiastically. In the meantime, I have limited dollars to spend on politics. I pick and choose where I donate carefully. And you just crossed yourself off my list.

sums it up for me too, David.

Your letter is well written and more than anything I could write. I sent the Senator a note referring to and endorsing your thoughts.

This piece ran in yesterday's NY Times:

Bush to Outline Broad Iraq Plan; Push on Training
By DAVID E. SANGER and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 - President Bush on Wednesday will put forward for the first time a public version of what the White House calls a comprehensive strategy for victory in Iraq.
In a related effort to begin extricating American forces next year, military officials said Tuesday that they would seek billions of additional dollars to better train Iraqis to defend the country.

The military officials in Iraq said they had requested $3.9 billion for next year to help train and equip Iraqi troops, build new police stations and outfit Iraqi soldiers with new uniforms.
That amount would be part of a larger spending request to Congress for the overall war effort and is on top of the $10.6 billion that lawmakers have already approved to rebuild Iraq's security forces.

Two related stories from today's NY Times:

Pentagon's Fuel Deal Is Lesson in Risks of Graft-Prone Regions
By DAVID S. CLOUD
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 - Soon after the American invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, the Pentagon opened an air base in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and made a deal to get jet fuel from the only two suppliers in the country. The companies just happened to be linked to relatives of the country's president.

Now the two businesses are under scrutiny by Kyrgyz prosecutors and F.B.I. agents who are looking into whether the president at the time, Askar Akayev, and his family pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars, partly from Pentagon fuel contracts, before he was ousted this year.

The family's involvement at the base, a critical site for refueling Air Force aircraft flying over Afghanistan, is a story of everyday cronyism in an impoverished country where the coming of the Americans was seen as a financial windfall for the well connected. [snip]