Un-Freaking-Believable

You'd think that at some point I'd cease to be amazed and appalled at actions of the Bush Administration. But you'd be wrong. Case in point...

New twist on aid for Iraq: U.S. seeks donations
By Cam Simpson
Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau
Published September 18, 2005

WASHINGTON -- From the Indian Ocean tsunami to the church around the corner, Americans have shown time and again they are willing to open their pocketbooks for charity, for a total of about $250 billion last year alone.

But now, amid pleas for aid after Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration has launched an unusual effort to raise charitable contributions for another cause: the government's attempt to rebuild Iraq.

Although more than $30 billion in taxpayer funds have been appropriated for Iraqi reconstruction, the administration earlier this month launched an Internet-based fundraising effort that it says is aimed at giving Americans "a further stake in building a free and prosperous Iraq."

Contributors have no way of knowing who's getting the money or precisely where it's headed because the government says it must keep the details secret for security reasons.

But taxpayers already finance the projects for which the administration is seeking charitable donations, such as providing water pumps for farmers. And officials say any contributions they receive will increase the scope of those efforts rather than relieve existing taxpayer burdens.

(Full story)

Sorry, Dubya, but you already have my donation, in the form of every penny of federal income tax I've paid during the last twenty-two years. While I'm at it, why don't I cut out the middle man, and just send a check directly to Halliburton?

(Trib site requires registration...if not already registered, use "blurb@sofort-mail.de" to log on, with "noblurb" as the password. Thanks to bugmenot.com, as always.)