Aug. 13, 8:35 p.m.: Where is the outrage over cooked books?

Exaggerations should come back to haunt the president. But will they?

By: Hank Kalet
   Perhaps there is reason to start impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush.
   Consider this: He — or at the very least his administration — cooked the intelligence books to inflate the threat Saddam Hussein posed to the region and the world in an effort to win public support for a war the administration had been planning since shortly after Sept. 11. (It’s pretty big news in Great Britain, as well.)
   And having done so, his administration has used the American military to aid in his own re-election campaign (remember Dubya in flight suit landing a jet on an aircraft carrier? K-B toys apparently does — check out this bit of silliness.) and has turned the Iraqi war into a profitable venture for the administration’s best buds.
   William D. Hartung of the World Policy Institute offers these comments in an editorial on Tom Paine.com:
   "Unfortunately, when it comes to rebuilding Iraq, the Bush administration has been ethically challenged and politically tone-deaf. The administration’s privatized approach raises questions about insider-dealing and potential conflicts-of-interest. When the first major contract went to Dick Cheney’s former firm, Halliburton, in a secret, no-bid deal; and the second major contract went from the U.S. Agency for International Development to Bechtel, a firm that USAID chief Andrew Natsios used to work for, it was painfully clear that the ‘fix is in’ when it comes to deciding who gets contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq.
   "The Bush administration has personal and financial links to companies that have profited from the war in Iraq. These firms include Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Alliant Techsystems, Halliburton, Bechtel and Dyncorp."
   So where are the investigations? Where is the outcry? Why are his poll numbers remaining so strong?