Another day, another middle finger to the American taxpayer and American soldier from the Bush Administration and friends at Kellogg Brown & Root.

The New York Times has an article up detailing how back in the early stages of the Iraq War, the Army's own auditor found lack of support for $ 1 billion in fees and charges sought by KBR for their "services," and that the senior civilian overseeing the KBR contract was "reassigned" for demanding KBR provide information:

The official, Charles M. Smith, was the senior civilian overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war. Speaking out for the first time, Mr. Smith said that he was forced from his job in 2004 after informing KBR officials that the Army would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their chaotic Iraqi operations.

More below...

The New York Times has an article up detailing the Army's lack of oversight and accountability regarding both taxpayer dollars and Iraqi funds used to pay contracts in Iraq.  Rep. Waxman, and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform had a hearing today regarding an internal Pentagon audit.

A Pentagon audit of $8.2 billion in American taxpayer money spent by the United States Army on contractors in Iraq has found that almost none of the payments followed federal rules and that in some cases, contracts worth millions of dollars were paid for despite little or no record of what, if anything, was received.

...almost none of the payments [made by the Army] followed federal rules and ... in some cases, contracts worth millions of dollars were paid for despite little or no record of what, if anything, was received.

... not exactly chump change.  More over the flip.

I don't know about you, but it's late, the days are fairly trying lately, and I need a bit of a diversion... so forgive me, but..

Did you know...

...that today is the 30th anniversary of the release of Saturday Night Fever, a strange, huge cultural phenomenon that still resonates to this day? (Well, not really, I mean disco's long gone... but like I said, I need a diversion, and maybe you, dear reader, do as well.)

Follow over the flip for a trip down a flashing multi-colored memory lane.

So here's what I was gonna do...

I was going to write a broad, thoughtful diary about the use of the word "netroots" vis-a-vis "base" when describing my understanding of modern-day progressives as a group.

I was going to bring in and discuss Thomas Friedman's recent column "Generation Q" where he seems to set up a dichotomy, or a dualism, between online activity and traditional world-changing activism.

I was also going to use Nancy Pelosi's recent "waste of time" comments, already much discussed here at dailykos, and suggest that in actuality we could see that Pelosi has embraced that same dualism, rightly or wrongly, and was merely trying to advocate for the more "traditional" (and, from our perspective, non-crashing-the gates) channels of "activism" from the "base".

Today a young female cyclist was hit and killed by a cement truck in Portland, Oregon.  The cyclist was in a bicycle lane, and both were at a stoplight.

The truck was headed northbound on SW 14th Ave. and it came to a stop at a red light on W. Burnside. When the truck’s light turned green, the truck began to turn right (eastbound) onto W. Burnside. At that point, somehow a bicycle collided with the truck.

Kruger said they cannot tell what type of movement (if any) the bicyclist was making before the collision. He said there were no skid marks from the bicycle tire.

Oregonian reporter Stuart Tomlinson used to ride through that same intersection. He reports that witnesses in the restaurant directly adjacent to the corner say both the truck and the cyclist were stopped, but when the light turned green the cyclist went straight and the truck turned right.

On February 15, 2003 I, like many here, marched with millions around the globe in an effort to stop the inexorable march of the present administration toward war in Iraq.

After March 20 of that year, I was dispirited, heartbroken, and angry. For whatever reason, decisionmakers in our country (and the serious people in the media) did not seem to take notice of all the facts -- or consciously manipulated them (or made them up) to serve questionable purposes. Further, millions of voices that were raised up as one in February had seemingly accomplished nothing.

It was clear to me: government needed people who weren't afraid of the truth and were willing to fight for it within the system. Thus, I decided to go to law school.