This past week, looking at the corruption taking place in Washington, D.C. with Alberto Gonzales, again the illegal wire tapping issue, the illegal immigration bill, this war supplemental bill and again this monstrosity that will house State Department officials in Baghdad, at one point I threw up my hands saying; why vote?

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Much to my amazement the mainstream news finally woke up today and reported of the multi-million dollar American embassy being built in Baghdad.  Are some of you astonished to read where this embassy also known as ‘Bush’s Baghdad Palace’ by the Nation Magazine will cost you the tax-payer $592 million dollars?  Well don’t be.  The reason why should not be surprised is that the AP is only reporting of this now where other writers such as your’s truly have written of it before.

The AP reports that this embassy will contain, “secure apartments for about 615 people. The comfortable but not opulent one-bedrooms have offered hope for State Department staff now doubled up in tinny trailers.” Oh, don’t you feel sorry for these State Department officials having to live in tinny trailers considering how Katrina victims were treated?  Don’t you feel sorry for these State Department officials as our soldiers were denied a $6 dollar raise in pay?  Don’t you feel sorry for these State Department officials when the casualty rate of our soldiers presently stands at 3,395?  Don’t you feel sorry for these State Department officials when the town of Greenville, Kansas was wiped off the map by a devastating tornado?

What the AP leaves out, Military.com reports that this palace will contain, “two major diplomatic office buildings, homes for the ambassador and his deputy, and the apartment buildings for staff, the compound will offer a swimming pool, gym, commissary, food court and American Club, all housed in a recreation building.” Now please remember what the living conditions are for most Iraqis since we invaded their country back in 2003.  As Iraqis and our soldiers continue to die and suffer from massive injuries, we must insure through our hard earned tax dollars that these State Department officials along with others will get to recreate.  I find that obscene. In fact no word can best describe this abomination.

Over the years numerous sites have reported of the squalid conditions that Iraqis are being forced to live without.  They are living without clean water, a lack of electricity, lack of proper sewage treatment systems and morgues overflowing.  Meanwhile as Military.com reports, our State Department officials and others will have “its own water wells, electricity plant and wastewater-treatment facility, "systems to allow 100 percent independence from city utilities," I do not think that the city of Baghdad has anything to give since we bombed their city to kingdom come.

Back in October of 2006, Alternet.org reported that this embassy is being built by Asian workers.  To my readers, it is not often that I ask you to read an entire article that I have hyperlinked within a piece written by me.  But, this one you MUST.

You will read where these workers were, “assaulted and beat the construction workers, demonstrated little regard for worker safety, and routinely breached security.”

The bile rose in my throat as I read these workers suffered from, “poor sanitation, squalid living conditions and medical malpractice in the labor camps where several thousand low-paid migrant workers lived. Those workers, recruited on the global labor market from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and other poor south Asian countries, earned as little as $10 to $30 a day.” This is the most obscene case of outsourcing I have ever read in which State Department officials will reap the rewards.

I literally wanted to scream when I read, “State Department officials involved with the project also have ignored or rejected opportunities for comment.”  These are human beings our government is treating like yesterday’s garbage for them to live in opulence.  Where is any congressional investigation to look into this matter of human right’s abuse?

In a past piece I wrote of our crumbling infrastructure so you will be happy to hear that this massive embassy “will dwarf new U.S. embassies elsewhere, projects that typically cover 10 acres (4 hectares). The embassy's 104 acres (42 hectares) is six times larger than the United Nations compound in New York.”

In reading in the past of this massive monstrosity a feeling came over me that we are not leaving Iraq nor will we be leaving for a long time to come.  We have too much invested as this embassy proves.  So as everyone pressures congress to do something like pulling our forces from that country; guess who they are most likely listening to?  Oh the companies that are building this embassy and yes, defense contractors.  It is not a war, but an occupation and a trigger for yet another blow-back such as 9/11.

I received an email from someone who said that Congressman Ron Paul’s opinion of this blow-back affect was “nutty”.  Now after reading of this embassy; does anyone who believed as that person who emailed me still see it as “nutty”?  We have been told through various news reports that the Iraqi people do not want us there, but through the building of this embassy, we are not listening.  This is the ignorant foreign policy that Ron Paul was speaking of at the Republican debates.  You tell me how long it will be before the next blow-back?  What terrorist organizations can exploit this anger towards us as we occupy Iraq?

Do you want to hear more of the embassy?  Back in November of 2006, I wrote this piece of how this embassy will look.  As reported in the Nation Magazine the, “American Embassy being built in Baghdad. Surrounded by fifteen-foot-thick walls, almost as large as the Vatican on a scale comparable to the Mall of America” The funding for this immense embassy was slipped through when the GOP led senate passed an $82 billion dollar war appropriations bill back in September of 2005.  Whatever the status is as it relates to its construction, our only moral choice at this point is to at some point hand it over to the Iraqi people so that they can use it as a crisis center in helping them deal with the chaos brought upon them all by the Bush administration.”  I bet you anything that this suggestion will be listened to when pigs can fly.

All of which leads me to speak of the current war supplemental bill in which President Bush is almost screaming poverty to fight his war in Iraq.  He says it is to support the troops, but if the past $82 billion dollar package was also for that reason; then how did the building of this monstrosity fail to get the attention of our congress members?  Even though the Democrats were in the minority; I did not hear one single congress member or senator bring this embassy up.  Did you?  Republicans say that they are for fiscal conservancy, yet they can approve $592 million dollars for what is equivalent to the Waldorf Astoria in Baghdad? Oh and built with slave labor.

Oh but it gets so much better, folks as one reads this UK Guardian article in which the House voted for a $646 billion defense bill which contains, “an additional $142 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Is the current supplemental bill presently being worked an added bonus?  Does the president want an extra $120 billion on top of that $142 billion dollar figure?  By the way this expensive defense bill was approved by the House 397-27. 

In this runaway freight train known as the federal government you will read, “Lawmakers want to protect suppliers in their districts; the Bush administration typically has sided with industry in opposing tough new restrictions.” While these lawmakers wish to protect these suppliers; how about the rest of us?  What about bringing some of that money home for jobs training and education?  This past week, those in NY State went to the polls to vote for their school board budgets and it is becoming increasingly hard to make ends meet as one’s property taxes continue to rise.  To the members of both parties serving us in Washington, D.C., America is in need of your help.  Yet you continue to turn your backs on us. 

I think that others can commiserate with me as I stood at the check out line at my local grocery store today watching how the food bill was increasing as every item was scanned only to read, “The House voted to increase the president's request by $205 million for U.S.-Israeli anti-missile programs.” As I watched that dollar amount climb not only this week but week after week, I am blistered when I read that $205 million dollars coming from the American tax payer is going towards Israel’s defense. 

Here is a note to you nitwits in Washington, D.C. stop sending our money to Israel.  If they cannot defend themselves, it’s their problem not ours.  Maybe if they changed their foreign policy, it would ratchet down the violence. 

Do not even get me started on that illegal immigration bill presently being studied by congress.  All 700 pages or so which according to Lou Dobbs reads as a legal document.  One wonders how many will actually read that bill and know of the specific details within it.  How much is that bill going to cost you the American tax payer?  Will it put strains on our hospitals and our school districts?  No one really knows.  Why can’t the Mexican President, Felipe Calderón take care of his own citizens as well as the wealthy within Mexico?  No, the Mexican president wants us to take care of his citizens and our president capitulates.  Will our congress approve this bill?  Oh of course it will.  Next time any bozo running for office asks for a donation to their campaign, I will place within the envelope Monopoly Money since that is how they see our money. 

This past week, looking at the corruption taking place in Washington, D.C. with Alberto Gonzales, again the illegal wire tapping issue, the illegal immigration bill, this war supplemental bill and again this monstrosity that will house State Department officials in Baghdad, at one point I threw up my hands saying; why vote?  You know, you go to the polls and it seems like nothing ever changes.  I try to be optimistic, but in the face of this ship of fools in Washington, D.C., it is truly hard to be. 

My sentiments were mirrored as I read this depressing article in which “25% of Americans now say they satisfied with the state of their country -- down 8% in just one month -- and one of the lowest ever measured.”  One of the reasons they give is the high gas prices.  This past November many did feel a sense of hope, but when reads, “Over the past month, satisfaction fell more among Democrats, suggesting that some of them may be souring on their party's actions or inactions in Congress.” If our Democratic controlled congress does not get a handle on this, I do feel we stand a chance in losing control of both houses and even the presidency in 2008. I just do not know how much the American people can take being run by this ship of fools coming from both parties.  To Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid; are you listening to the American people? 

I feel we need a leader to lead us to the end of this dark tunnel into the light and in the spirit of hope, I am literally praying for him to emerge.  While in a previous piece I stated that Gov. Bill Richardson was my candidate of choice, there is one man that is out there that I do thirst for to help lead this nation.  He once said, “I will fight for you; are you with me?”  In the eighteen presently declared candidates of both parties that feeling I long for is just not there.  If you can hear me, Al Gore, your country needs you.

Author’s note: To my readers here at OpEdNews.com, to view the pictures of this massive Baghdad embassy, please go to this link: http://tinyurl.com/2s5nmc

My email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net    

Authors Bio:
I am a writer who currently writes pieces for my own blog http://www.mary-macelveen.blogspot.com I have been published by Buzzflash.com, TheLiberalPatriot.org and MikeHersh.com. I was a guest on the Jay Diamond Radio Show on WRKO in Boston and have appeared on CNN.  I have done numerous web broadcasts for sites such as RadioLeft.com, TVNewsLies.org and FranklySpeakingRadio.com.

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