Not Even the CIA can Ignore the Blogs

File it under "hard to believe:"

1. Blogs have become so important that even the CIA has started monitoring them in order to get information about what's going on in the world. This is good news given the intelligence failures that have plagued the agency. The White House is certainly paying attention given the blogs importance during the last election.
2. Didn't the administration promise lower oil prices back 2002?
3. Chinese dictator Hu, while visiting the United States, blamed the large trade deficit between our two countries to American Protectionism. I know its hard to believe. But he said it.
4. Back in 2004, the Pentagon awarded a $190 million contract to have 150 health care centers built in Iraq. Only 6 have been finished. This is in the wake of a scandal in where Philip Bloom paid bribes to get construction contracts in Iraq. These 2 examples demonstrate why the cost of war in Iraq has far exceeded the estimates the government gave before the invasion began 3 years ago. Taxpayer dollars are being mismanaged or stolen on a gigantic scale. As we learn more about the scandals yet to be reported with contracts in Iraq, public support for the war will continue to erode. And we can thank Mr. Rumsfeld and his boss for this other example of mismanagement.