AP reports the Bush White House has just handed Halliburton a brand-new contract – worth up to $1 billion - to support U.S. troops in the Balkans.

A Halliburton spokesperson said “This decision is an endorsement of the best-in-class support that KBR provides to the U.S. military worldwide.”

Remember the last time Halliburton was given a contract in the Balkans?

The General Accounting Office found in 1997 Halliburton “billed the Army for questionable expenses for work in the Balkans, including charges of $85.98 per sheet of plywood that cost $14.06. A year 2000 follow-up report on the Balkans work that found inflated costs, including charges for cleaning some offices up to four times a day.” In all, the GAO said KBR’s cost-overruns in the Balkans “inflated the original contract price by 32 percent.”

In the wake of mounting difficulties in Iraq, higher fuel costs for Americans, the ongoing health care crisis and growing budget deficit, conservative members of Congress — lead by scandal plagued Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham — have come up with a solution to all of our problems: a flag burning amendment.

With the American public showing severe discontent with congress, House leaders have promised to focus on legislation which will affect the concerns of all Americans, especially energy, tax and highway bills. Instead, conservatives came up with a bill “proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.”

Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) said “You know, this is probably as relevant to people’s lives now as any other time.”

Here are a few bill that are unquestionably more relevant, but that Ms. Pryce and her colleagues can’t be bothered to address:

1. Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act of 2005: would fully fund our nation’s veterans healthcare initiative. Securing healthcare for those who have fought our nations’s wars.

2. Renewable Energy Investment Act of 2005: renewable energy bill that would began to wean our nation of it’s oil dependency, lowering mounting gas prices.

3. S. 19: would reduce budget deficits by restoring budget enforcement and strengthening fiscal responsibility.

The White House is trying to paint Senate resistance to President Bush’s nominee to the United Nations, John Bolton, as partisan obstructionism. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said:

It’s clear that the Democratic leadership is not interested in finding a middle ground; they’re not interested in information. The information has been provided and made available to people.

Sorry, Mr. McClellan, but Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) doesn’t agree. Listen for yourself:

Trent Lott to White House: Release the Bolton documents

Way to go, Sen. Lott. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Last week, President Bush joined conservative congressional leaders in attacking their political opponents as partisan “obstructionists.” This argument is patently false. In the high-profile cases when the conservative agenda has been blocked — on Social Security privatization, the nuclear option, John Bolton — President Bush has actually faced bipartisan opposition.

But more importantly, on virtually every major issue of the day — Iraq, terrorism, ethics scandals, detainee abuse, and more — it is conservatives in Washington who are obstructing progress and thwarting the will of the American people.

OBSTRUCTION: Blocking Investigation into “Fixed” Pre-War Intelligence
Despite damning revelations in the Downing Street Minutes and other leaked British memos, we still don’t have the details regarding the Bush administration’s possible manipulation of pre-war intelligence. Why? Because Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) has blocked the planned examination of the administration’s role in shaping pre-war intel, saying it would be a “monumental waste of time.”

OBSTRUCTION: Blocking Vital 9/11 Commission Reforms
The 9/11 Commission regrouped early this month out of fear “that the Bush administration and Congress will never act on some of their recommendations.” For instance, commission members believe new National Intelligence Director John Negroponte is “not yet heeding a top recommendation” to tear down barriers between U.S. spy agencies.

OBSTRUCTION: Blocking the Ethics Committee from Operating
The House ethics committee has been paralyzed by conservatives for the second time this year, thanks to a conflict over staff hiring initiated by chairman (and former Jack Abramoff associate) Rep. Doc Hastings.

OBSTRUCTION: Blocking an Exit Strategy from Iraq
Even in the face of spiraling violence and increasing U.S. casualties, the Bush administration still refuses to offer a exit strategy or even present detailed benchmarks by which the success of their current strategy can be judged.

OBSTRUCTION: Blocking Progress Towards a ‘Culture of Life’
Congressional conservatives voted down legislation to reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions, and President Bush is threatening to veto visionary new stem cell legislation.

OBSTRUCTION: Blocking an Independent Investigation of Detainee Abuse Allegations
More than a year after detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere became public, there still has been no independent, overarching investigation of the numerous allegations of torture and abuse at U.S. prisons, nor of the potentially illegal practice of extraordinary rendition.

OBSTRUCTION: Blocking Data on Iraq Progress
U.S. forces in Iraq have “no higher priority” than developing Iraqi security forces. Yet the Defense Department has made it almost impossible to determine the status of our training efforts, or to determine what constitutes success in the first place, by blocking access to accurate reports of our efforts. Currently their data is unreliable and vague, categories of analysis in the reports “come and go without explanation,” and the metrics for judging readiness “change from week to week.”

Remember when Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman called for Kofi Annan’s resignation? This is what he said:

“I have arrived at this conclusion because the most extensive fraud in the history of the U.N. occurred on his watch. The world will never be able to learn the full extent of the bribes, kickbacks and under-the-table payments that occurred under the U.N.’s collective nose while Annan is in charge.”

Today, the Los Angeles Times reports on a massive fraud that hits U.S. taxpayers directly. The fraud involves the billions of unaccounted-for dollars spent on reconstructing Iraq.

Both Republicans and Democrats appeared taken aback by the volume of cash sent to Iraq: nearly $12 billion over the course of the U.S. occupation from March 2003 to June 2004, said a report by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who had reviewed e-mails and documents subpoenaed from the bank.

[snip]

Rep. Christopher Shays ( R-Conn.), chairman of the House national security subcommittee, criticized the Pentagon’s handling of the money known as the Development Fund for Iraq.

“It’s very clear that we didn’t have systems in place to account” for the funds, he said.

“It doesn’t mean they weren’t spent well, but, given my sense of human temptation, I suspect some of it was, frankly, taken,” Shays said.

“I can’t believe that all this cash just floating around all went perfectly to the right place.”

[snip]

Prior audits by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, found that more than $8.8 billion in such funds could not be properly accounted for.

Will Senator Coleman, in his role as Chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, use the same standard he applied in his investigation on the U.N. scandal to now investigate the improper accounting of billions of dollars that may have been wasted in Iraq?

The war in Iraq is not the only issue on which President Bush’s words diverge wildly from reality. It’s been well over a year since President Bush summarily announced that the Taliban had been “put out of business forever.” It’s been well over a year since President Bush addressed an assemblage of military personnel and their families, telling them that “the Taliban is history.” He repeatedly pushes the notion that “Afghanistan is a world away from the nightmare of the Taliban.”

His continued mischaracterizations of our half-forgotten war are absolutely maddening when one reads today’s story on how U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan have been caught completely off guard:

When Spec. Nick Conlon and the other members of his infantry battalion learned they would be deployed to the Afghan province of Zabol this spring, many expected their worst enemy to be boredom. In preparation, Conlon stocked up on more than 20 DVDs, such as “Alien vs. Predator,” “X-Men” and “Daredevil.”

But in the three months since the battalion set up camp in this isolated, mountainous region of southeastern Afghanistan, Conlon has not had time to watch a single movie. Instead, the battalion has found itself at the center of a heated though somewhat forgotten war that is still underway 3 1/2 years after the extremist Taliban militia was ousted from power.

[snip]

“I thought the Taliban had fallen,” Conlon marveled recently. “I thought this was going to be a peacekeeping mission.”

Yes, the American people back at home deserve the truth. But for our soldiers on the front lines, it is an issue of life or death.