$750,000,000 and counting........

counting down to what? our poverty? our high oil prices? the cost of groceries? the health care of our veterans? the health care of our elderly? the health care of our children? the education of our citizens? (but not to worry, our congress is investigating drug use in mlb)

State Dept. orders another review of troubled Baghdad embassy
By Warren P. Strobel McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The State Department's new embassy construction chief has rejected his predecessor's certification that the $740 million new U.S. embassy in Baghdad is "substantially completed" and has instead begun a top-to-bottom review of the troubled project.
The official, Richard Shinnick, said in an interview the State Department hopes that the sprawling embassy complex — originally scheduled to be completed last September — will be ready by March 31.
But he said repeatedly that he's not setting a target date because past deadlines have forced a rush to complete the embassy's defective work. "That's not the message I want to send," he said.
The central issue appears to be the firefighting systems.
The embassy will house more than 1,000 U.S. diplomats and military personnel, many of whom live and work at a palace of former president Saddam Hussein that is subject to frequent rocket and mortar attacks — adding urgency to completing the new complex.........