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In 2002, AOL Time Warner, Inc. obtained AT&T Corporation’s stake in their cable television, film production, and programming partnership in exchange for it.

About five years ago, Enron and their partners stole it from California’s electricity and gas customers.

Duke Energy recently agreed to acquire Cinergy for its value in stocks.

Harrah’s bought Caesar’s for it.

Because of Bush’s tax cut, in 2001, the federal government took it from Social Security in order to pay the government’s bills.

It is more than four times the annual revenue of Ghana, 80% of the annual revenue of Nigeria, 20% of the annual revenue of Poland, and more than half the annual revenue of Iraq.

It is $9 billion, exactly the amount that is still unaccounted for in the reconstruction of Iraq because of what the U.S. Inspector General has labeled “severe inefficiencies and poor management.”

Once again, the business-minded, management-oriented “reformers” in the White House proved to us that their idea of management is one that is pretty much on par with Bush’s idea of scholarship when he was studying for his Harvard MBA.

The mystery of the missing $9 billion is just one more item the news media found too boring to cover. But while that money was building someone a really nice house in Baghdad, Bush was cutting veterans’ benefits, and Rumsfeld was lying about the Pentagon’s having requisitioned safer vehicles for the troops.

But hey–it’s no big deal. It’s just a lot of stolen money and dead soldiers. God bless America.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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