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It takes a strong stomach to make it through this edition of the ongoing list of Bush administration scandals. First up is the story we brought you yesterday of the permanent hearing damage being sustained by our troops at alarming levels. And the saddest part is that it might have been at least partially prevented:

Some Marines were issued a $7.40 pair of double-sided earplugs, with one side designed to protect from weapons fire and explosions, the other from aircraft and tank noise. But the Marines were not given instructions in how to use the earplugs, and some cut them in half, while others used the wrong sides, making the devices virtually useless, Hoffer said. Today, instructions are handed out with the earplugs.

Then there is the disgusting and criminally negligent story of troops in Iraq with skin abscesses and infections, cellulitis and other nasty symptoms because the water used for washing --clothes and body--had not met basic sanitary standards, courtesy of Dick Cheney's favorite no-bid company: KBR. I guess you can say "Dirty war, dirty water". At least the troops had clean drinking water. The incidences of cholera in Iraq for civilians has steadily risen since the invasion.

And finally, there is Douglas Feith, one of the principal architects of the Bush administration's foreign policy, member of PNAC, and in the words of Tommy Franks, "the f*cking stupidest guy on the face of earth." Like all of these jokers who have been so utterly and tragically wrong about everything, Feith got a book contract and apparently, it's payback time. Thomas Ricks previews what I'm sure will be an incisive tome on the fragile state we find ourselves. It appears that Feith doesn't have a lot of good things to say about the guy in the Oval Office, and for someone so focused on his legacy, that kind of disloyalty has to smart. As Keith Olberman puts it:

When you get thrown under the bus by Douglas Feith, you are on your way to being a footnote in history.