709. A crook by any other name....

Jack Nicholson's character Frank Costello, in The Departed:

"When I was your age they used to say you could become cops or criminals. What I'm saying to you is this... When you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?"

David Oliver, the former Director of Management and Budget for the Coalition Provisional Authority (Iraq), explaining to a House oversight committee a remark he had made previously about $9 billion dollars in Iraqi funds that went missing on the CPA's watch.

"I have no idea, I can't tell you whether or not the money went to the right things or didn't - nor do I actually think it is important," Oliver said. "Billions of dollars of their money disappeared, yes I understand, I'm saying what difference does it make?"

Video of testimony at Alternet