More Halliburton Boondoggle

Mike Barnicle from the Boston Herald, is on Imus this morning. I don’t usually listen to Imus since it reminds me of being in an adolescent locker room. But, Barnicle is ranting on about what a disaster Iraq is. This is complete with video of chanting Iraqis.
Imus is complaining about the Pentagon’s decision to reimburse Halliburton for charges that were held up by investigation.

To read a letter from Senator Waxman complaining about the Halliburton contract, go to:
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/reports/waxman022706.pdf

Two brief quotes from the letter:

The Pentagon has "awarded Halliburton over $250 million in cost reimbursements, profits, and bonuses for billings that Defense Department auditors determined to be unreasonable and unsupported."

Waxman continues:

"The Defense Department provided no adequate explanation for this irresponsible action, and has been withholding relevant documents about its compensation determinations from the Committee for almost a year."

These were payments under a no-bid contract which the Bush administration gave to Halliburton in March of 2003.

A great site for keeping up with Halliburton crime, fraud and deception, go to:

Halliburton Watch:
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/home.html

A New York Times Article about the reimbursements:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/international/middleeast/27contract.html?hp&ex=1141102800&en=8930bc6384bc57a9&ei=5094&partner=AOL

What the Bastards are Up To Today

Cynthia McKinney (D-Georgia) gave a wonderful speech on the House floor yesterday afternoon. She talked about war and about war profiteering. She read, or tried to read, an article about the money made by people like Cheney, Wolfawitz, and Rumsfeld on cold war arms production.

In the middle of her speech, the Speaker of the House started receiving directions by some man. The Speaker then told McKinney to "desist," stop speaking. He then scolded her saying that she was not allowed to use the name of the Vice President on the floor of the House.

McKinney tried to ignore the rude interruption, and continued speaking. The hum, hum, of the voice of the unidentified man kept going while she was speaking, obviously telling the Speaker of the House what to say to her

Then, McKinney was interrupted once again and told that she could not make "personal" remarks about the Vice President.

McKinney responded that she was not making "personal" remarks.

After McKinney finished her excellent speech, the Republicans had one of their little puppy dogs (another congressman from Georgia) get up and lament Ms. McKinney’s speech, the Democrats and their "anger."

This is the new talking point line from the Republicans who are trotted out in front of the media these days to talk about how "angry" the Democrats are (Hillary Clinton has been the most recent target of this). This anger is presented as inexplicable by the Republican talking heads. Oh, isn’t is deplorable that the Democrats are so "angry." How terrible. Aren’t they crazy? We just can’t understand what they are so "angry" about.

Well, I’ll tell you what I think. I think somebody better get angry and I think the Democrats should take the criticism and run with it.

Angry? I’ll say we’re angry.

We have
...been dragged into a murderous and costly war based on fabricated evidence and propaganda
...seen Halliburton and other buddy corporate interests of the Republicans profit off that war in a criminal way
...seen how little this administration is able to meet the basic needs of the people in an emergency (Katrina)
...seen Halliburton, et. Al. Continue to profit off that disaster
...seen the country gutted to the extent that we have deficits that we may never recover from
...seen our economy mortgaged to the Chinese
...seen tax cuts for the very wealthy
...seen attempts to privatize social services in order to make money for a few corporations
...seen the Bush administration take extraordinary executive power, expand executive power to a dangerous limit
etc., etc., etc.,

Angry? You bet? If you aren’t angry you’re either making money off this administration that serves as a management board for corporate interests or you’re a fool. The problem is that these Republicans aren’t angry.

And another thing...

The Senate Abdicates Supervisory Role

The Senate Committee that was to vote today about whether to conduct an investigation of the NSA spying program, just abdicated their supervisory power further by refusing to vote on the issue. Senate Republicans came out of the closed meeting in which a vote was supposed to be taken, saying that they had agreed only to delay the vote. They announced that the administration had appeared to be ready to allow some kind of compromise about the spying program that has been so controversial recently. What a crock.

Pat Roberts, the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said that he had worked out an agreement with the White House to get more information about the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program.

Roberts said that the agreement provided a "fix" to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and would ensure more briefings to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The committee was to vote today about whether to open an investigation into the NSA program. Roberts maintained that the deal might eliminate the need for such an inquiry. Right.
The Bush administration, however, continues to maintain that they don’t need Congressional approval for the program.

On a Lighter Note

Bill Maher will be on again tomorrow night.

After U.N. Report, many call for the closure of Guantanamo. See:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060216/ts_nm/rights_un_guantanamo_dc&printer=1;_ylt=
Ak5AS69I3oOW1K7CpcxNGuhg.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

National Security Whistleblowers Hearing

CSPAN in the middle of the night is a font of information.

Last night, I woke up to a hearing conducted by the House Subcommittee on National Security Whistleblowers. This hearing included testimony by several government whistleblowers. You can watch the tape of the hearing on the CSPAN website.

http://www.c-span.org/search/basic.asp?ResultStart=1&ResultCount=10&BasicQueryText=whistleblower

McClellan's Arrogance, Butch Administration Give Away

Scott McClellan is having what is jokingly called a Press Conference this noon. I hate the way he talks to the reporters. Almost every time I see him, he's saying: Let's move on (from talking about something or other the administration has done). Let's don't keep talking about the past. This means let's don't keep talking about some scam, fraud, disaster brought about by the Butch administration.

If anybody had any doubts about the Butch administration functioning as a management board for corporate America, look at an article in the New York times this morning about a further boondogle for the oil and gas industry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/business/14oil.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

"The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years."

"New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate thakt the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government."

A vote for the Republicans is like emptying your pockets into their hands (unless, of course, you make over $400,000 a year).

Why do we put up with these people?

Just a thought.

What the Bastards are Up to Today

It's freezing cold here and since we had a $800 heating bill for the month of December (twice the amount we've ever paid for one month) I am trying to keep the heat turned down to under 65. The cats hate it, especially my Burmese, Little Neal, who is cold natured at the best of times and between October and March goes from one heater vent to the other, turning himself into a piece of toast.

When it's this cold, I tend to stay in bed late and this morning, I didn't wake up until 11:oo AM, feeling guilty and behind. What I am behind on, when I sleep this late, is keeping up with what the bastards in the administration are doing. If I don't keep track of them, who will?

Other than the sound of my husband's beeper, the first sound I heard this morning, still half asleep, was that of Sen. Collins, chairing a Senate Committee investigation of the fraud and abuse that occurred in connection with Katrina.

It's not that I have any love for "Brownie" or Chertoff or any of the rest of the idiot political appointees that "ran" FEMA, but I would dearly like for somebody to just connect the bloody dots. For example, there are evidently scores of mobile homes sitting somewhere in Arkansas, rotting, because FEMA bought them and then never used them to house the people who needed housing. Now, why doesn't somebody ask who owned the company that sold FEMA the trailers (since that's what they are, not mobile homes). How much profit did that company make and what connections did that company have with the Republicans? I would like that question answered.

I would like an accounting not just of how much money was wasted, but who benefited from that waste and what political connections those companies and their heads had.

If you go to the website of Know Your Candidates:
http://www.knowthecandidates.org/ktc/RepubContrib.htm

You will see that the Manufactured Homes Institute contributed almost $500,000 to political campaigns and almost 70% of it went to the Republicans. No small payoff.

The Bush administration has functioned exactly like an organized crime syndicate. Well, in actuality, it IS an organized crime syndicate. They took over the government of this country and they have consistently gutted it for six years.

They turned the war against Iraq into one giant boondogle for private interests who had connections with them. Katrina was the same.

So when is somebody going to stand up and say this?

Fortunately, this morning, The New York Times is reporting that Howard Dean (one of the few Democrats with cajones) is calling for Cheney to resign "if" it is demonstrated that he authorized the leaking of government information. How much more evidence do we need?

See the article:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021306L.shtml

The "Designated Scapegoat"

One of the Senate committees has "Brownie" of FEMA fame before them today. Why they are bothering to question this imbecile is beyond me. The only advantage I can see is to create the impression that it was Brownie's fault that the response to Katrina was criminally negligent, not the fault of the Bush Administration. What a dog-and-pony show.

Lautenberg finally pointed out that Brownie was the "designated scapegoat." Thank god for a glimmer of reality every once in a while.

A good article on Brownie, Allbaugh and Bush:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060210/femas_unholy_trinity.php