Case Shines Light on War Profiteers

Seems if I remember correctly the RNC supporting poster all explicitly defended this practice of no bid contracts and such.

Seems their idea of private enterprise and capitalism has its own meaning when dealing with the RNC and war!

Don't anyone dare speak out about how the war contracts were given out with no thought to "conserving" tax dollars or many of the drudge righties will call you communists for not supproting the fleecing of our treasury.

"And so what's wrong with this?" -- Dubya

1/6 of the money spent in Iraq was looted or "misplaced".

Federal authorities confirmed Thursday that Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons is being investigated for failing to properly report gifts or payments from a software company that was awarded secret military contracts when he was in Congress.

The newly elected Republican governor denied any wrongdoing and told The Associated Press that "they can look as deeply as they need to and I encourage them to do so, but there would have been absolutely no influence."

Dog bites man
not news
man bites dog
news.

corruption under the Bush administration and the Republicans during this war for profit is no longer newsworthy.

A lot of wealthy mercenaries now quietly living a life of inordinate luxury in the far off corners of the globe.

corruption under the Bush administration and the Republicans during this war for profit is no longer newsworthy.

Only shows this is a clear indication all money flowing to elected officials should stop.

The RNC democracy at work here!

Same old same old.

But still the 28% hold strong!!!!

You know it's funny. The right are the ones who still support Dubya at least 28% of them. You would think they would be appalled at this but they aren't for it's about Profits and Profits are KING in their worlds. Funny Dat.

Larry

i think somebody just released a book about how this administration pushed privitization onto the iraqi government and what an utter failer it has turned out to be.
This mismanagement is costing american lives, but pundits on the right have refused to aknowlege it

In this punditocracy far too much power is in the hands of a few TV talking heads and radio hate mongers. Yet, when we talk about doing something about it the righties start screaming as if it isn't their money too that these guys are stealing. Seems they prefer being lied to day after day after day over demanding that their own air waves bring them real information. They virtually idolize some of the liars who defend the worst bastards to come along in 100 years. William Randolph Hearst had nothing on some of the right wing talkers when it comes to shilling for the robber barons.

Righties don't like to think about anything that's real complicated. It hurts their heads. It's much simpler just to believe the lies. So that's what they do.

I want a rebate on my Tax money I sent in... I won't waste it like my government. Bastards....

No bid contracts = good.

Serving spoiled food to our soldiers at $30 per meal = good.

Letting our soldiers drink, bathe and brush their teeth with water contaminated with feces = good.

$9 billion missing = good.

Sincerely,

The Right

i think somebody just released a book about how this administration pushed privitization onto the iraqi government and what an utter failer it has turned out to be.
This mismanagement is costing american lives,

Probably this one:

"Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq"

www.amazon.com

"In almost every way the rebuilding has fallen short," Miller writes, despite some successes, such as the reconstruction of thousands of Iraqi schools and the vaccination of tens of thousands of Iraqi children. "After three years Iraqis have less power in their homes than under Saddam. Hospital neonatal units lose electricity, and doctors watch children die . . . . Oil production is far below its prewar peak. Poor Iraqis in Baghdad slums suffer through outbreaks of easily preventable diseases like hepatitis for lack of clean water or health care." And what bothers him most now, he says, is that the Bush administration seems about to give up on the reconstruction, slashing its funding even as it extends the U.S. troop presence in Iraq.

How did the country that authored the Marshall Plan botch Iraq? By way of explanation, Miller brings to life the villains and heroes of the often arcane reconstruction effort. His villains include politically connected contractors such as Mike Battles and Scott Custer, whom the former inspector general of the U.S. Army's Fifth Corps calls "rip-off artists" and who, Miller reports, never endured "any serious effort" from the Bush administration to recover the taxpayer dollars they were responsible for; senators such as Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who, Miller writes, inserted language into the $18.4-billion Iraq-reconstruction bill of November 2003 guaranteeing "special contracting privileges for a group of constituents [the Alaska Native Corporations] that supplied Stevens . . . with votes" ; Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator Bremer, whom Miller accuses of simply not paying attention while such depredations were happening under his nose....."

Bremer was more interested in introducing a flat-tax system to Iraq! Really!! For this Bush gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Another book, "Imperial Life in the Emerald City", shows how the Green Zone was full of politically-connected dingbats who knew nothing about anything and were living the good life while all the greed, chaos and corruption was going on around them. It's easy to read even though you can scarcely believe what it's telling you and you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom will become a badge of shame in future administrations. It is an insult to those who received it from other president to award it to liars, thieves and incompetent boobs.

Do you think the "28 percenters", care about war profiteering....cuts to VA hospitals....denying soldiers request for counseling due to waiting list..do you think they care about the enormous strain their constant deployments cause to families...do you think they think about the suicides.traumatic stress or ANY of the myraid of problems this illegal invasion has caused to the 23,000 wounded...the answer is NO....BL2..ZULU...and all the rightwing neo-sheep are BUSHIES first and Neo-Cons second...the last thing they are ? .....Patriots

""Do you think the "28 percenters", care about war profiteering""

Hell no, not with important issues like gay marriage around. They got to protect the sanctity of marriage for crying out loud.

Hmmmmm, not one single righie has posted on this thread, gee, I wonder why???

War profiteering should be considered treason and punishable by death.

But since the government is in on it, that's as much a pipe dream as democratizing the Middle East.

The guy should be flogged. Any member of the govn't, elected or not should be flogged right along with him if they are guilty of this stuff.

With that said, is this a staple of the GOP. It sure seems so, it it's not like this behavior just started happening in 1994 & that is the biggest problem we face as a country.

These types of actions have been happening for many decades, its been a problem since before WWI. Dem, Repub, you name it, it's always been an issue. Should the GOP members that either did this or looked the other way be made examples of? I say yes, but let's not be so ignorant as to think one party or the other is above these types of actions. The 2006 electing showed the citizens of this country were at the very least unpleased with the GOP corruption, just like in 1994 when those same citizens were fed up with the Dem corruption.

IMO, the Dem's have a HUGE opportunity in front of them to fix this crap long term. As a fairly conservative person, I hope do they succeed . My support for the GOP is smaller than my "want" for effective & honest govn't. Unfortunately, in my entire 36 yrs of life, I have yet to be shown my "want" for either party when they are in power.

Their are individual examples for both parties, but not nearly enough to make that the norm from either.

War profiteering should be considered treason and punishable by death.

Violence for profit, two of the cornerstones of Western civilization rolled into one exceptional and victorious policy.

You must be a Communists!?!

"Hmmmmm, not one single righie has posted on this thread, gee, I wonder why???"
Posted by danni at 2007-02-16 10:03 AM

YEAH! I disagree! A more accurate claim would be that no Bush serving fake plastic conservative has contributed to this thread!

How could they defend this shit? All they want is it to quickly fade from view so they can resume their looting of the public trust (liberate your money into their pockets)!
However, I do expect them to regurgitate their "wash" rhetoric over and over again (it's not so bad because democrats have done it too) as to minimize their "personal responsibility" in this matter.

Nobody disputes that corruption has happened when Democrats have been in power. It's inevitable that it will, no matter which party is in power. The difference here, it seems, is that it has been institutionalized under Bush and Cheney. The Halliburton connection and the cronyism just stinks to high heaven.

Harry Truman was sent out to investigate war-profiteering during WW2 during FDR's admin. Nearly everybody thought that he'd just do a whitewash job on it - he had worked under a corrupt KC politician, I believe. So they thought he'd just go through the motions and nobody making money corruptly off the war needed to worry. He didn't, his work resulted in many prosecutions and the recovery of much of the stolen money.

The Republican Congress under DeLay, Hastert and Frist systematically blocked all efforts at oversight in Iraq. Now we can see why.

War is hell... except for those with the big bucks and the connections to make a nice profit.

The rich get richer and the poor sacrifice their lives or limbs and the lives of their loved ones to line the pockets of the rich.

It's a wonderful wonderful world our President has led us into.

Looks like the Resolution will pass and now the real fireworks will begin.

Call/write your Congressman or Senator and voice your support.

Let the Checks and Balances begin!(tm)

I watched a few hours of the House "debate". Not one single congressperson mentioned the permanent military bases.

Firing squad, anyone?

Why is this a surprise? Americans are taught from birth that the only important thing in life is money and material goods.