I guess the Post copy editors couldn't think of a drier, more boring headline to put on this story:
Group Says Iraq Contractors Donated Significantly to Bush's Campaign
Private contractors that received billions in reconstruction contracts for Iraq and Afghanistan contributed significantly to President Bush's election campaign and stocked their staffs and governing boards with well-connected former federal officials, according to a report released today by a watchdog group.
The Center for Public Integrity matched companies with political donations to conclude that dozens of companies that won contracts had contributed to national political campaigns, with President Bush receiving more money than any other candidate since 1990--about $500,000.
This is the study by the Center for Public Integrity that I mentioned several days ago. A copy of the full report can be found here.
If we're going to be robbed blind by a bunch of well-connected corporations and their political chow hounds, it's nice to at least know the gory details. I guess.
OMNIBUS RESPONSE:
Mere coincidence. Not only that, but I heard that the Center for Public Integrity is a Stalinist front organization. Halliburton wanted to bid on those contracts, but the overzealous Pentagon Procurement Division wouldn't let them. I liked you when you used to blog about military tactics, but now that you've started on corporate corruption, you've gotten a whole lot more shrill. What about the rest of the huge corporations that didn't get to feed at the Iraqi trough? How come the liberal media won't report on that? (blowing dust off file) Marc Rich, anyone?
As bush has apparently already raised $80 million for the upcoming campaign these companies are going to have to do a lot better then an aggregate $500,000 to show up on bush's handout radar for his next reconstruction project.
Well, maybe they have already made those larger contributions....
Halliburton made the biggest donation to the Bush campaign in the form of Dick Cheney -- and it has obviously paid off very well.
Halliburton says KBR unit revenue profit, sales soar
Wed Oct 29,11:57 AM ET
HOUSTON, United States (AFP) - US oil industry services giant Halliburton said Thursday its Kellogg Brown and Root unit's profits rose four-fold and sales leapt 80 percent, boosted by work in Iraq
Halliburton
It looks bad and probably is bad, but I wish the article had cited some examples of companies without the political connections that sought contracts but were denied. Were there any? I dunno. But what if there were not? Nobody says Halliburton or Bechtel are hacks unqualified to execute the sweet contracts. It is only a scandal if a more deserving and less connected company got screwed. The article is silent on that.
Gasp! Bush is bought and paid for?
Film at 11.
This is news? I think even his supporters know this stuff.
They simply don't care, as long as he supports the "christian" agenda, he can be bought by whoever he wants.
That's what we're up against. Faith.
It's probably why we will lose, too. These people CAN'T be swayed by argument...they BELIEVE Bush is doing God's work, so they will support him no matter what.
Read that again. No. Matter. What.
Bush could be proven to be getting money in brown paper bags from Halliburton, but his base simply does not care. They can spin any negative news into something they will shoehorn into their belief system, nice and neat. Or, they will simply ignore it and pretend they never learned it.
You cannot reason with religious fanatics, and that is what we're up against. Bush's supporters are just as fucking crazy as Osama Bin Laden...they believe their God is bigger than his God.
No amount of logic, persuasion, or web clippings will ever change that.
Bush could be killing kittens that they... Wait, a minute, that was Bill Frist. Sorry.
Welcome to corporate owned American...Bush and company makes money and you don't...I dont know where the 7% GDP showed up...I didn't feel it.
Cheryl - Andrew Fastow has some free time right now, so he picked up a little contract work from John Snow.
Juan Cole (http://www.juancole.com/) is really on the button today (Fri 31 Oct) - Bremer is the new Politburo!
I'd add that it is widely recognized that the trade unions played key roles in Japanese and German reconstruction and prosperity after WW II, whereas Bremer has been dissolving all such associations. It is not clear that the Iraqi workers will even retain the right to organize or strike (this right has largely been denied to US workers over the past 30 years, as judges have permitted corporations to engage in union-busting with impunity).
I'd say that one could forgive the Iraqis if they conclude that the American system in Iraq is a form of state socialism, with Bremer playing the Politburo, giving orders and exercising a veto even though no one elected him to office, and Halliburton and Bechtel playing state-supported industries. Perhaps it looks more like Cuba so far than like capitalist democracy.
Nobody says Halliburton or Bechtel are hacks unqualified to execute the sweet contracts.
Ask residents of Boston what they think about Betchel and I think you might hear someone use the words "unqualified hacks"... Andrew Natsios, current administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, was formerly chief executive of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the organisation responsibile for the "Big Dig". Natsios handed the contract to Betchel (hmm, sound familiar?) and Betchel then proceeded to make costly errors that ended up raising the pricetag from $4 billion to $14 billion. Of course, Betchel didn't pay for the errors, including leaking tunnels, ventilation problems and leaving huge existing structures like the FleetCenter out of the plans -- the state paid.
I'm reminded of that old Cheech & Chong bit: This looks like shit. It smells like shit. It tastes like shit. Hey, this shit IS shit!
This is probably the strongest argument against the bugout theory; too many Beltway parasites feeding at the hog trough. The Baathist insurgents seem to know what they are doing, and I would guess they will be trying to bag some Halliburton or Dyncorp guys soon.
Paraguay, a country rather notorious for corruption (it's in the process of removing around half the judges in the Supreme Court for just that), has made strides under its new president to attack the piggies in the trough, with some effect.
Costs for road construction to be funded in part by the Inter-American Development Bank that had been grossly inflated have been reduced by 20 per cent (hey, what's a few million between friends?) - so, good Americans, you now have a precedent to point to when trying to get Halliburton & chums' snouts out of your tax dollar-filled pockets.
You can point to Paraguay.
Do a google search with "Bechtel , Bolivia, 2000". They bought the water rights to Cochabamba, cemented over family wells, destroyed rain collecting equipment and charged the shit out of poor locals. The Bolivians rioted and six protestors died from the police brutality. Front page in the librul news, you say?
The Washington Post "reported" the story in the Style section, a little blurb, and portrayed them as related to narco-traffikers. The Post was fed the line from Bechtel and regurgitated it. "The Best Money Democracy Can Buy" by Greg Palast has a great story on it.
Currently Halliburton is dealing with Iran, which would be illegal for a US company, but they have an off-shore Bermuda subsidiary doing it- so its ok everybody, don't worry. Some of the parts could easily be adapted for nuclear production from what I've read.
Evil ruthless war-profiteering bastards, every last one of them.
Thanks for keeping us updated on the corporate corruption and screw you, Norbizness.
Thanks for keeping us updated on the corporate corruption and screw you, Norbizness.
Norbizness was joking. He's not really an NRO columnist.
What is frustrating about this study is that they do not provide a breakdown of contribution per candidate/party, per company/per year/election. This makes "President Bush receiving more money than any other candidate since 1990--about $500,000" a very weak statement, since there is no way to know how close to $500,000 the next candidate or what his/her party affiliation was.
While we're on the subject:
“Pentagon mental health contract may have been written by vendors”
This is just business as usual in liberal democracies. Nearly every government policy is designed to send some pork down some campaign contributors gullet. Get "tough" on crime"? You'll need a load of new prisons. Joy. New air security rituals? That'll require a shitload of shiny new machines that go beep. Get tough on welfare fraud? You'll need fancy new database software... and on and on and on and on. I don't blame that 50% of Americans that doesn't bother voting.
I apologize, Norbizness. Good job on reciting the official Repub. line, it got me.
I was last in Sunday school 50 years ago, and am out of my depth when it comes to the Bible. But I have wondered whether part of the hold Iraq has on the right-wing, evangelical Christian mind has to do with the country's importance in the Bible and prophecy, i.e. Babylon, Ishtar Gate, etc. Isn't the religious right utterly delighted that we now "own" it, that it is ours?
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Welcome to corporate owned American...Bush and company makes money and you don't...I dont know where the 7% GDP showed up...I didn't feel it.
Did you?