...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Tuesday, April 13, 2004
      ( 3:53 PM )
 
War Profiteering

Dick Cheney is still being paid by Halliburton. Evidently, last year he received $178,437 in deferred pay from the company that got the exclusive no-bid contract on Iraq. What I don't get is this explanation:

Cheney's office said the income from Halliburton --
which was close to his salary as vice president
-- was in no way linked to the financial health of
the company. A Halliburton subsidiary is under
investigation for possibly overcharging the U.S
military for fuel supplies in Iraq.

How can any paycheck from a company not be linked to its financial health? That just doesn't make sense. What is clear is that any claims that Cheney has no interest in Halliburton anymore have obviously been proven completely false. (shocker: another lie). What is more clear is that the company profitting most from this complete and total screw up in Iraq is still paying the Vice President of the United States. As Kos says, the war has been good to Cheney.

As Maru might say: WTF??!!

Evidently, deferred payments from the private sector are commonplace in the corrupt landscape of Washington, DC as a convenient tax dodge. But in this case, even though these payments are "legit," it's a little more than just a coincidence in my view. This whole time the administration and conservative pundits have insisted that Cheney has no connection with Halliburton. Though it is true he'd probably get his millions despite how the company profitted, it figures that a tie like this isn't inconsequential.

It's just despicable the things these rotten crooks get away with. They are all bank robbers, thieves, pillagers and destructive freaks. How can the American populace stay so calm in the face of such rampant disregard for basic human integrity as has been shown by this administration the last 3 years? It enrages me that they get away with this stuff. It's really sad when you can't raise your kid to see the president as someone to be admired. We need to get that back. Now.

| -- permanent link