As I set here and wonder a few weeks after the great defeat of the neo-conservative Karl Rove machine I do my best to keep from getting so giddy that I forget the real reason for all of this.
For all of you who have gotten side-tracked please think back to 1999 when Dick Cheney was put in charge of finding a Vice President for George W Bush. He pretty much said aint no-body qualified like I am and snatched the job up. But there was a reason for this and it certainly wasn't to serve the United States and it's citizens.
More after the jump....
Good ole boy Dick Cheney had greenbacks in all of his visions and dreams. The policy was always going to be to use the great American war machine that we had invested in. To depleat it and re-build it meant billions for the defense industry. To attack Iraq and detroy it's oil infrastructure meant bigtime bucks for Haliburton and the outsourcing of the military supply chain to Kellogg, Brown and Root (Haliburton subsidary) meant even more money going to this company. And the CEO of this company in 1999 was....Dick Cheney (who still receives an annual compensation package in the millions which was negotiated when he left to become Vice President). When the drum began to beat for war Haliburton was privy to all Pentagon meetings and given a no-bid no questions ask contract for everything needed to support the U.S. effort. In fact no other entity was even considered. And these were cost plus no-bid which should drive us all friggin nuts. If you don't know what cost plus means well...it's a license to really friggin steal from the American tax-payer. They contractor sets it's profit margin up front and then whatever the service or product costs does not matter....waste isn't even a factor....results isn't a factor...spending more is a great factor. If you buy a pillow for $4.00 and your negotited profit margin was to be 40% then you charge the U.S. government $5.60 for that pillow....but if you can find a pillow for $10.00 then you can charge tyhe U.S. government $14.00. These thieves would rather get $4 rather than $1.60 profit. And thats what they did and are doing. As well as throw away product...if a vehicle gets a flat tire push it off the side of the road and go buy another one. Just really stupid crap and money managment.
I used to work in sales and a few of my customers were the government and the military. A no-bid contract was something I never saw. In fact the bidding process was quite healthy during Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagans Presidencies. I had not even heard of a no-bid to tell ya the truth. The government procurement system was a tough nut to crack and you'd better cross your T's and dot your I's to even be considered.
Being a minority had it's benefits also as long as you were qualified to do the work or supply the product. IE: Woman owned, black owned, American Indian owned and operated business entities were always part of the consideration and in some cases may get a better look for obvious reasons...to promote their growth. Still the bidding process was sacred to our governemnt sense of fair play that it was just the rule and not the exception.
With the coming of the boy King and Tricky Dicky Cheney and the total theft of our treasury through no bid contracts needs full investigations. Anyone at all that stands in the way of this investigation needs to be investigated themselves. We need the sun to shine on this nore than anything else I can think of because folks...this is what it's really all about. This is what really happened to the United States. Look at all the other crap and it's bad but what needs to be srutinized is the NO-BID hand out of our tax dollars to Cheney's buddies.
I will not let this rest. It will be in all of my diaries and I'll continue to email Nancey Pelosi and Harry Reid that this is a very big issue and problem to the people who will be voting in 2008. Not watching over our treasury was the biggest crime Congress committed. They may all be a fault and if so...tough shit. I want to know what happened to every single penny and I won't rest until I know.
So investigate Iraq no-bid contracts and while your at it Nancey and Harry look at the Katrina contracts and the faith based contracts. And look at the home schooling deals that have the religious right praying all the way to the bank.
The republican congress actually tried to slip into a bill a provision that would kill any investigation of the Pentigons spending in Iraq but it was caught and should be remedied very quickly.If not we know that congress is in on the deals.......Nancey and Harry...we know about that one too so get on it toot-sweet.
Lets begin with investigating the following no-bid contractorss for Iraq and Katrina:
Halliburton
Kellogg Brown and Root
Fluor
Bechtel
Shaw Group
CH2MHill
Blackwater
This is just a start but by no means the end....but we just might be able to get a few of these assholes to repay what they stole from us.