The Bush administration denies that favoritism was involved in awarding contracts to Halliburton and Bechtel to import sand to Iraq
by Casey Flynn

The Bush administration, at least at one point, said that other foreign corporations should not be able to bid on these Iraq reconstruction contracts just American corporations as America bore the cost and shed blood for the war. The foreign corporations that have most objected to this are not French or German, but Iraqi; they would like to bid on these contracts.

For instance, the Bush administration is spending money in Iraq to import cement and concrete barriers, but there are at least nine Iraqi concrete-makers in Iraq. We all know that they have enough sand to make concrete. Indeed, this is the equivalent of selling sand in the desert. Actually this is selling sand in the desert.

John Edwards made the accusation that Halliburton, the company that Dick Cheney formally headed and has stock options for, received a $7 billion no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq, which allowed the inference that Halliburton was receiving favorable treatment.

The words '$7 billion government contracts' and 'no bid' should never appear in the same sentence.

Now some dim bulbs in the media have suggested that John Edwards statement is factually inaccurate because Halliburton was the only company ready to perform the $7 billion government contract to rebuild Iraq.

If this is of course true, than what would have been the harm in opening of the process for bidding, seeing as Halliburton would have won the contract being the only contractor ready and capable to perform. It's a little bit like saying, we gave him the gold medal without having a race, but don't worry, this is not unfair to the other runners, he was the only one capable of winning that race.

Why is Halliburton hiring Americans, from say Georgia (the one here, not the closer one in Russia) to drive trucks in Iraq, aren't there any Iraqis who know how to drive trucks or even an Iraqi truck-hauling company that Halliburton can subcontract to – apparently there is like 70 percent unemployment in Iraq. If Iraqis can make Weapons of Mass Destruction; surely they can complete, El Jerry Bubba's two-week truck driving school.

It might appear to some that Bush unilaterally invaded Iraq, blew up a good deal of the country, then awarded a veritable windfall of government contracts to American-only companies that are closely related to members of his administration and/or are his political donors to rebuild Iraq …some day way in the future …

Apparently twenty-something, Neo-con, Americans, have been given jobs in the Green Zone, where they have been put in charge of establishing Iraq's stock exchange, the management of finances and budgeting for the domestic security forces, critical areas regarding Iraq's economy, and the Green Zone's fantasy football league.

I remember the red-hot resentment it caused in this one office that I worked at when a new employee got a windowed office, ahead of other senior employees who had offices without windows. As a starting point, my co-workers were not the type of people who thought strapping a bomb to their body and igniting it in public was a proper way to vent one's anger, but boy did they get angry. From that vantage point, imagine how angry the Iraqi people might be when they have to take orders from Jay 'Phi Beta Kappa' Duff, Skull and Bones, '02, trying hard to setup the Lacrosse club in the Green Zone,

Say what you will, but the United States of America was not built by English twenty-somethings in the colonies, trying to pad their resume with experience to get into Cambridge B. school.

The vice presidential debate: Doctor Evil vs. The Metrosexual

The press lauded Cheney (new Secret Service name: Proud Father of a Lesbian) for his debate performance, stating it was like an old man of stature taking to task some inexperienced upstart.

Apparently Dick Cheney stated that when he went to the Hill in his capacity as Vice President, the President of Senate, the presiding officer when they were in session on most Tuesdays; he never met John Edwards, proving once again that John Edwards is not associated with Big Pharmaceuticals, defense contractors, and companies that pollute.

In fact, when Dick Cheney does go to the hill, he just meets with Republicans in shadowy (though not smoke-filled -his heart condition) rooms; and apparently avoids the Democratic senators unless he feels the need to curse.

Did anyone notice that Cheney stumbled over his domestic agenda, barely pronouncing the word 'jobs' like it was some housekeeping matter that he forgot to take up with the help?

Dick Cheney's relationship with Halliburton, and more generally, the way these government contracts have been awarded with a handful of people flitting back and forth between the government agency that awards contracts and the companies they get them, it is like the Gilded Age all over again without any of the cultural advantages. When did America become like a 1960's Latin American Banana Republic with companies like Halliburton its United Fruit.