A key tenet of Republican theology holds that the private sector ever and always performs all functions better than the government.
Therefore it seems curious that Cheney’s personal cash cow Halliburton (he still gets huge annual payments) would run mess halls in Iraq that feature “blood all over the floors of refrigerators, dirty pans, dirty grills, dirty salad bars, rotting meat and vegetables.”
Theologically speaking, this could only mean that army mess halls must have been even worse in the horrible old days of public-sector operation, probably as vile as the kitchen in Saddam’s hideout.
But it was not so. I am an expert in the operations of just such mess halls, due to lengthy experience with what was called, in the pre-volunteer army, “Kitchen Police.”
Mess hall food itself was basically swill, but so was most food available elsewhere in America during those Julia Childless days. It was, however, sanitary swill.
Your average army cook may have had an I.Q. comfortably into the double digits, but he knew enough to recognize his own reflection in the bottom of a pot. And a clean grease trap, and a smidgen of dried egg yolk between the tines of a fork, and a crumb on the floor, and a thumbprint on a plate.
But back then the army took responsibility for feeding its own troops, rather than selling them to some MBA from Halliburton who made his money by cutting corners.
Posted by Jerome Doolittle at December 16, 2003 02:53 PM
Great NY Times article, I liked that quote, sunshine is the best disinfectant, lets hope the fog lifts sooner rather than later.
Posted by: Buck on December 16, 2003 03:18 PMI keep wondering why all the astonishingly obvious shit with Halliburton and Bechtel never seems to gain any traction in the media. The conflicts of interest here are SOOOOOO BIG that the Capitol Dome cannot contain them. Yet, the media seems perfectly content to ignore the whole thing.
So let's see: Hillary Clinton once worked for a law firm that did some peripheral business with a company marginally associated with a failed sub-development, and this brought on investigations in both the house and Senate, a special prosecutor, full-blown investigative reporting by the New York Times, and a grand jury inquiry in Arkansas.
Dick Cheney still receives cash payments from the firm for which he was the former CEO. That firm was handed HUGE no-bid contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has consistently over-charged and underperformed. Not only does this not raise any eyebrows, but the DOD has shut down all auditing of the contracts and the firm's performance.
Nope, no investigation needed here.
And, of course, there's Bechtel. Don Rumsfeld worked for them between government stints, and former Reagan Secretary of State George Schultz sits on the board of Bechtel. This company was also handed billions in no-bid contracts, and has also been found to be overcharging and underperforming.
Nah, nothing to investigate here, either.
WTF!?!?!?!
Posted by: Derelict on December 16, 2003 03:29 PMIsn't why they call it "skull and bones"?
Posted by: Buck on December 16, 2003 03:35 PMThat article from the NY Times mentioned that Harry Truman was chosen by Roosevelt because of his record against war profiteering. I read McCullough's bio of Truman recently and the writer was clearly right on the money on that point.
If Dean stays on his current track and makes it as the next candidate, I'm of the opinion that the best choice for VP might be Gen. Clark.
Eisenhower, whether you like him or not, was extremely critical of the "military-industrial" complex, and his warnings are uniquely prophetic. Ambrose's biography of Eisenhower devoted a number of chapters to Eisenhower's efforts to reign in the spenders.
Dean/Clark might be an unbeatable combination. Clark could certainly help bring home the point you raise, Derelict.
I don't know much about any of the candidates, but I did catch Clark while visiting at a friends house (I intentionally don't have a TV right now) and I was very impressed.
Eisehnhower was critical of the military/industrial complex, but only as he was leaving office after having fed the beast peaches and cream for eight years.
Posted by: No. 2 on December 16, 2003 04:20 PMYour lack of TV undoubtedly explains your lack of serious brain rot that afflicts so many, Buck.
We've moved way past the military-industrial complex that Ike warned about. We're now into territory that was only tentatively charted by Mussolini and Franco--where the corporate and public sectors essentially become fused and operate as one. Beyond the blatant corruption and crony capitalism being practiced by this government, we're seeing the restructuring of the entire body of law to essentially disenfranchise ordinary people. The stripping of overtime protections, the rollback of environmental protections, denuding OSHA of enforcement ability, the effective removal of almost all tax burdens on corporations: All of this brings us just that much closer to government of the people by the corporations and for the corporations.
I doubt history will be kind to this beginning of the century. We seem to have a quite formidable combination arrayed against us with a lazy know-nothing press and all three branches of government determined to hand as much power as possible to corporations.
Posted by: Derelict on December 16, 2003 04:26 PMI agree, but this has happened in America before and the pendulum eventually swings back.
I live in one of the most conservative areas of the country, and I've been checking attitudes at the local beer joint. With a little nudging, all but the staunchest conservatives here can be moved to agree that something is seriously wrong with our government and that they've been lied to. If they feel that way here, I'm sure that heartland America can be easily swung.
At least I can mutter under my breath our state motto:
Dum spiro spero
Lets just hope that things will change sooner rather than later.
Posted by: Buck on December 16, 2003 04:42 PMI posted this on another Blog, but it belongs here. Krugman wrote in his article:
"The story about Halliburton's strangely expensive gasoline imports into Iraq gets curiouser and curiouser. High-priced gasoline was purchased from a supplier whose name is unfamiliar to industry experts, but that appears to be run by a prominent Kuwaiti family (no doubt still grateful for the 1991 liberation). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers documents seen by The Wall Street Journal refer to "political pressures" from Kuwait's government and the U.S. embassy in Kuwait to deal only with that firm. I wonder where that trail leads"
The trail, according to what I heard on Bloomberg news tonight was that Halliburton claims that the gas overcharge is caused by a "antiquated accounting system".
So thats apparently the official story.
Do the Democrats have someone who can debunk this obvious hogwash?
People don't like to be lied to and this one is just SOOOO ripe.
God Harry, we miss you and need you so bad right now-there's nobody who can handle it like you did and we need someone who can.