|
As for the rest of us, we've been rewarded with a company that squanders our tax dollars at every turn.
The latest outrage came with this week's revelation that Halliburton has consistently overbilled the Pentagon for meals at Camp Arifjan, a U.S. military base in Kuwait. According to auditors, the Pentagon paid the company $16 million for nearly four million meals that were never served. And Camp Arifjan is just one of over 50 dining facilities in Kuwait and Iraq the company serves. Maybe Halliburton can steal a page from McDonald's playbook and put up a giant golden H outside their mess halls, with a sign keeping tabs on the number of meals they billed taxpayers for but didn't actually provide: "Over 4 million Never Served!" And they can add a kicker to those "Halliburton, proud to serve our troops" TV spots they've been running: ". and even prouder of the money we rake in by not serving them!"
This phantom-food fiasco comes fast on the heels of news that two Halliburton employees had pocketed over $6 million dollars in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti subcontractor -- which had followed fast on the heels of accusations the company had overcharged the government more than $100 million for gasoline.
Pardon me for bringing this up, but shouldn't that be three strikes and you're out? Instead, we get yet another example of how there are two sets of rules in our country -- one for the elites (and the former companies of the elites) and one for everybody else. When caught with its hand in the taxpayer-funded cookie jar, Halliburton doesn't get tossed in the brig for life; it merely apologizes, pays back the money it's pilfered, and goes on to win another hefty cost-plus contract.
Despite this avalanche of sleazy profiteering and corporate misconduct, Cheney stubbornly insists on defending his erstwhile company -- from which he still receives a hefty deferred salary ($162,392 in 2002), and in which he still holds 433,333 stock options. "They get unfairly maligned," he said late last month, "simply because of their past association with me."
No, they get maligned because they can't seem to keep themselves from gouging American taxpayers. It makes one wonder what the company would have to do for Cheney to feel criticism of Halliburton was justified -- cater John Kerry's victory party?
If Cheney's relationship with Halliburton represents the evils of crony capitalism, then his relationship with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia epitomizes the evils of crony democracy.
It's not just that Cheney and Scalia had dinner and went on a duck-hunting trip together while the Supreme Court was being asked to overturn a lower court's decision requiring Cheney to reveal the names of his energy task force members. It's that these guys can't, for the life of them, see why anybody would have a problem with this overly cozy state of affairs.
Why bother with "justice for all" when you've got hunting buddies who don't give a flying duck about fairness, impartiality, or the public's right to know?
On the upside, this behavior turns a blazing spotlight on the defining traits of the Bush White House: secrecy and arrogance.
"I do not think my impartiality could reasonably be questioned," said Scalia, responding to questions about the propriety of a sitting judge rubbing elbows -- and blowing small game birds out of the air -- with a named party and material witness in a case he's about to hear. That ranks right up there with Justin Timberlake's claim that the boob shot seen 'round the world was due to a "wardrobe malfunction".
For all these reasons and more, anyone who wants to see Bush back home in Crawford come January 2005 should rush right out to their local Bush reelection campaign office and start the chant: "Ho, ho. hey, hey. Dick Cheney's got to stay!"
|
|
