Greed Spoils

Profit Only

As inviting and interesting as the Presidential campaign is, stories continue to emerge about the Iraq war and the disgraceful corruption surrounding its prosecution. To some, the latter remains the relevant and important news.

Chicago Tribune: Inside the world of war profiteers

From prostitutes to Super bowl tickets, a federal probe reveals how contractors in Iraq cheated the U.S. By David Jackson and Jason Grotto

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.

Federal prosecutors in Rock Island have indicted four former supervisors from KBR, the giant defense firm that holds the contract, along with a decorated Army officer and five executives from KBR subcontractors based in the U.S. or the Middle East. Those defendants, along with two other KBR employees who have pleaded guilty in Virginia, account for a third of the 36 people indicted to date on Iraq war-contract crimes, Justice Department records show.

A common thread runs through these cases and other KBR scandals in Iraq, from allegations the firm failed to protect employees sexually assaulted by co-workers to findings that it charged $45 per can of soda: The Pentagon has outsourced crucial troop support jobs while slashing the number of government contract watchdogs.

The full article is nauseating. KBR is a former subsidiary of Halliburton. Halliburton is now headquartered in the United Arab Emirites, where they pay $0. taxes back into the USA and we already know about Cheney's role with Halliburton.

As the Bush administration brought the screwiest form of Democracy any of us have ever seen to Iraq with "shock and awe", American tax dollars freely flowed bloating the pockets of those corporations that are intimately linked with the Bush/Cheney administration. This is a disgraceful insult to the American people now witnessing the devaluation of their assets with the most recent recession. This is the Bush/Cheney legacy. You will not hear a word of this corruption from the noise machine that rests its case on imaginary unfounded ideologies and completely unrealized policies.

Crack Pot Crock

Reuters: GM exec stands by calling global warming a 'crock'

General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he made dismissing global warming as a "total crock of shit," saying his views had no bearing on GM's commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles.

GM is racing against Toyota Motor Corp to be first to market a plug-in hybrid car that can be recharged at a standard electric outlet.

Recall the news from a few days ago - GM Posts Biggest Annual US Auto Loss. GM reported a $38.7 billion loss for 2007 and wants to replace 16,000 hourly workers making $28 per hour with workers making $14 per hour. Recall that Toyota is regarded as one of the 20 top innovative businesses in the world.

The price of gas continues to rise. The price of a barrel of oil tipped the $100 mark last week. The USA is beginning a recession accompanied by inflation. GM's interest in replacing 16,000 workers is emblematic of the recession. Unemployment is part of the recession as well. All this occurs within the larger issue of global warming and all of its implications.

Americans would overwhelmingly welcome innovations in the American auto manufacturing business that would boost the MPG's. Blaming a systemic inability to create innovative products on global warming seems like a mark of deep frustration and is not of any value.

Antarctic

Continuing with the evidence of global warming and its impact on the world's environmental systems -

BBC: Antarctic glaciers surge to ocean

UK scientists...have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica.

...it could lead to a significant rise in global sea level.