Accounting

In an earlier post, I made a slight reference to the obscene profits our vice “president” is quietly pocketing—what earlier Congresses have quaintly referred to as “war profiteering”—without elaborating further on this ugly topic. To wit:

Before the Iraq War began, Halliburton was 19th on the U.S. Army’s list of top contractors and zoomed to number 1 in 2003. In 2003, Halliburton made $4.2 billion from the U.S. government. Cheney stated he had “severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest.”

In 2005, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) said Cheney’s stock options [were] worth $241,498 the year before and were valued at more than $8 million in 2005—an increase of 3,281%. Cheney receives a deferred salary from the company—$205,298 in 2001; $162,392 in 2002; $178,437 in 2003; and $194,852 in 2004.

More here.

Perspective

Via His Rudeness, Molly said it best:

Ivins never became the regular TV pundit that so many other alleged columnists became. Perhaps it was because of moments like this, being interviewed about the brewing Clinton “scandal” on some Fox “news” program in March 1998:

“If we had devoted this much time and this much space in the newspapers to the single most important problem in American politics today, which is the money that finances campaigns and the way the people that get elected respond to that money, we would have solved the problem by now. We would have the people of this country so outraged, they would be demanding campaign finance reform. What are we doing? We’re talking about the president’s dick. It’s ridiculous.”

His full tribute to the great Molly is here.

And he’s right.


h/t to Atrios.

Standing Up

It goes without saying that the Pentagon, the White House, the military, blah, blah, blah, never figure into their bullshit “scenarios” actual people; you know, the living, breathing kind, who might be affected and perhaps have their lives ripped apart and destroyed by “engagements.” And it’s certainly a given that Shrub doesn’t, lest it disturb his sleep on those comfy pillows he’s so fond of.

But there are actual people suffering, greatly, under the massive wreckage this administration has cursed upon the world, even more than those who are lucky enough to be featured in the press; namely gay and lesbian Iraqis whose lives have been irrevocably destroyed by this immoral invasion into their country that most people in this nation could seem to care less about. Being gay under Saddam was bad, but life currently for gay men and women in Iraq is a death sentence, thanks to the neoconservatives, Cheney and his puppet, Shrub.

Go here to find out more, and find links about how you can help Iraq’s GLBT community.

“...a spineless little fuckhead who should be torn apart by hyenas.”

Quoth Matt Taibbi on the waste of DNA known as Michael Savage specifically, and more generally on the rest of the right-wing TV and hate-radio slime such as Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, etc. who gleefully spread all manner of falsehoods, garbage and outright lies about anyone they disagree with (case in point: the recent, thoroughly debunked - by actual reporters, no less - “story” concerning Barack Obama’s supposed “radical Islamic” education) in the national media with seeming impunity. These people are largely to blame for the reason political discourse in this country continues to wallow in the sewer. Matt’s idea is correct: Sue these scum for libel.

Farewell, Molly

The world seemed a little emptier today with the death of Molly Ivins, one hell of a woman and someone who I truly would have given anything to have had a few beers with. John Nichols remembers.

As Atrios said, “she made the world a better place while she was here.”