Who can do what Haliburton does? Actually, hundreds of businesses overcharge the government and use insider connections to get contracts. Read all of this, it matters!

Cheney/Halliburton Chronology

"The good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratic regimes friendly to the United States" - Richard Cheney¹

1992

Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root is paid $9 million by the Pentagon (under Cheney's direction as Secretary of Defense) to produce a classified report detailing how private companies (like itself) could provide logistical support for American troops in potential war zones around the world. Shortly after this report, the Pentagon awards Brown & Root a five-year contract to provide logistics for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers. The General Accounting Office estimates that through this contract, Brown & Root makes overall $2.2 billion in revenue in the Balkans.²

1995

Without any previous business experience, Cheney leaves the Department of Defense to become the CEO of Halliburton Co., one of the biggest oil-services companies in the world. He will be chairman of the company from 1996 to October 1998 and from February to August 2000. Under Cheney's leadership, Halliburton moves up from 73rd to 18th on the Pentagon's list of top contractors. The company garners $2.3 billion in U.S. government contracts, which almost doubles the $1.2 billion it earned from the government previously. Most of the contracts are granted by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.³ Halliburton's overseas operations go from 51% to 68% of its revenue. According to the Center for Public Integrity,⁴ under Cheney's leadership the company also receives $1.5 billion worth of assistance from government-sponsored agencies such as OPIC (Overseas Private Investment Corporation) and the Export-Import Bank, a huge increase compared to the $100 million that the company had received in federal loans and guarantees in the five years prior to Cheney's arrival. Years later, during the 2000 campaign in a broadcasted vice presidential candidates' debate with Joe Lieberman, Cheney asserts that "the government has absolutely nothing to do" with his financial success as chairman of Halliburton Co.⁵ Halliburton pleads guilty to criminal charges of violating a U.S. ban on exports to Libya by selling Col. Qaddafi six pulse neutron generators, devices that can be used to detonate nuclear weapons.⁶ Halliburton pays a $3.8 million penalty to settle alleged violations of the U.S. trade ban.⁷

1996

Halliburton subsidiary European Marine Contractors (EMC) helps lay the offshore portion of the Yadana natural gas pipeline in Burma. Several human rights organizations allege tremendous human rights abuses are associated with the project, as thousands of villagers in Burma are forced to work in support of the pipeline and related infrastructure. Many lose their homes due to forced relocation, and there are reports of rape, torture and killings by soldiers hired by the companies as security guards for the pipelines.⁸

1997

Cheney contributes to the creation of an influential right-wing policy group called the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). The group advocates for the removal of Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime as early as January 1998, and is later revealed to be the intellectual center of the drive to war in Iraq.⁹

March: The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a U.S. government agency, helps Halliburton by providing "political risk insurance" worth up to $200 million for the development of natural gas in Bangladesh.¹⁰ Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root (now Kellogg, Brown & Root, KBR) launches a major Caspian project for the Azerbaijan International Operating Company, despite congressional sanctions against aid to Azerbaijan for human rights violations.¹¹ Indonesia Corruption Watch names Kellogg Brown & Root (Halliburton's engineering division) as one of 59 companies using collusive, corrupt and nepotistic practices in business deals involving former president Suharto's family.¹²

Even with the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act in place, Halliburton continues to operate in Iran. It pays the Department of Commerce $15,000 to settle allegations that the company has broken anti-boycott provisions of the U.S. Export Administration Act for an Iran-related transaction, without admitting wrongdoing.¹³ Halliburton also continues to do business in Libya throughout Cheney's tenure.

The GAO (General Accounting Office), the auditing arm of Congress, reports that KBR overbilled the Army for costs associated with its work in Kosovo. It is revealed that the firm used more workers and equipment than necessary to clean offices and provide electricity and backup power supplies to bases, and charged nearly $86 per sheet for plywood that it bought for $14.06.¹⁴ As a result of the GAO's critical report, KBR's logistics contract was not renewed by the military, though the company was re-hired in 1999.

Cheney appears in an Arthur Andersen promotional video praising the firm's accounting practices, saying: "I get good advice, if you will, from their people [Arthur Andersen], based upon how we are doing business and how we are operating, over and above the normal, by-the-books auditing arrangement".¹⁵ KBR is later investigated by the SEC for accounting fraud - in a case similar to the charges leveled against Anderson's other client, Enron.

1998

Cheney oversees Halliburton's merger with Dresser Industries, one of the companies that helped Saddam Hussein rebuild Iraq's oil infrastructure after the First Gulf War, despite economic sanctions against Iraq. Dresser also had faced major liability issues concerning asbestos which prove to be onerous for the company's financial health.¹⁶ Halliburton uses two foreign subsidiaries to do $23 million worth of business with Iraq.¹⁷

1999

Halliburton's KBR division is re-hired by the military, after being fired in 1997, for a $180 million a year contract to supply U.S. forces in the Balkans with logistical support. The company is also working on major contracts to build oil infrastructure in Brazil and Nigeria for companies like Chevron, Petrobras and Shell. It has a $200 million contract with Chevron and its partners in the enclave of Cabina (Angola), where the company services over 330 wells in 30 fields, which provide eight percent of U.S. oil imports; the concession is the source of 80 percent of the Angolan government's revenue.¹⁸

2000

August: Cheney leaves his position as Halliburton's CEO to run as Bush's Vice President. Halliburton announces that it is giving Cheney a retirement package worth more than $33.7 million.¹⁹ Under public pressure, Cheney sells company stock worth $30 million. October 5: In a broadcast debate with Joe Lieberman, Cheney asserts that "the government has absolutely nothing to do" with his financial success as chairman of Halliburton Co.²⁰

Halliburton is by now the world's largest diversified energy services, engineering, construction and maintenance company, with some $15 billion in revenues annually, 100,000 employees, and 7,000 customers in over 120 countries.²¹

2001

KBR wins a $300-million exclusive contract to supply logistics to the Navy, providing services like cooking, construction, power generation and fuel transportation.²² One of Cheney's largest projects as Vice President is to coordinate the development of a new National Energy Policy (NEPDG). According to the former climate policy adviser in the Environmental Protection Agency, who was present at the task force's sessions, Cheney "continually pushed plans to increase […] oil supplies while paying little heed to promoting energy efficiency and clean energy sources".²³ Casting as an inevitability that by 2020, the United States will need to import two-thirds of its oil, mainly from the Arabic peninsula, the NEPDG recommends "that the President make energy security a priority of our trade and foreign policy".²⁴ April: After having unsuccessfully requested information on recent secret meetings between the Cheney-led National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG) and executives of several energy industry companies, Representatives John Dingell and Henry Waxman ask the GAO (General Accounting Office) to request information about those meetings.

July: GAO Comptroller General Walker requests records from Dick Cheney providing the names of the attendees for each of the meetings.²⁵

November: Kellogg, Brown & Root is paid $2 million to reinforce the United States embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, under contract with the State Department.²⁶

December: Kellogg, Brown & Root secures a 10-year deal with the Pentagon with no cost ceiling to provide support services to the Army.²⁷ The contract is known as the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP). This contract is a "cost-plus-award-fee, indefinite delivery/indefinite-quantity service," which means that the federal government has an open-ended mandate and budget to send Kellogg, Brown and Root anywhere in the world to run humanitarian or military operations for profit.²⁸

2002

February: Kellogg, Brown & Root pays out $2 million to settle a lawsuit with the Justice Department, which alleged that the company defrauded the government in the mid- 1990s by overbilling expenses.²⁹ KBR was accused of inflating contract prices for maintenance and repairs at Fort Ord, California, a now-terminated military installation. The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento, alleged KBR submitted false claims and made false statements in connection with 224 delivery orders between April 1994 and September 1998. The false statements were allegedly made during Cheney's term as CEO.

February 27: The New York Times reveals the identity of some of the top executives from the oil and gas industry that met with Cheney on Feb. 8, 2001.³⁰ One of them is Robert J. Allison Jr., the Chairman of Anadarko Petroleum, with which Halliburton has been doing business since 1959. The Times also reports that Cheney's wife Lynne had been a director and significant stockholder of Union Pacific Resources, an energy company that had merged with Anadarko in 2000, and that she received Anadarko stock worth $250,000 to $500,000 from the merger.

March: The press identifies the names of 22 oil and gas companies whose officials met in secret with the NEPDG.³¹ Nineteen of these were among the top 25 energy industry financial contributors to the Republican Party. Among the nineteen were Enron, ExxonMobil, BP Amoco, Anadarko Petroleum, Shell Oil, and Chevron.³² David M. Walker, the comptroller general of the GAO, as well as Judicial Watch, launch lawsuits against Cheney because he refuses to turn over to Congress documents that reveal the identities of industry executives involved in the National Energy Strategy.³³ The GAO's lawsuit will be abandoned in February 2003, after Republican threats to cut the GAO's $440 million budget.³⁴ But Judicial Watch's legal efforts continue. (see below)

May 22: A New York Times article alleges that Halliburton artificially inflated its stock price between June 1999 and May 2002 and counted cost overruns on construction projects as additional revenue.³⁵ Following these allegations, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) launches an investigation into Halliburton's accounting practices.³⁶ The company's then-accountant was Arthur Andersen.³⁷ Despite the ongoing investigation and previous revelations about cost overruns, Halliburton continues to receive government contracts worth billions.

June: Brown and Root is awarded a $22 million deal to run support services at a military camp in Uzbekistan, a country whose leader, Islam Karimov, is a ruthless dictator accused of human rights violations and boiling his political opponents alive. This is the first LOGCAP contract in the "war on terrorism".³⁸

June: Halliburton informs workers its pensions will be reduced in value in order to pay for mergers and acquisitions.

July 15: Newsweek publishes the article, "Halliburton CEO Says Cheney Knew About Firm's Accounting Practices" revealing that Cheney was aware that the firm was counting projected cost overrun payments as revenues.³⁹

July 29: A New York Times article quotes Cheney about corporate fraud: "The American people can be certain that the government will fully investigate and prosecute any wrongdoers". Cheney says the reform measure will "protect investors, bring more accountability to corporations and toughen controls of the accounting industry".⁴⁰

July/August: It is revealed that while Vice President Cheney was Halliburton's CEO, the number of its subsidiary companies in offshore tax havens increased from 9 (in 1995) to 44 (in 1999). One of these subsidiaries (Halliburton Products and Services Ltd.), incorporated in the Caiman Islands, is used since 2000 to get around sanctions on doing business in Iran.⁴¹ At the same time, Halliburton's federal taxes dropped dramatically from $302 million in 1998 to an $85 million rebate in 1999.⁴²

Despite these revelations, the company continues to be awarded massive government contracts, including a new 10-year deal with the Army with no lid on potential costs. In the year 2002 alone, Brown & Root received $1.3 billion for services to the U.S. government.⁴³ These services include a $115 million contract to design and construct an embassy compound in Afghanistan; $37.3 million to build 816 detention cells at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and $2 million to reinforce the U.S. embassy in Uzbekistan.⁴⁴ As the press and Democratic Party leaders increasingly focus on Cheney's role in alleged accounting violations at Halliburton,⁴⁵ the Bush administration turns the nation's attention to Iraq.

August 26: Cheney delivers a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Nashville, warning that "seated atop of ten percent of the world's oil reserves, Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East, take control of a great portion of the world's energy supplies, […] and subject the United States to nuclear blackmail."⁴⁶

October: A Washington Post article describes Cheney as the "fulcrum of foreign policy", and that his influence for a pro-war policy comes to the fore on the eve of a possible conflict with Iraq.⁴⁷ Cheney's wife Lynne is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a "right-wing think tank exercising significant influence in Washington circles"⁴⁸ which is one of the leading architects of the Bush administration's foreign policy and one of the leading voices pushing the Bush administration's plan for "regime change" through war in Iraq.⁴⁹ The AEI has received funding from the Bechtel Foundation and ExxonMobil.⁵⁰

November: Brown & Root begins a one-year contract, estimated at $42.5 million, to cover services for troops at bases in Bagram and Kandahar, Afghanistan.⁵¹

2003

January: The Wall Street Journal reports that Halliburton officials met informally with representatives of Vice President Cheney's office back in October to figure out how best to jumpstart Iraq's oil industry following a war.⁵² Cheney and Halliburton deny it.

March: Congressman Henry Waxman launches an inquiry into the fact that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has secretly awarded a no-bid contract to KBR to extinguish oil well fires in Iraq. The contract has a huge cost ceiling of $7 billion, with additional fees of up to seven percent ($490 million). The mission and the contract have been "awarded without any competition or even notice to Congress, [… and] were entered into on March 8, but not disclosed publicly until March 24".⁵³ This contract is open-ended. It is also a "cost-plus" contract, i.e. the company is guaranteed to recover costs plus an additional percentage of those costs as its profit. It is later revealed that the contract not only includes fighting fires, but also operating the oil fields. The administration replies to Waxman's questions on the lack of competition: "To invite other contractors to compete to perform a highly classified requirement […] would have been a wasteful duplication of effort. […] Only Kellogg Brown & Root Services […] could commence implementing the plan on extremely short notice" and "No other contractor could satisfy mission requirements in the time available".⁵⁴ However, CBS reports that other qualified companies had attempted to bid on the contracts, but were shut out of the process. Bob Grace, president of GSM Consulting, after having contacted the Pentagon to inquire about the contracts, received a letter from the Department of Defense dated December 30, 2002 saying that it was "too early to speculate what might happen in the event that war breaks out in the region".⁵⁵ This was "more than a month after the Army Corps of Engineers began talking to Halliburton about putting out oil well fires in Iraq",⁵⁶ and in fact one month after the Secretary of Defense had granted such a contract to Halliburton.⁵⁷ Furthermore, KBR did not actually put the fires out itself, but subcontracted the job to other companies: Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc., and Wild Well Control Inc.⁵⁸

Thousands of employees of Halliburton are working alongside U.S. troops in Kuwait and Turkey under a package deal worth close to a billion dollars. KBR is also supporting operations in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Georgia, Jordan and Uzbekistan. The overall anticipated cost of task orders awarded since the contract award in December 2001 (LOGCAP) is approximately $830 million.⁵⁹

May 8: Halliburton admits having paid 2.4 millions of dollars in bribes to a Nigerian official in return for tax breaks.⁶⁰

May 30: Twenty shareholder class-action lawsuits accusing Halliburton of using deceptive accounting practices while Dick Cheney led the company is settled for 6 million dollars. Halliburton doesn't admit to any wrongdoing.⁶¹

July 8: Following Judicial Watch's attempt to force the White House to disclose the names of nongovernmental officials who were consulted by the task force in 2001, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirms a lower court judge's order and thereby rejects Cheney's bid to keep all the workings of the Energy Task Force secret.⁶²

Sept. 14, 2003: On NBC's Meet the Press, Cheney said, "And since I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company [Halliburton], gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years." But the vice president conveniently forgot to mention that he continues to receive from the company deferred salary of over $150,000 per year while maintaining 433,333 shares of unexercised stock options.

December 2003: The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) confirmed in a preliminary audit that Halliburton and a Kuwaiti firm, Altamnia, had overcharged the U.S. government by at least $61 million through Sept. 2003 for the cost of gasoline imported into Iraq. Halliburton's KBR unit had been charging $2.64 per gallon to transport gasoline into Iraq while its competitors were transporting gasoline for less than half that price. The DCCA formerly asked the Pentagon's inspector general to investigate the overcharges and said the fuel importation contract was given to Altanmia "under unusual circumstances."

2004

January: Halliburton reportedly wants to drill on Mars at U.S. taxpayers' expense.

January 16, 2004: House Democrat Henry Waxman (D-CA) discloses serious irregularities regarding Halliburton Co.'s contract to transport oil into Iraq.

January 17, 2004: The Army awards Halliburton subsidiary KBR a contract worth up to $1.2 billion to rebuild the oil industry in southern Iraq. The Army previously had awarded a no-bid contract to KBR in March 2003 for the purpose of rebuilding Iraq's oil infrastructure in both the north and south of the country. But, under charges of cronyism and favoritism leveled at Halliburton, the Army subsequently opened the contract for competitive bidding in the Fall of 2003. The Army split the contract into one for northern Iraq and one for southern Iraq. The northern Iraq contract, worth up to $800 million, was given to a joint venture of California-based Parsons Corp. and the Australian firm Worley Group Ltd.

January 23, 2004: In Paris, a French judge warns that Cheney could be charged over allegations that Halliburton paid $180 million in bribes to build a Nigerian gas plant.

January 24, 2004: Halliburton admits two of its employees accepted a $6 million bribe in exchange for awarding Army subcontracts to a Kuwaiti-based company involved in rebuilding Iraq. Halliburton fired the employees.

January 25, 2004: CBS Television's 60 Minutes program shows how Halliburton does business with Iran even though U.S. law bans companies from doing business with the country.

January 26, 2004: New York City's controller accuses Halliburton of taking blood money from state sponsors of terrorism, such as Iran and Libya. Controller William Thompson - who oversees an $80 billion pension fund for city workers - says cops and firefighters are outraged that their retirement portfolios include stock in U.S. firms getting fat off contracts with rogue nations like Iran, which funds the terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas and is suspected of giving sanctuary to Al Qaeda leaders.

January 30, 2004: New York Times columnist, Bob Herbert, details how Halliburton evades U.S. taxes and export bans by establishing foreign subsidiaries. Halliburton’s Wendy Hall admits the company paid only $15 million in taxes in 2002 even though the company earned $339 million in profits from continuing operations and $12.5 billion in total revenue.

January 2004: Halliburton discloses that a subsidiary paid a $2.4 million bribe to a Nigerian government official's business in exchange for favorable tax treatment.

January 2004: Halliburton admits in an internal memo that its cost controls for government contracts are "antiquated" and "weak" and its procurement "disorganized" and marked by "weak internal controls." The memo, which was leaked to the Wall Street Journal, contradicts the company's public statements which claim it has a "rigorous system of internal controls" for contracts in Iraq.

January 2004: Halliburton begins an advertising campaign to improve its tarnished image with the public. A television spot running on CNN says Halliburton supplies hot meals, laundry and telephone links for soldiers in Iraq. The ad shows a man in desert camouflage holding a phone, his lip trembling, and shouting, "It's a girl!" "Halliburton: Proud to serve our troops," an announcer says.

February: The Pentagon reports that Halliburton Company would repay the government for overcharges estimated at $27.4 million for meals served to American troops at five military bases in Iraq and Kuwait last year. In one military camp in July 2003, KBR billed the government for an average 42,000 meals a day but served only 14,000 meals. Pentagon auditors found the overcharges during a routine audit of Halliburton.

March: As of March 1, 2004, KBR is awarded reconstruction work in Iraq and Afghanistan worth at least $3.9 billion.

Oh please.  Cut the bs.  Haliburton was given no-bid contracts under William Jefferson Clinton prior to Bush because Haliburton is one of two companies in the world that can do what Haliburton can do.  The other is Becktell (probably spelled wrong) which is not an American company and does not have the distribution capabilities of Haliburton.  Haliburton has continued to have the contracts because they are exceptional at what they do and because our troops deserve to have the best.

I know one thing about Haliburton.  If not for Haliburton, our troops would be eating C Rations.  Haliburton's field rations are actually very good and their mess hall food is as good as any stateside. Are you suggesting our troops should not have the ability to eat anything but C Rations?  Ever seen the old box of C Rations?

The Cheney/Haliburton association is old news.  You really should go get a copy of the 2008 Democratic Playbook and stop referring to all the old points listed in the 2004 version.

There was a time in this country when we held people like Red Adair in high esteem.  A REAL american.    You won't read stories of him in government schools anymore.   too bad really.  It made you proud to be american.   Halliburton, Kellogg Brown Root is the enemy now that the liberals have rewritten history for WAY too long.

So Cheney gets rich from the war and that's OK. I don't care about anybody's playbook, it's not OK. The longer it goes on, the richer they get. McCain wants to extend that indefinitely. The whole thing was contrived on the WMD bull. Evidently Clinton did a good job of keeping Saddam down with the "no fly zone" strategy because none were found, nor could they establish a Saddam/AlQueda connection. Yet we're supposed to believe that Saddam was such a terrorist threat that we should abandon the hunt for BinLaden and go into Iraq. How convenient that Haliburton was there to really jack up the bill with their services. Treating our servicemen to good meals is great, however they wouldn't be supplying nearly as many without the contrived war and it's indefinite extension. How convenient that Cheney is in a position to help insure that the money (our tax dollars) keep flowing in and the war continues. Who cares how many more die? I do.

So freaking what.   Do you own any GE stock?   FUnny isn't it that THEY  GE who support democrats are also making products for war.   Do you own any stock in the Stock market?  THEN YOU are part of the capitalist system and you are the beneficiary of  BIG OIL returns and MUNITIONS returns.   Do you think you are alone?   What do you think other countries are doing?   Do we not have the right to protect ourselves.

Protect ourselves from what? The terrorists are in Afghanistan and branching into Pakistan. Remember BinLaden? I guess because Bush doesn't seem to care about him, you don't. Actually I don't own any stock. Maybe if the $10Billion a month being flushed down the Iraq toilet were being spent in America I might have a job. I had to cash in my 401k to pay for my son's college education. So that's all you got?"so freaking what". That's really weak and pathetic. I guess you must really have it made so you don't give a damn about anybody but yourself. You just keep your head in the sand and ignore everything that might make you uncomfortable or cause you to question your republican heroes who don't give a damn about you.

mr_spock wrote:So Cheney gets rich from the war and that's OK. I don't care about anybody's playbook, it's not OK. The longer it goes on, the richer they get.

Cheney severed ties with Haliburton and if you knew anything about how the Government does business, you would know that Cheney, as the VP, could not effect any contracts being let to any corporation.  

Cheney had stock options from Haliburton which he divested and gave all of the proceeds to charity...nearly $7M.  That was the year Algore, being the great champion for the poor and downtrodden, only gave $350+ in charity money.  Cheney also got deferred payments of his salary as part of his separation package with Haliburton when he quit in 2000.  Haliburton also included him in insurance policies for any lawsuits related to when he was CEO.  These are standard separation policies for CEOs and high-ranking corporate officers.

You are simply wrong that they are getting rich from the war.  They, neither Cheney nor Bush, owns stock in Haliburton or any oil company where they are profiting.  When you become a public servant, there are rules about owning stock in any company.  

mr_spock wrote:McCain wants to extend that indefinitely. The whole thing was contrived on the WMD bull. Evidently Clinton did a good job of keeping Saddam down with the "no fly zone" strategy because none were found, nor could they establish a Saddam/AlQueda connection. Yet we're supposed to believe that Saddam was such a terrorist threat that we should abandon the hunt for BinLaden and go into Iraq.

McCain doesn't want to extend anything indefinitely...and don't give me that 100 year comment he made because it was made in reference to how long it could take to win the war and was not meant to be taken literally. He meant we would stay there until victory.   McCain wants to win the war.  When the war is done, we will leave if McCain is President and it won't be indefinite.  The end is nearing because of our great military.

mr_spock wrote:How convenient that Haliburton was there to really jack up the bill with their services. Treating our servicemen to good meals is great, however they wouldn't be supplying nearly as many without the contrived war and it's indefinite extension. How convenient that Cheney is in a position to help insure that the money (our tax dollars) keep flowing in and the war continues. Who cares how many more die? I do.

We all care about our troops dying and do not attempt to suggest otherwise.  Also, we are mindful of the money required to fight a war.  However, as your Obama says, we need to increase our troops in Afghanistan.  Where's your anti-war voice regarding increasing our presence in Afghanistan?  The surge didn't work in Iraq but it will in Afghanistan?  But..Afghanistan is where we should have concentrated our look for Bin Laden and never gone into Iraq right?  Well, Bin Laden wasn't in Afghanistan.  He was and is in Pakistan if he is still breathing.  Because of the tribes in the mountains where he is, we could not then nor can we now go into Pakistan to get him.  Obama wants to bomb Pakistan.  Well..there's another war.  Is that ok with you?  Are all Democrat actions ok with you?  Was BJ's bombing of the aspirin factory in Afghanistan ok with you?  I'll bet it was.  Were BJs actions in Kosovo ok with you?  I'll bet they were too.  

To date, our troops have found hundreds of thousands of rockets loaded with serin and mustard gas in Iraq, as well as 550 tons of yellow cake uranium Sadam bought from Nigeria for his nuclear program.  A former Iraqi general also reported that 747s were gutted and loaded with Sadam's WMD and semi-trucks also were loaded and all of it was moved to Syria.   If Sadam and his psycho sons were alive today, what do you think his influence would be in the world if he had those WMDs and was allowed to continue developing his nuclear program?  Isn't one Amadinejad enough?  Oh, I forgot, Barry will just meet with him. unconditionally, sing a little Kumbaya and dance in the Iranian sand to the tune of "Give Peace a Chance."  If we hadn't taken Sadam and the psychos out, Barry could have made it a little peace party.

Since the left screams the anti-war protests, where the heck is the left regarding the hundreds of thousands of people who have died in George because of the Russians?  Children have died.  Innocents have died.  Where's the left anti-war protestations?????

Look, as far as Cheney and Haliburton go, neither Bush nor Cheney are running.  Haliburton is very old news. McCain is not Bush.  Frankly, I don't know who he is because he's just trying to get all of you to love him versus his own conservative base.   I can't understand why you all don't since he's done everything under the sun to prove he's a Democrat and you all pretended to adore his Maverick cave-into-the-Liberals stands prior to the Messiah.  He's a JFK democrat so since your party has gone socialist, he's too far to the right? Let's drop this Cheney/Haliburton discussion and you should post an anti-war one so we can concentrate on how good Obama's voice will be when singing his rendition of Kumbaya.

mr_spock wrote:Protect ourselves from what? The terrorists are in Afghanistan and branching into Pakistan. Remember BinLaden? I guess because Bush doesn't seem to care about him, you don't. Actually I don't own any stock. Maybe if the $10Billion a month being flushed down the Iraq toilet were being spent in America I might have a job. I had to cash in my 401k to pay for my son's college education. So that's all you got?"so freaking what". That's really weak and pathetic. I guess you must really have it made so you don't give a damn about anybody but yourself. You just keep your head in the sand and ignore everything that might make you uncomfortable or cause you to question your republican heroes who don't give a damn about you.

Hey bud.  maybe you haven't heard.  YOu take care of your own business in this country.  IT's not my job to supply YOU with money to live on if you are able bodied. I don't ask for help and i don't see why anyone else should if they are healthy and can move around.   Maybe if you HAD taken some time to do some serious investing you wouldn't be cashing in your 401K.    Your welfare doesn't depend on what someone else is spending somewhere else.   You know what i FIND weak and pathetic?  YOu blaming everyone else for your poor planning.   I don't have any republican heroes right now.   And i worked MY BUTT off same as my husband to make sure we had something.   Course, if you like, i can pity you if it makes you feel better.

Didn't ask for anyones pity. Only that I'd like to see the money spent at home. You still refuse to attempt refute of the topic and instead make it a personal attack, Try to stay on topic, please. If you can't say anything about our tax dollars going into Cheney's pocket but "so freaking what than I repeat that you are weak and pathetic. Go ahead and have the last post after this cuz you haven't given anything valid and I'm very sure you won't.

I imagine that what money if any Mr. CHeney makes from Halliburton IS spent at home.   THis gives jobs to many many people.  As MUM said, there are very few companies that do what Halliburton does.  WHOM do you propose we farm out this business to?    If you are so concerned about money being spent at home let's tackle pork in the congress and senate.   AND no more public funding of Planned Parenthood OR PBS AND NPR.   Let's drill at home in ANWR and off the coast.  NOW THAT would be some REAL MONEY to be done some good with.  Let's stop giving these cushy retirement packages to these pigs or congresspeople and senators.    

Do you have a problem with CHENEY and HALLIBURTOn.   NO< IT ISN"T RELEVANT.   IF the next president is a democrat you're gonna have some real problems.  CHENEY won't  be a problem for you at all since all your time will be spent trying to find food and stay warm.