STOP HALLIBURTON’S THIEVERY
To Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey, and 17 other members of Congress: Thank you!
Thank you for putting into official words the deeeeeep sense of outrage that a majority of us grassroots Americans have long held about the White House’s perverse pampering of the Bushites’ pet corporate criminal: Halliburton. If an ordinary American did to a 7-Eleven what Halliburton routinely does to taxpayers, that poor soul would be doing 25-to-life in state prison.
Check the federal rap sheet on this multibillion-dollar outfit: bribery, bid-rigging, fraud, overcharging taxpayers, and even doing business with nations that sponsor terrorism. The departments of defense, justice, and treasury have had Halliburton under investigation or indictment nine times in the past five years for its despicable, shoddy, and criminal record of performance on contracts it gets from the government. Its rip-offs total hundreds of billions of our tax dollars.
Yet, instead of jail time, this scofflaw keeps getting more public money shoveled into its coffers by Bush & Company. Not only has it been blessed with more than $10 billion in contracts – often without competitive bids – since the Bush/Cheney regime took power, but also, after Hurricane Katrina hit, there it was again at the federal trough, first in line to get another multimillion-dollar, no-bid contract.
Finally, though, Reps. Lee, Woolsey, and their 17 colleagues have said enough is enough. Citing chapter and verse of federal contracting rules, these members of the congressional progressive caucus have sent a formal demand that Halliburton be suspended from eligibility for any federal contracts until all of the charges against it are resolved.
How can our society hold common thieves accountable when uncommon thievery is sanctioned from the highest office in our land? For more information and action, call the progressive caucus: 202/225-5161.
MARTIAL LAW FOR BIRD FLU?
William O. Douglas wrote: “Just as nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances there is a twilight. And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air – however slight – lest we become unwilling victims of the darkness.”
He could have been describing the oppressive tendencies of the Bushites. They never miss a chance to try slipping America’s thin rug of democracy out from under us by enhancing executive power at the expense of our nation’s historic democratic principles. Their latest tug at the rug comes in the guise of responding to – of all things – the possibility of an outbreak of bird flu.
George W. himself is asserting that this possibility is reason enough for Congress to bestow upon him the power to use America’s military to enforce domestic order – in essence, to impose martial law on our own people! “I think the president ought to have all options on the table, all assets on the table – to be able to deal with something this significant,” says George.
Excuse us, George, we know what a thinker you are, but the big thinkers who founded our democratic republic knew that using soldiers for civilian law enforcement is an inherent danger to liberty. That’s why a fundamental tenant of American law is to ban the military from a police role on U.S. soil.
But, say the Bushites with a wink, we’re talking about a “catastrophe” in which the Pentagon would be the only agency with the money and personnel to respond. They wink because they know that they’ve been enthusiastic anti-government ideologues defunding and degrading the U.S. Public Health Service, the proper channel for coping with a national health emergency.
Hey, George, instead of asserting autocratic executive power and trying to militarize America, do your job by revitalizing our country’s public health system … while also protecting our democratic principles.
This article appears in November 4 • 2005.