Thursday, February 05, 2004

Remember when the idea of having a CEO vice president was a campaign selling point?

Now we see that the only thing being sold is the public good. Exhibit A is the way Cheney's corporate cronies at Halliburton have benefited from having a friend in the very highest places.

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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 4 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!"

7:14 PM |