Billmon:
I guess the son of bitch was telling the truth for once. It WAS worth it — to him and his cronies.
Worth It
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January 17, 2009
Billmon: Worth It
Comments
“cost-plus-award-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity service” = license to print money. Even better, the companies get to do their own accounting and oversight.
Posted by: ralphieboy | Jan 17 2009 7:57 utc | 1
100,000 Iraqis? try this one, Our data, which estimate that 654965 or 2.5 percent of the Iraqi population and that’s from CIA controlled, CNN (Cia News Network), what billmon does’t have google?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 17 2009 8:27 utc | 2
Of course I realize billmon didn’t say 100,000, it was Jim Lehrer, but the old billmon wouldn’t have ever let that one pass without a razor retort especially, when he was one his game, to use the military/sports speak colloquialism.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 17 2009 8:47 utc | 3
on his game, not one his game… fuck it, I’m tired and off to read myself to sleep..
One last thought though, I can get behind the spanking of Cheneyco as their hijacking of American foreign policy, seems to me, had we not been diverted, we may have had more resources to deal with this, U.S. military report warns ‘sudden collapse’ of Mexico is possible
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 17 2009 8:57 utc | 4
grrr.. meant to add also, the gutting of the State Dept under these fucks…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jan 17 2009 9:15 utc | 5
To the psychopath/sociopath having others die and suffer for their own enrichment is always worth it.
I can only hope that the transparency of Cheney’s hubris helps illuminate the rapacious and pernicious nature of the modern day corporate-capitalistic ethos. My wish for you Dick Cheney and all others of your ilk in the outgoing administration is for full retribution in this realm. I trust the forces of cosmic justice are awaiting to you in the next.
Posted by: Juannie | Jan 17 2009 13:32 utc | 6
Perhaps part of that change Obama promised will be prosecuting Cheney et al for war crimes. Nah, don’t count on it. War criminals don’t prosecute war criminals, they only committ more war crimes.
I like how the Mockingbird Press is framing the torture issue and neatly packaging, and containing it, with the potential closing of Gitmo. They are purposely skirting the larger issue of rendition, and steering the sheep who even care to accept that shutting down Gitmo will close this sad chapter in our sad history.
By the way, Bush will now go live with his Base in Dallas. Preston Hollow, to be exact. NPR did a fluffy segment on it here:
Bush Will Soon Call Dallas ‘Home’ Again
Posted by: Obamageddon | Jan 17 2009 14:58 utc | 7
You should add what it was worth to Cheney PERSONALLY:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheneys_stock_options_rose_3281_last_1011.html
This was in addition to a couple hundred grand per year in deferred compensation.
Our dear Congressional leaders adopted the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to conflicts of interest…
Posted by: JohnH | Jan 17 2009 15:00 utc | 8
The lunatics have taken over the asylum.
Actually they took it over back in 1963.
Expect something along the lines of martial law being declared as an example of Obama’s “change”…the public will be manipulated into “asking for it”. Another act of USGovt-sponsored “terrorism”, perhaps. Control is never enough.
Posted by: James Crow | Jan 17 2009 15:28 utc | 9
The new US admin. should be able to copy the European energy transition as enunciated here:
www dot montrealgazette dot com/story_print.html?id=1188444&sponsor=
Quote:
“..All clean energy is in the long run cheaper because you don’t have to pay for the fuel,” he said. “Renewables are the only thing that can lead to clean and cheap energy forever.” So is there really an energy crisis, or is it simply a crisis of ignorance? Human potential is the most overlooked and most important factor in overcoming the problems of peak oil and climate change, Scheer said. “We cannot discuss this question only on cost comparisons. Who has the courage in 20 or 25 years to tell their own children, ‘We could have solved the problem but it was too expensive for us. The additional cost of three or four cents per kilowatt/hour was too costly for us.’ That’s really shabby.”
There is less and less of a percentage in engaging hopelessly cynical parties, either the globalized oil lobby or certain entire governments and world bodies. The global economic crisis instead of showing signs of improvement, is in fact increasingly revealed to be tied to previously or soon to be discredited business models and their progenitors.
It WAS worth it — to him and his cronies.
“Cheney’s cronies” in this sense include nearly the entire US government (all three branches) and its corporate confederates, most particularly the Congress which continued to raid the US Treasury for these criminals. (Our next president never failed to vote for a military spending bill.)
“National security” has become the lifeblood of the US political system, reaching every congressional district where garnering Pentagon dollars is a major objective. If US troops and foreigners have to die, then so be it, the thinking goes. Those not wise enough to be born in the US of A were terrorists (or future terrorists) anyhow.
So it goes ‘way beyond Cheney, and don’t expect any relief when the dickster is gone. Sad to say, there will be no sudden lessening of graft and corruption next week.
DB,
and that is why Cheney need not worry about being prsecuted. If the ugly facts were all to come out, there would be a (justified) question of where to draw the line, i.e. whose complicity in the affair is prosecutable under the law and who was just being a dickhead?
Posted by: ralphieboy | Jan 17 2009 18:05 utc | 12
Imagine the work that could be created building a fence around Washington D.C. to keep the kooks locked-up where they belong. That would be one really useful public works project. 🙂
Posted by: David | Jan 17 2009 19:05 utc | 13
Back in the stone age, May, 2001.
Business Week
The fight pits powerful interests such as the pro-Israeli lobby and the U.S. oil industry against each other. And it is sure to preoccupy the Bush Administration and Congress. The Administration is currently reviewing both U.S. energy needs and its policy on sanctions. Congress is expected to vote this summer on whether to renew the five-year-old Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, which penalizes U.S. and foreign companies that invest in the two countries’ energy sectors. The law expires on Aug. 5. Meanwhile, because of eroding support, the U.N. is likely to revise its tough sanctions policy toward Iraq.
ALL BETS ARE OFF. The issue poses a dilemma for the Bush Administration. Vice-President Richard B. Cheney, former CEO of oil equipment giant Halliburton Co. (HAL ), has long considered U.S. sanctions policy ineffective. Richard N. Haass, recently appointed chief of the policy planning office at the State Dept., has also called for gradually easing sanctions on Iran in exchange for better behavior.
….
Although a review of sanctions policy is under way, Administration officials are reluctant to discuss how they plan to square their goals on energy and foreign policy. One way may be to move from broad prohibitions on trade to narrower curbs on items for building weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear technology. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has proposed such “smart sanctions” for Iraq. Former National Security Adviser Robert C. McFarlane has advised the Administration that such an approach could also work for Iran and Libya. “I’m optimistic the sanctions regime will be changed,” he says.
….
But if [Khatami] runs, wins, and strengthens his position, the U.S. would be in a better position to ease sanctions–especially if Khatami makes a conciliatory gesture such as renouncing terrorism. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a Washington-based lobby, would do its best to block such a shift in policy before a clear change in Iran’s conduct, however.
The scum obviously found a way to square their differences, a million or so dead Iraqis later.
Posted by: Thrasyboulos | Jan 17 2009 21:17 utc | 14
Note, of course, that early in the Bush II administration, Bush I “realists” Powell, McFarlane, AND Cheney wanted to ease sanctions on Iran/Iraq/Libya. According to BW, in May 2001, four months before The Event Which Changed Everything,
Silly guys.
Posted by: Thrasyboulos | Jan 18 2009 2:17 utc | 15
It’s about time the “ReThug”-haters started realizing that their mortal enemies, the “ReThugs,” are just profiteers. They next need to see that the “ReThugs” don’t hate liberals for genuine ideological reasons, but instead, they simply see all Donkeydunces as obstacles to their (the “ReThugs”) profiteering.
Of course the whole Bush-Cheney Admin was a freakin’ bonanza for Bush’s oil buddies and Cheney’s Halliburton/KBR stock holdings. What the hell else would it have been about? Freedom? Democracy?
I’m more interested in how many of the Donkeydunces will continue to believe that The Barockstar Obamiracle somehow is different from Messrs Bush and Cheney. The Obamiracle already has offered plenty of evidence that he’s continuing the Bush-Cheney agenda — look at his Cabinet and advisory picks. But the Donkeydunces hold out hope, after hope, after hope.
Posted by: micah pyre | Jan 19 2009 3:14 utc | 16