Next Time, They'll Just Take Your Wallet
A report from the Apollo Alliance says that a division of Haliburton (who received a no-contest bid from our government to stick their fingers deep into the reconstruction of Iraq pie) is charging the US more than DOUBLE the going rate to transport oil into Iraq. From the report: "Since March, Halliburton has been charging the US government excessive prices. As of October 19, 2003, Halliburton had imported 61,304,091 gallons of gasoline from Kuwait into Iraq, a distance of approximately 400 miles. The US government has paid Halliburton an average price of $2.65 per gallon. According to energy experts, the cost of buying and transporting fuel from Kuwait to Iraq is less than $1.00 per gallon..."
Meanwhile, House Republicans have recently stripped the Iraq supplemental bill of an anti-profiteering clause where companies would be held criminally liable for price gouging. Okay, I can't decide which makes me more disgusted by our national leadership right now: the fact that someone thought there was enough justification to warrant having to actually put in a clause making price gouging illegal or the fact that the toadies of corporate interest have been able to strip such a clause out. They don't even care that the rest of the world is watching them suck at the corporate tit. They've probably got such a suctioned grip on the nipple they won't pop off until the well runs dry.
Which, I suppose, is the point. Fill your bellies while you can, boys and girls, because at some point a larger bully with a bigger stick is going to come along and make you share with the other kids. Now wouldn't that be tragic?
UPDATE: From boingboing today, a link to the IRS form for a tax refund in excess of $1 MILLION. Must be because the other form doesn't have enough room for all those FUCKING ZEROES.