a lot of news floating about in the last few months about the corporate contracts granted in the re-building of both afghanistan and iraq. most of the news seems to be strictly gut level “cheney plus war equals halliburton contracts/w.t.f?” why the surprise? i suspect it’s more at the administrations lack of tact than anything else. but what do people really expect?

the administration has gotten a lot of flak over the no-bid method of awarding contracts, which is deserved, but in the end is halliburton taking valuable contracts from our local mom and pop oil services companies? it’s sickening, but nepotism and profiteering is the way of washington, under every administration. after all, isn’t it the way of the world?

the cheney/halliburton connection is just the obvious, transparent example. the most prevalent connections, however, are sealed through campaign contributions. the fact that this is an issue right now is kind of laughable, not because it shouldn’t be called out, but because this same model applies to every domestic issue the country struggles with, every issue dealing with our rights, our national identity, and our quality of life, every single one, and VERY little stink is made about it. (gee,i wonder why)

more important, i think, than which billion dollar multinational adds to it’s billions with the spoils of war, is what legislation gets passed because of lobbyists, and special interests, bolstered by their campaign contributions. it would seem that in the modern world the easiest way to decide on a political affiliation, or decipher where a particular candidate stands on an issue (example: a / b) is to simply research who they owe their allegiance to. a hint: if you did not contribute more than six figures to someone, it’s not to you.

anyhow, if you’d like to find out more or research a particular industry, company, candidate, etc, in order to accurately forecast who will shape the world in a way your sympathetic to, try these:
open gov, open secrets, soft money laudromat, common cause, follow the money