Drop Bush not bombs!

[blood_rose]

Viacom head resigns, may head to Disney. Howard Stern's future uncertain.

What a loser. (Thanks pr0tus)

--- Updated @ 02:45 ---

Sony to drop out of the handheld market.

Windows Media Player 10 beta expected today.

Intel to release next-gen BIOS technology under the CPL.

SCO and BayStar make up.

The DirecTV smart-card whistleblower case is dismissed.

Slashdot reports that you can hack the Canon Digital Rebel into it's professional grade 10D model.

AMD ballon causes traffic accident. (Thanks JiTRiF)

This website is your friend. Gives you logins for all those annoying sites that need a login, such as nytimes.com and fileplanet.com.

Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" gets a special distributor and will be in general release on June 25th.

Movie studios ramp up use of night vision to stop cam copies of movies being made.

Democrats want a Cheney-Halliburton probe. Challenge: I dare any pro-Bush nazi to come up with a logical explanation for this impropriety. (That means you, dedhed and Manic)

Meanwhile, the AP obtains documents showing that the Army knew about various Geneva Convention violations last fall.

Bush uses Air Force One more than any other president for campaigning. Bush camp refuses to provide details on anything regarding these trips.

All the way down there is a letter entitled "Fungible" Berg?. Either that person is nuts or they are on to something...

Damn this makes me feel old, "Baby Jessica" now old enough to do porn.

Chocolate might be good for you if it's processed right. (Thanks JiTRiF)

Babe of the Day: Amber Tamblyn (Thanks blademers)

[dedhed]

Well, I'm not a Nazi, but I guess I'll give it a shot, even though the article is painfully short on details. I'll be upfront that I know next to nothing about the military's bid and award process for reconstruction contracts, or the specific contract the article deals with (Especially since the article isn't very specific).

Anyway.

I'm willing to bet that co-ordination with the VP would have been sought in this manner because it could be politically costly for a company he used to head to be awarded contracts in Iraq. I doubt any decision involving Halliburton would be put through without the VPs approval, simply because of the bad press it could (and did, by the ream) generate. However, there would be little need for the VP to help cajole the military into utilizing Halliburton for a significant support role for the Iraq campaign, as it is one of the most distinguished companies in these fields (Combat Support and Reconstruction). They were used extensively during the Clinton years, with much praise heaped upon them for their service, so the relationship with the military already existed.

As for the other question of the no-bid contract, I believe (I can dredge up a link tommorow, but I've lost my bookmarks, and need to hunt it back down) that there was a program in place within the military to utilize contractors without a bid process in order to support rapidly evolving military engagements, and Halliburton was on contractor involved in this program.

Whether their connection to Cheney sullies them in any way is debatable, but they are one of the best (quite possible THE best) companies in the world for performing combat support.

This is just touching on some of the things the article mentions, but, like I said, it doesn't really say much about the alleged impropriety, so I likewise can't say much in return.

[blood_rose]

Originally posted by dedhed
This is just touching on some of the things the article mentions, but, like I said, it doesn't really say much about the alleged impropriety, so I likewise can't say much in return.

Actually this article is a followup to a piece I posted last week. You can read the actual article from Time here.

The e-mail mentioned involves Operation Restore Iraqi Oil, which is not a combat support contract. However, because of the serious environmental issues associated with oil cleanup, the Bush administration pushed to have a contract to Halibuton to use for an interim period as a bridge to a competitive contract. How Haliburton was selected in the first place is questionable and it seems as though Cheney himself brokered the deal. Even if he didn't and the contract was awarded legit, what does that say about the Bush administration's lack of forsight in the war in Iraq?

[trentsteel68]

I'm sure everyone has seen Britney Spears breasts, but . . .
Here's a link anyway:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004243454,00.html

[blood_rose]

Originally posted by trentsteel68
I'm sure everyone has seen Britney Spears breasts, but . . .
Here's a link anyway:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004243454,00.html

who gives a fuck about that slut?

[trentsteel68]

Jesus Loves You.

[blood_rose]

Originally posted by trentsteel68
Jesus Loves You.

Yeah but he hates you.

[trentsteel68]

I know. That's why I pray to you every night.
You're my personal hero.

[blood_rose]

Originally posted by trentsteel68
I know. That's why I pray to you every night.
You're my personal hero.

Well, fuck you.

[trentsteel68]

You see, that's why I love you. You're so gregarious.
I could never be as upbeat as you are.

I hope Stern gets dropped forever. What a talentless fucking waste of flesh. Democraps love his humor because he brings the intellegence level down to about 5th grade. Better yet, I hope Bush sends in some illegal covert ops nazi assassin to snuff Stern out. Oh, and about Haliburton, that kind of shit has been going on since the birth of our country. How pathetic is it you libtards are just realizing what goes on in this country. Who do you think got the war contracts in WWII, hmmm. Whoever is in office favors the corporations whos pocket they are in. This has always happened, democrap and republicans. You fucking wannabe antibush hypocrites are just too stupid to know this, the real democrats already know this, they just pretend its not true. One more thing, that Lewis Black tour is sponsored by Clear Channel.

[dedhed]

I did manage to find the article describing the system under which Halliburton received the contracts for repairing the oil infrastructure (I assume this is ROI) without competetive bidding.
Link Here
It's a program known as LOGCAP, and was implemented for the reasons I stated above, which is to support rapidly evolving military operations. It's essentially a cover-all contract for short notice work on a multi-year term. Halliburton was last awarded the contract in 2001 in a competetive bid scenario.

From the Time article:

A Pentagon spokesman says the e-mail means merely that "in anticipation of controversy over the award of a sole-source contract to Halliburton, we wanted to give the Vice President's staff a heads-up."

That appears to confirm my characterization of the e-mail mentioned in both articles.

Now, whether the tapping of Halliburton for the oil rebuilding represents a lack of foresight on the Administrations part isn't really clear. Obviously they expected destruction of the oil infrastructure by the Iraqi military, which is why they had utilized Halliburton to asses the oil infrastructure, and ultimately assigned reconstruction duty to them prior to the beginning of hostilities. While this could have been competetively bid, from my understanding of the bid process, it could have taken months, which is not something the Administration was likely to have considered. Thus, it conforms well to the expectations of the LOGCAP program, which I believe Halliburton was the sole authorized contractor for.

The expectation of eventually putting a new contract up for bid for the remaining work also makes sense in this framework, as it could theoretically garner a better deal, once the situation on the ground was known. Due to the relatively minor damage that was actually done to the Iraqi oil infrastructure, I do not know if this ever became necessary.

While it may be possible that Cheney was trying to meddle, in order to get the contract awarded to Halliburton, I find it extremely unlikely based on the circumstances. Cheney doesn't work for, or have any ownership of Halliburton, and Halliburton doesn't need any help from Cheney to get contracts. There's plenty of opportunity for him to attempt to influence the process, but precious little motive.

[kenny]

Originally posted by RICKY PART 2
I hope Stern gets dropped forever. What a talentless fucking waste of flesh. Democraps love his humor because, blah, blah, blah...

I like Bush and I like Stern. Then again I am able to differentiate the difference between humorous entertainment and serious media. Wouldn’t expect you to, since you thought you were banned but you were just too stupid to log back in… God thinks you’re a FAG!

[Manic Velocity]

Bloodrose, you have stooped to a new low. Calling anyone who supports Bush a "nazi" is the same kind of weak willed name calling tactics that the extreme right-wing use against the democrats. It's also illogical and childish. Neither Bush or myself have supported the torture and murder of countless thousands of people simply for being who they are. The term "nazi" boils the blood of anyone with half a brain. Using it serves no purpose other than to bait someone into arguing with you. So I guess in that respect you succeeded. Congratulations.

What I want to know is would you, Bloodrose, support The Patriot Act if it meant the American people could sift through all emails, bank records, and library history of the Bush administration? Cheney, being a citizen of the United States, has just as much a right to privacy as you or me. It would certainly help in getting a closer look at this Halliburton business.

yeah, i could log back in after I complained about it. fucking hypocrite, but was still not able to change my avatar you dumb fuck. i love how fucking moronic you people are, trying to cover up how lame you morons act, "you werent banned" what the fuck ever, it was not until I pointed out how fucking hypocritical you asswipes are that you made it so I could log in, then changed face and said "we never banned you". What a bunch of niggers you people are, you should go work for Kerry the way you fucks waffle.