I'll do this one time.

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IRAQ
Corporations Gone Wild
Using the deteriorating security situation in Iraq as cover, the Bush Administration today announced it was extending Halliburton's $2 billion no-bid contract - while indefinitely postponing two competitively bid contracts. The Administration also shockingly claimed that rebuilding "will cost twice as much as the government has anticipated." The move highlights just how much of a feeding frenzy Iraq has become for private corporations with close ties to the White House. The latest Harper's magazine writes that, although "as much as one third of the rapidly expanding cost of the Iraq war is going into private U.S. bank accounts," there is virtually no accountability or oversight. Newsweek calls Iraq the "$87 Billion Money Pit" and reports the U.S. government gave these private corporations contracts on a "limited-bid or no-bid basis. It bypassed the Iraqis and didn't worry much about accountability to Congress." (Click HERE for American Progress fellow Gayle Smith's analysis of transparency issues in Iraq).

There isn't even coordination between the corporations, as efforts devolve into
a moebius strip of ineffectuality. Power stations, like those controlled by Bechtel, need gas and oil to run. The fuel refineries, run by Halliburton, need that power to run in order to supply that fuel, yet, Newsweek reports, there is little coordination between the corporations. One of the few things that can be detected is price gouging. As Reuters reports the U.S. government is paying Vice President Dick Cheney's former firm Halliburton "enormous sums'' - $2.65 a gallon - for gasoline imported into Iraq from Kuwait, according to Reps. Henry Waxman and John Dingell. The "gross overpayment" was made worse by the fact that the "U.S. government was turning around and reselling the gasoline in Iraq for four to 15 cents a gallon."

NEW REPORT - 'THE WINDFALLS OF WAR': The Center for Public Integrity releases a new report today showing that "more than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two years." Those companies "donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush—a little over $500,000—than to any other politician over the last dozen years." For example, "Kellogg, Brown & Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton—which Vice President Dick Cheney led prior to being chosen as Bush's running mate in August 2000—was the top recipient of federal contracts for the two countries, with more than $2.3 billion awarded to the company. Bechtel Group, a major government contractor with similarly high-ranking ties, was second at around $1.03 billion."

HAZARD PAY FOR CORPORATE CONTRACTORS, NOT FOR U.S. TROOPS: Why are the price tags for outside contractors so outrageously expensive? This week's Newsweek magazine reports, "One reason U.S. taxpayers are forking over top dollar to have [private U.S. contractors in Iraq]...Much of what companies are charging is for hazardous duty (at major engineering companies, that means 45% extra, taking engineers up to nearly $900 for a 10-hour day)." While private contractors soak up tax dollars in hazard pay, however, the White House has tried to cut hazard pay for American soldiers actually in harm's way, fighting the war. The Army Times wrote in June that, "The Bush administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones." (For more on the Administration's mistreatment of U.S. troops, click HERE .

IRAQ SPENDING BILL GETS CLOSER TO PASSAGE: Congress is about to approve President Bush's $87 billion package, even though criticism over lack of
transparency and hesitation over the use of the money still swirls. AP reports, "Lawmakers have been increasingly uneasy about the rising human toll and financial costs of U.S. involvement in Iraq. They have questioned whether the Bush administration has done enough to win international assistance and how long U.S. troops will have to remain there."
Republicans defeated a Democratic proposal to require "confirmation for Bush's
civilian administrator in Iraq, the position held by L. Paul Bremer," which
would have required the Administration to become more accountable in Iraq. And while the House approved legislation yesterday authorizing an increase in the paltry, Vietnam-era $6,000 death benefit for families of servicemen killed in action, there is no funding to make it a reality in the spending bill.

THIS IS GETTING EMBARRASSING: The WSJ's Al Hunt writes, "the Bush administration's mistakes and misrepresentations since May 1 (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/iraq/20030501-15.html) are continuing unabated. There's the pretense the war is over, that the press is hiding all the good stuff, and the region and the world are safer and more secure. The president's rare Tuesday news conference was embarrassing. Administration insiders privately talk about a downward 'glide' of U.S. forces in Iraq next year, but when asked if there will be lower troop levels next year Mr. Bush declared that's 'a trick question.' More troops now, given the increasing violence? That's Gen. Abizaid's task, not mine."

Report Offered Bleak Outlook About Iraq Oil
By JEFF GERTH

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4 -- The Bush administration's optimistic statements earlier this year that Iraq's oil wealth, not American taxpayers, would cover most of the cost of rebuilding Iraq were at odds with a bleaker assessment of a government task force secretly established last fall to study Iraq's oil industry, according to public records and government officials.

The task force, which was based at the Pentagon as part of the planning for the war, produced a book-length report that described the Iraqi oil industry as so badly damaged by a decade of trade embargoes that its production capacity had fallen by more than 25 percent, panel members have said.

Despite those findings, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz told Congress during the war that "we are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."

Moreover, Vice President Dick Cheney said in April, on the day Baghdad fell, that Iraq's oil production could hit 3 million barrels a day by the end of the year, even though the task force had determined that Iraq was generating less than 2.4 million barrels a day before the war.

Now, as the Bush administration requests $20.3 billion from Congress for reconstruction next year, the chief reasons cited for the high price tag are sabotage of oil equipment -- and the poor state of oil infrastructure already documented by the task force.

"The problem is this," L. Paul Bremer III, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, asserted at a Senate hearing two weeks ago: "The oil infrastructure was severely run down over the last 20 years, and partly because of sanctions over the last decade."

Similarly, Bush administration officials announced earlier this year that Iraq's oil revenues would be $20 billion to $30 billion a year, which added to the impression that the aftermath of the war would place a minimal burden on the United States. Mr. Bremer now estimates that Iraq's total oil revenues from the last half of 2003 to 2005 will amount to $35 billion, running at a rate of about $14 billion a year.

The administration now plays down the report's findings.

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Let me repeat the first line, in case you miss the import:

The Bush administration's optimistic statements earlier this year that Iraq's oil wealth, not American taxpayers, would cover most of the cost of rebuilding Iraq were at odds with a bleaker assessment of a government task force secretly established last fall to study Iraq's oil industry, according to public records and government officials.

Could it be…another lie? Could it be…another denial?

YOU KNOW DAMN WELL THEY KNEW THW SPECIFIC FINDINGS!

Arnold Unplugged - It's hasta la vista to $9 billion if the Governator is selected

Now, thirty-four pages of internal Enron memoranda have just come through this reporter's fax machine tell all about the tryst between Maria's husband and the corporate con men. It turns out that Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a Davis-Bustamante plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the $9 billion in illicit profits they carried off.

Here's the story Arnold doesn't want you to hear. The biggest single threat to Ken Lay and the electricity lords is a private lawsuit filed last year under California's unique Civil Code provision 17200, the "Unfair Business Practices Act." This litigation, heading to trial now in Los Angeles, would make the power companies return the $9 billion they filched from California electricity and gas customers.

…While Bustamante's kicking Enron butt in court, the Davis Administration is simultaneously demanding that George Bush's energy regulators order the $9 billion refund. Don't hold your breath: Bush's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is headed by a guy proposed by … Ken Lay.

But Bush's boys on the commission have a problem. The evidence against the electricity barons is rock solid: fraudulent reporting of sales transactions, megawatt "laundering," fake power delivery scheduling and straight out conspiracy (including meetings in hotel rooms).

So the Bush commissioners cook up a terrific scheme: charge the companies with conspiracy but offer them, behind closed doors, deals in which they have to pay only two cents on each dollar they filched.

Problem: the slap-on-the-wrist refunds won't sail if the Governor of California won't play along. Solution: Re-call the Governor.

New Problem: the guy most likely to replace Davis is not Mr. Musclehead, but Cruz Bustamante, even a bigger threat to the power companies than Davis. Solution: smear Cruz because -- heaven forbid! -- he took donations from Injuns (instead of Ken Lay).

The pay-off? Once Arnold is Governor, he blesses the sweetheart settlements with the power companies. When that happens, Bustamante's court cases are probably lost. There aren't many judges who will let a case go to trial to protect a state if that a governor has already allowed the matter to be "settled" by a regulatory agency.

So think about this. The state of California is in the hole by $8 billion for the coming year. That's chump change next to the $8 TRILLION in deficits and surplus losses planned and incurred by George Bush. Nevertheless, the $8 billion deficit is the hanging rope California's right wing is using to lynch Governor Davis.

Yet only Davis and Bustamante are taking direct against to get back the $9 billion that was vacuumed out of the state by Enron, Reliant, Dynegy, Williams Company and the other Texas bandits who squeezed the state by the bulbs.

But if Arnold is selected, it's 'hasta la vista' to the $9 billion. When the electricity emperors whistle, Arnold comes -- to the Peninsula Hotel or the Governor's mansion. The he-man turns pussycat and curls up in their lap.

Senate Panel Backs Bill to Give Tax Windfall to U.S. Companies
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 -- American corporations that have deferred taxes for years on the profits they made overseas could be in line for a huge windfall from Congress.

Hoping to bring more investment to the United States, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill on Wednesday that would give a one-time tax holiday to companies that have accumulated as much as $400 billion in foreign profits on which they have yet to pay American taxes.

American companies can usually defer paying taxes on foreign profits as long as they keep the money outside the United States. Much of that money is reinvested in foreign operations, and some is parked in passive investments.

The Senate bill, which is part of a much broader bill to overhaul laws on international corporate taxation, would let companies bring those profits back and pay a tax rate of 5.25 percent.

Supporters say the six-month tax holiday could lure as much as $300 billion back into the United States, which in turn would increase investment and create jobs.

To press their case, companies like Hewlett-Packard have formed a broad coalition that includes the likes of Eli Lilly, Merck, Intel, Sun Microsystems and Dell Computer.

Among the coalition's main lobbyists are Bill Archer, the former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and his former chief of staff, Donald Carlson.

"The question is, Do we want this money invested in equipment and plants in Egypt or do we want it invested in the United States?" Mr. Carlson said. "To get this much bang for the buck is a rarity."

But many tax experts, including top tax officials in the Bush administration, say the move would be a mistake because it would validate the strategies of companies that spent years sheltering the overseas profits.

"The company that left Louisiana is going to pay a 5 percent tax on the widgets they make overseas, and the company that stayed in Louisiana is going to pay a 35 percent tax," said Senator John B. Breaux, Democrat of Louisiana. "If that isn't an incentive to leave, I don't know what is."

Critics also warn that there is no guarantee that the companies will invest their repatriated profits in new factories or larger work forces. Indeed, Republican lawmakers defeated an amendment offered by Mr. Breaux on Wednesday that would have required companies to reinvest their foreign profits in things like new equipment.

Bush's bitter harvest

By Derrick Z. Jackson, 10/1/2003

IT IS OCTOBER, and the harvest from the spring's planting of troops remains a grapeless vine, withering into winter compost. Without weapons of mass destruction, Tikrit has given way to Texas, Fallujah is fading into Florida, and the idiocy of another $87 billion for Iraq is rapidly becoming apparent in the latest news from Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. In the season of pumpkins, Bush is turning into one, with millions of Americans feeling like Cinderella after the ballyhoo of violent, vengeful patriotism. Bush hoped he could sneak back into the White House in 2004 before the clock struck midnight. It is too late. The original support for the war is waning as Americans realize that they have also waged war against themselves.

In the last week, the Census Bureau released data indicating that household income in the United States is on the decrease, poverty is on the increase, and the number of Americans without health insurance grew by 2.4 million, to 43.6 million. The adding of 2.4 million Americans to the rolls of the uninsured comes at a time when 2.7 million Americans have lost their jobs since Bush took office.

I wonder if the Republican Party as a whole can be charged with RICO violations? via TalkingPointsMemo:

Of course, you knew that. But Derrick Z. Jackson, one of my hee-rows, lays it out nicely: