Thursday, May 12, 2005

On The Mark -- Because They Can

Hmmmm. I need to revisit my business plan. I’m a consultant, a service business, and my bonus at the end of a contract is when a client renews for the next year. Halliburton, on the other hand, is putting the rest of us service companies to shame. The Army, on Tuesday, rewarded Halliburton with $72 million in BONUSES for logistics work in Iraq.

By the way, in case you’ve lost count, that’s over and above the more than $7 BILLION that Halliburton has earned from the military since 2001.

As New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg said in the Los Angeles Times, “It is outrageous that the Bush administration would give Halliburton a bonus after we have seen its overcharges, sloppy accounting and kickback schemes in Iraq…Giving Halliburton a bonus is like giving your worst employee a raise” (which actually isn’t a very good example because I’ve seen that happen a couple times).

“Outrageous,” of course, is the operative word. However, in this administration, it’s a word that’s been used so many times that it’s lost any impact. It’s become as common as “the” and “and.” In fact, a synonym for “outrageous” in this administration could be “commonplace.” Try substituting this word for outrageous in the paragraph above.

See, it works. And you thought I was just being sarcastic.

How does something this “commonplace” happen? Because they can.

2 comments:

The Misanthrope said...

Let's not forget it was a no bid contract, so Halliburton had no competitors. And, they had an open invoice to charge whatever they wanted.

This is another example of a corrupt government at work.

Chandira said...

Yes, we do.
I'm not so sure it was legitimate Devo.. I'm really not.

Lizards.. :-)

All govts are, and will be corrupt. We've just got to do what we can do to make it ok.