It's corruption here, corruption there and corruption everywhere dished out by the most corrupt USA administration ever, the criminal Bushies. It is scandal piled upon scandal and criminality piled upon criminality while many Americans still believe in the veracity and morality of the Bushies apparently because their heads are so far buried in the sands of the Middle East that they are blind, deaf and dumb & dumber. Impeach the creeps before the USA becomes the biggest laughingstock in human history.

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Of course. And no one probably saw the irony.

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In the early 1940s, an obscure senator from the midwest by the name of Harry S Truman, sitting at the head of a committee investigating corruption in what was yet to be called the Military Industrial Complex, equated war profiteering with treason. The American people were so impressed by the dedication and integrity of this gutsy little son-on-a-bitch that in 1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt dropped his popular vice president, Henry Wallace, from the ticket and made Truman his running mate.

Two and a half months into his second term, a tired and ailing FDR died suddenly of a cerebral hemmmorage at his summer White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. Harry S Truman was now the president of the United States.

As bad as the situation was all those decades ago, do you deny that the situation with regard to illegal war profiteering is much worse today under the most criminal administration since the invention of dirt? When will these cowards in the House and Senate begin the investigation? (Rhetorical question). Trust me on this one, folks: It ain't gonna happen with the republicans in control of things. That's why it is so important that the democrats are elected in November.

Harry Truman is dead and he's not coming back.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
"The Rant" by Tom Degan

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On Wednesday, Sept. 27, Global Exchange/CodePINK and other members of the Declaration of Peace coalition are holding a demonstration outside of Bechtel's San Francisco headquarters at 50 Beale Street (Embarcadero BART) from 4:00-6:00pm.

After the protest, we will be holding a benefit screening of Robert Greenwald's IRAQ FOR SALE: The War Profiteering, followed by a panel discussion, at 7:30pm at the Brava Theater on 2789 24th Street (24th Street/Mission BART). Proceeds support the 2006 CounterCorp Anti-Corporate Film Festival.

For tickets and more information, visit www.countercorp.org.

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And what about Senator Dianne Feinstein (CA) and her husbands firm - forgot the name - but I've read that they are doing quite well off the Iraq and Lebanese invasion by our armies and our one "democratic" ally, Israel.

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alliant techsystems is one of the nastiest war profiteers on the scene, it's been around for a long time, and, for some reason, it keeps a very low profile... ATK, as it's known, manufactures a number of very ugly weapons and bombs, including the cluster bombs that are now an issue in lebanon just as they were an issue in lebanon in the 80s... anti-personnel bombs are among the most vicious devices made and they are ATK's specialty...

And, yes, I DO take it personally

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One hopes dems will take house and investigate the war profits of these folks. Not as good as real progressives, but dems might do to stem the futher erosion of fabric of our society

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And after Harry, wasn't it Ike - Oh God, a Repub ...but he could've been a Democrat...we wanted him to be...I digress - Wasn't it Ike who first warned about the dangers of a Military-Industrial Complex?

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.... like Humvees with no armour or no workable bullet proof vests for our soldiers. Even when they finally armoured the humvees, there was none down near the foot petals which is where the bombs are and we are still having seriously maimed soldiers coming home.

No word about the overcharging Iraq and pentagon for gasoline. there is so much more. I am glad he covered what he did since I didn't know anything about most of this above.

Profiteering during WWII was a treasonable offense and punishable by imprisonment or death, and I think we should go back to that. VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBANTS SO WE CAN CURE THIS PROBLEM SOON.

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A guy I have known since adolesence and have kept up with retired from the army and went into the Department of the Army as a civilian employee.
He volunteered for duty in Iraq the year before last and told me that God intended him to go over there to kill Arabs and to protect me and our country.
All of his three teen aged boys and his wife have told me that in private family discussions he has not stated such "altruistic" motives, but has declared he wants to go to Iraq strictly for the money.
We have created a military subculture that needs small wars, low intensity conflicts, to flourish.
Although there are dangers out there that we have to deal with our current way of handling them is creating more danger to us than its protection is worth.

Robert Chapman
Lansing, NY

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Scarcely a day passes that Bush and his fascist regime doesn’t launch another stealth attack on the American people. Now Bush has voided the Whistle Blower Protection Law for all EPA employees. Since when can a criminally insane president void laws passed by congress? Since fascists took over congress, that’s when it began.

The MEDIA doesn’t report a fraction of their crimes, rather they are in collusion by covering them up. Why aren’t Congressional Democrats screaming on the web about the many crimes being committed by the fascists?

Thank God for the web, without it, we would be kept in the dark about everything. Those of us who seek the truth are a small minority, but the racist fascists started out as a disorganized mob and look what they have accomplished by screaming lies loudly and continuously. Think what we can accomplish by screaming the truth to a nation of apathetic and indifferent beer swilling sports fans. Like mushrooms, many people don’t want to hear the truth, because thinking gives them migraines. The elephant is the Lord of the Jungle but a swarm of angry bees can cause a stampede.

Let’s sting the shit outta them.

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How are these creatures able to look themselves in the mirror with the lights on?

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This war in particular is one for profit and control of the middle east. After 18 years of flat earnings, these companies have exceptional profits. War makes Wall Street very happy. Not mentioned are the banks pulling in record amounts of money from all of the loaned money that the tax payer has to pay on the debt as well as business capital needed to go into war. It is unfortunate, but people forget that this war and the Afghan war were already planned by the DoD and PNAC leadership in the administration before 9/11. Then came the Downing Street memo but no news outlet acted and it was soon forgotten.

Bush's palace and the 4 super military bases and 10 other permanent bases are there for a reason. The US and UK will control the area at all cost. American and British mercenaries are in the tens of thousands and created the chaos we see today between the factions. Remember those British MI6 agents that were caught dressed as Arabs with machine guns and a case of explosives that were put in jail after killing Iraqi's? Remember that they were pulled out of jail by using a tank to break them out? Black-ops (SAP which the congress has not seen for 6 years now) and mercenaries have no problem blowing up Churches & Mosques or killing Iraqi civilians, police or leaders. They will even go beyond what people think is possible.

Most of the American people are disengaged from this war and buy into the nightly propaganda reports. Next up for the slaughter are social programs to be sacrificed to financial institutions for profit at the expense of war. Class warfare has been going on for a couple of decades now but the middle class will be wiped out with reforms for war coming up. The Global War on Terror is going to plunder the majority of citizens along with their rights, liberties and freedoms and most Americans will thank their leadership for it! I find it truly amazing that most people don't understand that there is no connection.

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Where is America's Hugo Chavez??? We need one now!!!! Revolution!!!

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... when they launched the Clinton witch hunt with the fevered blessing of the media.

The American government with it's record surplus was a ripe peach ready for picking by the richest organized crime syndicate in the world. Job one was to spend the surplus (tax cuts for the richest and kickbacks to corporations) then sit and wait for 9/11 which kicked open the door to wholesale thievery and murder.

Does anyone remember that the Iraq invasion was illegal by all standards? An unprovoked war that by US law is treasonous? That America defied and ignored the objections of the UN and most of the world? and continues to do so with impunity.

And now it's just business as usual and the fat get fatter and the poor get maimed and killed. The "long war" has already bankrupted (morally and financially) the former beacon of freedom and hope.

BTW, what interest rate is China charging America for loans totalling almost $1 billion to date? The IMF regularly warns the financial community that irresponsible spending by the current US government will likely plunge the world into another depression.

When the whip comes down, Bush and the boys will just hop onto their private jets, bound for their Carribean enclaves, giggling like school girls, counting their gold, and saying "So long suckers! You've been had. Sorry for your luck."

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You all talk as if corporations were some nebulous entities swimming in their own embryonic sacs. Corporations exist because investors enable their activites. Certainly, we should worry about how our tax dollars are used/misused by government. But how many people worry about how their investments are used/misused? Let's face it; most people just go to the bottom line to see how their nest egg is doing and couldn't care less how their profits became profits. You could make a case that investors in oil stocks are profiteers, as well
What is lacking is personal responsibility. What always wins is grred.

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IraqForSale

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Hello again all,

Here's access to pivotal knowledge (wisdom) so you and others can stop focusing on symptoms and obfuscatory details and home in like a laser on the root causes of and solutions to humanity's seemingly never-ending struggles.

Here is Wisdom...

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Okay, so corporate boards and CEOs are corrupt.
What about the investors who make them possible? How many people withdraw their investments from lucrative corporations because they don't like what the corporation is doing? How many investors even care about what the corporation is doing, as long as their own portfolios grow?
It's the complicity of the greedy sheep that enable the greed of the powerful.
Corruption? We're all complicit and corrupt.

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Listening to Bush comments on the last few days those companies will not fall shorted of money with the war with Iran on the horizon.

Speaking about tax evasion, yesterday on CNN they show a picture of a little 3 floors building on the Caiman island, this little building is the head office of 22000 American companies on the Caiman island, go figure ……

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Peace has Prophets.
War has Profits.

Need I say more?

*deep sigh*

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Good start, but corporations don't commit crimes , PEOPLE DO. Publish the pictures of the people in charge of these organizations along with their biographies. Maybe we can find out what schools are turning out these criminals and what organizations support them. If personal integerity can't stop them maybe public shame can. Hope springs eternal

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When US law gives corporations massive tax breaks for ousourcing jobs overseas, or it allows credit card companies to charge usury interest rates to consumers, or companies are encouraged under "free trade" to employ slave laboreres in third world hellholes, then it is the Corporations that are themselves a source of evil. Albeit, in collusion with the US government. As for the people, they remain criminals as well, but they are using the system for their own gain, and the system is broken.

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"Come on, Wall Street,
let's move fast,
You're big chance has come at last,
Plenty good money to be made,
Supplyin' the boys with
the tools of the trade.
Let's just hope that when
they drop the bomb,
They drop it on the Viet Cong!"

from "1 2 3 Whatta We Fightin' For"
by Country Joe MacDonald, circa 1968.

The perpetrators of the current war, dodged the war Country Joe and the Fish sang about.
History doth repeat, and it stinks.

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Biggest War Profiteer Ever: US Government

Did anyone notice that opium production in Afghanistan increased more than 60% over last year's haul. 2006 marks an historic turning point for Afghanistan, the US and the international drug cartels (again it is hard to speak of international drug cartels without including the US Gov.) as record production will substantially boost profits. "Shareholders" will be pleased I'm sure. This drug boon is made possible by Big War/Big Gov. and their joint subjugation of Afghanistan. As late as 2001, opium production had fallen under the Taliban to about 190 tons. It now stands at 6100!!! tons and this "unbelievable" resurgence conveniently occured AFTER the US overran the country. Hmmm - quite a coincidence considering our "tough on drugs" stance wouldn't you say?

To anyone who thinks we went into Afghanistan for any other reason than opium - think again. Bechtel, Halliburton, Northrop, Boeing and the rest combined can't hold a candle to the profits generated by heroin and its derivatives. It is estimated that international drug sales account for nearly 1 trillion dollars annually. The majority of that $$$ is derived from coke and smack. This much opium should fetch about 4-500 billion on the open market. Don't believe that Uncle Sam is involved? Tell me then how we launder 1 trillion dollars without the Fed and Fortune 500 Biz involved?

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I've had one thing going through my head all the while I've been reading this, the 20 somethings out there may appreciate this small snippet of Ministry lyrics...
"I'm in love without a trace of dissent,
I'll buy the torture cuz you pay for the rent,
Tied high with a broken command,
You're all alone to the Promised Land."

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Well written but (always the "but," eh?) were the piece and its headlines and subheads written without editorial and electric words (e.g., "imperialist") it would be the first sensible article on the subject I have read that I could copy and hand to bushies and say, "explain this and how the expenditures are good for America and Americans..."

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But I want to know; how did greed become a virtue? Who are these people?

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As has been said many times we have the best Government money can buy. It's just to bad the average citizen can't affort to buy his or her own Politician. Just think how much it will cost big business to buy the Democrates if they win in Nov.

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