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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (45393)	5/9/2005 6:31:39 PM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Rightwingers HAVE to be lied to. They expect it, they desire it, they can't live without being lied to. Rightwingers don't have a very high opinion of themselves and, therefore, gravitate towards those charlatans and criminals who share their opinion. It's interesting, the evangelical backlash against the fundamentalist fake christian freakshow appears to be starting up in earnest. It used to be that religion was a taboo subject but that was before the freakshow used it as a shield against its own immoral behavior. Now people are coming out of the woodwork with stories about how their pastors said, 'if you vote Democratic, you're not a Christian!' Backlash:good.

To: American Spirit who wrote (45393)	5/10/2005 3:58:52 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Halliburton gets $72 million bonus for work in Iraq By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said on Tuesday it had awarded $72 million in bonuses to Halliburton Co. for logistics work in Iraq but had not decided whether to give the Texas company bonuses for disputed dining services to troops. Army Field Support Command in Rock Island, Illinois, said in a statement it had given Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown & Root ratings from "excellent" to "very good" for six task orders for work supporting U.S. troops in Iraq. The Army said its Award Fee Board in Iraq had met in March and had agreed to pay KBR bonuses for work it did in support of U.S. forces there. But it said dining facility costs questioned by auditors from the Defense Contract Audit Agency had not yet been considered by the military's Award Fee Board. The Army said it could not immediately provide more details on when the dining fee bonuses would be resolved. Much of Halliburton's work for the U.S. military, ranging from building bases to delivering mail, is on a cost-plus basis, which means the company can earn up to 2 percent extra depending on its performance. Bonuses are awarded based on, among other factors, how efficient and responsible the company is to requests from the Army and is an indicator of how the Army views KBR's performance in the field. KBR's logistics deal with the U.S. military has been in the spotlight from the outset in Iraq, with allegations by auditors that they overcharged for some work, including dining services. In addition, investigators are looking into whether the Texas-based firm charged too much to supply fuel to Iraqi civilians, a claim the firm says is not justified. Halliburton, which was run by Vice President Dick Cheney until he joined the 2000 race for the White House, has earned more than $7 billion under its 2001 logistics contract with the U.S. military. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. reuters.com

To: American Spirit who wrote (45393)	5/10/2005 4:02:27 PM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 173976

U.S. court dismisses Cheney energy task force case Tue May 10, 2005 02:55 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit that sought details about Vice President Dick Cheney's 2001 energy policy task force that critics say secretly formed policy favorable to the industry. The unanimous ruling ordered a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit by the Sierra Club environmental group and the watchdog group Judicial Watch that sought to learn about contacts between task force members and industry executives. "We hold that plaintiffs have failed to establish any duty, let alone a clear and indisputable duty, owed to them by the federal government" under the law in question, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote in the 13-page ruling. All eight judges on the appeals court sided with the Bush administration and agreed the lawsuit must be dismissed. "In making decisions on personnel and policy, the president must be free to seek confidential information from many sources, both inside the government and outside," Randolph said. He said the president may form a committee composed of only federal employees. The internal communications of such a group will remain confidential so long as the right to vote or a veto is not later given to nongovernmental employees, he said. Randolph said the energy task force met that requirement. He said a government official emphasized that no outsiders took part in any of the meetings and there was no evidence any outside individuals had a vote or a veto over the group's decisions. The dismissal of the case had been expected after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June last year that refused to require that task force records be disclosed. It sent the case back to the appeals court. The justices set aside an earlier ruling by the appeals court that Cheney, a former energy industry executive, must comply with a federal judge's order to produce the internal White House documents or give a detailed explanation of what was withheld and why. The plaintiffs had argued that Cheney, the former chief executive of energy and construction company Halliburton Co., drafted a policy that favored the industry by consulting energy industry executives. © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved. reuters.com