I read with amusement about outrage expressed over approximately $165 million AIG paid as bonuses to executives responsible for destroying their own company.
Although this represents less than 1/10 of bailout cash AIG reputedly needs from taxpayers, what angered citizens forget is that this barely qualifies as chutzpah … we’re comparing the rank amateurs of AIG with the seasoned professionals at Halliburton.
During his tenure as US Vice President, former Halliburton CEO Richard Cheney and long-time collaborator Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, oversaw the handing out of hundreds of billions—perhaps as much as a trillion—not mere millions, in tax dollars as no-bid contracts to Halliburton and its subsidiaries. Much of the work contracted for was performed horrifically poorly, fraudulently, or not performed at all. Also, illness, injury, and death resulted directly from Halliburton contractors’ malfeasance.
Have we forgotten that as Mr. Cheney handed them such largesse he was still receiving a salary from Halliburton throughout his Vice Presidency?
Where’s the outrage over that fraud and theft of tax dollars?
Now that former State Department official Larry Wilkerson has publicly acknowledged that the Bush Administration knew 95 percent of Guantanamo detainees were innocent of any dangerous crimes, and now that International Red Cross reports confirm American interrogators truly tortured detainees, shouldn’t the Justice Department and Congress take seriously criminal investigation of the Bush administration? No threat to America in my lifetime has been as dire, direct, clear, and dangerous as these attacks on the rule of law by George Bush and his fellow travelers. They threaten to destroy entirely the foundation of our society.
Our Congressmen and Senators take an oath to not only “support and defend” but also to “bear true faith and allegiance” to the Constitution; they take taxpayer money to do so … isn’t it time they earned their keep?
