Hightower: ‘Department of Halliburton,’ Part of New Private Government

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/06/20/hightower-department-of-haliburton-part-of-new-private-government/

Hightower: ‘Department of Halliburton,’ Part of New Private Government

by Mike Hall, Jun 20, 2007

It’s no secret George W. Bush and his boardroom buddies would love nothing more than a massively privatized federal government. Since taking office more than six years ago, the Bush administration has sought to privatize and outsource huge chunks of the federal workforce. In May 2003, the Bush White House announced a goal of privatizing some 850,000 federal jobs.

Even during Public Service Recognition Week, the Bush administration announced it was funneling more federal jobs into the corporate profit trough.



Now, Jim Hightower, populist, activist, radio commentator and author, provides some frightening facts about what he calls

…a full blown, jet-powered rush to privatization. The shadowy and highly lucrative world of government contracting has boomed under George W., rising 86 percent since he’s been in office and now totaling nearly $400 billion a year. Get this: There are now more people doing federal jobs under corporate contracts than there are people employed directly by the government. In other words, in today’s government, corporate servants outnumber civil servants.

In his newsletter, Hightower Lowdown, he points out that not only is Bush presiding over a hell-bent, privatization campaign—but more that half the outsourcing contracts are basically corporate giveaways.

Bush & Company are unabashedly running it as a crony program. An analysis by the Times found that more than half of their outsourcing contracts are not open to competition. In essence, the Bushites choose the company and award the money without getting other bids. Prior to Bush, only 21 percent of federal contracts were awarded on a no-bid basis.

Of course, he notes the huge—and profitable—role the “Department of Halliburton” is playing in the war in Iraq. Halliburton is where Vice President Dick Cheney once presided as CEO.

FULL story at link.

[Solo_in_MD]

1. Privitazation started even before Bush I, and was also active during the Clinton Admin

Read the CRS report here: http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs/permalink/meta-crs-7717:1

[burrowowl]

2. Look at RayGun

and DDE warning!
Modern American Corporate Empirealism started under Teddy Roosevelt!

[burrowowl]

3. I love Hightower!

Smart man!

[mod mom]

4. I love this guy

I had the opportunity to meet Jim when he was my featured speaker for a True Majority Fundraiser I held in the summer of '04. He even came over to my house for dinner afterward. If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, don't miss it. He is very entertaining in getting his point across.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. How can you not see this as an act of war?

[bobthedrummer]

6. Halliburton, headquarters in Dubai and the occupied White House.

:nuke:

[Morgana LaFey]

7. Fascism --

Franklin D. Roosevelt, president of the United States from 1933 to 1945, described fascism as follows:
The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_fascism

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1131124#1131135