Halliburton & Fox News

Ah, two of my favorite subjects. From the Salon.com "war room".

Halliburton's RIO Grande of overcharges
Congressional Democrats released records Monday from the Defense Contract Audit Agency's investigation of Halliburton, revealing that the company overcharged $108 million for one of 10 ten services the company performed as part of its Restore Iraqi Oil contract. U.S.

Representatives Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and John Dingell, D-Mich., also submitted an open letter to President Bush, calling for the release of audit reports on the remaining nine contract tasks, and asking the Bush administration how it plans to recover the funds from Halliburton.

The battle for transparency has been going on ever since Vice President Cheney's former company nabbed its lucrative no-bid contract: As Rep. Waxman told Salon back in Dec. 2003, he's been asking for an explanation of what appears to be Halliburton's "government-sanctioned profiteering" in U.S.-occupied Iraq. But more than a year later the White House still hasn't answered Congressional inquiries, and though President Bush has promised that audit reports on the RIO contract would be made public, neither Congress nor the public has been privy to them so far.

Monday's letter suggests the reason why: It may be even worse than Waxman thought. The "tens of millions of dollars" in overcharges that the Pentagon mentioned in '03 mushroomed into $108 million in the one task report that Congress got from the DCAA. (In one particularly egregious instance, the company paid subcontractors $27 million to transport $82,000 worth of propane from Kuwait to Iraq; the Congressmen, apparently at a loss for words, quoted California oil economist Phil Verleger: "It's as if they've put the gasoline on the Queen Mary and taken it around the world before they deliver it.") Given that the DoD is still sitting on the other nine audit reports, it seems likely that the total overcharges will dramatically exceed the DoD's '03 estimate.

But unless Congress can get its hands on the other reports, it'll be hard to hold Halliburton accountable. And it's not just American taxpayers who should get a refund -- $1.64 billion of Halliburton's total $2.5 billion tab have come out of Iraqi oil proceeds held in the Development Fund for Iraq. Repayment of overages to the development fund could come in handy for the fledgling democracy, plagued as it is by security problems and a lack of funds to cover basic infrastructure and electricity.

The Pentagon still refuses to freeze Halliburton's contract while investigations are underway. And for its part, Halliburton contends that its charges were fair. Never mind the no-bid contract and the various options it had for lower fuel prices; in a statement to the Associated Press, company spokesperson Wendy Hall went with the "all's fair in love and war" defense: "The [DCAA's] report fails to take into account the fact that [Halliburton subcontractor Kellogg Brown & Root] performed an urgent mission at the Army's request and that the mission took place in a wartime environment."
-- Page Rockw

Fair and balanced, at least 27 percent of the time!
The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reports on a new study of TV news. You decide.
"In covering the Iraq war last year, 73 percent of the stories on Fox News included the opinions of the anchors and journalists reporting them, a new study says. By contrast, 29 percent of the war reports on MSNBC and 2 percent of those on CNN included the journalists' own views. These findings -- the figures were similar for coverage of other stories -- 'seem to challenge' Fox's slogan of 'we report, you decide,' says the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

"In a 617-page report, the group also found that 'Fox is more deeply sourced than its rivals,' while CNN is 'the least transparent about its sources of the three cable channels, but more likely to present multiple points of view.' The project defines opinion as views that are not attributed to others."

Perhaps not a real shocker, but it turns out that Bill O'Reilly, host of the "no-spin zone," is a bona fide leader in dialing in the spin: "As for the most popular prime-time shows, nearly every story -- 97 percent -- contained opinion on Fox's 'O'Reilly Factor'; 24 percent on MSNBC's 'Hardball with Chris Matthews'; and 0.9 percent on CNN's 'Larry King Live.'"

Indeed, the PEJ report would seem to confirm suspicions that Fox News, above all others, is quite sympathetic in general to the Bush White House's faith-based policies. As Kurtz also notes from the study: "Last March, Fox reporter Todd Connor said that 'Iraq has a new interim constitution and is well on its way to democracy.'

"'Let's pray it works out,' said anchor David Asman."

And if TV viewers end up being too busy at any given moment to get their fix of "news" from the cable nets, they need not worry: 70 percent of the time they'll have missed nothing at all.

"Despite its 24 hours of available air time, cable isn't exactly bursting with new news. Seven in 10 reports involve recycling of the same subject matter, with only 10 percent adding meaningful updates. 'The time required to continuously be on the air seems to take a heavy toll on the nature of the journalism presented,' the report says."
-- Mark Follman

I Miss You Daddy-O

Today marks one of those anniversary dates I'd like to forget. Thus far, I remember it as the worst day of my life.

March 10, 1997 I got a call at work from a Columbus Police homicide detective. As she introduced herself, I was still comprehending her title. She proceeded to tell me they had found my dad, dead, under an overpass. As I completely freaked out, she then started to describe what this man was wearing. I knew instantly it was him, and yet EVERY fiber of my being fought back what she was saying.

I think at the time, I thought I could wish it away and my thoughts could change the reality. I shook so hard I could not stand, I couldn't quit crying. I just spoke to him the night before, this just could not be true.

From there, I remember my sister and brother-in-law picking me up at work. I had to go identify his body. Even as we rode to the coroner's office, I was convinced they were wrong and whoever they had me going to look at would not be my dad. As I was given a photo to ID him, there was no escaping the truth, the reality that my dear ol' dad was no longer here.

For months, and I mean months - I fought a deep depression. I think when you lose someone and are given no reasons as to why, it makes the acceptance of reality far harder to bear. I understood "heart attack", I understood, "car crash" - but, not knowing what happened to him on that ill fated night, will haunt me as long as I live.

My dad was my best friend. We could talk about ANYTHING. I miss his voice, I miss making him laugh so hard he had to cough, I miss his sense of humor. Most of all, I miss my dad for being my dad.

Here's to you Ron. I think about you often. I hope you see things I've done that have made you proud. I carry you with me wherever I go. Through the good and bad. I think of what you'd tell me to calm down, or to enjoy a moment of life's victory. It's nice knowing I have you as my guardian angel. And whether it's true or not, I usually give you credit when something goes right in my life.

The only silver lining I could find in your sudden departure was knowing I was able to tell you one last time, on our final phonecall, I love you dad. For that, I will always be thankful.