Bush and Cheney both have signifcant ties with big oil industry, let's take a look.

CHENEY IN NUMBERS

Cheney's 2000 income from Halliburton: $36,086,635
Increase in government contracts while Cheney led Halliburton: 91%
Minimum size of "accounting irregularity" that occurred while Cheney was CEO: $100,000,000 (One hundred MILLION dollars)
Number of the seven official US "State Sponsors of Terror" that Halliburton contracted with: 2 out of 7
Pages of Energy Plan documents Cheney refused to give congressional investigators: 13,500
Amount energy companies gave the Bush/Cheney presidential campaign: $1,800,000

HALLIBURTON DAYS
"[W]hen I was Secretary of Defense, my biggest problem was with the Congress of the United States.

Now that I'm chairman and CEO of a Fortune 500 company, my biggest problem is the Congress of the United States." --Dick Cheney, during an address to the Export-Import Bank Conference, May 8, 1997.

Cheney was asked to assume the helm of Halliburton in 1995. As one of the largest global providers of equipment and services to the oil industry, Halliburton needed a chief executive who could ensure that the company had the government's full support. Cheney's close connections to top government and industry decision makers made him perfect for this role.

In a debate with Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman in 2000, Lieberman noted that Cheney had done well for himself as CEO of Halliburton. Cheney responded flatly, "I can tell you, Joe, the government had absolutely nothing to do with it." But even a glance at Cheney's tenure at Halliburton suggests otherwise.

During his five years as CEO, Cheney nearly doubled the size of Halliburton's government contracts, totaling a whopping $2.3 billion. He convinced the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. to lend Halliburton and oil companies another $1.5 billion, backed by U.S. taxpayers. As exposed in the article below, some of these loans went to a Russian company with ties to drug dealing and organized crime.
http://www.public-i.org/story_01_080200.htm

Cheney's rule at Halliburton was characterized by a ruthless geopolitical strategy that put aside political beliefs whenever they were inconvenient. In a number of cases, Halliburton and its subsidiaries supported or even ordered human rights violations and broke international laws. Consider the following examples:

* Libyan dictator and suspected anti-U.S. terrorist Moammar Gadhafi engaged a foreign subsidiary of Halliburton company Brown & Root to perform millions of dollars worth of work. According to the Baltimore Sun, Brown & Root was fined $3.8 million for violating Libyan sanctions. (Although Cheney wasn't leading Halliburton when these sales started, subsidiaries' sales to Libya continued throughout his tenure.)

* Cheney claimed that he supported the U.S. sanctions on Iraq, but the Financial Times of London reported that through foreign subsidiaries and affiliates, Halliburton became the biggest oil contractor for Iraq, selling more than $73 million in goods and services to Saddam Hussein's regime. (See http://gwbush.com/spots/postpage.html for a Washington Post article on the matter.)

* In Burma, Halliburton joined oil companies in working on two notorious gas pipelines, the Yadana and Yetagun. According to an Earth Rights report, "From 1992 until the present, thousands of villagers in Burma were forced to work in support of these pipelines and related infrastructure, lost their homes due to forced relocation, and were raped, tortured and killed by soldiers hired by the companies as security guards for the pipelines. One of Halliburton’s projects was undertaken during Dick Cheney’s tenure as CEO." (The full report is linked to below.)

Halliburton is now being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for Enron-style accounting practices that took place while Cheney was CEO.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/30/business/30HALL.html

More on Cheney and Halliburton:

For an extensive briefing on Halliburton and Cheney's foreign policy impact, check out this well-written and thorough report:
http://www.earthrights.org/halliburton/report.pdf

Cheney made $36 million at Halliburton in 2000 alone. Thesmokinggun.com has his tax returns to prove it:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/dicktax1.shtml


What about our Buddy Bush?

George W. Bush's first administration was notable for including a number of veterans of previous Republican administrations, including Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. But if Bush's early cabinet members and advisors had considerable government experience, they, like others before them, could also boast of extensive corporate connections. Bush, the first president with an MBA degree, appears to be following a similar course in choosing the cabinet for his second term.

Bush himself is a former Texas oilman. His company, Arbusto, was on the verge of bankruptcy when it merged with Spectrum 7 in 1984. Harken Energy bought Spectrum in 1986, and Bush was given a seat on Harken's board.

Costar, youa re wrong, the vuce presiden't gets a government salary of 186,300 a year. This leads me to question the credibility of you entire arguement.

Bush and Chenney must put their money in a blind trust when they take office. As far as they know, they could be completley broke.

quote:

Originally posted by costar:
I found this interesting
"The Cheneys' income included the vice president's $203,000 government salary and $194,852 in deferred compensation from Halliburton Co., the Dallas-based energy services firm he headed until August 16, 2000."
So the Vice-Pres gets about $200k a year from Halliburton. Let's just hope he has the morals enough to not let this affect his decision making.

$200,000?!? You're joking, right? That's nothing. Halliburton makes $20,466,000,000 a year, and you think that Cheney is going to be persuaded by an annual pension (which he earned as an executive) of $200,000?
If you are going to critize Cheney for pensions and big business connections, how about John Kerry? His wife is the heir to the multi billion dollar Heniz Ketchup Company. Do you see corruption there too, or are you just happy to get any shot to take a shot at the Vice President?

I found this interesting
"The Cheneys' income included the vice president's $203,000 government salary and $194,852 in deferred compensation from Halliburton Co., the Dallas-based energy services firm he headed until August 16, 2000."
So the Vice-Pres gets about $200k a year from Halliburton. Let's just hope he has the morals enough to not let this affect his decision making.
CNN Article

-Numbers have decreased tremendously of US military...
-Insurgents are now prodominantly(wrong spelling) targeting suni's and civilians.
The many Iraqie civi deaths numbers you see, a VAST amount, close to most, are by insurgents in the country. Our US military has done what they've had to do, played by the "rules of war" and used there heads and hearts when its come to civilians...we have never intentionally killed or injurged civi's on purpose. Insurgents are still setting bombs in mosks, killing #'s of Iraqie people, using religious places as cover once agian, WHICH is agianst the rules of the Geniva convention, do they care...no?
Our milltary are not blood thirsty civilian killing machines, they do what they have to do, to protect the mass and themselves.

Redrepublican is correct...
We have now to date trained 150,000 Iraqie troops/forces that includes Iraqie police. In Iraq there is now more Iraqie troops than US forces. This is great, a big accomplishment, but we will continue to train/and aid until we are sure the country can begin to run smoothly by itself, and the people can finally be free. We cannot pull out, this takes time, and as we go on, we will continue to pull troops out slowly, but we will not abandon the country that we have helped and started a democracy in, we just cant.

There is no such thing as a war without an economic backround

No one expected a mini US to come out of the Middle East. We just wanted something to show that it has been worthwhile. Where is it?

Bushism of the day:
If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.
- George W. Bush, Head, S.C., Feb. 16, 2000 -

andi have seen many articles on insurgents targeting civilians. since 1980? it takes a long time to build up a country. you cant just liberate a country and all of the sudden they'll be in perfect order. it doesnt work like that. liberals seem to think it does and when it doesnt work like that, its automatically a failure.
as i have said before when post WW 2 Germany was i ruin. but in a few years, it would become a great nation and very prosperous.

I'm sure plenty of them were. But we certainly have killed our fair share.

According to Knight Ridder News, 27,500-46,700 Iraqis have been killed, which includes crime. Without crime, it is 12,700 to 13,900. Electricity has actually GONE DOWN since our invasion, from 4400 megawatts nationwide (2500 in Baghdad) to 3400 megawatts this month (990 in Baghdad.) Given, internet, telephone, and school enrollment has gone up, but GDP per person has decreased dramatically, from $3000 in the early '80s to $928 today. Knight ridder also puts the number of insurgents in Iraq at 20,000.

Bushism of the day:
"In this job you've got a lot on your plate on a regular basis; you don't have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, 'How do you think my standing will be?'" —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 16, 2005

HOW MANY WERE KILLED BY INSURGENTS?

How can there be freedom when the Iraqi people are afraid to go out, as there are all kinds of bombings, etc. Need I remind you how many civilians have died in Operation Iraqi Liberation?

Bushism of the day:
"In terms of timetables, as quickly as possible — whatever that means." —George W. Bush, on his time frame for shoring up Social Security, Washington D.C., March 16, 2005

i think we have seen why we are in the Mid East with teh recent freedom wave.

I think you guys might be missing the point here. Nobody is questioning the morality of making money. What I am questioning is whether or not Bush and Cheney are using their positions in our Democratic Government to further corporations that they are on good terms with, and if perhaps the reason why we are in the middle east is because of this. If indeed they are showing corporate favoritism they are acting illegally.

Being selfish is not illegal. We support politicians not because they aren't criminals, but because of their opinions, priorities, and goals.

i was being facetious. how is cheney using the money in self beneficial ways? if its his money, hwe has the right to spend it any way hwe wants, legally.

My father makes millions and yeah he'd be considered very successful and no one ever has called him evil. No one is calling them evil b/c of the money they make they're calling them "evil" (if they even are saying that) b/c of the ways they abuse their power and use it in self-beneficial ways.

Earth Rigths \.org? i looked at teh sources for that one. check at teh bottom of teh pdf format. Milwaukee Journal Sentiael Op-ed pieces and The Nation reports. all liberal propaganda.
if they are indeed invesitgating it, let them and we will see what comes of Halliburton.
he makes 36 mill. a year. big deal. peyton manning gets about 46 mill.
i see how it is. bush is an oilman so that must mean that he is evil. in fac thwy dont we call all successful people evil because they make so much money and that is so unfair! why cant we make all that money? we should crucify them so that we get their wealth.
i love rumsfeld. i love it when he blasts the media. its great. and dick, lathough a bit salty has done a bang up job. he brought experience with him.

I'm waiting with you Barkid, where are they?

Still waiting for even one republican to comment on this...