Something is troubling Elizabeth Cheney, the other daughter of the Lockheed-Halliburton syndicate. Although the problem troubling our dear Lizzie is not her conscience, because that would require first that she have a conscience. No, what is troubling Lizzie is the lack of courage and an interest in losing she ascribes to those who are opposed to her daddy's war.
Writing a Washington Post opinion that no one asked for and no one wants, especially from this family, Lizzie attacks those that threaten future war profits:
"Sen. Hillary Clinton declared this weekend, "I'm in to win." Anyone who has watched her remarkable trajectory can have no doubt that she'll do whatever it takes to win the presidency. I wish she felt the same way about the war.
In fairness, Clinton, with her proposal for arbitrary caps on troop levels and hemming and hawing about her vote for the war resolution, has company on both sides of the aisle. Sen. Joseph Lieberman is the only national Democrat showing any courage on this issue. We Republicans -- with help from senators such as Chuck Hagel -- seem ready to race the Democrats to the bottom."
Having no sense of decency and no sense of shame has become the Cheney family calling card, has it not? But let's hear Lizzie's contribution, since this is the only thing she has or will ever contribute to the war effort, lies.
I'd like to ask the politicians in both parties who are heading for the hills to stop and reflect on these basic facts:
We are at war. America faces an existential threat. This is not, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has claimed, a "situation to be solved." It would be nice if we could wake up tomorrow and say, as Sen. Barack Obama suggested at a Jan. 11 hearing, "Enough is enough." Wishing doesn't make it so. We will have to fight these terrorists to the death somewhere, sometime. We can't negotiate with them or "solve" their jihad. If we quit in Iraq now, we must get ready for a harder, longer, more deadly struggle later.
These are not facts; rather they are opinions twisting basic facts. But since Lizzie is asking for reflection, presumably because she cannot bring herself to look into a mirror, let's indeed reflect.
Yes, Lizzie is right, we are at war. But you - Lizzie dear - need not remind us, we already know all too well. Perhaps it is you who needs reminding and perhaps it is Congress who needs reminding of the profiteers of this war?
America is facing a threat she tells us, something we too know quite well. No one in the Cheney family has had to sacrifice anything to this war, but they sure have profited from this war, a bit of facts missing from her own concerns about courage:
Whatever the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, business is booming. Not long after Bush took office, Lockheed Martin's revenues soared by more than 30 percent, as it was awarded $17 billion in contracts from the Department of Defense, a far cry from the lean years of the Clinton administration. (Under Clinton, it did win $2 billion in contracts with the Department of Energy for nuclear weapons activity; recently Bush called for 125 new nukes a year, opening up new contract horizons in that area, as well.) Its stock went from 16.375 in October of 1999 to 71.52 in June of 2002. As professor of finance at the State University at Buffalo Michael Rozeff observes, "the stock market anticipates many events."
Lockheed Martin reported 2002 sales of $26.6 billion, a backlog of more than $70 billion and free cash of $1.7 billion. And that was before the war in Iraq.
Dick Cheney's son-in-law, Philip J. Perry, a registered Lockheed lobbyist who had, while working for a law firm, represented Lockheed with the Department of Homeland Security, had been nominated by Bush to serve as general counsel to the Department of Homeland Security. His wife, Elizabeth Cheney, serves as deputy assistant secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs.
Vice President Cheney's wife, Lynne, had, until her husband took office, served on the board of Lockheed, receiving deferred compensation in the form of half a million dollars in stock and fees. Even President Bush himself has a Lockheed Martin connection. As governor of Texas, he had attempted to give Lockheed a multimillion-dollar contract to reform the state's welfare system. (Source).
No wonder Lizzie wants more sacrifice from us; after all, she has investments to worry about. So, continuing with the reflection that we were asked to engage in, how about these facts then as first reported in Raw Story and then republished by Project Censored:
Vice President Dick Cheney's stock options in Halliburton rose from $241,498 in 2004 to over $8 million in 2005, an increase of more than 3,000 percent, as Halliburton continues to rake in billions of dollars from no-bid/no-audit government contracts.
An analysis released by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) reveals that as Halliburton's fortunes rise, so do the Vice President's. Halliburton has already taken more than $10 billion from the Bush-Cheney administration for work in Iraq. They were also awarded many of the unaccountable post-Katrina government contracts, as off-shore subsidiaries of Halliburton quietly worked around U.S. sanctions to conduct very questionable business with Iran (See Story #2). "It is unseemly," notes Lautenberg, "for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his administration funnels billions of dollars to it."
CRS also found that receiving deferred compensation is a financial interest. The Vice President continues to receive deferred salary from Halliburton. While in office, he has received the following salary payments from Halliburton:
Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2001: $205,298
Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2002: $162,392
Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2003: $178,437
Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2004: $194,852
Are you adequately reflecting yet Lizzie dear? Do you like what you see? Perhaps you need still more facts to reflect on in order to see the fully cracked image staring back at you? From a Washington Post report:
"In Bush's first term in office, Perry was general counsel to the White House Office of Management and Budget, where he helped draft the 2002 legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security.
Lobby registration documents he filed with Congress state that he helped the firm secure liability protection from lawsuits prompted by terrorist attacks, under the 2002 SAFETY Act. The department granted the liability protection in June, making the firm one of only about eight whose products have been certified for coverage."
That's right Lizzie, your dear husband helped to make sure that some certain people did not have to be bothered by the law suits from victims of terrorism. He also helped create a department that he later went to work for, to protect us against terrorists.
Is that enough as you say, Lizzie? I don't think so, not quite anyway. We are at war on two fronts already and your father is hoping for a third in Iran - an avowed enemy of the United States, allegedly developing WMD to attack America with - and Halliburton continues to have an office in Tehran and do business with "the enemy."
But let's not forget Syria, because this is Lizzie's bread and butter right now.
What is it that Lizzie does for a living? Well, she sure has a stellar collection of accomplishments; all of them are strangely related to each of your parents' business ventures. Until quite recently, when Lizzie went off to have her fifth child, she had a rather impressive title: Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department. One would almost imagine that actually meant that Lizzie had some expertise in Near Eastern Affairs.
It was a promotion from her last gig as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Near East at the State Department, yet another impressive title. Because having had an internship at the American Enterprise Institute (your mommy works there) apparently qualifies old Liz as an expert.
But what is it that Liz actually does at State?
"During the past 15 months, Elizabeth Cheney has met with and bolstered a gaggle of Syrian exiles, often in tandem with John Hannah and David Wurmser, top officials in the Office of the Vice President (OVP); has pressed hard for money to accelerate the administration's ever more overt campaign for forced regime change in both Damascus and Teheran; and has overseen an increasingly discredited push for American-inspired democratic reform from Morocco to Iran.
Now, according to the Financial Times of London, Cheney is coordinating the work of a new entity called the Iran-Syria Operations Group. The unit was established "to plot a more aggressive democracy promotion strategy for those two 'rogue' states," reported the Times. In February, the State Department announced that Cheney would oversee a $5 million program to "accelerate the work of reformers in Syria," providing grants of up to $1 million each to Syrian dissidents.
And in the current fiscal year, she will oversee a similar, $7 million regime-change grant program for Iran, though funding for that effort is expected to grow to at least $85 million soon, to include both a propaganda program and support to Iranian opposition groups. "She came in knowing very little about the Middle East," says Marina S. Ottaway, senior associate and co-director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has worked with Liz Cheney on democratic reform issues. "She had a mandate to do democracy promotion, but she had very little familiarity with the subject.... They deliberately picked a person who was not a Middle East specialist, so that the conventional wisdom, well, let me rephrase, so that real, actual knowledge of the issues in the region wouldn't interfere with policy." (Source)
So basically, Elizabeth Cheney runs a slush fund for terrorists, Islamic militants, and other such worthy characters in in order to create regime change for her daddy's vision of the Middle East. And we, you and I, are paying for it. (see more here)
The Cheney family corporate policy, unfortunately, has become US edict and is leading us from regime change to regime change so they may secure profits and contracts, including major deals for their dear Lizzie and her dear Phil. And yet this woman dares to lecture us about terrorism and the threat this nation is facing? No Lizzie, you are right, enough is enough. That is to say, from you and your husband, both of whom have made a parasitic living off of our suffering.
Enough from your father, who as a walking monstrosity of greed and power lust, could very well destroy America. Enough of your mother and her lesbian erotica while yapping about family values and morality and shoving it down the throats of people no less important than your sister, who gets to live openly as a lesbian and not worry about this hate agenda. After all, hate and terror are for the little people.
What we don't have enough of, however, is Congressional will to remove all of you - collectively, including your cronies at Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, and whatever laundry facilities the lot of you use - and prosecute you for a plethora of crimes you have each and together engaged in. That would be something that we need more of. But what we have had enough of, more than enough of, is of you, dear Lizzie and your twisted family's vision of the world. We did not ask for nor do we want your opinion, but as a public official, you will damn well hear our opinion. Enjoy this one as I imagine many more will follow.
Is that reflective enough for you Lizzie or do you need additional well documented facts to remember?