Did anyone notice the drop off of “Halliburton” round the start of 2007?

I wonder whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

I mean it couldn’t possibly be just cuz Soros bought 1.9 million shares of Halliburton stock in the fourth quarter of 2006, after spending $20 plus million’s to “527″ organizations to blast Halliburton 2004 thru 2006 (3rd quarter).

Things that make ya go hummmm

DSchoen on May 5, 2009 at 5:24 PM

Personally, I think Soros blasted all these companies to lower their value for takeovers, and “manufactured” the credit crisis through currency manipulations, and then bought journalists to hype the “worst recession since the Great Depression” to get his malleable Manchurian candidate elected, and then begin manipulating the US economy to make ever more money on his hedge funds and currency trades.

If there ever was a hidden hand behind the power, he is it. If he isn’t a power manipulating our economy and our politics, then he sure as Hell is taking great advantage of the crisis to make sh*tloads of money for himself at our expense. I guess that makes him an evil money grubbing capitalist after all.

Just my humble opinion. But then, I would cross the street to avoid having to piss on him in he was on fire in the gutter.

Subsunk

Funny you bring up Halliburton, today of all days:
AJB on May 5,

fta
President Obama has made contract reform a top priority. Shortly after taking office, he vowed to end no-bid contracts that he said “have wasted billions” of dollars in Iraq.

And now he planes only to “modify” the “no-bid contracts”. Apparently reality slapped him up side the head.

Obama if he had actually worked for the people and the US government would have known “no-bid contracts” are used when you have an emergency get it done now situation.

If Obama had ANY real world experience he would know that the ones requesting a “get it done now!” seldom provide a complete “picture” of what they want. The project or job changes several times before all the “knowns” are “known”.

From my experience, the Gov puts out a contract for bid.
Priorities for who the contract is awarded to, are

Woman/Minority owned small start up businesses.

Small start up businesses.

Start up businesses.

All interested companies are allowed to view the project and put in a bid.

Bids are open for X amount of time (6 months)

Awards are often challenged in court.

Once that’s settled, (6 months to a year or so) work can begin.

Do you see the problem here?

Yep.

Most Woman/Minority owned small start up businesses.

Small start up businesses.

Start up businesses.

Can’t survive for a year and a half WITHOUT a paycheck!

If the company that was awarded the contract is still open for business its usually cuz they are working on other projects. Either they drop there current project and start on the government contract (not good for a lot of reasons)

Or

They hire more people to work on the NEW government contract!

Good yes?

No, Why? Cuz if they hire more people, they may get over the max number of employees a company can have and still be a SMALL businesses.

If they exceed the max number of employees the contract MUST be pulled!

If it’s not pulled one of the other original bidders will take it to court.

And then the bidding process begins a new.

I personally witnessed this kabuki dance for 5 years!

Funny you bring up Halliburton, today of all days:

KBR, the Army’s largest contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan, is linked to “the vast majority” of suspected combat-zone fraud cases that have been referred to investigators, as well as a majority of the $13 billion in “questioned” or “unsupported” costs, the Pentagon’s top auditor said yesterday.

In testimony before the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, April G. Stephenson, director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency, said investigators have sent to the inspector general a total of 32 cases of suspected overbilling, bribery and other violations since 2004.

“I don’t think we’re aware of a program, contract or contractor that has had this number of suspensions or referrals,” Stephenson said. KBR’s work accounts for 43 percent of the Pentagon’s audited Iraq contracting dollars, according to the agency’s data.
The Defense Contract Audit Agency must really hate freedom and America!!

AJB on May 5, 2009 at 11:51 AM

Good. Lets get to this right now! I’m tired of these charges and have been railing against them for years on this website now.

The large majority of the overcharges and fraud were conducted, as the article you linked implies, by subcontractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. That means local contractors (Iraqis and Afghans) who are corrupt and try to cheat the system, or foreign companies subcontracted to KBR (i.e. Pakistanis, South Africans, Indians, etc……) who are also products of a corrupt culture.

I’m not saying Americans weren’t part of this. But what I am saying is that KBR is the entity which found these discrepancies, identified them to DCAA, and then rooted out the fraudulent invoices and turned them over to the Corps of Engineers auditors. For the last 6 yrs, these same Corps auditors have been saying KBR defrauded the government when they know full well that KBR brought this to their attention, fessed up about their mistakes, and fixed these charges.

However, the early charges, which the Corps initially said were fraudulent, were for food and gas to be brought into Iraq from the south and brought all the way up to Northern Iraq, in the midst of insurgent attacks and with significant danger and casualties to KBR drivers. Eventually, subcontracts were cut for fuel thru Turkey, eliminating the long trip, but raising the price of fuel anyway since the fuel had to come from Kuwait or elsewhere in the Middle East, go thru the Suez canal and then be offloaded in Turkey and brough by truck to Iraq and into insurgent territory. Many of all these shipments were lost or damaged due to terrorist attacks and IEDs. So the local contractors and sources of gasoline began charging exorbitant amounts to drive these shipments across Iraq under attack. All while our forces desperately needed these supplies and the MNF Commands insisted they be brought up as soon as possible. And now we want to nitpick over the cost! How many American and Iraqi lives was this food and gas worth compared to the dollars spent?

And the Corps of Engineers has the audacity to accuse KBR of less than good faith efforts to find corruption, all while dealing with local contractors who are corrupt, and under pressure to get our boys food and gas to fight the enemy? Anyone who buys this KBR is a liar and a cheat story has never met an incompetent Corps of Engineers auditor.

I worked with Corps auditors before the war ever started. They are not the sharpest knife in the drawer. As a contractor, I was forced…frequently, … to explain over and over again how the contract worked, and to quote the contract itself to Corps civilian administrators over and over again. The government always wants their stuff for free, and says my charges are too much. But you can go to the contract and point to exact paragraphs and passages that justify these charges, and that lead these auditors to admit they have no case against the vast majority of these fraud charges.

If there was any meat here, the folks who lied and defrauded the government would be in jail already. And many of them already are. Several KBR and Army personnel have already been charged, convicted and jailed or fined for these offenses, some involving millions of dollars. But they were all identifed by KBR in the first place. Again, I met incompetent auditors and competent ones. The Corps’ military and engineering arm is a strong organization full of talented people. But government pencilnecks, whose only job is to cut money and budget to make a name for themselves and to justify their own jobs are a dime a dozen. Anything they can do to say no and get their names recognized, they will do, even at the expense of saving American military lives. Because that isn’t their job. Counting beans is.

The DCAA auditors couldn’t find their ass with both hands if KBR didn’t point the way first.

Subsunk

I wonder whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?

I mean it couldn’t possibly be just cuz Soros bought 1.9 million shares of Halliburton stock in the fourth quarter of 2006, after spending $20 plus million’s to “527″ organizations to blast Halliburton 2004 thru 2006 (3rd quarter).

Things that make ya go hummmm

This is just lazy.

I have a question. When does laziness become lying?

That makes the KBR record look very clean indeed — and completely undermines the notion that Cheney pipelined money to KBR in an unethical manner. The KBR awards appear to be much more ethical than the norm at the DoD, and a lot more ethical than Murtech’s.

Facts, snacks. They make it up as they go along. Truth in telling has never been an issue for the Liberal Media.

Del Dolemonte on May 5, 2009 at 12:59 PM

shhhh Del, you might start a conspiracy theory how the wells were never on fire.. etc.

Star20 on May 5, 2009 at 12:49 PM

I always throw out the Lyndon Johnson story whenever one of my Leftist friends brings up the “H word”. Shuts them up real quick.

You may want to also ask them what other companies have the same qualifications that Halli does. Hint: there aren’t many.

Also ask them if it was evil for Halliburton to put out all of those oil well fires Saddam set in Kuwait.

Remember Vietnam and the Cost plus fixed fee conglomerate of RMK-BRJ., the product of Lyndon Johnson and Mendell Rivers.

Amazed on May 5, 2009 at 12:01 PM

In fact, (Democrat) Lyndon Johnson climbed into bed with KBR in 1936, 5 years before Darth Cheney was hatched on another planet.

And Lyndon stayed there for decades. In fact, when she died a couple of years ago, Lady Bird was still a member of the Board of Diectors.

This is all easily documented online, if one knows where to find it. Even NPR did a story about Lyndon giving Halliburton and KBR no-bid contracts. But the Left seems curiously indifferent.

Liberalism & logic don’t mix. Oil & water.

Yeah right!!!

Memes do.

In comparison, Murtech got 100% of its contracts from no-bid situations.

Murtech!?!? Way to be creative with the naming of your company there, dudes. Gee, there’s no way i would have ever guessed this company has a connection with John Murtha!

a “Republicans do it too” defense

Even if it were true, it still doesn’t make it right. Such a childish argument.

BadgerHawk on May 5, 2009 at 11:38 AM

Actually it is worse then that. O-bots argue Bush was Hitler or something, and then turn around and say it is ok for Obama to do something because Bush did it.

Well, if Bush is Hitler, isn’t “Hitler did it so it makes it ok I am doing it” pretty much the opposite of a defense?

Republicans: “Imagine if a Democrat had done that!”

Democrat: “Republicans do it too!”

Come on, trolls. What say you?

Dr.Cwac.Cwac on May 5, 2009 at 12:10 PM

They are probably schlumberger employees trying to hold on to a non-exsisting job!

Schlumberger hires temps.

maverick muse on May 5, 2009 at 12:06 PM

They have also laid off people left and right… the business is starting to go bad, because they are over pricing on stuff no one wants.

Sperry Sun/Haliburton is GROWING… I wonder why? ;)

Haliburton has Sperry Sun (a drilling contracting agent for Oil Comps), and KBR (who watches out for their Sperry Sun employees in far away hostile lands and gets a contract or two from other resources), and a few others I can’t even remember. It is a solid company… why do people freak out about the stupid crap?

Unlike Schlumberger.

upinak on May 5, 2009 at 11:59 AM

Schlumberger hires temps.