I think it's more a case of, I'll scratch your back if you'll scratchmine. How is this different from removing limitations of corporate andunion contributions to political campaigns? You honestly believenothing is expected in return? The only difference is, in this case itwas a loan (rather than a gift) made to another business entity, ratherthan a direct donation to a specific candidate.

It's interesting how Republicans remained surprisingly quiet when no bid contracts were awarded to Halliburton. Does Obama own any shares in ShoreBank? *-)

who owned shares of HAL?
-
Cheney was HAL CEO? for along time.
There is this whole HAL timeline....
here is a little something:
***********.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/26/politics/main575356.shtml

I think all administrations are in bed with industries.... no different - Reps, Dems... they all are puppets of those who pay them...not to sound too cynical. Our lobbying system led to this. Country is ruled by industry interests, we saw it during recent healthcare debate - nobody could do anything.

just reading recently a lot about food industry history.....oh,my, oh,my. Just take Monsanto/ Rumsfield/ aspartame story. Disgusting, dirty...There is so much info on it. Just read Pollan or Marion Nestle.

********97.74.65.51/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=11068
the truth is that Halliburton has always received no-bid contracts during Clinton and the war in Bosnia too.. because no one can do this kind of work on that scale, no company..
but Obama??!! did we vote for change?? and we got the most corrupt Chicago machine politician.. reminds me of Blagojevich when he as a governor awarded grants to a local hospital and demanded 50K to his campaign..I guess this is common practice in Chicago..
for a president put pressure on private businesses to give money to another private business (whichhas strong connection to his people).. unheard of..

Занятная статья в Chicago Tribune о том, какими методами Президент Линкольн выиграл номинацию от Демократической Партии
"Lincoln supporters poured into the city, courtesy of special cheap rail fares engineered by Lincoln's men. No tickets to the convention? No problem. Counterfeit convention tickets were printed on local presses — history doesn't record whose (but we can guess) — and handed out to Lincoln boosters."
***********.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-lincoln-20100514,0,1136086.story?page=1
За 150 лет в чикагской политике немногое изменилось :-D :-D

Chaney had no interest in HAL once he became a VP..
HAL as well as 100s of other contractors received bidded as well as no-bid contracts for at least 50 years..
The only reason Chaney and HAL were singled out is because he happened to be a CEO of that company before.
In fact once he became a VP he converted all his accounts into blind trusts ( which is very common ).
The interesting story about this particular bank is that it was singled out by Obama before for lending to "underprivileged".. what a successful business model, huh?
And later that was the only small bank to be "saved" instead of taken over by FDIC.
***********.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html <-- a list of banks that were NOT saved.

September 25, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A congressional report concludes that, under federal ethics standards, Vice President Dick Cheney still has a financial interest in Halliburton, the energy services company he used to run.


The report says that the deferred compensation that Cheney receives from Halliburton as well as the more than 433,000 stock options he possesses "is considered among the 'ties' retained in or 'linkages to former employers' that may 'represent a continuing financial interest' in those employers which makes them potential conflicts of interest."

On Sept. 14, Cheney said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" that"Since I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I'vesevered all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financialinterest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind andhaven't had, now, for over three years."