What is Digg?232 Comments
- keltin, on 04/15/2008, -5/+116THat is a huge conflict of interest. All monies so wagered (indeed it is a wager, of failry high chance, however) should be forfeit immediately. The congresspeople or senators so involved should be sacked.
This is disgusting. - phnx0221, on 04/15/2008, -5/+93This is huge. This is precisely why, during this election in November, we can't forget that not only are we voting for our choice of presidential candidates, but also for our congressional representatives. We cannot let these people keep their seats. We have had an estimated death toll of 600,000 to 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens, and over 4,000 US soldiers, since the Iraq war and occupation began. These people have DIED, horrible deaths, because of lies, greed, and corruption. The same people who have been so outspoken against the war when it befitted their interests, actually have vested interest in keeping this war going.
People are dying, millions are displaced (meaning, they not only have their homes to go to, but they are now refugees living in other countries), families have been torn apart, and economies are sinking, all while the pockets of the rich and powerful are getting thicker and thicker, off the backs of the dead. We CANNOT allow them to get away with this, and the most powerful thing we have right now, is our votes. Use them wisely. - vault, on 04/15/2008, -6/+72"Senator John Kerry, the Democrat from Massachusetts who staked his 2004 presidential bid in part on his opposition to the war, tops the list of investors."
- dotlizard, on 04/15/2008, -3/+69i'm just trying to understand how a human being could live with themselves, sleep at night, face themself in the mirror, all while amassing vast wealth from lucrative defense contractor investments. let alone if their day job involved voting more funds for the war. there should be no such thing as war profit -- but since that's unlikely to happen, there should damn well be no war profit in the portfolios of any public officials. period.
vote the soulless thugs out of office. please. - BlindingDawn, on 04/15/2008, -4/+50That's like going to Vegas and seeing everyones hand.
- Bagos1, on 04/15/2008, -4/+36So much for democracy huh? They want your vote to stay in power....nothing else. All of this nonsense abount change...forget it. Show me the money!
- absolutelytrue, on 05/26/2009, -2/+30These are the underhanded scumbags that we have elected. Now we have to use our votes in a more educated manner. Thanks for bringing this to the attention of as many people as possible.
- lazycat, on 04/15/2008, -4/+31"Money makes dogs dance." - French proverb
- TrevaLVF, on 04/15/2008, -6/+32Among those war profiteers - John "Skull & Bones" Kerry and Al Gore's former running-mate Joe Lieberman (A co-founder of the Democratic Leadership Council which not only whores out the Democratic Party to corporate lobbyists that love political whores, but also invests in war).
- sherrife, on 04/15/2008, -7/+33Most of us already knew that the Democrats are just as disgusting as the Republicans, but thanks for pointing that out for those clinging to their illusions in Obama and/or Clinton :)
- FunnyBunnyBo, on 04/15/2008, -8/+34The American people have the power to end the War OF Terror. It's called a GENERAL STRIKE. On the West Coast, port laborers are going on strike on May 1st to show resistance to this war, I encourage the American people to use this strategy, until the War OF Terror ends and the real terrorists (bushco) are in prison awaiting trial for crimes against humanity.
- svtspeed, on 04/15/2008, -3/+28Step 1. Start War
Step 2. ???
Step 3. Profit
I guess we now know what step 2 is. - rpfinley, on 04/15/2008, -2/+26This just isn't for wars. Its every part of the budget. Representatives write earmarks for the people contributing to their campaigns. This is why they won't release earmarks to the public. I thought Pelosi was going to clean this up but she is just another fat cat lining her pockets.
- RabidAngel, on 04/15/2008, -5/+28***** elections. Tear this ***** down and rebuild it. The corruption has become too embedded.
- allowners, on 04/15/2008, -6/+28Profit from war should be strictly illegal. Such a restriction would eliminate most war overnight.
- inactive, on 04/15/2008, -3/+20People do need to understand that Obama has voted to fund the occupation every time it came up for a vote.
- inactive, on 04/15/2008, -6/+22The occupation of the middle east is just one component of the Class War. Wealthy elites sucking the blood from everyone else. War is just one instrument in their toolbox.
- Jimmyb207, on 04/15/2008, -3/+16This is just one of many components of the war machine. Sleazy politicians investing, and making money, in the corporations that make and provide the tools of war. These people are completely void of morality. The death and misery that these "people" invest in most likely isn't even given a second thought. It's an opportunity to them, not a sickening tragedy. It lends a little more understanding to why our "government" isn't in any hurry to end the war. Cut and Run....we've heard it so many times, it's starting to take on a new meaning.
- sherrife, on 04/15/2008, -2/+15There're no soulful politicians to vote for under capitalism, it is an oxymoron. The only solution is real, direct democracy.
- souljaboytellem, on 04/15/2008, -2/+13I don't know why I'm still suprised to see how corrupted this government is, you'd think I learn by now...
- DRINKxREDxBULL, on 04/15/2008, -6/+17Don't forget about war proffiteer Democrat Senator Feinstien. She used her position on an approprations commitee to steer defense contacts worth tens of milliions of our money to companies that just happened to be owned by her husband.
- humanerror, on 04/15/2008, -2/+13That sounds dangerously close to sedition citizen. Do you require medication?
Resume consumer activities at once. Further resistance will precipitate corrective action.
For the home land, patriot. - phnx0221, on 04/15/2008, -2/+13Great point. I like Obama in comparison to Hillary and McCain, but we can't delude ourselves into thinking that this person is more than he is. He's still a politician, he's still running for president, and the words and images of these people who are campaigning (or hell, even speaking), are never louder than their actions.
- sgtpppr, on 04/15/2008, -2/+12Wow, talk about a severe conflict of interest. I don't see how it can even be argued that it is ok to oversee gov't contract bids and have investments in companies that receive the bids. What's even worse is that it has obviously been going on so long that law makers do it pretty much out in the open.
- fuhcough, on 04/15/2008, -4/+14Insider trading at its best.
- angusm, on 04/15/2008, -3/+13I'm sure that our lawmakers are already queuing up to donate all the profits from their investments to the families of the thousands of US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans killed in their wars.
Ooops, sorry - gotta run. I'm late for my ice-skating lesson with Satan. - inactive, on 04/15/2008, -1/+11"This is disgusting."
But not new. It was old news when this was published in the 1930s: http://www.wanttoknow.info/warisaracket
Nothing has changed. It's a scam. It's always been a scam. It will always be a scam. - Truzseeker, on 04/15/2008, -3/+12I don't think that there is anything that would preclude criminal indictments to be taken against these people. Its sad that the American people lack GUTS.
- fokov, on 04/15/2008, -1/+9Yet, if a corporation gives its people X dollar raise if they accept the hint to donate to his campaign, people do not see that as lobbyists donations, yet the money comes directly from the corporation. I know if i was a billion dollar corporation, I would give my employees a bonus and "allow" them to spend it freely on any candidate they "choose"
- gravityboard, on 04/15/2008, -9/+17I'm pretty sure most self respecting democrats who voted for Kerry in 04 were going for a 'beat Bush' strategy rather than voting their conscience. The party isn't responsible for these atrocities, it's the system.
- francis7, on 04/15/2008, -1/+9if we all take the time to look back in history... i bet we'll all see the same trend.
After all it is a common belief at least here in this country that wars are good for the economy. then the above phenomenon are just a by-product of it. I do not condone it but let's be realistic this is nothing new.
And maybe it would have gone unnoticed if the economy wasn't in this much doo-doo and everyone was well-off and doing fine. Now as people that are capable of critical thinking do your own research... a good start would be a google "war are good for the economy"... then make up your own mind - swrostmore, on 04/15/2008, -6/+14Wow, Kerry really does act according to his conscience and not according to his investments, then.
- phnx0221, on 04/15/2008, -1/+8Who, along with much of our now democratic congress, got voted in under false pretenses. They lied to us (surprise, surprise), and betrayed our confidence...again. We need to take a very close look at who is running in our states this year, vote the incumbents out if they have failed to vote along the lines of their constituency, and most certainly if they played on the frustrations of the American public to garner votes into office.
There are plenty of grassroots candidates that don't have the major media support that the incumbents, or wealthy politicians do. I suggest we take a close look at who is running, what their stances are, and more importantly, what actions they have taken to support their words. - albatross5000, on 04/15/2008, -1/+8The saddest thing about this is that it is somehow "news". What the *****!? Eisenhower told us about the military industrial complex and its conflict of interest within the government DECADES AGO. In a PUBLIC ADDRESS. The problem is that none of us tax payers and voters are close enough to the devastation caused by it. $3/gallon for oil is PEANUTS. 4 thousand dead in 9/11 is nothing compared to the death because of our actions overseas. Voters do nothing because there is not enough at stake. Perhaps some day we will pay for our actions with our OWN blood. Then maybe we'll listen to Ike, pay attention, ask questions, and DEMAND change.
Listen to the spirit Mario Savio about the type of machine which spills blood and exploits people only to fill the pockets of a large room full of old white men and their families--
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tcx9BJRadfw
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop."
For now, despite 9/11, we have not been made accountable for our voting decisions and our blind eyes to the obvious facts laid out in this article (which is news? NEWS?) - so we do not put our bodies into the gears and wheels of the United States economic and fighting WAR MACHINE and force it to come to a stop, but instead pay for these wars ourselves.
Maybe some day the war will come to us. If we're totally spent on fighting iraq, a country with barely no army before Gulf War II (we wiped them out the first time) -- then imagine a war on our own soil against a country with a REAL army. Some day we might pay for our indifference and carelessness in triggering the spilling millions of gallons of blood on foreign soil.
The military industrial complex:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower - AlbinoRaven, on 04/15/2008, -1/+8The real question is how would you tear it down without effecting everything you rely on to get by in your daily life? Weird things like, electricity, food distribution, gasoline...hell even TV. (Revolutions need a media distribution point to spread their counter-propoganda/propoganda.)
It's odd the cat calls for revolution never identify how to do it and who gets to fight for it. So far peaceful demonstrations are less effective than product boycotts. The paper in writing campaigns might as well be written on toliet paper.
As far as you say "***** elections.", that's exactly what created this mess in the first place. too few people getting involved and too few voting. People already say "***** elections" and look what it got them. G.W. Bush Jr. - notque, on 04/15/2008, -1/+8In many respects you are right, but keeping McCain out is still very important. He's the only candidate openly advocating a new terrorist war in Latin America.
- azpat, on 04/15/2008, -2/+9It's money laundering, from taxpayers, through the war, through the contractors, to the investors who authorized the war. while our children go off to die, they get rich. Maybe it's time to heed Ventura's call and start the real revolution.
- LeePeyton, on 04/15/2008, -1/+8KBR owns Iraq at this point. As some one wearing green that has been there.
Everything there is KBR. - jontalisman, on 04/15/2008, -7/+13I wonder if poor Obama realizes this about his good friend, John Kerry.
- jontalisman, on 04/15/2008, -9/+15I wonder if poor Obama realizes his good friend, John Kerry, has a vested interest in keeping the war machine running?
- kingUssop, on 04/15/2008, -2/+8I don't care what the specifics are of how they set up their funds, blind or not, it should be illegal for a politician to have any investments in wars they control. This needs to be looked at.
- inactive, on 04/15/2008, -4/+10yea and your vote for dumbass president of the ***** century is a much better choice...NOT!
- pagno, on 04/15/2008, -2/+8There is nothing any of them can say to justify this. The blood of American soldiers is on their hands.
- hasslinthehoff, on 04/15/2008, -3/+9Vote them all out. And keep voting them out until graft and corruption stops being a normal way of doing business in Congress.
- gigamugged, on 04/15/2008, -1/+6Wow, this is finally making the news. Conflict of interest was obvious before the war even started, for anyone who bothered to read up on the Carlyle Group and who was invested in it. If we had any semblance of courage left in this country, we'd force the war profiteers to donate all of their ill-gotten gains to the Veteran's Administration.
- vault, on 04/15/2008, -1/+6I think most of the country probably didn't know that about Kerry...I personally didn't until this article.
You're welcome though :) - warlokaz2004, on 04/15/2008, -1/+6war profitteering. I don't care how 'indirect', its a true disgrace these 'public servants' line their pockets as soldiers die. and this comes from a Barry Goldwater/Ronald Reagan republican.
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