It looks like Hillary has decided on her new role in the Democratic Party, that of Leftwing pamphleteer. The Wall Street Journal today has published an article by Hillary putting a spotlight on the corrupt and venal spread of private contractors such as Blackwater and Halliburton for projects and jobs that were once handled by government institutions.
Excerpt below the fold from the WSJ article entitled,No Crisis Is Immune From Exploitation Under Bush
<Tucked away on the Cayman Islands sits Ugland House, an unassuming, nondescript building of modest scale and size. However, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), this five-story office building is home to more than 18,000 corporate entities, nearly half of which have U.S. ties.</p>
In the past few years, the number of corporations flocking to places like the Cayman Islands to evade U.S. taxes has exploded. One of these companies, former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, has used offshore tax havens to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal taxes. To no one's surprise, instead of cracking down on KBR, the Bush administration has rewarded the company in April of this year with a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq.
There appears to be no crisis, tragedy or disaster immune from exploitation under the Bush administration. The examples of the waste, fraud and abuse are legion -- from KBR performing shoddy electrical work in Iraq that has resulted in the electrocution of our military personnel according to Pentagon and Congressional investigators, to the firing of an Army official who dared to refuse a $1 billion payout for questionable charges to the same company. In another scam, the Pentagon awarded a $300 million contract to AEY, Inc., a company run by a 22-year-old who fulfilled an ammunition deal in Afghanistan by supplying rotting Chinese-made munitions to our allies.>
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12179803 0763715107.html?mod=opinion_main_comment aries
She goes on to describe how the Bush crony contractors have taken over emergency response services such as FEMA, and that these contracts are sprinkled all over the government programs now, with no bid contracts and documented fraud rampant according to a GAO report.
She then calls for reform of the government contract services, with bullet points outlining steps she think will begin to reign in these out of control contractors.
Earlier, Hillary wrote another article alerting the public to the Bush White House initiative to classify certain birth contraceptive practices as abortion, therefore eliminating government and insurance payment for these practices. She called for public opposition to the Bush plan.
I'm sure many might see these moves by Clinton in a sinister light, as continuing her campaign against Obama in a stealth manner. She may be seen as shaming Obama by coming out as a bullhorn for the Left just he tries to pivot to the center to win the general election.
But maybe since she lost, this has freed her from her need to pander to the masses, so that she can now fight for what she believes in without constant political maneuver. Perhaps Obama would be doing the very same thing if she had won.
Whatever is behind it, I believe that this is a great move for her at this time. When has it been that some one who has won so many votes in an election, has come out forthrightly and clearly as a voice for the Left? I hope more politicians and citizens will join with her in creating a Liberal headwind for the country.
With this wind at his back, Obama may be able to guide our ship of state from these treacherous waters to the Promised Land.
(Cross posted at Daily KOS)
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