VP's Evil Empire

In yet another stunning conflict of interest the U.S. Army just awarded a huge, and seemingly inflated, contract to Halliburton:

The Army has ordered nearly $5 billion in work from Halliburton Co. to provide logistics support to U.S. troops in Iraq over the next year, $1 billion above what the Army paid for similar services the previous year. - Washington Post

I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that there is unholy connection between Halliburton, it's subsidiary KBR, and the current administration. According to The New Yorker, Vice President Dick Cheney raked in a whopping 44 million dollars as chief executive of Halliburton. Despite stating that:

“I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape, or form of contracts led by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government.”

Cheney IS still involved when the cash starts to flow:

...he continues to collect deferred compensation worth approximately a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, and he retains stock options worth more than eighteen million dollars. - The New Yorker

I'm assuming that if the value of the company increases, based on...um, I don't know... let's say a 5 billion dollar contract, the value of his stock probably increases. I think it's important to remember that Halliburton has some experience with 'kickbacks'. It's too bad we can't fire a VP.