Lizzie Cheney - The Pride of Lockheed Martin - Speaketh

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/lizzie-cheney-the-pride_b_39398.html


Something is troubling Elizabeth Cheney, the other daughter of the Lockheed-Halliburton syndicate. Although the problem troubling our dear Lizzie is not her conscience, because that would require first that she have a conscience. No, what is troubling Lizzie is the lack of courage and an interest in losing she ascribes to those who are opposed to her daddy's war.

Writing a Washington Post opinion that no one asked for and no one wants, especially from this family, Lizzie attacks those that threaten future war profits:

"Sen. Hillary Clinton declared this weekend, "I'm in to win." Anyone who has watched her remarkable trajectory can have no doubt that she'll do whatever it takes to win the presidency. I wish she felt the same way about the war.

-snip-

Having no sense of decency and no sense of shame has become the Cheney family calling card, has it not? But let's hear Lizzie's contribution, since this is the only thing she has or will ever contribute to the war effort, lies.

I'd like to ask the politicians in both parties who are heading for the hills to stop and reflect on these basic facts:
We are at war. America faces an existential threat. This is not, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has claimed, a "situation to be solved." It would be nice if we could wake up tomorrow and say, as Sen. Barack Obama suggested at a Jan. 11 hearing, "Enough is enough." Wishing doesn't make it so. We will have to fight these terrorists to the death somewhere, sometime. We can't negotiate with them or "solve" their jihad. If we quit in Iraq now, we must get ready for a harder, longer, more deadly struggle later.


These are not facts; rather they are opinions twisting basic facts. But since Lizzie is asking for reflection, presumably because she cannot bring herself to look into a mirror, let's indeed reflect.

America is facing a threat she tells us, something we too know quite well. No one in the Cheney family has had to sacrifice anything to this war, but they sure have profited from this war, a bit of facts missing from her own concerns about courage:

Whatever the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, business is booming. Not long after Bush took office, Lockheed Martin's revenues soared by more than 30 percent, as it was awarded $17 billion in contracts from the Department of Defense, a far cry from the lean years of the Clinton administration. (Under Clinton, it did win $2 billion in contracts with the Department of Energy for nuclear weapons activity; recently Bush called for 125 new nukes a year, opening up new contract horizons in that area, as well.) Its stock went from 16.375 in October of 1999 to 71.52 in June of 2002. As professor of finance at the State University at Buffalo Michael Rozeff observes, "the stock market anticipates many events."
Lockheed Martin reported 2002 sales of $26.6 billion, a backlog of more than $70 billion and free cash of $1.7 billion. And that was before the war in Iraq.


Dick Cheney's son-in-law, Philip J. Perry, a registered Lockheed lobbyist who had, while working for a law firm, represented Lockheed with the Department of Homeland Security, had been nominated by Bush to serve as general counsel to the Department of Homeland Security. His wife, Elizabeth Cheney, serves as deputy assistant secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs.

Vice President Cheney's wife, Lynne, had, until her husband took office, served on the board of Lockheed, receiving deferred compensation in the form of half a million dollars in stock and fees. Even President Bush himself has a Lockheed Martin connection. As governor of Texas, he had attempted to give Lockheed a multimillion-dollar contract to reform the state's welfare system. (Source).

-long revealing snip -

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