This may be a bit off topic, but prior to the big push for war -at least publicly - there was much speculation on Wall Street that Halliburton may have to declare bankruptcy and consequently Cheney would lose much of his twenty mil golden parachute. It is now known what happened to that corporation after war became a sad reality. There are still some who claim the war was more about the biggest ripoff in the history of this country than it was about politics.

A friend from Australia once commented that we do not have elections in this country-- what we have are carefully orchestrated auctions. There is no disputing that politicians basically are owned by corporations and the super rich. Democracy was not supposed to work this way.

I recall an obscure interview of a journalist,who after spending three years in Russia working for a magazine returned to work here in the US, saying he was amazed, shocked and frightened by the similarity with the Moscow structure he had found here. He was not only referring to what was allowed to be reported in the major corporate owned media, but the political power wielded by this select few because of the millions of dollars they are able to spend to extend their interests. This was before the Supreme Court further legalized political bribery.