A gift from US taxpayers: $1 billion for Halliburton. Incumbent advantage and the shutting out of competition is paying off, non-metaphorically speaking, for Cheney's Halliburton (New York Times):

A week ago, the Corps of Engineers Web site carried an amendment to the contract proposal, saying that 220 projects, mostly at installations above the ground, must be completed for Iraq's oil production to reach prewar levels. The projects are divided into three phases, with a total estimated cost of $1.14 billion.

But the corps notes in the plan that the first two phases, which together would require about $967 million in investments, would have to be completed by Dec. 31.

Halliburton's competitors worry that if the winner of the new contracts is not announced until Oct. 15, that company could not even begin the work before year's end. The only company that could do the work based on that timetable is Halliburton, its competitors say.

Only the third and final phase, worth about $176 million and requiring the work to be completed by March 31, could realistically be performed by a Halliburton competitor, its rivals say.

Wall Street is looking kindly on Cheney's Halliburton fraternity and its incumbent advantage as they record increased revenues, thanks to invaluable US taxpayer assistance in restoring them to profitability.

Link via Matthew Yglesias.

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Enron's Fastow gets hot in Houston. Much to its credit, the Houston Chronicle has successfully led the charge for a hearing to make public the transcript of last week's closed hearing in the criminal case against former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow:

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt said he will hear from the Chronicle Aug. 26. Citing the First Amendment, the newspaper has asked Hoyt to make public the record of a July 28 hearing that was scheduled for open court, but was instead held behind closed doors.

It's 101 degrees in Houston today — much too stuffy for closed doors. A little sunshine and First Amendment fresh air for Enron's secrets might be beneficial.

And with the help of the judiciary, life will continue to get hotter still for W's Enron friends who are still at large, as more and more of their dastardly secrets come out into the Texas sun.

{ 12:23 PM }

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The cold light of science shines on Chuck Colson. Mark A. R. Kleiman, a blogger and UCLA professor, outs Christian felon and presidential faith-buddy for fake science (i.e., lying) in Slate:

When he was governor of Texas, Bush invited Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship to start InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a fundamentalist prison-within-a-prison where inmates undergo vigorous evangelizing, prayer sessions, and intensive counseling. Now comes a study from the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society reporting that InnerChange graduates have been rearrested and reimprisoned at dramatically lower rates than a matched control group.

[...]

But when you look carefully at the Penn study, it's clear that the program didn't work. The InnerChange participants did somewhat worse than the controls: They were slightly more likely to be rearrested and noticeably more likely (24 percent versus 20 percent) to be reimprisoned. If faith is, as Paul told the Hebrews, the evidence of things not seen, then InnerChange is an opportunity to cultivate faith; we certainly haven't seen any results.

[...]

...if you're smart, you don't listen the political advocates of "faith-based" this and that when they say they're only asking us to support programs that have been "proven" to work.

Once again, fuzzy math to support faith-based science, undoubtedly to cast a voodoo economic magic spell. Why doesn't Dubya just appoint Colson to serve as the Secretary of the Department of Exorcism, Leeches and Alchemy?

The United States of America — marching toward medievalism!

Link via Tapped. We most recently wrote about Chuck in June.

{ 4:24 PM }

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Trenton makes — the world takes. Tom Tomorrow photographs and comments on one of my favorite city slogans in the world.

{ 9:18 AM }

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If it's August, this must be Crawford. The World's Laziest and Most Incompetent Leaders have left the White Building:

In what has become an annual tradition, Bush stopped at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda for the exams on his way to a month-long stay at his 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch, which he will use as a base for traveling to political and official events.

[...]

Vice President Cheney, who is spending the month at his home in Jackson Hole, Wyo., is following Bush's lead and giving up fishing time to raise money for their reelection campaign. Between them, Bush and Cheney plan to travel to 13 of their own fundraisers during August, and each plans to make a fundraising stop for another Republican candidate.

[...]

A CBS News tally shows this is Bush's 26th presidential trip to Crawford. He has spent all or part of 166 days at the ranch or en route -- the equivalent of 5-1/2 months. When Bush's trips to Camp David and Kennebunkport, Maine, are added, according to the CBS figures, Bush has spent 250 full or partial days at his getaway spots -- 27 percent of his presidency so far.

These all-August, every-August vacation schedules don't seem representative of the American workplace, even by CEO standards.

In fact, they sound downright French.

UPDATE: A new presidential statement from whitehouse.org: "...I did briefly consider cutting my Crawford time short this year – because, you know, when those Arabiacs spent my 2001 vacation plotting to fly into the World Trade Center, it sure made me look like a slack-ass Bozo when I finally rolled back into Washington. But, then Laura reminded me that I am not just taking a vacation for myself. I'm also vacationing for all our boys in uniform who have been on duty for the past 365 days straight. So, I may take even longer, and will certainly be adding one additional tribute day for each American National Guardsmen who gets mowed down by some Iraqi who's jubilantly embracing the freedom to exercise our Second Amendment."

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