According to a new documentary Iraq for Sale, taxpayers pay forty-five bucks for a six pack of Coca-Cola. Gee, the soda machine charges $0.50 for a single soda that includes a large markup for the retailer and taxes. That would be $3.00. I imagine some costs for transportation, but no way that transportation costs $42.

And this is but one example.

__________________
Click for info on Intelligent Design or the evidence for evolution

If you don't charge $45 dollars, Pepsi-Cola wins.

__________________
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

The $42 went for the DU/Ti armor that kept the precious cargo unharmed by enemy fire. Too bad it took away from armor deployment elsewhere. But priorities are priorities.

__________________
A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Cheap. Some machines around here run a buck or more.

Anyway, is there a non-political point to this thread?

__________________
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Lots of opportunity for comedy, but mostly of a political satire variety.

So, agreed.

Then we might get into an economics discussion, which is perhaps what the OP hoped for. Moving a product 12,000 miles or so does incur a few additional costs compared to moving it from the local bottling plant to the area's vending machines and retail distributors.

Then there's the whole question of the impact of the infamous "middleman".

__________________
A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Pepsi has a bottling plant in Iraq. Buy lolly water from there.

Heck, when I was in Hong Kong I drank coca-cola ilegally shipped from South Africa. And that wasn't $45 a six pack.

__________________
Click for info on Intelligent Design or the evidence for evolution

And I just discovered that the $45 six packs are locally bottled

__________________
Click for info on Intelligent Design or the evidence for evolution

What---no Wal-Mart in the Green Zone yet?

Check out this interview with the creator of the documentary Iraq for Sale.

__________________
Click for info on Intelligent Design or the evidence for evolution

Iraq for Sale (Google Video)

__________________
Click for info on Intelligent Design or the evidence for evolution

This thread has a great potential to blossom into a very political discussion, and I am amazed that so far all of the political implications have remained unsaid here, aside from links to more openly political writings.

I'm flagging this thread for the other moderators and administrators to look at. Please continue to use caution when writing on this topic.

__________________
Forming opinions as we speak

Did you ever notice how some eyepieces have good resolution to the edge of their fields, and then, the next day, when you are inspecting them, and cleaning as required, you notice the baffles that not only reduced internal reflection, but also changed the effective focal ratio of the eyepiece, resulting in lower power but better defined images?

Nah, that would never happen...

__________________
A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Y'all remember back during Reagan where we had Expensive toilet seats and hammers? Course they failed to mention the amounts of tests that a toilet seat has to go through to meet with FARs (Federal Aviation Regulations) or the fact that the hammer was used to work on a certain Titanium survelience aircraft, interactions with the iron from a normal hammer would of course cause that titanium to corrode and fail, but what the heck, it's an expensive hammer and toilet seat.

Wonder what we're leaving out with this one, Eh?

I'm not arguing politics, just stating some obvious facts, like leaving out the obvious facts. It'd be like saying, "Did you know that the Annual Budget for Toilet paper at the White House is 400,000 dollars a year? What are they feeding Mr. and Mrs. Bush, hmmmmm?" Lets leave out the fact that vast number of people and toilets in the White house, state events, etc. and of course my number is just an example, I'm sure they have a purty good budget for toilet paper. But I wonder what the average household budget for TP is and how it compares per head count.

The whole Haliburton Coke thing, if broken down and itemized, I'm sure has a logical and understaed explanation. But that wouldn't be shoken and vote swaying which is why the report is up.

I'm afraid I don't have time right now to look into this but are we sure this isn't just a case of cost accounting expense allocations? I have a post that discusses it here and how it related to those expensive hammers and toilet seats back in the 80s.

__________________
Now while I might be amused by Cthulhians, I don't necessarily distrust them to carry out the functions of government. -- JayUtah

What's it like being a skeptic in the Middle East? Check out my blog.

At two dollars a roll (not package), and changing each roll twice a day whether it needs it or not, you're talking about stocking 273 restrooms in the White House. Changing the roll four times a day (whether it needs it or not) means stocking only 136 restrooms.

Taking a different tack, assuming there are as many as fifty restrooms on the White House grounds covered by this budget, and sticking with the 2 dollars a roll pricetag, means each and every roll could be replaced 10 times per day, with enough left over for high-traffic areas.

*cough* The cooks may want to lay off the fiber.

__________________
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling [faces] lyin' to ye' everywhere ye' go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Is there verification for this? Or do we just have to assume it is true because the claim is made in a political movie?

Two and a half years ago there were reports that a Halliburton subcontractor was charging $45 per case of Coke trucked in from Kuwait. Since then the story has become a $45 six-pack.

__________________
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. ---Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530)

Oh even better! I saw a "documentary" that proves we never went to the moon! And another that it was actually the US goverment that blew up the twin towers with a "construction nuke" , and Easter Island heads were built by aliens! And and and....

Okay, when do we get to the "Republicans drink babies' blood while dancing naked under the full moon and grow tails at midnight". I haven't seen that one yet.

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

There hasn't been a "documentary" made since the cold war ended and the news services disbanded their professional journalism standards in favor of shrill, headline grabbing, partisan, attention seeking. Most of you are too young to remember what professional journalism used to be.

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

Ha---getting them made is one thing; getting them aired is quite another.

The claims made on the film are made by numerous former Halliburton employees and U.S. military personal who served in Iraq. Audits of Halliburton are also mentioned.

A Halliburton Contract Administrator and others supported the $45 coke six-pack claim on camera.

They also had an American soldier telling that he was ordered not to do his own laundry so Halliburton could do it. He wanted to do his own because Halliburton did a bad job at cleaning the clothes. And they charge enormous amount of money to clean a load of laundry ($100).

__________________
Click for info on Intelligent Design or the evidence for evolution

Hey Harly, just so you know, I'm not jumping you in this at all. You had nothing to do with the production and are merely the messenger. Love, peace, happiness.

Still, ever see anything by removed bad language Micheal Moore? Editing, misdirection and out of context quotes are the word of the day with him. And he even admits to it and folks still by into his movies.

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

So the movie is the verification that the movie is accurate?

__________________
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. ---Cardinal Wolsey (1475-1530)

Well I don't see any problem with that.


BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry about any percieved bad language. Thought that was a childrens phrase.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphamism

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales

I could ask my boyfriend . . . .

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

An ad hom attack against Michael Moore is asking for a fight. Thankfully no one from the left responded, and no one from the right piled on.

__________________
Forming opinions as we speak

I.. without antagonism, I doubt that he has any defenders even on the left (I am speaking only of his film making).

__________________
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

He's very much like Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter in his technical arguments.

So, what is the point of this thread? Is it an argument for an investigation to verify the current cost of Coca-Cola in Iraq and the reasons for it?

__________________
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

I disagree, there have been a lot of good documenteries made since then but most of them have been A. not about politics or B. Not made in the USA

For example, i believe Space Race was a good documentery, but anything Mike Mooreish is not IMO

__________________
There is no dark side of the moon really, as a matter of fact it's all dark - Pink Floyd, The Dark Side Of The Moon