Winner of This Week's Cronyism Award

The Left Coaster reveals why 2 private security companies implicated in Iraqi prisoner torture may get off scott-free:

Private Security Contractors Implicated In Prisoner Abuse Scandal Are Big GOP Campaign Contributors Two of the private security companies implicated by the Army in the Iraqi prisoner abuse investigations happen to be Titan Corporation and CACI. Aside from the possibility that employees of these firms may escape prosecution, why else should you not be surprised at the "go slow" attitude by Bush and Ashcroft towards pursuing prosecution of these private goons and cancelling contracts when the Pentagon has had this information for months? Here's several despicable reasons, and as usual with this White House, it all comes back to cash. Both of these firms are big campaign contributors to the GOP, and as you’ll notice from looking at Titan’s contribution history, they managed to give $75,000 to the GOP right at the time when Rummy and Tommy Franks were ramping up their war preparations in Kuwait without congressional knowledge and approval. The CEO of CACI is J. Phillip London, who happens to be a big campaign contributor to the GOP. Note that you won’t expect Senator John Warner to do anything to push for an investigation of CACI. Why? Because London has given money to Warner. In fact, London personally has given over $10,000 to various GOP officeholders and committees just since 2000. But London is a pauper in his giving to the GOP when compared to Titan Corporation’s Gene Ray, who is a virtual ATM for the GOP. Ray has given nearly $50,000 to the GOP since 2000. Let's see how long it takes the media to catch on here.

The next edition of Webster's Collegiate Dictionary will have a picture of the Bush team under the word "cronyism".