Can the crooked fucking politico change his morals in the face of a deepening national crisis?
The answer, reprinted from Reuters:
--
WASHINGTON (Sept. 10) - Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.
One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.
Bechtel National Inc., a unit of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., has also been selected by FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by the hurricane. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
--
There is more, of course. The article goes on to mention the more than one billion dollars in fraudulent billing KB&R submitted on their sweetheart no-bid contract to provide essential services for Our Proudly Supported (As Long As It Doesn't Cost Us Too Much Money) Troops in Iraq, and that sort of thing.
The slugline was:
FIRMS WITH BUSH TIES SNAG FIRST KATRINA CONTRACTS.
I would say something along the lines of "Fuck me like a goat," but the Administration, apparently, has that part covered. So to speak.
Jesus stinking bloody Christ on a stick.
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36 comments:
It's good to be king, init?
This isn't the least bit surprising, considering everything else this administration has capitalized on.
Chris, whether they are the best folks for the job or not, handing them business without seeking other bids would be bad policy if this were plumbing for your house. For billions of dollars, it's just not excusable. Also, "freak natural occurance" makes you sound like my mom, describing my birth... :)
Depends on what you mean by "do the job."
And it depends on who's being done.
It's not quite that simple.
But nothing ever is.
I was deployed to Iraq for 15 months with the Army. During said period we worked with KBR, ESS and a variety of other contractors. My father worked for KBR in Afghanistan for a few months as well.
Yes, they had no bid contracts to fix up our bases, provide food and what not. Here's how it worked. For every dollar KBR spent, they got something like 3 dollars in return. So a semi-decent meal at a mess hall would cost 15 dollars a plate.
They provided everything we asked for. Air conditioners, satellite TVs, mess halls, cots, vehicles, gyms, etc. You really have to live in a bombed out building with no AC for a summer, and eat MRES for the most part, to really appreciate what they did for us.
Now I don't agree with the no-bid contracts, or how much they charged, but they got the job done.
Those companies can get the job done in the diasaster areas, which is the most important thing so far as I'm concerned. The Federal government can hardly handle it, but this private sector company can. In the end, getting NO back up and running and getting people back in their homes is the most important thing.
Maybe a congressional committee can put the administration under a microscope in years to come, Iran Contra style.
One organization that people should look at and praise is AAFES, the on post Wal-Mart for the military. They provided goods and services to us in Iraq at the same prices we could find them state-side. They did it at a loss (shipping, los of goods) and the emplyees made barely more than they would back in the US. If more companies were like that in their dealings with the government, this would be a better situation.
Disclaimer: I voted for Bush both times, and in broad strokes, agree with the way things have beeen done...not on every thing, but most things. However, that being said, I think that he has definately made some stupid decisions on some things as well. But, becacuse of my moral/religous beliefs, I feel I have no alternative that is any better and most probably worse.
On Topic: What would you guys & gals be saying if Bush put these things out to bid, waited on the respondents, fully evaluated them, and then finally chose the best vendor for the job?
I work in public education in the Technology field and I know how slow this process works, even when we are trying our best to make it go quickly. When we need to purchase equipment or services we have to plan 2 months ahead so that when we think we are going to need something, we get the process rolling way ahead of time. Bureaucracy slows everything down.
So, back to my main point. If the Bush administration took the normal amount of time to properly evaluate the vendors, you would be screaming bloody murder that he was dragging his feet and not responding fast enough. "Screw the red tape, you're the President! We need someone to take charge and make decisions to help the poor, underprivelaged people of the Gulf!!!"
Oh wait you already have...
Again, that's not to say that they haven't made a poor decision on who they picked in this instance.
I just sometimes get the feeling that Bush haters will complain about anything he does...sometimes not realizing how funny it seems to us that are on the other side. You complain about the initial slow response; now you complain about how fast this facet of the recovery is going.
Can you not see how this seems and why we on the Right shake our heads in confusion at what appears to be contradictory arguments?
One more thing.....just thought of....
I guess the conspiracy theorist in me might construe the initial slow response to be on purpose so that they could later quickly award contracts to their friends in these companies and have the covering fire of saying almost the exact same thing I said above...."You gripe because we moved o to slow, now you gripe because we move to fast."
Who knows.....
See...we right wingers can be 'fair and balanced'
The Baton Rouge-based Shaw Group, CNN tells us, is a major corporate client of Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Among its Katrina-related contracts are this one valued up to $100 million from FEMA; and this one also valued up to $100 million from the Army Corps of Engineers.
But in their zeal to embarrass the Bush administration, CNN overlooks one very fat and inconvenient fact--and embarrasses only itself.
The Shaw Group, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, is headed by Jim Bernhard, the current chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Bernhard worked tirelessly for Democrat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's runoff campaign and served as co-chair of her transition team. Another Shaw executive was Blanco's campaign manager. Bernhard is back-scratching chums with Blanco, whom he has lent/offered the Shaw Group's corporate jets to on numerous occasions.
So, why was none of this mentioned in CNN's Bush-profiteers-are-evil narrative?
Send them a clue here.
Fortunately for CNN, they weren't the only ones guilty of this glaring omission:
UPI failed to note that the CEO of the Shaw Group also happens to be the Louisiana Democratic Party chairman and beleaguered La. Gov. Kathleen Blanco's most influential crony.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003518.htm
What you seem to be missing, along with your name, is any comprehension of the actual issue. It's not about Republicans vs. Democrats. And it never has been
Bear in mind that these corporations have NO LIMIT on billing, and GUARANTEED PROFIT REGARDLESS OF RESULT.
Further, bear in mind that Bush -- two days before these contracts were announced -- suspended a Depression-era rule that would have required them to pay their workers at least the prevailing wage.
One must wonder -- seeing as how it's an inherently anticompetitive process, and their profits are guaranteed anyway -- what the fuck happened to trickle-down economics when people really need it?
Oh yeah, I remember: "trickle-down economics" is when everyone above you on the ladder pisses on your head.
And profit is "evil" then?
You see the concept of "profits" as evil?
Then by logic, you classify the terrible loss of billions of dollars from the hurcicane as "good"?
If you trying to make a point against "crony-capitalism" (i.e. socialism), then please do a better job, as I am all for a true free market.
But you probably see the true free market as evil too, as you are in favor of losses versus profits.
Plus you are in favor of unemployement, artifically raising wages so people can't get jobs.
Maybe you should go back to pretending Bush is the "Devil" instead of bullshiting that you understand Economics 101.
But regardless, your first post was missing information that the biggest "Crony-Capitalists" in this sad story are the local Democratic politicians. You would think this would worry Democrats who actually cared about this nation. But it's all about Devil-Bush, isn't it? How sad you let this guy wrap you around his finger?
"...the 49% of Americans who have been complaining for five years about George W. Bush being a dictator are now vexed to the point of utter incoherence because for the last fortnight he has failed to do a sufficiently convincing impression of a dictator."
http://www.two--four.net/weblog.php?id=P1878
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1123495&page=2
Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a local congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings — even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned.
On Friday, Sept. 2 — five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast — Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken.
Military sources tells ABC News that Jefferson, an eight-term Democratic congressman, asked the National Guard that night to take him on a tour of the flooded portions of his congressional district. A 5-ton military truck and a half dozen military police were dispatched.
Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News that during the tour, Jefferson asked that the truck take him to his home on Marengo Street, in the affluent uptown neighborhood in his congressional district. According to Schneider, this was not part of Jefferson’s initial request.
Jefferson defended the expedition, saying he set out to see how residents were coping at the Superdome and in his neighborhood. He also insisted that he did not ask the National Guard to transport him.
[...]
The water reached to the third step of Jefferson’s house, a military source familiar with the incident told ABC News, and the vehicle pulled up onto Jefferson’s front lawn so he wouldn’t have to walk in the water. Jefferson went into the house alone, the source says, while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour.
Finally, according to the source, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck.
Two weeks later, the vehicle’s tire tracks were still visible on the lawn.
“I don’t think there is any explanation for an elected official using resources for their own personal use, when those resources should be doing search and rescue or they should be helping with law enforcement in the city,” said Jerry Hauer, a homeland security expert and ABC News consultant.
Jefferson said the trip was entirely appropriate. It took only a few minutes to retrieve his belongings, he said, and the truck stayed at his house for an hour in part to assist neighbors.
“This wasn’t about me going to my house. It was about me going to my district,” he said.
Shisou:
The people in the Superdome and the Convention Center were doing EXACTLY WHAT YOU SUGGEST: they were in the shelters. That's what those were. Shelters. Fucking pay attention. Without a car, you can't carry a week's worth of food and water to that shelter; without a gun, you can't defend your week's worth of food and water from the unprepared folk who would take it away from you.
With the resources to cover a week's worth of provisions, a car and a gun, of course, you don't really need to go to one of those shelters.
But that's another story.
As for the Anonymous head-up-his-ass, do not respond. He has nothing to say. He's not even trying to understand what anyone's talking about. He's just trolling.
You have no response because you know you are wrong.
*sigh*
I just can't help myself.
And, after all, his inability to think straight is a signature of its own, in a way.
So:
Read the fucking thread, pinhead.
It's not about Republicans vs. Democrats. Never was. Never will be.
There is nothing to suggest profits are evil. Except for the voices in your head.
Take your medication.
Come back when you're feeling better.
You may be god-looking, but you are such a pussy!
The story doesn't tell you that the president of Shaw is the chairman of the La. Democrat party. That he was head of Blanco's transition team. That one of the other officers in the company was the head of Blanco's Campaign commmittee. It would have made the story balanced if it had been included
"It's not about Republicans vs. Democrats."
No, but to you it's all abou DEVIL BUSH. How sad and pathetic.
"There is nothing to suggest profits are evil."
Then why are you bitching about the size of profits?
Never mind you don't understand Economics 101 and profits are never 100% assured (even under the crony-"capitalist" socialism of Democratic-run Louisiana -- and oh yeah, Evil Halliburton lost money in Iraq, those Evil Evil Evils!)
Of course, if YOU ran the show, you would jack up wages for your union-croines (i.e. keep in place an unfair law) and fuck over the little guy. All in the name of being PROGRESSIVE, of course.
There is no "Capitalism" going on in New Orleans. And fuck you for even suggesting it. It's all about lining the pockets of politicians -- most of them being Democrats. And fuck you agian for not mentioning that part of the story, you partisan slave.
- Anon
Scarber's a partisan slave?
He can reason. Your ability to do so has never been demonstrated.
However, as partisan slaves go, you make a lovely poster-boy.
God-looking, in fact.
What dogma or ideology have I demonstrated?
I don't worship DEVIL BUSH or blame all the ills of the world on this fictional demon (which seems the be the Party Line here).
Actually I despise Bush, just as I despise the dogma of liberal-fanboys who post here. But I don't let my hate get in the way of the real world.
Speaking of rational thought:
It's a fact that profits are never guranteed, so the poster was being incorrect in this assertion.
It's a fact that the original post was missing the improtant point that key cronies were in fact local Democrats, including the chairman of the Lousiana Democratic Party.
It's a fact that Price Theory states articially raising the prices of wages will hinder development and lead to less jobs (higher unemployment), leading to higher misery for all (but especially for poor people).
It's a fact that I have posted links to back my claims, presented rational arguments and asked rational questions, and that other posters have chosen to respond with profanity and ad hominem.
Enjoy your echo chamber, I'm out of here.
- Anon
It's not worth your time to NOT sign up.
Anonymous posts will be deleted without reply.
You are the last person to be lecturing anyone here about binary thinking.
Further, the disagreement is often, after all, only with what something thinks I mean, rather than with what I actually say . . .
But that's a story for another day.
Er, someONE.
I didn't even know Freud wore a slip . . .
I came across this completely by chance today. But it's rather appropriate.
[T]he people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and then denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
Anyone care to guess who said this without relying on a web-based search engine?
Crap, I know that quote -- I've used it myself.
Machiavelli? Goebbels?
Shit. I can't remember.
Hermann Wilhelm Göring.
Insane?
Hmm.
That's a legal term.
The way he's presented in Judgment at Nuremburg -- which is based largely on the actual transcripts -- is far from being a madman, he was ruthless intellectual in the "Stuff happens" Rumsfeldian mode who had the stones to tell the truth about his world-view.
For which we were gonna hang him, if he hadn't killed himself. And rightly so.
Here's another quote for you: "Y'know, there's nothing more dangerous than an intellectual with power. He can rationalize any crime, and he's certainly not going to let abstractions like justice [. . .] get in his way."
Ten points to the first one who guesses.
Is that quote attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Matt?
Ten points to Ticketman.
Dammit. That was too easy.
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