Ok, patronage deals and loose purse strings generally go hand in hand (regardless of which party is in power). I don't like it either, BUT have any of the outraged here ever gone through a government bid before? The ideal utopia in your head doesn't exist outside that theater. Slow is not the right adjective, inert is more like it. It's the primary reason the Red Cross is advocating the immediate and direct funding/reimbursement of faith based organizations involved with hurricane recovery. They are organizationally more dynamic and are not paralyzed by bureaucracy. Would you have rather we waited 6-8+ WEEKS to get proper bids on restarting the pumps, repairing the levees, housing the displaced? When there is a luxury of time I am all for traditional checks and balances. To suggest anything else in a time of crisis than an immediate response by whatever means possible/necessary is just pure hubris by the unaffected. That's how FEMA failed, coloring inside the lines to a fault. Whether you agree with them or not, sometimes the Halliburton-types of the world are the only ones organized, equipped, and staffed to handle extreme situations. Save your outrage until after it's reasonable safe for regular businesses to take over suckling the government tits.
Just my 2 cents... -john -----Original Message----- From: revtec [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 6:41 AM To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Subject: Re: Secondary Disaster hits New Orleans Between listening to talk radio and reading posts from this group, my head is spinning. Will the real planet earth please stand up, so I can figure out which one I'm on! Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jones Beene" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "vortex" <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 7:24 PM Subject: OT: Secondary Disaster hits New Orleans > Who is Joe Allbaugh ? > > Disaster Pimp, bag-man deluxe, or just a "very lucky" citizen? > http://slate.msn.com/id/2125756/ > > The Shaw Group - a Louisiana construction firm, represented by Joe > Allbaugh, President George Bush's former campaign manager, and former > head of FEMA - won a $100-million **no-bid** FEMA contract to work on > a "variety of tasks," within hours of the Bush disaster relief > announcement (as...with Tom's help there is no Delay). > > No one seems to know what the $100-million worth of **no-bid** FEMA > "tasks" consist of, other than personal enrichment and graft, nor why > this huge contract was not let out for competitive bidding, as is > normal even in disasters - nor why Allbaugh was even allowed to get > his foot in the door - a seeming conflict of interest for the former > FEMA head. > > This is almost a joke, were it not a dead serious payback, at great > taxpayer expense, to a former Bush campaign manager. > > Shaw Group also won a $100-million contract from the Army Corps of > Engineers to work on "de-watering New Orleans." The Corps says it > contacted four companies, and Shaw was the only one to bid. Check out > Shaw's PAC contributions.... > > The other companies deny that any timely request for bids was made by > the Army. The $200 million net for no-bid work, arranged by Allbaugh > could probably be done for a quarter of that sum, given normal > competitive bidding, say the watchdog groups, who are never covered on > the national News. That would be unpatriotic, no? > > Allbaugh's fee for both - reported to be $30 million - off the top. > Typical finder's fee according to insiders, nothing unusual ??? > > Thank you very much, Dick and George. Yes Dick is in here with the > payola also. Whenever taxpayer money is there for the taking, > Cheney's shadow is overlooking everyting. Another Allbaugh client - > KBR, a wholly owned subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheney's former > firm, Halliburton Co. and an offshore tax haven - also was hired > immediately for Katrina work, ostensibly under an existing contract > with the Navy but with **no-bid** add-ons. The Navy even tried hard > not to mention the name "Halliburton" until asked about who owned KBR. > > "It appears the same cast of characters is raking up these contracts > that got money from the Iraq reconstruction," said Beth Daley, > spokeswoman for the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington > advocacy group. > > Within days of this disaster the politicos have there hands in the > taxpayers pocket. Do they have no shame? > >
