KBR overcharged the U.S. Navy for providing meals to workers and service personnel in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, according to a Pentagon audit.[...]
"The Navy paid approximately $4.1 million for meals and services we calculate should have cost $1.7 million, more than a $2.3 million difference," said the audit, signed by Assistant Inspector General for Acquisition Management Richard Jolliffe.
I know. You’re shocked. Me too.
FEMA says its order only applies to trailers that are closed up in storage in the hot sun. Employees are permitted to go in and out of lived-in trailers. How often do they do that? The people who are living in the trailers 24 hours a day, particularly the children, are suffering from headaches, nose bleeds, asthma and skin rashes.
Formaldehyde is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as a carcinogen.
"There's always a more blessed day in the future and that's what we're here to celebrate."
Let me translate:
You are not going to be getting any satisfaction in this lifetime.
And from what I'm reading and hearing, that certainly looks to be possible, with federal and local officials still bickering about who is to do what, and even (according to NPR this morning) who is to blame for what went wrong.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Perhaps they can file suit against the City, the State and the Federal government for inadequate protection and for failing to inform them of the likelihood of a breach when they knew it existed.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
And he knows political theater if anyone does. (Mission Accomplished, Turkey Day in Iraq, Secret Flight to Turkey Day, Scripted Town Hall Meetings, Bring 'Em On, and on and on and on.)
After spending nine months in México and several more back in the U.S. without blogging, I was getting used to floating above the continuing madness. Because it truly is madness. There's nothing sane about the world.
So much has happened in the meantime - beginning with the Katrina disaster down to the federal justice purge (media headlines these days are either surge or purge) and (for me) the anti-climactic conviction of Scooter Libby for lying to an investigator. Karl Rove lied too. To the same investigator. In the same investigation. I don't see him in jail.
Well, anyway...
Too much has happened for me to try to go back and recover it all, but at the same time, nothing has changed. So the game goes on.
I recently listened to Molly Ivins' last public speech, and she had some good advice for the Colorado audience she addressed: Don't lose your sense of humor. Molly will be missed. While things are crumbling around us, I sometimes (less and less frequently) get down in the muck and mire and heaviness, but I remember the ancient Egyptian admonition about not getting to heaven unless Anubis weighs your heart on the scale and finds it to be lighter than a feather. I used to think that meant that you had a pure heart - only the good make it to heaven, right? But there's no need to make that interpretation. Light is light. Light-hearted. A heavy heart traps you in Hell.
Of course, it's no doubt a lot easier to be light-hearted for people with some financial security. And who don't have a kid in Iraq.
And, speaking of Hell...
That's a picture of my new neighbor on the other side of the island.
I recently moved from Columbia, Missouri, to Galveston, just south of Texas (as a Texan liberal who lives here on the island described it). That's Halliburton on the north side of the channel between me and the mainland.
There's a lot of poverty in Galveston. Demographically, the minority populations are just barely a minority. There also seems to be some resentment of the Katrina victims who came and stayed. I guess even the poor don't want the poorer around.
But Galveston was once the richest city in Texas, before that other great storm that drowned over 6,000 people and wiped most of Galveston right off the earth. It has a glorious history, still some of the old mansions, and a lot of charm. Not to mention, Gulf tides, palmetto palms, and sea gulls. And pelicans. And dolphins.
But I wanted to talk about Halliburton moving its headquarters to Dubai. Remember Dubai? That place that can't be trusted to manage our seaports? They're Arabs, remember? Even the Right-Wingers didn't like that one.
Halliburton, the company making a killing, so to speak, in Iraq from U.S. taxpayer dollars. Take the money and run.
Skipping a segue....I might be able to come up with one, but this post is long and I need a break. So do you....
Bernie Sanders wonders why the gaping chasm between the few haves and the multitude of have-nots isn't a topic of discussion in this country. Probably because the media owners and the "journalists" aren't homeless. And neither are the people being targeted by the advertisers. Recently I heard a couple of reports on Democracy Now! giving the following figures: in 1980, the average CEO of a corporation made 4 times the amount paid to its hourly-wage-earners, whereas now, the amount is 300 times. Now that's growth.
And those are the ones that are doing it legally.
Blogger made a lot of nice changes since I stopped posting, and I'm trying to catch up to the format. The label function (at the end of each post) is nice for tracking topics, but since it didn't exist in the first years of YWA, I have to go back through each post and add labels. It's a tedious process. So far, I've gotten 100 posts labeled. Only 5,800 more to go.
And, lastly, the French government has opened up all its UFO files to the public. Have at 'em - if you can get through the crowd.
Okay, that's it for bridging the gap. Just like those White House crooks, Nixon and Bush. 18 minutes. 18 days. Mine's 18 months. Don't expect a document dump.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Socialism - the new Communism
As president, McCain said he would work on political, diplomatic and economic fronts to counter the rise of socialism [...] Yet the United States must also stress the advantages of capitalism and democracy to win "a war of ideas" in the region, he said.[...]
[McCain] said the Iraq war "has diverted attention from our hemisphere and we have paid a penalty for that" in the form of a growing leftism.
A war of ideas. I guess it goes pretty well with terror wars, come to think of it.
Apparently "leftism" is on McCain's hitlist should he become president. I like how he associates capitalism with democracy as though socialism can't be democratic.
Get the point: the Iraq Invasion is a diversion from the threat in our own hemisphere. Apparently the threat of socialism is even greater than the threat of WMD. Who knew?
I just watched a video of the Joseph McCarthy-Army hearings before the Senate (Point of Order). Are we going there again?
The more I read about McCain, the slimier - or maybe nutser - he seems. And if the Democrats insist on foisting Hillary Clinton on us, I have no doubt McCain would beat her hands down, no matter how great public intolerance of the current GOP administration grows.
By the way, not too long ago I watched the excellent Good Night, and Good Luck. If you haven't already seen it, do yourself a favor. You'll get to see what a real reporter (Edward R. Murrow) is like.
And, if you want to see some more real reporting - particularly war reporting - there's a nice clip of Morley Safer in Viet Nam (the burning of Cam Ne) in the Scorsese documentary on Bob Dylan, No Direction Home. Another video I highly recommend, as much for its clips of the U.S. scene in the late 50s, early 60s, as for anything else, including some great music by artists who influenced Dylan. I actually bought the DVD, even though I am not a big Dylan fan, his brilliance notwithstanding, and rarely buy DVDs - I only own two others.
-----------
Back on topic....closely related to the war on ideas....
Silenced
After questioning a Republican congressmember's "decency" for seeking to restrict housing reconstruction funds for Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims, a Democratic Representative was barred Wednesday from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.[...]
"He wants to punish [towns affected by Katrina] for mistakes of the Bush administration," said Rep. Taylor. "Mr. Price, I wish you'd have the decency, if you're going to do that to the people of south Mississippi, that maybe you ought to come visit south Mississippi, and see what has happened, before you hold them to a standard you would never hold your own people to, and that you fail to hold the Bush administration to."
Price immediately asked that Taylor's remarks be stricken from the record, which the Chair at the time agreed to. Taylor was then barred from speaking on the House floor for the remainder of the day.
[...]
Littig explained that criticizing Price's "decency" on the House floor had gone too far according to the body's rules of procedure. [...] [H]e should have used the word "courtesy" instead of "decency."
Oh, yeah. Huge difference. And I say, lock 'im up next time he says something like that. A veritable incitement to violence. No...no...it's the equivalent of a physical attack.
You must not question a Congressmember's "decency". Actually, "Congressmember" sounds a little indecent to my ear.
....and hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered to send food and fuel to the United States after the powerful Hurricane Katrina pummeled the US south, ravaging US crude production.
The leftist leader, a frequent critic of the United States and a target himself of US disapproval, said Venezuela could send aid workers with drinking water, food and fuel to US communities hit by the hurricane.
"We place at the disposition of the people of the United States in the event of shortages -- we have drinking water, food, we can provide fuel," Chavez told reporters.
Chavez said fuel could be sent to the United States via a Citgo refinery that has not been affected by the hurricane. Citgo is owned by Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).[...]
Last week, Chavez offered discount gasoline to poor Americans suffering from high oil prices and on Sunday offered free eye surgery for Americans without access to health care.
"Conservatives" are apparently promoting a race war.Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.
So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.
First question: Why have aid and security taken so long to arrive?[...]
There will and should be many questions about the response of state and local governments; in particular, couldn't they have done more to help the poor and sick escape? But the evidence points, above all, to a stunning lack of both preparation and urgency in the federal government's response.
Even military resources in the right place weren't ordered into action. "On Wednesday," said an editorial in The Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss., "reporters listening to horrific stories of death and survival at the Biloxi Junior High School shelter looked north across Irish Hill Road and saw Air Force personnel playing basketball and performing calisthenics. Playing basketball and performing calisthenics!"
Maybe administration officials believed that the local National Guard could keep order and deliver relief. But many members of the National Guard and much of its equipment - including high-water vehicles - are in Iraq. "The National Guard needs that equipment back home to support the homeland security mission," a Louisiana Guard officer told reporters several weeks ago.
Second question: Why wasn't more preventive action taken? After 2003 the Army Corps of Engineers sharply slowed its flood-control work, including work on sinking levees. "The corps," an Editor and Publisher article says, citing a series of articles in The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, "never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security - coming at the same time as federal tax cuts - was the reason for the strain."
In 2002 the corps' chief resigned, reportedly under threat of being fired, after he criticized the administration's proposed cuts in the corps' budget, including flood-control spending.
Third question: Did the Bush administration destroy FEMA's effectiveness?
"New Orleans was ripe for collapse. Its dangerous geography, combined with a dangerous culture, made it susceptible to an unfolding catastrophe. Currents of chaos and lawlessness were running through the city long before this week, and they were bound to come to the surface under the pressure of natural disaster and explode in a scene of looting and mayhem."[...]
"Like riotous Los Angeles since the 1960s, New Orleans has been a wasteland of politically correct dysfunction for decades -- public schools so obviously decimated vouchers were proposed this year (and torpedoed by the left), barbaric gangster rap culture no one will confront lest they offend liberal pieties, multiculturalist frauds who empower no one but themselves, and cops neutered by the NAACP and ACLU."
I don't think we needed to be told.It began, fittingly enough, with jazz from New Orleans natives Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis. But "A Concert for Hurricane Relief," a heartfelt and dignified benefit airing on NBC and other networks last night, took an unexpected turn, thanks to outspoken rapper Kanye West.
Appearing two-thirds through the program, West claimed, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," and said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."
The show, simulcast from New York on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and Pax, aired live on the East Coast, enabling the Grammy-winning rapper's outburst to go out uncensored.
Comedian Mike Myers was paired with West for a 90-second segment that began with Myers speaking of Katrina's devastation. Then, to Myers' evident surprise, West began a rant by saying, "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."
NBC said in a statement that West's comments were unscripted and "in no way represent the views of the networks."
As I always say, a good story can never be embellished enough.Watching the abandonment of those poor people in New Orleans is enough
to make me want to crawl in a hole and cover my head. I can't even describe how angry I am. That asshole on the radio program Tamie at the office listens to just sickened me beyond belief today. His comment on seeing the images from NO - "It looks like Africa." Exactly the reason they are dying on the streets there - no water, no food, no buses to get them the hell out of there. I heard one woman today say it's natures way of weeding out the undesirable! I really wanted to punch her stupid face. Tony Messenger is calling for the city of Columbia to offer up the Hearnes Center for a shelter for some of these people. Like that's going to happen. Ye gods - they're BLACK people. POOR BLACK people. We have enough problems with our own POOR BLACK people. Can't be bringing in any more.
The rescue of the people of New Orleans is a major fuck up. And that asshole in the oval office says no one thought the levees wouldn't hold!!![...]
Oh, and another thing - all that inadequately armored equipment the Louisiana National Guard had to take with them to Iraq would have worked just fine for rescue purposes in their home state, don't you think? Not to mention all the soldiers over there who have no idea what's happened to their families back home. And you can bet they are the very ones who are stranded, dying or dead already in New Orleans right now.
And while I'm ranting, I'll just take on the Tribune. [Ed: Local Columbia, Missouri, newspaper.] Big headline in tonight's paper - Mexico family takes in refugees (that
would be Mexico, Missouri :) ) I read the article. Those 'refugees' were Tulane students [...]. They were from Maryland, Illinois and Conneticut. Now they
could just go HOME. To call them "refugees" was ridiculous.
And, lastly, just let me remind you that there's a little problem when your patriotic neighbors hammer you with comments about our wonderful army that exists to protect you. Maybe it does....if you're white and support the power structure.Katrina has sent a warning about US vulnerability and we
will see the disconnect between Bush's words and actions and the breakdown of the overall social contract, while people begin to make smarter choices of where and how to live and communities realize they need to become more self-sufficient.
I wonder...with the same indiscriminate rush? "More than willing."Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said the 300 troopers from the Arkansas National Guard had been authorised to open fire on "hoodlums" who terrorised the flooded city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
The deployment came amid intense criticism of the Bush Administration for a tardy response to the disaster, which is feared to have killed thousands and left hundreds of thousands stranded and homeless.
"These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle tested, and under my orders to restore order in the streets," Ms Blanco said.
"They have M-16s and they are locked and loaded.
"These troops know how to shoot and kill, and are more than willing to do so if necessary. And I expect they will."
Dana Milbank in the WaPo:“I’m looking forward to my trip down there,” President Bush said in the White House driveway yesterday morning before leaving to tour the storm wreckage.And evidently all helicopters were grounded for the duration of the Clueless One’s visit.
Something must have happened in flight, because when he arrived in Mobile, Ala., two hours later, he reported: “I’m not looking forward to this trip.”
I'll bite.(Update: Dennis Kucinich: “Indifference is a weapon of mass destruction.”)[...]
Bush is going on a tour, but promises not to enjoy it: “I’m not looking forward to this trip. ... It’s as if the entire Gulf Coast were obliterated by the worst kind of weapon you can imagine”. Stupidity?
New Orleans headlines at Raw Story:
MoveOn makes available 42,000 beds for Katrina survivors
Halliburton gets Katrina contract, hires former FEMA director
Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food
July 2005 article reveals New Orleans told poor: 'You're on your own'
Questions of racism in hurricane photo captions; Yahoo responds
Heard on Air America yesterday that the start of the 'depression' could be fixed to the date of Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf States.
I am in the Atlanta area and we could potentially hit $4.00 a gallon for gas within two weeks -- as our sole source of gas comes from the pipeline that starts from the Gulf States -- which is not operational at the moment. If the pipeline does not come back on line within 8 days -- then our backup reserves here will be gone and the gas stations will be empty.
Bananas -- no not the Gwen Stephani song, but the fruit. Apparently, all of our bananas came into this country at the gulf port that is now shut down. This will become an expensive fruit (will need to be routed to other ports -- like Florida). Steel needed in the northern industrial states will become expensive now -- as barges can not ship up the Mississippi river -- land based transportation from Houston will be used instead (4x the shipping cost). Many other commodities will be more expensive in the short run (oysters, shrimp, etc.). This catastrophe will have a huge economic impact on all the States -- even after ignoring the government's poor handling of the economy.
NEW ORLEANS - In a surprising assessment of Hurricane Katrina’s lethal destruction, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Wednesday he feared that thousands had died in his city alone.
“We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water,” Nagin told reporters, adding that there are others dead in attics.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has condemned the "depravity" of terrorists who launched a mortar attack on pilgrims in Iraq, triggering a stampede near a holy shrine, Britain's Daily Mail will report Thursday. The Mail also asserts that more than a thousand are now dead after a stampeded on a bridge, which caused it to collapse.
Does that make him a better president?President George W. Bush will return to Washington on Wednesday, two days ahead of schedule, to help oversee recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina, the White House announced.
One man´s pain is another man´s pleasure...Hurricane Katrina, which killed dozens and left a million without power, sent stocks sliding in New York trading Monday, with oil prices over $70/barrel.[...]
The WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTS: "The sight of oil topping $70 alarmed analysts and sparked worries that prices could keep going higher. Analysts projected a possible slow creep: "We could see oil hovering around $75, and then we could get to $80 and $85 and then $100 a barrel is right around the corner," said Robert Pavlik, chief investment officer at Oaktree Asset Management.
And hey...thank heavens New Orleans is still with us.
Corexit: More toxic than the oil
IVAW: Iraq Veterans Against the War
