hurricane response

[Gary_Yngve]

Army Natl Guard

Army Corp of Engineers

Coast Guard

Red Cross

FEMA

DHS

 

Discuss.

Is it because the latter two suffer from nepotism?

[olyclimber]

Canadians

[klenke]

Well, four out of six aint bad.

 

Nepotism? Oooooo, Gary learned a new word this morning.

[olyclimber]

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/s...true#Post498195

[sexual_chocolate]

And don't forget Hugo Chavez' and Castro's offers of help.

 

I don't think Bush accepted?!?

[Fairweather]

Army Natl Guard

Army Corp of Engineers

Coast Guard

Red Cross

FEMA

DHS

 

Discuss.

Is it because the latter two suffer from nepotism?

 

New Orleans Mayor:

Louisiana Governor:

New Orleans Police Dept:

Wolf Blitzer, CNN:

General Honore (sp?):

[prole]

Halliburton

 

 

From The Brisbane Courier Mail:

Bonanza for Bush allies

Washington

12sep05

 

COMPANIES with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of the Federal Emergency Agency 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 FEMA, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.

 

One is Shaw Group and the other is Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice-President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.

 

Bechtel National, 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.

 

President Bush has named Bechtel's CEO on his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

 

Experts say it has been common practice in both Republican and Democratic administrations for policy makers to take lobbying jobs once they leave office, and many of the same companies seeking contracts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have already received billions of dollars for work in Iraq.

 

Halliburton alone has earned more than $US9 billion ($A11.7 billion). Pentagon audits released by Democrats in June showed $US1.03 billion in "questioned" costs and $US422 million in "unsupported" costs for Halliburton's work in Iraq.

 

But the web of Bush administration connections is attracting renewed attention from watchdog groups in the post-Katrina reconstruction rush.

 

"The Government has got to stop stacking senior positions with people who are repeatedly cashing in on the public trust in order to further private commercial interests," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.

 

Mr Allbaugh formally registered as a lobbyist for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root in February.

 

On Friday, Kellogg Brown & Root received $US29.8 million in Pentagon contracts to begin rebuilding Navy bases in Louisiana and Mississippi.

 

Halliburton continues to be a source of income for Mr Cheney, who served as its chief executive officer from 1995 until 2000, when he joined the Republican ticket for the White House.

 

According to tax filings released in April, Mr Cheney's income included $US194,852 in deferred pay from the company, which has also won billion-dollar government contracts in Iraq.

[Gary_Yngve]

Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter

[prole]

Cheney

 

"Vice-President Dick Cheney visited an emergency management centre in Austin, Texas, and said the government was finally gaining control of the situation.

"I think we are in fact on our way to getting on top of the whole Katrina exercise. We've got a lot of work ahead of us," he said."

 

[Gary_Yngve]

Fairweather, I agree with you about the governor. I can't remember the last time I heard the governor say anything or offer any leadership.

 

I do have to give credit to the mayor of New Orleans and the police force as a whole though. Yes, maybe they weren't prepared as they should have been but heck, everyone was caught with their pants down.

 

The mayor stepped up to the plate, did what he could to offer leadership and get national help (even if it was by blaming the feds). He had the balls to say that he and the city are basically helpless, while Bush was busy denying knowledge that the levies could have broken, and consoling his buddy that one of his seaside mansions is gone. My final verdict of the mayor's performance waits till later, when I know more about the city's preparation and evacuation.

 

The police were overworked and overstressed, and if there were bad apples in the force, you'd find those same bad apples in any other city.

[murraysovereign]

The Louisiana Governor certainly has some questions to answer. It seems that she has not only done very little to help, but she and her administration have actually obstructed efforts by people who were trying to help. A group of doctors wanting to set up a sort of "MASH" unit near New Orleans ended up going to Mississippi instead, after Louisiana wouldn't give them permission. And apparently the Red Cross also ran into some sort of jurisdictional problems (read "bureaucratic turf protecting") with the state that prevented them from sending people into New Orleans in the early days after the storm.

 

To his credit, I don't believe the mayor of New Orleans has turned away any help of any kind at all. He may not have hit a lot of home runs, but he at least swings for the fence when he gets the chance.

[Gary_Yngve]

Honore seems like a no-nonsense get-shit-done guy. I thought it was great how he ordered the police and the Natl Guard to point their guns down.

 

I'm annoyed with the media's perversion of "don't get in our way" to "we're not allowed to report any of the body recovering."