Katrina 2005

[dai bread]

My newspaper reports moneygrubbers moving into NOLA. They're talking billions in financing needs, apparently all commission-earning. The VP's company is in the thick of it.

[OperaTenor]

Hi DB,

Yes, KBR, a subsidiary of VP Dick Halliburton's Halliburton, is leading the pack of crony-owned, President PetroProfit administration-backing corporations to cash in on the disaster. Of course, it's only their domestic division. Their international boys are still too busy raking it in in Iraq.

I especially like the part about how they're being awarded "no-bid" contracts again, so they can maximize their profit margin, just like they did in Iraq.

Sorry if I'm not clear on how I feel about it.



<small>[ 09-20-2005, 11:49 PM: Message edited by: OperaTenor ]</small>

[piqaboo]

Oh my. FEMA and the Feds cant move in to help unless every i is dotted and every t crossed in the governor's request, but they can trigger the emergency no-bid contract clause.....

Its not a pretty picture our gov't paints of when its ok to be flexible, and when its not.

[Serenity]

Time to shove the government aside and just take charge and do some "bushwhacking".

[Trumpetmaster]

Serenity,
"DITTO"

[Trumpetmaster]

I heard a report there is a battleship trailing behind Rita with Doctors and medical supplies to go into Texas immediately after the Hurricane strikes. It is now a Cat 3 with 120 mph winds...
expected to go to a Cat 4 later today.

Maybe Katrina will be a wakeup call to all levels of government and people building on the shores so close to this danger.

I hope all the people there get out safely.

The Pensacola area has rough surf warnings today.The news is telling people if they go to the beach to stay out of the water. It was 97 on Monday and 94 yesterday. Steamy Suana out there.

Regards,
TM

[Shapley]

Piq,

The President can't send troops into a sovereign State without the Governor's approval, that's the law.

The President has discretion in how to spend Federal dollars that are under his control, that's also the law. I don't agree with the no-bid contracts, either, except that the bidding process can can needless delays in an emergency situation. How long do we allow the companies to review the bid package before we send in crews? How long to we allow delays while we settle lawsuits from minority-owned companies and trade unions before we send in assistance? On the one hand we hear everyone complaining about red tape delaying the process, and now we hear complaints that there's not enough red tape in the process.

Incidentally, the contract was awarded to KBR by the US Navy to repair Naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and was awarded as an extention of an existing contract between KBR and the US Navy for facilities maintenance.

BTW, TM, I'm not sure what type of vessel the Navy has trailing Rita, but they have no active Battleships currently on the roster. President Bush I retired all them during his term in office. Most likely they have a LPH or other amphibious vessel handy for response. The USS Bataan has been in the area since Katrina struck, and is most likely being maintained as close as practical to the potential landfall areas for immediate response.


V/R
Shapley

[Trumpetmaster]

[Quote from Shapley]BTW, "TM, I'm not sure what type of vessel the Navy has trailing Rita, but they have no active Battleships currently on the roster. President Bush I retired all them during his term in office. Most likely they have a LPH or other amphibious vessel handy for response. The USS Bataan has been in the area since Katrina struck, and is most likely being maintained as close as practical to the potential landfall areas for immediate response"

Shapley,
What is an LPH? Sorry but I've never been in the service and not sure what that is.

Heard that report early this morning. Have not heard anything since. All the reporter said was a "Military" vessel. I assumed a battleship. My ignorance. I'm no authority on what should or should not go in but it sounds like amphibious vessels would have done alot of good in NOLA.

I just pray Rita weakens prior to landfall and causes minimal damage.

Regards,
TM

[OperaTenor]

Yeah, Ronaldus Maximus resurrected those battleships, which were as useless as resurrected brachiosaurs, to contribute to the 600-vessel Navy he promised to build under his administration. All part of his quest to bankrupt the Federal government.

Today's Borowitz Report

This is somewhat pertinent to the discussion:

"'There is no way of predicting how Dick Cheney will respond to the earth’s atmosphere,' said Dr. Krenzel. 'One thing is certain, however: whether he is above ground or below ground, his Halliburton stock will continue to rise.' "

Yes indeed, all of the juicy contracts are in place now, making it very easy for VP Dick Halliburton's company to keep sucking up as much of our tax money as possible for quite a while to come. As you pointed out so succinctly, Shap, extensions and expansions of contracts are a mere formality, especially since it's for "family" in President PetroProfits' administration.

I think this would be easier for me to take if the shrub at least sounded like Marlin Brando in The Godfather.

[piqaboo]

Shap,
I know its the law.
However, Blanco did have a request in for troops. She just somehow used the wrong font or something,so there was a delay. Not that I think she's doing a stellar job in all ways.

No-bid = no estimate = no cost control.
We could instead institute a "rapid bid" process.
48 hours to submit, Feds to review and both sides to sign a contract. Then at least we'd know if other companies were interested in the work. The 'appearance' of cronyism in this administration is beyond belief. The Clintons' got slammed repeatedly by the likes of the "label", for appointing friends to run the Travel Office, for pete's sake! But its unpatriotic to question if Halliburton really needs to be the country's sole source for construction work. Even tho having multiple companies involved, each in its own area (Iraq, NOLA, Miss etc), would improve our strength, since we'd be diversified.

[OperaTenor]

Remember Ross Perot's famous "sucking sound"?

That's what you hear these days due to all the money going from the Federal Treasury to Halliburton's bank account.

And we continue to put up with it....

[Shapley]

TM,

Sorry. An LPH is a Helicopter Landing Ship. The USS Bataan (they usually name them after famous Marine Corps battles) was off the coast of NOLA by Wednesday following the hurricane. My mistake, however, as the USS Bataan is an LHD (Multipurpose Amphibious Assault Ship), here is their website:

http://www.bataan.navy.mil/

They can't put the ship in the path of the hurricane, or follow it too closely. I assume they steam out to the southern Caribbean beyond harms way, or into a safe port out of the hurrican's path, and come into play once the hurricane has weakened sufficiently. A ship in a hurricane has to concern itself with saving the ship, and hasn't time to spare for rescue and relief efforts ashore. The Bataan is in Mayport, FL, refitting for relief efforts, according to their website, so I assume there is another on the West side.

My nephew is aboard a vessel providing relief for Katrina victims, although I don't recall what vessel he serves aboard. I have to assume that he has been moved, or is preparing to move, out of the hurricane's path, and will return once Rita has made landfall.

There was footage on CNN, showing amphibs loaded with Marines coming ashore about a week after Katrina struck, I assume they were deployed from NC. It takes about that long to get around the Florida Penninsula.

V/R
Shapley

[Trumpetmaster]

Shapley,
Thanks for the explanation & website!
TM

[analog]

Originally posted by OperaTenor:
Hi DB,

Yes, KBR, a subsidiary of VP Dick Halliburton's Halliburton, is leading the pack of crony-owned, President PetroProfit administration-backing corporations to cash in on the disaster. Of course, it's only their domestic division. Their international boys are still too busy raking it in in Iraq.

Well if it's a Texas connection it goes back to the 1930's.

Disclaimer - i didn't corroborate the claims in the following quote from Wikipedia.

" History
Brown and Root was founded in Texas in 1919 by two brothers, George Brown and Herman Brown with money from their brother-in-law, Dan Root. The company began its operations by supervising the building of warships for the U.S. Navy.

One of its first large-scale projects, according to the book Cadillac Desert, was to build a dam on the Texas Colorado River near Austin during the Depression years. For assistance in federal payments, the company turned to the local congressman, Lyndon Baines Johnson.

During World War II, Brown & Root built the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station and a series of warships for the U.S. Government.

In 1947, Brown & Root built one of the world's first offshore platforms.

Following the death of Herman Brown, Halliburton acquired Brown & Root in December 1962. According to Dan Briody, who wrote a book on the subject, the company became part of a consortium of four companies that built about eighty-five per cent of the infrastructure needed by the Army during the Vietnam War. At the height of the war resistance movement of the '60s, Brown & Root was derided as "Burn & Loot" by protesters and soldiers.


Political connections
Brown and Root had a well-documented relationship with U.S. President Lyndon Johnson which began when he used his position as a Texas congressman to assist them in landing a lucrative dam contract. In return they gave him the funds to "steal" the 1948 senate race from the popular Coke R. Stevenson. The relationship continued for years, with Johnson funneling dozens of military construction contracts to B&R. "

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellogg,_Brown_and_Root


At least it's not partisan.

<small>[ 09-21-2005, 07:20 PM: Message edited by: analog ]</small>

[OperaTenor]

This then, would seem to be some of that military-industrial complex Ike tried to warn us about.

[analog]

OT you have read my alleged mind.

[BigJon@Work]

There aren't a whole lot of competitors to Brown and Root. It is a high risk, low reward business they are in. Companies that can take on projects of the scale of what is needed down there can be counted on two hands worldwide. You want to give the work to a foreign company?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

A note on citation of Wikipedia as a source: it's not a good one. Any user can post an article on any subject, and fact checking is at the sole discretion of the poster.

This means that a wit, can define the term "Postwhore" as "Operatenor", without any problem.

I personally do not consider any Wikipedia info worthwhile until I've corroborated it from other sources.

[analog]

Thanks Selma, I did not know about that. Will add a disclaimer to the post.

If that Wikipedia article had blamed the JFK shooting on B&R, then I probably would've got suspicious. But I took it at face value. Silly me.

[piqaboo]

Now here comes Wilma....
Wilma pic