Update on New Orleans

According to MSNBC.com today, contractors in the devastated Gulf Region have been raking in the cash since the Katrina disaster, and although 1,200 firms have been awarded contracts, the largest pay outs have been made to the giant companies such as Halliburton, and Bechtel, who were awarded no-bid contracts by the government.

"Some $88 billion has been allocated for Katrina relief and rebuilding to date, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and about $10 billion of that has been handed out to private firms.
In general it is the biggest firms, some of whom who have gotten contracts worth more than $500 million, that have taken much of the heat for systemic failures including poor planning, lack of communication and weak oversight"

The problem to me doesn't seem to be that the money is in the pot. The money should be in the pot considering the magnitude of the issue. The problem is the legitimized graft that is going on, especially with the widespread criticism of FEMA's administration. This seems to be the largest issue concerning the tenure of Bush, and it extends far beyond the Gulf Coast crisis. What boggles my mind is these same Republicans who extend these no-bid contracts to their pals, are the same people who worship at the feet of free trade, and who claim that the consumer should control the market without governmental restraint. Recently I was in Europe, and I noticed that the Smart car was tremendously popular. This little golf cart of a car gets approximately 50 miles per gallon, and yet in a time of escalating gas prices, the smart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_(automobile) seems queerly out of sight. Could it be going down the same road as the Tucker? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Tucker_Sedan) Either way, these guys can't have it both ways. And yet they're willing to go bust to play both sides against the middle, and in this game lies the true test of the new American century.