Wednesday, May 31, 2006

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.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Reason #3 why Mayor Mike is the man...

Money quote:

Bloomberg unleashed the newest barrage during a commencement speech at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he studied engineering. He said gains made in research are threatened by "people who simply disregard facts that don't happen to agree with their agenda."

Don't be surprised if he tosses his hat in the ring...

The true price of a Playstation...

Hey folks, sorry to have been away for so long. About three weeks ago I left for a 11 day trip through Easten Europe, and then for the last week I've been polishing up a couple of short stories. I was thinking about blogging, but once you get past the distractions and hone right in on the 28 (or is it 27) % approval rating...look I was just getting tired of bashing Bush. Maybe I'll be around when other important news surfaces, like the above link, but these days real news is far and inbetween, and I could care less about what Bradangelina named their baby.

Anyway I was reading over Sullivan's blog and I came across the a link (above) which breaks down yet another FUBAR situation in Africa, this time in the Congo. It's another piece which shows how the vampiric imperialism pressed upon Africans by western powers still mires them in a barbaric culture. Still the history lesson is fasinating, and if I can read Coulter's Treason, you can at least skim through this.

Ok...I only read the first 80 pages of Treason. So sue me!!!!!

Monday, May 01, 2006

And for those of you who thought that Crash was too unrealistic....

Yeah, stuff like this definitely doesn't happen in America anymore:

"Two white teenagers severely beat and sodomized a 16-year-old Hispanic boy who they believed had tried to kiss a 12-year-old white girl at a party, authorities said.
The attackers forced the boy out of the Saturday night house party, beat him and sodomized him with a metal pipe, shouting epithets "associated with being Hispanic," said Lt. John Martin with the Harris County Sheriff's Department. "


What's funny is how "civilized" we really believe we are in America, with our SUVs, and reality TV. We think women are "liberated" because they can wear shirts that show off their midriff, and minorities are "free" because they can release rap albums and walk into the front of the theatre rather than the rear.

I can't even think of a joke...

Bush's track record...

Click on the above link for Glenn Greenwald's great break down on Bush's track record of destroying the Consititution. Check it out, and then, like me, wonder why Russ Feingold is so alone in the DNC.

Better than reality? Truthiness...

Anyone saw Colbert host the White House Correspondent's Dinner? One word: Awesome. It's amazing when the fact news completely steals the show from the standard (Except maybe for Helen Thomas, she really wants to know why we went to war with Iraq). Good work Colbert, and click on the above link to find the entire video.

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