Firms with Bush ties snag Katrina deals
Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:03 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA 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 the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.
One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton.
Bechtel National Inc., 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. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to 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
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But, um, the best example is
But, um, the best example is headed by the chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party
Quote: Bias? What liberal bias?
You put a Michelle Malkin
You put a Michelle Malkin link on my site?
eeeeeewwwww.....
Trackbacks, P6.Â
Trackbacks, P6. Trackbacks.
Sorry, we turned off
Sorry, we turned off trackbacks, both incoming and outgoing. Too much spam. If you're looking for better allies than the pinheads whose comments never show up, you'll have to specifically recruit.
I'm not looking for allies
I'm not looking for allies P6.
You ever wonder why I stick around?
I'm attracted to P6 just as it is. I'd like it to be better, but in the same direction it's now great, a place where the ambient thought is so different from how I think that we never run out of interesting contrasts.
What bacame of Spence and that other guy with the economic theories? I'd far rather have either of them around than someone who agrees with Michelle Malkin.
You ever wonder why I stick
Actually no, though my view has evolved from being absolutely sure of your reason to not considering it at all. I just keep my own reasons and reasoning clear.
Spence is an actual scholar rather than a mere rhetoritician/polemicist such as myself. Things roll that way 'round these parts, he pops up when he sees something wrong. If the other guy is OBM, he has his own site too.
There's seriously a couple-few folks I am VERY fortunate to have around.
A self-hating white guy!
Will wonders never cease...
Spence is an actual scholar
Spence is an actual scholar rather than a mere rhetoritician/polemicist such as myself.Things roll that way 'round these parts, he pops up when he sees something wrong.
Some people always add new insight, even when you disagree with them. Spence is such a person.
If the other guy is OBM, he has his own site too.
The one I was thinking of was James R Maclean, the guy who claimed that Denmark is more efficient than the USA. OBM is good too, but in a way more like you.
mere rhetoritician/polemicist such as myself.
I see the day coming when you publish a book. You think and write better than many people who do write books. The economic negative with polemetry is that one stands with his back to the audience, and only addresses the choir (who does indeed enjoy, but is too small a group to financially support the performance). Rhetoric, conversely, is crafted for pursuasion of the broader, more financially powerful audience.
The one I was thinking of
Hobson's Choice is his blog, though he's working on a more archival type of site...I feel guilty a bit because he's got an job organizing his stuff that I could probably do with Drupal but I'm busy obsessing over my own deal.
I see the day coming when
Thanks. The book I'd be inclined to write would be...eclectic.
Depends on who the audience is, I guess. What I'd rather do is teach than either.
Sorry I've been away.
Sorry I've been away. Hello, DW, glad to see* you again.
.I feel guilty a bit because he's got an job organizing his stuff that I could probably do with Drupal but I'm busy obsessing over my own deal.
Now you tell me!
-------------------
* metaphorically speaking.
Hey! Metaphorically
Hey! Metaphorically speaking.
Regarding the Michelle
Regarding the Michelle Malkin article: I'm not terribly horrified to learn that contracts occasionally go to firms that were founded by Democrats. In much of the country, political affiliation is almost a congenital trait (I come from a long line of ethnic Republicans and Tories, myself). Party affiliation is also extremely complex in settled communities. So the ties of political patronage and mutual affinity among power centers goes way back.
However, I do want to make a few points: first, the CNN article looks at FEMA awards to firms, two of which had direct business ties with Allbaugh (Michael Brown's patron) and another of which has two crucial economic appointments among its CEO alumni. In contrast, the mere fact that Jim Bernhard is chair of the LA Democratic Party, by itself, doesn't explain why FEMA awarded his firm a contract. Not many CEOs are Democrats, and if one is, leadership appointments are probably assured.
This argument cuts both ways. MM could have pointed out that the contracts have to be issued to somebody, and within each regional market, there will be an established market share which is a reasonable benchmark for government awards. IOW, if Bechtel's regional market share were 45% and it received contracts for 40%, then MM could have argued that this is a powerful argument that the bidding process is very clean. Since she "blogs" professionally and has access to Lexus-Nexus, I suspect she could look up the stats in the civil engineering trade publication ENR. ("45%" and "40%" are strictly hypothetical statistics). If she has a friend who is a sales rep for KBR, then that friend could probably provide her with any statistical support off the top of his/her head.
The second point is, the Democratic Party is widely understood to have been thoroughly cored out. Partly this reflects the fact that both of the parties represent rival industrial interests, and while I'm in a cynical mood right now, I don't think this is a cynical thing to say. The industrial interests represented by the GOP tend to involve agribiz, energy, resource extraction & processing, chemicals, financial services, construction, pharmacueticals, and retailing. The Democrats, at the national level, represent chiefly high-end manufacturing, TC/IT & software, and some other sectors. This is a national generalization, though, and invalid at the local level. As a result, while both "firms" (i.e., D & R) employ cheaply huge staffs of saps like me, aged 18 (for the GOP) and me aged 26 (for the Democratic Party) to create mindshare; but the adults are busy with hammering out industrial modus vivendi.
The GOP, in my view, is the more severely affected by "movement politics," however.
Now you tell me! Â Yeah,
Yeah, well...a couple of ideas exploded on me, and I need a bit of economic security so I've been coding and stuff. Going on pure momentum I see myself becoming vulnerable in a few years...there's a lot of Joe Taylors in the world. I have to fall back on the standard defense for ambitious or assertive Black folks...excellence.
I modified Drupal's built-in aggregator so it can read Atom feeds and export OPML by category...it will be part of the next release. I wrote the code that supports Air America's "bookstore" and embedded Amazon links. And now I'm working on a module that will let users maintain their own private aggregator...make a couple of tables, FTP the module to your Drupal site and go.
However, I do want to make a
However, I do want to make a few points: first, the CNN article looks at FEMA awards to firms, two of which had direct business ties with Allbaugh (Michael Brown's patron) and another of which has two crucial economic appointments among its CEO alumni. In contrast, the mere fact that Jim Bernhard is chair of the LA Democratic Party, by itself, doesn't explain why FEMA awarded his firm a contract. Not many CEOs are Democrats, and if one is, leadership appointments are probably assured.
Agreed.
But how does it happen that we find a report headlined "Firms with Bush ties Snag Katrina Deals" presenting their #1 example being a firm headed by a notable Democrat? While, um, neglecting to even include that fact?
Imagine a headlined story "blacks snag sweetheart deals" describing a person who got a great deal, but it turned out to be a white guy who got the deal, and the story didn't include that?
Nothing new, just a good example of media bias against Bush.
"Nothing new, just a good
"Nothing new, just a good example of media bias against Bush."
Gollygeewhiz, a Karl Rove hand puppet. It walks, it talks, it kisses Bush's ass and always heeds the party's mission to mis- and dis- inform. Does it come with batteries? Or does it simply run on the stink of its own inane pronouncements?
I've taken my one man poll again, and your credibility, DW, has slipped past Zero into negative numbers. Yep. Checked it again. -9.
But how does it happen that
But how does it happen that we find a report headlined "Firms with Bush ties Snag Katrina Deals" presenting their #1 example being a firm headed by a notable Democrat? While, um, neglecting to even include that fact?
Because there's little grounds for saying it's relevant. Getting a contract is not, prima facie, bad; and I know you understand that, so I'll proceed to the next step. It's FEMA that awards the contracts; LA-state political figures have no involvement in the award of contracts. Also, the relative magnitude of the contracts is significant: $500 million to KBR vs. $100 million to Shaw, both on the strength of ties to Bush campaign officials.
(I usually say "administration" when referring to those in the cabinet or executive aopointments; "Bush," when referring specifically to his campaigns. J. Allbaugh, the predessor and patron of M. Brown, was not only a campaign manager but appointed by Halliburton as lobbyist).
In this light, the fact that the founder is a Democrat is not relevant. Moreover, much of the perception of anti-Bush bias comes from neglect of the text of the story: all the news references in the Google-News search I conducted, mentioned that the KBR contract was a renewal.
Moreover, much of the
Moreover, much of the perception of anti-Bush bias comes from neglect of the text of the story
For twenty years I read the San Jose Mercury News every day. The Merc is a good newspaper. However, it was clear that their headline writer was far more biased than the story writers. Frequently one would find a quite neutral story which was headlined in a very misleading way.
In this case, consider the headline "FEMA contracts awarded", with the text explaining that a big one went to a big Democrat (it wasn't historic, this guy is still the head of both the company and the LA Democratic party) and a bunch more went to Republicans. That would be neutral. But to hint in the headline "this story is about sweetheart contracts to Republicans" and offer as the first example a contract given to a Democrat is either extreme bias or extreme incompetence (they didn't know, they just assumed).
But to hint in the headline
But to hint in the headline "this story is about sweetheart contracts to Republicans" and offer as the first example a contract given to a Democrat is either extreme bias or extreme incompetence (they didn't know, they just assumed).
I'm sorry, but I cannot agree. The influence the Louisiana Democratic Party could have had on FEMA's award was nil. In contrast, the fact that Shaw had (in accordance with the K Street Project; see also here) appointed major Republican lobbyists, including a law firm tied to J Allbaugh. The party membership of J. Bernhard is not, to our knowledge, relevant. Indeed, in view of Shaw's market share and existing business in the region, its share of the reconstruction awards may be suspiciously low.
However, I want to add here that so far the reports on awards by FEMA are buried deeply in a slag heap of op/ed. At this time, I'm still attempting to gather infrmation about the structure of the FEMA awards. You see, there seem to be at least four processes underway:
So far, the contracts pertain to chiefly to Navy facilities.
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The K Street Project of Tom DeLay and Grover Norquist must not be confused with this site, a GOP-affiliated site (Sorry, P6, I know--eeeeeiiiiuuuw!). Hilariously, the website describes itself as non-partisan; it;'s essentially a shopping trolley of GOP talking points.
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* Unlike other situations, here the restoration of oil reovery and handling facilities is urgent because of leakage and revenue. I realize a lot of Bush criticism tends to object to the emphasis on oil recovery uber alles, but in this case, the capital restoration really is vital to local and national welfare.
Much of the criticism of
Much of the criticism of Halliburton/KBR contract awards is, in my view, misdirected. Defenders of the contracts can, for example, "stage" Congressional hearings and simply bury Congressional staffs with a tidal bore of statistical information demonstrating that Halliburton is uniquely capable of handling reconstruction projects. Q.E.D., nothing here but the usual liberal carping.
The real problem is that Halliburton and Bechtel have been allowed to become the only real alternatives. Back in the time when my
ToryXglorg Party forebears arrived here fromCanadaTau Ceti, and found to their horror that pinko Calvin Coolidge in charge, it was unacceptable for companies serving a vital strategic function to have the sort of market power that those firms presently enjoy. Moreover, the thing that really sticks in the dagger, is that Halliburton's share price continues to soar while reports of its ghastly service to US personnel drift in. It's not merely the amazing prices of food & laundry, but the atrocious caliber of the services and shoddy worksmanship of tangibles, that has incurred indignation.And while I would hesitate to take a job flipping burgers in Iraq, the pay for personnel retained by KBR is not especially high--certainly not the orders of magnitude higher that might conceivably explain its prices.