I have perused some lefty blogs and read some message boards today that have left me flat out disgusted. You remember the CNN story "Firms With White House Ties Get Katrina Contracts" right? Well, the complaints I’ve been reading the past couple of days by some of the left in response to that have been something like this: "why were there no bids for this work?" and/or "this is just another example of W paying back his big campaign backers/supporters!"
Well first of all, as Michelle Malkin pointed out yesterday, the news outlets that ran with this story left out (intentionally, of course) a few facts, among them:
The Shaw Group, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, is headed by Jim Bernhard, the current chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Bernhard worked tirelessly for Democrat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s runoff campaign and served as co-chair of her transition team. Another Shaw executive was Blanco’s campaign manager. Bernhard is back-scratching chums with Blanco, whom he has lent/offered the Shaw Group’s corporate jets to on numerous occasions.
But secondly as far as the complaints about "no bidding" go, EXCUSE ME? I mean, have the usual suspects not been going off the deep end for two weeks now about the "slow response" from the feds to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? NOW they want a "bidding war" which as we all know would slow down the clean up and relief efforts and rebuilding even *more* than they claim it was? What gives?
This is just proof positive (as if we needed anymore) that the whining about the slow response from the usual suspects has little to do with the fact that they believe there was a slow response and more to do with the fact that they’ll seize every opportunity to slam this administration, no matter what they do.
And before anyone says it, yes, I know some Republicans have jumped on the bandwagon but they are the exception and not the rule. So save it. There obviously were some issues with the federal response but the bulk of the blame for this, I maintain, goes to local and state officials who have come off as inept and clueless when it comes to protecting those they are charged with protecting in case of emergencies like this.
(Linking up with Mudville Gazette’s Open Post and OTB’s Traffic Jam)
| Email This Post | Print This |
I’m not in the construction industry so I wouldn’t know if bidding for contracts would extend the amount of time it took to rebuild New Orleans. The difference between rebuilding New Orleans quickly and responding to the hurricane quickly is there are no lives at stake in the rebuilding of New Orleans. After the hurricane struck, there were many lives depending on being rescued.
Comment by Brian @ 9/12/2005 - 11:49 pm
Yes. I won a bid with the state of CA. It adds time Brian and it does matter to the lives of many people who are displaced and suffering.
Brian wrote, “After the hurricane struck, there were many lives depending on being rescued”
Yes. Many lives. Lives of people told to go to the Superdome 24 hours before the hurricane. The mayor did not make sure BEFORE the hurricane that food and water was delivered or people were there to take care of the bathrooms.
Lives of people who needed supplies and the Red Cross was there the FIRST day to give supplies but were denied by the Louisiana DHS.
Lives of people.
These are facts not blame.
But the posts I’ve seen you write Brian implied that the federal government had the power to do something they did not.
Now that the federal government does have the power to work with contractors and want to exhibit their “care” (something that liberals think they can speak to) they are derided as only “caring” for thier contributors when the press isn’t even reporting that accurately.
I’d say the press doesn’t CARE about the truth.
Comment by Baklava @ 9/13/2005 - 12:32 am
Bidding is a good idea for longer-term projects and of course those projects are being bid.
But there are also a number of emergency jobs that need to be done RIGHT NOW! Many of these firms will be involved in re-establishing important infrastructure, for example, getting the city and area hospitals and emergency services back in service, getting city hall computer networks and police computer networks and so forth repaired, etc.
There is no time for a bid process, that takes months!
This kind of stuff is usually done “cost-plus” and through other such contractual arrangements with built-in cost controls.
Comment by ttyler5 Houston @ 9/13/2005 - 2:21 am
I am invloved in the constructin industry. Let me comment about “biding” for recovery work.
1. Federal bids take months to conduct. Documents, laws, requirements etc.
2. The “republican” contractors with ties to the white house go way back. Haliburton, so often associated with Dick Cheney, is part of KBR. KBR is the successor of Brown and Root. Brown and Root was closely associated with Lyndon Johnson and provided many contracts for the governemnt during Viet Nam. Brown and Root has been associated with government contracting forever.I bet the contributed to both sides in the last election.
In summary, KBR is not connected to President Bush but to whoever is in power. That is how government contracting works. By the way, have the liberal whinning weenies give me one, just one contractor that can mobilize and do what KBR can in a short time. There is NONE.
Comment by Bob @ 9/13/2005 - 2:00 pm
On a related note, read this stuff from Mayor Nagin
Has these words from the Mayor:
However, Nagin was emphatic state and federal officials would not railroad through city reconstruction until it had passed city muster.
“I don’t want anybody outside of New Orleans planning nothing as it relates to how we’re going to rebuild this city without us signing off on it,” Nagin said.
That should give plenty of opportunity for things to be delayed and for liberals and Democrats to claim that they know that the Bushies don’t care about New Orleans or the poor people of New Orleans who are disproportionately black. I can see Alan Colmes asking the question now….
Comment by Baklava @ 9/13/2005 - 3:06 pm
Bob: Thanks for your insight into the process. It just cheeses me off that the President is danged if he does OR doesn’t. There is no “middle way” - heck, I hear even know some Democrats are criticizing the new FEMA Chief and saying his qualifications equate to bein the “duct tape guy.” Sheesh!
Bak: Absolutely - why anyone listens to him at this point right now is beyond me.
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 9/13/2005 - 3:50 pm
Baklava,
The local government could have done more to help the people trapped in New Orleans but so could the federal government, especially since the federal government had much greater resources.
The Red Cross was not allowed to enter New Orleans because it was not safe. I have already stated this before. The only means of supplying the people in the Superdome was by helicopter and this was not being done.
The federal government should have known in advance that they would have to supply and evacuate people from the Superdome but they were not prepared.
LINK
Just last year, FEMA hired a private company, IEM Inc. of Baton Rouge, to help conduct an eight-day drill for a fictional Category 5 hurricane in New Orleans named Pam. It included staging a helicopter evacuation of the Superdome, a prediction of 15 feet of water in parts of the city and the evacuation of 1-million people.
But the second part of the company’s work - to design a plan to fix unresolved problems, such as evacuating sick and injured people and housing thousands of stranded residents - never occurred because the funding was cut.
Comment by Brian @ 9/14/2005 - 12:06 am