September 19, 2005
Cronyism Continues Unabated
Avoiding the appearance of impropriety is something one might expect of politicians and public officials, especially when attempting to recover from a public relations disaster. The current administration shows no such inclination. If anything they seem to glory in goading their opponents into making accusations of wrongdoing which may not be provable, by behaving like the child next to the open cookie jar.
- "Nothing improper happened in our secret energy task force, but we're not telling who was there."
- "Scalia might cast the deciding vote in protecting that secret, but you just have to trust us that he can do so impartially in spite of his friendship and recent duck hunting trip with Cheney."
- "We'll straighten out those little overcharges (honest errors, of course!) by Halliburton in their Iraq contract work. How dare you suggest their getting the no bid contract had anything to do with Cheney's connection!"
I sometimes wonder if they repeatedly push the envelope as some sort of loyalty test. Maintain plausible deniability, but intentionally create the appearance of impropriety whether or not impropriety existed, to keep your opponents fishing, and to flush out the less than fully faithful among your insiders. The only other explanation I can think of is analogous to the serial criminal whose behavior become progressively bolder and more outrageous with each crime.
The Katrina cleanup and reconstruction effort has the silver lining of providing jobs at least, and Federal officials are the first to agree with many Democrats that such jobs should go to locals from the affected gulf region. But administration critics quickly predicted the first line recipients of Federal aid would be none other than those corporations to whom they owe their election. FEMA wasted no time in proving them right by outsourcing the body recovery effort to a subsidiary of a company owned by Bush family friend Robert Waltrip. And to further test our suspicions, it is a company which has been involved in previous scandals, dating back to Bush's tenure as Texas Governor.
The news of this outsourcing hasn't been widely reported by the major networks, but has been corroborated by Reuters, a Louisiana TV station, the San Luis Obispo News, the News Insider, and the Contra Costa Times. Deepening the left's suspicions of potential new criminal behavior by the private contractor, is the order that no pictures be allowed, and reporters are not to be within 300 feet of the work.
Of course, none of this is proof that any new wrongdoing or misinformation is planned. It is possible that in spite of the connections, Kenyon International was the closest available contractor to deal with a body recovery effort of this magnitude - I don't know. Preventing the gruesome display of dead bodies on the nightly news before next of kin has been properly notified has arguable merit. It is claimed that the contract is being given with a 10% discount.
But how many times are we expected to believe that "the dog ate his homework", before we demand accountability from Bush and his pals. Cronyism is rampant throughout this administration, and I can no longer take them seriously about anything. The only path I see left for this government regaining credibility is for the whole lot of them to resign or be tossed out. I know that won't happen. They'll turn out all of their best speech writers to regain the trust of those that can be turned. The tipping point may have finally been passed, however.
Thanks to Hungry Blues, and Body and Soul, for alerting me to this story.
Posted by Walker Willingham at September 19, 2005 03:46 AMerr… This information is kinda old. A large number of Republican Donor Corporations has already benn added. Halliburton is just one of the cronies scheduled to work in NO.
Posted by: Aldous at September 19, 2005 03:33 AMI fully expected the cronyism, my concern is that the companies will bilk Americans of their hard-earned tax dollars… Well, actually President Bush is going to put us deeper into debt to China for the funds, isn’t he.
I did see where the DHS is sending about 30 accountants down to the Gulf Coast to make sure there’s no hanky-panky with the contracts. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
Yes, the cronyism is to be expected.
Getting deeper into debt to China ?
I hope China doesn’t get too upset when they’re never able to collect that debt.
It’s printing money too, which causes inflation.
And, we have come to accept annual 3% inflation,
which is:
13.0% from 2000 to 2005
12.3% from 1995 to 2000
18.0% from 1990 to 1995
20.8% from 1985 to 1990
and:
26.9% from 1995 to 2005
145.1% from 1980 to 2005
614.2% from 1955 to 2005
The government gets money from:
(1) loans (bonds, etc.)
(2) taxes
(3) printing
When it prints too much money, we get inflation.
This (by design) reduces the National Debt,
but it also makes peoples’ savings and pensions worth less too (or, should I say: worthless).
And, it’s not a good investment for China either.
But, if they’re dumb enough to lend money to us;
At the rate things are going, they’ll need to start printing much larger denominations, so we won’t have to carry around a truck load of U.$. currency just to buy a cup of coffee.
The fiscal irresponsibility of the federal government (Democrats and Republicans) is a growing problem; one that we soon won’t be able to keep up with. What happens when China decides we’re no longer a safe investment? The federal government will then print more money, and the problem will spiral exponentially out of control. This inflation is destabilizing, and the thing is: it’s by design .
Posted by: d.a.n at September 19, 2005 08:04 AMWalker:
Of course, none of this is proof that any new wrongdoing or misinformation is planned. It is possible that in spite of the connections, Kenyon International was the closest available contractor to deal with a body recovery effort of this magnitude - I don’t know.
I am against cronyism. The government should use the best value product or service out there…sometimes that is gotten by a no-bid contract. In fact, many so called “no-bid” contracts have been previously competed, meaning that they were in essence bid previously, and are now part of a term contract. This is okay as well.
The problem I have with your statement is that you admit you don’t know whether your opinion is based on any facts. You admit that it is based on suspicion alone at this point.
Were you to investigate the companies involved and determine whether a problem actually exists, then your post would have merit, and I’d be in full agreement with you. But basing a post on idle suspicions doesnt do anything. It’s just another way to lambaste the current administration with no facts.
Find the facts, THEN post the thread. That would bolster your thoughts.
d.a.n.
I’m not so sure that unrestrained printing of money by the gov will wreck the economy due to inflation. I’m no economist but as far as I can tell nobody really understands this stuff - they just fake it and regurgitate accepted ideas such as printing money is bad. The government already prints more money than they destroy. Also, what’s the difference in money coming in from China versus from the printing press.
We all spend a lot of time worrying about paying back borrowed gov money. Should we be? Cheney certainly doesn’t think so.
Posted by: Ms Schwamp at September 19, 2005 09:30 AM
Of course, none of this is proof that any new wrongdoing or misinformation is planned.
para·noia
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek, madness, from paranous demented, from para- + nous mind
1 : a psychosis characterized by systematized delusions of persecution or grandeur usually without hallucinations
2 : a tendency on the part of an individual or group toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of others
jbod,
Were you to investigate the companies involved and determine whether a problem actually exists, then your post would have merit, and I’d be in full agreement with you. But basing a post on idle suspicions doesnt do anything. It’s just another way to lambaste the current administration with no facts.
It’s a fact that a different subsidiary of SCI (Kenyon’s parent company) was involved in illegal shenanigans in Florida. It’s a fact that SCI chief Waltrip is a friend of the Bush family. It’s a fact that Halliburton has engaged in multiple cases of overcharging for its services. (evidence of the cost of previous cronyism)
Must we wait for another public ripoff to object to the practice. I admit what I don’t know - that admission doesn’t weaken my argument. I can complain without full knowledge that this administration certainly makes little effort to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Even if indeed Kenyon was the closest available contractor to deal with a body recovery effort of this magnitude, the obvious appearance of impropriety should have been sufficient for the feds to find other expertise for the job, even if they had to go farther away or hire multiple contractors.
Bush based a military invasion in Iraq on incomplete information. I’m not asking for anything so deadly - only that the feds not hire Bush’s friends involved with past scandals for special government contracts. Jeez, I’m so unreasonable.
Posted by: Walker at September 19, 2005 10:05 AMsay walker Im sure you voted for the war hero kerry. Bush won get over it.
Posted by: Thomas at September 19, 2005 10:12 AMAldous
Halliburton is just one of the cronies scheduled to work in NO.
Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Haliburton, are in the gulf region today, cleaning up the off shore area after Katrina. They got the contract by the low bid of Qualified companies well before Katrina.. Same as last year.
The government can not itself go into the off shore area and clean up for many reasons, so they hire contractors.
Haliburton may have other contracts in the area, like rebuilding any damaged pipeline.
Joebagodonuts and Cliff,
You really believe that this is not a sign of Cronyism?
Have you read anything about Haliburton KBR and their overcharging in Iraq?
Have you followed any of the Haliburton KBR investigation on C-Span?
Do you honestly think that it is mere coincidence that once again friends of the Bush administration are profiting at the expense of the tax payers of this country?
I’m starting to believe that I could have pictures of Bush and Cheney molesting children, while smoking crack and some of you would blame the children for being there and providing drugs to such fine upstanding gentlemen.
What does it take for some of you to understand that this administration is representative of all that is wrong with our government?
Both parties.
At all levels.
The longer we keep our heads in the sand, the more damage we are allowing to happen to our country.
Our two party system has been turned into a power grab based on greed and deception (Loopholes)that those in government have created to satisfy their needs and not the needs of the people and we allowed it to happen. Democrats and Republicans have taken accountability out of government and people like yourselves are making it that much easier. You think partisan politics is the problem. Those in power love to hear it.
If you can’t figure out that this administration, who by the way, is so inept they have failed to hide any of their shortcomings from the American people,sucks beyond a shadow of a doubt, you haven’t been paying attention.
We all spend a lot of time worrying about paying back borrowed gov money. Should we be? Cheney certainly doesn’t think so.
We will find out.
Inflation is destabilizing, and it’s being done by design.
We’ve come to accept it.
Should we be worried ?
History says we should be.
After all, we’ve got to pay over $1 billion per day in interest alone, or default, which would be disasterous.
There will be consequences, and the federal government seems determined to find out what those consequences will be.
For dern sure the plutocrats aren/t worrying
about inflation. Perhaps when we get to be like
Germany in the 1920’s they will get concerned.
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Posted by: Rocky Mirza at October 14, 2005 06:17 AM004106: Hey, does anyone know where I can find a list of gas stations with low prices in my area?
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Posted by: Debra Riley at October 18, 2005 08:48 AMThe Government doesn’t track HOW MUCH $ it spends on outsourcing (not centrally, nor time lapsed compared). Therefore, it’s impossible to prove the conspiracy theory. Politicians allege private sector savings, and cite “projected cost savings” from a current years budget- never cost accounted again. Too bad banks used by the people of the USA won’t honor that same “faith based math”.
Welfare for CEO’s, country club jobs for crony appointees, & the end game converts our tax $ to their campaigns. That simple-that evil! Democracy is pure illusion.
Posted by: Gerald Swanke at November 7, 2005 06:24 AM
