Disaster Capitalism in New Orleans

[buzzsaw_23]

Tuesday, September 13, 2005


Disaster Capitalism in New Orleans

The cost (or here) of cleaning up the results of Bush's negligence in failing to deal with global warming and spending money needed for New Orleans levees on his war in Iraq may be as much as the $300 billion spent in four years to fight the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Of course, what most people would regard as a cost, the entrepreneurial politicians in the Bush White House see as yet another opportunity to transfer money from taxpayers to their personal friends. The scheme is blatantly obvious:


1. Bush has started to issue Iraq-style no-bid contracts, with cost-plus provisions that guarantee contractors a certain profit regardless of how much they spend.


2. Old buddies like Halliburton, Bechtel, and Fluor are first in line. Joe Allbaugh, the former director of FEMA, is lobbying for Halliburton, and another winner of the Katrina windfall, Shaw Group Inc.

<snip>

The concept of 'disaster capitalism', a term coined by Naomi Klein, is now being applied to the United States itself. Klein wrote:

"Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate 'post-conflict' plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries 'at the same time,' each lasting 'five to seven years.'


http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2005/09/disaster-capitalism-in-new-orleans.html

[Amonester]

1. That's what the idiots who run expect ("no one will complain"):

in:

"All of the reconstruction contracts can be directed to friends of the Bush Administration, and no one will complain about the extremely generous payments."

I think the idiots in charge make a false (and "dangerous," we hope...) assumption there. It seems at least half the population, and a little more, are "complaining" (in all recent polls).


Their Idiocy Looks like A Clear Recipe For A New Revolution (Against Them).

[RedCloud]

2. Hear ye... Hear ye... spread the word.

This has to get out everywhere.

They are like Nazis planning for future wars that have no purpose other than self enrichment.