FEMA is "now idiots"....Privatization starts (Haliburton, Bechtel & more)

[cthrumatrix]

This all fall under "problem solution thinking"

FEMA who has responded to many hurricanes is now a blubbering idiot.

NO....I don't buy that.

However, now Americans will say they can't trust FEMA so outsoucing will be great!!!

Mucho $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for buscho backers.


(and don't kid yourself about the New Orleanians going back to NO to "claim thier homes"...pennies on the dollars ...while big business wins)

[JDPriestly]

1. I keep saying this.

Everybody on DU needs to read the short, easy book by Briody entitled The Halliburton Agenda. It tells you exactly how the privatization started and what is behind it. It's about payoffs and power for the guys that give the private companies the contracts. That book shows you how it works. Read it. We need to research and talk about how private companies continue to get their sponsors elected to office and then reap the benefits of the payoffs from them. I can't stress it enough. Even if you think you know all of this, the Briody book gives you the facts -- exactly how this started with Halliburton, how the contracts work, etc. This will teach us what to look for when we investigate candidates, contracts and pay-offs. As we all know, Democrats are not immune. Many Democratic officeholders at all levels are also playing the Halliburton game, maybe with other corporate interests. We need to expose this big time. The agendas of companies like Halliburton are destroying our country.

[cthrumatrix]

3. the proof is clear, Iraq payoffs are blatent, medicare reform is a scam

what do people need to see?

[JDPriestly]

4. How it all started.

The history and more. How the contracts are awarded. What the contracts mean to the companies that give them. What the terms are on the contracts. Imagine being assured that your company will get every contract for supplying military facilities for five years without having to submit additional bids. Imagine being able to run up costs virtually without a ceiling.

This book shows why the contracts are so generous to the companies that get them. It describes how the payments from the contracts move into the campaign coffers of the individuals who help the companies get the contracts. Briody recounts how Lyndon Johnson helped Brown & Root get started, their mutual efforts to assist each other's interests. Johnson was the first and foremost of the kings of corruption in our government with regard to Brown & Root/Halliburton, but by no means the last.

Before I read the book, I thought I knew enough about how corruption works. After all, I'm a lawyer and not young. After I read the book, I realized that my previous understanding was only a vague notion of how it works.

Briody does not bore you with too many details (there's a much bigger story out there about the scope of this problem; he focuses on just a few examples) but tells you how corruption works in enough detail that you understand the real mechanisms behind the end results that we all see. On DU, we tend to equate corruption with Republicans and maybe DNC members. Based on my reading of that book, I realize that we should be examining the conduct of practically all Republicans and Democrats. In spite of the drastic ideological differences between the Brown & Root management and Johnson, Johnson was quite willing to further Brown & Root interests in order to further his own political ambitions. That is probably true of a number of other companies and legislators.

Interestingly, in addition to the contracts for Iraq, Halliburton got contracts to build the infrastructure for the War in Viet Nam and --- Kosovo. The book led me to the cynical conclusion that many of the wars that we have fought since WWII were fought in order to give certain major contracting firms work building military infrastructure. I am oversimplifying, but it almost seemed to me that some of the wars lasted just as long as it took to transfer lots of money to Halliburton and similar companies for building military infrastructure. Once there was nothing more for the contractors to do, the wars seemed to end.

Briody's book placed Rumsfeld's comment about there not being any targets in Afghanistan in a different light for me. I always thought he was referring to the fact that we would have to invade with troops and could not just use our superior air power to dominate Afghanistan. But now I question whether the lack of interest in fighting in Afghanistan was the lack of need for airfields, etc. in that very primitive country.

Also, thanks to this book, I understood more about why Bush and Rumsfeld were not interested in capturing Bin Laden. Going after Bin Laden was of little interest to Halliburton because there would be no need to build large airfields or other facilities in order to get him.

Briody's book placed the whole Cunningham scandal in a different light for me. Cunningham's problem was that he got caught. I'll bet that many of our congressmen and senators are doing the things he did just less flamboyantly. I just don't know who. I have some ideas, but I would not want to mention names. Unless you are virtually an expert in this area, I would advise reading the Briody book. It is a quick and easy read. It was a page-turner for me.

[moondust]

2. But they're "Bush's idiots."

FEMA has faced hurricanes, flooding, tornados, etc. in the past and was never this inept/deadly.