Iraq, Katrina, Halliburton... More of the Same!

I just heard on the (French) radio that Halliburton - the controversial business company which became (in)famous for allegations of fraud, specifically with regard to its operations in Iraq, and for its associations with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney - is also going to be making business with federal money in the Southern U.S.A in the wake of Katrina.

This is confirmed by Molly Ivins, here:

... the first winner out of the gate on Katrina is Halliburton Co., whose deserving subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root has been granted a $29.8 million contract for cleanup work in the wake of Katrina.

..... and she adds some interesting figures (always worth remembering in a political conversation with Republican friends):

Of course, no one would suggest Halliburton and its subsidiaries get government contracts (more than $9 billion for reconstruction work in Iraq, with Pentagon audits thus far showing $1.03 billion in “questioned” costs and $422 million in “unsupported costs”) just because Vice President Cheney is still on the payroll. Heavens no. The veep continues to receive deferred pay from the company he formerly headed — $194,852 last year.

The scope of the lobbying power of Holliburton is reviewed in details by Molly Ivins, and it is worth reading the whole article.

She also ends on a very good political analysis of the 'ideology' that may explain the unbelievable decision that have led to the disaster in either Iraq and/or New-Orleans, and I think it sums it up so well that it is worth quoting the last few lines:

The trouble with Bush is that while he is good at politics, he stinks at governance. It bores him, he thinks government is bad to begin with and everything would be done better if it were contracted out to corporations.W. has stacked much of the federal government with people like himself. When you put people in charge of government who don’t believe in government and who are not interested in running it well, you get what happened after Hurricane Katrina.