THE BUSH REGIME AND THE MASSIVE FRAUD ON THE GULF COAST

Yesterday I was on one of those all-night-all-day flights from Buenos Aires back to L.A. It's great to be home! I hope you had a chance to see my last post from Argentina, a quote from 1647 by Juan De Solorzano y Pereyra, addressing the seriousness of government corruption. Although he was writing about the disastrous nature of the morally bankrupt Spanish monarchy, he could just as easily have been looking into our own time and writing about the morally bankrupt Bush Regime. And when I did manage to get home yesterday, I noticed that the Associated Press was pointing out the same thing, although in regard to the massive and tragic corruption-- and the convenient veil of incompetence enshrouding it-- that has been the Bush Regime's #2 boondoggle (after Iraq): New Orleans.


Even if 1647 is so long ago as to be utterly incomprehensible, you'll recall that way back in 2005 (September 15 to be exact-- hat tip to Matt Ortega for the quote-- Bush was making all sorts of promises about rebuilding New Orleans, a scene he recalled fondly of some of his teenage debauchery. Despite Planet Denny Hastert's suggestions that New Orleans be bulldozed and it's citizens left to fend for themselves, Bush decided there was something in the tragedy for his family and supporters. "Our goal is to get the work done quickly. And taxpayers expect this work to be done honestly and wisely-- so we’ll have a team of inspectors general reviewing all expenditures... The work that has begun in the Gulf Coast region will be one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen. When that job is done, all Americans will have something to be very proud of-- and all Americans are needed in this common effort."

The inspectors general have found the Bush Regime inadequate, as have the residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and as have the vast majority of Americans. Over and above the political considerations and over and above his Iraq-related high crimes and misdemeanors the malfeasance in the rebuilding effort alone should be enough for Bush to be impeached and removed from office.

No one can deny the incompetence-- from day one-- of the Bush Regime's response to the Hurricane Katrina tragedy. But t is important to keep in mind that for scores of Bush-Cheney political contributors, the mess on the Gulf Coast has been anything but a tragedy. "The tally for Hurricane Katrina waste could top $2 billion next year because half of the lucrative government contracts valued at $500,000 or greater for cleanup work are being awarded without little competition," is how the AP Report begins. It doesn't get any better as it goes on.

"Federal investigators have already determined the Bush administration squandered $1 billion on fraudulent disaster aid to individuals after the 2005 storm. Now they are shifting their attention to the multimillion dollar contracts to politically connected firms that critics have long said are a prime area for abuse." Who cares about Bush and his minions squandering a billion dollars? Well, certainly not the 30-something percent of Americans who still think he's a capable or even a "good" president. And will the audits coming next month change their minds? Unlikely, even though the non-political official audits will show that substantial amounts of the $12 billion spent on "reconstruction" in the Gulf Coast disaster area went primarily-- and in some cases exclusively-- to bolster Bush's political machine with little, if any, regard for the welfare of those who suffered the most from the catastrophe.


Bush's own former Homeland Security Inspector General, Clark Kent Ervin, is positively disdainful of the Bush Regime's record so far and he expects worse. Calling Bush's use of politically-motivated no-bid contracts inexcusable, he says that "based on their track record, it wouldn't surprise me if we saw another billion more in waste." Ervin chalks it up to a combination of laziness, ineptitude and "nefariousness." Sounds like the hallmark of the Bush presidency. Among the huge corporations which have profited most handsomely from the Katrina disaster are 4 with close ties to the Bush Regime and to congressional Republicans: Bechtel, Fluor (which bribed donated almost a million dollars to Republicans), Shaw and CH2M Hill. I don't know if the American people will ever demand war crimes trials for Iraq or if there will ever be war profiteering prosecutions for Bush-connected companies for what they did in that country. But there should certainly be prosecutions for the criminal behavior surrounding the "rebuilding" of New Orleans.