Louisiana returns to business as usual

[Storebought]

It's great to think that, even after two devastating hurricanes, Louisiana politicians have quickly returned to the status quo ante diluvium: fleecing the American taxpayer blind:

Lawmaker's father, uncle got $108 million FEMA trailer contract

NEW ORLEANS The uncle and father of a Louisiana lawmaker have won three no-bid contracts worth 108 (m) million dollars to provide temporary housing for Hurricane Katrina evacuees even though their motorcycle shop didn't have a license to sell new trailers until after the first deal was signed.

Recreational vehicle dealers in Louisiana are angry, saying they've been shut out of what they call a sweetheart deal. One is threatening to sue the motorcycle shop's owners for violating the dealer's franchise rights to sell R-Vs.
No-bid contracts awarded by FEMA for temporary housing in trailers and on cruise ships have come under question by state and federal lawmakers and businesses complaining of favoritism.
The Homeland Security Department has pledged to reopen four of its biggest no-bid deals, but it said last week the contracts won't be awarded again until February.
Louisiana lawmakers are debating a bill that could require state officials to inform the state ethics board when they or their family members profit from federal disaster-related contracts. An alternative version would limit reporting to just officials and their spouses.
The New Orleans-area motorcycle shop owned by Representative Gary Smith's family has received FEMA contracts to provide 64-hundred trailers to the agency to house those who lost their homes.

If the GOP is serious about cutting the budget, and they aren't, they'd first look at the way these Homeland Security funds are spent. Taxpayer dollars to build trailer park ghettos? Unbelievable.

[??????????]

Welfare state mentality. Many of these people don't want to try and get back on their own feet. They'd rather try and leech and wait for a free handout from the government.

[Storebought]

Welfare state mentality. Many of these people don't want to try and get back on their own feet. They'd rather try and leech and wait for a free handout from the government.

It's also quite convenient that the article doesn't mention that the state representative and his band of thieves are Democrats. Party affiliation matters only when corruption can be tied to George Bush ...

In earnestness:

(1) Why would a GOP administration even entertain, let alone approve, the construction of new ghettos, least of all those in rural parishes? Hell, even Richard Nixon back in 1972 could see the ultimate condition that will arise from concentrating the indolent poor in segregated prefabricated housing units.
(2) The poor federal oversight of this spending is another thing that pisses me off. Why on Christ's good earth would anyone trust local Louisiana grifters and their worthless kin with 100+ million dollars in federal money? If the GOP wants to return to its policy of fiscal sanity, start looking for wasted dollars here!
(3) I hate saying it, but the politically deformed and extortionate Louisiana voting electorate shares blame in this as well. Decade in and decade out, they vote for one palm-greasing felon after another (H Long; E K Long; E W Edwards; Blanco & Landrieu & Foti & Nagin and the rest their pathetic lot). It's as though they are incapable of doing for their own (Mexicans are rebuilding New Orleans!), and thus always turn to Baton Rouge or Washington with a quick fix and a quicker dollar. This Rep. Smith, in the end, is only doing what comes naturally to so degraded a population.

In the end, Louisiana is what a "Populist" America will look like.

[Storebought]

Not to beat a dead horse (I don't like trolling and spamming either), but just in case you're wondering if my disgust is overexaggerated, take a look at this:

Senator tries, fails, to outlaw public official contracts

Lawmakers who want to make it illegal for Louisiana's elected officials or their families to benefit from federally funded disaster contracts appeared to be out of luck when Gov. Kathleen Blanco set the agenda for the current special legislative session.

In Louisiana, when the governor calls a special session, she controls the subject matter. Blanco's session agenda called for debate on legislation that would require state officials to publicly report any such contracts, but it said nothing about making the contracts illegal.

However, Sen. Jay Dardenne, R-Baton Rouge, found a way around the restrictive language. His bill, debated Monday in the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee, would have made it a violation of the state ethics code to either report - or not report -- such contracts, effectively outlawing theeffectively outlawing the contracts.

"Under this bill it's a Catch-22," mused Committee Chairman Charles Jones, D-Monroe. "Or it's really a 44."

Dardenne noted that the secretary of the Senate let the bill reach committee -- an indication that it fell within the limitations of Blanco's agenda. Jones said he was unconvinced, but he allowed a vote anyway.

That's where Dardenne failed. The bill needed a majority vote and, with four committee members present, it died on a 2-2 tie.

God bless Dardenne -- I knew him back when I lived in LA. It's safe to say that he has no political future in that state.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This guy should be expelled from the Democratic party so that the only crooks are non-Democrats.

[Everett]

This guy should be expelled from the Democratic party so that the only crooks are non-Democrats.

^^^^^

[Alcon]

This guy should be expelled from the Democratic party so that the only crooks are non-Democrats.

Indeed, because this man is evidently the only crook in the entirety of Our Great Party.

[opebo]

Welfare state mentality. Many of these people don't want to try and get back on their own feet. They'd rather try and leech and wait for a free handout from the government.

You blame someone for aiming for the possible rather than the impossible?  Unreasonable, States.

... the indolent poor .... 

Hah, you poor sap, it is the rich who are indolent.  Most poor toil in jobs - who do you think operates your Walmarts and McDonalds?  Even those who are denied jobs, while indolent in terms of employment, are quite busy experiencing daily pains and humiliations. 

[opebo]

This guy should be expelled from the Democratic party so that the only crooks are non-Democrats.

Indeed, because this man is evidently the only crook in the entirety of Our Great Party.

Corruption is really no problem, as long as the programs put in place have a generally Keyensian redistributive effect - getting money out of the hands of the owning class and into the hands of the workers.  Just as Unions were excellent institutions, even if 10% of the money gained was 'stolen' by the mob, government programs are still quite effective as long as the majority of the money gets to the poor.

[Alcon]

Corruption is really no problem, as long as the programs put in place have a generally Keyensian redistributive effect - getting money out of the hands of the owning class and into the hands of the workers.  Just as Unions were excellent institutions, even if 10% of the money gained was 'stolen' by the mob, government programs are still quite effective as long as the majority of the money gets to the poor.

The problem with that theory is corruption breeds greed.  What other form of corruption, other than stealing from the poor's till, would you anticipate?  Money is a driving force that no one can avoid.  If corruption is allowed, these programs will - and do - become ineffective.

[opebo]

Corruption is really no problem, as long as the programs put in place have a generally Keyensian redistributive effect - getting money out of the hands of the owning class and into the hands of the workers.  Just as Unions were excellent institutions, even if 10% of the money gained was 'stolen' by the mob, government programs are still quite effective as long as the majority of the money gets to the poor.

The problem with that theory is corruption breeds greed.  What other form of corruption, other than stealing from the poor's till, would you anticipate?  Money is a driving force that no one can avoid.  If corruption is allowed, these programs will - and do - become ineffective.

Um, Alcon, the current system is built entirely upon greed.  It is hardly fair to hold the new and improved system to a standard of absolute rectitude by contrast.