Interesting – because that is the same thing I found out last Thursday.

Man i love reading your blog, interesting posts !

Why do the words “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” ring a bell…. Hmmmm, I’ll have to think about that.

Cheers,

I agree. Katrina showcased the Republican’s “drown it in the bathtub” mentality. As American’s, we’ve got to start taking these zealots at thier word. I’m convinced that “No Child Left Behind” is an effort to destroy public education. It’s just a different tack than George Sr. tried when he sought to discontinue the Department of Education. Meanwhile, the Project for a New American Century has provided the blueprint and rationale for most of what has occured in the Iraq fiasco. I think the Republicans count on our not being able to discern incompetence from purely malign intent.

Comment by Democrat Soldier #2

Democrat Soldier,

…and on and on and on…..

http://www.constructionlaborlawblog.com/prevailing-wage-laws–94-davisbacon-suspended-and-reinstated-in-katrinaaffected-areas.html

At the bottom tier is a Spanish-speaking crew making less than 10 cents for every square foot of tarpaulin installed. At the top, the prime contractor bills the government 15 times as much for the same job.

I predicted this to happen just after Katrina occurred when Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon act (temporarily). Contracts and subsequent sub-contracts awarded before the act was reinstated are not subject to the rules of Davis-Bacon. (Although more complex, Davis-Bacon assures laborers are to be paid a “prevailing wage”- Which is generally established by union pay scale. Note: The laborers do not have to be union members to receive prevailing wage.)

This tiered sub-contracting scheme is another form cronyism at the expense laborers performing the actual work. The less they have to pay actual labor, the more that goes into their pockets…and the government saves nothing. As is evident, the government (us) is getting ripped-off by unscrupulous contractors. Worse yet, is that the damage is on more than one level. Keep in mind that the “day labor” overwhelmingly hired by these sub-contractors do not pay taxes and a significant number are illegal aliens.

Unions have been the victim of neo-con propaganda in much the same way the democratic party has…only much more effectively. Union busting is very high on the neo-con “agenda”. When was the last time you heard a favorable comment about unions anywhere in the press? The neo-cons and rethugs actually have people believing that the corporations had to move overseas to escape union tyranny. Not true. No time to elaborate but for example- Consumer goods formally produced in the US have not gone down in price due to cheap overseas labor…but corporate profits as well as executive pay has skyrocketed. The demise of the American middle-class is a direct correlation to the demise of labor unions. Whether you like unions or not- they are a necessary part of an economic “checks & balances” system.

Side note: A friend of mine is a union plumbing contractor struggling to find work in the area. He recently took a small crew of highly skilled licensed plumbers down the La., Miss., and Al., to help with the rebuilding efforts. He was summarily denied work solely because of his union affiliation even when he said his men were willing to waive union pay scale. This while viewing what little work being done was being done by what was apparently illegal immigrants receiving “day labor” pay.

I echo your question in #16: Where are the Democrats?

Its like shifting deck chairs on the Titanic. Even so, just like Bush himself, Barmes is unable to think outside of the box/four walls of the White House (Khalilzad is a PNAC signer, so that shouldn’t count); the genius interbox thinking that led to the selection of Meirs for SCoTUS, the best nominee he could find…within 100 yards.

Funny how all these people are meant to be interchangable; it’s almost like personal skills don’t matter in the bush White House, oh, wait…

Cheney as secretary of Defense? So he finally shoots a gun at someone, and Barnes thinks that all of a sudden he’s capable of coordinating the armed forces?

All that crap they claimed about “it’s your tax money” is nothing but more mendacity and calumny. Yes, it’s “our tax money’ that needs to go towards paying off all those charges that Pres. Reagan and Pres. Bush (Sr.) were running up higher than Pres. Bush (Jr.) on coke in his “wild days”. Our leadership decided to spend and spend and spend and spend and spend like it’s going out of style in the ‘80s in order to bring us to war with the USSR in a way that we would end up winning, and we ended up spending the Soviets out of existence. Then, when it came time to start paying the bill, it took Pres. Clinton to force the “fiscally irresponsible” Republicans from cutting the taxes that would be used to pay that bill.

Then, we get Pres. Bush (Jr.) and the most massive fiscal failure in the history of humankind. He takes a surplus and turns it into the largest deficit, EVER! He decides that the financial stability of the US is nothing compared to lining the pockets of the richest people in America and cuts taxes like it’s going out of style. Rather than remaining true to the original “fiscal responsibility” plank of the old Republican party, he decides to run up more and more debt on the national credit card. It’s not like he really cares about the financial stability of America 20 years from now, because he’ll be the “war President” and wont’ have to give a crap about anyone at that point.

It’s going to take returning the “borrow and spend”, “fiscal irresponsible” Republicans back to the minority party so that we can return the US to a more stable fiscal policy of actually paying for the debts that Pres. Bush has added to the US.

The national debt when Pres. Clinton was in office:

09/29/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86

The national debt with the man with an MBA in office???

03/17/2006 $8,270,880,983,362.78

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm

How’s that for an insulting, offensive remark? What kind of ignoramus would say such a thing?

Any news that is bad and has an effect on the price of oil is used to exploit the oil market, and an increase in the price of oil is the desired result. Ergo, there will be a war. Anything else is meaningless.

That shake up is more jonesin’ than anything and not much else.

The corporate offices at Engulf and Devour are in full swing today.