Growing Chorus Against Disaster Profiteering

The chorus is growing louder and louder against profiteering by politically-connected corporations in the wake of the Katrina catastrophe. And it's not just the liberal pundits: check out this piece today by John Young, editorial page editor of the Waco Tribune (Texas):

Quick action after storm? Yes, if buck is to be had

Judge for yourself if President Bush on Tuesday issued a mea culpa or a they-a culpa.

Whatever the case, the seed of political ingenuity germinates afresh in the post-Katrina implication: Government failed. All of it.

Sounds like a theme. Go to video. To serve the people, you just can't trust government.

You can, however, trust your friendly private contractor.

How many more New Orleanians would be alive today were National Guardsmen there as quickly as Halliburton and Bechtel?

Reports of FEMA awarding, lickety-split, no-bid contracts to various favored corporations for Katrina relief put the lie to the notion of bureaucracy in molasses.

When there's patronage to be done and profit to be had for political friends, see this government move.

It just keeps going from there. There have also been excellent pieces on disaster profiteering this week by Molly Ivins, Jesse Jackson, Ariana Huffington, Tom Englhardt, and Charlie Cray.