Rumor RE: Halliburton and New Orleans (investigative reporter needed)

[blitzen]

I'm in Baton Rouge--just heard something from my friend. He has a hispanic acquaintance who has been helping with the Red Cross in New Orleans the past two weeks. This guy noticed that there were large numbers of Spanish-speaking workers down there. He struck up a conversation and one of the workers told him what was supposed to be "hush-hush": that Halliburton has brought in thousands of Hondurans to do clean up work--paying below the minimum wage. This is obviously an outrage to the good people of NO who are without work. My friend's wife has connections with journalists here and is trying to get someone to do a story. Anyway, it might be good material for some intrepid reporter.

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. I cannot believe that we lost good candidates for the Supreme Court

over the hiring of illegal aliens, and now Cheney's company is flying them in by the truckload. Where is the conservative outrage in all this?

[theboz]

10. Who says they are illegal?

Or is it that speaking Spanish or having brown skin makes someone uneligable to be in the U.S.? That seems to be how the INS works at least. Besides, Halliburton can get them in here legally if they wanted, they do own our government after all.

What I think is that this rumor is one started to stir up race problems. There are a large number of hispanic people in the building industry, so even if Halliburton weren't "flying them in" there would still be a large number of latin people rebuilding New Orleans.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. What is the need for secrecy if they're legal?

And where do you get a population of Honduran workers large enough to fill the need, if not from Honduras?

By the way, I happen to be hispanic too and know there are a number of legals in this country that would love to do the work.

[NVMojo]

2. Kick! This needs to see the light of day!! Gawd-dammit!!!

hate the neocons, they exploit even death ...

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. too obvious, even for Halliburton? Ha - think again. Besides,

they probably had them all lined up before, when they had visions of federalized NOLA.

[LiberalVoice]

5. Recommended.

We need to get to the bottom of this.

[elehhhhna]

19. It's HAL's subcontractor co's.

HAL doesn't get their hands dirty--they hire other co's and take as much off the top as possible. It's all paper at HAL.

Iraq Rebuiding part2.

[JohnnyBoots]

4. Punt (If true too good to just kick!)

[Coexist]

6. kicking for ya'

hope you find your reporter.

[OneBlueSky]

7. send this to Matt Taibbi . . . he recently did an excellent article . . .

about the rescue activities of himself, Sean Penn, and Douglas Brinkley . . . he'd probably be interested in this lead . . .

[texpatriot2004]

8. I heard that Halliburton had done that. It was a few weeks back

when I heard it.

[raccoon]

9. Thanks for posting this, Blitzen.

Of course, this doesn't surprise me.

I KNEW they would do this, I KNEW it.

Betcha the presstitutes won't touch this one.

[Marleyb]

12. The bastards are at it again

Bush lept into action right after the disaster to...suspended both Davis–Bacon and the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act. It's no wonder they ignored this letter from Dennis Kucinich and Stephanie Tubbs Jones too...

"Dear Mr. President,

For the Hurricane-affected regions of Louisiana and Mississippi, the economic devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is on par with effects of the Great Depression. Unemployment is on a huge scale. We ask that you issue an Executive Order requiring all contractor companies receiving federal Hurricane relief dollars to hire local residents of the Hurricane-affected region and pay them a living wage.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, of the 510,000 private-sector workers in the New Orleans metropolitan statistical area, “the majority will be off payrolls at least through September, with only a gradual rebound.” Another 113,000 in the Gulfport-Biloxi MSA and 54,000 in the Pascagoula MSA face unemployment caused by the Hurricane’s devastation of workplaces, transportation routes, public utilities and housing.

The House of Representatives has already appropriated over $60 billion for the region, and will surely appropriate more. But restrictions on the rule governing debate and amendments made it impossible for us to debate an amendment to require contractors receiving federal Hurricane relief dollars to hire locally and pay a living wage. "

why o why can't the good guys ever be in power? And just how obvious do the evil bastards have to be before everyone realizes our country is being run by the mafia?

[jasmeel]

13. Mayor of New Orleans Announces Layoffs

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/hurricane_katrina

EW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin said Tuesday the city is laying off as many as 3,000 employees - or about half the city's workforce - because of the damage done to New Orleans' finances by Hurricane Katrina. Nagin announced with "great sadness" that he had been unable to find the money to keep the workers on the payroll. He said only non-essential workers would be laid off and that no firefighters or police would be among those let go.

I wonder where they could find a bunch of workers?? It's insane!

[blitzen]

14. kick for the night owl crowd n/t

[tgnyc]

15. Believable, but you heard it through an acquaintance of a friend.

That's a little too far removed for my comfort level.

[blitzen]

16. that's why i called it a "rumor"...

but don't be surprised if it shows up in the press soon...

[blitzen]

17. Some confirmation in today's Baton Rouge Advocate

http://2theadvocate.com/stories/100505/pol_carpetbag001.shtml

"Before many local leaders realized it, officials at the federal level awarded five major no-bid contracts to large companies, only one of which is based in Louisiana, he said.

These corporations have their own set of subcontractors they work with and have largely frozen out native Louisianans as streets are cleaned, electrical wiring is repaired and structures restored, many complain.

Many of the subcontractors favor cheap, outside labor, LaFonta said.

"I was down there. It was like a Latin American country; everybody was speaking Spanish," LaFonta said.

Instead of banding together to confront the issue, individual lawmakers are busy trying to finagle deals that help companies they're friendly with, LaFonta said.

He didn't name names."

[elehhhhna]

18. Where's that gooberborder gang militia when ya need 'em?

lol