* FAILS with hurricanes yet the big corps are hailed as heroes?

[Deja Q]

Home Depot
Wal Mart
Fed Ex

I saw those on a news magazine yesterday. They were heralded as big heroes for helping out after the hurricanes.

While it's cool people are helping people, the fact that * is big-corp. friendly and how his cabinet want to drown government has not escaped me.

Surely it's not cynicism that it's possible * allowed things to fail so his corporate buddies could come in, save the day, and be seen as worthy rulers after the crash?

[madrchsod]

1. i would rather have walmart

in charge of the distribution of goods than the federal government.

[rsmith6621]

2. Wal-Mart Was Able

To drop 50 million in aid to those in NOLA but yet wont help fund health insurance for there own employees who go through medical emegencys everyday.

Where is Walmartrs true priority?

[Deja Q]

5. Excellent point.

Unfortunately the sheeple will merely think walmart is a god...

[jane_pippin]

3. I saw that too. I want to say it was "Fortune" but I'm not positive.

I had a "wha?" moment when I saw that cover.

[jobycom]

4. Walmart and Home Depot would have been there the next day, anyway

Whether Bush had responded or not. I doubt they would have made any more money if troops and supplies had gotten there. Maybe the opposite. If we had had the National Gaurd and a steady supply of water and ice, people could have gotten to these stores more quickly, maybe before others opened. People could have gotten their with FEMA money to buy more.

The corporations that Bush helped were directly related to the cleanup and recovery. Kenyon, for instance. Bush's delay was deliberate, but not to make Walmart richer. It was because his whole philosophy is that private corporations can do everything faster and better, so Bush's new FEMA is built on the idea that they can call private bus firms, or have state and lcoal governments hire private contractors, and do everything that the better FEMA under Gore could do.

Bush's failure wasn't just personal, his whole idea failed. That's why he did the opposite under Rita. If Bush would have responded to Katrina the way he responded to Rita, the looting wouldn't have happened, hundreds of deaths would have been prevented, and the horrific suffering wouldn't have happened.

I've posted it many times since Katrina: I'll never badmouth Walmart and Home Depot again. At their best, they are able to mobilize massive resources to help people. At their worst, they are simply taking advantage of what the law and the system allow. We should focus on the law, not on those following it, if we want to oppose Walmart's worst abuses. IMHO.