MUST READ: Unholy Trinity: Katrina, Allbaugh and Brown

[MagickMuffin]

I posted this in a thread on the LBN, and PA Democrat suggested that I post it as a seperate thread. So here goes. I hope it gets read and kicked....

Check out the link below to learn more about how and why Brownie was elevated to head FEMA. The article is very long and detailed (8 pages) about how Joe Allbaugh and Brownie became friends, and how they both used people to steal money from on the conditions they would repay them, although they never did.
Also goes into great detail about Brownie's job at the Horse Assoc. and his going after a horse trainer who the GOP didn't like.

David Boggs (who did not respond to interview requests) was, by most accounts, a talented and dedicated trainer whose successes on the circuit were well deserved. But according to Hart and others, he was envied and even hated by several extremely rich Arabian Horse owners—owners who happened to also be very large Republican donors, including the late Bob Magness, a founder of the TCI cable giant; David Murdock, the Dole food company billionaire; and the late Alec Courtelis, a Florida developer.

Courtelis had been one of George H.W. Bush’s major fundraisers, and the elder Bush was a frequent guest at Courtelis’s horse farm during his presidency. At an April 1990 fundraising dinner in Florida, Bush introduced Courtelis with the words “Here’s a man who breeds race horses for the same reason he works so hard for the party: only one place will do for Alec—first place.” Page2

http://realnews.org/rn/content/index1e49.html?option=co...

Please read the entire article to learn more on this story and some insight on these thugs.

[BOSSHOG]

1. Excellent Article

I read it yesterday. Typical republicans. The young thug Deutch, who resigned from NASA yesterday after he was discovered to be a lying punk is a future brown, grown up on the gop farm. They are an evil breeding machine, turning out monsters from coast to coast because they hate the constitution.

THE ARTICLE IS LONG, BUT READ IT.

[MagickMuffin]

2. That was exactly what my reaction to Deutsch Bag

He will still climb the latter of success falling all the way up.

As for the article it is a long winded one, but definitely worth every word, considering how much insight it provides the readers.

[Synnical]

3. Printed it out to read later

Thanks.

[MagickMuffin]

4. Just trying to get the word out there

everybody should read this. It is important!

[PA Democrat]

5. Just a few tidbits of corruption I gathered from this article

Joe Allbaugh filed for bankruptcy and discharged more than $300,000 of debt. He was sued by numerous creditors over the years but Allbaugh did not reveal any of this in his Senate confirmation hearings. According to the article, "On a sworn disclosure form, when asked whether he had ever been a party to any administrative proceeding or civil litigation, he simply wrote “no.” "

Michael Brown when he worked for the International Arabian Horse Association was sued by a top trainer who he has banned from competition for 5 years. Brownie went to a wealthy horse owner and asked for and received $50,000 for legal fees to defend himself against this lawsuit. The problem was that the IAHA was already covering 100% of his legal bills.

The 2 have a long history of shady business deals and cronyism. Allbaugh's wife got lobbying jobs and used her husband's political position to lure clients.

I highly recommend this article.

[MagickMuffin]

7. And with Brownie heading up FEMA

Allbaugh was able to secure more tax payer money. Sweet!

The Allbaughs and Cheneys are literally so at home with each other that, on first arriving in Washington in 2001, the Allbaughs bought Cheney’s townhouse in McLean, Virginia, for $690,000. During the house tour, Cheney must have pointed out the revolving doors. One of Allbaugh’s biggest clients is Cheney’s former employer, Halliburton, whose Kellogg, Brown and Root subsidiary got at least $61 million worth of Katrina business.

When Allbaugh left FEMA he did not, however, restrict himself to the domestic disaster business. Instead, he cast a wider net into the entire Homeland Security/Defense sector, thereby stressing his implied connections in the Department of Homeland Security, which had absorbed FEMA, and in the Pentagon and White House. His departure from government, in March, 2003, took place precisely as the invasion of Iraq unfolded.

We may expect revelations in coming months and years about the process through which FEMA awarded contracts. But it is likely that even the most cursory examination will uncover high-level decisions that carried little obvious public benefit. One such example might be the agency’s abrupt 2003 decision to award an exclusive contract for water supplies in emergencies. 

Prior to the Allbaugh-Brown reign, FEMA had handed out water contracts to a variety of companies. One of the recipients, not surprisingly, was Nestle Waters North America, easily the continent’s biggest producer, with 15 brands of bottled water and 23 bottling facilities in the U.S. and Canada. 

Then, without explanation, FEMA went sole-source, picking a little-known, family-run firm called Lipsey Mountain Water. The company, based in Norcross, Georgia, had just 15 full-time employees, no production capacity and no distribution network. Instead, it was aggressively soliciting other companies to supply its needs.

[castiron]

6. Thanks for that: great read.

[MagickMuffin]

8. Giving this a Kick

:kick:

[slor]

9. WOW ! You were not lying!

Folks, Please read and send out, this was an amazing report, with details I was not even familiar with.

[MagickMuffin]

10. Agreed, Please Read

we cannot let this info fall into the void!

[KoKo]

11. Excellent read...wonder if any Bloggers will pick it up and talk about it.

:shrug:

[MagickMuffin]

12. Even though I'm not an Established Blogger

I have been considering making that my blog for tomorrow. However, it is such a large article I would have to figure out how to condense it for the Comic part of the blog.

Of course the commentary following could focus in on more of the detail!

[Bongo Prophet]

13. I agree, you should blog this. Maybe some others will spread it that way.

Quite a challenge to condense so much evil into one comic and post. Good luck on that!
I will check your blog tomorrow to see what you did...

Like all the Abramoff emails you were organizing, in the details there are several mini-scandals within scandals.
Like a fractal zoom of evil!

[MagickMuffin]

15. Thanks for the encouragement BP,

you are right about it being a challenge. I hope that I can pull it off, and give it justice, which it deserves!

[ray of light]

14. is this a legit- reliable source?

[MagickMuffin]

16. I guess it depends on what you consider reliable

Do you mean reliable as in the AP leaving out details concerning Harry Reid, or Time Magazine leaving out details of their involvement concerning the leaking of classified information in the Cheney/Libby/Rove/Novak/Plame/Wilson affair, or the NY Times reporting about WMD's in Iraq?

Or pick your own legit- reliable news source.

I have no way of knowing what is considered Legit-reliable news sources anymore.

I take all info with a cautionary grain of salt. As should everyone of us.

How do we know that any info released into the ether is legit?

I don't mean to sound snippy but as I stated above I have no way of knowing. But I think it is worth the benefit of a doubt.

We do know that the water situation concerning Hurricane Katrina was a disaster in its own right!

[ray of light]

17. I mean reliable as in one that hasn't been caught fibbing.

(lol) I mean there are a couple of sites out in cyberspace that sometimes post stuff and it's hard to know if something is real or fake. Thanks. And definitely worth the benefit of the doubt. I know of two sites that I don't trust without further verification. But I had never heard of this one.

[MagickMuffin]

19. was posting a link at the same time as you

go check it out good people on the editorial broad.

[MagickMuffin]

18. link provided is the bio page of the author/editorial board

some of the board members include:

Daniel Ellsberg, Daniel Ellsberg (Berkeley and Washington, DC) is a pioneering whistleblower. A former Defense and State Department official, his unauthorized release to the Senate and later the media of a Top Secret study of U.S. decision-making in Vietnam exposed massive deceptions by the government and contributed to the end of the war.

Robert Dreyfuss, He is also a contributing editor at The Nation, a contributing writer at Mother Jones, and a senior correspondent for The American Prospect.

Margaret Engel (Washington, DC) is the managing editor of the Newseum.

Todd Gitlin (New York) is a professor of Journalism and Sociology at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. A contributor to Mother Jones, The Nation and other publications, he is one of America’s leading cultural critics.

Just to name a few.... Check out the link for more info.

http://realnews.org/rn/content/index5cbd.html?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0&itemid=5

[ray of light]

20. oh good!!! thank you!

I have to admit, I don't trust NYT, WP, or any of them anymore. Perhaps it's a secondary byproduct the Rovians wanted.

[Bongo Prophet]

26. LOL - The rovian sausage factory!

i have to say I got a laugh from the secondary byproduct comment - whether intended or not.
An image of cartoon sausages, little weiners (like Michael Savage) being cranked out of the grinder/fax maschina...
a compound truth in cartoon form. thanks for that!

A lotus for you, ray of light.
u2 MM!

[ray of light]

21. I'm assured now. K and R! (thank you)

[MagickMuffin]

22. your welcome, and thanks for the K&R

[ray of light]

23. thanks for doing the scuttle work to reassure me.

Sometimes it's a sea of confusion. But this article is LONG but worth it! Someone I know trying to help you spread the word here:

http://www.progressiveu.org/160718-where-bushs-crony-appointments-have-gotten-us

Hope it helps.

[MagickMuffin]

24. Thanks for the help,

however the link you provided isn't working.

I wasn't aware of this site. I'll give it more of a search, when I have more time. It looks like a cool site.

[MagickMuffin]

25. Kicking for the evening crowd

:kick:

[nolies32fouettes]

27. I tried to help you

here:

http://www.progressiveu.org/160000-where-bushs-crony-appointments-have-gotten-us

It's hard to summarize 8 pages for those who won't read all 8!

[MagickMuffin]

28. Thanks for the help,

and yes it is hard to condense such a long article into a short summary. However, it reads pretty fast, as far as I'm concerned. Especially considering as much info it offers into the insight of cronyism!

[MagickMuffin]

29. I read your summary

and I have to hand it to you :applause:, you did a pretty good job. I haven't tried to condense it yet, but was planning on using this on my blog as I have stated in some of my previous post.

I do hope that more people will read about the way in which our country is run by money seeking incompetent thugs. The more this info gets exposed the more the MSM/Corporate News will have to do their jobs and report the true story.

Like on the Keith Olbermann show, they finally mentioned today the fact that Casino Jack Abramoff's personal assistant went to work for Karl Rove. This info has been out for at least a year. But it finally made it on Corporate News.

So, here's to getting the information out there.

[nolies32fouettes]

31. feel free to post info from the rest of the pages in that thread.

People will read the soundbites but not the whole 8 pages. I just know, I felt the article was getting too long to be effective.

[MagickMuffin]

30. Kicking for Saturday

:kick: