Why is Halliburton Building (at $385 Million Taxpayer's Expense) Concentration Camps???!!!

[dEMOK]

...an "immigration emergency"? That's the official (irrational) rationale. The company seems real proud of it too. How did this slip under the radar --http://www.halliburton.com/default/main/halliburton/eng/news/source_files/news.jsp?newsurl=/default/main/halliburton/eng/news/source_files/press_release/2006/kbrnws_012406.html

[babylonsister]

1. This has been known for awhile by most at DU. It does make you

wonder who they have in mind to inhabit these camps...

[dEMOK]

11. I was speaking about the MSM...

[babylonsister]

13. Oh, THEM. They're too busy with Lindsay, Anna Nicole, ad nauseum. nt

[dEMOK]

39. Are you saying that Britney's boobs aren't real...

:P

[rurallib]

2. Are these the same as the FEMA camps that have been under

construction for a while? I am hoping to land in the one in Indiana by my kids.
Those are goddamned scary.

[imaginary girl]

20. Where is the one in Indiana? (n/t)

[rurallib]

44. On the southern edge of Indianapolis called Beach Grove

An old army facility being "updated".

[southerncrone]

3. Immigration emergency?!?! We're waaaaay past that point.

Probably the new Gitmo. All of the enemy combatants will be sent there for Gitmo style fun.

[tyedyeto]

4. Slip under the radar?

I recall hearing about these camps before Katrina. Then after Katrina, many pics were posted here showing those camps. It's just that, for some reason, with recent immigration dialogue, it's become more of an issue.

[Timbuk3]

5. Now go read this post

"Please read -- info about presidential directive -- IMPORTANT AND SCARY"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1008763

[Rex]

6. Why do you think?

[dEMOK]

25. Not exactly sure but...

...if Bush/Cheney are successful in holding power after 1/20/09 (May 9 directive), the camps would be a good place to hold "dissenters."

[Deja Q]

7. They wasted their money.

Everybody is now talking about amnesty for illegal aliens.

:shrug:

[Double T]

8. It is my understanding that the "DU Barracks" are right next to the........

"MoveOn Barracks" and just fifty yards away from the "ACLU Barracks". I wonder how the food is?

[SharonRB]

16. Probably won't be long before we find out

[Ilsa]

17. The tree-huggers next door will have to grow it all for us. Or we'll

be given the untested beef w/bovine spongiform encephalopathy. And our fish will have the most mercury, and our water the most arsenic.

[Divine Discontent]

22. I'm hoping if that occurs, I'll be shot quickly for disobeying

the "do not piss on Der Fuhrer W's image in your barracks", so food won't be an issue for me, you can have mine, I'm sure it's horribly tainted with melamine from China anyhow! lol

[NobleCynic]

34. At least we'll be rooming with good company n/t

[acmavm]

9. Old news. But the recent news is that in the event of a 'catastrophe'

anywhere in the US, bush** can assume ALL THREE BRANCHES of government.

How con-veeeeeeen-ient!

[soothsayer]

29. i'm pretty sure that's SOP for all prezzies.

[Marr]

31. I assume you're kidding.

Because it's not SOP- it's unprecedented. But like I said, I assume you're joking- I admit my humor detector is a bit out of whack.

[dEMOK]

37. Thank You -- There is No Precedent for...

...the power grab of this un-American administration.

These people are capable of the unimaginable.

[Marr]

30. Anywhere in the *world* actually.

There's no stipulation that the "catastrophe" would have to occur in the US- only that it would 'significantly impact' the economy, or something to that effect. An oil spill in the Indian Ocean would qualify.

[NNN0LHI]

10. To house all those "illegal aliens"

Illegal aliens will soon be anyone who isn't a Republican.

Don

[uberllama42]

12. I think the main answer is that the Bush Admin wants to hand them billions of dollars

That was the impetus behind the War on Drugs: Reagan had friends in the construction industry; he gave these people mounds of cash and told them to build prisons. Those prisons had to be filled somehow. They decided that people should spend five years in jail for possession of marijuana.

The concentration camps are particularly troubling in view of the recent National Security and Homeland Security Directive in which Bush gave himself the power to declare a state of emergency and assume dictatorial control of the government. I can't figure out why there is not a huge outcry about this. I would say that people are jaded to the abuses of the Bush people, but the public never really seemed to care in the first place.

[L. Coyote]

45. == "Where do the Bucks STOP?" is the motto of the Republican Culture of Corruption. ==

This should be the first thing to consider with all Fed contracts, $$$ to whom?

Consider the earmarks that were used to fill pockets of the friends of Congressman Cunningham.

Part of the Bushco politization of the government has been directing the $$$$$$$$$$$ to buddies.

[Cobalt Violet]

14. Workfare for republicans.

They probably have a guaranteed occupancy rate just like private prisons. It's just republican workfare.

[whistle]

15. Did you hear this on the Michael Weiner Show? aka Michael Savage

...he was claiming to be the only talk show which uncovered this, a Savage Nation exclusive! What a dork, we were blogging this on DU early last year.

Having said that, this is a serious threat and Bush and Cheney are just the thugs who would pull this off. Declare a national emergency, Bush would appoint himself dictator, Cheney would direct the order to Halliburton to start building the "concentration death camps", billions in dollars would flow along with vast property confiscations and this country would become Nazi USA.

[illinoisprogressive]

18. maybe it's linked with shrub's may 9th decree.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

19. Why indeed?

It's been discussed here -- MSM won't touch it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x157167

[Cleita]

21. This could explain things.

In Germany, first they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Socialists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me -- and by that time there was nobody left to speak up.

Rev. Martin Niemoller (1892-1984), German Lutheran pastor and opponent of Adolf Hitler

from "http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/Quotes/Martin_Niemoller"

The reverend survived Dashau concentration camp. He had started out as an avid supporter of the Nazis but became disillusioned by them, started to speak out about them and got thrown into a concentration camp to be liberated by the allies when the war ended.

[valerief]

23. I'm reminded of the movie Wild in the Streets.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063808/

Everyone over 30 was given acid and put into concentration camps. I guess this is Bush's Social Security plan.

[madrchsod]

24. guess what-- this is`t bush`s plan...

these jails were proposed to house "illegals" and federal inmates during the clinton presidency. yup i did some research because the feds were going to build one in a small town 15 miles from me.the community went ape shit over the planned "jail" and was never built, in fact, no facility was ever built in northern illinois.
it seems someone must have done some research and found out these facilities were never built so now looks like they will..

[dEMOK]

26. Yabut...

...likely for different reasons under Bush/Cheney. Bush is soft on immigration.

[stillcool]

27. It all makes perfect sense..

expressed in dollars and cents...pounds, shillings and pence

In 1985 one out of every 320 Americans were in jail.
In 1995 one out of every 167 Americans were in jail.
Between1980 and 1994, the number of people in federal and state prisons increased 221%.
Today, 2 million Americans are in prison.
1.2 million are African-American men.
While there is debate over their underlying causes, these staggering statistics are generally thought to result from rigid drug laws, mandatory minimum sentences and increasingly tough
legislation— such as California’s "three strikes" law. One fact remains undisputed: prisons have become big business.
-------------------
Big name corporations compete with each other to underwrite prison construction with private, tax-exempt bonds and without voter approval. More and more states across the country are implementing mandatory labor for inmates, necessitating partnerships with outside industry.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prison Partners
In the tiny town of Lockhart, Texas a private prison run by Wakenhut (a for-profit private corporation) does business with a company called LTI. In this partnership the prisoners assemble circuit boards bound for hi-tech corporations. For LTI, moving manufacturing to the Lockhart prison was a no-brainer. There they found a captive workforce that did not require benefits or vacation pay, major tax incentives and a brand new assembly plant rented for only a symbolic fee. As a result, LTI’s plant in Austin, Texas was shut down and 150 people lost their jobs. In Michigan, through a similar arrangement, the majority of Brill Manufacturing Company’s workforce lost their jobs to state prison inmates.
http://www.itvs.org/shift/prison.html

Captive Labor
America's Prisoner's As Corporate Workforce
By Gordon Lafer The American Prospect, 1 September 1999
http://www.postcarbon.org/node/2244
When most of us think of convicts at work, we picture them banging out license plates or digging ditches. Those images, however, are now far too limited to encompass the great range of jobs that America's prison workforce is performing. If you book a flight on TWA, you'll likely be talking to a prisoner at a California correctional facility that the airline uses for its reservations service. Microsoft has used Washington State prisoners to pack and ship Windows software. AT&T has used prisoners for telemarketing; Honda, for manufacturing parts; and even Toys "R" Us, for cleaning and stocking shelves for the next day's customers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But the attractions of prison labor extend well beyond low wages. The prison labor system does away with statutory protections that progressives and unions have fought so hard to achieve over the last 100 years. Companies that use prison labor create islands of time in which, in terms of labor relations at least, it's still the late nineteenth century. Prison employers pay no health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no payroll or Social Security taxes, no workers' compensation, no vacation time, sick leave, or overtime. In fact, to the extent that prisoners have "benefits" like health insurance, the state picks up the tab. Prison workers can be hired, fired, or reassigned at will. Not only do they have no right to organize or strike; they also have no means of filing a grievance or voicing any kind of complaint whatsoever. They have no right to circulate an employee petition or newsletter, no right to call a meeting, and no access to the press. Prison labor is the ultimate flexible and disciplined workforce.
All of these conditions apply when the state administers the prison. But the prospect of such windfall profits from prison labor has also fueled a boom in the private prison industry. Such respected money managers as Allstate, Merrill Lynch, and Shearson Lehman have all invested in private prisons. As with other privatized public services, companies that operate private prisons aim to make money by operating corrections facilities for less than what the state pays them. If they can also contract prisoners out to private enterprises—forcing inmates to work either for nothing or for a very small fraction of their "wages" and pocketing the remainder of those "wages" as corporate profit—they can open up a second revenue stream. That would make private prisons into both public service contractors and the highest-margin temp agencies in the nation.
http://www.postcarbon.org/node/2244

-
In 1998 the top 1 percent of the population owned 38 percent of the wealth, the top 5 percent owned over 60 percent (source: www.inequality.org/fatcsfr.html).
The top one percent of U.S. households owned 42 percent of all stock in 1997...The top ten percent of households owned 82 percent of all stock-market wealth...
Only 27 percent of households held more than $10,000 in stock in 1997...57 percent of Americans didn't own any stock at all...
The top fifth of households saw their income rise 43 percent between 1977 and 1999, while the bottom fifth saw their income fall 9 percent....
Since 1973, every group in society except the top 20 percent has seen its share of the national income decline, with the bottom 20 percent losing the most. They have just 3.6 percent of national income, down from 4.4 percent a quarter century ago. Indeed, the top fifth now makes more than the rest of the nation combined...
Rebecca Blank, who recently left the President's Council of Economic Advisors, pointed out, ‘We've gone back to levels of income and wealth inequality that this country hasn't seen since the teens and 1920s.’" (Source: Merrill Goozner, Crash of '99?, Salon.com, Oct. 1, 1999).
http://www.endgame.org/primer-wealth.html

The Prison Industrial Complex in America: Investment in Slavery
by Venerable Kobutsu Malone, Osho
The United States Constitution Permits Prison Slavery and Involuntary Servitude
-------------------------------
The secure housing, minimal support, minimal medical care and feeding of 2.2 million people is a costly endeavor consuming billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer's money every year in America. Corporations are lined up to receive a portion of the public funds used to support the self-perpetuating incarceration industry. States such as California spend more public funds, tax dollars, your money, my money, on prisons than for education and schools
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The largest network of prison labor is run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons' manufacturing consortium, UNICOR. While paying inmate laborers entry-level wages of 23 cents an hour, UNICOR boasts of gross annual sales (primarily to the Department of Defense) of $250 million.
The correctional-industrial complex therefore relies on a sobering "joint venture" directly relating profits to increased incarceration rates for four kinds of "partners," only the first of whom are those seeking opportunities in prison construction. A second kind of partner stocks these prisons with stun guns, pepper spray, surveillance equipment, and other "disciplinary technology," corporations such as Adtech, American Detention Services, the Correctional Corporation of America and Space Master Enterprises. A third partner finds a state-guaranteed mass of consumers for food and other services in the prisoners themselves, such as Campbell's Soup and Szabo Correctional Services. The fourth partner can be any private industry or state-sponsored program that stands to gain from paying wages that only nominally distinguish captive forced labor from slavery. In this last category, an example of the former is Prison Blues and of the latter is UNICOR which uses prisoners to produce advanced military weaponary
http://www.engaged-zen.org/articles/Kobutsu-Investing_in_Slavery.html

[Marr]

28. Considering the fact that Bush and his friends actually want to drive down lwages,

it does seem odd that they'd take such an aggressive stance on mass imprisonment. I personally think they wanted to hand another pile of cash to their political supporters, and be able to say they spent millions on "border security" at the same time... while actually doing nothing to address the problem at all.

[dEMOK]

38. In the High Echelons of "Government"...

...every action has at least one specific intent; and these people need for one action to resolve more than one issue (regardless of the damage to our constitution). The two party system is now totally fucked over by the cooperate (lobbyist) puppet masters.

The DOW rises as the middle class falls. Shortly, money won't be the currency of prosperity -- the medium of exchange among the "elite" is power.

[helderheid]

32. REC 5 of 1000

[w4rma]

33. Why did the Nazis build concentration camps, the first time? (nt)

[dEMOK]

42. Best Question I've Heard Here...

...because they had the will to do so & because they could.

We can't make Bush/Cheney not want to rule -- but we can make Cheney/PNAC unable to rule.

Publciity is the key to keeping tyrants in check. Whatever this administration determines to fight for is (with very few axceptions) is worth fighting against!

These people exibit no conscience. They take America up a severe incline. Just say "NO!"

I love the America of my youth. I don't recognize the America of my adulthood. I absolutely reject the America of Bush/Cheney. I refuse to

[Az_lefty]

35. all the fundies are going to live there in order to fence the rest of us out

wasn't S. Carolina the spot they had picked out a while back?

[dickthegrouch]

36. 2011 is the target date for their "opening"

According to one friend I have.
Could be sooner if we are apathetic enough let all the other chips fall the way we are supposed to.
He says watch the Harvard Alums (like him) and be ready to run when they do.

[dEMOK]

40. Cheney/PNAC will rule 'till genuine Americans choose otherwise...

True???

[Posteritatis]

41. The last I read about that was a year or so ago...

Has there been anything new developing about those since then? Other plans, expansion, construction of the things, whether any are in use?

[dEMOK]

43. Nothing other than no one's raised a big stink about it!

Feel a AS self rightious as you want.