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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, June 15, 2006

So Typical

I'm sick to death of this story, that there was over $1 Billion in fraudulent claims related to Katrina. Yes, it's bad. Yes, the Justice Department should investigate and prosecute where necessary, but c'mon, media.

Billions, I repeat, billions awarded in no-bid contracts for Halliburton and subsidiaries apparently with some involvement by the VP's office. That's not millions of little crimes, that's one HUGE crime.

The FDA apparently approving "the sale of the antibiotic Ketek even after the government learned safety tests on the drug had been forged."

These are real crimes, these are big premeditated crimes, that may have cost lives. Where is the breathless headline story on these?

3 Comments:

  • I absolutely agree with you. What aggravated me to no end when this was reported on our local news affiliate yesterday was also the fact that they insisted on putting their own spin on it and calling it a "scam by Katrina victims". From what I've read, very little scamming was actually done by the victims of Katrina. The vast majority of it was done by people outside of the immediate area who saw a chance to make a killing on the backs of the misery of others.

    The annoying thing is that it was hard enough for Katrina victims to start receiving any aid whatsoever, if we cast our minds back, and thanks to these well-publicized idiots, the victims of the next major catastrophe are probably going to be in an even worse mess, as FEMA et al fall over themselves trying not to repeat the mistakes they made in furnishing aid for Katrina.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2:39 PM  

  • Halliburton Yes, fascinating that so little is said about the VP's little side business.
    I suspect that every other scam and rip-off in Washington at the moment, wrapped up together, would seem miniscule in comparison to this one.
    They say money talks, but obviously it's a one way conversation.

    By Blogger Cartledge, at 3:40 PM  

  • Obviously I wasn't alone.

    Rachie, I think it was the CNN piece today with the "Katrina Victims are criminals" that got me today. Living here in Houston, I hear that way too much.

    Tele, yeah. I think you make a good point that the criminals aren't so much stealing from the government as they are stealing from the Katrina people.

    And, Cartledge, reporters seem to act like it's in bad taste to talk about that. I don't know why, but it's like they're afraid of being thrown off the dinner party circuit.



    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 5:30 PM  

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