Jeb Bush Asked to Explain Cruise Ship Deal
March 1, 2006 1:07 PM   Subscribe

Jeb Bush Asked to Explain Cruise Ship Deal The post below on impeachment of Pres. Bush might also consider how the abuses seem to be a family affair: A top House Democrat released e-mails Tuesday detailing Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's role in pushing a $236 million federal contract for Carnival Cruise Lines to house Hurricane Katrina victims.
posted by Postroad (20 comments total)
 
The e-mails Waxman released were provided to Congress by Michael Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

et tu, Brownie?
posted by ursus_comiter at 1:17 PM on March 1, 2006


Jeb Bush is a state governor. His only concern in regards to federal spending is to ensure that as much of it as possible is done on companies that are big in his state.
posted by smackfu at 1:20 PM on March 1, 2006


Hmm... I seem to remember a lot of people saying that the cruse ship thing was a great Idea during the midst of the Katrina Aftermath. *srug*

It turned out to be a pretty bad deal for the government, but a great deal for cruse line.
posted by delmoi at 1:36 PM on March 1, 2006


Even the best idea can be tarnished by a corrupt and/or incompetent government official.
posted by nomisxid at 1:44 PM on March 1, 2006


It was a good idea. Doesn't seem like it was terribly well executed, though. The government was paying the price as if they were totally full for the whole time, and they weren't full.

None of that is Jeb's fault. He works for the state, not the feds. He may have tried to pull some strings for Carnival (a "corporate citizen" of Florida) but it was up to the feds to make sure the contract was an open and fair competition and that the terms were good for the American people. That is not in anyway Jeb's job.
posted by raedyn at 1:47 PM on March 1, 2006


I thought it was that the evacuees didn't want to live on cruise ships.
posted by smackfu at 1:47 PM on March 1, 2006


I'm an evacuee, and I would like to retire on a cruise ship.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:48 PM on March 1, 2006


Yeah, I don't get it, but:

On Tuesday a plan to move close to 4,000 evacuees from Houston's Astrodome and Reliant Complex into a pair of cruise ships, anchored in nearby Galveston, was put on hold — because no one wanted to board the boats. Many of the victims wanted instead to concentrate on locating lost relatives and loved ones, according to CNN.
posted by smackfu at 1:53 PM on March 1, 2006


It turned out to be a pretty bad deal for the government,

Which in a democracy is us.
posted by j-urb at 1:55 PM on March 1, 2006


Which in a democracy is us.

Are we still a democracy? Whew. Just checking.

/relieved
posted by davejay at 2:02 PM on March 1, 2006


"Jebby, you're doing a great job !"
posted by lobstah at 2:42 PM on March 1, 2006


"...Bush Asked to Explain..."

LOL. fat chance
posted by scarabic at 3:06 PM on March 1, 2006


Does Jeb have a Dick who can go and shoot somebody in the face? He should get one. It helps distract the media.
posted by fenriq at 5:30 PM on March 1, 2006


If Governor Bush had happened to mention that we (the people of the United States) had rented the cruise ships for six months at $236 million, (that's just about *one-quarter of a billion dollars*), then I don't think anyone here would have supported it.

That's an astonishing amount of money. How much money must you steal from the people before you're eligible for the death penalty? Is there a legal concept of "deliberate depraved negligence"?

And you know -- this is just a drop in the bucket. KBR has been doing the restoration in New Orleans -- it's already clear that this has been botched and profiteered beyond all possible redemption -- but what happens when the money runs out and the place is in ruins and people start asking questions?

What happens when they do the accounting for the Iraq war? All these numbers are kept somewhere. Even George W. Bush isn't going to be able to convince the military to throw away their fiscal records to conceal the evidence of a crime...

How are we going to recover all the billions that have been looted from the the Treasury? Impeaching Bush and Cheney is only the first step.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 6:37 PM on March 1, 2006


Evidently Halliburton has the U.S. government in its back pocket. Surprise!
posted by whozyerdaddy at 8:42 PM on March 1, 2006


lupus_yonderboy: How much money must you steal from the people before you're eligible for the death penalty? Is there a legal concept of "deliberate depraved negligence"?
Oh sure. When you say this, it's a just another post. When I say this, everything thinks I'm freakin' looney tunes. :)

But I agree... these kinds of scams, they'll never stop so long as people understand the basic Milken or Lay equation: if you steal enough, and at worse face just a few years behind bars... that's a small price to pay if when you get out you live like a Sultan until the end of your days. A small price to pay for untold riches that will literally make your family, your ongoing DNA for generations, a fucking dynasty. I mean, look at Paris Hilton: thanks to the riches of her ancestors, a clueless fuckwit like that still stands to inherit millions, and prance about all day in Gucci and Prada and Louis Vitton. As will her children, and her children's children, etc. Not saying that the first Hiltons were corrupt, but the Hilton sperm are basically immortal at this point. As will the Lays, the Skillings, the Bushes, the Cheneys, etc, etc.

However... if those legislators or corporate directors or lackeys who took bribes, engaged in massive corruption, or endanged many lives were facing not only the loss of ill-gotten gains but their very lives... well hell, they might think twice, no? Do you think those Enron guys would have joked about price gouging and stealing from grandma if one of them had mentioned, "Of course, if they ever catch us, they'll not only seize every penny we've earned, but also give us lethal injections"? They might have considered another line of work at that point.
posted by hincandenza at 10:40 PM on March 1, 2006


Well death may be extreme (maybe not too extreme when treason is involved), surely it would be reasonable to make an entire family give up their riches. At the very least, take as much as can be found to replace what was looted, plus punitive damages. No hiding funds in trusts or overseas.

It boils my blood to think of the tax dollars being looted freely. And perhaps the Congress should be held liable too. Their job is OVERSIGHT. If they can't oversee, then perhaps they need to pay the price.

The name is Uncle SAM, not Uncle SUGAR. But of course, taking government funds is okay if you're rich, because you're entitled. If you're poor, it's just plain wrong.
posted by Goofyy at 3:34 AM on March 2, 2006


what happens when the money runs out and the place is in ruins and people start asking questions?

Then the thieves retire to Dubai.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:18 AM on March 2, 2006


Carnival is a Florida-based company so it's perfectly right for Jeb to take an interest in their success. In fact it's practically an imperative - Florida doesn't have a state income tax, making sales and business tax revenue the exclusive source of funding for state programs.

I was aghast when Jeb became governor, particularly after two terms of one of my personal heroes, Lawton Chiles, but he actually hasn't turned out so bad. Quite frankly I think he's a damn sight better than GW and I wish their jobs were reversed. If nothing else he at least reflects the will of his constituents, at least as far as his stewardship of environmental issues has been compared to what so many of us expected...
posted by phearlez at 12:05 PM on March 2, 2006


Bush asked againg?.... hmmm, let's hear an answer
posted by farnastic at 5:12 PM on March 3, 2006


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