[W]hat the Rovians have constructed is a kind of comic opera caricature of a totally politicized one-party state: Joe Stalin meets Huey Long meets the Wizard of Oz — or at least, the little man behind the curtain. Previous GOP administrations only tried to control the federal bureaucracy; the Cheney administration has turned it into a running joke, like the Vogans in the Hitchhicker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Back to Main
September 16, 2005
WB: Command and Control
Comments
Sometimes the NYPost, part of the Faux World News Empire, publishes the most damning things, and when the horse’s mouth of your enemy admits what you expect, you know it’s gotta be true.
GIULIANI FIRM TO GET $400K CONTRACT FROM BANKRUPT DELTA
By PAUL THARP
September 16, 2005 — Rudy Giuliani’s trouble-shooting firm is in line for $400,000 a month to aid bankrupt Delta Air Lines — while thousands of retired Delta pilots are being told pension checks won’t be in the mail next month.
Giuliani had his moment in the sun on a foundation of all those tax dollars supporting his disaster command center and the 40,000 police and firemen union members backing the city up. Since then he has gone on to cash it in as a security counsultant and doing well enough that his humping on the job and on the public’s dime limo driver Kerik almost got to be the head of security at the nation’s pyramids (head of Homeland Security). This is another example of how someone, Giuliani, who actually fulfills the demands of his job expects to get paid extra and big time for not falling down on the job. This is the competent one. Bush’s 9/11 reputation rests on his honor’s back.
Giuliani’s firm has to be just a few well compensated professionals in an office. If they wanted to economize it would be in Queens, but I guess it is on one of the better streets in Manhatten for “face” reasons.
The Post goes on, “Delta also asked the court for permission to put Giuliani Capital Advisors on the list of bills it intends to pay. The Giuliani firm will be helping Delta cut its expenses and eliminate debts as it begins its long restructuring process.” Flying completely in the face of why it’s being hired, that’s 400 K a month or about enough to pay 12 to 24 pilots a year. It’s a lot of dough for strategizing on how to stick it to pilots that probably supported Giuliani when he needed it, like when he had two gay friends and his concubine going through one door of the mayor’s mansion while his wife, phooey, had to go through another. Time to dump the old one and show some compassion raising the younger one’s way of life to a posh level. But not for the workers. Dump the old, squash the young. In the business papers there are a couple of stories a week about this. Rubbermaid which was hailed in the pages of Fortune in its day for their magenta and fuchsia colored trash cans is cutting 5,000 or a third of their workers. They want to concentrate on Sharpie pens.
Posted by: christofay | Sep 16 2005 7:41 utc | 1
The level of incompetence and corruption in the Bush Administration (and the government in general) is quite frightening. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where this will all turn out well. Sure, Bush is probably going down, but what is going to be taken down with him?
Posted by: steve expat | Sep 16 2005 9:58 utc | 2
One of the great myths of the corporate culture is this “efficiency in the private sector leaves the public sector looking as useful as a one armed paperhanger.”
Because of course inefficiency generally comes about when any organisation doesn’t have to be efficient. The public sector often has it’s existence guaranteed by govt so is frequently inefficient. But that has little to do with whether the owner is the public or shareholders.
So the tales of BushCo organisational inefficiency are clearly being mirrored in US corporations as life becomes easier for em with huge troughs full of free money from government contracts thrust under their snouts.
Combine that with the ability to not pay your debts that weird US bankruptcy law gives corporations and we see how it is that Amerika is teetering on the brink.
But hey it’s gonna be OK for the next quarter and that’s what matters.
Posted by: Debs is dead | Sep 16 2005 10:56 utc | 3
Joe Stalin meets Huey Long meets the Wizard of Oz — or at least, the little man behind the curtain.
Excellent! The little man behind the curtain. I love that.
Posted by: janeboatler | Sep 16 2005 17:20 utc | 4
A very funny joke, even among Right-Winger’s, George!
It’s making the e-mail spam rounds, along with the
“beaver” version of Hooters restaurants.
– – – – – – – –
President Bush was visiting a primary school and he
visited one of the classes. They were in the middle of
a discussion related to words and their meanings. The
teacher asked the President if he would like to lead
the discussion on the word “tragedy”.
So the illustrious Leader of the Free World asked the
class for an example of a “tragedy”.
One little boy stood up and offered: “If my best
friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field
and a tractor runs over him and kills him, that would
be a tragedy.”
“No,” said Bush, “that would be an accident.”
A little girl raised her hand: “If a school bus
carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing
everyone inside, that would be a tragedy.”
“I’m afraid not,” explained the president. “That’s
what we would call a great loss.”
Another boy raised his hand: “If 20,000 people were
trapped in New Orleans in a sports stadium, and none
of the emergency aid or assistance that their taxes
paid for arrived, and they started dying one by one,
that would be a tragedy.”
“I’m afraid not,” explained the president. “That’s
what we call an unavoidable natural disaster.”
The room went silent. No other children volunteered.
Bush searched the room. “Isn’t there someone here who
can give me an example of a tragedy?”
Finally at the back of the room a small boy (Lil
Johnny) raised his hand. In a quiet voice he said: “If
Air Force One carrying you and Mrs. Bush was struck by
a ‘friendly fire’ missile and blown to smithereens,
that would be a tragedy.”
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Bush. “That’s right. And can
you tell me why that would be tragedy?”
“Well,” says Lil Johnny, “It has to be a tragedy,
because it sure as hell wouldn’t be a great loss, it
wouldn’t be an accident, and for sure it wouldn’t
be a disaster for the country like you have become.”
Posted by: tante aime | Sep 16 2005 20:07 utc | 5
Today Bush is wearing a (royal) Blue tie,
instead of that obnoxious Red tie de jeur.
If that’s how go-team micro-managed Fed is,
there’s no hope that we’ll survive to 2008.
Posted by: Lash Marks | Sep 16 2005 22:14 utc | 6
Think Piece: Rethinking Superiority
Reflections on Whiteness and the Cult of Progress
by Tim wise
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 17 2005 1:13 utc | 7
Think Piece: Rethinking Superiority
Reflections on Whiteness and the Cult of Progress
by Tim wise
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 17 2005 1:15 utc | 8
Massive Oil Spill in Gulf Of Mexico Because of Katrina
by Dr. M. Sidney Wallace
Over the past twenty years there has been a small but vocal group of
environmental zealots that have stalled almost all oil and gas
exploration in the Gulf of Mexico east of a line heading due south from
the Alabama state line. These radical fanatics are always
ready to scream and cry about the “potential” for catastrophic
destructions of Florida’s beaches if a single off shore well is
drilled in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico.
The recent hurricane Katrina will be recorded as probably the largest
and most severe storm in the Gulf of Mexico in recent history.
The city of New Orleans was virtually destroyed by wind, rain and storm
serge. Hundreds of thousands of residents would now have the
time to enjoy the white sandy beaches of Florida but for one small
problem. The fact that they do not have a job or home to return
to is a minor economic nuisance.
The Western Gulf of Mexico has thousands of off shore oil and gas wells
and off shore terminals for deep draft ocean vessels to
transfer there petroleum cargos into the land side distribution system.
These facilities that handle literally millions of gallons
of petroleum daily are constantly pointed out as “potential” sources of
environmental pollution to the life and health of the Gulf
of Mexico.
Now for the Earth shaking news that has not yet been reported!
President Bush has finally managed to “buy off” the national media, but
he cannot buy me off. What has not been reported on the
national news is the massive amount of oil and petroleum that is
washing up on Florida beaches. From Texas to Florida there is a
thick gooey oil slime washing up on all the beaches. Just as our
environmental crusaders have been predicting, this hurricane
Katrina caused a colossal petroleum spill that is killing all aquatic
life in its path, destroying nesting sea turtles habitats and
all native sea life on the Gulf of Mexico.
For those that thought that the Exxon Valdez was a disaster to Alaska
they need to come and see what thousands of oil and gas wells
did to the Gulf of Mexico. It appears that the gloom and doom that Dr
Enid E. Sisskin of the University of West Florid, and others,
has been preaching has finally come home to roost.
It will cost billions of governmental dollars to rebuild the city of
New Orleans, but that is mere pittance to the Trillions of tax
dollars the recovery of the Florida beaches will cost. The total
recovery cost may very well bankrupt the nation.
One needs only to follow their noise to find the pollution in the Gulf
of Mexico. Dr. Sisskin and her crowd were correct. If one
well had been drilled in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico the entire area
would have ended up like the Dead Sea. Oh how could we have been
so short sighted to trust those evil oil companies just to save a few
pennies on our fuel cost?
We all must learn to live as one with nature. As the environmentalist
are always telling us: “Walking and shivering are good for
us.” If you don’t believe me just ask Dr. Sisskin to show you her
pictures of the miles and miles of oil sludge washing up on
Florida beaches after hurricane Katrina.
If you wish to write a letter to the editor please use:
http://www.bulletinboards.com/view.cfm?comcode=gulf1msw
Posted by: Gulf One | Sep 17 2005 3:15 utc | 9