Competence

It was supposed to be a selling point. They were supposed to know what they were doing. This was not going to be a government of bureaucrats and policy wonks who worried over every Spotted Owl. This was going to be a "government of experts." This was going to be the showcase for cartel capitalist management savvy.

Dickie and Georgie were former corporate figureheads who could 'get things done." Sure, most of those things were about padding their pockets with taxpayer loot. And, okay, everything Georgie ever ran was a failure. But some people learn from failure, right?

Unfortunately, the Junta's corporate/political leadership has proven to be a Harvard Business School case of how cartel capitalist corporations thrive not because of their leadership, but despite it. These giant companies are vast consumers of resources and wealth. They use dopes like Dickie to keep their connection with government treasury payouts. Others use dopes like Dickie to get away with labour infractions and avoiding health care costs (Wal Mart) with no penalty.

They are designed to screw whoever needs screwing to keep the money coming in and pay off the top execs and shareholders. They don't know how not to make money. The only time money becomes an issue is when dopes like Dickie start to think they're really in charge. "Kenny Boy" Lay thought he had something to do with the profitability of Enron. It was only when he started actually doing things that the company nosedived into bankruptcy. Similarly, Halliburton changed its accounting practices under Dickie, which got them into hot water after he fled to become Veep.

Similarly, the federal government was doing quite well, running a surplus, generally telling the truth (at least reporting the science), and not needlessly invading countries on the other side of the world. Then the cartel capitalists got their hands on the controls.

Instead of imposing reasonable, businesslike procedures on an out-of-control bureaucracy, they took out all the stops. They proved to have less control or restraint than any government career employee. Their radical ideology called for bankrupting the ship of state, and they were going to do it. Kenny Boy had taken the same tack with Enron, and was exactly as successful in running Enron as the Junta has been in running the federal government.

Cartel leadership called for not only telling lies to the shareholders (the so-called "American people"), but also giving no-bid contracts to their friends. After all, what's a cartel for if you can't direct billions of dollars to your undeserving cronies?

As this is an experiment with neoconservative ideology, we must measure the results: utter failure. Failure by government to spend wisely and to audit what was spent. Failure by industry to provide services without fraud and mismanagement. Utter, total, complete failure.

So, of course, when billions more need to be spent to rebuild the Gulf Coast, who do you turn to? Exactly. And based on never fixing the utter failures of the past (or even acknowledging them), what new results do we expect now?

Exactly.

According to testimony in the Senate, this government has not the first clue how much it's spent or where the Gulf Coast money's gone. Their reconstruction Dudes could have blown it at the track for all they know.

And, just like the Iraqis who have no electricity, infrastructure, or even electrical power, it's the people who need the help who are suffering the most. The out-of-state cartels are Hoovering the cash as fast as they can, and the hurricane/flood victims are huddling in tents.

Officials responsible for doling out billions in Hurricane Katrina relief
contracts told lawmakers yesterday that they still don't have answers to central
questions about why certain recovery efforts have stalled, whether money is
being wasted and what's keeping Gulf Coast firms from getting a bigger share of
the work.

In nearly three hours of questioning by the House committee
investigating the government's sluggish response to one of the worst natural
disasters in the nation's history, top procurement officials with the Department
of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps
of Engineers repeatedly said they would need to do more research into exactly
how government money is being spent.

Lawmakers from Mississippi, meanwhile, said thousands of hurricane victims are still living in two-person tents without running water or adequate heat because government contractors haven't finished mobile home parks.

"It's getting cold," said Republican Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr., who asked the government to provide contractors with more incentives to finish their work quickly.
"At today's rate, we're going to have people in Mississippi [waiting for trailers] until January 1st," said Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor.

Of course, the use of trailers is in itself an offramp to incompetent-city. In the past, housing vouchers have allowed people to find lodging in populated areas with amenities like food and water and gas stations. By creating hundreds of new trailer homes in new trailer parks, they've created and underclass of people stuck in the wilderness. And how is that helping the economy?

But - whatever Halliburton wants, Halliburton gets. If they want to build a couple hundred thousand trailers - only to get a contract to tear them up in a year - they get it. Never mind that the government is overpayment dreadfully. And never mind that Gulf Coast businesses are being frozen out of the contracts. Hey - we're not hiring Iraqis, either.

The kids you went to school with who had tutors but still couldn't get higher than a C+ - but never worried because they had rich parents - are now in charge. And it shows.

One more thing: they're debating in the White House (a rare thing in itself) whether Karl Rove should resign because he's a distraction. It would be better if they wanted him to resign because he's a traitor, but whatever. Personally, I hope he stays on. There are a lot of us who fear his dark powers, and okay, I agree he's the Sith Lord of election fraud. But as a policy leader, he's been a joke.

The only thing they've been able to do since stealing the election is pass a bill to absolutely screw people in bankruptcy. But the Social Security elimination fiasco speaks for itself. The Iraqi debacle tragically isn't getting any better - and while I mourn the loss of life, I also know who to blame for it.

I'm more afraid of Rove latching on to his next Georgie Bush and making him the Dummy Leader than I am of anything he's going to do with this lame duck president.