Priorities...

Another example of just how screwed up our President's priorities are. On Thursday, he signed an executive order suspending the Davis-Bacon minimum wage laws for workers rebuilding New Orleans.

The rationale behind it SOUNDS reasonable. With such a huge task to undertake, let's try to keep the costs to taxpayers down. But with many people having lost everything, now is not the time to start telling workers they have to work for less.

But what is exceedingly galling about this to me is not the wish to keep costs down, that sounds good. It's that the Administration isn't trying to save the tax payers money... they're trying to save profits for the corporations to whom they will outsource the rebuilding process.

Reportedly Halliburton has already obtained themselves a nice no-bid, set-your-own-price contract to help in the rebuilding effort. I'm sure the fact that Dick Cheney was previously CEO of Halliburton has NOTHING to do with the fact that pre 2000 I'd never heard of them, and now every time there's federal money to be spent, they're right there with the contract.

But this is just another case of caring for the rich and the corporate over the citizens whom he works for, like recommending shooting looters for stealing what they need to survive, but not even admitting that his oil company buddies might be gouging slightly when prices rise by nearly 30% before any increased costs or decreased availability of product could have that kind of effect.

Mark my words, we're going to walk away from this rebuilding effort with an even larger poor class, after construction workers have to take major pay cuts, and meanwhile Halliburton will have banner years and, if there's any reasonable oversight, will be caught with their hand in the cookie jar again as they have been several times in Iraq.

Let's see, there's a name for a government which equates corporate interests with government interests. Oh, right, fascism.

Have a nice day.

Liam.