Proof again that croneyism kills

[Horse with no Name]

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?city=PHARR&st=TX&last=Maples&first=James

James Maples owned the bus that Rick Perry permitted to transport the nursing home residents that were killed. I have no doubts that a couple of phone calls in a good ole boy network got this company's buses on the road. I find it amazing that this asshole Maples can find money to give the Republican's money, yet can't buy insurance for his buses or pay his taxes. What a scumbag.

>>>>>>>>snip
Financial, legal and regulatory difficulties have dogged the owner of a privately-owned charter bus that burned just south of Dallas, incinerating 24 elderly Hurricane Rita evacuees from Houston, records examined by CBS-11 News shows.

Records raise safety questions about faulty brakes, proper insurance coverage and whether Global Tours and Charters, of McAllen, Texas, was even legally allowed to operate its six buses, one of which was left a burnt shell holding some two-dozen corpses early Friday morning on Interstate-45 near Wilmer.

Also known as Global Limo, Inc., the small charter bus company is owned by James Maples, a 20-year veteran of the business who filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last February, CBS-11 first reported during its 11 a.m. Friday newscast. Witnesses say the rear end of the bus carrying more than 40 nursing home evacuees from the upscale Houston suburb of Bellaire turned red hot and then caught fire, which quickly spread through the interior, perhaps fueled by medical oxygen carried by passengers.

Nationally and even internationally, aging brake discs on charter buses have been identified as the cause of fires and crashes, and have led to tougher federal safety standards that are supposed to be enforced by states. In 2003, the Texas Department of Public Safety instituted a regimen of safety inspections on passenger buses.

http://cbs11tv.com/investigations/local_story_266192358.html

>>>>>>>>>>snip
DALLAS - (KRT) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry defended his decision Sunday to sign a waiver allowing a bus with expired registration to transport elderly residents fleeing Hurricane Rita from the Houston area to Dallas.

Twenty-four people died early Friday morning near Wilmer, Texas, when a fire spread from the bus' brakes into the cabin, where it touched off several oxygen tanks. It was the worst bus accident in Texas since 1952.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/12741056.htm

[aquart]

1. "Upscale"?

Perry let bad buses carry rich people? Foolish, foolish move.

[Horse with no Name]

2. Yep. Uninsured buses.

Chances are the families will extract their pound of flesh from Perry's ass.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. kicked and nominated