Taxpayers pay Blackwater $73M to protect FEMA workers?

[maxrandb]

Am I being paranoid when I say this "scares the shit out of me?"

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=108184&ran=230435

"Blackwater USA protects FEMA’s Katrina staff – a contract that has cost taxpayers $73 million through the end of June, or about $243,000 a day.

Tony Yates runs the Blackwater security crew assigned to a disaster relief center set up in the city’s downtown public library. FEMA’s workers at the library are mostly women – local teachers recruited after the storm destroyed their schools. They hunch over rows of laptops, interviewing applicants at long tables jammed between bookshelves. They’re not accustomed to the kind of rage that can come their way."

(snip)

"Less than a month after Katrina battered the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Rita delivered a second blow, coming ashore just to the west. Federal Protective Service expanded its contract and Blackwater rushed toward Rita. “At one time,” Jackson said, “we were spread across 500 miles, from Texas to Mississippi.”

Don't we pay taxes to the government so that they can provide services in an emergency?
Don't we pay taxes so that we can pay for National Guard troops?
Don't we pay taxes so that we can have a competent and responsive government?

It looks like my tax dollars are making the CEO of Blackwater rather wealthy. How long will it be until only those that can afford security will have it?

[China_cat]

1. Already here when the courts tell women who

are being threatened that they have no right to any kind of police protection.

[The Deacon]

2. Hmmm

When I had similar problems at the assistance center I ran after Hurricane Charley/Frances, I asked for more mental health workers, not armed guards. Our code for "help needed" was to turn your coffee cup over, a mental health worker would slide over & start defusing the situation. We had people waiting in line in the hot sun for up to three days - and I had to escort exactly ONE man outside in the two weeks I was there - I simply asked him if we could discuss it outside, we went out & I explained policy to him & he left, grumbling, but peacefully.

[maxrandb]

4. That was probably before Pretzledent Yosemite Sam

began showing the world how you handle problems.

-Smoke 'em out
-Dead or alive
-Bring it on
-etc.....

Looks like the free world is simply following the example of the "leader" of the free world.

We don't talk anymore, that's soooooo "liberal".
We don't negotiate anymore, that's soooooo "wishy-washy".
We don't compromise anymore, compromise is for "wimps".

America lost our principals when we allowed the little prick to "pre-emptively" invade another country. The result of those lost principals is extremely troubling, because it ensures the following can happen.

- If Turkey wants to roll tanks into Iraq to crush the Kurds...America can't stand on principal.
- If Russia wants to fire-bomb Chenya(sp)...America can't stand on principal.
- If India wants to level entire cities in Pakistan...America can't stand on principal.
- If Israel wants to kill civilians en masse...America can't stand on principal.

I fear that our country is lost.

[brentspeak]

3. Bush crony capitalism. Who needs the private, free market when

all you have to do is wine and dine Bush and be given the keys to the national treasury (ie. taxpayer dollars)?