Bush's FEMA gives Carnival Cruises a ride
September 28, 2005News & Politics
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"In FEMA's haste to play catch-up and provide housing in New Orleans, it contracted with Carnival Cruise Lines for three ships for six months, and did the deal overnight," writes Last Night in Little Rock.
Of course, it's entirely possible that some Bush crony with only a smattering of accounting experience (balanced a checkbook with marginal success once) mistook Carnival Cruise Lines for a religious org and just decided to "reimburse" them before the fact? I don't know, I just want to give the benefit of the doubt...
But here's the real problem:
"...the deal with Carnival was a $236M no-bid contract that effectively paid Carnival twice the per person cost of a cruise, with full crew and entertainment, and the ships never leave port. Yet, the ships are only half occupied, so Carnival reaps even greater profits. Do the math: that's four times the cost of a cruise. Without a full crew, the profit is even greater."Little Rock wonders whether anyone at Kathy Lee Gifford Cruise Lines is a Republican. We do too and will of course look it up... unless anyone's got some info handy... (TalkLeft)
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