The Latest Bonehead Decision By FEMA

[JABBS]

FEMA recently signed a cushy $236-million, six-month no-bid contract with Carnival Cruise lines to house evacuees on ships. The half-filled ships are now anchored in the Mississippi River and Mobile Bay.

If you do the math on the contract, even if you had the ships filled to capacity with 7,116 evacuees, the price per evacuee works out to about $1,275 a week. Compare that to the price of an actual seven-day western Caribbean cruise out of Galveston, which costs a mere $599 a person (and “that would include entertainment and the cost of actually making the ship move.”)

In related news, hundreds of lobbyists, corporate representatives, and would-be government contractors met yesterday on Capitol Hill to figure out how to get their share of the federal largess. The so-called "Katrina Reconstruction Summit" was hosted by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) and sponsored by -- surprise, surprise -- Halliburton.

-- Center for American Progress, Sept. 28

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This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[AllyCat]

1. Good Morning America this a.m. reported Greece offered free ships

and FEMA refused. Senator Coburn (R) was on talking about the fiscal irresponsibility of this move. Of course, it's all Blanco and Nagin's fault, but FEMA is putting up its relief workers in the half-filled ships. People have 24-hour food.