October 2, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - India: NGO's: Sierra Club: Environment: Waldo Village Soup: Carl Pope says the looting of America has only just begun

Peace Corps Online: Directory: India: Special Report: India RPCV and Sierra Club Director Carl Pope: February 9, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: RPCV Carl Pope (India) : October 2, 2005: Headlines: Figures: COS - India: NGO's: Sierra Club: Environment: Waldo Village Soup: Carl Pope says the looting of America has only just begun

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-141-157-66-59.balt.east.verizon.net - 141.157.66.59) on Friday, October 07, 2005 - 12:25 pm: Edit Post

Carl Pope says the looting of America has only just begun

Carl Pope says  the looting of America has only just begun

"They began before the floodwaters had even stopped roaring into New Orleans. Bidding rules were suspended, as always, for Halliburton (I wonder if Halliburton even has a department that can prepare bids for contracts!) and for other companies well-connected to the politicians who, ostrich-like, had let every community asset in the Gulf Coast be pounded to splinters." Sierra Club President Carl Pope served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in India in the 1960's.

Carl Pope says the looting of America has only just begun

THE REAL LOOTING HAS JUST BEGUN

by Carl Pope

Rita has shed her last rainfall over the Mississippi Valley. But the looting of America has only just begun. And we're not talking about plasma television sets here, much less loaves of bread.

We're talking about putting the whole American dream up at a fire sale. It appears that our leaders want to show the apparatchiks who presided over the "privatization" scandals of the Soviet bloc what real greed looks like.

They began before the floodwaters had even stopped roaring into New Orleans. Bidding rules were suspended, as always, for Halliburton (I wonder if Halliburton even has a department that can prepare bids for contracts!) and for other companies well-connected to the politicians who, ostrich-like, had let every community asset in the Gulf Coast be pounded to splinters. (The latest, and apparently biggest, is AshBritt, a firm based in Pompano Beach, Florida, that is closely connected to Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and that got $568 million to remove debris at a rate of $15/cubic yard -- a price widely dismissed as outrageous by local officials.)

After bidding rules were dumped, on the grounds that in an emergency you couldn't expect contractors to do work for normal prices (it costs more, after all, in a crisis), fair wages went overboard. Apparently, in an emergency, while contractors are understandably greedy, employees are desperate and should be grateful for anything -- except, it turns out, African-American and Hispanic workers, because non-discrimination standards also were junked.

Even while the EPA and the head of the federal relief effort were warning residents not to return home because of the risk of toxic contamination, Governor Barbour simply suspended all environmental standards in Mississippi for the duration. The nation's homebuilders suggested that we could really get the job of rebuilding done faster if we canceled all energy-efficiency standards and allowed substandard materials that have been sitting in warehouses to be dumped on the Gulf Coast -- never mind whether substandard building is really what the devastated residents who will return really need or can afford.

But, sadly, the Gulf Coast is accustomed to this kind of exploitation by its leaders. This is a region that would not score well in Transparency International's Global Corruption Report. But while there is a good $200 billion to be made on reconstruction, not everyone in America is a good buddy of Haley Barbour's or has wired the contract procedures with the Army Corps of Engineers (whose failed levees created a good bit of the debris that needs to be removed). With a lot of very well-connected people still left out of the opportunity to make a fortune off the taxpayers on the Gulf Coast, the leadership in Congress and the Administration rapidly got creative.

The oil companies were promptly promised free access not only to the Arctic Wildlife Refuge but also to the rest of coastal America, places like the coasts of California, North Carolina, Florida, and New England, whose citizens had struggled for years to protect them. But the oil industry claimed that since the Gulf Coast was too vulnerable to hurricanes, we need to move our oil fields somewhere else, and Congressional leaders like Senator Pete Domenici agreed.

Then the Environmental Protection Agency, apparently concerned not enough unknown toxic hazards had been created by the floodwaters in Cancer Alley, announced that it would weaken the standards governing companies releasing toxic chemicals into the environment. URL In a future hurricane, the agency won't have as big a job determining what happened to the toxic chemicals stored at factories and dump sites, because a great many of them will never have had to disclose their existence. Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma decided that repealing clean-air standards might have held off the hurricane's fury -- a little smog might have knocked the socks of Katrina -- so he introduced legislation to make America safe for carcinogens.

All this looting, of course, costs money -- America's plunderers expect to be paid for their rapaciousness. So Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo proposed to refill federal coffers by selling off a large chunk of our inheritance --15 percent of the wild lands that we all still own --claiming that such sales would help pay for reconstruction. Tancredo, however, stopped short of selling off the National Parks. But House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo had no such compunctions about taking the greed orgy to its logical conclusion. He proposed, as a means of meeting the budgetary goals that the Congressional leadership had set for him, in the wake of the hurricane, to sell off one quarter of the National Park System. Fifteen units were designated for sale. Except, to listen to Pombo, even though he had put the plan to sell these parks in a bill, he didn't really favor it himself -- he was just making a point that, short of drilling the Arctic Wildlife refuge, there really was no other way of paying for the devastation of Katrina.

Senator John McCain thought otherwise. He suggested, as did Pat Buchanan and the Wall Street Journal, not to mention the Sierra Club, that perhaps Congress could give up some of its more extravagant pork-barrel projects, like Representative Don Young's two bridges to nowhere. But McCain, it appeared, was showing himself to be an old-fashioned guy, someone who saw the United States as a going concern to be invested in, rather than as a juicy victim of a hostile takeover to be liquidated.

And then, yesterday, the President announced that Americans should conserve energy by not driving unless it is necessary. This is the first time this President has asked for any sacrifice in the aftermath of national crisis, so I suppose it is progress. But the President has not backed up this call to citizens by asking for similar sacrifices from the oil and auto companies. Indeed, the President is still desperately trying to stuff the stockings of the very industries that got us into this crisis.

If we don't get rid of this crew when we have the next chance, we won't be able to claim that we didn't know what they were up to. They are doing it right in front of our eyes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/the-real-looting-has-just_b_7973.html

Carl Pope was appointed Executive Director of the Sierra Club in 1992. A veteran leader in the environmental movement, Mr. Pope has been with the Sierra Club for nearly thirty years.

Mr. Pope is co-author -- along with Paul Rauber -- of Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress, which the New York Review of Books called "a splendidly fierce book."





When this story was posted in September 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:


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Returned Volunteers respond to Hurricane Katrina Date: September 4 2005 No: 725 Returned Volunteers respond to Hurricane Katrina
First and foremost, Give. Carol Bellamy says "In situations such as this one, money is needed the most" and added that Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans is comparable to last year's tsunami. Thailand RPCV Thomas Tighe's Direct Relief International has committed an initial $250,000 in cash to assist hurricane victims. Mayor Tom Murphy (RPCV Paraguay) says Pittsburgh is ready to embrace refugees from devastated areas. Mark Shriver of Save the Children says it will assist rural communities it serves in rebuilding. Brazil RPCV Robert Backus is among the first Vermont doctors to volunteer to travel to Louisiana to treat victims. Ohio Governor Bob Taft (RPCV Tanzania) says students displaced by "Katrina" can enroll in Ohio Colleges and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle (RPCV Tunisia) is sending soldiers to help residents of Louisiana. Do you know what it means to lose New Orleans? Contact your local Red Cross to Volunteer.

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Military Option sparks concerns Date: August 23 2005 No: 714 Military Option sparks concerns
The U.S. military, struggling to fill its voluntary ranks, is allowing recruits to meet part of their reserve military obligations after active duty by serving in the Peace Corps. Read why there is opposition to the program among RPCVs. Director Vasquez says the agency has a long history of accepting qualified applicants who are in inactive military status. John Coyne says "Not only no, but hell no!" and RPCV Chris Matthews leads the debate on "Hardball." Latest: Avi Spiegel says Peace Corps is not the place for soldiers while Coleman McCarthy says to Welcome Soldiers to the Peace Corps. RPCVs: Read our poll results.

Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger Date: August 25 2005 No: 717 Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger
When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger.

Upcoming Events: Peace Corps Fund in NYC Date: August 20 2005 No: 710 Upcoming Events: Peace Corps Fund in NYC
Peace Corps Fund announces Sept 29 Fund Raiser in NYC
High Atlas Foundation Hosts a Reception in NYC on Sept 15
Jody Olsen to address Maryland RPCVs at Sept 17 picnic
"Artists and Patrons in Traditional African Cultures" in NY thru Sept 30
See RPCV Musical "Doing Good" in CA through Sept
"Iowa in Ghana" at "The Octogan" in Ames through October 7
RPCV Film Festival in DC in October
RPCV's exhibit at Museum of Man in San Diego thru May 2006

Top Stories: August 20, 2005 Date: August 20 2005 No: 711 Top Stories: August 20, 2005
Jack Crandall writes "Memories relished by WWII Generation"
Cris Groenendaal plays Phantom of Opera on Broadway 19 Aug
Peace Corps Director Travels to Madagascar 19 Aug
RPCV presents "Artists and Patrons in Traditional African Cultures" 19 Aug
Robert Brown to head Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA 19 Aug
Peter McPherson to head national university association 19 Aug
Len Flier says US has lose-lose scenario in Iraq 18 Aug
Ruth DeMaio sends aid to Niger 18 Aug
Bob Taft pleads no contest to ethics law violation 18 Aug
Antoinette Allen is Field Hockey coach at Hun School 16 Aug
Tony Hall Avoids Mugabe on Zimbabwe trip 14 Aug
Peace Corps Receives 2005 Medgar Evers Award 10 Aug
Jeff Wray is filming "The Soul Searchers" 10 Aug
40th anniversary of Shriver's Foster Grandparent Program 9 Aug
Tom Petri writes "It's not just about highways" 9 Aug
Terry Dougherty brings students from Afghanistan to US 8 Aug
Chris Newhall is leading volcano scientist 5 Aug
Douglas Biklen appointed dean at Syracuse University 5 Aug
Greg Kovalchuk and Mike Kelly Find Rare Fossil 4 Aug
Edward O'Toole salvages furniture for schools in Honduras 3 Aug
Gary Mount is Apple Grower Of The Year 1 Aug

The Peace Corps Library Date: March 27 2005 No: 536 The Peace Corps Library
Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000  strong Date: April 2 2005 No: 543 Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong
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Story Source: Waldo Village Soup

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - India; NGO's; Sierra Club; Environment

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