The Katrina Profiteers, Cont'd

In a follow-up to our previous post about the Iraq military contractors now sniffing for disaster money in Louisiana, Josh Marshall points out that Joe Allbaugh -- who left FEMA to cash in on Iraq reconstruction contracts -- has been tapped to "coordinate the private-sector response to the storm."

Given that Allbaugh's actual job at Blackwell Fairbanks and The Allbaugh Company is to help grease the relationship between government contractors and corporations wanting the contracts, what this really means is that Allbaugh is in charge of steering disaster money to his business clients.

Money really puts a spring in people's step. As Josh points out, the news about Allbaugh's involvement was reported in the Washington Post on September 1, most likely covering something that happened on August 31. So Allbaugh was lining up corporate beneficiaries of the disaster well before most FEMA and military personnel even arrived on the scene.