Posted on 09/15/2005 11:13:28 AM PDT by rvoitier
WASHINGTON (AP) — The former FEMA director hired by Louisiana to help lead its Hurricane Katrina recovery effort has registered to lobby for an insurance company that wants Congress to create a natural disaster "catastrophe fund."
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Something stinks!!
bttt
Ya think:
Witt's lobbying for the fund comes while he's on the payroll of the state of Louisiana. Gov. Kathleen Blanco hired him earlier this month as a consultant to advise her on the state's hurricane relief work.Seems like a bit of a conflict of interest to me.
Corruption has run rampant for years in LA - this tragedy is simply another opportunity for the locals to open their coffers. After all, if Moon Landrieu & family could get years & years of payoffs for 100 year old pumping stations and the like, why shouldn't Blanco + Nagin + Witt start pulling in the big $$$ now? After all, isn't that what federal $$$ are for?
Especially since he was advising her on how to avoid a federal takeover of the response...
Wait a minute..isn't this ..uhmmmm...unethical?
Ooops...never mind- former Clinton fellow.
I figured she was taking advice from money men or a lawyers. I sure would like to see some of the documentation that was passed between these two.
Someone needs to email this story to Tom Tancredo.
Both stories :) The one I linked to mentions Tony Coehlo.
I just emailed all my representatives a copy of this and asked them to look into it.
No bailout of insurance companies!!!!
MSNBC actually did an excellent story early this morning on the $5 million dollar MardiGras fountain that was paid for out of Corps of Engineers funding and a man from Tulane who four months ago issued a report that they needed to build a floodgate where the gulf comes into the Mississippi that could be closed when a storm is coming. He believes a lot of the damage to St. Bernards Parish came from a wall of water coming UP the Mississippi.
But if the insurance companies have to pay out on policies accoring to their terms, they will not have money left over for multimillion dollar bonuses for all the top executives.
I love the timing and the wording of the lead in here. It makes it seem like they are talking about Brown instead of Witt.
If you just read what is posted here the average (non freeper) person would think it was Bush's "buddy" Brown trying to make some money.
On another subject what is the term for non freeper? Got to be one and I may be reading it everyday and just not knowing it. Thanks
Non-Freeper, some of them are called morons, festering carbuncles on the face of humanity, moonbats liberals. Some of them(Non-Freepers) are decent folk, who for whatever legitimate reason are unable to join in.
At first glance one would think it is Brown, which would lead one to think Ms. Blanco is dumber that she appears. Or something.
At the very minimum, we should insist on a very close accounting of taxpayer dollars, especially in and about Louisiana.
No doubt about it. There is one man I'd hope is put on the commission/board/whatever to oversee the money and his name is Dan Kyle. He was state auditor about 4 years ago. He was fired by those bozos. Mr. Kyle also put many officials in jail.
James Lee Witt and his firm, James Lee Witt Associates, registered Tuesday to lobby for Allstate Insurance Co. Their mission: "to draft and introduce model legislation creating a natural disaster catastrophe fund," the registration says.
Witt's lobbying for the fund comes while he's on the payroll of the state of Louisiana. Gov. Kathleen Blanco hired him earlier this month as a consultant to advise her on the state's hurricane relief work.
Witt headed the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the Clinton administration. His Washington firm lobbies on disaster issues for several clients.
Witt's experience at FEMA was among the reasons Allstate hired him, company spokesman Michael Trevino said.
"He's an expert," Trevino said.
Under the catastrophe fund proposal, insurers would cover homeowners' natural disaster-related claims up to a certain amount. The state affected by the disaster would cover claims over that amount up to a certain level, and the federal government would cover them beyond that.
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The Allstate Corporation Board of Directors
http://tinyurl.com/az28x
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