News rater, anti-Palin group get govt Gulf work

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100913/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_contracts_3 ^

[kcvl]

federal government hired a New Orleans man for $18,000 to appraise whether news stories about its actions in the Gulf oil spill were positive or negative for the Obama administration, which was keenly sensitive to comparisons between its response and former President George W. Bush's much-maligned reaction to Hurricane Katrina.

also spent $10,000 for just over three minutes of video showing a routine offshore rig inspection for news organizations but couldn't say whether any ran the footage. And it awarded a $216,625 no-bid contract for a survey of seabirds to an environmental group that has criticized what it calls the "extreme anti-conservation record" of Sarah Palin, a possible 2012 rival to President Barack Obama

contracts were among hundreds reviewed by The Associated Press as the government begins to provide an early glimpse at federal spending since the Gulf disaster in April. While most of the contracts don't raise alarms, some could provide ammunition for critics of government waste

As of Monday, the administration has released details of about $142 million in contracts, a fraction of the hundreds of millions of dollars it has spent so far. BP has reimbursed the U.S. $390 million, company spokesman Tom Mueller said. The government sent BP a new invoice for $128.5 million last week.

White House is still deciding whether it will bill BP for spill-related trips by Obama and his wife, Michelle, to the Gulf, including the president's flights aboard Air Force One, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars each

contracts the government has disclosed so far include at least $5.8 million for helicopter services, $3.1 million for lodging, $1.4 million for boat charters, $225,000 for water-testing devices, some used aboard ships, $457,570 for cellular and satellite phone services, $25,087 for toilets, $23,217 laundry services and $109,735 for refrigerators and freezers.

[kcvl]

Contractors include a group whose political arm endorsed Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign and ran ads in several swing states against then-Republican vice presidential candidate Palin. The group, Defenders of Wildlife, received a $216,625 noncompetitive contract from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a seabird survey in the BP spill area.

Both Defenders of Wildlife and its political arm, the Defenders Action Fund, have criticized Palin, a former Alaska governor, for supporting use of low-flying airplanes to hunt wolves and other wildlife in winter.

Defenders of Wildlife also has been urging Discovery Communications to drop plans for “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” a reality TV series, and wants sponsors and viewers to boycott it. The Interior Department said the Fish and Wildlife Service hired the group to survey the effects of oil on ocean birds because its chief scientist, Chris Haney, is respected and experienced in bird research. It said BP approved the scientist’s selection.

[onyx]

Yes, isn’t is amazing that “NO politics” were involved in this group getting awarded the “no-bid” contract?

I mean, this is the very same group that’s still upset about wolf hunting in Alaska!

[kcvl]

Board of Directors and Advisory Committees

Edward Asner
California

Ashley Judd
Tennessee

http://www.defenders.org/about_us/board.php

Victor M. Sher, Chair
California

Victor Sher “is the former president of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, a public interest law firm devoted to representing citizens’ groups in litigation to protect and improve the environment

Winsome McIntosh, Vice Chair
Washington, D.C.

Winsome McIntosh and her husband, Michael, are the founders of ClientEarth

Board Member of Alliance for Justice (AFJ) is a national association of environmental, civil rights, mental health, women’s, children’s and consumer advocacy organizations

Richard G. Pritzlaff is President of Biophilia Foundation. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Defenders of Wildlife, the Ploughshares Fund and is the past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Shipboard Education

Ronald Pulliam - National Council for Science & the Environment

Professor of Ecology, University of Georgia
Former Director, National Biological Service

[kcvl]

Sarah Palin and the Environment

Former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin has an extreme anti-conservation record on issues ranging from global warming, energy and drilling to wildlife and habitat protection.

She may no longer be governor but her anti-wildlife legacy lives on, which is why Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund is still working to end the aerial hunting of wolves, and to protect the other wildlife and habitat her policies sought to destroy.

Drilling

Palin is a strong supporter of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a vital wilderness area. It is home to hundreds of thousands of caribou who use the refuge as a calving ground, more than one million migratory birds, and countless other wildlife. It’s the most important onshore denning habitat for female polar bears. Palin is also a supporter of drilling in Bristol Bay and other offshore sites despite the risks to sensitive marine wildlife in the area, including the endangered polar bear and Beluga whale.

http://www.eyeonpalin.org/learn_more/index.php

Ashely Judd has a video on this page about it. You know, the Ashley Judd that takes private jets to where she is going!

They are such lying hypocrites!

[dsrtsage]

So what else is Emporer Nero Narcissus up to today?

[magellan]

This is incredibly corrupt. Obama using taxpayer money to do the sort of things which ordinarily be done with PAC money.

If George Bush did this, there would be the predictable comparisons to Nixon and calls for impeachment.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[Freedom56v2]

While most of the contracts don’t raise alarms, some could provide ammunition for critics of government waste—————————————————————
Oh I think some alarms should be raised...