The $236 million no bid contract award to Carnival Cruise Lines to provide housing for Katrina victims is an outrage. John Aravosis has the details here: [
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/no-bid-contract-to-carnival-is-prime.html]
Of course, it's no surprise that Mickey Arison, CEO of Carnival, and his wife have made significant political contributions to Republicans. Here's some samples lifted from the opensecrets.org site:
10/29/2004 $16,500 Republican National Cmte
7/28/2004 $10,000 National Republican Congressional Cmte
11/28/2003 $2,000 Bush, George W
His wife, Madeline Arison, also made the following contribution last year:
10/29/2004 $25,000 Republican National Cmte
In the 2000 election cycle, the Arisons also gave as follows:
9/12/2000 $20,000 RNC/Repub National State Elections Cmte
While the Arison's did make what appears to be token contributions to some Democrats and the DNC, Republicans got the biggest bucks. Corruption and cronyism at it's best?