Montgomery County, MD Green Party Blog

NBC’s levee broke and Kanye West flooded through with a tear about the federal response in New Orleans during the network’s live concert fundraiser for victims of Hurricane Katrina last night.
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“Tonight’s telecast was a live television event wrought with emotion,” parent company NBC Universal said in a statement issued to the Reporters Who Cover Television after the broadcast.

“Kanye West departed from the scripted comments that were prepared for him, and his opinions in no way represent the views of the networks. It would be most unfortunate if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person’s opinion.”

West’s comments would be cut from the West Coast feed, an NBC spokeswoman told The TV Column. (The Associated Press later reported that only his comment about the president was edited out.) The show was live on the East Coast with a several-second delay; someone with his finger on a button was keeping an ear peeled in case someone uttered an obscenity but did not realize that West had gone off-script, the spokeswoman said.

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The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The work was assigned to Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary and repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Since 1989, governments worldwide have awarded $3 billion in contracts to KBR’s to clean up damage caused by natural and man-made disasters. Undoubtably helping out in the procurement of these contracts is Joe Allbaughn, director of FEMA during the first two years of the Bush administration, who became a lobbyist for KBR in March.

Scott Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight commented;

This is a perfect example of someone cashing in on a cozy political relationship. Allbaugh’s former placement as a senior government official and his new lobbying position with KBR strengthens the company’s already tight ties to the administration, and I hope that contractor accountability is not lost as a result.