The newest corporate kitty...

Iraq came and went...when people looked the other way, Halliburton, Bechtel and others happily raided the public's money to build infrastructure at cost-plus inflated prices that the military with public's money had destroyed.

Then, it was Katrina...people died, there was an outcry, the corporates came and raided the public trough again.

Now, the latest opportunity for looting from the public is "border security." Little Bush turned Boy King after 9/11, is probably going to push for millions of dollars to be diverted once again to "secure" the border with Mexico. [Timing is everything: 9/11 anniversary is the perfect opportunity to ask Congress to fund these projects] Secure from what? From agri-businesses making enormous profits off paying substandard benefits to illegal workers? Or everyday Americans from using the labor line to get some cheap Mexican muscle to get their home remodeling projects done?

The usual parties of the military industrial complex are in play for this money:

The Bush administration is expected next month to choose an industry consortium to erect a high-tech security shield along the U.S. borders, launching one of the federal government's most ambitious public-works projects in years.

The Department of Homeland Security calls the proposed Secure Border Initiative Net the 'most comprehensive effort in the nation's history' to gain control of more than 6,000 miles of border with Mexico and Canada as well as 2,000 miles of coastline.

SBInet is a centerpiece of President Bush's efforts to fortify the porous U.S.-Mexico border at a time when Congress is locked in a struggle to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. Administration officials say they intend to proceed with the security net regardless of the outcome of the debate over immigration legislation.

The multibillion-dollar undertaking has ignited an intensely fought contract battle among industry teams headed by four leading defense companies - Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon - and Ericsson, the Swedish-based telecommunications giant with U.S. headquarters in Plano, Texas.