DARK CARNIVAL

Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) want to know why the Federal Emergency Management Agency signed a six-month, $236 million deal with Carnival Cruise Lines to house evacuees on ships instead of accepting free ships from the Greek government.
From your Chicago Tribune:

"Even if the Carnival contract were a good one--and it almost certainly is not--it is inexplicable why FEMA would fail to implement the Greek government's offer of free cruise ships," the senators said. "Unfortunately, this is merely the latest example of poor decision-making by FEMA."

Coburn and Obama have introduced legislation calling for a chief financial officer to oversee how tax dollars are being spent on hurricane recovery efforts. They said the Carnival deal "appears to be a sweetheart government contract."

Greece offered the U.S. free use of two cruise ships on September 4th.