Happy Thanksgiving, you poor, miserable bastards! We're not paying for your hotel rooms anymore! Get out!
I got yer two-week notice right here, baby.
So says FEMA, in announcing they're cutting one of the few programs they've actually cost-tracked in the wake of Katrina.
And a relatively inexpensive one, at that. If you consider that FEMA has spent about $278 million to house families in hotels since the end of August, that means every man, woman and child in the U.S. has pitched in about a buck for that worthy effort so far.
Compare that to the billions upon billions of dollars that are unaccounted for through sweetheart no-bid contracts, and much of the money that's flowed into the Gulf Coast region so far, and it's pretty clear where this government's priorities are.
And Denny Hastert has absolutely nothing to say about it.
So is it a parallel set of priorities that we haven't figured out yet -- another sick strategy? Or is it more like you don't have the political nerve (or capital) to stand up?
Or is it that you really don't care?
Which is it, Denny?
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2 comments:
They couldn't even wait til AFTER the Holidays??!! Grinchy, Screwgy, old bastards.
A month or so ago, I happened to strike up a conversation with a truck driver and eventually ask him if the regulation changes to shorten the number of hours truckers could drive had improved his job.
His answer: “Not really.”
He went on to tell me that after you are in the business for a while, you learn how to fill out – fudge – the logs.
He went on to tell me that the secret was to realize that after reading the logs for 30 or 40 seconds, the inspectors’ eyes invariably “glaze over”.
I’m afraid that we’ve seen and heard so much about Katrina, New Orleans, and the refugees -- that our eyes have completely *glazed over*.
Yes, it’s good the country totally rejected the buffoonish suggestion by our esteemed (but witless) Speaker -- that we not rebuild New Orleans.
It’s also good that people are fighting the Republican “Reverse Robin Hood” maneuver to pay for the Katrina disaster at the expense of the poor.
And it’s also good that people are paying some attention to the massive graft that is going in the New Orleans cleanup by corporations such as Halliburton. (Why am I not surprised?)
But let’s refocus just a little bit -- the job at hand is to rebuild New Orleans, for the people of New Orleans.
Yes, the Republicans are “cutting and running” now that the administration’s Iraq lies have replaced Bush’s New Orleans promises in the headlines.
I guess we all expected it, because we all know the Republicans will nickel-dick the poor every chance they get – those hopelessly deluded souls actually think the poor deserve it.
But if you look closely at article (linked to by the original post) the problem, as everyone seems to explain it, is that they just can’t find enough long term leases for the refugees.
Long term leases, my ass! The problem at hand – let us not forget – is getting this people back to New Orleans.
In ancient times, I spent a year at L.S.U., and I must confess that I spent just about as much time in New Orleans as I spent in Baton Rouge. And I’ve never been anywhere where the people really loved their city as much as they did in New Orleans – at times I even started to feel it, and think I understood it.
Instead of letting the Halliburtons of the world screw you, me, and everyone in New Orleans. Why doesn’t our government take a page out of FDR’s book, and create a WPA-like project, and let the people of New Orleans rebuild the city they love.
Links:
There’s a protest of the Reverse-Robin-Shit at Dennis Hastert’s office in Batavia tomorrow:
http://www.political.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=28
Check out Halliburton’s most recent scandal in New Orleans:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111505A.shtml
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