Republican politics delays Gulf Coast aid (in a move to save DeLay's hide)

Our governor appeared before a House panel on Dec. 7 and admonished Congress for the lack of federal help in getting our state back into shape after Katrina ("Barbour: Recovery stalled," Dec. 8).

"We are at a point where our recovery and renewal efforts are stalled because of inaction in Washington, D.C., and the delay has created uncertainty that is having very negative effects on our recovery and rebuilding," Gov. Haley Barbour stated.

Fourth District U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor backed him up with this statement: "I applaud you for scolding the House leadership. I didn't vote to elect Dennis Hastert, governor — you helped get him there. I'd hope you'd use that influence to get him off his duff."

And what was Hastert's reply? He decided to shut down the House's return from its winter break until Jan. 31, 2006. The reasoning behind this move to keep the House closed for an extra two weeks? It does not look like House Majority Leader Tom Delay will get his money laundering trial finished until the end of January. If the House was to reconvene at its normal time, members would be required to vote on a new leader.

As Mississippians on the Coast huddle in tents and burn what is left of their homes to keep warm over the holiday retail season, we should have comfort in the knowledge that our needs will be on the back burner while the House figures out what to do about its leadership — or lack of it.


http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051213/OPINION/512130303/1007

asshats think of the dire needs of the gulf coast survivors and not just their own selfish interests.

me of an old Peanuts cartoon which seems to fit right in:

Charlie Brown and Linus Van Pelt are walking along in the cold snow.

They see Snoopy out in the cold, shivering.

CB and LVP decide "We should go comfort him."

They walk over to Snoopy and tell him "Be of good cheer." "Yes, be of good cheer".

Then they walk away, with Snoopy sitting there, looking perplexed.

Reminds me of the Republican "comfort" of the Katrina victims . . . "Send us money, we'll pray for you . . ."

Today, while visiting Gulfport, she told families who are dealing with Katrina devastation and family members serving in Iraq, "Try not to be sad." and though they may be displaced from homes and jobs and family, "I encourage families to have all the same traditions”

Let them eat cake in a leaky tent, I guess.

I just have no words to express my fury and hatred of these murderous sociopaths.

:mad:

that is bringing them down.

Satan is holding a special room in hell for you, Mr. Hastert.

"George Bush just put Condoleezza Rice in charge of Iraq stabilization"

And he put Karl Rove in charge of Katrina recovery efforts. How's that working out, BTW?

He also put Mike Brown in charge of FEMA, John Ashcroft in charge of the First Amendment, Harriet Meirs in charge of Supreme Court Justices, Dick Cheney in charge of Vice-Presidents, Cookie Monster in charge of cookies, Fox in charge of henhouses and Yogi Bear in charge of picnic baskets.

MSNBC, Amazingly is really cooking with the truth today.

• 9/11 report rips Bush, Congress
Dec. 5: The former 9/11 commission criticized the Bush administration and Congress, saying the U.S. is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because they have failed to enact strong security measures.
Nightly News

This has got to get on the Greatest Page. Gulf Coast recovery delayed because the House Ethics leader is having a trial for unethical behavior? How the fuck do Republicans sleep at night? :grr:

:pals:

So, Mississippi's own Boss Hogg can't get the Washington Repugs to care about poor Southerners? Perhaps it isn't fair, but it does seem to be fitting. Haley Barbor made a vow before the Almighty to keep the government out of the lives of his beloved Mississippians, and his conservative supporters cheered him on at every turn. Any action by the "Fed'ral Gov'ment" would be anathema to his oft-stated political philosophy of individualism. He would have to undue the work of an entire career to put things to right.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

will have a memory that lasts until the next election. While it is true no one deserves this, you get the gov you elect. I don't recall any voting scandal in Miss. so this is what happens. They did do right to vote for Gene Taylor though. The man has a powerful way of speaking up for his constituents.

20th amendment:

http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am20.html

Amendment 20 - Presidential, Congressional terms

1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

The human cockroach would have to ram "Tommy's Law" through on yet another straight party line vote. He can't just do it by fiat. What does he think this is, some kind of fascist dictatorship? :sarcasm:

expire?

Hastert is grasping at sharp straws. Wait until Abramof starts singing like a fat caged bird, and everything will be up in the air.

You get what you vote for!

Stop whining.

Got it anyways. Thanks for the compassion.

very powerful in connecting seeming disparate points - that in reality are directly related. Putting congress (which recently voted a pay raise for itself) on a more than a month vacation - while there are serious crises facing American citizens is obscene, and doing so for power (DeLay) politics is outrageous. I am glad to read that you were able to get the letter published in multiple regional papers. :thumbsup:

Free Katrina houses remain empty
Fannie Mae offers FEMA 1,500 homes, so why aren't victims living in them? NBC VIDEO
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10266830/

Free Katrina houses remain empty Nov. 23: Fannie Mae offered 1,500 homes rent-free for Katrina evacuees for a year and a half. But FEMA has not placed a single family in the homes: Why not? NBC's Lisa Myers investigates. Nightly News

Nov. 23 — It's a handsome Atlanta home with all the modern perks: Five bedrooms, three baths, spacious, finished basement, nice view... even two fireplaces! "As you can see, it's gorgeous and it's lovely, and it's ready to move in," says realtor William Murray as he leads NBC News on a tour.

The $300,000 home is one of 1,500 homes that Fannie Mae — the giant housing-finance company — generously offered to provide, rent-free for 18 months, to families left homeless by Katrina.Though Fannie Mae offered these rent-free homes two months ago, FEMA has not placed a single family in any of them.

The homes are in nine states — Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., Okla., Tenn. and Texas —where the need is the greatest.

NBC News showed one of the Fannie Mae homes in Atlanta to Rosella Joseph, who with her husband and four children have been living in hotels for two months. "It really doesn't make sense to have houses available for families who need them and not give them to them," says Joseph.

A few days ago, an outraged Mississippi congressman asked FEMA what was going on."Well, we found out with our inquiry that FEMA has done nothing with the offer and said, 'Well, we just haven't gotten around to it," says Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

FEMA initially said there were potential privacy issues, that the privacy of Katrina families might be violated if prospective buyers want to inspect the Fannie Mae homes. But on Nov. 23 — after repeated inquiries from NBC News to both agencies — FEMA accepted Fannie Mae's offer.

FEMA announced it had worked out its privacy concerns and will begin placing families in the Fannie Mae homes next week. "It's only when you go public and shame FEMA into responding do you start getting answers," says Rep. Thompson.

It's those answer that could help 1,500 families during the holidays.

for - some were tricked by their desire for spiritual comfort and got moneychangers instead.

Some people hate Americans because of Bush and before that the atrocities of the CIA - the SOA School of the Americas school for torture pre-dated the flaunting of Gitmo Concentration Camp.

By Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit
Updated: 11:26 a.m. ET Dec. 6, 2005

WASHINGTON — The chaos of Katrina was made worse by the frustrating inability of first responders in New Orleans to communicate with each other with anything more than hand signals and binoculars — the very same inability to talk that plagued rescuers on 9/11.

If the Pentagon were attacked again today, police in key Virginia suburbs could communicate by radio with the FBI, but not directly with police in Washington, D.C. In many cities, the problem is even worse. Four years after 9/11, it is a scandal that police and firefighters in large cities still can't talk to each other reliably," says one of the former co-chairmen of the 9/11 commission, Tom Kean.

The 9/11 commission gave the president and Congress an F on that, and bad grades in other key areas:

F: There's still no unified terrorist watch list to screen airline passengers;
D: Little progress in screening cargo and checked bags;
D: Minimal improvement in information sharing within the government.
"We're frustrated, we're passionate and we're angry," says Kean, "because the United States government is not doing what it needs to do to protect American citizens."

Yeah, that's so liberal :eyes:

I got this letter published today in the Clarion Ledger. It also was published in the Sun Herald ( on the Ms. coast) and in the Meridian Star, all of them today. Trifecta! It was also printed in the Hattiesburg American (edited heavily) a couple of days ago.
It makes me feel good to get the word out to my fellow Mississippians and the people at DU.
The sad part is self- evident.
Barbour is headed back to DC and says he will stay until the job is done.
It's cold here in Jackson and getting colder on the coast. Our hope in the Magnolia State is that this administration can get something done before Congress takes off for their NEXT break.
Have A COOL YULE!

My family and I have agreed that we don't need to give each other presents this year. That money is being given to charities that specifically aid Hurricane Katrina victims and Kashmiri earthquake victims.

Good for you to have a positive attitude through all of this.

The rest of us are a bit shallow and self-absorbed sometimes. It's important to keep this kind of stuff in the news so we never forget that there are Americans living in dire conditions right here in our own country.
:hi:

...always makes me so glad that I would never ever vote for these selfish bastards.

is he is becoming a favored candidate for higher office since. He confided to the Republican elite that he thought the relief fund for Katrina was "bloated" and boy do they love a cheapskate when it comes to taking care of those in need.

the Cover-up Congress strike again.

LIVE IN FLORIDA. I KNOW WHAT IS LEFT AFTER THE FILM CREWS AND FEMA PULLS OUT. I CAN IMAGINE WHAT NEW ORLEANS FACES. WHERE ARE THE RECOVERY TEAMS. WHY IS NO COVERING THE CLEANUP OF A MAJOR US CITY.

WASHINGTON NEEDS TO CONTINUE THEIR WEEKLY VISITS TO SUPPORT THE MAYOR IN IS ENDEAVOR. TO ESTABLISH A BASE FOR THE RECOVERY EFFORTS TO WORK FROM. NO MATTER WHAT IS THOUGHT OF THE MAYOR THIS RECOVERY TASK IS MORE THAN HE CAN SPEARHEAD ALONE.

OUR MILITARY HAS LONG GONE INTO COUNTRIES AND ESTABLISH A BASE TO HELP OTHER COUNTRIES. THEY THEN SET OUT TO HELP THE LOCAL VICTIMS BACK ON THEIR FEET. NEW ORLEANS FOR ALL PURPOSES LOOKS LIKE A WAR ZONE AND HAS THE SAME PROBLEMS.

FEMA'S JOB IS OVER. BUT THE MONEY DEDICATED TO NEW ORLEANS IS STILL OUT THERE.
WHY IS FEMA SET UP IN A BIG WAY IN NEW ORLEANS TO SEE THIS MONEY SPENT
RIGHT NOW. WHY IS THE HEAD OF FEMA DRAGGING OUT HIS "REVIEWS" FOR WEEKS?

WHY ISN'T WASHINGTON VISIBLE IN NEW ORLEANS NOW?

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/005385.php

<shakes head in disbelief!> How can anyone vote Republican after reading this just totally amazes me.:eyes:

Well here's another example of their superior "moral values". They're so vile & disgusting and just when you think they've sunk as low as they can go they do something like this and top themselves. Karma can't come soon enough for these people.
:mad:

Wasn't this the same GOP Governor Barbour who was cheerleading FEMA's efforts in his state and thought they were doing a wonderful job, (which I guess is why a friend of mine who lost everything on the coast had to wait three MONTHS to get any FEMA assistance)????

Still think they're doing a great job now Gov. Barbour?? Or are you just worried the people in your state may see though your lies about how good everything is going??