FEMA Investigation - Hope they find a smoking FraWd gun...

BACKGROUND….
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041021/news_1...
Hurricane aid adds factor to Florida race
Key state is considered too close to call, polls say
By Toby Eckert
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
October 21, 2004
Dick Bennett, a pollster for American Research Group, called it "a dead-even state" in terms of Republican and Democratic strength. "The real race is among the one out of five voters who are independent. These voters are the ballgame," he said. And they are highly concentrated in the I-4 Corridor, a swath of 14 counties that includes coastal cities, sprawling suburbs, farms and citrus groves. The region has 3 million voters, about a third of the state's total.


http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/html/185328FC-...
March 4, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Congress is moving quickly to address complaints from Florida lawmakers about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response to last year's four hurricanes. Today, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., who chairs the House panel with FEMA oversight, is scheduled to take a helicopter tour of hurricane-damaged Escambia and Santa Rosa counties and listen to local officials' concerns about FEMA. Also, several Florida lawmakers called on Shuster Thursday to conduct formal hearings in Washington to investigate complaints that the agency has mishandled emergency relief funds.

"It's been several months since four hurricanes slammed into my state, and we are still waiting for answers from FEMA on a host of issues," said Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican whose congressional district stretches from St. Lucie County on the Atlantic Coast to Charlotte County on the Gulf Coast. "The time has come to find out what the problem is. Taxpayers deserve answers." <<snip>>

FEMA Payouts BY 2004 DECEMBER 7 http://www.floridadisaster.org/documents/IndivAssistDat...
County Map: http://www.floridacountiesmap.com /
Hurricane Paths: http://www.treepower.org/hurricane/main.html

I-4 CORRIDOR COUNTIES:
Orange County - $63mm
Seminole County - $18 mm
Polk County - $80 mm
Osceola County - $36 mm
Volusia County - $50 mm
Hillsborough County - $13.mm

SEVERELY DAMAGED COUNTIES:
Escambia County - $69 mm
Charlotte County - $38 mm
Hardee County - $15mm
DeSoto County - $22 mm
Santa Rosa - $38 mm

OTHER COUNTIES of NOTE:
Brevard County - $61 mm
Miami Dade - $29 mm
Palm Beach - $116 mm

Was a Republican writing FEMA checks like crazy in the "swing" corridor?

demanding and investigation into FEMA's distribution of hurricane relief funds. There are a number of issues. One, that some counties are still not getting money that they need. Two, millions were paid in Miami-Dade where the hurricanes came only as close as 100 miles. And three, is is possible that FEMA expedited funds to the I-4 counties in time to sway the election. It seems quite odd to me that I-4 Polk county had already received 80 million by Dec 7th which is more than any of the most severely damaged counties. The fact that Repugs are questioning FEMA makes me think that safer counties (safer to B**) were neglected. The fact that money was given where need was questioned (i.e. Miami) shows a propensity for misappropriation and therefore a chance that some nefarious activity could have occurred in I-4.

But I don't understand "safer counties (safer to B**)".

I could see them trying to stabalize Repub areas, and/or leaving Dem areas destabalized (suppress the vote). Or maybe even stabalizing Dem areas where they know they can flip votes. Or just buying off swing voters.

Am I getting warmer?

assumption is buying off the swing voters. Now we won Miami, right. So maybe they were throwing money there to push the overall popular vote in Florida. BTW, these numbers have changed a lot since Dec -- but couldn't find a comprehensive list of the latest numbers. On FEMA.org, it says in a document that a list of money by county is attached, but it is not. Also, there is really weird stuff that happened in Miami -- people buying tvs, microwaves, etc. and they were 1oo miles from the hurricane. I don't understand the $116 million for Palm Beach -- if you look at the hurricane map - not much happened there.

They were close enough to both Frances and Jeanne to have damage.

Here's a Palm Beach Post article:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/content/news/epaper/2004/09/26/pbcdamage.html


Miami-Dade County, however, definitely dodged the bullets. You can see from the Palm Beach Post article that even Southern Palm Beach County mostly escaped damage. (For those who don't know, the S. Florida counties are Palm Beach, then Broward, then Miami-Dade going from north to south.)

The $29 million in Miami-Dade County looks very fishy.

BTW, it doesn't matter which counties we won or lost. A vote bought in Miami-Dade is just as valuable as a vote bought in any other county since it's "winner take all" at the state level.

waiting for FEMA to actually DO something just before the election. He still had water in his living room and all they had done was come and take names. That's further north, right? So how does it fit into the grand scheme? Is it a Bush-like county?