· “[I] offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know: There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.
· Federal funds will cover the great majority of the costs of repairing public infrastructure in the disaster zone -- from roads and bridges to schools and water systems. Our goal is to get the work done quickly.
Two and one-half years after Hurricane Katrina, less than one-fourth of the $4.5 billion earmarked to repair or replace firehouses, schools and other public works has been put to use. (USA Today, 1/10/08)
FEMA spokesman Robert Josephson lays the blame on the local authorities:
· “It’s time for local governments to start making the tough decisions about what they’re going to build back and start moving forward on the permanent recovery.”
As you might guess, State and local officials see the problem a little differently:
· “[T]he biggest challenge in spending the money has been FEMA's process.”--Andy Kopplin, Louisiana Recovery Authority.
By now, we all know what George W. Bush’s word is worth. In the end, the poor people in the tornado-damaged areas will get the same kind of help from the Bush Administration that the poor people on the Gulf Coast got after Hurricane Katrina. Favored contractors will get lucrative no-bid contracts to do something or other, and the poor people will have to take care of themselves. That is how compassionate conservatism works.
******
The ranking Republican in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), has finally had enough. He is tired of the lies, the deceit and now--the destruction of evidence.
“I am very concerned about the underlying facts on the taping, the reasons for the judgment on the limited penalties and, most of all, on the inexplicable destruction of the tapes.”-- Specter said in a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell
“The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game.”--Specter said in a telephone interview with The New York Times
Do you think the U.S. Congress should be spending its time investigating steroids in baseball and video taping in football; or should they be dealing with the myriad of problems that Americans are facing today? The Republicans had time to question Roger Clemens for five hours, but when it came to holding White House officials in Contempt of Congress for refusing to testify and ignoring subpoenas--House Republicans walked out, rather than vote on the issue.
If Senator Specter wants to get upset about evidence being destroyed, he could start with the millions of missing emails that the White House has conveniently lost, or the CIA interrogation tapes, or the Guantanamo prisoner records that have recently disappeared. How about the billions of dollars in cash that disappeared in Iraq; or the fact that the Attorney General of the United States cannot say if water-boarding is torture?
There are plenty of things to get upset about, but “the integrity of the game” is not one of them. Senator Specter and the rest of Congress need to get their priorities straight. How about a little integrity in our government?
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