Homocon

Yes, please. When we see the wreckage that's the Gulf Coast area (not just New Orleans), then each of us needs to write to our senators and congressional representatives and ask them to cut the bloat and "pork" from the latest highway and energy bills and use that money for rebuilding the southern states that have been hit so hard. The Washington Post claims that the new Highway Bill "contains a record 6,371 pet projects inserted by members of Congress from both parties" -- that's $24 billion dollars (and since the Highway Bill is spread out over five years, that would be nearly $5 billion dollars per year) that could, and should, be used for disaster relief now that it's so desperately needed.

We also have the upcoming debate regarding amnesty on illegal immigration under the guise of "guest worker visas" which, if approved, would make the billions spent on the Transportation Pork Bill look like spare change, and do we really have that kind of spare change just laying around any longer (especially when you consider the continued military operations geared towards reshaping the social structures of the Middle East, plus a vast voting constituency that's growing older and will demand more and more in medical aid and income supplementation)?

I think not.

Just Say No! to a congressional investigation of the federal response to Katrina. There's no such thing as an "independent" investigation of the frickin' government, and it will simply wind up costing us taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, with the only real results being face-time for grandstanding senators, as well as the creation of yet another government bureaucracy to replace the . . . well, government bureaucracies that performed so inefficiently.

Yes, FEMA wasn't so terrific at responding to the hurricane disaster, but is pushing FEMA into stand-alone status (again) the answer that we really need? If FEMA was lousy at dealing with a large-scale disaster here in the United States, shouldn't we just slash FEMA into nothingness and take the money that went into weighing it down with red-tape and bureaucracy and channel it directly into the hands of the States, instead?

*blink*

Though, I guess, when you stop to think of how pathetically the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana used their earmarked federal funds, it makes one pause before considering sending such states even more in the way of federal funding, doesn't it.

Let's not use Hurricane Katrina as an excuse to expand our present (and obviously) overgrown, unwieldy and mismanaged federal relief agencies. You want a faster response to natural disasters? Get the government agencies out of the way, since it was the private aid organizations and the military that moved in and swiftly helped rectify a situation that FEMA and Congress could only stand and gaze upon in dazed incomprehension.

ADDENDUM:
BTW: has anyone yet asked Hillary Clinton why she voted to fold FEMA into the Homeland Security Department if she thinks that FEMA was so great on its own?

For those who aren't inclined to be as obsessive about the linkage as moi, here's a (very) brief summary of the creation of the Homeland Security Department, which enfolded FEMA, along with 21 other federal agencies, into its warm bureaucratic embrace:

Originally crafted by a group of lawmakers led by Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush had initially opposed a homeland security agency proposal until democratic lawmakers launched a probe into alleged intelligence lapses that allowed al-Qaeda militants to strike with hijacked airliners, killing more that 3,000 people . . . Democratic Senate Majority Leader at the time, Tom Daschle, stated for the record that "Creating a Homeland Security Department was a Democratic idea to begin with" (take that, oh "Homeland Security is Fascist Bushies' fault!" whiners), and though Hillary Clinton criticized the Homeland Security Bill for what she believed to be its lack of power to address critical infrastructure threats, she nevertheless voted for the bill -- the very same bill which placed (her now so precious) FEMA under the jurisdiction of the Homeland Security Department.

Which leads us to the events of the present, where Clinton, of course, plays it as if she had nothing to do with FEMA's present lack of independence and bureaucratic unwieldiness in the face of disaster. Note to the Clintanista: If your husband's independent FEMA was so wonderful, then why did you (yes, you -- there were only 9 senators who voted against the creation of the Homeland Security Department, and you weren't one of them) vote to take away its independence? If you stamp your feet and demand an investigation into the federal governments' response to Hurricane Katrina, then I want the investigation to include a public hearing about all the current senators who voted to strip FEMA of its independence in the first place . . .

#*@! Senators. No wonder people rarely elect them to the presidency.