A harder look at Haley Barbour's post-Katrina miracle

[intheflow]

Source: salon.com

...

"We've been asking for three post offices to be erected in Hancock County for well over a year now and have got no response whatsoever," Pullman says. "Those are the kind of things that really bother you. It's hard to get people to feel good when they have to spend the amount of money they do with the price of gasoline just to get their mail."

Barbour, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee with close ties to the Bush administration, has definitely proved more successful than his maligned Louisiana counterpart, Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco, in one respect: lobbying Washington for cash. In fact, Barbour's ability to steer a lopsided share of Katrina money to Mississippi has touched off a firestorm of outrage in Louisiana, which suffered considerably more destruction from the storm.

...

For example, the Robert T. Stafford Act, a federal law governing recovery efforts, requires affected communities to pay a 25 percent match upfront before they can receive federal disaster funds. After Katrina, the White House reduced the match requirement to 10 percent -- a still-hefty sum for devastated areas. Rocky Pullman estimates Hancock County will need to come up with up to $8 million to get federal funds for basic services. "I don't know where they expect us to get that money from," Pullman says.

President Bush waived the match requirements entirely for New York following the 9/11 attacks, but he has said he opposes any further waiver for Katrina funds. The Iraq/Katrina supplemental appropriations bill passed by Congress last month would have completely waived the match, but the president vetoed it. The new House bill approved last week also waives the match, but the president has not signaled his willingness to compromise on the issue.

...

Read more: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/05/25/mississippi/index_np.html

---

Much, much more at link.

[lyonn]

1. So what's new in the world of george w.?

George says, what's the problem with New Orleans? They need to pull themselves up by their boot straps, just like I have. Since Miss. is lead by a repubs, including Lott, that is enough to at least give them some help, just like george likes to help Florida all he can, BUT, Louisiana? Forgotten to death.

[intheflow]

2. Wherever did you get the idea that he helps Florida?

Just because his brother is governor? Puh-lease. I know people in Pensacola who are still reeling trying to recover from Ivan.

[Judi Lynn]

3. SOUTH Florida is his "base," due to his entire family's complete connection

to the right-wing Miami "exile" reactionary Cubans, going back all the way to pre-Bay of Pigs.

Remembering incidents of people awarded money there who had NO damage whatsoever from the hurricanes they claimed wiped them out. Pathetic!

[txwhitedove]

4. Whoever thought Louisiana suffered more destruction?

That is a total misconception. Even here in Houston, NO ONE thinks of Mississippi. Every single person or local news is singularly about Louisiana. The Salon article even quotes that Hancock County, MS, became "Ground Zero" for Hurricane Katrina. The only "Ground Zero" for that storm was the MS coastline cities. "Katrina's 170-mph winds and 35-foot waves literally reduced Pearlington to rubble." Along with Waveland wiped off the map, Pass Christian, most of Bay St. Louis, then Long Beach and all the across the coast to Alabama. The phones went out in the entire State of Mississippi. I had to move to Houston, but proud of my friends who stayed to tough it out. It is only by determination and grace that anyone who stayed in Mississippi or Louisiana has survived and thrived.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. I don't think the OP is saying Mississippi doesn't need help -

only that Washington is helping Republican Mississippi disproportionately more than Democratic Louisiana. Which is par for the course.

[lyonn]

13. That is how I read the article. The damage done by Katrina

was massive. It is just that New Orleans was basicly forgotten to death.

[intheflow]

7. In monetary terms,

Louisiana did suffer more damage because NOLA alone is more densely populated than the entire Mississippi Coast.

But I know what you mean. It terms of damage from the storm itself (not from substandard federal levees), Mississippi had much, much more destruction than Louisiana. Even upstate Mississippi had considerable damage from the many tornadoes Katrina spun out. No one ever hears about that, either.

[Wayward Episcopalian]

5. Thank you

for highlighting Gulf Coast issues, too often neglected even by the progressive community! :)

[lies and propaganda]

8. they should be IMPEACHED for Katrina..

there doesnt need to be a statute or a precedent or a law to be broke... it was plain and simple, they FUCKED Americans, they should be jailed for what they allowed to happen after taht goddamned storm.

[intheflow]

17. At this point, what shouldn't they be impeached for? n/t

[truedelphi]

9. The only good thing about the Iraq War Funds bill is that

It contains a provision allowing for spending of massive amounts of money as Katrina aid

One figure I heard quoted was ten billion - if anyone knows more please post.

[NoAmericanTaliban]

10. Wonder how many 'illegals' are working in the Casinos

that were one of the first things rebuilt in good ole miss. And here I thought that these true blue christains would be against gambling - something about a sin and all that..Silly me!

[intheflow]

12. Not so many "illegals" working in the casinos.

They're all here legally, under the guest worker program. Illegal immigrants tend to work in construction.

BTW, it's not "true blue Christians" in Mississippi, it's "true red Christians." And really, on the Coast, it's not so much that the Christians embrace gambling, but more like they're suffering from a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, believing the Repuke state leadership when they say this is the fastest, only way for the Coast to recover economically.

[Maddy McCall]

11. Thank you! Can't wait to read this!!

I bet it reveals what we always expected...that preferential treatment was given to a Republican Gov over a Democratic one (in LA).

[intheflow]

16. They even quote "Heckova Job Brownie"

as saying just that. It's been so frustrating to live in the "preferential" state and see so few of those dollars make it down here in 21 months.

[Toots]

14. I can understand how people see distortions in the Media

"The Iraq/Katrina supplemental appropriations bill passed by Congress last month would have completely waived the match, but the president vetoed it."
It was vetoed because (supposedly) timelines for troop withdrawel, not Katrina aid. This sentence is designed to make it sound like it was the Katrina aid that was singled out for veto.
Then this line
"The new House bill approved last week also waives the match, but the president has not signaled his willingness to compromise on the issue"
This part of the supplemental spending bill never publically has been in contention. This is just basically misleading journalism. I'm not trying to be on anyone's side here just making note of the type of journalism I see.

[intheflow]

15. So few people even know the Iraq spending bills

are attached to Katrina aid at all. My job is working with volunteers who come to the Coast, people who often say they've done a lot of studying to be prepared for what they'll encounter down here. I have not had one volunteer (out of the 600 I've funneled through here) who knew i advance that Katrina aid was tied in with war funds appropriations. Tell me THAT's not a reflection on our media!