A harder look at Haley Barbour's post-Katrina miracle (salon.com)

[intheflow]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/05/25/mississippi/index.html

A harder look at Haley Barbour's post-Katrina miracle
By Chris Kromm and Sue Sturgis

(snip)

"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.

(snip)

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.

(snip)

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The municipal debt that's being racked up on Mississippi's Coast while Barbour sits on the federal funds upstate is criminal. And this article doesn't even question what's happening with all the interest being generated by the federal funds under Barbour's care. :grr:

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. "Official Blames La. for Fund Shortfall"--Another Katrina-related story

Louisiana's grant program for rebuilding hurricane-damaged homes is giving money to thousands who weren't supposed to be eligible, the White House's hurricane recovery czar testified Thursday.

The program has a projected $3 billion shortfall. Donald Powell, federal coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, told members of a Senate subcommittee in Washington that the federally funded grants only were intended to pay for flood damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

However, Louisiana's "Road Home" grant program is projected to award about $2.7 billion to more than 43,000 applicants whose homes were damaged by the hurricanes' wind and didn't have any flood damage. Around 88,702 residents whose homes were damaged by flood water also are eligible for grants, Powell said.

"We were always very clear that the federal government would not fund state housing programs to cover wind damage," Powell testified before the Disaster Recovery Subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20070524/D8PB27380.html

[intheflow]

2. Katrina "recovery."

The storm continues...

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Yeah :^(

[intheflow]

4. kick

[applegrove]

5. And let the gerrymandering by god..the crisis..continue in LA.

[Swamp Rat]

6. k&r

:grr:

[intheflow]

7. kick