American Family Voices - Miriam V.

AM Feed - September 7, 2005

Hot Topics
List of 2 items
The head of FEMA definitely has an image problem. Internal documents show
that FEMA chief Michael Brown waited until after Hurricane Katrina ended
before
he proposed sending Homeland Security workers into the region, and that part
of the mission was to "convey a positive image" for the response. (As
opposed
to having a goal of, say, "saving lives.") Brown originally proposed sending
1,000 workers into this "near catastrophic event," as he called it - of
course,
that number also proved to be woefully inadequate. President Bush has stated
that he wants to find out what went wrong in the government's response to
the hurricane, but he tellingly rejected calls for an investigation that
would start right away, preferring instead to play the waiting game. Again.
[link]
The Hurricane Katrina disaster has exposed the Bush administration's various
shortcomings in its approach to governing this country - and demonstrated
just
how linked together this series of bad decisions is. For example: The Bush
team has repeatedly injected politics into every last nook and cranny - now
political appointee Michael Brown is failing, as head of FEMA, to adequately
respond to the crisis. Here's another example: President Bush has made no
secret of his top priority of taking care of the wealthy, as his huge tax
cuts for millionaires repeatedly demonstrated - but paying for those
decisions
had disastrous consequences, as the levee system went perennially
underfunded. And now, a third example has come to light: Remember the
corporate-sponsored
bankruptcy bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed by
President Bush? That piece of legislation will make it more difficult for
victims
of the hurricane to file for bankruptcy and begin to get their lives back on
track. The new law, heavily pushed by credit card companies, is set to take
effect next month as bankruptcy filings are expected to rise. Here's the
kicker: When the bankruptcy bill was up for debate, an exemption for natural
disaster
victims was proposed, but the Republican-controlled House shot it down.
[link]
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Who Says That?

"You have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk
as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at
tougher
penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are
consequences to not leaving." - Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) during a weekend
TV
interview

Morning Snark
List of 1 items
Isn't anyone else curious to hear what Sen. Santorum thinks those "tougher
penalties" should be? Maybe after these people get their homes back, return
to
their jobs, bury their loved ones and regain access to uncontaminated food
and drinking water - maybe after all that happens they could pay a fine or
something.
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