from American Family Voices - Miriam V.

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Last night President Bush delivered a prime-time speech from New Orleans in
which he pledged a massive rebuilding effort for the city and the entire
Gulf
Coast. But the real trouble in the federal government right now is this: a
lack of real leadership. And no amount of federal spending can buy that.
Bush's
plans are expected to hold a price tag north of $200 million, but he has
already tellingly demurred when pressed to table his costly Social Security
privatization
plan or his next round of tax cuts for the wealthy in light of this new
spending. The lesson: Extreme conservative ideology is continuing to trump
common
sense in the Oval Office.
[link]
What else was missing from last night's address? President Bush also failed
to endorse an independent, bipartisan panel to investigate the government
response
to Hurricane Katrina, instead opting to leave the task up to a
Republican-controlled congressional panel. Meanwhile, a proposal for just
such an independent
panel was advanced by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and quickly shot down by
the Republican-controlled Senate. (Remember when we talked about the need
for
strong leadership? This should have been one of those times.)
[link]
While the federal government was late in its response to the hurricane, it
has been swift to bend rules in its aftermath - with questionable results.
Already
the Bush administration has decided to suspend the Davis-Bacon Act, which
mandates that construction workers on federal contracts must be paid a
prevailing
wage. Now a broad new bill proposed by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) would allow
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to suspend any law governing air,
water or land pollution for 120 days. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson
would essentially be granted complete control to make blanket changes. Sen.
Jim
Jeffords (I-VT) noted his disagreement with the bill, stating, "We should be
focusing our energy on protecting the health and safety of people impacted
by the hurricane, not paving the way for environmental abuse."
[link]
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Morning Snark
List of 1 items
Who is surprised that some of the quickest responses to this hurricane
involved cutting pay for workers, handing out contracts to firms like
Halliburton
and now pondering a relaxation of pollution laws?
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