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Friday, May 08, 2009

Possibly the Definition of Self-Absorbed
Posted by Tata | 7:59 AM
New York Times:
Though more than 4,000 Louisiana homeowners have received rebuilding money only in the last six months, or are struggling with inadequate grants or no money at all, FEMA is intent on taking away their trailers by the end of May. The deadline, which ends temporary housing before permanent housing has replaced it, has become a stark example of recovery programs that seem almost to be working against one another.

Thousands of rental units have yet to be restored, and not a single one of 500 planned “Katrina cottages” has been completed and occupied. The Road Home program for single-family homeowners, which has cost federal taxpayers $7.9 billion, has a new contractor who is struggling to review a host of appeals, and workers who assist the homeless are finding more elderly people squatting in abandoned buildings.

Nonetheless, FEMA wants its trailers back, even though it plans to scrap or sell them for a fraction of what it paid for them.

“All I can say is that this is a temporary program, it was always intended as a temporary program, and at a certain point all temporary programs must end,” said Brent Colburn, the agency’s director of external affairs. He said there would be no extensions.

Well, that sounds organized and humane. We're all in this together!
Last year, the Louisiana Recovery Authority was supposed to unveil a more intensive caseworker system for people in temporary housing, but it never materialized. The authority has now asked homeless service organizations like Unity of Greater New Orleans and the Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless in Baton Rouge to help find stable housing for the hotel occupants.

FEMA officials also say that residents can buy their trailers, sometimes for as little as $300. But virtually all of the residents interviewed said they had offered to do so and been told they could not.

Residents said FEMA workers had started visiting them in the past two months, advising them not to move out and saying extensions would be available to those who showed hardship or progress in rebuilding. But agency officials said that was not the case.

This sounds like a call to direct action, doesn't it? I make a phone call, you make a phone call, we call the head of FEMA and voice our outrage. Maybe we call some senators and - what's this, then?
FEMA Leadership

* Acting Administrator - Nancy Ward
* Acting Deputy Administrator - David Garratt
* Associate Deputy Administrator - Robert Shea
* Chief of Staff - Jason McNamara
* Law Enforcement Advisor to the Administrator - Charles F. "Rick" Dinse
* Acting Director, Center for Faith-Based & Community Initiatives - Carole Cameron
* Acting Director, Office of Policy & Program Analysis - Robert Farmer

President Obama has been in office since - lemme check that provocative t-shirt - JANUARY, tornado season is blazing away in the south and midwest, Katrina survivors are about to be tossed out of what sub-standard housing they do have and NOBODY'S IN CHARGE? How is that even possible?
Craig Fugate, FEMA Nominee, Blocked By David Vitter

This asshole is the gift that keeps on giving, isn't he?
Fugate had sailed through his nomination hearing and Monday cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee by a unanimous voice vote. Republican Sen. David Vitter said, however, that he'd blocked Fugate because of concerns he has with FEMA.

"I have a hold on the FEMA nomination because I sent a list of hurricane recovery questions and projects to FEMA, many of which have not been adequately addressed," Vitter said in a statement. "I'm eager to get full responses and meet with the nominee immediately."

That's right: Louisiana's notorious disgraced senator is blocking the confirmation of a director of FEMA to squeeze answers from the agency he doesn't head. So we could call FEMA to demand decent treatment of our fellow citizens but we can't be sure anyone will answer the phone, and Louisiana residents have their senator to thank for it. I bet they're appropriately grateful. The Times:
FEMA says it has done everything it can to help those in temporary housing. But, as is so often the case when it comes to Katrina issues, the agency’s clients give a different account. Agency officials insist, for example, that they have been working “extensively” to help families in trailers and hotels find permanent solutions.

“A lot of people are involved in the process of making sure that no one falls through the cracks,” said Manuel Broussard, an agency spokesman in Louisiana. “Everyone’s been offered housing up to this point several times. And for various reasons, they have not accepted it.”

But the dozen temporary housing occupants interviewed for this story said they had received little if any attention from FEMA workers and were lucky to get a list of landlords, much less an offer of permanent housing.

Well. There is one person you can call.

Vitter, David - (R - LA) Class III
516 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-4623
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5 Comments:
Blogger The Minstrel Boy said...
it's not enough of a disgrace that david vitter (diaper dandy-la) is still in the senate.

that motherfucker is insanely twisted enough to lecture the rest of us on morality.

i happen to be a position to know with a fair degree of certainty how much extra bizarre shit like diaper duty costs.
5/8/09, 11:04 AM  
Blogger missy said...
Here in Oregon, Vernonia, which flooded in 2007, has just been told their 18-month trailer allotment was coming to an end. The joke: FEMA didn't get the trailers into Vernonia until 4 months AFTER the flood, but they're counting those 18 months from the day the flood came through....

Something tells me there are more than a few Bushies still holed up in FEMA masquerading as civil servants (not that they'd know civil society if it kissed them full on the mouth, of course).
5/8/09, 11:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
A. Bobby Jindal does not want any gov't money.
B. Any federal money that goes to Louisiana appears to disappear and/or be wasted.
C. A lot of banks now own unoccupied expensive homes.
D. FEMA needs to get rid of those contaminated trailers.

A 1 - Strip all stimulus money from Louisiana.
B 1 - Spend all of the stimulus money allocation on moving the homeless from New Orleans to any upper class suburb.
C 1 - Pay the bank what they say the property is worth.
D 1 - Deduct from any FEMA payroll enough to pay for the new residents to afford a comfortable living without working. Hey, seems to work all right for Louisiana FEMA "workers" who are just high paid welfare recipients. Just classify the refugees as Louisiana FEMA employees. Park the trailers in FEMA parking lots so the FEMA workers can move in when their welfare payments drop.

Calling Vitter? Hell, you ain't got his bribe in cash or whores, you ain't squat to him. You would do better calling the "cold cash" Louisiana representative, bet he can give you a cash quote, maybe even a discount for volume.

Louisiana and Illinois need to revise their voting laws.
Simple - file for election, go straight to prison for attempting to join an organized criminal enterprise.

Oh and Minstrel Boy, Vitter and Spritzer pay way too much. I could live for two months on their reported payments for just two prostitutes and get them laid in their style. Couple of amoral college educated hicks.

Yes, I know Obama is from Illinois. I know Spritzer has a law degree. Vitter graduated from Harvard, law at Tulane and got a Rhodes scholarship, He undoubtedly owes huge amounts of money he paid in bribes to get all of that. Bet the New Orleans mob's leg breakers gave him a talking to when they found out he was using their money for whores.
5/8/09, 2:47 PM  
Anonymous tata said...
I don't expect Vitter to move or change, but I do expect to annoy him. Further: doing nothing is not an option.
5/8/09, 3:18 PM  
Blogger Bob said...
Barack will likely step in & try to straighten this out - one more freakin' hassle he shouldn't have had to deal with personally (see NYC AF1 flyover). Fugate is perhaps the most qualified person in America to head FEMA. He's from Florida & Jebby Bush & Charlie Crist recommend him.
5/8/09, 4:48 PM  
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