Reply #174: submitted to Times-Picayne Forum board: u can too

[chomskysright]

"I feel your pain" was expressed by a Dem president.

Many citizens of Asheville have valued Nor'lens:City of the Saints. Does the current administration value one of the most unique cities in the US---a city of exceptional cuisine, beignets, and hot nights of watching the tug boats on the Mississippi?

By all indications, they do not. Moreover, Democratic states are punished and Republican states are treated extravagantly. FL, under Governor Jeb Bush received massive funding for hurricane relief in 2004, prior to the presidential election.

Contrarily, in Louisiana, requests for flood mitigation funds were rejected by FEMA this summer. The levee that had a two-block wide hole that allowed Lake Ponchatrain to flow into the city was a high priority project.

North Carolina also has a Democratic governor. It also is a state (remember the dam that busted above Asheville that affected Canton, in particular) that is regularly threatened by hurricanes and floods. FEMA recently refused the state's request to buy backup generators for emergency support facilities. And the budget cuts have halved the funding for a mitigation program that saved an estimated $8.8 million in recovery costs in three eastern North Carolina communities alone after 1999's Hurricane Floyd.

Money for the war, means less money for the people back home.

Asheville, NC


REFERENCE: FOR THE EDITOR: http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2004-09-28/cov ...