Let Me Out of This Handbasket! A Rant

I don't want go where it's going! For a trip into the surreal mind of Alabama state senator Erwin, check this out.

As if Roy Moore weren't nutty enough! Senator Erwin registers up there with Pat Robertson, preaching that hurricanes Katrina and Rita were the wrath of God, because...
'New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have always been known for gambling, sin and wickedness.'

Well, heck, we've got places like that all over the world that are still thriving. Why not LA, Las Vegas, Rio de Janeiro, Monte Carlo (or does God really like the French after all?), and Atlantic City? And what about San Francisco? And, really now, come to think of it, why not Washington DC? Senator Erwin needs to open his mind to the possibilities.

You know, I heard on NPR that the Bush adminstration is trying to speed aid to the hurricane victims by cutting red tape, specifically with outside contracts. They want to change the limit at which oversight/audit/higher approval has to be done. The limit now (I think NPR reported) is $2500; they want to increase it to...wait for it....$250,000. Add this little tidbit to the fact that companies doing the reconstruction (Halliburton, KBR, other subsidiaries) do not have to pay the going rate to employees, and it starts to look like somebody's pockets will be well lined for winter. I know contracts this small are barely worth Halliburton's time, but they aren't the only sharks in the water.

And I am still a bit confused as to why we have the 82nd Airborne patrolling streets in New Orleans, while about half of Louisiana's national guard units are patrolling middle eastern deserts. Oh, yeah! I remember now. Bush has put the push on making the DoD responsible for handling disasters. (Maybe he wants to try them on the natural ones, since they haven't been so good at the, uh, cough, man-made ones.) If this doesn't worry you, it should. To find out why, look here .

I'm gonna get off my soapbox for now.