From FEMA: Merry Christmas...

[Troubleshooter]

...now get the fuck out.

http://www.alternet.org/katrina/28623/

...snip...

"The clock is ticking for evacuees of Hurricane Katrina, with a Dec. 1 FEMA deadline approaching that will end the direct payment program subsidizing their transitional accommodations. FEMA officials have said they are working closely with state and local officials to avoid a shelter crisis for the 150,000 evacuees who still live in hotel rooms nationwide, but local health and human service workers are bracing for a crunch of homelessness.

...more...

Doesn't surprise me. We are spending billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq after we tore it down in the first place, meanwhile our own who are low income disabled and elderly, as well as single parent families with small children, live in substandard housing or on the streets. Why should the victims of Katrina be any different?

This is not just a failure of FEMA, but a failure of the current administration in general. Despite the impact of Katrina, the Bush administration again wants to make cuts in the housing voucher program that helps this country's low income seniors and disabled remain indoors. Under the current proposal, Colorado alone will lose over 2,000 vouchers by 2010.

Victims of Katrina can prepare themselves for a very long wait for housing assistance, if any at all.

[BigV]

Some 5000 (number not directly pulled from my rear, but from my memory...) here in Washington. The main complaint is that the waiting lists already in place for people waiting for affordable housing, to transition from hotels to rent-based places, these people shouldn't be displaced by hurricane victims. I agree with that. One isn't more needy than the other, based on the reason for the need. We're facing a spike in the need, without a corresponding spike in supply.

On a related note, the national FEMA decision to end the subsidies with *nine days notice* (really shitty, if you ask me), that deadline was generously extended to 15 Dec. Thanks.

[Elspode]

How come when this administration looks at evolution and prayer in the schools, they behave like a Theocracy, but when it looks at old fashioned Christian charity, it behaves like a Republic? Isn't that kinda backwards?

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by Elspode

How come when this administration looks at evolution and prayer in the schools, they behave like a Theocracy, but when it looks at old fashioned Christian charity, it behaves like a Republic? Isn't that kinda backwards?

Nail on the head. I suppose because charity costs money, while evolution and prayer in schools is just something they can wave a wand at and it appears. No money issue.

[Elspode]

All we really need to do is make sure that $500 billion gets into Halliburton's hands. They'll have a very nice 1,000 square foot ranch home built in no time to house all those people. That's *one* 1,000 square foot ranch home.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Brianna

evolution and prayer in schools is just something they can wave a wand at and it appears.

Even better - they can wave a wand and nothing happens, but people still vote for them! The politicians know full well that evolution and prayer in schools won't be rolled back, but they can squeeze out some votes by fussing about it without any action.

[Elspode]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

The politicians know full well that evolution and prayer in schools won't be rolled back...

Except in Kansas, which isn't really a State, but more of a backwater cesspool of cows, corn and cash-driven politics, all swirled up in a yummy nougat of religion.

[warch]

Extension! Jan 7. Merry f##*% Christmas!

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Except in Kansas,

Even there, it's temporary.

Originally Posted by Elspode

Except in Kansas, which isn't really a State, but more of a backwater cesspool of cows, corn and cash-driven politics, all swirled up in a yummy nougat of religion.

Patrick, I'll see your Kansas and raise you one Colorado. In 1992, Colorado voters passed something called the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) which put strict restrictions on the amount of tax revenues available to state government here. Colorado's population is, in general, well educated, well to do, and from somewhere else.

Very few of the people who live here now grew up here. Native Coloradoans, such as myself, are scarce as hen's teeth. So, these folks who grew up in states with public funding for education and health care, got their share of the pie, migrated to Colorado, and passed the TABOR amendnment. The result has been a true disaster.

To quote to Dr. Stephen Berman, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and former President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, “It really is a travesty that a state as wealthy as Colorado and with as high an educational level has more restrictive health policies than Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Wyoming, [and] New Mexico. It’s just
inexcusable.”

Well, not to the Focus on the Family Crowd who were part of the influx of out-of-state immigrants. According to the non-partisen Center on Budget and Policy Priorities These good Christians and other Colorado conservatives have managed to achieve the following with TABOR:

Under TABOR, Colorado declined from 35th to 49th in the nation in K-12 spending as a percentage of personal income.

Under TABOR, Colorado declined from 23rd to 48th in the nation in the percentage of pregnant women receiving adequate access to prenatal care, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Under TABOR, the share of low-income children lacking health insurance has doubled in Colorado, even as it has fallen in the nation as a whole. Colorado now ranks last among the 50 states on this measure.

TABOR has also affected healthcare for adults. Colorado has fallen from 20th to 48th for the percentage of low-income non-elderly adults covered under health insurance.

In 2002, Colorado ranked 49th in the nation in both the percentage of low-income non-elderly adults and low-income children covered by Medicaid.

The Rocky Mountain News used to have a little banner that read "Tis a pleasure to live in Colorado." Well, maybe so - for a priviledged few.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Smart move....cut the bennies and make life miserable for the riff raff until they move to CA.

[Elspode]

It *would* be funny if it was a joke at all, but that's exactly the goal, I'm sure.

It is precisely the goal, and Colorado has turned into one of the most inhumane states in the nation. Last spring I spoke with a woman who was an attorney fighting to get Medicaid coverage for Colorado's low income disabled residents. She said to me, "This is the most heartless place I have ever lived in. I've been here for five years and I simply can't continue to stand to see the suffering. I've been offered a job in another state, and I'm taking it."

So along with the riff-raff (who are mostly just either getting sicker or else dying), the decent folk of Colorado are leaving, as well.

The Focus on the Family crowd attends Sunday services each week with smiles on their faces and no plans to leave any time soon.

[Trilby]

Focus on the Family is what happens when yuppies marry and procreate. Goddamn yuppies!