And the poison is infecting every aspect of our society.
This DailyKos post clued me in to these stories:
- A reporter for the London-based newspaper The
Independent was barred from visiting the U.S. because his papers
weren't in order.
- Greyhound has a policy in place to fire employees who sell tickets to undocumented immigrants.
- Bush is easing off on the pressure to get Saudi Arabia to crack down on slave trade
- The UN says that the War on Terror is hurting human rights
And then there's this article in the Washington Post mentioned by TalkingPointsMemo.com:
Limiting Government's Role
Bush favors one-time fixes over boosting existing programs to help Katrina victims.
By Peter G. Gosselin and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
Times Staff Writers
September 23, 2005
WASHINGTON — Two days after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to issue emergency vouchers aimed at helping poor storm victims find new housing quickly by covering as much as $10,000 of their rent.
But the department suddenly backed away from the idea after White House aides met with senior HUD officials. Although emergency vouchers had been successfully used after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the administration focused instead on a plan for government-built trailer parks, an approach that even many Republicans say would concentrate poverty in the very fashion the government has long sought to avoid.
A similar struggle has occurred over how to provide healthcare to storm victims. White House officials are quietly working to derail a proposal by leading Republican and Democratic senators to temporarily expand Medicaid. Instead, the administration is pushing a narrower plan that would not commit the government to covering certain groups of evacuees.
As President Bush tackles the monumental task of easing the social problems wrought by Katrina, he is proving deeply reluctant to use some of the big-government tools at his disposal, apparently out of fear of permanently enlarging programs that he opposes or has sought to cut.
Instead of depending on long-running programs for such services as housing and healthcare, the president has generally tried to create new, one-shot efforts that the administration apparently hopes will more easily disappear after the crisis passes. That has meant relying on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has run virtually all of the recovery effort.
"FEMA can help fill some immediate needs after a disaster, like giving grants to help people repair their roofs or pay for temporary housing," said John P. Sucich, a former senior FEMA official who oversaw the recovery from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. "But it is not the agency to turn to to ensure the kinds of continuing help that families need to begin putting their lives back together.
"That's what the rest of government is for," Sucich said.
And Karl Rove is on the case...
White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove , who's been given a lead role in the Katrina relief effort, came in for criticism for taking off to Aspen, Colo., last week to attend what U.S. News and World Report called a "super-exclusive" conference of wealthy folks.
A "GOP insider," the magazine said in this week's issue, "wondered whether it was appropriate for Bush's political guru to hobnob with the rich and powerful at the exclusive resort at a time when the administration is supposed to be focused on helping the victims of hurricane Katrina and showing empathy for their plight."
Well, Rove is fully capable of multi-tasking. That's why tomorrow, just about when Hurricane Rita will be blasting Galveston, Tex., he probably will be safe and sound in the auditorium at Grazies Italian Grill in Fargo, N.D., speaking to 57 members of the North Dakota state GOP committee. And he's to be the featured guest at a fundraiser that night. (There's also been talk Rove may induce popular Gov. John Hoeven (R) to run against Sen. Kent Conrad (D) next year.)
State GOP executive director Jason Stverak e-mailed late yesterday afternoon to say that the press will be allowed to cover the speech "at the end of our state committee meeting."
Evil. Pure, unadulterated. Evil.
