Mississippi plans Katrina grant diversion

[deminks]

Source: MSNBC

While thousands of Mississippians who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina remain in FEMA trailers, the state intends to spend $600 million in federal grants originally earmarked for housing on a major expansion of the state-owned port — a project that could eventually include casino and resort facilities.

Despite strong objections from housing activists and the threat of hearings from two powerful congressional Democrats, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to approve the diversion of the funds on Friday. A HUD spokesman says the agency has little discretion at this point to block the switch.

Opponents of the move see it as a prime example of Mississippi’s Republican lobbyist-turned-governor, Haley Barbour, favoring rich and powerful interests over the region’s less fortunate.

“It’s just insanity, true insanity,” said Sister Martha Milner, a Catholic nun and board member of the Steps Coalition, the loudest voice on the Gulf Coast against the diversion of the funds.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22805282/

[dipsydoodle]

1. It's not just insane

It's sick.

[mwb970]

7. It's not just sick.

It's Republican.

[indepat]

27. It is not just Republican: its MF-Barbour-style 'pukedom and Mississippians are getting a

belly-full of the government they so richly deserve by electing him, just like all of Amurikkka is getting on a nationwide scale.

[hatrack]

39. But as long as gays can't marry - all is well in the Magnolia State!

:puke:

So, how's that "Red State" thing working out for y'all?

[TankLV]

41. not just repuke - it's CRIMINAL...

but we're repeating ourselves...

sick
repuke
criminal

they're all synonyms now...have been for a long time now...

we can add other ones as well...

perverted
selfish
greedy
ignorant

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. K&R

This needs to be seen far and wide.

:mad:

[benld74]

3. Depends on how the Grants are worded,,,

or in the GOP minds, how they CAN BE interpreted. If there is a shadow of a doubt the GOP will be hiding in it for sure.

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

4. Why?

Haven't these people been through enough? Two years in a FEMA trailer is ridiculous when the money's clearly there to help them. That's not progress. Barbour is just another Repug money-grubbing slimeball. :puke:

[Hand]

32. I think you answered your own question.

Barbour has been consciously waging a genocidal war against Mississippi's poor and powerless since the minute he bought the governorship. "Slimeball" is putting it mildly. :nuke:

[flashl]

5. Richard "Dickie" Scruggs had a classaction lawsuit for MS Katrina victims ...

he is now embroiled in criminal charges. His charges delays the classaction for MS Katrina victims and this looks like the state is taking advantage of the Katrina victims plight.

[Heywood J]

6. To the Greatest with you.

The fed needs to lop the same amount of money off something else that would be sent to the state. Something the Governor prizes or has fought for, just as punishment.

This is despicable.

[jmowreader]

9. They should, but they won't

You have a paper-thin Democratic majority, a pResident (if that's what you want to call him) who will veto funding for his own war if there's a hint of something that might benefit the American people in it, and a governor who used to be the chairman of the Republican National Committee. The odds of the federal government doing anything except...oh, saying "harrumph" a few times...are not that high.

[sutz12]

8. Think of all the great paying jobs they will be creating...

in the casinos and resorts, waiting on wealthy tourists.

:sarcasm: (Did I really need that?)

[DissedByBush]

10. I would like to say "Un-friggin'-believable"

Unfortunately it's entirely too believable with Bush.

Maybe that's why there's not so much public outcry when Bush does what he does. It just doesn't phase people anymore. Like a man working in an abattoir for years, where the site of cut-up animal corpses and blood doesn't elicit the slightest emotional response anymore.

[Gman]

11. I wonder what does Mr. Trent Lott have to say about this?

[gorfle]

12. Disgusting

It is disgusting that we have trillions of dollars to spend on Iraqi welfare but we still have people living in trailers 2 years after the hurricane.

How about helping Americans first?

[flashl]

13. He should be able to use leverage from his

new bipartisan lobbying firm that pledges to confront the gridlock that grips Congress.

Or, at least, help his BI "Dickie" Scruggs.

[snappyturtle]

15. That's the first thing I thought....or smelled! n/t

[mcscajun]

29. As he's now Mr. and not Senator, his 'say' would be just an interesting quote.

It would lack Teeth. :(

[LibDemAlways]

14. Wonder how many of the trailer dwellers voted

for Barbour. Mississippi is a staunchly repuke state, so I'd assume more than a few.

Only when people stop voting against their economic self-interest can we ever hope to elect officials who will even think about the ordinary citizen. How we can get them to do that remains a mystery.

[caseycoon]

16. K&R This is EVIL! n/t

[NOLALady]

17. Sounds about right.

I expect that kind of stuff to happen in Louisiana with our new Republican Governor, Piyush.

[usaftmo]

18. Unfortunately, the voters of MS

re-elected that moran as Governor this past November. That's what happens when you vote for a right-winger!

[donkeyotay]

19. Corruption is destroying our country. The revolving door between

corporate interests and corporate representation leaves us out in the cold. The repo party wanted to let K-Street turn democracy into a so-called free market operation. This is what you get. Not only has the repo party failed the country, but their ethics have been revealed as the flim-flam the liberals said it was. Wake up America. We don't need to unite behind this.

[AllyCat]

20. Remember: business before people. It's the Repub and DINO way of life

I know Barbour is a real jerk, but I'm sure the DLC would do the same damn thing. No one will lift a finger to stop them I'm sure.

[Vinca]

21. I'm stunned. This is a new low for Republicans. nt

[Uncle Joe]

22. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, deminks.

[juajen]

23. K & R

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

24. This is an outrage. Where's Nancy?

our congressional leadership should nail those bums to a congressional inquisitional table. If there was ever a good reason for tasers and waterboards...

[hatrack]

40. Sorry, she's too busy conceding on unemployment benefits . . .

Got to get those Economic Stimulus Checks (R) out ASAP!!!

[libodem]

25. Like all the tobacco money awards

that went to State Governments and then ended up in the General Fund, being spent for things other than patients' with lung cancer and emphysema.

[pleah]

26. This is the kind of shit that goes on down here all the time. They are getting rid of

another FEMA trailer park, also. They are basically refusing to build affordable housing for people.

[mcscajun]

28. It's not just insane - It's OBSCENE.

And yes, I'm SCREAMING!!!

BASTARDS!!!

This just Cannot Be Allowed. :grr:

[Usrename]

30. These are some twisted individuals.

:grr:

[Ian David]

31. I hope a house falls on Trent Lott. n/t

[rasputin1952]

37. That helmet he calls hair would keep him from cranial damage...

;)

[pitohui]

33. IF all of the homeowners have gotten their funds and the grant $$$ is truly going untapped....

...IF this is just grant money that would go un-used anyway, then by all means, i agree that repairs/improvement to gulfport would be a good thing

however if people still in trailers are going to be denied their money, then i just don't see it, the purpose of this money was to build homes

i can see not allowing left-over $$$ to go to waste, but let's be sure the $$$ is not actually being taken from the pockets of people who need housing

i'm afraid with barbour at the wheel i don't have much confidence that people aren't being left out of what they should be getting

i don't think scruggs can do much now, there is some criminal proceeding against him, and whether it is a witchhunt to put an end to his effective lawsuits i truly can't say (altho the timing is sure suggestive, ain't it?)

as far as a casino resort at the port, maybe, i'm skeptical, there was always tension between copa and the port but now the copa/island view is on the old grand gulfport property so there is a little more space between them

two major resorts in that area? i dunno, before katrina it was one major (the grand) and one that mainly catered to locals/grand workers partying a little after work and cashing paychecks (the copa), now the copa/island view is the major complete with an emeril's on the property

if the port plans to start its own casino, not sure how economic it would be, seemed like they whined a lot about casino traffic from the copa days and how it wasn't worth the extra money to them to have the copa there blah blah blah...so they don't want to bother with the small stuff so they'd want a major property right there across from the island view with its established customer base?

[Purveyor]

34. HUD Approves $600M Diversion Of Katrina Housing Funds To Mississippi Port

Source: Associated Press

(01-25) 13:40 PST Jackson, Miss. (AP) --

The federal government on Friday approved Mississippi's plan to divert $600 million in hurricane housing funds to a port improvement project, angering critics who say tens of thousands of people made homeless by Hurricane Katrina still need help.

In his letter to Gov. Haley Barbour, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said that although he's concerned about using the housing money for the port project, congressional language associated with the use of block grant funds "allows me little discretion."

"I'm sure that you share my concern that there may still be significant unmet needs for affordable housing, and I strongly encourage you to prioritize Gulf Coast housing as you move forward," Jackson wrote.

Mississippi plans to restore public infrastructure and publicly owned facilities at the State Port at Gulfport that were destroyed during Katrina, and to improve the port's operating capacity.

The plan has drawn harsh criticism from several groups working on recovery efforts in the region who say housing is too scarce not to devote all possible resources to it.

Kimberly Miller, a policy analyst for Oxfam America, said the state's long-term recovery committees that work with displaced families have 15,000 cases on their waiting lists, and a similar number of people are in temporary housing.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/25/national/a125941S24.DTL

[indepat]

35. et tu a 'puke Barbour by implementing pukey RW ideology and thereby pissing on your

constituents who unwisely re-elected you.

[MichiganVote]

36. Houses? We don't need no stinkin' houses!

[JBoy]

38. They purposely set the bar too high -

"When it became clear that homeowners, who had to meet specific criteria on damage and insurance, would not tap all of the grant money, Barbour instructed the state development agency to seek a waiver from HUD to redirect $600 million for work on the port."

This is like giving someone $20 to feed their starving family, the parents set a criteria of boys only, spend $10, then ask if they can spend the rest on cigarettes. Pay no attention to the hungry daughters, they didn't meet the criteria.

[Faux pas]

42. Maybe they can set aside reservation land for the poor like they

did for our Native Americans....Could this country get any worse? That's rhetorical of course, considering it's slide into total hell.

:wtf:

[donheld]

43. Not too surprising

The rich get the money and the poor get screwed. Royally.