Governor KATHLEEN BABINEUX-BLANCO. I will continue to admire this woman of courage before, during, and in the midst of Hurricane Bush, beginning with a "full court press" to take control of the state's National Guard and continuing today with minimal funding for Louisiana's recovery.
I think they picked the WRONG Louisiana "steel magnolia" to mess with.
The following are excerpts from the transcript of Governor Blanco`s address to Louisiana lawmakers Monday evening in New Orleans (at the Morial Convention Center):
You may have noticed last week that President Bush, in his State of the Union speech setting the nation`s priorities for the year, said so little about a tragedy so great. I noticed. I was there. And that signal worries me.
The harsh reality is that for many people in Washington, Katrina is yesterday`s problem and Rita never happened.....
Public opinion polls are telling lawmakers that the nation has moved on and what happened to the Gulf Coast is yesterday`s news. .....
We had all better put Louisiana politics aside and worry about Washington politics or our people and our state will lose.....
Our state suffered well over 75% of the housing damage from Katrina and Rita, as compared to neighboring states. We had ten times more businesses destroyed. We had five times more jobs lost. And we weathered more than 75% of the total property and infrastructure damage caused by the storm. However, we received only 54% of the block grant funding....
Louisiana is fighting for 50% of the oil and gas royalties from off-shore drilling. We need this money to finance a comprehensive hurricane protection and coastal restoration system....
If no effort is made to guarantee our fair share of royalties, I have warned the federal government that we will be forced to block the August sale of off-shore oil and gas leases. Industry leaders understand our predicament. It`s time to play hardball, as I believe that`s the only game Washington understands.
http://www.newschannel6.tv/...
Bush budget request includes:
_An $11 million increase for the Department of Homeland Security inspector general to continue looking into waste and fraud in Katrina relief spending.
http://www.newsday.com/...
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! Waste and fraud ... I believe the W&F at FEMA is where they need to be looking!
I guess the administration is taking Blanco's "threat" to play hardball seriously:
The Bush administration on Monday again asked Congress to allow oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), but almost tripled its estimate for the amount of money that would be collected in leasing fees from energy companies.
In its proposed budget for the 2007 spending year, the White House said it assumed the initial tracts in the refuge could be leased in 2008 and bring in $7 billion in new revenues, half of which would be shared with the state of Alaska.
That is almost triple the $2.4 billion the administration said in last year's budget it thought could be raised from the first round of ANWR leasing.