You know what guys, I know the stimulus bill has passed the House, and will more than likely pass the Senate, but I just need to rant for a little. I know this may not be a very substantive diary, but I just had to put "thought to paper" before my head explodes.
Here goes:
I still royally pissed by this Rep Cao from NOLA, I know that he is just one of many, but I may live in Dallas, but MY HOME IS IN NEW ORLEANS!!! My family evacuated during Hurricane Katrina. My grandmother died from a heart attack thanks to Katrina. My large extended family was displaced for almost 2 years because of Katrina. All except me, my mom, and 3 of my sisters are not living in NOLA. All my family has since moved back to NOLA. It's been over 3 years since Katrina, and guess what, in my aunt’s block alone, there are still houses that were abandoned, that still have the symbol letting the rescuers know how many bodies/living/dead are in the house.
In the area of the city where Cao and the Vietnamese population in concentrated, there used to be at least 5 schools, they have either been demolished, or they are still boarded off and gated off. The schools that are still available are the private schools in the uptown area, where most of the white population of NOLA lived. Pre-Katrina, there was over 15 public schools open in the ninth ward alone, where most of the blacks lived (my family and I lived in the lower ninth ward as well), currently, there are 18 public schools open in all of New Orleans .
What was once a thriving tourism industry is still not where it was. The cost of living has gone up, but the pay rates have not (an extra $13 would come in handy I bet). If you are not a skilled professional like I am (I'm a Medical Technologist/Microbiologist), then you have limited resources when it come to finding a job. You could probably chose to live outside the city, and just drive in, but oh wait, that involves an extra expense for gas (another cold way to utilize $13). The levees are not really up to code, and yes there were potholes before Katrina, but being underwater for almost 2 weeks will cause even more corrosion. There is some highway construction being done, but only along the evacuation route.
The city used to be able to rely on tourism dollars, but now it only the big ticket showcases that brings in funds and jobs, and even that is temporary. Mardi Gras only happens about 2 weeks a year, The Jazz Fest is only 2 weeks, hell even Essence Festival is only 3 days long.
I know that the stimulus was not meant to solve all these issues, but if Rep Cao knows his district is hurting, and he let the national Republican party browbeat him to vote against it (particularly when he said he would), then he has written his obituary in term of being re-elected in NOLA., because ya know what why do you think Jefferson kept being elected, in the beginning he did good things for the city, so the people voted for him. As long as he did what was right for our city, we voted for him. Once his corruption came blatantly obvious, he was voted out, and Mr. Cao was voted in. NOLA is called the Big Easy, so yeah we are pretty laid back, but when you have our backs we have yours. If Cao had at least stuck to his convictions to help the people of NOLA, then I actually think that he may have had a chance to be re-elected.
In the future, I hope Mr. Cao stand will up for the people of NOLA, and not succumb to the pressure of his GOP brethren.
Okay, rant over back to regular scheduled programming where the well to do repub/conserv, thumb their noses at the people who are really hurting.
UPDATE: Cao in his own words.
"Even though it is going to be a humongous bill, even though we will be in debt for years, I believe that more likely than not, I will vote for it because the 2nd Congressional District needs a stimulus package." ... "A lot of the provisions in the bill will be good for the district, because we need almost everything," he said. "You name it, we need it." http://www.nola.com/...