"Carnie" scam artists at play" ? --Louisianna Politics

In the wake hurricane Katrina, I like the rest of the country view scenes of devastation, scratch our heads, and wonder how much it's going to cost fix up the mess. Heck--I have no idea--do you?

I was watching C-SPAN yesterday-- and with interest and a wary eye watched Senator Mary Landreau spin her states woes before the rest of the Senate. She reminded me of a begger with a soup can in hand --able to turn on the tears at just the right moment--to get the best return from her latest "mark"

My vocation has put me in front of much grief and tragedy. I'm all for everybody coming together and taking care of the citizens--our brothers and sisters in Louisianna. Obviously there is a need for the government to step up and help get these people back on their feet--right along with the privare charities and church based organizations. But when does needed help cross the line to just plain greed?

Senator Landreau had a potforlio of pictures showing damage and people walking through flood waters.I had already seen plenty of these over the last few weeks. But she needed these props, I guess, to hammer her points across. It reminded me of the slick TV adds tugging at the hearts of people to give money to some half baked charity that is supposed to help feed starving children in Africa. Studies show that 95% of this money never reached the intended victims.I suspect the same percentages in this case.

Now dear reader--please read an excerpt from an interview with the Governer of Mississippi. His state actually received the brunt of the hurricane. He says that his state can probably fix up the mess for 30 billion dollars. Louisianna wants 250 billion dollars.

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Hurricane Katrina

Exclusive HUMAN EVENTS Interview
Gov. Haley Barbour Says Mississippi Won’t Try to Gouge U.S. Taxpayers
by Terence P. Jeffrey
Posted Oct 7, 2005


Louisiana Senators Mary Landreu and David Vitter have proposed a $250 billion federal aid package, which, if I understand it correctly is money that they want to go only to Louisiana and not to Mississippi. Is that correct?

BARBOUR: I don’t much about their proposal. However, I don’t think the cost of relief, recovery and rebuilding will be anything like that amount. That seems to me very excessive. We are trying to project what the costs would be here and it is a small fraction of that.

Do you think that the relative damage in Mississippi is not that much less than in Louisiana?

BARBOUR: In many ways it is far worse.

Do you have a general idea of how much the total federal cost of rebuilding Mississippi’s damaged areas?

BARBOUR: It will be well under $50 billion. Well under. Our best estimates right now are in the low thirties. I don’t want anybody to think we are trying to compare Mississippi to anyone else. We’ll stand on our own two feet. We need the federal government’s help. At the same time, we are going to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money, and we are not going to try to use this as a way to gouge the taxpayers. The American people have been incredibly generous to us—private philanthropy, corporate philanthropy, the enormous number of volunteers who have come down here from all over the country. Our sister states have been fabulous in sending us National Guard, highway patrol, investigators, resources of all types. North Carolina sent us a whole hospital, with two operating rooms, which, by the way, was financed by FEMA, I might add. But everybody has been so generous to us, and the federal government has put hundreds of millions of dollars in here already that we are obligated and we will be good stewards of the American taxpayers’ money. That is the least we can do.

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It is my opinion that we are being "snookered" by Senator Landreau. It doesn't help when the State of Louisianna has a reputation of being the most corrupt state in the Union.

You have the Governor of Mississippi praising and being thankful for the help they have received and telling us he wants Mississippi to "stand on its own two feet"

You have the Senator, Governor, and Mayors of Louisianna blaming, pointing fingers and DEMANDING that the Federal government fix up their whole state.

What a contrast.

But getting back to the money issue---why can Mississippi fix their mess [which is worse] for 1/8 of the amount that Louisianna demands?? This smells very bad--worse than the rotten shrimp left at the fish market for days after the storm.

Louisianna runs their state like a Carnival back lot. Anybody that ventures into the dark recesses of this meca of corruption will be fleeced. And that includes the rest of us Americans if we allow them to pick our pockets like they intend.

The sad part of this whole affair is our President opening his big mouth and telling them what they wanted to hear. He has picked up the three balls and thinks our treasury can knock down those bowling pins in the carnie game with a couple hundred billion dollars. Before Mary and her gang of operators are through, G W. Bush will be thrown off the carnival lot with his pockets turned inside out. Just like the rest of the suckers who have ventured into Louisianna over the years expecting a fair game.

when we read what the Governor of Mississippi says and hear what Louisianna says--are we even talking about the same hurricane? Yes friends--the "marks" have entered the carnival.