oh, okay. let's see, what party has been in control of
the State of La for 40-60 years? which party has been
in control of the city of New Orleans for 40-60 years?
so who allowed the situtation to exist even though we
have spent more than 6 trillion dollars on the "WAR ON
POVERTY."? i think we need and exit stategy. we need a
time table to get out of this war. we have lost the
war. New Orleans showed this war lost.

  the party starts with a "D."

--- Mike Collis <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I don't know if I agree with this wholeheartedly.
> Just another post to get
> y'all talking...
>
>
>
>
-----------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> Judge Roberts, Hurricane Katrina and Americans with
> Disabilities
>
>
>
> Building a Supreme Court to Excuse Our Nation's
> Neglect of the Poor and
> Disenfranchised
>
>
>
> By Jim Ward, Founder and President
>
>
>
> ADA Watch/National Coalition for Disability Rights
>
>
>
> New Orleans is America's canary in the mineshaft.
> Ideologies of
> privatization that incapacitate effective government
> -permitting the
> privileged to save themselves while leaving the poor
> clinging to roofs -must
> now be challenged. This disaster is a chilling
> reminder of what happens when
> government fails to protect its citizens, and it is
> imperative that
> Americans demand accountability.
>
>
>
> Terry Lynn Karl Professor of Political Science
> Stanford University September
> 8, 2005
>
>
>
> (Washington, DC) We did not see news reports on
> Hurricane Katrina showing
> mass looting by people with disabilities, did we?
>
>
>
> Given the chance, perhaps this would have been so.
>
>
>
> Instead, we witnessed people without legs -unable to
> reach the rooftops
> -floating in the storm waters; Americans in
> wheelchairs "rescued" and then
> left to fry and die in the scorching sun; people
> with epilepsy and diabetes
> separated from vital medications; and citizens in
> nursing homes left behind
> to drown.
>
>
>
> And we saw many, many poor people.
>
>
>
> Louisiana has a shameful poverty rate of 24 percent.
> There and throughout
> the United States, people with disabilities are
> among the poorest of the
> poor. According to the 2000 Census, people with
> severe disabilities comprise
> roughly half of all working-age Americans living in
> poverty. A staggering
> one third of adults with disabilities live in
> households with total income
> of $15,000 or less.
>
>
>
> Hurricane Katrina has blown the cover off of
> America's crumbling physical
> infrastructure and our weakened ability to respond
> to the needs of even our
> most vulnerable citizens. Those quick to write off
> the results of this storm
> as a blameless natural disaster fail to grasp how
> our Country has been
> weakened by the Free Market solutions of economic
> Libertarianism. Katrina
> has dramatically illustrated the failure of a
> "privatized," "outsourced,"
> and "downsized" government to protect its citizens
> from a storm -let alone
> from the poverty and decaying infrastructure that
> proceeded it.
>
>
>
> Americans were rightly angry to learn of the lack of
> experience and
> credentials held by Michael Brown, the head of the
> Federal Emergency
> Management Agency (FEMA). But, rather than the
> incompetence of one, we are
> witnessing the impact of an ideological scheme to
> undo the federal safety
> net and roll back basic protections for those most
> in need. This was made
> all too clear by the words of Brown's predecessor at
> FEMA and former
> campaign manager for President Bush, Joe Allbaugh,
> who while initiating
> steps towards the privatization of FEMA, declared it
> an "oversized
> entitlement program" and said that the "business of
> government is not to
> provide services."
>
>
>
> In the aftermath of this tragedy, critics of the
> President fail us when they
> rail about political cronyism or the length of his
> summer vacation.
>
> During a time of crisis, these arguments seem
> partisan, petty and
> opportunistic to most Americans. These criticisms
> especially distract from
> seeing New Orleans as the end result of Mr. Bush's
> carefully calculated
> plans to gut the Federal government by filling it
> with ideologues who
> despise its very existence. In this context, the
> problems of FEMA, which
> tragically and disproportionately are impacting
> people with disabilities,
> African Americans, and the poor, illustrate just
> what has gone wrong with
> our government and they neither begin nor end with
> Hurricane Katrina.
>
>
>
> People with disabilities are among the many who have
> been awaiting the
> expression of outrage from our elected leaders, the
> Media and our fellow
> citizens about the systematic plundering of
> Medicaid, Medicare, Social
> Security, public housing, public education, and
> other vital programs at the
> direction of this Administration and Congress all in
> the name of doing away
> with "Big Government."
>
>
>
> The appointment of individuals who share contempt
> for our government if not
> of the citizens they serve has been pervasive in
> this Administration.
>
> The result has been the proliferation of Federal
> agencies and a Federal
> judiciary which operate to grease the skids of Free
> Market libertarianism
> and to release government from any responsibility to
> its own citizens.
>
>
>
> A few examples specifically impacting people with
> disabilities include:
>
>
>
> * John Ashcroft, who as Senator took a lead role in
> trying to weaken the due
> process protections afforded children and youth with
> disabilities by the
> Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA),
> was appointed Attorney
> General and led the Justice Department in siding
> with big business and
> against workers with disabilities.
>
>
>
> * Gerald Reynolds, recess appointed by President
> Bush to run the Office of
>
=== message truncated ===





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