Project Katrina

As one of the judges at the Miss America pageant in Las Vegas this weekend, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews pulled out his "Hardball" best when it came time to question each of the contestants. He asked Miss Mississippi "Why did Mississippi seem to do a better job than Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina?" [...] "He asked me where Osama bin Laden is now," [Miss D.C. Kate Michael] said. Shouldn’t Chris be asking Bush and administration officals these questions and not some young lady that was just walking on a runway in a bathing suit.

President Bush’s State of the Union address did not include a single mention of Katrina or the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region. A year ago, Bush promised the federal government would “stay […] at it until they’re back on their feet.”

Last night, CBS News reporter Armen Keteyian traveled to Mount Olive Gardens, a trailer park near Baton Rouge where more than 200 Katrina victims currently live, to gauge the reaction to Bush’s speech. “I almost broke my TV, knocked it off the stand,” one resident said. “In places like Mount Olive Gardens,” Keteyian concluded, “words like relief and recovery now seem as empty to them as last night’s presidential address.”

Senator David Vitter (R-LA) was much “more forgiving,” saying he was “mildly disappointed.” “I didn’t necessarily expect [a mention],” Vitter said.

Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) is about to get a little lonelier. According to Newsweek Lieberman:

Has quietly backed away from his pre-election demands that the White House turn over potentially embarrassing documents relating to its handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans.

During his campaign last year, Lieberman had vocally criticized Bush’s handling of Katrina, and had complained about the administration’s failure to turn over related documents. Amazing how easy it is to say and/or promise things in a campaign, yet so much harder it would appear to follow through with them once reelected.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) “has quietly backed away from his pre-election demands that the White House turn over potentially embarrassing documents relating to its handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans.” Newsweek reports:

But the decision by Lieberman, the new chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, to back away from the committee’s Katrina probe is already dismaying public-interest groups and others who hoped the Democratic victory in November would lead to more aggressive investigations of one of the White House’s most spectacular foul-ups.

During the campaign Lieberman was especially dismayed by the administration’s failure to turn over key records that could have shed light on internal White House deliberations about Katrina, including those involving President Bush. Nothing that surprising from Lieberman, you know backing away from campaign promises after winning an election.

Urban planners at three major universities are challenging the notion that [New Orleans'] Ninth Ward, the hardest hit section of the city, must be rebuilt from scratch.

As they report in a new survey, the predominantly black neighborhoods can be brought back largely as they existed before Hurricane Katrina flooded them." "That data shows that it can be rebuilt, and rebuilt in a cost-effective way," one planner from Cornell said. "What is lacking are the resources." From everything I’ve read this goes against what much of the Federal government is saying. I think it is good news across the board and I hope people listen and learn from this report. The city needs the Ninth Ward and it gives New Orleans the unique opportunity to rebuild it in a "green" format and improve the lives of thousands and thousands of people.

Today Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced a bill, simply called The War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007, targeting fraud by government contractors supporting the occupation of Iraq and the response to Hurricane Katrina. Such profiteering would be a felony under Leahy’s legislation, punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fines of $1 million or twice the gross profits of the profiteering. The bill would also clarify U.S. courts’ jurisdiction to handle cases of profiteering which occur overseas.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) also introduced a bill aimed at strengthening public corruption investigations. The proposal would extend the statute of limitations for many offenses, allow federal investigators to use wiretaps when chasing state and local officials defrauding the federal government, and would boost the FBI’s public integrity budget by $100 million over four years. I doubt anything will come of either bill, but at least a few of our elected leaders are trying.