Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a new audit has uncovered at least $1 billion in potential fraud and waste in the disaster agency’s debit card handouts to Hurricane Katrina victims.
Among the items paid for with your tax dollars: a vacation to the Dominican Republic, diamond jewelry, a library of “Girls Gone Wild” videos and a $200 bottle of champagne from Hooters.
Let the good times roll!
Moreover, some 16 percent of the registrations were found to contain invalid information.
In one case, an inspector gave a vacant lot as an address and received $6,000 in assistance; the payments continued even after authorities were notified that the claim was suspect.
Your tax dollars at work — and it’s outrageous. Congress needs to get to the bottom of this management disaster.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The U.S. economy — despite several strong indicators — has failed to give the Bush administration a boost. In fact, most Americans think the Democrats would do a better job handling the economy. Here’s Washington Post E.J. Dionne on why that is:
“Citing data from the Economic Policy Institute, (National Journal staff correspondent Bruce) Stokes notes that employment growth in the current recovery is much slower than in earlier upturns — ‘the slowest in any recovery since the Kennedy administration,’ he writes.
“Stokes is not making a partisan point about the Bush administration alone, since he notes a long-term trend toward slower job growth. But the job numbers help explain why the polls are recording so much economic discontent in the middle of an expansion.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Political trend-watchers are watching what’s happening in red-state Kansas with keen interest. The Los Angeles Times this week devoted an article to several recent defections by Kansas Republicans to the Democratic Party, noting that “the fracture within the Kansas GOP may foreshadow the future for the national party. The division between moderates and social conservatives is expected to define the contest for the party’s 2008 presidential nomination.”
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ re-election running mate, former Kansas Republican Party chairman Mark Parkinson, gave this reason for his switch:
“I decided I’d rather spend time building great universities than wondering if Charles Darwin was right.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did make Americans more optimistic about Iraq, a new CNN poll revealed, but it looks as if it will take a lot more positive news from Iraq to turn the tide of public opinion: 55 percent of Americans still believe the war was a mistake, unchanged from April. Here are some more of the findings, as reported by CNN:
– 43 percent of respondents said the war is going either very or moderately well, up from 38 percent in a March poll.
– 54 percent said they still believe the war is going either very badly or moderately badly, down from 60 percent in March.
– Of those surveyed, 18 percent said they want U.S. forces brought home now, and 29 percent said they want to see them out of Iraq within a year.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
This Flag Day will find many Americans displaying Old Glory proudly — or should. Since the Sept. 11 attacks refreshed our ardor for this enduring symbol, too many flag users have become flag abusers, by failing to follow proper etiquette for the flag’s display and handling. Between today and July 4 is a good time to replace tattered and faded flags, and talk with young relatives about how the Stars and Stripes are woven into our nation’s liberty and very identity.
As U.S. senators prepare to try again pass a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, though, Americans are right to wonder where the flag bonfire is that regularly inspires this vote (or is it just that it’s an election year?). The rare cases of desecration of this precious symbol can be prosecuted under existing laws. Americans should resist this and other unnecessary attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution — especially when doing so would curtail the constitutionally protected freedom of speech, and when the Congress has so much truly urgent work to do.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
When it comes to global warming, author Elizabeth Kolbert argues in this Los Angeles Times piece, the Bush administration’s cautious approach equals extreme recklessness. If the United States waits for all the evidence regarding global warming to come in, it may be too late. She writes:
“The climate system is highly inertial; it takes several decades for changes already set in motion to become apparent. Scientists probably won’t be able to determine just what level of greenhouse gases will trigger, say, the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet until that level has been exceeded. But as anyone who has ever tried to push a stalled car can attest, systems that are hard to get moving also tend to be hard to stop. Although it sounds reasonable to argue that we ought to wait for certainty before taking action, if we do, effective action almost certainly will become impossible. Once we know for sure that the ice sheet is in danger of disappearing, it will be too late to reverse the process.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Don’t hold your breath waiting for dark conspiracies to be revealed by the Kansas House committee looking into whether there was broader contact and collusion among Kansas Supreme Court justices, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and other lawmakers to cut a deal on the school finance plan.
According to reports, early testimony by state Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, and others didn’t add much beyond what we already know about the brief ill-advised lunchtime conversation between Justice Lawton Nuss and Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, and Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina.
“Right now, it seems like an incredible waste of taxpayers’ money,” Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, one of 10 serving on the investigation, told the Associated Press.
Posted by Randy Scholfield