The Big Easy Pork Barrel

Been really busy with other things lately, so hopefully, in the absence of regular posts, I've driven away my last reader. That's pretty much the plan I had in mind when I began writing this thing over a year ago. Post regularly for a while. Get a couple of guys to read it regularly. Quit posting regularly. Lose the two readers. Seems to be working fabulously.

Let's consider Louisiana, shall we? Those backwater, inbred, (and I have the right to use these terms because these are my people) lazy politicians that have control of that state ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town... no wait... they haven't actually been in New Orleans... they've been in Dallas...so they should be tarred and feathered and run out of the country. They had a week's worth of warning and they had studies by credible scientists and they had historic failures during Ivan and George. In light of all that, they sat on their thumbs while Katrina danced with their daughter. The governor and the mayor compounded the damage by fighting with each other and being unavailable while federal resources waited on their signal.

Now, so you are not left with the impression that everyone in New Orleans is incompetent I must say a word on behalf of the New Orleans Police Department. I know a large portion of the police force just ran away but the ones that didn't run are to be commended. They faced the problem of looting head on. They got right in those abandoned stores and took as much merchandise as their patrol cars would carry so that the looters wouldn't get it all. Good job, guys.

So, we Americans, lucky enough to live in a virtual desert and almost never in the path of a hurricane, have the luxury of looking at all of this destruction and lunatic behavior on our tvs every evening. We hear that our federal tax dollars are being spent to send in the military and to send in FEMA and to fund all sorts of band aids for the state of LA. We're mostly overcome with sadness for the loss of lives and the loss of homes and belongings and poor families that can't find each other. Our hearts break for these folks. Then Senator Mary Landrieu comes back with her proposed federal aid bill. The insanity of Landrieu's bill is that it will cost you and me $250 BILLION. Yep. That's about half a million dollars for each person in New Orleans. She had a city known mostly for it's bars, booze and decadence and now she's apparently wanting it to become an enormous pork barrel.

Let me give this analogy. My truck is a 1987 Ford F150 with 140,000 miles on it. My friends call it, affectionately I'm sure, the Yellow Dog. Frankly, it's a great old truck and it gets me where I'm going and I don't worry about scuffing the paint or getting a little dirt on the carpets. It runs and it starts and has driven me all over the state of Texas. Let's suppose that tomorrow a tree fell over onto my truck and it was crushed. Let's suppose that I turned in a claim to my insurance company for about $60,000.00. See, I would need counseling to get over my grief at having lost my old truck. I'd need to buy myself a brand new Ford F150. I might need to pour a new driveway to park my truck on. I might need a carport to shelter my new truck. I would need time to get my dog used to riding in a new vehicle. My boys would need training on how the new seatbelts, radio and air conditioner works. See, it's not just as simple as replacing my old $4000.00 pickup.

My insurance agent would laugh out loud. So should Congress when it comes time to vote on this unconscionable, disaster exploiting, pork barrel spending, fleecing of America.