Saturday, September 03, 2005

IN DIRE NEED OF NEW LEADERSHIP

WE NEED LEADERS OF CHARACTER AND QUALITY. SOMETHING WE OBVIOUSLY DON'T HAVE NOW GIVEN THE UNFORGIVABLE TRAGEDY IN NEW ORLEANS.

SIXTY-SEVEN SENATORS VOTED TO SLASH $14,750,000 FROM THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS, FLOOD CONTROL, MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND TRIBUTARIES, ETC.

Don't believe me? Read S.AMDT 230, Sponsor, McCain to amend H.J. Res. 2, January 23, 2003. Check it out. Go to your Senator's voting record, click on 03 and scroll down to January. It will be there in black and white.

(Thank you, Ken, for your leading us in the direction of this disgraceful bill.)

Let's start with the short list: Those who voted NAY to SLASH $14,750,000 from the budgets of the group that would have helped significantly reduce the devastation we witness daily on TV.

All Democrats: Akaka, Bayh, Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Cantwell, Carper, Dodd, Edwards, Ensign, Feingold, Feinstein, Graham, Jeffords, Leahy, Levin, McCain, Murray, Reed, Schumer, Stabenow, Clinton, Coleman, Dayton, Kerry, Kyl, Lautenberg, Sununu, Voinovich (whoops! a mere TWO Republicans) Wyden. Not voting: Harkin, Inouye, Lieberman.

All other are REPUBLICANS. The Democrats who voted YAY to slash the budgets are:
Shockingly BREAUX and LANDRIEU OF LOUISIANA. May God have mercy on their souls. Also, BRYD (!?), Corzine, Daschle, D. Miller (why doesn't he just switch parties, please?) Nelson of Fla., Nelson of NE, Pryor, REID (!!!!!), Rockefeller, Sarbanes.

You only have to turn on your TV to see how these guys catastrophically screwed up. Sixty-seven Republicans and sadly, 12 Democrats.....

As someone who is involved with the undergraduate population of a small academic institution in Houston, I am gratified and inspired by the heartfelt efforts of our students who are helping out at the Astrodome. Some students are literally working all night long to assist with whatever efforts are needed. They return to their dorms to sleep a few hours, have a meal, and return to the Astrodome. It is inspiring and comforting to know that our young adults are stepping up to a plate avoided and neglected by the rich and powerfully elected.

Today I am proud to be a Houstonian, too, after spending 6 days withering in shame while viewing the horror that unfolded in New Orleans. I am humiliated because our federal government did little to alleviate the suffering of our very own kind. Because the mayor of this wonderfully diverse and complex city took action, I now feel I am empowered to take action and DO SOMETHING concrete and meaningful, much like the students of our small university.

It is heartening to know that our mayor Bill White has offered our city as a refuge for the hurricane victims to call home for a while, now that most of them are homeless. As we collectively cringed while viewing the horror unfold in front of us, helpless, until now, to do something to aid, in any way possible, the poor wretched souls left stranded in an untenable and unbearable situation, a leader finally emerged and took action.

In opening up our city’s combined hearts and arms to welcome fellow Americans in need, the mayor empowered us to help as individuals. It is inspiring and consoling to know that America has leaders who will step up to the plate in extraordinarily difficult times, despite the costs on all levels. Leaders who will leave politics behind and do what is right.

Such action reassures us that although our federal government seems unable or unwilling to cope with desperate families in need, there is an uncommon few who will do what a true leader of quality and character must do. Because of such a leader’s call to action, we can be proud of our efforts as Americans. It takes away some of the shame we feel for our federal government’s lack of initiative in saving desperate families.

WE SO VERY OBVIOUSLY NEED NEW LEADERS EVERYWHERE IN THIS COUNTRY.

This is an imperative to get rid of every remnant of this administration NOW.

NOW.

Something is horribly wrong in Washington. You know it. I know it. It doesn't take much brainpower to get it, really. Just turn on the TV if you happen to be perplexed, though I feel sorry for you if you are.

FIRE the hell out of every Senator who voted YAY to slash the budget of the Corps of Engineers, etc. by $14,750,000. Think about the upper 1% of income earners who got richer at this bill's expense. What are they doing to help out? Not much I suppose. Getting richer and fatter like Bush and Co., and sleeping well at night.....Think about the funds diverted to a fabricated and senseless war where over 18,000 of our family members have been killed and thousands more maimed for life. There is unforgivable suffering now in Iraq and now New Orleans, Mississippi and Alabama. Poor states with large minority populations and politicians who are as corrupt and greedy as hell. All of this misery is led by a president who was at best a C- student, one who was accepted into top level universities because of Daddy, and who, when push comes to shove, is at best a draft dodger who never really amounted to much….one who is a puppet of the rich and powerful at best.

Sorry to be brutally blunt and impolite, but it is true.

Yes, kick the derrieres of the YAY voting Dems, too. Freaking switch parties, dudes and dudettes.

If you would like to contribute to the victims of the hurricane and of the policies of pathetic, partisan, corrupt and greedy politicans, you can go to: http://www.redcross.org/
OR CLICK HERE

Libby Shaw

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