Senator urges aid for N.O. homes

Flooded-out owners deserve cash, he says

WASHINGTON -- Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens caught some heat during a visit to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans last month when some Lakeview residents thought he was questioning whether their neighborhood should be rebuilt.

The veteran Republican lawmaker said he had been misunderstood, and on Thursday he sounded almost like a New Orleanian himself, taking up the city's cause before a Senate committee.

Stevens said the levee breaches that flooded the area were "man-made disasters" and that Congress should come up with a financial bailout for people whose homes were ruined.

"There is an extra federal responsibility in cases where levees fail," Stevens told fellow members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

<http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1134113935319820.xml>

isn't he the dipshit who threatened to hold his breath until he turned blue over the "bridge to nowhere"?

I was moved by his statement that the disaster was man-made and that we needed cash.

is defending the gulf states? Wow! He's the last one I would have pegged as a defender of the Katrina survivors.

I hope we can focus more attention on the failures of our government as a result of Katrina and use that to expose the reality of corporate control both domestically and abroad.

to come down here.
He's talking about a "bailout." I hope he doesn't mean what I think he means. Lakeview doesn't want that. They, a great many of them, want to rebuild and they want REAL flood protection.

But I never beloieve a damn word of what Stevens says. He's up to something!

I'm sure it's something self-motivated.
On the other hand, once a person experiences the devastation to the Region it does seem to motivate them to act.
It is true that the photos, videos and personal diaries do not come close to accurately reflecting the damage.

:kick:

his offensive comments to traumatized residents during his visit. This further illustrates that once you've SEEN IT (in person), you get a better understanding. Let's bring that Senator who is questioning the need for golf carts and laptops down here to see first hand.

Pictures just don't do it justice.

:hi:

How are you doing? Where are you doing it? I'm still fuming from reading that now (presumptively) the water in NO East is okay even though they: 1. said it was okay on Oct. 8th and 2. are still fixing leaks that are allowing in contaminants.