Our penny-pinching Gulf Coast recovery czar, Donald Powell, is pointing fingers at the LRA, blaming them for a $2.9 shortfall because they spent money on wind damaged homes as well as flood-damaged homes.

Lauren Victoria Burke | AP

David Vitter seems a little confused about which state he represents in the Congress:

“It seems clear that the (federal) funding was based on covering only water damage from the start,” Vitter said. “But the state designed the program to cover wind as well as water damage anyway. Did no one in Baton Rouge realize this would result in a huge shortfall?”

The Louisiana Recovery Authority doesn’t have many friends, but Andy Kopplin was right to say:

“When the president said he would do what it takes, and stay as long as it takes, he didn’t say ‘except if you had wind damage,’” Kopplin said.

Mary Landrieu complained that she couldn’t believe this argument was taking place almost two years after Katrina. And she’s right. There is almost no communication between the White House and Louisiana officials. In fact, apparently, there’s almost no communication between White House officials who are supposed to be overseeing hurricane recovery from Katrina and Rita.

Meanwhile, there was good news coming out of Capitol Hill. With no thanks to ass monkey (who would have cut more domestic money out of the bill for Iraq), Landrieu spearheaded with Democrats a bill which finally waives the 10 percent matching requirement granted to every other disaster over the last couple of decades, and provides $6.4 billion for hurricane recovery — including a particularly good allocation for levees.

The Gulf Coast recovery package includes Gov. Blanco’s top priority, a waiver of the requirement for the state and local communities still struggling from the 2005 storms to pay 10 percent of the rebuilding costs. …

The bill contains $1.3 billion in new spending for New Orleans-area levees - which the president proposed fixing with existing money - $320 million to forgive disaster loans to Gulf Coast communities, $50 million to fight crime, $30 million to attract educators, $30 million for hurricane-damaged universities, $110 million to assist the Gulf fishing industry and $25 million for Southeast Louisiana drainage projects.

It also extends tax credits set to expire next year that were designed to attract businesses to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast and the construction of affordable housing at a time when rents are at historic highs.

The bulk of the hurricane recovery money, $4.1 billion, went to FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund, which finances a wide range of activities along the Gulf and nationwide. The level of financing was $500 million less than the bill the president vetoed.

For Bush to continue arguing that local governments had to match funds in the costliest disaster in American history was just plain stupid, if not prejudicially cruel. The ass monkey president further admitted — even as he was getting another $99 billion for the Iraq quagmire — that he wouldn’t have provided the additional funds needed for disaster recovery.

We were also successful in removing billions in unrelated domestic spending that many of the Democrats were insisting on. I wanted to remove even more; but, still, by voting for this bill members of both parties can show our troops and the Iraqis and the enemy that our country will support our servicemen and women in harm’s way.

Al Gore was on David Letterman last night. After honoring service members from the Navy and Marines who were in the audience, he talked about how the entire nation was responsible for allowing the Bush administration to create a case for invading Iraq based upon false intelligence and rhetoric. He argued that something in America is broken when, despite facts which should tell us one thing, we end up doing completely the opposite thing. Gore said that our soldiers now serving honorably, but trapped in Iraq, deserve a policy-making system which benefits from objective fact-finding. Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, said Gore, but he had nothing to do with 9/11. Gore received two huge applauses when he said that the United States should have stayed in Afghanistan until we got Osama bin Laden, and that invading Iraq was the biggest policy blunder in U.S. history.

And still, George W. Bush continues trying to conflate Iraq with 9/11 (my emphasis):

It’s better to fight them there than here. And this concept about, well, maybe let’s just kind of just leave them alone and maybe they’ll be all right is naive. These people attacked us before we were in Iraq. They viciously attacked us before we were in Iraq, and they’ve been attacking ever since. They are a threat to your children, David, and whoever is in that Oval Office better understand it and take measures necessary to protect the American people.

There are now 3,441 American soldiers killed in Iraq, and 25,378 casualties. $428 billion has been spent, with another $99 billion in the pipeline, and countless billions more to be spent as the nation cares for the families of soldiers killed, and for the wounded.

Bill Moyers is observing Memorial Day this weekend with a “D-Day Revisited” special this weekend.

The Bill Moyer’s Journal will also feature Maxine Hong Kingston, who has offered writing and meditation workshops for more than 500 soldiers from World War II, from Vietnam, and now, from Iraq — as well as other survivors of war to convert the horrors they experienced into the words and stories that Kingston believes will help them cope and survive.

The potatoes fry in their usual pool of lard, lard rendered from the hogs my uncles and brothers slaughter every January. Mom stands over the stove, stirring the potatoes and turning the blood sausage frying in an adjacent skillet.

Princess greets me after I return from my job at Scott Air Force Base. My father sits in his favorite chair, watching the evening news and waiting for dinner to be served.

Something draws me to the front windows. An ugly green sedan with the words “U.S. Army” printed on the side is parked in front of the house. Two men in uniform sit inside the car, looking down at paperwork on their laps. …

Shattered Dream
by Pauline Laurent

Update:

It appears that, contrary to conventional wisdom, ass monkey may actually be good for something (HT: Donnie).