[wxdawg]

First, to all those that think what GWB proposed tonight is outside the bounds of the federal government, I would point you to the preamble of the Constitution...

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Obviously, it is the obligation of all the states united to "promote the general welfare." It is not in the general welfare of the US to leave an area the size of the UK devastated and leave barren the fifth-largest port in the world. Do you realize that according to the Red Cross, 75% of all homes in the six gulf coast counties of MS are uninhabitable? This is a disaster of unprecedented scale. It will take the resources of ALL Americans to rebuild and restore. I am a Mississippian, yes...but if this had happened as a tsunami in California...I would be just as adamant on using the national resources to rebuild...because first I am an AMERICAN.

On the issue of New Orleans' location...NO is, as was once said, "an inevitable city in an impossible place." But that is the point. The port of NO, which is the economic pivot of this country, cannot be located anywhere else. Further up the MS River, it becomes much too narrow and shallow for ocean going vessels to navigate. The fifth largest port in the world must have a city to support its workers and their families. Presto! You have New Orleans. Beyond this fact, we have many other cities, notably in CA, that will one day be destroyed...or have already been destroyed and rebuilt in the past. As GWB said, "Americans have never left our destiny to the whims of nature -- and we will not start now."

On the issue of flood insurance, many did not have flood insurance in MS because their home was above the Camille storm surge line. As a meteorologist, and according to NOAA SLOSH models, they should have been safe even in another cat 5 hurricane. Obviously, that assumption was wrong. But I would have been hard pressed to argue with them three weeks ago. And, of course, is it really a flood when the damage was caused by a wind-driven storm surge? But, as a conservative, am I supposed to tell them, "Better luck next time"? No...because that is certainly not in the "general welfare" of America either...or in its heart and soul.

And, before I am zotted as a liberal...or as a bushbot...I am a dyed-in-the-wool conservative...who has voted Republican since my first vote for Kirk Fordice in 1995. And, yes, I disagree with GWB on several issues...namely immigration. But as Dole once said, "I belong to a party, not a cult"...and we can certainly constructively disagree on many issues of the day. But on the issue of rebuilding a huge area of America that has been laid waste...on the issue of comforting people who were displaced in the largest mass exodus of Americans since the Civil War...and on the issue of revitalization of one of our main economic engines...NONE of that should be up for debate by any American. Now...lets get to work!

[SE Mom]

Thank you.

[nopardons]

BRAVO !

[Alia]

Wxdawg: Yours was an eloquent, truthful, factual post. Good job! I'm delighted reading it.

[DarthVader]

Bravo very well said!

[MRMEAN]

First, to all those that think what GWB proposed tonight is outside the bounds of the federal government, I would point you to the preamble of the Constitution...

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Obviously, it is the obligation of all the states united to "promote the general welfare."

OK you and other passionate posters here mean well, and are compassionate. But it is this type of emotional thinking that is eroding the our tattered Constitutional Republic and Federalist system. To "promote the general welfare" the several states ceded some of their autonomy and created a Federal system with certain very specific powers granted, and only those powers specifically granted. It didn't mean that the Federal government had the authority to do whatever it felt was in "the general welfare." That would (and does) justify anything. The erosion of Constitutional government will do more damage, (I believe even in terms of pure economics) than Hurricane Katrina itself.

[dixiechick2000]

That is, without a doubt, one of the finest posts I've ever seen.
I am very proud to know it was written by a fellow Mississippian.
The very fact that you received a "BRAVO" from nopardons is testament to the veracity of your post.

Thank you.

BTW, we have the same tagline. ;o)

[bourbon]

would you like to be on the MS ping list?