Perhaps they need to tattoo them with ID numbers for the next big blow? Property is, afterall, property.
Posted on 09/24/2005 11:58:21 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
BATON ROUGE — Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Saturday proposed creating a nonprofit group, funded with nearly $2 billion in federal money, that would provide services to evacuated Louisiana residents, much as refugees are settled in this country after fleeing political persecution overseas.
The Family Recovery Corps would rely almost entirely on federal money, plus some donations, Blanco aides said. It was unclear who would run the noprofit, which relief groups and government agencies would be involved and how contracts with the relief groups would be arranged.
Blanco said the Corps "will certainly not be inexpensive." She contacted President Bush about funding on Thursday, before Hurricane Rita struck, but has not heard back, said Andy Kopplin, Blanco's chief of staff.
"I think (Bush) will welcome this idea," Blanco said at a news conference.
Blanco said she envisioned the Corps as manned by "a cadre of trained workers, trained to know what benefits are available and how families can access those benefits. They will connect benefits to families -- families from all walks of life."
The plan, released to reporters late Saturday, said Blanco will appoint a senior executive from the private sector to lead the group, along with an advisory board, whose members will help with management and fund-raising.
As planned, the Corps would provide a single clearinghouse of information and assistance to the estimated 1.3 million residents who were driven from their homes by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, scattering into shelters and the homes of friends and family members elsewhere in Louisiana and around the country.
Its staff would work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Red Cross and other non-governmental agencies to get help for refugees who need housing, health care, counseling, job training, help enrolling children in school and many other services, said Ann Williamson, head of Louisiana's Department of Social Services.
Since Katrina hit and the evacuations began, Blanco has repeatedly said the refugees need to return so Louisiana's economy, communities and culture can recover from the storms.
"The damage Rita leaves behind makes approving this plan even more pressing," she said.
As budgeted, Blanco's plan calls for spending an average of $4,100 on each family to be served. Each family would also get an average of $1,300 in financial support to cover additional costs.
Williamson said about 5.3 percent of the proposed $1.99 billion budget -- about $100 million -- would go toward administrative costs.
One nonprofit that was involved in creating the plan, and planned to be involved in the Corps, was the Washington, D.C.-based International Rescue Committee, which helps get job training, housing, counseling and other services for political refugees given asylum in the U.S. The group has had representatives in Baton Rouge since the days after Katrina struck, said Christine Petrie, its national resettlement director.
"The sooner we start to serve these individuals, the sooner they will have the opportunity to participate in their plan to return" to Louisiana, Petrie said.
A lot of the speakers at yesterday's anti war rally were telling the crowd to go to shelters and get the evacuees riled up to demand "an end to racism" etc.
This has the poyential to be a real problem for the dems....the longer people stay dispersed, the less likely they will return to their poverty stricken, crime ridden "home" in Louisiana!
If this keeps up, the only people left in LA will be the ones that made it a Red State. With all the seed money, new houses and fresh starts, people from NO have shot at getting it together elsewhere. No wonder she wants the money, she needs to get her dependent voting bloc back!
Watching Blanco make this insipid announcement...another giveaway program, while the hurricane was still battering Lake Charles, really exposed Blanco's idiocy. As she made this announcement, she had to read every word, and most of them were inappropriate and out of touch. After yesterday, I don't think there's any doubt, Blanco is losing control. The following are descriptions of Blanco, as she spoke:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1490587/posts?q=1&&page=401
"To: Major_Risktaker
Blank O! She's an idiot!!!
Our people have been offered so much help, they're confused, so I'm forming a Recovery Corps...trained Louisianians who can help our people find the help they neeed. No matter whwere those Louisianians live, the Recovery Corps will be available to help them.
YOU GUYS GOT IT???? This idiot governor has tried to come up with some way to entice the people who are living somewhere else to go back.
I can't believe how inept this woman is!!!
404 posted on 09/24/2005 12:28:04 PM PDT by YaYa123
Blanco's 'Family Plan' is most likely another rip-off.
411 posted on 09/24/2005 12:30:03 PM PDT by golas1964
Bingo, Yaya! That is what I think. She didn't think of this idea with her pea brain; I bet it came from her buddy James Lee Witt. It sounds like a Clintonian idea, doesn't it?
They are trying to find ways to locate those people who fled New Orleans and get them home. At the very least, they will demand their absentee votes.
I despise these people. And I sincerely hope that those people who fledNew Orleans find new and better lives somewhere else!
414 posted on 09/24/2005 12:30:54 PM PDT by Miss Marple"
Immediately following Blanco's bizarre press conference announcing this new program, Nagin held his own, separate press conference, still talking about "re-populating" New Orleans.
Perhaps they need to tattoo them with ID numbers for the next big blow? Property is, afterall, property.
Time to get on the phone / fax / e-mail to Washington. Demand accountability. Place an independent administrator of the disaster area. Don't let Blabko or Naigan get their mitts on a dime of our money!
Sounds like a good use for the state funds she didn't use for the evacuation Bush demanded of her.
Exactly. Anyone can see that this is a shameless ploy to get back a voting base that they have lost now that the wefare moms from N.O. have seen the world outside of what was their previously sheltered view.
As far as money well spent, Blanco wants to get her votes back at taxpayer expense.
"You can't have my welfare recipients!! Those votes, ummm, people are mine!"
The very thought of repopulating in the midst of the hurricane season is mindless. It's time for the federal government to step in and over rule the local and state elected officials. Starting with a visit to rehab for Nagin. As for Blank-O, she's hopeless. And that goes for Vitter, Jindal, and Landrieu
Let her spend Louisainna money, what portion of it she and her other crook politicians havent stolen.
What makes her think that by getting "her voters" back to LA they will still vote for her after she proved what an inept sob she is?
It was reported locally that members of the government "Job Corps" in the area were dispstched to NOLA for cleanup duty. The group was used to clear out bodies. The report was given by the mental health pro who worked with them after they returned traumatized.
I keep my spare cash stuffed in my mattress, but I feel the same as you. May God bless us both for our generosity.
You're looking at the situation rationally, but the Dems don't, because money -- lots and lots of money, and the ability to manipulate the money in furtherance of the welfare state -- was always the goal, and Blank-o is the perfect tool to oil the machine. At every press conference, it's all about Louisianans as needy victims that must be rescued by Louisiana officials with federal funds.
Actually, loing it is appropriate. She really needs to stick her head in the loo (toilet) LOL
The train left the station last week, but Blanco's still trying to climb on board.
How about funding it with state money nutso.
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