Posted on 09/25/2008 12:30:33 PM PDT by Captain Kirk
Thirty of Texas' 32 House members — and eight of the Houston area's nine lawmakers — supported the emergency aid package. The sole local dissenter was Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, whose district includes some of the areas hit hardest by Ike, including Galveston.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Someone should have told Ron Paul that millions of wild shrimp were affected by the storm. He would have tripled the aid amount.
Have you ever met an American hero?
I don’t have much truck with RuPaul, but he sure as heck walks his walk.
Houston PING
You have low standards for your Heroes. If Paul were in charge, we would have lost the war in Iraq.
Sure (one of the ones I met was Ron Paul), how about you? Now I have a question for you. Can you name one, only one, member of Congress who have the courage to vote against a Hurricane Aid program that primarily aided his district. If so, I would gladly use the term American hero to describe that person as well.
Low standards? My heroes stand up for principle even when it hurts them poltiically. How about yours?
Members of Texas' congressional delegation vowed to press the next president and Congress for billions of dollars in additional hurricane aid to build upon the state's share of $22.8 billion in emergency assistance voted by the House on Wednesday.The House approved a catch-all $630 billion spending bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 that included an unspecified amount of recovery aid for Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. In addition, the bill would provide assistance to other states hit by earlier hurricanes, flooding and wildfires.
So are these TWO separate votes? Is the amount Texas received "unspecified" or is it $22.8 billion out of $630 billion?
Sounds like spending that was tacked onto the banking bailout.
Do those principles include causing your country to lose a war - which is what Paul would do if he were President.
I believe the Hurricane related funding was tacked on to the continuing resolution to keep the government funded.
And what was Ron Paul’s reason this time?
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This is a hurricane story you probably won’t hear on the news.
I have friends who live in San Leon, Texas, and they tell me that this poor fishing town of 4,300 on Galveston bay was practically wiped off the map.
The storm sent a surge into Galveston Bay that reached 14 feet.
This surge, when it moved up the bay to Texas City, deflected off of the 15 foot levees. These levees created a “funnel” effect that sent all of that water directly into unprotected San Leon, a mile away.
The combined force of the storm surge and the deflection from the levees, created an “artificial” storm surge that reached (by waterlines that were measured) up to 20 feet above sea level - higher than the surge at Galveston or Bolivar.
Most of the people of San Leon stayed throughout the hurricane because they were too poor to afford an evacuation and noone came to help them evacuate. They went for days afterwards without FEMA, the National Guard or anyone showing up to help in any way. Most lost everything they had and went hungry and homeless. FEMA showed up a few days after the storm for a brief visit without adequate supplies to help. Most of the people had no way to get to the FEMA distribution point anyway because their vehicles were flooded or washed away.
My friends tell me that the biggest help came from a caravan of seaside dwellers in Mississippi (not Texas) who brought them clothes and food.
I think this is all pretty sad. Shades of New Orleans.
This was written on a forum in the local ‘newspaper’, in San Leon:
http://sanleontexas.com/ike/index.php?board=1.0
“We do not have Mayor White or Mayor Thomas to hold press conferences, and since we have no political clout, the destruction here is being largely ignored by the media and elected officials. The damage in San Leon is much worse than that on Galveston Island, the West End, or anywhere else with the exception of Bolivar - which was fully evacuated.
85% of San Leon residents rode out the storm here. It is a testament to the nautical skills of our fishing community that we had only one known fatality. Our people took precautions to save their lives - but they couldn’t save their houses and things when the water went up so much higher than anyone ever thought it could.
People are sleeping in tents and in their collapsed houses and wherever they can find a spot. Many are camping. It is like a third world country 11 days after Ike.
The sheriffs deputies all tell me there has not been a crime problem at all in San Leon.
The roadblocks are lifted and the curfew is no longer in effect.
About 30% of the electricity is restored, with more coming on slowly each day.
All of the grocery and retail stores were wiped out, so the nearest place to buy anything is about ten miles away.”
We funnel billions into foreign countries. A lot of this just goes into corrupt dictator’s pockets and the people see very little- if any of it. And most of these countries hate us. Do we criticize them for getting into the shape they’re in? No. we just keep pouring in the foreign aid.
We need to stop some of this and help our own- even when they do foolish things like try to ride out hurricanes.
If you check the town on-line newspaper http://sanleontexas.com/ike/index.php?board=1.0 you can find out where to send a donation. My family has sent them a cash donation.
We think this is shameful the way this little town was neglected.
Map- San leon, Texas:
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp...=TX&country=us
Paul is nuts regarding the war, but when it comes to the constitutional role of the fedgov on the domestic front, he lives out what most of us only talk about.
cf. "Not Yours to Give", a story allegedly from the career of Davy Crockett when he was in Congress.
I live near San Leon and those could be before pictures.
Seriously though they got hit hard. But as one of my friends out there whose house on the waterfront is fine said, we needed a real good clean up out here. Get rid of the shacks and build some high dollar stuff on the Bay.
I live near San Leon and those could be before pictures.
Seriously though they got hit hard. But as one of my friends out there whose house on the waterfront is fine said, we needed a real good clean up out here. Get rid of the shacks and build some high dollar stuff on the Bay.
____________________________
Still, these people needed help that they didn’t get.
They were left for days without food or water in a desperate situation, while we funnel billions into third world countries who hate us! Sh*t like this just infuriates me.
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You're lucky, all the heros I have met are dead.
Rep. Paul’s constituents that where wiped out or otherwise greatly negatively affected by hurricane Ike aren’t going to care so much about Paul’s libertarian principles. I suspect he just ensured his lose in the 2010 election.
Other than the Photo Op when President Bush came down to survey damage in Galveston after Ike, Rep. Paul had been pretty much AWOL to his constituents regarding pre- or post-hurricane information, let alone actually providing any help.
Courtesy BUMP
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