The Black Informant

Since the President’s State of the Union address, the news wires have been filled with grandstanding comments from politicians and commentary crying about how Bush has “once again forgotten about poor Black folks” by not mentioning Katrina in his address.

While the particular article below wastes no time placing these dramatic claims at the very beginning, it isn’t until later in the article you will discover the truth behind the delays for recovery for New Orleans.

The Congressional Black Caucus has asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to form a new committee on Hurricane Katrina to focus more urgently on rebuilding the Gulf Coast, particularly New Orleans.

“The Bush administration has turned its back on our fellow Americans, the victims of the greatest disaster on American soil in our generation,” caucus Chairwoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., wrote in a letter to Pelosi. “How can we talk about reconstruction abroad when we cannot help our fellow Americans at home?”

Kilpatrick criticized President Bush for not mentioning Katrina in his State of the Union address last week and said forming a select House committee on the issue “offers the best hope for development.”

Now here comes Ray Nagin’s comments (break out your tissues)

At a Senate hearing in New Orleans on Monday, Mayor Ray Nagin said that 17 months after the storm hit, he doesn’t see evidence of “the will to really fix New Orleans.” He said the slow progress can be partly attributed to class and racial discrimination.

Nagin said he is not asking for more money, just that the money allocated get to the city faster.

Another AP article worded his comments as follows:

Mayor Ray Nagin told a Senate committee Monday he doesn’t see the will to fix his hurricane-battered city when compared with the billions spent on the war in Iraq. (source)

Nagin, like the CBC is still trying to shift blame on the federal government while purposely failing to mention the home-grown crime wave (Mostly Black on Black crime by his own admission)that is not only keeping folks away, but how his own administration has been rendered too inept to handle it.

The article then takes an interesting turn that reveals some of the main causes of a slowdown of Federal funds:

As of Jan. 18, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had agreed to pay $334 million for infrastructure repairs in New Orleans, but Louisiana had forwarded only $145 million to the city. State officials have said city leaders failed to provide required documentation, which Nagin called cumbersome.

Also, eight months after it was hired, a Virginia-based consulting company in charge of dispensing billions in federal aid to people whose homes were damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita has received 101,000 applications but handed out fewer than 300 grants. (source)

So again, what is more important here? The symbolism of Bush mentioning Katrina in his speech or dealing with the local politicians who apparently need help figuring out the difference between their left and right hands?

Just a side question: Is it fair that most of the attention is being placed on New Orleans due to its large Black population and not on the rest of the Gulf region?

Check out the New Orleans Wiki