[From the diaries by susanhu.] The Republicans are well known for underfunding America’s infrastructure, and that is one reason why New Orleans was flooded so badly. Everyone who live in NYC knows how badly funded our subways, roads and schools are. But when it comes to pork in their own districts, Republicans wallow in it. The city of Ketchikan, Alaska, with 14,000 residents, are building a bridge to Gravina Island, with a population of 50. Don Young (R-AK) pushed for and got Federal funding to build that bridge. Yet levees in New Orleans were neglected year after year. It is absolutely disgusting.
But at least most Republicans realized that after the fact they had to show sympathy. So Congress overwhelmingly passed, and Bush signed, a bill giving aid to the victims of Katrina. But 11 particularly cold-hearted Republicans couldn’t even bring themselves to be this generous. These 11 Republican Reptiles voted to leave those affected by Katrina on their own. We have to make these bastards pay by forcing them to defend their callousness when they are up for re-election. MORE:
Here is my Act Blue list dedicated to defeating the Katrina 11. Please donate and please circulate this list now because we will need some really serious effort to make these seats competitive. Let’s show America that blaming the victim is not acceptable. Let’s show these uber-conservatives that their lack of compassion disgusts us.
I should also note that one possible challenger to one of the Katrina 11 is David Harris, a Bronze Star recipient, who is running for the TX-06 seat. You can read a little about his views on the Iraq war in this article. Harris is opposing non-compassionate uber-conservative GOP incumbent Joe Barton in Texas’ very red sixth district. So this in many ways is a close parallel to OH-2 where a long-shot Iraq war vet ran in a very red district. Can we Hackett Joe Barton? I think we should try and I think we should get started now.
I also want to continue to call people’s attention to two other Act Blue lists put together by someone else targeting the 10 most vulnerable Repblicans, and protecting the most vulnerable Democrats. I should note that one possible challenger to a weak Repub seat is also an Iraq War vet. Patrick Murphy is running for the PA-08 seat. This may be the most likely pick up because Murphy is running against a vulnerable Repub in a moderate district. He is also a recipient of a Bronze star and served both in Bagdhad and in Bosnia. Here is a Daily Kos diary on him. Donations to these two lists would be more practical than donating to my list, but donating to defeat the Katrina 11 will give you better Karma because you will be going for the most cold-hearted of the lot.
