Our Government and Hurricane Katrina

UPDATE -
Quote of the Day - From Time -
"They are throwing money out - they are shoveling it out the door"
-James Albertine
Washington lobbyist and past president of the American League of Lobbyists, on the ease of obtaining no-bid federal contracts for relief and reconstruction projects in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

There is a lot of say about Hurricane Katrina, but this one was interesting to me because it shows how the government works. I really like the excuse the Justice Department used, like it matters that it is an internal e-mail.

From the Clarion - Ledger -

Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.

The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."

Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said Thursday she couldn't comment "because it's an internal e-mail."

Corruption, Corruption, Corruption

From the Washington Post -

The Bush administration's top federal procurement official resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the federal government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related to Abramoff's activities in Washington.

The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. Safavian, 38, a White House procurement official involved until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made repeated false statements to government officials and investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 2002.

It also contends that he concealed his efforts to help Abramoff acquire control of two federally managed properties in the Washington area. Abramoff is the person identified as "Lobbyist A" in a 13-page affidavit unsealed in court, according to sources knowledgeable about the probe.

San Diego as Erron

From the Union Tribune -

Private auditors have found that San Diego overstated its net assets by more than $640 million in fiscal 2002 – a problem that portends greater difficulty for the city's restoration to sound fiscal health.

...

By comparison, Enron restated about $580 million in revenue in 2001 for the previous five years, an amount described in published reports as a record corporate restatement at the time.

Arnold

Sports... Really, with all the important things going on around the state and county. Arnold likes golf so it is important that he runs for govenor again. The canpaign should have done better than that.

From the Union Tribune -

SAN DIEGO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday announced his plans to seek re-election in 2006, saying he intends to "follow through" and seek a second term to finish the job he started.
"Here's the bottom line: I said I am a follow-through guy; I have learned that from sports. In every sport you learn about following through: in golf about swinging through, in tennis we follow through, in skiing we finish the turn," he said.

"I learned most of my lessons from sports. So, of course we are going to follow through with this here. I'm not in there for three years.. . . To finish the job, I'm in there for seven years. Yes, I will run for governor next year."

The Cat is out of the Bag...

From the Union Tribune -

BALBOA PARK – A wildcat escaped from its enclosure at the San Diego Zoo about 1 p.m. yesterday, getting about 45 minutes of freedom on a hillside before zookeepers surrounded her and returned the animal to her quarters.

eminent domain

From the Union Tribune -

After hearing tales of government abuse, two San Diego City Council members Monday ordered city officials to research procedures used in condemning and acquiring private property in redevelopment areas.

Donna Frye and Brian Maienschein, members of the council's Government Efficiency and Openness Committee, listened to three hours of testimony from redevelopment officials and opponents of eminent domain, the procedure that enables the government to force the sale of private property for other uses.

Under state law, the property owner is invited to participate in a redevelopment project. However, Frostrom decried the way property owners are left out for months or years of "secret negotiations" with developers eyeing a property.

In other instances, she said, officials have issued vague – and possibly bogus – environmental cleanup orders to pressure reluctant owners to sell their property.

San Diego Unified School District

From the Union Tribune -

The federal government is investigating the San Diego Unified School District for its accounting of how $10 million in education grants was spent.

The National Science Foundation, a federal agency, awarded the district two grants between 1996 and 2002 to pay for teacher training and materials to improve math and science instruction.

The grants, which spanned the administrations of superintendents Bertha Pendleton and Alan Bersin, were spent without proper record-keeping, district officials acknowledged. However, they said they don't believe there was fraud or mismanagement.