Porkbusters update: Sen. Salazar responds (sort of)
Last Sunday, I posted in support of Porkbusters and listed a half-dozen examples of Colorado pork touching all of Colorado's congressional districts. I subsequently sent my pork list to Colorado's seven Representatives and two Senators, adding appropriate introductory material explaining what I was doing and what the Porkbusters project is. I asked each one of them to respond in a very specific way:
For each item listed, please let me know whether you're willing to support diversion of that appropriation to Katrina relief. If you're a Congressman, I'm especially interested in knowing if you'll put the nation first and agree to forgo an appropriation for your district.
If there are any other pork or "discretionary" appropriations for Colorado that you'd like to propose for diversion to Katrina relief, please identify them. I'll add them to the Porkbusters (truthlaidbear.com/porkbusters.php) list of Congressional commitments and credit you.
Today, I received my first response. It's an email from Sen. Ken Salazar -- or from his office, actually. It's a form letter that they haven't even bothered to update since it was written, as evidenced by (emphasis added):
We also need to evaluate what went wrong in the hours and days after the hurricane hit that may have resulted in a lack of adequate preparation for a storm of this magnitude and in the unnecessary delays that caused untold human suffering and, in some cases, cost people their lives. I have already written to President Bush urging him to seek the resignation of Michael D. Brown, Director of the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), and have joined a coalition of Senators and Congressman in calling for the creation of a panel modeled after the 9/11 Commission to examine the failures that led to the lack of preparation for Katrina and the inadequacy of the response, and to develop recommendations for how our nation can avoid repeating those failures.
Contemplate also the concept of evaluating what went wrong after the hurricane that may have resulted in a lack of adequate preparation for the hurricane. I can't wait for him to get to the bottom of that.
Needless to say, Salazar's office completely ignored everything in my message beyond the word "Katrina," which triggered the sending of response 137B or something like that. Not only did he not support any spending cuts, he closed by alluding to how willing he is to throw more money:
In the coming days and weeks, I will be supporting a number of measures in the Senate designed to further address each of these urgent needs, including funding for critical health care needs. I am a proud co-sponsor of the Katrina Emergency Relief Act of 2005 (S. 1637). I believe this proposal offers the most effective and efficient way to ensure that Katrina survivors have access to health care. Toward that end, I welcome your thoughts. In particular, I will keep your suggestions on funding nutrition, employment and education initiatives for Katrina survivors.
Yeah, I can tell how much you welcome my thoughts, you arrogant windbag.
TO: Sysop
RE: Senator Salazar's Form Letter
Those of us who actually live and work in Colorado need to do everything
possible to see that Komrad Salazar is an one-term senator.
I like it, I did not vote for the "windbag" and it is unfortunate that
Washington has not yet got the message of stop the pork.
Here's the text of the email from Salazar, which I received as well
(similarly non-responsive to my original query to him)
You got the "Bug Letter". Typical. http://www.ishipress.com/bedbug.htm
Anyone gone to his web
page? Anyone who puts up a picture of himself in a cowboy hat looking
like an uber-doofus really needs an image consultant.
Just... HOW did we elect this doofus to the Senate? How did it happen?
:-<