The United States Government Honors Its Heroes

By forcing them to camp in the ruins of their home.

Another link from Oyster--to Third Battle of New Orleans and WWL:

After Hurricane Betsy, a New Orleans man became a hero when he rescued others from the flooded areas of the city.

Then after Hurricane Katrina, the same man asked FEMA for a trailer to live in until his flood damaged home could be rebuilt. On Wednesday, Eyewitness News found him living in a tent.

Ed Wragge, 71, has been sleeping on a cot inside a tent that has been pitched in a room of his gutted Gentilly home.

“It’s been real frustrating, I give up. The government should do well for people. I don’t know what to do,” cried Wragge.

Wragge doesn’t have a kitchen, so he eats meals from cans and drinks bottled water. He does not have a bathroom, yet outside his home sits the FEMA trailer he had asked for in October.

He said it has been there seven weeks, and he has yet to receive the keys. Wragge had been staying with friends, but couldn’t any longer.

“I got to sleep in this house. I have no place else to stay, everybody died. They died on me,” Wragge said as he tried to hold back his tears.

Before he bought the tent, Wragge was sleeping in his car, which he said was even worse.

“Oh, it’s miserable. I’m too tall, I couldn’t stretch out my legs,” he said.

Seymour sums up perfectly:

Eight fucking months and this guy--a hero following Hurricane Betsy no less--has to "make do" living in his car and in camping in a tent within his moldy house???? What the fuck is wrong with this country? This shit makes me livid. And you know what the worse part is? This isn't an isolated situation . . . .

I am so sorry this bores you, America.

And, as we found out today, instead of spending money on ensuring safe levees, the government's been pissing it away on things like monitoring our phone calls...and Operation Create a Photo Op/Stunt for Shrubya's ReSelection. $279 billion would pay for titanium levees, for chrissakes (ok, to be fair, let's divide that by fifty--that still leaves almost $6 billion, which might well have been sufficient, had it been spent on maintenence/upgrading BEFORE the storm).

Well, Mr. Wragge can perhaps take small solace in knowing his phone hasn't been monitored since late August of 2005--because I'll bet he doesn't have a home phone anymore.