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All:<BR>
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Otter might have some good reasons to have voted "no" on this $51.8 billion Hurricane relief from the federal government. The majority of his own party supported it, so perhaps his vote was on principle, not politics? Otter also has opposed aspects of the Patriot Act, another independent position against the lock step of republican group think.<BR>
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President Bush and the Republican party are scrambling with public relations damage control over the handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and this huge spending bill for relief, etc., some view with a jaundiced eye seeing Carl Rove (what happened to the CIA operative identity leak from the White House that implicated Rove?) managing spin control to bolster the image of Bush and other Republicans: 2006 mid term elections are gearing up and democrats no doubt expect to make gains!<BR>
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It appears democrats aren't the only political party that acts as though throwing huge amounts of government money at a problem will automatically solve it!<BR>
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The Dept. of Homeland Security is a creation of a republican dominated federal government, and observers of all political persuasions agree to some extent that this dept. did not perform as intended in the response to Katrina. But throwing $51.8 billion dollars at this disaster makes our republican dominated government look like it is taking charge, even if the money may be mismanaged without accountability to the taxpayer.<BR>
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Ted Moffett</FONT></HTML>