Posted on 03/12/2009 7:26:47 AM PDT by BBell
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama says he has not decided whether to restore the Federal Emergency Management Agency to a stand-alone department but promises that his administration is committed to robust Gulf Coast recovery efforts regardless of the agency's status.
"We're going to be focused on New Orleans' reconstruction, and we're going to be paying a lot of attention to the systems that are in place to protect from hurricanes in the future," Obama said during a White House interview Wednesday with The Times-Picayune and other regional newspapers.
In the far-ranging interview, Obama made a case for continuing Justice Department review of Southern elections, particularly the drawing of districts under the Voting Rights Act. He also said there has been a "sense of drift" at NASA and that he will appoint a new director soon whose mission will be to return a "sense of excitement and interest" to the nation's space program.
On hurricane recovery, Obama said he is not ready to say when he will visit New Orleans. He said he is "still just trying to figure out my schedule tomorrow."
And while he said he has not decided whether FEMA should be an independent agency, as it was during the Clinton administration, or remain part of the Department of Homeland Security, he said his nominee to run FEMA, Craig Fugate, should provide people with confidence.
"When you got Haley Barbour (Mississippi's Republican governor), Jeb Bush (Florida's former GOP governor) and Democrats in Congress agreeing on somebody, they know what they're doing," he said.
--- On Voting Rights Act, NASA ---
On the Voting Rights Act, Obama said he knows that, by and large, communities are no longer imposing a poll tax or having county clerks turn away African-American voters. But he said there is still a
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
There was a reason I added "unbelievable" to the headline. He's unbelievably incompetent.
And the American people fell for it.
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/legismgt/elect/taskfc/voteridreq.htm
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