WSJ: A GOP Caucus met at Heritage Foundation to map N.O. strategy

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Now, Republicans are working on legislation that would limit victims' right to sue, offer vouchers for displaced school children, lift some environment restrictions on new refineries and create tax-advantaged enterprise zones to maximize private-sector participation in recovery and reconstruction. Yesterday, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would offer sweeping protection against lawsuits to any person or organization that helps Katrina victims without compensation.

"The desire to bring conservative, free-market ideas to the Gulf Coast is white hot," says Rep. Mike Pence, the Indiana Republican who leads the Republican Study Group, an influential caucus of conservative House members. "We want to turn the Gulf Coast into a magnet for free enterprise. The last thing we want is a federal city where New Orleans once was."

Many of the ideas under consideration have been pushed by the 40-member study group, which is circulating a list of "free-market solutions," including proposals to eliminate regulatory barriers to awarding federal funds to religious groups housing hurricane victims, waiving the estate tax for deaths in the storm-affected states; and making the entire region a "flat-tax free-enterprise zone."

Members of the group met in a closed session Tuesday night at the conservative Heritage Foundation headquarters here to map strategy. Edwin Meese, the former Reagan administration attorney general, has been actively involved.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2005_09_11_digbysblog_archive.html#112691980618279831

digby has much, if not all, of the subscription article posted. I can't find any other coverage of this, but the WSJ also reports here that "affirmative-action rules for employers with federal contracts in the Gulf region" have been waived. Ironic, huh?

[daninthemoon]

1. These guys care probably chompin at the bit for the next big

earthquake, or better yet a nuke. "the masters of disasters"

[Bumblebee]

5. given that many of them are rw evangelicals, probably the next big

thing they are chomping at is Apocalypse.

[Bumblebee]

2. Thanks for the article. We were just discussing something similar

on a different thread. See:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4803455

[Fridays Child]

3. Fucking carrion eaters.

[bluestateguy]

4. Who elected the Heritage Foundation?

Closed door meetings? No ordinary citizens from the hurricane zone invited to participate?

[Rose Siding]

7. A group of repub reps chose it for a meeting location

It's not official, but it is a good indication of where the interests of this powerful group are concentrated.

[Brother Buzz]

15. I guess it was one of those recess appointments

Didn't you hear that the "Heritage Foundation" is now a cabinet position? :sarcasm:

[leftofthedial]

6. $200B is a pretty high pie to start slicing up

It is past time for a revolution in this country

[madaboutharry]

8. Conservatives are vultures

This demonstrates what vultures these people are. They have no connection to New Orleans but act as if they own it. They have a paternalistic attitude that causes them to behave as if the citizens of New Orleans are merely children who don't know how to build anything or run anything and who need some other entity to come in an boss them around. This makes me sick and angry. The people of NO and the Gulf Coast need to tell these people to go to hell.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. Yeah, Iraq has been a great laboratory for RW ideas too. Flat tax, etc.

How's that working out over there? :shrug:

[Coastie for Truth]

10. Somewhere between treasonous and traitorous

[pnorman]

11. Those are the looters who WON'T get shot on sight.

Here's the entire article on the web: http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112674719461641356-43p2eR5Z9GaOg_Ub3CekoDfRpTY_20060915,00.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

Here's some details on that Heritage Foundation: http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4287

pnorman

[rumpel]

12. I had posted earlier, that we all need to be vigilant with * & Co

According the WAPO, bush put not only Rove and Chertoff but also Claude Allen in charge.
So no wonder, that money is going to flow into and protect their base.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4803987&mesg_id=4803987

[KittyWampus]

13. bastards ARE using NOLA as a fucking laboratory.

:puke:

[neverforget]

17. Iraq was supposed to be the lab, but something happened on the way

to Utopia Free Market Land.

[enki23]

14. waiving the estate tax for hurricane deaths?

i would bet there are between zero and two (probably zero) deaths officially caused by katrina which will be affected by the fucking estate tax.

but then, this is just the ultra-rich, and their pathetic groupies, shamelessly snatching at whatever the fuck they can get. they want to waive it for *all* the deaths in "affected states." hell, they'll probably make it retroactive to 1980, and send the underclasses and unborn generations the fucking bill.

so, america, are you sick if these assholes yet? how about you, fucking low-caste republican schlubs? they're glad to have you in the party, no doubt, but you will *never* be invited to the real fucking party. that's the party where the american aristocracy gets piss drunk on the sweat and blood and tears we spill on its streets, slaving away under the workers-own-absolutely-nothing corporate model, to maintain its pampered fucking lifestyle. the rich are all welfare recipients. the real welfare queens, and kings, live in luxury penthouses, where they wipe their asses with the social contract.

fuck you, fools. the republic is dead, and good riddance to the bad half. may the empire die prematurely.

shoot looters on sight.

[bobbieinok]

16. that Hess quote is 'too good to be true'....do you have a link/source ?