Different Day, Same Shit.

Last time yours truly turned his attention to Steve King, the Republican congressman from Iowa bragged about having a sixth sense for spotting illegal immigrants and opined how America should sift through its incoming legal immigrant population like shoppers sifting through a scratch-and-dent clearance bin at the local Kmart.

Yesterday, Storm Lake's very own preceded to eat one of his wingtips while expressing concern over federal aid planned for Hurricane Sandy refugees survivors:

"I want to get them the resources that are necessary to lift them out of this water and the sand and the ashes and the death that's over there in the East Coast and especially in the Northeast," King said during a Tuesday evening debate in Mason City, Iowa.

"But not one big shot to just open up the checkbook, because they spent it on Gucci bags and massage parlors and everything you can think of in addition to what was necessary," he said later, referring to Hurricane Katrina.

Seven years after the storm opened a Pandora's Box of incompetence and self-service from a variety of state and federal officials along with a helping of racial antagonism, Hurricane Katrina remains a code word and a catch-all for anyone wanting to compare or comment on black America's supposed predilection towards profligate welfarism, helplessness and wanton destruction. In other words, it's a convenient way to avoid stepping over the "Ni-CLANG Event Horizon" while making your point about those ni*CLANG* and anyone looking to act like them.

For general reference, King was also one of 11 congressmen who voted against a $51.8 billion relief package aimed towards Hurricane Katrina relief back in 2005. He still sees it as "a good vote." He also has a penchant for opposing disaster relief and prevention bills:

King has opposed other disaster relief and prevention bills, including twice voting against a bill to authorize funding for the National Flood Insurance Program.

He's also the same gentleman who not only boarded the S.S. Legitimate Rape with Paul Ryan and Todd Akin by supporting the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," which would have banned Federal funding of abortions except in cases of forcible rape, but also invoked a certain incredulousness when it came to young victims of incest and statutory rape:

"Well I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way, and I'd be open to discussion about that subject matter," he said.

He might want to take some notes from the Guttmacher Institute on that one, or better still, quietly listen in on an interview with a young victim of incest and rape.

In short, Stevie K is exactly what you'd expect from a staunch conservative - a man who expresses his personal prejudices under the guise of fiscal and moral responsibility. Here's to hoping Christie Vilsack overcomes King's current four-point lead.

“One thing he’s gonna be asked is, why did he jump on [the hurricane] so quickly and go back to D.C. so quickly when in…Benghazi, he went to Las Vegas?” Brown says. “Why was this so quick?… At some point, somebody’s going to ask that question…. This is like the inverse of Benghazi.”

The above quote comes courtesy of former FEMA Director Michael Brown. If you all remember, our friend "Brownie" was in charge of FEMA during Hurricane Katrina. The slow response of the agency fell squarely on his shoulders according to a 2006 report from the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general, leading to his resignation from FEMA two weeks after the hurricane struck.

And apparently, the man sees fit to chastise the president for "jumping too quickly" on Hurricane Sandy, just to get in an oblique jab on President Obama's response to Benghazi. Yeah, the GOP's still trying to make hay of his response to that tragic event:

Conservatives have been hitting Obama for weeks on his attendance at a fundraiser in Nevada following the assault in Benghazi, claiming at alternate times that the President either cared more about politics than lives lost or that he was trying to downplay the attack’s significance. Now the critique has mutated into a belief that Obama is currently “playing President” to score points during disaster relief in the run-up to the election, in contrast to his actions in September.

Actually, from the moment President Obama took the oath of office, it was decided by the unreconstructed throughout the GOP that he was, in fact, "playing president." Because no ni*CLANG* could ever be president of the United States of America, no matter how hard he faked it.

The bottom line of all this shit talk is an undercurrent of disrespect that now lays open like an open sewer or a beached whale carcass. I'm genuinely surprised that no actual politician has gathered the required minerals to cross the dreaded "Ni-CLANG! Event Horizon" openly and unapologetically call the current President of the United States a "ni*CLANG*." In that regard, there's not much the president can do to that would earn their respect or approval, as demonstrated handily over the course of an entire presidential term.

Michael Brown had his time in the sunshine and with a dubious track record such as his, he should be the last individual to have anything to say about Obama's handling of this and other natural disasters. I wonder what Kanye West would have to say about all this...

FEMA is asking more than 83,000 recipients of aid to reimburse the government an average of $4,622 each, BlackAmericaWeb reports. The agency says that clerical or employee errors may have resulted in some victims receiving more compensation than what may now be allocated.

This comes six years after disbursement of the funds intended to help victims of Hurricane Katrina seek new shelter and put their lives back together. And the funds are due within a 30-day period, just in time for income tax season. Other than getting a refund back from Uncle Sam, very few people have the resources to come up with a quick $4,600, let alone those effected by Hurricane Katrina. Such an oversight should have been written off as a loss and left alone.

There's been plenty of talk about the spending habits of those effected by Katrina, namely of the "booze and rims" variety. People make mistakes, and many people don't do well when confronted with the management of large sums of money given in one lump. Not much you can do about this aside from a copious amount of fiscal management education, one of the many things that no one wants done in this country.