Badland Blue: Congratulations Senator Johnson for trailers for the reservations.
Native American Times: Why are you sending us those poison trailers?
I recalled tonight that last Saturday, the Democratic website Badlands Blue was congratulating Senator Johnson over the legislation which was passed providing that the unused FEMA trailers from the Katrina disaster could be sent to Indian reservations for housing.
Why did I recall that? Because there’s an article on-line today at the Native American Times raising red flags over the Johnson trailers possibly being ticking health time bombs because of concerns they could be shedding formaldehyde (the same ingredient they use to embalm dead people).:
Sitting on lands in Arkansas and Texas, thousands of vacant FEMA trailers garnered sharp public criticism about government waste. Originally purchased to house people displaced by the hurricane, FEMA officials stated that regulations prohibited placing the homes in flood plains on the Gulf Coast. However, trailers intended to aid the disaster torn region are now making many occupants living in them ill.
and…
Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat representing South Dakota, pushed through legislation allowing FEMA to sell or donate the trailers, focusing on his home states’ need for housing in reservation communities. The demand for upgraded housing within Indian country has been a problem for decades and according to a 2003 survey, approximately 90,000 Indian families are homeless or are in sub-standard housing.
and…
Though the aid in housing on reservations may, at first, seem like a relief to those in need, serious issues may present themselves in the process. In May 2007, a CBS news report revealed a darker side to the assistance these mobile homes were giving to the occupants on the Gulf Coast. Intended to provide emergency housing for displaced hurricane victims, the government states that 86,000 families are still living in FEMA trailers. Further reports indicate that these units were never intended for that duration of use.
These trailers, built with floors and cabinets made of particle board, contain the chemical formaldehyde, which particularly in hot, humid conditions off-gasses toxic fumes that can be dangerous to occupants. Off gassing is a term used to describe the release of chemicals from man-made materials used in the construction processes. Man-made lumber products, such as particle board, are made from wood chips and saw dust, which is then bound together by adhesives, and are a primary source of formaldehyde emissions. Other products that off-gas various chemicals are carpet, paint, wallpaper, and insulation.
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Comments
plus, the tribes have to pay for them to be hauled (which won’t happen because they have no money) and the trailers are not retrofitted for the northern climate (ie, insulation). Unless Stephanie’s global warming picks up the pace drastically, Johnson’s trailers will be useless by November.
These trailers are a symbol of the Bush Administration’s incompetence. Screw up New Orleans. Then buy thousands of trailers and park them in Arkansas never to be used. Makes you wonder if the trailer manufacturer was a big campaign donor.
The article talks about “off gassing” in hot humid conditions. Have you ever been to southwest SD, the Badlands to Pine Ridge? The one thing it is not is humid.
The concern that #2 expressed about suitability for winter use is a legitimate question. But, if you are currently living in a shack or with three or four families crowded into one small house a travel trailer might look pretty good even during a Pine Ridge winter. It’s a sad commentary on the quality and quantity of housing for the poorest among us.
Of course maybe you would rather they just left those trailers parked down in Arkansas as a monument to George W. Bush.
Typical. Nicholas turns an article about concerns Native Americans have about the trailers being sent to them into an attack on George Bush. Do you lay awake nights, seething in your hatred over him? I suspect the problem is not so much with the administration, but with the bureaucracy invented by too large of a government by the current administration and previous ones. I am sure had Senator Johnson known about these problems, he would not have pushed this legislation through. But then perhaps he should have checked this out before he went to all of that work. Nicholas, is Senator Johnson incompetent?
#4 No, George W. Bush is. He and his administration has been wrong on every fact concerning the war in Iraq. They aren’t just wrong once in awhile or on a few obscure points, they are wrong on everything concerning Iraq. Foreign policy based on how W, Rummy, and Cheney wish the facts were. Rather than how the world actually is.
keep ladeling out the pork Tim…your only hope is to buy votes on reservation like you did in 2002…pathetic
Hey, PP, maybe you’ll like this one…
“Is Senator Johnson incompetent?” (question from Dugger)
The answer is “yes,” but not so much as W or Thune. Fact is, just about every member of Congress is incompetent. Their training makes it impossible to be otherwise.
Nicholas:
The question is about the trailers. I hope you do not choke on your hatred. It turns out that the Native Americans have found that the trailers are likely to poison the people who use them due to the fact they are not meant for long-term occupation. Now, it seems to me that someone who has done his homework would know this and NOT get the units ordered given to people who could get killed by them. I do not know what the war in Iraq has to do with this and I do not accept your inaccurate characterization. I hope you can quit seething long enough to sleep tonight.
#8 Prior to this legislation those trailers had to just sit on the lot in Arkansas. It was against the law for them to be used for anything but Katrina relief. The incompetent Bush administration purchased way more than were needed so the extras just sat.
This legislation allows Tribes to claim them to help eliminate housing shortages on the reservation. If the tribes don’t want them they are not required to take them. But without this legislation tribes would not even be given the opportunity to make that decision, and the trailers would sit unused.
Or, maybe, Tim Johnson has a master plan to slowly kill off the Native American population by giving them cancer from living in trailers that give off toxic fumes when occupied in humid areas. I’m anxiously awaiting part two of his plan, making the Badlands and Pine Ridge as humid as New Orleans. His evil powers have no limits.
I would like Dugger (or anyone else) to explain why the Bush administration bought so many trailers and didn’t get them out to the people who needed them.
And if they are toxic and unusable, what is the Bush administration doing to get the public’s money back from the profiteer who sold the government defective goods?
And where is Thune when it comes to protecting our Native American citizens? If the trailers are toxic, shouldn’t he be speaking out on the floor of the senate against Johnson’s legislation, and publicly proclaiming that “no way am I going to let South Dakotans live in those”?
And why should Tim Johnson have to do any reasearch on brand new housing trailers bought by the Bush administration? Should he automatically assume they are defective since everything else George Bush did has turned to shit? Or should he assume that because Bush spent taxpayer money that Bush’s people would have purchased quality goods? Should Johnson personally research every new product purchased by Bush?
I guess you just can’t trust Bush to either get good value for the taxpayer dollar – or to get the taxpayer dollar back if the items are defective.
Are you problem solvers, or just third-class partisan hacks? Why don’t you all use your enormous Klaudt to pressure Bush to get our money back? Or should we just let the manufacturer keep the taxpayer money and just store the trailers in Arkansas at additional taxpayer expense? What is your label for the administration that purchased these trailers and didn’t do its research? Negligent? Incompetent?
PORK is all that matters…