OINK!

It doesn't matter how much money has already been sent to Louisiana. It doesn't matter how much has been pledged from the U.S. government, other countries, corporations, or charitable organizations. It also doesn't matter what the actual need is. When it comes to money, Louisiana Sentator Mary Landrieu (D) just wants more. A lot more. Like $250 billion more.

I read through the summary (PDF warning. Nine pages of small, slightly fuzzy print.) and kept telling myself I was misreading it. Some of the dollars in one category had to overlap into the dollars in another. Same dollars but their expenditure would fund two (or more) purposes.

Uh, no.

It's like a cute little blond with a cast on her leg who's sitting on Santa's lap. Sensing an advantage, the list of toys she tells him she expects under her tree Christmas morning, already massive, just keeps getting longer and longer still.

Like looters who seize six televisions when their homes have room for only two, the Louisiana legislators are out to grab more federal cash than they could possibly spend usefully.. . . This is the equivalent of New York responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center by insisting upon a federally financed stadium in Brooklyn. -- The Washington Post

Wapo hits a couple of the items, but let me tell you my two favorites:

$13 billion is provided to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, subdivided for the following purposes: $7 billion for Evacuation and Energy Routes, $5 billion to increase transportation capacity in cities affected by an influx of evacuees, and $1 billion to ports in Louisiana for restoration, protection and improvement.

Evacuation and Energy Routes, $7 billion?

First, what's an Energy Route? Isn't that like . . . roads, maybe? What about the highway bill that Congress just passed? As for evacuations, maybe somebody in the state government could find out what happened to the $500,000 FEMA awarded to New Orleans.

There's no money shown for this next one, but . . . huh?

Gives the Secretary of Commerce the authority to direct the United States Customs Service to issue an automatic liquidation to provide much needed relief to the domestic crawfish processors in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama who have been adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina and the continued dumping of crawfish tail meat from China. [emphasis --ed)

It's one thing to ask for needed help when disaster strikes. It's something else entirely when the politicians act like it's a dream come true.

LATER: Linked to Wizbang's Carnival of the Trackbacks