And a Third Different World

Also compare the ongoing story of trying to pry 10-12 billion out of the feds for housing reconstruction in the Gulf South with this, from Newsweek, about a little thing called Iraq:

...the little-noticed issue of contracting in Iraq, which the watchdog group Transparency International last year warned could become "the biggest corruption scandal in history." The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is expected to issue a harshly critical report in May concluding that the CPA did not have disciplined contracting procedures in place, according to several people involved in drafting the report. If the Democrats manage to get control of the House later this year, it's all going to come in an avalanche of subpoenas and new investigations. Not that the Republicans have been entirely sitting on their hands. When Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, agreed to subpoena records of funds transmitted to Iraq, his House Government Reform Subcommittee learned that nearly $12 billion in U.S. currency was shipped to Iraq from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, much of it with little accountability.

Again, these three items -- Katrina, the Endangered Species payouts, and the contracting corruption in Iraq -- need to be sewn together, so that people can see the larger picture. Unfortunately, media practices dictate treating each as a separate story.