Oxfam America is a non-profit organization seeking to end global poverty, hunger and social injustice. If there every was one, spending $10-12 billion on a war to tear a country apart rather than supporting any efforts to rebuild the devastation from Hurricane Katrina and, later, Rita would be it.
Oxfam is part of a coalition starting a petition drive to call on all Presidential candidates to make recovery in this area a top priority. I'd never heard of Oxfam so I checked them out. They are the real deal with 83.6% of their donations going to programs and a minuscule 3.9% to administration. This organization takes your money and puts it to real use.
But, this isn't about money; it's about sending a message to the candidates. Go here and sign it. Here's why it's important.
When I saw this, I was certain it had to be at least an issue in the 2008 Presidential race. I was sure every candidate would have something, however minimal, about it. Here's what I found (in alphabetical order):
Democrats
- Biden - Missing in Action
- Clinton - Has a complete Presidential Gulf Coast Recovery Agenda.
- Dodd - His National Service issue includes disaster response service but nothing on recovery so he's MIA.
- Edwards - (this surprised me) I found a newsletter article from August 2006 but nothing on gulf recovery. He has a lot on poverty, housing and the like but MIA.
- Gravel - He believes the 2nd Amendment is under assault but he's MIA on recovery.
- Kucinich - He has the most indepth issues page of all Presidential candidates. Nothing specific on recovery but a lot of his details will apply. Still, I think he should have a plan so MIA.
- Obama - Under "Fighting Poverty", he has a section to Rebuild New Orleans. It's at the bottom of the page but at least it's there.
- Richardson - Nope - MIA.
Republicans
- Brownback - MIA.
- Gilmore - Like Gravel, the 2nd Amendment is big but, on recovery, MIA.
- Guiliani - Ditto Gilmore.
- Huckabee - Same 2nd Amendment thing but does have a Crisis Management issue that focuses on better response in the future. Alas, nothing on recovery, so MIA.
- Hunter - Ditto Guiliani.
- McCain - This will hurt - Ditto Hunter.
- Paul - Nothing - MIA.
- Romney - so much for Mormon values - MIA.
- Tancredo - Odd. Hits the 2nd Amendment issue but one of his major issues is Political Correctedness and how it has poisoned discourse. What?
- F. Thompson - If he has a stand on any issue, I'd be shocked. MIA.
- T. Thompson - Ditto McCain.
That's why the Oxfam effort is so important. Almost everyone is Missing In Action.
