Libertarians, rejoice

You are still statistically irrelevant as a voting bloc, but your most beloved assumption continues to hold up in the real world: research by the Times shows that private contractors are cleaning up hurricane-hit Gulf areas much, much faster than the the Army Corps of Engineers. That doesn't settle debate between hurricane victims, though. Long excerpt:

Some residents have complained that the cleanup is barreling ahead too quickly. "They're bullying people," said John Grower of Gulfport, whose property was cleared while he was waiting for insurance investigators to finish evaluating it. "It's martial law."

But officials said the faster pace meant that property owners could start planning for reconstruction, or at least move government-provided trailers, as temporary housing, onto their land.

"I am touched," said Nhin Tran, 58, as a trailer was set up earlier this month on her property in Point Cadet after it was cleared, allowing her to move out of a tent. "I now know what the next day will bring."
...
The Army Corps work has won some praise. Homes are often cleared one at a time, instead of entire streets at once, so property owners, like Yvette Gonzales, 76, of Bay St. Louis, can be there to watch. Mrs. Gonzales even requested that the crew search for a handmade quilt that had special meaning to her family. The quilt never turned up, but the crew found the tiny wedding cake statue that Mrs. Gonzales had saved since her marriage in 1949.

"It brings it all back," said Mrs. Gonzales, whose husband died nine years ago. "It makes you remember those good times."

And there it is: moving out of a tent vs. finding a memento of your departed spouse. The contractors are bulldozing to get folks moving toward their future, the Army Corps seems to be moving relatively gingerly to safeguard the past. (And the dead: a corps spokesperson also suggests they're going slower because they're more sensitive to the reality that, as the Times put it, "human remains may be mixed in with debris.") What an awful choice to have to make.