Letters to the Editor
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How can he show his face?
The media will help Americans forget.
Watch now, how a Bush visit to New Orleans will be presented.
It's so easy to be Bush when you've got an enabler like Brian Williams at your side, gently serving up sympathy to Bush, as though it was Bush himself who suffered such a terrible loss.
Will we get another update on Bush's summer vacation reading list?
Is Miss Pissy Pants Suit Laura going with him this time? She could be useful. She could do a photo op at some Potemkin Village housing project opening a skuel for the little chilrens.
Look for her to go on Larry King Live and put on her best compassion grimace.
Ugh! We still have about 17 months of these unbearable assholes grinning out of our plasma screens at us.
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I-35 Bridge
I'm interested in seeing how fast the I-35 bridge between Minneapolis and St. Paul is repaired.
It's a real two edged sword. If it's repaired too quickly it looks like racism; if not by the GOP convention, it's a living reminder of the failed policies by the guys down at the convention center whooping it up with American Pride. -
Here's the Republican agenda
Look, you all know what the Repugs want: the rich to get ever richer.
New Orleans - Let's rebuild the downtown and touristy area quickly, so that the conventions can come back to town in a hurry = $ for investors. Rebuilding homes and schools for poor black people, not so much.
Iraq - Let's invade this country and get all that oil; we'll pretend it's in the name of democracy = $ for investors and the oil industry. Helping the Iraqi people, not so much.
Anyone care to add to the list?
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Re: I-35 Bridge
Neo-American writes, "If it's repaired too quickly it looks like racism."
Interesting point. Although, frankly, many people already agree there was a racism component to the Katrina slow and non-response. Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" resonated with a lot of people.
However, a failure to examine and monitor the thousands (?) of other structurally deficient bridges nationwide will be considered another Katrina failure--failure to listen to the engineers who'd been warning of disaster for decades.
I-35 is nowhere near Katrina in the scale of disaster. In some ways, it's a distraction from our already distracted Katrina efforts. New Orleans is no longer under water, but it's still been drowning for two years. But we also ignore I-35 at our own peril.
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Federal (Lack of) Responsiveness in New Orleans
As I was reading this latest post about the feet-dragging by the Bush Administration re: the reconstruction of one of America's greatest cities, I am reminded of the phenomenal recovery (at least in part) made here in California after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. On January 17, 1994, The I-10 freeway, the main east-west corridor through the heart of LA, was devastated by the quake; this road at its rush-hour peak carried over 300,000 cars per hour, not to mention untold billions of dollars in commercial freight. By April 12, 1994, that stretch of freeway was reopened, due to an "accelerated" reconstruction process spurred by President Clinton's insistence that private contracting concerns could complete the task AND save money. Many of you who live in major American cities--New York, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, just to name a few--drive freeways and expressways like I-10, and KNOW how incredibly long a reconstruction project normally takes. When repairs are economically and politically critical, construction is completed rapidly. It's great when projects have political cache; it sucks when victims by and large have been marginalized and trivialized by (intentional) political blinders.
Nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina, so much rebuilding remains to be initiated, much less completed. The failure of the Bush Administration to assist most of the communities devastated by this storm is shameful and embarrassing. It is the political will to act that is missing, and it is absent because many of the constituents affected by this disaste-- individuals, communities, and commercial interests alike--don't fall within the brackets of this administration's equation. Shame on them, and shame on us for not following through to help them recover.
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Deplorable
the toll-free telephone number George W. Bush urged Katrina victims to call for help back in 2005 appears to have been . . . disconnected.
No doubt the call center in Bangladesh was closed due to budget cuts.
The grotesque cynicism of that "toll-free" phone number always struck me as the ultimate example of how this administration handles every problem; so long as the P.R. looks good, they can just wash their hands of having to actually do anything. Just imagine: the city you live in has suffered a Biblical-level disaster, your home and all your possessions are either washed/blown away or under fetid water, bodies are floating down the street, all essential functions of society have collapsed into anarchy... and all the government of the wealthiest nation on Earth can do is offer up a "toll-free" number to call. For what, exactly?
Of course, given the odious GOP-controlled Congress in office at that time, I guess the citizens of New Orleans should be glad they weren't charged $4.99 a minute for their desperate calls for help.
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Bush Won't Do Anything for New Orleans
There is no chance that Bush will help New Orleans.For him to become responsibile now would be an admission that his policies have failed so far. Remember Iraq? GWB would rather see Americans die than admit he is wrong.
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not to nitpick but
New Orleans was never a "safe and robust city for all its residents".
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Neighboring states with GOP governors?
How did neighboring states with GOP governors fare with the cleanup?
Was FEMA as politicized as Gonzalez' Department of Justice?
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Obviously...
we need a troop surge in New Orleans.
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Don't cry for me Indiana
I was watching the news with all that flooding in Ohio and Indiana & all I could think about was "Well no one put a gun to your head and made you live there. Sucks to be you I guess."
Stings, doesn't it. hahahahahah
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a place no one should want to be
Between Larry Craig and Alberto Gonzales -- and there's a place no one should want to be...
Absolutely priceless!!
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New Orleans News
Various NPR shows have been discussing the aftermath of Katrina, specifically what has happened to some of the N.O. residents, this week. Yesterday one of the seemingly permanently displaced residents cried throughout her entire interview. Every other news source seems to be consumed with reports about how Miss Teen N.C. sounded like a complete idiot when she tried to answer a real question...but then again, I suspect that her answer was typical...How about this for a follow-up geography quiz: "Can you point to New Orleans on a map, and then point to the various locations where most former New Orleanians have settled?" And then: "Where was GW Bush when the levee broke?" And finally (math bonus): "Train A carrying Larry Craig departs from Idaho 24 hours after Train B carrying Alberto Gonzales departs from the nation's capital. Where will these two trains collide?" Answer choices: a) On the front page of the Wall Street Journal; b) Outside of Crawford, TX; c) Abu Ghraib Prison; d) Larry Who??