No Surprises....
The president's speech tonight was heavy on platitudes, homespun anecdotes, and promises of immense government handouts---and light on what people wanted to hear, such as a far more explicit acceptance of not only personal responsibility but the consequences that must accompany culpability.
But as he said tonight, "It was not a normal hurricane." That says it all, right?
I've had a busy week, and I'm working on a fairly long post that ties together several subjects that are particularly important right now including Katrina, oil and inflation. I think readers will find it interesting, and I should post it in the next day or so.
But as he said tonight, "It was not a normal hurricane." That says it all, right?
I've had a busy week, and I'm working on a fairly long post that ties together several subjects that are particularly important right now including Katrina, oil and inflation. I think readers will find it interesting, and I should post it in the next day or so.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Thursday, September 15, 2005
33 Comments:
"It was not a normal hurricane."
Expanded, this equates to:
"Clearly a storm as powerful as Katrina could not have evolved from a lowly breeze and shows signs of intelligent design. Given this, the fact that it targetted some of the poorest people in the nation is an unmistakable sign that God hates poor people. I will therefore instruct Congress to permanently repeal the estate tax and award one hundred billion kajillion dollars in contracts to Haliburton."
Alas, Katrina really wasn't an abnormal hurricane. It was half the size of the largest hurricane we've seen - Supertyphoon Tip which was a mere 1100 miles across. Much worse than Katrina is out there and much worse targets are as well. Miami has exactly two roads to escape such a storm, four times as many people to evacuate, and typically receives far less warning.
The thing that really bothered me about the speach was where he started talking about the need to fix Homeland Security to be prepared for a disaster (be it natural or man-made) and what not ... we already heard that speech - four years ago!
One question, are we going to spend any time looking at what the Mayor of N.O. or the Governor of Louisiana did, or is that not worthy of Anti-Bush discussion?
PenDragon
Sure, I'd like to look at what the mayor and gov. did. But early misinformation and spin coming out of the White House and the media set a bad tone in that regard.
Even now I'm having a hard time deciphering where the shortcoming of state and local officials was real and where it was not.
TCR,
Please don't forget to address Bush's dangerously wrongheaded call for more military presence during the reconstruction.
Martial law really could be just around the corner.
Don't laugh it off..
Bush is extremely dangerous now that he doesn't have political capital to work with---because he will insist on keeping the authority he has had so far by the grace of Congress by other means.
Count on it.
I heard parts of the speech on the radio this morning and wondered how, how, how are the taxpayers going to pay for this. Bush is doing what he was raised to do - spend other people's money. Does he still intend to make the tax cuts permanent for his financial peer group? Is he still after our Social Security funds? Like so many in his personal financial stratosphere he doesn't intend to let go of one thin dime on this. This is "America's" problem, not his.
"I heard parts of the speech on the radio this morning and wondered how, how, how are the taxpayers going to pay for this."
Yes, and the press is as complicit as ever. After a few days of decent reporting they went back to their old, let's-leave-the-real-story-out ways.
The only place I saw on TV about the suspension of Davis-Bacon was on the Daily Show. And they were quoting an article that the Washington Post had buried inside the paper! Every American should be aware of this cruel decision, and of the huge no-bid contracts awarded to the usual suspects, but I'll bet maybe 5% are aware.
Out of the estimated $200 billion reconstruction how much is going to end up in the pockets of the rich?
PenDragon - for pity's sake just stop. Yes there is plenty of blame to go around - that is so obvious to everyone - but you use that to deflect discussion on the federal governments role not because you really want a serious discussion.
But since I don't think you are from the city/state based on the lack of depth in your post - I am not going to look to you for intelligent discussion on that. That is something to be discussed locally where people know more and where it actually matters. I doubt you have any clue how the relationships, history, politics, personality, etc played into the local response (or lack thereof). Outsiders have no clue - New Orleans and Louisiana have their own operating personality as does California, New York, Massachusetts, Florida, etc. I don't seek to solve or talk about their problems because I have no real knowledge of how things work there. I don't appreciate you offering your "insights" on topic you are likely unfamilir with.
Now if you are from the city or the state I will listen - other than that you will be ignored like all the other know-nothings.
Pendragon, since most everyone in these parts were in favor of an independent commission, an investigation into the major and gov would have been assured. The difference between you and the people that generally frequent CR is that CR represents views that seek responsibility and accountability. You just want to protect junior or your party, or something like that.
Hume, procedurally, it appears the Gov and mayor did what they were supposed to do when they were supposed to do it. That's been supported by an independent agency now. What they didn't do was properly plan for this in the first place - no drivers secured for those buses, turning away some pre-storm assistance (apparently due to inept coordination), pre-positioning relief supplies on a scale that NOLA would need, etc. Everybody low-balled this at the outset. When the shit really hit the fan, it seems the local and state govt. did most things right but were so crippled by the storm and hamstrung by a lack of pre-planning that it was far from effective.
The right argues that state and local govts should be able to take care of themselves, and LA and NOLA should have done far more on this front. But it's unrealistic to say that the feds aren't critical in events like this. It apparently never dawned on anyone that a terrorist attack might kill the major and governor, or so undermine the local infrastructure that the local response would be almost non-existant - and NOLA was a good example of this. So FEMA was apparently shocked to discover that there was no electricity, phones, cell phones, police, firemen, roads, and so on. The left say that local and state reponses may be so crippled that the feds need to take full responsibility here.
Really, it needs to be both, and with elected officials moving hither and yon, party politics, and everything else, it's not surprising that it fall apart in the end. Toss in local corruption and the appointment of incompetent people to coordinate it, and it just gets worse.
In the debate about which level of government is most responsible, I think it is important to note the difference about what each could have done, compared to what each actually did.
Sure, state and local government didn't perform perfectly, but the disparity between what the federal government was capable of and what they actually did is painfully obvious.
I did not watch the speech because I knew it would be devoid of any thing new. Unforntunately, I was right, Bush promised to spend Billions on the reconstruction. Where is all of this money going to come from?
As for the notion that you have to be from the state of LA to discuss it, that is absurd. If we are only able to discuss the states in which we live then this country is in trouble. I come from CA and I know most people in the state dont have a clue to what is going on.
Look forward to reading it.
Bush's speach, announcing $200 billion dollars in new spending that will be financed by new borrowing sent the treasury market into a tailspin today leading to higher interest rates.
If he would abondon his crusade for further tax cuts the markets might stablize a bit. But without that look for your governemt having to pay higher and higher interest rates to borrow all the money it wants to spend.
And when the government pays higher interest rates you know what that means for you, right?
I was much harder on the state and local government authorities before I learned 2 facts:
1) Chertoff and the DHS in fact DID have the authority to act using all federal military and civilian resources. But since Chertoff didn't know he had that power, he didn't use it. Why would he know it? Like Brown, he has zero qualifications.
2) Bush actually declared a state of emergency the day before the hurricane, but tapped zero Federal resources.
wanna look at the fema nat security updates that were transmitted to all in the fed gov by the dhs department in charge of notification and response?
this site starts with a number of quotes from the head of that department and then links to the updates that were sent out via blackberrie on the 4 days between 8/26/05 thru 8/29/05
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4849706
that having been said, i found the speech specious and irresponsible.
not only where is the money coming from, (is china really ready to buy more of our debt? are the saudis?) but also who will be reaping the profits (and they will be with the traitorous carpetbagging and lying rove or without him) and why the hell are we not yet safe when bush has spent the last 4 yrs telling us and pounding the podium that "and the world / united states is safer..." ????
i'm personally mad as hell and ready to fight again for the souls of this nation. "protect and defend the constitution of the united states from all enemies both foreign and domestic" actually means something.
this admin is far more interested in dismantalling the constitution and USING the souls it is framed to protect and serve!
this not only needs light to be shined, it needs for all of us to SEE and demand change in the attitude and workings of government.
i believe bush has been shocked into a corner of fear of his own. he's playing politics. he's shamed the nation he says he loves, and his god is judging and finding him lacking in the eyes of those he "SERVES"...
defend him if you want, but i'm not gonna waste a minute on it.
feral
The "surprise" is that he's still playing the role of President of the United States.
I didn't see the speech.
Is the reconstruction going to start with building the levees up to hurricane 5 strength? How soon will that be done? If not, our billions of reconstruction will be in vain.
Anonymous,
I guess if you're not from one of what is widely recognized as the most corrupt state and city in the nation you don't even have the right to ask questions.
That's what I love about liberals, they are in favor of free speech as long as you agree with them. When you don't you're from the wrong state or something else.
I merely raised a question. Are we just going to blame Bush or are we going to talk about State and local actions. I guess not, unless I'm related to Huey Long or something.
Liberals are sooo transparent.
I know that all of you keep looking for something, the big one, that will somehow end the Bush Presidency, but sorry guys, not this time, my suggestion is that you try something different for once - like winning an election, maybe!
PenDragon
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