Katrina's POLITICAL aftermath (keep the political discussions HERE)

specifically in new orleans, i mean to say.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2005/08/hurricane-exit-strategy-at-some-point.html

yeah but ms. didn't have gop gov until recently.

It may be hard to speculate about alternate outcomes but there's obviously a huge difference in philosophy between the two. The Bush administration quite clearly doesn't believe that the federal government has any role in preparing for or preventing these types of disasters and judging by Hastert's comments posted on the other thread I don't think they believe the federal government should have much of a role in rebuilding either. Unfortunately I don't think most American's will recognize this difference in philosophy or know about the dismantling of FEMA.

I don't think you can underestimate the importance of appearances either. The response of a real leader both before and after a disaster may not directly save any lives but the impact of a strong leader can be very important. See the comparison to Giuliani mentioned upthread. Saying Kerry would have been "more slick" makes it sound like the appearance of strong leadership is a negative.

Well, a lot of southern states voted for Clinton twice though. That doesn't say much. Having both a dem gov and senator says a lot more.. but from what I recall, the dem/repub split in Louisiana is pretty tight. I hope i'm wrong.

Perhaps he's thinking of making an answer track to Outkast's "So Fresh, So Clean"?

Maybe he was recalling his favorite forgotten rap duo 2 Black 2 Strong, but said it wrong.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

House Speaker: Rebuilding N.O. doesn't make sense
Thursday, 2:55 p.m.

By Bill Walsh
Washington bureau

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Dennis Hastert dropped a bombshell on flood-ravaged New Orleans on Thursday by suggesting that it isn’t sensible to rebuild the city.

"It doesn't make sense to me," Hastert told the Daily Herald in suburban Chicago in editions published today. "And it's a question that certainly we should ask."

Hastert's comments came as Congress cut short its summer recess and raced back to Washington to take up an emergency aid package expected to be $10 billion or more. Details of the legislation are still emerging, but it is expected to target critical items such as buses to evacuate the city, reinforcing existing flood protection and providing food and shelter for a growing population of refugees.

The Illinois Republican’s comments drew an immediate rebuke from Louisiana officials.

“That’s like saying we should shut down Los Angeles because it’s built in an earthquake zone,” former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., said. “Or like saying that after the Great Chicago fire of 1871, the U.S. government should have just abandoned the city.”

Hastert said that he supports an emergency bailout, but raised questions about a long-term rebuilding effort. As the most powerful voice in the Republican-controlled House, Hastert is in a position to block any legislation that he opposes.

"We help replace, we help relieve disaster," Hastert said. "But I think federal insurance and everything that goes along with it... we ought to take a second look at that."

The speaker’s comments were in stark contrast to those delivered by President Bush during an appearance this morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I want the people of New Orleans to know that after rescuing them and stabilizing the situation, there will be plans in place to help this great city get back on its feet,” Bush said. “There is no doubt in my mind that New Orleans is going to rise up again as a great city.”

Insurance industry executives estimated that claims from the storm could range up to $19 billion. Rebuilding the city, which is more than 80 percent submerged, could cost tens of billions of dollars more, experts projected.

Hastert questioned the wisdom of rebuilding a city below sea level that will continue to be in the path of powerful hurricanes.

"You know we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake issures and they rebuild, too. Stubbornness," he said.

Hastert wasn't the only one questioning the rebuilding of New Orleans. The Waterbury, Conn., Republican-American newspaper wrote an editorial Wednesday entitled, "Is New Orleans worth reclaiming?"

"Americans' hearts go out to the people in Katrina's path," it said. "But if the people of New Orleans and other low-lying areas insist on living in harm's way, they ought to accept responsibility for what happens to them and their property."

(... and if anyone's busy shooting elected officials....)

Randi Rhodes is on a tear. She just said that the White House should call CNN and MSNBC's producers because clearly they're able to get there, so maybe Bush should ask them how to do it.

CLASS CARDS & DISASTER [Jonah Goldberg]

Several readers complain that it's in fact true that the hurricane will disproportionately affect poor people. I don't really dispute that in the sense most mean it. Yes, the poor will have special hardships. Obviously so. But what I objected to, and still object to, is the reflexive playing of the class card. Is it really true that some middle class retirees who heeded the advice of the government to leave town, only to watch their homes be looted after a lifetime of hardwork for a better life are suffering less than a poor person who lost his rented apartment? What's the metric for measuring this sort of suffering? What about the small businessman who worked his entire life to build something he's proud of? What about the families who lost loved ones, but had the poor taste to make more money than the poverty line?

Whatever happened to the idea that unity in the face of a calamity is an important value? We're all in it together, I guess, except for the poor who are extra-special.

this is something:

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453615.183333333.html

9/1/2005
The Empty Vessel as President:
Here's the Rude Pundit's fuckin' amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Fuck all yer anti-choice, save the flag bullshit amendments. Here it goes: No motherfucker who became wealthy due to inheritance is allowed to be President. No pampered pukes who get their hands dirty only as a lark. No asshole socially-connected cocksuckers who own three, four homes, fuck, no one who owns a huge fuckin' house they call a "vacation home." Sure, sure, we may have to sacrifice a Kennedy or two along the way, but, shit, and c'mon, between George Bush I's golfing during Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (which was a double fuck-up because not only was he allegedly the President, but he was in the middle of a campaign to do it again) and now George Bush II's, well, fuck, golfing and goofin' on the guitar when a million of his citizens are displaced and over half of them are fucked for good, we can sacrifice a potential liberal or two to ensure that there's never a President Jenna.

For there he was, our goddamned President, standing there in the picturesque Rose Garden, surrounded, like Al Capone with his capos, by his cabinet, as if to say, "Don't worry - you won't have to rely on me." Having been pried away from his "working vacation" like a meth addict from an iodine factory, Bush appeared irritated that he had to talk to us last night. He smirked, he gave a campaign-like laundry list of shit heading to New Orleans and elsewhere, he told us what we already fuckin' knew from CNNMSNBCFox: that Hurricane Katrina was major, that his "folks" around him were ready to do their jobs, but, hell, at least he didn't mention how jim-fuckin-dandy Iraq is...

and he goes on for about 600+ more words. Fun vitriol.

I don't know about a lot. there's Arkansas (for obvious reasons, though they probably apply in LA as well), Tennessee (perhaps for same), Kentucky (Tennessee may apply here), and West Virginia (which went for Dukakis).

I was thinking that thread would be for more macro-level discussions about disasters, climate change, etc. More long-term stuff than Katrina politics.

maybe people really are just taking food and water, and the whole thing is another right-wing straw man. This whole "spectacle" is racist in its conception. You know when they are talking about "poor", they really mean "black" etc.

Living in Chicago, we don't see as much of this racial pornography on the news anymore, but I'm really having a flashback to the eighties with all this talk of poor black people walking around with plasma tvs or whatever (as if those are even useful when everything is covered with water and there's no electricity). Then there are always paid provocateurs (oh never mind...)

Let's see some pictures and specifics. Otherwise, I'll have to assume this is another right-wing fiction (isn't this trick getting a little old)?

for the hard of thinking UK readers, like me: it's an area the size of britain that's been devastated.

Or was the whole thing just a photo op?

It seriously feels like it's been 5-7 years ago.

I'm getting ill thinking that Katrina isn't going to get anniversary coverage at all on the major networks, but 9/11 will again, thanks to a certain Oliver stone movie.. (again, not to underplay 9/11, but the outrage from 9 months ago should be just as remembered as the outrage from 9/11.)

Have I mentioned that I STILL have a friend unaccounted for from Katrina? He's a young dude i met when I first moved to Seattle in 2001. He and a bunch of friends moved to NOLA in early 2002, so it was brief, but we kept in touch online.

Before Katrina hit, every one of my friends contacted everybody on their myspace list saying "We're OK.. except one person."... I didn't want to bring it up, because I didn't want to lapse into permanent panic attack mode. We knew that he didn't have a car, he was really down and in a bad way (became a junkie) and only mentioned that he'd find "his own way out.".. not the best way to phrase it, to be honest.

If he surivived, dude, I hope you're happy having erased your identity completely and the carings of the people who loved you and are happy right now.

If not, I hope it was quick.

My friends tried to contact being at the NYT for pictures, and they responded saying they didn't know at the time if their friend was caught in one of the pics... so who knows.

Sorry, "My friends tried to contact photographers at the NYT for pictures"

For the record, since the infamous vandalism of the W stickered car in Redmond, I have seen only one W sticker in greater Seattle since... I've only seen three more W stickers in between: the two days I was in Los Angeles for Xmas 2005.

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/homepage/hp8-23-06b.jpg

At this point, the Feds are so bolluxed up that I believe they could only make things worse. However, there's a lot of justified anger out there because Bush/Rice want to give $770 million to Lebanon but can't be bothered to spend a dime on NOLA.

Help me write a platform for New Orleans

Depressing.

Ray Nagin found guilty of corrupution charges