Mississippi Yearnin’
Pity the poor citizens of Mississippi. Not only are they still digging out a year after Katrina. Now they also have to put up with a plague of politicians — from the President himself down to a claque of Congressional Democrats.
The pols have descended on the washed-out Gulf town of Biloxi in their transparent attempts to suck whatever political advantage out of the misery of the locals. Bush had the gumption to re-visit the scene of one of his greatest political embarrassments and claim some sort of victory. Gotta hand it to the Prez. It takes brass walnuts to tiptoe among the litter of the Gulf Coast while trying to take credit for something that hasn’t happened.
The Democrats, for their part, are making their own stab at electorally cashing in on the mishandling of the catastophe. Like the people of Biloxi or New Orleans are going to see their lives improve because some Dems are yapping in front of the TV cameras. Right.
Anyone who’s been to the area recently knows that way too little has been done. Says the Washington Post of the scene encountered by the President:
Bush visited a city that remains a shell of its former self. Much of the debris has been removed and casinos are starting to sprout along Biloxi’s waterfront, but empty lots abound, thousands of displaced people continue to live in trailers, and federal money is only beginning to trickle down to individuals and businesses, according to local leaders.
This would be an acceptable situation if we were living in, say, Honduras. But this is the best the world’s greatest superpower can do? We can spring for $300 billion in Iraq but we can’t come up with a magnificent public works program to rebuild the jewel of New Orleans and reconstruct the Gulf Coast? Has our collective imagination so shriveled and dried up? In a different era we could have imagined the government employing tens of thousands in a vast public works program, raising billions through special taxes and returning it into the economy by resurrecting one of our great cities along with our third coast line.
But dream on. This is the same administration whose first impulse was to charge American citizens for their evacuation from Beirut. How petty, how mean, how tiny we have become in our public consciousness.
August 29th, 2006 at 3:10 am
The photo du jour …
In Memoriam: A year ago, Hurricane Katrina killed blissful illusions by blowing away the walls, which made it impossible for most Americans to realize that there are two Americas, one where the American dream is still possible, and one where…
August 29th, 2006 at 6:52 am
The all important “tit for tat” element is a little strained here. “Cashing in?” Parish the though (as they might say down there) the Dems be allowed to hold the party in power accountable for their performance during the disaster. Had John Kerry won, and had he destroyed FEMA and been goofing off at a birthday party when the storm hit; I’d expect the republicans to be out for blood. In fact, I’d expect him to be impeached, with the press, including Marc Cooper, cheering congress on. I’d probably agree.
They’re supposed to be held to their record when in office, Cooper. Not real estate deals from 11 years before when they didn’t do anything wrong anyway.
August 29th, 2006 at 8:31 am
“In fact, I’d expect him(Kerry) to be impeached, with the press, including Marc Cooper, cheering congress on. I’d probably agree.”
No you wouldn’t Wall. The reason I know is the only person you mention for responsibility in your comment was the one not in your party. The two most responsibilty for their State and their City, and grossly incompetent under the circumstances btw, you left out.
But not on purpose I think. It never occured to your bias.
August 29th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Sad that “public consciousness” is now defined as purely a function of government. No wonder you are so disappointed. May I take this moment to point out that it took the government about 40 years to build those levees that broke. An excellent example of your tax dollars and public servants at work. Another would be the Big Dig in Boston.
It’s fine to be an optimist and idealist, but you really ought to consider sprinkling on a little realism.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:00 am
“An excellent example of your tax dollars and public servants at work.”
You’re right–it was indeed much better spent in Iraq.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:08 am
Amen Wall. But it is so much more fun to throw stones at everyone and, for the few true believers here, to insist that it was all Gov Blanco’s and Ray Nagin’s fault rather than “Heckava Job” Brownie and the clowns from DC. But fear not believers. I understand that ABC is preparing a movie on 9/11 that will say its all Clinton’s fault! I kid you not! So forget what Richard Clark and Ron Susskind told you. Forget the 9-11 commission. No it has to be that guy who lied about blow jobs. There. Don’t you feel better already!
August 29th, 2006 at 10:46 am
I haven’t watched much TV coverage, but I’ve been impressed with the way the media has handled this anniversary. What I’ve run across is mostly good discussion of how the system failed and is continuing to fail the people of the region. They’ve mostly left the “who’s responsible for what” part of the conversation for the people at home to figure out. And I think most people are reasonbly concluding that while local and state officials may not have handled things exceedingly well, the real disaster, no pun intended, was FEMA. FEMA is a federal agency and so Bush gets rung up for that one. The “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” comment didn’t help his case much.
Marc, I haven’t seen the Democrats yapping, so I don’t know exactly what you’re referring to, but there is a legitimate argument that the federal government under Republicans let a lot of important agencies dwindle and privatize and are partially responsible for the diaster in New Orleans. If I were a Democratic politican I’d be making that argument.
August 29th, 2006 at 10:47 am
If Republicans want to challenge the Mayor and Gov on the basis of Katrina, they have my blessing, and maybe a small contrabution. But sorry, whatever they did wrong is hardly an excuse for The White House’s terrible performance. As far as rebuilding goes (or doesn’t), that really has to be overseen by The Feds, and a FEMA Bush seems to have destroyed. Sorry Jim, I’m a Democrat, I haven’t given my heart and soul to the Lord, I still know what REASON is. Therefore, I can control my bias, and
not sum up Katrina like a jerk (like you).
I understand the recent “Court T.V.” show on 9-11, after endless promos that made the Bush White House look bad; pretty much jumped into the “Clinton’s fault” camp. Now that’s what I call tit for tat!
August 29th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Let us discuss the real media disaster. Karr didn’t do it! Maybe he was in Aruba! And did everyone notice that the Ramsay redux story chased the NSA warrantless wiretap decision off the fron the page. You know, the one where the judge said Bush broke the law?
Does anyone else think we’ve ceased being a serious country?
August 29th, 2006 at 11:20 am
What Mavis Beacon said.
August 29th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
Frankly I’m mystified that anyone should be surprised that Karr didn’t do it. Questions about his “confession” were raised from the very beginning but it seems everyone forgot that as the hype rolled on. Correct me if I’m wrong on this.
August 29th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Swear to God, bout an hour ago on CNBC: The very serious Talking Head was interveiwing a very serious guest about Katrina: “Isn’t it perhaps tiime we stepped back for a historical perspective, to see the how history might view this. Other great cities have risen and fallen, if we look at the historical record. So the question becomes, “Should we let New Orleans become the next Atlantis?”
Donovan: Factchecker.
August 29th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
For a minute here some of the posters scared me that we were about to swerve into Lifetime TV territory with this Mark Karr madness.
Government on all levels has failed the folks of the Gulf. However, Mississippi with it’s Republican governor is making a much more speedy recovery than Lousisana and New Orleans. Nagin was eleccted as a moderate. The poor and working class African-American majority did not put him in office. The middle and business classes supported his intial election and he continues to serve those classes effectively. Bianco is still pissed because Nagin cynically pre hurricane backed her Republican challenger. Thus positioning himself as the kind of black leader whites could feel comfortable with while winking to blacks that he was one of them.
Bianco was on the ropes before the hurricane and Bush provided a life line by failing to show up for work. It’s called a national disaster not local problem. For those who think spending 300 billion in Iraq is better than spending 25 billion in NO I seriously question your humanity.
Nagin had done nothing about the escalating crime rates and the deteriorating schools – the two things that concerned the average NO’er, so the fact that crime has returned, but the working class citizens haven’t should be of no surprise to no one. Nagin’s shameless pandering to race to get re-elected was embarrassing and he continues to embarrass his constituents with his lack of vision or true balls.
While watching CNN today I saw head of NO tourism grinning about how the city’s legendary tourism is back on track and without in the same breath saying tourists shouldn’t worry about the devastation they wouldn’t see it anyway. The Garden District and the Quarter was up and running the biggest inconveience they should expect is that instead of the regular four sous chefs there are now three.
Having spent an extenstive amount of time in NO and having family and spent an extenstive amount of time in Miami, I remember watching Katrina unfold and instantly thinking this would not be going down if the majority of people weren’t black. Miami took some blows last year too (or revisit Andrew), and for a town used to hurricaines it took an unusual amount of time to get up and running, but it’s pretty much back to normal. The bottom line the federal government works when it want to and for whom it wants work.
I was amused at the shock to Kanye West statements last year. Because that’s what we’re really talking about when you speak about the devastation in the Gulf. The majority affected were black and that’s not to take away from the white, Asian and Latinos who suffered and continue to be affected, this is about numbers.
Why should George Bush care about black people? They don’t vote or contribute money to him. Notice he’s not being seen with any black people on his grand tour of the Gulf. Although more black people own homes and small businesses than ever before and numerically more white people are impoverished both parties have done a very good job as selling blackness as the exclusive face of poverty. The high percentage of blacks entrenched in poverty are not only embarrassing to whites but to blacks who have captured the dream and want for nothing else but to be judged truly by the content of their character. Condi couldn’t be bothered to be distracted from her infamous Ferragomo addiction to acknowledge a crisis. Even liberal whites can no longer be relied upon to be outraged having moved on to the sexier and more voter rich pastuers of our burgeoning Latino population. “Thanks for the Hip-Hop, but we gotta go.”
According to Republicans spinners over and over again, Latinos believe in family, God and hardworking unlike who? The immigrant movement was cynically framed into yet another single issue cause. If desparately poor people can come to the US and happily work in substandard conditons doesn’t that disprove the existence of institutionalized racism? It’s just a few xenophobes that have it out for anyone not white. Hell some of us them are in our family just like those “two little brown ones” to paraphrase George Sr. Asians don’t even factor in because as we all know they have no problems and are the model minority. All of this rhetoric unfortuntately divides Americans, blinding them to fact that the majority Americas wealth is becoming entrenched into a small percentage of hands. Should the feds be held accountable sure, but it’s not gonna happen as long as everyone thinks that they’re going to wake up and be the next Donald Trump. To paraphase Chris Rock and Bill Maher we’re a nation of average people who refuse to believe it.
Should the federal government have done and be doing more from a moral standpoint. Sure if you believe that this is a “Christian” nation and that Bush and his cabinet are servants of God. “He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.”
-Proverbs 17:5. “He who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and he who gives gifts to the rich–both come to poverty.” -Proverbs 22:16. You can also say given Bush’s record the Bible might argue otherwise.
I also find it interesting that on the anniversary of Katrina, Jessie Jackson is negotiating for the release of the Israeli soldiers and Obama Barack (the safe black man liberals say they would like to run for president but really think he’d make a great VP) is in Kenya. Juan Williams has a book out called “Enough” detailing the power vacuum in black leadership and Bob Herbert in the NYT did an excellent editorial on it. Because if the working class and poor are to regain a foothold in the Gulf it will rest upon the shoulders of the black community at large. No more begging the federal government to give them the money they have a right to as tax payers, no more asking white people to understand their plight and no more appolozing for shoddy leadership just because that politcian is black.
Nagin’s feet needs to held to the fire by national black leadership for not controlling the crime rate and if that means throwing out the top cop, prosecutor and keeping the national guard there until things are under control so be it. Black business leaders need to start working on building charter schools and homes, involving residents like the old federal public works programs, but on a localized level. F*** FEMA. And next election vote for leaders who regardless of their skin color has a track record of results and actually gives a damn.
August 29th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
Is New Orleans the next Atlantis? Is Ray Nagin the next Xena? Is George Bush the next Inspector Clouseau? Is Condoleeza Rice the next Dr. Pangloss?
So many questions to ponder….
Btw, CNN’s poll Q of the day is “Who would win a debate, Bush or Ahmadinejad?” Mr. A leads Mr. B, 63-37. This may be the worst poll result yet for Bush.
August 29th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
Work with me here Mr. Wall. I didn’t say Bush and the Fed didn’t have any responsibility for the aftermath of the Katrina Katastrophy…..did I? Your appology accepted in advance.
MC, you really need to get out to other channels more. I mean you have to admit the question itself was an intended invitation for Kos and Kids to interrupt their homework and vote. Others of us working just don’t have the time for the TV polling sillyness.
August 29th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
“This may be the worst poll result yet…”
Not necessarily. A few years ago CNN International asked which country was the biggest threat to world peace. The USA won by about 85%.
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