While, I have serious doubts as to how much of the relief being promised, is even Constitutional, I will answer you further from the President's perspective, not mine. Thus I will assume--only for the sake of argument--that it would be permissible for Congress to appropriate some money for civilian relief efforts. So assuming, however, I would certainly not have offered to use the disaster as an excuse of a new Welfare program--i.e. upgrading neighborhoods, job training programs, and other devices to make large segments of the public still more dependent upon a distant bureaucracy.
And the proposal to give the Armed Forces a greater role in maintaining civilian order, shows a complete lack of understanding of some very basic American concepts, as to the role of the Militia, etc., which we need to begin discussing again.
Every crisis, is a cross-road of sorts. We can seek to deal with the crisis in ways that reinforce traditional values, or we can seek to deal in ways that undermine traditional values. Sometimes, you can only hold your own, if the crisis calls for immediate response. But the President has not merely held his own. He has adopted an extreme move to the Left--to take us further down the disasterous road that JFK and LBJ promoted in the 1960s.
William Flax
Well stated and I agree with your dislike for socialism. However, Bush has now positioned himself to strategically place the african american conservative judge for appointment to the supreme court and the media and the democommunist will then not be able to attack her without looking like total fools as they have self-promoted themselves as the saviors to blacks and Bush anti-black.
2nd point: Louisianna will now become a republican stronghold. The state, similar to Tennessee, has one city that votes dem: New Orleans and Memphis. Well, now with 250,000 democrats never to return, Louisianna will be a sure red state.