Posted on 09/06/2005 6:21:02 AM PDT by cweese
The images of New Orleans are still fresh. Most of us are overwhelmed with a sense of rage and shame. Our government's failure renews feelings that haven't been part of the national conversation since the days of Jimmy Carter.
Carter's administration was defined by helplessness in the face of rising gas prices, America held hostage in the Middle East and a tanking economy.
President Bush now finds himself in almost the same position. Thirty years ago, Carter told the nation to turn down the thermostat and wear sweaters. President Bush said fill up your car only when you really need to.
The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks transformed a floundering presidency, delivered a decisive majority in the Senate and a successful presidential campaign theme.
Much of that has been washed away along with thousands of lives in New Orleans. We are haunted by pictures of our poorest and most frail Americans simply abandoned by government until television shamed our national leadership into action.
For the lack of less than $100 million to fix the infrastructure, the nation must now commit more than $100 billion to rebuild.
Many Americans questioned the slowness of government emergency response to Hurricane Katrina.
No one argues that a questionable war in a Gulf state half a world away sucked resources that were desperately needed last week by the Gulf states at home. Homeland security is a joke, now little more than an expensive campaign slogan.
For the first time in a generation, television has reacquainted America with the desperately poor inside our own borders. No small irony that last week the Census Bureau reported that in the last five years 1 million more or our countrymen have slipped into poverty. It also reported that for all but the top 20 percent, economic conditions have worsened.
And ironically, next month the new bankruptcy law takes effect, ending an American tradition of starting over in the face of insurmountable debt created by external events. Wage earners and small business people who maxed out their credit cards to escape deal with the aftermath of Katrina are about to discover that thanks to Congress and the President, bankruptcy is just another word for lingering indentured servitude to credit card companies.
I submit to you that the storm has just begin.
Political commentator Harvey Kronberg shares his thoughts on politics in Texas each Monday during On the Agenda. Kronberg is the writer, editor, publisher of the Quorum Report, Texas' oldest political newsletter.
Dream on!
Barf-o-rama warning!
Is there no end to this rabble?
The NYT wins. In case of disaster in your area do absolutely nothing to save lives, protect property or relieve suffering. Your new assignment is to blame Bush, blame Bush and blame Bush. Got that? Good, together we will build a better America.
Funny he mentioned Jimmy Carter, because HE would have been the guy to prep the city for a Cat 5 hurricane 25 YEARS AGO.
Total BS that $100 million in levee funding would have made a difference. The Army Corps of Engineers already has debunked that meme.
Eight months is floundering? Pretty good indication of the depth of this article.
the nation must now commit more than $100 billion to rebuild.
The nation 'must' do nothing of the kind.
No one argues that a questionable war in a Gulf state half a world away sucked resources that were desperately needed last week by the Gulf states at home.
A great many people argue that point, particularly when 90% of the LANG remained available to the Governor...who failed to use them.
"For the lack of less than $100 million to fix the infrastructure, the nation must now commit more than $100 billion to rebuild. "
so if the levees were built better...all the wind , rain, and waves would have stopped....
what a liberal idiot..but that is how they think..its just that easy..
The percieved New Orleans malaise can also be construed as "The Big Flush" - whereas mother nature had enough and flushed New Orleans liberalism not simply down the drain to be forgotten, but into a cistern of hope with aqueducts of promise reaching into the inner soul of compassion among the good people of this great Republic.
Sorry 'bout that. I should have included a barf alert in the title.
>> "For the lack of less than $100 million to fix the infrastructure, the nation must now commit more than $100 billion to rebuild." <<
I heard the levee breaks occurred in the new concrete levees, which would not have been affected in any levee enhancment project. The old levees held.
In the Times Picayune July 24, 05' said
" In the Event of a major Hurricane you are on your own "
The Mayor , the Red Cross Director and the NO City Council
President said .
They also said, "The city does not have the the resources to move out of harms way an estimated 134, 000 people without transportation"
WHO DO YOU BLAME !!
Yeah - unemployment is at near record lows; no terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11; Iraq on the road to democracy.
Question - what did Bill Clinton accomplish when he was President?
Well, the author's loyal readers (all 6 of them) probably nod in complete agreement with this crap. Unfortunately, there are many here in Austin who would also do the same. It's always the President's fault (yet they never offer any alternative).
Austin! 'Nuf said.
Nice. Any idea on who is researching (and reporting) this?
Whoever believes in "government" to be their "Savior" is destined to be disappointed to say the least.
"Most of us are overwhelmed with a sense of rage and shame."
Excuse me? Maybe the U.S.'s self-hating, America hating liberals are overwhelmed with rage and shame. I think most other people are proud of the way the country and government have mobilized to help a region of the country that inadequately prepared for a forseeable natural disaster.
And a lot of people need a reality check when it comes to disaster relief. Getting aid through a smashed infrastructure takes more than a few days.
Whoever believes in "government" to be their "Savior"
Yup, one of the tenets of liberalism.
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