Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Monday, August 27, 2007

Doing Nothing in New Orleans

Professor Douglas Brinkley published an opinion piece in yesterday's Washington Post, which has this premise:

"Why are volunteers practically the only ones working to reconstruct homes in communities that may never again have sewage service, garbage collection or electricity?

"Eventually, the volunteers' altruism turns to bewilderment and finally to outrage. They've been hoodwinked. The stalled recovery can't be blamed on bureaucratic inertia or red tape alone. Many volunteers come to understand what I've concluded is the heartless reality: The Bush administration actually wants these neighborhoods below sea level to die on the vine."

I think an argument can be made that New Orleans should be allowed to wither. The city is sinking below sea level and, as sea level rises due to global warming, New Orleans is going to become untenable and the surrounding wetlands are disappearing, largely because of the extremely short-sighted cutting of canals through the wetlands.

But if that is the choice we, as a nation, are going to make, to abandon New Orleans, we owe it to the people of New Orleans to have the discussion. The passive-aggressive tactic of the Bush Administration, to say they support New Orleans while doing everything they can under the table to bring about the opposite result, is nothing other than cowardice.

Which is a common thread of the Bush Administration.

2 comments:

BobG said...

The biggest problem with New Orleans is the local government; it is the reason they have all the problems now. Any federal help or money that goes there ends up in the pockets of local politicians, just as it has for generations.

Comrade Misfit said...

I don't deny that the local government in New Orleans is corrupt. So is the state government. Always has been.

But still, I detect a large stink of "the Democrats run that city, so fuck them all" emanating from the White House. If there is one thread from this administration, is that they will twist *everything* to partisan advantage. There is not one spark of humanity in them.