Bush's "Return to the Scene of the Crime" - New Orleans

By: Lowell
Published On: 8/27/2006 7:58:56 AM

According to Frank Rich, writing in today's New York Times, our fearless leader (hahahaha) George W. Bush will be traveling to the Gulf Coast this week, "ostensibly to mark the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina."  According to Rich, this is nothing less than a "return to the scene of the crime" for Bush, whose incompetent, venal, feckless, corrupt Administration completely botched both the immediate AND longer-term responses to Hurricane Katrina.  Here's Rich:

The ineptitude bared by the storm +óGé¼GÇ¥ no planning for a widely predicted catastrophe, no attempt to secure a city besieged by looting, no strategy for anything except spin +óGé¼GÇ¥ is indelible. New Orleans was Iraq redux with an all-American cast. The discrepancy between Mr. Bush+óGé¼Gäós +óGé¼+ôheckuva job+óGé¼-¥ shtick and the reality on the ground induced a Cronkite-in-Vietnam epiphany for news anchors. At long last they and the country demanded answers to the questions about the administration+óGé¼Gäós competence that had been soft-pedaled two years earlier when the war first went south.

And what are those answers?  According to a new report by House Government Reform Committee Democrats (c'mon, you didn't expect the majority REPUBLICANS to actually do their job, did you?!?) on "Waste, Fraud and Abuse in Hurricane Katrina Contract":

*"Full and Open Competition is the Exception, Not the Rule." ("As of June 30, 2006...[o]nly 30% of [private sector Gulf Coast recovery and reconstruction] contracts were awarded with full and open competition.")
*"Contract Mismanagement Is Widespread." ("Hurricane Katrina contracts have been accompanied by pervasive mismanagement.")
*"The Costs to the Taxpayer Are Enormous." ("19 Katrina contracts collectively worth $8.75 billion that have been plagued by waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement.")

As if that's all not bad enough, here's more, courtesy of Frank Rich:

Only 60 percent of the city has electricity. Half of the hospitals and three-quarters of the child-care centers remain closed. Violent crime is on the rise. Less than half of the population has returned.

Wonderful, huh?  Those Republicans, they sure know how to govern, eh?  Heckuva job, Republicans!

Actually, the Republicans DO seem to know how to do one thing, according to Tulane University historian Douglas Brinkley, and that is to exploit tragedy (9/11, Katrina) for their own political ends and their own political gain.  According to Brinkley, "[t]he crucial point is that the inaction is deliberate" on New Orleans.  This is truly stunning:

As [Brinkley] sees it, the administration, tacitly abetted by New Orleans+óGé¼Gäós opportunistic mayor, Ray Nagin, is encouraging selective inertia, whether in the rebuilding of the levees (+óGé¼+ôOnly Band-Aids have been put on them+óGé¼-¥), the rebuilding of the Lower Ninth Ward or the restoration of the wetlands. The destination: a smaller city, with a large portion of its former black population permanently dispersed. "Out of the Katrina debacle, Bush is making political gains,+óGé¼-¥ Mr. Brinkley says incredulously. +óGé¼+ôThe last blue state in the Old South is turning into a red state.+óGé¼-¥

So maybe Bush isn't just "returning to the scene of the crime" this week.  Maybe he's visiting his political "base" - definitely NOT African Americans, that's for damn sure - and doing whatever he can to salvage his party from ruin this November.  Hey, nobody ever said that BushRove didn't have his/their priorities straight! Heh.

Meanwhile, yet another hurricane could be bearing down on a New Orleans levee system that may not be up to the job of protecting the city.  Heckuva job!

Lowell Feld is Netroots Coordinator for the Jim Webb for US Senate Campaign.  The ideas expressed here belong to Lowell Feld alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Jim Webb, his advisors, staff, or supporters.

Comments



This makes me sick (Alicia - 8/27/2006 10:45:10 AM)
all over again.

This Administration can't even take care of our own citizens and they IGNORE and BELITTLE the weakest among us.

What if Kennebunkport Maine had been obliterated by a hurricane?  Think the wealthy people would have their city rebuilt a year later?  Schools?  Housing?  Jobs?

The Army Corps of Engineers warned about this over and over and the funding didn't get approved.  And who is paying the price?  It ain't Bush & Co.



And we are watching (Kathy Gerber - 8/27/2006 10:52:48 AM)
day by day through this hurricane season.  But nothing can make us forget the past.


Republicans have got to go. Give us Webb! (cando - 8/27/2006 10:45:26 AM)
Where is the Democratic leadership on critical issues?  Why aren't they in New Orleans commiserating with the folks?  Even Senator Landrieu is AWOL.

Lowell and Frank Rich are right on.  This was not only America's worst disaster, but one of the worst responses in U. S. history.  Repugs have got to go!



And by weakest among us (Alicia - 8/27/2006 10:52:26 AM)
I mean poor black, white, asian, whatever -- the disabled, the elderly and the young.  True, most in the 9th ward were black, but certainly not all.

And how many of the weakest needlessly died while waiting for our government to rescue them?  No food.  No water.  No formula.  And blazing hot suffocating humid New Orleans sun.

We sent aid to Tsunami victims faster than we helped people in New Orleans (and neighboring states)!!!



That's not the way "they" see it (Teddy - 8/27/2006 4:28:13 PM)
Every time Katrina comes up among my republican acquaintances, after an obligatory bow to how terrible the disaster was, they make every effort to establish the following points: 1) It was the local Democratic mayor and governor who screwed up, "all those school busses" should have been used to evacuate folks; the response to disaster has always been first local; see how good a job republican Jeb Bush did in Florida with FOUR hurricanes etc and 2) "those people" didn't try to help themselves; they sat on their fat lazy behinds and waited for some one to help them in typical low class, feckless welfare queen fashion and 3) "those people" got what they deserved, living below sea level, why should we keep helping such stupid fools over and over again to rebuild when it will just happen again? and 4) the whole grungy area needed to be swept clean and God managed to do it for us when the local Democrats couldn't do it and 5) there's plenty of places to spend our scarce resources where the results will be better, why waste the money there?  And so on.

It boggles the mind, but, trust me, they really, truly believe this, all my nice Christian, charity-giving, otherwise gentle republican acquaintences, and there is no penetrating the self-righteousness



Wow (please excuse the rant) (Alicia - 8/27/2006 5:54:02 PM)
I have heard some of that before - but Wow!  I have a hard enough time listening to the "all people of all religions (even those religions thousands of years older than Christianity) are destined for hell, unless they accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour."

Any of them remember what day of the month the hurricane hit?  People who live paycheck to paycheck don't have the means to escape unless the escape day falls on the 1st or 15th of the month (and then, they would have to choose which bills wouldn't get paid).

I remember hearing Nagin begging for help - and he successfully got the NO Dome to house those stranded.  True -- there were many more than I'm sure he expected.

When the local leadership asks for help -- don't FEMA and the National Guard normally get involved?  They horrendously dropped the ball at the mis-direction of our Big Boys in government.  And it has never been picked up.  This gives me no hope of a response in the NOVA area should we ever taste terrorism here.

And what about 4 days later?  And 2 weeks later?  How about a year later?  What about the bodies that are still being found now since the government decided months ago to stop looking?  Jesus didn't save them, though I'm sure many prayed.

Do they say the same about all residents of California?  Isn't that state supposed to drop off in the ocean?  I'm sure that they would also applaud the loss of more "evil" Democrats.

Yeah.  The millions a day we are spending on Iraq and the thousands of US troops who have been killed and left many more thousands of friends and desperate families behind is really a better course of action then restoring one of nations most beloved city's. 

Built it better and bring New Orleans back!!
(and let's stop this occupation of Iraq!!)