betsu ni (nothing in particular)

Workin’ Hard

Furious. That’s how I feel about the federal government’s lack of response to the continuing horror in Louisiana and Mississippi. While federal officials are strutting around patting themselves on the back, talking about how “magnificent” a job they’re doing, people on the ground are suffering and dying. President Bush has already started in with the “hard work” platitudes. Yes, “hard work”: the presidential code phrase for, “I’m out of my fucking league here.”

For now, of course, the most important thing is to get assistance to those who need it most. But, when New Orleans is finally empty, the country should no doubt turn its attention to Washington D.C… and prepare the guillotines.

September 2, 2005 | 5:34 PM | Posted in Weather, Politics

Comments

Phil 'n The Blanks | September 3, 2005 | 1:11 AM

It’s Goning to be a while before New Orleans drains. They’re Putting 15,000 Pound sand bags in the levees to drain the city before they rebuild the walls, and on top of that, they already knew they needed to fix the levees, but didn’t want to shell out the cash to prevent it from collapsing. They said that something like that would never happen, but in the 50’s and 60’s the people there looked to the future, to prevent a disaster like this from EVER happening. But today, it’s all about the money.

But at least the National Guard is ther to… oh wait they’re in Iraq.

Plus there is the infrastructure of New Orleans that’s going to cause problems for years to come. All that water is underground with the water pipes, sewer lines and storm drain system, not to mention the telephone, natural gas and electric. Once the water is gone, those pipes are going to bust apart.

A thriving 21st century city became a third world country in a matter of days. Sorry this comment is so long, I guess I get carried away when politics are involved.

Mohammad | September 3, 2005 | 7:21 PM

Some news reports said that certain areas were neglected by the relief efforts because they are poor or house African Americans. Are they serious?! Do the police still think with the mentality of the 50s and 60s?!

Jeff Lawson | September 3, 2005 | 11:50 PM

New Orleans has (had?) a large number of residents living in poverty, and it just so happens that many of those residents are African American. Of course, those living in poverty were least likely to have the means to evacuate the city prior to the storm. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that those left behind after the storm are predominantly poor and African American.

Understand, however, that many police officers in New Orleans are African American. The mayor is African American. So, I seriously doubt race was an issue, at least as far as the local relief effort was concerned.

As for the federal response? Well, they may have screwed up royally, but I don’t see the racial makeup of the victims having played any real role. Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by ineptitude.

chris | September 8, 2005 | 5:40 AM

i don’t see racial makeup as the problem here either. it’s really a class issue as jeff indicates.

in terms of failure of government — it’s looking like there’s enough blame to go around: from the mayor, to a significant portion of the police force which may have simply deserted, to the governor, to FEMA, to the president.

chris