September, 2005

Picking up on the second part of president Bush’s historic dissemble from Jackson Square on Thursday, he said “the federal government will undertake a close partnership with the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, the city of New Orleans and other Gulf coast cities, so they can rebuild in a sensible, well-planned way.”

Sorry, George, but sensible and well planned are not achieved by any of the objectives mentioned earlier in your speech. Sensible and well planned have only (arguably) been achieved at the World Trade Center site in New York after four years and actual construction hasn’t even been started there.

In four years you’ll be history. So, don’t kid us about sensible and well-planned when you’re due-date for this bill of achievement is next year’s mid-term election.

Proposing ‘an urban forty acres and a mule,’ our president mandated Congress to create and pass an Urban Homesteading Act.

Not applicable nor available to impoverished Detroit, the economically depressed Cabrini Green section of Chicago, the slum ghettos of Los Angeles, New York, Houston or St. Louis, this proposed legislation reflects the president’s newly opened eyes on the Gulf coast.

An epiphany, reflecting the twelve days after Katrina and the visit of the three wise-men, Bush the unconcerned, Bush the contrite and Bush the budget-buster to the rescue.

“The work that has begun in the Gulf coast region will be one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen. When that job is done, all Americans will have something to be very proud of.” Except, of course, those living in impoverished Detroit, the economically depressed Cabrini Green section of Chicago, the slum ghettos of Los Angeles, New York, Houston or St. Louis.

“Our cities must have clear and up-to-date plans for responding to natural disasters and disease outbreaks or a terrorist attack, for evacuating large numbers of people in an emergency, and for providing the food and water and security they would need.”

Correct me if I'm wrong. I guess I had mistakenly believed the $10 billion or so we had spent on the Department of Homeland Security was supposed to have already taken care of those needs. I was obviously in error.

That money was all allocated for the fuck-up leading to the actual getting-ready-for the preparation to possibly have in place such an organization at some future date.

“Congress is preparing an investigation, and I will work with members of both parties to make sure this effort is thorough.”

Laughable, George, on the face of it.

Take that one back to the speech-writers. Not even the poor souls living in impoverished Detroit, the economically depressed Cabrini Green section of Chicago, the slum ghettos of Los Angeles, New York, Houston or St. Louis would be cheered by your investigation of yourself.

Finally, or at least close enough to finally that our eyes were mostly glazed-over, he wrapped his administration's five-year environmental policy in these fatuous words: “Americans have never left our destiny to the whims of nature, and we will not start now.”

Case closed.

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