Bush’s address to the nation. (shrugs shoulders) Well personally, after watching the speech all I was left with was a skeptical outlook, yet again. And how could I forget some cynicism to go along with that sentiment–but that’s just how I felt about the address. Media Girl said that she was “cautiously optimistic” about the speech, but still had a “healthy amount of skepticism.” The pundits are going to have a field day with it and I wonder how Bush’s ratings will do in the next few days. And I agreed with Echidne of the Snakes when she said “watch the money.” Hopefully all the hurricane relief-funds will be put to the specific uses–such as the rebuilding effort–the talking heads on the news, fundraising group reps., politicians, and President Dubya have assured us. Still, I have my concerns with what’s exactly going to happen to all of the millions of dollars being raised for this, how it will be distributed, spent, etc., and the very powerful individuals who are involved in this massive reconstruction and funding effort.
Barry’s BlueSky- Untitled May 1, 2024A new cartoon for May Day! This has been an incredible year for unions in the USA - may next year be even better. Unions Have Always Done The Impossible! #PoliCartoon #Union #LaborDay2024 #MayDay2024 #May1st #UBI #LivingWage
- Untitled April 30, 2024People on reddit are fighting about a cartoon I did about why the US health care system sucks and I am enjoying this too too much. https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/comments/1ch0l0r/why_us_health_care_is_such_a_terrible_system/?sort=old
- Untitled April 30, 2024I just posted a new cartoon! It's patreon supporters only for now, but in a week or so I'll make it public. :-) https://www.patreon.com/posts/deus-ex-machina-103359912?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link
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Karl Rove is in charge of the “reconstruction effort”. Where is there any room for “cautious optimism” in that?
Halliburton and Bechtel already have contracts to rebuild New Orleans. We know what a mess they’ve made of the Middle East. Bechtel is responsible for that over-budget clusterfuck in Massachusetts known as “The Big Dig”. I’m afraid New Orleans is going to be turned into New Bushistan. I’m not optimistic at all. Bush only went on live last night for damage control. I didn’t watch it. I didn’t want to make myself sick. I’m sure the barking heads will be praising Bush’s speech until the cows come home. Let the spinning begin.
You mean your leader Ted kennedy is in charge of the big dig. If you knew anything about business it is make money and I bet they made money and did what the plan said to do, and teddy did what he does best spend my money. Optimism the only optimism I have is that the private sector will get the money. If you think there is a government ( state, local, federal, foreign) that is good with money besides maybe Israel then you know nothing about government and you have never driven past a city crew working. I bet its fixed and better than ever, but why not try someone like Donald Trump or someone who is not a politician that will take levee money and build a campground instead of a levee, run this show. Damage control it looks to me like this is a president that doesnt give a crap about what people think, he just wants to get the job done. Maybe not the way you all like it but he gets it done. The only time he talks is when Karl kicks him out the door.
Countess: Not to pick nits…but is there anything he could have said which WOULD have made you optimistic? If there is one thing I am always confident of, it is a politicians desire to pursue a positive legacy. Bush is an idiot, but he’s one with an ego too. I listened to the speech and got a definite sense that he really will push the 200 billion rebuilding effort. By the time this is over, he’s gonna look like FDR. Just watch…I think you are about to see the largest publics work project in world history.
Dont get me wrong, I dont think hese doing it because he WANTS to…hes doing it because his handlers have told him that history will want him to.
P.S. Psuedo-Adrienne…Howdy from a fellow hoosier. Great blog. Don’t agree with half the crap on it, but I enjoy informed opinions no matter whence they came.
Also…saw this article and thought you might find it interestesting…
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/346940p-296019c.html
sofakinglazyboy: Do you have any reason to suppose that, given the same people are running the show, the situation in Louisiana will be any more successful than the situation in Iraq?
Just watch…I think you are about to see the largest publics work project in world history.
I don’t. Karl Rove is running it.
So the President wants to take the government’s my money and rebuild New Orleans right back where it was? Bushshit.
If all the money that had been proposed for flood control in the last 3 years had been spent, NO would likely still have ended up under water. First, much of the work would not yet have been done. Secondly, those controls were intended to protect the city against a Cat 3 hurricane, and it was a Cat 4 that hit. If Katrina had hit the city square, this wouldn’t even have been a debate.
I live in Cook County, Illinois (talk about local corruption …). If I owned a 5-acre lot and wanted to build houses or an office building on it, I’d have to set aside and excavate enough land so that the land held as much water after it was developed as it did before. But Bush wants to rebuild a city below sea level that is among a huge lake, the biggest river on the continent, and the Atlantic Ocean? What sense does that make, folks?
The areas of the city above water should be repaired by anyone who wants to pay for it. The areas of the city that flooded should be divided up in such a fashion that part of it is rebuilt, by whoever wants to pay for it, and the other part would be dedicated to flood control to keep the other part from flooding. I’d favor out of compassion’s sake to help finance, though the taxes that the government takes from me, resettlement expenses for the people displaced by the taking of land and homes that they may have owned or rented. But not to resettle them back in the flood zone. That’s insane.
Read up on the geology and geography of New Orleans area. The Mississippi has been building up the southern coast of Louisiana and Mississippi (and Alabama) for millions upon millions of years. For all that time, silt from it’s drainage basin has been deposited on the Gulf coast. New Orleans is sitting on hundreds of feet of silt. Because of the flood controls already in place, that silt is not being replenished. Due to natural processes and the process of pumping out the water underneath the city via wells, that silt is compacting. The city is sinking, and will continue to sink. Flood control projects will never be done in New Orleans. If you build up the sunk areas, they will simply sink again.
Sure, New Orleans can be put back together, if you want to spend enough money. Which I don’t. But you’ll never be able to protect it against what just happened. Sooner or later, it will happen again, and it’s not worth the money it will take to rebuild it back the way it was just to see it wiped out all over again.
The odds of New Orleans being successfully rebuilt and being able to protect it against a replay of Katrina are less than those of successfully ending the war in Iraq, IMNSHO.
I didn’t have any interest in watching what his speech writers thought I’d like to hear.
What I’d genuinely like to hear is that he will cease in his attempts at exploiting the situation for the companies of his allies.
What I’d genuinely like to hear is that an independent council is going to be appointed to investigate and reveal how this went so catastrophically wrong that thousands of lives were lost.
I’m done listening to speech writers and press conferences. I have been since the week of the hurricane.
With Rove in charge of the recovery, how can we believe it will do anything but pad the pockets of business interests friendly to him?
One specific figure popped out at me last night. 5k for daycare and job retrainning per evacuee that requests it.
5K? Will keep a child in (real, safe) daycare long enough for the parent to use the other part of the 5k to get a job????????
Not Remotely Possible.
There was a very important line in that speech. Near the end he said that the Government needed more authority to ensure appropriate response to emergency in the future. Basically the same argument as he made after Sept 11 2001, when he reorganized FEMA, gutted the civil service rules that prevented patronage appointments and filled all of the govt agencies with hacks, and of course gave us the patriot act.
So, maybe if he proves himself to be even more corrupt and incompetent we’ll give him enough authority to be President for life.
And, where, pray tell is he going to get the money to do this clusterfuck with his cronies (trust me the regs governing contracts w/ the federal govt have been just amended to make it well nigh impossible for smaller companies to even consider bidding on any part of this)? From the Chinese and the Japanese, if they’re still stupid enough to let us borrow it from them (crazy like a fox more like it) thereby tying our hands should the Chinese become too aggressive economically or militarily thereafter.
He’s still going to try to cut taxes and gut social security too. This guy is an idiot. No wonder his shirt was buttoned wrongly. His handlers have gotten way too scared about telling him when he looks bad in any type of situation. I expect things to get much worse before (if) they get better.
Please see “Revising America” at http://gadflying.blog.com/326097, which sums up how I feel about the speech and those responsible for it. The set director apparently thought he was providing the backdrop for a Tim Burton film — ghoulishly blue.
Re Mr. Rove’s involvement, see “A Pig Worth Poking” at http://gadflying.blog.com/324820.
And for the smarmy piety of the group as a whole, see “Ersatz Patriots and Christians” at http://gadflying.blog.com/323470.
I happen to believe that wisdom begins with consciousness so that one can hazard a guess at consequences. However, consciousness carries with it pain, and Mr. Bush doesn’t like discomfort for himself (though he doesn’t mind its afflicting “other people’s children”), so he has arranged to remain in an anticipatory state of stun through everything.
At 71, I had always prided myself on a strong disposition to be contented–through retirement in genteel poverty, cancer, etc. Since January 2001, that’s been taken from me. Small-mindedness, greed, cronyism, bullyboy policies, ravishment of the environment, disregard for our poorest and most vulnerable… The sheer burden of shame is almost insupportable.
Well, that was a rant, yes? I find letting of spleen periodically keeps my eyes from going bloodshot.
This is a wonderful site! I’ll be back and promise to babble less.
Good point on the Rove concern, however I am still staking my bets on the Bush’s sense of legacy and ego. I don’t know that it will be done well, I just think he will do it.
To Ron F’s comments; Yeah. Thats a pretty big concern. I checked up on a few abstracts from various louisiana publications and they’ve more or less been comparing themselves to Atlantis since the 70’s.
If the City is non-viable in its previous form, I think it would be fairly stupid to rebuild it as it was.
New New Orleans???
I think it makes sense for house boats to be used, rather than single wide mobile homes. Both for FEMA supplied trailers and for homeowners wanting a safer design for the next time New Orleans fills up with water.
I was thinking that a houseboat with one or more strong anchor chains attached to it, the anchor chains cemented in the ground, and also a way to secure the houseboats by anchor chain higher up the chain near the top of the anchor chain, so that hurricane winds do not blow the houseboats over, but that you can then detach the short anchoring, leaving the long anchor lines in place, so that when New Orleans fills up with water, the house boats merely float at the surface, attached to their anchor lines so they don’t float away, and when the water subsides they settle back down. Then they are put back onto their properties by cranes and the short anchoring is secured again.
The result is way less financial losses and disruption to homeowners and to the City. Property fences would need to be pretty low or nonexistent, so that when the house boats settle down, they are not resting crooked on a fence.
I think it makes more sense for people not to live in the sea.
I think it makes more sense for people not to live in the sea.
Well, what about the mermaids, huh? Where are they supposed to live?
Land-creature supremacist!
SPECIESIST!