September 7, 2005

Katrina

I want to write something about Katrina, but I don’t know if I have the will for it. I have been glued to the Daily Kos in the past week. I had avoided Kos since the election. It was too fucking dispiriting to lose that election and it seemed pointless to follow politics. Now Katrina has some terrible kind of justice to it: everybody is finally seeing that Bush is incompetent, corrupt, and so on. It’s been horrible but I cannot look away. This is a major moment in American history. Andrew Sullivan has been good. It’s more interesting to see the right’s perspective, especially when it sides with the left. New Orleans is Bush’s entire Presidency in a microcosm: anti-environment, anti-poor, even anti-Homeland Security. And don’t talk to me about the local government’s inaction. This was the Feds’ responsibility--especially after trumping up American safety for the last four years.

I keep having arguments with my wife and family that this really will be the thing that turns the tide against conservatives. But I don’t know. Bush and Co. are evil people, not just incompetent. They don’t give a shit about public opinion any more than they seem to care about American life. This entire situation is mysteriously fucked up, and that’s why I think it wouldn’t be too surprising if Bush survived this. It’s a mystery that he’s being defended for half a second. Bush is not fighting the war on Terror. He is not looking for bin Laden. He is not fighting a competent war in Iraq. What the fuck is he doing??? I have said it here before, the Republican agenda almost seems designed to fuck everything up on purpose. And here is concrete evidence of it. This administration has shown indifference to an entire American city. Bush should have been impeached yesterday.

I have little faith in Americans to be reasonably intelligent and see the obvious. Then I have a wave of optimism that they are--but then I read another story about FEMA bullying photographers and taking their cameras. I read stories about police barricading exit routes. And I fear what the human race is capable of. Obviously this is not all about Bush. People are suffering in awful ways. Perhaps attacking Bush is a way to gain something positive out of this whole mess. I don’t know, and it makes me as fearful as hopeful.

…I’m not saying anything that has been written over and over again, but I had to write something. Read Kos and others. People there say it better than me. I’ll be reading.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i will admit that i feel a little lost when it comes to politics...the right is too far right and the left is too far left (for me). so, i think the balance comes in waves in our country...democratic wave, republican wave, and so on. it's time for the next wave. and ultimately, over time, there is balance. still doesn't help me when the time comes to vote though.

Natalia said...

FEMA is turning away reporters out of "respect for the dead." Respect my ass! If Brown had "respect" for anything he would have been down there trying to save people days ago.

Anonymous said...

everything you say is true, henry.

heard from a friend from australia that the australian people are furious with their govt for not acting quickly to retrieve australian tourists caught in n.o.. the australian government replied that they had, but were turned away by our government agencies controlling the scene. i keep hearing these incidences where help is being turned away. and imo you only turn away help you don't need, and every indicator i'd seen in the last 8 or 9 days had very clearly indicated they need all the help they can fucking get.

i think the disaster has turned the press and media into entities with vertebrae and fire. i hope the people who supported bush and were disaffected towards the situation in iraq can now see how sheer incompetence + a general apathy towards the poor can have a disastrous hand in our own backyard. but it's up in the air whether the people as a collective will turn against bush. remember, the people who have supported bush in the past have believed and swallowed the most bald-faced, nonsensical horseshit from the gop's spin doctors. i would never underestimate that kind of blind faith and stupidity. not today's america.

by the way, do you happen to know who got the contract for the rebuilding the city?

halliburton.

Chris Fanter said...

Barbara Bush's cpmment that "they were underprivledged and are now doing better" sums up her family's thought on all this.

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