So, I was just watching WGN Chicago news and Bush just made another little tour of Louisiana and Mississippi to let people know that "the federal government has not forgotten about them" - that's the anchor's quote - and they show the wreckage that is Bay St. Louis and show Bush on the podium saying "there is a hope, there is a feeling, there is a bounce in people's step". What gulf coast did he visit? I don't know about Mississippi, but there was no bounce in anyone's step in Louisiana last I looked. (Hell, a guy from FEMA tried to rob the wreckage of a house in my parents' neighborhood this weekend while he was setting up the FEMA trailer.) He also praised the politicians of New Orleans for all the progress they've made in rebuilding.
I know this subject has been beat to death, but does anyone really believe that everything is as hunky dory down there as they're trying to make it seem?
jeff [email] said at 12:46 AM 01-13-2006: The only improvements I've seen stem from the utilities and they're there to make a buck. Some houses have been gutted with the intent of being fixed up, but I haven't seen anything that could be defined as "rebuilding". PR.
jeff [email] said at 1:47 AM 01-14-2006: I take back my comments. Things are moving probably about as fast as they can given the numbers of people involved and the necessity of utilties to rely on. Businesses are getting back in shape and lots of work is going on...I'd just like to see more of a plan and national effort applied.
anotherben [email] said at 1:59 AM 01-13-2006: who is making it seem "hunky dory"? everything i have seen makes it seem (and rightly so) like the gulf coast got fucked with a giant spike covered bulldozer. rome was not built in a day. the gulf coast will not be rebuilt in a couple of months.
brandon [email] said at 5:13 AM 01-13-2006: I guess... it depends. I don't think that Slidell going to be hunky-dory for a really long time. After Rita, residents in Cameron Parish on the news look like residents in St. Charles Parish three months ago as many of them just got back this week. Does Biloxi even exist anymore? All the images I've seen suggest no. A bunch of coastal parishes are bankrupt and may well functionally cease to exist. Who knows? Other people are becoming ridiculously rich and experiencing job-opportunities they never had before.
The response to Katrina was a huge black-eye for Bush, so don't look for him to say anything about numbers or address actual issues except in the broadest and huggiest of terms. I know he didn't say it, but, filter anything he says to "The Iraqi insurgency is in its final throes" keep a cylinder of Morton's close at hand, apply liberally. Then rub it all over some of these words from the Iraqi Defense Minister:
The Americans are throwing themselves against the gates of the city and committing suicide in the Tigris
The Americans are no where near Baghdad, praise Allah.
See, isn't that all shiny, now? Don't you see how happy and motivated everyone is now!
reggie [email] said at 9:29 AM 01-13-2006: This has little to do with this actual post other than the fact that it's about Bush Sr. but I thought I'd mention it anyway:
Last night I was watching C-Span 3 (which is like the C-Span version of the History Channel but if focuses mainly on stuff within C-Span's history, but anyway...) and they were showing some Senator from Massachusetts, I think his name was Kerry. (Rumor has it that this guy went on to run for president or something.) Well this Senator Kerry guy was on the senate floor giving this long and rather lively speech speaking out against the necessity of going to war with Iraq. And it was just weird because if one didn't know better it would be real easy to think this speech was from two years ago and not 15 years ago. Some of the same things he was accusing Bush Sr. of doing then are the same things Bush Jr. is doing now.
neilbert said at 7:03 PM 01-17-2006: Personally living at ground zero in BSL I don't see how it's going to ever come back. I visited New Orleans and I felt like a disembodied ghost visiting Christmas past looking in the windows of the (closed) businesses in the French Quarter and the utter lack of any street performers, artists, or musicians.
