[Vision2020] 09-01-05 NY Times: Waiting for a Leader

[Joan Opyr]

Pat Kraut dislikes this NY Times editorial because it criticizes George 
W. Bush.  No surprises there.  Pat clearly believes that the sun shines 
out of President Bush's ass.  I, on the other hand, believe that 
everything George touches turns from sugar to shit.  In truth, I 
suspect that we're both wrong.  Bush is neither bad nor good; he's just 
average.  And that's the problem, but perhaps it's a problem for 
another day.  Yes, we can and should discuss how this disaster happened 
-- let's talk about six years' worth of critical underfunding for FEMA 
and the Army Corps of Engineers; let's talk about reduced federal 
funding for levee reinforcement and repair; about coastal 
overdevelopment that undermined marshes and wetlands; about the 100,000 
poor New Orleans residents who didn't have cars and so couldn't 
evacuate the city.  These are all problems that were exacerbated by our 
misplaced federal spending priorities and foolish, and -- you guessed 
it -- by those damned, short-sighted tax cuts for the rich.  You won't 
like my saying this, Pat, but I doubt you'll offer a cogent rebuttal.  
You see, I don't love you like Sunil does.  I'm saving myself for 
Donovan Arnold.

But enough of that.  While Bush collects a guitar from some idiot 
country singer or grins in the White House Rose Garden like clueless, 
feckless fool, the rest of us must gather our resources and do what we 
can for the victims of this disaster.  I assure you that we can curse 
George Bush and write our relief agency checks at the same time.  I 
just wrote a check to the Pullman YWCA and the air turned blue.

I am grateful to ALL who have posted information about where to send my 
cash, and I very much like Kit's idea of offering refuge to displaced 
persons.  I have a dear friend down in New Orleans who, when I spoke to 
her on Saturday, was evacuating to her parents' home in Gulfport, 
Mississippi.  Not a good plan, as it turns out.  I have not heard from 
her since.  I am worried sick about her, and I am angry that the 
federal government, which has known for at least three presidencies 
what a Category 5 hurricane would do to New Orleans, did nothing to 
make protection of that city's residents a priority.

Bob Dickow is correct when he says that we cannot fight nature forever. 
  The Mississippi will eventually reclaim what rightfully belongs to it. 
  That's very philosophical.  My question is what do we do right now?  
Move everyone from the New Orleans Superdome to the Houston Astrodome?  
Jerry-rig the levees and hope for the best?  Not good enough.  New 
Orleans is a major shipping port.  Somehow, I don't see the Port of 
Lewiston taking its place.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.auntie-establishment.com

PS: I am as sick of hearing George W. Bush declare that he 
"understands" what people are suffering as I ever was of Bill Clinton 
"feeling" my pain.  The only suffering George Bush understands is a 
hangover and a bicycle-induced scraped knee, and as for Bill Clinton, I 
guarantee he felt more of Monica Lewinsky's boobs than he did my pain.  
New speechwriters, please!