Bushed in New Orleans

Got to admire a President who got re-elected by carping that Kerry was a flip flopper. Obviously From praising the political appointee heading FEMA days after the disaster, to now saying that Fed's let us down, Bush qualifies for the Guiness Record for flopping, then flipping.

Isn't this the same Commander and Chief who ran on his record as a wartime President, assuring the electorate he'd scared to death that we were now so much better prepared. He appoints a guy who worked for the International Arabian Horse Association. Now I can see how an Arabian horse expert might come in handy if those pesky arab terrorists attack us on arabian horses, but the last time I checked, they used aircraft. It gets better, according to the Boston Herald, Brown got his job at FEMA after being fired from the arabian horse association, because a "spate of lawsuits alleged supervision failures." Small wonder that anyone with a TV set knew there were people desparately in need of help at the Convention Center in New Orleans, except the FEMA director.

Now we're going to spend two hundred billion dollars. Echoing in the background you can already hear the words "no bid contracts" and "Haliburton" resonating. One thing is for sure, they won't have to give a lot of that money to those hard working locals hired to do the hands on rebuilding, since Bush signed an excutive order suspending a rule that requires that employeees of federal contractors be paid the prevailing local wage.

Two good things about this whole ordeal:

First, the last time we were sold a 200 billion dollar proposal, it was for a 300 billion and still counting war in Iraq. Here, the money will be used to help our fellow Americans do somethign other than fight and die for a cause that's never been fully explained.

Second, it's been an eye opener to see "refugees" from an American City, looking like they were from a third world country. The lesson here is that poverty doesn'g to away just because you chose not to look at it. Barbara Bush was right. The refugees, once relocated, will be living better than they were at home in the Big Easy. Blame whoever you want, but the people I saw on TV were not the tourists bussed out before the storm hit, but urban poor - seemingly all African American.

Make all the noise you want about "no child lecft behing," these are an entired class of people left behind. And you'lld find them in all colors and creeds, in every major metropolitan City. They don't need houses and $5,000 - they need a future - a reason to perceive themselves as having a stake in society. Stop throwing them them a fish and teach them how to fish.

It's a shame that it takes a flood to teach us that we have turned away from the Commandment to love our neighbors. Unlike Noah, though, this time only the tourists were spared.
JIM