Vice president Cheney, otherwise
known as Mr. Cool Efficiency, was not quite ready for the up close and
personal huggy-kissy photo-ops favored by Bush, certainly not with
exhausted African Americans who had just survived their toxic hell, who
would have hugged the devil if he looked like help. So, while accompanied
by Gonzales and Chertoff, Cheney avoided the poisonous stink of New
Orleans, the place that has slung some invective at the Bush government,
and instead went to Mississippi. He didn’t totally escape negativity,
though, since a passerby let go with an expletive, followed by a local
woman who commented:
“I think this media opportunity
is a waste of time and taxpayer’s money. They’ve picked a nice
neighborhood (to visit) where people have insurance and most are
Republicans.”
Addressing the much asked
questions: What went wrong was: no immediate help. Whereas what
went right was: the excellent behavior of the majority of the people
who were abandoned for so long in the convention center, in spite of their
abject misery, in spite of their anger and frustration, in spite of the
presence of an armed and dangerous criminal element. It was bad enough
that babies died from dehydration, but people were robbed and murdered, as
well.
It’s interesting to note that FEMA’s role was redefined under Bush’s reign, folding it into Homeland
Security and limiting its initiative, so that it could only react
to state and local requests for aid, slowing the process. Add to this: the
American Federation of Fed Employees complained last year, to Congress,
that FEMA professionals were shoved aside to accommodate inexperienced
contractors. (pals of the administration?) And when Katrina was racing
across the warm waters of the Gulf Of Mexico, staff Watch Center FEMA
officials in Washington could see what was about to happen, and they
wondered why FEMA wasn't sending buses to the threatened coastal areas to
evacuate the people.
Poor New Orleans. Our American
Venice has succumbed to the indifferent machinations of stupid politics,
as well as the impervious mindlessness of nature, a cruel and deadly
combination which has so devastated the lives of thousands, so many of
whom are poor, or working poor, of whom a goodly amount, elderly and
infirm, have become the bodies that were stacked on the levees.
Our “Mission Accomplished” president, who loves invoking 9/11 whenever
it’s to his advantage, was reelected because he was the self-proclaimed
take-charge strong man, who would be the ultimate authority and would
protect us. But whatever he was during 9/11 he no longer is. And Bush, who
seems to have a congenital incapacity regarding the admission of any kind
of mistake, especially as this inability relates to the appointments he
has made, found himself in what would appear to be an untenable position
regarding his naming of Michael Brown to be head of FEMA, the man to whom
he publically said, “You’re doing a heck of a job.”