Yep, that's right. The richest, most powerful country in the world can't take care of its own.
What was that Bush said about isolationism being bad?
I'm beginning to think it's going to be required if we hope to have a country at all. Bush is so busy spending billions of dollars on his war machine that he's forgetting (intentionally?) to take care of the folks at home.
Bush really is a terrible leader.
For more on Mayor Nagin's plight to get his city back on her feet, check out [http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060207/2006-02-07T002438Z_01_N03281051_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-HURRICANES-AID-DC.html|this February 6, 2006 article] from Reuters.Com and MyWay.Com.
Man--as a major-earthquake-free Los Angelino for the last 11.5 years I get nervous when I think about how the USG would (or would not react) if a major quake were to hit LA. No offense to NOLA, but we've got a lot more going on here and a bad quake could really cause some damage to the American economy. Granted, the Gulf has the oil refineries, but we're one of the biggest shipping ports in the west. Anything made in Asia in your home is very likely to have passed through LA first.
Oh well... if we can just hold out until 2008, maybe then we can get a real leader in the White House (that's if Bush is willing to step down at all).
OH yeah, and I almost forgot about [http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0206-11.htm|this post I found from February 6, 2006] on CommonDreams.Org--it's a short article talking about [http://realnews.org/rn/content/index1e49.html?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&itemid=9|an investigative report] from a website called RealNews.Org. The report goes into great detail regarding how and why FEMA got so fucked up. Essentially, it's all about corruption and the old-boys club. Here's a quick clip from the CommonDreams.Org post:
The report, published by the Real News Project, lays out the checkered pasts of Bush’s first FEMA director, Joe Allbaugh, a longtime confidante of the president, and Michael Brown, the neophyte unaccountably selected by Allbaugh to replace him when Allbaugh left government to launch a career as a consultant and lobbyist.
The report explains for the first time why Allbaugh chose Brown, a man with virtually no experience in government or management of any type, and no familiarity with disaster response, to follow him to Washington, and then arranged for Brown to replace him in the top slot. Allbaugh then began signing up clients who wanted – and got – FEMA’s lucrative contracts.
Both Brown and Allbaugh were accused in the past of fiduciary malfeasance. Before coming to Washington, both were known to associates and creditors not as rising stars but as ethically-challenged, and frequently failed, entrepreneurs.
AMONG THE FINDINGS:
* Brown was fired from his longest-held position, his principal job preceding his hiring at FEMA, for obtaining a personal loan from a prominent horse owner under false pretenses. When an official of the horse association confronted him, Brown tried to make a deal with the man to make the matter go away.
* Allbaugh accepted and defaulted on several questionable loans. These included one from an elderly widow, and another loan guaranteed by a large contractor doing business with the state of Oklahoma while he was a top aide to the governor; he never repaid the loan.
* When Allbaugh left FEMA, he immediately began setting up a network of lobbying interests to benefit from his connections. His clients were selected by FEMA under Brown, and by other agencies, for major contracts.
[http://realnews.org/rn/content/index1e49.html?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&itemid=9|Read the report for yourself] at RealNews.Org.
From Reuters.Com and MyWay.Com:
Mayor: New Orleans will seek aid from other nations
Feb 6, 7:24 PM (ET)
By Michael Depp
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Shortcomings in aid from the U.S. government are making New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin look to other nations for help in rebuilding his hurricane-damaged city.
Nagin, who has hosted a steady stream of foreign dignitaries since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August, says he may seek international assistance because U.S. aid has not been sufficient to get the city back on its feet.
"I know we had a little disappointment earlier with some signals we're getting from Washington but the international community may be able to fill the gap," Nagin said when a delegation of French government and business officials passed through on Friday to explore potential business partnerships.
Jordan's King Abdullah also visited New Orleans on Friday and Nagin said he would encourage foreign interests to help redevelop some of the areas hardest hit by the storm.
"France can take Treme. The king of Jordan can take the Lower Ninth Ward," he said, referring to two of the city's neighborhoods.
Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,300 people in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The Bush administration has pledged billions of dollars to Katrina victims but five months after the storm, New Orleans remains largely in ruins.
Nagin said his message to President George W. Bush would be that the federal government needs to refocus on the devastated area.
"We need your undivided attention over the next six months," he said. "We need backup. We need for you to make the words that you spoke in Jackson Square a reality."
Nagin was referring to the president's September 15 address to the nation from New Orleans, in which he pledged "we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes" to rebuild.
French Transport Minister Dominique Perben, leading the French delegation to a city that was founded by France in 1718, said, "This catastrophe has deeply upset the French people and the French government."
France, Perben said through a translator, "wants to be a long-term partner for Louisiana and New Orleans."
Copyright 2005 Reuters
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