Good evening, Dave!
I share your pain. And you'll soon see why.
Dave Laird wrote to everyone...
This is not America. This is some other-worldly country, that George W.
Bush, Jr. fantasized along with his ascension to power; this is a pit of
iniquity where his imminence could not be bothered to leave his vacation
to attend to the funeral of thousands of innocent people in the Deep
South. This is a den of vipers where he sits idly by watching his
butt-buddy bureaucrats intone pious-sounding phrases, moving their lips
but not their hearts.
I notice that CBS News tonight reflected on the fact that not
many of those who were enduring this catastrophe were white.
Most of the white population had either already evacuated, or
made arrangements early on to to avoid the worst. Almost the
entire gauntlet of those desperate souls were black, African
Americans, most of which were impoverished. Even more so now
than before.
Why did it take five wrenching days to get food, water, and
immediate assistance while thousands perished? Several US
military bases surround the area, including Corpus Christi, TX,
Biloxi, Mississippi.
It was also pointed out on CBS News tonight, that only a small
fraction of Louisiana's National Guard were present to respond to
this catastrophe. The rest, including much of the State National
Guard's equipment were in Iraq!
You're right about one important thing as well. As you just
pointed out, this amounts to a failure on the magnitude and scale
of most third world countries, that even respond much more
quickly, and seem to have more energy to save the living than our
own Federal government displayed in this tragedy.
The stench of the lying bodies on the streets and bridges in New
Orleans matches nicely with the stench of the present
Administration in power over the executive branch of this
prostitute government. I am deeply appalled by it all, and I
don't particularly care what people might think of me as a result
of my criticism.
It was mentioned just earlier tonight on a documentary, that the
paltry sum appropriated by Congress for immediate aid to the
victims in this tragedy is about as much as it takes to float the
US invasion of Iraq for one week! I guess we know where the
hearts and minds of the current Administration lie.
People had foretold what has happened in New Orleans years and years ago,
and despite all the high-technology and verbiage from Homeland Security's
Alan Chertok, no one bothered to ever take those warnings seriously. No
one bothered to even examine the prodigious number of learned studies that
indicated what would happen if a Category 5 hurricane hit New Orleans,
even a glancing blow. No one in government even bothered to examine the
predictions about Biloxi, many of which were mentioned here, in this
humble place, as recently as three years ago. Too little, too late.
My guess is that we haven't seen or heard the freight train
coming down the tunnel at full speed as a result of this tragedy
either. Six refineries have been knocked out. The Shrub wants
to offer millions of barrels of petroleum from the Nation's
Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Problem is, we no longer have the
refinery capacity to process any more petroleum than is already
available. The price of petroleum actually dropped today on the
world market. The problem is, one third of this nation's
domestic capacity to deliver and refine petroleum was wiped out
in this catastrophe. We have not built a new refinery in the US
for over three decades!
I have to wonder if Becky Kivac is even alive. She was not in good health
at the time the hurricane took aim at Biloxi; God knows if she survived,
or if she survived, which shelter she is eking out a hellish existence
tonight.
I wish I had a way of contacted Becky as well tonight. Sadly,
the phone lines are down in New Orleans, and perhaps it will take
weeks before any semblance of normal communication occurs.
Despite my years of being somewhat jaundiced about government in general,
I will never look at the federal government in quite the same way again.
Boy, you got that one right! But it's probably not over by a
long shot either. Wait for the economic costs to hit home! And
it will. A major slice of the deep water ports that carry this
nation's cargo transit the region, including food essentials. It
was predicted just today that we will be paying a LOT MORE in the
coming weeks and months as this cargo is diverted elsewhere.
And, then there's the oil thing again. Just today, the cost for
ocean transit of petroleum to the US has DOUBLED! Now, I wonder
just how something like that happened, don't you?
They are hideously-inadequate at the job of protection, and even worse at
responding like decent human beings in the face of an unprecedented
disaster.
Now, let's see how many of the countries where U.S. forces have responded
to help others in need in the past will send help. Let's just wait and see.
I guess the UN will likely come in to help bail us out! Wouldn't
that be a humiliating outcome, but probably predictable under our
current leadership's mindset. I'm not about to discount that
possibility either. It likely WILL happen.
Most of the so-called evacuees were good tax-paying God-fearing citizens
who went to work each day, paid their bills and tried to live good lives.
No one, not even scurrilous the crumb-snatchers of society, deserve to be
treated as poorly as our government are treating people in New Orleans,
Biloxi and Gulfport. And it's being done in MY name, YOUR name, and in the
name of good government.
When talking about the US Federal government, it is an oxymoron
to call it 'good'.
The only bright side of this all is that we sent Jesse Jackson to
Mississippi. Perhaps he will finally do the right thing and try to provide
decent housing, drinking water and food for 250,000 plus homeless in the
Deep South.
Of course, your thoughts may differ.
I still believe we are long, long overdue for a regime change in
our own country. I predict it is going to get a lot, lot worse,
long before it begin to get better in this country; that is, if
it ever does again. We can't change mother nature. But we still
have the power to change this stinking sordid mess we call the
Federal government, probably by abolishing it as we know it and
start from scratch.
Kindest regards,
Frank
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