Author: Parker

First they came for the Sanctimonious women’s studies set
and I did not speak out
because I was not the in Sanctimonious women’s studies set.

Then they came for the Touchy-feely hippy types that thinks war is inherently bad
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Touchy-feely hippy types that thinks war is inherently bad.

Then they came for the Idiotic LBGT groups
and I did not speak out
because I was not an Idiotic LBGT.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me

Democrats made these mean spirited and ignorant statements. The entire country is facing the plight of the people of New Orleans, coping with the dangers of Republican hell and Democratic high water. One party is proud of its viciousness while the other claims not to be vicious but proudly proclaims its willingness to shoot desperate refugees.

The degree of Democratic callousness in the New Orleans tragedy may be shocking at first, but it is actually consistent with the direction the party has taken for the past two decades. The Democrats are dying a slow political death. Their inaction and acquiescence in New Orleans is just the latest symptom presented by a terminal patient.

In the summer of 2005 President Bush’s approval ratings took a dive. The plunge was not the result of any shrewd political moves by the Democrats. Iraq is dragging Bush down. His approval ratings are akin to Richard Nixon’s at the time of his resignation during the Watergate scandal. The issue that could have catapulted John Kerry into the White House is rearing its head yet again, but Democrats refuse to take up the challenge.

Not only do they refuse to fight, but they aren’t shy about admitting their cowardice. Party leadership boldly states for the record that they will continue to support a president whose policies have now become a liability for his own administration. They repeat John Kerry’s losing talking points as if they were religious scripture. Hillary Clinton, the likely nominee in 2008, advocates sending more troops to Iraq. Only one Democratic Senator, Russell Feingold, has publicly called for a withdrawal of American troops.

The rest make baffling appeals to their fellow Democrats to stay on the sinking ship. “The smartest thing Democrats can do is be supportive,” opines former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry. It has to be an historic first for a political party to make a conscious decision not to kick an opposition that is on the ropes.

In the face of the New Orleans disaster Bill Clinton, still the party leader, decided to cheapen himself yet again and fetch the stick when the Bushies threw it. On the same day that the Mayor of New Orleans begged for help and thousands of refugees told horror stories of being left to fend for themselves without food, water or adequate sanitation, Bill Clinton agreed to hang out with Bush 41 and raise corporate cash.

The love fest with the Bushies was a shameful performance. Thousands of people who couldn’t get out of the city followed directions to take refuge in the Superdome. They waited on line for hours and then sat helplessly as the stadium roof didn’t live up the word “super.” The wind and rain they hoped to escape came inside. They lived in fear of assault, reused disposable diapers and urinated on the floor, but the former president had only these words of comfort:

“So I understand why they’re so anxiety-ridden. But they have to understand, by the time it became obvious that they were in the fix they were in, there were a lot of other problems, too.”

Clinton could have been worse. He could have bragged about shoot to kill orders.

If Clinton really wanted to help New Orleans he should have refused the offer to join the old boys network of former presidents. He could have been the voice of an indignant and outraged nation. As a former president he was uniquely qualified to ask why the Department of Homeland Security kept no one in the Gulf Coast secure. He also has, or rather had, the unique ability to send Republicans into a frenzy of rage.

Bill Clinton could have cut short the wait for help with a simple offer to coordinate the relief effort personally. Dubya would have stopped looking like a deer caught in headlights and demanded action, if only to keep Clinton from getting any credit.

Whether the issue is Iraq or hurricane Katrina, millions of Democrats still live in hope that their party will fight for them. Instead they are left disappointed and angry after years of electoral failure and complacency.

New Orleans itself epitomizes the anguish of Democrats. In 2004 it dodged the hurricane Ivan bullet. This city run by black Democrats only reluctantly opened the Superdome to shelter potential refugees. Despite the Ivan warning they did not develop an evacuation plan for the thousands of residents who don’t have cars, the only adequate means of escape. Their plan seemed to consist of hope, denial and wishful thinking that major hurricanes would miss the city and that levees would always hold up.

Republicans won’t suffer when Bush is unable and unwilling to help thousands of Americans suffering from a natural disaster. They won’t suffer when he arrives at the disaster scene and messes up a simple photo-op by laughing and smirking inappropriately and talking about Trent Lott’s destroyed vacation home.

They won’t suffer no matter what they do because the Democrats are impotent. If the Republicans fail, the failure will be theirs alone. The Democrats will only win if by some miracle the Republicans find a way to do themselves in politically. In the meantime the Dems are like New Orleans, under water, engulfed by debris, and unable to answer pleas for help.

Former U.S. Sen. John Breaux, along with other former Louisiana congressional members, engineers, urban planners and economic developers, are banding together to examine Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, Breaux said Saturday.

The Hurricane Katrina Commission will focus on how New Orleans should be rebuilt, not whether it should be rebuilt, he said. “Just as the commission formed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center never sought to recommend whether the twin towers should be rebuilt.”

…

But Breaux said despite what could have been done before Katrina hit to protect New Orleans from the massive flood waters that blanketed the city when its levees failed, neither he nor the national commission he is working to form will be part of “the blame game.”

“This is not the time or forum,” he said, to blame local, state or federal officials. “Blame does not save lives, feed families or compensate for loss.”

He praised city officials for working with Gov. Blanco and the National Guard to evacuate the thousands who were evacuated before the storm and continue to be evacuated and said that each day, the situation is improving.

…

Breaux rejected the idea that food, water and supplies were slow to reach those stranded at the Superdome and Convention Center because of racial motivations.

“Mayor Ray Nagin is an African American, almost the entire New Orleans City Council is made up of African-Americans. To suggest that these African-American leaders would shortchange their own citizens is a suggestion that is absolutely without merit.” [No fingers pointed here!!]

Breaux said areas surrounding New Orleans with a higher percentage of white were just as slow to receive supplies.

M. O’BRIEN: Let me ask you this, though. Let’s flip this around for a moment. This is kind of turning in, I’m seeing shreds of this on the web and on the blogs of this being the allegation is that Democrats are using this as a political issue. What to you say to that?

BREAUX: I’ve heard the racial implications. I would categorically reject that. Our good Mayor Ray Nagin is African- American and almost all the city council is African-American. The sheriff is African-American. The areas south of New Orleans, Plaquemine and St. Bernard Parishes are predominantly white and the rescue efforts down there were certainly no faster. If anything, they were slower down there.

M. O’BRIEN: I’m talking also, though, about Democrats using this to make political hay with elections upcoming. In that own way, that’s reprehensible too, isn’t it?

BREAUX: That is totally reprehensible. There will be time to find out what went right and what went wrong. But I think it’s not the time to start talking about political implications. I’m a Democrat. I would heartedly reject that. People are trying as hard as they can to get what is done, being done accomplished right away. Should it have been done sooner? Absolutely, no question about it. But there will be a lot of time for soul searching later on.

While Nagin has previously said he didn’t think the slow response was related to the demographic of the overwhelmingly poor, African-American crowd that needed rescuing, his thinking has evolved.

“Definitely class, and the more I think about it, definitely race played into this,” he said. “How do you treat people that just want to walk across the bridge and get out, and they’re turned away, because you can’t come to a certain parish? How do resources get stacked up outside the city of New Orleans and they don’t make their way in? How do you not bring one piece of ice?

“If it’s race, fine, let’s call a spade a spade, a diamond a diamond. We can never let this happen again. Even if you hate black people and you are in a leadership position, this did not help anybody.”

No demographic is safe, with FEMA eviscerated by privatization and transfer of responsibilities to an untested and unprepared DHS. That’s what it looks to me. nonetheless, it seems obvious that issues of class and race affected the response — why wouldn’t they?

Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Louisiana

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.

The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

Representing FEMA, Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Department of Homeland Security, named William Lokey as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: FEMA (202) 646-4600.

Compare and contrast with the full and specific statewide list of parishes and the services they will receive issued after the storm hit.

…

UPDATE: I’ve received numerous emails explaining that all of the coastal parishes were already declared disaster areas because of Tropical Storm Cindy, which struck in June.  Checking with FEMA’s own website… nope.  Only five coastal parishes — Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and St. Charles — seem to be covered here, and only on a limited basis at that.

This is explicitly confirmed by the presidential authorization of August 23, as posted on the White House website.

As speculated here, Bush was pressuring La. Gov. Blanco to federalize the National Guard. Blanco resisted fearing she would lose control of the rescure and reconstruction effort. Apparently this battle went on Friday night. On Saturday, before the president’s speech, she faxed Bush a letter confirming that she would not allow the Guard to be federalized. Apparently they would lose their power to aid in police efforts.

So, so far, so good. Maybe Blanco was wrong.

The kicker, though, is that Gen. Russell Honoree, The Ragin’ Cajun who is in charge of the relief effort, said HE didn’t need the Guard federalized either. Honoree was pissed and said “the big brains” better get together to figure this stuff out.

Maybe a military coup would be a positive thing?

President George W. Bush announced on Monday that he wants appeals court judge John Roberts, who is awaiting Senate confirmation hearings this week to serve on the Supreme Court, to succeed the late William Rehnquist as U.S. chief justice.