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How San Francisco Should Help Hurricane Victims
The talk of the town yesterday was about how San Francisco should deal with the Hurricane victims. Should 200-300 public housing units be given to New Orleans’ families ahead of San Franciscans who have spent years on the waiting list? Is there any plans for a comprehensive approach involving jobs, childcare, housing subsidies, and school assistance for those to be temporarily housed at St. Mary’s Cathedral? It’s easy to offer short-term help, but San Francisco’s political leaders should allocate enough money so that other cities, states, and even the federal government are shamed into spending a proportionate share of their budgets on alleviating urban poverty.
After the 1991 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, America spent a few weeks contemplating the intersection of poverty and race. After fourteen years, Hurricane Katrina has brought renewed focus to this problem, and this time activists should do everything possible to ensure that society doesn’t get off the hook with quick, short-term remedies.
The best way to accomplish this is for San Francisco to take the lead in offering comprehensive assistance to former New Orleans residents. This means making a public, binding commitment of funds and/or services and then calling upon other cities, states and the national government to make a proportionate investment in the longterm eradication of urban poverty.
When Supervisor Chris Daly asked his colleagues for $1 million to aid tsunami relief, he was attacked in the media for foolish spending priorities. But the cost of permanently housing and finding jobs and income support for 300 New Orleans relocates will easily exceed $1 million, and the racial dynamics of this crisis will likely have the Mayor and Board of Supervisors clamoring to spend whatever is necessary.
San Franciscans often question their potential influence over national politics, but in this case the city is well positioned to provide national leadership. Once Mayor Newsom and the Board of Supervisors come out for a multimillion dollar economic assistance package for relocates from an area thousands of miles away, it will prove very difficult for other major city and state governments across America to avoid making proportional contributions.
As public pressure pushes mayors and governors to match San Francisco’s generosity, these officials will call on Washington DC to take the lead in providing billions in new federal urban action funds. With Republican efforts to woo black voters having been demolished by Katrina, the Party’s only hope in regaining their footing is by supporting urban programs that they never would have considered only two weeks ago.
There is already some local unrest over assistance planned for those coming from New Orleans. I heard from someone yesterday who is among the top 120 on the Housing Authority waiting list---they wanted to know how it was legal for people from outside San Francisco to get ahead of them in the line.
Others have asked me why if San Francisco had 200-300 public housing units available, they were not being occupied by families who are homeless and/or living in SRO’s.
These concerns are understandable. The only way to avoid the perception that New Orleans victims are simply taking resources from other deserving poor people is to expand the size of the pie---and that means getting the Bush Administration to increase funding on urban development programs it has spent years working to slash.
Is such a scenario possible under the reactionary President Bush ? Yes. Here’s why.
Unlike Iraq and other issues, Republican politicians and right-wing media figures expressed anger from the start at the lack of federal response to Katrina. The hurricane powerfully revealed the human cost of Republican-led tax breaks for the wealthy and cuts to programs for the poor, and nothing angers Republicans more than to be exposed as selfish and uncaring.
Although the Bush Administration is now offering $50 billion for hurricane relief, none of these funds address the race and poverty issues uncovered by the flood. Once this critical fact gets highlighted---and San Francisco officials can help lead the way-- the President and Republican congressional leaders will have to support some funding program that at least appears to be attacking urban poverty.
Oakland Congressmember Barbara Lee understands that the moment of opportunity has opened up for a federal anti-poverty initiative, and is scheduled to introduce legislation today requiring the federal government to develop a plan to end poverty in America by 2020. Few, however, will ever hear about Lee’s measure, and the same will hold true by proposals coming from other progressive Congressmembers.
That’s why it is so critical for big city mayors and local legislative bodies to make their own financial commitments as a spur to state and federal action. They can garner local media attention that is taken seriously by federal officials, and harness ongoing media coverage in a way Congressmembers---even San Francisco’s Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi---cannot.
It’s called putting our money where our mouth is. Once San Francisco allocates millions of its own dollars, nobody in the Bush Administration or Fox News Network will be able to credibly challenge San Francisco’s pushing other government entities to follow suit.
As an alternative, San Francisco can keep a low profile and avoid pressing others to do more. We can then wait a decade or more for another crisis to spotlight race and poverty, all the while bemoaning the missed opportunities of the past.
The best way to accomplish this is for San Francisco to take the lead in offering comprehensive assistance to former New Orleans residents. This means making a public, binding commitment of funds and/or services and then calling upon other cities, states and the national government to make a proportionate investment in the longterm eradication of urban poverty.
When Supervisor Chris Daly asked his colleagues for $1 million to aid tsunami relief, he was attacked in the media for foolish spending priorities. But the cost of permanently housing and finding jobs and income support for 300 New Orleans relocates will easily exceed $1 million, and the racial dynamics of this crisis will likely have the Mayor and Board of Supervisors clamoring to spend whatever is necessary.
San Franciscans often question their potential influence over national politics, but in this case the city is well positioned to provide national leadership. Once Mayor Newsom and the Board of Supervisors come out for a multimillion dollar economic assistance package for relocates from an area thousands of miles away, it will prove very difficult for other major city and state governments across America to avoid making proportional contributions.
As public pressure pushes mayors and governors to match San Francisco’s generosity, these officials will call on Washington DC to take the lead in providing billions in new federal urban action funds. With Republican efforts to woo black voters having been demolished by Katrina, the Party’s only hope in regaining their footing is by supporting urban programs that they never would have considered only two weeks ago.
There is already some local unrest over assistance planned for those coming from New Orleans. I heard from someone yesterday who is among the top 120 on the Housing Authority waiting list---they wanted to know how it was legal for people from outside San Francisco to get ahead of them in the line.
Others have asked me why if San Francisco had 200-300 public housing units available, they were not being occupied by families who are homeless and/or living in SRO’s.
These concerns are understandable. The only way to avoid the perception that New Orleans victims are simply taking resources from other deserving poor people is to expand the size of the pie---and that means getting the Bush Administration to increase funding on urban development programs it has spent years working to slash.
Is such a scenario possible under the reactionary President Bush ? Yes. Here’s why.
Unlike Iraq and other issues, Republican politicians and right-wing media figures expressed anger from the start at the lack of federal response to Katrina. The hurricane powerfully revealed the human cost of Republican-led tax breaks for the wealthy and cuts to programs for the poor, and nothing angers Republicans more than to be exposed as selfish and uncaring.
Although the Bush Administration is now offering $50 billion for hurricane relief, none of these funds address the race and poverty issues uncovered by the flood. Once this critical fact gets highlighted---and San Francisco officials can help lead the way-- the President and Republican congressional leaders will have to support some funding program that at least appears to be attacking urban poverty.
Oakland Congressmember Barbara Lee understands that the moment of opportunity has opened up for a federal anti-poverty initiative, and is scheduled to introduce legislation today requiring the federal government to develop a plan to end poverty in America by 2020. Few, however, will ever hear about Lee’s measure, and the same will hold true by proposals coming from other progressive Congressmembers.
That’s why it is so critical for big city mayors and local legislative bodies to make their own financial commitments as a spur to state and federal action. They can garner local media attention that is taken seriously by federal officials, and harness ongoing media coverage in a way Congressmembers---even San Francisco’s Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi---cannot.
It’s called putting our money where our mouth is. Once San Francisco allocates millions of its own dollars, nobody in the Bush Administration or Fox News Network will be able to credibly challenge San Francisco’s pushing other government entities to follow suit.
As an alternative, San Francisco can keep a low profile and avoid pressing others to do more. We can then wait a decade or more for another crisis to spotlight race and poverty, all the while bemoaning the missed opportunities of the past.
For more information:
http://www.beyondchron.org/default.asp?sou...
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I think some of the evacuees could live in the Getty Mansion. I mean Gavin and Kimberly are living there presumably rent-free. And it is just the two of them, less the servants of course.
Perhaps Gavin and Kimberly could then move in to one of those TIC's that they are so hot about shoving down our throats.
Perhaps Gavin and Kimberly could then move in to one of those TIC's that they are so hot about shoving down our throats.
Food Not Bombs volunteers from around the world have come together to help the survivors of Katrina. Since FEMA and the government have shown themselves to be unable and/or unwilling to help people in need, FNB volunteers are doing what they usually do (when the government fails to provide food as usual) combating hunger in non-crisis times, now in this crisis providing healthy vegan food to the people left houseless and hungry after the global warming induced hurricane flooding..
Since the magnitude of this disaster is beyond an ordinary FNB gathering, some extra help is needed. Helping Food Not Bombs circumvents the sluggishness of inept government boreocracy by providing healthy food cooked by available volunteers directly to people in need. The only thing we need to watch out for is if FEMA starts shooting FNB volunteers because they're jealous that FNB can do it better, tastier and more effectively..
Food Not Bombs Katrina website;
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/katrina.html
Food Not Bombs Needs Help Feeding The Victims of Katrina
Updated September 7, 2005. We have new information daily
Food Not Bombs groups all across the southern United States are feeding families displaced by Katrina. Help us get food and supplies past FEMA. We need clothes, cooking equipment, food, cooks and money to provide for thousands of hungry homeless people. We have no overhead, rent or salaries so every donation goes directly to helping people. Many affected by Katrina are familiar with Food Not Bombs because we have been sharing free food in communities through the area for many years. Because we are independent we can take food and supplies to areas where no other agency can reach.
Dozens of people all over America have been calling Food Not Bombs asking what they can do to help the people made homeless by Hurricane Katrina. Food Not Bombs has started organizing buses, vans and truckloads of food, kitchen equipment and clothing to the people fleeing the disaster. It's a real honor that so many people are looking to Food Not Bombs to help. We will try to get food and clothing past FEMA. So far we have busloads of material support and volunteers from Oberlin, Boulder, Madison, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Dayton, Hartford, Tucson, and Saint Petersburg. Volunteers from the west are meeting in Houston and people from the east are meeting in Baton Rouge and Covington, Louisiana. Our kitchen new kitchen is located at Corner of 28th and Tyler in Covington. The Baton Rouge kitchen will be set up shortly. The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus (225-342-7342) is working to open England Air Force Base, a shuttered military installation in Alexandria, Louisiana. We have been invited to set up a kitchen to feed the people living there. The first Food Not Bombs kitchen is outside the Houston Convention Center. Volunteers with Houston Food Not Bombs are setting up an FM radio station in the Astrodome and they are handing out radios to 10,000 people. Please let us know if you can help.
Because this disaster may last 6 months to a year or more we intend to set up Food Not Bombs field kitchens throughout the region. Food Not Bombs is encouraging the refugees to participate in cooking, serving and collecting the food. Their participation may be one of the most therapeutic things we can provide. It is possible that as many as a million people will be homeless for the next 6 months as a result of this disaster. Even if you can't go to the disaster area we need lots of help in your community. The number of people we need to feed is growing all across America as people are taken away from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. We are trying to share food every day in your community. Please call to see how you can help in your area.
In a few weeks many of these people will be considered regular members of America's homeless population. In 1989, Food Not Bombs fed the people made homeless by the earthquake and after a few weeks the working class victims were forgotten and faced the same problems as those who were homeless before the earthquake. Because this could be such a long crisis it may be better for us to teach people how to organize their own local Food Not Bombs group so they can provide long-term support.
There are some things you can do that can help us respond effectively to this disaster.
Organize a meeting this week - calling, emailing and posting flyers about the need for people to help and the day, time and location of the meeting.
At the meeting organize groups to call for food donations, another group to call for propane stoves, tanks of gas, tables and cooking equipment. Ask another group to get more volunteers.
Choose a time date and location of where your vehicles will gather to take the trip to the disaster area.
Collect 25 and 50 pound bags of rice, beans, 25 and 50-pound bags of rice, beans, black-eyed peas, lentils and any other large amounts of dry goods, pasta or non perishable food. We can also use propane stoves, kitchen equipment, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and other personal items.
Stay in touch by emailing Katrina [at] foodnotbombs.net or calling 1-800-884-1136.
The Houston Kitchen can be called at 713-802-9642
Volunteer to feed the hungry and help the victims of Katrina
Katrina [at] foodnotbombs.net
Print out a flyer to copy and post in your community
Print out a letter you can caopy to help you collect donations of food and supplies.
These groups and companies have made this possible.
Locations to drop off food and supplies
Locations to drop off food and supplies
Locations to drop off food and supplies
Help feed the victims of Katrina, PLEASE DONATE HERE!
A FOOD NOT BOMBS MENU
PO Box 744, Tucson, AZ 85702-0744 - U$A
1-800-884-1136
Since the magnitude of this disaster is beyond an ordinary FNB gathering, some extra help is needed. Helping Food Not Bombs circumvents the sluggishness of inept government boreocracy by providing healthy food cooked by available volunteers directly to people in need. The only thing we need to watch out for is if FEMA starts shooting FNB volunteers because they're jealous that FNB can do it better, tastier and more effectively..
Food Not Bombs Katrina website;
http://www.foodnotbombs.net/katrina.html
Food Not Bombs Needs Help Feeding The Victims of Katrina
Updated September 7, 2005. We have new information daily
Food Not Bombs groups all across the southern United States are feeding families displaced by Katrina. Help us get food and supplies past FEMA. We need clothes, cooking equipment, food, cooks and money to provide for thousands of hungry homeless people. We have no overhead, rent or salaries so every donation goes directly to helping people. Many affected by Katrina are familiar with Food Not Bombs because we have been sharing free food in communities through the area for many years. Because we are independent we can take food and supplies to areas where no other agency can reach.
Dozens of people all over America have been calling Food Not Bombs asking what they can do to help the people made homeless by Hurricane Katrina. Food Not Bombs has started organizing buses, vans and truckloads of food, kitchen equipment and clothing to the people fleeing the disaster. It's a real honor that so many people are looking to Food Not Bombs to help. We will try to get food and clothing past FEMA. So far we have busloads of material support and volunteers from Oberlin, Boulder, Madison, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Dayton, Hartford, Tucson, and Saint Petersburg. Volunteers from the west are meeting in Houston and people from the east are meeting in Baton Rouge and Covington, Louisiana. Our kitchen new kitchen is located at Corner of 28th and Tyler in Covington. The Baton Rouge kitchen will be set up shortly. The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus (225-342-7342) is working to open England Air Force Base, a shuttered military installation in Alexandria, Louisiana. We have been invited to set up a kitchen to feed the people living there. The first Food Not Bombs kitchen is outside the Houston Convention Center. Volunteers with Houston Food Not Bombs are setting up an FM radio station in the Astrodome and they are handing out radios to 10,000 people. Please let us know if you can help.
Because this disaster may last 6 months to a year or more we intend to set up Food Not Bombs field kitchens throughout the region. Food Not Bombs is encouraging the refugees to participate in cooking, serving and collecting the food. Their participation may be one of the most therapeutic things we can provide. It is possible that as many as a million people will be homeless for the next 6 months as a result of this disaster. Even if you can't go to the disaster area we need lots of help in your community. The number of people we need to feed is growing all across America as people are taken away from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. We are trying to share food every day in your community. Please call to see how you can help in your area.
In a few weeks many of these people will be considered regular members of America's homeless population. In 1989, Food Not Bombs fed the people made homeless by the earthquake and after a few weeks the working class victims were forgotten and faced the same problems as those who were homeless before the earthquake. Because this could be such a long crisis it may be better for us to teach people how to organize their own local Food Not Bombs group so they can provide long-term support.
There are some things you can do that can help us respond effectively to this disaster.
Organize a meeting this week - calling, emailing and posting flyers about the need for people to help and the day, time and location of the meeting.
At the meeting organize groups to call for food donations, another group to call for propane stoves, tanks of gas, tables and cooking equipment. Ask another group to get more volunteers.
Choose a time date and location of where your vehicles will gather to take the trip to the disaster area.
Collect 25 and 50 pound bags of rice, beans, 25 and 50-pound bags of rice, beans, black-eyed peas, lentils and any other large amounts of dry goods, pasta or non perishable food. We can also use propane stoves, kitchen equipment, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and other personal items.
Stay in touch by emailing Katrina [at] foodnotbombs.net or calling 1-800-884-1136.
The Houston Kitchen can be called at 713-802-9642
Volunteer to feed the hungry and help the victims of Katrina
Katrina [at] foodnotbombs.net
Print out a flyer to copy and post in your community
Print out a letter you can caopy to help you collect donations of food and supplies.
These groups and companies have made this possible.
Locations to drop off food and supplies
Locations to drop off food and supplies
Locations to drop off food and supplies
Help feed the victims of Katrina, PLEASE DONATE HERE!
A FOOD NOT BOMBS MENU
PO Box 744, Tucson, AZ 85702-0744 - U$A
1-800-884-1136
New Orleans and San Francisco are sister cities in more ways than one.
Now is the time to repudiate all cant, intolerance, and nay-saying to show that San Francisco can lead the way here.
This city has can find the money and resources to make this happen. This country is crying for a new direction.
Opportunists need not apply.
Now is the time to repudiate all cant, intolerance, and nay-saying to show that San Francisco can lead the way here.
This city has can find the money and resources to make this happen. This country is crying for a new direction.
Opportunists need not apply.
No Direction Home
By CHRIS FLOYD
"How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home."
Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone"
Let's be clear about one thing. Nothing that has happened in the past week -- the mass destruction in the Mississippi Delta, the obliteration of the city of New Orleans, the murderous abandonment of thousands of people to death, chaos and disease will change the Bush Administration or American politics at all. Not one whit. The Bush Administration will not reverse its brutal policies; its Congressional rubber-stamps will not revolt against the White House; the national Democrats will not suddenly grow a spine. There will be no real change, and the bitter corrosion of injustice, indifference and inhumanity that is consuming American society will go on as before.
One proof of this can be found in the first polls coming out after the disaster, which show that a full 46 percent of the American people approve of Bush's handling of the relief effort. It seems inconceivable that any sentient being could witness the agonizing results of the Bush team's dithering, dilatory response an agony played out in the full glare of non-stop media coverage and not come away with a sense of towering anger at this criminal incompetence. But it's obvious that nearly half the American people have now left the "reality-based community" altogether; they see only what they want to see, a world bathed in the hazy, golden nimbus of the Leader. The fact the undeniable truth that behind this carefully-concocted mirage lies nothing more than a steaming pile of rancid, rotting offal means nothing to these true believers. The Lie is better, the Lie is more comforting, the Lie lets them keep feeding on the suffering of others without guilt or shame.
This painful split between obvious reality and popular perception is nothing new, of course. Today we look at old footage of Adolf Hitler and wonder how on earth such a pathetic and ludicrous creature could ever have commanded the adoration and obedience of tens of millions of people. Yet he did. As Eliot said, "Human kind cannot bear very much reality."
The fact that a few conservative commentators and politicians are making mild criticisms of Bush means nothing. There has been much trumpeting of the remarks by David Brooks of the New York Times that Bush's manifest failures in the Delta coming after the debacle of the Iraq occupation, the torture revelations, etc. could be a "watershed" moment when the nation loses faith in its institutions, a situation Brooks likened to the 1970s. But even in making these comments on one hand, Brooks was taking them back with the other, saying clearly that he might "get over" his disappointment with Bush soon enough. Think of it: Brooks has watched people literally dying before his very eyes after being abandoned to their fate for days by Bush's criminal negligence and he thinks he can "get over" that at some point, and give his full-throated approval to the Leader once again.
This is the general mind-set (if you want to dignify the inch-deep shallowness of Brooks' intellect with the word "mind") of all the conservative critics: gosh, Bush really dropped the ball on this one! He'd better turn the PR thing around, or he might lose some of the "political capital" he needs to "advance his second-term agenda." That's it. That's as far as it goes.
After all, they fully support the "agenda" more war, more tax cuts for the rich, more impunity for big corporations, more welfare for the oil barons, the coal barons, the nuke barons, more coddling of elite investors, more state power for Christian extremists, more media consolidation, more graft, more kickbacks, more easy money for greasy palms. And now that Karl Rove has finally figured out his response employing brazen lies to smear state and local officials you will very quickly see the conservative critics, especially in Congress, fall into lockstep with the porcine counsellor's program.
By the time Congress holds hearings into the disaster, they'll be singing love songs to the Leader; the hearings themselves will doubtless turn into a pageant of heroic tableaux -- glittering stories of the heroic federal effort to rescue the perishing, all of it driven by the calm and steady hand of the Commander-in-chief. Oh, there might be a scapegoat or two for the Congressmen to pummel with puff-cheeked righteous rage for the cameras. But anyone hoping for a fearless, presidency-shaking probe will be disappointed.
Just as the media have always overhyped Bush's popularity, they are now overhyping the "political crisis" he is supposedly facing. There is no political crisis whatsoever, if by "political crisis" you mean something that will cause Bush to alter his policies. The war in Iraq will go on. The war against the poor will go on. The slow destruction of middle-class security and stability will go on. The long and ferocious rightwing campaign against the very idea of a "common good" will go on, unabated perhaps even strengthened as it faces a backlash from the half of the American public that actually accepts the reality of what they saw in New Orleans and all along the ravaged Gulf Coast.
This is what you must understand: Bush and his faction do not care if they have "the consent of the governed" or not. They are not interested in governing at all, in responding to the needs and desires and will of the people. They are only interested in ruling, in using the power of the state to force their radical agenda of elitist aggrandizement and ideological crankery on the nation, and on the world.
They have a large, hard core of true believers who will countenance even applaud any crime, any corruption, any incompetence of the Leader and his minions. With this base, and with all of the branches of government already in their hands, the Faction need only procure the reluctant support of just a small percentage of the rest of the population through fearmongering, through smears and lies, and, as we saw in 2000 and 2004, through the manipulation of election results via politically connected voting-machine corporations and politically partisan election officials.
None of this will change because of what happened in New Orleans. If these people could be touched by suffering and injustice, by death and destruction, by corruption and incompetence, then they would not be where they are today. If there was a viable opposition in the American Establishment to Bush's policies, it would have stood up long ago. Like the people left behind in New Orleans, we're all on our own "with no direction home."
How does it feel?
Chris Floyd is a columnist for The Moscow Times and regular contributor to CounterPunch. A new, upgraded version of his blog, "Empire Burlesque," can be found at http://www.chris-floyd.com.
Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd09072005.html
By CHRIS FLOYD
"How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home."
Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone"
Let's be clear about one thing. Nothing that has happened in the past week -- the mass destruction in the Mississippi Delta, the obliteration of the city of New Orleans, the murderous abandonment of thousands of people to death, chaos and disease will change the Bush Administration or American politics at all. Not one whit. The Bush Administration will not reverse its brutal policies; its Congressional rubber-stamps will not revolt against the White House; the national Democrats will not suddenly grow a spine. There will be no real change, and the bitter corrosion of injustice, indifference and inhumanity that is consuming American society will go on as before.
One proof of this can be found in the first polls coming out after the disaster, which show that a full 46 percent of the American people approve of Bush's handling of the relief effort. It seems inconceivable that any sentient being could witness the agonizing results of the Bush team's dithering, dilatory response an agony played out in the full glare of non-stop media coverage and not come away with a sense of towering anger at this criminal incompetence. But it's obvious that nearly half the American people have now left the "reality-based community" altogether; they see only what they want to see, a world bathed in the hazy, golden nimbus of the Leader. The fact the undeniable truth that behind this carefully-concocted mirage lies nothing more than a steaming pile of rancid, rotting offal means nothing to these true believers. The Lie is better, the Lie is more comforting, the Lie lets them keep feeding on the suffering of others without guilt or shame.
This painful split between obvious reality and popular perception is nothing new, of course. Today we look at old footage of Adolf Hitler and wonder how on earth such a pathetic and ludicrous creature could ever have commanded the adoration and obedience of tens of millions of people. Yet he did. As Eliot said, "Human kind cannot bear very much reality."
The fact that a few conservative commentators and politicians are making mild criticisms of Bush means nothing. There has been much trumpeting of the remarks by David Brooks of the New York Times that Bush's manifest failures in the Delta coming after the debacle of the Iraq occupation, the torture revelations, etc. could be a "watershed" moment when the nation loses faith in its institutions, a situation Brooks likened to the 1970s. But even in making these comments on one hand, Brooks was taking them back with the other, saying clearly that he might "get over" his disappointment with Bush soon enough. Think of it: Brooks has watched people literally dying before his very eyes after being abandoned to their fate for days by Bush's criminal negligence and he thinks he can "get over" that at some point, and give his full-throated approval to the Leader once again.
This is the general mind-set (if you want to dignify the inch-deep shallowness of Brooks' intellect with the word "mind") of all the conservative critics: gosh, Bush really dropped the ball on this one! He'd better turn the PR thing around, or he might lose some of the "political capital" he needs to "advance his second-term agenda." That's it. That's as far as it goes.
After all, they fully support the "agenda" more war, more tax cuts for the rich, more impunity for big corporations, more welfare for the oil barons, the coal barons, the nuke barons, more coddling of elite investors, more state power for Christian extremists, more media consolidation, more graft, more kickbacks, more easy money for greasy palms. And now that Karl Rove has finally figured out his response employing brazen lies to smear state and local officials you will very quickly see the conservative critics, especially in Congress, fall into lockstep with the porcine counsellor's program.
By the time Congress holds hearings into the disaster, they'll be singing love songs to the Leader; the hearings themselves will doubtless turn into a pageant of heroic tableaux -- glittering stories of the heroic federal effort to rescue the perishing, all of it driven by the calm and steady hand of the Commander-in-chief. Oh, there might be a scapegoat or two for the Congressmen to pummel with puff-cheeked righteous rage for the cameras. But anyone hoping for a fearless, presidency-shaking probe will be disappointed.
Just as the media have always overhyped Bush's popularity, they are now overhyping the "political crisis" he is supposedly facing. There is no political crisis whatsoever, if by "political crisis" you mean something that will cause Bush to alter his policies. The war in Iraq will go on. The war against the poor will go on. The slow destruction of middle-class security and stability will go on. The long and ferocious rightwing campaign against the very idea of a "common good" will go on, unabated perhaps even strengthened as it faces a backlash from the half of the American public that actually accepts the reality of what they saw in New Orleans and all along the ravaged Gulf Coast.
This is what you must understand: Bush and his faction do not care if they have "the consent of the governed" or not. They are not interested in governing at all, in responding to the needs and desires and will of the people. They are only interested in ruling, in using the power of the state to force their radical agenda of elitist aggrandizement and ideological crankery on the nation, and on the world.
They have a large, hard core of true believers who will countenance even applaud any crime, any corruption, any incompetence of the Leader and his minions. With this base, and with all of the branches of government already in their hands, the Faction need only procure the reluctant support of just a small percentage of the rest of the population through fearmongering, through smears and lies, and, as we saw in 2000 and 2004, through the manipulation of election results via politically connected voting-machine corporations and politically partisan election officials.
None of this will change because of what happened in New Orleans. If these people could be touched by suffering and injustice, by death and destruction, by corruption and incompetence, then they would not be where they are today. If there was a viable opposition in the American Establishment to Bush's policies, it would have stood up long ago. Like the people left behind in New Orleans, we're all on our own "with no direction home."
How does it feel?
Chris Floyd is a columnist for The Moscow Times and regular contributor to CounterPunch. A new, upgraded version of his blog, "Empire Burlesque," can be found at http://www.chris-floyd.com.
Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd09072005.html
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