After trying to articulate to some good folks in Alabama of late who consider themselves conservatives why it is obvious George W. Bush is a terrible president, it has just come to my attention, thanks to the totally inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, why this is the case.

The problem with these Christian Conservative Cowboys now running our government is that they are great at bashing government, but not worth a damn at running it.

The lack of a single Red Cross vehicle or worker in New Orleans STILL should also shut up anyone who would say the problem should be handled by the private sector, which is what all the yeehaw Alabama dumbasses have been saying on news talk radio all week long.

In the event of any kind of disaster it is the role of government to respond.

In fact, in the case of a natural disaster such as Katrina, it is the job of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to lead the charge. But under the Bush administration, FEMA was moved over to a giant new bureaucracy called the Department of Homeland Security.

You would think even Alabama dumbasses would rail against all this bureaucracy, which is clearly part of the problem in getting any food or water to the poor people of New Orleans for four full days after the hurricane and the flood.

But apparently many of these otherwise good people are either (a) so enamored of Bush’s George Wallace-like appeal to their faith and meaningless issues such as prayer in the schools, or (b) so pro-business and anti-taxes, that they cannot understand that government is necessary to run any civilized society.

Who now heads FEMA and what did he do in the face of this crisis?

Michael D. Brown, under secretary of homeland security for emergency preparedness and response, is supposed to be in charge.

Where was he for the first four days?

In a Washington, D.C., television studio doing interviews with CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.

In short, he was doing public relations for the Bush administration while the people of New Orleans drowned and starved.

If this administration had any sense of responsibility at all, Mr. Brown should be fired on the spot.

If I had anything to say about it, he would be banished to the infamous Orleans Parish Prison, now totally flooded, and forced to sit there in the heat and humidity with all the inmates seen two days ago on CNN as the water poured through the vents on the roof.

Do you really expect Exxon-Mobile to do anything or give a damn as they sit in their cushy offices in Houston, Texas, and watch the billions and billions of dollars in profits roll in?

Even the conservative Bill O’Reilly on Fox News two nights ago suggested that the big oil companies should sacrifice 20 percent of their “profit” at this time “for the good of the country.”

Right. The big oil companies, and the Bush administration, do not give a damn about the country or its government. Apparently they want to cripple government so the corporations and the churches can take over.

Well, the American people, at least the one’s not totally in partisan denial, should now see why electing these anti-government Republicans to run the government can only lead to disaster.

The Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans endorsed Mr. Bush for president in 2000. But the editorial board broke from the other Newhouse papers in the country in 2004 and endorsed Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic Party nominee, in a somewhat unenthusiastic editorial. It came down to “anyone but Bush.”

As the editorial board said a couple of days ago in an editorial reprinted below:

“The president’s admission of his administration’s mistakes will mean nothing unless the promised help is deployed immediately. Each life is precious, and there isn’t a second chance to save a single one of them. No more talk of what’s going to happen. We only want to hear what is being done. The lives of our people depend on it.”

Let’s just hope when the next election rolls around, other newspapers and TV news stations will remember – and remind the people. We must hold our elected officials accountable if we are to remain a viable democracy.

Otherwise, we may as well have remained a part of the British Empire and never fought The Revolution.

And in an ultimate bit of irony, you may recall that the most decisive and definitive battle in that war was won in The Battle of New Orleans. People of all races turned out to fight the British with all manner of primitive weapons and garden tools.

I had the privilege a couple of years ago of researching and writing about this on the 200th Anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase.

The Deal That Made an Empire

As I write this today, The Cabildo in the French Quarter, where the treaty was signed, is at risk of being lost to history.

Does anyone really think this arrogant, privileged, Ivy League frat boy in the White House really gives a damn? He has never, ever had to pay any price for his own failures, including a number of DUI arrests in his college days or business debacles before he was elected governor of Texas.

He was a C-student in History at Yale, but I doubt if he knows a single fact about the Battle of New Orleans or the Louisiana Purchase. He only knows what Karl Rove tells him. And that, my friends and enemies, ain’t saying much.

Tags: Hurricane Season 2005

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