Al Franken Sense

[bedtimeforbonzo]

I'm listening to the unfolding tragedy of the hurricaine, and what strikes me most (beside W's bizarre too little, too little late, almost apathetic recitation of the same old same old "rousing" applause words), are:

* It's the poor who were left behind: Where was the #¤%&/ planning to get them out in time???
* There had been a plan to get the levees ready for this kind of a storm and Bush's (figuratively) admin dropped the funding in order to fund his private oil war. -- Impeach the idiot, for idiot is what he is. His damn tax cut for the rich basically killed all these sort of high-priority projects.
* the refugee poor are almost being locked down! WTF?
* The segment of the looting that isn't about food/survival is a condemnation of decades and decades of estrangement, exclusion and willful neglect. There is a rage there that you wouldn't see here, PRECISELY BECAUSE OF THE WELFARE STATE!!! Citizens need a stake. Citizens need to feel integrated.
* the WELFARE STATEs here would never leave these people in the lucrh. These is social insurance here that would ensure that all persons are cared for. The impression I get from the US here is that its State expects charity and people's sense of stepping up to the plate to take over the role that the Welfare State here would have.

I am simply disgusted by how amatueristic, and aloof the whole US system is. The rich has been gorging on the pig troughs for decades, and the result is a laissez faire system. Of course the public will step up and help, the gov't will do what it can, but it never should have been this Keystone Koppy in the first place. The rich and connected have built up a system of dodging responsibility and we now see how many are left in the lurch, and I damn well know that they will do nothing else but hand out band-aids and just enough money to look good and/or appease what little conscience they might have.

The US has long needed to be more like Scandinavia, NZ, Canada, Germany etc.... Countries that even though the well-to-do do well, the system itself is not based on social Darwinism like the US is.

I felt hope for America in the Vietnam War days when it looked for a while that some effort to level the playing field might succeed. But with Ronnie Raygun, it's been a pig out, that has become a farce under Bush (previewed by the wing-nut attack on Clinton).

I'm in full rant, I know, but I don't care.

I am furious at America for its shoddy management, and now that the shit has hit the fan, the basic decentness of the average man and woman will come through. But for the state to rig the system so that is needed is time and time again--and never has to pay the price--is a failure of political will I just cannot fathom. How were Americans so crushed that it is still such a backward place when so many other nations have built systems that are much more inclusive.

Here's how it should be: OK the people stand up and fix this best as best they can, but in exchange it should be the last time. These Robber barons need to be tossed out in exchange, and let the Finns, Swedes and Norwegians set up the next American government.

I'm damned near ready to give up on the US and never look back. After I give to the American Red Cross, of course.

Sorry to rant, but for crying out loud. If I hear bush's whiny stupid voice one more time with his homilies, I'll spew.

[Frankenette]

[complete]

[Frankenette]

[bedtimeforbonzo]

Dear Complete,

Not to rag on ya, or anything, but I'm a middle-aged egghead who used to teach physical geography at a very large Midwestern university. Thirty years ago hydrologists and geomorphologists were talking about the mess that is the Mississippi river flood-control system.

"Climate change", "global warming" and the "greenhouse effect" were well discussed phenomena in the scientific word, long before it broke through to the public awareness. Ah, hell, it's been in the news at one level or another as long I have been adult.

Cutting to the quick:

A Cat 4 hurricane hitting the US has been only a question of when, not if. And given global warming the impending punch just grows. It's technical, but the mechanisms are known.

So, a cat five is heading toward the US and "get out" is all Bush can say?
I guess our expectations for the guy are kinda rock bottom, aren't they?

How about getting the mobilization effect (trucks, food, troops, water etc...) packing and even rolling south, or ships made ready, all sorts of things EVEN AS THE STORM APPROACHES???

We knew the damned thing would hit somewhere, and the more scientific among us knew CAT 5 mean "Holy Shiiiiit!" But the Bush League is anti-science, so if they took any action at all, I'm sure prayer was the central component. "Dear God, Make it go away, Amen." or "Cantcha Hit Venezuela instead, buddy? Amen."

So as katrina approached it didn't even matter where along the coast it would hit. What mattered was that a response be ready. If nothing else and it missed the Mississippi River valley enough to leave no flooding, I'm sure the normal SNAFUs of a nonscheduled dry run would have been worth gold to learn for the next time.

Methinks it didn't happen for several reasons, not the least being lack of imagination and the compassion part of compassionate conservative.

The preparedness well was dry, the staff in the marshes of Southern Iraq, and the funds long since moved into certain bank accounts through the instrument of income-tax refund check and Hliiburton et al construction projects.

Now, just like Baghdad, where's the military to win the peace? Is Rummy going to come and talk about the looting with

[Bob Dobalina]

This event is a canary in the mine shaft. When you see that an estimated thousand or more will die and hundreds of thousands will be refugees for a good long time to come you can imagine what will happen when a dirty bomb, for example, hits New York City instead of a Hurricane hitting Bumfuck Mississippi.

[complete]

Gelsana wonders why I gave as much money as I possibly could for the Tsunami victims and yet I seemed to be so completely unattached about this Katrina (and the waves) event.

Eventhough we (Gelsana and I) were both unemployed at the time, I gave a large amount to the Tsunami victims.

And yet, now I don't seem to care about this disaster in the Louisiana. She can't understand. She says "...and you were born here " (meaning the United States)

But I just cannot help not feeling sorry for someone who does not move out of the way of a category 5 hurricane. You know, there is no such thing as a category 6 hurricane. That should tell you something. That means, in this plane of reality that we exist in, it is impossible for there to be a stronger storm.

Should we fee badly also if someone does not move out of the way of a speeding run-away truck?

What am I missing here?

[Frankenette]

Some people had not the means to "move out of the way."
_________________
"Of all the varieties of virtues, liberalism is the most beloved." Aristotle

[chickenhawkdown]

[Bob Dobalina]

[complete]

If there is a will, there is a way.

[Frankenette]

[complete]

[Bob Dobalina]

[chickenhawkdown]