Mississippi Catfish Transcendental Event

I have not been deported, kidnapped by aliens or swept out to sea by some hurricane tide. I have been on a road trip with my mother--yes dear readers, pity me but not too much. We have driven down the highways and backroads of the southeastern US, minus hurricanes (so far). We have seen towns that seem to consist entirely of Baptist churches; visited historical sites (of which there are many); enjoyed some wild yard art (literally--a yard that was reverting to wildness through a sea of painted shoes); hiked along the edge of a cypress swamp; eaten a passel of catfish. Internet connectivity has been little and far between. But with all the aforementioned wonders, who can complain?

Back soon.

Reaping the Flood

The world will never be the same, writes Bill McKibben. It already isn't. Welcome to Year One.

Slipping Through the Fingers of the Invisible Hand

Michael Parenti says it better in "How the Free Market Killed New Orleans":

Forewarned that a momentous (force 5) hurricane was going to hit that city and surrounding areas, what did officials do? They played the free market.

They announced that everyone should evacuate. Everyone was expected to devise their own way out of the disaster area by private means, just like people do when disaster hits free-market Third World countries.

Hell, even in freshman economics it was obvious that Smith's "invisible hand" of the market was a political construct and a suspect one at that.

Or how about this one: 'a rising tide lifts all boats'? I'll let you write your own caption for that one.

Draining the Tub

Right-wing strategist Grover Norquist once famously said, "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

That was always an ugly metaphor, but never so much as now, when for the last week we have seen the victims of Mr. Norquist's crusade against government spending drowning in the "bathtub" that used to be the city of New Orleans. How very prescient of him. How proud he must be.

For years now we have been whittling away at the ability of government to do what it is designed to do at the most basic level: take care of us. Not in the metaphysical sense, not in the psychological sense, not even in the economic sense (though you could certainly make the argument), but in the most basic sense of keeping its citizens alive. If we have a right to expect anything of government, certainly we can expect that.

But the government has failed. The president has failed, the agencies of the federal government have failed, the Congress of the United States has failed. Miserably, thoroughly, fatally.

Some, like Mr. Norquist, might argue that this just goes to show that you can't expect anything from government, that we might as well, if you'll pardon the expression, drown it in the bathtub and be done with it.

But that would be the wrong conclusion.

Right-wing politicians tell us that we should put our faith in the private sector to deliver goods and services that governments are unable to provide. But that isn't the way markets work. Markets respond to money; it's what they're designed to do. The market wasn't there for the people of New Orleans. The market didn't provide the transportation to get people out of harm's way who couldn't afford to pay. The market didn't show up in force to drop food and water and ferry survivors to safety who couldn't afford to pay. Corporations like WalMart did provide relief supplies afterwards and of course I applaud them for that but you know, it isn't their job. It is the job of government. It's what we need government for.

The wealthy and the middle-class were able to take advantage of the means that the private sector offered to get out of town. They got on planes and left; they drove away and waited out the storm. They didn't need the government to keep them alive. The people who were left did, and they drowned in the bathtub--not in the metaphysical sense, but in the actual, physical, terminal sense. They are the embodiment of the metaphor that Grover Norquist so cleverly coined.

We don't need governments because they take care of the well-off. We don't need them because they are so much better at getting you a job, or a car, or determining the price of milk. We need them because without them the worst-off among us haven't got a chance.

Instead of drowning government, how about enabling it to do the very thing it must do? How about forgetting about tax cuts for millionaires and getting our federal agencies in order (and that means giving them the resources they need to do their job)? How about putting people in charge who actually know about and care what they're doing? How about building the levees and the bridges and the schools and the roads and all of the infrastructure that we assume will somehow be there in the absence of funding to maintain it?

I hope Mr. Norquist is somewhere safe and dry tonight. I don't blame him personally, or wish him harm. I hope he never has to go through what the people of the Gulf coast went through this week. Because if he does, heaven help him, because no one else will.

Say It Ain't So

Jeez, I was kidding...the Houston Chronicle reports that Halliburton has been given a contract to do post-Katrina cleanup work.

Fox News Jumps the Gator

Fox News has been quite the show this week. Now I appreciate their outrage at events in the Gulf as much as the next person, but it has at times approached a level of hysteria that just confirms my opinion that they aren't really journalists. I guess this is what happens when you don't have a real context for understanding...anything.

Geraldo Rivera had a real meltdown moment at the NO Convention Center the other night. I thought for a minute he was going to start yelling Let My People Go! (Maybe he always secretly wanted to be Charleton Heston.)

If Fox's "reporters" have actually gained some insight into the consequences of class warfare and the dismantling of the public sector, and if they actually impart (or are allowed to impart) some of that understanding to their listeners, they might get some props from me. Until then, they'll just be drama queens.

Remember

Josh Marshall has the goods on FEMA director Michael Brown:

So, just to recap, Brown had no experience whatsoever in emergency management. He was fired from his last job for incompetence. He was hired because he was the new director's college roommate. And after the director -- who himself got the job because he was a political fixer for the president -- left, he became top dog. And President Bush said yesterday that he thinks Brown is "doing a helluva job".

Sounds about right. The cronyism and corruption of this administration has always been a disgrace; will this deadly incompetence finally blow up in their faces? Only if we keep paying attention. The outrage this week has been evident in the media and in public opinion, but I fear in another week it will be back to missing white women and the menace of swearing on television.

Angry Black Bitch Calls the Mighty to Judgement

The United Church of Bitchitude and Latter Day Drunks are fundraising for victims of Katrina. Check out ABB's latest rant ("Homeland Security, My Black Ass") and helpful hints on surviving the next disaster.

If you've been saving up a few choice obscenities for the right occasion (I haven't), this may be it.

And Furthermore...

This disaster (meteorological, logistical, political) sure puts into perspective our government's hubris in thinking it can bring progress and enlightenment to the people of Iraq, when it can't even bring drinking water to our own citizens when they need it. No wonder Baghdad is such a mess. Next thing you know, they'll be giving Halliburton a no-bid, multi-billion-dollar contract to rebuild downtown New Orleans.

Your tax dollars at work....

Can It Be? The Sound of Scales Dropping

The press wakes up from its long slumber, breaking the reflexive habit of ass-kissing that has characterized its approach to those in power:

Later, Anderson Cooper was even harsher, challenging Sen. Mary Landrieu for thanking President Bush for his efforts to aid her state. "Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting," he said. "For the last four days I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi ... You know, I gotta tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated. And when they hear politicians thanking one another, it kind of cuts them the wrong way right now. Because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours and there's not enough facilities to take her up. Do you get the anger that is out here?"

I take no comfort in that, however. Because the truth is we all need to wake up--from our self-involvement, our neatly-constructed world view, the comfort of our moral stance that confirms how good we are. Because none of us is that good, and all the ideology in the world never kept a child alive anyway.

Before Katrina, we were warned of coffins floating out of cemeteries, but instead we got poor black people flushed out of slums, and to some people they're apparently just as scary. But they're not going back any time soon. They're our responsibility now. They always were; we just ignored it.

Left Behind

Forget the fucking Rapture...these people have truly been abandoned. They're too poor, they're too black, they just don't matter. Condoleeza Rice was confronted in a Manhattan shoe store today while dropping a few thousand dollars on a pair of shoes by a woman who demanded to know how she could be out shopping while people were dying in Louisiana. The woman was forcibly removed.

If these people were susceptible to shame, they wouldn't be where they are today. Nice try though. New Yorkers rule.

Why I Read Blogs:

-->to be fair...when you have your head up your ass you really can't forsee much.

-->Chertoff just announced that "September is National Preparedness Month"!!!

-->and [name deleted] just announced that October is "National Close the Barn Door After the Horse Has Gone Month".

-comments on Daily Kos blog

Why Shit Happens:

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees..."
--GW Bush

"I believe the title was, Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States..."
--Condoleeza Rice