It’s hard to concentrate on what seems like smaller (or at least more distant) catastrophes in the face of the Katrina catastrophe, but the FBI has arrested a second Russian with regard to the Oil-for-Food Scandal.
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Does anyone remember John Roberts? What about Valerie Plame? The food for oil scandal and other recent controversies are now of secondary importance. Katrina has forevermore changed our countryís politics. This cataclysmic event is opening peopleís eyes to the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of leftist ideology. We will never be the same again.
There has been uncovered yet another case of that tried-and-true recipe of UN, corruption, and Russians, this time at the United Nations Development Program office in Moscow.
http://noonshadow.blogspot.com/2005/08/another-un-scandal-uncovered-but-1-mln.html
Roger, please come home and take care of business. I need to hear your regular commenters clear-cut wisdom in this time of need. They are the best.
Please come home NOW!
DT: The essence of what you wrote was written by many just shy of 4 years ago. It didn’t pan out then. But I hope you are right that shrill, melodramatic political speech faded from view.
If it turns out that there is much validity in the bits and pieces of stories I’ve been hearing about (i) the significant cutting of funding for the levy fortification projects (to the point of halting them?) in the past 2 or 3 years, combined with (ii) a New Orleans hurricane being on a “Top 3 Potential U.S. Disasters” list being in the hands of the president or FEMA, the left will have much indeed to complain about. And I’m not sure I’d have much of a basis to object, since it seems much of what’s fueling the ferociousness of the disaster is the flooding from the levy breach(es).
“Bush cut back, and broke N’Orleans back”? I hope not. But I do want to knwo the facts.
Ultimately, it is an Act of Nature/G-d more than anything else, of course. So meanwhile, let’s pray for the victims.
“fades” not “faded”.
jfarreast: I second that.
ì”Bush cut back, and broke N’Orleans back”? I hope not. But I do want to knwo the facts.î
New Orleans troubles are mostly self inflicted. No outsider forced its citizens to consistently vote for corrupt and incompetent politicians. They have long joked about the corruption—and did little to eliminate the abuses. Itís extremely difficult to assist those who refuse to help themselves.
Hmmm… I couldn’t help noticing this little bit in the article:
Sounds like this was more related to systemic UN corruption than specifically to the Oil for Food program. Will we never be free of these thieves posing as Global Civil Servants?
BW,
The “inevitability” of New Orleans someday getting clobbered by a large hurricane and the inadequacy of the levee system to handle such an event has been “known” since pretty much the last large hurricane to hit there (1965?).
What portion of “blame” does four decades of New Orleans and Louisiana state government bear for not doing a better job of preparing the city to better survive this?
And, notfuhnuttin’, but the disgusting violence and behavior that is coming to light down there, it seems to me, has at least as much to do with the tolerance New Orleans has long had for its thuggish underworld as it does with “poverty”.
But there are some small rays of sunshine. At least Fats and Xena are safe (although the Lawless Dome was apparently never on Lucy’s list of potential safe havens).
This cataclysmic event is opening people?s eyes to the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of leftist ideology. We will never be the same again.
That’s the optimistic view. I’m not in a very optimistic mood right now. I think the Bush administration, deservedly or not, is going to take a huge hit on this. The demands to remove troops and treasure from Iraq will escalate. Members of Congress up for election next year will run scared. The Democrats will take every possible advantage. And our non-partisan media will add fuel to the fire at every opportunity. I know the kind of command President Bush is capable of assuming–I want to see some evidence of it NOW.
The NYT has nothing on this. What a surprise.
Knuck, I like that: “thieves posing as Global Civil Servants.”
David T,
If the government itself is essentially corrupt, it’s exceedingly difficult for voters to do anything. Go over to soundpolitics.com and see the frustration there with an administration that doggedly protects its territory.
The essence of corruption is the fact that it thwarts the voters’ true will.
The New Orleans disaster is being hyped by the media as a disaster for the federal government and the Bush administration. Daytime tv is an ordeal for the mentally challenged. I had the displeasure to watch CNN’s Bill Schneider and Darin Kagan lambast the president for being briefed by the local governors and Coast Guard officials before TV cameras. I watched the Congressional Black Caucas hold a press conference at the National Press Club and declare the disaster a civil rights issue, and, then young Jesse Jackson Jr. twist and turn some silly analogy between 9/11 and this disaster by ridiculing the president and his performance
at 9/11.
This is hunting season for the media; slow summer, now a big story and lots of painful images which are run and rerun. They are hunting for a possum and they are going to try to bag George Bush as their trophy.