Dense...yet Feather-Brained

Shrub insists the government can pay for hurricane reconstruction costs...and "other priorities" without raising taxes. I dunno--maybe it'll be done with smoke and mirrors.

Oh--and to change the subject slightly, WIIIAI wieghs in on Bush's 23 minute speech last night--my own attempt at satire is below, and I also noticed during the address itself that Shrubelroy seemed as if he wanted to wrap it up even earlier. Quite a departure from his post 9/11 "boy we can blow stuff up" form.

Back to the reconstruction: now it's Krugman's last free op-ed, and he uses it to express profound skepticism as to the reconstruction effort (and compares the modern age of greed to the New Deal, an age of need--and, yes, greed, too, but greed severely tempered by strict policing...more on that below). Um, yes. Recent history has left us with not merely a guide, but a clear set of blueprints in the form of Iraqi reconstruction, and it ain't pretty. To be fair, any "insurgency" in NOLA will likely be limited to Uptowners like Ashton O'Dwyer as opposed to the scary looters running rampant in the imaginations of Bill O'Reilly--and something tells me folks like O'Dwyer will be left alone. But you've got to wonder.

Billmon's latest also shows a healthy skepticism towards assurances that the federal dole will be meted out fairly. Inspectors general in the age of Bush are, according to his sources, are largely political insiders as opposed to career civil servants...kind of like how FEMA was run, or not run, as the case may be.

FDR ran a clean New Deal, according to Krugman, at least in part due to political considerations: corruption in public works programs would reflect badly upon his administration. Well, call him a cynic, but he got what he wanted. Bush, too, is a cynic, but a cynic on the opposite side of the fence: HIS idea of "good" government is one that steers dollars into the coffers of his cronies and political donors...or his own pocket, at least indirectly (the stadium deal/taxpayer giveaway increased the value of his sports team holdings considerably--which, by the way, is the ONLY positive accomplishment Bush can point to in his entire adult life).

So, we'll see what happens. Yesterday I predicted the efficacy of the reconstruction effort will be in inverse proportion to the number of no-bid, cost-plus contracts Halliburton snags, and I'll stick to that. I'll also use their share price as a marker--to paraphrase Team Bush's mantra on another issue: as Halliburton's price goes up, the reconstruction effort falls down.